Sunday with Riley

I guess I have been pretty busy because I haven't posted anything in over a week. The day after Riley was diagnosed with "pink eye", she was also diagnosed with an ear infection. This required once per day liquid antibiotic by mouth for 10 days on top of the three times per day eye drops for a week (starting yesterday the eye started getting goopy again-- ugghhh). The antibiotic must have really messed up her stomach because then she stopped eating most of the things that I had finally gotten her to eat. It is my biggest frustration right now-- Riley not wanting to eat. Her diet consists of cereal (anywhere from Cheerios to Trix), bites of banana or grapes or mandarin oranges, Gerber Crunchies or Wagon wheels or Puffs or Yogurt melts, occasionally Gerber pasta and sauce (none of the other varieties though), Yo-baby yogurt, Sunkist fruit snacks, pickles (thanks to daddy), ice cream at bedtime (thanks to mama). Anything else that we attempt to give her she either refuses to eat or she eats a bite and then the second bite she spits out or throws at us or the dogs. I don't want mealtimes to be a battle zone so we just try to offer different things and then after she doesn't eat them we usually eventually get her to eat a few bites of something from the above list. The whole amazing thing is that she poops all the time, now sometimes she does have a little constipation problem but that is probably due to the fact that most of her intake is fiber free-- that's when we really encourage the fruit ( I bet that was really too much information).

Riley also got her schedule all messed up this week because her regular babysitter went to California unexpectedly to attend a friends' funeral. Grandad stayed with her on Wednesday, my friend Deidre watched her Thursday, and Jason stayed home with her on Friday. It has made her rather cranky and out of sorts. She looks at me sometimes like "what is going to happen next", plus she has wanted to do a lot of cuddling (which is fine with me).

We went to church last night because this morning Jason took Blaine, Evan, and their friend Sam Ward to Paoli Peaks to go skiing with the Cub Scouts. I would have loved to go also but that would have required someone else to stay here with Riley. After having to find babysitters for her last week and her being a little on the grouchy side I decided that it was best for me to just stay home with her. She was already acting like she wanted to nap at 9am but I held her off until 10:30 am because usually she doesn't want to take an afternoon nap and I was afraid if she napped too early than she would be in a worse mood later. Jason did most of the grocery shopping yesterday but I need to go back and get a few things that he missed. So hopefully after she naps she will eat a little something and than we will get the rest of the shopping done.

We are on the 4th week of the www.e-mealz.com program which provides us with our weekly menus & shopping list. It has worked out rather well. We go out to eat less and eat more of a variety of foods. I wish that meant that Riley ate a variety too but usually when we try to feed her what we are eating she refuses. The boys like most of the foods that we prepare, we always make them at least try a little of everything and they really don't complain too much. Blaine is a lot better than any of them at trying at least a bite of something.

We also found out last weekend that Evan's mom got the job in Mobile, Alabama. So that will mean that next school year Evan will be moving there with her. I always knew that we would be eventually moving from this area but I didn't know that this is how it would come about. Jason indicates that we will probably not move until about a year from now but I'm sure it will all depend on whether (when) he can find a job close to Mobile too. One thing that I am definitely looking forward to is the fact that it is going to be warmer weather!

Well, Riley should be waking up from her nap soon so I better go get myself prepared!!

Another crazy day

It started yesterday when school was out again. I had a nail appointment and Brenden was nice enough to stay home with Blaine and Riley. Riley slept for most of the time while I was gone. When I returned she awoke from her nap with this gross looking goop coming from her eyes. It looked like something that should come out of her nose. Which speaking of her nose it wouldn't stop running. I should have known something was up because the night before she wanted to go to bed at 6:45 p.m. and woke up at 8 p.m., 10 p.m., 2 a.m., and then 7 a.m.

Then this morning when I went in to get her she was "playing" with her snot, it was all over her face, hands, and pacifier. Her eyes were swollen and red too. So I called the doctor's office and spoke to the nurse who diagnosed her over the phone with "pink eye". She said to give her Zyrtec for the snotty nose and that she would call in some antibiotic eye drops for the eye infection. So that threw my day off since I was to go to my first CASA Board Meeting. Luckily Jason could leave work and come home long enough for me to go to my meeting and to go get Riley's medicine. Riley took a good nap while I was gone and then she has been rather whiney and needy, which is understandable. She is actually taking another nap as we speak.

Hopefully she gets over this very soon-- it makes mama very sad:)

Snow days and new meal plan.

We got about 5 inches of snow on Monday night/Tuesday morning and so Blaine has been home from school with "snow days". I was off on Tuesday and Wednesday with him and Riley but had to go back to work today. It actually has been a pretty uneventful time. Today Blaine went to Ashlee's house (Brenden's girlfriend's house) and he tried to tell me that he didn't get to eat. This is hilarious because trying to get him to eat on a typical day at home is next to impossible so I doubt very much that he was starving to death, as he would lead me to believe.

The other big news in our household is that I have enrolled in the www.e-mealz.com program which gives us a weeks worth of menus and a grocery list so that we will eat out less often and spend less on food by using the foods that are on sale at Kroger for the week. I have fixed 4 meals so far and all of them have been delicious, we actually have a lot of leftovers and thus tommorrow night might just have to be "leftover night."

Super Bowl Sunday

First I want to add that my last week ended with Brenden messing up something with his car when a lady was driving crazy and he had to go over a curb, so now his car isn't working. And also Blaine received a referral on Friday for not getting his planner signed by Jason the last 2 days, talking in class, and not turning in one of his homework assignments. So Brenden's girlfriend is driving his around and we need to get his car looked at next week and Blaine was grounded from the computer and PSP all weekend which he says means that "we don't care about his happiness".

Hopefully this is the beginning of a much better week. I actually slept until 8:30 a.m. this morning and then played with Riley, read the paper, etc. After that Riley took about a 3 hour nap. Now we are awaiting the arrival of the Wards' for a Super Bowl Party at our house. Jason made Jalopeno appetizers, Spinach/artichoke dip, and cheese/bean dip, plus we are going to have hot dogs and BBQ sandwiches. I don't really care much about the actual game but it should be a fun time.

It's been one of those days

Today was the start of my work week. I got there and found out that I still couldn't get the computer program I needed on my computer to work. Then I dropped my phone in the toilet, which was sooooo disgusting! I finally got to work on my project on the computer but didn't get as far as I wanted to since I didn't get really going until after lunch. And I have figured out that I don't think that my phone is going to survive.

Then tonight when I was in the process of giving Riley a bath I thought that I smelled something very bad. Well, Riley had pooped in the bath tub. Ughhhhhh!

Being a mom

Ever since I was a little girl all that I ever wanted to be was a mom. I was like most little girls and loved to play with dolls. I would dress them and feed them and hug them and kiss them-- I figured that is what it meant to be a mom. I guess I always knew that one way or the other I would be a mom. I just don't think that I ever realized how hard it was going to be though. I feel like it is the hardest job ever. My day is filled with taking care of a very active little baby girl who never ceases to amaze me. It seems like I am constantly doing something. Even during the precious hours when she is sleeping I am still doing laundry, cleaning, taking care of the dogs, etc. Then my afternoon is filled with helping Blaine, and sometimes Evan, with homework which is quite interesting sometimes too. Luckily most evenings my husband cooks because that is definitely not my thing. I think that I was a little crazy to add 2 dogs to the mix -- Annie came to live with us in August of 2009 and Lily came in January 2010. They make things even crazier. This morning I thought that it was a good idea to let Riley come with me when I took Annie and Lily outside. Well, Annie was running in one direction and Riley was running in the other and Lily was somewhere in between. I think we will go back to Riley watching from the window and Annie is going on the leash because that was way too much activity for me. I can't wait until summer when we can all go out to play and maybe even take some walks to the park! But even though it can get a little crazy sometimes---- I love being a mom:)

My "Mom" Workweek

For those of you that know me well, you know that I have been working at Owensboro Medical Health System as a dietitian for going on 16 years now. I worked 5 days a week for the first 14 years of my career. Then I met Jason and we decided that we were going to add to our family. We started off trying to have a biological child but then we decided to try to be foster parents. So Jason and I went through several months of foster care training. At the end of this training in December of 2007 I was given the opportunity to go down to working 4 days per week. So I figured that would be a good idea if I was going to be working more at home with foster children. Then in February of 2008 we found out that we were expecting a child. We were so excited! We still thought that we would help out by being a respite home with foster care but every time we thought this was going to happen it never transpired. Eventually we decided that foster parenting wasn't Gods plan for us at this time.

So October 8, 2008 Riley Elizabeth Stephens was born. I stayed at home with her for 16 wonderful weeks. At the end of my maternity leave I was also given the chance to go down to working 7 days every 2 weeks. This was great, more time to spend with Riley. So from January 2009 until the end 2009 that is what I did. Then in January 2010 I was given the opportunity to work 3 days per week. Jason keeps teasing me that I am "weaning myself" from working. I guess you could say that, but I say that I just use Saturday until Tuesday as my "mom" workweek and then Wednesday until Friday is my "dietitian" workweek. I have really gotten into a great groove with it now and enjoy both aspects of my life. I get to spend a great amount of time with Riley and the other kids/dogs and still get to go to work. Jason says that if we have to move somewhere because of his job that maybe I should just stay at home all of the time. But for now I am happy with my current situation and would not have it any other way.