christmas tis down

so i have finally taken all the christmas decorations down. ARGH! who put those lights on the tree? (wes) they were literally tied in knots, so that if i pulled the least bit, it would knot around the branch ; i was very upset with this tree situation at one point, so much so...that i pulled very hard & swore at the same time (i really expected the tree to fall on me, but it didn't!) but i did pull the tree about 2 feet. classy, i am. so then, i would have to stick my hand into the tree & pull it out...sticking myself with needles & getting sap all over myself. my slippers make a "schlaup schlaup schlaup" noise when i walk now b/c i have so much sap all over myself. at least i smell good? our floor is covered in pine needles. we're a forest; 'forest westerville'.

& addy watched me do this whole ordeal & was crying a bit every few minutes. & not b/c her mama was swearing every once in a while (i think she's rather used to that...i do think her first coherent word will be "shit", at which time i will probably say the same thing!). she would turn the switch on that was connected to the tree lights & would give a little "oohh" in a sad, sad tone. christmas comes only once a year. i tried to explain that's why it's a special time. but she pretty much ignored me talking & went to wash her hands a dozen times. (i have stupidly purchased a stool for her to wash her hands after going potty...hoping that it encouraged potty-esque things. it has only encouraged lots of hand washing for no apparent reason. which is okay, given all the germs we have going around right now).

& millie has taken a 2 hour nap so far this morning. maybe b/c she was up 4 times last night, giggling & smiling at ungodly hours. then she woke up at 6 am. why why WHY can't we get a baby who sleeps good at night?! what have we done to deserve this? at 1:15 a.m. i was contemplating starting 'cry it out' at that very minute...we shall see. but the annoying thing is that she isn't even crying half the time. she's happy. ggrrr. so i think i am going to do the terrible thing & wake a sleeping baby up from her nap. hhmm, maybe not. or maybe i'll just see what is wrong with adeline, as she is just walking around the house crying right now.

ah, life. & i thought working at children services was stressful...piece of cake compared to this stay at home mama stuff.

millie is now awake, so i really must go at this point.

not much going on

i should start this by proclaiming: we are not sick! yippee-yea!

i'm just trying to remember what we've been up to the past few days... hhmm, we some some fondue with the crawfords on friday & it was very yummy. cheese; i love it...the fondue was a champagne, emmantaler (sp?) swiss, & baby brie. oh yum. with steak (grilled). it was so good, i am even blogging about it 3 days later!

adeline is basically potty training herself. but not really 'potty' training, more 'non potty' training or 'how to make puddles around the house all day'. geez oh man. it's frustrating & cute at the same time. she doesn't like wearing a diaper most of the time now, which is super. so we put the training undies on & she will take them off often to sit on the potty...then she'll get off the potty & squat in another room several minutes later (it's never the same amount of time, hard to predict) & leave a puddle. THANKFULLY, she has not taken a crap that way (yet). i just don't get it. we're even bribing her with m&m's...nothing. i'm almost to the point where a puddle of pee on the floor doesn't even bother me; i just think, 'hhhm, better clean that up sometime soon.' gross! what have i become?

amelia has started rolling over, only for wes, of course...from back to front, i believe. odd duckie. i just hear this loud "DEAR COME QUICK" & then she's totally uninterested in showing off for me. oh well, i saw addy's first roll over, i guess wes gets millie's. she is smiling & laughing so much now & is sitting in the exersaucer & we even had her in this jumper thing (i just found it at a garage sale last spring, sorry addy). just growing up so fast *sniff, sniff*...alas, she's also taken to not sleeping well at night again. but she's not sick. we're wondering if she's getting some teeth moving through the gums? hhmm. but she's just adorable & her hair is starting to lay down a bit more b/c it's getting longer, but not darker. so we may have a brown-red head on our hands. on tuesday,she has her 4 month shots & check up...egads, here we go on the screaming. i hope not, we will be giving her tylenol prior to the appointment this time. (if you don't remember, she cried relentlessly for nearly a day after her 2 month shots).

as for wes & i...we are both really tired lately. we're both getting up with millie 2, sometimes 3 times a night. i can't even comprehend what i'd be like if i was breastfeeding her still. well, i can: a zombie! she sleeps at night about as well as addy did, but then i didn't have a 2 year old running around during the day, so i could deal with it more. i think god was just blessing me early by making breastfeeding nearly impossible this time around!

& we have decided not to finish the basement yet. we are cheap, what can we say? we have a spare bedroom that's actually quite large, so we are turning that into the playroom. a few gallons of paint are much cheaper than a $2200 basement redo! (plus we want to save up for a kitchen redo...hopefully before our cabinets fall apart). anyway, we will be putting up walls around the basement stairs & that's it for now...the mini flood also helped us make this decision :o). so, off come the mattress from the bed frame; we are making it a fun room, one where addy & others can bounce from toy to toy (& our living room won't look like toys r us!). which means we need to find a home for the guest room bedroom set...hhmm. (note: no worries, future guests, we still have mattresses & box springs for you to sleep on! just at a lower level; but you'll be a much cuter room now).

& i will end here. i have cookies baking for my painter upstairs (wes is great. he is determined to get a total first coat on today, so i am thanking him with chocolate chip cookies, his favorite). as for the color of the room, we will leave that a surprise for now. when done, we'll post pictures. when we saw the paint on the wall for the first time, even we were a bit shocked...but it's all good! you'll love it.

Basement Update

As Heidi mentioned yesterday our basement flooded. Owning a home sucks. Anyway, the problem appears to be tree roots in the main sewer from the house. This is a very common problem when you have big trees in your yard which love water. The previous owner warned us that the drain needed snaked every couple of years so I guess our time has come. I'm just glad we know someone in the business. I'd post pictures and movies but it's probably rude to show people our poo.

our budding photographer

we finally downloaded the pictures from addy's new camera. here's what you get when you give a 2 year old a camera! there were over 250 pictures... most of the floor or all black or all white (who knows what they are), some with red. really, they could be some sort of modern artwork, if you played around with the tuning. she will be impressed with herself someday. so here are some of the best, or at least the most clear.

other news: one side of our basement flooded. lovely. so we are calling our friend-the-plumber in the morning. thankfully, the water is on the other side of the basement, not the side we are planning on refinishing. ugh, home ownership sucks. so glad wes knows how to handle things like this b/c i would be so freaking out right now if i didn't have him here to say 'it's okay, just don't flush the toilet' (but i gotta go!).

more news: adeline has a new rash. this one is all over different parts of her body (eye, chin, chest, elbows, upper leg, knee & she kept even itching her tongue). we have no clue where they come from! so we quickly gave her some benedryl & are crossing our fingers that it will be gone in the morning. she hasn't eaten or been in contact with anything odd that we know of. this has got to stop! i really don't want to put her through the skin prick allergy test, but it appears we have no other option at this point.

amelia is doing much better now that she's had 3 doses of zantac back in her system. good stuff.

what we did to send off the year

already 2009! how does that happen? we didn't do much for excitement yesterday (or today for that matter)...it was a day that nearly made mama & daddy's lose our cool a few times (w/ the childrens, at least most of the time). wes & i had the girls in bed by 8:07 p.m. & then we were in bed by about 10:20...we watched "baby mama" which wasn't as funny as i thought it would be. ah well. i rented 2 more movies to watch this weekend, so hopefully one of them is good! (also to watch: "the women" & "things we lost in the fire"). i joked earlier in the day that i would probably be ringing in the new year rocking a baby to sleep. well, i was wrong. i rang in the new year changing a poopy diaper blow out (diarrhea style). i hope that's not an omen for things to come in 2009.

we are trying to find something to occupy our time this weekend...maybe the zoo or cosi tomorrow. but i just NEED to get out of the house. doing something that doesn't revolve around children activities. i don't feel like shopping, but that appears to be my only option right now. gotta love a trip to target to make me feel whole again. boo-hoo.

as for our children:

adeline has taken to crying for 10 minutes at a time. for no apparent reason. it's not necessarily a tantrum (she has her fair share of those, as well)...maybe she's getting very frustrated b/c she's trying to talk more & is not able to express herself? hhm, that's my guess. so she'll just sit on my lap, facing me, put her head on my chest & sob away (or on wes). who knows. is 2 the new teenage years?!

millie didn't do well AT ALL without the zantac & we have her back on it already. it was a rough night...ugh. (& not b/c mom & dad partied!). thank goodness for medicine! my family has such a bad history with stomach problems; i'm very glad that amelia doesn't have to suffer through what some of us (myself) have gone through.

so i made a little video of our joys & sorrows from yesterday. & my dad is home & very happy to be there. he mentioned something about sleeping much better (he took a 3 hour nap & that was the longest stretch of time he'd slept since his surgery. yikes.) & is able to eat soft foods. pretty good stuff. i think we will wait another week maybe until we visit him at home. he is not able to pick up or hold the girls & i would like to give his system a bit more time to recover before "craziness" comes to his house & wants to jump all over him.

gasp!

it is a scary night ahead of the gerbicks...grandma is gone & we are taking amelia off zantac! yipes, could be a screamer of a night. at millie's 2 month appt, the ped suggested we do that one week before her 4 month...& it's here already. she only had her morning dose, so we'll see. oh my oh my, wish us luck.

however, wes' grandma suggested we try goat's milk for millie's reflux. hhm, maybe? i love goat cheese. goat milk can't be that bad, eh? any thoughts?

on a better note: my dad is scheduled to go home tomorrow! pretty amazing. since his bowels "woke up" saturday night, things have progressed quickly. thank sweeeet jesus. i think my whole family will rest a bit better...or is it just me that couldn't sleep b/c i was worrying about my pops? probably not.

hhmm, what else? the gerbicks are contemplating refinishing our basement. why? b/c we no longer want addy smooshing her face on the concrete (& i want a playroom where i can set up padded walls for adeline. really, she needs them).

millie has taken to screeching the past few days. it's hilarious & loud & just a hoot to hear. she really gets excited when in her swing. so loud.

i have discovered "word twist" on facebook & am now addicted. i am climbing that ladder.

shiester: millie just woke up crying. here we go...let the night begin.

The 2008 Christmas Video

here it is, in all its glory! this is what we'll archive for our little gerbick family forever :o) every year. oh the joy.



a few endnotes: i really sucked at the transition (you'll know what i'm talking about when you see it!). also, i suggest turning down the volume a bit; for some reason the song came out loud & crinkly like that (hhhmmmm). & this video is in double time...i don't bounce millie on my legs that fast, no worries ;o)