Last weekend we took Isabelle for her first haircut. A few weeks ago we tried and failed because we got there too close to naptime. She does not like people other then me messing with her hair so we weren't quite sure how it was going to go. At first I thought it was just going to be another lost cause and she was going to go the rest of her life and never have a haircut. Thank goodness we got a good lady who happened to have some princess spray that smelled good. Isabelle was very hesitent to trust this lady until the lady broke out the princess spray and sprayed some in her hand. She got a huge smile on her face when she smelled it. She still wanted to sit on my lap and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the black cape, but we were successful with getting a trim! I figure next time we will work on getting a style of some sort but for now I was just happy to get the dead ends cut off and have it closer to being one length!

Here is her before

During... the lady was telling Isabelle how Belle had just come in this week for a haircut and she had used the same princess spray on her too. Who knew Belle lived in Fort Wayne too!?!?!

After.. you can't really tell too much but she took about 2 inches off the back

I'm having lots of fun taking video with my camera. Here's one of our little baby boy! He loves the bouncy seat just like Izzie did!

I get my hair done Friday afternoon and I seriously can not wait! I haven't had it colored since before Schuyler was born which seems like yesterday but a quick glance in the mirror at my roots and I am reminded he is 11 weeks now. Wow..11 weeks...I think 2 completely different thoughts at the same time regarding that statement --- "Holy cow the past 11 weeks have flown by!" and "Really? That's it? 11 weeks? Feels like a lot longer!" Not quite sure how it is possible to feel both of those things at once, but yet I do. Maybe I am a confused individual. So, I haven't colored my hair in 11 weeks.. another thing I have failed to do is paint my toenails. I have gone the entire summer with the same polish on that I got 3 days before he was born...well some toes still have the color on. haha! Right now I feel like if you looked in the dictionary under "frumpy" my picture would be there...it really is quite frustrating and I am having a bit of an issue with it lately. But that is all about to change.. well I mean I guess I could still be rather frumpy with new hair, but hopefully not. Hopefully this will be the start of me rediscovering myself....hopefully I won't forget to start..or get sidetracked.. hmm.. thinking I might be a lost cause right now. Oh well, I am still going to try. I am marching in there Friday and just letting her do whatever she wants.. well within reason and of course I reserve the right to ultimately have the final decision. So I suppose we'll see what happens.

Right now our new heat pump and furnace is getting installed. Yeah so get this.. Monday afternoon our a/c decided to just stop working. So I guess the quick fix of 500.00 that we paid, oh, 2 weeks ago, was really just a quick fix! Thank goodness we went ahead and were proactive with just getting a whole new system. It would have been totally something we would have put off but thank goodness we didn't! Monday night was dreadful though... oh it was soooo hot! Tuesday morning they showed up at 9am to start the install. The house got insanely hot so we got our behinds out of there and went to play at It's Playtime. I was so thankful their air conditioning was working! We had to come home for naps though (nevermind the fact that no one ended up taking their nap) and boy was the house steamy! Jason had won tickets to a Tincaps game so then last night we went to that. We all totally thought since installation was a 2 day process that last night was going to be another hot night. The guys were still working when we left for the ballgame. Well, when we got home our house was nice and COLD..very cold actually! It was such a nice surprise! We all slept very well last night! Then this morning we were woken up at 8:45 by the HVAC guys coming to finish the install. Woops. Haha! The installation process is a very loud one though so today was another day of not good naps. Isabelle didn't sleep at all and Sky slept fitfully. I'm thinking early bedtimes tonight. ;o)

We were planning to go to the grocery store after naptime but now I just don't know. Can you believe this will only be the third grocery outing in 11 weeks!!?? Good gracious how awful is that!?!? Somehow we still have food and have managed to survive! I wish that means I have saved a lot of money but unfortunately we have been having too much takeout! That's all going to stop too. Along with unfrumpifying myself I am also taking back my kitchen. I even made a meal plan! I haven't cooked in...hmmm... yeah can't remember. Jason has been doing all of the cooking or it's been gross frozen dinners or dinners from a box or takeout...I am rather excited about cooking again and taking back my kitchen...ok I am lying I am not excited at all but I am trying to tell myself that in an effort to convince myself otherwise. Really I am just feeling guilty from getting the call from Jason every night asking if he should pick something up or the look when he asks what's for dinner and I try and muster up my most excited smile and say "tuna helper"! After 11 weeks of Tuna helper it's a little hard to get excited about it. I had an easier time making the list of meals we were not going to have next week then I did trying to remember what exactly I used to cook! ooops.

I just uploaded photos from my camera...I have lots of fun ones to share! I'll get busy on that!

Where did all of these bees come from?

Watch out American Idol!

2 month check-up and a sick mommy

I think this one is going to be a little snuggler.. he loves being swaddled and sleeps best when he is smack up against something else (me usually!)...

and this one..well I think she is trouble! hee hee just kidding! She is a cutie though! (and also quite the cuddler ;o)

Today was Schuyler's 2 month check up. Yeah, so its like a week and 2 days late. It was originally supposed to be July 31st (HA! 4 days EARLY) but well it has become against my nature to do anything early or on time anymore so we had to reschedule it. Actually we had to make an impromptu trip to PA over that time but more on that another day.

The Doctor said our baby boy is doing awesome. He is now 10lbs 14 oz and 22 inches. He's in the 25th percentile for both height and weight and in the 10th for head size just like his big sissy was! Hey, this lady does not complain about babies with small heads ;o) the only problem is there are 0 hats out there to fit them. Isabelle can still wear 18-24 month hats! Schuyler did great during the physical exam. Izzie has always had a bit of dramatic flair to her and would scream through the entire thing. Sky was checking out the room and giving the Dr lots of smiles. He was scheduled to get quite a few vaccinations today. He was a big fan of the rotavirus vaccine that they give orally, but not so much about the shots. While Isabelle has always taken shots like a champ, Sky was still recovering from them when we got back to the car....it made me feel a little bad for Schuyler that he may have gotten his Daddy's pain tolerance and not his Mommy's. ;o)

I shouldn't poke fun though as my pain tolerance was put to the test the past two days. I was lucky enough to go to battle with Mastitis and a few times I wasn't quite sure I was going to come out victorious. Yeah, it was pretty awful and I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and sickness. I can remember the last time I felt like that.. I was a kid and had strep throat and spent the entire day at my Nana's..which is where I spent almost every sick day as a kid..I kid not, she is the best home nurse ever.. OJ with crushed ice and a bed made on the couch complete with a fitted sheet and anything else that was requested was given..it was the best place to be when sick and even now anytime I am sick I wish I could go back 20 years (oh good God now I sound old..20 years, seriously?? wow.) to the days of being pampered at Nana's house. I don't even like OJ..unless I am sick and it is chilled with crushed ice..oh that she crushed herself, mind you.. this was back before there were fancy refrigerators with ice crushers in them. Ok, yeah, now I really am sounding old and I am going off on a tangent. sorry. Anyway, I was so sick and had been fighting an awful fever all day. I had actually moved from the couch to the spare bedroom I was so sick. My mom came to pick me up and I couldn't even move to go home I was so sick. I don't have a ton of really clear childhood memories but for some reason that one is clear as day. Yeah so that is how sick I felt..oh and it came on like a ton of bricks. so awful. For those of you that don't know what in the world Mastitis is, well it is an infected milk duct...just sounds painful, right? Looking back I now know that I had a clogged duct... but thanks to my high pain tolerance I didn't listen to my body and address the tenderness I felt or the extreme exhaustion of my body telling me to just SLOW DOWN for a minute..nope I just kept right on chugging along...till I got stopped dead in my tracks at about 2:30 PM on Tuesday afternoon. I started to just get a wave come over me and the HVAC guy wouldn't stop calling me to close the deal (I hate sales people..oh wait I am married to one I guess I'm not allowed to say that, huh? ;o) ) so I get the kids' down for naps and I make myself some lunch. I thought maybe I was just feeling sick since I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. I start feeling the chills and the tenderness feeling that I was feeling all of a sudden becomes a little more painful. Yeah this is the first time I thought, "oh gosh, maybe I have a clogged milk duct" DUH JEN! So I google it and see the symptoms...tenderness-check... flu-like feeling-check... fever-not that I know of yet, but starting to feel a little feverish..heaven forbid I actually take my temperature though.. :rollseyes: Quick call or maybe it was a text to my friend that I remember mentioning that she had a clogged duct when she was nursing and she recommends I call my Dr because it can go from bad to worse if its infected. Well in about 5 minutes I went from bad to worse.. I finally took my fever and it was 101...then it was 102.3...then after that it was 103.1. I called the Dr after I confirmed the fever of 101 and she gave me my directions..bed rest, lots of fluids and nursing and antibiotics. I was useless the rest of the day. I actually had to call Jason and he came home to take care of the kids the rest of the day. I forgot what the flu and a fever feels like and add a migraine on top of it. I was totally out of it all day yesterday as well. Yesterday is when the nursing pains set in.. good God I just sat and cried during feedings. Thank goodness it has only been one side.

Today I am feeling much better...still feeling warn down and tired but not nearly as weak and fluey as I was. Nursing isn't as bad either. Holy crap though I was quite a ride. I don't think Jason's ever seen me quite that sick and dependent before. I think it took him a little while before he realized I really was not capable of anything. He said that between the post-pardem hemorrhaging and now this he thinks he might be done with babies.

1. Tomorrow will be Jason's first day alone with 2 kids..I think I am more excited about that than I am the fact that it means I will be having a day away if you can believe that! It is kind of cute that he seems a little nervous. I know everything will go fine but regardless I know I will come home to many stories... although I am most excited to hear Isabelle's version of the stories!

2. This poor little guy... he loves his big sister so much that he has no idea that she has stuck a huge Tinker Bell sticker to his chest and stuck Sleeping Beauty next to him. He really does love her.. it is so wonderful to see.. probably one of my favorite things in the world right now. Tonight they had their first bath together. She was talking to him while I was getting his bath ready and anytime she would walk away or turn away he would frantically start looking for her and crying. Then she would come back and he would start smiling and giggling at her. She was thoroughly enjoying the fact that he would cry when she would walk away and then smile when she came back! Isabelle was tickled when I asked if she wanted to get in the bath with him. She made sure he had plenty of bubbles in his bath and helped me rinse him with water.

3. I am sure you are all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering where exactly I am going tomorrow for my day away. I aim to please so I will answer the big question now... get ready for it...its pretty exciting... Mindy is having a girls' day at the lake! Hopefully the weather will be nice but I think I'll be ok even if its not though! It should be a lot of fun... I am excited to get away for a little bit!

How sweet is that? I mean good gracious..I just love it. This picture makes my heart feel all warm and fuzzy. I wish it was more in focus but-oh-I just love those 2 little hands...they are just so perfect! Love Love Love!

Whew! Wow it has been chaotic here! I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe since the beginning part of July..and now its August..still no time to breathe! haha!

So..gosh..what has been going on.. well, let's see..in July Grandma and Grandpa Sipe came to visit and got to meet Schuyler! We had a great time! Friday they took Isabelle to the park so Mommy and Daddy could have some alone time at the eye doctor's.... oh la la! hee hee! Isabelle had a great time at the park..much more fun then she would have had at the eye dr's with us that's for sure.



On Saturday we all went downtown for the Three River's Festival. They have a section with rides and yummy fair food so that's where we went. Isabelle fell asleep on the way there so she took a little bit to warm up to the rides. Once she did though she really loved them! I was surprised at just how many rides they had for the little kids.



Then, Daddy got to have a very proud moment...Isabelle didn't just ride her first roller coaster.. no, she absolutely LOVED it and she put her arms in the air! It made him very excited for the future!!




Jason and his mom also got to have a little fun!!!! This thing looked like quite a ride! I am glad my feet remained on the ground. I got some pics but Ron managed to capture the best moment on his video camera which was Sue trying to climb into the seat because it was so far off of the ground..I hate to laugh but it really was funny. I think I remember that Jason had to lift her out of the seat at the end. Oh I wish we had a copy of that video ;o)


We really had a good weekend and Isabelle really enjoyed getting to spend some time with her Grandma and Grandpa Sipe!