Terrible twos ain'

Back on the wagon

I have totally sucked at blogging lately....among other things. Life got a little busy and BAM no more blogging or reading. Ugh. But I'm trying to get back on the wagon.
The girls are thriving and keeping me oh so very busy lately. And I'm sure I'll have a few posts about what they have been up to over the last couple months.
Dan and I celebrated 5 years of marriage....sometimes I think it feels like an accomplishment that I haven't smothered with a pillow in his sleep...but I'll post more about that later.
Summer is half over and I NEED to post some of the adorable summer pictures I have of the kids.
So get ready, I'm going to be a blogging machine this week....

Get it together!

Is my new motto....well for now at least.

I'm 30 now, and while I really don't give a shit about being 30, I don't feel older, I surely won't act older, and I'm definitely not wiser....I do feel like I need to get my shit together now. 30 seems like an adult, obviously I'm already an adult, I've got kids, bills, responsibilities, health insurance, money in 401ks....all that adult type shit. BUT I am still like a kid when it comes to a LOT of things, I take my clothes off at the end of the day to put on my sweats and toss them on the floor, I leave my purse, diaper bag, mail, keys, coffee cup etc, on the table when I walk in and don't move it, I feel like I'm constantly searching for my shoes/keys/purse/phone etc. My house is clean, the counters are clean, the tubs and toilets scrubbed, but the clutter is OUT OF CONTROL!!!!
So it's time to get control of it....now this is different than being controlling, which my husband will tell you I've already got down pat, this is controlling the clutter...which will hopefully lead to to control in my life.
The crazy part is that at work, my desk is spotless, I have checklists, and calendars etc. I always know where everything is, and everything is timely....but in my personal life, shit is out of control.
So, what is a girl...er woman to do when she wants to get organized? Go to the Internet of course! I have spent hours, and hours scouring organizational blogs, home decor blogs, budgeting blogs, meal planning blogs, and so on. And I've realized that it has to start with purging! Of course we can't get organized if we have WAY too much stuff to fit in our house.

I've found a new favorite blog, Its called IHeartOrganizing and it's awesome! I stumbled upon this blog through another blog and was sucked in immediately. Now I doubt I'm going to actually be as organized as this blogger is, but I can try, and she has TONS of great easy ideas!

I started with our play room, having 2 little ones means lots of stuff, so we decided to purge their toys, get rid of anything that is broken, missing pieces, or hasn't been played with in a while. We ended up with a huge 50 gallon trash bag of stuff to sell or donate, and a half bag of junk to toss.

It felt great, the room is much easier to navigate, and the kids are actually able to get to more of their stuff so they've been enjoying it! Now that I've been bitten by the bug, my goal is to go room by room and purge. I'm hoping that once I get this under control, I can move on to other things...but I'm taking it one step at a time!

April Reading Update!

With 2 birthdays, 2 parties and a slew of other things going on this month, I didn't get through very many books....but I will update anyhow.

In the beginning of April I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, this was a total deviation from my normal fluffy chick lit books of choice, but I LOVED it. I could not put this book down. It technically written for young adults, which I no longer am...but I enjoyed it none the less. It had action, romance, drama, and great characters!


The second book I read in April was the follow up to the first. I read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, this is (obviously) the sequel to The Hunger Games. It was equally as exciting, although it did take some time to get moving. I enjoyed this as much as the first for the same reasons, and now I have to go track down the 3rd.

The third book for April was a fun fluffy chick lit book and a super cheap download for my kindle (at a whopping $0.99), called Diary of a Mad Fat Woman by Stephanie McAfee. This was a super enjoyable read, nothing amazing. The storyline was cute, the characters were good, and it moved at a great pace. I do think I'll look for other books by this author since it was so fun.

I'm currently working my way through The Bitch Proof Suit by De-Ann Black, it's good, and as another cheap ($0.99) download how can you lose. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of the weekend.

So I guess I didn't do as poorly as I thought!

Last appointment with Neurology!

Well sort of, it was the last appointment that Natalie will have to attend at Neurology, Addison will have to go back a couple more times until she is potty trained to be sure that she doesn't have any neurological defects as a result of surgery.

I'm so relieved to be done, and to not have to make the drive to Oakland again for quite some time!

And just for good measure, a picture of the girls playing in the waiting room!

Thursday Thirteen...

With my 30th birthday just around the corner, I thougth I'd make a little list of things I'd just LOVE to have in the hopes that my family stumbles upon my blog!

1. This Emerald Ring. I love Emerald, and am lucky enough to have it as my birthstone!

2. A new Camelback Water bottle, I currently have a Kleen Kanteen and I love it, but I'd like a straw so I think the Camelback would be perfect!

3. A weekend away with Dan, I honestly don't care where we go, or what we do as long as it involves sleeping in and drinking fancy drinks outside!

4-6. A Brighton Charm Bracelet, I bought one recently for my mother-in-law, and I love it. And just so they know, I'd love this, and this, and of course a few others.

7. A Spa day! I'll take it alone, or with friends...I don't care I just want to be pampered!

8. Some new Urban Decay Liner

9. New foundation, I'm undecided if I want Urban Decay, or Clinique or just my old go to MAC.

10. This sports bra...ya know so I can work out...since it's only the bra that's holding me back.

11. A trip to Disneyland with my girls...a pipe dream I know but oh how I want to take them!

12. To go to another Giants game this season!

13. A large canvas print of the girls to hang over the fireplace.

So there you go family!

Natalie is 3!

Happy Happy birthday to my first baby, my amazing spirited child Natalie.
I know I'm a little late on this post, but I just could not wrap my head around my little girl turning 3. For some reason 3 seems like such a big kid, you're not a baby anymore, and barely a toddler. You're a kid, with your own ideas, thoughts, and feelings....and you make them known.

You amaze me daily with your stories, dances, and love for your sister. You have made my life so much more than I could have ever imagined, and I can not thank you enough for all that you have taught me. I enjoy every minute of watching you grow, learn and strive as an amazing little girl.

We love you very much, and want to wish you the very happiest of birthdays!

Addi's one year stats....and a comparison.

Little Miss Addi had her 12 month check up yesterday, she is a happy healthy little one year old...and even happier that she didn't have to get shots due to her fever the night before....but little does she know she'll be getting those shots on Friday. Anyhow, she weighs 20 lbs 13.5 oz (46%) , is 2 feet 6 inches tall (78%) and has a head circumference of 46.8 cm (90%). I feel like she's much bigger than Natalie was at that age but when I compare them she's not that much larger...but she is wearing bigger clothes. At this age Natalie was in 6-9 month stuff, and Addi is currently in 12-18 month stuff,


One Year Stats:
Natalie 19 lbs 14.7 oz 2 feet 4 inches tall and 45 cm head
Addi 20 lbs 13.5 oz 2 feet 6 inches tall and 46.8 cm head.

So really Addi is only 1 lb and 2 inches bigger than Natalie with a slightly larger head.

Toddler funnies

Natalie has been cracking me up lately...but on Tuesday night she had me in tears.

She put on a cape and was running around the house with her arms out like she was flying, saying "I'm a superhero, I'm a superhero!" over and over, after about 20 trips around the kitchen she slipped and fell. From the other room we hear "oh I guess I'm not a super hero after all."

Where does she get this stuff?

Happy Birthday Addison!

My how time flies, I can not believe that it has been 12 months since I was jolted awake by contractions, with no idea that you'd be making your appearance a short hour and 7 minutes later.

This past year has been amazing, you have taught me so much, shown me that even when a heart feels full, there is always enough love to go around, that being a sister is an amazing joy for Natalie, that babies come when they are ready, and that one house can never have too much laughter.

You, my dear are a ham, you love to make others laugh, and get an special joy out of making your sister laugh. You are stubborn and have your mothers temper (sorry about that one), you HATE to wait for anything and love to do things yourself.

You are a joy to be around, and make people smile everywhere we go. You smile at everyone and beam when they smile back.

I can not imagine my life without you, you are an amazingly special little girl. Every day your daddy and I love you more, and you have your sister wrapped around your little finger. You have completed our family in a way we never knew possible and I count my blessings every day that you are mine.

I love you to the moon and back and wish you the happiest of birthday's today.

Things I love...right now

Besides the obvious, my kids, my husband etc. I am currently in LOVE with a couple things...and I thought I'd share them with you...my peeps. (yeah I know I'm way to old/white/lame etc to say my peeps but whatevs....and I get that I'm too old for that phrase as well.) I am currently SO in love with the Urban Decay Naked palette. I mean in LOVE. It has the most divine, soft, amazing colors all in one great little palette. I'd been coveting this palette for weeks, calling my local Ulta, but they were sold out. I was sad, then on Saturday while I was cruising through Macy's I look to my right and what do I see, an Urban Decay counter. Be still my heart, I beelined for it. I was knocking old broads out of my way, I get to the counter and what do I see....the palette on display. Surely it must be too good to be true, they're just teasing me, I'm sure when I ask about it the girl will tell me they're sold out. But no, no, when I asked about it she produced one, I almost hugged her. I slapped my debit card on the counter and then spied the eye liners. Uh I'll have one of those too. When all was said and done, I was broke but I had my Palette and that makes everything okay. A little overly dramatic...yeah whatevs! The second thing I'm currently in love with is the Tone Loc station on Pandora. If you're not familiar with Pandora...uh crawl out from under the rock you're living under and check it out. It's freaking awesome! Not only can you stream live music on your computer, but on your phone and on some Blu-ray players. Yeah, it's awesome. But just when I thought I knew all about the awesomeness of Pandora, I found a Tone Loc station. OMG I died. For over a week now I've been rocking out to Tone Loc, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Run DMC, NWA, Beastie Boys etc. It really makes my day so much better when I can be transplanted back to Jr High dances, summer vacations, and tape players. Oh the good old days. So I realize that my life is boring and that I shouldn't get quite so excited about these small things....but hey I'll take the excitement when I can get it.

March 2011 reading reveiw....uh I'm losing steam

So I've been busy lately and haven't been reading as much as I'd have liked, but I guess laundry and cleaning my house must take precedence over lounging with my book. So this month I've only read 2 books....sad I know. Since I was coming down from reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, I needed some fluff to read, so I chose to read High Five by Janet Evanovich. It is the 5th in the Stephanie Plum series, and it was great, I think it was my favorite yet. It seems that the books have gotten a bit racier as they progress which is fun.

The second book of the month is Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. Oh my goodness I can not say enough about this book. I was hesitant to read it since I don't always love the books that everyone and their brother is hyping up. But a friend passed it on and told me to read it so we could see the movie that is coming out in April. So being the super friend that I am, I obliged and began reading. Not even 1 chapter in I was hooked, like so totally and completely hooked. I barely put this book down over the course of the next few days...but again life got in the way and I finally finished it on Sunday. It was a quick read at only 331 pages, and took me just under a week to finish it, I loved it so much I'm toying with the idea of reading it again. The characters were amazing, the story was filled with action, love, humor, suspense and loss. It was the type of book that leaves you thinking and wanting more. I just hope the movie can do it justice and that the vampire kid they cast to be the main character doesn't screw it up. For those who aren't following my crazy train of thought, they cast Robert Pattinson (from Twilight) as the main character. I've just begun Hot Six by Janet Evanovich, and hope to get through a couple books in April, but with all the birthdays and parties happening in April I'll be lucky to get through 1.

Birthdays on the brain

Having two kids in the same month seems like a fine idea until you have to plan 2 birthday parties that are scheduled to happen only a couple weeks apart. And then you start questioning your sanity.
I know, I know you can't always choose the month your child is born in and blah blah blah, but seriously the issues of 2 parties in one month never really crossed my mind until I started party planning.
Addi is getting a big 1st birthday bash in the beginning of April, and Natalie is getting a kid party with all of her friends in the very end of April....holy hell mama's gonna be broke!
I actually postponed Natalie's party a week so it could hit a different pay period....oh well she doesn't know what day it is anyhow.
So no sooner did I get Addi's invitations in the mail, than I was ordering Natalie's invitations.
I'm SO looking forward to a combined birthday party next year!

Oh and I can't forget that my 30th birthday is just a short 2 weeks after Natalie's birthday party, I've told Dan he can throw me a party (so nice of me right), but that means 3 parties in a span of 4 weeks. Awesome!

Ahhh the joys of being a state employee

We now have mice running around shitting on our desks...as if having the Governor, and various other government entities shit on us wasn't enough we now get mice.
Freaking awesome....I wonder if it's in the budget to hire an exterminator?

The girls

In our group of friends almost everyone has girls, we went to a birthday party this past weekend and a friend snapped this picture of the "big sisters"...the little sisters were not cooperating so we don't have any photo evidence of their friendship as of yet. How fun will it be to look back on this picture when they are being bratty teenagers and longingly remember when.

Don't ya just hate when....

a doctor looks you in the face and says "I don't know what is wrong with you." Well thanks Doc.

A while ago I posted about my not a tumor growth thing in my brain....well it's called a micro-adenoma, and the good news is that my follow up MRI showed that it hasn't grown since my last MRI 4 months ago. But based on my labs and the MRIs the doctors still don't know what is wrong with me.
So I guess I just get to keep dealing with the dizzy spells, and light handedness issues and wait for the magic answer to fall from the sky. Oh but on the bright side the medication that they put me on caused me to gain 30 lbs in like 6 weeks....and stopping the meds did not cause a the weight to just fall right off....just my luck.

2011 Reading Challenge - February Update.....

I am a member of GoodReads and I love it, if you're not a member yet you should check it out. It's great for finding new books to read, and getting reviews of books. More than once I've found a book that I LOVE from reading friends reviews. Especially when it's a book that I might have never picked up otherwise.



I was reading a LOT in January, but got a little bogged down with a LONG chick lit book in late January, and slowed my reading down a bit.

Anyhow my February is going to be short since I chose to read some longer and heavier books this month.



January 2011 reading list



February reading list:



Book 6 of 2011 was Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell, this was a fun book and an easy read...but it was a lot longer than your typical chick lit book at 576 pages. And I felt that at times the book was dragging on, which is probably why it took me 2 weeks to finish it, and then I was a bit disappointed at how quickly the author tried to tie up the ending.

Overall it was a cute chick lit book about writing a chick lit book, which was a fun change from the typical romantic story lines. It is set in England, and I LOVE the British humor so that was a huge factor in my overall liking of this book.



Book 7 of 2011 is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Steig Larsson. I finally finished this book...it took a bit over a month for me to get through....granted it was long but really it was because I just didn't want to devote that much brain power to a book. These books are AMAZING, really so gripping and exciting and overall great books. BUT they make you think, and you really have to pay attention. You can't just flit through the book at a quick pace...or at least I couldn't. You have to remember a LOT of characters, and this 3rd book brought back some characters from the previous books but also introduced a whole slew of new characters.....and being I had a hard time remember everyone, especially when their names were so similar...as apparently so many Swedish names are...who knew.
Overall, an amazing read. I LOVED all 3 of these books, I'm temped to go back and read them again now that I have a better handle on the names and characters.

I'm devoting March to reading crappy chick lit...and I can't wait!

Rock on

She's so hard core even Paco looks scared. And just so you know, this is what happens when I give Dan control of Pandora....

I see you

Check out that curly hair....I was wondering if any of my children would be cursed....er blessed with my curly hair. I guess Addison wins!

First Soccer Class!

Please excuse the crappy cell phone photos, but Natalie had her first soccer class on Friday. She LOVED it and she's a natural if I do say so myself.

She has been talking about it all weekend and can't wait to go back on Friday!

Meal planning...an unforseen benefit

I've been a bit reluctant to dive fully into meal planning, not for any real reason other than I'm to fickle to commit to a meal for say Wednesday on Sunday. BUT this week I was made aware of another benefit of meal planning....the husband will cook dinner if I tell him what to cook!
When I was talking to Dan about my plans to dive into meal planning I was fully expecting him to scoff at me. But instead he said "if you make the meal plan I'll cook" Um what?!?! That's all it would have taken...all these years and I never knew!
Anyhow, I made a lose meal plan for this week just listing the various things I planned to make for dinner and the man has cooked every night this week! That right there is enough to make me a believer in meal planning!

So lucky...

I just have to take a minute to brag about how insanely lucky I am. My mom watches my kids, she has an in home daycare, so not only do my girls get incredibly well taken care of by grandma but they also get the social interaction of being with other kids.
In the recent months, the two other "big kids" have graduated on to pre-school. Natalie is still a bit young for pre-school and with Dan still not working it just isn't in the cards for us right now, so we're keeping her at grandma's house. But this has made her a little bored (and made me feel a little guilty). But my dad has totally come to the rescue. My dad retired about 5 years ago from his career as a Fire Fighter, and has been enjoying his retirement by relaxing and playing copious amounts of online poker. But seeing how bored his little granddaughter was he decided to start taking her out on little trips.
He takes her to the park a couple times a week, and on walks to see the horses up the road, and this week they had an outing to the Mall. Which Natalie calls the mill. He let her walk around the Disney store for an hour and then took her to lunch at the food court. She couldn't stop talking about how much fun she had with "gampa". Then today I talked to my mom and hear that he took her to yet another park today...but not their usual park, today he took her to a cool park across town.
It just made me realize how incredibly lucky I am to have such great parents, and how lucky my girls are to have such amazing grandparents. I didn't have grandparents (it's a long story), and never really knew what I was missing...but seeing how much my kids love their grandparents makes me a bit sad for what could have been.
For the time being, I am just basking in the joy that is Natalie's special relationship with my dad and hoping that she will remember these fun outings as she gets older.

I blame Global Warming

or at least that's what I've been doing lately to explain this AMAZING weather those of us in California have been having!

For the past 2 weeks it has been "unseasonably warm" according to the weather people...personally I don't give a shit what you want to call it, it's been AWESOME!

I have taken advantage of the weather as much as I can as a full time working mom, but I have been able to squeak a few trips to the park in after work. It has been THAT warm that I've been able to take the kids to the park at like 5:45. I think I'm in love!

Anyhow, Natalie has been in heaven, and she loves going to the "big kid park" which we can let her do since no one else is at the park at 5:45. And Addison loves the swing as well as just watching all the dogs walk by.

I don't care if it's Global Warming, "unseasonable weather", Aliens, Armageddon or whatever I like it!

Things I want to remember....

Since I failed and didn't make a baby book for either of my kids, I'm going to use my blog to chronicle the things I want to remember...from the things they say to the crazy things they do to the little moments where I just want to push the pause button.

Last night bath time was one of those moments. Addison was busy eating bubbles and splashing in the water, when Natalie decided it was a good time to sing.
She started singing twinkle twinkle little star, and then launched into her own song about all the people she loves....it was freaking adorable and I kick myself for not having the camera handy.
So I'll have to settle for just writing the lyrics.

"I love Addison, I love Addison, I love Mommy, I love Daddy, I love Gramma, I love Gampa, I love Gramps, I love Gramma Suz love love love....I love uncle Kevin, I love auntie Shell, I love Auntie Shawn, I love Uncle Dave, Love love love, I love sister, I love uncle Chad, I love Addison, I love Addddiiiiiissssssooooonnnnnn"
And then apparently she realized we were watching her and she got shy and stopped singing.

Next bath time I will be sure to have the camera within grabbing distance. Man I love that kid!

Out of the mouths of babes...

I know I think my kid is hilarious, but of course I'm biased...however at times she comes out with thing that are absolutely hilarious and often these things are said in public.

Last night while at Costco, Natalie is having a great time making Addison crack up, and laughing along with her. Then she turns to me and says in her oh so quiet toddler voice, "I see Addison's Nipples!"
Now before you get all judgy on my, Addison was in fact wearing a shirt, and it was covering her nipples. So I ask Natalie how she can see Addison's nipples, and she points to her face. Relieved I say "Oooooh you mean dimples"

Kid Free Night!

It is not often that Dan and I get to go out sans kiddos, and even less often that we get to do it with our friends. It is a rare occasion that everyone can get babysitters at the same time.

BUT we succeeded in doing this on Saturday, and we went out to celebrate Kristin's last birthday in her 20's. We went to a Mexican Restaurant, ate and drank and didn't have any kids to chase after or share our food with. Then we went to a bar...a real honest to goodness bar! And we drank, and laughed and enjoyed ourselves until 1 in the morning! It was great!

Better late than never....

I'm finally getting around to writing out my goals for 2011.

This year I'd like to purge my home of all the extra crap I have shoved into cupboards, closets, and drawers.

Eat in at least 5 days a week....we have a horrible habit of eating out and/or getting take out when I'm too tired to cook or can't be bothered to fix something. So this year my goal is to cook dinner at least 5 nights a week. And with this I'd like to branch out from making my standard dishes every week.

Lose weight, as always this is a goal for the year. I have a feeling that I'll be attending a few weddings in the next year or two so it would be nice if I could wear the dresses I want to wear and feel comfortable in them.

Stick to my budget, I am awful at budgeting...absolutely awful. So my goal for this year is to cut down on my frivolous spending in a hope to stick to my budget better.

I plan to update here my ability to adhere to my goals for the year, to keep myself accountable.
And so far this week I've cooked dinner 5 nights, so I'm happy with my progress!

Wordless Wednesday

At the park

We are lucky to have a great park just up the street from our house, it is so nice to be able to pop up there and let the kids expend some energy...and lately soak up some amazing sunshine!

Addison LOVES the swings...(please excuse her crazy hair, this was just before they got their stitches out so she hadn't had a bath in a while.)

Natalie wanted in on the swing action but the other swing was occupied so she jumped in with Addison....good thing she's skinny!

Kids are so resiliant...

In less than one week, they went from this....

To this!

Amazing!!!

They are all healed up now, we had stitches removed on Friday and they did great! They can now run and jump and climb as much as they'd like!

We do have to have a follow up appointment in about 3 months for both girls just to check on them and then after that they will want to follow Addison until she is potty trained. They aren't concerned with re tethering since It was a simple tether and repair but they still like to monitor them.

I'm so relieved to have all of this behind us.

2011 Reading....

So far I've read 4 books and am about half way through my 5th book.
In case your interested I'll update here what I'm reading, and give a quick review of some of them.
*bold = the books that I really enjoyed.

1. Size 12 Is not Fat by Meg Cabot I really liked this book, it was a fun mystery/chick lit book. The main character Heather is hilarious. This was the first Meg Cabot book I've read, and I liked her writing, the characters were well developed and fun. The story moved along quickly and overall I really enjoyed this book.

2. Three to get Deadly by Janet Evanovich This is the 3rd in the Stephanie Plum series, and so far I LOVE these books. I'm slowly working my way through the series. The characters are all so fun, Stephanie is hilarious and totally fun.

3. Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith UGH! I downloaded this book to my kindle because it was free and had decent ratings, but I failed to read the reviews. This was a Christian Chick Lit, and it was LAME! I didn't realize it was a Christian book until I was about a quarter into it and by that time I wanted to know what was going to happen. I really should have just quit while I was ahead. This book was super religious, but I was able to get past that, I was not however able to get past how poorly developed the characters were. The issues that the main character faced were just ridiculous, as were her solutions. Overall a total waste of my time, but at least it was free.

4. Jemima J By Jane Green OMG I LOVED this book. I loved the characters, I loved the writing style, I loved the storyline I LOVED it. At first I was a bit put off by the disdain for fat people, but once I realized where the author was going I was able to really get into the story. I fell in love with Jemima and the other characters, and when I finished the book (in just about 2 days since I couldn't put it down) I was just happy. It was a happy, feel good book, and overall a great read!

5. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich I'm currently about half way through this book, it's hilarious like the prior 3 books and I can't wait to see what happens to Stephanie. *I finished this book, it was of course hilarious like the previous books, but this one had a little more steamy romance which was a nice addition.

Back to the grind....

I've been off work for 2 weeks with the girls while they recovered. In reality after the first week they were fine and I probably could have gone back to work but I had already been approved for the time off and thought it would be a good chance to spend some time with my girls.
We had a great time, went to the park a couple times, went to an indoor play place, ran errands and just hung out.d we
But now all the fun has come to an end...and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I will really miss my girls, they are growing like weeds and amazing me every day.

2011 Reading Challenge

I have challenged myself to read 30 books this year. I've read 2 so far so hopefully if I keep this up I'll meet my challenge easily.
I'm excited to get some good use out of my kindle!

The Hospital stay....

After the surgery we had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours, during which time the girls had to lay flat...they could lay flat on their backs or on their sides but that was it. Talk about hard, try to keep a 2.5 year old laying flat for 2 days.
Our nurses were amazing. We were in the PICU for the entire time but for the first day we were in an older more compact side of the PICU, there were 4 regular beds and 2 isolation rooms. It was noisy and difficult to relax. Most kids there were pretty sick and our girls were by far the least sick of the bunch. But they were needy considering they needed to have meds regularly...since day one they were getting morphine.
The girls slept a lot and we were able to relax a bit too. Sleeping was another story, they had "sleeping" chairs for the parents but the should consider renaming them to torture chairs instead. They were the most uncomfortable chairs ever.
On Friday morning they had to move Natalie to the other side of the PICU because some of the other kids in the PICU needed more care and had to be one-to-one. So at 7 Natalie got moved to the newer side of the PICU and Addison was kept in the older side.
We begged and pleaded with the nurses and doctors and were finally moved to the other side with Natalie. Ultimately it wouldn't have been the end of the world if we'd had to stay on opposite sides but it would have been hard on Natalie. Especially since to get between the two PICUs we had to go through 2 secure doors.
At any rate the amazing nurses were able to get us moved so that we were in the same room, not next to each other but in the same room...which was great!
The second day went well, Natalie had some visitors which kept her happy, and Addi was busy charming the nurses.
Dan and I were able to get some sleep that night and our amazing nurse read some books to Natalie when she woke up so that Dan could sleep. We really couldn't have been more lucky with our nursing staff...they were compassionate and caring and really went above and beyond to make sure that not only the girls were well taken care of but that we were comfortable too.

On Saturday we were discharged and made it home uneventfully. Once we got home and scarfed down some lunch we all fell asleep on the couch....and took a nice 2 hour family nap.

The girls have been doing great, getting better each day. They are down to just regular Tylenol and are able to do almost everything they could do before. I think by this weekend they will be good as new. I planned to take 2 weeks off with them, and I probably don't need to take the entire time off...but really who wants to go to work if they don't have to, so I'll probably stay home next week just to spend more time with them.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes, thought, and prayers. We really appreciate every ones support and could not have made it through without all of you!

Surgery Day

Thursday was surgery day for the girls. We woke up bright and early and loaded the car to treck over to Oakland.

We had to be in Oakland in at 9 am, we got there and got checked in at the surgery center. The nurses were great, and gave us our own pre-op room and it would be the room Addi used too so we could leave our stuff in there between surgeries.

They did the pre-op stuff and got us all settled, the girls got their cute little gowns on. Natalie got some meds to make her sleepy since she was going first. Within just a few minutes of getting the meds she was super sleepy. Once she was sleepy the nurse took her back to the operating room. At that point we went to the cafeteria to have some lunch at relax for a hour or so until we could take Addison back to finish her pre-op.

We sat in the cafeteria and had some lunch with Dan's mom who had come down early and relaxed for a little while until my parents came. Then we waited about another half hour before we got the call to bring Addison up for the rest of her pre-op. We knew that once we were called for Addison that they were in the "closing up" stage of Natalie's surgery.

We headed back up to pre-op and got settled in, Addison got her sleepy medicine and we were just starting to relax when surgeons came in to tell us that Natalie's surgery went perfectly and that she was up in the PICU recovering.

Dan stayed with Addison until they were ready for her while I went up to the PICU to be with Natalie. When I got up there she was still out and the nurse was just getting her settled in and checking her out. About 20 minutes later Dan came up to the PICU and we sat with Natalie.

She was pretty upset when she woke up but the nurse was great about keeping on top of her meds and she continued to sleep. She was most upset about the IVs and the catheter.

About an hour later Addison came up from the PICU and was still out. The nurses tended to her while we sat with Natalie and finally we were able to see Addison as well. They had put them next to each other so we could easily go between the girls.

At this point we were able to have our parents come up to visit, and that was nice. It was nice for the girls to have the distractions and for us to have some time to relax and know that someone was always sitting with the girls.

We were able to have some dinner while my parents stayed with the girls. Poor Natalie had a reaction to the morphine while we were at dinner and threw up...but again the nurses were great.

Dan and I were both able to sleep there as each child could have one parent room in. So we were all able to be together and both able to be with both girls.

Over all the surgery went perfectly and our care was amazing. We loved all of our nurses, the surgeons and the PAs. Our recovery time was great as well and I'll post more about that later. But for now I leave you with pictures of the girls in their gowns pre-op.