Friday, May 31, 2019

Quick Columbus Trip

We had a quick trip to the Columbus area to celebrate the 1st birthday of Lily - the daughter of my long-time friend, Megan. It was a long path to parenthood for Megan and her husband, Chris, but thankfully in 2018 they adopted Lily and are settled and loving their daughter. 




We stayed one night in New Albany, hit up Easton Shopping and had dinner at Mellow Mushroom. 






I love that just a hotel room and pool can equate to an awesome “getaway” for kids!

More Transitions

More transitions as we wrap up Hannah’s 2nd year of preschool and Grade 1 for Nora!







We are saying “See you soon” to our new caregiver – as I always do, got emotional dropping the girls off and thanking Shannon for opening her arms and home for Hannah. I’m fortunate we have her for emergency days. 

We have a week off with the girls - just a “staycation” this year. 

Then June 10th starts Extended Day Summer Camp - provided through Milford Schools. I’m so happy we have this option and the girls will be together at the preschool where it’s based. Additionally, Hannah will already be familiar with the environment, so it won’t be too tough a transition for her.

Preschoolers don’t go on the Field Trips, but Nora will see a movie every week, hit some Cincinnati parks, the Art Museum, the zoo... and activities will come to the school as well; bounce houses, animal experts... I’m excited for the girls and think it will be a great summer for them – even though their parents work full time ; ) 

And finally, after two (?) years, Hannah’s swim teacher is moving on. Mariana was so great with Hannah – patient but still pushing Hannah with her progress. Hannah had one class with the new teacher, Abby, and Mariana is giving notes to Abby which will be very helpful. 




Onto our next phases!

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Zero Waste

I used to be so “green” before having two kids. Since Hannah was born, my time and energy have dwindled... I’m trying hard to get back to reducing the amount of trash we create. Seeing the recent photos of dead sealife with bellies full of plastic as well as the mounds of it floating in the ocean and beaches tears me up. 

I was excited to read about Trader Joe’s push to eliminate single-use plastic in their stores:

Trader Joe’s to Eliminate Single-Use Plastic

Did you know only about 9% of plastics can even be recycled? And those that are can only be recycled up to 4-5 times? Blergh. I did hear this fascinating story that scientists at Berkeley Labs have created a new plastic, PDK (polydiketoenamine) that can be recycled infinitely - which is good news for our landfills. 🙌

I also just bought these reusable snack bags – yay! 

And starting in on these wool dryer balls – yay! Friends tell me you can add essential oils for scent. 

Let’s keep reducing our waste people!!


Tuesday, May 7, 2019

A Sleep Update

So after the sleep study success, Hannah was still waking up and coming into our room, on average, two times a night. No bueno.

I frantically did some research on what else we could do... namely supplements. I don’t want to venture into melatonin because it messes with hormones. I found one or two other options, but no physician has dosage recommendations since supplements are’t recognized by traditional MDs. Fine. Some other suggestions were to get Hannah’s ferritin levels checked (iron) - her hemoglobin was in normal range at her last labwork, so that’s not it either. 

Looks like it was time to buckle down again and do hard work: behavioral training. 

I started about a week ago. When Hannah was close to falling asleep, I kissed her on the head and walked out. She freaked out, cried and opened the door. I said nothing and put her back in her bed, kissed her head and walked out silently. This repeated about four more times. It sucked, I felt bad, but I had to rip the bandage off. 

Eventually she whimpered and wiggled herself to sleep. Tim did this the following night, with less door openings and crying. 

It’s been one week. She may come in once around midnight, but we put her back in and she goes back to sleep and so do we. A handful of times she’ll wake in the 5am hour, but then goes back to sleep again. 

Last night she slept from 7:30pm - 6:15am! That’s a long time for Hannah. Even if she gets up once, Tim and I aren’t spending any time in her room, and that’s a big win in and of itself. 

Tim and I already feel so much better and Hannah must too! 

We’re doing it!!


A rare moment - Hannah asleep ON me for nap time.