Family Lakehouse Day

19 Months, Week 2

Our friends, The Baileys hosted another year of Family Day down at their lakehouse down on Williamstown lake in Kentucky. Last year, Nora was 7 months old and could barely crawl! 

This year I was a little nervous just because Nora is such a busy body and was worried we’d be chasing and corralling her everywhere. 

We arrived around 11:20 after Nora slept a bit in the car [woohoo!]. We bought Nora a lifejacket and little float boat and she loved it! Tim and I both took turns floating with her in the lake and she loved watching all the older kids swimming and jumping off the dock. We even saw some ducks “Quack quack!”

I think the golden ticket of the day was that our hosts had a water table up on the deck which Nora loved and they are going to give to us since Nora is basically the last little kid who will be there! Awww. Such nice friends! 

We ate a late lunch around 2pm and by 3:15pm I was surprised that we’d been there that long and that Nora had done so well! 

We left just before 4pm and girlfriend did not fall asleep on the way home. WHAT?? We were baffled. 

She was so damn loopy all night, but in a great mood, just beyond goofy, blowing zurburts on my arm! 

What a fun day with our little sweetheart!

This is how I put on my bathing suit, right?

Upset about something... who knows.

Shhh!

Mommy & Daddy excited for some fun in the sun!

Cool Bro!

Nora & Ty Trowbridge

She’s actually wearing a hat!

KY to OH

100th Birthday

People tend to be surprised that I’ve been at my job for almost 10 years [this October!]. A lot of my friends have hopped jobs a lot since graduating or now stay home with children. So to be at one place for almost 10 years is a rarity nowadays. 

Over the years Landor has had its ups and downs and I was extremely close to leaving years ago when I wasn’t happy with my manager. However, I’ve always been treated very well... the perks have been very nice and I was able to have 6 months of short weeks to be with Nora. I’ve been extremely lucky to have 3 strong female directors who all are working Moms with small children who respect having families and small children, but we all work hard and those 3 women are so awesome at their jobs and I look up to them. 

In a creative environment, no day is exactly the same and we’re always kept on our toes. I’m still thankful for being where I am [thank you Aggie for turning down the internship which let me get in - I was 2nd choice]. 

This past week was our founder’s 100th birthday - he began our company on a ship in San Fran and they threw awesome parties. We celebrate every July and this year we celebrated at Sandbar down on Kellog avenue - it was perfect - first sunny day after all the rain. 

I even left early at 3:15 and was able to do some errands and squeeze a 6 mile run in - yay for free time!

Me and Walter [pretend]

Having fun in the sun with coworkers!

Great beer at Sandbar!

Cabin Fever in July

19 Months, Week 1

I hate saying that we had cabin fever over a summer holiday weekend - but after rain on the 4th, being in the car, Vomit Friday and rain most of Saturday - we wanted some sunshine outdoors! 

After Tim and I woke from our awesome sleep-in, we went to pick up Nora close to 10am - she seemed pretty excited to see us and Dottie had breakfast waiting for us - yum! We had dreams of going to the Sharonville pool, but the weather was iffy and cloudy, so we nixed that and headed to the “harbor” at Sharon Woods. It was awesome - a few ground fountains  to slash in and a playground for 2-5 year olds. Nora enjoyed seeing and stepping in the water, so when we go back, we’ll be sure to dress more appropriately! 

After nap time, we didn’t want to waste more time indoors or on yardwork, so we called up the Kieffers to play at the Cincinnati Nature Center. We couldn’t really go on trails [no strollers allowed] and Nora can’t walk for much distance, so we stuck to the Nature Center, Playscape and cabin. It was fun and we grilled out afterwards to round out a fulfilling day!

Rockin’ out at the cabin

Nora and her cousins Bobby and Gabe

Riding the animal that doesn’t bounce

The mini-creek in the Playscape

Mommy caved on letting Nora have some of Daddy’s Icee... you can tell by my expression how sold I was on this idea.

Night Out!

19 Months, Week 1

Saturday thankfully Nora was back to herself after the Friday night of vomit. So that meant Tim and I [and William] were off to see My Morning Jacket at Riverbend! They are my #1 band and the last time I saw them, I think I was 5 months pregnant [I’d also seen them when I was about 1 month pregnant!]. And the last time we’d gone to a concert was last June. We were due.

Thankfully the rain stopped for a while and it was in the 70s and we had Pavillion seats, so we were set. MMJ opened for Wilco and Bob Dylan - both of whom we didn’t care to see : )
The music was awesome, we got to jam for a good 1hr 15 mins and when they wrapped it was only 7:15pm!

The three of us headed to Padrino’s in Milford for delicious pizza - I had my first pizza with a poached egg on it - very good, didn’t really notice the egg. 

Then we walked down to MJ’s for a nightcap on their patio. 

It was an awesome night and Tim and I even slept in until 8:30am/9am respectively - I cannot remember the last time I achieved that. 

So many empty seats!

T & W

Night out!

Daddy’s Girl

19 Months, Week 1

Tim has been getting a wave of Nora lately. Among the yelling lately trying to get to bed, the main phrase coming out of Nora’s mouth is “IwantDaddyIwantDaddyIwantDaddy!” 

Last night I tried to transition Nora from asleep in the car to her crib and failed miserably. It took until 8pm for her to fall asleep. Lots of crying and us going up in incremental times to soothe her. 

The kid has bruises on her forearms from banging them we think : (

Additionally, she wants Daddy to hold her all the time. “Up! Up!” It’s super sweet and Tim loves Nora snuggles, but not at every moment like when you’re trying to pack your lunch. 

Baby’s 1st Vomit[s]

19 Months, Week 1

Nora’s week has ended pretty terribly.

I had today off, Tim did not - lame to begin with. So I thought it would be a good day to go up and see Mom/Grammy then up to visit my Grandma Heitkamp with Nora.

Nora woke up a bit last night, so she fell asleep 10 minutes before we arrived in Tipp City around 9:15am. We visited a bit so Dad could enjoy time with Nora, and we hit the road again around 10:30am for Versailles. Nora got a bit fussy towards the end of the 45 minute drive, but how can you blame the poor kid? She fell asleep 5 minutes before we arrived. 

We had a nice visit with Grandma and Uncle Jerry - he even took a 4-generation photo of us. Nora enjoyed both my family members and had a nice time too! 

We left at 1:30pm and Nora slept nearly the entire way back to Tipp City at 2:30. We had a snack and played, walked outside until we left at 4pm. Nora was very good on the drive home, lots of thumb sucking since she was bored... we were so close to home on 275 when I heard Nora gagging a bit and looked in the rearview mirror to her vomiting all over herself. My immediate panic said to get off at the next exit and pray she doesn’t choke on her vomit. We pulled off at Reed Hartman [probably 15 mins from home] and the next place I could pull off was a P&G entry drive. I got Nora out and stripped her down [thankfully had more clothes] and used diaper wipes to try and clean her up a bit. 

I had to put her back in the vomit seat to get home and passed her my water bottle because everyone needs to drink water after vomiting, right? Well, as we were about 100 yards from the house, Nora vomits AGAIN, all the water she chugged. Sigh.

I stripped her clothes down again and left them in the driveway and took her upstairs for a bath. Again, she is acting like her normal self. We let her watch multiple episodes of The Chica Show since she’s been so good all day and put up with 4 “long” car rides.

She asked for crackers, ate her dinner and had milk like any other night. 

Tim was putting her to bed around 7:30pm and reading her a book - Nora was leaning on her footstool looking at the book and vomited A THIRD TIME. Thankfully the footstool cover comes off [thanks IKEA]. We took her temperature and she’s normal, still acting fine.

She went to bed fine and Tim and I take apart the carseat to wash it down and I wipe down my backseat. As we wrap up, I head upstairs to check on Nora and she’s asleep with vomit surrounding her. VOMIT #4 It was full of raspberries and tomatoes so it was rather dramatically RED and unnerved me. I woke Nora up and stripped her and her bed down and Tim got her to sleep again - girlfriend has to be exhausted at this point. 

We got some “hydrating” drink for her [I’m finding some more natural recipes online] as backup, and aren’t sure if it’s a virus or WHAT. At first I thought it was being carsick, but after FOUR vomits, it can’t be. With no fever and acting totally normal, I have no clue what we’ve got

Poor kid’s had a rough week. 

The Best Seat In The House

19 Months

You know it.

Sweet Relief & Potty Time!

19 Months

I put Nora to bed last night and she only cried for maybe a minute. She slept. Through. The night. Whew. And until 6:40am when I heard her cheerfully playing in her crib. Not normal but totally awesome. We were all rested after a long week of sleepless nights! Wahoo!

And something amazing happened twice today; I went to the bathroom and Nora came with me, so as I sat down, she sat on her training potty and peed each time. WHAT. I’m still amazed ... this probably won’t be a regular thing, but practice makes perfect, right?

Not impressed with slushies. [Whew!]

Playing “Night-Night”

Happy 4th of July!

19 Months 

Our pals came over for a soggy 4th of July and Nora and her “BFF” Ava had a blast coloring and running around and seeing who could squeal the loudest - they had so much fun together and Nora crashed to bed at 8pm.

Yay ‘Murica!

My Sad Baby

18 Months, Week 4

Sorry for the continuing sleep saga... 

Friday Night: Awful. It feels like we’re back to sleep training only worse because she can call out for us and you can hear fear instead of just being fussy to fall asleep. Trust me, this is a different scream than the old bedtime crying. 

• 12:48am - first waking of screaming our names. I held her and tried to put her back down and she kept crying. Tim went in next [1am] and soothed her and tried to put her down to no avail so he ended up laying next to her crib and she eventually fell asleep. 

• 4:18am - next waking so I went in [pillows in hand] and held her a bit and tried to put her in her crib, she only laid down once she saw me laying next to her on the floor. Thankfully she fell asleep quickly so I could go back to my bed. 

Saturday Night: Nora happened to get to bed late around 8pm. She woke up wailing at 5am and Tim took his pillow in and Nora laid back down when she saw Tim lie next to her on the floor. At 6:10 Nora wanted to play. 

Sunday Night: We had to lay on the floor for her to fall asleep close to 9pm. She woke at 5am screaming. I laid on the floor next to her until 6am Monday. 

Monday Night: Had to sleep on the floor next to crib for her to fall asleep - 9pm. Late for her. Woke up at 5:30am and I laid on the floor next to her. 

Tuesday Night: She came home from Nana’s asleep from her busy day... she woke up at 8pm screaming. We decided it’s time to start tapering our time with her - Sleep Training 2.0. I went up after 5 minutes to soothe her. I left, she freaked. 10 minutes later Tim started to go up and she miraculously stopped screeching. 

Our sleep training back at 3 months went fairly well and Nora was done within two or three nights. This has lasted almost a week and it’s WAY harder with the screeching of our names. Tim bought a nightlight but I’m not convinced that’s going to do anything. 

I’ve read enough now to know that this is completely normal, you just have to wait it through and at some point [hopefully closer to 2 weeks rather than 4 months [!!]] she will bounce back to good sleep.

This IS what Nora looks like currently.