We Made It!

I am just about finished with my first full week of work. I am happy to report it went extremely well. I have been very calm and relaxed overall, and the boys are doing much better. I found a new nipple that Tony likes, so he is now drinking 15 oz. while I am gone. I asked Chase if he was crying at all, and Chase said he is happy and he barely cries. The two previous weeks Chase complained a lot about how much Tony was crying. Julie apparently tried to keep me from totally losing it, and choose to omit how much he was crying. She is a real gem. She just kept saying everyday is getting better.

Eric started helping out more at night. He has cooked dinner everynight this week, which has been such a treat. Last night I took the boys, and our neighbor's daughter McKenna to the mall. Chase announced earlier this week that she is his best friend. She is turning five in two weeks, and Chase made the invite list. He is pretty excited.

Southridge Mall has an old-fashioned carousel in the food court. Chase and McKenna rode that two times, then they had happy meals from McDonald's. Then we went over to the Lego play area. We had an enjoyable outing.

Eric went to Knoxville to pick up his car. It turned out that if he wanted to race it again next year, all the gears needed to be re-worked. Originally, we were just getting the bare minimum done. However, Jody, Eric's best friend said he would pay the difference. I told Eric he now has a sponsor! Eric and Jody are headed off to Fort Dodge tomorrow morning for a weekend car show. For the past two years Eric and I have gone and Chase stayed home, however with Tony still nursing it was just easier to pass this year. We are suppose to have wonderful weather this weekend, so it should be fun for them.

Since Eric is going away for the weekend, I get to go out for a few hours tonight. My girlfriend Melissa turned 34 today, so I am going to meet up with her and celebrate. However, I am limiting myself to 2 beers. My tolerance is way low, plus I only want to pump and dump once.

Bruiser's Demise

All week Eric and Jody have been working on Eric's car, "Bruiser", a Z28 Camaro. They were getting it ready to race down at the Eddyville Speedway Friday night. He had taken it to the track a month ago. He had a few good runs. His best time was 7.95 seconds in the eighth mile. He was hoping to run mid 7's. So he was disappointed. Then when he was getting ready for the actual racing, the motor started running hot, which caused the fuel to evaporate before getting to the motor, thus it was dying. In order to fix this, a new water pump, new fuel line and repositioning of the fuel pump was needed. They got this all done, and took Bruiser for a few test runs in Knoxville. Well, 2nd gear went away. There was no way to pull the transmission out and figure out what needed to be replaced within an hour. So we went to Eddyville to watch everyone else race Friday night. It saddened us all, because the couple runs they had were great. It almost looked liked the front tires lifted ever so slightly off the ground. This is a dream to a drag racer! ( I was just informed about this on Friday.) Eric says, when the front tires lift, then you have arrived.

Eric and Jody pulled the transmission out on Saturday. It is at the shop now, we are waiting to hear what the damage is. There is a chance that Eddyville may have one more race night this Friday night, weather permitting. So I will keep you all posted.

Meltdown

Monday's always seem to be tough. Chase didn't want to get up, he didn't want to get dressed. He wouldn't use the potty. He started crying and didn't want to go to Julie's. It was a bit stressing, and I didn't feel much like having to go to work after that. However, once at work, it was good, and went by quickly.

After workI picked up the boys, and Tony only drank 4 oz. all day, I was troubled to hear that. We went home and he nursed for an hour, then I needed to make dinner, there was laundry to be done, the bathroom needed cleaning and I wanted to spend some quality time with Chase. There just isn't enough time in a day, and I was feeling overwhelmed. After a good cry and a long talk with Eric, Tuesday went better and Tony started drinking more.

Back to Work

I ended up returning to work four days early. However, in exchange for coming back early for training, I get to have two part-time weeks. I am working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and start back full-time on the 26th. Needless to say, it still has been very difficult to make the transition.

On Monday, my first day back I made the mistake of calling Julie to check in. She said that Tony had been crying for an hour and had not taken his bottle yet. I had been at work for 5 hours already. I hung up and started crying. I felt so terrible. He was obviously mad that he was not getting his milk from me. Tuesday he only drank 2 oz. and then Wednesday he drank 6 oz. At least we were making progress.

Then Chase was having a hard time re-adjusting. He started crying and running after me when I was leaving Julie's. Wednesday he sat himself down on the floor of the truck, and refused to get out. He told me we needed to go home. I shouldn't go to work. I would have liked that too! I told him he has two choices. He can get up and walk to the house or I can carrying him. He didn't get up, so I had to drag him out and carrying him. It was not the way I wanted to start my morning. It was hard enough leaving Tony, but to have Chase acting out made it ten times worse. I told Julie I would not be calling to check in the rest of the week. Thankfully I was off Thursday and Friday.

Welcome to the Family

The reason for our trip to Milwaukee, was to introduce Anthony to the rest of my family. My mom hosted a picnic at her house in Tony's honor on Saturday. My Aunt's, cousins, brother and grandparents all came over. Most of the food was catered by Grandma's Kitchen. :) We had a wonderful spread of food. Grandma made beer brats, shredded beef, Italian sausage, seven layer salad, jello salad, baked bean, German potato salad (my favorite) and a delicious apple crumb cheesecake that takes two days to make! Too bad Tony didn't get to try any of it! We had a lovely day and enjoyed visiting with everyone.

Tony wanted to make sure his party was memorable. My Grandma was feeding him a bottle, a few minutes later I hear my aunt's shouting for me. I come running and Grandma says, "Tony had an accident." I look down, and he has blown out his diaper. There is poop all over his legs and Grandma's shirt and pants are covered in it. The good news is, all of it came out of her outfit. She had read that baby wipes are the best thing to use to remove the stain. It did the trick!

Anthony's 2 month Check up

It was time to head to the doctor. Anthony needed his first shots. The sky reflected my inner turmoil. The storm clouds were moving in, the wind was picking up and a storm was brewing. I know Anthony needs his shots, but I hate having to hold him down and hearing him cry. It just breaks my heart.

I dropped off at Chase at Julie's and we were on our way. At first there were few drops, then a shower and then torrential rain and wind. Cars were pulling over, because it was hard to see. We made it to the doctor's office. Of course I did not realize a storm was coming. So I didn't have a coat for myself or Anthony. I found a t-shirt in the back. I put that over Tony and I took off running to the door. Overall, Tony fared well, just some wet socks.

Tony had his check up. He weighed in at 15.8 lbs. and 25 inches. The doctor said he is the size of a 5 month old, which would explain the 12 months clothes he is wearing. I also had the doctor look at the birth mark on his soft spot. The doctor thinks it may be pre-cancerous, and is referring us to a dermatologist. However, he said it would not become cancerous until his 20's or 30's. So if it does turn out to be cancerous, it will be removed when he is ten or so. We are putting it in God's hands. We got through the shots and then headed home. We were getting ready to leave for Wisconsin.

Eric ended up working late, so we didn't hit the road until 6:30pm. However, we had a very smooth trip up, and only stopped once. We arrived at my mom's safe and tired around 12:30am. We immediately went to bed.