Pooch Parade 2011

In our house, Fiesta has taken on a new meaning. I vaguely remember days of drinking and debauchery (and chicken on a stick) at Oyster Bake or NIOSA but not anymore. Nowadays, Fiesta means making floats at school and going to the family-friendly Pooch parade. I am lucky because we have good friends who live on the parade route and "party it up" every year. This year, my two were actually into seeing the parade. Here we are ready for the dogs!!! Yes, Mom made their adorable outfits. Hadleigh has one too but she slept in the carrier the entire time making it difficult for a picture. Here come the dogs!!!! We saw big ones (Great Danes and Irish Wolfhounds), little ones (chihuahuas), with long and short hair, even painted ones. They were dressed as Superman, fairies, bees, tutus, etc. We even saw a Portugese water dog but the owner hung a sign around the dog's neck making sure you knew the dog was a Republican. Can you imagine?? Jillian and Rocco really wanted to be in the parade. Maybe next year we will borrow Mel-Mel and dress him in an Astros jersey??

Updates

Ok, so I have been MIA for many days now because life is just overwhelming. The list is endless - work, kids, sick, car wreck, laundry, dishes, etc. etc. But I have posted several entries of my funny kiddos. I had more videos but blogger is not cooperating so here are two silly ones and some pics!! Enjoy!!

Humpty Dumpty

Rocco can recite Humpty Dumpty. He does a 100 times a day. Humpty is very dear to his heart. I love how he skips the middle. The kings horses and men are not important!

Fireworks

Jillian loves the song "Fireworks" by Katy Perry (so does Rocco but Bryan does not like to admit that). It is so funny because she will ONLY sing the one line. It gets very old, very fast!!!

He cracks me up!!!

Rocco is such a ham! Lately he has been sooooo funny!!! That smile just melts my heart.

Grammie has lots of headbands at her house. Rocco loves to wear them for his Jane Fonda workout.

On Saturday, Jillian spent the night with Bill-Bill and Masure so I had the little kids. Rocco ate up the attention and specifically asked for his picture to be taken with Hadleigh. He was so excited about it but you can see Hadleigh was not into it!!

His favorite time of the day is bath time. He would stay in there for hours if I let him. One night I gave him "crazy hair" and he thought it was hysterical.

2 months old

Hadleigh is already 2 months old!! I cannot believe it!! To put it mildly, going back to work has been TOUGH! I am not going to lie. This week, I wrecked my car. Thank goodness, nobody was hurt but I am now dealing with insurance and rental cars and all that nonsense. But this sweet girl is the least of my problems!!! She is so laid back and easy. She eats well. She sleeps moderately well. She loves a paci! She tolerates all the attention from J & R. She may be a serious girl. She has not given us a true smile yet. Only time will tell!! Her stats 11 lbs 10 oz (I am telling you she is a good eater!!) (70th percentile) 22 3/4 in. (65th percentile) 85th percentile head circumference The 2 month photo shoot did not go well. She prefers her picture to be taken in the morning and with church and work, I could only manage several evening shoots and she was not going to work with me. She has the most beautiful blue eyes. Maybe it is the dark hair that sets them off but they sure are perrrty!! I love this look she is giving me!!!

Pain

That sums up this week in sooooo many ways! Going back to work has NOT been easy! The kids (not just the baby) are up at different times during the night and then up early in the morning. This makes getting ready for work extremely difficult not to mention that I am tired for the rest of the day. I have tutoring after school on T/Th which makes for loooong days. BUT my real trouble started on Monday. I did not feel "right." I couldn't put my finger on it. I was stressed out getting stuff ready at school, this windy front came through that kicked up my allergies, I was having trouble pumping (because teachers have no sense of privacy), my students were acting crazy. I ignored all of my discomfort and plowed through my day. At the end of the day, I blamed it all on the oak pollen and my allergies. Tuesday was AWFUL. I had a searing migraine, fever, chills, body aches and my boobs were in lots of pain. I plowed through my day like a trooper (because I used all my days for maternity leave and I am stupid) and after school, I literally did not think I could drive home (but I did....how scary is that??). I talked to my Mom and she immediately diagnosed me with mastisis. Ohhhhhhhh! It all made sense. I looked it up in my breastfeeding books and I was a textbook case. With me going back to work and the trouble I had pumping on Monday led me down a dark and scary path. Mastisis is NOTHING to joke about. It was way worse than the flu! I have had a lot of painful things in my day. Let me rank them: 1. kidney stone 2. 5 cases of staph infection 3. labor and delivery 4. mastisis Long story short, I started taking some serious drugs and alternated hot and cold compresses and suffered through the night. On Wednesday, I took more drugs and started to come out of my haze. On Thursday, same. Today, I finally feel like I am returning to my normal self. I cannot tell you how happy I am that this week is over. And I am raising my glass of milk and saying "Cheers" to a better next week!!!