Last week of Maternity Leave

2/8/2010, today is the last day of my maternity leave and I have to say that it has gone by way to fast. I am dreading the fact that I have to go back to work tomorrow. I must say though that the last 5 days or so have been crazy. Thursday I had a date day with The Tader, we went to the Children's Museum in Iowa City and then out for Pizza (for the 3rd day in a row). That night we decided to put him in his big boy bed and he did AWESOME. Stayed in his bed the entire night. On Saturday he took a nap in his big boy bed for the first time and that was a little more rough than the previous nights. After 30 minutes of him playing I went in and told him to go to bed, 5 minutes later he was screaming because his "socky" fell off.....Fell off, yeah right! Once the infamous "socky" was back on he started screaming "it's broken, it's broken...Mommy, it's broken". When I entered his room I noticed that his curtains and rods were laying on his floor. I told him that he did not have to go to bed and that he could read books on his bed but that he could NOT GET OFF THE BIG BOY BED!! 10 minutes later I heard "books fell off the big boy bed, books fell of the big boy bed". Yes, his dragon book fell off and he wanted Tom to pick it up. At least the kid listened and did not get out of his bed!








The entire weekend was just as crazy. Slade seemed to have rolled all his terrible two's up into a weekend affair. He was completely clingy to me and wouldn't listen to either me or Tom. He had about 300 time outs and shed a lot of tears. Poor Chase sat there the whole time, silent and perfect as can be. I think that she was wondering what we were doing to her brother and thought.."if I just be quiet they won't beat me too". She was a little neglected because we had to spend so much time tending to Mr. Whiny Pants. At times I think she thought we forgot she was there. Poor girl was probably wanted to say "Hey guys, pooped my pants over here...Hello!" But she was too scared to cry. I know that she was starving half the time but thought "I can hold out a little longer, I'm chubby, I will just wait until Mom is done pulling out her hair".

Finally, today was my last day of maternity leave and I was going to take the two kids to day care and have a nice relaxing day. Yeah, right! I got in a car accident first thing in the morning. I was taking the kids to day care and slide on the ice right into another car. It was just a fender bender but I am sure will cost us some money!

Stats

The kids had their doctors appt. last week and here is the break down.

Chase 2 months
Height 23" (75%)
Weight 11# 14 oz (75%)
Head 40cm (75%)

Slade
Height 35 3/4" (80%)
Weight 31 # 3.5 oz (80%
Head 51 cm (95%)

Can you say big kids!

4:30am Wake up call

Okay, it is 4:30 in the morning and I can't sleep, I have been up since 2am. The sad thing is that Chase has been sleeping through the night pretty regularly since about 4 weeks old. My whole family is asleep and I am thinking about waking someone up so that it is not so boring. Instead, I will use the time to catch up on my blogging.

Here are a few pictures of Chase and a sweet video of Slade reading his animal book to Chase.

Chase has been doing really well, she is a happy baby most of the time, we had a rough patch were she was not sleeping during the day but now that I am actually feeding her enough food, she is taking naps like a champ. She smiles more than any baby I know and seems to love playing with her big brother. She still has a whole head full of hair and I am hoping that she doesn't lose it. She turns 9 weeks old today and has her 2 month appointment on Tuesday. She sleeps from about 8:30pm to 6:30am and has been doing that for about 5 weeks. Prior to that she was getting up only once.

Slade loves his little sister, he want to be around her as much as possible and is constantly giving her snotty kisses, poor girl needs a bath every night to wipe off all the snot that Slade has left behind. Slade is growing up so fast and will now actually have a full conversation with you. He is still obsessed with Dragons and Dinosaurs and roars every chance he gets. He also enjoys calling everyone (especially Grandma Bobbi) "stinky boy". his new favorite song is "Shake your booty" and he loves to be naked guy!

1/3/08-1/3/10

Slade had his second birthday on 1/3/09. It is great to see how big he is getting and all the new things he is doing but I still remember his first days of life. He was such a cuddly little boy and that still has not changed. I remember the first day he spent out of the NICU and in the same hospital room with us, it was the BCS Championship game on 1/7/09 and LSU beat Ohio St. Probably the only BCS winner I will remember. It was such a great night and I think Slade stayed awake for the whole game, too bad Ohio St didn't win. I think of that night every year the BCS Championship game comes around.

Slade's Birthday was wonderful, he had most of his family in town but we did miss the Gustafsons who were in Michigan and Uncle Karl who was serving our country in Iraq.


Here are a few pictures of Slade's big day and thank everyone for helping his celebrate his terrible two's!

He was so excited for the cake.


The cake turned every one's mouth blue






Dragon Cake

I thought I would also share pictures of Slade when he was born


Slade in the NICU...Look at the hairy arms


The first night Slade stayed in our room


Going home


First Day Slade was home

Christmas 2009

Chase's first Christmas went really well. The hoodlums from South Carolina came home to visit for the holidays. Slade had a blast with his cousins and could not stop talking about "Walka" even after they left. It was nice to finally have some excitement in our lives for a few days. We even partied like rock stars on New Years Eve. Danyel, Rick, Sue, Tom and I toasted to the new year with a little champagne......At 8:39pm!!! Of course we were all in bed before the ball fell. The Harris' stayed in a hotel on the 23rd and we all got to enjoy the amenities. Here are a few pictures of the kids swimming at the hotel.

Walker and Ryan are little fishes.

Ryan and Chase got a long really well. I think Ryan wanted to take her home to SC.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Hajek's. Slade was able to visit Santa Claus for the first time as he handed out presents to the kids at my parent's house. Slade was a little unsure of him at first but warmed up after "Papa" befriended Santa. His favorite present from Santa was a Diego sticker book. He also received his Christmas outfit and a Hotwheel car set from Grandma and Grandpa. The Harris' got him a better batter baseball set. Thank you everyone for the gifts. Chase of course received a clothes from Grandma and Grandpa as well as from the Harris'. The best present from Danyel was a set of burp clothes and bibs that spelled out Chases name. Thank you all.

On the 28th of December we went to the Dahm Christmas. Chase was able to meet her great-grandparents, aunt and uncle Bryce and Marla and cousin Jasen for the first time. Slade received a "BIG Dragon" from Aunt Sue and Uncle Karl, Dragons and a "BIG Truck" named Rocky from Grandma and Grandpa, another "BIG Truck" from Marla, Bryce and Jasen, Books from his Great Grandparents. Thank you all for the gifts. Chase received clothes from Sue and Karl - each shirts says something about Mommy on it, so of course I love them. Clothes and a Rattle from Grandma and Grandpa, a towel with "Chase" and a star that plays music and flashes lights from Bryce, Marla and Jasen. Thank you everyone!



Here is Slade helping Great-Grandma open her gifts.

For those of you who did not receive my Christmas Card....Sorry and here is a picture of it. It came in the form of a Birth Announcement/Christmas Card.

Announcing Chase Marie

It has been too long since I have last posted but we have been very busy. First we had a little baby girl, Chase Marie on 11/23/09. She weighed in a 8lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long.....It was nice to have a small baby for a change. I still had a C-section and all went well. No NICU experience this time and Tom and I felt a little less stressed out giving birth to a health baby. Here are a few pictures of Chase's first few days of life.














I love this picture. The hat was way too big.



There are no pictures of Slade from the hospital b/c due to the H1N1 Virus they were not allowing anyone under the age of 18 in the hospital but here is a picture of Slade welcoming baby Chase



We arrived home on Thanksgiving Day and Slade was very happy to see his little sister.

Aunt Ottie and Baby #2

Aunt Ottie (Sue) came home to visit over the Wisconsin/Iowa game...Iowa Won!! Here are a few pictures of Slade and ottie (That is what he calls her). They had a good time together and I think Slade was unhappy to see her go. He kept telling Tom and I "Aunt Ottie nigh nigh".

On another note...I figured that I better start giving everyone updates on Baby #2. I had my 34 week appt (2 weeks ago) and Ultra Sound and baby number two weighed in at 6lbs 2oz and 19 inches long. I am assuming that I am going to have another large baby. The C-Section has been scheduled for 11/23 at 7:30am.

Santa Mickey

So Tom took Slade to Lowe's this morning to give me a little time to do somethings around the house. I was hoping that I would have about 45 minutes to do laundry, pick up and clean. Well about 10 minutes after they left, I started receiving text messages from Tom saying that Slade found a Mickey toy and that he was carrying it around the store. 5 minutes later, I received another text asking me how to get Slade out of the store without Mickey....5 minutes later I received another text saying that Tom had given up and that he was going to purchase the Mickey. When they got home, I could see why Tom gave up. Slade has yet to put the giant plush Santa Mickey down. Mickey has now become our 4th member of our family. Mickey had to do everything Slade did including diaper changes, playing toys, lunch (Yes, I literally had to feed this giant plush Mickey a sandwich and Apple Sauce), Snack and Dinner (apparently Mickey thinks that Maidrites are yummy). Mickey even slept with Tader but only for about 30 minutes b/c what I forgot to mention is that this Mickey sings Christmas Carols....Well he sings 1 Carol, over and over and over again. While Slade was sleeping we kept hearing "deck the halls" until Tom finally went in there and snatched the giant annoying singing plush toy of death from Slade's crib.

Here are some pictures of Slade and his new best friend....Sorry Grandpa!

Here is Slade posing with Mickey

Here is Slade Hugging Mickey

Mickey even had to each Lunch, Snack and Dinner with us. BTW, this is my chair...I got bounced for a plush toy!

Here is the video of Slade and Mickey

Favorites

I know that I haven't written much in awhile but it has been hard to find the time. Slade has grown so much from my last blog....He has been talking up a storm and now rules the house. A few new things in the last few months.

His favorite words are:
Baby Burrito (when we wrap him up after his bath)
Boat (which he says like a Canadian)
Mickey Done (when his cartoon ends)
Daddy No (for about everything tom does, even if Slade asked him to do it)
My Daddy (anytime he wants tom to do something)...This is followed by the previous sentence.
sit, sit (which he says when we are not next to him at all times)
Football (whenever football is on, which is all the time)
MOMMY (which he screams at the top of his lungs 24 hours a day)
Grandpa (every time he sees a phone b/c he wants to call grandpa)
I running - while he is running around the basement in a circle
it broke - when he thinks that something is broken

Favorite Animals:
Ducky's
Turtle (Sounds so cute when he says this)
Doggie or puppy

Favorite thing to do:
Play the night night game, where he pretends to be asleep and we beat or tickle him.
Play with trucks or his train set
Run around the house and hit a balloon with the golf clubs aunt Marla got him last year.
Throw a football around
Give kisses, he is a charmer.
Read his ducky book (over and over and over and over again)
Anything to do with bubbles. We started giving him bubble baths and now he refuses to get out of the tub.

Here are a few video's that we have taken over the last few weeks

Slade learned how to jump (sort of)

Daddy on drums, Slade on vocals

Thunderstorms, clean cars and the Measles

I am sure you are wondering what the Measles, thunderstorms and a clean car have in common but if you ever assume your child has the measles make sure your car is clean and it isn't raining. for the past few days Slade has had this unexplained rash all over his body so I decided to call the Dr. for our weekly visit....Wait, this is our 3rd visit since last Monday, my oh my, how time flies when you are having fun! When I explained to them about his rash they asked me if he has been to NW Iowa in recent days. I explained that he was in Central Iowa and apparently that was close enough for the Doctors to start freaking out. They told me that his rash could be 1 of 4 things, Strep Rash, Viral Rash, Fifths disease or the Measles. Because of some small Measles outbreak in NW Iowa they were being extra careful and told me that when I come to the visit they wanted me to go into the infamous back entrance and a Doctor would meet me out back. They didn't give many more details. What I didn't know was that their would be two doctors and a nurse all decked out in masks, camouflage and gloves (Maybe not camo)! They did the entire assessment in the back of my 5 x 5 Chevy Tracker in the pouring rain. They listened to his heart, lungs, checked his ears and nose and throat and assessed his rash over his entire body. I can only explain the situation as playing twister with two doctors, a nurse, a mom and a 15 month old screaming baby whom I doubt I will ever get to go in my car again. The reasoning for this was because if Slade had the Measles and were allowed to go into the office he would infect the entire office area, therefor the tests were all run in the back my car. After all of that they also needed to draw blood work from Slade so two more techs joined the party in the clown car so they could take a sample of blood to send to the State CDC. They ended up diagnosing him with Fifths disease with the possibility of Measles but they won't know until next week! So the moral of the story, at least my car was clean! Oh and apparently fifths disease is harmful to the fetus of pregnant mothers so I had to tell one of my friends and my sister who now need to get the antibodies test for fifths disease!

Tader's first brush with the law

I know that I haven't written in awhile but I had to share this story. This morning Slade and I went on an adventure to the SE Target. We picked up all of our goodies then proceeded to truck our way into the parking lot filled with 3 inches of snow. Since it was so cold and snowy I decided to put Slade in the car before placing our groceries in. As I was putting Slade in the car, he grabbed my keys. FOR SOME STUPID REASON, I decided to let him play with them. I proceeded to shut his door and wheel the cart around to the back to unload the groceries. Once I got to the back of the car, I heard the worst sound a parent with a 15 month old could have heard......The door locking! Slade had pushed the lock button on my key chain. I quickly ran to the driver side door and when I pulled on the handle, it didn't open. I started to scream (at the top of my lungs) NOOOOOOOOOO! I looked in and saw my little man pushing he lock button over and over with a giant smile on his face. There was another couple in the parking lot, watching this whole thing unfold. I can't even imagine what they were thinking! For about 1-2 minutes I was screaming into the car "Buddy, push the OTHER button" But Slade just kept looking at me, smiling all the while pushing the lock button. I panicked, Tom was playing basketball in Iowa City, I realized that there was no way I could get my spare set of keys in a reasonable time frame and since I wasn't wearing a coat, hat or gloves, I couldn't stand outside in the cold for long periods of time. I dialed 911 and told the cops that I had locked my 15 month old him my car at Target East. I waited for about 5 minutes thinking that 1 cop and possibly DHS would appear but I would have never thought that they would bring the whole Calvary. While asking Slade over and over to push the other button, I looked up to flashing red, yellow and white lights. It was a firetruck and two cop cars...You have got to be kidding me. The first moment, I thought OMG this is embarrassing but panicked mode still took over so I started running across the parking lot flaring my arms screaming, "over here, over here, my baby, my baby"!! 3 fireman fully dressed in gear, 1 fire chief and two cops pull out of the car! This is after they surrounded my car in the parking lot. I am almost certain I saw some Target Patrons hit the ground with their arms over their heads when they saw everyone pull up to my car. After about 5 minutes they were able to get the door open and I was able to kiss and hug my little buddy again. Meanwhile I woke my mom up to run to my house and find the spare set of keys. Sorry mom, our tax paying dollars took care of it!

Snowblowers and Christmas gifts

Well we got another 8 inches of snow Friday night and Saturday morning...When is it going to stop?!?! Anyway, my parents thought that it would be a wonderful idea to drive 2 hours to Des Moines to visit Danyel, Rick and the kids on Saturday morning immediately after the snow storm. Surprisingly they made it there without any problems....But we all know that I would not be typing up a blog for no apparent reason. I guess 5 minutes after they arrived my mom (go figure) started feeling nauseated and spent the rest of the day and night in bed with the flu...Poor Mom! When Danyel and Rick called to tell me the good news I thought I would be nice and snow blow my parents driveway...At little surprise when they got home, you know something nice. So I started what seemed to be an endless task with this so called snow blower they have. This thing is basically a 5 inch circular blade with two handles, a cord and blower. It literally looks like a fisher price toy. After realizing that it wasn't something that Walker had left at his grandparents house, I thought well this must be it. It didn't take long to turn the thing on....I mean, anything that runs on 2 AA batteries is pretty simple. Once I got it started, I pushed the thing up and down the driveway about 3 times and then all of a sudden the blower fell off. I put it back on and started my business again but it fell off again. Basically I had broken the stupid thing. So instead of surprising my parents with a freshly snow blown driveway, I gave them 3 lines of a snow less patch and an unusable snow blower....SURPRISE!

I have also been meaning to blog about this train set that Slade got from his grandparents. Yes, I break their snow blower and they buy him an expensive train set. Doesn't seem right does it! Anyways, my mom really wanted to get Slade a train set for his first Christmas but of course being psycho mom, I said that he was too young. Tom had mentioned to my mom that Slade would love a train set so my mom ended up buying him one....She says it was for Slade but I think it was a little bit for Tommy too. Slade and Tom (and I have to admit, I too) love this thing. It is actually a blast. Slade loves to hear all the noises the trains make, Tommy loves pushing the trains around the track and of course Mommy gets mad when even one piece is out of place. I thought I would share a few pictures of this thing..... Keep in mind that Slade is 1 year old and this train set came in about 200 pieces and took both Tom and I over 2 hours to set up.


The processes


Box number 42!


The final job! I put the tracks together :)


We had to move the train set down to the basement with all the other christmas presents Slade got from family members. He also got a big blow-up ball pit with 300 balls that he loves...Well before the 300 balls were in it, he really likes only about 100 balls in at a time (Yeah, ONLY 100 balls). The rest of the balls he likes on the floor so he can run through and kick. When he is not playing with that he is mowing the carpet with his handy dandy lawnmower he got from grandma and grandpa Buckheister. I will have to get a picture of him doing that he loves it. He also got a pretty cool busy ball popper choo choo train from his great aunt and uncle Bryce and Marla. It is soo cute to see him play with this. To match that he got a busy ball popper from my parents. Don't even get me started on all the birthday presents that he got from everyone. We have been watching Horton Hears a Who that he got from him grandma and grandpa Buckheister.
To top all of that off, he got some wonderful books from everyone, He loves to read all the animal books he received from his great grandparents (Dahm). Not to mention the supply of money toward his college fund from everyone! He also has an endless supply of toys that we keep getting out of our Toyorama that we received from his cousins Walker and Ryan. Each day he seems to get a new toy!

Slade Thanks everyone for the gifts! Mom and Dad say......next time you all come over, it is your turn to pick up all the toys!

1/3/08 12:38pm

My little boy turned 1 year old yesterday. He had a wonderful birthday despite having a fever of 104.2 the night before. Both sets of grandparents and his aunt and uncle Sue and Karl were there to celebrate. He received a giant ball pit with 300 balls from Sue and Karl, a Busy ball Popper and Laptop from Grandma and Granpda Hajek and a Radio and some blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Buckheister.

I can't believe my little boy is already 1 year old. This has been such a wonderful year with Slade that I almost don't want him to grow up anymore. The first few days started off a little scary while he was in the NICU and the last week ended a little scary as well. Slade started to get a high fever New Years Eve night and spent most of the 1st and 2nd lounging around the house with Mommy and Daddy! He bounced back nicely and spent his birthday with family!

Below are some pictures of his big day.

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Birthday 'Smash' Cake - That he didn't end up smashing.

Birthday Cake for Adults


Toys - He forgot about the hat he was wearing


Boys and their hats! - What troopers the grandparents were.

Snow Day

Tom and I took Slade sledding on Sunday and we had a blast. It took a little coaxing to get Slade interested at first but since Mommy and Daddy were having so much fun and felt a little stupid sledding in our backyard without a kid, we did our best to get him use to the snow.

Here are a few pictures of Slade's first Snow Day.

Slade buried in the snow


Sledding with Mommy

Picture time

Weeee


Here is a video of Slade Sledding with Mommy, you can see by Tom's comments, he wasn't too impressed.

Daddy having fun too.

Mommy's Turn

I thought I would post a video of Slade pushing me around on his lightening McQueen truck...We teach fairness in our house. It is only fair that I get a turn on the toys too, after all that is why Tom and I had children, for the toys.

Thanksgiving Take 2

Well what can I say about the Hajek Thanksgiving....if I had one word it would be DRAMA. I guess we were able to do what Thanksgiving was meant for, spending time with family...Apparently it doesn't matter where you spend the time as long as you are together. Well, we spent most of our time in the hospital with my mom. She is feeling much better now (or at least for the next 6 months until she has another bowl obstrucion). Anyway, all the kids had a great time with each other. Slade loved to hang out with his cousin Kingsley....Even though she didn't like him. Kingsley is 5 1/2 months older than Slade but he has a good 6lbs on her. Slade is into this hugging and kissing mood right now and wanted to be around poor Kingsley any chance he could get. She, on the other hand would run from him every chance she good get. I can't imagine what was going through her head when she saw my chunky monkey running at her with drool hanging out of his mouth and snot out his nose! Poor Kingsley. Slade then moved on to his cousin Walker who actually thought Slade was pretty cool for a young guy. Walker even wrapped all of his trains up to give to Slade for Christmas...How Sweet is that boy.

Here are a few pictures

Slade chillin' in his chair. What a guy


Slade in the tub with his cousins Kingsley and Kennedy


Slade Rubbing Kingsley's head...Too Cute


Here are some more pictures
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