Getting Ready For Christmas!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving weekend, besides seeing family, is getting the house decorated for Christmas! Friday we did venture out to do some black Friday shopping and brought Miley with us this year, we didn't leave until 6:45am but she was so happy the entire day. We got her a hashbrown from McDonald's to help hold her over until we went to Perkins after we were done shopping. This picture was taken literally 20 minutes after we woke her up.

Saturday it was time to cut down our Christmas tree, Miley was very in to it this year. She fell asleep on the way home from the tree farm and when she woke up Taylor and I had the tree set up in the living room ready for her to help decorate. She still wakes up in the morning and from her naps running to the living room saying Pretty Tree!! I love this time of the year!

Her Charlie Brown tree she thought was "Cute, Mom"

"What doing Dad?"

"Cheese!"

"Hide, Hide"

Still not too fond of Santa, she has this thing with elderly people.

But she was excited to eat the Candy Cane he gave her!

Our Pretty Balsam Fir. (Which is now full of wrapped presents underneath)

"Oh Well".... she said

So, today was Black Friday and we really didn't HAVE to go out but Taylor and I enjoy going out. We had two presents left to buy (because I'm on online shopping freak) and there were a few things that we needed for ourselves, like a heated water bowl for Joey and a cordless drill that was on sale at Sears. So, we ventured out with Miley this year. She was SOOOO good! She even went to the bathroom two times while we were out!! So proud of her! Then after nap we went over to Nana and Bumpa's house as I had to make some things, present related, and she went to the bathroom here! YEAH Miley- that was 3 times on the pot and only 1 accident so far at that point. Then, as she was sitting on the counter eating a piece of chocolate after dinner I realized that the stars on her pull ups were gone, meaning she had had an accident. I said 'Miley your stars are gone, did you have an accident?" After careful examination and bending to see that her stars were gone she says "Oh Well". REALLY!?! Where did she learn that... that comment was just too funny, myself and Nana and Bumpa busted out laughing. Such a funny girl today!

I'm Thankful for my Hubby

I just wanted to write this tribute to my hubby. Last night we had such a precious family moment, after my shower I went downstairs with some nail polish and kindly asked my hubby if he would paint my toe nails as I am having a very hard time reaching them already. He graciously said Yes, so we set up shop and Miley sat right next to me and patiently waited and watched as her Daddy painted her Mommy's nails and when he got done she put her toes out and was ready for him to do hers as well.

We gave him lots of high fives and kisses and said Thank You Daddy over and over again. I really appreciated his willingness to help me out and Miley seemed to really enjoy our precious family moment.

Cooking Blog....

For some reason- when I look at my blog and scroll down to see if anyone else has a new blog title post it still says my old Chili recipe title as my last post... so, in case you haven't looked in awhile, I have added a VERY tasty new recipe and share the good news that I WON a Chili Cook-off!!! So, Check it out!

Potty- Break...

Well, sad to say, but hopefully not for too long, we are taking a Potty break. Miley has now been 3 weeks of solid potty learning to now 3 weeks of preferring to Not go on the potty. And I guess I can’t really blame her, she went so many weeks of having tummy issues, then a cold, and then whatever last week was. So, we decided we are going to let her take a break and not pressure her or stress about it because we know she’s not even 2 yet. We are, however, going to keep pull-ups on her during the day, just so we aren’t reverting completely back to diapers and she is now learning how to pull her own pants up and down so I wanted to keep that going and she calls the pull ups her panties and does get excited to wear them. She hasn’t stopped going completely as she does seem to go maybe once or twice a day so we just make sure we celebrate those times when she chooses to go. And she is staying dryer longer so I know she is understanding control and tells me she is going right before she goes or as she is going so making it to the potty has been the difficult part the past two weeks.
So, anyway, we are hoping that maybe taking the pressure off of her for a little bit she will revert back into wanting to do it all by herself again like when she first started. We still ask her every so often, or when I go I tell her I’m going to the potty do you want to go too? Sometimes she says yes and other times she says no. She of course likes going at other people’s houses and restaurants, so that’s good I guess. And at night, for now, we are just using up the diapers we have at home, figured I spent the money on those I might as well use them instead of buying overnight pull ups, which tend to be pretty expensive. And really, she doesn’t even know the difference right now.

I’m also thinking that once things start to settle down a little bit she will snap back into it. With the nice weather there has been outside time to play, errands to run, places to go, people to see and sometimes I feel like we are Out more than we are home so as soon as the weather starts to turn cold and we begin our winter hibernation I think she will snap back into it.

A Night at Home

Well- last night I decided that Miley just needed a night at home. We were supposed to go to ECFE but when she started to put on her crabby pants during dinner and refused to eat anything I had decided I had had enough and we were staying home and I’d bring ECFE to her! I asked her if she wanted to do projects at home and she got VERY excited!! So- we first started out doing a Thanksgiving project. Now- some background, Happy Thanksgiving is quite the mouthful for a toddler to say so instead I taught her to say Happy Turkey! It’s supposed to be Happy Turkey Day but sometimes she forgets the Day part because Happy and Turkey are so fun to say. So, I found some foam letters that spelled out Happy and she glued them onto her paper. I wrote Turkey and then she went to town coloring her picture and gluing gems onto it. And to make it festive I decided to get really crafty and make a Turkey out of pipe cleaners!! Hey- Miley thought it was very pretty.

Then I remembered that we had two wooden ornaments that she picked out from Joann’s several weeks ago along with green and purple glitter pant so I got those out and she ‘finger’ painted them, as I couldn’t find where our paint brushes went. She was VERY proud of her ornaments, I can’t wait to see her face when we tell her she can hang them on the Christmas tree next weekend!

After crafts she took a bath to get all of the glue and paint off of her and as we were heading back to the living room she saw a commercial about Playdoh and apparently Landon has taught her how to watch a commercial and say she wants “That Too” for Christmas! So, we pulled out the playdoh and then finally she was hungry for supper! She ate well, and well enough that I thought it would be fun to bake cookies. Once the cookies were done we had a little snack and then we both went to bed early. It really ended up being a wonderful night at home for just her and I. I think we needed that. It seems like we’ve been on the go so much lately that we haven’t had time to just sit down, relax and bond. I think we will do the same again tonight when Daddy gets home. I’m thinking it sounds like the perfect evening for Movie and Popcorn night!!!

26 Week Check Up

I had my 26 week check up yesterday, it seemed like forever since I had been there as they let me go 6 weeks in between visits. My tummy is measuring 26 weeks exactly, blood pressure was awesome, slight weight gain but I was quick to remind them that it had been 6 weeks since my last weigh in and they say- Oh yes, then that gain of 8 pounds is right on, so that puts me at 17 pounds…ho-hum… Not too shabby- but I still have 14 weeks left and would prefer that number to not get any higher than 30, especially since I’m not retaining water, so that 17 pounds is all me and baby—well… and all the extra fluid your body naturally holds, extra blood, ahem- bigger chest, etc. The best part about my appointment is that I had my Glucose test and I PASSED!!! YEAH!!! WOO HOO!!!
The down fall…. I start going every other week already!!!! SERIOUSLY… are we already at this point! WOW… I am going to feel like I live there before too long, especially now because I was there twice this week, have to bring Miley back next week, then I go again the following week… WOW!

And the sad news…. As it stands right now, no children under the age of 5 are allowed on the OB floor! That means Miley isn’t able to come and visit at all while we are in the hospital! That is going to make it very hard I think! My doctor, who had her 2nd child four months after I had Miley and is now due to have her 3rd four months after I have this baby, said that when her 2.5 year old came to visit and meet the 2nd baby she said he was interested for about a minute and then was into everything and running all around the room being curious and it stressed her out more than anything and plus it gave her and her husband some time to really focus and bond with the brand new baby. So- if the rules don’t change come February…. Just note…. No children under the age of 5 can come and visit Me or Jackie when we have our babies. I’ll make sure to put out the word though if I hear that it changes.

A week of tests....

Well- we defiantly have been tested this week!! Being a parent is the best thing in the world but when your child decides to a) be a medical mystery b) stop using the potty after doing so unbelievable well for 3 weeks straight and c) having a major temper out of the blue- it sure does make it hard to ‘enjoy’ being a parent, it actually freaks me out even more because I’m having another in three months (are we CRAZY!?!?!)

So, to further explain…

a) Miley is a medical mystery right now, to keep it brief, Miley got the stomach flu 7 weeks ago, then had soft stool or diarrhea for 6 weeks straight, got tested for a few things which all came back negative so we tried no dairy which was kind of helping. Sunday night she started getting a runny nose and watery eyes (just a cold) but Monday wouldn’t eat any breakfast and had a one hour episode of throwing up, when I picked her up she looked half dead, to be blunt. We headed straight for Red Wing to do further testing to ensure nothing was wrong intestinally. Of course, every single test they did came back normal, except for the ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE test which normal is under 300 and hers was 885. However, he doesn’t know the correlation of the two things, diarrhea and this test, Miley is now his third patient with the same problem but not even the Specialists at the University can figure it out, and the other two kids ended up snapping back to normal within a few weeks. So, for now, we get through this minor cold and go and do blood work again next week to see if those levels have come back down. As for the throwing up episode, he thinks it was contributed to all the gas that was showing up in her tummy and for the fact that she normally goes twice a day and hadn’t gone since Saturday night, we got her to get it all out by simply giving her some Chocolate Milk, her FAVORITE thing in the whole world, for being so brave with all her tests, and because I knew that would get things working rather than the alternative method, which I don’t even want to speak of.

b) I know, I know, she is young to potty train, but it was her decision to do it, and I know we’ve been dealing with a lot of stomach issues and now having a cold but now we are going on 2 weeks of just wanting to go in her pants. I guess I was so excited that it was going so well and now it’s not that it upsets me. I’m hoping next week though she’ll be healthy again and we can get back on track, but it’s just frustrating to have maybe 1-2 accidents a day for three weeks to now maybe only going on the potty 1-2 times a day and the rest in her pants.

c) Seriously, this terrible 2 thing, SERIOUSLY! WOW! The girl knows how to throw a tantrum, that’s for sure! They mostly come only when she’s over tired and her schedule gets off, which is to be expected as she is like me and does like her schedule. But man, last night, seriously, we timed it, 54 FULL minutes of her screaming, crying, kicking, swinging her arms, choking, coughing, etc. until she finally just gave in and fell asleep! She wanted NOTHING to do with me AT ALL, she would freak out even more if I even came near her, she only wanted Daddy (which is just WONDERFUL because now he is gone on the 8th grade Eagle Bluff trip as a chaperone for the next three days, wonder how this is going to go). But once she finally did relax enough to just fall asleep she slept hard, she barely moved a muscle all night, she was still in the same position when I left this morning. Moments like that are defiantly a true test of being a parent and working together, as frustrated as Taylor and I got we both helped each other stay calm in order to deal with her and once she was out we gave each other a smile as a way of saying, we made it through this, we did it, together.

So, it’s been a rough start to the week at the Pagel household and we are defiantly looking forward to next week, short work week, Thanksgiving, and then getting ready for our most favorite Holiday of all, CHRISTMAS!!! Miley will really enjoy all of our ‘getting ready for Christmas Traditions’ this year. Now, we just have to make it to next week still in once piece!

Here she is at Fairview. My mom came with as I was a pregnant emotional wreck and I knew they would want to do x-rays and I obviously can’t even be in the room when they do them right now. And it’s hard for Taylor, being a teacher, to just drop everything and leave like I can. He got off as soon as he could though to be with his little girl. The second photo is her wanting to get the heck out of the x-ray room after they were done doing the photos, we just had to wait for 1 minute so they could ensure they got a good photo but she was ready to run out the door.

Halloween and 25 weeks

Miley was a Lady Bug this year for Halloween. She was very excited to dress up but really doesn't like hoods. Her costume had a cute hood with antennas but she wouldn't put it up for anything. She had fun trick or treating and we enjoyed the nice weather for the occassion.

Miley is really into dressing up right now, we have a few Princess outfits and dance outfits and she LOVES to pretend!

Miley has now become quite fond of the crib! We caught her the other night after she had climbed in there, now she does it daily. The other day she put her Eeyore in the crib, then sat in the Rocking chair next to the crib and then pretended that Eeyore was crying and she climbed in and rocked Eeyore and told him it would be OK. Very cute!!

Here is Miley in her Camo outfit that she wore out to Deer Camp on Saturday with Daddy while me and my mom went to a holiday boutique.

A follow up on her diarrhea, no parasite so we tried doing extra yogurt and a probiotic, which I take. That seemed to make matters worse so Dr. Dann said to lay off all dairy for the weekend to see what happens, it SLOWLY started to make things better and he said to then continue it for the rest of the week. Today during the day she had a regular bowel movement but then tonight it was back to loose again. Guess we will keep off of the dairy and I hope this isn't a forever deal so we will continue to play it by ear. It doesn't seem to bother her still so we continue to be thankful for that, no fever, eating well and lots of energy.

 As for Baby Bear he is really growing! I'm as big as I was at 30 weeks with Miley and the weight was hardly coming on in the beginning and seems to be coming on quickly right now. I'm watching it though, I hope to only gain 25-30 like I did with Miley. My Chiropractor says I am still carrying VERY low and everything is settling into delivery baby mode already which is causing some pain in my hips and ligaments, but she said, hopefully, with everything already settling into place so early that when it is time to have this little guy the delivery will be quick and easy- meaning no shopping for nursing bras the day I go into labor because it might come on very very quick! I would be very happy with a quick and easy delivery as I am hoping to go for no drugs this time as I labored last time without them, but I'm not saying that I won't take them if its not going so well, just keeping my mind open to skipping out on them. Here is me and my big belly, already, at 25 weeks.... really... 25 weeks, that's all.... that's how I feel right now anyway....

Taylor's Big Ten!!

Taylor has become quite into Bow hunting over the past two years, as annoying as it has been to have him out in the woods day after day weekend after weekend, OK it wasn't THAT bad, but it sure did seem to be a lot this year with a busy toddler and a pregnant mommy. It has been nice that he has been able to clear his mind and relax in the stand and then come home and take over cool, calm and collected so I could hit the showers and chill out.

Last Friday afternoon as I was picking up Miley I got a phone call from Taylor still in the stand, Mindi- I just shot a huge 10 point!- Me-- Yeah right Taylor, if you are lying you are done hunting, I don't feel like playing jokes right now (as I had been stressed out dealing with some chronic diarrhea with Miley and having just got off the phone with the Dr.) He said SERIOUSLY Mindi I would NOT joke about this, I shot him and I saw him fall now I'm just waiting for him to die, I have to go and call everyone! With this comment I knew he wasn't joking!

So, Ken, Pam, Miley and I got in the car and headed over to Bob's. Taylor's deer is quite the deer, 205 with all the guts out, nice 10 points, 19 inch spread. Of course the head is going on our wall- Taylor made sure I knew that right away! He has been on cloud nine ever since! We are very proud of him, and happy to have him home in the evenings now! :)

Potty Time!!

So- like everything else, Miley decided that she wanted to stop wearing diapers and be a big girl and go potty on the potty chair all on her own. We weren’t planning on starting this process until this weekend but two weekends ago she said she was ready. We are coming to the end of week two now and she is doing quite well. I can’t say that we have had a perfect day without a single accident but we are down to maybe 2-3 accidents a day, and she doesn’t wake up dry overnight (that’s what overnight pull ups are for), she has good days and bad days, but that’s to be expected. Our biggest issue right now really isn’t her fault- she has had loose stool and/or diarrhea for several weeks now and is usually pretty good at getting to the potty on time, but that’s even hard for an adult, sometimes you have to sprint to the bathroom and sometimes we just don’t make it in time. I’m waiting on results today from her lab sample test to see if we can figure out what the problem is as this has just been going on too long. Hopefully we can get that under control and then the accidents will be few and far between.

My biggest surprise with this process was on Halloween, we put her in a pull up just in case and as we were trick or treating out to Uncle Theron’s house she said she had to go potty- so I quickly stripped off her costume and we made it! Then 10 minutes later she had to go #2 and we stripped it off again and made it! She stayed dry the entire time we were out trick or treating! She seems to really only have accidents if she gets busy playing in her room or with Landon at Grandma’s house and realizes she has to go a few seconds too late. But hey, that’s what this learning process is all about. But we are on the right path here and we won’t have two kids in diapers! We are very excited about that! And plus, trying to teach her how to go on the potty with a newborn in the house I think would be a nightmare, so I’m glad we are doing this now.

I need to get pictures off of my camera but we’ve been super busy lately. We signed Miley up for the next session of ECFE because she loves it so much, this session will run into December and then we have a couple week break due to the Holiday’s and then I plan on signing her up for the Just for Kix Mommy and Me dance class! I am very excited about that! She LOVES to dance right now and play dress up and copy me when I do dance moves so I think she is going to LOVE dance class. I’m not sure what night that will fall on, but hopefully not the same night as ECFE. It is just crazy to think that at 2 years old she will have two evening activities but I think allowing her experiences will be good for her, especially when the baby comes so she can have some one-on-one time to do things she loves.