Ah No!

This is what I found when I came downstairs from going to the bathroom. Celie playing nicely with her sticker book and Anna drawing on her paper - but sitting ON the table. Ah, No! (but of course after I took a picture of it.

Tough Decision

Bob and I had to make a tough decision.

We have decided to not send Celie off to Preschool this year. The main reason is because she has to be fully potty trained to go and she isn't. I started this week - potty training - and by the 3rd hour & 2nd accident in big girl underwear - she had no desire to sit on the big potty or little potty - not even fully clothed. She wouldn't even come into the bathroom with me to check things out. I can see that it is going to be a struggle. But I do not want to push her because she has been through a lot. However, because she is such a big kid, she has outgrown almost all of the diapers on the market except for the ones for older kids to wear at night time.

We haven't given up, but we have decided to spend the money we would have on preschool on other activities where she can interact with other kids. So, I will be searching for classes and such that she can participate in primarily on her own. A lot of the "mommy & Me" classes do not work for us anymore because of the age difference of Celie & Anna. It is difficult to put them both in the same class, etc. etc.

So, this fall will be my challenge to see if we can get her potty trained. Maybe she can start mid year - or we will just wait until next year. We will see. Maybe I will start to train Anna on the potty and then maybe Celie will follow.

Potty training sucks.

She sleeps

In her unpredictability, Anna has been somewhat predictable.

About a month and 1/2 ago, Anna decided that she didn't want to nap in the afternoon. Try as I might, even with a bottle at 1pm - normal nap time. She just wouldn't do it. She would take the bottle, drink it, then open her door and come back down stairs. After several days of this, I decided, fine. No bottle, your done and I will have to deal with Ms. cranky pants.

Well, after a couple of days, I realized that later in the afternoon, Anna would disappear. Since she can freely go up and down the stairs, I would give her a few minutes and then go up and check on her.

For the past month, Anna decides when she is tired. She goes upstairs and crawls into bed. Not always her bed, but a bed. I sometimes find her in hers, or ours, or Celies, but she is asleep and looks so precious. Not the stinker she usually is.

Today was the first time that I thought about it, lighting was good, etc. etc. to capture this moment on film to share.

She sleeps, she stirs, she repositions and goes back to sleep.

Confession: I'm a bad mother

OK. I have a confession to make - My girls have never had a popsicle. It isn't that I haven't tried, they just do not seem to have any interest in anything like that unless it is ice cream.

Well, after lunch, the girls seemed to be a little cranky, but were not going down for a nap for me. So, I thought that I would redeem myself from being the worst mom ever, and teach them about Push Ups.

I took out 1 for each of us and pushed the creamy orange sherbet up so they could get their taste. I put them in a bowl for each of them. They looked at me like I was crazy. Then I told them to watch mommy and showed them how to eat it. They started to the get the hang of it and actually enjoyed it. Anna couldn't quite get the "grip" so a lot of it ended up on her shirt. After them having it melt quite a bit because they couldn't eat it fast enough. I pushed the remaining into the bowl and got spoons for them. They finished off their Push Ups just fine.
i guess I will have to work on their technique.

Yesterday

Was an absolutely gorgeous day here in OH. Even though we have company coming in and I should have been cleaning the house, I couldn't resist taking the girls somewhere fun for a little while to change up things.

I told Bob in the morning that I might take the girls to the "Z." Celie, over hearing this, said, "Mom, can we go to the zoo?" I am going to have to brush up on my french so that I can speak in that language & she won't know what I am talking about. (She already knows more spanish than I do from Dora & Diego!).

So, the zoo it was.

The girls and I got there right as it opened and ventured to the Savannah. We spotted the baby giraffe that had been born 9 days prior. It was wandering the Savannah. It was very cute. Celie wanted to see the Sea lions so we headed that way. At the Sea Lions & Seals, they had someone selling 3 fish for $1. I couldn't resist it. So, I paid the buck and the woman put 3 smelly, little, dead fish in my hand. Oh, that was good for the pregnant lady. Celie touched the fish, but decided that I should feed the sea lions. So, I propped the girls up so they could see and we fed this VERY fat sea lion. I think he had definitely had had his share of fish.

We then moved onto the polar bears. One was pacing the back rock formation while the other was very comfortable on a rock playing in the water.
Next, we were on the way to see if we could find the Touch exhibition where we could touch Rays. We found it and went in. I had to be careful of Anna because she would have wanted to go swimming with them. We had one Ray give us a High Five. Celie thought that was fun.
The Cleveland Zoo is very nice for a small zoo. We really enjoy seeing all of the animals there.

After the Rays, it was time to go home. We had only been at the zoo a little over an hour, but Anna was starting to melt down. She had gotten up early and I knew that a total disaster would happen if we didn't get home. As we were leaving, there were a ton of people coming in and the parking lot was more than 1/2 full. I was glad we were leaving.
I can never get them to BOTH look at me at the same time. I guess I will have to work on that one.

It's a . . .

Well, we went to have our ultrasound this morning. Bob and both girls were in the room with me. Celie was very concerned that I was o.k. She doesn't particularly like Doctors right now, understandably so, but we reassured her that everything was just fine.

The sonographer, I think that is what they are called, was very nice. She started taking measurements of various body parts. Both Bob and I were trying to see if we could see any "parts" but it was difficult from the various positions she was taking images from. She asked if we wanted to know what we were having if she had the opportunity to see. We both said, "Yes!" in unison.

As she was taking some other images, we saw Baby O's heart beating, feet moving around, legs moving around, etc. It was really cool. Then both and I thought we saw something. We didn't tell each other until later, but we both thought at the same time - Ah, there it is, a girl, I think and then the sonographer said, "Well, I think you are going to have to get your paint brushes ready." That seemed like eternity for me to process. Bob admitted later that it did for him as well. Paint Brushes ready meant that we would have to paint over the fairies in the nursery, which meant that it wasn't a girl, which meant it was a BOY!!" Then she said, "Yep, a Boy, for sure," and with that she positioned the ultrasound and YUP, there was no doubt that it was a boy.

So, Jakub Alan Ostroski is doing very well. His measurements are great and everything looks fabulous. YEAH!!

Now, I can sell all of the pink clothes in our upcoming garage sale and figure out what theme to do in his room. I am thinking either Cowboys or sports. Just not sure which though.

Celie & Anna & I made a chocolate cake to celebrate. I had already planned that this afternoon we were going to make a cake to celebrate the boy or girl addition to our family. We are also going to go out to dinner to celebrate when Bob gets home from work.

Honestly, we are happy it is a boy, but we are most blessed that the baby whether it had been a boy or girl is healthy. That is all we have ever wanted. Thank goodness.

4 more days

We are still counting down the days until we get to find out what Baby O is.

4 more days!!!

Bob and I discussed baby names all the way to and from MI. We are definitely settled on the boy name, but the girl name has us perplexed. Still cannot figure out one that is the Ahhhhh, that's it!!!

Thank goodness we are finding out so that if it is a girl, we will have several months to figure it out.

Don't worry, we will post as soon as we can!!!

Celie is A - OK

Bob took Celie to her check up this morning with the Orthopedic Surgeon so that I could stay at home with Anna. Also, if she needed to have x-rays, Bob could go in with her. I cannot because of Baby O.

The Doctor said that she is progressing faster than he expected. He said that she is doing great and healing very well. He said that we can expect her to limp for about another month or so, that that would be normal. But anything more than 2 months and we should contact him.

He said that he doesn't need to see her again for another 3-4 months. At that time, he will see both Celie & Anna, just as a check up measure.

YEAH!!! We are so happy for Celie!! Now comes the fun part of Potty training!!

Shhh, can you hear it?

Silence. The hum of the dryer, the cool breeze filtering through the house, the chirping of birds outside.

All of these things I can hear. . . . . . because for once, both girls are sleeping at the same time.

I took the girls to the "BIG" park. It is the community park at the Community Center in town. We were there for about an hour. And then we met Bob for lunch up by his work. We then came home and within 40 minutes, both girls were sacked out.

Ahhhhhhh, peace and quiet. I almost don't know what to do with myself. Almost.

Just Listening

That is my current favorite thing to do.

Both girls are absolutely hilarious. They have a good time together (with some minor fights) but they also play really well by themselves. I love listening to them talk to themselves with their people. They both have an active imagination. However, I can only really understand Celie as Anna is still speaking in her own language, but we are working on it.

Now, I just need to record them when they are doing it. Some times they stop doing what they are doing when I intrude. So, I just listen.

11 Days & Counting

Until we find out if Baby O is a boy or a girl. We are starting to get very excited. I am also very excited that we will be able to find out so soon what we are having. If it is a boy, then I have some time to go through ALL of the baby clothes that we currently have and put all of the pink stuff in the garage sale we are having in Sept. If it is a girl, then I don't have to worry about anything but a name. There has been a suggestion about the name Wilbur, but I do not think that is very appropriate for a girl. Besides, we already have the boys name picked out.

11 and counting.

Kelly Kind of Day

Bob decided to take the girls to the farm for the night. I didn't go because I had a hair appointment scheduled so I decided that I would make the most of the day.

I went to the Lakewood Art Festival in Lakewood, OH. It was actually pretty good. A VERY mini A2 Art Fair, but some pretty nice stuff. I bought a photograph for our dining room.

Then I went to Pat Catans in Strongsville. It is a super duper craft store. I hadn't every been there and I was impressed with their selection of things and prices. I bought some scrapbook paper (like I needed any) and a few small items to play with making some x-mas presents with the girls.

Then I went to get my hair done. I didn't think that I would be that long, but my hair appointment ended up being about 2 1/2 hours long, but I do like my hair. Hopefully, Bob and the girls will like it too.

Then, baby was craving wings. So, I headed to Fischer's in Peninsula. I usually do not order wings per se, as they are very messy. But I do love a good chicken tender either dipped in buffalo sauce or having it on the side. Baby couldn't make up his/her mind, so we went with a combo platter - chicken wings, eggplant fries (they are yummy!!), and onion rings. Just a little taste of everything.

After I could only eat 1/2 of the combo platter, I finally headed home to begin my chocolate making endeavor. I am making chocolates as a wedding favor for Biff & Sarah that are getting married next week. The dark chocolates came out beautiful, but my white chocolate is misbehaving, so I am having to fuss with it more than I wanted, but hopefully, I will be able to make it work.

Kelly Kind of Day was filled with a little bit of Art, a little bit of Pampering, a little bit of fried food, and a little bit of chocolate. The only thing that would make it a totally Kelly Kind of Day is a little scrapbooking. I still have a few hours left in the day - I think I will do a little. :)

Another Count Down!!

We have another countdown happening at the Ostroski Household!!

16 days until we find out if Baby O is a boy or a girl. We are looking forward to finding out so that we can start calling him or her by their name. We have the boys name figured out, but we still haven't decided on any girl names. I would like to try to keep it a family name, but we might be open for suggestions if anyone has any.

2 days Post Op

We are 2 days from when Celie got her cast off. It is amazing, at least we think so, the progress she has made in such a small amount of time.

Friday morning she was in and out of surgery in about 1 hour, but it took awhile for her to wake up from the anesthesia. We ended up leaving the hospital around 1 pm. When she finally began to wake up, she felt down to where her cast was and said, "My cast is off!" We told her that Yes, it was. She was pretty tender and sore from not using the muscles in 8 weeks and from the surgery to take the pins out of her hip. She fell asleep on the way home and took another nap later in the afternoon. She was a trooper throughout the whole thing.

The Doctor said that it would probably be a week before she would really want to try to put any pressure on her leg. He expected that when we were to see him at our 2 week check up that she would be limping, hobbling into see him. He expected her to start out army crawling in a couple of days, progress to crawling and then to cruising, then to walking, and then back to normal activity.

Well, he was partially right.

Friday evening she began moving her left leg a little bit, but it was obviously tender for her. She asked to stand up, so we let her for 2 seconds, but then laid her back down, because she was in pain. Friday night she began rolling over, very carefully. By Saturday morning, she was rolling over completely. She also tried to get up on all fours. During the day on Saturday, she began leaning up on the back of the couch. Standing on the cushions and leaning back. It was amazing to see her progress. By Saturday night, she was sitting up and standing, leaning on the back of the couch.

Today, brought new challenges to Celie. She slid herself off of the couch and was leaning up against the couch, putting weight on both legs. She has even tested the waters by cruising along the furniture in the living room. I even witnessed her walking on her own in the middle of the living room. She does pretty well shuffling her feet with the help of something or someone. She usually asks for a hand to help her walk from one place to another. She also uses her little chair to use in front of her like a walker to help her stabilize herself and help her walk. She is truly a tough little girl. She is pushing herself beyond belief and we are not going to stop her.

Below is Celie standing up against the couch with her chair in front of her if she decides to take off.

Little Stinker

Just may be Anna's nickname for life.

Anna has really taken to trying to help me out on the computer when I am trying to type fast so that I can get off ASAP. However, just recently, she has figured out how to climb up into the chair and sit at the desk like she is a big girl.
Then when I ask her to get down, I get the stinker face.

Then when she knows that I am getting upset, she pours on the charming face.

A true Stinker.

Visitors

On Tuesday, July 22nd, we had visitors. These were our first visitors to our new place in OH that were not related to us. How exciting.

My friend Alisha and her husband, Said, are traveling across the USA this summer. The classic all american road trip. So, they decided to stop by our place in Cleveland and stay the night. They got acquainted with the girls. When Bob got home from work, we left the kids with the babysitter and headed out to dinner - just adults. It was awesome!!!

The dinner was just o.k. We ate at a local restaurant in town, but it was great to hang out and have adult conversation. Here is a picture of Anna making herself comfortable with Alisha & Said.

Alisha & Said will be gone for about 2 months on their tour of America. So, they couldn't leave their pet fish at home for that long. So, they brought him with them. I told them that since they would probably be coming back this way on their way home, we would be more than happy to fish sit for them so they would have one less thing to worry about. So, for the time being, Abdullah, the Beta fish, has joined our family. Celie & Anna love Abdullah. They really enjoy watching him and Celie's job is to feed him every morning. Abdullah enjoys quiet time in the afternoon and watching "Finding Nemo" with the girls. Below is Abdullah hanging out in the kitchen.

Hours

21 hours & 38 minutes to be exact.

Until Celie gets her cast off. We can't wait.

I do not remember being this excited before. I mean, I was excited that she was getting her cast off, but I really have to hold myself back today. I just can't believe. I can't wait to hold her without an obstruction. I can't wait for us to be able to go out and do things. I just can't wait, but I will have to.

21 hours & 36 minutes.

Super Cool Chic Anna

The other morning Bob had the girls up and dressed before I came downstairs. I was a little surprised by Anna's outfit. Turquoise & purple floral shorts and a pink shirt with a graphic design on the front. I thought about changing her, but wanted Katie, our babysitter, to see Bob's fashion sense.

I had gotten the girls some sun glasses for when we are out and about in the next couple of weeks. Celie already is a pro with her glasses, but for Anna, this is a new concept. So, she loves wearing them around the house. She also loves looking at herself in any reflective surface around the house, most notably the oven window.

Here is some video of Anna in her Super Cool Chic Outfit.

Daycare Dilemna

So, I have been reading a lot of potty training books lately. Getting myself geared up for when Celie is out of her cast and mobile. She has to be fully potty trained to go to pre-school. I could not find one preschool - other than a daycare situation - that would bend on that rule. So, as of Sept. 3rd she starts and needs to be potty trained.

I am getting a little concerned because I am thinking that it is going to take a lot longer then the time that we have to accomplish this. So, what do I do if that is the case?

Do I not allow her to start preschool and hope that when she is fully trained, she can start? Wait until next year and just try to work with her at home and then get her into other activities so that she is meeting other kids her age? I am just not sure how this will all pan out and the planner in me doesn't necessarily like that, but I guess with all parenting issues, sometimes, you just have to go with the flow.

One Week

We have officially hit the 1 week mark for Celie's cast removal. We cannot wait. It feels like this summer really has been an extension of spring because we have been couped up inside most of the summer. We have been able to get out here and there, but for the most part, especially on any day over 83 and very humid, we are inside with the air on. It is amazing how much heat Celie generates on her own, then being in that cast, my goodness, she could raise baby chicks in that thing.

We are hoping that we will be able to salvage a little bit of summer left. As soon as she is up and walking around from her cast & pin removal, we are not going to be couped up inside any more. We can't wait.

7 more days!!!!