Count your Blessings

Yesterday my co-worker's daughter drowned in their family pool. She was 3 years old. Words cannot express the sorrow I feel for this family. My stomach turned inside out when I heard the news. I don't even know this co-worker very well. He's senior mgmt. I'm a worker bee. I don't know how you can recover from this kind of loss.
The head of our international trading desk told me as we were heading out to go home. I think he put it best when he said, that all of "this" (pointing to our trading floor) really means nothing. Nothing at all.
As I put the girls to bed tonight, I said an extra prayer for each of them. I have to remember to count my blessings and cherish every moment.

From Naomi 36 months, Mikaela 5 mths

Business as Usual

Yup, I got an email from the global head....tomorrow is business as usual. Despite warnings from both Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Christie to stay indoors tomorrow, I'll be trekking my way into manhattan at 5:30 am. In all reality, Hurricane Irene wasn't as bad as it could be, and for that I'm grateful. We didn't have any damage to our property, no flooding, and no loss of power. There are a lot out there who suffered a far less fortunate fate, so I'm counting my blessings and trying not to complain too much about having to go back to work. Austin has the day off though, so at least I'll be able to check in on the girls. Since I was home Thursday and Friday with Naomi being sick, going to work after a few days is always tough. I do have to marvel in the fact that for an area that hardly ever sees Hurricanes or Earthquakes, we've experienced both in less than a week!

On the sick front, today was the first day Naomi hasn't had a fever in almost a week. She's still so exhausted though. Today at lunch, she decided she was too tired, and went upstairs and put herself down for a nap. This from a girl who would rather stay up all day, and all night, fights naps all the time....After almost a 3 hr nap, I expected her to be up all night today, but at dinner, she was complaining about being tired, so we got her ready for bed as usual. Hopefully all this extra sleep will help her nip whatever sickness she has. She's been breaking out in random rashes on her hands and feet, but the doctor said it's not hand, foot and mouth disease. It's not strep either. They said that breaking out in a rash might just be her way of fighting viruses. Poor girl. We've been giving her claritin on top of tylenol to help with the itchiness from her rash. Thankfully, Mikaela hasn't caught whatever bug Naomi has. knock on wood. We have a busy couple of weeks coming up for travel, so we need everyone healthy! Next week we go on a family retreat for church. The following week we go to Clearwater, FL with our Gene and Jaime, and their daughter, Alli, aka naomi's best friend. The day we get back we have friends staying with us for a week, visiting from Seattle. Then we have one week at home, then we're off to Cabo for a week! Talk about a back end loaded travel schedule. Guess we didn't plan this year that well. Oh well. Here's to good health and good weather with no more storms.

Teeth

On Saturday, I saw a tooth had sprouted at the bottom of Mikaela's mouth. Upon closer inspection she has a second one coming in right next to the first. Sob. my baby is getting bigger.

Ballet Slippers

On what turned out to be an uneventful storm watching day, we headed out in the morning to Dancewear Etc in town to pick up leotards, ballet slippers and tap shoes for Naomi's upcoming dance lessons which start in Sept. Unfortunately, Naomi is under the weather, so she wasn't as excited as I think she normally would have been. We picked up two leotards and a pair of dance tights. They didn't have tap shoes in Naomi's size, so we had to special order them, but we did pick up her ballet slippers. Her first pair of legit dance shoes. I can't get over how cute they are.

Photo: Sweiphotography.com

She Writes

First words.

Mikaela has been babbling for a few months now, but only recently has she been more “conversational”. Sometimes I think she’s really saying something, except no one can understand her. Anyway, naturally, her first word and the word she repeats over and over again, is “Da Da.” Just like her big sister, I’ve been trying to get her to say “mama” to which she responds “DA DA!!!”

Day 2

Mikaela started day 2 with a hoarse voice. Apparently she cried so much on Monday that her poor little voice was strained. Austin noticed it in the morning when she woke up, and when I picked her up in the afternoon, I could hear how raspy it really was. It made me really sad to think of her crying so inconsolably. Supposedly day 2 was better. She took two naps instead of just one, she took both bottles and ate all her solids. On day 1, she had 1 bottle, some banana and refused everything else. She also only took one 45 min nap. The entire day! On day 2, she stopped crying and could be consoled by the teachers in nursery…this was a big improvement. She played a little on her own, and she was happy when she went in to visit Naomi’s class. Her teachers are all so great though, and everyone comments on how cute and cuddly she is. Apparently they fight over who gets to hold her next. Austin’s started calling her his little princess who is never put down. It’s pretty much true. I’m relieved they think she did so much better after just one dady. Hopefully it’ll just keep getting easier.