6 months old!

Today my baby girl is 6 months old. My goodness how time flies. I saw a newborn the other day and it brought tears to my eyes thinking how recently it was that I was bringing her home yet at the same time it's like she's been here forever. I feel the same way about how quickly time has passed with Trevor too!

Jayden is getting so big! She's quite a little chunky girl. Mama's milk is doing her good! She will have her check up next week so I'll have her official stats then.

Current developments Jayden is working on:

~ She's very mobile by rolling or army crawl, she manuevers in every direction with her arms

~ She's developing a sense of humor - she laughs when you are silly or make faces at her

~ She prefers to have playtime in the playroom with Trevor

~ She gets mad at Trevor sometimes when he gets in her face too much or takes a toy away

~ She's getting really good at manipulating little objects with her fingers. She can put her binkie in her mouth if she wants to. But usually she's not that interested in it.

~ She giggles sometimes but usually expresses delight with a squeal followed by a "gah" sound almost like a gurgle

~ She's getting really close to sitting on her own. She can sit with just a little support

~ She tries to climb out of the lower part of the bassinet/co-sleeper

~ She likes to jump in her jumperoo and giggles if you bounce her. She also likes to sit in her walker

~ She's got a pretty short attention span and needs frequent changes of scenery or she gets bored

~ Just the last few days she has some vocalization when she's cranky. It sounds like she's saying either mum or mam. Is she working on saying mama?

~ She likes to stick out her tounge when she grins or pretty much anytime

~ She gets mad when Trevor sticks his finger in her mouth because she's stuck out her tongue

~ She fights going to sleep and she prefers to sleep in her bassinet than beside me in bed (big contrast to Trevor)

~ She can sleep through the night but most nights chooses not to

So I think that's about it. ~sniff, sniff~ Tonight is her first night (hopefully all night) in her crib. We'll see how it goes. I'm paranoid that I won't hear her because the monitor will screw up or something and we sleep with a fan.

Recharging

Boy did I really need a day like yesterday! Wednesdays are my only day off these days and we have our weekly conference call at 9am, so it's not a "real" day off in my opinion. But at least it's a day out of the store.

Anyway, I took the conference call in bed with the kiddos still asleep. And I listened to the call with my eyes closed. I was feeling a bit lazy and the night before was the first night in weeks that I had a full night of un-medicated sleep. After the call I snuggled in bed with the kiddos for about an hour. :o)

I had just gotten up and was getting Trevor's breakfast when Travis walked in the door with a lovely surprise for me. He got me a dozen red roses! I love roses and it was very thoughtful of him.

Jayden played happily in her walker and Trevor entertained himself with ripping an advertisement to shreds. Who would have thought that a piece of junk mail would provide a toddler with hours of entertainment. They kept busy for awhile and I was able to get laundry and some work done in Jayden's room. ~sniff sniff~ We're going to have to move her out of the bassinet and into the crib because she's going to be climbing out of it very soon.



It was a gorgeous afternoon and so we went to a little playground by the lake and had a wonderful time. I don't know who had more fun Trevor running around or Jayden soaking up the rays! Trevor was very adventurous and climbed up and down the stairs and braved the slides. His favorite thing to do was to make a break for it and try and run to the motorcycle that was parked in the parking lot. He would squeal and take off; looking back to make sure we were chasing him.

After the park we stopped at Dairy Queen for some food and ice cream. Jayden was crashed out by the time we got there and Trevor was pretty much on the verge so we got it to go and went home. Trevor was falling asleep through dinner so we put him down for a nap. We all took a nap. We all slept for about three hours. And both the kiddos woke up with smiling faces which is definitely a plus!

The day came to a wonderful end when I was able to get a good nights sleep yet again without medication. I haven't really had but a few nights of good sleep for nearly a month. Most nights I'm awake staring at the ceiling for better than 2 hours.

I was able to take a bunch of nice pictures and Travis even picked up the camera so there are a few of me in there too! I'm particularly proud of the self portrait I took of Jayden and I and Travis and Trevor were captured in the background. There's not many pictures of the four of us, so that's about as close as I've got to a family picture lately! That picture was a complete accident and I didn't even notice it until I was editing pictures tonight. That's the picture at the start of this post. I liked it so much I uploaded it to blogger rather than to photobucket so you can see the full size image. So here's a handful of pictures taken at the park.

I'm a donkey on the edge

Gaaaahhhhhh stress is my middle name these days.

I ~LOVE~ my job. Note the sarcasm. Ahhh the power of positive thinking. Does it work? Ummmm nope! I'm understaffed and working a ton of hours. I'm not sure when my one girl is coming back from medical leave and I'm training a new girl. So far so good with her, I've got my fingers crossed. My regional sales manager is breathing down my neck. I am EXPECTED to make sales plan for the month. (I'm a optical store manager.) If I don't we are going to have a "documented conversation" (IE write up) at month end. Not to mention that my $ sales plan is big time ridiculous. And for the year I'm down about 66%. I try not to think that there is no way I'm going to do it. But really there is no way. I'm trying my hardest and it pisses me off that my boss only focuses on the negative. He's seriously the biggest jerk I've ever met and there's been a lot of turnover in my region because he's such an ass.

So then my optometrist lands in the hospital with a minor heart attack. He's a wonderful guy and I'm worried sick about it. And what makes me even sicker is that I'm worried that him being out is just one more hurdle that I have to jump to avoid the inevitable write up at the end of the month. No Doctor = No appointments = less sales. I feel like crap that I'm worrying about myself when he's in the hospital.

And so begins the job hunt. It makes me sad because 2 years ago I really thought I would retire with this company. I loved my job and never used to have a day where I hated to go into work. Now it's a struggle every day just to be there. I've had an interview with a company I would love to work for that is opening a new store in my town. I really hope I get the job. I think the interview went well but they said it would be 3-4 weeks before they make any decisions. The suspense is killing me. I've spent my entire day off on monster and yahoo jobs with a squirming baby trying to eat the keyboard and wishing I had earplugs to at least somewhat tone down the constant whining of a 2 year old.

I think Jayden is teething so she has been cranky all day. Nothing keeps her happy for very long. I don't know what is wrong with Trevor. He hasn't eaten much of anything in 2 days and throws most of his food on the floor. He whines all.day.long.

I've never been one prone to anxiety attacks but I think I've been having one constantly since last Wednesday when my boss said he would be in my store the next day and we have to have a serious conversation. I just have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, constantly on the verge of tears, super cranky and can't sleep at night. I was so thankful I had a few extra Ambien pills from my hospital meltdown with Jayden because last night I really needed. Too bad I felt the same when I woke up this morning. But at least I was able to sleep.

I know my problems could be a lot worse and they pale in comparison to what so many others are going through at this very moment. I know that I'm being a whiny baby. But venting makes me feel just a tiny bit better along with job hunting that I did today. So maybe tomorrow I can go to work and not be a puddle of tears and maybe just maybe I can go to sleep tonight without the drug induced coma.

A girl can dream right? LOL, on a side note, I'm just wondering if 2 is too young to watch the baby while I go take a long hot bubble bath and enjoy a glass of wine. Of course I'm kidding...I drank all the wine last night and Trevor poured all the bubble bath down the drain. Tee Hee.