Ollinger’s Blog

As I get ready to depart on my first international trip in a very long time I can’t help but get emotional.  While I’m very excited for the trip (even though it is for work) I will sorely miss my two little ones.  I haven’t been away from them for more than two days and when I was I was not too far away so if anything happened I could be back home quickly.  I am looking forward to uninterrupted sleep for a few nights and plane and train travel always gives opportunities to catch up on my reading!  Then, upon arriving back home later this week I have a friend’s wedding to attend where I will get to catch up with old co-workers.  The next week is 4th of July already and Ike and I will be taking the girls up to a house we rented with Ike’s parents and sister up near WI Dells!  It is definitely a busy summer so far!

Ready for the pool!

The title of this post is kind of silly.  My sister went to London for a vacation back in April and brought the girls back some souvenirs.  Ella got a pink t-shirt with the London 2012 Olympics logo on it and Amelia got a white onesie with a big, bright British flag on it.  I was slightly taken aback when I was dressing Amelia in her new onesie and realized there were only two snaps instead of the customary three snaps.  As I so often do I double checked that I hadn’t misaligned the snaps which is a common thing that happens when dressing babies (especially the full pajama onesies with the footies)!  But no I hadn’t missed any snaps…British onesies only have two snaps!

This pic is one I took of the girls after I got back from my trip.  I realized I didn’t have a picture of Amelia in her British onesie after I wrote the text above.  I also wanted to show off the dolls I brought back for Ella and Amelia which are the official mascots of the London Olympics…nothing says Olympic spirit like one-eyed monsters!

Ella’s birthday was coming up soon and since I was working from home and winding down in my previous job I had some time in April to really plan a great party.  Ike and I wisely decided to not do a full on kid party for Ella for her 3rd birthday…we think that when she turns 5 we’ll throw a big one for her because she might remember it as she gets older, she’ll have made closer friends at the daycare and let’s face it, 5 is a big year for her since she’ll be starting Kindergarten that fall!  (Ok, now that I’m putting this in writing I have to make sure I follow through…stay tuned 2 years from now:)

I am inundated daily with opportunities to buy kids clothes, toys and gear online and I ignore most of it…otherwise I’d be completely broke!  When birthdays or Holidays roll around however I am more apt to look at these emails and websites and see what’s new.  I found Ella a super cute fairy dress which was yellow and had a puffy multi-colored skirt and I thought I could definitely build a party around this dress.

The dress!

We decided to just have a family party but that still meant feeding and entertaining about 10 adults which still makes our house feel crowded since the room scales are fairly small.  Ike made homemade Chipotle burritos since we thought Ella might eat that since she likes anything in a tortilla…however, I think she was a little too excited with all the activity that she didn’t eat much (except the cake!)  I had done some decorating prep earlier in the week but didn’t get as much done as I had hoped since I had just started my new job that week.  therefore, I planned to assign various duties to people on the day of to make everything go smoothly.  Ike’s Dad and Heston went to pick up the cake and balloons in the morning while Ella went with Ike to drop Jac off at the groomers (party time was a little less crowded without a 90 lb dog!).  While Ella was out of the house my sister and I could finish decorating so that Ella would have a big surprise when she walked in.  Things went very smoothly thanks to everyone’s help and Ella was sooo excited to walk in and see balloons everywhere.  She couldn’t wait to put on her fairy dress and just put it on right over the dress she already had on.

Ella received lots of great gifts this year.  I had asked people to get her some more advanced puzzles and games since she now has much greater patience and can understand how to play simple games like Memory, Go Fish and Uno.  She also got a super cool cash register so she can play grocery store, a big Pumba (from Lion King) and a big Lady (from Lady and the Tramp).

Amelia and Pumba, love at first sight!

I created a dessert table with a bowl of delectable maple leaf cookies (Walgreens DeLish brand…so yummy!), a cake from Deerfield Bakery (of course) with a Tinkerbell design, and the night before I had made chocolate cupcakes and thanks to Pinterest I tried my hand at making them look like little toadstools. I used red frosting and inverted white chocolate chips…so easy!

the best part of the whole day!

one good family shot…what are you looking at Amelia?

We decided to venture out on a road trip for the first time with 2 kids in tow for Easter weekend in Iowa.  We were definitely a little nervous since we hadn’t taken Ella on a long trip since before Amelia was born however we prepared with lots of books, paper for her to color on and of course a few handy Disney movies.  We decided to leave midday on Friday…I know some parents will leave in the middle of the night so their kids will just sleep on the way however Ike and I highly value our sleep in the overnight hours!  So the trip wouldn’t feel quite so long for Ella I came up with a couple of checkpoints for her to look forward to just like on Dora the Explorer which is her new obsession.  “Culver’s, River, Bumpa & B-Sue’s house” became our new mantra.  Little did we know that our Culver’s stop would take 1 1/2 hours, couple that with 2 or 3 additional bathroom breaks and our normal 5 hour trip took almost 7 hours!

Once we got to Iowa it was time for dying Easter eggs.  This was a first for Ella and she was fascinated!

Dying Easter eggs

which came first, the chick or the egg?

Lo and behold the Easter Bunny came to Iowa.  Ella was so excited but in her reserved way at first until she starts getting into the Holiday…or maybe it was just too early in the morning!

After exploring the goodies in their Easter baskets…Ella’s favorite toy was a flashlight shaped like a beetle…and after eating a big breakfast…well, Ella’s wasn’t all that big since she eats like a bird…it was time to go on an Easter egg hunt!

There’s one!

Success!

On Easter Sunday we also headed over for a visit to Great Granny’s farm where Ella got to ride a 4 wheeler with Daddy and see a calf being fed a bottle (a very big bottle!).  Amelia spent the day being passed around to various arms and alternated between eating, napping and giving out smiles to everyone!  I hope everyone had as much fun as we did on Easter weekend!

Side note:  we learned from our mistakes on the trip to Iowa so on the trip back we successfully cut down the trip by at least a half hour…maybe a little more, even with another stop at Culver’s for lunch!

Amelia’s smile, it lights up her face and makes me instantly happy (even at 4am!); Ella saying “Good morning baby sister”, “hi Amelia”, “I love you baby sister” in her high, sing-song voice; Amelia smiling and talking to her little bug toy that I attached to the bar above her changing table; Amelia’s excitement when her Daddy gives her attention (she kind of shyly smiles, bobs her head and buries her head in my shoulder b/c she’s so overwhelmed by excitement!); Amelia staring at the cats and dog probably wondering what these creatures are and why they live in our house; Amelia’s wonder and excitement when she sees her big sister pretty much doing anything but especially jumping up and down, dancing and singing;  Ella helping her Daddy drop off Amelia in the infant room by putting the bottles in the fridge and being such a good girl; Amelia’s cute chunky little feet, legs, arms and cheeks!

There’s so many of these “little” things, the details that you don’t want to forget about as your kids get older.  Videos are great but also require your camera to be charged at all times!

Things have been happening fast in the Ollinger household these days…Ella is a pro now at riding her tricycle, my job has been moving fast towards its end of April 30th and Amelia decided to grow up too fast and is now rolling over on her own!  Ike and I have also been thinking long and hard about what our next move will be and when, a lot will depend on where I find my next job however we’d also like to work toward finding our dream house and finally being able to settle in to where we’re going to ultimately raise our kids and have more space to do so in (visiting the parks is fun with Ella but we’d love to have our own yard that the kids and Jac can play in.  Who knows, maybe I will end up back in my homestate of WI!

These days Ella has been a constant source of fun, random sayings, random songs, and at times frustration as any 2 going on 3-year old would be.  Her mood can change on a dime and all emotions are heightened especially when she hasn’t taken a nap or has chosen not to eat much that day.  She’s growing by the day (reminder to myself: need to get her a growth chart for her room!!!) thus requiring yet again a new wardrobe as the seasons are changing.

Amelia has her 4 month check-up tomorrow.  I’m hoping she will not be cranky due to the vaccines she’ll be getting however I’ll be taking her to daycare right after so they’ll be getting the brunt of it   At her two month visit she weighed 10 lbs 5 oz which was in the 37th percentile for weight.  Since then she’s really packed on the baby fat…even her wrists have rolls which is so cute!  I’m anxious to see what percentile she’s in now, I’ll report back shortly!

Ike and his girls

look at those chubby cheeks!

All throughout my pregnancy with Amelia I was so curious and anxious about how Ella would react to having a baby in the house and how she would relate to her little sister especially since there would be limited interaction until Amelia was old enough to play with Ella.  It turns out I didn’t have too much to worry about, Ella is so great with her little sister.  She loves to hold her hand and sing her songs.  She loves to give her kisses, despite my protests when she’s in Amelia’s face with a runny nose!  Ella has a couple of “Big Sister” T-shirts that she’s so proud of and it seems that whenever someone brings a gift for baby Amelia, Ella gets a little something too, which is so nice and generous of our friends and family!

watching Mickey Mouse together

Of course, Ella’s had her moments of attention-getting antics.  Ella’s been waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to be rocked in her rocking chair…luckily she mainly wants her Daddy so I didn’t have to pull double duty while feeding Amelia…also in the middle of the night.  Ella’s also been giving us a hard time on the weekends during nap-time.  Some days she’ll take a nap with no problems, some days it will take her over an hour to fall asleep and other days she refuses to take a nap at all.  On those fateful days we’ll let her play quietly in her room, a course of action which backfired on me until I learned to close her bathroom door.  She’d always end up wedged in between the toilet and the bathtub for some reason.  The funniest incident happened on one of those non-nap days.  We went up to check on her after about an hour of playing and found that she’d taken out every single pair of underwear she had in her dresser, put them all on, one on top of the other, and continued on playing with her Legos.  The resulting thick, bulky mass of underwear she had on was almost immovable and she somehow had managed to put the smallest pair on the very top.  I tried not to laugh because I didn’t want her to think that was OK to do but it was pretty funny.  Aah, the trials and tribulations of your child being able to dress themselves!

Well the second pregnancy was definitely less stressful than the first in the sense that I knew what to expect as the due date approached…funny that knowing what to expect also made it a little more stressful.  Anyway, everyone kept saying that the second baby would just pop right out no problem, and you never know you might not even have time to get to the hospital…eek!  this last bit really stressed out Ike so he painstakingly made plans with various family members to be available to watch Ella should the baby decide to make an appearance on any given day at any given time.

Amelia’s story begins with Ike’s sister Kate coming to stay with us for the week leading up to Thanksgiving.  The baby was due on the Tuesday before the Holiday and I was so hoping she would arrive in time for me to be home to celebrate with my family.  I was also hoping she would come over the weekend so I wouldn’t have to go to work on Monday.  Friday night started off with a date night for Ike and I at our favorite North Shore italian restaurant and I won’t lie I was starting to feel some mild contractions through dinner but I didn’t want to freak Ike out so I kept that to myself and alas it didn’t amount to any action.  Saturday came and went as did Sunday.  It wasn’t until the middle of the night, 1:00 am to be exact on Monday morning that I started to feel the real thing.  I decided to wait it out and see if they’d start getting worse or if they’d go away before I woke Ike up.  The contractions kept coming and were fairly close together so I woke up Ike, woke up his sister and woke up my doctor…I felt so bad that it was the middle of the night!

We made it to the hospital around 3:30 am and we were admitted and I was happy to learn that I was already 4 cm dilated which meant that good progress was being made, yeah!  I stayed strong through the pain for a little while and then said “I’ll take that epidural now, please!”  Aaaah, now I could kick back while my legs went numb and watch the early morning news and weather on a continuous loop since 4:30 am!  While on the epidural I continued to make great progress, or should I say my body made the progress (or was it Amelia?…not sure).  My doctor said she would check back in a couple hours however within the next hour I was ready to start pushing.  I gave one push through one contraction and the baby was so ready to make her appearance that the doctor and nurses weren’t even ready yet!  5 minutes later I gave another couple of pushes and Amelia was there, so amazing!  I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened but I was so thankful since I still had so much energy!

Amelia had a full head of hair that stuck up every which way and had a nice healthy cry.  She took to breastfeeding really well and I was so surprised at how much she would sleep.  If she wasn’t being changed or eating then she was sleeping.  Becoming a Mom for the second time was so special and wonderful.  Welcome to our family Amelia Cosette Ollinger!

Amelia Cosette

Ike and his new little princess