Brodzinski Christmas(es) 2012

Friday (December 21) was my 29th birthday...one more year until the big 3-0!  The world didn't end as predicted, so that's a pretty good birthday present in itself :)  I got some great gifts, including a spa day from Bobby (and the girls), makeup, Thirty-one bag, and money. Bobby's friend's 30th birthday was the same day and I agreed to go to his party in South Bend. Bobby surprised me with a birthday lunch at a nice seafood place in Indy with the girls. Luckily there weren't many people there because taking the girls to a nice restaurant puts you a little on edge because you want them to be on their best behavior, which they were and we were complimented on them, but I was pretty uptight the whole meal.

The next day was my dad's side gathering. In the morning I met my very pregnant friend (due in 3 weeks) for pedicures and got to shop at Target :)

Although we had a small turnout for the Brodzinski Christmas, it was a great time and it's always nice to get together with family. I wasn't feeling that great the whole time we were up for Christmas since I got sick with a fantastic sinus infection. I finally broke down (don't really like to take medicine) and had my dad pick up some Sudafed, it helped a little. I'm still feeling it and hope it goes away soon!

It was nice to Skype with my grandparents since they decided to stay in Florida this year. It was especially good for my great-uncle Walt! Love technology for this reason. 

Uncle Walt with 3 of his neices/nephew

Everyone but Aubrey

Sunday was a more low-key day. I actually can't remember what we did in the morning, but that night we went to church, then out to dinner with my parents for my birthday.

Monday was Christmas Eve and it has become a tradition that we fondue that night with my sister and brother-in-law, my aunt, my mom's friend, and my parents. Fondue is a lot of hard work to set-up but it's a fun way to spend a couple of hours eating. It was especially nice that both girls were napping when we started dinner. I actually had to wake up Natalie to make sure she would sleep Christmas night.

 

Natalie loves playing with this nativity puzzle

I made the shirts and attempted to make their pants, but Amanda finished them for me!  I will need to get them in them again to take a good picture. 

We started a new tradition to read a Christmas book after dinner.  

Christmas Day!  Happy Birthday, Jesus!  Santa also came and brought some very large gifts. The girls aren't spoiled one bit ;)  I think they are both set on toys for a very, very long time!

Santa brought the girls a roller coaster (Aubrey is still a bit small for it...haha), a 55 inch teddy bear for Natalie and a hippo larger than Aubrey.

My parents/sister also made a toybox for Aubrey, a step stool and rocking chair for Natalie among many other gifts.

Checking it out before Natalie was awake.

Bobby was anxious for Natalie to wake up, which she was the last one awake and had to be woken up!  I'm usually the first one awake, but with Aubrey waking up every few hours, I wasn't this year.

 

Too many presents for Aubrey, she couldn't stay awake for all of them!

 My favorite gift was probably my new lens for my camera!!!  I got lots of other great things, too! We all did and are very blessed. Best of all, we got to spend time with our family and friends and there is nothing better than that! Thank you everyone for everything!

The next day, my dad had a partial knee replacement, so my sister and I (alongwith the girls) stayed up north while the guys headed back to Indy/Terre Haute. We were supposed to head back on Wednesday night, but with the blizzard warnings, we decided to wait one more day and head back on Thursday. I had to cancel my patients that day, but was able to get them all rescheduled and everything worked out fine. My dad is home and recovering and doing well, while my mom gets to be his nurse...poor her :)

Happy 7 Months, Aubrey!

Aubrey turned 7 months on Christmas Eve!

 

Aubrey Updates:
1. She is sitting up better and for longer periods.
2. Still no crawling, but you can tell she is trying to figure it out.
3. Still no teeth...good for me since she occasionally tries to bite me...can't imagine the feeling with teeth ;/
4. She is wearing 6/9 month clothing and size 2 diapers.
5. She likes to chew on everything...teeth coming soon?!
6. She is so smiley and happy most of the time.
7. Good eater.
8. Loves toys that have lights and sounds.
9. On average, she is still getting up every 3-4 hours, but there have been a handful of nights this month that she has gone on a 6-7 hour stretch.

Andreae Christmas 2012

Such a busy time of year!  I feel like every year, time keeps going by faster and faster. I keep trying to tell myself to slow down and enjoy the little moments because before I know it, the girls will be all grown up.

I was just telling Bobby the other day that I'm going to miss the day when Aubrey no longer cuddles and her little butt fits perfectly in your hand. He agrees and will miss that too. Natalie is growing up so fast, she comes in from daycare and takes her own shoes and coat off. It feels like some of these small, independence milestones just happen overnight! I'm excited about all the things she learns, but at the same time it makes me sad.

I finally had time to sit down and type up a post, even though I should really clean. It's so peaceful in the house right now with Natalie napping, Aubrey sleeping in the Mamaroo, Rusty curled up on the couch and I'm listening to Christmas music. I had 1 more patient to see today when I got a call from daycare saying that Aubrey had a fever. I'm hoping it's just her teeth, but another little guy in her room went home yesterday with an ear infection, so we'll see. She's still eating good, just sleepy and so far at home she's been in a good mood, but I guess she wasn't as happy at daycare.

Tomorrow, I'll take Natalie to daycare since it is gift exchange/Santa day. She loves going to see her friends and we can tell she learns a ton there. Bobby will work from home with Aubrey since I have a really busy schedule with patient's tomorrow.

This last weekend, we headed up to South Bend to celebrate Christmas with Bobby's family. It was nice to have The Mumaw's there since we didn't get to see them at Thanksgiving because they stayed in Maryland. Christmas this year will be different for everyone since they moved.  This weekend, we will celebrate my birthday, Bobby's friend's 30th, Christmas Eve/Christmas with my family. It will be busy, but fun.

 

Preston(4), Brielle(7), Jaxon(16 months), Natalie(22 months), Evan (8), Aubrey(6 months), Alexis(5)

Lexi a.k.a "Lucky" if you ask Natalie :)

Last weekend, we also had a girls day with my mom and made cookies. I think we ended up making 5 or 6 different recipes. Natalie was a floury mess but she had fun rolling out sugar cookie dough and picking out cookie cutters. We tried to get her to decorate, but she preferred eating the cookies instead :)

Aubrey got to wear an apron, too!

 

Our final creations. Notice we have some very random shapes such as a foot, hand, bunny, flower, and there was a rooster but Natalie ate it. Natalie helped picking out the shapes we used :)

Aubrey 6 Month Check-Up

Other than a runny nose, everything checked out good for Aubrey today at her doctor's appointment. She was all smiles, that is until shots came. However, after her initial cry of discomfort, I picked her up, she looked at the nurse and started laughing. Silly girl!  She cried again when I put her pants on, but other than that she was a trooper!

6 Month Stats:

Weight: 15.5 lb (25 to 50 percentile)
Height: 26 in (50 percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.5 in (25 percentile)

She is almost identical to Natalie at this age!

Our girls are growing up way too fast, I wish they would just slow down!

Natalie was a good girl at the doctor's office too. The doctor mentioned how happy both girls were and that Natalie must have really been sick last week when we brought her in since she had no energy at all last week.

2nd Round of Family Pictures

You can view our family pictures from today at:

http://www.purplepug.com/Professional/Andreae-Family/26859580_MxXTNH#!i=2250294339&k=6LcnprV

Sick Week

We had a couple of fun things planned this week, but that all changed after Natalie starting running a fever last Sunday. After taking her to the doctor on Monday and sitting in the waiting room for 1 hour and 20 minutes, the doctor didn't tell us what she thought she had but put her on an antibiotic because she was congested. She listened to Aubrey as well, but said she sounded fine.  I don't quite remember if it was Monday night or Tuesday night, but I accidentally gave her a 2nd dose of Motrin way before the 8 hours was up. So, Bobby called the doctor and he actually told us to give her MORE medicine (Tylenol this time) and to keep giving it to her every 4 hours, fever or not.

Long story, short (kind of), Natalie's fever lasted until Thursday and finally went away. On Wednesday, the doctor couldn't get us in so we were going to take her to HealthCheck at the hospital and once we arrived, the doctor actually personally called Bobby and told us to come to her office and she would see us after hours!  She diagnosed Natalie with Roseola, on Thursday she got a slight rash for a couple hours and then finally started feeling like herself on Saturday. It was a long week with juggling/canceling my patient's and Bobby had to take Wednesday off so I could see my patient's that day. Luckily it was a slow week for me, so it was manageable. But, we had plans to go the circus and I had my old job's annual Christmas party I still attend. Even though we missed out on some fun things, I'm glad she finally feels better because it was a LONG week.

At the beginning, she took any and all medicine like a pro, but gradually as the week progressed, the pink spewing volcano, otherwise known as Natalie's mouth with antibiotic started again!  It's so frustrating giving her medicine and it's definitely a 2 person job. We stopped giving her the antibiotic once we figured out it was roseola because since it is a virus, the antibiotic does no good.  Natalie barely ate or drank the entire week and was pretty lethargic and whiny! Luckily Aubrey hasn't gotten it!

Natalie amazes us each day with all the new words and things she points to and knows the right name. Sometimes I wonder how she picks these things up. For a couple days now she has been saying "nina" and we could not figure out what she was talking about, but Bobby discovered she will point at a snowman and call it "nina." No idea how snowman sounds like nina, but it must to a 21 month old!

I got our CD in the mail with the pictures from the free session I won. I love the pictures she took, but was pretty disappointed that we didn't get a good family picture, since that is really what I wanted!  Oh well, we got some good ones of the girls. We actually had a friend who is a photographer take some family pictures today since it was so warm out, so hopefully we will have one that is wall-worthy!

Here are my favorites:

Bobby says this one is eerie because it's like a ghost of Natalie, which I see now so I will never print it, but I still think it's a cool picture.

Video of Bobby and the girls:

Aubrey isn't sitting up yet, but she's getting better and better everyday.