Chuck E Cheese with Kaden

We met Angie and Kaden at Chuck E Cheese or a play date last Friday night. Our friend Terri went with us - let's just say I think we scared her into being a nun for the rest of her life! LOL! With the breastfeeding and 2 older kids running around nonstop...it was jumping into the deep end of the pool for a single person! :) 

We had to go to the car for a bit so I could nurse Conley.

Anyway - as usual Riley and Kaden had a blast! 

Riley & Kaden playing a game!

Every one thinks they are cousins or brothers when we have them out together...in this pic you can see why. And ironically, neither of them were working their faux hawks this day either! 

Riley & Chuck E Cheese

This is the cutest video! But I swear I thought Riley was about to lay a big ol' kiss on Kaden at one point! LOL! :) He's such a sweetie!!
 

 
 Good times!

Week 2 Hangover!

My doula came to do our post delivery checkup last Thursday, and I told her that so far everything had been so easy I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well....ask and you shall receive! 

I would say starting on the weekend...my nipples were hurting SO BAD! OMG! I was having to psych myself up for every latch on! I know that's part of the 1st 2 weeks, but all of the sudden it was severely painful..even on my "good side" so to speak and lasting after the first "latch on" which wasn't the case up to this point so far.

By Monday, I was really not feeling well. I called my doula to ask a couple of things about breastfeeding, but we played phone tag for most of the day. Then all of the sudden in the afternoon, I came down with cold chills so bad that I shivered nonstop for almost half an hour..and I felt overcome with flu like symptoms - my whole body ached, I was weak. I checked myself for fever and was running a low grade fever. Then I noticed my "good boob" had this red streaky spot on it. I decided to sleep on it and see how I was in the am - I was still suffering through bouts of chills and the red spot was now starting to spread around to encompass my entire boob! It was hot and sore to touch too! Argh! I did a few Google searches and looked in my breastfeeding book and self diagnosed it as Mastitis. I talk to my doula and she agreed, so Tuesday morning I called Dr. Gunby for antibiotics. His office called me in a prescription that afternoon - a Z-pak since I'm allergic to penicillin and I started taking that and advil to help with the swelling, pain and fever.

By Wed morning - the redness had already started to retreat and I felt much better! Thank GOD because overnight Tuesday night - Riley became ill. He threw up all over his bed during the night - Kelly went in there to his cries and took care of it all and didn't even tell me! But needless to say - Riley had to stay home with me and Conley for the next 2 days. Thank goodness I was feeling better, or there's no way I could have done it! Either way by the end of Wed after having both of them all day, I was WORN out! Thursday was a little easier...but to be honest, all 3 of us just stayed in my bed and watched freaking NickJr ALL DAY! OMG! I watched multiple episodes of Dora, Wonder Pets, Blue's Clues, Max & Ruby, OMG! Calgon TAKE ME AWAY!!! That damn Wonder Pets song is STILL stuck in my head!!! 

Luckily for me, Nancy had sent yummy baked ziti and chili over Sunday which covered Sunday and Monday when I first became ill. Then Tuesday, Angie brought yummy chicken and spaghetti and texas toast over with snacks of apples, string cheese, yogurt and chocolate chip cookies, and magazines just in time to cover Tues & Wed of me and Riley both being sick! Thank you both! You SAVED me! And maybe more importantly fed my husband too! :) 

Luckily, Riley was all better and super excited to go back to school today! And I feel almost back to normal! Ironically, Conley had his 2 worst nights the 2 nights I was most ill, so that was a double dose of week 2 hangover those nights and the following days! Hopefully we've turned the corner now though! I did breakdown and start using a nipple shield during this time because the mastitis was so painful...so now I have to muster up the nerve to stop using that once I am completely healed of the mastitis. It's more of a mental block than physical, but still! 

Bless Kelly's heart for having to go to Babies R Us and buy nipple shields and nipple shells and all sorts of stuff...sort of like asking him to go buy tampons! LOL! But he's a super trooper and did it without ever complaining! 

Playing with Kaden!

The night Mr. Conley decided to make his debut, we spent the evening over at Angie and Korey's house. Riley had a playdate with Kaden and his cousin Savannah. I told him on Tuesday we were going to Kaden's to play, and I had to explain it all week that it's not when you "wake up" tomorrow, but a few days from now! 

Here are the little cuties playing in the backyard! Kaden LOVED Riley's bicycle helmet! He didn't want to take it off! We took Riley's Strider bike over there for Kaden to give it a try, but he liked the helmet more than the bike! 

Kaden's 2nd Birthday!

Riley had a lot of excitement this weekend too! We had Kaden's 2nd birthday party. It was at Pump It Up Jr, and he loved it of course. Then we went to Angie's house for a cookout that evening, and he loved that too! Kaden is the only kid I know that may actually like Toy Story and the characters more than Riley! 

Here's a quick video of the end of the play time at Kaden's party...the most trying time for the parents to capture a picture of all the kiddos together!  

That's Riley on the far right, then 3 over to the left in the green shirt is Kaden! 

Then today my really good friend Ellen from back in my consulting days was in town from Boston, so she brought her 4 year old son Marek over to have a play date with Riley! He should be play dated OUT at this point! They had fun riding in the wagon, riding Riley's Strider bike and Harley electric car GiGi got Riley for Christmas. Kelly was washing the cars, so they rode them back and forth through the water stream for a REALLY long time! I've always said Ellen is the smartest woman I've ever met! She's like crazy, scary smart! Has been a scientist and studied whale communication, done some really interesting things. She's a VP at Forrester Research now, and she, her husband Tracey and Marek are all about to embark on an adventure for the rest of the year! They are moving to India then Singapore from May 1st through December! I can't imagine doing that! If anyone can do it, Ellen can though! Best of Luck to her and her family! As a side note, Ellen went to her FIRST EVER rodeo while she was here this weekend! She's backpacked around the world for a year, but never been to a rodeo! Too funny! She loved it! So did her son!

Kelly and I are all of the sudden getting a true glimpse into what the next 15 years has in store for us! Weekends planned around birthday parties and kids events! He hasn't even started any "activities" yet! I'm not sure we'll EVER be up for 7 or 8am activities on Saturdays! We all sleep later than that! 

A Busy Week!

Wow! We all really had a busy week this week! I don't think I've had 5 minutes to relax all week! We started the week with my friend Angie giving birth to her son Kaden on Saturday! He reminds me a lot of Riley - they were both 21.5" long..so he has skinny little legs like Riley did, and a full head of dark hair. Awe..... Our friend's Greg & Renee also had their baby on Saturday too - Dalton! Lots of April babies! And we have a lot of friends that celebrate birthday's in the month of April too...makes me wonder if you count back 10 months...what holiday or 'special' time it is! lol!

Kelly, Riley & I took Angie and Korey food the day they came home from the hospital. We were lucky that my Mom pretty much moved in with us on her days off during that time, but I know everyone is not that fortunate. I was also fortunate to have so many wonderful friends bring us food, so I wanted to pay it forward and do the same for Angie. I remember the days of only having a second to grab a bite to eat of whatever was available, so I figured any little bit would help her. Our friend Nancy brought us dinner once a week for the 1st month too, so I'm going to do that for Angie as well. And when she asked me how to thank me, I told her to pay it forward to one of her friends. It's something that doesn't take a lot of time and effort, but it helps so much during those first few weeks of adjusting to being new parents!

It was so funny though. I had gone to see Angie in the hospital on Sunday, and when I came home I told Kelly Kaden was SOOOOOOO little - like his face is this big - putting my hands together to show how small his face wa! I couldn't believe Riley was ever that small! Let's face it Riley's 3 times that size now! Then when Kelly saw him on Tuesday...it was freaking him out! He was like there's no way Riley was ever that small! And Kaden outweighed Riley a full pound when he was born! It just drives home how quickly they grow and change!

Then Thursday night, we had dinner with our Lubbock family! Talana, her parents and her brother Kyle. They were in town before heading out for a family trip to Chicago for the weekend, so they invited us over for dinner. It was yummy as usual! Talana and her Mom could totally open a restaurant and make a killing! Think Pauladine Texas Style. They could be one of those restaurants that's only open on the weekends, and they'd make money hand over fist!

This is the 1st year in 5 years that we aren't going to be going to their house the last week in April. Texas Tech hired a new women's head volleyball coach, and she's decided not to host the Spring Fling volleyball tournament this year. So Kelly went out on top - he won all 6 years he played in the tournament! And I guess he'll remain reigning champ indefinitely! We didn't start staying with Talana's family until the 2nd year of the tournament. That's when we were introduced to warm snickerdoodles when we arrived at their house from the airport! And even though Kelly called them everything BUT snickerdoodles the 1st year - he's NEVER forgotten the gesture! Suzanne had him hooked at snick! :) This was going to be our 1st "test flight" with Riley because it's only an hour flight, and we'd have Talana with us as a backup if he was absolutely crazy, so we were disappointed when the tournament was canceled. BUT I think we're going to go in May for Kyle's 30th birthday party now.

Friday I took some more essentials over to Angie...obviously those 1st few months are fresh in my mind, so it's easy for me to remember what will help her out most. Of course, I had to take her an infamous Izbeen! I swear! That is the BEST present EVER when you have a new baby! (Thank you Mother/GiGi!) You can't remember if you've eaten all day! Much less how long "itzbeen" since you feed or changed the baby! I just think about how raising a child used to be done "in a village" so to speak - families lived in the same neighborhoods or next door to each other, etc. So I figure I can help my friends in a modern village sort of way! Because it does take a village to raise a child!! :)

Then today Kelly played golf, so Riley and I went to Kindermusik in the am. Then we had an early dinner with my friends Kelly Brown and Anne. We also finally got to meet Kelly's little girl Katelynn who is 3 months old! OMG! She was sooooooooooo precious! You could definitely tell the difference between sweet, QUIET, princess Katelynn! And LOUD, BOISTEROUS, can't sit still for TWO seconds, BANGING, PULLING, testoterone FILLED Riley! OMG! Never has it been more prevalent to me than today! I've been noticing it more and more at home, but it was really obvious when you have him next to a sweet little baby girl! He was like a human wrecking ball! There is definitely a difference between girls and boys! His is already so rowdy! It amazes me! And even though he's not mobile, all of the sudden this week he has become Mr. Grabby Von Grabberson! You blink for one second and he has something else in his hands and it's already tossed across the room before you blink again! We are in for a RUDE awakening once he becomes mobile! I can already tell he's going to be getting into things I have never even imagined! And my house...my new house...my new furniture...it's as good as GONE! Flashes of every funny commercial with some mischievious boy are cycling through my head nonstop these days! I know that will be my life soon enough!

It's weird though...we've been thinking Riley was a little shy, and that it took him a little while to warm up to new people. But that was NOT the case today at all! I think maybe because we we were in a loud restaurant he felt like the crowd level was competing with him or something because he was bound and determined to DEFEAT it with his shrieks! And he did! I got a few dirty looks, but we were at Logan's for God's sake! Like Anne said, we're in a restaurant where you throw your peanut shells on the floor! If he can't be a loud, rough & tumble little boy there - where can he be?!

This week Kelly and Riley started the funniest thing - at least to Riley it is. Kelly will put Riley in the middle of our bed and run around from side to side. Riley DIES laughing and starts screaming at the anticipation of Kelly getting to the other side of the bed to tickle him! It is soooo funny! And it's that adorable, innocent little kid laugh that just melts your heart! I may have to try to video it soon!

Wow...well I think that's it for now! I'm worn out just thinking about everything we've done this week! On top of preparing for the Easter bunny and sending out Easter cards! We accomplished a lot!! Now I better get to bed so the Easter bunny can come....