House Fire

It is amazing how much can change in a day. We are just thankful that no one was home and everyone is safe.   The house is pretty damaged in the garage, attic and roof, but still standing.   We will be living elsewhere for 3-4 months while they repair/rebuild.   While the inside does not have much fire damage, we are quickly learning that smoke damage is just as bad.  And we have a lot of smoke damage.   Pretty much anything plastic in the upstairs is 'non-cleanable'.   Think about how much stuff you have that has plastic on it--- toys, kitchen items, bathroom supplies, etc.   I love to shop, but not that much.   They do not have a cause for the fire, so we will never know what really happened.  They are thinking electrical.  We are quickly learning a lot about fire, fire damage, repair and insurance.   We are really lucky to have Farm Bureau insurance; the adjuster has held our hand through this whole process and our insurance agent had us set up with amazing coverage so we are not stressed out about that.   While it is not an easy, it could be far worse and we are counting our blessings.

Here are a few articles from the day:

KCCI Coverage

WHO Coverage

What Happens in Vegas Gets Posted on This Blog

A month later! Here is a belated run-down of our vacation adventures from last month:

• Nick mountain biked through McDowell Sonoran Preserve, while I attended a few board meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona. The weather was beautiful and I think he had a great time (my meetings went well, so I had a good time as well).

• While in Scottsdale we had the chance to have dinner with an old college roommate, Elissa, and her husband, Ed. We enjoyed visiting with them and wish we could see them more often (it had been 4+ years).

Then it was a road trip onto Vegas via the Hoover Dam. The view across the dessert was amazing. What a gorgeous structure the Dam is! And the new bridge over the Dam area--- very neat.

• Getting to the Strip in Vegas was actually pretty easy. Getting into our hotel was a little more difficult. After about 3 times of driving down the Strip we made it into the parking garage. We also got lost a number of times IN the hotels. Those places are huge, and at times we felt like the signs telling us where to go were put there by 'mistake' in order to take us through the entire casino part. Either way, it was fun and we got to see more of the hotels/casinos. We were greeted by this beautiful scenery inside our hotel, The Venetian. The picture does not do it justice- it is beautiful.
  

• We walked a lot! My feet were hurting by the end (OK, middle) of the trip. For anyone familiar with the Strip, we walked from our hotel to MGM in order to see these guys:
  

• We saw Zumanity at New York New York. It is a Cirque Due Soleil show and I really wanted to see a Cirque show. Here is the description: http://promo-www.cirquedusoleil.com/las-vegas/zumanity-shows.html It was interesting. A little (or a lot) more provocative than Nick or I expected going into it... but we can now say we have been to a Cirque show, and overall we did enjoy it. I am still amazed at how big everything is. This picture is of one hotel and there are how many of them on the Strip. Even if you don't gamble- taking a trip just to see the hotels is worth it.
  

• The food was good. We ate at Pink Hot Dogs at the Magnificent Mile mall at Planet Hollywood. I had never imagined all the things you could put on a hot dog! I would definitely recommend to anyone traveling to Vegas- neither Nick nor I finished our dogs.
  

• In general, Nick and I are not gamblers. But being in Vegas we wanted the full experience. We had trouble finding a simple black jack table (they were all some different version of it that confused us) so we settled on the Big Six game where you bet on a number, they spin a wheel and you get paid out (or not paid out) based on the number. I liked it because we kept our bets conservative and thus spent more time at the table (without losing much money). I think the first night we had 4+ hours of gambling entertainment for $20 between the two of us. Our favorite casino was at the Bellagio. It was clean, didn't smell like smoke, had a great dealer (Linda, who had been to Iowa before) and the waitresses visited our table frequently.

• My favorite part was the Bellagio Water Show. We saw it a number of times and enjoyed it each time. If you want to see more pictures check out the Shutterfly Family Share Site--- we took a lot.
  

• Since my feet hurt from walking we took the monorail down the end of the strip in order to see the Stratosphere.

• We have never been to Paris and it will be a while before we get there (maybe once Ellie is out of college?). We settled for second best and took a ride up in the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower.

This is what we saw from the top… a great summary of our vacation.

Breastfeeding Part 2: How it all ended up

Here is my experience:

My friend said that if I could get through the first couple of weeks it would get easier after that. The first week was really hard. My milk didn’t come in until 5/6 days after Ellie was born. At midnight our first night home I was bawling because Eleanor wasn’t eating properly and Nick was feeding her formula. I was determined to not give up, and we were at the lactation consultant’s door early the next morning. After the milk came in, things got much easier. My first goal was 2 months, by then I was back to work and had that element to deal with. Luckily for me I work for an AMAZING company that supports breastfeeding!

The next goal was 4 months, and then 6 months. After 6 months I didn’t know how the whole teeth issue would play out. Thus far Ellie only has two bottom teeth, and I have had minimal issues with biting (thank Ellie!). Stretch goal: 8 months. During the process, I started ‘banking’ milk, so if I stopped we could still have her on breastmilk. We have a deep freeze devoted solely to Ellie’s milk, and also have overflow being stored at my parent’s house! I attribute this abundance of milk to drinking lots and lots of water- I don’t think I have drank so much water in my life. Oh, and don’t worry, I am careful to use the milk before it goes bad.

Around 8 months I dropped the daytime pumping and we started using the frozen milk to supplement. I still feed Eleanor in the morning and at night and love the bonding time that gives us. I never knew I would enjoy it so much! It really is a great bonding tool and is hard to put into words.

Of if the lactation consultant could see me now! Based on my projections: Eleanor will be 100% (minus the 2 ounces of formula she had at the hospital and the 2 ounces she had our first night home) breastmilk fed thru a year… Yes, I have a spreadsheet with all the milk frozen recorded, the amount Eleanor drinks each day, and how many days of stored milk we have. I also calculated our approximate savings of using breastmilk over buying formula (I will try and let you know the total savings after she is completely done with breastmilk).

The plan is to stop feeding her breastmilk after a year. My pump is starting to die and Eleanor already knows a little too much as to where she gets the milk from. I want her to be able to transition to 100% sippy cup at a year, or shortly after, without any major problems. We will use what stored milk we have, and then switch to whole milk. That is the plan anyway… but plans do change.

To any future mommy’s out there: breastfeeding is a personal choice, and you should never be judged if you do or don’t do it. There are pros and cons either way. If you are debating, I encourage you to give it a try and set a realistic goal (I really think the 2 month goal is a good one). Who knows, maybe you will be like me and love it. Best of luck.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go!

Ellie's first 7 weeks have flown by! Maybe it was the holidays, maybe it was how well behaved she is--- either way it is back to work!

I had my first half-day of work today, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Maybe it was that work is very busy at this time of year. Maybe it was knowing that Ellie was going to play at her friend Sophia's house for the day, and Mommy knew she was going to be well taken care of.* Maybe it was getting 6 hours of straight sleep so I wasn't walking around with half-shut eyes. Maybe it was the idea of adult interaction. Maybe it was knowing it was a week of half days so I could still spend time with the little smiler. It was probably a combination of them, and more.

Now I am home and get to spend the afternoon with my little bundle of joy. If only she would wake up. I shouldn't complain. Off to work on doing the laundry.

*Unfortunately Daddy's car wouldn't start so she got to help him work from home instead.