How's that for a "glass is half full" statement?  Haha.  MY work week is half over anyway - since I don't work on Friday's - and let me tell you - I am counting the days until the weekend.  I woke up to the news on Monday that Hewitt had been sold to Aon.  What does this mean for me?  We really don't know yet - suffice it to say having worked on plenty of merger and acquisition projects at work - inevitably it means lots of change.  Fortunately it likely won't be for a while so I am not gonna worry about it because you know what?  I've got more important things to worry about!  Work has been so, so busy lately - THAT's why I am counting down the days til the weekend!

Finley pooped on the cute outfit I put on her for her 11 month birthday before I could get a picture so I had to settle for this...

After celebrating her 11 month birthday last Thursday, we went to a birthday party over the weekend (Finley's first!) for her girlfriend Leah who turned one on July 9th.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH!  As always, the car ride was like a sedative for Nate and he recharged his batteries on the way to the party.....

I love this picture because he's sitting Indian style and holding on the Buzz Lightyear!

After lots of playing at the party, and lots of splashing around in the water table, Nate entertained the guests with his traditional strip tease - much to Leah's mommy's delight!  You see, Nate has been known for stripping down at parties (including he last one we went to - Eric and Andi) and so Jen didn't feel left out, Nate shed his clothes about 2/3 of the way through the party. Fortunately we did get his pants back on him, but since he soaked his shirt, he even rode home without it.

Tomorrow Sylvia is coming and so I am going to try to take Nate to see Toy Story 3 again.  Okay fine, this outing is really for me - I unfortunately couldn't go the first time so I am making him see it again.  Can't wait!

Finley has been doing great but unfortunately she's been having some low blood sugars that I can't quite seem to figure out.  She's cutting her second tooth and has a bit of a cold - both of which could be impacting her blood sugar - but we've not had to increase the rate on her feeding pump or her polycose lately and we had to do both over the weekend.  Today she was still hanging a little low, but we are back to the regular level of polycose.  And of course, she has been her happy little self and has acted like nothing is wrong.  I hope she's right!

And finally, my favorite picture of the weekend...


Pretty run of the mill "baby grabbing her toes" right?  Not in our house!  Grabbing and holding toes is one of the first things babies do - but Finley just started doing it on her own - and its such a nice thing to see - she grabbed her toes while I was changing her diaper on Sunday so I ran and got my camera!  Momma is SO proud!!!

I have said on this blog several times that 3 is the best age ever and that is so much fun.  I whole heartedly mean that but today - my sweet little new born has driven me to drink (literally).  My day went a little something like this:

11am: Nate shoves a bunch of toilet paper in to the toilet, clogs its up, and then flushes it until the water is swirling right up around the edge and getting ready to spill over.  The one bad thing about saying good bye to the potty chair - Nate now thinks that ANY time you sit on the toilet - you MUST throw toilet paper in the toilet.  Needless to say - I got to brush up on my toilet plunging skills today.

3:30 pm: "MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM" Nate calls from the bathroom. "I had an accident"....So I got in the bathroom and yep, he's right.  He's peed all over my rug.  Okay Nate - accidents happen.  I take the rug, the rug pad and his underwear downstairs to the laundry room and put them in the wash machine.



6:30 pm:  Nate comes up from the basement, "Um mom.  I made a big mess with Rosey's food downstairs."  Really Nate?  Why?  "I was eating her food with her".  Then it clicked - I got downstairs to see Rosey scurrying around the basement trying to eat as much food as fast as she can. Nate had gone in to the laundry room, opened Rosey's food bin and proceeded to spread it like confetti all over the basement.  And I find a couple of half eaten pieces on the floor by the coffee table.  I guess he decided he didn't like it.



6:50 pm:  Nate goes into the bathroom and he's in there for like 5 minutes. "MOOOOOOOMMMMMMM" Nate calls from the bathroom again.  "I had another accident".  WTF?  How can this be?  There standing before me in the bathroom is my smirking child, standing in a puddle of pee on the floor (because my rug was downstairs in the wash machine) and he has pee all over his shirt.  "How did this happen Nate" I asked.  "I had another accident mom."  With that, I told him if he didn't start making it to the bathroom on time, I was going to set a timer and make him pee every 30 minutes.  "Okay" he says.



And so I here I sit.  A nice cold Guinness in front of me, counting down the minutes til daddy comes home.  Because then, he's all his.

Okay - so its been nearly a week since I last posted.  This week absolutely flew by....along with the last 11 months!  Can you believe my princess is 11 months old today.  I can remember her being born, and all of the excitement that followed like it was yesterday.  Its so hard for me to believe its been nearly a year.

And so we celebrate.....with some new PICTURES!!!

That ball is one of Finley's most favorite toys

Grammy to the rescue!  Mike's mom came home from her 2 week stay in Seattle with my sister in law Andrea and her new baby David!  Since that darn camera cable hadn't come in the mail yet - I asked her if I could borrow hers - we have the same camera!  And so yesterday when Grammy got home from her date with Nate, I was finally able to download the pictures from my camera.  I had also sent an email yesterday to the place I ordered that darn cable from and said, "What gives - its been two and a half weeks?"  So they apologized...sorry it got lost in the mail - we will send it out again.  Guess what came in the mail today?  That darn cable they mailed out on 6/24.  When it rains it pours!  (As a side note, I a not going to tell them it came so that when the second one comes I will have a back up after I give grammy's back to her!)

Nate and Mike and the Father's Day cake Nate picked out for his daddy

Finley had her 6 month Early Intervention evaluation today and it went really well.  Currently Finley sees 7 different therapists - 1 occupational therapist, 2 physical therapists, 1 feeding, 1 speech, 1 developmental hearing, and 1 developmental vision.  So for this evaluation, they all come together and share a progress report as to how they think Finley is doing progressing toward the goals we set forth when they started her therapies in December.  There was some worry going in to her last heart surgery that she's regress and have a lot of ground to make up but her therapists think that is only took her a week or two to bounce back and that she is doing so much more now and is just a different child from before her surgery.  I appreciate the fact that they are so very positive and they help me to understand where Finley is at developmentally, and they help to teach us how to best work with her on our own.  We are very fortunate to have a really exceptional group of therapists and we are really grateful for that.

Finley is sitting in her high chair like a big girl!

Did I tell you that I am planning a party?  Two actually - boy oh boy is August a busy month around the Roth household!  Finley's birthday is on the 8th and Nate's is 13 days later on the 21st (which also happens to be the 1 year anniversary of Finley's first heart surgery).  As convenient as it would be to have one party for both of them - I think its really important that they have their own parties this year.  Primarily because Nate didn't get a party last year because of everything that was going on.  Heck, because of Finley's surgery, we pretended with Nate that his birthday was on the 22nd (he was turning 3 - fortunately he didn't know better).  And Nate has been such a trooper this year and quite frankly the best big brother that any little princess could ever want.  And quite a silly brother I might add....

Nate doing karate poses for the camera

And so this weekend I will don my party planner hat and try to plan two parties that I can only hope will be as wonderful and the two guests of honor.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Just like her brother - Finley LOVES to be naked.  This was her before her bath yesterday.

Long weekends are the bees knees.

I have realized that I cannot live without my Blackberry.  In an effort to boycott it this weekend due to the aforementioned long weekend, I have been leaving it at home when I go out to run errands.  Problem is - I have perhaps the worst memory in the world and use its notepad feature to jot down tons of stuff I don't want to forget.  Now I am going to forget what I was trying to remember when I was out running errands because I left my Blackberry at home.

Painted baby toes are THE cutest thing around.  Finley is sporting some red polish this time.  I'd post a picture if that darn camera cable I ordered had arrived yet.

Going to the grocery store on a holiday weekend is a bad idea. I was too tired/lazy to go last night - I paid for it today.

People watching at the grocery store is fun.  So I guess the benefit of not having gone last night is that I would have missed the woman in my line who was simulating shoulder presses while she was waiting in line (no joke and I wasn't mistaking her action for something else - I am certain this is what she was doing).

I love sunny summer days when its not too hot and you can open the windows and the breeze blows in and the thermostat in the house doesn't get above 75.  Today is not one of those days.  Tuesday and Wednesday were - perfect.  I'd like Tuesday and Wednesday back please - minus the work day.

I'm looking forward to my reschedule massage - the one I had to cancel Thursday because it seems to be impossible to take a couple of hours off work these days. Now its scheduled for Monday - a work holiday.  Nothing's gonna stand between me and this massage now!

I love flowers from Costco.  They have the best bouquets in the best mix of colors and they last a looooong time.

Post without new pictures are boring.  But now I think you know that : o )

Have a wonderful 4th and enjoy the long weekend!

Finley had her cardiology appointment yesterday and it went SO good.  The pressure in her valve - which had been 90% (10-20% is 'normal') is now 27%!!!  So just above normal - we and the doctors were THRILLED!  Her medication is working well and aside from a teeny (.2ml) increase because my chunky monkey gained a little weight - they didn't even have to go up on the dose!!!  Finley is now officially just over 20 lbs and about 70 cm - although I am not confident that length measure if so accurate - she was 68 cm at her endo appt on the 11th.  In any event - she's still growing - doing awesome and the pressure is down even further from when we left the hospital.  WHOO HOO!

Also yesterday, I went into Finley room in the morning when I woke up, and my little princess was fast asleep on her tummy.  This is something she's never done in her crib before.  She spends lots of time on her tummy when she's out of her crib - in fact that almost seems to be her preferred position these days.  I don't know if she's never gotten enough momentum to turn herself over in there or what, but there she was - comfy as could be.  She's had some nasal congestion courtesy of me and Nate's cold but so far is holding her own quite well!

Daddy took Nate to see Toy Story 3 last night when Sylvia came over.  I am so jealous because I wanted to go so bad but I had to stay back at home and get some work done.  Its been absolutely impossible to get anything done the last couple of weeks because of that darn Early Retiree Reinsurance crap.  Today I am hoping to be able to start my weekend early.  I have some meetings this morning and then this afternoon I have a 2 pm appointment for an 80 minute hot stone massage!  The kids got me a gift certificate for Mother's Day and I am SO excited to use it!