Jeff and Christy Grow Up

Jeff and I went on a shopping expedition this weekend to Nebraska Furniture Mart and we bought a new couch and love seat for our living room. I am SOOO excited! Right now we have a disgusting white sectional (white with 3 boys in the house-VERY bad idea!) that I hate because it takes up too much room, and is very hard to keep clean. Why does this mean we are growing up you ask? Because it is the first piece of furniture we have purchased together, and it is in the minority at our house, as most of the other pieces we have were inherited from other people or purchased at garage sales (this is what happens when you are a single mom living on a teacher's salary). So, this will help our house to look more like 2 adults live here, instead of 2 college roomates. The thing I love best about them is that they have 2 recliner seats in the couch and 2 in the loveseat, so we can all sit around with our feet up and be lazy. Perfect also for my late nights when I am curled up with Charlie, a book, and a bottle. They get delivered on Thursday and I am itching to rearrange the furniture. I can't WAIT!!

Pizza Heaven

Christi has introduced me to a new piece of heaven in Omaha called Cici's Pizza. We went there for lunch yesterday. As you all know, I am a HUGE fan of the buffet at Valentino's, but this place has it beat. It's cheaper, which is always good, and it has way more imagination!! They of course have all of the usual pizzas to choose from, but they also have some awesome ones for adventuresome people like me. For instance, yesterday I had spinach pizza and mac 'n cheese pizza (which was FANTASTIC!!!) I am hoping that Jeff and Evan are in the mood for pizza soon.

My dad is feeling better and is back at work, which is a relief to me. We are having to sit on him to keep him relaxing when he is home though.

I go in for my 6 week check today...I can't believe it has been that long already! I am excited to be cleared to exercise though. I am thinking of joining Jazzercize to jazz up my weight loss. Also, if I go exercise with Christi I think I will be more likely to stick to it. We'll see if I am coordinated enough to handle it. We were watching figure skating last night on the Olympics and I was lamenting that I wish I could spin around at 50 miles an hour with my leg stretched completely over my head (to which Jeff replied "I wish you could too!") but if I even try to get on the ice I am on my face in less than a second. Of course this often happens to me when I try to dance on dry land too. I am a complete klutz. Christi may be sorry she offered to join me sometimes after I knock her out with my elbow falling down for the 80th time.

Heart Problems

My dad spent the day and most of the early morning at Bergen Mercy Hospital today, after going into atrial fibrillation at 1:30 in the morning. (A condition where your heart doesn't follow any particular rhythm and can cause blood clots to go to the heart, which is not a good thing). This has happened to him several times before, but lately the episodes are getting closer together. They converted him to a normal sinus rhythm using those zapper paddle things you always see on ER when a patient goes into cardiac arrest. Luckily, they sedate you for this procedure. My dad still hates it though. I am trying not to worry too much. They are going to do several tests on him in the next couple of weeks, to figure out a plan to keep it from happening again. Meanwhile, he is on a blood thinner for the next month, and is therefore banned from using power tools, a major trial for my dad who is currently in the process of remodeling the master bath in their house.

In much happier news, we just made a reservation for our summer vacation today!! I am SOO excited! We are going to a resort in northern Minnesota called Pine Beach from July 15-22. I cannot WAIT to spend this many uninterrupted days with my husband (with no ConAgra in sight) and kiddos. The cottage we are renting is right on the beach of a lake that is clear down to levels of 25 feet. YIPPEEE!!! Relaxation here we come! (We can only hope that this trip beats our Jamaica experience...)

Business Venture

I have a great idea for some friends of mine...

On Friday, Christi came over to visit with her daughter Alyssa (the cutie patutie) and she brought dinner for my family with her. She made us some to die for Chicken Tetrazini. It was delicious! On Saturday, my friend Sarah came over to meet Charlie, and she brought with her a kick ass Apple Pie, made with an old fashioned crust. It was also delicious!

So, here's my idea. I think Christi and Sarah should open up a restaurant. I would be one of their first investors, because they would be wildly successful. And the best part would be that I could stop cooking and just take my family there to eat all the time.

Warning....Mushy Alert!

I had heard before I had Charlie that sometimes having a child makes a couple's relationship more difficult, so I was a little bit worried (never having experienced having a child in a couples situation where the guy actually wanted to hang around and raise the baby with me!). Luckily, I can report that this has had exactly the opposite effect for Jeff and I. I have been trying to explain to him why I am 100% more head over heals in love with him since going through labor with him, but I can't seem to put it into words. Jeff has tried to understand the reasoning, but I think he is just happy to bask in the glow of my not being able to get enough time, snuggles, and laughs with him. There is something so powerful about being able to look into the face that you and your husband have created, and to watch your husband love the child you have created, and to see him care for the baby. Even seeing Jeff change diapers makes me love him more! Maybe it is because I appreciate it so much more after going through it alone with Evan, I don't know. All I do know is that I LOVE MY HUSBAND!! (And I love him so much more than on our wedding day, which I didn't think was possible). Don't get me wrong...he can still make me more irritated and discombobulated (don't you love that word?) than any other human being, but I guess that is part of the deal.

We had a great Valentine's Day. Jeff actually got home before 8 o'clock, which is a miracle for ConAgra employees, so we had some nice time to talk and spend together. Jeff got me a CD I've been wanting for ages...don't laugh...Stevie Wonder. I love those wanky wank songs he did in the 70s! Charlie gave me a great present too...a night of good sleep. He is getting better and better through the night.

3 Weeks

Not much has been going on, but I thought I would write so people would know I am still alive. Charlie was three weeks old yesterday. The time is flying by, despite the fact that I have been feeling a bit seculded from the world. Sometimes I love this feeling of being together with my kids, and it gives me warm fuzzies. At other times, I wonder what happened to Christy? This is when I remind myself that this IS now Christy, although perhaps I need to get out, at least to the store or something to remind myself that I am also an adult. I have been trying to do things that I like as well, just to take care of myself, even if it is something silly like checking my email for a couple of minutes. Evan is definitely going to get me out of the house this weekend. He has two birthday parties to attend, and a Boy Scout function. (Speaking of Boy Scouts...the part I have been dreading about this organization is approaching-those stupid wooden cars they make. I can't even remember what they're called! Anyway, they give you what amounts to a block of wood and 4 wheels and tell you to make a car out of it. Who are they kidding? There is no one at the Kleffman house who is trained in power tool usage. Would anyone like to give me a crash course? I'll just tell you now that Mr. Gordon, my junior high industrial arts teacher hated to see me coming!)

Anyway, not much new to report. I am going back to work on March 10th, so I am dreading that. Maybe we will win the lottery before that so that we can afford for me to be a stay at home mom and home school the kids.

2 Week Checkup

We went in for Charlie's two week checkup yesterday. He is already at 11 pounds 2 ounces! He also has an infection in both eyes due to tear ducts that are blocked because they are too small, so we are now applying an ointment 4 TIMES A DAY! This really freaks me out because I have to peel his eyelids open, at which point he begins to scream, and "place a thin ribbon" as the instructions say of the antibiotic cream on the INSIDE OF HIS EYELID! The instructions failed to mention how hard it would be not to poke your newborn's eyes out at the same time. Who thinks of this medicine stuff? Doctors trying to torture new mothers, that's who! The most disappointing news of the trip is that he has what his doctor called a "functional heart murmur." (Who knew there were functional types of these?) Combined with the prolonged Q-T wave pattern of his heart detected on his EKG at 2 days old (this puts babies at a higher risk for SIDS), this has landed us an appointment with the cardiologist in 2 weeks. He said most babies grow out of it in time, but some require surgery. I am trying not to worry. The pediatrician offered to send us home with an Apnea monitor if it would help me to sleep at night. To which I responded "People sleep at night? Certainly not at our house!!" An apnea monitor alarms everytime the baby pauses in it's breathing pattern or throws an irregular heart rhythm. Evan used one of these when he was a baby until he was 6 weeks old because he also had the prolonged Q-T wave pattern. It was a nightmare. The thing alarmed falsely at least 25 times a day. I am not exagerating. It also means you are connected to wires and a machine 24/7 and even walking across the room with the baby is a huge effort. So, I declined the monitor. The doctor was okay with it, because he didn't seem to think they prevented anything, and agreed with the false alarm problem. Does this make me a bad mom? Maybe I should have taken it with us, but the thought of it was SOO depressing. Also, since I no longer sleep, I can check to make sure he is breathing whenever needed. In fact, I am so tired I am surprised I can type this.

In Evan news, we had a great weekend. We went and got some ice cream on Friday night, and then watched a movie together. Saturday I took him to the Children's Museum for a Boy Scout outing (our first time ALONE since Charlie was born), while my mom watched Charlie. Sunday we baked some chocolate chip cookies together. So, I feel like we are back on a schedule, and we are spending some good quality time together. It has been pretty much just me and the boys since Jeff went back to work. They are having a huge busy period, and he usually doesn't get home until after 8:00 each night, and he goes in on Saturday and Sundays too. I am proud of myself for dealing with the two kids, housework, laundry, etc. by myself without any major disasters and with some fun thrown in for the kids to boot. Thank God I am on maternity leave though!! I keep wondering what this will be like once I am back at work. Thank goodness I believe in that saying that says God only gives you as much as he knows you can handle.