Happy 5 Monthiversary, Ella Faith!

I'm not sure how it happened, but 5 months have lapsed since Ella was born. The days seem long, but the months and years are incredibly short. I try to remind myself of that on the especially loooong days ;-)

Happy 5 Months!

As I shared in the last post, Ella has begun sleeping through the night (thank you, baby Jesus) and this mom thinks it's because her belly is full. The exclusive breastfeeding is healthy, but I'm not so sure how filling it is. We started her on solids around 4 months with the nod from our pediatrician and so far, the girl has eaten green beans, peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, pears, peaches, and bananas. She has fruit in the morning and a vegetable at night and viola! SLEEP! Much like her brother, she houses everything on her spoon, so we've been fortunate there. My grandma remarked that Ella is finally starting to look like a Barone; "she's getting plump." Nice. Regardless of Gram's opinion, I think this picture proves that Ella is still Zach's twin:

That picture is from Morgan's first birthday party yesterday. Ella came in handy as Zach used her nap as an excuse to watch the Penn State game inside. At one point, Brady joined his dad and sister and when I discovered them like lumps on the couch, my 2-year-old informed me that "Jo-Pa is feeling better and Bolden stinks so he's on the bench." Seriously? In non-related PSU news, Lisa and Andrew are pregnant!! She texted us all a picture of her ultrasound before the party. I celebrated the good news with a drink. Now the pregos know how it feels ;-) Jess is due May 7th, Lis is due May 22nd, and Ella turns 1 on the 9th! May 2012 is going to be exciting!!!

Kisses for the birthday girl!

At the end of the party, after most of the guests had gone, Brady got an exclusive ride on Sandy's dad's, Rick, special tractor. I'm sure there's a technical name for the thing, but for our purposes, it is called the special tractor. Brady was afraid to ride by himself, so I went with him and he LOVED it. Loved it = tantrum when the ride was over. Aside from Brady's "I NEED TO RIDE AGAIN!!!!" Oscar-worthy performance, everything had been going so well. Except for Rick almost running over Sandy's mother-in-law and all. :)

I'm not much for Halloween, but having kids forces me to pretend it's exciting. Although, scoring the chocolate from their Trick-or-Treating endeavors isn't too shabby. Anyway, I visited Target and picked up their costumes. Brady is much too picky for one of those mask get-ups, nor will he wear anything too bulky, so I just went with a simple Lightning McQueen. You'd think that would mean he's going to be a car, but alas it's only a shirt with fake muscles and a hat that says "McQueen" on it. Whatever. It'll do. Ella, on the other hand, has no opinion (yet...), so she will be stuffed into an adorable flower costume.

After my Target fun, we rang in Ella's 5th month of life as a Jankowski with a picnic at my parents'. Their outdoor TV was still up thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, so a bunch of us shoveled food in our faces during the game while basking in the sunshine and a Steelers win. AND my fantasy football team won! It was a very good day.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-CHANGES!!!!

I don't know what's up with my oldies music titles lately, but they're just so darn appropriate. For example, there has been a big ch-change in Ella's War on Sleep campaign. For a girl that was anti-shut eye, she's all of a sudden sleeping through the night (like, 8:30pm - 6am!) AND her naps have been ri-donk-ulously amazing. And I don't use the term ri-donk-ulous lightly: I'm talking two or three naps a day, usually 3 hours in the morning, and then hour-long cat naps after that. Some experts claim this kind of sleeping is a direct result of a growth spurt. My gal may be 6 feet tall by her first birthday, but the moral of the story is SHE IS SLEEPING!!!!!

As a result of her sweet, sweet slumber, she is the happiest baby in the world. Her smiles and coos are reminiscent of her big brother's at this age, which makes me feel much better because I was beginning to think we may need some baby Prozac. Her consistent snoozing is also good for Momma; I, too, seem to be happier these days. Go figure!

The second change isn't as exciting, but because it has been effective, I can't complain about it. Miss Lisa's son wasn't doing well with the transition to our house, so Brady and Ella are now making the trip to Miss Lisa's digs twice a week. I thought for sure the boy would give me a hard time, but the second we walked into her place, he made himself at home by dumping out a huge bin of blocks. AND Ella took an ounce or so from the bottle and entertained the idea of using a binky for a few minutes before she passed out for a nap. So far, so good! I will admit, though, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of leaving the kids with someone else. I realize that millions of parents rely on other people to watch their babies every day, but I'm entirely too bossy and Type A to think anyone can do what I do. Well, I'm an idiot. I'm also a little paranoid; see these two new pics I took of the kids? Well, I snapped them before dropping them off at Miss Lisa's in case I needed "a most recent photograph." Okay, paranoid may be putting it lightly...

There are more fun changes! One of my very best friends, Jess, is pregnant! She and her hubby Ahren had been trying for a long time and we are so excited that they're finally on their way to parenthood. They are due in early May, right around Ella's birthday! In keeping with our roommate tradition of sharing baby news in a creative way (when I was pregnant with Brady, I gave Jess a box of Eggo waffles, San a jar of Prego sauce, and Lisa an "aunt" card--it took them a while to figure out the message, but they eventually understood they would be honorary aunts and that my "eggo was prego!"), Jess brought a cake to an end-of-the-summer picnic that she decorated herself. "I'm pregnant" was scrolled across the cake in purple icing. I was so excited for her that I jumped up...while still nursing Ella and my boob popped out. Oh, well! It was worth it :)

We roomies are attending another picnic today; this one is for Sandy's little girl Morgan who just turned 1! I can't believe that a whole year has passed since we all ventured to the hospital to meet her. CRAZY! But stay tuned because I have a sneaking suspicious that I may have more exciting pregnancy news to report! NO. It's not ME.

Time flies! Happy Birthday, Mo!

And on a sad note, we lost 3 local business owners and friends in a plane wreck. One of the victims, Mr. Garrone, was my friend's dad. Kristi and I have Friday playdates at the park a lot, and the last time we were together, she invited me and Brady to go for a ride on her dad's plane. I can't think of something I despise more than flying, so I made a joke that I would have to be pretty drunk to accept that invitation. And here we are, not two weeks later, and Kristi has lost her dad and her 3 boys have lost their Pappy. As a self-proclaimed Daddy's Girl, I cannot even imagine the devastation Kris must be feeling; she and her dad were as close as they come. Another of the victims, Laura, was the co-owner of our favorite local restaurant, The Addison House. Zach and I had our rehearsal dinner and Brady's baptism lunch there. Laura helped us set up the surprise proposal for our friends Lisa and Andrew. She was such a nice lady. She has a 21-year-old son who, understandably so, is beside himself. Prayers for comfort and support go out to all of the families and friends who have lost their loved ones. It truly is a sad day in our small community.

Help Me, Rhonda! or Lisa...

After what will go down in history as my first trifecta (mental, physical, and professional) meltdown, I'm proud to say that my family escaped unscathed. I, on the other hand, am probably scarred for life. But it's cool; some good stuff resulted:

Because my stress level had reached an all-time high and spilled over into other areas of my life (I was caught red-handed bawling my eyes out while vacuuming because our Dyson wasn't sucking up the dog hair), it became evident to those around me that I was overwhelmed. Juggling two little ones and a full-time job all in the same space and all at the same time forced me to swallow my pride and ask for help. This was a difficult admission for me; I like to believe I can do it all and because what I was struggling most with seemed to be the kids, I started thinking I wasn't doing this whole parenting thing very well. Enter: guilt and self-loathing.

It didn't help that after I had begun my search for child care options, someone close to me asked, "Do you have to work full-time or do you just want to?" Because the short answer is no, I don't have to work full-time, I instantly felt like the world's worst mother. But only for a minute. Okay, maybe two days. But then I realized the more complex, accurate answer is, yes, I have to if we want to build up the kids' college funds, treat ourselves to a date night every six months, or buy a new friggin' vacuum (which proved necessary today. Eff you, Mr. Dyson). And while these things may appear frivolous to some, Zach and I consider them necessary to live the life we want to live.

After being forced to teach a lesson while simultaneously nursing Ella, which, as you may have guessed, resulted in her loud suckling drowning out my voice entirely AND the need to re-record the entire lesson, I made the childcare search my first priority. Thankfully, I found Miss Lisa. She is a former preschool teacher; she opted to leave her job to be a full-time parent (ironic, I  know), and she and her 18-month-old son come to our place twice a week and hang with my kiddos while I work. This allows me a total of 8 uninterrupted hours a week! Brady and Ryan have become fast friends and I love the idea of my little guy playing with someone his own age, not to mention being cared for by a preschool teacher in my own home. I can also keep nursing Ella (just not while I'm teaching!) since she's just in the other room. The whole preschool teacher thing has come in handy, too; Brady told me this morning that the letter P makes the "P-p-p" sound :) Ella, who pretty much hates everyone, absolutely loves Miss Lisa which makes me think this woman was meant to come into my life at this juncture in time. I asked her if she wanted to move in but she politely declined.

Things are looking up professionally, and I think that if my daughter would ever sleep more than 4 hours at a time, I could start working on my mental health. However, being so exhausted and so busy have come in handy: sometimes I'm so tired that I forget to eat. I am dropping baby weight and then some like crazy! See? Silver linings, people, silver linings.

The only mother-son picture we got on our ride :(

Ella has been rolling like a maniac, and is now trying out her legs in the bouncer. She loves to stand, so this is a real treat for her. She's also just realized we have dogs and she shrieks any time either one of them come into the room. She is quite possibly the loudest child on this planet, which she's proved time and time again during the quietest moments in church. At any rate, the dogs are often frightened by her outbursts and try to keep their distance for fear of falling victim to Ella's battle cries.

Zach and I took Brady on a train ride in Schenley this weekend. It's such an adorable little station, kept in tact for the sole purpose of entertaining little kiddos. The cars were open-air which was great because Brady could see all of the trees, the river, and everything else we passed along the way. The train was coupled up to some freight cars that we transported to the Baghdad Plant, so he got to see the smoke stacks and big trucks at the plant, too. On the way back, we went over a little bridge and stopped to feed some ducks in the water below. Brady's head almost burst with excitement! Trains! Trucks! Ducks! AND he got to meet the conductor and blow the whistle at the end of the ride! He's been talking about the whole experience since we got home; he keeps telling Ella that he's sorry she couldn't join because eating apples on the train was "such a fun day." And here I thought spending time with his wonderful parents would have been the highlight of his trip. ;-)

The station :)

"Big red engine"

Ready to feed the ducks

Proud to be Americans ;-)

Blowing the whistle!

It's a hard life