Exhaustion

Since, miss Addie is now 2 years old (hard to believe) i'm drawn to reflecting on things that have happened.  Being a new parent, the stress of everything, and lots of sleepless nights can really take a toll on you.  Nothing was more evident than one night when i got up to feed our daughter.  Honestly, i don't remember if it was one of those times where i worked the night before or not, nor do i remember when exactly it was.  But i do remember what happened...

I took on the responsibility of giving miss Addie a bath that night.  Something that i don't usually do since i worked nights at that time.  Miss Addie loves baths and showers so it's always enjoyable for both parties.  While getting her dressed, i had this funny feeling i was totally forgetting something.  That's funny because everyday i leave for work, i have that same feeling i totally missed something important to pass on report or even some sort of paperwork that i needed to fill out that wasn't.  So i dismissed it.  After all what's the worst that could happen.  At that time, we would bring her into our bedroom to feed her in the middle of the night because it was so much easier.  So 0'dark thirty arrived, and it's feeding time.  I took on the responsibility to get up with her at this time.  In my drunken sleeping state i managed to get Adelyn and her bottle and headed back to our bed.  After getting back into a comfortable position to begin feeding Adelyn, i realized i'm going to have to change her onesie because her diaper soaked through again.  Then it hit me.  LITERALLY.  The wet spot became a river all down my side.  My thoughts go back to when i got Adelyn dressed earlier that night.  I was looking at her and realized i was totally forgetting something....something important.... And now i know what it was... a diaper!  Now if you haven't had kids you'd probably freak out about now.  Most parents would just be like "eh..at least it isn't poop."  Being a nurse, i'm thinking, "well at least it's sterile."

Since this little mishap has occurred, i can honestly say i haven't missed a diaper yet!  All in all the only damage was a little extra laundry and a shower.  I leave you with a cute picture of miss Adelyn recently...

Ralph

So we got a new greyhound.  We named him Ralph because Adelyn's favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph.  We've been talking about getting another greyhound since we got Moby.  But since it has been quite busy attempting to raise Adelyn, we held off on getting another one right away.  But a quick ride down to north fort myers and we found ourselves at the same adoption kennel we went to 3 years ago.  Moby even tagged along to potentially met a new buddy.  Since Moby is so huge, we wanted to get a much smaller one.  The females are usually smaller and we managed to see one that was almost the same markings as Moby.  Moby seemed to like her as well.  In fact he attempted to mount her almost immediately.  However, Donna recommended that another boy would be a better option due to Adelyn.  After looking at a few, we came to Ralph aka "Gunsmoke."  Now Ralph is a beautiful fawn colored greyhound.  He acted just like Moby when he was brought out.  He immediately leaned on us and gave us kisses, something Moby never does.

Upon bringing him home, we determined Moby and Ralph are completely different.  Ralph is a thief, a hoarder, and a bully.  In the first few days, Ralph found his bag of food picked it up and dragged it to his bed.  I guess he figured it was his so why not keep it with his stuff.

The other night my wife and i were watching tv sitting on the floor in our bedroom.  Low and behold in walks Ralph with a stuffed animal in his mouth carrying it to his crate all nonchalant.  The funny thing about it is the fact all the stuffed animals are in the kids bedroom across the house.  So he had to sneak into their bedrooms, search around, grab an animal and head back to the crate.  As for being a bully, you can see how skinny he is.  He has snarled and growled at Moby a few times.  Mainly because food was involved and he hasn't realized that we won't deprive him of it.  

Ralph also raced in 60 races.  Unfortunately, he didn't win any.  Moby on the other hand is a racing dropout and never raced.  This became very evident when we take the two for a walk.  Moby is huffing and puffing a 1/4 mile down the road and needs to stop and pee or poo every 100 yards.  Ralph just keeps on walking.  In fact Ralph has been out to a 1.5 miles without slowing us down.  Attempting to walk Moby that distance would result in us practically dragging him home.  So it just proves if you want to walk and run with a greyhound... get one fresh off the track!

History

Okay so it's been awhile since the last time i posted anything.  I'm attempting a return into this blogging thing so i can post interesting things that have and will come up in my life.  Just to give you an update, the last two years have been quite interesting.  My wife and I have managed to survive the upbringing of our extremely challenging daughter.  And by survive i mean barely.  Almost all sleepless nights, extreme fuzziness, food allergies, mental breakdowns, and never ending crying and screaming has and continues to be our norm.  However, we are making progress.  The other day, Adelyn was evaluated for a potential speech delay and sure enough we have a developmental delay.  OT will be here in a week or two to really establish what type and how to better assist Adelyn in overcoming this challenge.  Thanks to my wife who has been there the entire time, we've determined that she has a sensitivity issue that may be the root cause of all of this.  We've tried pretty much anything and everything.  Some things have worked, some things haven't.  I will say something as simple as position in the crib when we set her down at night can have a huge impact on how everyone sleeps.  Hopefully, we are on the downslope of the challenging times and increased communication will be able to help make things more easier for the both of us.  Knowing that things are moving to enable her to communicate more is a huge relief.  

As for our family, we have been to Disney quite a few times.  This has become our new norm.  In fact, we have been enough times to warrant an annual pass for each and every one of us.  Pin trading has become one of our favorite things to do at the parks.  Needless to say, it has also become part of our lives.  Who knew how cool some of these disney pins could be.  Also who knew what type of money people are willing to pay for these pins as well... more to come on that one later.  Being a Florida resident and being close to Disney has it's advantage.  Close enough to go for a day or two, far enough away to miss the crowds.  Beside traveling up to Virginia a few times, we really haven't been anywhere else interesting lately.  We've rescued another greyhound because one just wasn't enough.  In fact we named him Ralph in regards one of Adelyn's favorite movie "Wreck it Ralph."  More to come on Ralph in the next few posts.  

As for work, i've switched to days.  I can honestly say, it's been so much easier.  I'm not as tired all the time switching back and forth, and my days off i can actually feel productive without having to go home and waste most of the day sleeping.  Getting up early on the other hand is totally for the birds but i've managed.  As for work itself, things have been quite interesting.  I feel like i'm working for the government.  Oh wait...I am.  After all, sequestration was their excuse to completely cut out our vacation time for 4 months, forgo on increasing our all ready lousy 401K match, and eliminate the "market adjustment" aka raises promised to us at the beginning of the year.  I very thankful that i actually have a job at this time, but wow.  After all it's takes me two months to acquire a one day vacation.  

I'm sure i've missed a few things that have happened in the last 2 years.  As they come to me i'll be sure to write about them.  Until next time....