This week has definitely been a lot to handle, mentally, physically and emotionally. I was looking forward to a week with just my girl, Bryan is out of town, but basically before we even got our week started Reese came down with an awful cold and everything went out the window. I noticed a bad cough on Sunday but the cough only came a handful of times throughout the entire day and there was no other indication that anything else wasn’t right with her. We enjoyed the day spent at church, taking a good nap, and then going for a run and to U Village to play on their playground structure and grab a quick dinner. Reese didn’t want a bite and when I put her down for bed was when I heard the cough pick up and I got a little worried.

3:45 AM and Reese has woken me up in bouts of coughing fits. She manages to go in and out of sleep but with her bad cough and what sounds like difficulty getting a full breath I’m laying there wide awake, until about 6 am when we go downstairs. At this point Reese is awake and crying “Mommmmm”. I’m debating what to do. I call the nurse’s line and leave a message and then get Reese in the car to go to Seattle Children’s Hospital. I’m nearly there when the nurse’s line calls back, asks a bunch of questions, tells me it sounds like croup and to make an appointment at our normal clinic when they open at 8 AM. We head home, Reese (and myself) both fall asleep and take a nap, wake up and call the clinic and they have no appointments available and tell me to get assessed at Seattle Children’s. Reese is hungry and eats a ton at breakfast and then we get back in the car to go to the children’s ER. We are there about 90 minutes and Reese gets checked out by a few doctors and they say she has croup and give her an oral steroid to reduce inflammation but you can’t even tell anything is amiss as she is jumping up and down on the hospital bed and begging to blow bubbles.

That’s how most of Monday and Tuesday went; at times she seemed tired and clingy, she’d cough occasionally (mostly at nap or bed time), didn’t sleep well but had lots of energy (cue terrible duo for her mom) and still really wanted to be outside. I thought Reese was ready to get back into her daily routine on Tuesday but we waited one more day just to be safe. We went to the library story time at the Beacon Hill branch on Tuesday and also to the park. We made it a good day.

Then Wednesday came and she was so much worse and my patience and energy were dwindling. I called the doctor because her situation was getting worse and they told me they did want me to come back in, which we did at 4 PM. By this third day, she was now coughing more, sneezing a bunch, and with every sneeze there was just an insane amount of boogies. She was miserable at home so we had to get out of the house but it was pouring down rain so we went to the Garfield Community Center for their tot gym. I know I took a sick kid to a public place but every single kid there was coughing. Reese had a blast, despite being sick, and came back to nap before her doctors appointment. The doctor confirmed that it is just a very bad cold and usually days 3-5 are the worst. Great! We are on day 3 so does that mean we still had two more bad days? Yes, pretty much.

But Wednesday was by far the worst. Thursday she was a bit better and knowing that she doesn’t have a fever and it is just a cold I decided to try her at Sarah’s for a little bit just so I could get some relief and get a few things done. She didn’t want me to leave at first but then settled in and took a 3 hour nap over there. But once up she wasn’t easily comforted (she was still protesting all food for the second day in a row) and I went to go pick her back up around 2:30 PM. The short break did wonders for me though and we came back home and had fun around the house.

And I’m finally back at work today on my normal schedule. Her boogies are now thick and causing her to stuff up but she has started eating some things again and seems in a more chipper mood. She still isn’t sleeping great so I’m back to feeling like Zombie Mom but it’s nice to have at least one normalish day this week. I wish they had all been like this and this week would have been a breeze, and more social, and more fun, but at least we are on the mend and hopefully she will get back to her good sleeping routine soon after she is fully recovered. And this whole experience definitely makes me feel grateful that she has had so few times of being sick in her life this far.

Feeling optimistic about the weekend (although this rain has got to stop) and definitely looking forward for Bryan returning home. I’m sure she is going to be feeling better right when he does get home, go figure!

Chelsea

You definitely wonder sometimes what you are doing wrong when things aren’t going your way. It’s easy to get frustrated, down and dejected. It’s easy to think of what could have been or what you missed. I do that a lot. And with how this month has been, I’ve definitely had the hours, the days, and the weeks spent thinking just those thoughts.

But I’m switching gears and looking optimistically at what IS right and what the future holds. This crazy trip called life isn’t ever perfect but it is beautiful and every moment, even the difficult times, should be cherished. I’ve learned from my own past experiences that the difficult times are usually times of growth, strength and self-awareness. They are times of leaning on others and into faith. The journey might not be the easiest or full of rainbows and sunshine but the outcome can be even better.

So in being grateful and optimistic, thank goodness it is Friday and January is almost over. JK.

But in reality, I’m thankful for a strong and close (even if not in location) family, I’m thankful for a supportive and caring husband, I’m thankful for a sweet and spunky daughter, I’m thankful for having the time to study for my future, I’m thankful for planning events to spend time with friends, I’m thankful for having the mental stability to get through difficult times.

This week has been like much of January; a slew of ups and downs throughout the week. Reese is starting to express her will and opinions anywhere and everywhere so I have had some mornings where it takes forever to get her ready and Bryan was put through the ringer at FareStart last night. This week we also took the first step into looking at Reese’s future care/schooling. We visited one daycare center and one school. Both show promises for sure but also bring a slew of applications, decision making, and conversations with our current working situation. And downtown Seattle has experienced a few shootings this week which is not a common occurrence for us. Thankfully Bryan and I had a midweek date night out (after one school tour), dining at our favorite restaurant for dinner and having a wonderful conversation. It was needed to touch base and come together before Bryan leaves for a week on Sunday.

January is nearly over and the rest of the year is looking very optimistic. I know 2020 has it in it.

Chelsea

Reese is definitely a toddler these days. She is mostly sweet and good to her parents but there are some days where she is just in a mood or more likely to have a tantrum over something. However, I’d say she is more upbeat and bubbly than down or moody on the average. She is quickly catching on to how things work these days and it is amazing seeing the gears working as she explores and figures things out. So much fun to watch. So what’s new with her these days?

• Her vocabulary is slowly but surely expanding. New words include: bye bye, big truck (loosely), some animal noises, hi, verbal “no” (instead of just shaking her head), yeah, hot, out (for outside), shoe.
• Her appetite has been on an uptick most days and I find myself scratching my head for other food/snack ideas. She is a snacker more so than one who does big meals, which is fine except you have to keep in mind what sort of mess a snack will make as she carries it around the room with her.
• She is loving climbing right now. She likes to taunt us by climbing on the couch and peeking in and yelling at whoever is in the kitchen. She also likes to pull herself onto the ottoman.
• She runs everywhere! The only time she moves at a walking pace is when we naturally want her to move a little faster.
• She likes to go grocery shopping; either riding in the cart or pushing a kids cart around if they have one.
• She has a sweet tooth and knows where there might be any cookies, donuts or the like placed on the counter.
• She chooses the book we read at bedtime now. It’s surprising to me how she now has a preference for what book to read and I’m usually surprised by her requests.
• Diaper changes can still sometimes be a struggle and you might find yourself chasing a naked baby around the house. However, she is good about getting her boppy pillow down and laying there during diaper changes. She also is beginning to understand when she has gone #1 and #2.
• She is really getting the hang of slides and that seems to be her preference at the playground these days. Swings are still high up there though.
• She’s starting to figure out shapes with blocks, build things with legos, and will pretend play with various items.
• Her favorite show is quickly becoming Dr. Pol (high five on that one Bryan!). Her animal fascination is high.
• She still refuses to drink cow’s milk but has tried juice and seems to like it but still mainly a water girl but sparkling water is her #1.
• She’s grown out of a fair amount of her 12 month clothes so I have put many away and will be shortly getting out new 18 month clothes. Fun! She is also now in size 5 shoes and we have had to retire a few of my favorite shoes of hers already.
• She’s shot up in height a lot in just the past two weeks. She is currently breaking the 20 lb mark as well.

Chelsea

So far 2020 is definitely out to get us. I don’t know what we did in 2019 to deserve this but we are less than a week into 2020 and pretty much nothing has gone as I would have liked. NOTHING!

• Our flight was cancelled on the way back to Seattle (this started in 2019 but was largely the way we began the year)
• Bryan had to sweet talk the hotel shuttle bus into giving him a ride to CVS from the hotel so that we could buy more diapers as we were literally all out
• Our NYE luxury delivery dinner through Bite Squad to our Embassy Suites Detroit Metro hotel was cancelled, after calling three times to confirm the order and after waiting 3 hours for said delivery dinner
• Bryan got us a so-so dinner from the hotel next door that thankfully was still open, but stepped in big puddle on the way to getting us this much needed dinner
• Michigan lost to Alabama in the Citrus Bowl (expected but still a bummer)
• Bryan got some stomach bug immediately upon getting back to Seattle and was home from work both Thursday and Friday (either Dallas airport food or Detroit hotel food is the theoretical culprit)
• Nanny also came down with something, preventing her from watching the girls on Friday and me staying home to care for Reese (this wasn’t the end of the world but still precious PTO hours!)
• We were asked to serve in the Toddler Room at church for the first Sunday of the year, while Bryan was still not feeling great (amen for only three babies this week)
• Michigan lost to Michigan State in basketball
• Our water heater is currently broken and we are planning on taking showers at the YMCA up the street from us tonight…

If 2020 delivers any more bad luck in the next week I’m not sure what I will do. I’m definitely not going gambling anytime soon! 2020 most certainly has some work to do to improve its current rating.

Chelsea

What an end to 2019 we had. We spent one week in Michigan for Christmas with my family, had one rare and precious weekend away just the two of us without Reese, and then had about 36 hours of traveling to get back to Seattle thanks to flight troubles. It was a roller coaster of events and I’m still recovering from it all but definitely grateful for the time we got to spend with family and the time we got to spend with ourselves.

We had our usual early morning flight out of Seattle to head to Michigan on Christmas Eve. Our flight there went on without a hitch more or less (only about a 30 minute delay flying from Chicago to Lansing) and we all arrived at my parent’s house in East Lansing with a good amount of energy. Reese was thrilled to see my parents and maybe less so to see Sophie, their dog, at first but Sophie quickly became her favorite item in the house. She followed “Ruff Ruff” around everywhere and always had her eye out for her. Christmas Eve was the always-delicious dinner of clam chowder and king crab legs at my parent’s house with my grandparents visiting for the night. After our fill of seafood, coffee and Christmas cookies, I had about an hour of wrapping presents to do after putting Reese to bed. Somehow she lasted until her normal PST bedtime, which was helped by new people, the dog and her Christmas Eve present of her Mickey Mouse riding airplane that I must admit was super cool.

Christmas morning came and Bryan and I were slow to get up. We spent the morning snacking on my dad’s mini quiches before settling into presents at home first before getting dressed and heading over to my grandparent’s house. We made out like bandits this year, filling an entire duffel bag on our return flight home. Bryan and I cleaned up and face-timed with the Miller and Konecni families while Reese made friends with the neighborhood kids outside. We piled into the car and headed over to my grandparents. This was the first year in maybe five years that all four cousins were at home for Christmas so I know it was especially special for my Grandma. It was great to catch up with my cousins, flying in from Berlin and Denver, while Chad was home from Cincinatti. We had a delicious Christmas dinner of beef sandwiches, ham, dips, shrimp cocktail and other super tasty delights before settling into opening presents in a circle like we have always done. After that Reese was itching to get outside and it was a nice day so all cousins, Bryan, my dad, Terry and Reese went for a walk to a nearby park to play. We returned just before dark but the fresh air and the warm temps felt wonderful after a large meal. We were the last to leave, per usual, and headed back home after a wonderful holiday celebration with the whole family. Chad was already on his way back to Cincinatti unfortunately.

The day after Christmas was gorgeous in Michigan!!! The temperature reached 60 degrees with the sun out and little wind. It felt balmy. Bryan and I went for a run along the Red Cedar on campus while my parents had Reese nap and then went for a walk with her around the neighborhood. After showers, Bryan and I met up with them at the park to slide, swing and merry go round. We returned home for a bit before setting out on foot for downtown East Lansing to meet up with our friends Tom and Pam at El Azteco for margaritas and the famous Topopo Salad. It is always so great seeing Tom and Pam, people I have always felt were an extension of family to us. And Reese managed to fall asleep in the stroller and stayed asleep for at least 30 minutes in the lively bar/restaurant which helped make the meal that much more enjoyable. After dinner, and seeing a few other random friends at the restaurant, we headed back home, still really enjoying the warm air and stretching our legs.

Friday we managed to get to Court One to get a little exercise in for the whole family (although my parent’s exercise was a little less structured thanks to watching Reese). We returned home to clean up and then Bryan and I said our goodbyes to Baby Girl before heading to Detroit to check into the Detroit Foundation Hotel (a firestation converted to a boutique hotel) for two nights alone! It was an amazing hotel and a wonderful experience all around. The room was really well done and it was nice to have some peace and quiet, get dinner and drinks out alone, and be able to sleep when we wanted. We spent the first night enjoying dinner at the hotel’s well-reviewed restaurant, the Apparatus Room. We had an exceptional meal of a whitefish caesar salad, toasted homemade bread with homemade whipped ricotta, pistachios, and persimmon and short ribs for me and a pork shank for Bryan. We split the chocolate cake of sorts to seal the deal and finished our meal quite late and ready for bed.

Saturday was a full day all to ourselves. Naturally, we woke up at about 10 am EST. We got ready at our own speed and made our way down to brunch around 11 am. We had a wonderfully relaxing brunch before heading out on foot to explore the town. We stopped at Campus Martius and checked out the quaint shops and ambiance of the Cadillac Lodge. We then walked to Eastern Market (the largest farmers market in the country) and browsed the vendors, picking up a lot of items to bring back to my parents. We explored the shops around the Market, as well as Eastern Market Brewing Company and the Detroit Distillery. We called for the Lincoln Navigator from the hotel to come pick us up to bring us back to the hotel. We chilled out for a bit and then headed to the hotel gym to try out their two Peloton bikes. I enjoyed my 30 minute ride and definitely got my sweat on. We cleaned up and got ready to go out for a night. We enjoyed several small dishes and drinks at the hotel bar before riding in the Lincoln to the famous Cliff Bell’s for live jazz. We spent several hours there, getting drinks and having good conversation, mostly reminiscing on the past year and our dreams for the new year. We walked back to the hotel, stopping at the Cadillac Lodge for some dancing and a beer first and warming up by one of their fires.

Sunday morning was a lazy one. We enjoyed room service breakfast while we packed up our items to check out of the hotel. We made one stop at Astoria Bakery in Greektown to bring back some pastries for my parents. We got back to East Lansing right around 1 pm and Reese smiled sweetly when she caught sight of Daddy and then screamed “MOM” in almost anger when she saw me. Typical! She was fresh from a nap and ready to play and catch up with each other’s weekends. My parents did a wonderful job of the difficult task of keeping her entertained and managing the sleep “schedule” of Reese. We were ready to reunite with Reese after just under 48 hours away from her. We spent the night at Potter Park Zoo, walking through their exhibits and the last night of Zoo Lights. We headed home and got take out Chinese food from Charlie Kang’s and enjoyed Nisa’s homemade eggrolls while we watched the Seahawks lose to the 49ers before calling it a night.

Monday was our last full day in East Lansing and was probably the laziest of all. I think we were all affected by the weather and all pretty groggy throughout the day. We played with Reese inside and actually didn’t leave at all but it was windy and raining a good portion of the day. We enjoyed one more visit from my grandparents and then said our goodbyes to them. We tested out mom’s new boxing gloves, which was a hoot with Reese. We also enjoyed making dinner together and having that in peace and quiet after Reese was asleep. It was a delicious dinner and we spent a long time in conversation at the table before cleaning up and starting to pack our bags.

Tuesday morning was not much other than packing and getting ready for our travels. We had an extra bag to bring back with all new stuff and with the first snow starting to fall we wanted to get on the road with plenty of time (although the roads were perfectly fine). We got to the Detroit Airport around 1 pm and my parents walked us to security and said their goodbyes. Security was a breeze and we found the kids play area. We got a lunch of pizza at Mod Pizza and then were ready at the gate for our plane, but our plane wasn’t there. We were quoted a 45 minute delay and then the plane arrived and were informed of a further delay due to a maintenance issue on the plane. Two hours after the flight was supposed to take off we were informed the flight was canceled. Enter: chaos! It took forever for rebooking to begin and long lines were formed. We finally were able to get rescheduled for a flight leaving the next morning, with a connection in Dallas!

Alaska put us up at the Embassy Suites at the airport and we took the shuttle to check in there. Check in at the hotel didn’t go smooth but we finally got our room and managed to hit the tail end of happy hour at the hotel. We ordered delivery from a nearby restaurant and began to wait for that. Three hours later and after giving up and putting Reese to bed, we were told the restaurant was not open and our order was cancelled. This was after 10 pm. Bryan called in an order to the restaurant at the hotel next door and they were able to get our dinner ready in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Bryan managed to step in a big puddle on his walk over to that hotel. This was after he already had to use the hotel shuttle to go to CVS to get us diapers, since we were now out of them! After finally getting our dinner at 10:30 we were not in the mood for anything having to do with New Years Eve and went to bed. Thankfully we did because Reese didn’t sleep all too well in the hotel.

We were up at 7:30 AM on our new travel day. We got ready and got breakfast at the free brunch at the hotel. We took the shuttle back to the airport, went back through security (Bryan got a random security check, go figure) and then we were finally on board our new flight to Dallas. 3.5 hours later we were in Dallas and we caught the second half of the Michigan vs. Alabama game at one of the airport restaurants. We burned off some of Reese’s energy before boarding the 4.5 hour flight to Seattle that I was legit dreading. However, Reese slept the whole flight through and woke up in a good mood once we were in Seattle. Baggage claim took awhile but there was a Ruff Ruff there and escalators to keep Reese entertained. We were finally in our Uber home. Amen!

It was great to be home and the house was cleaned for us while we were away. Reese was up for a bit but then quickly transitioned to way too tired and was in bed just after 9 pm. She was up at 7 am EST this morning (that would be 4 am local time!). I was going into work and Bryan decided, smartly, to call in sick, so we took shifts with Reese in the morning. Bryan helped me get Reese ready to drop off at Sarah’s and then took me to work before dropping Reese off. It’s been a day but I am managing and so relieved that I have one day left before a weekend to recover from the last 48 hours.

Traveling with a kid is different and unfortunately the beginning of 2020 has not started off with a bang (at least not a good one). It’s not like I might have imagined it to be but that’s okay. Hopefully the rest of 2020 will treat us better!

Chelsea