The Nye Family

So, rewinding about 15 days ago...we spent New Year's Eve with some friends. We partied with kids for awhile and then went home and put them to bed, picked up a babysitter, and went and played some games with just adults. Leah did pretty good staying up past her bedtime that her momma is so religious about.

Maybe I just don't remember, but I have never lived somewhere that celebrates New Year's Eve with so many fireworks! It was like the 4th of July. With Christmas lights.

We've loved watching some football lately. It's rare that Nate and I just sit and watch an entire game, but New Year's Day we did it for hours. And our Buckeyes won the National Championship on Monday! One of the greatest things about being an Ohio State fan is the connection we feel with all of our Columbus friends who are now spread out all over the place. I love that we have that tie forever. It's fun to see my Facebook and Instagram explode with posts from our dear Ohio friends after a big game.

This was just one of those moments when I ran and grabbed my camera to capture these 3 playing. There's a lot of origami in progress in that room.

One night I let Emmy have ice cream in the bathtub. She chose Neapolitan, but after tasting it really regretted her choice. I had to capture her disappointed face. That darn strawberry can really ruin things.

This little bug is still sleeping in the Pack n Play in our closet. The next step is to transfer her upstairs to the crib in a bedroom.

This was just one of those days. Leah got a bad cold and was so miserable for days. Emmy was bouncing things on my head and chanting. I call these times the trenches of motherhood. Everything is a mess and the day drags on longer than you ever thought a day possibly could. 

Leah is crawling! She's not very fast, but she is moving. 

I mentioned before that she was pretty sick for a few days. She completely quit nursing one day, and then would not take any bottles or sippy cups. It wasn't a matter of finding the right one, she would suck on all of them, but she would not drink more than a sip. We were using a syringe and force feeding her a few times a day just to keep her hydrated. It was awful, and we couldn't figure it out. The bottle in this picture was filled with chocolate milk in an attempt to get her to drink SOMETHING. Nothing worked. Although we had considered this before but didn't think it was the cause, we finally realized (Nate checked) she had an ear infection and it was just too painful to suck. Slowly she started drinking again and is now taking a bottle. HOORAY! I've been a little sad that she's not breastfeeding anymore, but mostly I love the "freedom."

This is Emmy's beloved Beluga whale from Sea World that she named Rainbow something-or-other. You know, because it's all white.

This is our first time owning a walker. I think it was the best $20 I have spent in a long time. She really gets around in it, and I laugh and laugh as she rams into things. She kind of chases me around the kitchen, and I have to watch my feet!

The countertop after school - can't really avoid it, so I'm learning to not let things like this bother me. I'll clean it up later. 

It got really cold here last weekend. There was a stray pit bull in our neighborhood that was wandering around curling up on everyone's doorsteps trying to keep warm. She was just shivering. Nate brought her in to warm her up and that turned into keeping her for like 5 days. She was smelly, had conjunctivitis in one eye, and was bleeding a little, but we just couldn't send her back out there. We sectioned off an area of our kitchen for the first few days, but after lots of pee, some blood on the floor, and some night time escapes, we sent her out to the garage. The kids named her Midnight, and she was a really sweet dog. Nate and I had a few discussions at night in bed about the possibility of keeping her, but we know it's not the right time for our family. We had to have Animal Services come get her.