Cleaning Lady

I hired a cleaning lady. It was necessary and most definitely a need in my eyes. I have never had a cleaning lady before, but going from an 1,100 square foot house to an almost 2,900 square foot house was just too much for me. I cleaned our old house in 1.5 hours tops...super easy. Now it takes me an hour just to do the master bath. I am so not interested in doing this. After working all week long the last thing I want to do is clean my house. I would rather spend the time with Max and Andy and use his nap times to get a workout in...not clean my house.

I received plenty of recommendations from co-workers and friends, but I already had a cleaning lady in mind. I knew if I wanted a super cleaner I needed to get a referral from my friend Amber. Now, Amber is super picky and anal about everything she does. I also know she went through a "few" cleaning ladies before she settled on her current cleaning lady. This told me that Amber's cleaning lady is the way to go. There is no need for interviewing cleaning ladies or companies. Just go with what I know...Amber is anal and her cleaning lady must fit up to her standards.  Perfect!

Ms. E. came to the house to check it out and give me a price quote. Again, no need for interviewing or asking questions. I actually told her that if she has been cleaning Amber's house for over a year and hasn't been fired yet then she is the cleaning lady for me. Sorry Amber!

She cleaned our house for the first time on Tuesday and she was worth every penny. It felt great to go home to a clean house that I didn't have to clean. Our wood floors never looked so good. Our master bath was sparkling and the shower looked super clean. I couldn't be happier. She will clean our house every other Tuesday and every other Tuesday when I get home from work I will walk in one super happy mamma.

Weekend Update

We didn't do much this past weekend because we were all still recuperating from getting sick. Max even to a five hour nap on Saturday and then again on Sunday. He definitely needed it. As I write this today, Max is pretty much back to normal while Andy and I are still fighting a lingering cough.

Since Max was a super napper this weekend we did get a lot of little home projects done. I was super happy about that. Max's room is finally complete. I got this idea on Pinterest and I think his little boy room turned out great!

Besides home projects we did get outside for a little bit to enjoy the weather. Max even washed his truck. He had a lot of fun doing this and was very proud of himself for washing his truck.

Wisconsin

We were in Wisconsin for a very quick three days so I could say goodbye to grandpa. We arrived in Milwaukee late at midnight on Wednesday the 10th. Andy worked all day on Thursday while I played with Max and helped my parents prepare food for the funeral. Max made the dip for the veggies and he was very proud of himself.

Thanks to my friend, Kim, for letting us borrow her son's snow gear so Max could get outside and see snow for the first time. I bundled him up and we headed outside. I expected this to be a quick five minutes because it was cold out and I assumed my AZ child wouldn't like it, but we were outside for 45 minutes. This kid never got cold while I was freezing the whole time. He was just exploring the snow and trying to see what it was. He told me to make him a snowman, then a snowball, but unfortunately the snow was not packing snow so that didn't happen.

Max spent all day on Friday with grandma L so that Andy and I could attend the funeral service. I didn't feel like it was appropriate to take a two year old and I was not in the mood to entertain him. I wanted to spend this time with family and say goodbye. Max had a much better time with grandma L all day. I did get this awesome picture of him making snow angels. I am sure he exhausted grandma L all day and I know he had a blast at her house.

I didn't take many photos while we were there, but I did take a couple of Max playing cars with grandma V and helping her lose the game she was playing on her iPad.

Saturday morning we went to visit my grandma, but that was cut short due to Max vomiting on her kitchen floor. Max was fine before we left the house, but shortly after walking in the flu took over. We immediately headed back to my parents house so Max could rest. We spent all day hanging around the house talking about good times with grandpa while Max rested. He did get some bursts of energy where he would get up and play with grandpa.

We flew out early Sunday morning and you already read how that lovely day went. Max spent the next few days at home recuperating from the flu and watching Paw Patrol for three days straight. I have the theme song in my head and it's slightly annoying. We tried to get him to watch something else, anything else, but he refused. It was Paw Patrol on a continuous repeat of 7 different episodes. That is his latest thing, Paw Patrol. I am not surprised though because this show is about dogs who drive a fire truck, garbage truck, police car, helicopter, etc. That show is right up his alley. After three days of Paw Patrol it was time to head back to the doctor for a check up to make sure he could go to play with his friends at Ms. Marie's house.

Traveling

I must admit, I have the best traveling toddler ever. He is so well behaved on a plane and I am so proud of him. I am not just saying that because I am his mom, it's true and we did get compliments from other travelers on the plane at how good he is. This is one proud mamma to know that I can travel with my son and not worry about his behavior is so nice.

Max had been asking for a few weeks to go on a plane ride and we had to keep telling him that we were not going anywhere. Then, unfortunate circumstances came and we told him about going on a plane ride to WI and he was so excited. He woke up Wednesday morning talking about his plane ride. He couldn't wait for us to pick him up at the sitter's so he could go on a plane. His excitement was way too cute!

On the flight to WI our plane was half empty so that was really nice. I mean, who really wants to go to WI in February? We had nobody around us so if Max did get crazy it was ok because nobody was near us. However, he did not get crazy. He was awake for one hour and then fell asleep the rest of the flight. Well, we did book the flight for bedtime, so as excited as the little guy was to go on a plane ride he was also really tired too. He hung in there to watch during take off, look out the window after take off, and then play with his magnets, but then he just fell asleep.

We landed in Milwaukee and it was 6 degrees outside, that is an 80 degree difference. Poor Max had no idea what he was getting himself into. I took this picture at midnight as we waited for daddy to get our rental car. He told me that it was cold outside.

The flight to WI was very smooth, but the return flight was another story. Unfortunately Max was sick. He got sick on Saturday morning and we were scheduled to fly out at 6:30am out of Milwaukee on Sunday. That made me nervous to fly with him being sick. I was pretty positive he had the flu because he threw up on Saturday and had a fever. On top of that we woke him at 3am on Sunday to catch the flight. We did that in the past and Max was fine, so we decided to do it again, but this time he was sick.

We get to Milwaukee and boarded the plane just to sit there for 1.5 hours waiting to take off. The whole time Max was just excited to be on a plane that he didn't care we were still sitting there. The flight attendant was even impressed by his behavior (I promise I am not bragging). We then got the dreaded news that our flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues and we needed to de-board the plane and re-book a flight. Ugh! We ended up getting re-booked on a flight from Milwaukee to Chicago and then to Phoenix. We got on the second plane to head to Chicago only to sit there for an hour before take off. Shockingly my sick son was just enjoying himself on the plane. During that hour wait the flight attendant says they are having weight issues and will be removing people from the plane and escorting them to Chicago via a car service. What do you know, my name was called. Thankfully we were saved by a toddler. I proceeded to tell the flight attendant that my son is two years old and she needs to have a car seat for him. (I was a little snotty about this, but I was exhausted and over this day.) Seriously though, how much weight can removing a two year old really do? She did not like that and huffed off the plane and came back to announce another name. Phew...saved by a toddler. Besides this, I also had to deal with seat assignment issues. When we were re-booked they put all three of us all over the plane, for both flights! No bueno! Max is two and cannot fly by himself. Idiots! Nobody was really interested in helping me with this, but I eventually got it situated by asking people on the plane to move.

We headed to Chicago to find out our flight was delayed an hour. Ok, fine, but then we get on the plane only to sit there for another hour before take off. At this point, I am completely over the day and getting irritable, all while my son is just chill. After take off from Chicago, Max goes down hill fast. He did not look very good and he got worse. I felt so bad for him, but he hung in there. He spent the whole 3.5 hour flight napping.

We landed in Phoenix at 5:30pm which was way later than our initial 9:30am arrival time. This made for a very long day and with a sick child. Even though Max was sick all day he was such a trooper. We received compliments from other passengers and from the flight attendants. I couldn't have been more proud of my little traveler.

We took Max to Urgent Care that night and found out he tested positive for the flu and he had an ear infection. The doctor said he probably got the ear infection on the flight home due to the pressure. That makes sense because it was after the second take off that Max went down hill drastically.

It's so good to be home and back to the nice AZ weather. Now, Andy and I are both sick from Max coughing and breathing on us. Here's to recovery and everybody getting healthy!

Playing Catch Up

So, it's been a little crazy around here so I am playing catch up on the blog since I am updating you on a couple weeks ago when grandma S and grandpa T came to town for their annual trip.

While they were here, Andy and I got to have a "date day/night" while Tayler watched Max. We went to the Open all day on Friday and ended up at the Bird's Nest with VIP passes. It was a good time and nice to get out and have some fun adult time.

We went to the Seifert house for their annual Super Bowl party and that was a good time. Max has fun playing with the hot wheels he found and on the scooter in the back yard.

Max enjoyed opening the Valentine's Day gift from his grandparents and it was nice they were here to see it. He was super excited about the car and the giant truck book that was in the box.

RIP Grandpa

My grandpa passed away on February 8th and even though it was a day I was anticipating it was not easy at all. I got the call from my mom on January 28th that my grandpa wasn't doing well and they didn't know how much time he had left. This was hard to take even though I knew it was coming. My grandpa visited us back in October and he didn't look so good. Actually, Andy and I discussed how that was the last time we would see him. I just knew that would be the last time and while we discussed it, I was very sad about it. I thought about the day my grandpa would pass and thought about preparing myself so the day wouldn't be a shock.

No matter how much I prepared myself it was still hard. From the end of January until the 8th it was a roller coaster of emotions. It was hard and weird to sit around and wait for someone to pass away. It was hard to get the daily updates via text or phone call. It was extremely difficult to know that he was in the dying process and you don't know how long it would take him to pass away. It's a natural instinct to want to save someone, but the doctor told my family it was his time and he was dying. There was no saving him. You just have to sit back and be there for him as he passes away. It was tough to be so far away during this difficult time, but I also know it was tougher on my family to be there in person and watch my grandpa go through the dying process.

I thought many times about getting on a plane to make it to say goodbye, but I didn't. My mom informed me that grandpa didn't look good at all and didn't look like himself. It was best for me to keep the good memories of grandpa in my mind and stay in Arizona until the funeral. So, that is what I did. I did get to talk to my grandpa a couple times on the phone. He knew it was me both times I called and he told me he was going to make it out to Arizona soon to visit me again. Of course I knew that was not going to happen, even though it would have been nice.

My mom called me at work at 2:30 in the afternoon on that Monday. I knew what I was about to hear when the phone rang and saw it was my mom calling. I knew as I grabbed for the phone it was going to be the dreaded news that I was preparing myself for. Even though I knew what I was about to hear it didn't make the news any easier as I just broke down after I hung up that phone.

I headed home from work to book my flight to say goodbye to my grandpa. All three of us took off two days later on the 10th to say goodbye to a wonderful grandpa, father and husband.

Rest In Peace Grandpa!

Weekend Update

We started off this past weekend with another unhappy boy at swim lessons. I did a smidge better than last week, but he still hasn't warmed up to the new instructor and the idea that we are not in the pool with him. We headed home for arts and crafts. I bought this little project at the store and planned to keep it for a rainy day when Max needed a quiet activity, but he found it and absolutely DEMANDED we do it on Friday night. I caved and he had a lot of fun putting the stickers on his emergency vehicles.

He had fun being crazy in his bedroom while daddy painted it. I am bummed that I didn't take pictures of him helping daddy tape the walls for the paint. He seriously took strips of blue tape and started taping the wall to be just like daddy. It was beyond cute, but I didn't take pictures. Instead I took pictures of him playing.

Saturday we also went for a haircut and it was a new place, so of course Max was uncomfortable and had to sit on my lap the whole time. Ugh! Following the hair cut we headed to the book store. Max was very excited to go to the book store and pick out new books. He went there looking for more car and truck books because we are now in a routine every night where we read about two or three books before bedtime, so we needed more book options.

On Sunday we headed to the food truck festival in Scottsdale. It was a lot of fun and I had the best lobster roll ever. It was piled high with lobster and worth the $20 I paid for it. The festival had BMX bikers there and Max thought this was cool, so we watched for a while as he just giggled.

We then took a few trips down the inflatable slide. If Max had his way this is all we would have been doing all day long.

Max got to ride on daddy's shoulders too.

We had one tired little boy who carried his chips and cheetos to the car from the festival. He fell asleep with orange fingers.