A Bit Mixed Up

We’re updating Hermanson Family over the next few days so things may appear a bit weird… Don’t worry. It’s us..not you.

Life

Wow I am so far behind on writing on here that I hardly know where to begin. I guess I will just give an update about what is happening. The girls are both growing up so fast it is unbelievable. Olivia is learning sign language (not because she is deaf, but because it is a fun second language)and doing remarkably well with it. She might even know more signs then her parents do. I would guess she knows between 50-75 words in sign. Nora is also growing up. She smiles a ton and love to have attention. She is not rolling over yet, but loves to play with toys and of course puts everything in her mouth. We are doing some sleep training with Nora this week so I think the whole family is a little tired. Today Nora has her 4 month check up (yes she is really 4.5 months) and Olivia is going to play with Miss Naomi while I am gone. Olivia has been saying Omi all day because she is so excited for the visit.
I also have big news…starting on Friday I am heading back to my old office for a couple of hours. I have found a babysitter from my church to watch the girls and I am off to work. I will just be going in on Fridays for as long as Nora will allow, probably 2-3 hours, but I am just thrilled. It will be so nice to have some adult time and feel a little more like part of society.

Things Olivia can now do…walk up and down stairs all alone, understand just about everything we say, repeat words we say, transport herself around church on Sunday AM to see everyone she wants to sit with during the service, give Nora lots and lots of kisses, use the potty sometimes, and sleep in her toddler bed all the time – even through Nora’s crying:)

Happy October 12th!

For all of you outside of the mountain states, we woke up to Snow this morning. The news anchors had been threatening that it would snow this weekend but we just couldn’t believe it. Well believe it! The funny thing is that it’s supposed to be 70 by next weekend. Even though it’s snowing I can’t complain much as when it snows here it’s picture perfect.

Does Olivia Understand?

Since I began to get a belly, We have talked with Olivia about where the baby is. If you would ask her she would pick up my shirt and point to my belly, maybe even give it kisses. She would also refer to born babies as babies. So we knew she could use the word in both instances but we never really knew if she understood or not. Today when she came to see Nora for the second time, we asked her “where’s mommies baby?” I really thought she would lift up my gown and point at my belly, but instead she pointed at nora. Also today when she was reading books with the babysitter, they were asking her to find herself in pictures and she would point to a small child. Then the babysitter asked Olivia to find Nora in the pictures and she pointed to the smallest child. Do you think she understands? We think she does and we are continually amazed at how much she understands.

Our New Addition

It’s official, Nora Grace Hermanson was born July 15th at 10:15pm. She weighed 8lbs 10ozs at 20.5 inches long. Both mom and baby are very healthy. Miriam began contractions around 4pm, we went to the hospital at 8pm and Nora was born at 10:15. Overall the labor was much easier for Miriam than her labor with Olivia. More to come. Pics here Baby Nora

And so it begins

Well….it seems that Miriam may be very close to having this child. Tonight she began having some contractions around dinner time but my magic hands put them on hold after giving a good back massage. So as of right now this labor is on hold. More to come.

Two Naps a Day

So I think a miracle has happened. Olivia has taken 2 naps a day for the past 4 days. It has been amazing. I never thought this day would happen. She naps better now at 16 months old then she did when she was a newborn. I had a to wait a long time, but it finally happened. 95% of the time she doesn’t even cry when she goes down for her naps. We have about 1 month to go before the second baby arrives so her timing is very good!

Photo Session

So we have not ever taken Olivia to get her pictures taken and I finally decided it was time. Today however did not go so well so maybe there has been a good reason why I did not take her before. This week she has been struggling with her nap so I had been worried about how the session would go. Today however she slept like a baby:) When we arrived at Target she was in a good mood, but she just did not want to smile at the photographer and she really did not like the bright flash. She showed her frown face quite a bit. The one thing good is that I did not get sucked into buying all kinds of pictures since most of them were not good. I did find 1 good 1 and so I just purchased that pose in many pictures sizes. Only $8.50 can’t beat that! After we left Target we went to the grocery store. She was smiling away at just about everyone we saw. I think there should be a photography service that just follows you around throughout your day to find the best pictures of toddlers

The Bathroom Remodel

It’s been a long time since I have written last. Before Miriam went to Iowa to visit her parents 3 weeks ago we noticed our tile below the window in our bathroom was separating from the wall; so we decided it was a great time to remodel the shower area of our bathroom. After much work we were able to find a neighbor who would tile the room for us and we were off to the races. Miriam left at 7:30 am on Wednesday morning and after much thinking, I decided I could actually do this and I began Thursday morning before work (Click here for the link to bathroom progress pics). I soon realized it was a good thing we were doing this. The outside wall tile came off with little problem (As a matter of fact, I barely had to touch the tiles and they fell off with ease) and there was a great deal of mold behind the wall. It was great fun ripping off the sheet rock and tile. It opened up an area of dead space to the right of the bathroom that I found to be uninsulated, letting huge amounts of hot or cold air into the house. This added to the work load as I now had to insulate this space, but it also allowed me to add a light over the shower and the stairs that lead down to the basement. Thursday and Friday nights I worked until 10 or so and was able to get quite a bit torn out. Saturday and Sunday were interesting days. I think home depot has a time warp around it, as I lost at least 2 to 3 hours both days procuring the tools and items I needed to finish the job. So Sunday was the longest day. I was under a time crunch as I had committed to my tiler that I would have the room ready Monday morning and as evening was approaching, it was apparent I was not working quickly enough. I don’t think I really cared at that point as I was tired and starting to work on my second wind. Well, 2 am rolls around and I am still not close enough to quit so I said the heck with it, I am not going to get that much sleep anyway so I might as well stay up all night and finish the job. Needless to say I finished at 8am Monday morning, but wait…..I couldn’t put in the new tub because it was too heavy and awkward to do by my self so I had to wait for the tiler to help me put in the tub. Well that didn’t go exactly as planned. We got the tub in place and it turns out that American Standard changed the tub since they wrote the directions. The stringer (the back support brace) had to be moved down from where they said it should be by about 3/4 of an inch. In process of leveling the tub, I forgot to remove the blanket, which I had placed on the floor to protect the tub, so as soon as I finished leveling, I removed the blanket and the tub was out of level. Well… I did this twice. Do you think I would have learned from my mistake the first time…..NO! Well, after sleeping 7 hrs on Monday I finished the bathroom around 11pm and the tilers could do their job. It was a lot of work but in the end I am very satisfied with the work I accomplished.

Olivia’s first puddle and working.

Written on Friday May 23, but not actually posted.
This morning Olivia and I went outside to work on cleaning up our patio. From the bathroom remodel it was a complete mess and I just couldn’t take it any longer. It has been really wet and rainy here for a couple of days, but I decided to take her out anyway. She clearly didn’t mind. She rolled around in the grass and then found a puddle under our skylight. She was so excited and just stood in the puddle and stomped away! Then it started to rain and she thought it was even better! She was quite the mess but appeared to have a great time!

So since last Sept I have only been working a few hours here and there from home, but this month and the month of June it is changes. I am going to work at my old job 1 night a week until the second baby comes. It is at an apartment complex for mentally ill formerly homeless adults. It is really simple I just sit at a desk and push a button to open doors, hand out medications, and be there in case anything out of the ordinary happens. So far last night was great. Nothing really happened so I got paid to sit and be still for 5 hours. I don’t sit still very often so it was a very good thing!