Fake Housewife

Following in the footsteps of many other notable housewives, I am reentering the workforce next month.  I know what you are thinking - Kelly is finally coming out with her Kelly Coutoure line or perhaps Kelly Koated Nights or pursuing that promising singing career.  Alas, no - although with enough auto-tune I could make a mean remix to "Don't be Tardy for the Party."  Rather, I am following in my girl Phaedra's footsteps and got a real job as an attorney at a small firm in Madison.  I am excited to be going back to work - was told recently that I probably should be going back to work when I mentioned how I get sad when Owen sleeps in because I have nothing to do (valid point). 

Also - how awesome is this apron?  My friend, Alyssa got it for me around Christmas time and I wore it for the first time this week.  Although it is amazing, I typically don't need an apron because my shirt is already covered in spit up and drool - so a little splash of sauce is no big deal.  However, I will certainly put it to good use in the coming years.

 We had a special visitor from Thailand last week - Uncle David.  David brought us a bunch of great gifts.  One of those gifts, he thought was a mediocre gift of a coozie (his thoughts, not mine - I like a good coozie).  Little did he know, Owen loves coozies.  After plastic cups, they may be his favorite toy.  He has two others in his toy box but his Thailand coozie seems to be the favorite now.  It was great seeing David and he got a ton of giggles out of Owen.

Two men and a baby.

Owen experienced his first boat ride this past weekend when we went to Lake Geneva.  As depicted above, he was captivated by the experience.

Things livened up a bit once he awoke and found Barret's pamphlet on Lake Geneva.

There were also some high schoolers on a date who took this cruise.  I find high schoolers in love to be extremely entertaining.  Barret was the creeper who took this picture.  They were cute, but in that awkward high school romance sort of way.

I had never been to Lake Geneva but I do love seeing ridiculous homes and Lake Geneva did not disappoint.  There were homes for sale for $15 million and those appeared to be on the smaller end of the estates we saw.  Lake Geneva was built as a summer getaway for extremely wealthy Chicagoans after the Chicago Fire.  It is crazy to me that someone can build such a lavish home and only use it one month out of the year.  It was a fun city to see though and I am glad to say that I have now seen the "Newport of the Midwest."

Cone Dog

First off, my husband wrote a great article regarding a nursing mom's rights in the workplace.  Here is the link, if anyone is interested:  http://www.dewittross.com/news-education/posts/2013/04/09/accommodating-nursing-mothers-in-the-workplace.

Our beloved Murphy had to have surgery a few weeks ago.  He had a lump on his leg, which turned out to be a benign tumor.  Unfortunately, they cannot tell if it is benign or malignant until they remove the tumor and have it tested.  Although it was benign, it was still good to have it removed as it could have continued to grow and become problematic.  Nevertheless, Murphy had to wear the cone of shame for 10 days.

Day One was a bit rough, as the vet had to sedate Murphy when he woke up because he was really angry about not being able to get at his incision.  When he came home, he was super sappy and I realized that I had never heard him whimper until that day.  Murph is tough though, and he has now combated worms, a tapeworm, Lyme's disease, a truck, and a tumor and has come out on the winning end.

After the first day, Murphy was getting back to his normal self - except his damn cone.  I don't think he really noticed that he had this cone on, other than when he was drinking water from the rain drops that landed in his cone, but it drove me crazy.  He bopped his cone around constantly and could not figure out that he needed to wait to squeeze his conehead out the door.  He would also run upstairs after we put Owen to bed and bang his cone on each stair.  Owen also did not mind the cone and was happy that he was still able to get some daily kisses from Murph.

Every child seems to love Sophie the Giraffe and Owen is no exception.  My mom got him one for Christmas, which mysteriously went missing a few days later.  I had brought it in the diaper bag to yoga and i was never seen again.  My first instinct was Murphy took it outside and buried it in the snow, along with some of his other treasures.  Once the snow melted, I scoured the yard but no Sophie.  So I figured I had wrongly accused Murphy.  Until we got replacement Sophie a few days ago.  The instant Murphy was left alone with Sophie, he took it through his doggy door and was playing with it in the yard.  Thankfully, I was walking downstairs and spotted my misbehaving dog and was able to save Sophie.  I am still not sure what Murph did to Sophie 1 (chewed up and swallowed?) but he was definitely the culprit and not my mommy brain.  Now, we have to keep Sophie tucked away or up high when not in use.

I love free stuff!  I will never turn down a free sample at the grocery store or a stupid t-shirt that is being given away.  So I of course love free kids stuff.  Storytime at libraries are great.  The past two weekends, however, we went to Kids in the Rotunda.  Owen is a bit young to really care about the shows, but the ones we went to involved singing kids songs and the singers were really good.  Best of all, it was free.  It is a nice thing to have in town and Owen was interested in looking around at other kids - plus it will be awesome next year for him.

Although Owen does love Sophie the Giraffe, his favorite toy is his bath cup.  It is the only toy that he has started crying over when taken away.  Not sure what it is about this cup, but he loves it.

Another Owen favorite are his socks and toes.  No need to buy this baby toys.  Also - holy thunder thighs!

Mommy Boots

Am I turning into a mom who is only able to talk about poop and puke?  Perhaps...  However, that is really all that consumed the past week of our lives.  I came down with a bout of what was thought to be food poisoning.  The culprit?  Sushi purchased from Sentry.  Barret chided me for buying such a product, but the shrimp was cooked and Sentry is a classy place.  It was not like I got it from the gas station.  Nevertheless, I paid a hefty price - 4 days of emptying my stomach and only being able to eat a few saltines.  We discovered a few days after my bout ensued that it was not food poisoning, but actually the stomach flu.  How did we discover this?  Well Barret came home early to help with Owen, only to realize that he was extremely sick as well.  Thankfully, Owen did not get sick nor did he get the memo that Mom and Dad were sick (monster baby pictured above).  However, he did have the runs for a day or two, which was pretty horrific to change those diapers when you are nauseous yourself.  Thankfully, we all survived the bootage and are doing much better this week.

Owen is not yet crawling, but that is not for lack of determination.  He has, however, figured out that he can move if he rolls around.  He started out on his play mat and I came back from grabbing some toast to see that he rolled across the living room.  Mobile baby is a bit scary.

This baby loves to be on his stomach.  We have zero issues with tummy time.  He is now insisting on getting dressed while on his tummy, getting his diaper changed on his tummy (it's super fun), and taking a bath on his tummy.  The bath on his stomach is a bit disconcerting and I am pretty sure he was drinking some bath water the other day - but he has a mind of his own now.

Barret and I are not what you would call "religious."  Neither of us knew what Easter was the celebration of, but we do like brunch, dying eggs, and chocolate - so pretty good holiday in my book.  Owen was thrilled to wear bunny ears for Easter.  We did not hide an Easter basket for him this year, but next year it will likely be a bit more exciting for him.  I also did not take him to get his picture taken with the Easter bunny, because I did not realize that was a thing and had the flu.  Low maintenance holiday for this clan!