How hard is it to blog? Really?!

I just checked and noticed I had not updated since last OCTOBER! No excuse for that! But to be fair, hardly any other blogs I follow have updated in 2 years =)

Kyle and I are expecting again, and I'm already 20 weeks with another daughter. And just as last time, it's pretty uneventful. Nausea in the first trimester, tired, sore and moody....and hungry for everything in the HOUSE!

Speaking of the house, it's just little projects here and there. Mostly focusing on the yard, because it wasn't that tidy looking when we moved in....weeds everywhere!

Emily is almost done at her new preschool, and she will be returning in the fall for another year of preschool. Yes she was Kindergarten eligible, but with a late July birthday and by speaking with her teachers, and stressing a lot about it at home, we decided it was best to let her start at 6. I look around at other parents who are sending their children to Kindergarten this year, and though it's their choice, I cant help but wonder if it's really in the best interest for the child, or if the parents don't want to shell out for another year of daycare when there is a cheap public option.  Being a young 5 year old and all of the sudden being in school from 8-3pm 5 days a week is hard on them mentally and physically....which is why we decided Emily didn't need to start this early. I'm not holding her back....I'm just not sending her early.

Still working as a face painter in the Quad Cities and business has been really great! Actually too busy, I really need this to stay a part time venture so I can focus on the getting the house ready, and because I'm just getting bigger and it's getting harder to stand and paint kids for longer periods of time.

Well that concludes the update! Hopefully I'll be back sooner than last time.
Cari

Time Flies! Update on Life, the New House and Me - the New Quad City Face Painter

Nothing new to report, except we FINALLY moved. Sold the house 30 days from the listing date and bought another one. We officially moved into our new home at the end of May, 2013.

It needs some updating, well cared for -- but the style is very WALLPAPERED. I prefer paint. It's a slow process.

I've been continuing to grow my face painting business here in the Quad Cities and it's booming, to the point where I have to turn people away, which is terribly sad.....I hate doing that, but I'm just a "one woman gig." I will have to find a helper to train and help me get through long lines and handle multiple gigs in one day.

I did create a website, I settled on the name QC Painted Faces. It was the Facebook name I had for the page a few years ago when I made it, and just decided to let it stick. I figured, I live in the Quad Cities, and I'm a face painter....why not!?

I've met other great face and body artists, balloon twisters, clowns, magicians...etc. It's really a fun atmosphere, and great to be involved with people like this. I guess my brother was right when he said Mom and Dad bought me from the circus.

My website is www.QCPaintedFaces.com. I do face painting in Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline..etc, but I have been traveling a bit further. It just really depends on the day/compensation. =)  It's fun though, and I enjoy doing it.

I'll post more house pictures once I actually get something done. The place reminds me of an overdecorated hotel right now.

Emmy is great, loves school and Kyle continues his hard work ethic. Business as usual!
The Cooneys.

This was our Moving Announcement ---yes that big mural in the background is WALLPAPER. It's some sort of Japanese Garden thing, not really sure. I like it though!

Preschool from Hell, The Christmas Vomit Fest....etc

So my last post 3 months ago was about Emily and her preschool issues, being sad, not liking it etc. The entire time, I had a feeling I wouldn't like the place. It seemed too busy, the children were wild and the teachers all seemed distressed from insane hours and being overrun by too many kids. I started to have doubts, but since it was the exact same location I went to preschool, and even had the same center director, I thought "I'm just being crazy and I think Emmy should be treated like royalty everywhere we go."

But when I sent her with a water bottle one day, I didn't expect the reaction I got when I went to pick her up. I noticed her water bottle was placed up high, out of her reach. When I pick her up, it's right about time for the kids to be napping, so I grabbed the bottle, put it in her bag and got her ready to leave, the teachers are usually too busy chasing screaming kids who don't want to nap. I sent her with one because she is so thirsty during the day. She has allergies and the medicine can dry her mouth out, and they only give her a little cup of soy milk at noon. She can't have regular milk---I specifically told them NO to soy because it just makes the phlegm worse with the allergies--the director told me they had to put it in front of her.

Long story short---they caught her with the water bottle, took it away and told her "Water stays at home." She couldn't have it, not even for a medical reason. They would not give her water at lunch, BUT she would have to request it, and MAYBE the teacher would help (that place is not well run). She is 3, she is shy, she doesn't ask for water from strangers, she simply just stares and what is placed in front of her. I guess she had been attempting to drink from the sink. I dumped out her cubby and she's been home with me, we'll be starting a new in home-water bottle welcome daycare in a week with a friend. I know she'll like it a lot more there.

The holidays were eh....not good this year. Kyle started throwing up early Christmas Eve. We went to his family party, but he was miserable. We thought it was food poisoning  On Christmas Day, we went to my parents' house and he was feeling better and even ate a small bit of Christmas dinner. It was a really nice time and was good to see him feeling well.

That night, just before dawn, I woke up in a sweat. I ran to the bathroom and then it was my turn. Turned out it was a stomach flu, and a REALLLLLY bad one. Thankfully Emmy didn't get sick, but my mom caught it as well. As soon as we were all done with that 48 hours of horribleness, all 3 of us caught a wicked chest cold. Emmy had coughing fits so hard, she threw up 5 times in a half hour. But, today is probably the worst of it and tomorrow can ONLY get better.

So anyone who reads this, stay away from the Germy Cooneys for another week and we'll do our best to keep inside away from all of you!!!

Here's to a better 2013, because the past 10 days have been pretty gross.

Cari



Emmy on Christmas day, what a doll!

Starting Preschool

Emily started preschool last week. She was all about it, but now she is in tears at the thought of going. Assuming it's just a phase, I am just taking it one day at a time. But I can understand her feelings. She basically runs the place here. She doesn't have to share her toys and has her own schedule. She says her teachers are scary and the place is too noisy. If she doesn't like preschool---she's going to have quite an interesting k-12 career. This too shall pass I suppose.

Kyle is still working a lot, as am I. Emily turned 3 in July and the very next day I decided to potty train her once and for all. I basically just said "no more diapers." Strangely, it worked.

I have been doing a lot of face painting gigs at various events all over the Quad Cities, very fun! I look forward to expanding my client base and getting more private parties. These big shows leave me exhausted; long lines seem to never get smaller. Plus, I hate that I have to turn kids away at the end, but after 3 hours of kid after kid getting Spiderman or Butterflies on their face, I wear down.

Well, I don't get paid for writing my blog, so it's back to work I go!

Cari

Spring 2012!

Not much of a winter and NOT complaining. I hadn't been able to find the time to write posts because of Migraines that were running my life. Tired of dealing with nauseating headaches every single day, I checked into the neuroscience unit of Genesis West for a 3-5 day stay. The next day...after being treated like a drug addict (well...I was taking Imitrex daily) and having my veins blown out AND not being able to get the medication through the IV, I signed out and left my treatment to myself and my husband, in the form of sub-q injections.

 Thankfully, the drugs are working and I have been virtually migraine free for almost 3 days. I've accepted a job a web editor at EYES IN Magazine, an up and coming magazine from New York. My boss is a doll, what a great person! I like my job, it's a lot of work but the income is appreciated. I take care of the content on the website, maybe sometime later I will be more involved with the magazine, but I like doing the online stuff. Kyle's job has slowed, and my anger surrounding that business has started to subside. I was mad about retiring from being a doula, it made me look bad to jump in and out of that profession so quickly. But we all have to do what is right for the family, and my days are not numbered as a birth assistant. When my children are grown, I can go back to baby catching another time!

 Emily is in the terrible twos! I hate to use the word terrible to describe my child, but sometimes I think she's lost her mind! The throwing things, tantrums and hitting can drain a mother. Plus I hate always putting her in time out. I think it's getting better. She is still loving and sweet, she just has her sour moments......daily. As the Duggar's say: Praise your children 10 times more than you correct them. She will be 3 in July....we are already planning our first fun vacation with her to the Dells the following year. We'll be 4 days 3 nights in Ames this June. It will be nice to show her our old stomping ground, as she hasn't been there since she was an infant. We're less than a month away from our 6 year anniversary, which is pretty good considering how people are these days.

That's all for now! Hope to continue feeling well and writing more!
 The Cooneys

The Adventures Never Quit

What a fun second birthday party Emily had! It's fun to see her have fun, I hope she'd developing memories now that will last her lifetime.

She's such a little talker. She sings her ABCs and theme songs to PBS shows. She likes to count and asks every living critter she sees in nature if she can "pet you." Before bed, she tried to give everything in sight from the living room to her bedroom a goodnight kiss. She's a living doll.

We've recently had some break-ins at our condo. We live in a very modest townhome in Bettendorf. While our home cost us less than 100,000.00 to purchase, we are surrounded by homes in the 200,000.00 range. We assumed we picked a great neighborhood. However, some latchkey teens down the road (and although we can't prove it, we're caught them doing naughty stuff before) have come into our condo's communal hallway about 5 times (at least) since the holidays last year and taken the outgoing mail from the outbox, ripped it shreds in hopes of finding money and then left it on the lawn. We've filed reports, but until we catch them in person, the cops write down the information and move on. We're hoping to scrape up enough money and energy to list the condo and sell this coming spring.

None of our stuff has been taken or tampered with, but when your 82 year old neighbor has ALL of her Christmas cards taken and ripped to pieces (no money in any of them) and then I find them after the snow melts months later, it makes me not want to live here anymore. A problem with living in this condo is we only have a 12th of the vote, so pushing for a security system is an issue. Other's don't want to spend the money on it. Kyle and I feel the best bet would be to move where we are in charge of the locks on our doors, the security lights on our lawn and anything else we decide to do to protect ourselves. We simply need to own our house 100%. We'll see how that goes come spring. My poor neighbor didn't even know until late March that ALL of her Christmas cards never reached her recipients.

Not being a birth doula has made me think of other ways to provide worth to the community that still has something to do with families and children. I've become a FACE PAINTER! How random right? Well, I started doing it at the family museum and then some local vendor shows and now I get calls for charity events and birthday parties. It's pretty fun and easy to work around Kyle's busy work life. I'm interested to see where this little venture of mine goes.

That's all about us for now!
The Cooneys

Busy Busy Busy

Emily's second birthday is less than a month away. These last 2 years really flew by. Kyle has been out of town a lot lately because of his new job. Emily has really missed her Daddy.

With Kyle working almost 60 hours a week, I've had to make decisions regarding my job(s). His company at first said they had no problem with me being a birth doula and that they would accomodate my on-call schedule, letting Kyle make up hours on Saturdays. However, they are not accomdating in the least and I am no longer able to attend births. It's been pretty upsetting, but I realize his job is the bread-winner. There is pretty much no-flexibility in his hours and they send him off on week long trips with a few hours notice. In reality, I hate this job. They keep him away from his family a lot....they call on Sundays to bother him when he spent the past 6 days at work. He misses dinners, appointments and vacation days that were scheduled ahead of time are forced to be cancelled. But, I have high hopes that once they hire more engineers, his schedule will become more reasonable. If I got a chance to sit down with their CEO, I would remind him about the importance of family. People work to live...not live to work. All of this hard work...to keep America's coffee cups full. =(

However, I have decided with as much stress and Kyle is under, I don't want to place any more on him. He is pretty much drained when he gets home, so I took the liberty of taking up his chores to ease his to-do list. I even cut back on my writing work to make more time to handle house things. I can always get more clients when Emily becomes more independent. As for being a doula, I'm still prenatal and post partum, so I'm glad to still be a part of the group.

It's not ideal right now, but we're working on it. We just wish Kyle could be home more, but glad he's found a job where he feels he gets to use his skills.

I've planned Emily's birthday party. She's going to have an Eebee theme. If you have young children under 3 and have never heard of Eebee, check it out!! We're still planning to move within 2 years. We're going to wait out the winter months and list our house in Spring of 2013...maybe Fall of 2012, but we'll see. We still have some things we want to do to the condo. I hate the thought of packing up...maybe I'll just hire movers!

20 months old and growing....

Emily has been keeping us busy, as usual. Caillou is her most favorite show. It is probably the show I care for the least on PBS, but she loves it. She says his name in her sleep!
We've been frequenting the park, Emily is a fan of the slide. My parents got her a small castle slide play set (complete with rock climbing wall) and she has a lot of fun.

I tried to get her dressed up in her Easter dress today, but she was not happy about it. She's a tomboy, loves her pants! I got a few good pictures, but was hoping for a few more smiles.

I'm still a birth doula and Kyle has been with his new company for about 8 months now. Who knows when we'll be selling the condo and moving....we're shooting to be moved and done before Emily's 4th birthday. There's still work to be done around the condo. I'm now the editor of a children's magazine, hopefully it goes well!

Here are Emily's favorite sayings at almost 21 months:
Caillou (Caaboooo)
Silly Caaabooo
Pizza
Spaghetti (Baskettttti)
Pop (Yes, she says pop....)
Cake
Mine
Fred (Fwed)

She does say complete sentences. She counts to 10 and knows a few of her colors. She's about 23 pounds and 33 inches tall. Finally starting to have nights where she sleeps without waking up and needing help getting back to bed. She has been angry at me twice for putting her to bed, and jumped out of her crib. Only twice! No toddler bed yet! I need to hang onto that baby cage a little while longer!

That's all for now!
Cari, Kyle and Emmyloo

18 months...

No where close to being able to handle another one of Emily running around the house!

She now enjoys coloring and hugging and kissing everything, making sure to say "Me Nice" after. She's barely 22 pounds and some change. Her hair is getting wild though!

Kyle is still at his new job and seems to like it. I am still copywriting away and assisting women as a birth doula. Our cats are still not willing to accept Emily as a part of the family. Well, Fred does---as best he can.

Hoping next spring we list this house and get out of here. This condo is starting to feel a little cramped.

Emily's favorite foods at this time are:
Bananas (Nanas)
Pizza (Peeeesha)
Pasta ( Pata)
Pie (Pie)

Her favorite little sayings are:
Oh No!
I mada meh (I made a mess)
All Done
What's that (which she has said since she was 8 months old)
Me Nice

She continues to be best friends with Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Eebee, Barney and Caillou.

Happy 15 Months Emily!

Today Emily turned 15 months old...so that means off to the doctor tomorrow and yes, even a shot or two. She's going to be getting a new car seat very soon, so we can turn her around. She only weighs 21 pounds, and supposedly the law is 22 pounds and we're perfectly fine with waiting.

She must say like 50 words now. She even says her own name. She yells EMMY EMMY!
Kyle left his job with eServ to take a new position, so that has been quite an adjustment, he actually has to be on time to this job and dress nice! =) But, he really feels like he's a real engineer now, not just hired-help.

We're down to one afternoon nap a day and I hope this works, her sleeping hours have always been lengthy, but never really starting or ending at a good time. The cats are still terrified of her, but sometimes I catch Fred and her having a friendly moment. I think this week, she's managed to get a hold of 4 cans of my pop and dump them all over, but saving a little bit for herself "POP POP POP."

I'll try to update more often, but it's getting difficult to find the time! I'm still attending births as a doula and really enjoying helping women through the journey.

That's all for now!
Cari Kyle and EMMY EMMY!