Trump Tower - Results!

A little follow-up on the Trump Tower post.... the manager called me, offered to let me have 10 people in the room, knocked 200 off the price, and sent up free champagne and chocolates.  Winner!!!

Here are some good pics of the room (all pics taken by my friend Emily)

There was a lot of good food and fun times with the ladies... and a blowup giraffe!

Got these ladies all in one place since my wedding in 2007 - I call it a MAJOR success!!!

And good times were had by all!  :)

Eyeballs

I think one of the really tough things about parenting is that when you're not privvy to the details of other people's lives, you assume that everything is 100% perfect. Many times we don't talk about our struggles. But I think it's important to address these roadblocks as well - everyone has some cross to bear. Life isn't perfect for anyone.

In October a friend came to visit with her little one. We had a great time seeing them. We took the boys for a walk and chatted and just hung out. Although the boys are about 2.5 months apart, we were due only a month apart. So developmentally the boys are much closer in age. The boys were sitting on a blanket in our living room when I noticed something that I'd been getting suspicious of over the past week or so. "There! Look! Is his eye crossed?!" I pointed to Emmett and my friend looked at him carefully. She is a detail-oriented person, Type A, a social worker. Also honest. Not the kind of person to ignore or sugarcoat things. She looked at him carefully for a minute or two before answering. "I don't see it. I don't think it is. Maybe it just looked that way for a minute," she said. I was glad she was there in the moment to give me her opinion. But I couldn't sweep the feeling under the rug. Couldn't dismiss it. Later when I was uploading pictures from the weekend, I noticed that his eye definitely looked crossed in any pictures where he was looking straight at the camera.

One of the pics from that weekend

I rooted around in my photo files. Just a week earlier his eye might have been a little off in one picture I took (of 100).

A couple of weeks earlier at the pumpkin patch

And a few weeks before that, at his school pictures in September, it looked just fine.

I started compiling pics of Emmett and his eyes into a flickr set, and planned to bring it up at his well baby visit with his pediatrician a three weeks later.

The following week, everyone else started noticing. My Dad asked if his eyes were crossed. Dad is a minister and has seen a lot of people and A LOT of situations. He pretty much knows everything (one time he asked me what a kind of cheese was that we were eating in Chicago and I was all "Holy cow I know something Dad doesn't." So dumb, a type of cheese. haha) I felt a sense of vindication that I wasn't just blowing things out of proportion, but also dismayed that there could be something actually wrong with Emmett.

That week, I saw a notice at his daycare that they would be doing eye exams at his school for the older kids. I asked them to have the person take a look at his eyes. I was given a note in a sealed envelope that night. "Dear Emmett's Mom, I would recommend taking Emmett to a pediatric opthamologist." Ugh. Not words you want to read.The next week at his pediatrician appointment, his doc looked at his eyes and said that while she thought his eye health was good, she was referring us to a doctor at Riley Children's hospital in downtown Indy. The soonest they could get us in was the first week in December. And so we waited.

The first appointment was pretty straightforward. They measured his eyes and agreed with my assessment. They prescribed glasses. The doctor told me that it would most likely correct with the glasses. If not, they'd try patching the good eye to encourage the development of the bad one. If that didn't work, then we'd try surgery.

Emmett turns a lot of heads in his tiny glasses. He is admittedly very cute in them. I'm glad I picked the square frames, as they "turn him into a tiny intellectual" as a friend commented.

In February we took him back to Riley to check on progress and they reported that the eye was less crossed. 18-20 diopters of crossed instead of 30 at the original appointment. But not enough to conclude that the glasses would correct the problem. They recommended patching but wanted to schedule the surgery for early summer. We were more than a little taken aback with what we thought was skipping a step straight to surgery. The error rate the surgeon quoted us was 20%. This was alarming to us, for sure. We scheduled a second opinion at Children's Memorial in Chicago.

Let's just say that the 773 Chicago area code cell phone and Indiana address really confused the administrative staff while making the appointment.

But the appointment was great. We were much better prepared to ask questions at this one, which probably explains most of why we felt better about it. The eye was also slightly better and they did extensive tests on eye health which put his eyesight at completely normal and equally good in each eye. But the doctor recommended the same exact course of treatment as Riley. Same methods, same strategy, same everything. The doctor even recommended Riley as highly as she did Children's. I knew Riley was very well-regarded, but I'm from Indiana. I wanted to know the opinion of the hospital outside of the state, and it's good to know that they are held in high esteem by Children's.

So here we are. Waiting until his next appointment May 11. Looking at him critically each day to see if it's gotten better. Waiting to see if the surgery works. Hoping that it does, to give our little man a chance at a normal life with two normal eyes.

Typical sight

DSC_8681, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Climbing on the cozy coupe....

Emmett loves this thing. He is such a fan!

It's all my fault

DSC_8554, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

.... my mom hasn't updated her blarg in a million years. I am walking and into EVERYTHING. On the upside, I'm super cute and can say bye-bye, among other things.

School pictures are next week, so that should be another cute opportunity!

The small delights in life

OK confession time. And this is kind of odd. One of the things I really really enjoy is writing a sternly-worded letter to a manager or customer service representative if I think something sucks or is ridiculous. And yesterday I was able to fulfill just that delight.

I was online, looking at suites for a friend's bachelorette party and found a freaking awesome one at the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. Of course, the suite was about a million dollars (let's agree to not tell actual amounts to protect the innocent and to keep my friends from realizing how much I was planning to spend). At any rate, I thought, "Self. Allowance goes alot farther in Indiana. You have been saving for something fun. You can cover most of the cost and the rest of the girls can chip in the same amount as if we'd gotten a more reasonably priced room. And I bet if you called the hotel, they would cut their rate. Why not give it a go?" So I did. I called the hotel, and they offered me a discount on the spot to book. Just like that, I was getting a two bedroom, lakeview suite at the Trump Tower for, let's just say, only half a million dollars.

I have fond memories of our anniversary at the Trump a couple of years ago. The bath tub was the size of our Corolla and the bathroom had a TV in the mirror. We drank champagne and watched Tommy Boy from the tub. And lo it was awsome. I was suitably stoked about securing an all out baller place to have this shindig.

Don't believe me? Check out these pictures...

Ridiculous no?

As we are wrapping up the phone conversation, the rep says, "OK, so one final thing. Just wanted to make sure you were aware of our Gathering Policy." I reply with no and she says that ONLY the six guests who are registered to the room are allowed to go up to it. That you need to sign in and have key cards and there is a security guy and the works. And the room can have a maximum of six people staying in it.

I'll stop for a minute and let that soak in. Also..... this pic below of a dining room table that seats 8. For a room that is only allowed to have 6 people in it. Because that makes sense.

ANYWAY - I tell her right then and there that we'd better just go ahead and cancel the reservation. Because while we probably will only have about 6 staying there, there was a possibility of having to squeeze in one or two more. And that we'd have more than that for the pre-dinner bachelorette festivities that included snacks and giving our friend some bachelorette gifts and playing of games. So she says ok, cancels the room and gives me a cancellation number. Bummer.

The more I think about it, the more freaking steamed I get. You pay an exorbitant fee for a great hotel room and then you can only have six people, REGISTERED GUESTS ONLY, even enter it. How weird. So I wrote this letter. I doubt I will get a reply. But it was it fun.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: April
To: Info@TrumpHotels.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 1:54 PM
Subject: Manager Question/Complaint

I tried to make a reservation for your 2 bedroom suite with a lake view (at the Chicago location) to the tune of around a half million dollars and the reservations representative asked me if I knew about your "Gathering policy." Apparently, only the 6 registered guests for the room are the only people allowed to access the room at all. As the room was for a celebration for a friend's wedding and we planned on doing gifts and snacks at the hotel prior to going out for dinner and drinks, I had no choice but to cancel.

This seems ridiculous. You charge someone a half million dollars and then treat them as if they are an 18 year old in a college dorm? I was on an academic floor in college and still had a more lenient visitation policy. Is this meant to limit property damage? If I have the means to pay for a hotel room of that amount, I would surely have the means to pay for any damage as a result of having other people in the room. Not to mention that there would be no damage. I would hazard a guess that you don't want parties on your property, but a few extra women in their thirties giving gifts to an engaged friend and eating brie certainly isn't a cause for concern. Your complete and total disregard for your guests in this policy is alarming.

I would really like to touch base with a manager on this policy. It seems completely contrary to the Trump reputation and everything it stands for. However, I was unable to find Manager information (in addition to the "Gathering Policy") published on your website.

Thanks,
April

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So anyways, am I crazy? It is offensive to charge someone out the wazoo for something and then treat them with all the leeway of a middle schooler, no? I just don't get it.

Pics are from the Trump Hotel website

Knock, knock.... is this thing on?

OK, I have been a majorly bad blogger. At least my template is fixed now. But God only knows how long it was like that! I will say that life with a little one is even more busy than I expected, and when I get a spare minute I usually want to spend it playing with Emmett or catching up around the house (which I never actually get caught up on!) or catching up on z's (another thing I never actually get caught up on!)

While Emmett is *knock on wood* a pretty good sleeper, the craptastic part of life is that YOU NEED SLEEP EVERY DAY. So even if he sleeps through the night 6/7 nights, there is that one night that he gets you up and you feel like night of the waking dead for a few days. Lately he has been much more unpredictable than that, but still. Overall it could be much worse. The other awesome thing is that he has been getting up around 5 or 5:30, which is ridiculous. Who gets up at 5? Crazy people, that's who. And babies. And then there are the days that he wakes up at 4:30. Oy. Let's just say, those days are crazy long.

I can tell you one thing that is awesome, and that is having my couch back. Those months in the rental house without my furniture took their toll, and I will never ever take my couch for granted again. This house is so big though that we're rocking things like a folding table in the dining room and a tv tray as a nightstand in the guest room. If that's not classy I don't know what is.

We're currently in the process of dealing with a few things:

• Emmett has glasses and may need eye surgery for strabismus and amblyopia. It's pretty likely he'll need at least one surgery, and it's kind of likely that he'll need two. We're heading up to Chicago at the end of March for a fun weekend topped off with a second opinion at Children's Memorial.
  
• I'm heading to India for a work trip in March, so my two dudes will be on their own for two weeks. I'm feeling a little bad for the dudes, but they'll make it through.
• Emmett was recently diagnosed with a moderate wheat allergy, so I'm learning to adapt and feed him without wheat. We're not going too nutso over it since it's a moderate allergy. Yet it's still a major adjustment. Do you know what wheat is in? EVERYTHING!
• The leasing agency found someone to take over our lease in Greenwood - SCORE! So this next payment is prorated and then we'll get our security deposit back. So really, there won't be any more paying for a rental we don't live in! Woot!
• Thinking of buying a car. Drove some this weekend and I fell in love with a Prius V. For those of you that don't know, this is basically a station wagon. But so cute! And so energey efficient! I am in love! We'll wait until I get back from India though - no use in buying a new car to let it sit in a garage for weeks right off the bat.
  

Overall we are loving our new life in Indiana! Maybe my new pink and chevron setup with inspire me to write a little bit more :)

Technical difficulties!

VID00636 a video by agstratt on Flickr.

I know, I know, the stuff is jacked up. Now I have to go find a new template and install it. Stand by!

In the meantime, check out this video of my tiny baby. My BAAAAAAAYYYYYYBEEEEEEEEEEE!! Where did he go? Now he's been replaced with a small boy who yells and bites my finger when I brush his teeth.

I miss the baby smoke monster noises. At least during the daytime.

Busy Bee

DSC_8252, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Sir is a busy bee and won't sit still. I snagged him for a pic and he was all "DUDE! Must keep going!"

He likes to bang on my laptop too. Working, Mom!

Look who is one!!!

DSC_8165, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

No concerns about lack of cake smashing around here. Emmett grabs the cake and smashes it right into his mouth!

At one year:
-Emmett is into EVERYTHING.
-He is cruising along furniture, and has two push toys he can walk behind.
-He can stand on his own when he doesn't realize he is doing it (once he realizes he is all AHHH and grabs for something).
-He climbed up on his car push toy onto the coffee table two days ago, resulting in a nice bruised noggin.
-Falls all the time
-Has finally learned to wave - with his whole arm!
-Make clicking sounds with his mouth and yells while smacking his mouth making an ah-ah-ah-ah sound.
-He can eat an entire can of mandarin oranges and has housed an adult sized serving of lasagna.
-He loves chef boyardee ravioli and especially loves to rub it in his hair - making it red and spiky.
-He looks like Ralphie from a Christmas story with the glasses.
-Took his first steps last week!

Scratchy Sir

DSC_7965, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Emmett likes to scratch his noggin ALOT. Part of this is because he has the dryest scalp EVER. I also think he got into the habit of always grabbing onto his head when he wore his helmet. For whatever reason, he is always running his hands through his hair and rubbing his head.

Hubs laughs at him a little b.c his hands barely reach the top of his head. Go ahead. Put your hands in the air. See how big your head would be if you could barely hug it with your arms. Big. Babies are so weird!

That's right ladies...

DSC_7972, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

eat your hearts out :)

I couldn't resist this onesie for E. Snarky baby onesies make me laugh.

New Year's Eve

DSC_7959, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

On New Year's Eve we stayed home and knocked something off the bucket list by trying Dom Perignon. It was good, but let's just say I'd rather have four bottles of Tattinger Brut from Domaine Carneros by far! I'm glad that we tried it though, now we can say we've had it ;)

Other than this, the night consisted of having my parents over for a garlic pork roast, watching the IU game then switching over to the British version of Top Gear, and falling asleep on the couch around 10. I had a great time and I even put on jeans and a ruffly red shirt instead of my awesome purple yoga pants. Fancy!

Yearly recap!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Had a baby. Scored a job that offered to move my family to another state, bought a house.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for 2011? My only resolution was to step back and let Mike be the great Dad I was sure he would be. And I hope I’ve done that. I think I can do it more but overall I don’t think I’ve done a bad job.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Do I count? Yes. There were a ton of babies born this year – My friend Karrie had a little girl Kinley that is Emmett’s bff at daycare, and then Dora had Michael and Amy D had Everett. Another friend from high school, Sara, had a little girl in march. Also, my friend Tracy had twins (!!) this summer

4. Did anyone close to you die? Hmmm… I don’t think so?

5. What countries did you visit? None!

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? Calm. This year was Bananas and crazy and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I’m looking forward to settling into our new home and getting some more chill time.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 1-8 Emmett was born, 4-4 I went back to work, 9-26 I started my new job, 12-13 last day in the condo, 12-20 we closed on our new house.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Keeping my head above water and trying to give my best to everything.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not being more strategic and aggressive about the pricing of our condo

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I got a couple of bad colds and also caught the flu but overall not bad.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A house!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? The husband. Not many couples relocate for the wife’s job, and he welcomed the relocation even though it probably didn’t mean the best things for his own career.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? No one really.

14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare, mortgage, moving

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Having a baby! Moving back to Indiana!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011 Baby Jamz – Mary had a little lamb, Adele – Someone like you, Sugarland – Stuck like glue

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner! I was extra pregnant this time last year but the Mommy diet is great! I’m thinner than before I got pregnant.
c) richer or poorer? Richer, kind of. Got out of the condo without losing our shirts so that is something.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Concentrating on work

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I’m not really sure. I feel like I did a pretty good job this year of handling all the big changes, sometimes with tears, but I felt they were necessary. I probably could have been nicer to Hubs though J

20. How did you spend Christmas? In Evansville with the parents and siblings, with a sick Dog and a teething baby

21. Did you fall in love in 2011? Yes, in love with my tiny Emmett man

22. What was your favorite TV program? How I met your Mother, One born every minute

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nope.

24. What was the best book you read? The Hunger Games series

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Sugarland

26. What did you want and get? A baby. Out of the condo.

27. What did you want and not get? Hubs around more

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Crazy stupid love

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 32. I went to work and had pizza delivered to work when I was leaving (they don’t deliver to the south side of Indy). I took it home and Hubs and Emmett and I had pizza and breadsticks while Dog ran around the yard. It was so perfect.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Really nothing. 2011 was amazing for me.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Shirts that were baggy enough to hide the end of the baby weight but tight enough to not make me look slubby. New job also has me getting back into the business casual. I wear lots of wrappy sweaters too.

32. What kept you sane? Getting ourselves unstuck in the Chicago hamster wheel and getting more room to grow our family in Indiana.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Ryan Gosling? Not sure.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Honestly with all going on this year I tried to ignore the political issues. I get really annoyed about how none of the politicians can’t seem to figure anything out or work together though.

35. Who did you miss? My old friend Chicago and the girlfriends I had there. I miss having them around terribly. I also miss Hubs during the week but Sir Emmett keeps me soooo busy!

36. Who was the best new person you met? Emmett Jeffrey, Sir Cheeks!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. You can do it. YOU CAN DO IT.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Lil Wayne – How to love

See I just want you to know that you deserve the best, you’re beautiful
You’re beautiful

And I want you to know, you’re far from the usual
Far from the usual

Random updates

• I LOVE my new job. The company is great, the people I work with are SMART, so very smart, and good at what they do. I think I can learn a lot from all of them, and in my book that is a great situation - to be able to learn from your boss and his boss. I am super excited about the new job and feel so blessed!
• The condo is still on the market. If there are no bites by December 9th, the relocation company will buy it from us. This is one of the greatest benefits of the relocation package - which is the best relo package I've ever heard of and one of the major reasons for our move. So as of December 13th we will be out of the condo regardless. We've had close to 25 showings and no takers. At this point, we pretty much think we will be taking the buyout offer.
  
• We close on a new house on December 20th! We were going to wait until the spring, but found a house we love and couldn't wait! The place is 5200 square feet, with 2200 of it being unfinished basement. We love it because it has plenty of finished-off room for now and with the basement we also have room to grow into and stay and raise our family. Mike is overly excited about the man-cave possibilities! I have to say I am as well, as I'm currently planning a very girly office for the basement. :) Oh and the price of this house? 65% of what we purchased our condo for. Ridiculous!
• Hubs and I are headed to the Purdue/IU game in Bloomington on Saturday while the small creatures stay behind with Grandma and Grandpa. I am so excited to hang out in my happy place of Bloomington while Sir and Dog are safely ensconced with grandparents. Perfect!
• Life in Indiana is going so well that sometimes I have to pinch myself. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I think that whatever happens we are super excited to be closer to family! Speaking of that, my parents move to Indy on Jan 1st. My Dad is a pastor and got a church on the south side and my Mom got a promotion to manage a data center on the south side. So excited to have them nearby!!
  

10 months

DSC_7512, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Hard to believe Sir is so big!

-He loves to stand up, and needs some propping up.
-Can crawl... but only backwards or side to side.
-Loves to yell DADADADADADA!!!
-Eats ANYTHING. Pizza, burrito fixin's, sweet potato fries, short ribs and mashed potatoes, anything you put in front of him. Not a fan of rice, but other than that loves pretty much anything.
-Is currently giving the daycare ladies crap by not drinking bottles well during the day. But he's eating so much real food that we're not overly worried.
-Is on the go... no more snuggling with Mama!

I love to....

DSC_6891, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

clap and yell. You wouldn't know it by how sweet I look here!

So big!

Big news!

WTH Mom? What do you think you're doing?

Wow, over a month has gone by with little to no word on the front here. Major big news....

We're moving! I'm no longer going to be Monkeying around in Chicago... I'll be Monkeying around in Indy! Hubs is from northern Indiana and I'm from southern Indiana. That means that Indianapolis is WAY closer to all of our family. And we have a ton of family and friends IN Indy. So when I was approached about a position that sounded like my dream job, we decided that I should interview for it.

And when I got an offer that we couldn't refuse... well, we didn't refuse it!

For now we have a rental house in Indy starting October 1st, our place is on the market, and I'm heading down for a week of orientation starting Monday. Emmett starts his new daycare on October 3.

It's going to be a tough couple of months with Mike traveling back up here for work alot, but I think it'll be worth it. Fenced in back yard for the Dog, more room for all of us. And the option to save more. I love Chicago but darn it is expensive. I just couldn't take it anymore - we weren't taking full advantage of the city having a kiddo and I was over paying for it.

So anyways, that is what is going on around these parts!!

Smiley Booboo

DSC_6605, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Sometimes when I am having a rough day, I look at pictures of the booboohead alot :)

The sitting...

DSC_6651, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

gets better and better every day. It's wild!

That's right, Emmett...

DSC_6584, a photo by agstratt on Flickr.

Mommy DOES rock. :)

As an aside, I will never get over plaid pants/shorts on E. They are the awesome.