Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

From our family to yours!

Done. D-O-N-E

I am SO done Christmas shopping. Hooray! Got all the gifts. EVEN got the scrapbook that I make every year for my mother-in-law completed and ready to be wrapped.

HALLELUJAH!!

B Says....

Driving in the car the other day, I *think* I hear B say, "Mommy, I would appreciate a drink, please." Wow, what? Did that really just come out of my 3-year-old's mouth? After pausing a second to try to comprehend it, I asked her what she had just said. "I'm just chillin' waitin' for a drink, Mommy." *grin* (I often ask her to 'chill' when I'm trying to do something while she's pestering me about something else.)

Goodness, she's adorable!

Cobby-cot

Months ago after playing with older cousins, B started jumping on her bed while repeatedly saying, "Cobby-cot." For the life of me, I could not figure out what she was saying, but soon forgot about it. After mentioning something about it to my sister, her guess was that she was saying copy cat. AHA! That was it.

Well, we now have a "cobby-cot" on our hands. The other day B came downstairs and said, "Mommy, I'm going to go up and check my email really quickly. It will only take a minute." Then proceeded to go upstairs and get on the computer. hmmmmm.....you think we're on the computer a little too much?

1183??

1183....That's the number of photos that I deleted off my computer. Photos that I had taken in the last six months. They were all either blurry, had eyes closed, were comletely extraneous or were just duplicates of decent pictures that I had already edited.

After deleting ALL those, I still have more than 1,400 pictures left. For just the last six months.

Crazy. (I must have cute kids.)

B says...

When stopping for fast food on the way home this evening, we stayed for the obligatory romp in the playplace, which started a bit before enough food was consumed to fill little bellies. Taking the remaining food with us, we climbed into the car and headed home. B was hungry and I directed her toward her bag of food, of which she promptly began looking and asking for her french fries. She had a hamburger in her hand as she dug through the bag, repeatedly asking me if I knew where those precious fries were. More out of frustration than anything else, I requested that she just eat the burger first. "Oh," she said, "because it has pwoteen?"

I've obviously been worried about protein consumption. ;)

rockabye baby

Let me start by saying that as a rule, I'm against CIO. I can never stomach it when it's my own kids and I just feel that it's not necessary. Hubby has been making noises about K needing to be able to go to sleep more on her own lately. Sometimes it takes an hour or more to get her to sleep.

There's been a slow progression this week, though, that has led me to do the dreaded CIO. Tonight she cried for all of 4 minutes (none of which was more than complaining that I left her in there on her own.) She's now asleep.

Already I'm sad that I missed the opportunity to nurse her to sleep.

They grow up so fast. Do I need to rush this? Hubby says that I'm just having a "mushy woman moment." I think it's more of a mushy mommy moment. My baby is growing up. OK, she's obviously ready to go to sleep on her own if it took less than 5 minutes, but she's still a baby. right?

I guess I just need another baby! :)

growing pains...and a date

The other day, Hubby and I made plans to go out for an afternoon date. Usually I enjoy the anticipation more than the actual date (due to no fault of my hubby, but my own.) Here's where the growing pains come in. I'm so incredibly attached to my children. Very attached. Grandma had been (not so patiently) biding her time until I was Ok to allow B to spend the night. That finally happened about a year ago, when B was almost three. I don't know that I ever leave my kids for more than maybe a couple hours until they are close to a year old. That's just how I am. Back to the date. We planned to leave both girls for the entire afternoon and most of the evening. Coming to get K before bed, our plan was to leave B to spend the night.

We dropped the girls off. They were enjoying themselves and we were ready for some time to ourselves. Heading out, we scheduled our time, balancing priorities and expectations. After some time spent browsing books and magazines at Barnes & Noble, we headed to the mall to search out some christmas gift ideas for each other, grandparents and the girls. Our big hunt for the season is finding a bike for B. Toys 'R Us was the next stop, with some success. Rather than spending money to eat out, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some nice thick steaks for hubby to BBQ and rented a movie. The time spent by ourselves enjoying just being husband and wife was much needed and greatly enjoyed. We were able to mark some tasks off the forever long list and spend time remembering what it was like before kids, sort of. :) In short, we had fun. Feeling refreshed, we headed off to pick up K.

The girls both had a fabulous time, taking nice long naps for G'ma and enjoying being spoiled and doted upon. I got a few extra snuggles but for the most part was reassured that the girls were well taken care of and had enjoyed themselves immensely while not missing me too horribly much. *sigh*

We were off again. Headed home with only one child in tow. I was already missing B and was a bit sad that she's already big enough to be spending the night away from me so easily. K fell asleep on the way home, so Hubby and I were able to enjoy more of the evening just by ourselves.

All in all, it was a wonderfully refreshing day. Hubby and I got some much-needed couple time; the girls got some G'ma and G'pa time and the grandparents treasured the hours that they were able to spend with their granddaughters.

Just one more step. One day closer to the girls being little people of their own. To growing up and learning more; experiencing life while not directly under the protection of their mama's 'wing'.

It was a good day, bittersweet, but good.

Sing your crabbies out

In the midst of throwing together apple crisp last night, B kept coming in asking if she can help. Normally I say yes. Last night, however, I was not in the mood. I told her that I was crabby and would appreciate it if she could go play somewhere other than right in front of the frig or right by me. She happily said OK and trotted off. Into the living room. To play the piano. To sing her crabbies out. *grin, despite being crabby myself*

A few minutes later she came back in and happily told me that she had sung all her crabbies out and that maybe I should try it.

Ouch.

Total Flop X2

Tonight's dinner, that is. Complete and total flop.

I had intended to make "Poor Man's Soup" out of one of my mom's old cookbooks. At 4:30, I realized that I had neglected to pre-soak the beans. I got them in for a quick soak which involved bringing the water to a boil then allowing to soak for 1 hour. The first direction for the soup was to let them simmer for 45 minutes. The last direction was to allow all of the ingredients to simmer for 1 hour. That put us eating dinner somewhere around 7:30. Not too conducive to an 8 o'clock bedtime.

Onto plan B: Sorta sloppy joes made with the leftovers I could find in the frig. Pre-browned hamburger, some black beans, olives, mushrooms, tomato sauce and a little bit of salsa all warmed up. Dump onto leftover hamburger buns, top with cheese, set under broiler until bubbly. I didn't think that we could go wrong. Well, I was wrong. I had one bite and almost gagged. I think the beans were a bit too old, though the ones that I tasted before I dumped them in were fine.

We're having apple crisp for dinner. :) It's in the oven. Hopefully THAT will turn out OK.

Almost done

Our volleyball season is just about complete. We had our last practice today, with our last two games to be played tomorrow and Monday. We're a big perterbed that the gym will be closed on Thursday and Friday to have the floor redone, meaning that we'll have a 4 day break before our last game of the season. Poor timing, but not our doing.

Soph and I are already talking about next year. We're actually hoping to be able to coach the "A team" instead of the B team. Not only will we be able to teach them a bit more advanced skill set, we'll only have 12 girls to worry about, hallelujah!! This season we started off with 23 girls and we're now down to 19. That just flat out too many girls. They can't all hear, there's no way to give enough individualized attention, it's a pain in the behind to get all the girls to play and, well, it's just a pain.

I'm actually hoping to possibly participate in the varsity season a bit here over the next couple weeks. I'd love to get in with them (well, mostly their coach) as a resource and as an "in" in the volleyball world.

When I was getting ready to graduate from high school, getting asked all the time, "what are you going to do?" I said, even all those years ago, that my dream job would be to be a junior high girls volleyball coach. Well, here I am. And loving it. And looking forward to the season being done with just a little bit. :) (Really, I'm only anxious to be done so that I can have a bit more time to myself and not be running madly like I am currently.)

At this moment in time, I'm feeling very blessed that I'm living my dream. I'm a mom to my precious little girls. And, I'm coaching volleyball. God is good!

Well, we're still alive. :) It's been crazy busy around here. Hubby got a job and within 48 hours of the job offer, he started working (about 80 hours that first week). It's been a bit of a time of transition for all of us. The girls and I all miss having him around all day. I especially miss the extra set of hands when I'm watching C&C. We're trying a new schedule of full days (9:30-4) three days a week, tuesday, thursday and Saturday. Add that to the fact that I'm coaching volleyball 5 days a week from 3:30-5:30, I'm feeling like I'm ALWAYS running. Obviously, since C&C are here until 4 on some days, I go straight from watching them to hauling butt to make it to volleyball. Grandma or Oma have been coming over to watch my girls while I go to coach.

This weekend I have ladies' retreat with my church, so K and I will be going to that. B will spend Friday night with Grandma and Grandpa, then Hubby will pick her up after he gets off on Saturday. They might even go to a football game. :) I think he's totally getting off easy since I'll drop her off and he won't see her again until afternoon/evening on Saturday--slacker. :) He'd better enjoy the time off.

Onto other matters, I took pictures for my friend's wedding 10 days ago and I need to get them all burned onto a CD for her. I have this grand aspiration of making a slideshow in Pinnacle and adding music to it, which I'm sure she'd LOVE, but I have to actually have the time. Not sure when that's gonna happen.....

I'm really craving donuts. I mght have to go get some. YUM!!

Happy 1st Birthday, K

My precious K,

One year ago, I was nursing you for the very first time (as I waited for my pizza.) :) Snuggling your precious little body, still trying to learn what you looked like.....I couldn't stop looking at you. I was kissing all over your beautiful little round head and crying pretty much how I am right now. You are such a joy and a delight, K, a bright spot in our lives and a continual blessing. As I nursed you to sleep tonight, I looked down trying to remember how little you were then, and seeing only how big you are now--walking and trying to talk and bringing smiles to everyone you meet. I still can't believe how happy you wake up every morning, going from asleep to crawling in less than 2 seconds, smiling and talking the whole time. I love that you still like to nurse, and when you get tired enough, you try to lift up my shirt and snuggle in for a snack. It still frustrates me that you refuse to hold still until you are completely asleep, insisting on kneading and pinching, squeezing and scratching whatever skin is available. You have learned that fake coughing gets you attention and you love to make us laugh. I'm not sure if it's you or me that's confused, but you know how to sign "more" and "all done" I just am not usually sure which one you mean. Not only are you a continual motion machine, but since you've learned to walk, you are unstoppable and without fear. Tonight you found a way to climb up onto B's bed--we'd really better watch out now. You have the constant bumps and bruises to prove that you are well and truly a toddler. No longer my baby. But you know what? You'll always be my precious baby girl. Always. My gorgeous K. So stubborn and beautiful, smily and determined, such a gift. A precious, precious gift from God. We're so very proud of you, K, so very proud and so very in love.

Thank you for making me the happiest mommy ever. Happy Birthday, Little One!

I love you!
Momma

metamorphosis of toddler-ese

Stage 1: More war!
Stage 2: God gave us a mighty whoopin'
Stage 3: (yesterday) God gave us a mighty weapon

No, we aren't teaching our daughter how about war, or for that matter, how to get a whoopin'! :) She learned about it all on her own. Kidding. :) This is B's current favorite song--one that my little sister taught her from her camp counselor day, including actions. It's a great song. I'm not sure which one I'd rather hear come out of my child's mouth in the grocery store, or during the sermon at church--More war, or something about a mighty whoopin'.

Here are the words to the song:
God gave us a mighty weapon,
to live in victory,
to stomp on the devil and walk mightily.
So put on your holy armor
and don't be afraid no more.
no, no more, you've been chosen by the Mighty One.
Yes, now it's time for war!

Potty talk

While B was sitting on the toilet waiting for me to come help her wipe, she says, "Mommy, look, (as she pointed into the toilet) I made a rocket and a ball!" (this was complete with signs.)

Family Day

With Hubby home lately, we've been enjoying a bit more family time. The other day, we ran a couple errands, picked up some sandwiches and went to a park to eat. The girls were much more interested in playing than eating, go figure.

K has learned a new "trick." She can get herself up to a standing position pretty much anywhere. She's quite proud of herself, as are we. *grin* I think that we clicked off about 20 pictures while she stood in that exact same position alternating between "so big" and clapping.

The reason I do what I do...

New baby news

No...not me...as far as I know. :)

My friend forever, Camille, had her baby boy! Camille and I met about 10 years ago, when we worked together, planned our weddings together 6 years ago and pick up where we left off no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other. She's since been divorced and is engaged to a wonderful new man, the baby's daddy.

After getting the call the other day saying that the baby was here, I immediately called hubby and told him to plan on watching B while I went to check out the new little one. I had just talked to Camille at 4-something the previous afternoon and there was nothing in the works, so it went pretty quickly for her. Baby Rayce was 7lb 4oz and 21 inches long. Holy cow, that is tiny! He just precious! Lots of hair and a double chin already. It's amazing how fast you forget that fresh baby feel....makes me kinda sad. :)

As soon as I walked into the hospital room, I saw somebody I recognized. For the first 5 minutes of my visit, we kept looking at each other with that "where do I know you from" look. He was from what seems like a previous life, though, and I couldn't quite place him. Apparently, it was the same way for him. :) Turns out we lived in the same dorm our first year of college and had a few mutual friends. Anywho, he's married to Camille's fiance's sister. Rather long convoluted line there. He and his wife had kids just about my girls' ages and are expecting again in December. Hopefully we'll be getting together sometime while Camille is on maternity leave and I can connect a few more dots with him. It's a bit irksome that I can't absolutely place him, ya know?

Mom & baby are doing wonderful and home adjusting well. I'm hoping to be able to visit very soon and go take a few pictures of the new little guy. He's just so sweet!

B says....

This morning, B got a juice box and came to snuggle in bed with me. After she climbed up, she turned the box around, looking at the box and said, "Let's see how it says...... drink it all and throw it in the garbage. Drink it all and don't squeeze it."

baby steps

Today my precious baby girl K is 10 months old. Where has the time gone? Here are some of her most recent accomplishments:

~Just yesterday, she started saying "up"
~Started saying "uh oh" (or sometimes "oh uh")
~Says bah-bye in context, albeit a bit delayed.
~Says aforementioned bah-bye in combination with waving
~Said DADA for the first time (of course, hubby wasn't home.)
~Continues to say mama, but generally only in a whining tone. :)
~Pulls up on ANYTHING in sight, including the not-so-steady washcloth drawer.
~She continues to show her incredible determination--you can NOT distract her, she'll crawl around, pull up, wiggle, climb over and possibly even scream in frustration, but can in no way be dissuaded from her goal.
~She has this insane ability to crane her neck around. She's continually turning her head what seems to be at a 180* angle, followed by twisting her entire body the same way. Crazy girl!

On Sunday, she hadn't slept well during the day and started whining during dinner. Pretty soon, there she was:


About 20 minutes later, she woke up. Almost instantly, she was reaching for the food on her tray and popping it into her mouth. It was too funny. Oh, and that's asparagus and corn. She eats pretty much anything other than banana (haven't figured that one out yet.) I try to feed her just about every time we eat as it seems to make her much happier. She's also getting to be quite competent at using a sippy cup.


In sleep news: we've been (a bit loosely) going by the NCSS, we're now on phase 2/phase 3. We put her down content and settled and rub her back until she goes to sleep. Then, for at least the first few wakeups during the night, we don't get her up, we just ask her to lie down and rub her back until she goes back down. Last night, she was down for the night (after a LONG fight) at 9:30 and slept until 2 when I went in and rubbed her back for about 2 minutes. Then she slept until 4. I nursed her that time since I was just about bursting. :) She had a hard time settling down, though, and ended up coming into bed with us at about 5, where she went back to sleep until almost 9. I was so proud of her! I'm not sure if I *needed* to go in at 2, since she was just grumbling. But I was up and in there before I really thought about it. Six and a half hours of sleep, though.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Oh, and she TOOK 2 STEPS on Sunday. AHHHHHH!!!! Look out, big sister, here she comes!


K, you are such a joy! Your smile lights up our world. B loves you SO much and what a blessing it is to see. Your big blue eyes are captivating. Grandpa Ron calls them your "sparklers." We love you so much, K, and are so very blessed to have you in our family.

"the deal"

Going back a couple months when I half-heartedly began running, roughly following the couch to 5k program. I really only ended up following the plan for week 1 and 2, and did those in 3 weeks instead of the prescribed 2. I have always had pretty much a hate-hate relationship with running. This time it was a bit different. No, I didn't enjoy the running. But I definitely enjoyed the result. I didn't lose much weight (3 pounds) but I lost 3.5 inches and about a size in just about a month. All of this by changing nothing other than going running for 20 minutes 2-3 times a week.

Having slacked off a bit on the running, I've noticed results the other way--my belly wasn't ever flat, but it's certainly less flat that it was. In an effort to help motivate myself as well as hubby, we came up with a deal.

~We each will run 3 times a week.

The reward/penalty section of the deal is still under discussion. :) Here was my suggestion: when I run my 3x and he doesn't, hubby would then take care of both girls while making (and cleaning up from) dinner. ALL while I enjoyed time to myself. Sounds fabulous to me! His suggestion is that when he meets his goal for the whole month, he gets to go buy himself a book. Seems like if he's gonna get what he wants (and really what I want in him running) I'm gonna have to change my part of that.

I'm still thinking. ;)

Monday was my first run, with 2 kids, no less. I made it, but barely. Huffing and puffing from pushing 75+ extra pounds of kid and stroller, wheeled or not. All in all, it went well. I stocked the girls up with snacks and toys and off we went. I figured out that if I kept the earpiece from the mp3 player in one ear, I could still hear the girls. Works for me!

Oh, and a really cool tool that I found to track my mileage and even a rough estimate of calories burned: gmaps pedometer. I live in a subdivision and I could track pretty much my EXACT route (from my front door.) Very fun!

another great contest

5 minutes for Mom is having another great contest for those of us with girls. They are giving away an precious little bit of adorable-ness from Tutu Fantasy. Go check them out. The girls (and their mommy) would just drool over pretty much all of them.

Uncertainty

There is so much uncertainty in life, so much to worry about. Life itself, even, is so uncertain. We don't know where we'll be tomorrow or the next day or the next. Our little family has been through quite a bit of a uncertainty in the last year, quite a bit of change.

It started with the much-anticipated birth of our precious baby girl, and continued on with hubby losing his job of 8 years just two weeks later. We've struggled through unemployment and the job search, financial insecurity and elation and hope in finding another job. Through it all, there have been constants.

Here is one of those:



Another one is sleeping away blissfully (for both of us) in her bed.

My precious hubby has been a HUGE constant. Despite the fact that most of this has affected him, who he is as a man and a provider, he has continued to be the steady, wonderful man that I am so in love with.

And then, most of all, there was this assurance:



Philippians 4:5-6

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Praise the LORD!!

How much would you pay?

For a 5 minute (or sometimes 10 minute) massage 4-5 times a day? While you lie in bed...... fighting with every fiber of your being not to go to sleep? Why fighting sleep, you ask. Because the person in question just happens to be 9 months old, and that's what 9 month olds do.

Having been there done that, I thought that surely I would manage the sleeping habits of my future children better than I did those of my first. Surely, I would. I promise. Ha! I fear that I have ruined a good thing.

Let's go back, say, 3 years. B was almost 4 months old. She slept fairly well for a baby...if she was in my arms....and had nursed to sleep. Otherwise, it was a FIGHT. This is how we spent many an hour, sometimes all in a row.

This was June 2004, Hubby had just spent 45 minutes BOUNCING B to sleep on the birthing ball. And that would only happen if the circumstances were JUST right--not too much noise, but not so quiet that Daddy's joints could be heard cracking as he bounced up and down, up and down, up and down. Her tummy had to be full, she had to have a bink, and generally we had to hold her hand down so that she wouldn't pull the bink out or startle herself awake by flailing about. All of this work for, say, 45 minutes of a nap. POSSIBLY, just possibly, up to 2 hours of sleep at night.

I'm not kidding. She took 45 minute naps. Then slept in 2 hours blocks all night long. Until she was 13 months old. It's amazing how little sleep you can live on.

Back to the present child. I vowed to do things differently. I still nursed to sleep and co-slept. But, I made it a point to try to put her down awake but drowsy. I remember at six weeks old, I could put her in the cosleeper with a full tummy and she could doze off. By herself. I was amazed. And totally proud of myself for my wonderful parenting.

Fast forward to now. OK, we'll take yesterday as an example:

Up for the morning at 8:15.

Ready for a snooze by 10:30. We head up to her room to rock and snuggle. After about 5 minutes of nursing, she's popping off and on, so I plug in the bink and rock. Once she's almost asleep, I ever so quietly and gently place her in her crib. The eyes pop open. I jiggled, sang, massaged, ignored, thought about swearing, jiggled some more.

She finally fell asleep at 11:15. It was without any help from me (I was in another ignoring stage), so I considered it a success. At noon she woke up seeming happy, so I got her up. 2pm--crabby, so we once again head up. This time she falls asleep nursing and transfers to her bed without any trouble for an hour of a nap. When she woke up, I snuggled her in the glider and we both fell asleep for 1/2 hour more.

6pm--totally crabby, but I'm making dinner, so I keep handing her toys/snacks to keep her happy until I have a minute. After dinner, she's wasted tired, so hubby takes her up for bed. He's gone for 1/2 hour. (I know that he rocks and snuggles her in the chair.) After the usual 45 minutes of sleep, she was awake again, and he went to take care of her. She went down again. Slept for an hour. Awake looking for Mommy and a snack. Nursed back to sleep--then back in her bed. That puts us at about 10pm or so. She woke up again at midnight at which point I admitted defeat and brought her in to bed with us to wake me up every 1-2 hours to eat.

Somehow, I've ruined a good sleeper.

I've been working on re-reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and William Sears. My idea of getting her to go to sleep by herself is on the right track, I think. It's just a matter of taking the time and patience that it requires to go through with it.

So far today:

10 am nap--nursed and snuggled, then put in crib and rubbed her back until she was out--resulting in 45 minute nap.

2pm nap--nursed and snuggled. She fell asleep, then woke in her bed after 45 minutes. I went in a rubbed her back for 8 minutes until she was asleep again and she slept for another hour. *woohoo*

It's a shame the massage was wasted on her. I really could use a massage right now. *grin*

Now, for a trip down memory lane, since I went digging for old pictures. What mom can resist looking through all the baby pictures? *proud grin*

B at 4-5 months old (Man, she was a chub!)

OK, and on the how much would you pay train of thought...

Have you been over to 5 Minutes for Mom? They are having a great giveaway for Mother's Day. Go check them out!! They are giving away an Ipod and a Mei Tai Baby Carrier from All Natural Mommies. How fun is that?!

Last night I dreamed.....

****warning: Very EMOTIONAL. I still get goosebumps and cry just thinking about it. You may not want to read.****

That Hubby, B & I were all taking a bath. I had washed B's hair and turned around to rinse my hair out. When I was done, I looked over to say something to hubby and found that he and B had both fallen asleep. They were both underwater. I scooped B up and held her above me (much like you do a baby.) She just flopped, absolutely no movement of any sort. As it seems to happen in a dream, I opened my mouth to scream at hubby, but no sound whatsoever came out. I kicked him, then reached over and pulled his head above the water. He gasped in some air and stayed above the water, but continued to sleep. Panicking, I tried to remember what my CPR class years and years ago taught me about doing chest compressions on a 3 year old. I couldn't remember. I continued to scream at hubby to help me. He continued to be unresponsive, but breathing. In the dream-like fashion, I was all of a sudden out of the tub with B lying, listless, on the floor. The screaming in my head went on and on.

Then I woke up. Terrified.

K was snuggled up next to me, so I put my arm around my precious baby girl and cried over her. Waking up hubby without explanation, he held my hand above K's head. He offered to go check on B when I said that I had to make sure that she was alright. But, no, I had to see it with my own eyes, hear her sweet sleep breathing with my own ears.

Climbing into her bed with her, she nestled right into me briefly, then opened her eyes to look for light behind the curtain. "It's OK, B, it's still nigh-night time. I was just lonely for you." She looked back at me with a precious smile and said, "I was lonely for you too, Mommy. Nigh-Night."

Feeling reassured but still very unsettled and competely emotional, I had Hubby scoot over to make room for me on his side of the bed. He put arms around me and listened to me cry until I felt OK enough to get over to my side of the bed again.

Jesus Loves Me was my solace. I can't tell you the number of times that I sang that as I lay awake last night thanking God for every single day that I have with my precious, beautiful children.

So...what do you do...

...when both girls are sleeping in the car?

Do you drive around until they wake up? Leave the car in the garage and let them sleep, risking one of the waking the other, while you come inside and get on the computer? ...or while you coming inside and take a nap? :) Get them each out of their seats and *hope* that they'll go back to sleep once you get them into their own beds? Leave the car running while you dash inside to pack up hubby's ebay item that needs to be mailed out, then frantically try to make it to the post office before traffic becomes overwhelming?

Well, since hubby had sold a card on ebay, and I HAD told him that I would mail it today and then proceeded to totally forget about it, that's what I did. Of course, I couldn't find the bubble wrap, then I couldn't find the packing tape. I kept poking my head out into the garage to see if either of the girls were awake, worrying that I wouldn't make it down the street before rush hour hit and it would take me twice as long. Then, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to put B in a pullup, so she very well could be soaking her carseat. I *hate* having to wash carseats.

My good, good friend...

....Also known as my camera...is in the shop.

March 11th was the fateful day that ended in frustration and dismay when my camera refused to cooperate and autofocus on my precious baby girls. Over the next few days, I continually tried to get it to work, but it stubbornly refused. I played around with manual focus a bit, but it just doesn't work with a crawling baby and a toddler. I'm nowhere NEAR fast enough to catch them in focus. I started to wonder if I would have any pictures for the month of March. I need not have worried. In those first 11 days of the month, I had managed to click 197 images. Not bad if that's all I end up with for the month.

So, we broke down and took it in, hoping and praying that they would be able to just flip a switch and fix it. No such luck. Their estimate was $150-250. Ouch. AND 1-2 weeks. DOUBLE OUCH. I'm so lonely for it. Eventhough it hasn't been working well the last couple weeks, it's still been in my possession. Totally different knowing that I don't even have access to it. I'm quite amazed at how attached I am to that silly (beloved) object.

When we went to drop it off, DH just ran it in while the girls and I stayed in the car. As I handed the camera over to DH, I half jokingly said, "goodbye good friend." B proceeded to grill me about my friend and why I was saying goodbye. Sheesh. It did bring the whole camera issue into a bit of a better perspective for me, though. It could be worse. My camera could be dead. :)

In memory of my beloved "friend":

Milestones abound

You know you're in trouble when you have to start moving things up higher and higher to keep them out of reach of the little ones.

B can now boost herself up onto the counter (or anywhere, really) using her little stool. From there she can get anywhere. She can get the milk out of the frig when it is on a lower shelf. She can DEFINITELY get the chocolate syrup. She can get a cup. Can we say chocolate milk, folks? That's what I was envisioning all over my kitchen floor (and my daughter) when I came down the stairs today. I actually caught her before the milk left the jug, but it was a close call. Goodness, who would think to warn a 3 year old not to pour herself chocolate milk??? Apparently not me!

K can now get anywhere in about 3 minutes flat. Why, you ask? Well, she's crawling. She'll almost effortlessly go from lying on her back to crawling, then up to a sitting position and back down again. From watching Robbie, who can pull up, she's started grabbing onto something and pulling--she's not going up, yet, but I can see it coming. Know what else I see coming? Lots of bumps and bruises. With a wee bit of help, K crawled up the two little stairs between the family room and the dining room, scooted around on the hardwood for a bit, then started going back down. We got her flipped around in time, with only a laugh and a "I haven't seen you move that fast for a long time" comment from Daddy. Then she promptly tried to roll off the side of the stair. Has it really been that long since B did this? Goodness!!

Oh, and K got tooth #5 yesterday. Top right front tooth. It joins it's friends the left front top tooth and the three on the bottom. Just waiting to join the party is the slow little booger on the left side on the bottom. We keep thinking that we'll see it, but it stubbornly remains JUST hidden. I'm sure it will show up. Soon. I hope.

OK, just one more. My wonderful mother-in-law took me shopping last weekend. She got me a few clothes. They were a size 10. :) I love it! I'm now 4 pounds from my low after B. The low that happened rather effortlessly I now know. The low that didn't stick because I didn't have to work at it. The low that was 15 pounds lower that when I got pregnant with K. That very same low that I would like to get lower than--14 pounds lower than. I'm 4 pounds from the first low. Eighteen from the second. I'll get there. I promise. BUT, a size 10 is moving in the right direction.

K's birth story

I've been dying to post this for several days now, but haven't been coordinated enough... I was lucky enough to have my mom as my nurse and she wrote this up from her point of view to send out to all of our family who had been praying for a safe delivery. I've included some of my thoughts and clarifications in the {brackets.}

{After finding out at our 36w appt that we had a breech baby on our hands, we scheduled an external version attempt for 37w6d. We then went home and tried every trick in the book to try to get her to turn on her own, which she refused to do. Our plan was to get her turned then break my water and get things moving before she turned back around. This way, I could still deliver at the birthing center. That was the plan. She didn't cooperate. She still stubbornly insisted on being head-up and I went home from the version attempt broken-hearted, sure that I would be pregnant forever. :) Little did I know that she would come on her own 4 days later, tushy first. :)}

Onto the birth story from my mom:

On Saturday, 8/5/06, I had an appointment at the hair salon at noon. AM {that's me} had been having a few mild contractions in the morning, but that was nothing new. At noon I called her from the hair dresser’s; yes, she was having some more that were slightly on the increase, but she didn’t want me to cancel my appointment, and she didn’t even know if these were real labor contractions. I held my cell phone in my hot hand the whole time I was getting my perm.

At about 12:40 her little sister called, she was with AM and told me the contractions were every 4 minutes and getting stronger! {We had gone to the store to pick up a couple packages of pads and walk a bit--just in case. So there I was, walking through the store having to rock my hips to live through the contractions. We made quite the picture, I'm sure. I called Hubby from the feminine hygiene aisle to tell him he should probably head home. Little did I know that he would get so frantic that he would drive 90mph on the freeway and beat us back to the house.} Oh no – there I was with perm rods in my hair! My hair dresser viewed me with some alarm; this was not the first time she’d been giving me a perm and had this happen! We hurried everything along as much as possible, and I was out the door at 1:40 with curly, wet hair.

I met AM & her hubby at the birthing center at 2 p.m {to make sure that this was the "real thing" before heading over to the hospital.} AM was needing to stop and breathe through contractions. She was dilated to 4-5 cm and 90% effaced. The presenting part was high and I did not try to find out what it was as I did not want to break her water accidentally. I could tell it was not a hard little head. Her husband went out to get some lunch while AM sat on the birthing ball, walked and breathed through contractions. Meanwhile I called Kelly, charge nurse on OB, to let her know we would be coming. She asked if I wanted to be AM’s nurse or be the grandma. She told me they had had 5 births that morning, and were very busy, so I knew it would be helpful if I were the nurse, which is what I wanted anyway. She told me I could get paid for being AM’s nurse if I wanted to, or I could do it without pay. (Not hard to figure out what I chose on that account!) We brought my favorite birthing center doppler and one of our birthing center night shirts along. We wanted to make it as much like a birthing center birth as possible.

We went across the street to the hospital at 3 p.m. There were no birthing rooms ready, and it took an hour to clean the one that had just been vacated. We signed consents, drew blood and put a saline lock in place, did admission vital signs, etc. while AM sat on the birthing ball or walked. At 4 p.m. we moved to the birthing room. AM was getting very uncomfortable but managing the contractions fine. When AM was 6-7 cm. Kelly, charge nurse, told me that the anesthesiologist who was in house that day wanted to do a dual room set-up in the OR: one for a normal vaginal birth and one for a stat c/section. She said I needed to call AM’s doctor, Dr. Julie, and let her know about this and have Julie call the anesthesiologist, who was “freaked out” about the vaginal breech plans. I didn’t tell AM and Scott about that, but I did call Dr. Julie, who came to the hospital and spoke to the anesthesiologist. She then asked AM if she would like to deliver in the OR in case of complications. AM answered a resounding,”No!” (What a way to undermine success!) Dr. Julie called Dr. D., who was to be the baby doctor, and she was planning to be in the birthing room for K’s birth in case there were any problems with the baby. It was wonderfully reassuring to all of us to know that she was in the hospital for those last couple hours. She came into the room and met AM and her hubby, and seemed very comfortable with the idea of a vaginal breech birth. (God bless these two wonderful doctors!)

{At 6:15pm, I was dilated 8-9, and they decided to break my water to try to get her to move down a bit more. I was quite disgusted at the massive amount of fluid that kept gushing out of me--seriously, I was shocked! After leaking all over the bed and all the way to the toilet, I sat on the toilet and continued to be shocked. Afterwards, Dr. Julie jokingly said that we only had 2 hours to go. Little did I know....} During the whole labor, no staff members interfered with how we were managing things. I’m sure it helped that they were all busy with other patients, but I felt so grateful that they let us do everything the way we wanted. I put on the electronic fetal monitor for a short period of time while AM sat on the ball. Dr. Julie was fully supportive of all our choices, and seemed very confident that everything would go well. Fetal heart tones were always reassuring, and AM made steady progress. She was completely dilated at 7:45 p.m. She didn’t have any urge to push – just very painful contractions, and she was starting to talk about feeling very tired. “I’m so scared to push,” she said several times. We told her she didn’t have to push until she was ready, and Dr. Julie said she’d wait a half hour, until 8:15 {the 2 hour mark}, before she’d help her start pushing. AM tried a few tentative pushes in the meantime, with some pain relief, but she didn’t seem physically or emotionally ready to push. At 8:15 Dr. Julie went into her cheerleader mode and we encouraged stronger pushing. AM kept telling us that she was hungry and tired, and she wanted to make sure she would get pizza (canadian bacon and pineapple with extra cheese) right after delivery. Pushing was painful, especially with Dr. Julie’s fingers in there, “helping” during the contractions. {OUCHIE!!!!} AM didn’t feel she was making progress, although Dr. Julie reassured her otherwise, and AM said she didn’t have any more reserves to draw from. At around 8:40 she had a big bolt of pain on her left lower side, which Dr. Julie thought was related to pressure on a nerve. After that AM turned over on her right side and said she was going to stop pushing for a bit. {At this point, I was feeling like a horrible failure--like I was wimping out--and I was beginning to wonder if I was going to need a c-section because I quite honestly felt like I WAS NOT going to be able to get enough energy to push her out.} We gave her a bolus of IV fluids to improve her energy level. Then we went into wait mode. She was far more comfortable on her right side. Dr. Julie was sitting on the other side of the room, and I was just listening to fetal heart tones (with my doppler) between the contractions. The atmosphere was more peaceful. I was quietly wondering if we might have to add a whiff of pitocin to get this baby delivered. After a few minutes I noticed that she was pushing spontaneously (quietly) during the contractions. I asked her if she was feeling more of an urge to push in that position, and she said yes. {I was amazed at how much of a difference this made. Not only was I more comfortable, I was getting that uncontrolable urge to push that I never got with Brynna. This happened a few minutes before 9.} We continued to wait quietly. Before long, she emitted the birth sound! I asked, “Did the baby move down?” and she said “Yes!!” We looked and the baby was “buttoning” (this was Dr. Julie’s word to use in place of “crowning,” which, she said, you can’t use for a breech birth). I pressed the call button for Dr. Davidson and Ellen (the baby nurse), and they came immediately. I didn’t even get my gloves on before K was born, nor did we get the sterile drape down or the bed broken down for the birth. Dr. Julie reached in and pulled out a bruised little knee first, then the little bottom and the other leg came, and seconds later the trunk and arms. {When her bottom and leg came out, I was SURE that it was her head--I was quite shocked when they told me that it was just the first half of her and I still had to push out her head. Fortunately it was so quick that I didn't really have time to freak out about it before she was out and in my arms.} There was a tense few seconds with only the head inside, and then out it came with help from Dr. Julie! From start to finish the actual birth took less than a minute! She was safely born at 9:09 p.m. Were we ever thanking God!! K was a little shell-shocked (limp) at first but she quickly recovered and gave us a good hearty cry from the safety of her mother’s arms, where she stayed for about 10 minutes before she was taken to the warmer to be examined by Dr. Davidson and then by Ellen. Apgar scores were 8 and 9, and she was proclaimed to be perfect! We rejoiced with our wonderful doctors, and then with the other grandparents and two of the aunties, as well as B, of course. The pizza was ordered according to the new mother’s specifications, and we all enjoyed a major bonding experience. We were able to keep K in the birthing room the whole time, which was one of AM and her hubby’s priorities, and we had no interference from any other staff members about this.

I am so proud of Annie for her choices (and her husband for his support), and for listening to her body by turning onto her side and waiting to do more pushing until it felt right. We all feel very grateful for wonderful, supportive, skilled doctors who trust the natural processes that God has put in place; and most of all we are grateful to God for answering our prayers and blessing us with little K!

K. G.
7lbs 13oz
Aug. 5th, 2006
Born at 38w3d

twins, anyone?

I'm on day 3 of watching Robbie. He's 3 weeks older than Kayleigh, making it like having twins. Goodness, I have some serious sympathy for anyone who does this full time. Granted, it would be different since you love them both the same and would have been doing it for the last however many months. WOW, it's a LOT of work! As soon as someone is happy, someone else needs something or is crying (like right now.)

I needed to go out today. OK, when I say that I needed to go out, I mean that I needed to go out. For me. Not for anyone else. Since I'm the mommy, we went out. *grin* I'm not sure how things are supposed to work, logistically speaking. How do you carry two babies, a diaper bag (or two), a blanket for each baby AND hold a toddler's hand to walk across the parking lot. That was the point in time that had me wondering what in the world was so important that I had to get out. Goodness. After much juggling, a little crying, some bargaining with the toddler and a couple bald spots on my head, we all made it home. alive. Actually, both babies were asleep and the toddler was ready for a nap, too.

Maybe I should stop there and not mention that by the time I got everyone down, Robbie had woken up and needed to eat, then after he finally settled down again, Kayleigh was ready to play. I probably shouldn't. Because things were going so well. That's life, I guess. The joys of motherhood.

AHHHH....baby bellies

For those of you that know me, you know that I LOVE being pregnant. If being pregnant didn't necessarily mean dealing with a newborn that grows to be a toddler and so on and so forth, I'm sure that I would do it at least a dozen times. The miracle of a little life growing is so precious and empowering for me. Much to my hubby's dismay, I've already been campaigning for another one (pregnancy, that is.) Mostly because of my aforementioned love of being pregnant, but also because several of my friends are pregnant and I'm sad that my little on will be so big when they have their babies.

We are not truly planning another pregnancy in the near future, as much as I may dream about it. But, here are a few preggy belly pics to help me feel like I'm there, anyway.

This first one was when I was 36 weeks pregnant with B. She was born just two short weeks later. Hard to believe that this was just over three years ago! Sorry for the dorky border, I couldn't find the original without it.

The next one is one of my current photos, and an extra from that same day. They were taken 6 days before K was born, so I was 37w4d. I was scheduled for an external version two days later and assumed that she would cooperate and that I would be delivering my second baby girl that same day. Little did I know that she wouldn't turn and that I would be sorely dissappointed, or that I would go into spontaneous labor less than a week later. Now I can tell everyone that I had a successful natural breech delivery and get all sorts of oohs and aahs and respect eventhough I didn't think it was any harder (or more painful) than a vertex delivery. (sorry for the run-on sentence.) Oh, and an extra.

Go visit Steph at Adventures in Babywearing for a bunch more belly pics and some really awesome birth stories.

B says...

"Mommy, I just did a big 'bless you' and now there's sometin' on the floor."

In case you didn't guess, the girls have colds. She had sneezed a big old goober onto the carpet. Fortunately, I was in a mood to laugh and not be annoyed.

***edited to add another***

"No, Mommy, I want my demit one. MY DEMIT ONE, Mommy." (Also known as her denim jacket, but I keep getting confused trying to decipher that word coming out of my daughter's mouth.)

"Hey, God"

B is standing on our bed right behind me saying, "Hey, God."

"God is eating, Mommy. He can't quite hear me."

I assure her that He can hear her.

"I'm trying to talk to Him because He's my friend."

I tell her to just talk to Him because He always hears us.

"Really loud?"

No, just in a regular voice, B. He can hear you. What are you wanting to talk to Him about?

"I want to tell Him to make the sun come up."

What did He say, B?

"That the sun will come up in the morning! It will be really bright." (she says with her hand above her eyes like she's shading them.)

So when we wake up in the morning, what will we do?

"We'll talk to God and tell Him 'you waked the sun up?' And then we'll say, 'Thank you, God!'"

*Part of this discussion took place with B standing on the bed with the curtain over her head, peeking out the window, so that she could try to see God.*

I love that girl!

SAFE??

I'm not sure, but it may be safe to say that K's better. After 2 1/2 days of being puked on 10-12 times a day, she seems to be feeling pretty good. She had a fever in the 101's (underarm) all of Friday and part of Saturday. The last puke, which in comparison to what I've been dealing with could hardly be considered a puke, was yesterday afternoon. Before that, it was 1am. So, more than 12 hours since the last mini-puke, even. I can't count the number of load of laundry that I've done. Hubby knew "the sound" and would ask if I needed one towel or two, then he would go get new pajamas for both K and me. Sometimes I was wet down to the underwear.

Mom always told us growing up to "put the best construction on everything." In that light, it could have been worse. She could be a toddler who eats regular food instead of just breastmilk. That would be much worse to clean up.

Fortunately, she was feeling better yesterday and Daddy was home to juggle childcare/sick wife care/food making/cleanup/laundry. OK, strike the last two, but the first three are the important ones anyway. :) Yesterday, I woke with a low grade fever and a sore throat. Nothing major, but definitely achey. I took a nap in the morning on the couch and then a late afternoon nap in bed. By myself. Can I tell you how lovely that was?? This morning, I'm much better. About 90%, I'd say.

Thank goodness.

"MAMA"

I think that she said it tonight. Granted, she was complaining, but I heard it and so did DH! So sweet!

A day in the life of....us

OK, here it is. The slideshow cataloging our day.

Enjoy!

A day in the life of.....us.

randomness

when was the last time that you cleaned your monitor screen?
~~Mine has fingerprints all over it. If I have the blinds open across the room during the day, it makes it really hard to read anything. frustrating.

When did you last clean your bathroom?
~~Hmmm....when I have to think about it, it's probably been too long, huh?

How 'bout your microwave....when was the last time that you cleaned that?
~~My mom cleaned mine for me about 2 weeks ago. It's fabulous having it all shiny again.

How often do you wash your hair? (Be honest now!)
~~Honestly, about 3, maybe 4 times a week. It's better for your hair that way, you don't strip off all the natural oils and make it all dried out and unhealthy. That's what I tell myself, anyway. (It's really because that's how often I take a shower. I know, I'm bad. It's a mom thing, though. I have WAY better ways to spend my time.)

new project

My "baby page" is doing something called Day in the life of.... I'm next up, so yesterday was our day. I had a slow start, missing a couple pictures that I really wanted in there, but oh well. Despite that, I took more than 250 pictures yesterday. Some of them are multiples of the same thing, but mostly I would just do one click and move on. I guess we had a busy day. I'm just loading all of them off the card onto the computer to start looking through. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

K was playing peek-a-boo with Daddy. SHE was doing it--lifting her arms to cover her face, then moving them down. It was really adorable. I didn't know who was having more fun with it--K or Daddy.

Here's a challenge for you

OK, go try this game.

It's enough to drive me batty.

ornery

Recently, when B asks if she can have chocolate milk, or water, or more food, Hubby has been being a stinker and saying, "no, I think the whole world is out of (fill in the blank.)" B and I always laugh about Daddy being silly.

Tonight, he started doing that during dinner and I was telling B that Daddy was being ornery. She thought it was hilarious to call Daddy ornery! *grin*

A few minutes later, I was recounting a story to DH about B and her cousin Clara.

When Clara was over the other day, she and B were playing in the family room. Clara was tired and started whining and asking for her mommy. B said, "No, that's my Mommy, her name Anna."

Hubby and I were laughing at how smart B was. B watched, quite pleased with herself. Then she proceeded to point to me and say:

"Mommy--Anna.
B--B (pointing to herself.)
K---Mommy.
Daddy---ornery."

Little stinker!

(We did tell her that Kayleigh wasn't a mommy....)

Raspberries

YUMMMM....Raspberries..... "Fresh or frozen," I ask. (I was headed out to get groceries.) Thinking that he'd better not say fresh, since I'm not going to pay five bucks for one of those tiny little cartons.

Hubby looks confused.

"What are you wanting them for?"

He still looks confused. Then his eyes light up.

He then proceeds to tell me that he caught video of K blowing raspberries.

It's pretty cute. She blows spit everywhere. But it's pretty darn adorable.

Here's a video.

And here's one of her giggling, just for fun.

Three long (short) years ago

My first contractions started a few minutes past 1am on the 24th of January, 2004.

I was so very excited to actually get the show on the road and meet my precious little one. At the same time, I was scared to death about what was to come. Too late, I guess. I was in for the long haul, I was sure of it.

About that same time, the anxious grandparents-to-be came rushing in, unable to wait any longer to see for themselves that I was really going to give them a granddaughter. In my emotional, scared, hormonal state, I quickly stomped into the room where hubby so blissfully sleeping away and ordered him to get rid of his parents. Once he got over the fuzzy brain from being woken up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night, he obliged me.

It was all so very much more than I thought it would be.



Just a few hours later, I was questioning my ability to deal with labor. Would I make it? Why in the WORLD do women choose to do this more than one time. There's no way I can make....



7:10 am--I know why women choose to do this more than once. As soon as I held my precious baby girl in my arms, it was all clear to me. I would do it five times over (maybe not all in the same day) just for her. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, whether I should hold her close for fear that she might break, but knowing that if I didn't, I would break. My precious baby girl was in my arms.

My life would never be the same. I was in love.

***going back three years, here, folks***

Did I just pee my pants???

It certainly felt like it!

I ran to the bathroom and went anyway.

Back at my desk again, I was sure that there was something wrong. When in the world did I start peeing my pants? I was 24 years old, for goodness sakes.

Could it have something to do with being 38 weeks pregnant? AHA!! That was it! Did my water break? What was going on?

I called my friend Mattie downstairs. We were supposed to get together after we got off work. Asked her what she thought. She was sure that it was my water breaking and that I needed to leave and get to the birthing center. I was sure that I could make it through the last 45 minutes of the day. Couldn't I? Maybe not? Should I leave?

OK, I'll go. But don't make a big deal of it. I don't need people checking in on me while I was packing my things. (If I was going to have this baby, then today would be my last day of work.)

Terrified that I would tell everyone at work that my water broke only to show up on Monday morning still pregnant, I made an excuse about feeling sick and headed home.

I'm not sure if it was the spicy Mexican food that I had for lunch, or maybe just the fact that my little one was ready to come out. Either way, it looked like we were going to have a baby.

Once at home, I took a shower and climbed into bed to take one last pre-baby nap. I'm amazed I was able to sleep my heart was racing so fast. But I was. It was bliss.