I used to be a perfect mom...then I had a baby.

Shenanigans caught on video.

2011-11-23T20:50:00.000-06:00

These are typical "shows" at our house. Complete and total random shenanigans. I love how Jacob just sits back and watches the craziness.

Side note: Santa needs to bring Abby some dress up clothes that actually fit. The size 2T-4T stuff is starting to look a little scandalous.

I just like Natalie's cute little voice in this one.

We've been busy.

2011-11-23T14:59:00.000-06:00

Building Castles with paper products.

Swaddling giant 20 pound 4 month old baby boys.

Reading to Woody and Jessie.

Jumping into giant piles of laundry that mom is trying to get folded.

Having Jacob join the girls at the table. Although he didn't actually eat anything yet.

Yes, we've been busy.

Flash Back

2011-11-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

While uploading some pictures to my computer tonight I came across some pictures from this time last year that I couldn't help but share. What a difference a year makes.

Goof balls.

Natalie was starting to think about walking.

Still a little baby left.

There's my little dictator starting to come out.

It was October 31st of last year we were VERY surprised to find out about sweet baby Jacob's conception.

My Sister has skills

2011-11-04T16:31:00.001-05:00

How cute is this hat and bootie set my sister Kristina knit for Jake!! I wish I had skills like that! On a side note I had to take out the head rest in baby Jake's car seat a couple weeks ago cause the kid is huge! They took his weight at the doctor a few days (ear infection, boo) and he's 20 pounds already! Official 4 month well check stats coming next week.

Mold Free Bath Toy

2011-11-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is kind of random but I thought it was worth sharing. I recently had to throw out a whole bunch of bath toys cause they were growing some nasty mold inside them. So in an effort to not have this same problem in a few months I found these fun bath dress up dolls at Target. Both the girls love them and they've been going back and forth between the shower and the bath. They are similar to these. Random post from a tired mom.

Love in one picture.

2011-10-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

This picture is not great but it's so real to me and it really makes my heart ache with so much love for these three little people in my life. With all kids being kind of sick, me getting seriously no sleep, I've been in a bit of a parenting funk but looking at this picture makes me forget all that. My girls are so amazing with their brother it baffles me. I truly thought Natalie would be traumatized with Jacob's arrival and she been the total opposite, she is so in love with him. I also love this picture because it so real, right down to my flip flops abandoned in the middle of the kitchen and the play stroller handles sticking out in the corner. And oh that sweet, sweet look on my baby Jake's little face is just too much. Love.

Kid or scooter?

2011-10-26T21:16:00.002-05:00

I don't know if it's the scooter or my kid but I find this amazing.

Wordless Wednesday Thursday: Trouble

2011-10-13T20:02:00.001-05:00

Working on our Fall Bucket List: Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-10T21:17:00.003-05:00

I found this great pin on Pinterest the other day and I printed it off and am hoping to do most of the things on the list before winter arrives. I think they are all pretty doable for us...the only thing I'm not sure will happen is the "enjoy a bonfire w/ smores." That would require my children to be up when it's dark which doesn't happen very often. :)

So Sunday afternoon our whole family headed out to a nearby family farm/pumpkin patch and had a blast. We've gone three years in a row and I love having pictures of the same things year after year. Both the girls had a blast but I think Abby is at a great age for this sort of thing. Everything was so much fun for her and she could have stayed ALL day. Luckily we purposely got there an hour and a half before closing so we wouldn't be able to stay too long and it wasn't that busy that way either.

This enormous chair was new this year and what a great addition it was! I love this picture of my three little pumpkins.

Here's a closer look, check out how filthy my girls are. That shows just how much fun they had!

Abby could have bounced on this thing for hours I think.

And Natalie was totally in love with this slide.

Baby Jake just hung out and took it all in.

Excuse me young lady. Let me remind you you are 3.5 years old not 15.5!

This "spider web" was new this year and fun for both girls.

Abby could have raced the rubber ducks back and forth all day too.

It's funny to think that just last year I was toting around a different baby in that same baby carrier.

Swinging.

Corn angels.

Barrel train.

By the end of the day the girls were happy to hitch a ride in the wagon.

I love this picture of my two girls. Their sisterly bond is getting greater everyday. Love.

My three three month olds

2011-10-07T21:57:00.000-05:00

Abby, Natalie, Jake

Perfection.

2011-10-06T21:01:00.002-05:00

This weather has been pure perfection. We have been spending lots of time outside and really trying to soak in this weather since Winter always seems to arrive so quickly here in the Midwest. Our days have been spent playing at the park, playing outside with neighbors, strolling through the farmers market and downtown on Saturday mornings and the other day Abby and one of her neighbor friends just couldn't help but run through the sprinkler and lay out it was "so hot."

Just hanging around downtown. Literally.

Baby Jake looking as cute as ever sporting his awesome hat I got him for $6 second hand!!

Quick I better stuff this little cupcake into my mouth ASAP!

Just looking cute.

Running through the sprinkler in October?!

Popsicles all around.

It's a rough life around here.

Hopefully we'll get a few more weeks of this weather before the chill starts to settle in.

Baby Jake at 3 months

2011-10-05T22:27:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is about this little man but I just can't get enough of him. He is the sweetest baby. He cuddles and nuzzles me and is growing way too fast!! I don't know exactly how much he weighs but I'm guessing around 16 pounds. He's busting out of his size 2 diapers and I think I'll have to buy size 3 from now on. He recently outgrew his 6-9 month sleepers and is now filling out his 12 month sleepers! He likes to see what going on and I put him in the old excersaucer for the first time yesterday. He just sat quietly and looked in amazement at the toys. He has become quite social and loves smiling at people and has even started laughing. It is so darn cute. I'll try to get a video of it soon! Here are some recent pictures of my sweet baby Jake.

It's on.

2011-10-05T13:01:00.000-05:00

This:

plus this:

means WAR!!!!

Craftastic.

2011-10-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

I would by no means describe myself as a crafty person but I'm on a crafty kick that I think has been spurred by my recent need to organized everything in my house and my obsession with Pinterest. Pinterest is such a great way to share ideas, it's visually appealing, fun, easy and full of fantastic things! I'm in love. Thanks to Pinterest I've recently done the following projects:

Melted Crayon Canvas (this is my favorite):

So easy, so cheap and oh so beautiful. This is the blog post that I referenced. All you need is a canvas (Hobby Lobby $12.99), 120 box of Crayons ($4.50), hot glue, and a hair dryer. Abby, Natalie and one of the neighbor girls loved watching the whole process and I also thought it was pretty cool. Now I just need to decide where to hang it. You should do it and let me know if you do!

Decoupaged Fabric Letters

This was my first experience with Mod Podge, it was so easy and I love the finished product! I just used an extra pillowcase from Abby's bedding, mod podge, and cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby and Ta Da that's it!! I was inspired by Kelle over at Enjoying the Small Things. (One of my favorite blogs!)

Padded Boards:
I also made two padded boards for two different purposes. I made one to put in the girls' bathroom to hold all their hair accessories and one for Abby for her to display things that are special to her.

These turned out ok, they serve their purpose but I'd do a few things differently next time. They were super easy. I used a piece of cardboard (from a box in the garage), fabric, quilt batting, staples, ribbon and hot glue for the buttons. I think I might make another one for Abby that's much bigger so she will have more room to display all the artwork she brings home from school....

I'm quite proud of my self and my crafts. Seriously I've never really done any crafts before and it's quite rewarding to make something yourself I must say. More projects to come...

"Hold on Mom!"

2011-09-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

This morning as we were trying to get out the door for school I said "Abby GET in the car!" Her response, "Hold on Mom I have to sing the good morning song!" She then sprinted out into the driveway and did this:

Bless her sweet little heart! Brought a smile to my face at 8:27 this morning.

"Pony that wags"

2011-09-19T12:57:00.000-05:00

Abby has been sporting a "pony that wags" the last few days. Translation: one big ponytail she can swing around like a crazy person. And just for fun I've been making it a side-pony because hey if it was cool enough for me back in the day it's cool enough for her. Next I need to find a vintage picture of me as a little girl sporting the side-pony. I'm pretty sure the picture will look a lot like this one.

Abby's Solo

2011-09-16T20:49:00.000-05:00

Abby is going to preschool three mornings a week now and everyday she comes home with lots to say and new songs to sing for me. I love it.

Wordless Wednesday: To make up for Friday X 6

2011-09-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

Baby Jake's 2 month Stats

2011-09-13T21:21:00.001-05:00

My sweet baby Jake had his two month check up a couple of weeks ago and his measurements all point to BIG. I am used to having big babies. Abby has always been big and Natalie has always been above average on the charts but not as big as Abby. Abby just started to be on the charts and it looks like little Jacob is going to be along the same growth path as Abby. At two months his stats came in at:

Weight: 15.5 pounds (>95th %)
Height: 25 inches (>95th %)
Head: 16.25 inches (90th %)

He is almost two whole inches taller than Abby was at two months and Abby is super tall so if these measurements mean anything (which who knows if they really do) my sweet "little" Jake is going to be a big boy. He weighs half a pound less than Abby at the same age which is why he doesn't look quite as chunky as Abby did. For comparisons sake sweet Natalie Rae weighed a slender 12.5 pounds at two months. Here are all my 2 month olds.

And now I will go cry because I don't think I'll have another two month old, ever.

Childhood Memories Made: Fishing with Dad

2011-09-12T20:15:00.000-05:00

Abby has been asking to go fishing for weeks and so Saturday we packed up the whole family and went fishing at a nearby state park. Abby had her Barbie fishing pole in tow and Natalie had a Dora one. As we pulled into the park the hubs and I wondered what exactly Abby was expecting of fishing. I mean seriously fishing is not my idea or fun. I was scared to death that Natalie would fall in the water or get snagged by a fishing hook, but everyone survived unharmed. There was lots of drama on Abby's part though, including crying because it was taking so long to catch a fish and then later crying when she actually caught a fish. Although the evening ending with tired tears, I like to think that we are making childhood memories for our kids.

Baby Jake looking handsome. Check out those baby blues!

Apparently fishing is a lot of work so they had to stop and have some McDonalds.

Best picture ever. Abby sprinting in fear away from the fish she caught.

Not his best look

2011-09-09T19:12:00.002-05:00

Do you ever take a picture of one of your kids and think "hmmmm I'll never post that one" or "wow, that's NOT a cute picture!". Me neither.

Natalie at Dance

2011-08-31T22:49:00.000-05:00

I know it's kind of silly that Natalie is taking a dance class but several of my girl friends also signed up their babies and so it'll be fun for all. She was very excited to finally get to go into Abby's dance room and she did great. She went in by herself and only got upset a few times when her teacher tried to hold her hand. :) It was so fun to see her and her little baby friends all dressed up in their dance leotards and acting like big girls. By recital time she'll be almost 2 and half and not much of a baby anymore. They really do grow up too quickly.

She really did have fun, despite the look on her face in this picture.

Formal Introduction.

2011-08-29T21:31:00.000-05:00

Since I'm trying to get back on the blog wagon I think it's about time I formally introduce all of you to my sweet, sweet baby boy, Jacob Michael. Jacob was born on June 30th at 8:39 am. He weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was due the 26th so he was a little past his due date but he was well worth the wait. He was born after 5 "short" hours of labor and I was so blessed with yet another wonderful birth without any interventions and no complications. I was also very lucky that I was able to have my favorite midwife Laura attend Jacob's birth, she wasn't on call but she came in just for me! She also caught Abby and Natalie so it was great to have her again, she's amazingly clam and reassuring during labor. I know I'm crazy but I find the whole birth experience very amazing and exciting and I'm sad that I'm 99% positive I will never be giving birth again. Sigh. So the birth was great and sorry if this is TMI but actually grabbed him as he was coming out and pulled him onto my chest. Sounds kind of gross I know but it was amazing. He's been a fairly easy baby since the beginning. He nurses well, sleeps well and beside a short period between 4 weeks and 6 weeks when he was pretty fussy he's been great. He goes for his 2 month check up later this week and it'll be interesting to see what he weighs and how long he is because he is literally growing out of all of his clothes. He is now in size 6-9 month sleepers cause he's so long and then 3-6 month clothes (that don't have feet). His sisters love him and going from two to three children has not been as challenging as I imagined. The other day someone asked me what my secret to having to very young children is. I really don't have a secret but my one saving grace is that my girls go to bed quite early and this gives me time to be with Jacob in the evenings when although he's sometimes a little fussy and he just doesn't want to be put down. It can get kind of wild around dinner time when everyone is hungry and tired but once I get everyone fed it gets better and then it's almost bedtime. Then I get time with Jacob and hopefully a little time for myself. I'm really enjoying having a newborn one last time and I'm trying to just soak it all in. His sweet baby smell, his little newborn cry and the way his soft skin feels against my cheek. I love having a newborn again, especially one as sweet as this boy.

Friday Phone Dump

2011-08-26T14:10:00.001-05:00

Inspired by Kelle at Enjoying the Small Things. Some old and some new photos, all found on my phone.

1. Natalie Easter morning 2. Abby fishing with her cousins 3. Fun at Hobby Lobby 4. Cake Pops! 5. Natalie before her adenoidectomy and tubes in June 6. Abby's first day of summer session preschool 6. Natalie post swimming 7. Abby and Natalie reading together 8. Jacob in a milk coma 9. Abby shucking corn 10. Abby and Jake snuggling in the morning 11. Natalie playing in the fountain downtown 12. Jacob's first time in the bumbo 13. Delivering gifts to our favorite midwife Laura 14. Abby's first day of preschool artwork.

Like I said....

2011-08-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Like I said this kid is cute, sassy, spunky, naughty and fun all rolled into one little body!

Different Breed.

2011-08-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

Is it just me or is the second child always kind of a different breed? I know my Natalie is. This kid has got to be one of the funniest babies around. She wakes up smiling and laughing and runs to her crib at bed time. She is also one of the loudest babies around. Everything she says is with passion, she makes me laugh so hard but she also makes me crazy.

This is the passion I'm talking about.

Back in March I joked about how she ate sand. Well the good news is she doesn't do that very often anymore. The bad news is the kid would prefer chalk as her afternoon snack. At a friends house the other day she saw the sidewalk chalk and said "chalk eat it," and proceeded to throw a fit when I wouldn't get the chalk down for her. She also enjoys eating crayons. I've recently discovered she also loves to eat ice so I let her do that often since it's edible. I have even gone so far as to ask her pediatrician about it, she did not seem concerned and so I'm trying not to to let it drive me too crazy. I try to lots of redirecting and try not give her too much attention when she does it cause sometimes I think she does it to get attention and because she thinks it's funny.

Seriously, I don't know what to do with this child.

Most days she goes around with some sort of marker on her face.

I thought for sure Natalie would be totally traumatized when Jacob was born but she has been absolutely fine. No signs of jealously, just lots of loving, and of course the occasional poke in the eye. :)

She also love her big sister "Babby" she follows her everywhere and can be her best friend and of course her worse enemy as well. She often cries when we drop Abby off at preschool and asks for her first thing in the morning.

She loves her big sister!

Seriously the amount of spunk and cuteness in her one little body is enough to make my heart explode. I know she'll continue to test my patience but hopefully her sweet smiles, hugs and overall passion for life will keep me from completely losing my mind. Man I love that kid.

A Day at the Iowa Illinois State Fair

2011-08-22T21:25:00.001-05:00

We'd been talking about taking the kids to the Iowa State Fair for a while and were planning to go last weekend but we also had tickets to see Rachel Coleman from Signing Time in Peoria. So we went to see Rachel Coleman on Saturday, stayed with my parents at their new house in Springfield and then hit up the Illinois State Fair in Springfield on Sunday. Now I'm not a huge State Fair connoisseur and I've only been to the Iowa State Fair twice but I'm pretty sure the Illinois is pretty much just like the Iowa State Fair. It wasn't too hot, the girls loved the animals, Abby rode some lame carnival rides and we ended the day with two huge inflatable Dora wands. (They "accidentally" got left at Grandma and Grandpa's house...whoops!) Although we don't watch a lot of Signing Time anymore since Natalie is talking so much, both the girls have loved watching Signing Time as babies and toddlers. I also read her blog and find her to be so inspirational that I too was very excited to see her live. It was at a very small venue and it was fun to see her. I had some cute videos from her performance but little Miss Natalie accidentally erased them while I was letting her watch them. All and all it was a great weekend and we were able to go to the fair and have help from my parents, which made it perfect.

Signing Time Live!

Blog to do list:

2011-08-22T21:20:00.002-05:00

In order to stay motivated in my quest to get back to blogging regularly I now present to you my blog to do list:

Jacob's birth story
Natalie at 18 months
Abby's dance recital
Abby starting preschool
post lost photos
share recent videos
Kate's wedding
zoo trip
~~Natalie eating weird things~~
Family day at City Park
~~Illinois State Fair~~

I'll be updating this list as I go. Hopefully I'll be all caught up with our major happenings within the next week.

Back to blogging.

2011-08-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe I have not blogged since March 31st. I don't even know what happened but now I feel bad for not documenting what we've been up to. My sweet baby Jacob is 7 weeks already and I haven't even blogged about his arrival. I don't have a great excuse for not blogging. First I was pregnant and tired, and now I have a newborn and am tired. By the time I get everyone settled in at bedtime I have so much to do around the house, blogging took a back seat. Now my sweet baby Jake has started to go to bed a little bit easier I think I can begin blogging regularly again. In the next couple of weeks I hope to catch you up on what we've been up to and share lots of pictures of sweet baby Jake and his older sisters. For now I leave you with this adorable picture of all three of my babies. This picture and those in my new header and sidebar pictures were all taken by the super talented Emily Crall.

When you're the second child...

2011-03-31T22:20:00.000-05:00

I am constantly amazed at what a different parent I am with my second child than my first. Here are just a few examples:

When you're the second child you:

get to watch more TV than your older sibling ever did.

get to do way more fun activities because your sister is and you want to be just like her.

become much more adventuresome because your mom's not a hovercraft at the park and actually lets you out of her arms reach.

you have more opportunities to get into trouble because your mom has two children to watch instead of one.

you have more freedom you test your physical limits earlier than your older sibling ever did.

you have much better options for accessorizing due to your older siblings wardrobe.

you eat more sand than your sister ever did because your mom only freaks out about it the first 20 times and then gives up.

Like I said when you're the second child things are a little different.

Makes my heart smile.

2011-03-28T13:57:00.000-05:00

I absolutely LOVE this picture. My heart smiles when I look at it. It's hard to believe that grown up looking child in the middle is mine. I have a child who is now making friends, carrying on her own conversations, asking questions and going on adventures all her own. I hear age three can be worse than two but so far we've only had a few bumps in the road. Oh the joys of being three.

Here to stay?

2011-03-19T13:59:00.000-05:00

The weather here has been amazing and we've been spending as much time as possible outside. This morning we hit up story time at the library (for the third time this week), checked out some new books and ate our sack lunch by the playground. It was perfect. As is this picture of my Abby, who just couldn't wait to get home to read one of her new books. On our way home I wondered is this weather here to stay? I hope so!

Stroller Derby

2011-03-17T19:15:00.000-05:00

Just a typical night at our house.

Playtime with Daddy

2011-03-16T14:14:00.001-05:00

There are some things Mommy just can't do. Daddy to the rescue.

Birthday Girl

2011-02-02T21:12:00.000-06:00

My Abby turned three today and we had a great day. We started the day with a "Birthday Breakfast" that she referred to as her "little party" and then she spent most of the day playing in the snow and playing with the neighbors. It was a good day and it's hard to believe that it's been three years already since she was born. My mind goes back to that day in 2008 when there was an ice and snow storm going on and I had a wonderful labor and delivery of my sweet 8 pound 7 ounce baby girl.

Over the last three years she has grown into a young lady so quickly it's scary. Here are her first three birthday party pictures.

Today we just did a birthday breakfast since her actual party is February 12th. Looking at these pictures it really is amazing how much changes in just one year. Happy Birthday to my sweet Abby!

I now present to you:

2011-01-29T20:02:00.000-06:00

My son:

That's right our next baby is a boy. I can hardly believe it. We had our ultrasound on Tuesday and found out we are having a healthy baby boy. He looked great and we are overjoyed to be having a boy. This being (I think) my last baby I'm excited to get the chance to be the mother to a boy. I love my baby girls and would have of course loved having another girl but I think it will be fun to have both. It does feel weird though, it adds a new element to the mix since I've never had a boy before. I'm excited to get to experience what Ms. Mayhem describes as "boy love."

12 months, 18 weeks and almost 3 years.

2011-01-23T22:16:00.000-06:00

Wow time has been flying by and I continue to be a terrible blogger. My sweet baby Natalie Rae has turned one, I'm 18 weeks this week and will be getting an ultrasound this Tuesday to find out if we're having another sweet girl or our first boy and I'm busy planning Abigail's 3rd birthday party which is quickly approaching. So here's the run down on all three of these events:

Natalie's First Birthday

2011-01-23T22:15:00.002-06:00

We had a small party for Natalie at home to celebrate her first birthday. Unlike her sister who wouldn't even touch her cake on her first birthday Miss Natalie really got after it and had a grand old time with the frosting. I don't think she actually ate much cake but she sure did have fun!

I've neglected to update you all on my sweet Natalie and she has turned into quite the opinionated little bruiser. This kid is into everything, has no fear and just wants to be big like her sister. She is constantly chasing Abby around and getting into all of her stuff. She started walking mid December and has been unstoppable ever since. Her favorite things include pushing doll strollers around, getting into the cabinets, screaming at the top of the stairs wanting to go downstairs, eating, waking up at 5:30am and {gasp} warm whole milk with a hint of chocolate. I had been trying unsuccessfully for months to get Natalie to drink something besides water and breast milk (straight from the breast). She would adamantly refuse and literally gag on plain whole milk and even breast milk in a cup. So per my pediatricians advice I tried a hint of vanilla flavoring...more gaging. But low and behold if I warm up whole milk with a hint of chocolate and put it in a bottle she can't get enough of it. Stinker. So I was successfully able to wean her the week after her birthday with no trouble at all, which was nice since breastfeeding while pregnant was really tiring me out! Natalie has turning into a great night-time sleeper and sleeps from 6pm to 5:30 or 6am. I've been trying to make her wait till 6 but it seems kind of pointless to wait till 6 to go in to get her since I'm laying in bed listening to her anyways. And no, putting her to bed later does not help, it seems no matter what time I put her down at night she still wakes up between 5am and 6am. Her naps are much more inconsistent but I guess you can't have it all. She has started signing and talking more and more and she can currently sign: milk, daddy, more, all done, light, bath, dog, hat, diaper and book. She has a few words as well: mama, dada, ball, dog, boo (these are clear) and I swear she "says" a lot of other things but only I could understand them. She currently has 4 teeth (two on top and two on the bottom), is wearing size 12-18 months clothes and I just bumped her up to size four diapers. I keep thinking it's crazy to have a baby who wears clothes that match her age, since Abby was such a big baby in comparison to Abby.

Natalie's 12 months stats were:

Height: 29.3 inches (59th percentile)

Wieght: 20.8 pounds (47th percentile)

Head: 18.3 in (84th percentile)

I found a great App for my iPad that charts your child's growth and charts your children against each other on the same chart. So here's Natalie first year graphs: (click to enlarge)

And Natalie and Abby on the same graph (Natalie is the blue line and Abby is the purple line):

So all in all it's been a great first year with our little Natalie and I can't believe how fast it has flown by and that before long my sweet baby is going to be a big sister! Wow. And I leave you with this sweet shot of my Natalie when she was 10 days old:

And one more from the other day:

So much sweetness in this little one.

Place your bet

2011-01-23T22:15:00.001-06:00

Place you bets people. I'm 18 weeks this week and going in Tuesday morning for my ultrasound to check our sweet baby number three's measurements and gender. I have absolutely no idea what we will find out but in terms of this pregnancy it's has been a little different than my last two pregnancies. With both girls I was nauseous but never actually got sick and with this pregnancy I've had absolutely no nausea. So I don't know what that means but I guess we will see. So place you'r bet here in the comments and I'll have a huge prize for those of you who guess correctly. Ok I lied no prizes but still it'll be fun!

Party Planning Minnie Mouse Style

2011-01-23T22:15:00.000-06:00

Abby has requested a Minnie Mouse birthday party this year and I've been having a lot of fun making the preparations. I'm in love with all things Etsy and have found some super cute decorations and favors for her Minnie Mouse party.

Exhibit A:

Found here

Exhibit B:

Found here

And I'm going to attempt to recreate something like this (or pay someone to):

I'm having way to much fun with this!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-05T11:49:00.000-06:00

A Halloween Surprise

2011-01-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

We couldn't believe it but it's true, bright and early Halloween morning I discovered I was pregnant with our third baby! My sweet 11 month old baby Natalie is going to be a big sister this coming June. My official due date is June 25th and I'm currently 15 weeks along. If you follow me on Twitter you know I hinted to an exciting appointment scheduled for January 25th. That's when we have our 18 week check up and we'll also be getting and ultrasound to find out if Abby and Natalie will be joined by another sister or a brother. This baby came as a BIG surprise and I'm not going to lie it took me a while to get excited about it but now I couldn't be more excited. If you must know I haven't had a period since Natalie was born and we obviously were not taking any measures to prevent pregnancy. I'm just another person to debunk the "breastfeeding as birth control" myth.

Sure I'll be busy with a not even 3 1/2 year old, 17 month old and newborn but I think we'll manage and hopefully I don't lose my mind....very often. So far I've been feeling great and have had no symptoms of pregnancy at all. I'm still nursing Natalie which has been exhausting but I figure I might as well do it till her birthday (Thursday). My milk supply is really low and she's hardly getting anything anyways but I can't get her to drink any other sort of milk, she seriously gags. I've never been pregnant (big pregnant) in the summer so I'm not really looking forward to that. As you guys know we like to spend A LOT of time at the pool in the summer which will pretty much be impossible for me to do alone....I'm thinking I'll have to hire a neighborhood teenager to go with us or a babysitter to stay home with one or two little ones while they're napping. Oh I could go on and on about all the little things to think about but all and all I think it'll work out fine. This will most likely be my last pregnancy so I'm going to treasure it.

A is for Abby

2010-12-15T09:48:00.000-06:00

Blogger....fail.

2010-12-14T22:32:00.000-06:00

I don't know what is wrong with me these days. I'm so unmotivated to blog. I usually blog at night and lately I've been so exhausted after I get the girls to bed I just cannot bring myself to do anything but lay in bed and watch trashy TV. And it's not that I don't have anything to blog about we've been as busy as ever.

We took a ride on the Hawkeye Express, Abigail had been begging to do this since last football season.

Abigail got her tonsils out about three weeks ago and although the actually surgery went fine the following two weeks were like mommy boot camp. She didn't eat for 10 day, was in a lot pain, woke up countless times at night and lost 5 pounds. She fine now thank goodness and we're now just trying to work on her sleep habits. Since we encouraged her to drink as much as possible during her recovery she got used to drinking milk all. night. long. and now I'm trying to break this habit....lets just say it's been painful for all parties involved. After this "minor surgery" I am just thankful to have healthy children and the whole time I kept thinking of people who have chronically ill children and have to go through multiple surgeries and sicknesses. I am blessed.

Natalie's been as fun as ever, she's such a fun and happy baby. She's walking more and more everyday and is so proud of herself it's hilarious. (will post video soon...I promise.) She's also a climbing EVERYTHING. Which has resulted in her first shiner.

Thanks to her dad she now also thinks this stroller is for her to ride in. When I look at these pictures I just think is that a huge baby or a tiny stroller. Hehehe.

My sister from Israel also visited for a week and I got to meet my sweet new nephew Amir. Unfortunately I have no pictures to document his visit but we'll be seeing him again next week for Christmas so I'll be sure to take some pictures then.

So all in all things have been fine I just haven't caught up on my sleep since Abby's surgery and I'm just plain tired.

Wordless Wednesday- Baby Weight lifting

2010-11-24T10:51:00.000-06:00

Sad, sad day.

2010-11-19T15:45:00.001-06:00

It's a sad, sad day. Our new house is entirely wood on the main level (except the bedrooms) so this tops my Christmas list. I find this very depressing.

I'm old.

The Blanky Fairy is coming to town

2010-11-14T19:30:00.003-06:00

My sweet Abigail has had the same Little Giraffe blanky since she was born and she absolutely adores it. I started tucking it into her carseat next to her face when she was only a month or so old cause she would never take a pacifier and she'd scream and scream in her carseat. She was so cute she used to move her little face back and fourth against it as a tiny newborn. This blanky has literally been around the world with us (New York, Croatia, Florida, Mexico x2, Florida, Israel and more) and almost lost many times. With so much loving it's been worn down to a rag. It seriously looks like a piece of trash and I always worried that if we ever did leave it somewhere it'd get tossed in the garbage since it's so worn. I've been asking Abigail for months now if she'd like a new one or she'd like us to try to fix her blanky somehow. These conversations always stress her out and seem to really get her thinking. My mom has offered to help "fix" it some how and so has a friend of mine but I really think it's beyond that and she can either keep it till nothing is left of we can replace it. A friend of mine gave me the idea of the "Blanky Fairy" and I've talked to Abigail about it and she seems pretty excited about it. I said we could write the "Blanky Fairy" a letter and ask her if she could come in the night and use her magic to make her blanky just like new again. At first she said "I don't want her to take it" but I explained she wouldn't be taking it she'd just be using her fairy magic to fix her blanky so it'd look like new again. She said she'd like the "Blanky Fairy" to come so I found the exact same blanky on ebay (it's discontinued) and it should be arriving sometime next week. I've also showed her lots of pictures of her blanky from when she was a baby so she know what it used to look like but I'm still a little worried. I don't want her to freak out and want her old blanky back.... I mean I'll of course save her old one for her memory box but I really don't think I can go back on it once we make the switch. What do you think? Should I go for it or wait until her blanky is completely disintegrating? I mean seriously check this thing out:

Halloween

2010-11-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

I hosted a fun little "Halloween Party" on Saturday with three of the neighbor girls and it was so fun! We had a "spooky lunch" that included "Mummy Dogs," "Monster Jaws,""Cheesy Fingers," "Magic Wands" and "Spooky Eye Cupcakes." I forgot to take my own pictures of some of the things but these are my own pictures of my "magic wands" and "spooky eye cupcakes." The spooky eye meringue cookie recipe is from one of my favorite blogs MommyMishMash.com. If you don't read her blog you should, she's a mother of three, great cook and super funny as well!

After our "spooky lunch" we did a craft and then the girls played independently downstairs for almost two hours, it was amazing! Abigail was the youngest of the bunch and what a difference it makes to have some older girls in the mix, I kept going down to check on them and finding myself in the way and they didn't "need" me for anything at all. It gave me a glance into my future and I like it.

Although I'm not a super crafty person and didn't do a ton of crafts with my students in my teaching days this short 15 minute craft brought back some memories from my teaching days and it was nice. Nice to have only 4 kids and one fun craft to do that is. :)

First Braids.

2010-10-25T20:24:00.000-05:00

Growing up I almost always had two french braids running down each side of my head. As Abigail's hair gets longer I've been dreaming of braiding her hair. I'm still working on my french braiding skills but today I managed to get two small braids in Abigail's hair and it's just too cute for words!!

Rare.

2010-10-24T19:29:00.000-05:00

It's rare for me to be on the other side of the camera lens but today while my good friend Bethany was visiting from out of town she snapped a couple of pictures of me and the girls and after seeing them I realized how truly rare it really is to have a picture of me and the girls all together. Thanks Bethany!

(I also realized I don't really like my hair this dark...they don't even look like my babies! I've already made an appointment for highlights.)

Hello Choking Hazard.

2010-10-19T19:33:00.000-05:00

Natalie has been in a bit of a sleeping funk....I don't know if it's teeth or her ears or what but this afternoon as she was refusing to nap I walked in to find this:

Ok the actual picture I saw was much cuter and not nearly as sad. When I walked in she was not crying and just had that piece of fuzz in her mouth. It was very funny (before I thought of the choking potential) and so I had to run and grab my camera quick. Then she of course flipped out since I left her for 10 whole seconds which resulted in this much less cute picture and very sad looking picture of my sweet Natalie. Where did she get such a thing you ask? Well upon further inspection I found that she had somehow torn apart part of her seahorse soother and taken the stuffing out. Stinker. So today she napped for 45 minutes all day!! I ended up doing a little bit of seahorse surgery to make her beloved seahorse safe again.

Down on the farm

2010-10-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

Today we took our 2nd annual trip to a kid friendly farm in our area. As we walked around and enjoyed all the different activities this song kept running through my head and I couldn't help but think about everything that's changed since we last visited.

The joys of being 2!

2010-10-15T20:13:00.000-05:00

This is the life.

2010-10-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

My parents were here last weekend and lets just say I could get used to that! Unfortunately my parents live almost 9 hours away so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like but when they are here it's heaven. Abigail absolutely adores her grandparents and Natalie is coming around as well. We took a trip to the apple orchard where Abigail was so tired that she said "my legs don't work anymore." Unfortunately there wasn't hardly any apples to be picked, so we just bought apples in the orchard store. Then we went home and my mom taught me how to can her famous homemade applesauce.

With four adults helping out with the peeling and cutting we made quick work of the 1/4 bushel of apples and we got seven big jars of applesauce and it is delicious! Both of the girls LOVE it!

Once again having my parents here is absolutely wonderful the worst part is when they leave.

What's with these guys?

2010-10-13T20:06:00.000-05:00

Abigail has loved The Wiggles since she was 10 or 11 months and although she doesn't watch them very much any more she was watching them the other day and Natalie happened to catch a glimpse of them and she went crazy. I made me laugh so hard because she's never really paid attention to the TV before. Although she's not quite as into as Abby was it still made me smile. What is it with kids and those crazy Australians?

Natalie's First Sign: All Done

2010-10-04T19:21:00.000-05:00

Abigail and I have been practicing a few signs with little Miss Natalie and although it's not perfect Natalie has started to sign "all done" and it's too much cuteness for me to handle. (This post also reminds me of some old posts of Abigail signing. Her first sign was "all done" too as you can see here. And hopefully Natalie will take to signing like her sister did. It made communication so much easier!)

**Please ignore my annoying mommy voice....uggg I hate listening to my own voice on videos!***

Impressive Misbehavior

2010-10-03T20:51:00.002-05:00

Tonight I was proud, impressed and a little bit upset all rolled into one. Abigail called me into her room to show me her "drawing of Dora." I was intrigued cause I didn't even know she was drawing....well that's because she had used one of her colored pencils to draw "Dora" on her bedroom wall. Although I tried to be firm with her I was quite impressed with her drawing. This was the first drawing I've ever seen her draw that was recognizable. She showed me Dora's eyes, legs, head, mouth and hat. So although I stressed we don't draw on the walls I also took a picture for the records, her first recognizable drawing...on the wall.

Hawkeye Homecoming Parade

2010-10-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

I love parades so my little Hawkeyes and I headed down to the Hawkeye homecoming parade last night and everyone had a blast! Abigail's favorite parts were the bands, the candy, the gymnasts, pom-poms.

Please note that generally speaking I am not a fan of cheerleading and will not encourage my girls to ever be cheerleaders. But yes they are wearing cheerleading outfits for a couple reasons: 1) Abigail is in an I will only wear dresses stage and her only other Hawkeye apparel is t-shirts and she had to wear Hawkeye apparel to the Hawkeye parade. 2) They look pretty darn cute in their Hawkeye cheerleading dresses. Hopefully as they get older they'll get in the game and I won't be seeing them in cheerleading outfits when they're 16. I mean considering who their parents are they've got a lot to live up to. (hehehehe) Of course is they choose to be cheerleaders I would support them but I'd also encourage other sports like: basketball, softball, cross country, track, soccer, swimming, tennis....

I was originally going to title this post "Hawkeye Homecoming Parade: A lesson in parade etiquette." But I've decided not to dwell on the super annoying grown-ups that were standing right next to us, crowding our blanket, standing in front of toddlers, heckling children handing out candy and generally speaking so annoying! I will also not dwell on the fact that I said something to them and they then whispered and glared at me the rest of the parade. I'm not going to dwell on that because it doesn't matter, what matters is that my girls had a blast.

How we roll: music at our house

2010-09-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

This is how we roll and if you want to roll with us you're going to need: spoons, a princess nightgown (barf I know), monkey slippers, one spunky 2 and half year old and an 8 month old who idolizes her sister.

They're gifted I know.

What a difference a year makes

2010-09-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

These two pictures were almost exactly a year apart. Wow, what a difference a year makes. My first born whet from a baby to a little girl in the blink of an eye. Whenever I look at pictures of my babies growing up I am reminded why people keep having more, they just grow up too quickly. Thanks Grandma for the new playdress that replaced the beloved "purple dress" that was getting really short!

That's not where I put my baby

2010-09-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

Natalie is on the go and into everything. It's fun to see her explore her surrounding, it's like a whole new world to her. Thanks to @1xmum I've been capturing these moments with pictures and tweeting them with the trending topic of #thatsnotwhereiputmybaby. Here's a few:

My little Natalie

2010-09-17T21:20:00.001-05:00

My sweet ~~little~~ Natalie Rae is just growing way too fast and I haven't been blogging about her monthly like I promised myself I would. Bad mommy blogger! So fast that she has gone and figured out how to crawl and babble and I just can't believe it. I swear I just brought her home a few months ago, 8 months ago to be exact. But you know what they say "babies don't keep." Natalie continues to be a happy, adorable, fun, smart and lovable baby. She's been done with baby food for over a month now and eats pretty much anything. On a typical day she likes to drink water from her sippy cup, get into Abigail's stuff, put everything into her mouth, swing outside, be carried by her mom, watch her sister dance and play, take a bath, take two 1 hour naps a day, nurse 4-6 times a day, eats 3 meals and two small snacks, wake up twice at night, babble and say "dada," eat magazines, find all choking hazard that I've over looked in the house and her newest love is clapping her hands. Generally speaking she's happy but she of course has some dislikes as well, they are: getting buckled into her car seat, having ear infections (2 since she got tubes), taking medicine, being held by strangers (especially if mom is in the room), strangers with hats on, going to sleep on her own (we're working on this), wearing hats and being left alone in a room. Here are some recent pictures of my favorite 8 month old.

And for the record here are some videos of her crawling:

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

A Hurried Child

2010-09-08T21:47:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this blog today and their families story broke my heart. This video has really stuck with me and got me thinking about how I really need to slow down our daily activities and enjoy the day to day moments with my girls. I often find myself hurrying from one thing to the next and for what? Although it's very important to my sanity as a SAHM to get out of the house daily I often find us rushing around and more often than not five minutes is not going to make a difference at all. So I'm going to make a conscious effort to slow down and enjoy the everyday, ordinary moments I have with my girls everyday because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Wordless Wednesday- Best Friends

2010-09-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

Fly on the wall

2010-09-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

If you were a fly on the wall in my house this past week you would have heard some funny things:

Me (to the Hubs): Did you fart under the blanket or did I?

Hubs: I think I did.
_________________________________________________________________________

Me (to Abigail after she'd come out of her room for the 3rd time): "Repeat after me, Mommy"

Abigail: "What?"

Me: "Say Mommy"

Abigail: "Mommy"

Me: "I didn't take a nap today so I promise not to get out of bed again."

Abigail: "I didn't take a nap today so I promise not to get out of bed again...I love you mom."

_________________________________________________________________________

Me (to Abigail while swinging on the swing set): "You can just leave your shoes off and have barefeet."

Abigail: "Mom, why you said BARE feet?"(in a very matter a fact tone)

Me: "Not bear like the animal, bare like you have nothing on your feet, like how sometimes you have a bare bum. It means you have nothing on your feet like they're naked."

Abigail: "Mom they're just feet."

Me: "Ok Abby."

_________________________________________________________________________

Me: "Natalie Rae, I just don't know what you want."

Abigail: "Natalie's just a stinkpot Mom."

Me: "Kinda like you."

Abigail: "Mom! I'm not a stinkpot."

________________________________________________________________________

Me (to Hubs): "God...I'm so exhausted lately....."

Abigail: (interrupting me after saying God) "Damn it, Daddy always say that. God damn it."

Me and Hubs: (silence as we try not to fall over laughing)

_______________________________________________________________________

Me (to screaming Abigail): "Do you even know why you're crying?"

Abigail: "No."

Me: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Abigail: "No. Nothing."

_______________________________________________________________________

So although you may think life at my house is boring based on my lack of blog posts lately its rarely boring.

Game Face

2010-09-04T10:21:00.000-05:00

Today's the first Hawkeye game of the season, Natalie's got her game face on do you?

GO HAWKS!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-31T21:20:00.000-05:00

Long time coming

2010-08-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

I took that last picture of Abigail today and I could not believe all of the hair on that girl's head. She was born practically bald and her hair has been a long time coming. I remember sometime last winter Abigail had her hand on her head and said "Mama, I want hair." Well my sweet girl finally has a full head of hair and it's beautiful, blonde and has the best curls. I've been having fun figuring out ways to tame it. It'll be interesting to see if it stays curly or just becomes a fro like mine.

Cheating on my blog

2010-08-30T20:48:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I feel like I am cheating on my blog. I'm cheating with Twitter. It's like the lazy bloggers best friend. I'm only allowed to type 140 characters per twit so I'm never at a loss for words. I can Twit (or twat as my hubs like to call it) quickly from my phone anytime of the day. I can Twit pictures, videos, anything from my phone, it's really quite amazing if you ask me. One of my favorite times to Twit is while breastfeeding Natalie and I can quietly catch up on what everyone is doing. I've also "met" some great, witty, funny people on Twitter. Most of them also have blogs which I often read to find out more about what they're twitting (or is it twittering or twatting?) about. Seriously though, I started my blog long before I started using Twitter so I really do feel like I'm cheating my readers. I'm going to try to do better. I've got lots of things I need to share with you guys including recent pictures of my growing girls and some sneak peeks of our new house. In the meantime I was thinking about blogging about some of the people I meet on Twitter, I was thinking of calling it "Twatter or the Week." Ok maybe I won't call it that, people might not want to be featured.... I'll think of a better name.

Oh What a Happy Day Down on the Farm

2010-08-19T17:22:00.000-05:00

My mom taught Abigail this song complete with hand motions and Abigail loves it! She sings it all the time and therefore I often find myself walking around singing it to myself as well. In case you can't understand her it goes like this:

Oh what a happy day down on the farm,

where everything you see adds to the charm,

planting the garden and mowing the hay,

milking the bossy cow, this is the way.

My favorite part is "milking the bossy cow" and pretending to milk the cow. Never in a million years did I think I'd be spending my days walking around with that song in my head. The joys of motherhood continue everyday.

I dare you.

2010-08-19T16:50:00.002-05:00

Not to smile or laugh at this video of Natalie.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

Filled with love

2010-08-18T22:05:00.002-05:00

My grandmother died last week. We knew she would die soon but she took a turn for the worse quickly and so it seemed sudden even though we all knew her time was coming. She was 91 and lived a wonderful life, a life filled with love. She was madly in love with my grandfather who died 15 years ago and I can't help but think that they are now finally together again. I am one of the younger grandchildren and I was never lucky enough to live close to her so we weren't extremely close but I have wonderful memories of trips to visit her and my grandfather when I was young. Although death is always a hard thing to deal with, I came away from the funeral and time with my family feeling as if I now know my grandmother even more than before. It's a strange feeling. This was my first large extended family gathering that I'd been to as an adult. I found myself staying up late and talking with the adults about their lives growing up with my grandmother and through these talks I got to know her more than ever. It'd been 10 years since I'd been back to my mother's hometown and although I'd seen my grandmother a couple times since then I saw people at the funeral who had never met me as an adult. So it felt like I was meeting them for the first time. I found myself strangely jealous of people who really got to know my grandmother, know her when she was young. They had great stories to tell and although I have fond memories of her I wish I could have known her when she was younger, I think we would have been great friends. She loved sports, being outside, her husband and pie. She died peacefully with her daughters by her side and she lived a long life, filled with love. Here is a wonderful slide show of her life compiled by my cousin Katie.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

Swinging Baby

2010-08-01T07:10:00.003-05:00

This makes me laugh.

Mexico Summer 2010

2010-07-21T13:28:00.008-05:00

I have way to many things to be doing right now besides blogging but I just had to share a few pictures and stories from our trip to Mexico last week. Overall we had an absolutely faboulous trip. The only major downer was that my husband was unable to make the trip, with the closing on our house quickly approaching (July 31st) and our new house is not ready to be moved into yet he had to stay home and get some work done. Thankfully my parents were on the same flights as us otherwise I don't know if I would have be up for traveling alone with my two little monkeys. The house we rented was amazing and we swam 2 to 3 times a day and all the cousins had a blast together. It was hot but not any hotter than it's been here in the midwest and with a pool right in the backyard we stayed cool in the pool. As many of you probably know the hardest part of traveling with young children is maintaing routine. Natalie did fine and although she woke up a little more often than she normally does it wasn't that big of a deal. Abigail on the other hand had a harder time, at home she naps for 2-3 hours a day and in Mexico she napped once! This in itself is not that big of a deal but it often led to tired meltdowns and small behavior incidents. By Friday she was in bed at 5:30 pm and slept till 7am! Here she is on the flight home.

Natalie in Mexico

Natalie is the perfect age for traveling, past the fussy newborn stage but not yet mobile. She enjoyed watching her older cousins play and got quite comfortable in the water as well.

Abby in Mexico

Abigail had a blast on the trip, when I ask her what her favorite part was she says "playing with my cousins!" My niece Sophia is just four months younger than Abby and my nephew Zane is 5 but he was very tolerant of playing with both Abby and his sister Sophia. My sweet 14 month old niece Camilla was there as well and she was very interested in what her cousins were up to and it'll be fun to see her start joining in on the fun in the next year or so! Abby loved the pool but hated the beach. For a girl who hates sand, the beach is not much fun. She was feeling the pressure in the pool as her cousin Zane was making huge strides as a swimmer. I think she was in search of some of the praise he was getting. By Friday she was going underwater, kicking herself a few feet in the water without a floatie and putting her head underwater with goggles on to look around. The first time she did it she stood up and said "I not getting scared." Awwwwww.

All in all it was a great trip and it was nice to get away before the craziness of moving that is now upon us....movers come Friday!

P.S. Nearly all of these photos were taken by my oh'so talented sister-in-law Rebecca (Camilla's mom) who also happens to be a kick-ass photographer!

Busy, busy, busy

2010-07-08T21:48:00.003-05:00

Just looking at the rest of July has my head spinning. It looks something like this: mom and dad come (tomorrow), drive to hometown, go to old high school friend's wedding, have a blast, stay in hotel, drive to airport, fly to Mexico for a week, swim, layout, eat, swim, enjoy time with family, fly back home, pack, pack, pack, clean, clean, clean, take care of children, pack, pack, pack, take care of children, take a deep breath, unpack, unpack, unpack, take care of children, unpack, organize, unpack, organize, breathe. And if all goes according to planned we will be moved into our new house (4 blocks away) by the end of the month because the people that bought our current house get it August 1st. I'm a little sad to be leaving our house since we built it and brought both our babies home to it but I'm also excited about our new (to us) house and my goal with this move it to get totally organized from the very beginning. Another thing I've come to realize is that it doesn't really matter that we're only moving a few blocks down the street, it's the same amount of stuff to move. It's just a shorter distance to drive. If you want updates from Mexico check my twitter page (or check my sidebar), I think I'll be able to tweet from there!

Natalie's 6 month pics and Abigail being two

2010-07-06T14:11:00.005-05:00

I took the girls to get Natalie's 6 month pictures yesterday morning. I got Abigail dressed as well just in case they could get a couple good ones of both girls. I just knew if I didn't get her ready she'd want to jump in and with my luck they would be great and she'd be looking all scraggly or something. Natalie did great and they got some great ones of her but Abigail was being a stinker and as you can see from the pictures she enjoyed doing the opposite of what she was told.

Here's Natalie being as cute as ever:

And here are a few of both girls, cute but sassy:

Here's my favorite:

stinker!

Cute to the max

2010-07-02T07:36:00.002-05:00

I'm so in love with this face.

Bouncing Baby Natalie

2010-06-28T21:58:00.004-05:00

Natalie has been hanging out and playing in this jumper for over a month now but she has just started to actually jump and bounce in it and she thinks she's hot stuff.

Bouncing baby natalie from Not-so-perfect-mom on Vimeo.

If you take my Abigail to the Splash Pad...

2010-06-28T17:17:00.010-05:00

If you take my Abigail to the local splash pad you probably won't see a lot of splashing. But you may see her....

running away from the water,

attempting to inch towards the water,

"drinking" from the water features,

saying "it's getting me, Mama!"

thinking about going into the water and getting wet,

but if you take my Abigail to the splash pad you will probably not see her doing any actually splashing.

"She NEEDS you!"

2010-06-23T21:24:00.003-05:00

Natalie has been a great sleeper from day one but lately she's regressed just a little and after I put her to bed she'll usually wake up about 45 minutes later and have a hard time getting back to sleep. The other night I had been in and out of her room several times already and was trying to get Abigail dinner and she'd scream every time I put her back down. She was VERY tired but just couldn't settle down to sleep and I had dinner going and just couldn't hold her. So just to see what would happen I checked the clock and decided not to go back for 10 minutes. I said to myself 10 minutes is not going to kill her, it's just a little self-soothing and shut the door. If you've read my blog for a while you know I'm not a huge fan of the "cry it out" thing but I also know sometimes it just has to be done and I had to do it with Abigail. So on with the story because this post isn't supposed to be about sleep training it's about Abigail and her response to me letting Natalie cry. She didn't seem to notice at first but after a minute or so she said "Mom Natalie's crying." In response I said something like "I know Abigail I hear her but I need to make dinner and I'll check on her in a minute." As many of you know when a baby is crying 10 minutes can seem like an eternity so after 3 minutes I was thinking to myself ok maybe I'll just go 5 minutes but at 5 minutes she was calming down, but she quickly became quite upset and once again Abigail reminded me "Mom Natalie's crying." I gave the same answer "I know honey she's just tired and I'll check on her in a minute." Abigail then became very upset and said in a voice that was getting louder and more dramatic by the second, "Mom Natalie is still crying, go get her, open her door, she NEEDS you!" By this time Abigail was bawling and seriously upset about the whole situation. I couldn't help but smile and by this point it'd been 10 minutes, I had Abigail's plate ready and I was able to go in and get Natalie calmed down and finally to sleep. It's kind of nice to know Abigail was so concerned about Natalie and I can really start to see the love that Abigail has for her sister....most of the time at least. I didn't quite see this love earlier this evening when Abigail bonked Natalie on the head and had to sit her buns in time-out. Since I have two sisters myself I think it'll be fun to see Abigail and Natalie's relationship develop over the years.

Which reminds me of this song from White Christmas, my sister Elizabeth and I used to reenact it all the time.

And you can't hardly post that video without posting this one, sisters are the best!

Fun in the Sun

2010-06-19T22:14:00.003-05:00

My parents are here and we've been having lots of fun spending time outside. Now that I have some help at the pool Abigail was really able to get used to the water and swimming with her Puddle Jumper floaties on. She has really gotten better and the only downside is now she only wants to go to the big pool which I just can't do when it's just me in the girls. Thank goodness for grandparents!

Exausted

2010-06-16T20:02:00.002-05:00

Today we went swimming with some friends and Abigail was so excited about it she just couldn't nap. I was a little worried that she would be a total mess at the pool but she did great. We swam from 3:30-6:00 had dinner at the pool and headed home. I snapped this picture on the way home at 6:34. She transferred perfectly to her crib and both my girls were in their cribs sleeping at 7:15, . Perfection if you ask me. I'm almost looking forward to Abigail giving up her afternoon nap for good so she'll always go to bed so early!

Tubes for little Natalie

2010-06-16T19:04:00.005-05:00

After struggling with ear infections on and off since birth we went ahead and had Natalie get tubes put in her ears yesterday. The procedure went well I think she was gone from me for less than 15 minutes. Although she was pretty fussy coming out of the anesthesia she has been doing great ever since. After the roller coaster of ear infections we were on with Abigail that I'm almost certain contributed to her being a terrible sleeper (even to this day), I was all about getting tubes for Natalie so she wouldn't have to go through all the antibiotics and pain that Abigail did before she got tubes. Having been through the procedure with Abigail back in November I knew exactly what to expect and since Natalie was so much younger she didn't even cry when they took her back. They have to wear little hospital gowns for all procedures at the surgery center I couldn't help but snap a picture of little Natalie in her little hospital gown. And although she looks kind of sad in this picture she was just fine, it was just early in the morning.

On Monday prior to the procedure I had to do Natalie's registration over the phone with the surgery center and I found myself laughing through the entire conversation. It went something like this:

Lady: Can you verify Natalie's birthday

Me: January 6, 2010

Lady: Sooo, that makes her 5 months

Me: Yep.

Lady: I have to ask you a few routine questions now. Was she born prematurely?

Me: No

Lady: Has she had any surgeries?

Me: No

(she went on to ask several more questions that were pretty important and I totally understood them having to ask.) But then there were a few questions and instructions that I chuckled at:

Lady: No food or drink after midnight, no candy, ice chips, water, nothing.

Me: Ok, she's 5 months old (laughing)

Lady: If she drinks milk you might want to bring that with you.

Me: Ok, I'll just nurse her afterwards.

Lady: So bring everything you need for that.

Me: Ok (trying not to laugh, wanting to say "ok, I'll make sure not to forget my breasts!)

Lady: If she has any piercing they need to be removed

Me: Ok

I swear there were even more funny questions and instructions but I can't remember and I know they have to ask most of those questions and she's just doing her job but it still made me smile.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

2010-06-07T14:50:00.002-05:00

Abigail absolutely LOVES her grandpa, he stops by our house once or twice a month while he's going through town on business and it's made them quite the pair.

In all fairness

2010-06-01T21:24:00.004-05:00

After my memorial day post that included tons of pictures of Abigail I was feeling guilty about leaving poor Natalie out. So today I did an impromptu photo shoot of her while she was playing in her exersaucer and I got some cute shots of her, making some funny faces.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-01T13:56:00.004-05:00

Don't worry people we are alive and well....just busy playing in the summer sun. Although I haven't been keeping up with my blogging duties lately I have been keeping up on Twitter so if you ever get worried about us or are just wondering what we are up to you can always check my Twitter updates on my sidebar or follow me on Twitter here. And just in case you're wondering I think Twitter is even more addicting that blogging and Facebook so consider yourself warned.

We had a nice relaxing long weekend around here and although I recently re-tweeted that it's "stupid to ask a housewife how her weekend was." This weekend we actually did some things as a family and Natalie is now past that unpredictable newborn stage and she's easy to take out and about. We spent sometime at one of our nearby state parks on Sunday afternoon and had some fun but it was soooo hot we didn't last long. Later after nap we busted out the sprinkler and Abigail attempted to run through the sprinkler. In reality she got just close enough to get her fingers wet and yelled "it's getting me!" I tried and tried to explain to her that that was the point and even ran through myself several times but she remained uninterested in actually running through and getting wet.

Then yesterday I took both girls to the pool by myself and was pleasantly surprised at how well it went. We stuck to the baby pool and Natalie napped half the time so that was nice. Abigail brought her pool toys and spent the whole time tooling around with them. I'm not a huge fan of flotation devices for kids learning to swim because I think they can lead to a false sense of security when they later don't have it on but being at the pool with an infant and a two year old is a enough to make me nervous. So I ordered Abigail this life vest called a "Puddle Jumper" that's supposed to allow for a better range or motion and help kids learn to lean forward to swim. I'm hoping that with the help of that we can venture into the big pool occasionally without the aid of another adult otherwise the big pool with be just for times when daddy (or grandma or grandpa) is with us.

All in all a fun weekend to jump start the summer.

I blame their mothers!

2010-05-17T16:26:00.002-05:00

I just caught wind of this video through MamaKat and it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach! What are the adults (teachers/coaches and parents) behind this thinking!!! Who thinks this song, these outfits and these dance moves are AT ALL appropriate for 7 year old girls?! I don't even think they're appropriate for 16 or 17 year old girls let alone seven year olds. Abigail loves to dance and she is taking a "creative movement" class this summer...I secretly hope she doesn't like it so I never have to deal with any of this crap. I think for most girls it can be a great experience but I always worry about some of the outfits and that they are 1) too provocative and 2) could lead to girls having body image issues way too early.

Proud Mommy/Teacher Moment

2010-05-14T20:10:00.002-05:00

Abigail has always loved books but lately she has been "reading" a lot of her books to herself. If you follow me on Twitter you saw that she was doing this in the backseat of the car the other day and it just melts my teaching/mama heart. Here she is "reading" "Save the Three Little Pigs." Although she obviously has it memorized the teacher in me knows this is an important step in her literacy development.

This is what love looks like:

2010-05-13T21:43:00.006-05:00

We spent last weekend in Madison, Wisconsin and Abigail got to spend some quality time with her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and her sweet little cousin Camila. Despite the cold temperatures fun was had by all. I also just have to share this beautiful picture of Abigail taken by my oh so talented sister in law Rebecca who also happens to be a professional photographer.

Natalie Rae- 4 months

2010-05-11T21:09:00.003-05:00

Natalie had her four month check up on Friday and I've come to the realization that she not the "little peanut" I keep describing her as. Every time people comment on her size I say something like "I know isn't she such a little peanut." So imagine my surprise on Friday when they said she was in the 90% for weight (15 3/4 pounds) and 96% for height (25 3/5 inches). But to me she really is a peanut since Miss Abigail was 7 pounds heavier than Natalie at the same age! (22 pounds) But I guess I don't really need to worry about her being small, that's for sure. At four months Natalie's personality has really started to shine and she has some clear likes and dislikes.

Likes:

to sleep in her crib, swaddled, with binky, and seahorse on.
to watch her big sister
to be either held by her mom or held in a way where she can see her mom
play in her bouncy seat, bumbo seat and excersaucer
grab for things and put them in her mouth
Abigail's music class
her Little Giraffe security blanket
being tickled and kissed on her neck, chin and belly
taking a bath
being naked
being outside
riding in the baby bjorn

Dislikes:

riding in the car
getting dressed
not being able to see or hear her mom
riding in the stroller for very long

Overall she is a joy, she has started laughing and watches things very intently. Occasionally there are times when I just cannot figure out why she's crying but I just chalk that up to her being a baby and babies just cry sometimes. I feel so blessed to be home with my girls and when I get frustrated I just think about how lots of people don't get the chance to stay home with their kids. Or to be entirely honest when I'm really frustrated I just let Abigail watch "one show" (or 2 or 3) so I can have a little peace and quiet.

You will cry.

2010-05-05T15:15:00.002-05:00

Ms. Mayhem reminded me about Nie Nie, I hadn't read it in a while, if you don't read it you should. No matter what your religious beliefs are this will make you cry. (and I'm NOT a crier.)

Wordless Wednesday - Berry Cute

2010-05-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Summer, Summer, Summertime...

2010-05-04T14:02:00.006-05:00

Just thinking about summer makes me smile, I distinctly remember jammin' out to Will Smith's "Summertime" in my old Honda Civic and crusin' "the hill" and "uni," good times!

As summer approaches our calendar is quickly filling up with weddings, reunions and vacations and I'm getting a little nervous about traveling with two little ones. This weekend will be a test as we are heading to Madison to meet up with my parents, my brother, sister-in-law and my sweet niece Camila. I can't wait to see them since the last time I saw Camilla was last summer on our trip to Israel for my sister's wedding. I think it's like a 3 hour drive so that shouldn't be too bad but I'm a little worried about messing with Natalie awesome sleeping habits. But at least this first trip is only two night so even if it doesn't go well it's only two nights and it's not long enough to establish new bad habits.

Next month I also have my 10 year high school reunion, which I'm excited about! Ten years, yikes, I'm getting OLD! Another weird thing is that I'm the only one of my good friends from high school that has kids so that should be interesting.... I plan on sending the kids back to the hotel with my man for at least one night but it really sucks that my parents don't live in my hometown anymore so I don't have a babysitter there.

We have also already committed to attend four weddings, including one of my great friends from high school. We are even postponing our family vacation to Mexico by a day to attend. Yeah you heard me...family vacation to Mexico WHOOO-HOOOO! We just got the plans finalized last week and are headed to Mexico in July to meet up with my parents, sister Kristina and her family and my brother and his family. We are renting a house and staying a whole week! I was checking it out on the computer the other day and showing Abigail and then she was walking around the house singing, "we're going to the beach, the beach, the beach!" The only downer is that my sister Elizabeth who lives in Israel won't be able to come....because she'll be 8 months pregnant. We'll miss her but she has plans to visit the states after the baby is born for several months!!! Here is a sneak peak at our sweet digs in Mexico!

Bring it on summer!!

In case you're wondering....

2010-04-29T21:03:00.003-05:00

Just in case you're wondering how much it cost to have a baby, with a midwife, with zero drugs, zero interventions, a perfectly healthy newborn, and a 24 hour hospital stay. Here you go:

Just in case you can't read it, it says New Charges: 10,847.20. Insurance Paid: 8,497.70, Amount Due: 2,519.18. That's right, and that's just my bill. Natalie's bill was another $1,039.32. (our portion) I'm sorry but that is absolutely outrageous to me! We are small business owners and supposedly have "good insurance," we pay approximately $500 a month in premiums and on top of that we have to pay all this for one baby's birth. I really can see why people have homebirths. I pisses me off so much I just pay a hundred dollars a month since they can't charge interest on medical bills. I'm not trying to get into a political discussion here....I'm just sayin'.

Game Plan

2010-04-27T20:51:00.004-05:00

Thanks everyone for the great comments, advice and feedback about yesterdays incident. I didn't take any of her toys away or anything and I didn't even mention it today. In an effort to avoid yesterdays complete meltdown on Abigail's part when I leave for Pilates tomorrow, I have a game plan. It all started today at Target, I let Abigail pick out a special movie that she gets to watch with her Daddy during her "special Daddy time." While she was napping I wrapped it up and put it in this bucket of popcorn. When she woke up I showed it to her and she can't wait to open it up and watch it and eat popcorn with Daddy! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will go well.

Tomorrow morning I am also trying out a new babysitter while I go to a midwife appointment. Since it's her first time I'm just leaving Abigail and taking Natalie along since she's pretty easy to take still. I'm hoping the new sitter will still show up because she does read my blog and after yesterdays post I don't know if I would....just kidding! The young lady sounds wonderful and I think Abigail will love her. But I have a special activity planned for them as well to get Abigail's mind off me leaving and excited about her special time. Abigail and I made some cupcakes yesterday that never got frosted so I figure they can frost cupcakes and have them with their lunch. Hopefully it will be a fun-filled day for my little drama queen.

Calling All Mom's- What would you do?

2010-04-26T20:27:00.002-05:00

Soooooo, my husband and I recently purchased a 6 month unlimited pass to a local yoga studio and we are both have a goal of going 3 times a week. With swimsuit season coming, many weddings to attend and my 10 year high school reunion this summer we both want to drop some pounds and get into shape. He is going during the day and the plan was for him to watch the girls for me when I go. So tonight was the first night I went and let just say it didn't go so well. I don't know what was up with Abigail cause she's has been all about her Dad lately. Asking for him when he's gone, running and jumping into his arms when he gets home..... So much to our surprise she threw a ROYAL fit when I left tonight. I peeled her from my legs and drove away thinking she'll be over it in a second. I come to find out there was hitting, kicking, screaming, yelling, throwing up and she even peed on him! I don't think the peeing thing was on purpose though, she's done that a couple time while crying hysterically, she just loses control. She has throw fits before but nothing like this. My husband is rarely the disciplinarian so he didn't really know what to do and I guess if I was home I would have either put her straight into time out (for hitting and kicking) or sent her to her room till she was done screaming. When I got home we had a serious talk and she was able to verbalize everything she did and she just said she wanted mommy to come back. She's always had attachment issues but this to me is just plain naughtiness, it's her Dad for goodness sake! Her consequence was no TV, no books and early to bed. I'm thinking about taking most of her toys away too and making her earn them back. I really want her to know that this behavior is unacceptable! I mean I really want to go to pilates!!!! So my question to you mom's out there is what would you do? Do you think this was a legitimate attachment thing or just her trying to manipulate us and test us?

And although I know this isn't funny behavior, this video is just a little funny.

Favorite Things-Newborn Addition

2010-04-24T20:41:00.008-05:00

Today as I was swaddling Miss Natalie in her SwaddleMe blanket I got to thinking about some of my favorite things for newborns. With Abigail I feel like I had sooo much stuff that I thought I needed and then never did. Now with Natalie I have a better idea of what I like and I just stick to those things. I have also been preparing a box of things to send to my sister Elizabeth in Israel who is expecting her first child this August. It's not cheap to send things so I only want to send things that are essential and sure to be used. So here are a few of my favorite things: (click on the images for more info on each product)

Swaddle Blankets- I love the SwaddleMe blankets by Summer Infant (formally Kidopatomus) they are idiot proof and the only blanket I can get to stay tight enough for Natalie not to squirm out of. The fleece is great because it doesn't stretch (but hot), the cotton knit is also good but the bamboo is way to stretchy and worthless.

Zip-up Sleepers- I used these with both Abigail and Natalie and they are a life-saver for night-time diaper changes. No fumbling around with snaps and having to redo them cause you missed a snap or anything. Circo makes great (and cheap) ones, but I also like The Children's Place sleepers and the best ones are by Hanna Andersson (pricey though.) Great thing about the Hanna's are that they are footless so they for last forever since you can buy them big, roll the cuffs and then unroll them as your baby grows.

Fisher-Price Soothe and Glow Seahorse- this is a recent discovery for me and both Natalie and I love it! If you remember I blogged about it here and it works wonders at bedtime. (Elizabeth-I picked you one up the other day...because you can't have ours.)

Maclaren Easy Traveler- this super lightweight stroller frame is only 8 pounds and folds up tiny. I used it a ton with Abigail while she was in her infant seat and even with two kids I still use it often. When we go places where Abigail will be walking most of the time and I won't need to go off roading or anything. I'll get to use it even longer with Natalie since I can already tell she'll stay in her infant seat for at least 6 months unlike Abigail who exceeded the height and weight restrictions at 4 months!

Breastfeeding Musts- For breastfeeding I love my Boppy and for the first few weeks I couldn't have lived without the Baby ESP app on my phone. The Boppy is great for helping position a small newborn and your arms don't get tired. And Baby ESP helped me track time between feedings, diaper changes and time naps.

Baby Positioner- Ok this isn't really and "essential" but I really like this sleep positioner by First Years. When I transitioned Natalie from sleeping propped up in her swing seat to her crib I think this really helped her feel secure.

Pacifier- I've already blogged about this here but finding a pacifier that Natalie would suck on has worked wonders in the sleep department.

White Noise Machine- both my girls sleep with white noise in the background and I think it really does make a difference. It help drown out noise from outside and inside. We have a couple different ones, I don't think it matters which kind. Abigail's just has one sound and Natalie's has several options like oceanside, city, birds....

So now that I've shared some of my favorite things for newborns, I'd love to hear what some of YOUR favorite things for newborns are!