Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Ethan and Grandma

Christmas In July

Rumble And Learn Driver



I LOVE Christmas!  Love it, love it, love it!  The shopping, the music, the decorations, family and friends.  It's wonderful.  Oh, and let's not forget the food.

I started a list of things that I wanted to get for the boys in February.  Whenever I go to the store I browse through the toy section and look at all the trucks, cars, little people, books, and games.  Well, I went to Babies R Us to get a video monitor.  I was browsing through the toys section.  Babies R Us and Toys R Us are side by side and you can walk from one store into the other without going outside.  Anyway,  the Fisher-Price infant toys were buy one get one free.  So Ethan has two presents.  I hope I can resist the urge to open them before Chrismas!



Storybook Rhymes

Fourth of July

We had a pretty nice July 4th weekend.  Friday was business as usual.  Saturday my sister and brother-in-law came over and we watched the UFC fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.  Brock Lesnar won.  Booooooo! On Sunday we drove to my sister's house  had lunch and went to the beach. 

Poor Aaron was so tired.  We planned on timing the drive so that he could take a nap on the way to Aunt Melissa's house.  It was working great until Ethan woke up hungry.  He was getting more and more fussy so we decided to pull over and feed him.  Aaron woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.  After lunch, Aaron fell asleep on Mark's lap but then it was time to head to the beach.  We tried to not wake Aaron but that didn't happen.  So he was very cranky the whole way there.  I mentioned to my husband that I didn't think the beach was going to be much fun.  He agreed but we went anyway.  I didn't want to be a spoil sport and end the day for everyone.

Once we got there it wasn't too bad.  At this particular beach we were able to drive on the beach which is great when lugging stuff for two kids.  Aaron played in the sand and spent a little time in the water.  Aaron decided to throw sand at me and Aunt Melissa.  Not good!  Uncle Scott tried body boarding and skim boarding.  I spent most of the time on the blanket with Ethan.  Mark and Aaron dug in the sand and played in the waves.  Aaron laid down for a little but didn't fall asleep until the ride home.

It was a long but fun day.

Yummy!

We decided to start Ethan on infant cereal.  I wanted to wait until he was five months old like I did with Aaron but his digestive system had other plans.  When he was about 4.5 months old he had diarrhea (cha cha cha) and the pediatrician suggested that I give him some rice cereal to slow him down.  I didn't like the idea but hey he needed something.  He didn't really take to it at all.  The poopy problem cleared up and I put the rice cereal away.

After he turned five months, I brought out the oatmeal cereal.  I mixed it with some formula and more of it ended up on his bib that in his stomach.  That's to be expected though.  Each day I give him a few spoonfuls.  It's very runny and he seems to be getting some of it in his little body.  He spends most of the time laughing and sucking his fingers. He's adorable!  I plan to wait 'til he's six months old to introduce sweet potatoes.  Can't wait to see how that goes!

One things for sure, I'm not nearly as stressed out about starting solids with Ethan as I was with Aaron.  I studied books, magazines and websites about introducing solids to infants.  I wanted to make sure I did it exactly right.  I didn't want to make any mistakes.  After I started Aaron on solids I worried about whether or not he was eating too much or too little.  Should he be eating one meal or two?  In hindsight it was ridiculous!

There's a big bone of contention amongst moms these days when it comes to solid foods.  There's the camp that thinks giving your baby any type of solids before six months is a kin to child abuse and then there's us normal folk, LOL.  I'm only slightly kidding.  I remember some heated exchanges on The Bump between moms that started solids at four months and those that wait 'til six months.  It's amazing what women can use to club each other over the heads with.

Wordless Wednesday

Shhhhhh! Baby Sleeping! (Wordless Wednesday)

Updates

Since I've started this blog I've posted about a couple different subject matters.  I'm not finished with any of them by any means.  When you have children, nothing is really finished. I've been slowly but surely plugging away at different tasks during nap times, in the morning before they wake up and and night after they go to bed.

Daycare Search - I've only visited the three daycare centers that I mention in earlier posts.  I have three more on my list that  I plan to visit.  Hopefully, I'll visit them this week.  Trying to schedule appointments around nap times and my husband's schedule can be tedious.

Money - I've been doing well keeping track of our spending.  I've also listened to disks 1 and 2 of the Dave Ramsey book on CD that I borrowed from my aunt.  One more disk to go.  I need to make time to read the book Financial Peace also by Dave Ramsey.

The Big Boy Room - The room still has stuff piled in the closet & two piles of stuff in the room.  My husband started painting and it looks really good.  He has to paint the gray stripe and put the closet doors back up.  The furniture needs to be assembled and we have to hang the valance.  The mattress and sheets have been purchased. I found some artwork on Etsy that will be perfect for the room.

Dieting - is not going according to plan.  I don't know if I have too much on my plate (no pun intended) and I just can't focus on another task.  I'm also ridiculously hungry and wonder if I've got some type of hormonal imbalance.  I definitely need to drink more water and exercise but I just don't have the commitment or interest.  Maybe it's too soon after childbirth.  I'm going to try again starting today.

Wordless Wednesday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!!!!

Today is Aaron's second birthday. I can't believe he's a two year old! We're not having a party, just cake and gifts. We bought him a basketball hoop, a water table and SpongeBob Square Pants pajamas. Tomorrow we're going to the zoo!


Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Thursday Thirteen

I became a mother for the first time June 4, 2008.  Tomorrow Aaron will be 2 years old!  So the following is a list of 13 things I've learned in the past two years.

1.    That love just grows and grows and grows
2.    I'm a good Mom  (a very, very good mom...maybe even great)
3.    I love baby laughs, they warm my heart
4.    Watching a newborn grow into a toddler is amazing
5.    How to survive on little sleep
6.    Children are sooooo resilient (and smart)
7.    How to speak up for myself
8.    How to speak up for my kids
9.    That I am competent and capable
10.  Let babies be babies - stop rushing them to grow up
11.  Everyone's a perfect parent before they have kids
12.  How to ignore stupid advice
13.  Time Flies!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

The Big Boy Room

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are planning to create The Big Boy Room. I'm still not finished clearing all of the junk out of the room but it's sooo hard to get anything done with two little ones around.

My sister agreed to let us store at her house the furniture that was mine during my single days. I really like the furniture and don't want to just drop it off at goodwill. Since she has extra space she can either store it for us or use in one of her spare rooms. It's a full size bed with a mattress that's practically brand new, a six-drawer dresser, two night stands, two lamps and two framed pictures. I wish we had another bedroom:(

I'm pretty sure we decided on paint. I couldn't figure out how to upload the paint swatches so you'll have to wait to see the finished product. The walls are going to be a Sterling Silver by Olympic Paints. It's a medium shade of grey-blue. I'd love to add a stripe 3/4 of the way up the wall. I hope that's not a lot of work for us (I mean Mark). The stripe will be a dark blue called Dragonfly also by Olympic Paints. I'd also like to add a grey stripe called Vintage Gray by Valspar. We of course aren't going to start painting until the furniture is moved.

I want the room to be well decorated but still childish and able to withstand two boys. There's a website http://babyroombio.weebly.com/boy-toddler.html that has help inspire my creativity. I'm not going to copy any of the rooms but it's nice to see what other people have done with children's rooms.

After debating between dinosaurs, airplanes and sports, we decided the theme will be sports. I found sports print sheets at Target for a nice price. I also found wall hooks and artwork at Target. I practically live at Target. I love that place! This is what one of the pictures that's going to be on the wall looks like.

The crib that Aaron is sleeping in is a convertible crib. I have spent a lot, probably too much time trying to decide whether on not to leave Aaron in his crib and buy a new one for Ethan. I surveyed moms on facebook, Thebump and at our playgroup. I was hoping to get some insight on when/how/why moms moved their kids to a bed. The responses were as varied as the moms and children themselves. Some kept kids in cribs until a certain age. Some parents moved a child when he/she started trying to climb out of the crib. Others moved the older child when a younger sibling came along. Basically, talking to other parents didn't help much.

We had a few scenarios to contemplate:
1.  Leave Aaron in his crib and buy Ethan a crib.
2.  Buy a toddler bed for Aaron and give the crib to Ethan
3.  Buy twin bunk beds.  Set up one twin bed or Aaron and store the other one for use in the future. Ethan would be in the crib.  When Ethan is ready to give up the crib he will get the other twin bed.  When both boys are old enough for bunk beds then we would stack the beds.

We chose option number 3.  I hope and pray that Aaron makes the transition smoothly.  I really don't want to mess up a good thing.  The "good thing" being Aaron's ability to sleep through the night.

As I write this I am having second thoughts.  Maybe I should buy a second crib?

I speak two languages (Thursday 13)

All mothers long to hear their child's first word. I'm pretty sure most moms want that first word to be 'mama'. Aaron spoke his first word at nine months and it wasn't 'mama'. It was 'dada'!!

From then on I would say 'mama' over and over and over in an attempt to get him to repeat it. He didn't say much more than 'dada' and other baby babbling sounds. I was told by pediatricians, magazines and books not to worry. All babies develop differently. I was told not to compare my baby to others. It's hard not to when going to play groups, church and library story time and listening to other mothers talk.

At Aaron's 1 year pediatrician appointment I asked the pediatrician again about Aaron's language skills. Half of me just new the doctor would say he needed to see a speech therapist. Instead I was told to read to him and talk to him. Well, I knew that! I was already doing that!

Around 15 or 16 months old Aaron had a word explosion. Initially, I kept a list of the words and I would add a word to the list each time he learned a new one. Now he speaks too many to count. He of course also speaks in short phrases. Here's a brief guide to my second language. I'll call it Aaronese.

1. Yilk - milk
2. bubbage - garbage
3. cuck - stuck
4. yo'hit - yogurt
5. nore - snore
6. fy warm - fire alarm
7. mumools - muscles
8. mammich - sandwich
9. go'bish - gold fish, as in the gold fish crackers
10. wamools - waffles
11. bink - pink
12. noonools - noodles
13. Eeesin - Ethan, his brother

Oh, and by the way, I had to wait until Aaron was about 22 months old for him to say 'Mummy'. I love it!

"Well, you've got your hands full"

Yep! I sure do. Everyday I hit the ground running. I set my alarm for 7:30am but I have yet to need it. Aaron and Ethan are my alarm clocks!

Why did we have our kids so close together? Because we're not getting any younger! I'm thirty-four and Hubby is thirty-nine years old. Both pregnancies were considered high risk. I'd also rather not add the additional risk factors associated with advanced maternal age into the mix.

When we got married we agreed on two children. Actually, I said two or three. In my mind I pictured two girls and a boy, but I digress. With plans for education/career, we knew it would be best to space them about two years apart. Initially, Hubby wanted to start trying when Aaron turned one. I wanted to try for a second child when Aaron turned eighteen months. Instead, we conceived when Aaron was just a little over 10 months old.

Gimme an 'E'

Ethan, our second child, was born January 2010. A mere 19.5 months after Aaron was born.

Ethan was born by repeat c-section. He was just as cute, healthy and adorable as could be. He is also a really easy baby. The only bumps along the road so far have been gassiness and very mild reflux. He found his fingers early and easily. Laughing, giggling, and smiling are his favorite hobbies. I can't wait to see how he grows!

When we brought Ethan home from the hospital, I was just as nervous as when we brought Aaron home. This time, however, it wasn't because I was a new mommy, it was because I was a mommy to two little ones.

Gimme an 'A'

June 2008 brought Aaron into our world. He weighed 6lbs. 3oz. and was just incredibly cute! I had spent the whole pregnancy worried and stressed out but he was just perfect.

When we brought Aaron home from the hospital, I was the typical worried new mom. I remember walking into the house and thinking, "Okay, what do we do now?" I checked to make sure he was breathing frequently. I held him almost non-stop.

Fortunately, for us he was a fairly easy baby. Aaron cried when he was hungry or wet, or sleepy. I am forever grateful that we didn't have to deal with colic. What we did have to deal with is the fact that he didn't start sleeping through the night until he was about 10 months old!

Wordless Wednesday