 |
| Just seconds before they were in an incredibly cute pose. Soon as the shutter started to snap they started struggling. |
.linking up.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Wordless Wednesday
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
2'fer Tuesday
1. Ages?
K: 18 Months, 4 Weeks
S: 2 Weeks
2. What's went on this last week?
For starters we had several appointments including one that required me to be away from both the girls for the first time since... well, since I became pregnant! Scariest two hours of my life. I had a chiropractor appointment, then was able to wander on my own for an hour. I thought about enjoying myself, then felt so guilty I ended up spending money I really couldn't afford to spend on buying the girls gifts. Don't worry, I already put them aside for Christmas.
We also had our first double play date, which was actually an excuse to round up all the kids and dump them on my friend's teenage cousin and sister while my girlfriend colored and cut my hair.
Then there was 4th of July, we went to a friend's bbq/birthday party and I was going to just be done there- but I didn't want to deprive K of an experience just because of S being so little. So we went and saw the fireworks anyways. I kept S in the sling, well insulated with my hands over her ears for the whole 30 minute show. She was startled at first, but didn't mind much after the first minute or two. K was enthralled for about the same amount of time, then wanted to run out on the field with her light up wand that her uncle had bought her. We managed to keep her seated and entertained through the rest of the show though- then booked it home!
Finally this week was the first week that farmers market transitioned into "Olde Town Market," where regular vendors and bands all join in the fun to sell their goods as well. I took the girls for a quick stroll through, K had her first corn dog, S had a good nap, and I swallowed a hot dog whole while maneuvering a sit'n'stand one handed through a pack crowd. All in all a very successful trip!
3. What are the challenges we dealt with (or continue to deal with)?
S began to refuse the boob Tuesday afternoon. We're officially a formula family, and I'm honestly somewhat relieved. Emotionally I couldn't afford the struggle of latching, or rather being rejected, and time-wise our little family just can't afford for me to pump, plus my supply started to drop despite the fenugreek. I'm a little disappointed, but I keep reminding myself formula is not child abuse, she will be just fine, and I did what was best for the whole family.
Good news about the formula is it's helping S pack on weight and shake the jaundice a bit quicker. She had blood work done last that was a bit concerning, but when we went in Thursday her color was fantastic and she had gained a bit (although not a good amount, it was still in the comfortable range). As long as this keeps up she may be able to avoid admission to the hospital for free tanning :)
Overall I'm doing a lot better too. I'm getting a little more sleep, and getting a little more done through out the day. I feel like even though the plane may still be spiraling out of control, I'm able to keep everyone calm. I have made a couple of important appointments though, one concerning postpartum depression- something I've suffered through in the past, and one for addressing my back pain which has actually gotten worse since delivery. Hopefully both can quickly and easily be addressed. The PPD is a temporary thing in my experience, and only lasts about 4 months for me, but if it isn't addressed it can get pretty serious, something I'm not willing to risk. The back issue however, is concerning. At times it's hard for me to even lift S, and the chiropractor so far has served as only an extremely temporary relief.
4. Any milestones reached this last week?
K: New word is purple. And I've noticed she wears a lot of it! "Held" sissy for the first time this week too. Didn't get any good pictures of that though :(
S: Super alert at times, waking up more often, almost jaundice free. We also had our first scream free diaper change! And we're starting to fit comfortably (as opposed to swimming) in 0-3 month sizes.
5. How are you feeling about having 2 at this point?
Blessed. I'm supposed to feel blessed right? Kidding, I really am grateful, my life feels almost complete. I feel like this was the next right thing, and I'm positively soaring with joy at how fantastic (although intimidating and overwhelming) life is. S is getting into a rough schedule, which means I'm getting more quality time with K as well.
6. Any Mommy Epiphanies?
Caffeine good.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Fit Friday
Like I said on Monday, I'm going to start making a weekly commitment to talk about getting healthy. Honestly, I can't quite tell you what this is going to look like. Some weeks it could be a recipe, some weeks it could be an inspiring image. Some weeks it could just be a disappointing report about how I ate big macs for dinner every night that week. I don't know! I'm full of surprises!
Today, I'm just going to go over some history. Warning: Some of the following are flat out excuses I have, and even continue to use to avoid accountability in my health and lifestyle choices.
Lets start around the fact that I struggle with food to begin with. I'm not going to say "eating disorder" because first off I think that's become a catch all phrase for anyone with unhealthy eating habits, and secondly because I'm not currently struggling with it. However I do think that anyone with either an eating disorder or a long history of unhealthy eating habits knows how easy it is to slump back into it with out even realizing.
Anyways suffice it to say I used to control my weight by controlling my eating. Or rather, not eating. When I did eat it was crap, because I was so picky, and on top of all that nonsense I have some food allergies that make gaining weight rather difficult. So "healhty" has never really been a Mama type thing.
Early in my pregnancy with S I made two very important decisions regarding not only my health, but the health of my family. I quit smoking, and I started eating differently. Since quitting smoking I obviously feel better, can do more, and save a lot of money. The pros are undeniable even before you quit. Changing what I ate though, that was scary.
I started small, I started shopping pretty much solely at a local grocery story that offers plenty of preservative-free groceries. The store brand products are all actually preservative, artificial flavoring and artificial food coloring free. Instantly I felt a difference- partly because I happen to have an allergy to a common preservative, so water weight dropped off, migraines almost disappeared, and my energy was significantly boosted. Plus there was all the added perks of just knowing I was eating better, the pride of knowing I was doing something better for myself and my family.
One good decision paves the road for more. I became more conscious of what I had been doing to my body through what I was ingesting, so I started to change. I started looking into alternative solutions for issues I'd usually medicate through, like anxiety (chamomile) and allergies (raw honey) and anemia (iron rich foods). I started going to our local farmers market, where I bought more seasonal and local fruits and veggies. I cut out a lot of processed foods, and packaged meals. I started experimenting with making our own food from start to finish.
Now I'm not saying this is how everyone should live, and if you don't you're destined to be miserable or live a less worth while, whole life. Today I still participate in a lot of less than stellar eating habits. But I'm moving in the right direction, even though I drink a soda a day still, I drink a lot more water. And even though it comes in a can, I'm supplementing my diet with more protein.
The very best thing about these choices is I get to share them with my children. There are few things I love more than strolling the farmers market with K as all the vendors give her samples. It's not just the local, clean food either. It's the fact that I am able to walk with her without getting exhausted or taking a smoke break, or feeling winded or drained by the time we get home again. I have the energy to back my enthusiasm for life again!
So there's the background information. Now here's the rough plan. I'm breast feeding right now, and leading a pretty active lifestyle with the girls, so I've set my Myfitnesspal plan to 1900 calories a day. In about 5 more weeks I have my post partum check up where I should be cleared for more strenuous exercising than our average walks. Basic plan is to eat well until that check up, and walk 3 times a week, no big deal. As the clearance date gets closer our home will hopefully be closer to a regular schedule again, and I'll be able to plan (and have time to complete) better toning workouts as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it :)
Linking up with Erica @ Mi Todo where she does a weekly installments of her own Fit Fridays, which kept me enthused my whole pregnancy about getting back into shape.
Today, I'm just going to go over some history. Warning: Some of the following are flat out excuses I have, and even continue to use to avoid accountability in my health and lifestyle choices.
Lets start around the fact that I struggle with food to begin with. I'm not going to say "eating disorder" because first off I think that's become a catch all phrase for anyone with unhealthy eating habits, and secondly because I'm not currently struggling with it. However I do think that anyone with either an eating disorder or a long history of unhealthy eating habits knows how easy it is to slump back into it with out even realizing.
Anyways suffice it to say I used to control my weight by controlling my eating. Or rather, not eating. When I did eat it was crap, because I was so picky, and on top of all that nonsense I have some food allergies that make gaining weight rather difficult. So "healhty" has never really been a Mama type thing.
Early in my pregnancy with S I made two very important decisions regarding not only my health, but the health of my family. I quit smoking, and I started eating differently. Since quitting smoking I obviously feel better, can do more, and save a lot of money. The pros are undeniable even before you quit. Changing what I ate though, that was scary.
I started small, I started shopping pretty much solely at a local grocery story that offers plenty of preservative-free groceries. The store brand products are all actually preservative, artificial flavoring and artificial food coloring free. Instantly I felt a difference- partly because I happen to have an allergy to a common preservative, so water weight dropped off, migraines almost disappeared, and my energy was significantly boosted. Plus there was all the added perks of just knowing I was eating better, the pride of knowing I was doing something better for myself and my family.
One good decision paves the road for more. I became more conscious of what I had been doing to my body through what I was ingesting, so I started to change. I started looking into alternative solutions for issues I'd usually medicate through, like anxiety (chamomile) and allergies (raw honey) and anemia (iron rich foods). I started going to our local farmers market, where I bought more seasonal and local fruits and veggies. I cut out a lot of processed foods, and packaged meals. I started experimenting with making our own food from start to finish.
Now I'm not saying this is how everyone should live, and if you don't you're destined to be miserable or live a less worth while, whole life. Today I still participate in a lot of less than stellar eating habits. But I'm moving in the right direction, even though I drink a soda a day still, I drink a lot more water. And even though it comes in a can, I'm supplementing my diet with more protein.
The very best thing about these choices is I get to share them with my children. There are few things I love more than strolling the farmers market with K as all the vendors give her samples. It's not just the local, clean food either. It's the fact that I am able to walk with her without getting exhausted or taking a smoke break, or feeling winded or drained by the time we get home again. I have the energy to back my enthusiasm for life again!
So there's the background information. Now here's the rough plan. I'm breast feeding right now, and leading a pretty active lifestyle with the girls, so I've set my Myfitnesspal plan to 1900 calories a day. In about 5 more weeks I have my post partum check up where I should be cleared for more strenuous exercising than our average walks. Basic plan is to eat well until that check up, and walk 3 times a week, no big deal. As the clearance date gets closer our home will hopefully be closer to a regular schedule again, and I'll be able to plan (and have time to complete) better toning workouts as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it :)
Linking up with Erica @ Mi Todo where she does a weekly installments of her own Fit Fridays, which kept me enthused my whole pregnancy about getting back into shape.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Pinterested?
By now I hope you've heard of Pinterest. If not, please call your local internet provider and set up some wifi for that rock you've been living under.
Personally I have a love hate relationship with Pinterest. Some days it's better than cheese crackers and peanut butter, other days I wouldn't want to find it on the bottom of my shoe. That's because I tend to be more of a dreamer than a doer. I really wish I had the time to cook all those things and crochet all that stuff and organize the crap out of every organizable thing in my house (and yours too), but somewhere between the pinning and doing a child starts to demand my attention, a floor cries out to be swept or something shiny catches my eye (it was a nickle, score!).
But sometimes I manage to trick, or manipulate the time out of my day to complete a little thing or two. They're usually not huge fantastic closet overhauls, or bench building tangents, but they're pretty awesome to me. As such, and this being my corner to share what Mama thinks is awesome, I thought I'd occasionally share some with ya! And I even plan on doing it in a fun little question and answer session, so you can join in too if you'd like. I may do this weekly, but probably more like monthly, like I said I'm a dreamer less than a doer! Lets get started:
Currently Pinning: Party ideas and inspiration for K's birthday. I know this is completely neurotic, because her birthday is in 6 months, but better be safe than sorry... same reason I've started pinning for Christmas too!
Recent Success: Baked "Hard Boiled" Eggs. If you haven't seen or tried this yet, I suggest you check it out at The Burlap Bag. Personally I hate boiling eggs, but it's my favorite way to eat them. I just don't have the time, attention span, or clones to take care of it. The timing is ridiculous, I can never keep track of what I'm supposed to add when (root of unicorn horn powder at 0.963 seconds after a rapid boil is reached? what?) and at least one breaks when it gets in to the water, every single time. Matter of fact I think my secret ingredient for making exactly 11 hard boiled eggs on the stove top is excessive profanity 0.286 seconds after submerging eggs.
This little gem though changed the Mama & Ks household forever. They're so easy to make, when the timer went off I was changing a diaper and I didn't immediately have to sprint off to start trying to get them out of the water before they turned into rubber balls. I finished the job, took them out and they were still perfect. The yolks are creamier, and if you can look past a few aesthetic blemishes, then this is beyond worth it.
Next Project: Sweet Potato Fries. I've been intending on trying my hand at them for a while now, and even have a few sweet potatoes laying on my kitchen table waiting ever so patiently. Just as I forgot about their existence, a good friend pinned what looks to be a perfectly awesome recipe "Guaranteed Crispy Sweet Potato Fries" from the ever hilarious The Art of Doing Stuff. I too, consider myself to be a french fry professional.
I'm loving this recipe because it has room to maneuver (adding spices and such) and more importantly everything it calls for I have on hand. Thank goodness, because a certain Mama may have lost her debit card and had to call for a replacement the same week we were due to go grocery shopping again. Like I said. May have.
Dream Pin: Carmel Apple Cheesecake Bar. Oh Cheesecake. Lovely delicious cheesecake. The very first thing I plan on doing when that card comes in the mail is going to get some cheese cake. Tomorrow I start posting about healthy eating though so I'll have to either make it myself or hope our preferred grocery store has some on hand. Guaranteed they won't have the Carmel Apple topping though, so I might just have to make that myself, but I honestly probably won't. I don't have the time, dedication, patience or appetite to make an entire one of these things. That's just the cold hard truth of it. And it's depressing. But I will put this on file for our local family game night on the 21st. Maybe that'll be a good enough excuse to stick around in the kitchen! If you're more motivated than me check out The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Now Following: Kid Blogger Network Activities & Crafts board. I'm always looking for better parenting ideas, whether it be for feeding the girls, playing with the girls, or teaching the girls. This board has tons of bloggers checking in with their newest posts, its like... well its like an information super highway!! Yeah I'll look for an article on being more original tomorrow.... Anyways if you're acontrolling dedicated parent like me, I suggest you look it up!
Well that's all for now folks! I know there's a lot of food going on up there. Honestly I think it's because my body thinks it's still pregnant. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Personally I have a love hate relationship with Pinterest. Some days it's better than cheese crackers and peanut butter, other days I wouldn't want to find it on the bottom of my shoe. That's because I tend to be more of a dreamer than a doer. I really wish I had the time to cook all those things and crochet all that stuff and organize the crap out of every organizable thing in my house (and yours too), but somewhere between the pinning and doing a child starts to demand my attention, a floor cries out to be swept or something shiny catches my eye (it was a nickle, score!).
But sometimes I manage to trick, or manipulate the time out of my day to complete a little thing or two. They're usually not huge fantastic closet overhauls, or bench building tangents, but they're pretty awesome to me. As such, and this being my corner to share what Mama thinks is awesome, I thought I'd occasionally share some with ya! And I even plan on doing it in a fun little question and answer session, so you can join in too if you'd like. I may do this weekly, but probably more like monthly, like I said I'm a dreamer less than a doer! Lets get started:
Currently Pinning: Party ideas and inspiration for K's birthday. I know this is completely neurotic, because her birthday is in 6 months, but better be safe than sorry... same reason I've started pinning for Christmas too!
Recent Success: Baked "Hard Boiled" Eggs. If you haven't seen or tried this yet, I suggest you check it out at The Burlap Bag. Personally I hate boiling eggs, but it's my favorite way to eat them. I just don't have the time, attention span, or clones to take care of it. The timing is ridiculous, I can never keep track of what I'm supposed to add when (root of unicorn horn powder at 0.963 seconds after a rapid boil is reached? what?) and at least one breaks when it gets in to the water, every single time. Matter of fact I think my secret ingredient for making exactly 11 hard boiled eggs on the stove top is excessive profanity 0.286 seconds after submerging eggs.This little gem though changed the Mama & Ks household forever. They're so easy to make, when the timer went off I was changing a diaper and I didn't immediately have to sprint off to start trying to get them out of the water before they turned into rubber balls. I finished the job, took them out and they were still perfect. The yolks are creamier, and if you can look past a few aesthetic blemishes, then this is beyond worth it.
Next Project: Sweet Potato Fries. I've been intending on trying my hand at them for a while now, and even have a few sweet potatoes laying on my kitchen table waiting ever so patiently. Just as I forgot about their existence, a good friend pinned what looks to be a perfectly awesome recipe "Guaranteed Crispy Sweet Potato Fries" from the ever hilarious The Art of Doing Stuff. I too, consider myself to be a french fry professional.
I'm loving this recipe because it has room to maneuver (adding spices and such) and more importantly everything it calls for I have on hand. Thank goodness, because a certain Mama may have lost her debit card and had to call for a replacement the same week we were due to go grocery shopping again. Like I said. May have.
Dream Pin: Carmel Apple Cheesecake Bar. Oh Cheesecake. Lovely delicious cheesecake. The very first thing I plan on doing when that card comes in the mail is going to get some cheese cake. Tomorrow I start posting about healthy eating though so I'll have to either make it myself or hope our preferred grocery store has some on hand. Guaranteed they won't have the Carmel Apple topping though, so I might just have to make that myself, but I honestly probably won't. I don't have the time, dedication, patience or appetite to make an entire one of these things. That's just the cold hard truth of it. And it's depressing. But I will put this on file for our local family game night on the 21st. Maybe that'll be a good enough excuse to stick around in the kitchen! If you're more motivated than me check out The Girl Who Ate Everything.Now Following: Kid Blogger Network Activities & Crafts board. I'm always looking for better parenting ideas, whether it be for feeding the girls, playing with the girls, or teaching the girls. This board has tons of bloggers checking in with their newest posts, its like... well its like an information super highway!! Yeah I'll look for an article on being more original tomorrow.... Anyways if you're a
Well that's all for now folks! I know there's a lot of food going on up there. Honestly I think it's because my body thinks it's still pregnant. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Wordless Wednesday
S is turning out to be quite the expressive young lady. I'm ashamed to find that I have no new pictures of K this week. If I snap one today I'll sneak back and update. Until then I'm chalking it up to new baby bliss, not photographic neglect. That's fair right?
.linking up.
.linking up.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
2'fer Tuesday
2'fer Tuesday Survey
1. Ages?
K: 18 Months, 3 Weeks
S: 1 Week
2. What's went on this last week?
Well we had a baby, brought her home, and began adjusting our little lives to make room for this new little person!
3. What are the challenges we dealt with (or continue to deal with)?
K loves her "issy" and adores having her around. No struggle there. S is to tiny to know what a struggle is... her biggest issue is being jaundiced, and not waking up early enough to still maintain the patience to latch when she's hungry. So despite finally having a child who can latch, I am still spending time at the pump. I'm hoping in the next week her jaundice will clear up and she'll be able to go back to the source, because I can't physically or mentally afford to continue pumping. If at this time next week she isn't a boob girl again, we're goin' to formula with no shame about it.
So mostly Mama seems to be the only one struggling. I was not prepared to jump in to raising two under two so quickly. Some how I had envisioned a bit more of an easing in process. But thus far everyone has managed to stay mostly clean, and mostly fed, and mostly well rested. I'm even starting to be able to get some chores done again. Though I'm sure once I get my feet under me some thing will change or someone will go through a growth spurt and things will change, requiring us (well me) to adjust again!
4. Any milestones reached this last week?
K: New words are Belly Button and Meow, and a few names too. She's also now saying words in a more conversational way, rather than as a question or echo.
S: Latched! And starting to spend more time alert.
5. How are you feeling about having 2 at this point?
I haven't really had time to assess my feelings.
I love S, but I already miss all the quality time K and I used to have. Tonight we managed to have bath time and actually read a bed time story while S was snoozing, so I know thing are just going to get better as we all adapt, and I'll be able to get more of that quality time back.
6. Any Mommy Epiphanies?
Time changes everything! And if I use it wisely, than I really can be super mom.
1. Ages?
K: 18 Months, 3 Weeks
S: 1 Week
2. What's went on this last week?
Well we had a baby, brought her home, and began adjusting our little lives to make room for this new little person!
3. What are the challenges we dealt with (or continue to deal with)?
K loves her "issy" and adores having her around. No struggle there. S is to tiny to know what a struggle is... her biggest issue is being jaundiced, and not waking up early enough to still maintain the patience to latch when she's hungry. So despite finally having a child who can latch, I am still spending time at the pump. I'm hoping in the next week her jaundice will clear up and she'll be able to go back to the source, because I can't physically or mentally afford to continue pumping. If at this time next week she isn't a boob girl again, we're goin' to formula with no shame about it.
So mostly Mama seems to be the only one struggling. I was not prepared to jump in to raising two under two so quickly. Some how I had envisioned a bit more of an easing in process. But thus far everyone has managed to stay mostly clean, and mostly fed, and mostly well rested. I'm even starting to be able to get some chores done again. Though I'm sure once I get my feet under me some thing will change or someone will go through a growth spurt and things will change, requiring us (well me) to adjust again!
4. Any milestones reached this last week?
K: New words are Belly Button and Meow, and a few names too. She's also now saying words in a more conversational way, rather than as a question or echo.
S: Latched! And starting to spend more time alert.
5. How are you feeling about having 2 at this point?
I haven't really had time to assess my feelings.
I love S, but I already miss all the quality time K and I used to have. Tonight we managed to have bath time and actually read a bed time story while S was snoozing, so I know thing are just going to get better as we all adapt, and I'll be able to get more of that quality time back.
6. Any Mommy Epiphanies?
Time changes everything! And if I use it wisely, than I really can be super mom.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Still alive!
Yes, I am still alive! And working on a few blog posts, including Miss K2's birth story. Life is just a little... disorganized right now. Not impossible, not insanely overwhelming, just disorganized. Bare with me....
I'm going to start filling out a weekly survey for the girls, I've adapted it from another survey and as our family grows and changes hopefully this will too in order to better present the current states of our lives that are quickly slipping away. It's called 2'fer Tuesday and it starts tomorrow.
Also I'm going to start talking about getting healthy. I know this is a blog about Mama stuff and little girl things, but I believe this falls under "Mama Stuff." I'm not talking about getting skinny, or buff or whatever. And I certainly don't intend to turn this into a diet and exercise blog, or come off like a guru, or start some movement. I'm just talking about feeling better, and not just when I look in the mirror... I'll save the "Feeling Better" speech for that post though.
Basically I plan to have at least 2 regular weekly posts beyond Wordless Wednesday. And I intend on other frequent (but not regular) posts about parenting subjects as well.And maybe not even just parenting stuff, maybe just long rambling "odes to the burp" kind of stuff that I'll label parenting and expect no one to question. Speaking of which, side note: it is adorable how S can't for the life of her drink an entire bottle- no matter how much is in there she always leaves about half an ounce left.
Anyways, this is just a check in to say, well, I'll be checking in more often!! Now I have to go plan Christmas!
I'm going to start filling out a weekly survey for the girls, I've adapted it from another survey and as our family grows and changes hopefully this will too in order to better present the current states of our lives that are quickly slipping away. It's called 2'fer Tuesday and it starts tomorrow.
Also I'm going to start talking about getting healthy. I know this is a blog about Mama stuff and little girl things, but I believe this falls under "Mama Stuff." I'm not talking about getting skinny, or buff or whatever. And I certainly don't intend to turn this into a diet and exercise blog, or come off like a guru, or start some movement. I'm just talking about feeling better, and not just when I look in the mirror... I'll save the "Feeling Better" speech for that post though.
Basically I plan to have at least 2 regular weekly posts beyond Wordless Wednesday. And I intend on other frequent (but not regular) posts about parenting subjects as well.And maybe not even just parenting stuff, maybe just long rambling "odes to the burp" kind of stuff that I'll label parenting and expect no one to question. Speaking of which, side note: it is adorable how S can't for the life of her drink an entire bottle- no matter how much is in there she always leaves about half an ounce left.
Anyways, this is just a check in to say, well, I'll be checking in more often!! Now I have to go plan Christmas!
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