Kids:o) Parenting:o)
You know your a busy momma when your getting ready for a date with your man and your kids stare in amazement as you put on make-up while they ask questions like, "What's that? What are you doing?" Pathetic isn't it? Has it really been that long?
You know your a preoccupied momma when your getting dressed for your special occasion and find "the shirt" only to realize there is baby puke on it that you hadn't noticed from the last time you wore it.
You know you are parents of small children, when your driving along on your date listening to and singing along with "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," then finally one of you says, "Why are we listening to this?" Oh my, hahaha:o)
You know your parents with too many kids movies, when you recognize the music in the restaurant you are eating at as the theme song to Curious George.
You know your parents stuck in a routine, when you walk back to your van, push the button to open the back doors and THEN realize how pointless that is since you don't have any kids along.
OR -
When you take a family trip to the mall and spend a good 45 minutes of that time changing diapers and taking trips to the bathroom, ugh...
When either your diaper bag becomes a purse or your purse becomes a diaper bag:o)
And lastly, ONLY parents would go on a date a and compile a list like this while ON their date:/
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Baby #6, Too Soon?
We recently found out that I am expecting baby #6! Admittedly it made me kind of nervous at first, just thinking about my blood pressure issues (which are pretty much normal without medicine right now) and delivery. I've always viewed the delivery as the easier part because, "I am an epidural lover", though I was "adventurous" with the twins and wanted to "feel" everything, so I neglected that wonderful little button of relief. Anyway, I never felt worked up over the delivery before, but since my last experience was so scary and so painfully messed up I will now be very anxious when that time comes. Nerves or no nerves, we are still excited about this next baby! Some may wonder if it is too soon and how we will handle that. Since Lincoln was a twin, we had to face all of our fears of having our "next baby" the day Lincoln died. We didn't have a year, plus another 9 months, and then our "next baby". We had to learn to trust God that very night when Judles went to bed. I had to make time to snuggle my sweet Judles who I loved so much, but at the same time struggling to deal with the pain and emotions of not having his brother in my other arm. It was hard:o( All that said, we have already crossed the emotional hurdles of having that next baby because of having twins, so that part doesn't worry us much. Not that we won't have any fears or struggles, but that is just going to be part of life for us now. We just take it a day at a time, trust God, and understand that all of our children are His and they are in His hands. Too soon is not an issue! Grieving is still and will be something we have to deal with, that is just part of losing someone you love.
Side note about grief... I really hate how it appears on the outside... I hate that since we don't cry to people when we talk about Linc that it could appear that we don't cry at all and are totally resilient and unaffected by what happened (even though I KNOW none of you actually think that). I also hate that tears are so uncomfortable to share with people, I hate to make things awkward:/ I'm not a public crier, at least not if I can help it. It's hard to explain, but it's really important to me that people understand how much we loved our Lincoln and even if you don't see the tears, they are there or being gulped back for the sake of an uncomfortable situation. I'm so thankful for my hubby who I do feel comfortable crying with and who holds me close through every emotional breakdown that comes my way. He's such a good husband:o) Anyway, I know that many of you are blessed with compassion and would love to be a shoulder to cry on, and thank you for being that kind of a person! And really I'm not totally unstable and the happiness you see in our family is not fake, we really do find things to be joyful about everyday. Fake is not a quality my hubby or I appreciate in a person. This is just something I've thought about a lot. I never want to appear that we don't cry and are "over Lincoln" because we never will be... Grief is so strange and so different for everyone.
Speaking of me not being a public crier, here's a story for ya... It was one of those days where one small tear turns into a steady trickle and before you know it the flood gates have been opened and there is no going back (those are the worst). I would claim that day as a very unstable day where I really shouldn't have even left the house. I ended up driving my hubby to work and really needed to stop by Target. I almost didn't go, but figured I'd distract my thoughts, take care of business, and head home. I quickly pushed my cart full of children across the street and ran into the store. An older couple walks in and the man said, "Oh I didn't mean for you to rush across the street." He was the man in the car I was rushing for. I said, "No, don't worry about it. I run across roads all the time:o)" His wife then says, "We have four kids too! They are all grown now, but that is just like we used to be." I KNEW I should just smile and leave it alone, but I couldn't stop myself. I said, "Well actually we had five." Emotions coming on, "but we lost his twin (pointing to Judles) to SIDS a couple of months ago." As I'm saying this the tears are already making their way out. I felt so stupid and so bad for these complete strangers who were just making for some friendly conversation. I was apologizing for making things uncomfortable, but the lady was so nice and so sweet, though I'm pretty sure her husband was wishing he hadn't approached me in the first place:o) Anyway, sometimes I just can't get a grip, but usually that happens at home, but this time it was IN Target to this poor unsuspecting couple. Seriously! It couldn't be at church with people I knew at least?! I walked away still crying and unable to completely gain control again. Funks like that take a LOT of distraction to be able to move on in your thoughts. Yeah so I finished up my trip totally avoiding eye contact with anyone, such an awkward situation... I don't love making people feel bad for me, it's just, awkward.
Anyway, this was supposed to be a light-hearted "We're expecting again" kind of post, oops. I do have some funny memories of past pregnancies! When I pregnant with Brains I was finishing an extra 100 hours of beauty school (since we had moved and our new state required 2100 hours, grrr!). I remember going to the bathroom and throwing up and pretty much just feeling gross for that entire 100 hours I was there. For months afterward (maybe even years) the thought of that school literally made me feel sick to my stomach. Isn't that weird to associate that sick feeling with a building?
I remember 2 specific eating memories from being pregnant with Brains. I was holding a huge bag of BBQ chips and seriously could have eaten the whole thing. I was enjoying it THAT much! Within a day or so I could hardly stand the thought of BBQ chips and wanted to puke at the thought. Same thing happened with frozen food items. I loaded my cart up with frozen pizza's, pizza pockets, and stuff like that. I brought it home and almost as quickly as it became a craving it left and the mere thought of all of that food, just about made me gag. My poor hubby had a lot of frozen "stuff" to eat up:o)
One day my husband and I were in the kitchen snacking cause we both had the munchies. He had some cheese out and I had some peanut butter and I thought, "humm, I bet these would taste really good together." I took a slice of cheese, put some of my beloved peanut butter on it and started eating. My husband looked at me with wide eyes and said, "YOU are SO pregnant! When in your entire life have you ever eaten cheese and peanut butter? That is so weird." I was like, "Really? You think so? It just seemed good to me." Needless to say, my next trip to the store I picked up a pregnancy tester and it was positive:o) Pretty hilarious that he figured it out just by strange food choices:o)
Side note about grief... I really hate how it appears on the outside... I hate that since we don't cry to people when we talk about Linc that it could appear that we don't cry at all and are totally resilient and unaffected by what happened (even though I KNOW none of you actually think that). I also hate that tears are so uncomfortable to share with people, I hate to make things awkward:/ I'm not a public crier, at least not if I can help it. It's hard to explain, but it's really important to me that people understand how much we loved our Lincoln and even if you don't see the tears, they are there or being gulped back for the sake of an uncomfortable situation. I'm so thankful for my hubby who I do feel comfortable crying with and who holds me close through every emotional breakdown that comes my way. He's such a good husband:o) Anyway, I know that many of you are blessed with compassion and would love to be a shoulder to cry on, and thank you for being that kind of a person! And really I'm not totally unstable and the happiness you see in our family is not fake, we really do find things to be joyful about everyday. Fake is not a quality my hubby or I appreciate in a person. This is just something I've thought about a lot. I never want to appear that we don't cry and are "over Lincoln" because we never will be... Grief is so strange and so different for everyone.
Speaking of me not being a public crier, here's a story for ya... It was one of those days where one small tear turns into a steady trickle and before you know it the flood gates have been opened and there is no going back (those are the worst). I would claim that day as a very unstable day where I really shouldn't have even left the house. I ended up driving my hubby to work and really needed to stop by Target. I almost didn't go, but figured I'd distract my thoughts, take care of business, and head home. I quickly pushed my cart full of children across the street and ran into the store. An older couple walks in and the man said, "Oh I didn't mean for you to rush across the street." He was the man in the car I was rushing for. I said, "No, don't worry about it. I run across roads all the time:o)" His wife then says, "We have four kids too! They are all grown now, but that is just like we used to be." I KNEW I should just smile and leave it alone, but I couldn't stop myself. I said, "Well actually we had five." Emotions coming on, "but we lost his twin (pointing to Judles) to SIDS a couple of months ago." As I'm saying this the tears are already making their way out. I felt so stupid and so bad for these complete strangers who were just making for some friendly conversation. I was apologizing for making things uncomfortable, but the lady was so nice and so sweet, though I'm pretty sure her husband was wishing he hadn't approached me in the first place:o) Anyway, sometimes I just can't get a grip, but usually that happens at home, but this time it was IN Target to this poor unsuspecting couple. Seriously! It couldn't be at church with people I knew at least?! I walked away still crying and unable to completely gain control again. Funks like that take a LOT of distraction to be able to move on in your thoughts. Yeah so I finished up my trip totally avoiding eye contact with anyone, such an awkward situation... I don't love making people feel bad for me, it's just, awkward.
Anyway, this was supposed to be a light-hearted "We're expecting again" kind of post, oops. I do have some funny memories of past pregnancies! When I pregnant with Brains I was finishing an extra 100 hours of beauty school (since we had moved and our new state required 2100 hours, grrr!). I remember going to the bathroom and throwing up and pretty much just feeling gross for that entire 100 hours I was there. For months afterward (maybe even years) the thought of that school literally made me feel sick to my stomach. Isn't that weird to associate that sick feeling with a building?
I remember 2 specific eating memories from being pregnant with Brains. I was holding a huge bag of BBQ chips and seriously could have eaten the whole thing. I was enjoying it THAT much! Within a day or so I could hardly stand the thought of BBQ chips and wanted to puke at the thought. Same thing happened with frozen food items. I loaded my cart up with frozen pizza's, pizza pockets, and stuff like that. I brought it home and almost as quickly as it became a craving it left and the mere thought of all of that food, just about made me gag. My poor hubby had a lot of frozen "stuff" to eat up:o)
One day my husband and I were in the kitchen snacking cause we both had the munchies. He had some cheese out and I had some peanut butter and I thought, "humm, I bet these would taste really good together." I took a slice of cheese, put some of my beloved peanut butter on it and started eating. My husband looked at me with wide eyes and said, "YOU are SO pregnant! When in your entire life have you ever eaten cheese and peanut butter? That is so weird." I was like, "Really? You think so? It just seemed good to me." Needless to say, my next trip to the store I picked up a pregnancy tester and it was positive:o) Pretty hilarious that he figured it out just by strange food choices:o)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Doc Oc
Smiles has been doing excellent with potty training!!! My sister and I went to McDonald's and Walmart together today (we were gone for a good 3 hours) and when we got home Smiles had a DRY diaper on! I totally didn't expect him to make it all that time without an accident, but he did! I am so proud of my big boy! I have invested (waiting for it to arrive in the mail) in a better seat with a better splash guard though! This was determined necessary after yesterday morning when Smiles peed all over the floor while sitting on the potty! Oh brother! So a quick bath for him, since he was after all wading in a little self created lake. His next trip to the potty I sat him down and left for a second only to come back to the Pacific Ocean around his feet and hardly a drop in his potty, so a second bath... Not cool and I know there are things I can teach him to help with this "problem" but for now I'm just going to make it easy and get a better seat.
Anyway that was the fun start to my day, later Judles (who is teething) had one of those blowouts where you can't even get their clothes off without getting grossness everywhere, so I cleaned the floor where he was sitting, wiped him down, bathed him and washed out his clothes, while Smiles sat on the potty and successfully accomplished going "pew" or "stinky" as he says:o) I finished Judles bath and quick put a diaper on him, dumped the "pew" down the toilet and cleaned up the tray (YUCK). Meanwhile the girls were in the kitchen eating, they needed refills on their drinks, Judles was hungry and Smiles needed a treat and more milk. I quickly got poor cold Judles a bottle, told the girls to hurry up and finish eating, when they declared they were indeed done and very ready for the pie I had promised them earlier. I still needed to get some clothes on my freezing child while the other 3 were in the kitchen full of "needs". Finally I said, "HOLD ON! I'm not a superhero here, okay? I can't do like 10 things at once. Do I look like Super-girl or Bat-girl?" Brains piped up and said, "Umm, mommy? I wish you were, like... the good Doc Oc a.k.a. Doctor Octopus (Smiles has some little boy superhero books where all the not so good superheros ARE good??? So that is what she was referring to) because then you would have lots of arms and you could do lots of things at once." Well that definitely shed some light on the moment and if I were to choose which superhero to be for right then and there that was a very logical choice:o) Needless to say, I finally met all their needs, put a nice warm outfit on Judles, wrapped him in a blanket and snuggled him while we all watched the Biggest Loser together. ***Whew***
Anyway that was the fun start to my day, later Judles (who is teething) had one of those blowouts where you can't even get their clothes off without getting grossness everywhere, so I cleaned the floor where he was sitting, wiped him down, bathed him and washed out his clothes, while Smiles sat on the potty and successfully accomplished going "pew" or "stinky" as he says:o) I finished Judles bath and quick put a diaper on him, dumped the "pew" down the toilet and cleaned up the tray (YUCK). Meanwhile the girls were in the kitchen eating, they needed refills on their drinks, Judles was hungry and Smiles needed a treat and more milk. I quickly got poor cold Judles a bottle, told the girls to hurry up and finish eating, when they declared they were indeed done and very ready for the pie I had promised them earlier. I still needed to get some clothes on my freezing child while the other 3 were in the kitchen full of "needs". Finally I said, "HOLD ON! I'm not a superhero here, okay? I can't do like 10 things at once. Do I look like Super-girl or Bat-girl?" Brains piped up and said, "Umm, mommy? I wish you were, like... the good Doc Oc a.k.a. Doctor Octopus (Smiles has some little boy superhero books where all the not so good superheros ARE good??? So that is what she was referring to) because then you would have lots of arms and you could do lots of things at once." Well that definitely shed some light on the moment and if I were to choose which superhero to be for right then and there that was a very logical choice:o) Needless to say, I finally met all their needs, put a nice warm outfit on Judles, wrapped him in a blanket and snuggled him while we all watched the Biggest Loser together. ***Whew***
Saturday, January 7, 2012
The Little Blonde Streaker
Smiles is a little over 2 1/2 and even though I'm not ready to potty train him (seriously lacking motivation) I am because it is getting really old changing diapers for him and Judles (I have to wonder what it would be like [though I have an idea since we had Lincoln for 3 months] to be changing 3 children's diapers day in and day out, major diaper changing craziness, but a very minor inconvenience that I would welcome in a heartbeat and would do almost anything to have back). I potty trained both of my girls around their 21 month mark and it worked pretty well and somewhat quick and I had planned to train Smiles this summer while my in-laws were here, but since we lost Lincoln 2 days into their trip that got put on hold. Yesterday I felt the smallest motivation to start potty training and thought I should probably jump on it since it might be another 6 months before I felt that again. So here I am on day 2 of potty training...
The upper level of our house is mostly wood floors (except for 2 bedrooms), the lower level is tile and all our furniture is pleather so our place is SUPER potty training friendly. Normally I don't potty train my children by letting them run around in the buff, but I have decided to give it a try since our place is so perfect. HAHA, too funny watching Smiles cute little behind running around "nudie bootie":o)
Where to start??? I have been keeping the doors to the bedrooms shut in attempt to keep it sanitary in there. Well today while I was feeding Judles, Smiles was gone for like 30 seconds. I thought to myself, "Oh no! He's in the bedroom, I better call him out before he pees in there!). He ran out to me with wet undies (he had them on for the moment) and I KNEW right away that he had peed in there. Yep, not only on the carpet, but also on a super cute penguin thing that Judles got for Christmas!!! Annoying SINCE I was trying so hard to keep him out of there and it was SUCH a short time, he got the carpet AND the penguin!!! Seriously could that be any more annoying? That was mess number 2 for the day - kind of gets old cleaning up pee and all my obsessive sanitary carefulness is seriously strained. My mother-in-law called and I told her all about this annoying situation, then preceded to tell her how Smiles had just had a poop on the potty, but wouldn't pee on it because he was freaked out about his poop or something (so weird?), and kept pointing at it and whimpering. His new thing is trying to hold his poop in??? then he acts as if he's a laboring woman delivering a baby when he finally goes, totally ridiculous. I knew he had to pee and was determined to keep him on that potty till he did his thing, but decided to show some compassion and flush the poop for him before he finished. I took him off his potty seat, dumped the poop, sprayed out the tray and suddenly felt my feet being sprayed down, and yes my mother-in-law was STILL on the phone:o) Smiles didn't just piddle on my feet he HOSED them down!!! Argh with a capital A! I had pee all over my feet and was standing in a huge puddle of pee, so thankful for my big helper Brains who fetched me some paper towels so I could start the massive clean up effort and strive toward sanitary conditions once again. I just have to say, I HATE potty training, I'm not saying I totally stink at it, because I AM motivated now, but what is there to enjoy about 24/7 thinking about the toilet, waiting, cleaning up messes, doing laundry, giving baths (Smiles had at least 3 today). I mean, "Really, is this any one's idea of a good time?"
Be warned... If I have any visitors the house WILL smell like bleach and you will likely be flashed by a little blonde streaker:o)
The upper level of our house is mostly wood floors (except for 2 bedrooms), the lower level is tile and all our furniture is pleather so our place is SUPER potty training friendly. Normally I don't potty train my children by letting them run around in the buff, but I have decided to give it a try since our place is so perfect. HAHA, too funny watching Smiles cute little behind running around "nudie bootie":o)
Where to start??? I have been keeping the doors to the bedrooms shut in attempt to keep it sanitary in there. Well today while I was feeding Judles, Smiles was gone for like 30 seconds. I thought to myself, "Oh no! He's in the bedroom, I better call him out before he pees in there!). He ran out to me with wet undies (he had them on for the moment) and I KNEW right away that he had peed in there. Yep, not only on the carpet, but also on a super cute penguin thing that Judles got for Christmas!!! Annoying SINCE I was trying so hard to keep him out of there and it was SUCH a short time, he got the carpet AND the penguin!!! Seriously could that be any more annoying? That was mess number 2 for the day - kind of gets old cleaning up pee and all my obsessive sanitary carefulness is seriously strained. My mother-in-law called and I told her all about this annoying situation, then preceded to tell her how Smiles had just had a poop on the potty, but wouldn't pee on it because he was freaked out about his poop or something (so weird?), and kept pointing at it and whimpering. His new thing is trying to hold his poop in??? then he acts as if he's a laboring woman delivering a baby when he finally goes, totally ridiculous. I knew he had to pee and was determined to keep him on that potty till he did his thing, but decided to show some compassion and flush the poop for him before he finished. I took him off his potty seat, dumped the poop, sprayed out the tray and suddenly felt my feet being sprayed down, and yes my mother-in-law was STILL on the phone:o) Smiles didn't just piddle on my feet he HOSED them down!!! Argh with a capital A! I had pee all over my feet and was standing in a huge puddle of pee, so thankful for my big helper Brains who fetched me some paper towels so I could start the massive clean up effort and strive toward sanitary conditions once again. I just have to say, I HATE potty training, I'm not saying I totally stink at it, because I AM motivated now, but what is there to enjoy about 24/7 thinking about the toilet, waiting, cleaning up messes, doing laundry, giving baths (Smiles had at least 3 today). I mean, "Really, is this any one's idea of a good time?"
Be warned... If I have any visitors the house WILL smell like bleach and you will likely be flashed by a little blonde streaker:o)
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