Fall Fun In The Leaves

We are enjoying fall. The weather has been gorgeous. Fall festivals have started. Hay rides have been had. The most fun we have had though, is playing in the massive piles of leaves in our yard that we rake up.

Little Man helped Daddy rake up the leaves


The boys surveyed the pile


Mommy joined the boys, and brought Little Miss too


Daddy played too


We buried Daddy in the leaves


Then Little Man buried himself


How are you enjoying the fall?

Friday Review

Saturday Stephen had drill. I despise drill weekends because it means I have all three kids by myself all weekend. It makes for a LONG weekend.

My mom came over on Saturday and helped me with the kiddos. Stephens mom was also at our house off and on thru out the day. It was very nice having both Grandmothers to help with the kiddos.

Sunday was church. I started back working in the nursery for the second service. I was working it when I was pregnant, but it got to be too hard for me to get up and down off the floor and I knew I would take a break when Little Miss was born, so I stopped in July. It was very nice to get back to the nursery and the little kids I have missed so much!

After church I picked up Stephen from drill and we headed out to Norcross for the Labor Of Love reunion picnic. Labor of Love is the doula and child birth educators we used for Little Miracle and Little Miss. They have an annual reunion for all of their current and past clients. It was nice to see some of the ladies that I took my child birth classes with and also to see our doula and child birth educator.

The boys had a blast playing on the play ground while Little Miss and I ate and chatted. When we got home, I went to get Little Man out of the car seat and noticed what I thought was dirt on his forehead. I went to wipe it off, and it was not dirt, it was a bruise! He BUSTED (hard enough for a LARGE goose egg on his forehead and a nasty bruise) his head while playing and did not even flinch! I did not know he hit his head until we got home, over an hour later! Needless to say, he is fine.

Monday was back to preschool for Little Man and back to the daily grind for me.

Tuesday was appointments for Little Man and Little Miss. Little Man had his 4 year check up. He is 43 pounds and 42 inches tall. Perfectly healthy and growing like he should. Little Miss is 11.12 pounds. This blows my mind. I looked back and Little Man was 11.5 pounds at 4 months, Little Miracle was 12.6 pounds at 4 months.

She is a big baby. Little Man at 2 months was in the 4th percentile for his weight, Little Miracle was in the 5th. Little Miss at 2 months is in the 71st. Shes perfectly healthy though, just big. I am not used to a big baby, but I have always wanted a chunky baby, looks like I finally got it!

Wednesday was school again for Little Man and then AWANA. It was store night. At AWANA they earn "bucks" for things like attendance, wearing their vest, saying their verse and bringing their Bible. Little Man had 32 AWANA bucks. He bought a Cars ping pong game and two Veggie Tales CDs for the car. He also saved some of his bucks for the next store night.

Thursday was another chill out day at home. I started a fire in the fire place because it was overcast and quite chilly for Atlanta.

Little Miss laughed for the first time Thursday night. She was smiley and trying to poop, so I made up a silly cheer about poop, and she laughed! I find this really funny since Little Man laughed for the first time with poop also. What is it with my kids and poop?

Friday, well, its Friday morning right now. I haven't done much. Little Man is at school and Stephen is working a half day. We will see what trouble we get into tonight!

See ya next week!

Friday Review

This week was amazing!

Saturday we celebrated Little Mans 4th birthday at Catch Air. Little Man had.a.BLAST! Him and a bunch of his friends played for well over an hour then we went to the party room and had pizza and cupcakes. After they all ate, he opened his presents. He got a bunch of new toys that he LOVES.

Little Miracle playing with the light floor.


Little Man hiding under the light slide.

Sunday was a chill at home type day. After church we went home and relaxed.

Monday was Little Mans actual birthday. I made cupcakes for his pre-school class and took them there for him. He LOVED Mama being in his class. We sung to him and he shared his cupcakes with his class. After school, we went back to Catch Air (he wanted to go) then came home and had spaghetti and broccoli for dinner, one of his favorite meals.

Wednesday Little Man got to play games on the computer for the first time. He loved it! He now asks me daily to play games.



Thursday we got Little Man a new car seat and recovered his old one for Little Miss. New seats for both!





Today Little Miracle and I went to Joyful Noise Acres Farm for a tour with our local moms group. Little Miracle got to hold a baby chick and helped feed the laying hens. It was a ton of fun.



After the farm, we picked up Little Man at school. I was very surprised when I got home and pulled out his folder and saw this.



Those of you who know me, know my love of my kids footprints. I have both boys newborn prints tattooed on my shoulder, and will add Little Miss as soon as I can. I love that they did a footprint craft. A 4 year old footprint sure is bigger than a newborn print!

This next week is slow, with not much planned. Cant wait to see what fun we have!

To my Little Man on the eve of your 4th birthday.

I am so proud of you. You are becoming such a little man. Your nick name suits you.

This year you welcomed a sister. You told Mommy she was pregnant before Mommy knew, told us it was a sister and told us she would be born on a Sunday. You were right. You love your sister with every inch of your being. You always ask me to let you hold her, if she fusses, you tell me she is crying and will get her pacifier for her. You swing her in the swing and love kissing and hugging on her, even if she is screaming at you. You would probably change her diaper if I would let you.

You started preschool this year too. You LOVE preschool. You only go 3 days a week, but you would go every day if they offered it. I love seeing your artwork that you bring home from school. Painting, drawing smiley faces, practicing your letters, I love it all. You love playing outside at school. Every day when I ask what you did, you tell me “we played outside”

You know all of your letters, numbers, shapes, colors… You are as smart as a whip. Quick to correct me if I am wrong. You love learning. You love sharing what you learn.

You love to sing. ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are your favorite, but you love singing Rock A Bye to your sister. You learn so quickly that we can sing a song once and you have all the words down by the next time we sing it.

You are in AWANA right now too. You love it just as much as preschool. You learn your verses every week, and have not missed one yet. You even get the address of the verse, even though they don’t ask your class to do it (you are one of the oldest in your class because of where your birthday fell). You are so proud of your patches you get on your vest.

Your favorite thing to do at home is play outside. You got a bike for your birthday this year. A real bike! You tell me all the time “I am learning to ride my bike”.

You still love to cuddle with Mommy in Mommy and Daddys bed. Any chance you get to come in you will. You also fully potty trained this year. You had day time down at 33 months, but night time was tough.

You love to help Mommy cook. Although brownies are your favorite thing to cook, you LOVE broccoli and snow peas to eat.

Your best friend right now is your cousin Sydney. Your eyes light up every time you see her. You just love her! I love seeing how close you two have become.

Your favorite color is blue. And you tell me all.the.time.

You love your little brother too. You love to play on the floor with him. He tries to steal your toys all the time. You are not the best sharer, but you are learning. You always tell Little Miracle that we are almost home when he is fussing in the car. You tell me when he is up from his nap and demand that I go get him right then and there.

I am so proud of who you are becoming. I can’t believe that you are 4 years old. Time really flies when you are having fun! I am excited to see what this year bring us!

Love Mommy

Friday Week In Review

This week was fun!

Saturday we went to the fair. Little Man and Little Miracle had SO much fun riding the rides and at the petting zoo. Little Man got to feed a cow and thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Little Miss slept thru the fair.



Sunday our church had a tailgaiting party. Lots of food and fun. Little Man loved the bounce house the most! I liked the chili cook-off! Lots of different kinds of chili to eat.

Monday my mom came and hung out with us all day. I love when my mom comes over. It's very helpful to a stay at home mom to have some adult conversation during the day! Out new next door neighbors got a new fridge and we stole the box. We made it into a fort and then had the boys paint it. It takes up a massive amount of space in my living room, but the boys are still playing in it tonight!



Wednesday Little Man got his second patch at AWANA. He got the first one last week for completing so many pages in his workbook and memorizing so many verses. I am so proud of my Little Man. He learns his verse every week and proudly says it to his teacher when he gets to his class room. At 3, he is not required to say the address of through verse but I make him learn it also. This week his patch was for attendance. He has not missed a week yet!

Wednesday Little Miss wore her first tu-tu. It was adorable!

Yesterday was a play day. We went to Catch Air and played for hours. The boys love that place. Little Miracle loved going down the huge slide in my lap.

Today we went to the park while Little Man was at school. Then we went to the bookstore with daddy and played with Thomas the Train. Tonight we spent time learning to ride his bike and then we walked to the neighborhood playground and had a picnic. We talked to our new neighbors and some old ones on the way back.

Tomorrow kicks off a new week for my week in review, and next week is going to be epic!

This Week: In Review

My favorite day since Little Man has started preschool is Friday. That is when the teachers send home a "this week" paper. It is a review of everything they did and learned that week. I love talking to him about everything he did and reviewing what he learned.

I am going to start a "This Week: In Review" here on my blog. Every Friday I will post what we did that past week. I am excited to start this!

Here we go!!

This Week:

We went to Hilton Head, SC for Stephens work. While there, we got up early to watch the sunrise



We played in the ocean with our clothes on



We looked for and collected shells



We built couch tents in the hotel



Back home, Little Miracle started using sentences! "Light on please" and "Let's play outside" are his current favorite.

Little Miss smiled for the first time!

Little Man got a REAL bike for his up coming birthday! We got to watch them build it!



That is our week in review. What happened at your house this week?

My Favorite Picture

This is one of my favorite pictures of my boys. It captures a typical day here of play. This was taken in late July.

We were playing hide and seek. The boys both took off for the play room and I counted from the living room. As soon as I looked in the play room, I bust out into laughter.



Where could they be?

New Adventures

My Little Man is growing up way too fast. He will be 4 in 3 weeks and I am in complete denial. He was just the size of Little Miss a few weeks ago it seems.

I have been debating sending Little Man to preschool. I know it will do him good, and he will interact with kids his age more, but I want to home school the kids and thought we didn't need preschool. Well, I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that, right?

Little Man started a 3 day a week preschool on Friday. He LOVES it! This morning he woke up and was ready to go! It gives me more time to spend with Little Miracle and Little Miss also.

I can't wait for him to come home and tell me what he learned, who his friends are and what his favorite part of the day was. Although, on Friday all the answers were "I don't know".

Both boys started AWANA a few weeks ago too. Stephen and I both grew up going to AWANA and really wanted our children to go also. Little Man loves AWANA also. He quotes his Bible verses and wants to read the Cubbies book every day. Little Miracle is still not so sure about AWANA, since he does not like being away from Mommy.

Finally, Little Miss. I need to change her nick name. She is no LITTLE Miss.

Little Man and Little Miracle both started out at 7.5ish pounds, and stayed little. Both boys were always in the 5% or under for their weight until around 18 months, and that is when they started to pack on pounds. (Little Man, at almost 4 is in the 90% for his weight now)

Little Miss must know she needs to catch up to these boys. At 2 weeks old she was back to her birth weight (8.3 lbs) and at 1 month old, was 10.5 lbs. 10 POUNDS!!! A weight gain of 2 pounds in 2 weeks! Her newborn clothes no longer fit her. This just blows my mind since both boys were in newborn clothes for a few months. I know each child is different, but I thought since we had 2 skinny boys, we would have a skinny girl too.

I always wanted a fat baby.... looks like I may have it!

Life With Three Kids

Life with three kids... its going good so far!

Little Miss is a very chill baby. Unlike Little Miracle was. Little Miracle screamed non-stop for the first, oh- 3 months? He is still a very opinionated child,and like his mama in that he knows what he wants and he wants it N.O.W.

Little Miss is content sitting in your lap, or in her swing, or laying on the floor. When she is done, she lets out a little fuss, and that's it. She sleeps most of the day still, and already gives us a 3 hour block of sleep at night. She nurses like a champ and goes right back to sleep.

Little Man is doing great with "his baby". He LOVES to hold her, wants to help with diapers, and is always hugging and kissing on her. I am thinking about signing him up for a church preschool so he can get to interact more with kids his age, since we don't get out much right now. I know we will get back to play dates and outings, I am just not sure when. Plus, preschool will do him some good!

Little Miracle is not too sure about Little Miss. I finally got him to hold her the other day, oh-my-goodess, the cuteness. He ignores her most of the time. Until she cries. Then he will tell me her name, and say "cry". Or if she is sleeping. It's her name, then "sleep". Then he shushes me. Finger to the lips and all.

We started the boys in AWANA last week. Little Man LOVES it. He proudly walks into his class and says his bible verse from the previous week. Last weeks was 1 John 4:10. When he told me the verse, I then asked him where it was found. He, in his smart ways, said "the Bible"... well, yes, but not the answer I was looking for, but how do you argue with that?

Little Miracle, on the other hand, screams during his class. Not just at drop off, the. entire. time. The first week he was screaming on the playground when I finally rescued him. He screamed thru play time inside, screamed outside on the playground, and even screamed thru snack time of a banana and cookie. This week was the same. He is fine if I stay in his class. Next week the teacher has told me to just drop him and go. She apparently has a child with his personality, and is ok working with him to stop fussing. He is almost 2 so he knows if he fusses long enough Mama will come rescue him, which I will.

Little Miss stays with me during AWANA. Shes way too little to be in a class room and around other kids.

Stephen went back to work full time this week. Life at home with three is not too bad. I hit the wall of exhaustion around 3:30 and that's when we all lay on the floor and read books, or pop in a movie. Then Daddy comes home and rescues me!

Stephen and I are not sure if we are done having kids or not. We will make this decision over the next year or so. Meanwhile, we are both savoring Little Miss and all she does, since she may be our last baby.

The Birth Of Little Miss

Little Man told me when I was pregnant before the stick turned pink, said the baby was a girl and picked Sunday for the birth of “his baby”. He was right on all three.

-----
8/14/2011

I woke up Sunday morning 39 weeks and 3 day pregnant, and OVER IT. The August heat was getting to me, I couldn’t sleep and just felt all around miserable. I knew the baby would come when the baby was ready, but I was ready. I dreaded going to church because I knew the “your STILL pregnant??” comments would start. I also knew if I skipped church, my phone would blow up with people thinking I was in labor, so off to church we went.

After church we came home and I managed to have a nap. I remember taking a nap the afternoon that Little Miracle was born, so I was still hopeful. I had a feeling about that night.

When Little Miracle got up from his nap we headed down to Atlanta to see my father in law. He had kidney surgery a few weeks ago and was not well. He has been slowly improving and Stephen wanted to see him again before he had to go to work on Monday.

I was having contractions all week the week before. When we were at the hospital they were gaining in intensity, but still random and not strong enough, so I ignored them. After Stephen visited his dad we headed back towards the house to run some errands.

When we got home the contractions had slowed down and spaced out. I still had a feeling about that night but I was becoming less hopeful. We took a short walk around the neighborhood then got the boys in the bath and Little Man off to bed. I thought maybe after we got the boys to bed that the contractions would pick up.

((Now, let me back track a little. The entire pregnancy I was praying for my body to give me a sign when it was time. I did not want another unassisted unplanned home birth. I wanted to make it to the hospital.))

Just before 9, Stephen was downstairs putting Little Miracle to sleep. I was upstairs and the contractions got stronger. I was still thinking “maybe?”. I was back and forth between the bathroom and my bed questioning myself wondering what to do. I went back to the bathroom and had a very loose stool and a bit of a bloody show. AH- HA! A SIGN. I immediately called my mom to come over to watch the boys and called my doula. I remember telling my doula that if nothing else, we can walk around the hospital. I guess I was still thinking I had a long labor ahead of me.

I walked halfway down the stairs to tell Stephen what was up and that everyone was on their way already. My mom was there within minutes. I met her outside because Stephen was putting Little Miracle to bed. I had two contractions while I was outside. Stephen got back downstairs and my mom and I came inside. I grabbed my last minute items and we were off. I called the midwife to let her know what was going on.

I put my iPod earphones into my ears so I could have music while I was contracting. I needed to focus on something. The contractions were not that bad and they seemed to be well spaced so I thought I was still in early labor. I was talking between the contractions and could have walked thru them if I wanted.

We got about half way to the hospital when I started thinking “I am not ready for a third child, what did we do? Cant I just go home and not have this baby”. I thought that way for a second and then realized that I was in transition because of the irrational thoughts. I did not tell Stephen this, but glanced over at how fast he was going. Ah, 90, that’s good. Contractions had picked up and I was doing all I could to stay calm thru them.

When we reach Atlanta there is traffic. A bridge over the freeway had fencing fall off of it, and they were fixing it, so they stopped traffic on the freeway. I told Stephen “just get off, it will reroute us” (meaning the GPS). As soon as we got off we realized the traffic was moving again, so we had to drive around the block to get back on the freeway. This entire time I am praying and saying loudly “please God, get us there”

Back on the freeway and then off at our exit. “Almost there” I told the baby.

The final turn before the hospital is a left with a light. It always backs up. Sunday night is no expectation. We were the third car back when the light turned red. I told Stephen to “get over and turn from the straight lane”. He did just that.

When we finally pulled up to the hospital I told him to drop me off at the ER and to bring my bags. I walked into the ER in full transition mode and really ready to just be up in labor and delivery and have my baby!

((Now the story gets fun. The hospital is doing construction, so things are not how they usually are, and the hospital is in a … um… not so safe area of town, so they lock things down at night. Just remember that.))

I walk into the ER and there is a security guy sitting behind a desk. I pointed to my belly and said all I could manage to say at that point… “labor”. He then told me to go back outside to the security desk and they would have a wheelchair to take me to labor and delivery. The woman in the transition part of labor yelled at this poor man “you have to be kidding me!” he said he was not so I walked back outside.

I got to the security desk and the guy looked at me like he had no idea what I needed. Isn’t it pretty obvious, woman with massive belly looking like she is in pain needs LABOR AND DELIVERY. I did not see the wheel chair that I was told would be there, so I just asked him which way I needed to go. I figured I would birth a baby on the sidewalk if I stood around and waited for a wheelchair, so I took off walking.

I went thru the first set of double doors, then went to the next set, and they would not open. I stood there for what feels like forever when a group of 3-4 men came up behind me and wanted to open the door too. I yelled at them to “go see why this door is not working!”. Then one of them pushed a button and it opened. Oh- I see. Rational brain does not work this late in labor I guess.

I walk past a set of stairs and decide stairs might not be the best option. (maybe rational brain DOES work) I make it to the elevators. 4 of them to be exact. 3 of them said they were on the ground floor. Awesome! I pushed the up button for both sides hoping one would open. Nothing. Minutes passed and I realize I am alone in a hall way about to give birth. I scream as loud as I can “why aren’t these (enter choice words that I am not gonna type) elevators working?” Just then the one that was originally on the 7th floor opens. Thank you God!

I get on and press 7 and the door close button at almost the same time. I am thanking God for finally getting the elevators to open. When it dings that I am on the 7th floor I am SO thankful to have FINALLY made it to labor and delivery where someone can help me get this baby out! The doors open and I realize it’s another long hallway to walk down.

Now, it was a full moon this night, so I expected the place to be packed. It was DEAD. Like, you could hear a pin drop on the floor dead quiet. And no one to be seen in any direction.

I start walking down the hallway and see a nurses station. YES!! Someone can help me. I get to the nurses station and a huge contraction hits. I lean over the desk and the lady tells me which direction I need to go. This contraction is taking forever and she says “as soon as it is over you need to go down the hall”. I don’t think she realized where I was in labor. I half squatted and half bent over. Before I did this I see a tall man walking towards me. He appears to be a doctor from his lab coat and scrubs. He yells from down the hall “are you ok?” and the nurse sarcastically says “she’s in labor”. Gee thanks Captain Obvious.

He walks over and holds me up. I was assuming he was an OBGYN since he was on the labor and delivery floor, but he seems to know nothing about a laboring woman. He asks me who my doctor is and I tell him. The nurses station finally realizes that I am NOT walking any farther and grabs a wheel chair. They wheel me to another station where they want me to fill out paper work. I get it in my hands and then say “I can’t” and throw it back at them. At this point they ask if I am Lisa Strickland and when I say yes, they said they knew I was coming and I was finally off to my room.

The nurse wheels me into my room all while asking questions.

“has your water broken” no

“are you feeling pressure” no

“do you need to use the restroom”- ah yes, I need to pee.

We get to my room and she wheels me straight to the bathroom. I get up and sit to pee. As soon as I pee I realize something else.

“I need to poop” I told her.

“honey, that’s not poop” she said. Ah yes, pressure! She asks me if I can make it to the bed. Not happening. I am NOT moving.

“no” I tell her. Then my water breaks. I announce this.

At this point several other nurses have joined in my party. One feels and says “oh honey, the baby’s head is right here, you need to get off the toilet”

I am still not moving and one of the nurses runs next door to get my midwife who was with another patient. They come running in and the next thing I remember is blue towels and such being thrown on the bathroom floor.

My midwife wants me off the toilet, and I know why. I lunge forward onto my hands and am half standing, half to my knees while pushing. The baby comes sliding out into my midwives hands. At this point I remember the ONE thing that I knew I could control in my labor and delivery was that I wanted to be the one to look and see the gender and announce it myself. So I start screaming “don’t tell me the gender, don’t tell me the gender!!”. Someone in the room said “we won’t honey”

My midwife tells me when ever I am ready to sit down and take my baby. I sit down and tear off my shirt and bra. She hands the baby over to me. The baby has its sack over its face still, born in the caul. My midwife pulls the sack off of the head and the baby starts to cry.

I peek between the legs. A GIRL. OMG. It’s a girl!! I cant believe I just had a baby girl on the bathroom floor. I ask my midwife if I saw that correctly and check again. Yup, it’s a girl.

At this point I look around. Where is my husband? Oh yeah, he was parking the car. I ask for my phone to see where he is. I call him and he is on the 7th floor looking for me. He could hear the baby cry from the phone. I knew he was close so I didn’t tell him what we had just yet.

He came walking into our room and to the bathroom.

(Me, my midwife and Little Miss. I had Stephen take this pic after he found us.)

He just smiles at me and the baby. I ask him if he wants to know what the baby is, and he says yes. I told him “you have a daughter”. His smile widens.

I did manage to make it to the bed to deliver the placenta. My doula walked in a few minutes after the baby was born. She told me she was walking in when she heard “happy birthday” playing (they play it after every birth) for my baby. She almost made it.

Another super fast labor. If you count from the time I was wondering if the contractions were real it was 4.5 hours. If you count from the first real “this is labor” contraction, it was less than an hour. I think, IF there is another baby, it will be a planned home birth!

Welcome New Baby!

Little Miss was born on 8/14/2011 at 9:34 pm

She was 8.3 lbs and 20 inches long

Her birth story is coming soon. It is similar to Little Miracles in that it was super fast!

Nesting

I thought I started nesting a few weeks ago when we decided to redecorate the boys bathroom.

It started with a trip to Home Depot to get a $2 piece to fix their toilet.

It ended with almost $100 worth of paint and decorations, a two day project of painting the room, making wall hangings for them and finally putting it all together.

Before: (this is how it was when we moved in)


After:


It seems that I like to paint when I am at the end of pregnancy. I painted wall hangings for the nursery when I was pregnant with Little Man. I painted a wall art for Little Mans room when I was pregnant with Little Miracle, and now I painted their bathroom wall hangings and the bathroom when I am pregnant.

I thought nesting was still going when I decided I needed to cook enough food for a month and put it in our new chest freezer.



I was wrong.

While I am glad all this is now done, I hit nesting in FULL form on Saturday.

It started while I was laying on the floor playing with the boys. I looked at my tv cabinet and saw how dusty it was. Yuck. After I dusted that, I dusted the rest of the house. Then decided to scrub toilets. Then the kitchen floor needed to be cleaned, then the carpets needed to be steam cleaned, then the rest of the house needed to be decluttered. 6 hours later, my house looks brand new! You think I would stop there? Nope.

The baby seat had to be installed. Which meant the car needed to be cleaned out. Then I had to move the boys seats.

I have a little over 3 weeks until my due date, but I keep thinking this baby is coming earlier, and that would be a welcome relief from the August heat that is coming.

Here are my 36 week belly shots from all 3 pregnancies.

30 Weeks

ACK!! Almost 30 weeks!

When did that happen?

I always get nervous around this stage in pregnancy because I was a preemie born at 29.6 weeks. I try not to dwell on the fact, and instead think that in 8-12 weeks, we will be adding another child to our mix!

So far, all is going well. Had my gestational diabetes test a few weeks ago, and since I have not heard anything yet, I am assuming I passed. I declined drinking the nasty sugar drink and opted instead to eat a certain meal for the test. It was much easier to eat breakfast then to fast and drink that nasty syrup.

We started our birth classes last weekend. I am so excited to be gearing up for another natural water birth! I am trying to tell my body daily to take it slow. I do not want to have another unassisted home birth! I want a longer labor with this one. I know, that sounds really odd to most women, but if you had the experience I had last time, you would probably be saying the same thing.

We still do not know what we are having. We have names picked out for each gender, and a coming home outfit for each also. I am beginning to think we will be having Little Miss just by the way I am carrying and how different my cravings are this time around.

With Little Man, I wanted puffy Cheetos, watermelon and Skittles. Little Miracle had me craving hot dogs. This one has me craving crunchy foods (apples, carrots, cucumbers). Really different!

Tell me what you think? Is this my Little Miss or my Little Mister?

No more naps for Little Man

I know I said 6 months ago I was going to write this post, and here it is. A little late, but life is super busy over here!

I always LOVED nap time. When I only had one child, it was MY time. I could nap, clean, read a book, do whatever I wanted to do! Then we added Little Miracle to our house, and both he and Little Man eventually napped at the same time. Mama still had "me" time.

I had both boys napping at the same time for a few months. I always dreaded the day that Little Man would give up his nap time.

Then it happened.

Little Man started fighting his nap for 2 hours, then finally sleep, then he would fight bedtime for 2 hours. It was just not worth it anymore to force a nap on him when he clearly did not need one. So I started to just skip his nap.

And I was TERRIFIED.

Then I realized all the possibilities this opened up. We could stay out later if we were out in the morning because Little Miracle would nap anywhere at that age. It gave Little Man and I "our" time back. When you add a second child into your family, you no longer get the one on one time that you get all day with only one child. Little Man and I could do things that we wouldn't do when his brother was awake. We could bake, paint, build with blocks and have them stay up. All the things that Little Miracle would make difficult at his age.

Now most days Little Miracle's nap time is Little Man's quiet time. He needs time to wind down and relax after our busy mornings. It’s our time to watch movies on the couch. We snuggle up and watch a movie or his favorite shows. Quiet time usually lasts about an hour, and then we get to play, just him and I. We have started working on writing letters and hearing the sound letters make in this time too.

I guess the moral of my story is this: don’t dread the day your child gives up their nap. It will open up a world of possibilities for you!

When my Little Man gave up his nap, it made a happy mama!

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. The day where people try to bring awareness to the things we are doing that harm the Earth and bring awareness to things we can do to lessen our impact on the Earth.

I consider our family pretty Earth friendly. We try hard to keep our impact on the Earth small.

What do we do? Here are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

We use cloth diapers so no waste going into the landfills. We have used the same diapers for both of our children and will use the same ones for the third and any more children we are blessed with.

I breastfeed my children, so no formula cans or bottle liners going into the trash and no extra water used on washing bottles. Plus, its free!

We don't use paper napkins or paper towels, we use washcloths and rags instead since these are reusable.

We turn off lights when we are not in a room or when we are not at home. Gotta save energy too.

I shop with cloth bags most of the time, so less plastic ones that never go away.

We try to get most of our food from local sources. Eggs and meat come from a farmer that is about an hour and a half away. Fruit and veggies are bought from the farmers markets (looking into the cost share from our farmer this spring/summer). Buying food local saves fuel and you get fresher food!


These are just a few things you can do too. What does your family do to lessen your impact on the Earth? Any ideas for us to add this year?

Spring Cleaning

We have been doing a lot of spring cleaning around here. Other than cleaning out closets and such, we have been doing house repair. So far we have:

Replaced the play room (was dining room) light and put up a celing fan

Replaced the very old and very noisy garage door opener

Pressure washed the deck

Painted the garage

But the biggest project yet? We painted the house...

Before:


After:


And replaced the french doors that lead to the deck

Before:


After:


Next up? Staining the deck, redoing our bathroom, the boys bathroom and yard work.

20 weeks!

I hit 20 weeks last Thursday. Half way there.

It is going by so fast, partially because I am so so busy with the two toddlers.

Yes, toddlers.

Little Miracle decided to take off walking a few weeks ago. He is now almost running! Mamas life just got more fun!

Back to Little Bean.



We had our 20 week ultrasound last week. All looks great! Baby is measuring right on track (20 weeks, 1 day at 20 weeks). They estimated the baby weighed 11 ounces. It was great to see the little one that I am growing.

We stood firm and did not find out the gender! I can not WAIT to see who I am carrying. Stephen is so strongly convinced it's a girl (he swears that he saw the gender, even though I was watching too, and the ultrasound tech did not even go near the goods) that he has agreed to the boy name he hated before.

Here I am at almost 20 weeks.



sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, again....

Hide And Seek

Little Mans new favorite game is hide and seek. It consists of him hiding, then telling you when he is ready. When we go to look for him, he starts telling you where he is. The latest one sounded like this:

Daddy: Ready or not here I come
Little Man: I'm in here Daddy
Daddy: Hum, I can't find him
Little Man: I'm making noise (bang, bang, sing, bang)
Daddy: Is he in the bathroom?
Little Man: I'm in the game closet

He is also under the impression that if you can’t see his head, you can't see him. Point in case. His other favorite hiding place? His head under his slide, with his butt sticking way up into the air.

Life is great with toddlers!