Mama Dani's Musings: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Project 52: Week 52

For some reason, I didn't believe this little boy when he said he didn't like his new little sister...

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Pregnancy Update: 39 weeks

I'm 39 weeks today. It won't be long before we meet Jellybean!! Amazingly, I'd still say I'm feeling pretty good. Just lots of pressure because he/she is so low. My hips were starting to hurt more by the time it had been a week since I've seen the chiro so I'm back to seeing them twice a week.

A couple of weeks ago, nesting started really kicking in. It was worse than it was with either of the other two. But needless to say, I think we're ready! We have a carseat installed in the van, everything we need for the baby has been bought, the newborn cloth diapers are all washed and prepped, birth kit is bought and since baby listened and didn't come before Christmas, the tree is down and the living room is back to normal. We also finally did something I wanted to do with each pregnancy, we made a belly cast. I also got a new camera for Christmas so hopefully now there's a better chance of me having labor/birth pictures. ...my old one was on it's last leg.

I wasn't sure if I was going to make this post. I've had braxton hicks contractions for a while and I get them very often. But that's nothing new because I had lots of them for weeks before having Sean and Maddy. However, nice and early yesterday morning (about 1:00) I woke up to painful contractions. I've only had that happen twice and that was the beginning of my other two labors. They were roughly 10 minutes apart. I could doze between them but woke up as soon as one started. I got a little excited. Then an hour and a half later they were much further apart and I started sleeping through them. Next thing I know Maddy was waking me up at about 6:00. I stayed crampy for the first part of the day so I continued to think maybe it was the beginning of things. Nope! It's all gone! I've barely even had braxton hicks contractions today. I feel really good today. Nesting even calmed down a ton. I'd be happy to just lounge around all day. Hubby called to check on me at lunch and when I told him that, he mentioned maybe it's the calm before storm. We shall see!!

Other big news is we've picked and announced names!
Jellybean will either be Ethan Zayne or Emily Noelle.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

School Days: Christmas Symbols

I love this time of year. And while I love the secular part of Christmas, I'm determined not to let the true meaning get lost. That's why I decided to use a unit about Christmas symbols for our latest lesson plan. I found this blog post but was bummed that the link to the lesson plan wasn't working. Thankfully, the author fixed it and provided the new link in the comments. We didn't do all the symbols and I just used the unit as a guideline, adding my own crafts. Here's what we did:

Candles/Lights
John 8:12 “Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

The kids made candle holders out of baby food jars, glue and tissue paper.

Christmas Carols
Psalms 47:6-7 “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.”

No craft this day. We listened to lots of Christmas music. It's so cute to hear Sean starting to learn the words.
Wreaths
Being a circle, they represent a love that has no end; the love God has for us.

Ok, ok, typical preschool craft here. Wreath ornaments.

Gifts
The first Christmas gifts were given to baby Jesus by the Wise Men.
Matthew 2:11 “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Gifts also remind us of Jesus.
2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.”

The kids made Christmas gifts for each other. Maddy made Sean a wallet. Sean made Maddy a bracelet, necklace and jewelry box. I suggested that he make a bracelet and he insisted on making the necklace and jewelry box.

Bells
Bells were put on animals' necks so shepherds could find them when they were lost. God values us just the same. We are never lost to Him.
Psalm 100 "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

We made bell necklaces and bracelets. The necklaces are now hanging on the front door...Sean's idea.

Stars
The star of Bethlehem guided the three wise men to Jesus.
Matthew 2:10 "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy."

The kids made these beautiful stars that now hang from the ceiling fan in the living room.

Candy Canes
Candy Canes remind us of Jesus because they are the shape of a shepherd's crook while up right and the shape of a "J" when upside down.
Psalm 23 "The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

Sean insisted that since it will be Jesus's birthday, we had to make a birthday cake for him so we made a candy cane cake.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

4 Year Endo Checkup

Sean had an endo check up last Friday. It went very well. Doc was very pleased with how Sean has grown..it's been 8 months since he saw him. Again, he's keeping up with the curve and that's the important thing. The doc suggested that we go ahead and redo the bone age scan to confirm that Sean's just fine, just on the small side. As long as the scan comes back saying he has normal growth potential, we're good and we won't go back for a year. Sean made me very proud. Last time he sat on my lap for the xray. Obviously, I couldn't do that this time. The tech and I got him sitting in the chair, hand in place and then we walked behind the safety area. Even after almost starting to cry and fighting them when they tried to weight and measure him, Sean sat there all by himself like a big boy, kept still and didn't even fuss. Crazy how they decide when and what to fight!

Today we got the results. His bone age is the same as his age. That's a good thing! Last time it was slightly older than his age. Doc says that what we want to see is Sean's bone age get a little younger than his real age...which it seems like it's doing. That will mean he has more growth potential and is possibly just a late bloomer. We go back in a year.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Adventures of Elfy Part 2

Elfy is still up to his mischief. If you missed it, here's what he was up to last week: Part 1.

This week Elfy:

Swung from the fan

Climbed in the nativity scene

Did some late night coloring

And decided he wanted to run errands with us

Thursday, December 15, 2011

4 Year and 2 1/2 Year Checkups

The kids had check ups today. Sean had his 4 year check up (yea, a month and a half late) and Maddy had an appointment mainly to talk about the constipation problem she had and us going dairy free.

We'll start with stats: Sean is 28lbs, 36in. Maddy is 29lbs, 37in.
The fun thing about having kids the same size is they have fun mixing up their clothes:

Sean is below the curve on the growth chart but keeping up with the curve. His growth in the last month or so has slightly increased..slightly faster than the curve. Given the fact that in that time he had a few vomiting spells, that's awesome!! He had labs done for iron and lead levels and hearing and sight tests. He passed the sight test just fine and refused to take the hearing test. Got to love a stubborn 4 year old!

Maddy is doing great: about 50% for weight and almost 75% for height. The doctor does not think she has an allergy to dairy because constipation was her only symptom and he doesn't think it's lactose intolerance because she would have had the opposite reaction. What he thinks it is is how her body is reacting to dairy proteins. He suggested to continue what we're doing for now; no obvious dairy and not worried about hidden dairy and dairy in things like store bought cookies and such. When she's completely potty trained he suggested to start very slowly adding dairy to see if she can handle it in small amounts: starting with 1 very small serving a day and adding more after a week and so on.

They both also had 2 shots each. Let me just say too, I love our pediatrician. He's been great with doing a delayed vaccine schedule and didn't seem phased at all that I turned down the flu and chicken pox vaccine and will be delaying MMR vaccine even further. I asked him when he wanted to see Jellybean and he asked me where I'd be delivering. Me saying home didn't phase him either. All in all, a great visit. Sean goes to see the endo tomorrow morning. I expect it to be a great visit.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Cards

We decided to do something a little different for our family picture for our Christmas card photo for this year and of course I wanted to share it with yall: Merry Christmas!

I got the idea for this from this pin/blog.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Adventures of Elfy

We welcomed the elf on the shelf into our home again this year. The kids are getting into it more this year so Elfy (as Maddy's calling him) is having more fun. Here are a few places we caught him so far:

The first sign of mischief was when he climbed up onto our family picture and drew on Sean's face!

The next morning was calmer. He sat and read some of his favorite nursery rhymes.

But then to our shock, he TPed our tree!!

Sean found it funny when he found Elfy in lounging in his stocking
(or socking as he calls it).

This is how we found him this morning. I wonder if he thinks we don't have enough decorations up..

Looking for more elf mischief? Check out this blog.

Flutter By Fridays

I've decided to retire Flutter By Fridays...for now at least. I've been slacking and feel guilty for not participating in my own blog hop like I should. And things are going to get even crazier soon when Jellybean gets here. ;)

Click here if you'd like to see the blogs that participated in the past:
Flutter By Friday blog hop

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Project 52: Weeks 46-49

I'm way behind on this so I'm going to just play catch up in one post. So here's weeks 46-49:

This is the look I got from Maddy when I told her about Thanksgiving dinner...the girl loves food!

Decorating the Christmas tree:

A confused butterfly emerged quite late. Since his wings were still wet, he couldn't fly, so I took the opportunity and took his picture in our Christmas tree.

We had a couple more confused butterflies so we now have 3 house butterflies...scratch than, we now have 5! I'll have to get another picture.

Monday, December 5, 2011

DIY Door Snake

As it has gotten colder, I've noticed that our front door is a little drafty. I wanted to get a door snake to keep the cold air out. Then I thought, why spend money on one when I can make one. So I did! I used scraps from the sheets I used to make the kids' ghosts costumes, some buttons and ribbon I had laying around the house and stuffed it will plastic grocery bags that have been reproducing in the pantry. Lastly, I let the kids decorate it.

Here he is!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

School Days: Workshop

My little guy is all boy and one of his favorite things is tools and building. It wasn't too surprising when he asked to spend his birthday money at the workshop (aka Lowes). We found some kid sized tools and a kit for him to make his own toolbox. He couldn't get started on this project fast enough!!

Daddy helped with this lesson. Reading the "unstructions" first:

He was beyond excited when he got to help with daddy's drill!

All finished!!

Daddy and I added to this by making Sean an activity board for him to use his tools on. I designed it with inspiration from this pin and this pin and daddy put it together.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

DIY Window Decorations: Fall

I'm behind on posting but better late than never, right!? We have a huge picture window in our livingroom. In the past we've used it to display some of the kids art work but I wanted to do something bigger. So, we made a mural! The inspiration came from the Tissue Paper Stained Glass project that Dilly-Dali Art did.

It started with just the kids putting scraps of tissue paper on the bottom of the window. Then I made the tree trunk and the top of the tree and the kids finished it with the falling leaves.

It was beautiful from the inside during the day.

And just as pretty from the outside at night.

We took it down when the Christmas decorations went up and I'm already brain storming on the winter mural we'll do when the Christmas decorations come down.

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