Saturday, February 25, 2012

Week in Review: Week 7-8

I kept putting off last week's week in review until it was time to start on this week's. Oops! So I'm just combining them. Week 7 was a pretty normal week really nothing to report. This past week, on the other hand, was a rough one. All three kids came down with a cold...yes, Emily's first cold. They all had congestion, runny noses and coughs. Emily actually had a better time than Sean and Maddy; I credit mama's milk! That was until last night. Just as normal, she cluster nursed and was asleep for the night by 10:00. She normally sleeps till 4:00/5:00 but this time woke up at 3:30. She didn't just nurse and go back to sleep like normal. She latched, unlatched and screamed. She would not nurse. She also would not let me lay her down without her screaming. She'd go to sleep on my chest while I rocked her but wouldn't let me lay her down. Around 5:30 she finally let me lay with her in my arms (not completely laying flat). We slept half an hour and had a repeat from earlier. We spent the next couple hours with her sleeping on my chest. I suspected an ear infection so I called the pediatrician as soon as they opened. I love their weekend hours! They could get her in but it was a little wait. It gave us just enough time for Sean and I to make our chiro appointments where I found out that they were able to squeeze in Maddy and Emily. Chiro told me it was her left ear. After she was adjusted, Em nursed and didn't mind being laid down for a diaper change!! We went to the doctor and it was conformed, Em has a small ear infection in her left ear. Poor little thing is currently napping.

Week 7
Emily got her Baltic Amber teething necklace!
Not teething yet but it looks too cute to not have her wear it.

Sean wrote his name for the first time without having me spell it for him!


Emily got her new carseat! Plenty of room to grow!
Rear facing till 45lbs, in a harness till 65lbs



Week 8
As I was getting ready for the day, I watched Sean snuggled up with Emily.


She fussed a little and here's what he did in his sleep. *swoon*



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Friday, February 17, 2012

Chiropractic Care

I use to think that chiropractic care was for when you had an injury. I remember my dad seeing a chiropractor after he threw out his back. During my pregnancy with Emily I had some really bad round ligament pains. My midwife suggested I go see a chiropractor. Boy am I glad I did!! Not only did I get help with the round ligament pains but the rest of my pregnancy was a lot more comfortable than my pregnancies with Sean and Maddy. I'm still amazed at how comfortable I was all the way up until I went into labor. ...all thanks to getting adjusted often.

The kids go with me to my appointments often because of hubby's work schedule. I love how family friendly the office is. Maddy started getting adjusted in hopes to solve her constipation issues. We did a dairy elimination diet at the same time. At the time we thought the diet change was what worked. Since then, we've had dairy slip ups and began noticing that those slip ups didn't make a difference. She now gets small amounts of dairy without a problem. I believe chiropractic care is what helped. She went weekly for awhile and is now going monthly. Emily had her first adjustment at 5 days old. She's also going monthly now. Sean went for his first adjustment last week. He has a little bit going on so he will go back in a week.

Sean, Maddy and their friend playing chiropractor:


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Monday, February 13, 2012

Our Story

Megen over at Sparing Change wrote about her and her husband's story and asked others to share theirs. I couldn't think of a better idea for a Valentine's Day post so here's my husband's and my story.

Our story starts back in August 1999. It was the first time I noticed him. I was about to start my freshmen year of high school and was on the bus going to summer band camp. I still remember what he was wearing when he stepped onto the bus. He was a junior that year and with me being a freshmen, I didn't have the nerve to speak to him....yet. I admired him from afar until it was about time for a school dance; winter dance. I wanted to ask him to the dance but being shy I slipped a note into his locker. I didn't hear from him and after awhile I began wondering, "did I put it in the wrong locker!?" Our homeroom classes were right next to each other that semester and one morning my bus was late. I got to the hall where our lockers were and there he was walking toward me...Mr Griffa had sent him to take a plant to Mrs Baine. I gathered up the courage and stopped him to ask him if he got my letter. He had. But he wasn't going to the dance. I was crushed but I continued to crush on him. One of the things I remember about homeroom class that semester was the little hall that connected my homeroom to Richard's. There was another Richard in hubby's class and my friend, Elicia, and I would spend the time before the bell rung some days looking through that little hall watching the Richards.

As time went on, he wasn't showing any interest in me so I gave up. That was until about the beginning of 2001when a boyfriend broke up with me and Richard began flirting with me. Valentine's Day Dance was coming up. I wanted to ask him to go with me but I didn't want to be turned down. Finally my friends had had enough. They black mailed me one day at lunch. They told me that if I didn't ask him myself, they would do it for me. I nervously walked over to his table and asked. He said yes! He had also started driving me to and from school around that time. On February 1, 2001, he was dropping me off after school and asked me to be his girl friend. I was a happy girl!

Newly dating: Valentine's dance 2001


Fast forward to 2005. We were still dating. We had talked about marriage but there had been no proposal. ...until one evening after work. We were sitting on his bed and he popped the question. It was spur of the moment; he had no ring. I said yes!!...and we went ring shopping. It was awhile before the date was set. We moved into our first place together in March 2006, the date was set for October 14, 2006 and the wedding planning began.
Engaged:

Wedding Day


October 14, 2006 was a magical day. We were surrounded by family and friends and everything was perfect. The honeymoon wasn't so bad either. ;) We were loving life. Then a very difficult event happened. I lost my Granddad in December of 2006. My grandparents and I were very close so I took this very hard. Richard was my rock. Later that month we began talking about children. We had only been married a short time but had been together for over five years. The thing that made up our mind was the fact that we wanted our grandparents to know atleast one of our children. I only had one grandparent left, my Granny. Her health wasn't the best and losing Granddad was really difficult for her. February 2007 we got to tell her that she was going to have another great grandchild. Sean was born November 1, 2007. We lost Granny in July 2008..very shortly before we found out about our surprise baby, Maddy. We went from a family of 3 to a family of 4 on April 1, 2009. The latest change to our family was just 6 1/2 weeks ago when we welcomed our third child, Emily, into our family.

Our new family of 3


In her post, Megen says, "What the fairytales don’t tell you is about how difficult it can be for two completely different people to come together as one." I whole heartily agree. We've been married for a little over 5 years now. We've had our ups and downs; some high highs and some low lows. There is no perfect marriage and one thing you can not understand before hand is the work a good marriage takes. Our lowest low wasn't all that long ago, while I was pregnant with Emily. Looking back, I don't think we were as good as we should have been before getting pregnant again. I respect Richard so I will not go into details but he did something to make our marriage begin to snowball. It came to a point where if we were going to make this work, we needed to do a lot of work...and we did. I joined Megen in an online marriage book club. Richard did some reading too. And we talked a lot. Through all this we began to see both of our faults and what we could improve. Slowly things began to look better. It's an on going thing to keep things going good. We both have to work at it, working hard not to go back to our old ways. But we love each other and we are committed. With time I believe things will get better and easier but then I don't believe there's ever a time in marriage that there isn't room for improvement. One of our highest highs was Emily's birth day. It was amazing. Once again, Richard was my rock. That day proved to me that we've made a lot of progress.

Richard, I love you. We've been together for 11 years and I look forward to many more.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Our crazy family of 5



Don't forget to read Megen's story and link up your own.

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Week in Review: Week 6

I was beginning to think I wouldn't have much to write about this week then Maddy decided she wanted to be a big girl. First, let me go off on a little side note. A few months ago hubby was working his first night at his second job. It meant I had to get both kids to bed by myself. At that point Sean was in his own room and Maddy was still in our room on the little bed. Both had to have hubby or I in the room while they fell asleep. I can't be in two rooms at the same time so I asked if they wanted to have a sleep over in Sean's room. They agreed and both went to bed very easily. That's been the sleeping arrangement since then. At the beginning of this week they started fighting each other in bed and Maddy said she wanted to sleep in her room like a big girl - her words. And with that, they are sleeping in separate rooms.

The idea of being a big girl must have got the ball rolling because Wednesday afternoon Maddy informed me that she was a big girl and she wanted princess underwear. I had been thinking of starting potty training but I didn't want to start too close to introducing Emily to the family. Maddy had other plans. After nap I gave her some underwear and told her that she needed to keep them dry and go potty in the potty. She had a few accidents that night but the next couple of days went great. She woke up in the mornings dry, woke up from nap dry and only had a few accidents each day...each day getting a little better.

This week's pictures:
Maddy's after nap bed head


One of my favorite pictures of Emily


Brother and sister..He absolutely loves her, and vice versa



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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Aluminum Foil Painting

Painting on aluminum foil...who would have thought! I found this idea on pinterest not too long ago and the kids really enjoyed it. The pictures just don't do this activity justice...partly b/c I didn't take enough pictures. The in between was when they had the pretty swirls of colors. That's the fun part of painting on foil. The colors swirl together better than on paper. If they had been painting on paper we'd just have brown pieces of paper. Here's what I did capture: 
The beginning:

Their foil after all was said and done:


Their prints: I helped them take blank pieces of paper and made prints of their artwork. 


The pin/blog that inspired this post.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Fitness Goals

I almost put this on my new year's resolution list but it seems so cliche. I want to work on a healthier lifestyle: healthier eating and exercising. I'm not doing this to lose weight because I'm pretty happy with the numbers on the scale. What I'm not happy about is the fluff around my middle.

I'm nursing so I don't want to limit what I eat by "dieting". I just want to make better food choices and I'm off to a good start. I made some changes while pregnant like replacing soda with water and cutting back on coffee. Then immediately postpartum I craved a lot of healthy foods. I'm determined not to let these changes revert back to what I use to be. I'm not stopping there; I want to make my eating even healthier. What I'm working on now is healthier snacks. I'm doing good at the moment; my favorite snacks right now are yogurt, bananas, cucumbers, salads, dry cereal (kid size bowl of honey nut cheerios), hard boiled eggs and peanut butter crackers. I try to ignore the cookies and such that hubby insists on having in the house for snacks and avoid buying the things I know I will snack on before the healthy stuff (chocolate!!!). I do great during the day, not so much between dinner and bedtime.

Exercise is sadly pretty nonexistent. I've tried in the past to workout regularly (usually a new year's resolution). I start off really strong and slowly slack off. I'm not really sure what happens other than I just get lazy. I need to figure out how to prevent this from happening this time around. I'm going to make ab work outs and cardio part of my everyday routine. I need to just find the motivation and a way to keep the motivation. Last night on Facebook I asked, "Do you exercise regularly? How do you stay motivated?". I heard two things that I think could help me stay motivate: find a workout buddy and do something I enjoy. The first thing that comes to mind is dance. I love to dance! I took dance lessons from the age of 4 until I was 5 months pregnant with Sean...yes, I was the one tapping on the stage at recital with a preggo belly. :) Some sort of dance workout would probably be great for cardio. Now to find one (preferably cheap/free and can be done at home) and to find a workout buddy.


Just for fun, my first dance recital:


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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Week in Review: Week 5

We had a busy week this week. I went back to full time daycare (instead of just T/Th like the past couple weeks). Emily had her 1 month well baby check up. We added school back into our daily routine. And we released our first butterfly of 2012. All while hubby put in a lot of overtime. Whew! I'm tired!!

Now for the pictures:
Sean and Maddy playing barber shop.

 My little tree frog

Emily holding her first butterfly.


Don't forget to take advantage of the 25% Inspired by Finn discount code...Today's the last day!

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Saturday, February 4, 2012

School Days: Cut and Paste

We're still working on getting back into our normal routine and this week, homeschooling was one of the things we added back in. I don't think Sean realized how much he missed it until I started introducing it back in. We almost didn't do anything blog worthy. Most of what he did was work on his literacy and math folders and played games. What I wanted to share was what he did the other day. I set out some supplies and just let him go at it. Here's the result:

He started out just cutting

Added a little glue and asked for the magnifying glass

Glue all the pieces of paper into a stack

Don't forget to cover the little pieces with more glue!


Don't forget to take advantage of the 25% Inspired by Finn discount code...Sunday's the last day!

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Thankful Thursday

Today, I'm thankful for my hubby. This week he's working 10 hour days and it looks like he'll be working his normal 8 hour shift on Saturday and Sunday but Saturday will be followed by a few hours at his second job. This is all without much complaining. Right now...he's holding and talking to the baby. *swoon*

*edit to add* I found out tonight that he reads my blog now. :)

Thanks baby! Love you!

Don't forget to take advantage of the 25% Inspired by Finn discount code...Sunday's the last day!

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Emily: 1 month


This past Sunday my little girl turned a month old. Today she had her 1 month check up. And what a great check up it was! She is 9lbs 3.5 oz and 21 in, which puts her right about the 50th percentile. The doctor was impressed with her motor skills: holding her head up so well and bearing some weight on her legs when held like she's standing.

So how's life with a 1 month old? Great! She's nursing so well now. She also sleeps well. 2-3 hour naps are the norm and she's having longer awake and alert times during the day. That's when she likes to smile at us. She especially likes when I call her "Sweets" and when Sean talks to her. She's normally down for the night between 8:30-9:00. I change her diaper when I go to bed around 11:00. Sometimes it wakes her up enough to nurse, sometimes not. She then sleeps till 7:30/8:00...normally only wakes up twice to nurse and goes right back to sleep. Boy did I get lucky! We've said good bye to newborn size clothes which feels weird because Sean was just getting into newborn size clothes at this point. She may look like her brother but is not growing like him! She just recently discovered that she does indeed like her swing but only when she's getting tired and not hungry. She hates the carseat though. If she's awake and the car stops, she'll let you know how unhappy she is! If the car is moving and the radio is on (silence is evil in her mind), she's ok. I hate red lights! She loves baby wearing. I'm glad I invested in a Moby wrap when I was pregnant because she likes it better than the ring sling. The Moby is my go to thing for grocery shopping. She sleeps through the whole trip. This past week I had a nice old lady stop me to tell me how beautiful a sight Emily and I were because Emily looked so comfortable and content.

I can't wait to see what this month has in store for us!

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