Our Kids

Hi, it’s me your friendly Grinch. I don’t know what it is about the holidays (and I am trying to get over it) but they bring a lot of dread for me. I don’t like to be told what to celebrate and when and I don’t like it that we only show gratitude once a year. In a perfect world we would all be thankful every day and we would let those around us know it. On the other hand it is nice to be reminded to slow down and be thankful but generally the holidays are a whirlwind of spending, traveling, giving, receiving, cooking, cleaning and a lot of other things that are not relaxing. Okay, someone just kicked me off my soapbox so I will end this little rant and move on.

We had a great holiday in California with my family and then came home to Arizona and enjoyed another day with my Arizona family. It was great to see everyone, the traveling wasn’t so bad, the gift giving/receiving was not excessive, the food was tasty and the girls were wonderful. Piper and Lela knew about presents and wanted to open them all but once they opened a gift it seemed like they wanted to just enjoy that gift and not continue opening. I don’t know how the holidays are going to play out around here but so far the girls would rather NOT believe in Santa. They find him really scary and actually asked us to make sure he did not visit our house this year. They do love the Christmas Lights, Piper loves them the most. Landis enjoyed all the festivities and is becoming more and more alert, she does like the lighted Christmas tree too. The girls got lots of cool stuff and no junk (thank you everyone). They got a chemistry kit, a talking globe, a talking map of the US, a giant floor puzzle, a learning cash register, a learning clock, radio flyer retro bikes, a CD player with microphones to sing along and a bunch of other great stuff. I feel a great need to purge the toy room, as well as the rest of the house. All in all a great holiday, we were very lucky to be able to visit with everyone this year.

I am thankful for all my family and my friends, my beautiful girls, wonderful husband and even my annoying golden retriever:) Thanks for a great 2007 and I am looking forward to 2008:) Love to all.

Landis is a great little baby. Sometimes she and I are not on the same wavelength on her needs but eventually we get there. Why just today she had to tell me three times that she was indeed not hungry. How did she tell me? Well what she does is she complies with my constant attempts to nurse her only to regurgitate it all back on to me when she is over full. You would think I would get the clue phone when it rang but apparently not. Today has been a barftastic event from start to finish.

She is cooing and laughing, hates tummy time, can hold her head up for a bit, likes to look at you, sleeps through the night from about 8PM on (nurses but never fully wakes) and has very expressive eyes. I have actually had 3 complete strangers comment on her eyes and tell me how expressive they are, maybe I should look into them before I feed her again:) She does not seem to have a regular nap routine as of yet but likes to sleep more than be awake. Speaking of the little angel I hear her beckoning me to retrieve her from her comfy blanket and give her some cuddles, oh what a hard life I have:)

Lela is the funniest thing. Now don’t get me wrong both of the girls fall to the right of the funny line (meaning they are funny) but Lela has that extra bit of funny that is going to get her in trouble (not that I am speaking from experience or anything;). Anyhoo, lately she has been coming up with funny things to say all the time but I keep forgetting them. See, right now I drew a blank and can’t think of a single funny thing. That has more to do with my exhaustion than her lack of funny.

Okay, I will add the funny things when I remember them which obviously isn’t today.

I’ve been suckered into wearing Mystique’s Moby… it’s a giant piece of fabric that you tie into a knot around yourself, jam the baby in there, and she’ll magically fall asleep. Mystique wears it all the time… here goes! I’ll live-blog this. Sort of.

4:40pm — In the wrap. Landis is certainly wondering where the pillows are, but she settles in ok. The wrap feels ok but if anyone sees me like this I’m sure I’ll be mocked for the next few months.

4:45pm — Landis not quite comfortable with me but she’s adjusting. You have to have some sort of rhythm with this thing… can’t just walk around, you have to hop. Takes me back to the days of Piper and Lela — the rock-walk. With the moby, though, I can still hold my two bottles of… uh, water. Yeah. Water.

4:49pm — Moby rocks… I can play xbox while taking care of Landis. Best. Invention. Ever.

4:55pm — Moby hurts. Back.

5pm — Every part of my upper body is either hurting or sweating. I’m sure Landis is loving her sauna. I think she’s asleep. This moby is creating muffin top for me since it’s tied so tight. Plus I have to pee because of my water. I can’t do that with Landis… I draw the line there. For now.

5:10pm — Mystique just took my picture. And I actually posed. I’m in trouble… someone remind me to change the password to flickr so she can’t post them.

5:12pm — I’ve been whining for the past three minutes about my shoulders and the daggers that I’m certain must be jammed in them. Mystique has not offered to take Landis. What kind of mother is she?

5:16pm — Ok, my shoulders have gone numb, so it’s tolerable again. Maybe that’s how Mystique wears this for more than an hour at a time… her upper body goes numb. Landis is definitely sleeping, so that’s good. I should have started training for this three months ago.

5:20pm — Mystique ordered pizza and I’m going to “offer” to get it. We’ll see if she falls for that.

5:21pm — She didn’t fall for it. I think I’ll have to wake the baby for her to let me go. Hmm… definitely not working out as planned, although it’s nice that Landis is happy.

5:28pm — Ok, she offered to take Landis, but I think only because she didn’t want to go get the pizza. Landis is still snug and sleeping. Have I mentioned my upper body is aching? My legs are, too… I haven’t sat down yet. Thinking about doing that right now.

5:36pm — I’m almost an hour in. Still haven’t sat down. I’ve had to get down on my knees a couple times to pick stuff up for Piper and Lela so I’m getting some good exercise out of this.

5:41pm — I sat. Landis did not like it. It was hard getting up out of the chair. Now I have to bounce again. Mystique is still not home. I think she left me. The joyous fact that I made it to an hour of the Moby is lost in my disappointment about sitting.

5:44pm — I think she’s looking for a little more than what I and the Moby can provide.

5:47pm — Mystique is back and Landis is falling asleep again in the Moby. Still on me. Yay.

5:58pm — Thank the maker, Landis is hungry (tried eating my shirt) so Mystique’s got her. I burned the Moby.

Hard to believe, but Lela and Piper are three years old today. This is kind of a fun birthday because it’s the first one where they’re actually aware of it.

This morning the girls got up a bit early while Mystique and Otto were out for their exercise. When Mystique came back to the bedroom she sat down and said, “Do you know what today is?” The girls laughed and smiled as we started singing Happy Birthday to them.

If you ask Piper how old she is today, she’ll hold three (usually) fingers and say, “FREEEEE!” If you ask Lela, you’ll get random answers… last night she was 39. But she’s really excited about being 39!

Had a nice family breakfast this morning. The girls even got a free cinnamon roll because it was their birthday. Of course, I took it to work

Tomorrow we head out on our road trip to California! Should be fun. I hope the California Slocums knew what they were getting into when they invited the five of us and are even allowing us to bring Otto the wonder dog. Yikes!

That’s all for now. A huge happy birthday to Piper and Lela. Love you.

jason

Well we are slowly transitioning to cloth diapers. There is so much out there and it is so different that I had to take a seminar last weekend. The folks over at Wildflower Diapers are super helpful and genuinely interested in meeting your needs no matter what level you are at. I got a stash but since I had no idea what I was doing I just picked up a bunch of things and am slowly trying them out. Call me old fashioned but I think I prefer the old prefold and diaper cover to some of the new all in ones. So for now I am going to do prefolds with the occasional AIO when Jason does the changes:) It is hard to get your head around throwing a diaper of poo right in a basket for later washing. I don’t know why since you throw a disposable away, but I guess the thought of washing it later is still weird. Although I did wash a poopy prefold yesterday and it got all clean without additional scrubbing and very little detergent (its that magical breast milk again).

Landis doesn’t seem to mind because she is a baby and can’t complain. Her bum is a little more padded but that is cute on babies and may come in handy when she decides to start walking. I am off tomorrow to pick up a stash of prefolds for our trip to Cali, it should be fun. I am adding cloth diapering and the dog to our van full of 2 adults, 2 three year olds and one newborn. Ah….the traveling life:)

Well we are rushing into the holidays as usual. We are going to California to be with my brother, SIL and niece for the holidays. My folks and granny are flying out on Wednesday and will be there as well. With all the chits we decided to drive in our new fancy van. I am thinking it will be okay, we did a 6 hour trip and the girls were fine even without any DVDs. I am going to pick up some doodle pads and such and we are going to travel in the evening on the first day so it should be okay. So this week we have to wrap up the holiday shopping and baking and get our butts in gear.

Jason gave me a cold, thank you Jace. But thanks to the breastfeeding my body attacked it with a vengeance and I feel good now, still stuffy but not achy or anything. Today we are working on getting the house back in order, we were supposed to go to the zoo but I had to veto that move until I am back to 100%. Thankfully the girls did not remember (which is unusual). We are having their birthday party this week too. Sigh, the bustle of the holidays:)

Okay so it is that time already, that time that new mothers forget until the next time. Landis is at that point where she detests her car seat and is not afraid to let me know about it. I remember this with the girls and it is as painful this time. At least I have Piper in the back of the car shshshshushing Landis to try to calm her down. Of course it doesn’t work but it give me something to smile about so that I don’t run my car right into a cement wall. Landis is also at the stage where she fights nighttime sleep, just the initial getting to bed part, after that she is good all night.

She can also sit in her bumbo, hold her head up, smile and even coo a little, so there is a lot of good along with the less desirable but necessary traits. I am afraid the girls might have to become more homebodies until we get past this hump. Generally I think I am a pretty good mom but when there is excessive crying that I can’t fix, I lose my sanity. I am very fortunate to have such good babies, maybe it is because someone somewhere knows that if I did not I would not be able to be a good mom.