Laugh of the Day

I randomly stumbled across a new blog called Baby Sideburns through a Facebook friend.
I clicked on the following article and was literally laughing out loud.
Jared had to tell me to knock it off because I was annoying him.

The 10 crappiest baby milestones

And it is mainly funny because it is just So True!

Parents out there, I dare you to read it and disagree.

My favorite was #5. Bailey always catches me in the act.  How does she know?! 
And Jared is definitely more than guilty of #8, especially when it is Book #7,246 of the night.
Oh, and #3? Change "dressing" to "feeding" and you have breakfast with Bailey. And lunch. And supper...

Be forewarned, the author does like her swear words. But then again, who doesn't?
The medical profession is full of foul-mouthed people - and I am talking about us nurses, not the patients. {Although I had my fair share of cuss-outs working at my first job on 5 West.}

And don't take it too seriously.

Of course I love my kids, but certain aspects of mamahood aren't all that magical, and I find it quite hilarious to read that someone else is having the same thoughts I have on occasion.
Hope you have a good laugh too!

Getting Away

I love having something to look forward to. Before Jared and I had kids, we would plan vacations. It gave us something to look forward to during a particularly hellish day/week/month at work. It was extra motivation to pick up a bonus shift or two.
Now it is rare for us to have more than a few hours alone; unheard of since Graham came along. {That needy little baby...}

So I am particularly excited about the month of April.

For one, I will be reuniting in Kansas City with my hometown friends:

Holly, Shelby, Sarah, and Kevin.

 

It will be a girls' weekend {Kevin's words}.

And while it is actually only one night since both Holly and I have newborns, I am still psyched for it. It will be a much-needed break from my never-ending routine around here.
Plus, a certain little man can't attempt to nurse on me if I am hours away.
Hooray!

I love my kids dearly, but they are tiring.
And while I really do love the baby stage, there are moments when I am in the same recliner every evening for a 2-3 hour stretch, unable to move with a little boy latched onto me where I literally feel like I just need to do something else - anything else!
Forget restless leg syndrome, it is more like restless body. I just feel claustrophobic.
I think a good 24 hours away will help me feel refreshed. {Usually the word "refreshed" doesn't apply to a night spent drinking and eating way too much while sleeping too little, but it just might in this case.}


And then a few weeks later, my three sisters and I will be meeting up in Des Moines for a night.

Yay!

{one of my faves of all time. doing what we do best: laughing}

 

Jared was given two vouchers for a free night's stay while he was in Des Moines for training last April. We used one of them ourselves back last June for our anniversary {story here}, so we still have one remaining free stay.
Jared - being the wonderful husband that he is - suggested I use the voucher and meet up with my sisters for some shopping and a night away. And believe me, I jumped on that offer!

I know some women probably don't think a night hanging out with their sisters sounds that amazing, but I definitely do. I love my sisters. As much as we can piss each other off, they are my best friends. Each of us knows exactly what to do or say to crack the other one up. Throw in a million inside jokes and old family stories - along with some beer and vodka - and you have the makings for a really good time.
Oh, and food.   
It wouldn't be fun for Felicia if we weren't planning on some delicious food, too.

So Big

This week has been a blur.

Mostly a blur borne of sleep deprivation, chocolate deprivation, and too many appointments. I still managed to workout every day, but that is it as far as "free time" (haha - What is that?) goes.
There are many points during the day when I think to myself, please nap time come quickly! Those points usually come as I am reiterating for the 114th time that "no, we are not watching Barney" or breaking up a fight over a plastic fork for the play kitchen - never mind that there are three other identical plastic forks up for grabs.

Yet, somewhere in the midst of it I came to the realization that the days are going by way too quickly. I was sitting on the couch, holding Graham and talking nonsense to him in the typical over-animated baby voice, when suddenly I am crying. Like tears streaming down my cheeks crying.

What is wrong with me?   And then it happened two more times!

I was just looking at his sweet face, realizing that we won't ever again have a baby this small, and there they were: tears. Later that night all five of us were up in the girls' room. We had been reading books and the girls were dancing around the room to music playing from Jared's phone. Avery bent down and picked up her doll, gave it a kiss, and slow danced with it for all she was worth. Her sweetness and innocence just choked me up.

Our babies are getting so big!

Jared saw me crying, shook his head and went back about his business with the wiseness of a man who has endured his wife being pregnant three times.

We had decided that Graham was going to be the last one before we even knew it would be a Graham and not a Blair/Paige/Lainey (okay, Jared didn't like Lainey but I was holding out hope). A 4th baby wouldn't be very wise in many ways. But it still feels bittersweet to pack up the tiny clothes he has outgrown and see firsthand all the ways he is growing and changing. It seems to happen overnight.

I want to make sure I am soaking up all this baby-ness.
Amid all the sleeplessness nights (still!) I am trying to remain positive because I won't get to do this again. I enjoy his snuggles in bed with me, even if they are more like jabs and kicks, because I won't get to do this again. I smile and hold him close as he eats for hours every evening because I won't get to do this again. I breathe in his sweet baby scent because I won't get to do this again.

With the last two, when my heart was aching with the thought of my baby growing so big, I could console myself with the promise of another future tiny baby bundle to love. That isn't the case this time.
I think I am starting to reach the acceptance stage, the one where I finally come to the realization that while I won't feel little baby fingers wrapped tightly around mine forever, the promise of finger paintings and school plays and birthday sleepovers and family vacations is pretty sweet, too.

It doesn't stop me from feeling sad sometimes though, or worrying that I am not doing enough to remember every little moment.
Most of the time I feel like I have to "look good" (which in mom-speak means not covered in baby spit and maybe -just maybe- some eyeliner was applied) to take a picture. But I realize that is dumb. Because this is the mama he knows and looks at every day: the mama in a nursing cami and sweatpants who hasn't touched her straightener in a few weeks. He isn't going to look back at his photo albums and think, Man, would it have killed her to put on a nicer shirt? (Or at least I hope he doesn't!)

So we had ourselves a little impromptu photo shoot.

 

 

 

Oh my little Grahamy, you are getting so big...

One Week

It's been one week since I have started my quest to lose the baby weight.

And I must say, I have stuck with it.
      every day.
Each day I have done something workout-wise. Most days it is around 30 minutes. One day I only got in 15, another day I did 50.

I get bored pretty easily, as I think most people do, so I have been switching it up. I started off with random workout videos I found for free on YouTube. Then after a few days Jared downloaded some videos to burn to DVD - lots of the Biggest Loser series and Zumba.

I like most of them.

The Biggest Loser series has titles like "Body Boot Camp" and "Cardio Max" - which sound pretty intimidating. But most of the ones we have done are for beginners. That being said, they still kick my ass. Nothing makes you feel more pathetic than seeing the 300+ pound people on the screen jumping and kicking and squatting away while you feel like you are going to die. So while they weigh much more than me, they clearly are in way better shape.

I like to do the Zumba videos for 20-30 minutes and then do something else. Zumba gets your heart rate up and definitely tires you out, but I like the feel of working different muscle groups that the Biggest Loser series gives me.

And sometimes I just make a point to turn on some music and dance around with the girls. Who needs 3-lb weights when you can just pick up your hefty toddler and dance around the living room?

My eating hasn't changed, except that I try and be conscious of my snacking.

I am such a snacker!

I think breastfeeding makes it worse too. Some days I am just starving all day long.

The scale also hasn't changed. But I also wasn't expecting it to. Right now I am just proud that I have made an effort to get up and moving every day. I am, however, hoping to be positively surprised one of these days.

Things I love

cooking supper with Jared

 

clean baby scent

 

Avery's pigtails

 

one less kid using diapers

 

Downton Abbey (just finished Season One)

 

breastfeeding Graham

 

peach yogurt

 

a 6-hour stretch of sleep

 

the feeling of accomplishment after a workout

 

 



Nighty-Night

Our nights around here can be a little bit chaotic.

And full of routine.

 

Baths.

Getting dressed.

Doing hair.

Crying about not wanting to do hair.

Brushing teeth.

Off to get in bed.

Out of bed to find whatever stuffed animal is deemed absolutely necessary.

Books.

Begging for more books.

Songs. {Always "Edelweis." Always.}

Two more songs. Period.

Begging for more songs.

Hugs.

Kisses. {One on the lips, and one on each cheek from Bailey. Always.}

The yelling of Goodnight over and over.

I can't wait until they add I need a glass of water! and I need to pee again! to the above list...

Here is our bedtime the other night.

Graham fits nicely in the doll's pack-n-play, don't you think?

Avery lounging in her new big-girl bed, which she L-O-V-E-S.

Story time with Daddy.
Bailey insists you get in and cover up if you are going to read to her.

The last few nights Graham has actually slept more.
He has been doing a solid 7 hours at least, followed up by a period of an hour and half in the recliner with me, and then another two hours or so asleep.

I am relieved.

I am a much nicer person when I am not functioning on 3 hours of sleep a night.

A Winter Day

Yesterday we headed outside for the first time this winter.

 

{With a new baby and much illness,

we have definitely been slacking with the winter activities.}

 

This was Avery's first time in the snow.

Bailey remembered all the fun from last year.

 



Afterward we headed inside for the hot chocolate I promised them.
I used it as bait to get them to come in from the cold, but it didn't work until I promised marshmallows, too.

(Pretty sure this pic has the world's worst lighting,

but she was so excited by her grown-up mug that I had to post it.)

After hot chocolate and the colossal mess that came with it, the girls helped Jared make homemade pizza.

{I might be a tad bit biased, but my hubby makes the best homemade pizza.

The secret is his homemade crust. It is amaaazzing!}

Avery tends to eat more than help...

 

 

And regardless of how much slobber from Avery's hands ended up on our pizza,

it was delicious.

Let's start at the very beginning; a very fine place to start.

I have been slowly arriving at this point for the last 13 or so weeks.
After gaining 50 pounds during pregnancy (holy shit, yeah I know...) and coming home with the realization that our baby did NOT in fact weigh 20+ pounds, it's no surprise that I am still hanging on to a final 15-20 pounds. I say 15-20 because every morning on the scale is a different number. Just when I think it's only 15, the next few days tell a slightly heavier tale.

So it is time to do something.

So far I have been clinging to the hope of the magical breastfeeding myth. The one where all your pregnancy weight (plus some) disappears just by the simple act of breastfeeding your child. I think every post-partum woman prays for this to happen. And honestly, with Avery it did. I lost all my pregnancy weight by 6 weeks, and by the time she was 8 months old, I had lost the extra 13 pounds left over from Bailey as well.
I am tired of feeling fat and witnessing way too many double-chins in recent pictures.
And while I have been seeing the scale gradually decreasing since about 8 weeks post-partum, it has been slow going...
probably due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to:
 *  Christmas and its delicious treats

 *  Bailey's birthday and the cake, cupcakes, and pizza that came along with it

 *  a certain 3 month-old who sleeps very sporadically

 *  this winter weather

Living in the Midwest during the winter basically guarantees you will be stranded indoors for a good four months. I don't have access to a gym, and we don't have exercise equipment at our house. And I am not venturing outside with several inches of snow on the ground. Period.

 

I have decided to do a couple things.

One - Cut out the junk food.
I have a sick habit for chocolate and any of its variations. I just bought 3 large Sam's Club bags of delicious Easter candy (think small Reese's peanut butter eggs) to hide for the girls on Easter morning and I had to beg Jared to hide it from me until Easter. I have no self-control when it comes to seasonal Reese's products...
Two - Workout videos - meaning the free variety you find on the Internet.
Three - Write my plan on this blog so that I can hold myself more accountable.

Today was Day #1.

I looked up free online workout routines. There were quite a few promising-looking ones. I picked one that was low-impact cardio for beginners. It was 30 minutes long. I meant to just start with a simple 5 or 10 minute video, but this one looked harmless enough. I hooked the Ipad up to the TV and cleared all the toys out of the living room. (That alone was a 5 minute workout. Sad, but true.) Some of the exercises recommended 2-lb weights, so I scrounged up a couple cans of Hunt's tomato sauce to do the trick.

I put Graham on a blanket on the floor out of harm's way and the girls and I got ready to exercise. Of course they saw me with my "weights" and needed some of their own. So Bailey was pumping iron with some Rotel and Avery had some mini cans of green chilies.

It was a good video. The lady went slow enough to let you figure out the moves before starting, very necessary for me. Beginner, remember? It was 7 different exercises for one minute each, with some of them requiring one minute for each leg. Then those same exercises were repeated two more times through.
The first set of 10 minutes was easy. Me and my tomato sauces were doing excellent.
The second time through I was feeling a bit less energetic. It was harder to dodge roaming toddlers.
By the third set, I had put down the sauce! My arms were heavy enough as it was. But Bailey wasn't having that. She ran to get my discarded tomato sauces. Mommy, you need your cans! Okay, okay. Even my own child is telling me to suck it up.

By the end of the video I was thoroughly sweating and cursing that skinny, smiling bitch leading the exercises. Easy for her to do - her part was edited in different small clips. It was just the same loop of her and her refreshed looking smile, maintaining the same demanding speed, looking like she was enjoying herself. And every time I would start to slow down, the narrator would say Keep up that same speed from earlier! Or when I thought to myself, "My form sucks. Oh well..." he would insert Remember - form is important!  It's like that dude was right in my living room.

I think I will stick with the videos. With easy access to a variety via the Internet, I can switch it up and have a variety. And the girls enjoyed it too for the most part. After the exercise video I pulled up YouTube, and we danced to a few different music videos. Anything that gets me up and moving is a step in the right direction.

I have no delusions that I am going to weigh as much as I did back in high school. Or that I am going to change into some person who loves exercise. (because I definitely don't.)
I just want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and maintain from there.
Plus, with the exception of only three months, I have been in either maternity or nursing-friendly clothing for the past 4 years.
FOUR YEARS.
That is a long time. I am way overdue for a new wardrobe. (At least I am once this one stop eating from me - aka probably another 9 months minimum.) And I would prefer to fit into my old clothes again in the meantime.

So if anyone wants a good laugh, feel free to cruise past our house mid-morning. Through our big picture window you just might see me jumping around and doing all kinds of weird moves.
There might even be a tomato sauce can or two, especially if that drill sergeant Bailey is around.

This week with the Solkos

Man I am tired.

I think the past two weeks of Graham waking up a few times a night (and then staying awake) are starting to take their toll. He slept for a 7 hour stretch last night, so I am hoping we are headed in the right direction.

He is too long for all the zip-up style swaddle wraps, and he can get out of the larger-sized velcro SwaddleMe wrap, so I have resorted to using a large thin blanket. Last night was the first night he wasn't able to get an arm (or two) out. I have that thing as tight as I can possibly get it.

Also, speaking of sleeping, we officially have Avery moved over to her big-girl bed. The bed itself hasn't been a problem at all. The fact that the girls are now sharing a room once again - that is the problem. Surprisingly enough Avery is the one behaving in this instance. They were up for two hours talking to each other the first night. We figured they had to figure it out for themselves and didn't push the issue. They were finally both asleep by 10 pm.

The next night, Avery was yelling multiple times. I went upstairs to see what was going on. Avery is laying in her bed, head on the pillow, with no covers. Bailey has taken the covers off the bed and is attempting to put them on her bed.
I go up again about 15 minutes later: Avery is laying in bed, head on the pillow (with covers this time), and Bailey is sitting on Avery's legs.
Later I go upstairs again to find Avery protesting very loudly because Bailey has stolen her baby and bunny.
Finally all is relatively quiet. I can hear Avery talking, but she seems happy. I go upstairs to take a shower and peek in their room. Avery is once again laying in bed, head on the pillow, talking around the thumb in her mouth. And Bailey is fast asleep with her arms wrapped around Avery.

Melts. my. heart.

It's times like these that I am so glad they have each other.

I hope that even though they fight like crazy now, they will become the best of friends some day like my sisters and me.

Meanwhile, Bailey is also taking a big-girl step: potty training.
And yes, I wrote about potty training last fall and at the time Bailey was doing a pretty good job. But a week or so later she started to completely refuse to use the potty.

So we took a break.

(It was a very long break.)

 

Two weeks or so ago we moved the potty downstairs to the living room where she would constantly see it. A couple days later - after one too many nasty #2's in her diaper - we got fed up and stripped her down completely. No pants, no diaper, no underwear. Bailey has too much pride to pee without a diaper on, so it seemed to work. (Candy bribes also helped.)

This has been the scene around our house lately:

And she doesn't just lay on the couch half-naked.

She also loves to do naked handstands against the wall or on the recliner. It's pretty hilarious when she catches you off-guard. It was so funny the first time I wanted to take a picture and send it to my mom and mother-in-law, but I figured that might be considered child pornography, so I didn't.

For the last few days we have been accident-free. Here's to hoping this time takes!

 

Our little guy has been about the same.

No big milestones. He doesn't seem interested in rolling over just yet, although he is a big talker.

He is growing though.

It makes me so sad to go through his clothes and start putting away outfits that are too small. He can still wear some of his 3-month stuff, but the pants look more like capris. He is already wearing mostly 6-month sleepers.

My little baby is growing up too fast!

 

Besides pooping about 8 times this morning, he has been content to eat and hang out on the floor near his sisters' tea party.

Thankfully right now he is chilling in his swing so I can do some laundry and dishes.

 

 

A big snow storm is supposed to be rolling into town any minute now.

I am thankful for our warm house, a stocked fridge, and the fact that I have nowhere to go for a few days.

 





Weekend Randoms