Wrapping For Rowan

I know you know this, but we are home for Christmas this year. Not only are we home for Christmas, but it is Rowan's first Christmas! So it is our first chance to buy her things and spoil her rotten. :) (Yes, I know that spoiling her rotten is not what Christmas is all about, but if you think for a minute that I would let a holiday we are here for go by without much giving of baby girl items then you don't know me very well at all!)

Luckily, both of my boys love picking out gifts almost as much as I do, and they helped me to pick out their very own gift for their new cousin/Godsister. (100% truth here, Parker picked it out, but Sebastian approved, so that counts.)

Since the gift is from them, I thought that it was only appropriate that they wrap it too. Neither of them have ever wrapped a gift before, and I suppose you could say that they still haven't on their own. Mommy helped quite a bit, and one of the Care Bears has about 15 strips of tape on its nose, (which is nowhere near any of the places we needed tape) but they had fun. That's the most important part, right?

Grandmama took all the pictures except the last one, so thank you, Grandmama! And Parker wrote all the labels that you can see in the last picture.

Tis' the Season! So it begins! And bean it did, as I kept wrapping after the boys went to bed tonight. I now have a large chunk of their Christmas presents wrapped, (Including an absurdly large, talking minion named Stuart that is truly pretty adorable!) and I am even almost done shopping! Not bad for half way through November.

Curious Quill Academy

Today was my big boy's first day of school. 

In case I haven't mentioned it before, we have decided to homeschool. It might not always be there way. It will depend greatly on where we are living at the time and what we feel will be best for each individual child as they go through the levels of their education. We will always do what we feel is best for their education, be that at home, public, or private school. For now, we both feel that homeschool is the best for the boys, especially Parker, so that is what we are doing.

I've been teaching them since they were born, but today Parker started his first "official" day of preschool at Curious Quill Academy. I cried. I cry about everything, bet especially the things that show me how very fast my children are growing. Wasn't he just a baby? Now he's a scholar!

We went shopping for school clothes this past weekend. He ran through Carter's picking out shirts and pants with enough enthusiasm to put my usual Carter's giddiness to shame. I was very surprised that the first two shirts he picked out weren't even red!

Neither was the shirt he picked to wear on his very first day of school. Instead, he picked his blue space shuttle shirt. My little man has a thing for space, you see. I think we will probably do a red shirt for his school pictures though. After all, we don't want to wander too far from our familiar path. :)

Now, usually children don't go to school on Labor Day here in the states, and I would usually have gone along with that holiday. However, Daddy had a 4 day weekend this weekend, and starting school today would mean that Daddy got to be there for it. There are so many milestones that Daddy has missed over the years, and there will be more still. When we have a milestone that we can plan around him being home, why wouldn't we? 

I think everyone was very happy to be involved.

100% disclosure here. I was scared. It makes zero sense to me that a classroom of 25 children didn't make me miss a beat, but one child of the same age had my knees knocking. Perhaps because it was my child. Not that Parker is particularly frightening, but I feel like there is more on the line with him. Not to mention that I don't have that air of mystery about me that most teachers do. He knows exactly how far he can go with me, and I him. It could be an advantage or could bite me in the rear. We will see.

There were some bumps along the way today, but overall I think it was a very successful first day for both student and teacher. I'm looking forward to using the lesson plans I've been writing and re-writing over the last several months. 

Oh my gosh, Mommy! Can we stop taking pictures and get to the school stuff already?

Parker's Birthdays: A Look Through The Years

Last month, my baby turned three. That blows my mind. It truly does seem like only yesterday I was bringing him home. Now I have this very articulate, happy, smart little boy in my life who makes every day an amazing adventure for me. 

There was a lot going on at the time, so I didn't get to write a blog post about his third birthday. It was a blast though. I don't even have all of the pictured edited yet, but I will be sure to get a post up when I do. Until then, I thought that I might do a post just looking back at the years. With everything going on, I need a little reminder of the good times. 

So here we go. Parker's birthdays: A look through the years.

Someone Is Three

Someone is three now. I bet you can guess who is is. Of course, you might (like me) be in denial that he could possibly be three years old already. It is true though. I have proof.

Yeah. That's my big boy.

Pooped

I. Am. Exhausted. I guess this is something that comes along with being 36 weeks pregnant. It could also have something to do with going out to see teh midnight showing of Harry Potter last night and then waking up at 7am to go in and have my gallbladder checked...but let's blame it on the pregnancy. :0) It's just easier.

On the other hand, everything is done (with the exception of my belly cast which we plan on doing tomorrow), and am think I am as ready as I can ever be for Little Legs arrival. 

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Bubba

BIG Day

 

That's my son. Isn't he adorable? I certainly think so. He's also one of the smartest little people I know, and I'm not just saying that because I am his Mommy and "have" to! 

Potty Time

That's right, my "baby" is potty training. We've been doing it for several months now, ever since he turned one and started showing interest, but it's kicked into high gear lately! We started ECing at home, with the exception of bed and nap times. He was doing very good using his training potty, and then a little over a week ago he just stopped. He didn't want anything to do with it. He would scream when we put him on it. I didn't know what was going on!

Big Boy Bed: The Saga Begins

Last night was night one of the "Big Boy Bed". I'd rather not talk about how long it took me to convert the crib into a toddler bed, or the fact that it probably would have taken LONGER without the help of my one year old, (He really did help too! He is so smart!) but it eventually got all set up! Bubba was THRILLED! I was nervous. We were going to wait until after the new year, possibly closer to Spring, before we took him out of his crib, but after he vaulted himself out of his crib on Tuesday I decided that it wasn't worth the risk anymore. We don't have carpet, and we got lucky that he didn't hurt himself more than he did.

Flashback Friday: More Fall

This week I will be continuing with the theme I started last week and flashing back to last Fall at around this time. It was Bubba's first Fall, Daddy was in lands far, far away, and I was taking as many pictures as physically possible so that Daddy wouldn't feel like he had missed on minute of his son's life!

Wordless Wednesday: A Day At The Pumpkin Patch

Flashback Friday: Fall

Buckle in prepare for a ride. Don't worry, we won't be going too far. This entire month I plan to flashback only to last year at this time. Last Fall was Bubba's first, and as Daddy was away protecting our country, I was talking roughly 500-600 pictures a week so that he didn't feel he was missing anything. 

Thankful Thursday: Baby-Versary

Another Thursday...so many more reasons to be thankful! Today is a big one!!!  I am always thankful for my husband and son! Every day they both give me reason after reason to be happy and thankful...but today is a super-duper thankful day. Today is our Baby-Versary!

Busy, Busy, Busy

What a fun, busy, filled weekend! I love four day weekends, and I hate when they're over. 

We had a great weekend as a family and with our friends! We got Parker some new cloth diapers, which makes me more excited than it probably should. Who would have thought I'd get addicted to fluff. I wonder if there are groups for this...

Flashback Friday: 4th Of July

I know, I know...I'm running late. In some parts of the country it's already Saturday...but not in my part. Better late than never, right?

Since it's the 4th of July weekend I thought that I would flashback to this time last year. It was Bubba's first 4th of July, which made it a very special 4th of July indeed. We also had Ohio visitors, which is always a special event. It was the first time my brother and sister had met their nephew. 

Baby I'm Amazed By You

 

My son amazes me! This is a daily occurrence. I am so blessed to have such an amazing little person in my life. The last few days he has been particularly amazing though!

Cloth Diapering: Day One

I'm trying not to get frustrated...really I am. I understand that these things will take time to get used to, but if any of you out there have some advice I am more than open to it.

I should point out that we have always disposable diapered Parker. We have talked about cloth diapering our next baby, but after an incident that happened with Parker this week we thought we might start cloth diapering him part time. We are still planning on using disposables for bed time and long trips up to Boise, but want to start using cloth during the day.

Today wasn't a complete failure. I can see how, in theory, this could be a good thing for us.

But...

...To start off with we didn't want to buy super expensive diapers, just in case. So we have some pre-fold cloth diapers by Gerber. For some reason, even though I am following the directions, I can't seem to make them fit correctly. I am sure that there is just something simple I'm missing, but it's very frustrating, and not made any easier by my wiggily, squiggily, baby! This is compounded by the fear I have of sticking him when I put the pins in to secure the diapers. (I know they have safe, plastic clips instead of the poky diaper pins, but they didn't have any where we went to get diapers. I'd have to go up to Boise and see if I can find any there.) Being so afraid of sticking him, and his constant wiggles during a diaper change doesn't result in the best fit, even if I was confident that I am doing it correctly.

Of course, 5 minutes after I got the first one on him today, he pooped...and it went everywhere. Luckily, I had the little plastic diaper covers on, but still. I changed him as quickly as possible, and threw the soiled diaper in the wash. I set a load to soak, since I was sure that I'd have more diapers before the day was through. 

I was right. In fact, I think that my son pees more than any other child on the planet. Every 15 minutes or so, he potties. At that rate, I'm changing him every 30-45 minutes to keep him from leaking, even with the diaper covers. (Which is another story all together. I hate the stupid plastic covers. I know they have cute covers with designs and different materials, but I didn't want to spend a bunch of money up front if we end up not going with this cloth diaper thing.)

I just don't know. I'm at a bit of a loss. This is something I'm very interested in for both Parker and any future children we have, but we aren't off to a very good start. I don't have anyone around here I can ask about it, and all the stuff I've looked at online is so expensive. I understand that it's cheaper in the long run, but I don't want to spend a bunch if it ends up not working out. Isn't there some cheap way to do some kind of trial period? Is there something better than the pre-fold diapers? Where is a good place to get them? What are some good covers? Like I said before, any advice is welcome. In fact, I'd love it!!!

On another note, tomorrow is Michael and my 5th wedding anniversary! It's also Michael's 3rd anniversary of joining the Air Force. (He left for BMT on our 2nd anniversary. What a gift!) I love him so much and am so blessed to have him in my life! 

God bless and thank you for reading! 

 

Oh The Horror

 

Today was Parker's 12 month check up. (Almost a month late, but better late than never.) I can't say that I ever look forward to a check up when I know there is going to be shots, but I handle it better than I used to. His first shots I cried harder than he did, and I didn't stop crying for a long time! But when Michael left I had to do it on my own several times, and while I still get teary now, I'm a tougher Mama. Still, it's a new set of shots at 12 months, and I am severely allergic to the MMR (which is one he was getting) so I was a little more nervous than usual.

My son is scared of stethoscopes. He was frightened of them when we had to go to the UCC last month and today he started screaming the moment he saw the doctor take it out. I felt terrible for him, but was also trying not to laugh. Really son? You'll jump head first off the couch, you'll climb up stairs as fast as physically possible with no care for if someone is there to catch you, but you are scared of stethoscopes? Ah well. Some people refer to planes as metal tubes of death. 

He's growing wonderfully, though it's slowed down quite a bit. He's lost 2lbs since last month and a half a pound since his birthday, but the doctor said that is normal since he is running now. It should even back out soon. He's 30 inches tall and his head, which had been of some concern at his 6 month check up, was fine.

Poor little man had to get 2 shots in each leg! I felt terrible. Your every instinct as a mother is to protect your children from what can hurt them. It goes against your gut to hold your child down while some stranger jabs them in the leg with sharp, painful objects! I'd rather those few moments of pain than years of pain or disfigurement or death from a disease he could have easily been immunized against though...so I held him and then afterwords gave him lots of cuddles and kisses.

The minute the nurse left the room he grabbed his pants and jacket and thrust them at me saying "Go! Go! Go!" which made me laugh, though I was a little misty. We couldn't "Go! Go! Go!" though. I still had to take him down to the lab to get a blood draw. Not only were they doing the usual blood draw for 12 months but they had to do a draw to test for lead because our house was built in the 40s. Really? I live in housing so old that they need to test my child for lead content? That freaked me out more than a little, and I am thinking that we will talk with housing about moving to the newer houses when we get home from our vacation. I was going to wait until we had another one on the way to move, but I'm pretty freaked out.

Apparently they felt the need to have someone in training take my child's blood. I know that the only way to learn is by doing, but the afore mentioned instinct to protect your child from pain doesn't allow for error when someone is sticking your baby with needles. One guy is holding his arm down, I am holding him as tight as I can to keep him from jerking away, and this other guy is poking into his arm with a needle, wiggling it around, tapping on his arm and then pulling it out to try again! I was furious, which kept me from crying, and the man holding Parker's arm finally took over to get the blood they needed. Much snuggling, and a strawberry Dum Dum, followed. (Never leave home without them!) 

I'm glad it's over with! I am not looking forward to next time, but that is in the far future and not something I have to think about right now! Right now we have some more important Parker milestones to concentrate on...his first plane ride and trip to Ohio!!! 

God bless and thank you for reading!

 

U is For...

...Update!

I don't blog enough! It's funny, because I find it so therapeutic. I can't tell you how many times in a day I find myself mentally writing blogs that I never end up actually putting down. I guess part of it could be that I am worried that no one wants to hear what I have to say. That in its self is odd, since I've never really cared before...

Of course, it could also be the lack of time I find myself with. Usually my "Mental Blogs" get written as I'm changing a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer or cleaning baby poop off of whatever surface it has managed to make its way onto or falling asleep after another long day. I wish that I could wear some hat that would transmit my thoughts directly into the blog. There would be a lot more to read.

A lot is going on right now, thought not much of much interest to anyone but us. We (and by we I mean I) have been doing a ton of laundry in preparation for our big trip next week! I can not believe that at this time next week we will be in Ohio! I am so excited to see our friends and family! I am petrified of the plane trip that will come first, but I am putting my prayers in with the Big Guy that we all make it through unharmed. I know already that we won't have enough time! No matter how much we plan and how much time we get to spend with everybody it won't be enough! The thought of going home already brings tears to my eyes...but I am going to try not to think about that too much, especially since our trip hasn't even started.

Parker is learning something new every day it seems. Tonight he turned the light in his bedroom on and off all by himself when it was bed time. If I say "Let's go potty!" he will walk right into the bathroom and lift up is potty seat lid! He knows where to go when we say it's bed time or bath time. He is just so smart and such an amazing little blessing! He makes my cry daily, but not in a bad way. Every time he learns something new or does something sweet (like his out-of-the-blue Mommy kisses!) my eyes tear up. I thought my hormones were supposed to be back to normal by now...or at least, normal for me.

We have successfully weaned. I remember wondering a little over a year ago how breast feeding was going to go. It seemed like such an odd thing to me. From those first minutes together though I had loved it, and weaning him has broken my heart. Michael spent the first few nights holding me and convincing me I wasn't a terrible mother and that Parker would still want to snuggle with me even when I wasn't breastfeeding him. There was a lot of will power used not to have him nurse just one more time...but I got through it. Parker took the transition wonderfully and doesn't seem to miss it at all. I miss it, but it was necessary, and being able to breast feed for a year when I didn't know if I would be able to make is 6 weeks was amazing! 

I would have probably done it longer...but in order for them to test my prolactin levels to see what my normal base line is (which is much higher than most people) I have to be done feeding even though I will still lactate until they have me back on my medication. Once back on my meds my cycles will start going back to normal and my levels will inch down which will enable us to start thinking about doing it all over again! (Not saying that we haven't thought about it already, but it's not possible until I'm back on my medications.) I am not looking forward to it. I am not looking forward to the blood work (there is a lot of it) or the MRI (they make me claustrophobic) or the medication. (which makes me sick as a dog when I take it...worse than any morning sickness, flu, stomach virus...) But, it is what we need to do for our family...not just for future babies, but so I can be as healthy as I can for my son and husband...so I'll do it and somehow get through it!

All that will have to wait until we are home from our vacation though, and then the battle will start with trying to get a referral to a competent endocrinologist...which I am not sure exists in Idaho. We shall see, and I will be sure to keep the updates coming.

Parker's one year check up is on Friday, which means shots again. (yuck!) Michael will be working and unable to be there, but I got pretty good at doing it alone while he was gone. I'm a little worried about the MMR, which I had a severe allergic reaction to, but I am going to talk to the doctor about that and see what he thinks. We shall see.

God bless and thank you for reading! 

Bubba's Birthday Parties: A Visual Journey

Bubba Bear's birthday was on April, 13th! I can't believe that our baby is one! It all happened so fast! 

Bubba is getting three parties for his big O-N-E! We had a get together on Tuesday, his actual birthday, at our house. We had "framily" there to share the special day with us. Mommy made a cake and cupcakes and we did presents from Mommy and Daddy. (Which ended up being an all day thing...We probably had about 4 or 5 gift sessions because he kept getting bored.)

He had a big party on Saturday the 17th with a bunch of friends and "framily". We did an Eric Carle theme, which was so much fun! There were kids everywhere, toys, bar-b-q...It was fun, but I am so glad that I don't have to worry about that for another year! I made another cake for that party, and I hope I never have to ice another cupcake! 

He will get a third party when we go home to Ohio next month with our friends and family there. It will be a jungle theme, but I don't have to worry as much about that. My Mother and Grandmother are doing a lot of that party stuff, and Grandmama is making the cake, which makes me so happy! I am thrilled that Parker gets a Grandmama Cake! (They are the thing of legend in our family.)

Of course, I took a billion pictures. (I'm not exaggerating either.) Here are just a few for your enjoyment!

This was the cake for his Tuesday party. It was devil's food with home made chocolate and butter cream icing. The nose and foot pads were made out of chocolate chips. I loved his blue eyes! I figure with as beautiful as his eyes are, Bubba's cake had to have blue eyes too.

These were the cupcakes I made for everyone else at his first party. The bears are silicone cupcake holders that I found at Michael's. I love them!

Bubba's Tod Rod...the coolest present EVER! It's a Power Wheel for younger children.

 

Bubba got lots of books! We love books!

We do our own "professional" photos for all the big events and milestones. 

We had the Eric Carle theme for his Idaho Party. I found this cake idea at Coco Cake Cupcakes and thought it was just adorable! I didn't use fondant for the head. I don't really like it and I felt icing gave off more of an Eric Carle feel anyways...but I thought it was an amazing idea and was happy to get to do it. 

I used sprinkles for the little "hairs".

We used the Eric Carle theme throughout the entire party.

 

It was a great couple of days! I can't believe he's one! It's been an amazing ride so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

God bless and thank you for reading. (And looking.)