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Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day 2012

This post is written 3 years later and I'm back dating it.  Photos are to show what we did that day for future reference. 

It looks like we went to Deerfield Island and Dairy Queen!  Considering Baby Vi was only one month old it's surprising we managed to do this much in one day!  Also explains the lack of holiday themed desserts.








Update on Co-Sleeping

Violette slept through the night in her tiny bed that sits between her parents in a king size bed!  I laid her down after holding her up for about 30 minutes after nursing and she stayed there until about 5am!  No more sleeping on our chests.  Yeah!!!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Co-Sleeping

I'm not a fan of co-sleeping.  I want my babies to sleep in their crib; I think that's the safest place for them.

So what to do with a 7 week old who still insists on sleeping ON us all night?  The only way to get any sleep is to put up with this but it's becoming taxing and as she grows it will definitely not be safe.

How do we get her off our chests and in her safe crib???

One idea I had is to turn our master bedroom into a nursery, get it nice and warm at night and start testing her in there.  In case you are new here, we have a two bedroom condo, older kids are in one room, we have the 2nd room and Violette's crib is in the dining room - which is too cold and drafty at night for her to sleep in.  Eventually when she's sleeping all night we will put her in the kids room but for now, we don't want to wake them at night.  We can't sleep in a warm room so the only solution I can think of is for us to put our king size mattress on it's side against a wall and move her crib in there for a month or two.

Charlotte slept through the night at 8 weeks old.  Violette turns 8 weeks old this coming Tuesday.  Guess you know what we are doing for Memorial day!


A difficult week

It's a struggle to get back on my feet after pregnancy.  Literally!

I had a minor procedure done on my feet this past Tuesday that's put me in crutches for a few days.  It's finally better enough to walk and get house work done.  In fact I even went to church today with the family and my feet feel fine. 

It's a struggle to be back in bed all week and get nothing done around the house.  To feel bad that husband is doing everything.

It's a pleasure to work from home an extra week.  I was only in the office one full day before the procedure.

It's been a hard week to deal with on other levels, still trying to get enough sleep at night.  Baby still wants held all night. I had one night where I didn't get to sleep until 2am!  Seriously, I laid there for 3 hours before realizing I felt squished in bed with baby and husband so I left and slept in the living room.  It felt good to stretch out and sleep in a quiet room.

We had an accident with one of our children in which no one was hurt, but the panic and horror of what could have happened is hard to shake.  Everyone is fine, we are so thankful to God for his protection and grace. 

In spite of this hard week, we are so thankful to have our health and each other.  All five of us are doing fine, no sickness, no injuries.  We are so blessed.  We will be okay.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Random Tuesday

Stacy

Hello Random followers, I managed to scrounge up a few things to say?

List of stupid things newscasters do to get attention:
1.  A Florida reporter tied himself to a tree while reporting on a hurricane.  I've always wondered, was the film crew tied to an opposite tree?

2.  A CNN reporter subjected herself to shock therapy - to show the viewing audience her reaction.  The report was about shock therapy to autistic students but I had to stop watching when the reporter started attaching electrodes to her body.  I don't need to see that. 

So what are the strangest things you've seen a reporter do?

Speaking of the word "stupid", apparently I use it to describe irritating cars and things that annoy me so it should come as no surprise that Charlotte tested the word out on her brother.  Queue gasp from both parents.  Guess I need to work a little harder on my descriptive word choice.

What words do you find your kids repeating?

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Gardening - with kids

is not easy!  In fact, "not easy" might be an extreme understatement.  How is this for perspective?  Time it takes to re-pot 3 Amaryllis', 2 pepper plants and 1 giant bamboo plant = 1.5 hours and two parents (not including shower time).

I have to wonder at the patience of my parents as they taught three how to garden.  I recall spending summers dropping seeds into tilled rows, of course I was probably older then my current 1yr old and 3yr old helpers.

 More dirt ends up on the porch then I anticipated, but at least she sorted out the rocks!

Here's the thing, I can hold the baby or do all the heavy lifting and dirty work while you dictate what you want done.

Deal!  Note Sam helping by filling more pots with rocks from the flower bed.

 She agrees to pose for one dirty face photo.

Look at those roots!!

We attract a group of neighbor kids, thus adding to the chaos and tracking of our two kids who want to chase after them.

Would it have been easier to do it after their bedtime?  Yes, but the kids enjoyed helping, getting dirty and playing with the neighbor kids.

Disclaimer:  all dirt used to repot plants was from our compost bucket :)

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Mother's Day I had hoped for

Didn't materialize.

Charlotte woke up sick with a cold, woke me up twice during the night, both in addition to the two times waking to feed Violette.  I was exhausted but still woke up to make my favorite sweet potato muffins which both kids refused to eat, only licking the icing off their muffins.  Even if Charlotte wasn't sick, we don't take her out in public when she skips breakfast because she gets mean and cranky with everyone and I won't do that to her Sunday School teacher ever again (only happened once).

I went to church with Violette; we sat in the mommy nursing room and for 1.5 hours I had a quiet non-demanding baby to rock.

Back at home the kids look at me expectantly, what's for lunch mom?  Husband tries to make late reservations but it's really too late so I choose Dairy Queen.  Charlotte only eats fries so we all skip dessert because she didn't eat the one thing we asked her to eat - just one piece of chicken - which she specifically asked for!  Arggg.

Home for naps and exhaustion catches up with me.  I sleep for almost 2 hours along with the kids.  Before sleeping husband asks what can he do to make my day better?  Flowers, Starbucks latte and chocolate peanut butter cupcake.  He goes to 3 different Starbucks to find the cupcake and they are all out of stock.  How sweet is that???  And I get two bunches of flowers :)

The rest of the day is spent at a movie theater watching Pirates (which Sam lasted halfway through, so husband will have to see the ending on DVD later), then "take out" dinner at Tijuana Flats (for Mexican food) because it's fast and all adult restaurants appeared to be too full. 

I think Mother's day is supposed to get better when kids are older and more predictable - right?

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Today I forgot the baby pooped on me

In my defense, she's eats breast milk, so it's not like big kid poo.  And it's the 3rd time in 24 hours her diapers leaked onto me.  By the 3rd time I was so into favorite book "Insurgent" that I kinda forgot to change after cleaning the baby - Okay not too absentminded by reading to forget HER diaper!

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Condo Tales ~ Space Issues

With our newborn at 5 weeks old.

Before she was born, we thought our 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom condo would be so crowded with 5.  We moved her crib into the dinning room, across from the dinner table with a changing table right next door.  Odd choice, but a baby can't sleep in the kids room or they will keep each other up all night!

We felt anxious to move out of this condo ASAP.

We made big plans.

Now that she's here, we find she's quite happy in the crib that is placed in the dinning room, right in the center of all activity.  After all, she got used to all the noise in utero.  Why not enjoy the noise all day long!  She actually sleeps better when the kids are really loud and hyper.

So we've found some patience with our housing for now.  The kids are getting used to a new routine and we are all doing okay.

Crying with Compassion Bloggers

How many times have you heard an advertisement to pay a monthly fee to support a poor child internationally?  The ads are always sad children, the announcer talks about the child's life and tells us how bad things are in the region.  It's easy to turn off the emotions by simply saying, I don't know where the money goes, what if it's all just a big scam?

Well Compassion goes beyond the initial ads.  They take bloggers on trips into regions where Compassion serves real communities.  The bloggers then write about their experiences with meeting children who are sponsored and in many cases kids who are not sponsored.  Over at a blog named "Mini vans are hot" (cute title!)  I read of a family with 9 children, only 2 are sponsored.  This means 2 children get food, education and a chance at a better life.  We get to clearly see how a small monthly fee makes a huge impact in the lives of these poor children.

I've sponsored 4 children over the years and I don't miss the money.  With each child I've found a way to fit them into our budget and I'm thrilled to be making a difference in their lives.

Compassion bloggers are currently in Tanzania for the week.  You can read their stories here.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Things that have annoyed me recently

Apple iCloud - advertised as FREE, after you download, you learn it's only FREE for 14 days.  That is both misleading and incredibly annoying.

AT&T - why do you have so many log-in pages?  You have att.com for combined billing of wireless/internet/home phone, att.net for email, then another log in page for wireless.  Honestly! 

iTunes - for refusing to allow me to sync my 3G iPhone.  Thus requiring me to spend countless hours trying to figure this out, then after frustrating me to the point of writing this post, you suddenly decide to sync.  I don't like you today.  Furthermore, I don't want to join your PING network, stop trying to force this on me like some kind of crack dealer.

Because I deserve it!

I would like to command 25 minutes of quiet time to feed baby Violette with no shouting, fighting, tumbling over beds, crying, injuries, demands for things, running and throwing of toys.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Random Tuesday

 Stacy
First week back to work, which means I'm cognizant of the weekdays and actually able to acknowledge today is Tuesday and time for Random Tuesday update VS the past month when I couldn't distinguish between days of the week; having a newborn at home will do that to you.

Back to work so soon you ask?  It really just involves sitting on my bed and reading 1000 emails in total seclusion, away from screaming kids and receiving regular visits from Violette to be fed.  I think I'll enjoy this as long as it can last.  Will have to re-enter the office eventually.

Meanwhile, here are my random updates:

Facebook - I don't like to delete people unless they refuse to participate at all.  I mean what's the point of having an account if you are never ever going to provide a single update?  I delete those who do not participate.

I will NOT delete you for writing lame updates - BUT - I will unsubscribe if you write that you like to eat your boogers. 

True story!  I follow a teenager who friended me, because we grew up in the same church I guess so share a ton of contacts and you know those teens today want 100's of friends.  Anyway, I had unsubscribed because I got tired of teenage crap and recently decided I couldn't remember why I had unsubscribed.  Well now I remember, thanks teen, for the helpful reminder.

I will unsubscribe if 100% of your updates are about sports.

I wonder if anyone has unsubscribed from my updates?  Probably, but I'm okay with that.

May Day - Did you know it's basically a holiday around the world?  I know our Asia offices get the day off, and recall when I was a kid something about swinging around a May Day pole with flowers and such.  Guess I need to do my research on this, then again I'd just rather have the day off!

Violette - 4 weeks old today!

Have a great Random Tuesday!