Blog Break

It's been a while since my last post, and it will probably be a while until my next post.  There's always so much going on that I want to share with everyone, but I just don't have time to sit down and compose my thoughts and form it into a sensible blog post.  So, once again I'll give you some bullets :)  Sorry...but I figure you'd prefer that over a wordy play-by-play, right? 

-Sadie is such a bundle of joy.  I know I say this a lot, but she really does brighten up my days!  A sweet snuggle with her takes away and bad feelings I'm having :)

-Sadie saw her first zoo animals today!  I held her a lot when I took the girls to the zoo and she noticed any animals that were moving quickly enough to grab her attention.  The first one she noticed was the sea lion.  These are Maddie's favorite so it was exciting for Sadie to see them too!

-Maddie bought herself a stuffed sea lion the last time we went to the zoo.  I let her take along some of her own money (she chose to take $8) and she picked out an animal all by herself.  The animal was $7.99 and we get a 15% discount by being zoo members so she even got to bring change home to put in her piggy bank!  What a fun experience that was!

-The stuffed sea lion's name is "Hackseek".  Another interesting name that she came up with and I have no idea what made her think of that.  She hasn't forgotten his name since the first time she said it.  Hackseek enjoyed the sea lion show with us today as well.

-Maddie is growing up so fast!  Her 3T shirts that I bought her at the beginning of fall/winter are getting snug.  They look like they fit her just fine but we're beginning to really struggle to get them on and off.  It's not fun.  It's about time to start shopping for spring/summer and I don't know if I should buy her 3T or just skip straight to the 4T so we'll be sure she'll fit in them all summer.  I can't believe she'll be 3 in June and is already outgrowing 3T clothes! 

-Maddie is really getting social.  We invited some of her classmates over to play after school yesterday and she had so much fun with them.  Only 2 we able to make it and I think that turned out to be the perfect number. She was happy to show her friends her playroom and then asked me to turn on music so they could dance together.  (sidenote:  one of her favorite songs to dance to is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and she was SO EXCITED when they played that song before the sea lion show started today!!)

-Next week is a crazy week for us!  My brother comes in for a visit on Monday, Eric comes home on Thursday and my sister comes in on Friday.  Saturday ther Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Parade is taking place so we plan on going downtown to enjoy seeing all the trail riders coming into Houston for the rodeo!!!  I've been wanting to go to this parade since we moved down here so I'm thrilled that we're going this year.  Maddie's going to have a blast!  It might be a little cold first thing in the morning but I'm sure she'll enjoy lots of snuggle time with Daddy to stay warm :)

-I am super tired and even though I have a lot to do tonight, I'm going to take a Tylenol PM at 7:30 then head to bed.  I figure a few nights in a row of getting 10 hours of sleep should help me feel better...I just can't get energy.  Tomorrow's another busy day starting with taking Murphy to get a bath before we even drop Maddie off at school so it'll be good to get a lot of sleep tonight!!

Goodnight all...hopefully you'll hear from me before the end of the month :)

Sadie 5 months old, Maddie 2 years 8 months

I took a break from sorting baby clothes to change a diaper...Maddie took the opportunity to make herself a seesaw out of a basket :)

The Houston Deep Freeze of 2011...this picture was taken at 4:00pm!

A close up of our poor frozen van.

Super Bowl baby!  Sadly we didn't win :(  But Daddy's team won so it's ok!

My supermodel-in-the-making.  She was really posing for pictures :)

Go Steelers!!

Last Friday after school Maddie rested in a laundry hamper.  She was pretending to be a dog and this was her cage.  She stayed in it for about 20 minutes while watching tv :)

The top view.  What an imagination!

5 Months

Today my Sadie Mae turned 5 months old!  Seriously?!?!  I'm noticing her growing up so fast already and I really wish I could slow time down so I could savor all her cuteness and chubbiness.  I told her yesterday that she was growing up so fast and soon she would be a big girl.  Maddie didn't like hearing that and told me, in the whiniest voice, "But I don't want Sadie to grow up and be a big girl.  I always want her to be my baby sister."  I tried to explain to her that Sadie would always be her little sister no matter how old they get.  She acted like she understood but I'm not sure she really did :)

Sadie's been staying awake a lot more during the day now.  If we're home she'll take good naps, usually 3 a day and they're ranging from 1 hour to 3 hours.  If we're away from home she sleeps when we're in the car but is awake while we're out and about.  She'll doze in the stroller or shopping cart, but doesn't really sleep.  I find myself (at home) trying to put her down for more frequent naps than what she wants now.  I just got into such a habit of doing what I had to do with her and then putting her down to sleep again.  Now I have to find ways to keep her entertained while she's awake. 

Sadie started using her exersaucer.  She seems to enjoy it a lot but gets frustrated that she can't pull all the toys to her mouth yet.  She also gets frustrated when one of her arms gets down in the seat with her and she can't figure out how to get it out.  She has already figured out how to make some of the toys spin.  Well, there are only two that spin so she has those figured out.  And she'll just stare at the one while it's spinning around, absolutely amazed by it.

Sadie is starting to get more and more excited about Murphy when she sees her.  It's so cute to see her get excited when Murphy starts coming close to her.  She's no where near as excited as Maddie used to get over Murphy, but I can tell she's interested. 

Sadie still hasn't rolled over from her back to her belly.  She's a back sleeper and is just so content to be on her back most of the time so she doesn't have any motivation to roll to her belly.  She resists tummy time with every thing she has.  She lasts about 5 minutes then we've all had enough of trying to make her be on her belly.  At least she doesn't have a flat head...I'm cool with her not being on her belly as long as she's not getting a deformed head from spending too much time on it.  I guess that's where the exersaucer and bumbo come in handy :)

Today Sadie got to meet her Pap Pa (her great grandpa-my dad's dad).  Pap Pa is her only living great grandpa so I'm so glad she got to meet him today!  She looked into his eyes and gave him several super sweet smiles!  They have the same beautiful blue eyes :)  I'm looking forward to Maddie and Sadie spending more time with their great grandparents while they're visiting from PA over the next month.

So, that's what's new with my littlest one :)  Life is SO GOOD!

Smart Phones?

I have had my iPhone for almost 16 months.  I've loved it from the first day but I'm finally starting to get annoyed by it.  Well, I'm really more annoyed with my addiction to it but I like to pass the blame off on the phone.  I mean, if it wasn't so amazing I wouldn't be so addicted, right?  I've always known I was addicted to the phone but I kind of joked around about it and didn't take it seriously.  Last night I came out of denial and am finally on the road to recovery! 

Every night at bedtime I read a book to Maddie, then she takes a turn and reads it to me.  Every night the iPhone (aka my window to the outside world) is right there with us.  Last night when it was Maddie's turn to read the book, I picked up the phone to check in with facebook (I had just heard that a friend had her baby and I wanted to congratulate her).  Maddie looked at me and said, "Mommy, don't type on your phone.  Listen to me read to you."  OUCH.  The truth hurts.  She's been noticing that I'm on the phone more than I'm paying attention to her.  I guess part of my denial was also denying that she even noticed.  Of course she noticed that I was paying more attention to the phone than I was to her!  She's not stupid. 

Today is day one of my recovery.  Tomorrow starts actual rehab.  I will have my phone with me for emergency purposes when I'm outside of the house.  I will still use my phone when I need to and when my girls are napping or in bed for the night.  When my girls are awake I need to be present for them.  I am their mom and we're blessed that I get to stay home and raise them.  They need my attention and need to know that I'm there for them when I need them. 

Ok, I'm probably making my phone addiction sound a lot worse than it really is, but I have to make a more conscious effort to put the phone down!

So, with that being said, if you need to reach me when my girls are awake, please call my home phone as the iPhone will be on silent :)  However, I'm not promising I'll answer the home phone either.  I spend a lot of time feeding Sadie and changing diapers and doing chores around the house.  I'm trying really hard not to rush to the phone as soon as it rings.  It causes me to get distracted from what I'm doing and causes neck and back pain from holding the phone with my head and shoulder :)  It's really hard to not run for the phone, though, because I know there's an adult on the other end and I'm usually dying for some adult conversation!!

Sorry

Aparently the last post was a little too much and left some ugly images in the minds of some readers.  For that, I apologize and give you these...

I'm in Love

Today I officially fell in love.  I fell in love with cloth diapers.  Nope, I'm not even kidding.  Today the cloth diapers proved themselves to me and there's no going back to disposables now.  You couldn't PAY me to use disposables, that's how much I love cloth.  You're thinking wow...this lady's lost her mind!  But, no, I haven't lost my mind, I promise.  :)

If you've ever breastfed a baby, or have spent a lot of time around a breastfed baby, you know the consistency of their poop.  Maddie described it best when she said, "Sadie's poo poos are snotty, like when I have a runny nose."  Normally when a baby poops while they're in a sitting position, the poop can only go to the front of the diaper or to the back of the diaper.  For most I think it goes up the back.  Today Sadie was sitting in her Bumbo seat and she started pooping.  It was a full force grunt, scrunch up her red face kind of poop.  I sighed and started dreading the diaper change that was to come.  Certainly it would be more than a simple diaper change.  It sounded like the kind of blow out we stay at home moms like to call a "poop-splosion".  I thought for sure I was about to change not only her diaper, but also her outfit AND give her a bath.  I let her finish before I went through all the cleanup work.  When she was FINALLY done, I picked her up (very cautiously) and didn't see ANY poop on her clothes!  I placed her very carefully on the changing table (sometimes with Maddie's diapers at this age, just laying her on her back would force the poop out of the diaper).  I opened up the diaper and found all the poop (and there was A LOT OF IT!) all neatly contained within the diaper.  YAY!  I have never been so happy to change a dirty diaper!

So, there's the story on how I became hooked on cloth diapers.  Seriously, I want to have more babies just so I can use cloth diapers.  :)

A Few Updates

I'm going to give you a few bullet-style updates while I watch the Steelers beat the Jets :)  Sorry, I can't really concentrate to form full thoughts to blog while I'm watching this game...it's just SO GOOD!

• Cloth diapering is interesting.  We've had several leaky diapers but several that haven't leaked as well.  We'll get used to it with time...
• Maddie continues asking for Daddy every day.  She asks if Daddy is coming home when she wakes up from her nap, she says, "if Daddy comes in the garage door, I will say, 'hi Daddy'".  She took her daddy doll (thanks Aunt Sarah!) to school on Friday and had a MUCH better day.
• Maddie deliberately peed on the couch. She knew she had to pee, but didn't feel like going to the bathroom so she told me she peed on the couch.  Nice.
• Sadie is officially in size 6 month clothing.  Her cloth diapers are a lot bulkier than disposable diapers so she'll probably be in 9 month by the time she's 7 months old!
• Ewww...I just saw a commercial for "Survivor:  Redemption Island".  I LOVE Survivor but I might have to skip next season with Boston Rob and Houston Russell.  Yuck.
• Sorry for getting sidetracked...
• Sadie is starting to laugh a lot more.  She laughs at me when I'm being silly now.  I love it :)  She's just so sweet and precious, I can't get enough of her!
• The past two days Sadie has taken only two nice, long naps.  She had been napping 3-4 times a day only 45 minutes to an hour and a half at a time.  But yesterday and today she had two naps each day that were over 2 hours each!  I think her heiny likes the cloth diapers :)
• Weight Watchers continues to go well.  I lost 3 pounds last week so I got my 5 pound star this week!!  It's the little things...and if you know me, you know I like my stickers!  My total weight loss so far is 5.8 pounds. Go me!

Thanks for bearing with me while I watch the game and blog simultaneously :)  GO STEELERS!!  (it should be interesting to see my Steelers in the Super Bowl with Eric's Packers.  Too bad Eric won't be home for the Super Bowl)

Diapers

Well, I did it.  I bought cloth diapers.  The liners are in the dryer now and the diapers are on their first wash cycle.  I'm excited about changing Sadie from disposables to cloth in hopes that she'll finally remain rash-free.  She's had diaper rashes off and on since she was less than 2 weeks old (today she's 20 weeks!!).  Maddie never had rashes until she started on solid foods and her body was trying to adjust to the different foods she was eating.  I tried all different things with Sadie to try to keep the rashes away, even leaving her without a diaper for 30 minutes at a time, 3 times a day.  That's not pleasant with an infant, especially a breastfed infant!

I'm concerned about cloth diapering just because of a "fear of the unknown".  All the people I know who cloth diapered used the old cloth diapers, complete with pins and plastic pants.  I don't know anyone personally who uses "new" cloth diapers.  I'm entering a whole new world.  I've researched and researched (my research on cloth diapers initially began before Maddie was born...) and hope I've made the right decision for Sadie.  Overall I'm feeling good about the benefits of cloth diapering, just not sure of all the work involved!

Wish me luck :)  I'll keep you posted...