Sneak Peek (Baby!)

Wanna see a sneaky peeky of the newest member of my family? ;)

I was just sitting here looking down at her sleeping in my arms:

...and I'm thinking how blessed I am! :)
~*Mama Mirage*~

Camera found, Family visited, Memories made!

It's been a very busy past week and a half here! :) First of all, my husband took last week off work because Monday was our anniversary! Mother's Day was, as I'm sure you know, on Sunday. I am not sure if I mentioned this on here or not but it seems the second I hit 20 weeks pregnant, that's when the contractions started, and sometimes they HURT like crazy. Now you should know this is typical for me to spend the last few months contracting. With Buggie I spent pretty much the whole pregnancy scared that he was going to refuse to wait and be a preemie. There were alot of real bad scares . Then I hit the magical "safe zone" of 36 weeks and the contractions just... stopped. He wound up being born 2 days "late." This time it kind of caught me off guard when the contractions got so painful at 20 weeks because they hadn't been very often or painful during the first half. It made me realize that I need to make it a priority to go see my mom ASAP - before I'm too far into my incessant-painful-contraction phase to be driving through miles and miles of uninhabited prarie. So we made our plans to drive up on Mother's Day and stay for a few days so I could spend some quality time with my mom.

The drive on Sunday went better than expected. Buggie does not ride in the car well so we had some ...moments... and he wouldn't take a nap for longer than a few minutes at a time. But I was expecting way worse so I'm thankful it went as well as it did. We arrived at my parents' house at dinnertime and there was a family BBQ in progress for Mother's Day. My inlaws, and my sister's inlaws were there, as well as us and my sister's family. My baby brother lives out of state now so he was not there. The BBQ was great and it was nice to see everyone at once. The only bad thing was how bad it seemed to wear my mom out. The last "guests" left at nearly 11pm and by that time my kids were already in bed and hubby and I were eager to join them. My poor mom sleeps in a chair in the living room so she looked absolutely exhausted by the time she was able to go to sleep.

I had found my camera to take on the trip but, other than snapping a few scenery pics out the car window on the way, I was so used to not having it that I sadly forgot to take pics of most of our time up there. :(

Monday, our anniversary, we visited my husband's parents in the morning and then drove an hour to another city so hubby could visit his brother and I could meet up with a friend. Actually I've known this friend for years but only on the internet and telephone so it was a real treat to finally get to meet her in person. :) Her kids and mine had so much fun together and I really enjoyed our visit! Here's my car all packed full of kids, aren't they cute? My 2 are on the left and my friend's girls are on the right. I was walking around the front of the parked car to buckle Chicklet in as my friend snapped this pic. :) (So in case you're wondering why she's the only one not buckled in, that's why- I hadn't waddled my preggo self all the way around the car yet!)

After that we took a drive across the state line to see the house my sister is trying to buy. Then all the way back to my inlaws, and left the kids with them for an hour or so while hubby and I went out to a quick Chinese dinner for our anniversary. Happy 8 blessed years to us! :) Then we zoomed back to the inlaws to pick up the kids and drove back up in the mountains to my parents' house and went to bed. It was a reeeeeeeally long day but a a good day! :)

The next day my hubby was in and out. He went out varmint hunting and took a drive and went to town for milk. Me and the kids spent all day just hanging out with my mommy (and my dad when he wasn't working!). It was so wonderful to be able to spend a whole day with her! Again, I wish I'd been better about remembering my camera and taking more pictures! I did get some of Chicklet doing a puzzle with Grammie and Grampy:

And hubby got a few of Buggie and I -Buggie was "flying" in case you were unsure. ;)

Bug got a tremendous kick out of the hummingbirds at my parents' feeder. He was running round their front yard giggling and shouting "Zoom! Zoom! Catch 'em! Catch 'em!" while clapping his hands in the air in the general direction of the zooming hummingbirds. Of course I forgot I had my camera until we were all back inside and Bug was busy with the toys and had forgotten the birds. I did take a couple pics of the hummingbirds once I finally remembered the existence of my camera.

The next day, Wednesday, we made the long trip home.

I took this pic at a rest area because the cloud shadows looked really awesome on the prarie below. Don't let the snow fool you; it was a nice warm day with a cool wind.

The kids did AMAZING on the drive! I think Bug only had one meltdown the whole way home! And Chicklet didn't have a single potty accident the whole time we were away from home! We were so proud of them!

I hope you enjoyed my little recap with a boatload of pics! Or perhaps you did not; so sorry to have bored you half to death! ;)



P.S. Don't forget tomorrow is Toddler Tales Tuesday! I'd be tickled pink if you would join me in posting the cute things our toddlers say and do!

Toddler Tales Tuesday - Catching Marshmallows

4/15 My poor Buggie (20 months) has a black eye. *sigh* Last night helpful big sissy took him his sippy cup- he was laying in the crib and she threw it over the edge. Onto his face. I've told her a trillion times to be careful not to drop the sippy on him. The ONE time I forgot to remind her to not drop it on him, she did. My poor boy! I heard the scream and went running in there and saw it literally turn black in seconds right before my eyes as I held and rocked him. Not cute, sweet, or funny. BUT, the next morning...
4/16 Chicklet (3 1/2 years) got a look at her brother's black eye and said, "Awww do ya have an ouch on your face Buggie?"
and he replied nonchalantly, "Yeh. It's a-kay." :)

4/19 Yesterday afternoon out of the blue Chicklet said to me, "That will be twenty-eight billion dollars! That's like... millions and millions of dollars!" I have NO IDEA what she was referring to but I almost fell over laughing.

4/20 This morning my little Chicklet helper helped me with dishes and laundry. ;) She did alot and did it with a smile! She put away the silverware, then she stacked the clean cups and handed them to me to put away, then she put the pot and pan lids in the drawer under the oven. Then she helped me load the dirties in, add soap, and turn it on. After washing the dirty dish germs off our hands we did laundry. I turned the washer on and then sorted while she put the ones I tossed to her in. I held her up to close the lid for me and then we got the clean stuff out of the dryer and carried it to the couch. We thought some hot chocolate was well deserved after 'all that hard work.' ;) She was drinking her hot chocolate when suddenly she gasped and I looked up, concerned maybe she had burned her tongue, but she informed me proudly that she had "caught" a marshmallow on the end of her straw... LOL!

Not too long ago, two cute little tots had somehow climbed into my desk chair behind me, crowding me off. I had about an inch of seat left before I wound up on the floor. Time for a new activity! So we opened the front door to watch the wind blow leftover last year's leaves off the budding trees. After a while the thunder and lightning began and the kids got such a huge kick out of it! Buggie was hanging onto the baby gate I put across the doorway (we don't have a screen door) jumping jumping jumping like he'd had too much sugar. Totally wound up on storm-induced adrenaline. Chicklet was begging me to make the lightning blink again over and over, and I over and over explained to her that God has the on/off switch for the lightning, not Mama! Lol! I don't think she got it, but she sure did enjoy the storm for the hour or so it was going strong. I couldn't believe they stood with me in the doorway watching for so long. They didn't even get scared when I left them for 2 minutes in the doorway while I ran after the neighbor's trash can which was trying to fly like a kite down the street. Chicklet was cheering me on and Bug was jumping up and down clapping as I chased the thing along in my pajamas, getting rained on. I'll bet that was a fun sight for the poor neighbors. I hadn't planned on going outside again that night but didn't think it would be very nice to just let the poor elderly neighbor's trash can escape. *shrug*


-+-+-
If you have a sweet, cute, or funny Toddler (or kid) story, I'd love it if you'd share it! :)
If you would like to post a Toddler Tales Tuesday on your blog, please leave a link to your post in my Linky below, AND post the code for this blog hop in your Toddler Tales Tuesday post! Commenting on at least one of the other linked posts would delight the writer of said post I'm sure! ;) The linky will remain open for 2 weeks following the date of this post in case you want to add a post late.
If you don't have a blog or would prefer it, you may share your toddler tales here in the comments.

Ultrasound results are in!

Yesterday morning I had my ultrasound and I am pleased to announce that our newest addition looks to be a GIRL! :) Chicklet and Bug are so excited to be getting a new baby sister! Okay Bug really couldn't care less, but Chicklet was absolutely adamant that the baby NOT be a boy so I'm sure she's relieved that it's a girl ;)

A few months before I became pregnant I had a dream that I gave birth to another baby - a girl with a beautiful name. When I woke up I told my husband that we would have another baby and her name would be this name from the dream. He kind of scoffed at both the name (he wasn't fond of the name) and the idea that we would be having another child. Well when I became pregnant I reminded him of the dream. :) I think the name must have grown on him because he proudly announced it to his friends and family when he called them following the ultrasound to share the good news of the baby being a girl! Either that or he decided that when the wife has a dream that comes true, ya don't argue with the details. ;)

When I was 5 years old and my little sister was 2, my mom and dad told us that Mom was pregnant. They kept it a secret for a long time so Mom was pretty far along by this time. I immediately insisted the baby would be a boy. My parents tried to impress on me the importance of enjoying the blessing of a new baby no matter it's gender. I staunchly replied that God knew I already HAD a sister and needed a brother so I was SURE it was the missing brother. Lol! Well no matter what my parents said I was not to be swayed. And sure enough it was my longed for baby brother! I think I'd have been quite dissappointed if I hadn't gotten a brother.

Chicklet reminds me of myself so much sometimes. She is 3 1/2 years old now. When I first told her there was a baby growing in Mommy's tummy, she didn't care about the gender of it, just rejoiced in the wonder of it with me. She likes to help me rub my stretch mark oil on my belly- "to make it SOFT for the baby" she says! She kisses my belly and talks to the baby inside. Pretty soon she became aware that the baby would have to be a boy or a girl and became curious. I asked her which one SHE thought it was and she immediately declared the baby to be a girl. I didn't try too hard to dissuade her, remembering myself insisting even harder to my parents that my unborn brother was indeed a boy. Besides, I had reasons to think she was probably right. I was severely sick with Chicklet herself when pregnant, but not with Buggie. This time I have been severely sick again. I had mother's intuition telling me Chicklet was a girl before I knew she was, and telling me Buggie was a boy before the ultrasound proved he was, and this time around I felt I was carrying another girl, but I didn't want to get too set on that idea in case it was just wishful thinking from that dream I'd had before I got pregnant. Or perhaps I was fooling myself due to the similarity of this pregnancy to my first. But I still felt so strongly that it was a girl that I told people my hunch, and didn't try to convince Chicklet otherwise.

Every time the conversation of gender came up, Chicklet would declare louder and louder that the baby is a GIRL. At first calm and serene, if asked too many times in a row she would get downright frustrated that you weren't paying attention by the 3rd or 4th time she repeated that it's a GIRL baby. I began to wonder what we would do with Chicklet if the baby was not a girl! She would obviously be upset. Friday, I was telling Chicklet that "tomorrow we get to go see if the baby is a girl, or a boy!" She glared at me as I said the word boy and went, "Uh!"
I said, "If it's a girl her name will be ___ but what if it's a boy? What should we name him?"
Chicklet looked happy until I got to the word BOY and then looked terribly upset. Her reply was, "A boy?! A BOY?! Ma-mAAA!!! It's a baby GIRL!" She was very upset at the thought that it might be a boy.

We were thrilled to find out yesterday that the baby is indeed a girl! For Chicklet's sake of course, but especially because we love to know ahead of time and get very excited about getting to know our new blessing by name! :)

Bug said

Bug said a new word today. He is in the stage where it seems he's saying a new word every day. He's even said his first sentence ("Whey is Dadday?") already. Couldn't have asked where Mommy was, no, he had to ask about Daddy! ;)


Today he got his fingers pinched in a toy cell phone and was crying. I offered a hug but he didn't want one. I offered a cookie and he grinned huge and bounced up and down and said, "Cooookie!!" ROFL! He's never said cookie before but it came out clear as a bell when he wanted one! Haha!

On being pregnant again

I wouldn't have thought I would be so HAPPY to be pregnant. You see, I haven't exactly had GOOD pregnancies to date. I'm not one of those chipper little cutesy preggo's everyone loves. I'm the one with my head in the toilet for 9 months or calling my poor midwife's office every day because I'm bleeding or contracting.
With Chicklet, my first pregnancy, I was irregular so I didn't really think anything of it when I had a 3 month long lapse between cycles. It had happened before and we weren't exactly planning on having kids. We wanted kids! We just saw the state of the world and didn't think we had the heart to bring kids into this mess. So we were using non-hormonal preventative measures. Well I felt just awful queasy for the longest time and my sister told me on the phone one day that I was pregnant. I laughed at her. Took a test to prove her wrong. Wasn't I surprised when there were TWO pink lines on the test instead of one! Well the queasy turned into heaving and then one night I started heaving during supper and could not stop. Sometime in the middle of the night it was so bad I couldn't take a sip of water without it coming back up with blood. Even when I didn't drink anything, the blood and bile was coming up. By morning I was so weak I couldn't lift my head off the toilet seat for more than a second. My husband called off work and carried me to the car to take me in. They tried to get an IV in but I was too dehydrated. They kept stabbing me but no vein could be found. Finally in desperation they gave me a shot of anti-nausea meds in my hip, hoping that I had enough circulation for it to work enough for me to keep some fluids down the natural way. Thankfully it did work and within minutes I was gulping water down my raw throat like I'd come from a week in the desert. I was prescribed the same drug, in pill form, to take for the rest of my pregnancy. I would periodically have bouts of uncontrolable puking, and would take one of the meds, and puke it back up, then take another, maybe puke it back up too, and take another, which I might finally keep down long enough to give me a few hours peace. Towards the end of my pregnancy I was able to wean myself down on the pills by drinking lots of Morning Wellness Tea from EarthMamaAngelBaby.com and in fact I think I went most of month 9 without taking the pills at all, thanks to that tea. Plus being due in September was really difficult. It's just SO HOT here in the summer, not uncommon to be 110 degrees, that when you're already having hot flashes, it's pretty much like being boiled alive. I also had painful braxton hicks contractions the entire second half of the pregnancy. Thankfully, she was born nearly 2 weeks early!
My second pregnancy was a sad one. I just knew somehow that I was pregnant. I couldn't get a positive test though! I remember staring at the test wondering WHY it was wrongly saying negative! Sure enough I missed my cycle. We hadn't planned a baby, it was a surprise, and I told my husband I felt sure I was preggo though the test would not confirm it. I was happy, walking around with my hand on my tummy humming cheerfully, but wondered when the morning sickness would start. The sickness never started. One day I felt ... off. I just didn't feel right. That day I started spotting just the slightest bit. I spotted again the next day. Just a drop. And again the next... For about a week just a tiny spot of blood each day. And I was sinking into an uncontrolable depression. Something was WRONG. I went through the motions. But inside I was all wrong. A month after the spotting I started bleeding. I bled so much I should have gone to the ER. I was soaking an overnight pad every half hour. I should probably have died, as much blood as I lost. I remember putting the baby Chicklet down for a nap and collapsing into bed, only to wake up an hour later with myself and all the bedding soaked in blood. I numbly just cleaned myself up and took a heating pad to my computer chair, putting the baby in the playpen with some cheerios, and curled up in my chair in extreme pain, not even realizing how bad a shape I was in. I was too numb and fuzzy from bloodloss to know how bad I was. My husband didn't know what was wrong with me or how bad it was to know to take me in. Finally, 7 days after it started, the bleeding just suddenly stopped. I spent the next months inventing time-consuming projects and becoming addicted to message boards to take my mind off of my inner pain. I was mourning a baby that the little white test told me never existed. Finally, God let all that bottled up hurt inside me just explode one night, in the middle of the night, and HE put a friend online in the middle of the night who asked the right questions, and confirmed for me that YES it was a baby and the test can't take that away from me and that YES, I may have only been 7 weeks but I have a RIGHT to greive for my baby! When she gave me that validation I was finally able to begin to greive for my lost baby, and so I began to heal. For a while it was all I wanted to talk about. The floodgates I'd held back so long were flung wide and months of greif POURED out. My dear friends bore with my constant need to talk about it. Then it began to hurt less, I began to need to cry about it less, I began to reach out to others who had lost pregnancies, and I thought about it less and less.
Then, just 4 months after my loss, my husband told me he was finally ready to try for another baby. He had been mostly a spectator in the miscarriage. He didn't even really know it happened until the floodgates were flung wide and I began to greive, about a month before his announcement. I had been so depressed I didn't talk to anyone until then, and then after that point I talked to everyone about it. But when he told me he was ready for another baby I had mixed feelings. I was afraid of another miscarriage. I was afraid my greif had not run it's course enough to love another baby yet, and I was afraid that if I didn't agree enthusiastically he might change his mind and we would not ever have another! When we married we'd agreed on 4 kids, but after Chicklet, he had changed his mind and said he only wanted just the one. Just Chicklet. So I agreed happily to begin trying in the spring. I was secretly glad though, that we were waiting until spring to start trying because my heart was not ready. Meanwhile, we stopped using contraceptives and I began to chart. We used the rythm method. And whaddaya know, I was new to charting, messed up, and wound up pregnant that very first month. I was terrified when I found out. I wasn't happy about it because I was too scared. I had heard that if you get pregnant too close to a miscarriage it increases the risk of miscarrying again.
And with Bug, it was a very difficult pregnancy. There was extreme prolonged pain in the general vicinity of my ovaries. The midwife thought I might have an ectopic pregnancy. The pain was very intense and crippling and lasted for many weeks into the pregnancy, even after we confirmed by ultrasound that the pregnancy was not ectopic. Then, toward the end of the first trimester I was spotting. Then for the duration of the second trimester I was contracting, sometimes for too long. I had to try every trick in the book to get it to stop sometimes. It kept getting worse into the third trimester. One night it was beginning to feel like real labor. I was only about 7 months along I think. I was praying like crazy and it suddenly stopped. I told my midwife at the next appointment, and she said to drink half a glass of wine if it ever got that serious again. She said the wine should get it to stop and if it didn't, go to the ER immediately. We were counting down the weeks until I was 36 weeks along and it would be safe for him to be born. And I did have to use the wine trick 2 or 3 times when it got really scary and nothing else was working. Then I was 36 weeks and the contractions, all that scary preterm labor, STOPPED. That's right, it all stopped. My belly was so huge. I was roasting alive in the hot August sun. Packing for a move. My hips kept dislocating and I was in so much pain all night long from him being so HUGE that I barely slept. I could not move at all without pain. I was exhausted from just getting up and down out of a chair. I couldn't reach my legs. I felt sick from being so tired and hurting so much. We moved to our first owned home right before his due date. His due date came and went. The day after, I spent the day cleaning and unpacking and in general feeling like a beeched whale. I was SO much bigger in the belly than I was with my first! I could barely reach the stove to cook without putting my belly in the frying pan. I wore myself into complete exhaustion so of course at 7:30 pm when I plopped down on the couch totally done in, labor started. He was born the following morning. I didn't have the strength to both sit up and push him out simultaneously so hubby had to keep me from falling off the birthing stool while I pushed.

So you see, after those 3 pregnancies, this one kind of took me off guard when instead of being absolutely terrified of the pregnancy, looking at that second pink line, I was overwhelmed with JOY! Such joy! I'm so excited to be having another precious little blessing! It doesn't really make sense, but hey I'll take this strange all-consuming joy! Who wants to be scared and miserable when they can be so happy? Of course I'd be happy and excited about a new baby regardless, but it's weird to be so happy it overshadows the yuckiness of pregnancy. So despite the early and intense morning sickness I've been experiencing with this pregnancy (as I posted about yesterday), I'm really joyful and hopeful overall!
And something else strange... when I saw the positive test I somehow just knew this one is healthy. I wasn't scared of miscarrying. I don't know why, but I just felt ... like this baby is safe. Weird I know. But here I have made it to 7 weeks, a good sign. :)
So, I may be moaning and complaining about the heat this summer, and spending more time with my head in the toilet this winter, but I am HAPPY so very very happy to be having another baby! THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS SWEET BLESSING!!!

Important Announcement!

Ahem, I have an important announcement to make! As some of you have already guessed...

Pregnancy Tickers

Chicklet Chicklet

So sweet...

And so dramatic...

Chicklet has been a hard one to potty train. Nothing has worked. Until Monday. I've been trying to get her potty trained since she was about 18 months old. I knew she was ready earlier, around 1 year old, but I ignored the signs and waited too long and she went and got stubborn. Impossibly stubborn and set in her ways, refusing to be trained. I've tried everything. Really.
So Monday I went to get her up from nap and found her blankets and clothes on the floor beside the bed, covered with the contents of her diaper. On the bed she lay, wiping her bottom with her bath towel, the emptied diaper at her feet. YUCKY!!!!! And this Mama had had ENOUGH. I said if I'm going to be scrubbing poop out of the floors and furniture it had better be for a GOOD reason: NO MORE DIAPERS. Ever. That was 2:00 in the afternoon. She begged me for a diaper all day and I would not let her have one. I told her if she's smart enough to change her own diapers then she's plenty smart enough to go in the potty. And lo and behold, at bedtime, she informed us she was going to pee on the potty and she sat down and did just that. She has had very few accidents since then.
Today, Wednesday, I told her she'd better quit holding in her poo and do that on the potty too. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon she informed me she would be going poop on the potty now, and she did. And then she pranced over to where I keep the jar of potty training treats (chocolate chips) and...

"Choc'lit PLEEZE!" Sugar and spice, that's for sure! :)

How to ruin Mama's favorite marker... in 8 easy steps.

How to Ruin Mama's Favorite Sharpie... and Not Only Live To Tell The Tale, but Make Mama Feel Guilty for Ruining Your Fun Too.
by Mr. Bug

Step 1... Pretend you're chowing down on a cup full of dry cheerios so Mama will get busy and distracted. Make sure to drool cheerio goo all over for good measure.
Step 2... Sneak in under the desk chair and snag the marker before anyone notices.
Step 3... Hide behind the couch and uncap the marker.
Step 4... Color your right hand...

Step 5... Color your left hand thoroughly, including wrist... 

Step 6... Decorate your outfit with polka-dots.
Step 7... Taste test until Mama sees you and freaks out, taking the pen away and worrying over how much toxic ink you just swallowed.
Step 8... Start crying and then just give Mama the teary-eyed pathetic look as only a baby boy can...

...then she'll feel guilty for taking the marker away even though it defies logic.

It's finally happened: Toddler Tales Tuesday

Wednesday September 30th it finally happened. What I've been waiting for. Bug (13.5 months old) started WALKING!!! He just stood up about 2 feet in front of me and wobbled two steps toward me before falling into my arms giggling. He was so proud of himself! Hooray for my sweet Buggie walking! I'm just so proud of my sweet boy! :) He's been practicing ever since.

-+-+-


If you have a sweet, cute, or funny Toddler (or kid) story, I'd love it if you'd share it here in the comments! :)

If you would like to post a Toddler Tales Tuesday on your blog, please just leave a link back to my blog in your post so people can see where you got the idea. You may leave a link to your post in my comments on the condition that you also post a comment! No link-and-runs please! ;) (I am still figuring out basic blogging so this will have to do until I am experienced enough to attempt a Mr. Linky or something.)

My Failings and His Grace

My husband was away on business last week 9/29 through 10/1 and I was here with the kids during that time. They were acting out terribly because Daddy was gone. I had that burn accident and was in alot of pain and I found myself yelling at the kids a few of the many times when they were being difficult. Then I would be so angry at myself for yelling at the kids in my anger! It feels terrible to lose your temper doesn't it? And of course it doesn't help the kids at all when I yell at them. I did not cuss at them or degrade them with my words, but the volume and tone of my voice was plenty to cause damage.
When I'm at the end of my rope, there is only one thing that can get me through without losing my temper. Even the best laid parenting intentions can fail without the Rock to lean on. When I started praying my way through, I found that He gave me the strength to control my temper so I could correct and redirect my sweet babies with a gentle tongue. Sometimes I was praying nonstop literally and then would go have a private cry during naptime, but He got me through it. I don't want to fail Him either.
Do you feel like you're about to lose it some days? Want to pull out your hair and scream? Feel guilty for yelling or snapping at your family? Take your overburdened heart to the Creator and get a refill of peace and love! Corrections made in love teach lasting lessons, corrections made in anger create lasting hurt. Jesus wants to give you the grace to correct in love. After all, your children were a gift from Him and He loves them even more than you do.

Mommy Moments Monday 9/28/09

~Mommy Moments Monday~
Lessons learned and memories made.

Do you ever start feeling discouraged? Wonder if you're really being the best parent you can be? Your child goes through a phase where they are constantly testing you and you begin to wonder if what you're doing works or if the anti-parenters have it right and we should all just let our kids raise themselves? My daughter has been going through a really rough stage. I have been just hanging in there, praying, trying to stay as consistent as humanly possible, trying to stay as calm as humanly possible... I thought I had the key by cutting out the television but it couldn't be that easy could it? TV was a part of the problem, yes. A large part I believe. She learned some of these behaviors from the television and stopping watching it is not going to undo what has already been done. It will help from here on out, but it can't undo the past. So I have alot of tantruming I'm dealing with and bad behaviors and some days I wonder if I'm getting through to her at all, and if the right things are getting through to her.
Last week I had a woven cotton blanket on her bed and she kept pulling the strings out one by one and then pulling so hard they ripped out. Literally destructively unravelling the blanket, ripping it up. Well needless to say she got in big trouble for that! At the time I wasn't sure if she had gotten the point of the disciplinary measure or if she was just using it as an excuse to pitch a fit.
Day before yesterday she was playing with her dolly Jane. She had made a nest of blankets on the couch and carefully tucked baby Jane in. Then she said to the doll sternly, "Baby Jane, no breaking the blanket!"
A minute later she agains told the doll, "Baby Jane! No breaking the blanket! Breaking is not nice!" and this time she picked the doll up gently with a sad look on her face and gave it two swats on the behind and then put it back down. Then she looked up at me and said, "Mama, Baby Jane is cryin'! Baby Jane is sad!" So I asked her, "What do you think you should do now?"
She turned back to the baby dolly, asked her so softly I could almost not hear, "You know breaking is naughty, right? Are you sorry for breaking?" ...picks up the doll and hugs it... "Awww! I love you baby Jane! I forgive you! No more breaking, okay?" Then she tucked the doll back in with a kiss and tiptoed over to me with a sweet smile.
And I had a tear in my eye because I realized she IS getting it. It is getting through. Even when I don't know if she's listening or paying attention or old enough to understand- she is. And it said to me, 'hang in there, the terrible twos don't last forever!'


~*~

Not too long ago, I was sitting on the floor playing with Chicklet (3) and Bug (13 months) came crawling over to me, pulled up to standing, turned around, and plopped his little tush down in my lap. A minute later he lurched off and took off to explore the toybox, then returned to again climb into my lap unassisted. I leaned down and kissed his hair and he basically ignored me except to lean back on me and get comfy, where he say and played for a while. And it made me think how precious babies and toddlers are, thinking particularly about how they don't have any insecurities or hinderances when they know they are loved. How my kids can just climb into my lap uninvited on a whim with 100% confidence that I'm going to receive them with a kiss and a snuggle, and they can leave with just as clear of a concience. Because just as much as they KNOW I love them and won't turn them away, they know that they love me too whether they're in my lap or across town and assume that I know that too. So precious and amazing! I think that is one of the reasons Jesus said that we must be like little children in our faith. Little ones know what they know and they don't overthink like adults do; 'what if I'm crawling into Daddy's lap and he misreads my intentions?' or 'What if I'm not good enough?' 'What if He doesn't love me?' 'What if He turns me away?' Little ones are so precious because they have to pomp, no facade, no mask. They are what they are. They love. It's what they do. Oh to be like a little child in my faith!


~*~

Mommy Moments Monday: Slimy Fresh Pumpkin Seeds

Tonight my husband brought home a pie pumpkin. Cutest little thing it was! We do not celebrate Halloween but my 3 year old Chicklet has seen puimpkins around in autumn displays and learned what they are called. The other day she came up to me and asked me, "Mama? Do we need to get a pumpkin?" I had to laugh. I don't know where she got the notion that we needed one. Probably just wanted to see a real one since she'd never seen a real one. So tonight my husband walks in with a little pie pumpkin and asks me to hand it to Chicklet for him while he puts down his armload of stuff. She grinned huge, took it, turned over and over, asked, "What is it?" and then looked up with an ah-ha look and exclaimed, "It's a pumpkin! Is it Daddy? Is it a pumpkin?" It was so cute! She then wanted to open it and eat it so after putting little Bug to bed, the three of us took that pumpkin apart. :) It was such a special time, with me slicing and peeling chunks of pumpkin, my husband washing them off and grating them, and Chicklet sitting in front of me with a huge grin and a pile of slimy pumpkin seeds in front of her, eating them. I tried to convince her to wait until they'd been washed, salted, and roasted before eating them because they would taste better. But she wouldn't have it, she just smiled sweetly and told me they were yummy as she stuck another slimy seed in her mouth. And of course I just smiled back and let her have her pumpkin seeds as she liked- what kind of mother would I be to dampen the spirits of a 3 year old helping to take apart her first pumpkin? ;) We are going to make yummy pumpkin bread out of it, maybe tomorrow or the next day, and she is going to love helping with that as much as she did the first stage I think. :) I just love these sweet family moments, these special memories!

Sweet Motherhood

Mommy Moments Monday

Such a wonderful "job" we have, being mothers! I'm so thankful I can't even begin to express how much, that I am a mommy! I adore being a mom! Some people are worried about not having a life when they become parents but I feel like I didn't really LIVE before I had kids! Sure, before kids I went to the movies every weekend and spent lots of money pointlessly, and indulged in some amusing irresponsibility, but NOW... Now I teach geniuses, I frame precious artwork, I have the most fun exercise routine, I doctor precious ones with my magic kisses, I dance with angels, I am a famous chef and a princess, I get to play dress up all the time, and there's always someone there to cuddle with. ♥

Bug is 13 months old!

Little Buggie is officially 13 months old! Awwww! He's getting a bit spoiled though... He woke up for a diaper change and I changed it and put him back to bed with a bottle of water. He was fine for a minute and then began crying again. I was in the kitchen making him a milk bottle. Well when I got in there with the milk bottle he had thrown the water across the room. When he saw the milk bottle in my hand his cries turned into a maniacal laugh that reminded me a little bit of Gollum off of LOTR! Mmmhmmm. I think I've been played. :-/

Skirt pictures finally!

Skirts, kids, books, and burnt meat.
So I'm sitting here procrastinating becuause I don't feel much like blogging right now, but I won't be here later and I know that once I get started I'm on a roll and it will be hard to STOP so here goes... ;)
Last weekend I posted about some pretty new fabric I bought to sew myself a new skirt. Well after making myself a skirt, there was enough left to make Chicklet a matching one. Here's the fabric I used:

Pretty isn't it?
And here is the skirt I made for myself:

And here is a pic of the one for me along with the little one for Chicklet.

See how cute and matchy? Lol! You can read about how much she loves her new skirt in this post.

I'm currently reading the book "Only the River Runs Free' by Bodie and Brock Thoene. I'm still on chapter 1 so totally lost on the plot! Lol!

Friday night I was reading blogs until late. Yeah yeah I'm getting addicted to blogs, I know! ;) Well I had thawed some ground beef and was cooking it to refreeze in 1 pound baggies for future convenience, and it was cooking away while I was in bloggyland. Yeah you guessed it- I started to burn it:

Yummy. That's what I get for not paying attention, eh? :p

The kids are both being so difficult sleep-wise this past week! I don't know if it's the sudden change in weather or what! I would say Buggie's teething again because he's drool city, but there are no little bumps in there yet so it could be a while. He currently has the front 8 teeth. Chicklet could be teething too... she's got a molar that's halfway in and growing slowly. She has been biting her hands all the time now when she's tired or upset. I have to keep reminder her to stop biting her hands and when I pull her hands out of her mouth they are pruny from drool. Icky!
Schooling Chicklet is going about like I expected; good but slow. We are working on the learn to read in 100 Easy Lessons book but I have to break it down a LOT because she's not yet 3 and has an attention span of almost 3 minutes to coordinate with her age. So we started about a month ago and we are on lesson #2. Yeah. Really slow. But that's okay, I'd rather do it at her pace and have her love learning than push her and have her hate it and be difficult to teach! Right now she loves learning everything and asks me questions all the time. She is really a joy to teach! :)
Bug is still not walking, but he's letting go and standing on his own for nearly a minute at a time now. ;) He's loving being in the walker again and zooms all over the place. He's a little speeder like his daddy... Oops did I say that out loud? *wink* No seriously my hubby doesn't speed anymore now that he has kids. He loves us too much to do that. :)

Speaking of my wonderful amazing awesome husband... did I tell you he brought me home a frappuccino not too long ago? :) I love my Starbucks but it's 45 minutes to the closest one. Well on his way home from work he grabbed me one and when he walked in the door I melted (pun intended)! It was deeelicious! :D

Well that's all I can think of on the update front. For now at least. Let me know if there's something you want to hear more about. :) Have a great rest of your day!

If you're pregnant, or have a baby, or know someone else who is pregnant or has a baby, don't forget to check out my giveaway this week!

Toddler Tales Tuesday: E.T. Phone Home

Friday, September 4th:
Chicklet (almost 3) was changing her Carter's doll's diaper. She comes running over to my box of kleenex and grabs one and runs off with it. I look over and she's wiping her dolly's bum with it! Lol!
We named the dolly "Jane" but she can't say Jane for some reason and keeps pronouncing the N as an M so she's forever running around calling it "baby Jaym!" I correct her and she does say it right for a while, but then every morning and after quiet time she starts calling it Jaym again.
Later, she comes running over and gets another kleenex and tells me, "I hava boogie" and proceeds to wipe her nose on it. Then she reaches up and starts wiping my face with her used kleenex telling me, "You needa washa face! Washa face, washa face..." Eeew!
She has been particluarly needy today for some reason (hey could it be LACK OF SLEEP?!?!?!) and has had me draw her literally two dozen pictures to color. Well I am getting a bit tired of drawing the same picture over and over so I gave her a sucker, a special treat, and told her to go sit down and eat it. I immediately hear CRUNCH! I tell her, "Sweetie you're supposed to count how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie in the middle silly, dont bite it!" (Especially when it's a bribe to get you to stop asking me to draw pictures for a few minutes! Oh wait, did I just type that out loud?) No more than one minute later I see her run to the trash with the empty stick. Then she runs up to me and starts tugging on my skirt and arm with her sticky fingers. I said, "Lets go wash your hands and face! You're sticky!" To which she replied, "Yep! I'm a stick!" Ummmmmm...

Saturday, September 5th:
Chicklet asked Daddy for some "Juice please!"
Daddy- "Oh sweetie I don't think we have any juice! How about milk?"
Chicklet- "Juice please!"
Daddy- "Oh sweetie I really don't think there is any left, how about some nice milk?"
Chicklet- (With puppydog eyes) "Ohhhh! Juice..." (sadly)
Daddy- "I'll look but I don't think there is any..."
(goes and looks in fridge) "I'm sorry sweetie there's only milk."
Chicklet- (sadly, wistfully) "Oh juice!"
Daddy- "Okay sweetie I'll think of something..."
(Puts some water in a sippy cup, adds a dash of lemon juice and spoonful of sugar and mixes) "Here you go sweetie!"
Chicklet- (takes a sip, pauses) "What is it?"
Daddy- (looks insulted) "It's lemonade!"
Chicklet- (appeased and happily) "Oh! Yummy lemonade!" (Walks off drinking it)

Sometime last week:
It's been forever since Chicklet watched Superwhy... and I could count on one hand the number of times she's seen it. But apparently that was enough. The other day she took off with my highlighter and then stopped in front of me, held it up in the air and said, "Whylighter write!" Hahaha! I held out my hand and replied, "I think it's 'Whywriter, highlight!' but that's a Momwriter so you'd better give it back to Supermom."

Monday, September 7th:
Chicklet is currently supposed to be napping but I hear a song drifting out to my ears, "Lalala... Super readers... la la la ... super story answer la la SuperWhy... super readers... la la..."

Sometime Last Week:
I was changing Bug's(age 12 months) diaper and he was pointing at me asking, "Tsis?" Which for those who don't know, is 'What's this?' in BuggieBabble. Then he started fussing but his finger was still pointing. I turned to him and pointed my finger and touched the end of my finger to the end of his as he watched, enthralled. As the tips of our fingers were touching, I leaned in real close and said, "ET phone home!" and he had a fit of hysterical giggles. So now every time I change his diaper he holds out his finger with a grin, waiting for me to touch mine to it and do ET impressions. After which he laughs like it's the funniest thing in the whole world!

-+-+-
If you have a sweet, cute, or funny Toddler (or kid) story, I'd love it if you'd share it here in the comments! :)
If you would like to post a Toddler Tales Tuesday on your blog, please just leave a link back to my blog in your post so people can see where you got the idea. You may leave a link to your post in my comments on the condition that you also post a comment! No link-and-runs please! ;) (I am still figuring out basic blogging so this will have to do until I am experienced enough to attempt a Mr. Linky or something.)

Mommy Moments

Well sadly, after my first and only 2 "Not Me Monday's," I read somewhere that MckMama has announced that she's moving on to the next chapter in her life and Not Me Monday will not be happening anymore. Bummer! So instead I will be blogging about Mommy Moments on Mondays. ;) I figured I have lots of those and should be able to come up with something of the sort to write at least most Mondays, right? ;) I consider a Mommy Moment to be anything that speaks of what IS Motherhood. The good and the bad. The tough moments, sweet moments, bonding moments, oops moments, ah-ha moments, silly moments...

Sweet: Lately I have been dancing with the kids. I turn on the playlist I have on here and take turns with them, picking them up and twirling them around the house. They both adore it! Thier little eyes like up, heads tip back with laughter, and they beg for more. We wind up laughing like maniacs on the floor gasping for air and I love every precious minute of it!

Mommy-Brain: Some time last week, the exact day I do not remember, I had a Mommy-brain attack. I went to get Bug a bottle for nap and as I'm pouring it I snapped out of my tired daze to realize I was just beginning to fill his bottle with lemonade instead of milk. Hmmm... Yeah that would have gone over like a lead balloon!

Sweet: Yesterday I sewed myself a new skirt (more on that to come and a pic too) and had more cotton calico than I expected leftover. So I sewed Chicklet a matching skirt and I honestly was totally surprised at how delighted she was! I had no idea how much it would mean to her. She was watching me sew and when I cut the thread and held it up to her she clasped her hands together with a big grin, eyes squeezed almost shut with excitement, and did a happy stomp dance while giggling. I helped her put it on and she ran around the kitchen like a nut for a moment before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the living room to "show Daddy." She ran to him and jumped around in front of him giggling, "Lookit skirt!" Then she climbed up onto the couch saying to me, " Mama sit!" - she wanted me to sit beside her so she could enjoy how our skirts match when we're sitting as well as standing. She patted both skirts at the same time and then bounced to Daddy again. I got up and said, "Hey lets spin around in our new skirts! I'll bet they look pretty spinning!" And proceeded to spin around until I got dizzy as she joined in, giggling all the while. We collapsed onto the couch dizzy and laughing. And I thought to myself what a blessing it is to have a daughter! :)

Reminiscing Blessings

What a beautiful day it is today! Not too hot and not chilly! A lovely Sunday indeed. As I sit here thinking about my amazing God and the amazing things He's done for me, I am looking around at my miracle house. "A miracle house" you say? Why yes, a miracle house. :)
You see, it is not only miraculous that we were able to buy a house at all, but that we were able to buy such a nice house, with such a big yard, right when the economy was collapsing and banks were not wanting to give loans. It's miracle that the seller went down in price drastically for us when they had other offers. And it's a miracle that we were able to move into a bigger home JUST in time for baby Bug to be born. We literally moved in one week before he was born! :)
Here we are in the house, taking pictures to email to my parents to ask their opinion on putting an offer in:

I was so pregnant and roasting in the summer heat in that picture! And my little Chicklet was 1 3/4. It was only a little over a year ago and how time has flown! Yes, she is wearing socks under her sandals in the pic! ;) The yard needs alot of work, it's just dirt with thorns growing and no real grass. So I had her wear socks to protect her feet and so we could just take them off when we got back in the car to go home.

It's such a lovely house. All the open doorways are arched and the whole house is painted this light beige color inside. It's very open and bright with lots of windows. We had been looking for a house to buy since my husband got out of the military in 2005. Every time we found one we liked it was either too much or the offer was rejected. This one was way out of our league and we knew it. But after prayers and thoughts and discussions and advice... we offered. We had a set price that was the max we were able to afford and we were not going to stretch ourselves over that amount no matter what. It would be tempting if we thought we could get a house to go over our budget but that would wind up being horrible on us financially in the long run. I could just imagine us going bankrupt. So we agreed on our limit and promised each other and God that we were not going over it. We knew that God knew what we could afford and if the seller would not take it it was not for us. So the seller countered back higher, we countered back at our max price and they rejected. They expected a counter back again but we couldn't do it. That was all we had. Another dissappointment. Another fallthrough. BUT we were at peace because we knew if it had been God's will we would have gotten it. So my husband stopped by the real estate office on his way home from work to sign the rejection and end our involvement. And as he was pulling out of the parking lot, his phone rang. It was our agent. The seller had changed their mind!!!! They asked us to resubmit our last offer and they would accept it this time and that's how God worked to get us this house that was listed at $20,000 above our limit.
That can only be a God thing. There is so much more to the story, so many more little miracles along the way, but I don't have time to type them all up so I will just leave it at this, and go to bed with a smile tonight thinking of how God has provided this house for us and how VERY THANKFUL I am to Him for it! :)

Goodbye Breastfeeding

I am sad today. My son won't nurse anymore. He's just over a year old so I shouldn't be too surprised, especially since he's been uninterested for a few months now. Well he just doesn't want to anymore. He's too busy. My sweet boy! I wanted to keep him a little baby a little longer. They grow up way too fast. I nursed Chicklet to about 13 months. I will keep trying for the next few days until Bug turns 13 months and then I will let it go. I took a picture the last time he nursed though, because it was a sweet moment and there won't be anymore sweet nursing baby moments with him now.