elsie - two months old

written April 12th

And just like that Miss Elsie is two months old.  Somehow this month didn't go by near as fast as the first, but it wasn't slow either.  Elsie is growing and changing at lightening speeds.

The little miss didn't slow down on her growth at all this month.  She's got chubby cheeks and thighs to prove it!  At her two month well visit she weighed 10 pounds 9 ounces and was 23 inches long.  She gained half an inch on Ryann, but they still weighed the same.  How weird is that?  I'm curious to see if that trend will continue throughout the first year or so.  Overall the doc said Elsie looks great, very healthy, and to just keep doing what we're doing.  Of course the two month appointment meant shots, and they SUCKED.  Poor Elsie was doing the silent cry she was so upset, and even nursing didn't really calm her down.  She has been fussier the last few days, but I don't know if it is because of the shots, or just her age or what.  Poor girl.

For the most part Elsie is wearing all 0-3 month clothing.  There are some newborn dresses that I've used as tops, and I think a couple of other random newborn things that still fit, but that is it.  Even a few of the 0-3 sleepers look like Elsie could outgrow them before she hits three months.  And at the same time some of the onesies look ridiculous on her.  Baby clothes are so funny.  She is still wearing size one diapers.  E nurses 6-7 times in a 24 hour period, and takes roughly four naps during the day.

Just a few days after Elsie's one month appointment I made a trip back to the pedi.  We were pretty certain she had reflux and needed meds.  But we didn't yet have Elsie's insurance card and the prescription was pretty pricey out of pocket, so we opted not to fill it until her card came.  In the meantime I cut a lot of dairy and chocolate from my diet.  Over the course of the month her spitting up has slowed down and she doesn't seem to be quite as bothered by it.  I have no idea if it is the change in my diet, or just her digestive system maturing, but I think I'll keep trying to stay as dairy free as possible for another couple of months, and then see what happens when I add it back in.

Sleep still sucks.  I mean it could be worse for sure, but I haven't gotten a good nights sleep in I don't know how long, and it doesn't appear to be coming anytime soon.  For a while E was great about falling back to sleep after nursing in the night, and then it started to be tougher and tougher.  Part of the problem was that I would unswaddle her to change her diaper, and then not swaddle her until we were finished.  And the swaddle would piss her off royally.  Now I swaddle her between sides.  It makes her mad, but once I pop a boob in her mouth she gets over it.  We usually get at least one four hour stretch between feedings at night, sometimes a tiny bit more, but for the most part she is still an every three hours kind of girl.

goodbye knee wrinkles, now we're working on thigh rolls

If I wait too long to put her down for a nap she is a BEAR about going to sleep.  The last few days have been unreal with how difficult it is, resulting in a fussy baby, a lonely toddler and a tired me.  At this point I feel like I'm just waiting to sleep train her.  I know she is too little now, and lots can change in the next couple of months, but this resembles how Ry was SO much.  Hopefully after this month when Chris's schedule is a little more predictable and we aren't all over the place we can settle into a better routine and start trying to put her down awake.  But I doubt it will go over well.  Who knows.  I suppose I should think about transitioning Elsie out of the rock 'n play too, but I'm dreading it.

Let's see, more random stuff about Miss E... both her tear ducts are still clogged.  She has some blonde hairs growing in on the top of her head.  Woot woot for no more baldness.  Even though she still looks a little bald.  Her eyes look like they're starting to turn blue.  She seems to be turning into a real mama's girl.  Flattering and annoying all at the same time.  Seriously, when she cries sometimes it sounds like she is saying 'want mama'.  I'm not lying, ask my mom!  And she has one of the best pouty lips I have ever seen.  She doesn't really like her paci, even though when she finally gives into it, it seems to calm her down.  We still need to add more tummy time into our day.  Elsie's head and neck control kind of sucks.  It is definitely getting better, but I remember Ry being much stronger by this age.

Over the past month she has had her first St. Patricks Day, her first Easter, visited Grammy and Papa's house in Kansas for the first time, been on an airplane, visited Grammy and Papa's Georgia house and the beach for the first time and probably some more firsts that I can't remember.  But the absolute best thing from this month?  Smiles.  Ohmygawd the smiles.  Elsie's smile is just plain adorable.  Especially when it gets all big and her tongue sticks out.  Those smiles can fix almost anything.  If only they could magically clean the house too...  And the cooing.  That is adorable too.

Oh I almost forgot!  To celebrate her two month birthday Miss Elsie rolled from belly to back for the first time.  I thought it was a fluke, but I put her back on her stomach and she did it again.  It hasn't happened since, but I was impressed that she did it twice in a row.  I was surprised that she rolled over so early.  I think Ry was 11 weeks before she rolled over.  Thanks to the iphone I managed to catch Elsie's first roll on video:

Elsie girl I love you so much.  Can't wait to see what the next month brings!

And because I get asked about it a lot, my mom made Elsie's quilt using this tutorial.  Most of the fabric came from Joann's.  Her little flower headband is from here.

ryann's glitter dinosaur party

This post probably isn't going to be as elaborate as I intended it to be, but the party didn't end up being as elaborate as I wanted it to either, so it's fitting.  Whatever, I'm mostly over it.

A while back Ryann concocted the idea for her third birthday party.  Dinosaurs + glitter.  Now at the time she really wasn't all that obsessed with dinosaurs, but now dinosaurs are pretty much her favorite thing so it worked out really well.  Ultimately there wasn't all that much glitter, or really, dinosaurs, but enough that it made Ry happy.  Which I guess is the goal, right?

We opted to do a brunch-ish party this year for two reasons.  One, I thought Ry would like that kind of food a little bit more.  Two, I wanted an excuse to make the colored deviled eggs.  Cause they're dinosaur eggs.  Duh.  I don't even like deviled eggs...  Other food items included muffins and cinnamon rolls from a local bakery, sausage crescent roll bites, frozen fruit cups, sesame asparagus and glittered lemon cake pops.  For drinks we had water, coffee and orange juice available.

The polka dot table cloths were from Ryann's first birthday party.  The fringe tissue paper garlands were pretty simple for my mom to make.  We she cut 10x15 rectangles of tissue paper, laid three sheets on top of each other and folded them in half.  Then we got all the colors lined up how we wanted and hot glued them to some cording.  Lastly my mom fringed them with her rotary cutter.  You can look for tutorials on pinterest, but we just kind of winged it based on what we found and what we wanted.

To get the dinosaurs in the mix I picked up some plastic dinos from the Target dollar section.  Then I grabbed some pink and purple spray paint and made Chris paint them.  We had some glitter purple spray that was AWESOME, but it stopped working after the first coat (we may have left it in the cold garage, whoops).  Oh and Rustoleum paint covers way better than Krylon, just an fyi.  My only other decor consisted of balloons, but we were running late (as usual) and I didn't take all that many pictures.  Oh the pink glitter frame was from Hobby Lobby. 

Ryann's skirt came from a local botique (it's the same one we had for her Halloween costume), and her dinosaur shirt was made by my mother of course.  Elsie had a matching onesie, but I failed at life and didn't get a picture of her (or the girls together) on my big camera.  To glitter the candle (did you notice there was a purple glitter candle?) I used modpodge and edible glitter on one of those regular wax number candles.  It was easier said than done, but it worked.  I found the idea on One Charming Party.

To entertain the kiddos (well, the only other child at the party who is Ryann's age) we put together a little fossil dig.  At first I wanted to use sand, but it was freezing so we had to be inside, and Chris pretty much said hell no.  So he bought me bird seed.  We stuck some plastic dino skeletons in there, along with some plastic eggs with mini dinosaurs in them, in the bird seed and gave the kids some shovels.  They had a blast.  I had wanted to do a 'dinosaur egg hunt' outside, but again, freezing.  Oh well.

Other things I had wanted to do but didn't get a chance... make food signs with dinosaur themed food names, make party hats for the giant dinos that Christopher picked up for Ry, um, probably more stuff that I just can't think of right now.  Honestly though?  I'm impressed with what we pulled off, considering we didn't start putting anything together until the Thursday before the party.  Yep, we had two days to prep.  I mean I had an idea of things I wanted to do, and had ordered some dinosaur favor crap on Amazon, but we didn't put together any decorations or outfits or anything until two days before the party.

I really wish I had started earlier / had more time, because it ended up being such a fun theme and I would have liked to run with it a little more, but Ryann still had a blast and everything looked cute.  Can't believe beginning of next year I'll be trying to put together two parties!  I keep saying eventually we'll just keep it super simple, but I love planning these parties. 

a day in the life - heather

Ugh.  Back to reality.  It is extra unfortunate that reality equals three weeks pretty much without my husband.  I'd like to go back to the beach please and thank you.  Instead I'm sure the girls and I will be spending lots of time at Casa de Grammy.

For today's installment of 'a day in the life,' you get a peek at what Heather is up to.  Enjoy!

***

Hi everyone! My name is Heather and I blog over at Hold My Heart. I've been married to my husband Jared for the last 3.5 years, and we have a sweet little boy Rowan who is almost 17 months old. I'm also pregnant with our second child, a baby girl named Briar - and she's due in July. I'm so excited to share what our days together are like with you! Being a stay at home mom isn't glamourous but it's so rewarding, and I feel really blessed to be able to experience this.

So here is how our Monday went, but it could be any old week-day...

7:00am- I hear Rowan wake up on the monitor. But he's happy and just talking to himself so I let him roll around for a bit while I try to wake up.

7:35- Rowan gives me a huge smile and hug around the neck...perfect way to start the day. I change his diaper, and grab the wet bag of dirty dipes from yesterday and bring them downstairs with us.

Then I get Rowan his cup of milk, and load all the coffee cups from bible study last night into the dishwasher. My nesting is in full swing...one dirty sock on the floor is enough to drive me batty. My house is never usually so clean!

While I'm loading the dishwasher and cutting up fruit, Rowan is splashing his milk out of his sippy all onto the dining room floor and chairs. I have him clean it up, and then go back to getting us breakfast.

Thankfully, last night I made a hashbrown/egg/ham/cheese bake so I don't need to cook this morning.

8:10- I go get R to eat. He's playing with his water table (no water in it) in the playroom. I take his beloved keys and put him in his high chair, turn on Curious George and say "eat your food" five thousand times. He's not a big breakfast eater.

He's crying for the car keys... kid plays with them ALL day, pretending they're a tool to fix things. 

While he sloooowly eats, I eat and blog, and catch up on IG and my mommy group on Facebook. Once I get bored of all that, and R is still picking at his food... I run the dishwasher, switch over laundry to the dryer, start the load of cloth diapers, and quickly make our bed. I also see that R hasn't eaten any of his hash brown/egg bake, and only a few strawberries. So I give him a few handfuls of dry cereal, and (judge away...) half a pop tart. Hey- he's gotta eat something.

9:00am- Rowan is finally done eating. I turn on Pandora so we can listen to some music, and then bring him over to the sink to wash up. Once he's dried off and running around, I go back and clean off the high chair and sweep the floor.

Our house is a split level, so the foyer, playroom and laundry room/half bath are on the first level. There are two short sets of stairs leading up to the living, dining and kitchen. Then a long set of stairs up to the four bedrooms and two baths. We let Rowan run around the first two levels and gate off the long stairs.

So after I get the breakfast mess all cleaned, we go down to the play room, and I fold laundry off and on while we play.

It's 30 degrees out and he's already begging to go outside for the day. 

So we pretend we're outside instead ;) 

I fold laundry, we blow bubbles, read books, and play cars for the next hour. 

10:15am-  I take R upstairs, he goes pee on his potty and gets a new diaper, and we look at another book. I change his clothes, brush teeth, and he lays down for a nap. 

10:30- He's not asleep, but he's not crying... so I go wash my face, brush my teeth and hair, and get dressed. 

Comfy clothes and no make up for being home all day are the usual around here. 

Rowan is still playing around, so I figure he's done his morning poop and is waiting to get changed before he'll go to sleep. I was right. Once I go flush the liner (yes, even poop in cloth diapers can be THAT easy!) and check the video monitor, I see he's asleep. 

11:00am- I get my notebook and Bible, sit on my bed and read 1 Peter 4, which was what our pastor taught on yesterday in church. I spend some time in prayer, and then in half an hour I'm ready to take a quick nap myself. 

Jared is on his lunch break at work and texts me, so we end up texting for the next half an hour instead. I love getting to talk to him for a little bit while he's at work! We talk about a difficult family situation we've been dealing with for a few minutes, and about how next week is our dating anniversary from high school, NINE years ago. Woa! How has it been so long?? We also decide we need to spend some more quality time together, and J told me he was thinking we should go to an orchestra concert at a near by college. For now, we decide a bubble bath together once the baby is asleep would be awesome. 

12:30- Rowan's awake! I get more happy hugs, and we go down stairs and I start lunch. 

Rowan gets some pizza muffin, some mac n cheese, and a nutrigrain bar. I eat a bowl of peanut butter Captain Crunch, because that's the only thing that sounds good to me at all. Then I peel a few apples, and pop them in the oven with some cinnamon and brown sugar for a snack later. 

1:30-  We're done with lunch. I rinse and repeat the clean-up routine, and switch the cloth diapers over to the dryer. While I'm doing that- Rowan is escaping out the front door. Thankfully, I catch him just as he's walking onto the front porch. We need to get some dead-bolts for our doors, because he is SO obsessed with getting out! 

It's warm enough, so we get on our shoes and hats and head across the street to the play ground. We're blessed to have a head start right on our road so we can take advantage of the play ground almost every day! It's still super windy though, which is so irritating. It's April and it's still so cold!! 

R is thrilled to get to go out! 

Thankfully, even though I'm pretty big, I'm still able to run around with him. We go down the slides together...even the biggest twisty slide. I basically let him choose where he wants to go, and let him run as he pleases. 

2:30-  We head back home. It's still pretty chilly with the wind and the preschoolers came out, so it was time to go! 

We play some more down stairs. Rowan asks to color but gets bored with it fairly quickly. He's starting to get crabby, so even though I doubt he'll take a second nap I bring him up to try. He goes pee on the potty, and then lays down. 

3:15- Jared calls me on his way home from work and we talk for a few minutes until he gets home. Rowan isn't going to sleep (big surprise...) so I get him up. He plays with J for a few minutes, and then we give him a snack in his high chair so that we can continue our conversation in peace for a little longer.  

Then we all snack and play and make a big mess for a few hours. Today, we pushed all of the couches together, got out a ton of pillows and blankets from the linen closet and jumped around on the couch. 

Watching the rain... 

5:30- I look at the recipe I was planning to make on my phone, and realize that I don't have some of the ingredients I need. I tell J that means he can make us something instead :) J makes us pirogues.

6:30- We sit down to eat. Rowan refuses to even try one bite of his dinner. We give him some other veggies to try... and he spits them all out. I give in and make him grilled cheese, which he eats. With a lot of silly faces and pretend snoring. He's such a ham! But man, this stage of picky eating is not so fun. He used to be such a great eater... now he basically just wants cheese. Ugh! I'm hoping it's just a stage. 

7:30- Jared and I do a quick clean up together. He unloads the dish washer while I take care of Rowan's radius of food hurricane left around the high chair. Then I reload the dish washer, and do a quick sweep and wipe down counters. 

We go to the play room and play for an hour. J rolls around on the floor with Rowan and they're ridiculously silly together. It melts my heart. 

8:15- Bed time! Rowan sits on the potty (won't go this time) and then gets his night time diaper on. That just means I add a hemp insert into the pocket for overnight absorbency. He gets his binky, picks a story, and lays down without a fuss. By 8:30 he's out. :) 

Usually, at this point, Jared and I head down stairs and turn on one of our shows to watch... How I Met Your Mother, Friends, or anything else interesting on netflix (usually nothing!) and we talk, go on our phones, snack, and fall asleep on the couch. 

Tonight, I'm blogging and then getting into a bubble bath which I've been looking forward to all day. 

What is the most surprising thing to you about being a mom?

Hmm.. I guess the most surprising thing is just how drastically your life changes! You KNOW that having a baby will change things, but you really have no idea who that little person is going to be or how they're going to dictate every minute of your life for a while. You have to find new ways to run your house, communicate with your husband, take care of yourself, and maintain outside relationships. and it's freaking hard! But it's overwhelmingly worth it. Being a mom is the most amazing thing I've experienced. 

What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas?

Not to make so many plans. Don't have so many ideas about the things you think that you'll NEVER do. Looking at other moms and thinking you'll never be that way. Just be open to doing what works for your family, and figuring out what that is as you go. 

What are your top three baby products?

• We love our video monitor!! We have the Summer Infant brand, and though it's not great and we're planning on upgrading, it's seriously been so useful even at this point. 
• The jumperoo is also awesome. R would still be jumping in it if we let him! 
• We have a Baby Trend Jogging stroller that I adore. It maneuvers so easily and is light weight and easy to fold up. Love it! 

Thanks so much for letting me share our day with you! I hope you'll head on over to my blog if you want more updates on our little family and pregnancy posts :) 

Thanks so much to Ashley for hosting me!!!

***

Thank you, Heather, for sharing your day with us!

oh hindsight.

Even though my body isn't what it was, I had been feeling pretty good about myself and where I am at.  Despite the fact that I know I'm eating like crap when I say I want to do better.  However on our way to Georgia I started cleaning photos off my phone, and came across all the ones from right before and right after I found out I was pregnant.

At the time I had been down on myself.  I had gained a few pounds and wasn't doing as much weight training.

Oh hindsight.  You're such a bitch.

I think I was about eight weeks pregnant in that photo.  Yep pregnant.  And still looking much better than I do now.  Yes, I'm aware it has only been eight weeks since I birthed a child.  Yes, my body does look pretty dang good given that regard.  But man.  What I would do to get my body back...

It is a good thing I ran into that photo.  I've been struggling with jumping on this whole cleaning up my diet thing.  I keep saying I'm going to do it, and then someone offers me a treat or I pick up a bag of candy at the store and all will power goes out the window.  But when we get home from Georgia?  It's on like Donkey Kong.

Again I don't plan on any extreme calorie cutting.  I know that likely wouldn't be good for my milk supply.  It's unfortunate because counting calories and keeping them low was how I had success the first time around with weight loss.  Still, putting only good fuel in my body will get me somewhere.  So this time around I think I'm going to try and avoid weighing myself, and rather take measurements.  Because really no one else will see my scale, but they will see me.  So that is what counts.  And feeling good about myself and being healthy and... whatever.

I managed a 4.5 mile run walk this week.  My longest distance in months.  I'm definitely feeling it, but every time I go a little further I feel like I might be able to get my running mojo back.  Because my goal about year from now?  To run a marathon.  Eek!

 

If you had a health and fitness post last week when I wasn't around, feel free to link it up this week.  And whatever posts you might have regarding the subject.  Thanks for sticking around even when I'm a little flakey!

ryann - three years

Oh man.  I went back to look at Ryann's two year post to see what I had written and give me an idea of where to go with the post and I cannot believe how much she has grown.  I'm sure I say that all the time, but at 24 months she still had a little baby left in her.  Not so much anymore!

Ryann really has grown so much.  We were at my parents house over Easter weekend and she wanted to sit at the table in a regular chair, not her booster.  I started to say something to affect that she wouldn't really be able to reach the table, but she plopped herself in a seat and was just fine.  It surprised me.  At her doctor's appointment she weighed 31lbs and was 36.3 inches tall.  Ry is wearing mostly 3T clothing, except for some tees and jeggings from Target.  Those always seem to run small.

People always ask me if Ryann is a good sleeper, and my first response is no, she isn't.  But I suppose that isn't exactly true.  When she is asleep for the night, she is out, generally sleeping from about 9pm until 6:30am, and toss a one to two hour nap around 1:30 in there as well during the day.  So yes, she sleeps.  But she almost rarely sleep in, and actually getting her in her bed is quite the chore.  She stalls during bedtime like it is her job.  And now she comes out of her room about a million times asking for this or that or wanting to tell us something.  It drives me nuts.  She used to be so good about staying in her room when Sleep Buddy was on.  Thankfully when she wakes up in the morning she stays in her room until it goes off.  And even though she never really sleeps until 7am, we've changed it so Sleepy Buddy doesn't go off until then.  There isn't much benefit to her being out of her room before then.

pink chocolate chip pancakes, per the birthday girl's request

Nap time has been renamed 'quiet time', and I no longer expect her to go to sleep.  But for the most part she does.  Sleep buddy is on from 1:15pm to 3:30pm so I'm supposed to get a couple hours in the middle of the day free from toddler duty.  But lately she is having a party in there for about an hour, and pops out to request something multiple times before finally falling asleep.  Since she has been falling asleep later I'm often having to wake her from nap.  I won't let her sleep past 4:00pm.

This kid's picky eating habits have gotten out of control.  She definitely prefers junk food, even though I try to limit it.  Ryann eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich nearly every day for lunch.  She loves fruit, and will eat almost any kind of fruit.  Other favorites are muffins, honeynut cheerios, almonds and pickles.  There isn't a single veggie that she will eat on a regular basis.  She'll tolerate a few bites of carrots, corn and bell peppers, but that is it.  We still resort to squeezy pouches and smoothies to get any veggies in her.  We used to have a rotation of four things that she would eat for dinner that we would make, but now she even refuses most of those, so for dinner her plate consists of whatever we are eating.  Which she never eats.  I know we should have been doing that from the start, but... hopefully she'll start to try and like more foods soon.

Ryann is unbelievably smart, and would know more if I would be better about working with her.  Her Grandma 'Nita has bought her some preschool workbooks, and she plows through them like crazy.  She is beginning to understand some basic math concepts and is pretty great with letter sounds.  She is also starting to get a grasp on rhyming words.  She LOVES doing the little worksheets.  For a variety of reasons we opted to keep Ryann at the church preschool where she has been going to MDO.  I'm hoping it wasn't the wrong choice.  She has plenty of years to learn academics, but I'm worried that there won't be enough to keep her interest.  I know they don't really focus on letters and letter sounds and such until the kids are in the 4 year old room there.  Oh and Ryann can also write her first name pretty convincingly.  So proud of her.

Ry is quite the little problem solver when it comes to wanting situations or events to go her way.  For instance, the other day I told her the twins were playing at Sarah's house (if you're new here Sarah used to nanny them and we played with them a lot).  We used to go to Monkey Bizness with them often, so Ry got all excited and said "Hooray!  We can go to Monkey Bizness!"  Now Sarah has a home daycare so she can't really get out, and I tried to explain that to Ryann.  "Well, it's ok, she can bring the other kids too.  I don't mind."  "Honey I don't think she can, that is a lot of kids to take care of, and I think her car is too small to drive them all."  "Well... we can take our car there and someone can ride in our car!"  "With you and Elsie in the car we don't have any extra seats, because kids your size can't sit in the front."  "Well... we could probably all take a bus to Monkey Bizness."  There is a solution for everything, of course!  :o)

The little miss is also trying to become a master negotiator.  We'll often tell her if she does something, such as "If you eat three bites of vegetables and two bites of fruit you can watch an episode of Dinosaur Train."  She'll come back with "Well, how about three bites of fruit and one bite of vegetables?"  Actually she'll usually say "I'd prefer..." with her finger pressed to the bottom of her lips, her little thinking face.  I'm fairly certain this trait comes from me.  I can vividly remember being in dance rehearsals, bargaining with my instructor for how many more times we had to do the dance full out. 

Ryann is a very strong headed, opinionated little girl.  She isn't the least bit afraid to tell you what she wants, and is even less timid about letting you know when you're doing something she doesn't like.  Parenting her can be a very tough thing, it definitely tests your patience.  Some days she is great and sweet and what not, but unfortunately when she gets mad it escalates very quickly, and her first reaction when she isn't getting her way it to throw something or hit someone.  I hate that.  I know she is young and that is very normal, but it is so hard to keep my cool when she starts doing that.  We talk regularly about using our words and talking about our feelings, but she just hasn't come around to it yet.

sometimes you just have to jump out of your car and dance to your jams

Currently Ryann is OBSESSED with dinosaurs, mostly Dinosaur Train.  We are regularly pteranadons or T-Rexes.  Christopher ended up purchasing all of the seasons of Dinosaur Train on his iPad, and now that is all Ryann wants to do, sit around and watch it (which of course I won't allow all the time, therefore we have another thing to battle about, but you know).  Ry has definitely learned a lot about dinosaurs from the show, and can name several different kinds.  The other week when we were at my parents house, she picked up a shark and said, "Look Dad, a cretoxyrhina!"  We had to look it up to see if she was right, and sure enough.

Before Ryann had every episode of Dinosaur Train at her fingertips, we were forced to watch all of the Madagascar movies on a repeating rotation.  I regularly have the afro circus song stuck in my head.  Now all lions are named Alex, hippos are Gloria, zebras are Marty, and giraffes are Melvin, because we didn't realize at first that they were actually saying Melman in the movie.  Thankfully if you have to watch a set of movies over and over again, they are pretty good ones.  Chris and I both agree the third one is the best, I love the penguins.  Oh and Ryann's favorite song is still 'I Like to Move It.'  Actually Chris bought the soundtracks from the movies, and if you play a song Ryann can tell you which movie it is in.  We have quite the awesome Madagascar dance parties in our house.

  

Miss Ryann has become quite possessive of her little sister.  If we are out and about and anyone so much as looks at Elsie, Ryann is quick to tell them that it is HER baby.  Yes her baby, not her sister.  :o)  Ryann is seriously just so cute with Elsie.  I love it.

Whew, this post has gotten long enough so I guess I'll try and cut it off there.  Ryann really just is such a special girl.  Almost everyone who meets her says something to the effect that they have never met a little girl quite like her.  When she is in the mood to be sweet she is SO sweet.  When she is excited she is SOOO excited.  And when she is pissed, well...

Miss Ryann, you are going to keep me on my toes for the rest of my life, I can guarantee it.  But I love you to pieces and I'm so incredibly happy that I am your mother.  I can't wait to see where life takes you.  But please stay little just a bit longer, ok?  I love you.

that's what she said

Here I go and say I probably won't be posting, and then I manage to find myself a few minutes.  Plus it is an easy post to throw up since I've just been writing down what Ry says, and already had the pictures on Flickr, waiting for a post to use them in.  For the record, the things Ryann says lately are ridiculous.  She sounds like a teenager sometimes.

Ryann:  "Tomorrow I'll be nice and I'll never ask for a sweet treat ever again."
said after a particularly rough couple of hours, and yes, she has asked for sweet treats

Ryann:  "When I was a kitty like Max I used to eat kitty food all the time.  Yeah, I was a green cat.  Green and orange."

Grammy:  "Girlfriend, are you going to drive me crazy all week?"
Ryann:  "I'm not big enough to drive you!"

Me:  sings the Honey Nut Cheerio song "Nobody can say no..."
Ryann:  "Um, well, the boy who said no to me at Monkey Bizness would say no to my cheerios."

Ryann:  "Grammy, tell me the story of David and Goliath."
Grammy:  "Well, there was a solider named Goliath.  He was big and mean..."
Ryann:  "Wait!  Hold that story!" runs to grab something from the other room

Ryann:  "Can I have a drink?"
Me:  hands Ry a cup of water, she takes a sip
Ryann:  "Eew disgusting.  I don't like water.  I want some juice."

a day in the life - maria

Well, I apologize but there is probably going to be some radio silence around here this week, and maybe part of next.  The girls are rarely sleeping at the same time and we've barely been home between the holiday and a trip and this and that.  So sorry.  But I'm sure you'll live.  :o)  Who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself and get a few minutes!

Today you get a peek at Maria's day.  Enjoy!

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Hi  'The Domestic Wannabe' readers! Today you'll be reading a bit about my day-to-day life with my son Micha and husband B.  My name is Maria and my blog is called 'Micha and ME'.

We live in a small-ish city in Holland, but I'm originally from Australia(born there) and Canada(spent a chunk of my childhood there). My family moved to Holland when I was ten years old.  I studied Journalism in university, now I'm a stay-at-home mama, but I'm also a Barista two nights a week.  My husband is an elementary school teacher. We met in high school at the age of sixteen and got married on a beautiful, sunny afternoon in August when we were twenty-one.

Our son Micha (the dutch spelling of Micah) is almost eight months old and such a happy and active little guy, he's the love of our life. We struggled with infertility for almost four years before I got pregnant with him, and we feel so lucky that God blessed us with our precious baby boy.

This is how a typical day in our life looks like:

4.30 a.m. - Micha wakes up next to me. On Saturday night the clocks changed to an hour earlier because of Daylight Saving time and he's having a hard time getting used to it and has been sleeping in our bed the last few nights (whoever invented Daylight Saving probably didn't have small children, grrr).  I nurse him back to sleep. But now I can't sleep. I've been battling the flu or a bad cold the last few days and my sinuses are all stuffed up.

7.00 a.m. - I guess I fell asleep after all,  because the alarm clock wakes us. It's time to get up.
Micha is always such a happy little guy in the mornings so I don't mind waking up next to him at all!
We cuddle a bit in bed while B. hops in the shower and gets ready for a day in front of the classroom. I try to nurse Micha, but I guess he doesn't want his morning drink because he bites me ( ouch!) and turns away to play. (He has always been a difficult baby to nurse, he's very easily distracted and lately he's been on breastfeeding strike during the day, so now I offer to nurse him when ever it seems like he's thirsty to get us back on track. )

7.30 a.m. - We go downstairs and have breakfast together. Granola, yogurt and orange juice for the adults and a rice cracker, a pear and yogurt for Micha. We're doing Baby-Led weaning with him and he just loves it. He loves being in charge of what goes in his mouth and I love that it's so easy, no puréees or spoon feeding here! We do help him eat his yogurt by filling his spoon, but he brings it to his mouth by himself, and he's getting better and better at it!

8.00 a.m. - B. leaves for work and we stand at the window and wave while we watch him bike away.
I then plop Micha down on the living room rug with some toys. While he plays I clean off the table, check my email and vacuum the living room and the kitchen.

9.00 am. - Micha goes down for his nap, usually I sing him lullaby and lay him down and that's that, but today it takes a bit more effort. I turn on his music box and he falls asleep.
I take a shower, get dressed, and put on some make-up. Then I go downstairs, make some coffee, and while it's brewing I load the dishwasher and wash some bottles.
My coffee's ready, I take it to the living room and read some blogs and do some blogging of my own.

10.45 a.m. - Micha wakes up from his nap, happy and chatting. I love when that happens, there's nothing better than a baby greeting you with smiles after a nap. I dress him and then we head downstairs to eat some fruit.  Some more pear and a slice of avocado for Micha and a kiwi for me. I need the vitamins to beat my cold! When we're done Micha seems like he's thirsty so I nurse him and he drinks surprisingly well, and no biting, my nipples thank him, haha, TMI?

11.45 a.m. - We put on our coats, I put Micha in his stroller and we head out to do some groceries. We go for a walk at least once day. The grocery store is about a fifteen minute walk from our apartment and we usually walk through a park with a petting zoo on the way back. Micha loves animals and gets all excited when he sees the goats and chickens. For some reason the animals are inside today, I don't know why, it's beautiful outside!

12.50 p.m. - We're back from our walk, we have lunch together, Micha has a slice of bread with tahini and margarine on it and I make myself a tomato and avocado sandwich.

1.30 p.m. - After lunch we play together and I read him some books. Lately I let him pick which book he wants to read, I give him two choices and he grabs the one he wants to read. He definitely has a favorite: 'Oh no, George', by Chris Haughton.

2.00 p.m. - Micha is rubbing his eyes and is getting a bit fussy, so it's nap time again. He goes down a bit easier than this morning. While he naps I blog.

3.30 p.m. - I hear Micha chatting through the baby monitor and find him playing with his stuffed monkey in his crib. It's beautiful and sunny outside so I decide to take us out for a walk again. We walk to another petting zoo close by, and here all the animals are outside, Micha is so excited!

4.30 p.m. - We're home again. I put Micha in his walker while I prepare dinner. We're having Shepherds Pie tonight, one B.'s favorites. For Micha I make a little meatball and steam some carrots and potatoes.

5.15 p.m. - B. is home from work and plays with Micha while I finish cooking dinner.

5.45 p.m. - We eat together. We make an effort to eat together at the table every night. We really believe that it's such a good thing for our family, and we want Micha to grow up to see meal time as family time.

6.45 p.m. - Micha goes in bath every evening, and tonight's no different. After he's done splashing all of the water out of playing in the tub I dry him off and put on his Pajama's and sleep sack. We cuddle up on the pouf in his room where I read some books, pray with him and sing some lullabies. I turn of the lights and nurse him. When he's done I put him in bed, give him a kiss and sneak out of his room.

7.00 p.m. - We hear some sleepy noises through the monitor, but he quickly falls asleep.

7.30 p.m. - B. leaves for bible study, too bad it's not at our house this time because now I'm missing out. I make myself some tea (I recently stopped drinking coffee in the evenings) and curl up on the couch to watch some episodes of 'Parenthood' on the laptop.

9.00 p.m. - B. comes home.  He has a beer and I have a little glass of wine and we chat about our day and watch an episode of 'Downton Abbey' on the laptop.

10.00 p.m. - We hear Micha crying, I nurse him back to sleep and put him back in his own bed (hopefully he'll stay there tonight). I'm still not feeling completely better and B. is pretty exhausted as well so we both go to bed.

And we'll do this whole thing over tomorrow!

What is the most surprising thing to you about being a mom?
I’m most surprised by how much I love being a stay-at-home mama. I really thought I would get so bored, but I honestly am not. I just love hanging out with my baby. And of course it does help to have friends with babies to have play/coffee dates with.

What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be mamas?
Don’t let other people tell you how to raise your baby. You and your husband are his/her parents and know what is best for him/her. Of course there’s nothing wrong with receiving advice if you ask for it, but unsollicited criticism should be ignored.

What are your top three baby products?

- A baby carrier, we have the Beco Gemini and I love it!

- Lanisoh Soothies Gel Pads. Not really a baby product, but you’ll love these if your a new nursing mama.

- Lots and lots of burp cloths, they really are good for everything!

Hope you enjoyed reading and I hope to see you at michaandme.blogspot.com!

Love, Maria

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Thanks for sharing with us Maria!