Day at the park

Theo has been off work this week (except for a two hour meeting he had to go to yesterday) so we've been getting stuff done around the house and hanging out with the kiddos. Carter and I discovered a great park a couple of weeks ago which is about 10 minutes away from our house. So we decided daddy needed to come play at this park with us. It was a little chilly so we only stayed about an hour but Carter really needed to get out and burn off some energy. I mean really!



This is his favorite thing at this part. Round and round he goes...where he stops, nobody knows!







Something he can only play with daddy there since I'm not quite tall enough or strong enough to hold him up that high!



Mommy and Olivia hanging out while the boys play




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On this Veteran's Day, I would be remiss to not mention how grateful I am to all of our troops, past and present who given me the very freedom which allows me to live my life the way I choose. I can't imagine life without these freedoms and am forever thankful to our soldiers....especially the ones in my family!

Resemblance

When I saw this picture, I immediately thought about how much Olivia looks like Carter (but in a girly, more feminine kind of way!) Despite our rough night last night with Carter throwing up every 10 minutes for two hours, I love my kids more today than ever. I got some very bad news this morning of an extended family member losing their baby at 18 weeks. As a mother, especially a mother of a little baby, I can't imagine too many more things worse than that. My heart grieves for them. I don't know what I would do if I were ever in that same situation. So I made a promise to myself that I will cherish my children more and more with each passing day. I have been doing so much complaining about motherhood lately (i.e. sleep deprivation, cleaning up more vomit than I know what to do with, leaky, sore boobs, whiny temper tantrums,etc etc). And then I have to stop and remind myself that I am so blessed to be a mom. Thousands of women out there want to have a child, want to wake up all hours of the night to nurse a fussy baby, would love to discipline a cranky three year old, and experience all the good and bad things motherhood has to offer but can't. I am blessed. Lord, please help me appreciate all aspects of motherhood for my children are such a precious gift that I don't ever want to take for granted.

Going green to save some green

I blogged about my decision to use cloth diapers this time on my pregnancy blog. But I just wanted to say how much I love the cloth diapers!

I even have a convert...my friend Georgette is now also using cloth diapers on her 3 month old baby. I was a little nervous to make the transition from disposable to cloth but it really is so easy. It's a little stinky sometimes but the fact that our grocery bill is so much less makes it worth it. Yes, I'm all for helping the environment, reducing our waste, blah blah blah, but honestly, I'm doing it to save money. My mom got the set of 12 diapers as a baby shower present for us so really, we didn't spend any money on them. They really aren't that much work either and when we are snowed in, it will be so nice to not have to worry whether or not we have enough diapers. As long as we have detergent, and water and electricity, we are good to go. Despite them making her look like she had a ghetto booty when she was first born, they are so cute too!

Now that she is bigger, they really aren't as bulky and actually make her clothes fit a little better. She had to graduate from the newborn diaper inserts to the thicker ones because she is peeing up a storm these days thanks to her every 2-3 hour nursings! I'm so glad Theo and I made this decision! We will definitely use cloth diapers until Olivia is out of them and for any other children we may have (and by children, I mean a single child...three is probably my limit!!) :)

Foot fetish

I have an unhealthy obsession with feet. Not all feet but Olivia's feet. I think they are the cutest things in the world and I photograph them whenever I can. I will admit that a big reason why I bought my camera and a new lens in May was to get better pictures of baby feet! If I had had my awesome camera when Carter was this age, you can bet there would be tons of pictures of his little feet too. But my camera I had then was so slow that I never could get that perfect photo. Oh well, I could take pictures of his feet now but they aren't near as cute as baby feet. So I may just take pictures of his 'fro. That's pretty cute too!

Playin in the snow: part 2

Carter did finally get a chance to actually play out in the snow a few days ago. The snow had long since stopped falling but was still lingering in our backyard. So despite being sick but because we were cooped up for three days, I decided to let him go play in it. No bowls and spoons this time! He like it much better when the snow wasn't actually falling on his face. It was actually quite warm outside even though he is in his snowsuit coat. The weather here is a little crazy but we're adjusting. It will be 30 degrees for a few days, then all of a sudden, it's 70 outside. You need big closets so you can keep your summer and winter clothes out at the same time :)

Mohawks for girls?

I took these pictures of wild-haired Olivia a couple of mornings ago. Please ignore the fact that she is sleeping on her stomach (I know, I know but I don't let her sleep that way when I'm asleep and I check on her constantly but I digress....) Her hair seems like it is getting so long already. I am curious to see if it will all fall out in a few months the way Carter's did.

In other Olivia news, her nine hour strectch I mentioned on facebook earlier in the week was unfortunately, a fluke. She continues to wake up at 2 a.m. almost every single morning and I am so tired. We are somewhat on a schedule during the day and she naps really well in her bed. If I could just get her to drop the 2 a.m. feeding, I would feel like a new woman!

Carter has been sick for the past week with fever and now a snotty nose. Is whinyness a diagnosis, because if so, he's got that too and a MAJOR case of it. He had been doing better with the whining until this morning....there is something about Theo being home that brings out Carter's inner whinyness. But he was so cute a few days ago. He really didn't want to be sick because he did not want to go to the doctor. So he kept saying "See momma, I'm happy (and making a fake smily face)"


Bless his heart, he really didn't want to feel bad! I'm hoping he is on the mend. We missed MOPS today which is not good for me because I didn't want to expose any kids to his germs. But we did go to the park. I figure being outdoors was probably better than being in a little classroom at MOPS. But he was tired and after an hour asked to come home. He has also not been eating hardly anything but yet always manages to ask for snacks and Halloween candy. He is milking it for all it's worth!

Theo got "certified" at work this week (i.e. completed all his necessary training and passed a test). So he now he is working on different shifts. When he first took the job, he was under the impression that he would have a pretty set schedule: 2 day shifts, two evenings, two nights and then four days off. But that is most certainly not the case. I'm hoping it's because of the holidays that his schedule is so wacky but only time will tell. He is having to work the next two weekends, Thanksgiving night and the night before and after. But yea, he's off for Christmas. There is no rhyme or reason to the schedule which makes it hard to plan for things. But on the flip side, he is off for five days next week so we may try and head on a short road trip. We'll see. He's also back in school working on finishing up his master's and has an assignment due next Wednesday so we may just hang out here for five days instead. Again, we'll see.

We don't have any big weekend plans because he is working 3-11 both Friday and Saturday night. Yuck. This is going to take some getting used to for sure. But at least I'm not working so we can really have our "weekends" whenever even if that means it's on a Monday and Tuesday. It will make it harder to go to church together though. Oh well, it's only temporary right? (Like for the next 3 years. Ughhhh!)

Black and White

(Thank you mom for my black dropcloth for which these photos would not be possible!)