Check-ups

Olivia had her 18 month check up today and Isaiah had his two month visit. I love that I hardly ever have to wait for long to be seen and I love that my pediatrician is my friend! (I don't think one has anything to do with the other though :)!!)

Olivia still weighs 21 pounds but she has a double chin (just like her momma) and big thighs (again, just like her momma!) so I honestly don't know why she doesn't weigh more. She did great with her visit and vaccine. The whole time Lisa was examining her, she sat there smiling and licking the flavored tounge depressor. Note to self: When I go back to work, if I'm working in a pediatric clinic, I MUST invest in flavored tongue depressors! So back to Olivia....when she got her immunization, she literally said "Uh!" and that was it. She got off the table and started playing again. I couldn't believe it. The medical assistant said she's found that if the parents aren't right there in the child's face and if she holds them a certain way, the kids almost never cry. Will definitely remember that for next time!

Isaiah weighs in at 10 pounds and 4 ounces which is surprisingly on the 12% but he's gained 3.5 pounds in two months and is a chunk so he's right on track. He's 22.5 inches long (40%). He wasn't so lucky with his shots but to be fair, he had 3! He cried for a couple of minutes than I nursed him and he was all good!

Carter was more worked up about their shots than they were. He kept saying "I know you're going to be mad but you don't have a choice" in his little sing-songy voice. Right now, he's downstairs threatening to "break down all the rooms" because he didn't earn any t.v. time today! Ahhh, life with a strong-willed four year old....I bend over backwards to make him happy but when I finally stop doing that for a moment, all hell breaks loose!

Alright, well, I have some discipline that needs tending too! I'll hopefully be back tomorrow! Will try and add some pictures later once my camera battery is charged.

Lately

I've been feeling a little like this:

But I'm not near as cute about it as Olivia is. (Look at that mouthful of teeth!!) I haven't had much to blog about. I feel I'm often in survival mode and in order to not let my house get completely destroyed, I try and stay off the computer. Uploading pictures to the blog is so time consuming and if I turn my back for more than five minutes, my kids are running amok and my once clean house is now a disaster area. I know that this may seem to contradict my attitude in this post but I'm finding if I spend two or three minutes every hour just putting things back in their place than it's a lot easier to keep the house looking presentable.

Carter went back to school this past week and we were both happy to have a break from each other I think!

I lost our YMCA cards on Monday so I haven't been able to go there which is sad because I've had a stressful week and have really needed a break.

I'm thankful the weather has warmed up, even though it may only be temporary. I am arranging a couple of playdates for next week because I am tired of feeling in desperate need of adult conversation. I've never felt lonely in my entire life until I moved here. I'm so thankful that I do have Meredith only an hour away and am fortunate to have met Amy but it's a far cry from the group of friends I had back in Louisiana. I knew this day would come and again, I'm thankful to have two good friends close by. It could be worse, I could have no one here. I've always considered myself a friendly person but I'm realizing now that it takes work to maintain friendships. People don't just come knocking on the door wanting hang out....especially since my friends are all in the throws of raising small kids which is an all consuming duty. I feel like when I'm starting to feel sorry myself that the Lord is speaking to me and saying that I need to get out and do something about it. So that's what I'm doing. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and making an effort. Hopefully it'll pay off and I can make some more meaningful friendships here. My church has a young mom's playgroup but unfortunately, it's almost over for the year and it meets right at about the time I have to pick Carter up from school on Wednesday. So we'll see.

And in closing, I would like to share a precious picture of my baby:

The End. :)

Two months old!

My oh my...my little tiny fragile newborn is gone and has been replaced with a sweet, smiling, strong baby boy! Isaiah doesn't go for his two month check-up until Tuesday but I'm pretty sure he's about ten pounds. I looked back at my two month post from Olivia and she was ten pounds even at two months and weighed almost a pound more at birth than little man! I'm so thankful and relieved that nursing is going so well this time!

My sweet precious boy, at two months old, you:

-are such a sweet baby! You love to look at your family and just smile and coo. It's almost as if you do it on command. Carter loves talking baby talk to you and says "Hey little mansomest (a nickname I gave him that is a combination of man and handsomest!), give me some smiles!" It melts this momma's heart. And you almost always smile at him!

-still eat about every two to four hours around the clock. Sometimes you'll have a five hour stretch during the day or night but it's not the norm. But you are so worth the sleep interrupted nights!

- are still somewhat cranky during the witching hours but are getting less so some nights. You are consolable when I walk around with you. It seems that no matter what time we sit down for dinner, you are mad :) You seem to sense that you should be getting some food too!

- are doing much better now that you are on reflux medicines. You are such a gassy baby and respond well to Mylicon too. You are quite a spitter upper but with the Zantac, you don't seem too bothered by it.

- wear a size one disposable diaper and wear cloth diapers during the day most of the time now.

-wear size 0-3 months clothes but the cloth diapers make you look so huge!

-have only worn a pair of shoes once and they were a size one hand-me-down pair from Carter

-are not too fond of the baby einstein playmat the way your siblings were but LOVE the bouncy chair and often take naps there. You are finally starting to like the swing but not as much as the bouncy chair

-are often placed in your carseat for naps even when we aren't going anywhere and those are the best naps for you. You love being upright on account of your reflux and are most comfortable in your carseat.

-don't like sleeping in the miracle blanket when I first wrap you in it but it definitely makes for a much sounder night of sleep! Carter says you look like you are in a cocoon when in the blanket! :)

-wake up at least a couple of times a night, nurse, and then fall asleep. I think more times than not, you aren't even hungry but are so gassy that it wakes you up. I'm hoping you will sleep longer stretches soon. I put you down while you are drowsy or awake in your pack and play and you usually fall asleep within a few minutes. I no longer have to nurse you to sleep, both during the day or at night, which is so nice for me!!

-are in finally falling into a somewhat predictable pattern during the day which makes things much easier

-are still your momma and daddy's sweet baby boy and we love watching you grow and change everyday. We love you more than the whole world!

Fabulous Food Friday: Potato Soup

I made this really good potato soup a few days ago. It didn't photograph well because I had actually eaten half of it before realizing I needed to snap a picture! :) What can I say, breastfeeding makes for a very hungry woman!!! Anyway, back to the soup....it's a Paula Deen recipe and I got it off of foodnetwork. I ate it alongside my imitation Jason's Deli turkey wrap. You can find the soup recipe here. Hope you try it and love it as much as I did.

What would you do?

Do you ever watch that show What would you do? Well, Theo and I watch it sometimes and it always makes for interesting conversations afterwards. Today, I felt like I was the bystander and then later the "victim" in that show. So here's how it went down....it was just one of those weird days....

This morning, I went to one of the public libraries and as I was getting the stroller out, I hear a man yelling from across the parking lot. I look over and it was an old man (I'm talking white hair, handicapped parking place, etc) yelling at this woman, cursing at her, calling her stupid, the whole nine yards. At first I thought it was his wife and they were having a big fight. But the woman is getting in her car with him right literally an inch away from her and he's not getting in. So then, the man's wife comes out of the library and asks what was wrong. He replies "She hit the d*+#n car!" And muttered some other choice words. Well, as the woman in the car drives off, the wife starts beating on the hood of the woman's car. I think the woman just dinged the car door because she wasn't even driving yet and it was about to get her assaulted. I was appalled! I kept thinking how horrified if that was my husband acting that way! I told a librarian what happened just in case the woman files a police report or something. I kept waiting for John Quinones to pop out of the bushes with a t.v. crew and ask me why I didn't get involved!

So this afternoon, I took the kids to the park literally across the street from our house. After a while at the park, I saw a loose dog, about the size of a German shephard near our house. I watched it for several minutes and the whole time I could see what was about to happen. It kept looking at us and finally after about 5 minutes, it crossed the street and ran toward us. I told Carter to get on the playground equipment and stay up there while I grabbed Olivia and held her. The dog took off running over to us and I turned my back to him to protect Olivia and it started jumping on top of us, almost knocking us down. Isaiah, praise the Lord, was safe in the stroller. The dog never bit us and was probably a friendly dog but jumped on Olivia and me repeatedly. I couldn't even walk because the dog was on top of my back. Olivia was screaming. I was screaming "Help us". The people in the house 10 feet from where we were are sitting at their dining room table (I can see them because the blinds were open) and I'm waving and screaming to them to help us and they never even came out of the house. This went on for probably one or two minutes. Two cars pull up finally and one woman gets out and asks us if we need help. At the same time, a man pulls up and gets the dog for us and puts it in his truck (it wasn't his dog). Then a lady jogging on the trail behind the park came over to us and asked us if we needed anything. Once the dog was gone, I realized everything was fine. But I am so angry at the people just sitting in their house not doing a single thing while a large dog is jumping on top of me and my small daughter. I am so tempted to go knock on their door and give them a piec of my mind. But what good would that do? Probably not much.  Again, I kept waiting for t.v. crews but none came...fortunately for me this time because I was a hysterical wreck. Poor Olivia is still terrified and doesn't want me to put her down. I have a feeling it will be a while before we can go back to the park. But we are safe (angry but safe) so that's all that really matters. God protected us and I'm so thankful all of my babies are unharmed!

Brothers

My two favorite (little) fellas in the whole world!

Fabulous Food Friday: From my girl Paula!

Y'all know I LOVE Paula Deen. Well, unfortunately, my sweet husband isn't as a big as a fan since he's a Yankee and all. He always laugh when I watch her on tv because he's amazed by how much butter she uses. I finally found a butter free recipe. Of course, it's pot roast which doesn't typically contain butter but he was still surprised!

This was by far the best roast I have ever made. I had been making roast in a crockpot but they always turned out so dry. So I switched to baking them and it works much better. I'm pretty sure I've posted a different roast recipe before but this one was amazing! It was still moist after a couple of days and the gravy was delicious.

So, here you go....

Ingredients

• 1 (3 to 4-pound) boneless chuck roast
• 1 teaspoon House Seasoning, recipe follows
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced onion wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup red wine (I used cooking wine but I imagine it would have been much better with real red wine!)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules
• 3/4 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the House Seasoning, salt and pepper to a small bowl. Rub seasoning into the roast on both sides. Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the roast, searing it on both sides. Place the meat in a roaster pan. Add onions and garlic to skillet for 1 to 2 minutes to absorb leftover roast juice. Place into roaster pan with meat and bay leaves.

Combine the mushroom soup, wine, Worcestershire sauce and bouillon into a bowl. Pour over the roast. Add water.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 3 to 3 1/2 hours or until tender.

Remove and discard the bay leaves.

*Cook's Note: If the gravy is not thick enough, remove the meat from the pan and pour the gravy into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and thicken it by adding 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water, stirring constantly.