Without a Net

My Pretty Fairies

2011-11-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

The Newest Addition

2011-09-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

So we got a new puppy. I think I must be crazy, but Nathan twisted my arm and bought a Great Dane puppy about a month ago now. His name is Saxon. Here is a picture of him next to Toby.

Saxon is HUGE already at only 4 months old. He already weighs more than 40 pounds. He is going to take up half of our house.

Nathan and the girls are completely in love with him. I like him well enough, but if he eats one more pair of my shoes that could easily change ;)

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Girl

2011-05-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

My Baby Turned 1!

2011-05-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

Dear Calina,

Mommy has been in severe denial that an entire year has flown by since you joined our family. Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital? You were such a good baby and are turning into a very sweet girl. Mommy and Daddy loved you from the beginning.

That first week of your life in the NICU was definitely one of the hardest things Mommy has ever been through. It has definitely made her a little more protective of you. You were such a good baby when we brought you home.

Your big sister, Fiona, has pretty much adored you from the moment we brought you home from the hospital. Every day you guys become closer and better friends. I love watching your relationship grow. You like to follow Fiona around and try to be just like her. She takes good care of you and doesn't like it when you are left out of things.

Even though you love your sister a lot, you love your Mommy the most. You are my snugly mama's girl. I'm not ready for you to grow up yet. You are much quieter and more cautious than your sister. Falling and strangers make you very nervous. You are taking steps on your own and can walk well when holding someone's hand, but you are too nervous to walk all on your own.

You make us smile and laugh every day. You are quite a ham when you want to be. I love the way that you dance. When I'm having a stressed out moment I often start singing the VeggieTales theme song because it makes you do your silly shoulder dance. No one can watch you do that and stay in a bad mood. You definitely bring lots of smiles and laughter into our family.

We are so blessed to have you in our lives and in our family. I can't imagine my life without you and I thank God that He gave you to us.

You have grown and changed so much in this last year. I'm excited to watch your personality continue to develop. We love you so much!! Happy 1st Birthday, Calina!!

Super Girl

2011-04-26T08:05:00.000-05:00

Fiona's imagination is keeping us in stitches these days (when it isn't making us want to tear our hair out). Last week she decided that she was super girl. She demanded that I find her a cape and then spent the rest of the day flying around the house and telling us that she was super fast and super strong.

Here's a picture of her showing her Daddy how she is super strong.

Almost a Year!

2011-04-22T06:57:00.000-05:00

I'm a super slacker. I didn't even manage to get a post written when Calina hit 10 months, so I guess this is a 10/11 month post. Poor second child. I absolutely refuse to believe that my baby is going to be 1 year old in a month. How is that possible? I thought the first year went fast with Fiona, but it has gone hyperspeed with Callie bug.

Callie is still a HUGE mama's girl, which I both love and hate. I really don't see it changing anytime soon since she is basically attached to me 24/7. There is definitely a lack of willing babysitters for a kid who screams the entire time I'm gone.

Callie is fascinated with her new cousin, Liam. She really likes to try to poke his eyes, but she also loves giving him kisses.

Callie and Mimi

Calina is such a talker. Oh my gosh, I cannot believe how much more she talks than Fiona did at that age. I've been lazy and haven't really worked very hard with her on sign. She knows "more", "nurse", and "all done". But she is already saying "Mama", "Dada", "ball", and "Bob" (when VeggieTales comes on she crawls over to the tv chanting Bob, which is what Fiona calls Veggie Tales). She might be saying more, but those are the only ones I know she says consistently.

Callie bug is still not a walker though. She is very cautious. She can stand on her own just fine and will take a step or two if she isn't paying attention, but as soon as she realizes she's not holding on she sits right down. She can keep up just fine with the big girls by crawling, so she hasn't found it necessary to walk yet.

She's also still not over her dairy intolerance. Thank God, she now seems to be over her soy intolerance though and she is less sensitive to dairy. I can now have tiny bits of dairy without her having any reaction, so maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I honestly thought that children falling asleep in high chairs was a myth until the other day. Callie was chatting away munching on a snack while I did a few dishes. All of the sudden it got quiet and I turned around to find her sound asleep.

Happy 10 and 11 months Calina!

My New Nephew!

2011-02-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

My sister, Erin, made me an aunt on Wednesday, February 16th. I was excited that I got to be there with her when Liam was born. She had a very quick labor and delivery. It was very cool to be with her and to get to see Liam being born.

Her before picture :)

Mommy and baby for the first time.

Sweet Liam

He weighed exactly the same as Fiona

He has a ton of red hair

He already loves his Aunt Anna

Fiona and Calina were less than impressed. Calina was down right irritated that I was holding another baby.

All wrapped up in her Moby :)

Wordless Wednesday: PE 101

2011-02-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

Calina is 9 Months Old!

2011-02-22T10:04:00.000-06:00

It truly feels like I just wrote a post about Callie being 8 months old.

Time seems to be speeding up.

Callie is still a pretty happy kiddo, as long as I'm within her line of sight. She is going through some big time separation anxiety lately, and pretty much screams anytime she realizes she can't see/hear me. This has made it difficult for me to get anything accomplished alone, since even her Daddy doesn't want to watch her if all she is going to do is scream for "mama". I'm trying to remember that it is just a phase.

She still has trouble with dairy and soy. I sure hope she grows out of it soon.

She's getting more mobile every day. She is a very speedy crawler and is now cruising along furniture like a pro as well.

She has 2 teeth on the bottom, finally. She has discovered the joy of feeding herself and I can hardly get a spoonful in these days.

Her favorite game is peek-a-boo, which she will play for hours.

Aside from Mommy, her favorite person is probably Fiona. They just spend hours a day giggling together and playing chase. It is pretty darn adorable.

Crashed

She loves Toby, not quite as much as her sister did, but she still shares all of her snacks.

She's such a good hairbow model :)

Happy 9 months, Callie bug!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Sisters

2011-02-16T07:38:00.000-06:00

For Maggie

2011-02-14T14:34:00.000-06:00

8 Months, Baby!

2011-01-22T07:17:00.001-06:00

Callie Jean is 8 months old today. The poor thing has pretty much spent the entire last month being sick with colds and ear infections. Even with all the crud she hasn't slowed down much. A few days after I wrote her 7 month post she started really crawling. Now she alternates between crawling on her knees and crawling on her toes. She has also started pulling up on everything. Callie is trying hard to keep up with those big girls. She wants to be everywhere they are.

Still no teeth. One of these days she will probably get a whole mouth full.

Calina is also still very sensitive to dairy. I keep hoping that she is going to outgrow it, but it hasn't happened yet.

She has also become quite the Mama's girl lately. I'm hoping that it is due to all the illness. We're putting our new Ergo to good use lately, since she wants Mommy to hold her a lot.

Happy 8 months, baby girl!

Random Thoughts

2011-01-20T08:37:00.000-06:00

I am way behind on blogging, but I'm not going to try and catch up tonight. The plague struck our house and we've been out of commission a lot lately. Just wanted to share a few things before I completely forget them.

Fiona has never paid a whole lot of attention when I breastfeed Callie. Other than she knows that I'm stuck sitting down and uses that opportunity to be naughty or climb all over us like a jungle gym. She would occasionally tell me that she was nursing her baby dolls, but not often.
About a week ago she started a sudden obsession with it. It started with her asking to nurse. Uh ... no. Sorry, you have a mouth full of teeth and Mommy is afraid of being bitten. Since, I wouldn't let her nurse, then she decided that she should nurse Callie. She spent 2 days pulling up her shirt and trying to "nurse" her sister. Every time I would sit down with Callie, Fiona would throw a screaming fit. "No, Mommy. Me nurse Sissy!" My little mommy-in-training.

Fiona has also started talking up a storm. It is like someone flipped a switch. She just started talking, 3-4 word sentences. A lot of it we still don't quite understand, but it is a major improvement. Yay for talking! Now I wish (not really) she would stop for a few minutes.

On a sadder note, we got rid of our little dog, Chloe before Christmas. We still have Toby, but it is sad. Chloe was my first baby before I had babies. However, 2 year olds and 3 lb dogs don't really go well together. I felt like Chloe never got the attention she needed, added to the fact that Fiona wanted to love her a little too roughly. I know it was the best decision, but it was really hard. I cried a lot and I still get very sad when Fiona asks about her. Overall, we are adjusting well, even Toby who misses his buddy.

On a happier note, I've gotten really into making little ribbon creations. I even opened up an etsy shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Magnificence I've been having a lot of fun making these little hair clips/pins and I even made some money to spend on Christmas presents. Who knew you could do so much with ribbon? It definitely gives me a creative outlet. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on it lately with sick children who have required Mommy around the clock, but hopefully now that we are all on the mend.

Okay, and now for a couple of pictures just because.

Callie is 7 Months Old

2010-12-26T08:44:00.000-06:00

Calina is 7 months old now. It has been a very eventful month. She got to start eating solids, had a double ear infection, and started really scooting.

She loves eating. She get so excited about every bite.

Callie is still my happy girl. She has started sitting up well and she is quite the mover. She mostly does an army crawl, but she does get up on her knees and her toes quite a bit. She gets where she wants to go, which is mostly wherever Fiona is at.

Callie and her buddy Thomas.

Still no teeth, which is just fine with me. We're still not eating dairy/soy yet. She is quite the chatty baby. I think she talks more than her sister already.

Busy Long Weekend (Warning Picture Overload)

2010-12-09T22:41:00.000-06:00

The holiday weekend was super busy for us. It was almost a relief when it was over and things were back to normal. It started with Thanksgiving on Thursday at my parents' house.

Liz and Callie

Fiona playing with the big cousins.

I know this picture is blurry, but it is my only proof that we actually saw Ryan. Plus, the expression on Callie's face is priceless.

4 Generations

Grandpa Bob wanted to take this picture, but he waited until the end of the day when the girls were not being very cooperative.

Friday was shopping and football. Saturday we had Fiona's birthday party. Here is the big birthday girl in her monkey dress.

Papa and Calina getting ready for the party.

Aunt Thea keeping C happy.

Nana helping the birthday girl with the pinata. You pulled on the strings and one was supposed to open it. It turned out to be a little harder than it looked.

This was half a second before she started bawling. I didn't think it was going to be so traumatic. Nathan caught it all on video and it was really rather hilarious.

We ordered her birthday cake from one of Nathan's clients. Isn't it adorable? The cupcakes were even dairy free, so I could eat them.

Birthday parties are exhausting.

Lucky girl got a Bitty Baby from Nana.

The baby has been named Jilly and is a constant companion. No one else is allowed to play with her.

The tunnel was also a huge hit. Best $8 I've spent in awhile. It folds up flat and has provided hours of fun.

She even got a cool tent from her Aunt Thea. This was the morning of her actual birthday. Notice her cute monkey nightgown I made. The tent only stayed up a week because we needed room to put up the Christmas tree.

Callie has become quite the scooter and likes to crawl through the tunnel too.

Sunday was Fiona's actual birthday. We spent a fun morning at home checking out all the new toys and then headed to Nathan's parents' house for Thanksgiving/Gingerbread houses.

Helping Grandma mix the frosting. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of the finished product.

Overall, it was a great busy weekend.

Rest of the Thankfuls

2010-11-30T11:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, so the weekend was crazy and I didn't get these posted.
Day 26: I'm thankful for getting together with family and friends and eating lots of yummy food.
Day 27: I'm thankful for finding some good deals on Christmas presents and not getting trampled at Target.
Day 28: I'm thankful for Fiona's birthday party going well. It seemed like she had a lot of fun, even though the pinata ended up terrifying her. I still can't believe my baby is 2.
Day 29: I'm grateful that my girls have lots of grandparents/aunts/uncles/friends to spoil them rotten. They sure do love each and every one of them.
Day 30: I'm thankful that all of Fiona's new birthday toys kept her and Miss G very occupied all day long. Ahh, peace and quiet.
Tuesday: I'm thankful all the things in my life that I still take for granted and anything else I forgot about.

Happy Birthday to my big 2 Year Old!

2010-11-27T20:28:00.000-06:00

Dear Fiona,

Another year has flown by. You are such a big girl these days. I still remember how tiny you were just 2 years ago.

We've both learned and grown a lot since this picture of us. You have taught me as much as I have taught you. I've learned more patience. I've learned that if something small is missing the first place to check is the VCR. I've learned all the words to lots of Wiggles and VeggieTales songs. I've learned that naps are wonderful and should not be taken for granted.

You have had a busy year learning all kinds of new things too. You love to dance, run, jump, climb, throw, kick, or do anything physically active. You especially love to sing and we have used that to teach you lots of new words. You have well over 100 signs, but are still catching up with your speaking. Ring-around-the-rosy and the "apple song" are your favorites and we sing them hundreds of times every day.

You also really love to read books. Mommy is very grateful for your love of reading because it is the only time of the day when you will sit still for 5 minutes. Your favorite book for the last few months has been Giraffes Can't Dance.

On top of all your learning and growing this year, you became a big sister. You are such a great big sister! You are very gentle with your "Issy". You like to give her hugs and kisses and show her toys. If Callie cries you bring her blanket or pacifier to her. We had a few bumpy days, but you have adapted to our new normal wonderfully.

You are my silly girl. I love your sense of humor and you love making us laugh. You keep us giggling. You also keep us on our toes. Mommy is always Fiona-proofing. Everytime I find something that works to keep you out of unsafe things, you find a way to undo it.

You love to dress up these days. Most days you insist on wearing your "kirs" and "i's" (skirts and tights) or pretty "ows" (bows). Such a girly girl sometimes.

Fiona, this year has been so much fun and you are such a blessing to your Daddy and Mommy. We love you very much and are excited to see how much you learn and grow in the next year.

Thankful for the Kindness of Strangers

2010-11-24T22:12:00.000-06:00

Today I'm thankful for the kindness of strangers. Yesterday, I was taking Fiona to her 2 year checkup. I was running late, so decided to take the Honda because I didn't have time to switch the cars around. I noticed the gas tank was really low, so planned to stop on the way, since the gas station is all but about 8-9 blocks from our house. As I was turning onto a busy street the car sputtered and died. I did manage to get it over to the side of the road. It of course was freezing cold and I was still 3 blocks away from the gas station. I assessed the situation and basically decided all I could do was grab Fiona, the diaper bag, and try to run up to the gas station. By that point Fiona was flipping out and it was much colder than I had originally thought. Thankfully, several people stopped and offered to help. One nice lady with a carseat loaded us up and drove us the rest of the way to the gas station and then a nice man grabbed a gas can and pumped some gas for me and then the lady drove me back to my car and stayed to make sure that I got the car started and to the gas station. I could not say thank you enough to that lady who helped me out, even though it made her late to work. It was a very helpless feeling, but thanks to some very kind strangers the situation turned out just fine.

Day 22 and Day 23

2010-11-23T17:13:00.000-06:00

Day 22: I'm thankful that it was Nathan that was giving Fiona a bath when she pooped in the tub for the first time. I'm really amazed we went almost a whole 2 years without that happening. Nathan has come so far. He used to almost throw up at the thought of spit up, now he cleans poop out of the tub without even complaining too much :)
Day 23: I'm thankful for 2 healthy, growing girls. Each girl had a doctor's appointment and are looking great. Callie is 14 lbs 4 oz, 18th percentile for weight; and 26.75 inches, 85th percentile for height.
Fiona is 23lb 2 oz, 13th percentile; and 33.25 inches, 34rd percentile for height.

6 Months

2010-11-22T08:00:00.002-06:00

Wow! It is hard for me to believe that half a year has flown by since Calina was born. My smiley girl does something new every day. She is quite the mover now. Between rolling and scooting she gets exactly where she is trying to go, which is usually wherever Fiona is at. She's also already getting up on her knees, so I feel that crawling really isn't far off.

Callie isn't as good of a sleeper as she used to be. She's still a decent sleeper though, so I'm not complaining. She has decided she likes to rub silky blankets on her face while she falls asleep and this is usually how she ends up.

Calina can now sit up unassisted for a couple of minutes now. She also got her first taste of real food the other day. Mommy shared some of her avocado and Callie loved it. She ate about a tablespoon and screamed when we wouldn't feed her anymore. She's very ready to eat, but we have held off trying to let her little tummy mature longer. We'll have to go a little slower with starting solids and be very vigilant about checking labels.
I love Callie's personality. She is just such a super sweetie. I can't wait to see more of her personality as she grows. Happy 6 months, Callie!!

I'm Thankful for my Mommy

2010-11-21T09:08:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for my Mommy who is doing extra work to make sure that I get to eat yummy stuff on Thanksgiving too. I was worried that I would be missing out on a lot of the food because it wouldn't be safe for me to eat, but she's going to use safe ingredients and make stuffing from scratch so I get to eat some too. Mommies are the best :) Thank you, Mom! I love you!!

Day 19 and 20

2010-11-20T15:25:00.000-06:00

I didn't get around to blogging yesterday. So today I'll do 2.
19: I'm thankful that Callie bug seems to be feeling much better after the grilled cheese incident on Monday (Her sister fed her a piece of her lunch when I wasn't looking, which led to tummy aches and tears all week.)
20: I'm thankful we got to do pictures with Kim again and we got some cute ones :)

Day 18 of Being Thankful

2010-11-18T07:06:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for the little people hugs and kisses that I get every day. I love all the spontaneous cuddles, even if it only lasts a second or two.

Thankful for Water

2010-11-17T06:32:00.000-06:00

Today, I'm very greatful that we have water and indoor plumbing. Yesterday, there was a water main break 3 houses down. We were without water a long time. I eventually gave up and we camped at my parents' house for part of the day. I tend to forget to be greatful for thing like being able to turn the faucet on and have clean water come out. Thank God for indoor plumbing.

Naps!

2010-11-16T07:00:00.001-06:00

I'm immensely grateful that on most days all 3 girls nap at the same time (hopefully, I'm not jinxing it). It has taken some work, and it doesn't happen every day, but it is so peaceful for 20-30 minutes. As much as I love those girls, it is nice to have some grown-up time or to take a nap myself. You will never appreciate the peace and quiet as much as you do after spending an entire morning with toddlers :)

Little Friends

2010-11-15T07:45:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful that Fiona and Miss G have become such good buddies. They are toddlers so they do have their moments where they don't share well, but for the most part they are so sweet with each other. They play games together, share toys, and like to dance together. I'm thankful that they play so well together and that they are learning to share and be nice to others.

(I had a cute video of them doing ring-around-the-rosy together, but it won't upload right.)

Day 14

2010-11-14T11:43:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful that I discovered that I really enjoy cooking. I used to hate to cook and really dreaded dinner time. I'm not going to lie, we ate out a lot. Then we figured out that Callie was milk/soy intolerant and I had to radically change the way that I approached meal times. In the process of figuring out what I could/couldn't eat and reading lots of MSPI blogs/recipes, I found a love of cooking. I actually look forward to dinner time (well the cooking part, not the children melting down part) because cooking has become a stress reliever for me. I enjoy reading cooking blogs and trying out new recipes or trying to adapt old recipes to make them safe. It probably wouldn't have happened (or at least not for awhile) if Callie hadn't been MSPI. I guess there was a silver lining after all.

Day 13 of Being Thankful

2010-11-13T07:00:00.001-06:00

I'm thankful for bedtime storytime. I'm thankful to have at least one small period of time each day where Fiona likes to sit and snuggle with her Mommy. The rest of the day she is going, going, going.

Day 12 of Being Thankful

2010-11-12T06:57:00.001-06:00

Today, I'm thankful for coffee. Wonderful, warm coffee filled with caffeine. It warms me up on chilly mornings and helps me keep up with my early bird toddler, who seriously never stops moving.

Giving Thanks Day 11

2010-11-11T07:02:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful Nathan got home safely from his business trip. The girls were both so excited to see him and Fiona was bouncing off the walls. We love and missed him :)

Giving Thanks in November

2010-11-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

I stole this idea from a few other people. I'm going to try and post one thing I'm thankful for every day in November. Since, I'm starting a little late, I'll post several today to catch up.

1. I'm thankful for Nathan working hard so that I get to stay home with our girls.

2. I'm thankful for a house to live in, a warm bed to sleep in (when the girls let me), and food to eat.

3. I'm thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy, smart little girls.

(Here they are in their Halloween costumes. I love how they turned out.)

4. I'm thankful for living close to family, so the girls get to see their Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, aunts and uncles often.

5. I'm thankful that Nathan does not travel regularly for work, because this week has been very hard. The girls had colds, were teething, and basically haven't slept in days. My hat is off to all you single parents and parents who have spouses that travel or are deployed.

6. I'm thankful for good friends.

7. I'm thankful that I'm not pregnant right now, so I can have a glass of wine at the end of a long hard day.

8. I'm thankful that Nathan's business is going really well. Sometimes it's hard to remember to be thankful, since it means he works very long hours.

9. I'm amazingly thankful that the girls slept better last night because I was very close to having a meltdown from sleep deprivation.

10. Lastly, I'm thankful that the window wasn't closed on the side screendoor on Monday. After putting Fiona in the house and turning to get Callie unbuckled Fiona locked the screendoor and shut the heavy door, locking me out of the house. I had to punch the screen out to unlock the screen and get in the house. I'm very glad that the window wasn't closed or that would have been much harder to do.

Calina is 5 Months Old

2010-10-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Calina (Callie Bug, Little Boo, Issy, Peanut, Callie Jean) is 5 whole months old and not lacking in the nickname department :)

I see pictures of her as a tiny baby on my screensaver and am just in awe of how fast she has changed and grown. She truly is a joy. Calina is such a good natured baby. She smiles and giggles often, but also has a serious side.

She's getting more and more stable sitting up and is very good at rolling onto her tummy. Too bad she hates being on her tummy. She occassionally rolls the other direction, but not very frequently.

Lately, she has become not the best sleeper in the world. Callie naps okay in her crib during the day most of the time now. However, she thinks that she should sleep with Mommy every night and nurse a gazillion times.

Calina loves Fiona. No one can make her smile bigger or laugh harder. Fiona doesn't even have to do anything out of the ordinary, just walk across the room. Fi has started being more interested in Callie too. She gives her more kisses and gives Calina her bear/paci when she is sad. Fiona also tries to carry Callie around, which is frightening. I have managed to save Callie every time, but I have to watch her like a hawk.

No matter how much I plead with time to slow down a bit, it just keeps speeding along. I have to go snuggle my baby now, before she gets any bigger.

Happy 5 months, Calina!!

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we went to the Bellevue Berry Farm and Pumpkin Patch. The girls' Aunt Maggie was in town on fall break from college, so we took her and her friend, Barb with us. Fiona was loving the giant playground area. They had tire swings shaped like horses.

Callie loves it when Mommy carries her around in the Moby. She's just happy as a clam to watch her big sister tear around.

Anything that remotely resembles a sphere is a ball according to Fi. Pumpkins fall in that category, so naturally, we heard a lot of the word "ball".

I tried to get a cute picture of the girls, but my photography assistant (ahem, Nathan) was not quite quick enough. Out of about 100 pictures this one turned out okay.

I made Nathan take this picture with me. I thought it was funny.

Fiona wanted to pick up each and every pumpkin we came across in the pumpkin field. She decided this one was too heavy.

So she found one more her size.

Fi loves her Aunt "Nangi".

She was less than impressed with the hay rack ride. She did like picking out pieces of straw out of the bales and throwing them one at a time off the side though.

A pretty good family photo :)

Wish my hair hadn't been in Calina's face because this is such a cute picture otherwise.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch. I can't wait to carve up our pumpkins. I love fall :)

Crafting Craziness

2010-10-17T21:26:00.000-05:00

I've been on a crafting kick lately. I have probably gone a little overboard on the matching crafts for the girls. It started with Husker outfits. I made the tutus and the hairbows and bought the N's for the girls shirts from my friend Jessica. She has super cute stuff, check out her etsy shop, Confetti Creations.

I love the way their Husker outfits turned out.

Along with those I decided they needed Halloween outfits too. I need to get a good picture of them together in these. They are adorable.

I even made an extra Halloween tutu/bow set and sold it to my Mom's coworker.

Oh, but that isn't the end of it. I'm also working on Halloween costumes for both girls. Fiona is going to be Little Bo Peep and Callie is going to be her sheep. I have to get all my matching done, because soon Fiona will have an opinion and won't want to match anymore. Also on my crafting list, 3 pairs of leg warmers, 2 pairs of fleece pants for each girl, and some pjs for Fiona.

Wordless Wednesday: Mmmm, Toes

2010-10-13T07:30:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday: A Few Fall Favorites

2010-10-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

Happy 4 Months to My Callie Bug!

2010-09-23T08:47:00.000-05:00

My sweet baby girl is growing up way too fast! Calina is such a wonderful baby. I have oodles of pictures of her sleeping, because I still can't believe that she sleeps. She sleeps pretty well, she's happy 90% of the time, and she likes other people besides just her Mommy.

Callie gets more personality every day. She smiles at everyone and is quite the talker these days. She is also an expert raspberry blower.

She is still having issues with dairy and soy. I can definitely tell when I slip up and didn't check a label well enough. It is getting easier to stay away from the stuff I'm not supposed to have, but man do I miss cheese. I did find a vegan cheese that melts, but it is super expensive and you can only get it at Whole Foods. It probably wouldn't pass for cheese unless you hadn't had any of the real stuff in awhile, but it does help the occassional craving.

Calina has started to roll. She'll roll both back to front and front to back now. She is not a fan of tummy time, so she was pretty motivated to figure out how to roll off her tummy. I think she might be an adrenaline junky already, because she loves to lay on the floor when the big girls are playing. I would think it would be quite frightening to have big toddlers running all over the place and only surviving because Mommy has quick reflexes. Callie loves to watch the big girls. She thinks Fiona is just hysterical, especially when Fiona dances.

Fiona is even nice enough to share her blankie sometimes :)

We took Callie in her for 4 month appointment on Tuesday. She is a growing girl. She weighed 12 pounds 12 ounces, in the 31st percentile. She was 25.5 inches long, in the 91st percentile. She is tall and skinny like her Daddy. Other than staying away from dairy/soy she is a very healthy kiddo.

Her smile sure melts my heart!
I love you baby girl! Happy 4 months! Now please slow down with the whole growing up business please.

A Quick Update with Lots of Pictures

2010-09-21T08:26:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated in forever. Life is pretty hectic most days at our house. School is back in session which means, our friend Miss G is back with us during the week days. Having 3 little ones under the age of 2 in the house is quite an adventure. They keep me on my toes, but I love watching them all interact. Life is a little extra busy lately, because I decided to start working, answering phones from home at night a couple hours a week to save up some extra money for Christmas presents. It is very easy and kind of boring, but I am actually kind of enjoying it.

Sisters (plus Calina), one last picture before Maggie went off to college.

Fi dancing in her diaper.

Fiona is still an avid reader.

My other cutie :)

Fiona has become a hat lover lately. This pink hat didn't leave her head for about 2 full weeks. She ate, slept, and bathed in it. She even insisted that Miss G wear a hat too. She still loves hats, but we aren't wearing them 24/7 anymore.

The girl loves to accessorize.

I still can't get over what a good sleeper Calina is.

Fiona is my little helper lately. She wants to help Mommy do everything. Fi helps me take care of her "issy", fold laundry (wad up clothes and put them in baskets), cook (drag all my cooking utensils to various corners of the house), and feed the dogs (dump the bag on the floor and stash dog food all over the house).

About a month ago, I started to get a little worried about Fiona's speech. She has a gazillion signs, but she really wasn't saying too many words and wasn't putting words together yet. I called the school district and had her evaluated, even though I knew she probably wouldn't qualify. I wanted an objective opinion. Her language that she says was pretty low, but her language that she understands was way too high, so she won't qualify for services. That is okay, because just this week she has had an explosion of words that she says. I knew that would probably happen. She just had to make her mama a little crazy first.

Chilling in her super cool new Tinkerbell jammies and robe. The Tinkerbell on her robe lights up. I got the whole set at a consignment sale for $1. I love finding good deals :)

That is pretty much our life at the moment. The girls are growing like weeks and keeping me very busy. Hopefully, I'll make some more time to blog soon. Don't hold your breath though, because I'm going to try to sew Halloween costumes for both girls, so it will probably eat up all my kid-free time.

"Trust Me. You'll Look Fabulous."

2010-09-20T08:14:00.000-05:00

Fiona loves to play with stickers. I have an entire box full of cheapy stickers that I

used to use as therapy prizes, so I will often give her a sheet of stickers and piece of paper when I need to keep her busy for a few minutes to run to the bathroom or throw in a load of laundry. She is usually really good and only sticks them on the paper. Even when she does stick them to the furniture they are pretty cheapy and old, so they don't really stick very well.

The other day I gave her a sheet and went to change the laundry. Fiona apparently decided to get creative and thought her sister needed a little decorating.

Callie was just sitting happily while her sister decorated her.

"Wait a minute. These aren't permanent, are they??"

Happy 3 Months Calina!

2010-08-23T07:13:00.000-05:00

I am in complete denial that this sweet baby is 3 months old already.

Calina is such a good baby. She has her "bad" moments (usually only when Mommy has eaten something she shouldn't have), but I don't think I've ever met a more mellow baby for the most part. She needs to be mellow to survive her big sister. Fiona loves her a little roughly and lately has started to try and pick her up.

Calina gets more personality every day and her smiles just make my heart melt. She smiles, giggles, and coos all the time. We joke that we think she talks more than her older sister already.

At her 2 month check up she weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces (35th percentile) and was 23.5 inches long (85th percentile). She's grown even more in the last month. Callie is a tall skinny girl. I have feeling she might pass her sister up very quickly. She is definitely shaped more like Daddy. I think she looks more like Nathan than me.

Calina is also quite the mover. She has rolled herself over several times now and is no longer safe to leave up on any surface.

I have a champion sleeper on my hands. She puts herself to sleep. She sleeps through the night. She takes awesome naps (I hope I'm not jinxing myself).

I love watching Callie grow, but am sad that my baby gets bigger every day.

And one last picture with her Aunt Maggie before she left for college. I love this picture :)

Wordless Wednesday: Big Girl Bed

2010-08-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

And one of my other cutie, just because :)

Quick Trip to Colorado

2010-08-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

My Mom, my sister Maura, the girls, and I took a quick trip out to Colorado for a long weekend. It was nice to be able to take Calina out so that our family could see her while she is still little. Both girls were angels on the trip. They even slept!

Callie is such a happy baby (as long as Mommy doesn't eat dairy or soy)

Smelling flowers with GG

I love this picture of Fiona and her Aunt Maura.

One very tired girl. She hung out on the chair like that for about 10 minutes, before I went and put her down for a nap.

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy's Hat and Baby Smiles

2010-07-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

July 4th Celebrating

2010-07-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

We did lots of celebrating over the long holiday weekend, but we still managed to get in some relaxing at home. It was the perfect combination. Saturday the girls and I spent the whole day over at my parents' since Nathan had to work some.

Fiona wore a dress that I wore when I was her age.

She did lots of playing with magnets.

And watering stuff with the hose.

Mary looked thirsty.

And she did some streaking.

On Sunday, it rained all morning. We had planned on going to a little neighborhood parade, but instead we got to have a lazy morning at home together.

My Mom and I had made the girls matching dresses for the 4th. They looked so cute.

I love sister kisses!

We headed over to my parents' house again on Sunday night for dinner and some fireworks. We didn't stay too late because Fi was pretty tired and Calina did not like the loud noises. Papa bought Fiona a bunch of poppers. It took several tries, but she eventually got the hang of it.

I Have a Night Owl

2010-06-30T15:55:00.000-05:00

I have always been more of a morning person. For the most part, I don't mind getting up in the morning. In fact, I feel pretty darn lazy if I stay in bed much past 9. Before I had kids, I would stay up late and still get up early. Since Fiona was born, I turn into a pumpkin much earlier. I would much rather go to bed early and get up early. Nathan is the complete opposite. He HATES getting up in the morning and would stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep all day if he could.

Thankfully, Fiona takes after me for the most part. She's always been happiest in the morning and needs to get to bed pretty early. It worked well, since we would get up in the morning together.

Calina is a whole different story. This sweet baby girl ...

is a total night owl. Just like her Daddy.

If only her Daddy could nurse her then all would be well in our house. Mommy and Fiona could go to bed and Daddy and Callie could stay up all night. I shouldn't really complain, because it has been nice because after Fiona goes to bed, Callie and I get alone time, and before Callie gets up in the morning Fiona and I get alone time. However, going to bed late and getting up early is seriously cutting into my sleep time. Thank goodness Callie sleeps well once she goes to bed and they can usually both be convinced to nap at the same time or Mommy would not be coherent.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-23T12:43:00.000-05:00

Just a few of my favorites from our photo shoot with Kim Dusek.

Fastest Month Ever

2010-06-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

I would just like someone to explain to me how it is possible that an entire month has gone by since my baby was born. Miss Callie Jean is one month old today.

That week in the NICU seemed like an eternity, but then we got home and I feel like I blinked and three weeks zoomed past. Everyone said I would be busy, but that is the understatement of the year. Fi and Callie keep me on my toes constantly. For example, Callie was napping in the pack-n-play and Fiona was playing with her doll and reading books, so I tried to sneak into the kitchen and do a few dishes. Suddenly I noticed that it was especially quiet in the living room. When I checked on the girls, Fiona was sitting inside the pack-n-play with the baby stacking stuff on top of her sister. Life isn't going to get boring anytime soon.

Calina is really a good baby. I'm still not sure what to do with a good baby who sleeps. Fiona never slept and was very needy. Callie is very relaxed in comparison. It is kind of sad when your newborn sleeps better than your toddler.

We did have a rough patch there for a bit. Basically, since they pulled the tubes out I've noticed that Calina gags a lot. She never really spit up, but I could tell there was stuff coming up. It made me nervous at night because she would be kind of gurgly and cough a lot when I layed her down flat. A little over a week ago she started really getting cranky and spitting up. She spent hours screaming and it seemed like she was in pain. The pediatrician put her on some Zantac and I'm now on the Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI) diet. Basically, I can't have any dairy or soy. I noticed a huge difference pretty quickly. After a week of being dairy/soy free Calina is back to being her laid back self. I'm still in mourning over not getting to have any cheese and eating out is going to be a pain, but it is totally worth it to have a happy, pain-free baby.

I think part of the reason that this month has flown by is that we have been super busy. We've crammed in Calina's first annual family campout, her baptism, a photo shoot, and Father's Day. I've got tons more pictures that I could post, but I didn't have time to upload anymore tonight. I'm going to try and at least post a few from our photo shoot. Kim Dusek is in My Omaha Mommies with me and she got some awesome pictures of both girls.

Well, that kind of gives you an update on our life lately. Busy, busy, busy, but it is a very good busy :)

Our Week in the NICU

2010-06-17T14:12:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to get this post written, but 2 little kiddos really cuts into my computer time :) Be warned it is kind of long. I wanted to get it all written down before I forgot it.
In my last post I blogged about Calina's birth story up through Sunday. Here is the only picture I have from when she was on the CPAP. It was taken Sunday night when I finally got to hold her for a few minutes. It's not a great picture because it was with my cellphone and it was dark. I was so scared holding her with all those tubes and wires. I was afraid I was going to pull something out, but I was so happy to be holding her for a few minutes.

By Monday Calina was improving. Her oxygen levels had finally stabilized enough that they took her off the CPAP and put her on a high flow oxygen. Since she was off the CPAP they could take the suction tube out of her mouth and put the feeding tube back in her nose. She was still under triple bank lights for her jaundice, but she looked much better without quite so much stuff on her head. She seemed much more comfortable too. Here she is on Monday afternoon when they finally took all the extra stuff off.

Monday was a long day, but she seemed to be steadily getting better rather than worse. Until Monday I had still been checked into the hospital. It was nice to be able to go over to my room and eat or get some rest for a little bit. However, we had to check out on Monday. I dreaded the end of the day. At one point I saw a couple leaving the hospital with their new baby and I just sat down and bawled. I knew I had to go home that night and I wasn't going to get to take my baby.

Nathan went home early in the evening so that he could take Fiona home and do bedtime with her, so my parents came to pick me up later and take me home. Leaving that night was so hard. I cried the whole way home. I didn't get much sleep that night and went up to the hospital super early in the morning the next day.

On Tuesday she had improved even a little more so they decided to take off the oxygen all together. They kept the feeding tube in because she was still breathing too rapidly to try and nurse yet. Tuesday was a long day. I went home for a couple of hours Tuesday night, but was back very early on Wednesday.

On Wednesday Calina's breathing had finally slowed down enough that I got to try and nurse her in the afternoon/evening. I was so excited. We tried a couple of time, but she was having a hard time figuring it out. They finally weaned her totally off the IV nutrition by the end of the day. However, with good news came bad news. She started to have a lot of bradycardias, which means her heart rate would drop really low for a second. She came out of all of them on her own, but it was still scary to hear the alarm going off all day.

On Thursday, the doctor had them pull the feeding tube and we worked hard on nursing. Since she actually had a chance to get hungry she did a much better job. It was a really great feeling. Also on Thursday her bilirubin levels came back much lower so they were able to take her off all the lights. She kept having "bradys", but she didn't have quite as many as the day before. It was so wonderful to be able to hold our baby whenever we wanted to. Since she was off the lights we got to put clothes on her and she got moved to a regular crib. It was a good day.

Since she was finally off the lights, Daddy got to hold her for the first time since Saturday.

Looking so much better without all the "stuff" on her face.

Getting to hold both my girls :)

Grandma and Grandpa got to hold her too.

Real clothes and a real crib! Yay!

Friday was a really long day. Calina was doing great. She only had 2 "bradys" and she was nursing well. However, we still had to stay until Saturday because she had to finish up her full course of antibiotics, just in case. I was just getting really tired of sitting up in the NICU by myself. Thankfully, we had some great visitors that day to help take my mind off the long wait.

Eileen came up and kept us company for awhile. It was really nice to have someone to talk to. Sitting in that little room for 15-16 hours a day by myself was extremely isolating. My parents brought Fiona up for a little while every day, but I was still feeling pretty lonely. Also on Friday my grandparents came into town, so they came up to visit us.

Friday just felt like a long day of waiting. I wanted to take my baby and go home. All week we had been told that we would probably be going home on Saturday because that would be the last dose of antibiotics. I was so ready to not be at the hospital anymore. However, the doctor who had been caring for Calina all week was not going to be the one at rounds on Saturday, so we had no way of knowing for sure if we would go home on Saturday.

When I got up to the hospital on Saturday morning Calina's IV in her hand had gone bad and her poor little hand was all swollen. I was worried they would have to put in a new one, but the nurse said that they might just skip the last dose of antibiotics, but they wouldn't know until after rounds. The morning dragged on forever. Rounds took extra long, but finally the nurse came by and said that they were skipping the last dose and discharging us as soon as the doctor could get by to check Calina out one more time. It seemed like an eternity before he finished up and came to our room.

Finally, we got the okay and we packed up and headed home.

We stopped to pick up Fiona, who was initally very excited that we brought home a baby.

Of course, excitement soon turned into indifference once she realized the baby didn't really do anything and she wasn't allowed to carry her around. I felt so blessed to finally have our family together. We could officially start life as a family of four :)

Our week in the NICU was one of the hardest weeks of my life. It made me very grateful to now have 2 happy, healthy girls at home. It also made thankful us for all our wonderful friends and family who helped us out and sent thoughts and prayers. Calina is doing well now and doesn't appear to have any breathing trouble left.

Calina's Birth Story

2010-06-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

We went into the hospital very early in the morning on Friday, May 21st to induce labor. I had prepared for a long day because I was only 1 cm dialated when we went into the hospital. The day was pretty long because I couldn't eat anything, but I really didn't have much pain. Finally, around 4:30 the doctor came in and broke my water. Things picked up a little bit after that. I got the epidural because the pain was getting pretty bad. It took the guy 20 minutes to get it in. I swear he poked me 7-8 times trying to get it in the right spot. Around midnight I was about 7 cm dialated. The nurse decided to drain my bladder. After that things started moving very quickly. I basically went from 7 cm to fully dialated and wanting to push. They made me hang on the 30 minutes it took for the doctor to get back to the hospital. Then I pushed with about 4 contractions, all of 10 minutes and Calina Jean came flying into the world. Labor was so much quicker and easier than it was with Fiona.
Calina weighed 6 pounds 10.4 ounces and was 20 inches long. She has the longest skinny little legs and feet. I think she is going to be tall like her Daddy. She was pretty smooshed and bruised from her quick entrance into the world though.

They did all the normal stuff after she was born. We snuggled and tried to nurse, but she wasn't interested at all. Later we realized that she wasn't interested because she was having to work too hard on breathing to worry about eating.

After about an hour and half, they were going to give her a bath, so I jumped in the shower. When I got out of the shower, Nathan and the nurses were all gathered around Calina in the warmer bed looking serious. They had her hooked up to monitors for her heart and breathing. She was breathing really quickly and making little grunting sounds. The NICU team came up and looked at her and then decided that she needed to go down for observation. Nathan and I walked over with the transport team so we could see what was going on. It was one of the worst moments of my life. I was scared for my baby and I had no idea what was going on.

The nurses seemed to think that she would probably only need to be there for observation for a couple of hours and then would be back up with us. Nathan decided he wanted to stay down there, so he wheeled me back up to our room and then went back to be with Calina. I tried to do some sleeping in our room, but I pretty much just sat up there and cried. I finally gave up on sleep and got up around 7. I called Nathan and he was really upset. He came to get me and we went back to the NICU. Calina had not gotten better over the couple hours I had been gone. They had run some bloodwork and done a chest x-ray. She was just having to work so hard to breath and her breathing was so fast.

That whole day is pretty much a blur. At one point they put in a feeding tube to get her some nourishment, since she couldn't eat because her breathing was too fast. Things just seemed to keep getting worse and we didn't feel like anyone was bothering to keep us in the loop. My parents came up to the hospital and brought Fiona to meet her baby sister. Fiona was pretty unimpressed. She was much more interested in running around and exploring.

Her face just says it all.

That night it looked like she was still doing okay. They still hadn't decided what was really wrong with her. When we got up Sunday morning and went down the NICU she had gotten worse. Her oxygen levels had dropped significantly, so they had to put her on a CPAP to help force her lungs open a little and get her some more oxygen. Since they had that in her nose they had to put a tube in her mouth to suck the air and stuff out of her tummy. Because she didn't have a feeding tube anymore they had to start an IV to get her fluids. Then on top of that her bilirubin levels were high, so they put her under the lights. It was so hard to show up and see my beautiful baby girl covered in wires/tubes/cords. She looked so uncomfortable and I couldn't really do anything to help her. It was a really long day not being able to hold her at all. Finally, late in the evening on Sunday they checked her bilirubin again and it was a little bit lower, so they took her out and let me hold her for a couple of minutes. It was so nerve racking holding her with all the "stuff" on her, but it was the best feeling ever to be able to hold my little girl.

Sunday was definitely the worst day of the week. They had decided that most likely she had "Respiratory Distress Syndrome", which usually clears up on its own after about 3 days. However, her chest xrays looked wet, so they were worried that it could potentially be pneumonia. Before babies are born their lungs produce fluid. Sometime during the birth process their lungs switch and start sucking up fluid. In babies with Respiratory Distress Syndrome their lungs don't switch over right away. It takes a couple of days for their bodies to figure out that they have been born. It is more common in c-section babies because they don't get squeezed in the birth canal. Since Calina was born so quickly she wasn't squeezed much either, so her lungs didn't get the message that they needed so start sucking up fluid.

Anyway that catches up her birth story and I'll write another post about the rest of the week in the NICU.

Calina Jean is Here!

2010-06-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

Calina Jean was born on Saturday May 22nd at 12:49 in the morning. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is very long and skinny with the longest little legs and feet and lots of dark hair.

I'll post about her birth story and our emotional week in the NICU later on. Just wanted to put up a couple pictures. Life with two little kiddos has been a whirlwind, but I'm loving have my girl home with me.

Wordless Wednesday: Tired Girls and Their Blankies

2010-05-12T07:04:00.000-05:00

Easter Weekend (a week late)

2010-04-12T07:00:00.002-05:00

I know this is a week late, but I was being lazy about getting all my photos uploaded. Our Easter celebrating started when Fiona's Godfather, Jeremy, dropped off an Easter basket for her. She is a pretty spoiled little girl :)

We continued the celebration with some Easter egg dying at my parents' house on Saturday night. Fiona thought that it was pretty cool.

Grandma Teri was very brave and was letting her put the eggs in the dye. Fiona really wanted to put her hands in the dye too, but we thwarted most of her efforts.

I got up super early on Easter morning and went to Mass all by myself. It was pretty strange not having to keep a busy toddler happy. It was actually kind of nice to be there alone. After Church I came home and Nathan and Fiona were dressed in their Easter clothes. Nathan earned big brownie points for actually dragging himself out of bed and handling breakfast and getting dressed (minus hair accessories) all by himself.

Isn't Miss Fiona cute in her Easter dress? I love that her and Nathan were so well coordinated. I didn't even plan it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a matching maternity shirt. I still think we make a pretty cute family.

After we snapped a picture we let Fiona find her basket from the Easter bunny.

Digging into her goodies.

So after we explored her basket, we packed up and headed to Nathan's parents' for Easter brunch.

Fiona got another Easter basket at Grandma's house and she was loving the Easter eggs with crackers.

Grandma Cheryl even blew up some balloons to play with.

After we were stuffed full of good food and Nathan was trying to fall asleep in the chair we headed home for a quick nap. The nap didn't pan out, so we headed on over to my parents' for our second Easter meal. Fiona got yet another Easter basket over there. Seriously, she isn't loved at all ;)

Fiona helping herself to a cold drink.

We of course had to change Fiona out of her beautiful Easter dress so that we could hunt eggs and play outside in the sandbox.

Hunting eggs with lots of help from the big cousins.

She managed to collect quite a few eggs, but she wanted to stop and open each one. I had to be sneaky and swap out all her candy eggs for ones with snacks that she could eat. She didn't notice. She just liked opening the eggs and dumping the stuff out.

And of course a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's on a nice day wouldn't be complete without swinging. You can hear her squealing and giggling across the yard.

Easter was a little chaotic and we were glad to go home and go to bed at the end of the day. Overall, it was a good day with lots of family and good food.

I Made a Mei Tai

2010-04-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting a baby carrier that I could use to carry Fiona on my back for awhile. I love my sling, but it is just uncomfortable to carry her in that right now, while my belly is so big. So I hit up a good sale at JoAnn's and bought some fabric to make myself a Mei Tai carrier. I was a little worried that it would be difficult, but it turned out to be not bad at all.

I'm pretty proud of myself actually. I usually sew at my Mom's house because I'm pretty much a novice and that way I have help if I screw something up. My parents went out of town to San Diego and I had my Mom's old sewing machine and really wanted to get started on this project, so I decided to tackle it alone. There were a few set backs and no expert seamstresses should look to closely because there are a few wonky spots, but overall I think it turned out really well. Fiona and I had to try it out right away of course, so excuse the Monday morning grossness.

I'm so excited about having a carrier that will work for back carries. It's really comfy and Fiona doesn't seem to mind either. I've carried her and my daycare kiddo, Miss G, to the park a couple of times in it without any trouble. In fact, it's so comfortable that Miss G falls asleep after I walk about 2 feet.

I might even decide to make another one for Nathan to wear. He liked the idea, but was very much against wearing anything with butterflies on it. I may have to make a more manly one so he can use it too. Or else talk him into buying me an Ergo or Beco or something.

Cloth Diaper Carnival VII: Itty Bitty Fluffy Butts

2010-04-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

This post is part of the Cloth Diaper Carnival from Cloth Diapering Bloggers (Ning network) and Dirty Diaper Laundry. Follow the link at the bottom to read other posts or participate.

This cloth diaper carnival is about cloth diapering newborns, which I am pretty excited about because I'm getting ready to do just that.

When Fiona was a newborn my Mom bought us a month or two from a diaper service in town. I knew that I wanted to cloth diaper our new bundle of joy, but it was not in the budget at that time. We ended up using disposables for the first week of her life before the diaper service was set up. Then we just used the prefolds and some gerber plastic pants with a snappi. Prefolds are so easy and inexpensive for a newborn. We did end up cancelling the diaper service and bought some of our own infant prefolds used off of diaperswappers. They were a very wise investment for us, because Fiona still fit into the infant prefolds at 8 months. By then we had switched to mainly pockets, but we got a lot of use out of them.

My biggest challenge was just getting my husband to change diapers. He really doesn't like prefolds, so he didn't change as many diapers unless I had a few disposables available. My whole family had used cloth diapers, so I was pretty comfortable changing prefolds, so that wasn't a hurdle for me. I really hated the Gerber plastic pants though. They wore out very quickly, most of them split at the seam. I also had a few that got melted in our dryer.

This time around I had a little more money saved up for diapers. I have already purchased a couple dozen itty bitty (preemie) prefolds in addition to our 36 infant size prefolds. Fiona was so tiny that she was in the smallest size prefolds for about 2 months. I'm hoping this baby ends up being about the same size so that I didn't waste money on the preemie prefolds. I also have stocked up on a few Thirsties covers and a couple of AppleCheeks covers. I also have a few hand-me down covers, fleece soakers I made, and one wool soaker I bought on diaperswappers. I also have 2 tiny pocket diapers at the request of my hubby. I made him practice with the snappi tons before Fiona was born, so he can do it, but he prefers not to. I think my newborn stash is pretty much complete. I was thinking that I might get 2-3 more AIOs or pockets for when Nathan changes diapers. Anyone have any good reccommendations? I was thinking maybe lil joeys from Rumparooz. Anyone have any experience with those fitting and working well for tiny babies?

I am planning on using disposables for the first week of this little one's life too. I figure I will probably have both girls in disposables for a little while, so I can heal and get my mind around life with a newborn and a toddler.

Fun Family Dinner

2010-03-29T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went out to dinner with Nathan's whole family. His sister, had gotten us all Texas Roadhouse gift certificates for Christmas so that we could go eat together.

About as good as the family photos get these days with a very busy toddler who doesn't like to pose for pictures.

Fiona really liked the music they played, but apparently she thought it was too loud. She spent most of dinner dancing with her fingers in her ears. When she wasn't trying to con someone into letting her out of the high chair to run around.

It was fun to go out to eat with everyone, even if it was too loud and we couldn't all sit at one table. Fiona loves going places. She is becoming much more of a social butterfly than shen used to be.

Huge Cloth Diaper Blog Event

2010-03-25T08:54:00.000-05:00

Chanda over at the Eco-Cheap Mom is hosting a Fluff the Bum Cloth Diaper Event in the month of April. She will have 22 reviews and giveaways of lots of great cloth diapers and essentials. Don't miss out. Go check it out here: http://www.ecocheapmom.com/2010/02/fluff-bum-cloth-diaper-event.html

I Love This Stage

2010-03-23T18:27:00.000-05:00

I really do love the stage that Fiona is in. She is so much fun (when she isn't throwing an ear drum shattering temper tantrum).

Today she got her purse out, packed up some toys and of course her pink cell phone. Then she waved bye-bye to me, blew me kisses, and marched off behind the recliner.

She just cracks me up with the new things she does everyday :)

Wordless Wednesday: Girls in Green

2010-03-22T07:52:00.002-05:00

A few pictures from St. Patrick's Day last week.

Baby Dolls

2010-03-22T07:28:00.000-05:00

The other day my Mom was cleaning out closets and found my old special doll. It was a cabbage patch doll named Anna Hazel. I was really excited that she found her, because Fiona has been really into baby dolls lately and I thought she might enjoy playing with her. After a trip through the washing machine, I gave Fi the doll.

She was pretty excited about a new baby doll.

She pretty much carried her around all day long.

There was lots of baby kissing and rocking.

She took good care of her baby feeding it and giving her drinks.

Until the very end of the day, when she accidently dropped the doll in the entryway. Then Fiona realized what a satisfying noise the doll's head made on the tile. She spent the remaining 20 minutes before bed repeatedly pounding the doll's head on the entryway floor. Now, the baby dolls is used to hit hard things and hear what noise it makes. Hmmm, guess we won't be letting her go unsupervised around her little sister when she's born.

30 Weeks ... The end is almost in sight

2010-03-19T10:13:00.000-05:00

How far along? 30 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 25 lbs, ugh

Maternity clothes? Very much so. Going to have to start trading my tshirts in for some of Nathan's soon.

Stretch marks? No noticeable new ones. A few left over from Fiona.

Movement: She's definitely moving, just not nearly as much as her older sister did. This seems to be a pretty laid back baby. She does enjoy doing full body rolls though.

Food cravings: Tons of food cravings this time, mostly for sweets, which are a bit off limits. Although I have been having strange cravings for eggs. That's funny because I really didn't like eggs before this pregnancy.

Gender: Well, I certainly hope it is still a girl because everything we own is pink or purple :) We finally decided on a name this past week. Yay!

Labor Signs: No, just lots and lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Belly Button in or out? Still in, but it's getting pretty flat. My bellybutton never really popped out with Fiona.

What I miss: I miss sleeping comfortably. I've been a lot more achey this pregnancy and it's hard to sleep.

What I am looking forward to: I am super excited to meet this little girl. I can't wait to snuggle her and see what she looks like.

Weekly Wisdom: Naptime is awesome!! I'm trying to lay down for a nap every day while Fiona and Miss G nap. It makes all the difference in my mood and patience levels.

Milestones: According to babycenter.com the baby is about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage).

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T06:54:00.000-06:00

Snack Time

2010-03-08T10:11:00.000-06:00

This is what snack time looks like at our house

As soon as her cup gets empty, she immediately asks for more and the process continues. Maybe I should just put dog food in there.

And on the rare occassion that she isn't sharing with her doggies, then she shares with Miss G, who gags on it.

I guess I should be grateful that she is good at sharing.

It's a ...

2010-02-25T12:50:00.000-06:00

GIRL!!!

That's right, Fiona will be getting a little sister :)

I think it is pretty convenient because now we don't have to repaint Fiona's room. Nathan was really hoping for a boy, so he's a little disappointed. I'm sure he'll get over it quickly. I know this little girl will have him wrapped around her finger, just as tight as Fiona has him wrapped around hers.

She was not terribly cooperative, so we didn't get too many cute shots. I think the 3d is pretty creepy looking, but it looks like she was smiling in this one. She was sucking away on her thumb through most of the ultrasound.

Baby girl looks healthy, now we just have to settle on a name.

I, however, failed my one hour glucose test, so have to go in for the long 3 hour one again. Say some prayers, because I don't think I'll survive pricking my finger every day.

Toddler Diarrhea Stinks!

2010-02-23T10:07:00.000-06:00

I'm going to complain today. Fiona has had diarrhea since well before Thanksgiving. It stinks ... literally. It all started when we all got the stomach flu the week before Thanksgiving and has been going on pretty much nonstop. I'm at my wits end. It is not fun to have to change her clothes 2-3 times a day because of blow out diapers. And I'm talking about blowing out of cloth diapers. Don't even bring up disposables. We tried switching to disposables at the beginning of all this because I didn't want to wash all those stinky diapers. However, it was a major fail because a blow out in a cloth diaper is frustrating, but only minorly messy. A blow out in a disposable requires a hazmat team. So I've had to suck it up and wash all those stinky diapers. We're talking 3-4 diapers a day, since Thanksgiving. It has not been pleasant.
Aside from the general frustration with stinky diapers and wardrobe changes I was getting pretty concerned about her health. We've tried just about everything to try to get rid of the diarrhea. We've tried the BRAT diet, we've tried anything and everything that usually constipates kids with absolutely zero luck. So I just try and really push fluids every day to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated. We've been to the pediatrician multiple times. We've actually switched pediatricians because the first wrote the whole thing off as teething and wouldn't take any of my concerns seriously. After long hours on the Internet searching for answers and talking to a family friend who specializes in infant/toddler nutrition, I knew that probably what she had was called "toddler diarrhea". However, since we do have some family history of celiac and crohn's and other food trouble I wanted to just have her tested.
Thankfully, the new pediatrician completely agreed with my concerns and we tortured my poor baby girl with blood samples and stool samples. They tested for everything under the sun. It was hard to wait to get all the results back. My gut said they would be negative, but I still worried. I imagined how much our life would have to change if she turned out to have celiac. Anyway, all the tests came back negative. It was a sigh of relief, yet still extremely frustrating. I'm not saying I wanted the tests to come back positive, but it would have been an answer and we could have developed a plan from there.
The pediatrician deemed it "toddler diarrhea". Basically chronic diarrhea, where the child still maintains a normal growth curve. Thank God. At least she is gaining weight and growing like she should. However, since Fiona is on the lower end of the curve, we have to go in regularly and weigh her just to be sure that she keeps gaining.
I'm just so frustrated and annoyed. Toddler diarrhea usually occurs when kids drink too much juice or eat foods that have sorbitol in them. Fiona has never gotten to drink juice. I think it is just empty calories and we have never given it to her. She also doesn't have any sorbitol in her diet. We've tried every suggestion out there for toddler diarrhea. However, it is challenging, because she does still have a sensitivity to dairy products. We've tried high fiber diets, we've tried high fat diets, nothing works. I'm trying to be patient and let it clear up on its own, but this can last until age 4. Age 4?!?! I think I will lose my mind if it lasts that long.
Anyone go through something similar with their kids? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

An Update

2010-02-16T09:44:00.000-06:00

I haven't been very good about blogging lately. I feel like our lives aren't terribly interesting lately. Due to yucky weather and Nathan being super busy at work, most days Fiona and I are stuck at home. Fingers crossed, if things keep going well for Nathan at work then we will be purchasing a second car in the very near future. I cannot wait. We survived for a long time as a 1 car family and it worked well. However, with Nathan working such long hours sometimes it's a struggle to just make it to the grocery store.

Fiona and I have been trying to stay busy to keep from going too stir crazy. Miss G comes over during the week, which is nice because she and Fiona are actually starting to play together nicely. It's funny to watch them jabber at each other and laugh. Fi tries very hard to make G laugh. She is quite the ham some days. We spend most of our days playing in her car seat box though. I cut some windows in it and we taped up some pictures inside and she thinks that is great fun. She goes in there and sits and plays or reads.

Since Nathan has been working so much, he's often not home before bedtime during the week. Fiona has figured out that if she wakes up in the middle of the night that Daddy is home, so she has been getting up a lot at night lately. Luckily, she doesn't cry for Mommy in the middle of the night anymore. Fiona cries for her Daddy at night now. Unfortunately, Mommy usually wakes up and and has to kick Daddy so he goes to check on her. Fi misses her Daddy when he's not home. On the occassional night that he is home, she doesn't let him leave her sight. She follows him around the house and insists on reading 102 books with him.

Fiona's all time favorite toy is her doll these days. She carries her baby around and rocks it and sings to it. She's going to be such a good big sister.

I can't believe how much she grows and changes everyday. She is very much a monkey and climbs everything. She also figured out how to open our baby gate, so pretty much nothing in our house is safe. She drags toys and boxes around to climb on so that she can reach high counters and shelves. Part of me wants to tear my hair out and the other part is secretly proud at how creative she is about figuring things out.

Fiona has also been learning a lot more signs. She still doesn't say a ton of words, but at least she is signing more and more. Just this week she has started signing: please, dance, music, and cookie. I love it when she figures out a new sign because she gets sooo excited and uses it ALL day. I've never been more tired than the day that she figured out how to sign dance. We danced all. day. long.

That is pretty much our life lately. Our big ultrasound is in 1 week from Thursday. I'm so excited to find out if this is a girl or a boy. Hopefully, baby will cooperate. It's hard to believe I'm already almost 26 weeks pregnant. This baby will be here before we know it.

Wordless Wednesday: Tea Anyone?

2010-01-27T07:03:00.002-06:00

Lots of Sewing

2010-01-25T07:34:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning was awful this weekend. The combination of pregnancy hormones, not seeing the sun in 2 weeks, and clogged plumbing had me bawling my eyes out all morning. Thankfully, my Mom came and picked up Fiona and me for lunch. Then we headed to her house. I was finally able to shake the funk and got some sewing done. I had a bunch of fleece lying around and I've been wanting to make Fiona another pair of fleece longies/yoga pants. So I finally got around to it. Of course, she hardly sits still for 2 seconds for a picture.

I think they turned out pretty cute and I love how comfy soft they are. I have some more fleece from making her diaper covers when she was tiny. I think I might make one more pair out of some blue flowery fleece.

Fiona has been very interested in carrying around her baby doll lately. I've been pretty excited to make her a little doll sling so that when the baby comes she can carry around her doll just like mommy carries the baby. We scrounged around in my mom's basement and found a piece of fabric and something that would work for rings, so I decided to do that too. I tried to do it in a hurry and so it doesn't look very pretty, but it works. I might try again another day to make a prettier one.

New Year's

2010-01-13T09:13:00.000-06:00

We went over to our friends' Eileen and Dave's for dinner on New Year's Eve. Eileen made some really yummy chicken enchiladas with pineapple. Dave's house isn't quite babyproofed since they don't have to worry about that, but I think we managed pretty well. We kept Fiona busy with tupperware and cookie cutters and put up some makeshift baby gates.

Eileen also made me some yummy chocolate birthday cupcakes.

We took a picture like this last year on New Year's Eve, so we had to take a new one this year.

After dinner we headed home because Nathan had invited some people over to play wii. I was impressed that I actually made it until midnight this year. Unfortunately, Fiona decided that it would be a good night to wake up at 3 am. Yuck. Luckily, since it was technically my birthday by then Nathan got up with her so I could sleep in a little.

On New Year's Day, I turned 26. I don't think it feels much different than 25. Birthdays have lost some of their excitement as I'm getting older. Nathan took me to dinner and a movie for my birthday and Fiona went over to spend time at her grandparents' house. We went and saw the Sherlock Holmes movie, which was pretty good. Then we headed to dinner at Brother Sebastian's, which is always very yummy. I love having a good steak, and Brother Sebastian's is expensive enough, that we only go on special occassions.

However, that was not the end of the celebrating. The day after my birthday we went over to my parents' house for my family birthday dinner. My Mom made beef stroganoff which is one of my favorite meals.

Fiona helped me open my presents. She's so helpful now that she is an expert present opener.

Fiona and Grandma Teri

My Mom also made me a yummy strawberry birthday cake. It was a good birthday and a good New Year's. Technically, that wasn't even the end of the celebrating, but I'll continue that in another post.

Better Late Than Never

2010-01-12T10:12:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I'm majorly behind on blogging about the holidays. At least I'm getting around to it now. The week of Christmas we drove out to Fort Collins, CO to visit family. We stayed at my grandparents' house and had a great time hanging out with everyone. Fiona loved being the center of attention for a whole week.

Fiona and her GG (Great Grandma)

Aynsleigh and Fiona are cousins and they are only about 4 months apart, but at opposite ends of the height chart. Aynsleigh thought it was great to give Fiona hugs, but Fi was a bit wary. I suppose it would be kind of frightening to see someone more than a head taller than you trying to hug you around the neck.

My Mom made Fiona a cute Christmas dress and hat. Somehow I did not manage to get a very good picture of her entire ensemble. I'll have to see if I can get one from someone else. My cousin, Amanda, brought her dog over on Christmas Eve. Fiona was very excited to see a doggie. She missed her puppies while we were in Colorado.

Unwrapping presents Christmas Eve

Directing traffic

Even more presents to open on Christmas morning. Fiona got a Little People Farm and she has played with the animals nonstop since.

Reading her new book with Grandpa Tim.

Cute Christmas clothes

Great Grandpa Chuck, Aynsleigh, and Fiona

It was so nice to see all of our family out in Colorado. We miss everybody out there. However, Fiona didn't sleep much at all while we were there. She was surprisingly in a pretty good mood during the days, but didn't let Nathan and I get much sleep at night. So, we were glad to be back home in our own beds where she sleeps most nights.

Babyproofing Fail

2010-01-07T13:56:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Fiona figured out that she could move her music table. That would be all well and good, but her music table was currently blocking the drawers full of dvds. Once she figured out she could move her music table, she immediately figured out that she could get into the dvds. After cleaning up every dvd we own about the 50th time I went to the store and found some baby locks that would work to keep the drawer closed. See exhibit A (please ignore the dust):

I was so pleased that I had figured out a way to keep her out of the dvds and saved myself from cleaning them up 6 times a day.

This afternoon I left Fiona alone for a minute in the living room while I ran to use the restroom. On my return, this is what I found:

Fiona was happily emptying the drawer of dvds. At first I thought my husband must not have hooked after getting into the drawer. However, after closer inspection:

I realized that she had "hulked out" and simply ripped the baby lock off the drawer. Either my 13 month old peanut of girl is abnormally strong or these things suck. Definite babyproofing fail.

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Kisses

2010-01-06T10:40:00.001-06:00

Trip to the Mountains

2010-01-04T08:00:00.002-06:00

We of course made a trip up to the mountains while we were in Colorado. Unfortunately, we had a small window of time before it was supposed to start snowing, so we didn't stay long. Fiona thought it was great fun to get out of the car and hike around.

She kept sticking her tongue out. Maybe the air tasted different?

Walking on the river with Grandpa.

She thought it was really cool that we let her sit on the rocks. She kept waving frantically and I wished we had brought the video camera up with us.

This is so cool, Mom!

Of course, we stopped for a family photo. My silly husband apparently couldn't be bothered to remove his face mask.

Hanging out on a bench with Grandma and Grandpa.

I can't wait to go back up to the mountains with Fiona again and maybe do some actually hiking. Maybe we will make it up in the summer, when it is quite so frigid.

Santa Claus

2009-12-31T11:07:00.000-06:00

We didn't take Fiona to see Santa last year. I really wish that we had because it would have been a cute picture. However, we were sleep deprived parents of a 1 month old who screamed 24/7 and Nathan was worried about germs. So there was no cute Santa picture.

I was bound and determined we would get a cute Santa picture this year, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Fi would be terrified of the jolly man in red. We decided to make the trek to the mall in Fort Collins while we were there. Fiona seemed to be in a decent mood and from far away she seemed to really like Santa. She kept pointing and waving to him.

This is what happened when we got within about 5 feet of him.

I didn't even attempt to put her on his lap. She was just absolutely freaking out just being next to him.

So, no cute Santa pictures. I guess there is always next year. The trip wasn't a complete waste though. There was a big Christmas tree in the mall where we stopped to take a couple of pictures. There were also trains running around the tree that Fiona was fascinated by.

I Wasn't Ready

2009-12-15T10:37:00.001-06:00

I wasn't ready for Fiona to be done nursing. She has decided that she's done though. She hasn't nursed in 2 days. I think part of the reason she decided she's done is because my milk supply dropped. After 2 days of not nursing I'm not engorged at all. It just makes me sad.

I knew that someday we would be done breastfeeding. My goal had been to make it to 1 year and then let her decide when to wean. Well, we are 2 weeks past her first birthday and she's decided she's finished.

I'm just not ready to give up those times during the day that I got to sit and snuggle with her. She's such a busy girl these days, I really loved when she would ask to nurse and snuggle up with me for a few minutes. I really didn't think I would be so emotional about Fi weaning. I guess it is just one more way she is telling me that she isn't so much a baby anymore.

I'm proud that we made it so far. I'm glad that I was able to give her a year of breastmilk. I just wasn't ready for it to be over.

I'm Still Here

2009-12-14T08:32:00.000-06:00

I'm still alive. I haven't been online as much these days and I definitely haven't been blogging regularly. It's been a combination of a computer on the fritz, busy days, and some bloggers block. So this is what it has looked like out our windows for a week

It's been a bit of a winter wonderland. Last week we were stuck inside for at least a couple of days. It was kind of nice, since school was out it was just Fiona and I for 2 days last week and all 3 of us on Wednesday.
It definitely makes it feel a bit more like winter and Christmas.

We've been busy getting in the Christmas spirit lately. Last Christmas is such a blur to me. I had a tiny baby who never slept and spent about 23 hours of everyday screaming. We really didn't have money for gifts last year, because money was extremely tight. I still remember feeling incredibly blessed that we were all healthy and together and we had this wonderful little miracle (even if she only stopped screaming for an hour a day).

This year things are looking much brighter. Fiona is a happy little girl, who makes us smile and laugh everyday. #2 is busy cooking away in there and we can't wait to meet him/her. I have an incredible husband, who works long and hard to ensure that I get to stay home with Fiona. We have had a rough year, but we made it through together. We are all finally healthy. We have wonderful friends and family. Nathan worked very hard and got a really big client at work and got a very nice commission check just in time for Christmas. This year it has felt really good to be able to be generous with gifts to each other and our friends and family. Money definitely is not the key to happiness, but it definitely helps ease some stress. We have so much to be thankful for this year. It has been easy to get into the holiday spirit.

Fiona and I have been listening to lots of Christmas music, decorating the house, and wrapping lots of presents.

We are headed out to Colorado to visit family for the holidays. We are really looking forward to it. If I don't blog again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and has lots to be thankful for.

Wordless Wednesday: One Year Ago Today

2009-12-02T14:29:00.002-06:00

First Birthday Celebrations

2009-11-30T10:40:00.000-06:00

Fiona did a lot of celebrating for her 1st birthday. First, she had a "casual" baby birthday playdate with her buddy, Ethan. Fi has quite a few baby friends whose birthdays all fall within a couple months. Here she is chowing down on her smash cake.

And here's a picture of all the babies partying in their hats and bows. Aren't they all adorable?

Thank you so much to Jess for letting Fiona share the playdate with Ethan. Jess is the best party planner ever. You should go check out her blog. Or you can head over to Megan's blog and look at more pictures of the party.

So we didn't end up doing much partying on Fiona's actual birthday. Nathan was sick and we had a minor car scare. I did get a picture of her when she turned exactly 1 year old though.

Don't you love her birthday crown? A blogging friend of mine made it for her. You should definitely check out all the cute stuff she has in her etsy shop, Applesauce Crafts. Amber was so nice to make the crown for Fi. It made the perfect birthday accessory.

So finally, the day after her birthday we had Fiona's little family party. Unfortunately, the stomach flu had hit my family hard and so not everyone was able to attend her birthday party. We just may have to have a mini party with the family that missed the party.

The tired birthday girl. By Sunday, it had been a very full long weekend and she was a little tired. She looked awfully cute in her tutu that I made for her though.

Her Aunt Maggie decorated her highchair. Fiona really liked the balloons.

Her Godmother, Eileen, decorated the cake. Isn't it cute?

She loved unwrapping the presents. Of course, it took almost an hour because she had to check each one out. She got lots of cool toys and is one spoiled little girl already.

Then of course came the cake. She wasn't a huge fan of strawberry cake, I guess. I think she ended up throwing half of it to the dogs, which she thinks is hilarious.

We had a great time celebrating her first birthday with friends and family.

An Amazing Year

2009-11-28T09:56:00.000-06:00

Dear Fiona,
Mommy can't believe that a whole year has flown by. I feel like I barely blinked and you went from a tiny, snugly baby to a happy, busy big girl. This year has been amazing and challenging. I never knew that it was possible to love someone so much. Your Daddy and I have loved you from the beginning. That first day we got to hold you we knew you were someone special. Every day we love you even more.

You didn't make life easy for us in the beginning. You were a very colicky baby and Mommy struggled with breastfeeding you. There was lots of crying (yours and mine) and not much sleep. Somehow we managed to survive those rough patches and it only made your smiles and giggles that much more precious.

I love watching you grow and learn new things. I get so excited about your "firsts". At the same time I get a little sad that my baby is growing up so quickly.

You are a ball of energy now and very independent aka, stubborn (I have no idea where you got that trait from). You like to do things your way or not at all. You don't let things like gravity slow you down at all. You have no fear, my brave little girl (except of the vacuum cleaner). You were determined to walk so you didn't let any number of bumps and bruises slow you down. Now you are running all over the place.

You make us smile and laugh every day. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and in our family. I can't imagine my life without you and I thank God that He gave you to us.

You have grown and changed so much in this last year. I'm excited to see how much you grow and change every day. We love you so much!! Happy 1st Birthday, Fiona!!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall Fun

2009-11-18T08:23:00.000-06:00

Practically Wordless Wednesday: Minnie Mouse

2009-11-04T07:51:00.000-06:00

I was really happy with the way Fiona's Minnie Mouse costume turned out. She looked very cute and I was incredibly surprised that she didn't mess with the ears at all. Too bad she was not at all interested in smiling for any pictures (or even holding still).

Nathan was finally able to tickle her until she smiled, such a stinker .

A Month Away

2009-10-29T07:02:00.001-05:00

The countdown has begun. My baby will be 1 in a month. I was sitting there thinking about it this weekend and about what we were doing one year ago. I remember being very pregnant and wishing that this mysterious baby would should up sooner rather than later. I was very impatient to meet this small person who kicked me hard and dug her toes in my ribs. I was also very eager to be comfortable and be able to sleep again (hahaha). It makes me a little sad to think that my baby isn't really going to be the baby anymore. She looks more grown up every day and she keeps learning new things. I really do love the stage that she is in right now though. She's developed such a little personality and it is fun to watch her and play with her. Little babies are fun to snuggle, but 11 month olds are much more fun to play with.
(My friend, Tina, took this picture. Doesn't it make her look more grown up?)

Fiona is getting much better at walking. Before if she stopped or slowed down she immediately fell. It was like she stayed up because she was moving fast enough forward. Now she is a little less wobbly and she will take a couple steps stop and grin at you and then take a couple more. Her favorite game is walking back and worth between her music table and the couch.

This last month she had a babysitter at our house ( her Aunt Maura) for the first time. Before she has always gone to Grandma's house. I was worried about bedtime, but she went down easy without any screaming. That is a major milestone. Only within the last maybe 2 months has she really started to become easy to put to bed for me. However, if I left her home with Nathan than she screamed at bedtime. It's nice to know that we can actually go out occasionally and leave her with a sitter and she'll go to bed for them now.

We're loving this stage and soaking up every second. I know we'll blink and she'll be all grown up and won't even want to cuddle with her mama when she's sleepy. I'm excited for her first birthday and sad all at the same time.

Happy 11 months Fiona!

Wordless Wednesday: Spaghetti Baby

2009-10-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Solution to our Space Problem

2009-10-23T07:32:00.000-05:00

Lately, I have been stressing out a little about where this new baby is going to sleep. Granted, this won't be a problem for quite awhile. I just like to be prepared. I like to have a plan. The new baby will sleep in our room in the bassinet for the first couple of months, but after that who knows.

We do technically have a 3 bedroom house, but the 3rd bedroom is the office/storage/dog kennel room. So pretty much we've decided that Fiona and the baby will share a room. However, this poses yet another problem since her room is pretty small. How do we fit 2 cribs in her room?

The solution:

Cages! I mean ... um, er ... bunk beds?

I know that I often jokingly refer to the crib as baby jail, but seriously this looks like a cell block for tiny prisoners. Can't you just see them in their striped pjs with their little tin cups? I would definitely feel like a prison warden tucking my kids into these things at night.

The crazy things people come up with.

Wordless Wednesday: Mommy's Helper

2009-10-21T07:09:00.000-05:00

Gro Baby Bio Soakers

2009-10-19T08:21:00.000-05:00

The Natural Baby Company is once again putting a new product in the hands of bloggers to test out. This time it is their new Bio Soakers.
Go here to check them out on their website: http://www.thenaturalbabyco.com/gro-baby-biodegradable-soaker-pads-p-745.html

Gro Baby Biodegradable Soaker Pads replace the snap-in soaker that you use with your Gro Baby shell. You can go back and read a little more about the regular Gro Baby diaper here. The Biodegradable Soaker Pads are the perfect solution for traveling. Instead of having to wash the soaker/insert you just throw it away.

So basically the Bio Soakers are a hybrid between a cloth diaper and a disposable. However, you don't have to feel bad about theses sitting in landfills forever because they are biodegradable and compostable.
You also don't have to worry about your baby being exposed to all kinds of nasty chemicals because they are fragrance and dye free, plastic free, and chlorine free. They are made with natural ingredients that aren't harmful to your baby.

I am very excited to try these out for myself. It is always very tempting to switch to disposables when going on vacation. This system would provide the convenience of a disposable, that is better for baby and the environment. Gro Baby is giving away a Bio Soakers Intro Pack (value $34.95) to bloggers who help spread the word about their new product.

Cloth Diaper Swap Goodies!

2009-10-18T20:38:00.000-05:00

I participated in cloth diaper swap hosted by Megan over at Newly Wed, Newly Bred. I was pretty excited because this was my first blog swap. I had a great time shopping for my swap partner. I was also kind of nervous about picking out something that she would love.

Kim, the brilliant mama behind Rockin' Green Soap and GAD diapers had my name in the swap. I was ecstatic to get my package in the mail. Who doesn't love fluffy mail, especially when it say "fluffy mail" right on the side of the box? This is what was in my box of goodies:

I got a bag of Pumpkin Spice Rockin' Green Detergent, a GAD diaper, and a hemp insert and doubler. How awesome is that?!
I have been really wanting to try out a GAD diaper, but didn't have one yet. It has a really trim fit and I love the side snaps. I've also been wanting to try hemp, but didn't have any of those either, so this was a great swap gift. Especially when you include a bag of Rockin' Green. I am totally in love with this detergent. It smells super yummy and it has eliminated some stink issues we were having.
All I can say is, Thank You, Kim!!! And thanks to Megan for hosting this awesome swap!!

Pumpkins are Yummy

2009-10-13T10:08:00.000-05:00

I've been a total blog slacker the last week or so. I had hoped to have a busy weekend and then have lots to blog about, but instead this happened.

Yes, that is snow and lots of it. It was a pretty nice day outside on Friday, and we woke up Saturday morning to this. It is not supposed to snow on October 10th. That is way too early. We had a trip to Valas' Pumpkin Patch with Nathan's work and some outdoor fall pictures scheduled. As you can probably guess those things didn't happen. We stayed snuggled up inside most of the weekend.

We did go over to our friends' house and carve pumpkins before the silly October snow.

Fiona's Daddy was happy to be on baby duty because he hates carving pumpkins. He is not a fan of the pumpkin goo.

Fiona is not squeamish about gooey things though. She dove right in and had a great time taking out the pumpkin guts (except for one small scare when we thought she got a seed in her mouth).

She even thought the pumpkins were quite tasty. She kept licking them and trying to eat the pumpkin guts.

Looks like we might have to carve pumpkins again just because Fiona had such a great time.

Here are the finished products.

Blog Award

2009-10-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

Chanda over at Rambles, Rants, and Raves gave me my first ever blog award. Thanks Chanda! I feel loved :)

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now I get to pass it on to some other lovely bloggers. Check out these very lovely blogs:

3 Little Ones

A New Leas on Life

Bellydance, Bagpipes, and My Boys

Better Days Ahead

Domestic Dork

Finding Joy in the Journey

Ingrid Liddle is kind of cute

Life Happens During Naptime

My Life with the Munchkin Man

Newly Wed, Newly Bred

Our Life ... One Step at a Time

Paisley and Pretties

Sanity Sold Separately

There's no snakes in New Zealand

Think Pink

Okay, so they aren't all newly discovered, but they are all lovely blogs.

Wordless Wednesday: Our Trip to Niobrara

2009-09-30T09:58:00.001-05:00

Check out other Wordless Wednesday Posts!

Traveling with Cloth Diapers

2009-09-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

I'm participating in the Cloth Diapering Bloggers' Carnival today. The topic is traveling with cloth diapers. To go read other posts about traveling with cloth go here.

This past weekend was the first time I have ever been brave enough to travel with cloth diapers. We have cloth diapered from about the time my daughter was born and been on a few trips, but I had always taken disposables. This time I really didn't want to spend the money on a package of disposables. Those suckers are expensive.

Since this was just going to be a short trip and wouldn't require any washing I figured it was a safe time to try it out. I had just enough diapers to make it and wash immediately when I got home, barring any unforeseen events. It went pretty well. I should have planned better as far as having a big enough bag to put dirty diapers in and a deodorizer, but still not a deal breaker.

Overall, I really liked traveling with my cloth diapers. I hate having to use disposables when I know they are so bad for my baby, my wallet, and the environment. I'm sure there will still be trips where we switch to disposable, but traveling with cloth diapers is now an option also. The trip went so well, I think I will be brave and try to take our cloth diapers when we go to Colorado at Christmas. We usually go for a week, so that trip will require washing diapers. I will have to get my grandma to agree to let me use her washing machine first.

My advice for traveling with cloth:
1. Plan ahead so you have enough diapers or somewhere to wash them. Also make sure you save enough space, since they are a little bulkier than disposables.
2. Bring a big enough wetbag/pail liner.
3. Don't forget to bring a pail deodorizer.
4. Liners would be awesome for traveling.

10 Months Old

2009-09-29T10:50:00.000-05:00

Fiona was 10 months old yesterday. She is turning into such a big girl!

She is honing her standing and walking skills. She has been taking a couple of steps for several weeks now. The girl has no fear. She just tries to start walking and it generally ends in her face planting on the carpet. One day she made it halfway across the living room. She's still not very good without holding onto something, but she gets an A for effort. One of these days she is just going to start running across the room.

She has also turned into a little monkey. She tries to climb everything. She can make it up onto the tv stand and into the basket of toys. She tries hard to climb the baby gate and the rails of her crib. We are going to be in a lot of trouble if she gets that figured out.

She has gotten 4 more teeth, making that a total of 6 teeth. Now when she bites it really hurts. I miss her gummy smile. Her teeth make her look so much like a big girl.
Fiona says 3 words really consistently now. She says mama, dada, and dodo (dog). She chases the dogs around the house saying dodododo. It is pretty funny to watch.

Happy 10 months Fiona!

Not Me Monday: Camping Edition

2009-09-28T09:45:00.002-05:00

Did you do something you aren't proud of this week? Do you feel the need to fess up to your imperfections? Well, join MckMama in a free therapy session and air those dirty secrets.

I definitely didn't let my child eat grass, sticks, dirt, etc. when we were camping this weekend. I was a diligent mother and kept my daughter from eating nature.

I most certainly did not almost have a head on collision with a deer while wearing my daughter. Nope I was 100% awake while walking around with my daughter in the Moby and alert to my surroundings. I would never be so out of it that I almost got run over by Bambi.

My daughter did not have a s'more, while we were camping. I only feed her healthy foods, so I definitely didn't let her eat something so sugary. Nope, not me.

I absolutely did not give up on trying to keep my daughter from waking everyone up when she was screaming in the middle of the night. No, I was considerate and did my best to keep her quiet so everyone else could sleep.

I didn't make myself sick because I forgot to bring the baking soda or anything else to help the wetbag of dirty diapers not stink so much. I have super pregnancy nose, so I would definitely remember to take something to keep our room smelling good.

I really was not glad to be back to sleeping in my own bed last night. No, I always love vacation and don't want to come home.

Fiona Has Something to Say

2009-09-24T07:12:00.000-05:00

Yep, she's going to be a big sister in about 9 months!! (we think about the end of May)

We are super excited and little worried about the thought of having 2 under the age of 2.

I think this picture may show her true feelings on the subject ;)

On another note, this is my 100th post!! I think I'm a little addicted to this blogging business.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-23T06:41:00.000-05:00

A lot of you have seen this picture already, but it was just too cute, not to show off one more time. Love all those fluffy bums and baby legs!!

Who Needs a Baby Monitor

2009-09-22T09:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I really wonder why we wasted money on a baby monitor. First of all our house is pretty small and you can pretty much hear through the walls well enough to know when the baby is crying in her room. The only room you kind of need one in is if I lay a baby down to sleep in our room.

However, we apparently have a built in baby monitor in the dogs. The dogs don't think a crying baby should be left alone. Cry it out does not work well in our house because the dogs sit at the door and whine and scratch until you go free the Fiona from baby jail, aka the crib. They will run back and forth down the hall from you to the baby, until you go get her.

Silly us, we didn't need to buy a baby monitor. We had 2 already.

Aloha Friday

2009-09-18T07:29:00.000-05:00

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you won the lottery what would be your first purchase?

I think that I would run out and buy up all the cute baby clothes I could find. I've only gotten to buy Fiona about 10 items of clothing in her almost 10 months of life, so I would splurge on baby clothes and accessories like shoes, because a girl needs shoes.

Don't forget to head over to Island Life to check out other Aloha Fridays

2009-09-15T09:01:00.000-05:00

Fiona has been trying to walk for weeks now. She has been cruising along furniture and attempting to stand on her own. Last week she started actually trying to start walking without holding onto anything. Most of these attempts ended in her face first on the floor, but she actually did take about 3 steps towards me the other day. We decided that it might be wise to get her some sort of walking toy, so that she can "walk" around the living room without flaling flat on her face. I found a dirt cheap one on craigslist, so we got it over the weekend.

You of course have to check out all the bells and whistles on a purchase like this.

She had the biggest goofy grin on her face when she realized that she could walk all by herself.

She has been all over the place since we got this toy. She is going to be walking on her own any day now. That is a very scary thought.

Look Mom! No hands!