What am I thankful for? Day 18

I am thankful for a patient dentist.  Today was Claire's first dental appointment and it did not go very well.  She refused to sit in the chair and then of course Ben started crying so I had to pick him up.  I am trying to get her to sit int the chair and I finally get her to, on pain of death, when the dentist come in and reclines the chair and raises it up.  She is not impressed and starts to scream like he it taking dental tools to her eyes.  She is uncomfortable with him being a man as she has always been hesitant of men and the appointment just hits rock bottom.  She has now been in the chair a total of 2 minutes and at least she is screaming and he can see her teeth and he quickly tries to take a look, count them, and put this foam on them.  The hygienist starts to suck Claire's face off with the spit sucker and Claire at this point has started to hyperventilate and turn a little blue.  The dentist looks at me and shouts "I can stop if you want."  I tell him to just finish if he can so he pokes a tooth in the back and says that things are looking great.  He sits Claire up on the chair and she throws herself off towards me and hides behind me for the rest of the conversation with the dentist.  She was in the chair a total of 4 minutes.  She got to pick out her own tooth brush, floss, tooth paste, and a prize and of course now she is fine and smiling.  We get to go back in 6 months.  I can't wait.  

What am I thankful for? Day 17

I am thankful for helpful medical receptionists.  Today I had to make 3 doctors appointments for the family and 3 dental appointments for all of us.  This can be a problem when you have never seen the doctor before and sometimes the front desk, in my experience, can be at times snotty and unhelpful.  Everyone was more than helpful and very nice.  Tomorrow Claire has her first dental appointment.

What am I thankful for? Day 16

I am thankful for a healthy fish tank.  I have been struggling with my fish tank for about 3 weeks now.  I recently discovered that most of my fish had ick.  This was not a fun discovery as most of them died and the "Cure" killed all my snails.  At this point I think everything is OK and the tank has struck a balance.  Everything is looking great and I still have 5 fish left.

What am I thankful for? Day 15

I am thankful for sales on kids clothing.  Today I was able to spend little money and clothe our growing children for winter.  Plus I got to spend the day without kids and with my sisters in-law.  It was a fun day and I am a great bargain hunter.

What am I thankful for? Day 14

I am thankful for sleep. I wish that I could say that I got a lot of sleep last night but not getting any sleep makes me so much more appreciative for the next time I get it. Claire was awake until 11:30pm and Ben was up at 11:30pm, 12:45am, 2:15am, 6am, and then up for the day at 8:45am. Claire of course got up at 6:30am which means only 7 hours of sleep! For those of you with toddlers you know that trying to get them to function and have a good day on 7 hours of sleep is almost impossible. Being at the beach and all sleeping in the same room is difficult. You can't let one cry it out a while or try to go to sleep on their own with singing. I hope that tonight is a better night as I would love to get more than 2 hours of sleep and would be super thankful for it.

What am I thankful for? Day 13

I am thankful for my family. Today Travis's parents and brothers are all going to be at the beach and we all get to spend 3 days together. I love all of them so much and with all our busy lives we just don't get to see each other often enough. They are kind and funny people who make you strive to want to be a better person. I feel so blessed to get to be in their family and that they love me for me. How have I been so lucky to get to be in this family?

What am I thankful for? Day 12

I am thankful for all I have. It was recently brought to my attention by Travis that I look into the future a lot and like to look at what we will have later on in life. By what we will have I mean things like more kids, a larger house, and a bigger congregation. It made me worry that he might think that I am not currently happy with the way our lives are today. I am so happy with our life. We have more than I ever thought we would at this point and we have more than a lot do these days. I love my husband, Kids, pets, and family. We have a great house and a wonderful church. I look at the future as goals to achieve and I get so excited when I think about how great our liver are now and how much better they will be in the future. I am blessed with a wonderful life.

What am I thankful for? Day 11

I am thankful for Sweatin to the Oldies! Richard Simmons has helped me in more ways than I can count. I know that a lot of people think he is lame and a little strange but I like his encouragement and enthusiasm. I can melt off the pounds and have fun with my kids who think I am just a crazy dancer and point and laugh at me. I am so close to 90lbs gone I can taste it!

What am I thankful for? Day 10

I am thankful for my Nana. She recently gave us her beautiful piano that she has had since she was a little girl. It is a grand upright Bush & Lane which I am told is a great maker of pianos. This is a family heirloom and will be treasured for generations to come. We had it tuned and now all we need is lessons to learn how to play. I can't wait. What a wonderful thing to do for our family.

What am I thankful for? Day 9

I am thankful for being a good neighbor. The other day we had a major wind storm and one of our neighbors recycling bins blew over emptying all the contents everywhere. Of course we are the house that all that stuff collects at including every ones leafs from down the street (here we were thinking "Ha ha we don't need to buy a rake because we don't have trees with tons of leafs." Wrong!). Travis and I realized that it was all over our yard and down the street so we spent time picking it all up in the wind. Our neighbor came out when he realized what had happened and we so thankful that we had helped. It feels good to help out plus if it were our can that fell over I would be thankful for a nice neighbor.

What am I thankful for? Day8

I am thankful for organization. Some would say that I have an obsession with having things organized. If you look in our pantry all the labels are facing out, no nutrition labels of any kind are showing (that is a cardinal sin), and everything is grouped together like baking, breakfast, canned goods etc... Another thing we are not lacking in our house is plastic bins so everything has it's perfect place, neat, tidy, dry, and clean. With our garage starting to get organized we now can get all the bins off the floor and on the shelves. Plus I also get the added benefit of purchasing a few more bins to help organize the rest of the stuff that doesn't have a place yet. Just thinking about all the organization is sending shivers down my spine of complete and utter joy. The only thing I am lacking in this adventure is my soon to be new love....the label maker.

What am I thankful for? Day 7

I am thankful for my father in-law.  It was so wonderful to have Steve helping us with yet another home project.  Our garage is so cluttered that we can't get our car in. Travis decided that he wanted to build shelves to get everything off the ground.  We don't have a truck so Steve let us borrow his and him to get the supplies and help build the shelves.  He had other things to do that evening and it is an hour drive out to us and he still came over and helped.  It was done in a matter of hours and they look great!  This is going to make our lives a little easier and a lot more organized.  Family is such a wonderful thing to have and I couldn't have picked a better family to be a part of.

What am I thankful for? Day 6

I am thankful for winter.  It has been so cold here lately.  Our house has been at 67 degrees or colder every night this week.  We were told that it might snow here this weekend and when I woke up this morning there was a layer of ice on everything.  It was 30degrees outside!  I am so excited for snow and I love the bright crisp days.  We all had red noses from the cold air.

What am I thankful for? Day5

I am thankful for recycling.  I have some baby items that I am no longer needing and a friend of mine is having a baby soon.  I am happy to give her the things I don't need.  We all should be doing this with most everything.  If we only looked around for swap meets or bartered things we would be better off and have a little more in our pockets.  Why buy new when there is already so much out there to offer.  Let's all remember that we can all survive on less and help others in the process.

What am I thankful for? Day4

Today I am thankful for my husband.  I just had the opportunity tonight to have a moment where time stopped.  We were at a church function and I looked at him while he was talking to a parishioner, and holding Ben, when time stopped.  In that moment everything was a blur except him.  There was no noise, just him.  In that moment when he caught my eye my life with him thus far flashed before my eyes.  It reminds me of how much love I have for him and how all I want to do is make him happy.  I would not have anything without him, and with him I have everything I will ever need.  I am thankful for Travis.

What am I thankful for? Day3

I am thankful for laughter. Just a few moments ago Travis put Ben on the floor to change him into his pj's when he discovered (After taking all his clothes off) that Ben pooped out. It was so bad that it was on the top of his head, in his ear, on his ribs, his stomach, all over the carpet, and all the way down his back to his cute little bottom. Travis and I just looked at each other with our mouths open in horror.  It took a few seconds to fully realize what was happening and all I could think to do was laugh.

What am I thankful for? Day2

This is a little late but better now than never.  I am thankful for my nursing baby.  The bond that has formed with Ben is hard to describe as anything but wonderful.  I bonded with Claire but we had such a hard time with nursing that we struggled the whole time and then she quit a week shy of 4 months old.  It was formula after that and anyone could feed her.  This time I am the only one who can feed Ben and he only has eyes for me.  I'm not one to toot my own horn but he just lights up when I look at him.  The feeling I get when he smiles for me is out of this world.  I am thankful that this time around it worked.

What am I thankful for? Day 1

A friend from high school mentioned that she will be posting what she is thankful for every day now until Thanksgiving.  I think this is a wonderful idea and will be doing this as well.

I am thankful for being able to find a pair of pants that fit.  I have discovered that I only had one pair of pants that I could wear, and even then they didn't really fit.  They were too big and getting tattered.  I went shopping with my mom and found a pair that fit my new body at this stage in my weight loss.  I am glad and thankful that I no longer have a saggy looking butt, not having to constantly pull my pants up, or worry about the hole that was forming in a place where you don't want a hole.  I know that this is a  trivial thing to be thankful for but not having pants can be kind of a problem.

Our Halloween church party was very fun!  We had games, food, pumpkin carving, and a costume contest.  Claire was a bee, I was a witch, and Trav and Ben were twins.  Good times were had by all.  It took me 30 minutes to wash the green out of my hair.

Woo hoo!

It's finally done!  I finished about noon and am so happy with it!  My dad made the tree which I painted and then screwed onto the wall.  The leafs are real but preserved.  The birds are mushroom birds and the butterflies are actually on wires from the wall so they look like they are flying.  I have others around the room as well along with a dragonfly.  I put moss in places and created a birds nest inside the hole in the tree.  Claire loves it and it came out better than I had planned.  Woo hoo!

Getting a little more done on Claire's room.

Travis, the sweet husband that he is, let me paint this morning while he had the kids downstairs. I finished the flowers and the rabbit. It has only been 2 months since I began the project. Not lame! OK maybe a little lame. Now I have to work on the tree which I hope I can today. At least get a coat of paint on it and make a small repair to it. Then it will be onto putting moss and leafs on it. After that just a couple of small touches of birds and butterflies. Onward and upward! 

Photo shoot pictures!

Here are a couple of the pictures from our family photo shoot. I love what we got but I do not like any of me. I have lost almost 80 lbs and I still have a double chin and I have one in all the photos. I am super disappointed about that but I really do love all the photos of Travis and the kids. I guess I just need to insist that the photographer needs not to take any pictures of me from an up angle. I wish I would have spoken up. Next time.

I just caught sight at my own reflection and I'm scared.

You know you are a mom of more than one child when you realize that it has been 3 days since you last showered.  I was nursing Ben when I came to this realization.  Gross.  I have been so consumed with potty training, teething, and trying to get this house in order that I forgot myself.  Wow that was a little too easy.  Note to self: Showering is a must.

 

Something we are trying over the last week and the next couple is not buying any groceries except for milk, juice, and eggs.  We are forcing ourselves to save money and use what we have.  This has been a good lesson thus far, but a difficult one as well.  I have not had the time to try and prepare food but have had to make it work.  Cooking from scratch takes a lot of time and effort and with two little kids there were days that I wanted to lead them into the oven, a hot and mystical cave.  Oh look!  A beautiful oven unicorn!  Go get it!

 

Tomorrow I am, come hell or high water, going to finish the upstairs if it kills me!  I am so tired of looking at things all out of order and having all these unfinished projects everywhere.  Maybe I can get Travis to take the kids on Saturday so I can finish painting Claire’s room.  That would make me feel great!  There is work to be done.

A busy few weeks.

These last few weeks have been so busy that I haven't even turned on the computer more than 3 times. This is highly unusual for me. This last month has flown by. We have all enjoyed the changing of the trees and the crisp air. Claire is excited for Halloween as she loves to wear her bee costume. I made her some antenna which I had to hide so they would stay intact by the time Halloween is here. Ben is going to be Travis for Halloween. We bought him a cheap pair of readers and then I popped out the lenses. He looks so cute! I also have some chin hair for him to wear to complete the look.

We took the kids and my mom to the pumpkin patch last weekend. It was fun but the farm we went to was not as organized as we thought it would be so it was frustrating for the adults. Claire picked out her pumpkin and Ben lost a shoe which we spent 30 minutes looking for before we left. It was overall a better time for the kids. However probably a typical family outing with one kid screaming and the loss of a shoe for the other.

We also have been taking walks every night after dinner when it is not pouring for the last few weeks and we all love it. I love tiring out Claire before bed and wearing the extra 20lbs of Ben for an added workout. He loves to wear his hat and to be in the backpack.  

Ben is going to be 6 months old on Oct. 30. This is unreal for me. I just can't believe that 6 months have almost past us by since we welcomed him in to our family. He is sitting up, almost army crawling, and on the 17th he cut his first 2 teeth at the same time. Both on the bottom.

Claire has gone a whole week almost completely dry! She has been doing so well with potty training. We finally got her to love to go and get jelly beans and stickers every time she goes. She is not as good at telling us when she has to pee so we have a timer set to remind her to go. I am really hoping she will be fully trained by Christmas. I think we can do it. After Halloween I will post again of everyone in their costumes.

What happened to the clouds?!

Today I woke up at 5:50am blindly going into the bathroom and taking a shower in the dark. Travis and I were up late ironing clothes for our whole family since we were taking family photos at 9am in Tigard at my mother in-law's house. We picked her house because she has a beautiful back yard with lots of pretty spots for little girls to pose for pictures. We left the house at 7am with the car packed for the day and several costume changes for each of us (4 for each kid and 3 each for us).

The person who was going to be taking the photos is my sister in-law's cousin who, looking at her website and myspace page, takes beautiful pictures and is extremely reasonable price wise. For anyone who knows my daughter you know hat she is shy around anyone she has not met before along with those she has met several times. She took one look at Micalah and was instantly comfortable and wonderful. This made me feel great! I have been to some portrait studios over the last couple of years and I have met some terrible photographers who have no patience for little kids and let me tell you this was not the case! Micalah was so patient and calm and she has such a way with little kids. This was a great experience that I would recommend her to anyone who was wanting to get some pictures of their family or kids. You will love her.

After the photo session it was about 90 degrees at 11am so we stripped Claire down to her diaper and let her run around the yard and play in the water and I took a couple of candid shots of her and Ben. Mine are not nearly as good as Micalah's but it will have to do until we get the pictures back. I can't wait to have to call her again for another session. If you want to visit her website or myspace page I will post them on the bottom.

The statue picture was of her totally naked but she struck this pose that just managed to get but I made her a leaf bikini bottom in Paint. She is not actually wearing a bathing suit of leafs. That would be neat though.

www.myspace.com/micalahwilsonimages

I love him

I put Ben to bed after nursing him about an hour ago, burped him in the dark, and laid him down. I stood under the plastic glowing stars on the ceiling and among the vinyl monkeys on the wall and just stared at him. His limp sleeping body lightly raising up and down and the little buzz of his breath made my heart ache. I love him. I love him despite the fact that he pooped today making the bumbo turn into a grotesque soup bow. I love him despite the fact that he cried for an hour while I was trying to make dinner and burned most of it. I love him because he reminds me of Claire and Travis. I love him because he loves Claire. I love him because when I was changing him before bed he couldn't stop laughing when all I was doing was looking at him. I loved him before he was born and I will love him all of my days.

Catching up on life

Since Ben was born things have picked up and calmed down a bit. Ben is doing very well, not that we thought he wouldn't, but he is a BIG boy. He had a 4 month check up last Monday and we found out that he is 18 lbs 7oz and 27 1/2” long. His doctor said that he is doing great and continuing to thrive and stay on the same growth arc. She also mentioned that he is the size of an average 7 ½ month old! That blew my mind a bit. He is mastering a new skill it seems every day. He is rolling over on both sides, talking up a storm, laughing at every opportunity, enjoying his feet, Grabbing anything within reach to chew, eating rice cereal, and trying to crawl. The last few nights have been tough for Travis, Ben, and I since Ben has decided that he no longer wants to sleep more than 2 hours at a time. I'm confident that we will all figure this “Stage” out soon and we will all be back to wonderful sleep.

Claire on the other hand has discovered her sassy side and is embracing it at every opportunity weather we like it or not. She has been choosing the most inopportune times to bring this demon out and sharing it with others while I turn red and try to handle the situation in a diplomatic manner. Her new trick she has learned is singing and making up her own songs while playing a cardboard tube, her guitar. We have been really listening to the lyrics and they are just hilarious. The songs always start out with the same 2 lyrics, Bobo (my mom) and Grandma (Travis's mom) and are then followed either by every other name in her répertoire, the events of the day, or about all the things she is not allowed to do or say. “I hit mommy I hit daddy BAD BAD, GO AWAY pinch Moes (the cat) BAD” and it continues all in a sing song voice. As long as she is not doing or saying those things to others we are OK with the songs and at least she has a constructive outlet. Oh how we love her.

Family of 4

I think my Nana said it best "Life with 2 kids is quadruple the work of 1." When I first heard this I remember thinking "OK Nana you silly, silly lady." What was I thinking shrugging that off. She was totally right! I am OK enough with myself to admit when I am wrong. I WAS WRONG! I am sure I haven't hit the tip of the ice burg on how much more work it becomes when Ben starts walking. It also hit me how scared and grossed out I was when Claire got stomach flu (We all got it. Plus vomit is my Kryptonite) and now I will have 2 with stomach flu. I am also having such a hard time getting anything done around the house. It is killing me that I have all these unfinished projects everywhere. As soon as I sit down to do something or it starts getting really good Ben is screaming or Claire wants my attention.  

I love being a mother and I would never change that but HOLY MOTHER Of PEARL I want to get something done from start to finish! I know I am not the only mother who feels like this but the mothers I know seem like super moms who have capes on and finish everything and have time to make roast duck dinner FROM SCRATCH. I do my darnedest to get as much done in the time I have but I also like to do things like sit, eat, or shower alone.