It's been a long time and I am feeling chatty

So much has changed since I last checked in...I honestly don't think I have the time to catch up!


It was funny because today I was asked by my very pregnant neighbor for some advice and was given a post card to write it on.  I thought to myself, there is just not NEARLY enough space to share all the things I have learned over the last two years of being a mom.  Obviously she doesn't want to hear it all, but it got me to thinking...what have I learned and what advice do I have to give?  So here it goes, thought I would jot it all down here to share with everyone...maybe if you are willing you can share some back in the comments...I always feel like learning something new that I don't know :0)

• Children are amazing!  I know we all know that, but there is honestly no way to explain it fully until you have experienced it.  They grow and learn at an astronomical pace that would leave my brain turned to complete mush, yet they do it with a giggle and a smile.
• Babies can have health issues and it SUCKS!!!  No one tells you that even though you have a healthy baby you may spend the next few months trying to figure out why they are in so much pain and why they are crying so much and why you can't just make it all better.  If this happens to you-call, write, or text me...I most likely have a solution seeing as though I have been blessed not once, but twice with babies who are miserable!

• Onesies can go on from the bottom up...wish someone would have told that to me with #1.  Took me until #2 to figure that out...explosive poo is much easier to deal with when all you have to do is pull the dumb thing down over their shoulders instead of running poo up their back..duh!!
• If you happen to be blessed with diaper rash...skip the wipes and just run their bottom under running water and use your hand to clean them off.  The mix of the chemicals in wipes and the abrasive nature of wiping will make it worse instantly!  After the clear water bidet of the baby sort, blot dry with a soft towel and you should be clear in a very short period of time. 
• A happy baby is a happy mom.  I know there is much discussion about getting enough "ME" time and I 100% agree with doing things for yourself. In this case I mean sometimes you need to take a step back and not do what you want to do but do what your child needs.  Let me give an example.  Ryan now being the big 2 year old he is sometimes gets a second wind and has a hard time falling asleep.  It is maddening!!  It in fact makes my blood boil and takes every ounce of restraint I have not to strangle the little bugger and pin him to the bed...but that just would not be nice...Instead I do a little of the deep breathing you have all learned so much about and then I sit on the floor next to his bed saying nothing while he giggles and sucks his paci.  I do not engage at all with him and in fact to keep myself from screaming "JUST GO TO SLEEP" I meditate.  After only about 10-15min he is dead out like a light!  Now I have tried many things  to get to this point.  Frequently it involved going in and out of his room and yelling "Sleep Now!!" which of course was fruitless.  Now you may be thinking I am off the point, but here it is...instead of getting back to what I wanted to be doing, I take the 10min to give him what he needs.  This in the end gets me what I need...a child who is cooperating, which in the end is all moms really want anyhow isn't it?
• I think it should be mandatory for all husbands/partners/family or anyone else who will be spending a lot of time with you after you have your baby, to be educated on Post Partum Depression.  I think right along with learning to breathe through labor, they should educated on signs and symptoms because my friends it is evil...way worse than you could ever imagine!  Sadly most women suffer in silence and their partners are clueless as to what is going on.  It is unfair to everyone involved to have to live through it without knowing it is happening to them.  I have found by the time you figure out you have it, it has been a long time since it started and there probably is already colateral damage.  Inform yourself ahead of time...it can rear its ugly head in many ugly ways.  And don't think you are less of a mom because you need help...in fact, if you are scared to get help because you don't want anyone to know you are struggling, then you really need help and that is ok.
• Having two babies in 12months is nuts!!!!  I don't think I have to go into detail there...but I would not have it any other way.
• Stay positive.  That is oh so hard, but like the old saying goes "You catch more flies with sugar than vinegar"  The same holds true with toddlers.  If you find yourself saying "No" or "Stop" or any other negative word more than you are saying anything else, chances are you have a child who will challenge you non-stop.  How would you like it if everything you touched or said was negated??  You would hate the world and lash out every chance you got too!!  You would mostly likely call your boss and F-ing jerk and vow to make his life hell!  Welcome to your toddlers world.  Is it really that bad if they drop their food on the floor for the 321st time?  Invite them to clean up with you and you will find a lot less things are spilled and if they are you will be pleasantly surprised when you hear "Mommy I need a cloth" and they wipe up their own milk spill.  I'm not talking about letting your child live Lord Of The Flies in your house, in fact I am as far from permissive as you could get.  Just change how you get them to do what you want.  I had many years training getting Surgeons to do what I wanted them to do with them thinking it was their idea, so I have a little practice.  If you need suggestions, I am more than willing to share, again..just ask me :o)

I could go on and on, but I think that is the important stuff...I'll let you know if I come up with anything else.

Oh yeah...Pampers rule and getting them from Amazon saves loads of money :o)

An open letter to the teeth I can't see in my children's mouth

I HATE YOU!!!

Why are you so mean to my babies?

They have done nothing to you!

All they tried to do was give you a nice warm home.

What did you do?

Made them have runny noses, itchy eyes, sore ears, and more poor baby girl is pulling her hair out!!

Let's not ignore the fact that you make it impossible for them to sleep; 

which means it is impossible for me to sleep!!!!!!

Teeth, you are not my friend-

You are just lucky I can't get at you, 

or you would be running scared!

Please poke through quickly and please stop all 

of this monkey business.

Sincerely-

Momma Bear

Mike Has A New Job!!

I have said it many times and I will say it again, we are very blessed and we are very thankful.  Mike was offered an opportunity that does not come along often and he decided it would be a good personal and professional move to make.  I am so proud of him!!  He works so hard to provide for us; to make sure I am able to stay home with the kids, to make sure we have food on the table and clothes on our back, with a roof over our heads.  He also is the most AMAZING Father and Husband any woman could ask for.  I am not sure what I did in a past life to be blessed with such an amazing person in my life...but I am glad I did whatever I did.  It still shocks me that he was just there free as a bird waiting to be picked up by a girl like me.  I sometimes have to question his sanity for picking me sometimes, but he always sees the good side of me and turns a blind eye to my faults.  I am a tough bird to live with and he just thinks I am a peach.  He always says "Have you met my sister?" So for that I guess I owe Erin a big hug and Thank You, but I know she has nothin' on me some days!!

We also have been blessed because it seems Elise's meds have kicked in and she is back to being able to sleep comfortably.  The poor little bean took a one month hit, so I am letting her sleep in and sleep as much as she wants to!  She has some catching up to do.  Her whole mood and demeanor is back to her sunshiny self.  It was so sad to see her so down.  In  two days she has turned a 180 and is about ready to jump out of skin she is so happy!!

Mr. Moo has had his canine teeth erupt through with honestly the least pain and issues of any of his teeth...of course, the ones that are notorious for being an issue, he is totally ok with....the other 11 made up for it though!

We are enjoying fall, and will get to enjoy it this coming week together.  As part of moving jobs, Mike gets this week off in between.  I have been making lots of stew and soups, burning fall candles, drinking winter coffee, just all in all enjoying the season.  I LOVE FALL!!!  I am actually excited for winter as well.  I am one of the crazies who likes the snow and cold.

I guess that is all for now....everything is good and I can just breathe a sigh of relief, I feel the stress melting away (and I am not even at Yoga!!)

Here are some fall pics from our pumpkin patch visit and other random stuff

Enjoy!!

And here is a video of a normal day at our house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM3UGbQN3s8

We are back on Prevacid, and my baby is happy again

It has been a tough month and a half.  Elise just has not been the same since September 6 and I have come to realize it has been since I weaned her off her PPI.  So, back on it we are!!

She already today has had better sleep and she is having a much easier time being awake.

That little bean is threatening to crawl on me and I can not believe it!!  Today she had her legs under her hips kind of scooting on her face.  I think I will have a moving baby within a month at the longest!  Crazy to think that I will never have a non-moving child in my life ever again.

As each milestone passes, it just seems like it is a blur.  I waited sooooo long to have babies and now my babies will not be babies anymore.  Ryan is already a toddler.  There is barely anything baby left about him. He even looks like a little man.

I sometimes feel jipped because I really have never got to enjoy a snuggly little newborn who spends hours on end happily sleeping in my arms.  But it was meant to be my lot in life to have two very high needs babies who needed to be held, but for the reason that they were crying messes.  I honestly feel though that has made them more snuggly and loving now.  Elise has been giving big mouth kisses for over a month now and she is already reciprocating head hugs by snuggling into my neck.  And where to start with Ryan!!  That child just wants to hug and kiss and be close with us all the time.  That includes Elise!  He is so good about getting on the floor with her and snuggling. He puts his head in her lap while she is sitting and she bends her drooly head down and gives him BIG kisses and he LOVES it!!  I swear they can have a lovefest for two straight minutes on the floor!  It is awesome to have such love in my house.  It makes me feel like I am doing something right if my children are showing that much tenderness.  Let's hope it continues!

School is going great..not much to report there.  Ryan pretty much runs around like a madman and Elise has all the other moms wrapped around her finger.  They are all under the delusion I have perfect children who never misbehave and never cry.  Amazing how my children act in public!!

I think most of you know we have rehomed Klaus.  It was a difficult decision, but it has turned out to be the best decision for both Klaus and us.  We had him back for the weekend and it was pretty clear he was not as happy to be here.  It made me feel better about the decision because I now know this is the choice he would have made himself.

Well, not much more to say right now...although we may have some exciting news to report soon!  How's that for a cliffhanger!

Teething, Colds, School Starting...We've Been Busy!!

As usual  we are fighting the good fight and winning!!

We have just been so so busy...I guess this is my new normal and I just have to get used to it.  It's kind of nice...the days fly by and I have no time to think about how tired I must be!!

Let's start from the top.,.Teeth-we have a bunch of new ones in our house!!  Ryan now has all four of his first year molars through...which was NO fun and I am not looking forward to the rest coming in!

On a opposite note...Elise has both her bottom front teeth in and I had NO idea she was teething!!  Honestly, if all her teeth come in like this I will be sooo relieved.  Ryan was the kind of kid who teeth's for 3 months before a tooth starts to poke through, infact, he has basically been teething since he was 5months old!  Elise got a low grade fever for two days before they showed up, got slightly fussier the night  before they came through.  Amazing how they are so different in every way!

Colds...grrrrrr!!  We are already on the second one of the season in a months time!!  This one is really throwing them for a loop and I am concerned for my little girls ears.  She has been pulling and rubbing them today.  It is also screwing with my good sleepers!!!  Poor things are just having a rough time.

Although I should mention my sweet little Angel Baby (that would be my previous touchy screamer) slept two nights with 12 straight hours of sleep with NO feeds or wakings!!  Then the dumb cold comes and we have been up twice to eat for the last three nights.  Hopefully after the cold passes, we will go back to the blissful 12 hour sleeps!

Ryan is talking up a storm.  Everyday he seems to have a new word.  It is amazing!!  He also has learned his sign for potty and he even let Daddy know he needed to go potty when he was in the tub the other night.  We so far are just going on the potty right before his bath.  He seems to like it well enough...we'll roll with it.
Other than that Ryan is a dancing machine who is as happy and crazy as ever!  God I love that kid :0)

Elise is not only on the roll, but she also is sitting!  She is already sitting up big and tall and playing with her toys.  She also is on the verge of some sort of Army crawl I think.  She gets on her belly and reaches and tries to get to her toys...we aren't there yet, but we are on the way.  Plus, I can see she just wants to get up and start chasing her brother.  He runs by and I swear to God, she just wants to get up and start running too.

We all started school last week...I actually found a lovely Toddler Group willing to take all three of us on.  So far so good.  It has been good for me to get out of the house even though it is basically a military movement to get all of us to a place on a time schedule.  Good thing I am an anal planner type...I have things in place staged and ready to go at specific times so we are able to be mobile at the precise minute we need to move....this is NO exaggeration.  We really would be able to go no where without planning like that.

Let's talk about eating for a minute...Ryan, not a good eater.  Elise good eater.

I was not willing to go through the pain of having a picky eater again...Ryan and food BLAH is all I can say.  He is by no means the worst, but he is not what I would call a good eater either.

So, in hopes of having a good eater I looked into alternatives to just giving purees and rice cereal because I had a hunch that all of that bland paste was part of why Ryan has issues now.  So, I found Baby Led Weaning.  It is wonderful if you have the stomach for mess!!  Basically I give Elise everything we are eating in whole food form.  She is able to feed herself amazingly big pieces of food, and she loves it!!
She normally has a banana for breakfast, a half of a peach or nectarine also a half of an avocado and then for dinner she has what we are having, for example-the other night we grilled steak, asparagus and mushrooms and she ate all three including gumming apiece of steak!!  The best part is, Ryan sees Elise, Mike and I eating all the same stuff, so he has started to try our food now too.  He likes asparagus and a few other things that I never could have gotten him to touch before.

So not only will I never give another bottle, I will never have to buy another jar of baby food!!  This baby stuff is a piece of cake!!

Well, not really :(  I ran into a case of the baby blues and it sucked.  I was just finding I was getting more and more overwhelmed.  I was not feeling nor acting like myself and I was scared I would never be the same again.  Mike and I decided I needed to get out and do something for myself.  So, after the kids are in bed I go to the gym to run....and it feels great!!  I do not get to go everyday, but I try to go at least 3-4 times a week.  It truly has made me a better mommy as I was getting to be a short fused mommy that NO ONE liked!! But, all it took was a treadmill to lift my spirits once again.  AHHH-exercise does the head good.

Well, my baby is up and I am excited to give her the pumpkin I just roasted for her.  I know there was something else I wanted to share with you, but of course it has slipped my mind.  I'll add some Baby Led Weaning (BLW) photos so you can see my little bean in action.

Love to all

Elise chomping an avocado

My happy eater

Lunch with my babies

Elise with a nectarine

Yum Yum

WOW...Flying with 2 under 2 is not fun..I mean REALLY NOT FUN!!!

Well, We Made It!!!

That sums up our adventure to WI.

The flight out was really out of this world...but let me first start by saying, in the scheme of things, my kids were good as gold and really could not have done better. We were not "That Family" on the plane (thank goodness) although we did sit across the row from "That Child" Holy Cats that little girl had lungs and a squeal to match!

It really was more that I felt bad for our kids. They really have this nice, safe, structured life that we happily live and a plane ride just really screws that up. Feeding was a joke, naps were almost non-existent and ants in the pants got the best of Ryan near the end.

Then we still had a 2 hour drive to Shiocton from Milwaukee!!! Did I ever mention how much Elise hates riding in the car? Well she HATES it!!! Again, I took Mike on a tour of the ghetto-don't ask how I know ever ghetto in every major city I have visited. I am pretty sure my husband would be happy if I would skip that part of the trip!! But I always get us there in one piece :0)

Mom and Dad were so happy to see us and Ryan was thrilled to see them. I know they like it when he still remembers them. My sister's and their kids are doing great as well. I can't believe how much they grow. Wyatt is looking more like a pre-teen than a little boy...I just can't imagine Ryan being that big, but soon he will be.

While we were there we went to the Fireman's Parade and Ryan got to see a bunch of trucks and he also got a carton of chocolate milk and some cheese. This was his first time with chocolate milk and he liked it well enough, but luckily he likes his plain old white stuff better!!

Elise was also baptized while we were there. She looked beautiful in her little white gown with her flower in her hair, wearing her "first diamonds" from Grandma Mertel. She won't be spoiled or anything (eyes rolling)!!

It was honestly just nice to be able to visit with everyone and just relax for a bit. Reality was just around the corner, so I enjoyed every bit of help from everyone while I had it!

The plane ride back was actually not awful! The kids were so pooped that they both slept for about 2 hours at the same time, so daddy and mommy took advantage and napped too. Although mommy got the shortest nap. Everyone commented on how cute our kids were and how good they were on the plane. Of course I was beaming with pride because they were both really good and of course they are the most beautiful kids EVER!! (every mom thinks that of her kids :0) )

We got home and I was never so happy to see home. There is just something about being in your own place with your own stuff. It just smelled like home when we walked through the door.

I still have a lot of work to do to unpack and straighten the house. It will take a few days I am sure, but I am doing it with a smile on my face. I got the break I needed to put me back into my correct mommy pants (instead of the impatient ones I had been wearing)

Did I mention how much I love being home :)

Ryan Cleaning as usual

Josie and Elise

Elise and Wyatt

Ryan Loving Elise

My Cute Family

Last day of swim lessons...good thing? Let's discuss

Well, the big finally was today. After two wonderful weeks of getting into the pool at 10:00am with the average temp. outside being around...oh I don't know 58 degrees...Swim Lessons have come to an end.

I am trying to decide how I feel about this. It was cold, it was chaotic getting things ready before and after, Ryan really just clung to me to keep the hypothermia at bay (except for that one day when it was freakin' awesome out), and it was hard lining up childminders for Elise for two weeks in a row.

In the end though, I decided it was the best idea I had had in a long time. The alone time Ryan and I had for those 8 days was something we both needed. For awhile Ryan has needed to look to other people a lot for some of the attention he would normally get from me if I did not have a tiny baby to look after. We have reconnected and I again have moved to the center of everything good in his world.

This does come with a tiny downside...Separation Anxiety!! And boy does he get it bad now!! That has been the challenge because now I have to come up with a new way to get Elise down to her room and put her to sleep. Ryan can't be away from me for that long anymore, and that is a total bummer!!! But, we are even coming around on that...there always seems to be a way to work things out I have found. Good thing I am such a meticulous planner-my life would not even be possible if I wasn't blessed with a brain that goes through all possible outcomes of a situation in 2.2 seconds. I always found it to be a hassle and a mostly useless talent....until I had kids!!! Now I pray to God and thank him daily for the blessing he gave to me :0)


Little McPretty is not up to much. She sleeps awesome, she eats awesome, she rolls awesome, she plays happily awesome (??? I just think she is awesome), pretty much she is an Angel baby with a touch of touchiness and a hint of spirited...pretty much a perfect mix in my book!!

She has such a personality. Her happiness is contagious, her smile infectious (that dimple gets you every time), and those eyes...what can you say, they are sooo engaging it is hard to look away!! Pretty much, she is everything a mom could want in a daughter.

I have even been doing a little gardening. I do it at 830 or 900 at night, but I can still see the weeds and the flowers don't mind being planted at that time either.

Life is good to me and I am thankful for every day I am given...I have found my little bit of heaven on earth!!!