Purchased the Double.

Why on earth I didn't purchase this sooner, I don't know. This item has just made my life 10 times easier. It's the little things in life that matter now. Like the fact that this stroller has TWO cup holders for me, and each kid has a cup/snack holder. Plus, the back seat pops out so Aiden can either sit or stand on the back. If Harper happens to fall asleep in the car, her infant seat can just snap on the front part so she doesn't wake up. I mean the possibilities are endless......thank you Baby Trend, I owe you one.

What I Have Learned......My 22 things.

This list is comprised of what I've learned as a mother through my struggle with PPD, the blessings that come with two under two, and a wonderfully loving husband by my side.

1. Sleep is a precious thing of the past.

2. I am stronger than I think.

3. Don't ever say "My child will never act like that."

4. Laundry can be done tomorrow.

5. Boys love dirt.

6. What works for other families does not necessary work for mine.

7. Time-outs also work for adults.

8. That I truly can be selfless.

9. 'This Little Piggy' always gets a laugh.

10. How to poop with a little person in the room with you.

11. You can never have too many hugs.

12. How to be afraid and proud at the same time.

13. Diaper wipes will clean anything.

14. If you’re gonna cry, don’t hold back.

15. My husband is truly my partner.

16. Nothing is fast anymore.

17. Date nights are a must.

18. The mouth is a third hand.

19. Always bring a snack.

20. I deserve mommy time every once in awhile.

21. Being a stay at home mom is the hardest job EVER.

22. The meaning of life.

The weekend is over.....

..... and I am still pregnant. This is not a complaint, more of an accomplishment. I actually felt really great this weekend. We really accomplished a lot this weekend:

~ The nursery is SO close to being finished. All that is left is the rug, which came in today, so I can pick that up this afternoon, and we will be done.
~  I packed my hospital bag, and Jeff installed the infant car seat in my car once again. It is funny to drive around with two car seats in the back.
~  Aiden also got his 3rd haircut. His hair grows so fast. He was such a good boy. He just sat there the whole time while I cut it.

~ I think I finally started nesting. I started obsessively organizing drawers and sanitizing everything in the kitchen. But I am boycotting laundry as you can see from the picture above. In fact, I am thinking about continuing this for the duration.

Boys.

Fun in the shampoo aisle.

I've been awarded....

Mrs. Rosky awarded me the Honest Scrap Award. I am supposed to tell you ten, random, honest things about myself. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. At age 16, my first real job was at the "Q" health club, doing telemarketing. Not because my parents made me, I just thought it would be fun to have a job. I got over that real fast.

2. I don't like going to movie theatres. If I am going to watch a movie, I want it to be at home, on my couch, with my blanket and pillows.

3. If I had to choose a "last supper" it would be King Crab Legs. I could eat pounds of these.

4. When I am stressed out, I organize things or paint my nails.

5. I detest going to the grocery store, and I feel like I am there once a week no matter how much I buy the trip before.

6. I know that I have slight form of OCD. I'm not Rain Man or anything, but I have to do many things a certain way, or I won't do them at all. For example, if Jeff let me, I could sit and debate a purchase and weigh my options forever. I do this with everything. When buying baby food, I must purchase an even number of jars. I only like to watch TV when the volume is on even numbers. I know the number of pumps of lotion necessary to cover the lower half of my body vs. my upper half. I re-fold Aiden's onesies in his drawer at least once a week. I don't know....I just like doing it....LOL. Anyway, I could actually have a whole separate post for this one.

7. I will never eat an orange popsicle with vanilla ice cream filling. It's related to eating one when I was very young and had the flu.

8. I often forget exactly how old I am. I could have sworn last week that I was 28. No such luck, after doing the math, I'm 29. Darn.

9. I have a habit of hiding money from myself, in hopes of finding and using it when I really need it. There is a $100 bill somewhere in my house that I have been looking for since July. I have stopped hiding money.

10. Two of my biggest pet peeves are:
* when adults talk baby talk to other adults (spouses/friends/co-workers) GAG.
* when parents let their children run around in public places all crazy



And now, I am awarding the following people. C'mon, it's only ten.

David

Katie

Lisa

Bad Day - Good Laugh

You know those days...the bad ones. The ones where you wake up thinking it's Saturday when it's really only Wednesday....it's day 3 of your lingering pregnancy hormone headache....you leave the house in a huff because your husband mistakenly told you your roots look dark....you get to work only to realize that your Starbucks order is totally wrong....but you drink it anyway because your inbox lovingly informs you that you have 105 unread messages....you go to Kaiser on your lunch break to get pricked by a needle for your 4th lab work order....it's mid-afternoon, but the line is still out the door, meaning you have at least a 25 minute wait....there are sick people coughing everywhere, with no regard to how far their germs fly, so your thinking "I didn't have Swine Flu when I came here, but I bet I will when I leave"....in short your just a HUGE Debbie Downer....

Then amongst all of this, in a waiting room that has PLENTY of adult size chairs, you do a double take, and see two grown women enjoying their reading material, cozied up to a kiddie table, that is about 2 feet off the ground, and you cannot help but laugh out loud, realizing that you really needed that laugh and tomorrow is another day. It is then you are thankful that your phone takes pictures, because chances are, you may need another good laugh later....

Mind you, there is not one single child in this room that these ladies could possibly belong to.

Sad. Pathetic. Disturbed. Creepy.

Are all words that come to mind when I was bombarded by comments left from some anonymous visitors to my blog this afternoon.

I hate to give a nasty comment too much momentum or steam but I thought you would all get a good laugh out of this. I have officially gotten hate mail. I have to admit it took me off guard, but then I began to get the giggles because it was quite obvious that they had not read the post in the manner in which it was intended. And even more obvious is the fact that they have some internal demons/issues that they must battle with. So in general, I feel sorry for them.

I have deleted the comments from the actual post, but here they are below, so kindly left on the Nekkid Baby post from a few weeks ago.

"He looks like a fat pig when he is naked! Put som mayonnaise and mustard and an apple in his mouth and then...oink oink"

"Why post pictures of your naked child on internet? Respect him for heavens sake and stop bragging about exposing a naked child. Shame on you."

The last comment, I won't even post as is was so inappropriate.

Yes, this is a public blog, so people are able to comment as they like. I find it unfortunate and cowardly that these have all been left by "anonymous" bloggers and some creep who goes by the name of "Anna". Most likely, better known as some nasty old man that is probably listed on the Megan's Law website.

Am I mad? No, how can I be, it's a public blog (for now). Am I disturbed? Yes, that there are people in the world of this mentality. Will I probably make my blog private from now on? Possibly, but I certainly will no longer accept anonymous comments.

So, "anonymous" go ahead and comment again.....oh yeah you can't. God bless you, idiots.

To friends and family, you will still be able to leave comments, they will just require my approval first.

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I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. ~ Mother Teresa

side note: don't take this the wrong way, by no means am I comparing myself to Mother Teresa.

"Sometimes you just need a little push. Thanks dad."


~ courtesy of www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com

I could not stop laughing when I saw this.

Momnesia Alert!

Definition 1 ~ a mysterious disease in which a woman forgets all about the discomforts of pregnancy, the pain of delivery, and the complete sleep deprivation of the postpartum period. Momnesia is often found in conjunction with Baby Fever, another serious disease in which women become obsessed with babies.

Definition 2 ~ lifestyle changes a woman goes through after having children including sleeplessness, memory lapses, hormone changes, stress and an overall mental “fuzziness”.

I have this. I am showing alarming symptoms of this disease in both categories.

In relation to definition 1: I often times catch myself thinking about baby #2. What will I name him or her? What will he or she look like? What if it's twins? I even have the tandem stroller picked out that I will be purchasing. The real question is, what is wrong with me????
Baby #1 is not even 7 months old. He still wakes me up all the time, still is solely drinking breast milk with an occasional bottle of formula, and generally requires my attention 7 out of the 8 hours he is awake in a day. And how could I forget, I couldn't sit anywhere for more than 15 minutes at a time at the end of my pregnancy. I had to pee every 7 minutes. My throat was constantly awash in stomach acid. A small child was using my internal organs as a punching bag. Shouldn't I just take the time to enjoy him without planning out my next pregnancy? Or at the very least get him drinking from a sippy cup?

In relation to definition 2: I just sat at my desk for literally a good 10 minutes trying to remember if I had pumped twice today or just once so far....I could have sworn that today was Friday....thank goodness my curling iron has the capability to automatically switch off after a certain amount of time, as I forget to do this on a weekly basis.....the other day I stated that Aiden's birthday was 7/11 instead of 11/7.....I even came close to melt-down mode last night when I realized that our TIVO had not recorded the latest episode of "Tori & Dean". And all of this was even after I was lucky enough to get 7 straight hours of sleep the night before.

Quick ladies, put on your face masks.....

Sad, Sad Story About Our Neighbor

Folsom News <---- click here

This happened at the house across the street from us yesterday morning. Jeff and I did not really know this kid, however, he was always very frinedly and made a point to wave to me everytime I can home in the evening. It really makes you sit back and realize how precious life is, and how it can change in an instant.

Do You Smell That?

OK you all will think I am crazy after I post this one, but I felt like it needed to be shared. I have an issue with smells. Let me explain....

I think that I am one of those people who has a couple of heightened senses. I have always had really good hearing, and a fairly good sniffer. All my life people have made comments like "wow, you heard me say that?" or "I thought you were in the other room when I said that". My parents can account for this ever since I was very little. Now as I have gotten older, I have noticed that I smell things ALL THE TIME. And trust me our personal hygiene is not the issue. Now, as most of you may or may not know, your sense of smell is also very heightened when you get pregnant. This symptom was in full effect for me, however never really went away after Aiden was born. An all to frequent conversation in our household or in the car goes a little something like this.

Me: sniff, sniffff, looking around, " WHAAAAT is that smell?"
Jeff: "Babe, I don't smell anything."
Me: "C'mon Jeff, seriously what IS that?"
Jeff: ::eye roll::
Me: SNIFFFF

Now presenting the latest and greatest. This my friends is what I refer to as "phantom poo". I smell poo everywhere. This is just not any regular poo smell, it is dirty diapers. I think it is related to being a new mommy. When I am at home, I spend entirely too much time with my nose pressed up against Aiden's pants seeing if he has a dirty diaper. The majority of the time this is not what smells. I don't know where it comes from, it just is there and I can't find it. Even today when I walked back into the office, I smelled dirty diapers, it's all a bit disturbing. Anyone else experience this phenomenon? Tell me I'm not alone.

Is this all in my head? I think some of it, however here is the proof that I am not totally crazy. A few weeks ago, I started smelling syrup, of all things. Syrup ALL the time. After a few days of this going on and accusing Jeff of spilling syrup when he was eating his Eggo's, I thought I was going nuts. Low and behold I come across a little tid bit of information while reading a mommy chat board: One of the side effects of Fenugreek (herb I take to promote milk production) is that it makes YOU, notably, your pits smell of MAPLE SYRUP! You can imagine my relief and horror all at the same time. So, I did the sniff test and sure enough I reeked of syrup. Mystery solved.

Now the poo, I swear it's not me.

"45 Minutes To Do What Takes Others 15"

This explains it quite nicely, even if Aiden is still only an infant: (click on the link below, then click on the article to enlarge for reading)

Why don't friends with kids have time?

Back To Work

Yes, it's true I actually decided to show up to work yesterday. It wasn't my first choice but it had to be done. Aiden did a little better than mommy did. He was sleeping when I left and I couldn't even bring myself to go and say bye to him. I just had to focus on walking out the door. I shed a few tears once I got to work, but not too bad.
When I came home for lunch he was dead asleep in his swing. Ceci (sitter) said that he hadn't even cried and that he had already taken 2 bottles from her that morning. It was another huge relief when I came home after work and he was just swinging in his swing, smiling and talking at her. I think I am going to be able to make it after all.
The sweetest thing was when I came home and cuddled him it took about 5 minutes for him to completely pass out. This is the good stuff in life.....

Unfortunately The Countdown Has Begun

I regret to inform you all that this is my last week of maternity leave. Those 12 weeks absolutely flew by! I am of course sad, but I know after the first few days it will get better. I am thankful that Jeff and I are in a situation where we can have the sitter come to the house and I am also able to come home everyday at lunch to nurse him. Hopefully before too, too long I will be able to strictly devote my time to Foamtec and work from home. I am feeling optimistic in the fact that 2009 is going to be a good year : )
That's really all the news I have for now. I am going to go and snuggle with my little guy and enjoy the remainder of the time I have. I leave you with some of the latest cute pictures.

Beanie: courtesy of Uncle Nick
Camo Pants: courtesy of Grandpa Martz.




This past weekend Uncle Mikey came out to visit us and we had a really nice time. Aiden loves Uncle Mike and always has big smiles for him, however, we asked Aiden to give us only serious looks for this photo shoot.

Bummer

So, tomorrow afternoon I am going to have my wisdom teeth taken out. I am now REALLY regretting not doing this a long time ago. However, it just cannot wait any longer. I was really hoping to hold off until the holidays were over, but a couple nights ago I started getting a horrible toothache and it has just gotten worse and worse. I am actually looking forward to my appointment at this point just to get it over with, and not have the pain anymore. I am hoping for a quick recovery because I still have lots to do before Christmas still!

But on a lighter note, my parents are coming in on Friday night and staying through Christmas. This weekend we are going to drive down to San Fransisco to visit Karen and Kirk. Then next Wednesday, Jeff's mom will be coming in town as well. It is always so nice to spend the holidays with family.
Here are some more pictures of the best Christmas present ever....

National Candy Corn Day

National Candy Corn Day? This is actually printed on my calendar - I guess I was unaware until today. I cannot believe that Halloween is tomorrow! I remember looking at my calendar months ago thinking "I am going to be very pregnant come Halloween".

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I really haven't had anything to share.....basically just been going to work and relaxing as much as I can before Aiden gets here. Tomorrow morning we have a doctors appointment where we will be scheduling Aiden's BIRTHDAY! It is so surreal to me at this point, and we are so excited.

The Washcloth

This is a forwarded email that I received today. Just too funny not to share. I know that I sure appreciated a good laugh on a Monday morning. I will warn you men on the subject matter, however I know some of you girls will appreciate this ;)

"I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week.
Early one morning, I received a call from the doctor's office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 am. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, and it was already around 8:45 am.

The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn't have any time to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in that area to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment. I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, "My, we have made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?" I didn't respond.

After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal...some shopping, cleaning, cooking. After school when my 6 year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, "Mommy, where's my washcloth?" I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, "No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it."


NEVER EVER GOING BACK TO THAT DOCTOR. EVER!"

Ha ha ha ha - Happy Monday everyone.

You Should Worry If....

....your child tells you they would like to be a sushi roll for Halloween. Just sayin'.