update

Life is GREAT!

I just love life right now! I'm so happy that God has chosen me to be the mother of two of the most precious little children.

Jack is just an incredible baby. He is such a good baby. He is very content and just goes with the flow. He's a great sleeper which is a dream come true for any mother. He takes regular naps through the day and sleeps pretty much all night. He is usually asleep by 11 pm, wakes around 2 or 3 to eat, but he goes right back to sleep until about 6. He's 5 1/2 weeks old now and starting to smile when you talk to him...it just makes my heart melt. This picture has become my new favorite...here's my two favorite boys smiling at each other.

And I can't forget my first little baby. Olivia is an awesome big sister. She loves to help out in any way she can. She loves helping with diaper changes and putting lotion on. She loves just hanging out with her brother, she often asks if she can lay in bed with Jack or lay in the floor. AND Jack has to be looking at her - this was fine when you could turn his head and he'd pretty much leave it, but now he likes to turn it to whatever direction HE wants and she is often seen grabbing his face to turn it back to her. She loves him to pieces and she is adjusting well to not being the center of attention. Here's a pic of the two of them hanging out together.

And finally, thank you to the mother who invented slings! I don't know what I would do without my sling! Jack's fussy time seems to be right around the time I want to make dinner. I pop him in his sling and he is the most content baby ever...who wouldn't be? Look at this pic, wouldn't you want to be carried around like this all the time? These are the greatest, and you don't' have to spend a ton of money on them, I actually made this one for about $20 and had enough material left over to make Olivia one for her baby dolls.

Sid the Science Kid

Have any of you seen the new PBS cartoon "Sid the Science Kid"? I was pretty excited to see that there was a new PBS cartoon coming this fall - you can only watch so much Curious George, Clifford and Word World!

This show is HORRIBLE!! I mean it's great as far as the kids learning something, but I don't know any mom out there who would be able to tolerate this show in their house. Imagine you child on his/her most annoying day...one of those days where you decide to move up bed time because you know if you have to spend 10 more minutes with your child that you might do some harm. Take that particular child on that particular day and multiply it times 10! Maybe it's just me, but these characters are annoying! Even the adults in the cartoon are just horrible! The grandmother is the worse - she picks Sid up from school and the car ride is obnoxious!

Check it out for yourself...this isn't a full episode, but you'll get the idea.

Unfortunately Olivia LOVES the show!

This is so wrong!

This is a photo of the World's tallest woman with the World's smallest man. Did they have to pose them like this? Do you think he looked up during his photo shoot? What was his response when the photographer said, "Excuse me sir, can you raise your chin up a little?" Doesn't he get this kind of view every day? I just found the photo disturbing!

FAILED!

As Jen pointed out in her comment on the last post - we all fail at parenting! So when do you KNOW you have failed?
First let me say that this week went great! I managed to get Olivia to preschool every day this week AND pick her up! I was dressed, hair done and make-up on every morning in time for drop-off...I guess I'm one of THOSE moms! I even made it to bible study on Tuesday. Jack dealt with it all very well - he is such a good baby. So we all survived and I even was able to get dinner on the table every night for the family. So how did I fail? This picture should clue you in.

I am ashamed to say that Olivia had her first dentist appointment this week. Yes I said FIRST. I know they are supposed to go much sooner and we had every intention of getting her there sooner. First excuse was she wasn't on our dental plan, then we missed the open enrollment and didn't get her on it again, then Brian switched jobs and we had a waiting period, then he switched jobs again and had a waiting period, then he switched jobs again and had a waiting period, then we wasted lots of time trying to find the "right" dentist that was also covered by our insurance - so there you have it, all the excuses why she wasn't in before now.
So it was at her appointment that I realized I have failed as a parent! I honestly wanted to cry as I sat there listening to all that was going on in her mouth. I was asked about 3 times if she complained of pain in her mouth. So what is the damage? She has 8 cavities! No that's not a misprint - I meant to type the number eight. Four are so bad that she might require a baby root canal and a crown - they won't know until they start drilling and see exactly how deep the cavity is. The other 4 just need regular fillings. So worse case scenario is 4 fillings, 4 root canals and 4 crowns - what's the price tag AFTER insurance? $1800!! Also not a misprint! This includes the drugs they give her to make her drowsy and the laughing gas.
I just can't believe it. I feel so bad for her and it's all our fault - we have failed as parents! The good news is that it isn't a brushing issue - she brushes her teeth twice a day, and it isn't a diet issue - she doesn't drink much juice or milk, not a lot of candy or fruit snacks... The issue is flossing! I never even thought to floss her teeth - guess this is just stupidity on my part. Each cavity started out in a molar and spread to the other molar that is touching it. The dentist said that flossing and early intervention are the only things that could have stopped it from getting this bad.
So we're just praying that she will not require any root canals/crowns and that the dentist is able to go in there and fill all the cavities with a simple filling. I just feel so bad for her. She did awesome too - she climbed right up in the chair and opened her mouth - she cooperated so well. All the hygienist were so jealous that Olivia was not their patient - seriously she did amazing. She loves the dentist - she probably won't after the next 4 visits :-( Poor thing.
So, I have failed and Olivia is the one who has to suffer for it.

It's panic time

So I'm on my own now...flying solo! Brian returned to work today after being home for 16 days and now I'm left to do it all on my own. I've been a bit panicky all weekend wondering how in the world I am going to pull it off on my own. Not only have we added Jack, but we've also added 3 days of preschool, bible study and dance class.
Let me start by saying, I am not a morning person! By this I mean, I don't like getting up early and having someplace to be before 9AM. How did I ever make it as a private investigator when I had to get up and be on site sometimes as early as 4AM?!? I guess it's not really hard for me to get out the door, but everything else that is involved - getting Olivia dressed, fed and her hair fixed - getting Jack dressed and fed and then topped off before walking out the door so that he makes it 3 hours without needing to nurse.
On the days that Olivia has preschool we have to be out the door by 8:10AM so I'm just panicking that I'm going to be on my own starting this week and I'm just wondering if I'm capable of doing it all. I see all these other moms who pull it off with even more kids than my two so I know it's possible, but I'm just freaking out. Is this normal? Am I capable of doing this? Are my feelings normal?
On another note, I feel guilty when it comes to Olivia. I feel guilty that she isn't the center of attention anymore. I feel guilty that I can't tend to her the minute that she needs it. I feel guilty that she wants so much of my attention when I am not able to give it to her - like when I'm tending to Jack. I feel like I've pushed her to the side to take care of Jack. She's my little princess and my first baby and I hate that I'm always telling her "no, not right now." "Olivia, stop doing that." "Olivia get off the chair while Jack is nursing." I just feel like I'm always yelling at her for something or telling her to "go play". Is this normal? I know she's not going to be scarred for life because of all of this stuff, but I just feel guilty.
After all this bitching, let me just say that I am so thankful for all of this. This is what I have prayed for for years. I'm so thankful that God has blessed our family with another child and I wouldn't want it any other way. I just have to deal with some of my emotions and get things figured out and a schedule in place so that everything starts to flow.

I also have to just take a minute to say how awesome my husband was over the 16 days that he was home. First of all, he was an amazing labor coach! We hired a doula who was there every step of the way, but Brian never left my side unless he had to go to the restroom. He was with me constantly and was the best coach ever! Then, starting on day one, he was up making breakfast for us. He took care of most of the meals - we're not just talking cereal and frozen waffles - we would make pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast sandwiches...and that was just for breakfast. He did the same for lunches and dinners - I think we only ate out once or twice for lunch and we didn't eat out at all for dinner - he took care of it all! (I did make dinner 2 times - only because I didn't trust him to make meatloaf and real mashed potatoes and turkey pot pie) In addition to taking care of us, he also got some stuff done around the house like repairing the wood around the garage door and re-painting it and painting the shed... So I just want to say a big thank you to my wonderful husband for all he did while he was home. He took two weeks vacation time and worked his butt off - not exactly a nice relaxing 2 week vacation! Thanks hunny - YOU'RE THE BEST!!

Bowl for Mason

Last night we attended the Bowl for Mason event and had an incredible time. I just wanted to say how awesome I thought everything was. I can't believe how well everything came together on such short notice. It was less than two months ago that Megan's friend and pro bowler Diandra came up with the idea to have the event and in this short time Megan's sisters Leenie, ReeRee & Coleen along with Diandra and several other individuals pulled together and worked their butts off to make the event what it was. There was a huge turn out and I was just so surprised at all the support. Great job ladies - Mason is so lucky to have all of you as a part of his life!
If you would like to know more about Mason click here.

1st day of preschool

My little princess started preschool today. I can't believe how quickly she has grown up, it's just so sad.

Here she is getting ready to leave the house - she is very proud of her new back-pack...it is NOT a book bag, only a back pack!


Here she is getting out of the car at preschool


She would have just walked herself right in if she could have...she wasn't about to wait on mom and dad!




We had to do the "first born child is starting preschool pics" this morning and make sure we got one in front of the sign.


She sat right down and was ready for us to leave...we weren't quite that anxious to get out of there though :-(


When we picked her up she didn't have too much to say.
mom and dad: what did you do today
Olivia: I don't know
mom and dad: did you play
Olivia: ya, with play dough
mom and dad: what did you make?
Olivia: I don't know
mom and dad: what else did you do?
Olivia: I don't know
mom and dad: Did you read books?
Olivia: yes
mom and dad: What books?
Olivia: I don't know
mom and dad: What else did you do?
Olivia: I met some new friends
mom and dad: What were their names?
Olivia: I don't know
mom and dad: What else did you do?
Olivia: We learned the clean-up song
mom and dad: well how does it go?
Olivia: I don't know

She's so funny!

She didn't have any problems going to school...I on the other hand got a little emotional and cried for a minute on the way home...I'm sure it's just my hormones :-)