We had one heck of a busy and wonderful weekend; I'm still kind of recovering from all the (good) craziness. I also learned several things this weekend that I thought I should share:
1. Jamie Oliver's basic pizza recipe is fan-damn-tastic. Especially if you bake it on a pizza stone. It's the best pizza I've ever made at home and much better than any of the delivery places we have in town. Now I just have to find an equally delicious deep-dish recipe and I'll be all set.
2. It is not wise to take two kids, one of whom is (mostly) non-mobile, by yourself to go strawberry picking. For several reasons, the least of which is that you may still be sore in the thighs and rear three days later because of the child juggling and bending down and the awkwardness of it all.
3. Telling Gabbie something is dirty is the quickest way to get her to leave it alone. All the other children at the strawberry patch came out very berry-stained around the mouth and hands. Gabbie however? Only ate one berry because I told her it was okay. She's a good kid, that one.
4. Also related to strawberry picking - don't pick more than you can process the same day. I was very sad to have to throw out more than a pound of what we had picked.
5. If you set my youngest child on the floor these days, it is not unlike you have placed a child on a hill - she rolls and rolls and picks up speed. Then she gets stuck under the couch or the entertainment center and yells. It's adorable but also makes me even more busy than I was before!
6. If, in one single weekend, you: make pizza, pick strawberries, go to a jazz fest, run a million little errands, go to the zoo, cook three meals a day, parent your children, make and can strawberry jam, make a strawberry lemonade icebox pie, and read an entire book? You may end up crying from exhaustion at around 7 pm on a Sunday night.
There were some other lessons I had in mind, but then I got busy and forgot them. Also? I'm still exhausted.
All Kinds of Updates
Posted in 3-year-old, Gabbalicious, Gratitude, Kiddos, Peanut on by
Life marches on, busy as always. I feel, and I know Aaron agrees, that we barely have time to remember to breathe these days. It's crazy, but crazy good too.
Sophie will be 6 months old next week! Don't ask me how that happened, because I don't have any idea either. She is a rolling fool these days, and basically doesn't stop moving, ever. Since she started rolling over we stopped swaddling her at night. I was scared of this day (mostly because it was not an easy process when we did it with her big sister), but it didn't phase her one bit. She just rolled on to her side and fell asleep. Maybe it's because she's older than Gabbie was when we attempted it, but maybe more because she's just (and I realize I'm blessed and possibly jinxing myself here) an easy baby. A happy, easy baby that is so cute I could just die.
We tried rice cereal with Sophie this past weekend, and, well, it wasn't a hit (yet another way in which she's different from her big sister). We expected her to love it because she watches everyone else eat so intently, but instead she gagged a little and pushed it back out of her mouth. She's just not ready yet, and that's fine with me. It's easier to just nurse anyway. We'll try again in a week or two.
Also, and I may be crazy here, but I swear she has started to say "mama." It doesn't happen all the time, but when I don't pick her up as fast as she'd like, she says, "ma ma ma ma ma MA MA MA." Gabbie didn't make consonant sounds until she was much older (I remember being very worried about this; now she never, ever, ever shuts up, so I didn't need to be so worried), but Sophie is all about them. That and blowing raspberries. It's so super adorable.
Gabbie wants nothing more in life than to be big. (She is so like me it is not even funny.) Not too long ago we were playing around after bath, but before bed, and I asked her if she wanted me to make her hair curly for school tomorrow. She jumped right on that idea, and so we braided her hair. The next day at school she preened every time anyone mentioned her hair (which was often). It was adorable and also made me very aware of how aware she is of her looks already. Raising girls is hard, yo!
The other day we were driving home just as the church in our neighborhood was letting out from their Saturday evening service. Some guy looked like he wasn't going to stop at the stop sign (and therefore looked like he was going to hit us), and Aaron called him a douche bag. From the back seat we hear, "douche bag?" Lesson learned yet again - we need to watch our mouths around this one. She doesn't miss a beat.
Gabbie is very, very three, and I agree with everyone that three is so much harder to take than two. However, she's still very smart and funny, and just a really great kid. However, again, she's having issues pop up, especially at school, that are a little trying. Her morning teacher seems to relish telling me about how Gabbie misbehaved the day before, and I think that this needs to stop. We don't need to talk about Gabbie being bad right in front of her. She needs to hear how great she is, too. I need to figure out how to make her teacher knock it off; it hurts even me to hear the "misbehaving report" every day, when I know that it's just a small part of her day.
On Sunday, Aaron totally made Gabbie's day by taking her fishing, then to the big kids park, and then out for "coffee" (steamed milk with flavored syrup for Gabbs). She even caught a fish! It's so nice seeing the two of them have their own relationship. I absolutely love it, and seeing Aaron be such a good dad makes me fall even more in love with him every time.
When I was growing up I knew I wanted to be a mom. Before I became a mom, I know I'd love it. I just didn't know how happy getting exactly what I wanted would make me. I'm happier than I ever thought possible; this family of mine is pretty awesome.
Sophie will be 6 months old next week! Don't ask me how that happened, because I don't have any idea either. She is a rolling fool these days, and basically doesn't stop moving, ever. Since she started rolling over we stopped swaddling her at night. I was scared of this day (mostly because it was not an easy process when we did it with her big sister), but it didn't phase her one bit. She just rolled on to her side and fell asleep. Maybe it's because she's older than Gabbie was when we attempted it, but maybe more because she's just (and I realize I'm blessed and possibly jinxing myself here) an easy baby. A happy, easy baby that is so cute I could just die.
We tried rice cereal with Sophie this past weekend, and, well, it wasn't a hit (yet another way in which she's different from her big sister). We expected her to love it because she watches everyone else eat so intently, but instead she gagged a little and pushed it back out of her mouth. She's just not ready yet, and that's fine with me. It's easier to just nurse anyway. We'll try again in a week or two.
Also, and I may be crazy here, but I swear she has started to say "mama." It doesn't happen all the time, but when I don't pick her up as fast as she'd like, she says, "ma ma ma ma ma MA MA MA." Gabbie didn't make consonant sounds until she was much older (I remember being very worried about this; now she never, ever, ever shuts up, so I didn't need to be so worried), but Sophie is all about them. That and blowing raspberries. It's so super adorable.
The other day we were driving home just as the church in our neighborhood was letting out from their Saturday evening service. Some guy looked like he wasn't going to stop at the stop sign (and therefore looked like he was going to hit us), and Aaron called him a douche bag. From the back seat we hear, "douche bag?" Lesson learned yet again - we need to watch our mouths around this one. She doesn't miss a beat.
Gabbie is very, very three, and I agree with everyone that three is so much harder to take than two. However, she's still very smart and funny, and just a really great kid. However, again, she's having issues pop up, especially at school, that are a little trying. Her morning teacher seems to relish telling me about how Gabbie misbehaved the day before, and I think that this needs to stop. We don't need to talk about Gabbie being bad right in front of her. She needs to hear how great she is, too. I need to figure out how to make her teacher knock it off; it hurts even me to hear the "misbehaving report" every day, when I know that it's just a small part of her day.
On Sunday, Aaron totally made Gabbie's day by taking her fishing, then to the big kids park, and then out for "coffee" (steamed milk with flavored syrup for Gabbs). She even caught a fish! It's so nice seeing the two of them have their own relationship. I absolutely love it, and seeing Aaron be such a good dad makes me fall even more in love with him every time.
When I was growing up I knew I wanted to be a mom. Before I became a mom, I know I'd love it. I just didn't know how happy getting exactly what I wanted would make me. I'm happier than I ever thought possible; this family of mine is pretty awesome.
Yelling was a definite theme of the evening
Posted in Cheese with my Whine, Gabbalicious, Kiddos, Peanut on by
Yesterday nearly killed me, for so many, various reasons that its ridiculous. So, let's start the list here: after an intense day I was at work almost two hours past my normal quitting time. When we got home, Aaron and I had a huge fight which resulted in me yelling so hard that I hurt my back (not my proudest moment, that's for sure). We had both had rough days, and are still in that post-partum, sensitive, everything is tense, constantly talking to each other in capital letters phase. I know it passes, and I'm trying to be kind, but some days it's just hard.
After I was done yelling, Gabbie started yelling. She wanted a cookie. She didn't want her dinner. She did want her dinner because she had to eat it to get a cookie, but she didn't want to eat her dinner. After letting her yell at her dinner for approximately half an hour, we took it away from her. We were done. Dinner time is hard, and the day had been long, and we were just done. So, of course she started screaming and jumping up and down and screaming some more and falling dramatically to the ground, tears streaming down her face. So I picked her up, made her go potty, and then put her in bed (early at about 7:15). We cuddled for a while because we both needed it, and then she fell asleep.
Shortly after, I went and got Sophie ready for bed, and she fell asleep nursing. I put her in bed and went to accomplish some things from my to do list. Finally getting those things done, I played a couple of games online and then laid down to fall asleep at about ten. At about 10:05, Sophie woke up SCREAMING like someone was torturing her. Long story short, she screamed for two hours straight. I finally got her calmed down, but only if I was holding her in a very specific position which required me to be sitting up straight in a chair. I finally nodded off at about 1:30, and she woke me up so she could eat at 4:30, and then was wiggly until 6:30 when she wanted to eat again.
To recap: everyone screamed and then I got three hours of sleep sitting up.
I'm not my best self today, that's for sure. Sophie has never screamed like that before (we are very lucky in the calm/sleeping department with her and I've never written about it because I don't want that to change, so that's all I'll say here), so we made the executive decision in the middle of the night that she'd be headed to the doctor's office today to get checked out. We got in at 8:30 (I called on the way to daycare to get what I expected to be an afternoon appointment, so I didn't have any diapers with me, so of course she filled her pants on the way there - my life is filled with awesomeness), and the verdict: she's gassy. See? Lots and lots of awesomeness.
Now, to follow all that whining, I need to express some good things. I'll go with five things that really are not sarcastically awesome right now.
1. Summer is finally here!
2. I went shopping this past weekend and bought a bunch of clothes that I love, so I have a new summer wardrobe.
3. We are taking a family walk the second we're all home tonight, and I can't wait to go out and enjoy this gloriously beautiful day.
4. My sister is coming for a visit again this weekend!
5. We're all going to my great grandmother's 97th birthday party on Saturday. How amazing is that?
(So, it's amazing what listing out those good things does for my mood. To pass on that good feeling: what's good with you these days?)
After I was done yelling, Gabbie started yelling. She wanted a cookie. She didn't want her dinner. She did want her dinner because she had to eat it to get a cookie, but she didn't want to eat her dinner. After letting her yell at her dinner for approximately half an hour, we took it away from her. We were done. Dinner time is hard, and the day had been long, and we were just done. So, of course she started screaming and jumping up and down and screaming some more and falling dramatically to the ground, tears streaming down her face. So I picked her up, made her go potty, and then put her in bed (early at about 7:15). We cuddled for a while because we both needed it, and then she fell asleep.
Shortly after, I went and got Sophie ready for bed, and she fell asleep nursing. I put her in bed and went to accomplish some things from my to do list. Finally getting those things done, I played a couple of games online and then laid down to fall asleep at about ten. At about 10:05, Sophie woke up SCREAMING like someone was torturing her. Long story short, she screamed for two hours straight. I finally got her calmed down, but only if I was holding her in a very specific position which required me to be sitting up straight in a chair. I finally nodded off at about 1:30, and she woke me up so she could eat at 4:30, and then was wiggly until 6:30 when she wanted to eat again.
To recap: everyone screamed and then I got three hours of sleep sitting up.
I'm not my best self today, that's for sure. Sophie has never screamed like that before (we are very lucky in the calm/sleeping department with her and I've never written about it because I don't want that to change, so that's all I'll say here), so we made the executive decision in the middle of the night that she'd be headed to the doctor's office today to get checked out. We got in at 8:30 (I called on the way to daycare to get what I expected to be an afternoon appointment, so I didn't have any diapers with me, so of course she filled her pants on the way there - my life is filled with awesomeness), and the verdict: she's gassy. See? Lots and lots of awesomeness.
Now, to follow all that whining, I need to express some good things. I'll go with five things that really are not sarcastically awesome right now.
1. Summer is finally here!
2. I went shopping this past weekend and bought a bunch of clothes that I love, so I have a new summer wardrobe.
3. We are taking a family walk the second we're all home tonight, and I can't wait to go out and enjoy this gloriously beautiful day.
4. My sister is coming for a visit again this weekend!
5. We're all going to my great grandmother's 97th birthday party on Saturday. How amazing is that?
(So, it's amazing what listing out those good things does for my mood. To pass on that good feeling: what's good with you these days?)
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