Success!

I declare today a success! I went with my neighbor Jessie and her kids to the museum today. We got there right when they opened. We recently got a Children's Museum membership. Alex has already been 5 times. :) Yup...it's a great place to go! No bugs. No sunscreen. No heat! AND! There are tons of places to sit and nurse Alex while Claire plays! I even went solo one day and that was a huge success too!

Claire had a big meltdown right before lunch, but I attribute that to me letting her get overly hungry since she only had 1 bite of banana for breakfast...anyways, once she started eating, she was fine! (PS...she did not nurse all day...just before bed. That is like a first since Alex has been born and she wants to nurse when he does! But not at the museum! Too much fun stuffs!)

Then from there, we had to head back to Greenfield for tumbling at 4:30. Alex slept great in his sling that my friend Patty made. I've been forcing myself to wear it and it finally feels comfy. ;) It is like a new pair of shoes...a bit odd and awkward at first, but before long, a new sling will be like a nicely broken in pair of shoes. It's pouch, and I really love it! (THANKS PATTY!)

So since we had brought our lunch to the museum, I decided to treat Claire and I to Culver's for dinner since we'd been gone all day and Josh is going to a concert tonight. ;) I loves me some Culver's!

And by the time Claire was done with her chicken tenders, I decided it was bathtime for both of them...then bed. Plus she needed a bath since she dumped half her milkshake down her front and into her lap. Early to bed for them...that way I could get my Internet fix. Alex sleeps great! He will sleep a 5 to 6 hour stretch before waking to nurse. Problem has been that Claire has been waking up. We also finally got her a bunk bed in her room...pictures of that to come. So how about transition to new bed and having a new baby brother! FAIL! Actually, she's had her own "Princess Bed" with her pink bedding set and mattress in the corner of our room, but now it's finally in her room on a nice wooden frame!

I've been slacking off on the blog. I promise I've been taking lots of photos and videos in the meantime. I promise you will be inundated soon enough! And today was TV-free! Not that there is anything wrong with TV/movies. We enjoy them just as much as anyone, but you need those once in awhile. Oh wait. I lied. We saw a 15 minute show in the Planetarium. See...it is impossible to go TV free. They even have TVs at the church nursery! Oh well...we are all addicted to our screen-time!

Night all!

Smashing Good Times

I shut the back hatch of my SUV on my phone. Now the screen looks like this:

SOOOOOOOO good times...the only phone I've had that would have had any resale value. Amazingly, it still lights up, but not enough to be able to use it!!! My plan was up in a few days anyway. MEANWHILE...if you need to get ahold of me...use Facebook or email me. BLARGH! They say you're more likely to be accident prone if you're tired. SO TRUE!

Let's go on a Walk!

Sometimes I forget that Claire is still two and will be for about 2 more months. But then she does something like this, and I remember she's still little!

See! She looks so big and is so incredibly verbal. Today she started saying "otherwise" and used it right 3 times...how do they do this stuff?

She is wearing size 10 flip-flops. This dress is a size 6 and doesn't even look overly long. She has had a growth spurt recently. Hopefully she'll slow down again and get to actually wear out some clothes for a change! Er...ever. She's never been in anything long enough to just wear it out!

And here's Alex in a "Pink Floyd" top. Seriously...who makes this stuff for babies? It's a newborn size and was very hard to get on him and even harder to get off. This was about a week ago when it was cooler, but he was measuring 23 inches at his 2 week check. He's now pushing the limits on most 3-6 sleepers...it's his length! But he is also plumping up nicely and is a great nurser!

These pants are 3-6 month size.

And here's a close-up of his shirt!

Garage Sales are BACK!

I LOVE garage sales. I love going on walks first thing Friday and Saturday mornings around our neighborhood and making out like a bandit!

This weekend I scored big! Here are some of the things I got:

A box of dishes including 8 plastic dinosaur cups, a snack trap, 2 yellow Nuby cups, 3 REAL Tupperware cups, a dora bowl, a red plastic bowl, 4 random plastic cups, a DORA bowl, a Teletubby divided plate with matching cup and bowl...all for $1 for the whole box!

A Sponge Bob 24 piece puzzle for 25 cents
Hi-Ho Cherry-O game for 50 cents
Ker-Plunk game for 50 cents
Candy Land for 50 cents
Memory Game for 50 cents
A toddler bed tent for $2
THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR book for 50 cents
a brand new toothfairy book with a little bag for the teeth for 50 cents
a black/red toddler helmet with matching knee pads for $1 each

Oh, and I wanted some cereal bowls since I broke another one...oops. There was a set for $10 but she wouldn't just give me the bowls. SOOO now I have 4 more dinner plates, 4 dessert plates, coffee mugs and the 4 nice cereal bowls that are deep. They are really cute with a red/white/blue 4th of July theme. But I don't need anymore dishes...so I think I'll give away Christmas cookies (because everyone wants cookies on 4th of July plates for Christmas) on them and keep the plates...hmm...that just made me think to look for cake pans to give people casseroles in and then they can just keep the pan. It'd be about the same cost as a disposable pan.

So I had fun and Claire also got some other random little toys and a strawberry shortcake throw pillow and some other junk. I only had $20 bucks with me and I came home with .50 to spare!! I could've gotten one more game! And I'm so impressed with these games because they are in great shape. I'm excited to teach Claire how to play them! Meanwhile, Alex will start chewing on the pieces soon...lol!

Claire-isms

I told Claire she was being a silly monkey. She replied, "I not a silly monkey! I no hang in trees!"

She walks funny sometimes to imitate a pregnant lady walking with her belly all puffed out and back arched...very cute! I will sometimes say something along the line of "We need to make a video of this!" Well the other day I laughed at something she was doing and she goes, "We needa make a video of this!"

I asked Josh if he wanted to take Claire to the P-A-R-K today while I took a nap. Claire looked at us and asked, "What P-R-K mean?" Haha! Maybe we shouldn't teacher her spelling!

She was eating food in her highchair. Alex started crying in his nearby bouncy chair. Claire looked at him and said, "Sorry, Alex. This food is only for GROWN UP KIDS!"

She put some chunks of cheese that I cut for her in a stair step fashion. She goes, "Look, Mom! I got cheese steps!" Apparently as I was slicing them from the block, each one got thicker! She now refers to that cheese as "step cheese" in case you ever wonder...

Josh and I have started talking about some toys and things when we were little. She has picked up on this. More than once she's said, "When I was a little kid, I used to play with this" which just cracks me up!

nak nak nak

If you don't know what nak is...it's for "nursing at keyboard." I can still get online, but I can't get much else done. Yay for one handed typing! PS: That's not breast you see, it's my finger getting him latched on there! I really don't see why people get all bent out of shape about nip (nursing in public). You see nothing here!

Uncle David and Auntie KK

My brother David and his wife Kristin came down recently to visit us. And go see Jimmy Buffett in Indy, too ;)
David looks like he'll be such a good daddy!

Wait...is he trying to breastfeed Alex? ;)

Here is Kristin holding Alex and looking at my awesome birth story by Carla, which is much longer and includes pictures vs. the one I wrote here on my blog. It's also told from her point of view and is much more factual and exact!

I still can't believe David got into this house. He is super-duper tall!

Baby Prints

soooooooooo cute

Foam Sweet Foam

Yes, we finally got Claire and Alex a play house. It's called "FOAM SWEET FOAM" which is made of this super cool hard foamy stuff. Josh put it together. It came in a flat box, of course.
It's super duper cute and really sturdy. Claire LOVES IT! It even has flowers that she can pretend to water and some fake birds she likes to feed her plastic food to. It even has a mailbox. I like to hide stuff in there and then tell her to go check her mailbox if she needs a distraction. It doesn't even need to be anything new. :)

The mailbox is on the left of the door. Claire loves to help me get mail and make birthday cards for people. She is obsessed with my address stamper. I need to get her some more stamp stuff because she loves it! I gave her some cards/envelopes to put in her mailbox, and she has had a blast with those. You can actually see 2 postcards laying on the ground! Notice all the crap she has put in there! Click on it to make it big.

And even more amazing...my brother David managed to crawl into the house with her...and was able to get out without removing the roof.

We actually told Claire the house was from Alexander! :) More photos to come of David's visit.

Arts and Crap...err...CRAFTS.

So when Claire has been getting restless lately, I try to set her up with a craft. They are mostly turning out like huge piles of glue, though. I am just glad she's busy, happy, and quiet....and could care less if she squeezes out the whole entire bottle of glue and smears it all over her hands like it's lotion...because I may or may not have dozed off on the couch while sitting up *amazing* and nursing Alex. Hey, glue is cheap!

This was during a more "supervised" craft...only a minorly huge pile of glue.

May I please?

Claire's favorite request: "May please hold baby Alex?" This one is today. They are both running a mild temp. and quite snot-nosed, but they still look awful cute, here, huh?!
She asks to hold him several times every day. Thank God she hasn't tried to pick him up yet, because I see that coming. She weighed 38.5 today. Her summer clothes are mostly 4Ts. The 5Ts seem a better length on her long legs, but skirts/pants that size fall off of her waist. She wanted to wear a footed 5T sleeper the other night, and it barely fit...I'll have to retire that too :( Too hot for summer anyways...

She really likes to get in his face. We have been talking about personal space/bubbles. It's not sinking in quite yet. ;)

This is a 0-3 month Carter's. It is now in the too small box. Notice how his feet totally fill out the feet and he can't bend his legs straight! I took them to the Dr. today to check out their colds. Claire may have an ear infection. She gave me a script for her and told me to wait a day or 2 to fill it to see if she gets better. I have been putting breast milk in Alex's nose, so I think that's been helping him! Maybe I should put some in Claire's ear/s? Alex was fine...just a normal cold, but I took his temp at home and it said 103. That freaked me out. I think I need a new one. I didn't even think to take Claire's and hers was 100.3. Alex's was 100.3 as well... they don't worry till it's 100.5. Hum. Well, he seems to be ok...

You can tell this was a couple weeks ago because he looks skinnier. My how he has filled out so fast! I bet it's all that nursing! ;)

I feel like this post should be....called AND WE'RE BACK!!!!!! Back from where???...sleep deprivation that is! I do believe that I got a solid 2 hours last night. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Actually, I'm still pretty tired, but what the heck...if I go to bed now or in an hour, I will still be tired...so why not stay up! Seriously...we've been going on walks too, every day. Claire only woke up 2 times last. That's her record. I think her regression has been night wakings. I guess I'll take it though.

It is FREE!!! Meaning if her regression were starting to wear diapers again, that would not be free or without it's hassles! Haha. She did pee the first night home from the hospital in the bed, but now it's been a full five weeks, so I guess I'm going to give the rest of the pack of pull-ups away...or keep them in case we have another girl...lol! How long do these things keep? I just remember finding some really crusty old diapers in the church nursery that were all stiff and nasty.

So while we are on the topic of bathroom comments, tonight she asked, "May I please pee in the bathtub." I started laughing hysterically. She always wants to know "Why you laughing Mommy?!" Or she'll say "What funny?"

Some other cute Claire-isms... At the dinner table, Claire said something funny. She goes, "I'm gonna beat your face." It was totally random. Josh was like, "Where did you hear that!?!" Her reply? "I don't know! I just pick up on it!" Meaning..."She just picked up on it." She's apparently just heard us say that a few times that she just "Picked up on something."

And boy...if we thought we had to watch what we said before, we have to watch it even more now. She will pick up on stuff that I say to someone on the phone and ask me about it later. She also demands to know who I'm talking to. "MOMMY! Who you talking to!?!" Because Josh interrupting me on the phone to ask that apparently wasn't enough. By the time Alex is 2, I may give up on phone calls altogether. ;)

Claire has been working on saying "May I please" instead of just demanding what she wants like a toddler. It was ok last year when she said, "I WANT APPLE!" Now when she says that, I say, "How do you ask nicely?" So then she'll say, "May I please have an apple?" Of course this usage is tricky. Like the other day she asked, "May I please you hold me?" Which of course is clear to any mother of a small child...but "You hold me?" seems a little clearer...well...there is the messed up word order of questions for you.

The other thing that is super funny? Claire is very interesting when I change Alex's diaper, although this has faded in the past week or so. She wanted to watch EVERY TIME. Fine, but I'm afraid she might get sprayed. And is that a newborn thing? Golly, I hope so! I try to cover the "sprayer" but I sometimes forget. And sometimes you can't cover it when you are wiping that runny newborn breastfed poop from those parts! So she points to that area and asks, "What that ball under his penis?" LOL! So I said "his scrotum or balls." I figured, I rather have her hear it from me than some other kid playing...oh crap...my kid is going to be the one to to do that...lol. Anyways, actually, my main reason is why make up names or something silly? She's going to need to know and if we act like it's no big deal, then it won't be. Ahhh....America.

Enjoying the Chaos :)

Welcome to chaos! This is the kids' room/my office/playroom. Notice, Alex is napping in the crib where there is a hamper of clean clothes. Otherwise, Claire would take everything out and then I wouldn't know what's clean/dirty.
Ok, so here is the changing table. Notice Claire has put her footstool here so she can change her baby dolls here. She also likes to watch Alex get changed.

Now...check out how organized I was...lol. And I do mean was. The day before Alex was born, I had Claire help me tape these labels on the drawers. She still has some work to do with putting dirty clothes in the hamper and not back in the drawers. When I put laundry away, I have to check the drawers for dirty/unfolded stuff. She changes clothes like 6 times a day. A battle that I do not wish to fight...

This is Alex's dresser. He got a Onesies label and that's it. Haha..it will stay like that for awhile. Just like my desk is going to be sitting in here. I seriously need someone to come over and help me rearrange...we have space...we have 4 bedrooms/3 baths/3,200sq. ft. but I am clueless how to use it and organize stuff. We never use our dining room table. I actually have a makeshift changing table set up on it for downstairs right now. Any professional decorators want to come over and give me some pointers before my desk sits in here another 5 years? I suck at decorating stuff. We don't want to give up our guest room yet, but I think it will be headed that way...eventually...once someone starts sleeping alone anyways... also notice that the Barbie bin, nicely labeled with stickers so she knows what goes in there...is totally empty.

Click on the pix to make them bigger.

I have TWO kids!

So...Claire has figured out she can jack her step stool from the bathroom and climb into Alex's crib. GASP!!! He sleeps...in a crib! Well he actually will let me put him down, and he'll stay asleep, unlike Claire. I'm starting to wonder now if she had reflux or colic? Who knows...but here she is wearing her shirt as a skirt...how creative.
Um yup, she was JUMPING in there and he stayed asleep!

She's a little turkey-butt!

Practicing her ballet poses?

3 weeks old today!

I can't believe that Alex turned 3 weeks old today! And to mark the special day, his umbilical cord FINALLY fell off. Well, last night, about 60% of it fell off and this morning the rest came right off when I wiped it with the cotton-soaked alcohol. Claire was very excited as she's been watching me change him and helping do his cord care.

So tonight I gave him a "real" bath in his infant tub next to Claire. This didn't work so well. In her attempts to "help" she kept getting water in his face. She wanted to wash his hair, but I'm afraid she'll be too "hard" on his soft spots. Then she kept trying to grab my hand that was supporting his head so she could hold him. I mean, he's her baby after all, why do I keep telling her what to do?! So then she got bored of it, well, that and the fact that his tub took up 75% of the regular tub, leaving her no room to play. So she just got out, ran down the hallway completely dripping wet and laughing hysterically, "I'm NAKED! I'm NAKED!"

Overall, it has been an adjustment. I would say the two biggest things people are asking ... so I'll just lay it out for you:

1. Are you having another one?

God no. NEVER AGAIN. ;) Ahaha. Ask me in 2 years...maybe? Maybe once I've had some solid nights sleep and Alex is also fully potty trained...so maybe more like 3 years from now!


2. Is Claire jealous?

Heck if I know. ASK HER! First, you'll have to explain what jealous is. Really...I think people want to know if she's regressing...well she's been waking up more at night but she's never been a great sleeper and seriously has only slept through the night like 10 times in her 33 months of life. Yes. Alex is already sleeping better. Thank you Lord. She also wants to nurse more, but I think this is more of a monkey see, monkey do thing. Like she never asks, but if she sees him, she wants some. I've been trying to get her snacks/drinks first, but seriously...she wants some yummy mummy milk and no stupid cup of apple juice and some pretzels will change that. If anyone asks around Claire about her, I always say positive things because she totally picks up and understands everything...which means I'm not talking about her in depth in front of her or saying anything bad, like she's being a pain in the ass waking up every 45 minutes for the past 3 weeks. :) Oh joy.

3. Are you getting any sleep?

Fuck you. Sorry if that language offends you...but seriously...who the hell asks that to someone with a newborn...and a toddler. Actually, see above at that last statement. Actually, last night was the best night yet, and I think Claire only woke up at about 1, 4, and 6, then got up at 7:15. I've tried naps and no naps..it doesn't matter. She does sleep about 12 hours overall....7 to 7 and always goes to sleep right away. She just does not fall back asleep on her own, and no I'm not complaining or looking for advice. I'm merely telling you how it is since everyone has been asking. And I'm not looking to let her cry-it-out or wean her. I think thing will go back to normal soon enough.

4. How is it nursing 2?

I've only tried actually nursing them at the same time a couple times...it's too hard since Alex next complete head holding still at this point, and Claire just wants to shove him on the floor in general to get on my lap...but I think it's helped immensely. She knows she will get her turn to nurse, she just might have to wait. It does put her back to sleep instantly which is much easier than trying to rub her back or do something that requires me moving...I've also read that many times kids will wean at about 36 months. I'm thinking that may well happen since she was nursing just before sleep basically before Alex was born. Now it's just fun and new again since there is all this milk once more.

5. What do you need?

How do you answer this? I think this is probably the hardest one for me because I don't know what to tell people.

6. Are you still bleeding?

What the crap? Yeah, apparently this is a need-to-know thing, but everyone that has asked me this has had kids....so not really...just down to a pantyliner. TMI? I would think so, but whatever! You know I hold nothing back.

7. Are things back to normal?

What the crap is NORMAL? Having kids will make your life abnormal forever. And kiss sleeping in goodbye...forever?



So anyways, when I was three weeks post-partum with Claire, my Grandma Irma died. That majorly sucked. Things are going much better this time around. Nobody's died. Hopefully I didn't just screw that up...

Hating the Gowns

Alexander is getting so big! I am taking lots of pictures and videos, but have trouble of course finding time to post them!
He seems so long and stretched out already! I hate these infant gowns on him, although I loved them with Claire. I've determined it's because he kicks his legs and they get all bunched up like this. Claire seemed to pretzel her legs more.

Oh my gosh...so cute!