Little Girls Update

Since this is a blog focused on my girls, and I have told family members that I would use it to keep them up to date on my chickies, I guess its time to start doing that!

 

Alexis is a few weeks away from three and a half! I can’t believe how time has flown! There are certain faces and things that Addison does, that are the exact thing Alexis used to to at the same age and in that moment I am carried back to when my Alexis was a babe. Like I have said before, Alexis is my drama queen, my sensitive one. She is learning how to spell her name. She is has her colors, numbers to about 15 and shapes down pat. (Although when asked she will pretend she doesn’t know them!) Thanks to her time with school, she is learning her numbers in Spanish and the days of the week. Alexis is a very imaginative kid and her current playtime activity is pretending to be a cat. She can get quite loud, which sometimes I love and sometimes drives this mamma nuts! Another thing she loves is singing. She makes up her own songs regularly. She has recently started to sing with the songs I play in the car.

 

Addison is 7 months old today. She is such a joy! I have never met a more happy, content baby! Last week, she was 12.5 pounds and 24 and 1/2 inches long. She is slowly dropping off the weight and height scale so between now and her next check up, there are a few weight checks thrown in. She is loving her baby food. She eats applesauce, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, and mango. She is almost sitting up. She still is a little wobbly but is slowly getting there. She likes to be on the floor and spin like a top to wherever the action is. She especially loves her big sissy! Alexis does a great job of entertaining her!

 

 

     

Alexis and Addison at a recent wedding! Aren’t they beautiful!?!?

Midnight Adventures

Gary and I seem to have lots of “fun” stuff happen with our girls in the middle of the night. Whenever Alexis gets sick, its in the middle of the night. When Addison is fussy, its in the middle of the night. Just the other night, we discovered a mouse in the house right before bed and were up late trying to figure out where it was hiding. (Well Gary was looking, I was being a chicken and cowering on the couch! I was so OK with throwing out every blessed thing in my living room!) Well this past Friday little did I know but another “adventure” was about to knock me on my butt. Gary and I usually end our weeks with a movie and popcorn and this past Friday was no different. It was interrupted a few times by Addison due to Flu Shot + Teething. Earlier in the day when I was getting Addison up for the day, I smelled a funny smell in the girls room. Thinking a plastic hair clip fell in our baseboard heat, I turned it off and went about my business. Gary was heading home from work early so clean after that lovely visitor, the mouse, so I asked him to check the heater. He did and pulled out a Littlest Pet Shop Cat with a burnt head! Yay! Problem solved! For once it was an easy fix! Yea right! Not so much! Midnight rolled around and Gary and I were heading to bed when I noticed the smell was back! So off Gary goes, hunting with a flashlight in our baseboard heater, while Alexis slept and I bounced and slightly annoyed little girl. After a good twenty minutes of hunting, finally he did find a hair clip……melted beyond recognition. Finally, the smell is gone and I won’t have to hear Alexis complain about the “yuck smell” again!

 

Lets hope tonight is another adventure less night! (Because I know another one is lurking around the corner!)

In love!

Now Addison is a drooler. Not a day goes by that we go through any less than 6 bibs. There is usually an outfit change some where in there too! She usually looks a bit unkempt because of the drool and now stains have come along with eating baby food. (Last week I made blueberry baby food for her. Not the best choice when it comes to stainage!) Today I was checking out my usual sites when I checked out this one…

http://www.babysteals.com/

I love this website! My budget hasn’t allowed me to take advantage of any deals but I am planning on it in the future! Well, lo and behold, today they have bibs on sale. I know, ho hum! Its a bib! But you have to check these out! They are four-in-one bibs made by this company…

http://shop.bebeaulait.com/site/index09

Featuring these bibs!

http://shop.bebeaulait.com/Shop_3/bibs/bib-papillon

 

I am in LOVE! Not only are they the most adorable things ever but how ingenious! Four sides to the bib will solve all my drool and eating issues! Unfortunately, when I happened upon the site, they were sold out but I can’t wait to get me some!

Baby Food Adventure

In an effort to save money with baby number 2, I have started by making my own baby food! And what fun it is! I love it! I love that I know, I mean, KNOW, what Addison is eating. I also love that I am finding more variety than the standard jarred baby food. I have made Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Pears, Peaches and Plums. I am debating making Mango’s or Nectarines next. I started her on the Sweet Potatoes and she loved them. We moved onto Peas but they were not liked and they gave her a belly ache. I am holding on the veggies till her system is more used to food. Addison will gobble up whatever I put in the spoon! Here are a few lesson’s I have learned so far in making the baby food.

- Don’t add breast milk or formula to the food. Especially formula. Yes, I know that Doctors recommend it but I found that adding the formula alters the taste of the food, especially the fruit. Also, if you are making a bulk at a time and freezing it, by the time it thaws or you get to it, the formula has gone bad. Formula and breast milk are only good in the fridge for 24 hours.

 

- Cook your fruit like the peaches and plums in the microwave. Twice I have burnt the bottom of my pans because the water has steamed out. This past week when I made the plums, it was much easier to cook them in a Tupperware dish with a bit of water in it, in the microwave.

 

- Freeze the food you make in ice cube trays. One ice cube is about equal to one Stage One size baby food jar. Plus they stack on each other so they are easier to store.

 

Here is an approximate break down of the pricing for the food I have made including the trays compared to the jarred baby food I would have bought.

- I have spent about $3.00 on the fruit and veggies I have needed to get to fill a tray. The ice cube tray cost me $1.29. Total is $4.29.

- Each tray has 18 ice cubes in it, so that would be 18 servings of Stage One baby food. It is about .50 cents for a single jar. Total is $9.00

I save about $5.00 every time I make my own food. That may not be a whole lot to some people, but in my family, it adds up!

 

*I am not a Doctor nor a food professional. Please consult your Doctor and do your own research before you make your own food!

Working Mom

Working Mom….Ohhh its such a swear word in some circles.

 

I am a working mom. There, I said it. Oh and guess what… Both my girls are in daycare! Bring on the lectures about germs, about how my children are worse off for it. Bring on the ridicule, bring it.

 

Now that was me a few years ago when Alexis was born. I was DEAD set on being a stay at home mom. I took my maternity leave (a whole summer! It was wonderful!). At the end, Gary and I put our heads together and did the finances. Staying home was not an option. There was just not enough money to stretch to cover all the bills. So off I went with major tears to find a part-time job. My church had just opened up a daycare and was in need of an Infant teacher. I very gratefully took the job. How perfect, I would work three days a week and be able to be with Alexis too! For three years now, minus a 6 month period where I worked in the evenings, I have worked at the daycare. I have worked in every room, worked every type of shift. I’ve done it all!

 

Little did I know that working here has made me realize that this is where I am supposed to be. When I was young, my parents taught me that the Lord has a calling on my life. Now I used to think that it had to be a preacher or missionary, something big like that. When I graduated high school, I attended a program to help me reach that preacher or missionary calling. But it wasn’t to be. I quickly realized that my gifts were not in those areas, that in fact, I had no clue what my calling was! The day I stepped into the school age class room at the daycare, I knew. I knew that it was were I was to be. For two years now, I have been working with Kindergarten through Fourth graders. I have fallen in love with the kids in my program. I greet them after school everyday and I love it!

 

My heart is with my daughters. They are constant on my mind. I long for the day that I can stay home with them. That is truly my dream. But until then, I am here pouring the love that I can’t pour on my daughters because I am not with them, on other mothers children. I pray that when they feel my arms around them, they feel their mom’s arms.

I am a rocking Mamma

I LOVE to rock my girls in the rocking chair. We rock when we read books. We rock when its time to sleep. We rock in the morning when its time to get up. Alexis still loves to rock. Its part of her bedtime routine. She picks out a book then Gary or I will read and rock with her while she has a little bit of milk. Its a wonderful time of my night, to relax and let all the stress of the day just go away. I don’t get to rock with Addison as much. The rocker is in Allie’s room so its not always ideal to rock with Addison. Tonight though, Alexis was busy playing in the basement. She set out a huge picnic lunch for her friends from school and she was pretending to be Ms. April. Addison had her evening bottle and I thought I would take advantage of the situation. My little peanut and I headed upstairs and we were able to sit and rock. I started singing my favorite song to sing to my girls, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray…” Addison just laid in my arms and listened. When I finished she gave me the sweetest smile. It was a great moment, the kind that melts a mamma’s heart……Then she shot spit up all over the front of my shirt and grinned. I had to laugh. Isn’t it great to have to special sweet moments with your kids and be able to laugh at the inconvenient stuff too?!?!

Johns Hopkins Appointment

Today was the big appointment. At Johns Hopkins. It was a half hour appointment. Ugh. I now have an overtired baby that won’t go to sleep.

 

Anyway…Details. Gary, Addison and I left here about 11:30 for Baltimore. I was extremely nervous the entire drive. Usually when you see the doctor, you have somewhat of an idea of what he or she is going to say. I had no clue. I knew what was wrong with my little girls body but I had no idea what the doctor was going to tell us. My biggest fear was surgery on her little body and the thought of that happening made me want to cry. I had so much encouragement from wonderful friends over the past weekend and their words kept running through my head. One friend had left me with this scripture.

 

Mark 9:20-29
They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." When Jesus saw that crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?" And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

 

“Help my unbelief” is what I prayed the entire way to the hospital. We arrived and were greeted with the most efficient check-in process ever. (And I have checked-in at so many places) We were quickly taken back to a room and went over the pregnancy history and Addison’s growth with a resident. Within minutes we were meeting with the head of Pediatric Orthopedics, Dr. Sponseller. He did an exam of Addison, looked at her x-rays and quickly had an answer for us. He basically told us that we had to wait. There is a 70% chance that surgery is the right route. But there is a 30% chance that the rib and vertebra will not effect her at all and she will not have surgery. Around her first birthday she will have another x-ray and see how the rib has grown, if it has grown, and how it is making her spine curve. So its a waiting game we play.

 

In the mean time, we are considering seeing a doctor at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey. Its so much closer especially if we are only going for checkups. My mind can rest easy. I know God is in control! He now has 8 months to do His thing!