Natalia is 2!

It must be weird to turn 2. You are big enough to understand something special is going on, but you aren't quite big enough to totally get it. Yesterday morning when Natalia got up I asked her, "Did you know it's your birthday today?" She said, "Yes," paused and then added, "Dad." I then had to clarify that Dad had already had his birthday and it was her turn. I could tell she was confused, but she went with it.

For breakfast I had planned on serving oatmeal, since she loves to pour the little packets and stir in the water. However, Leon wanted pancakes. So I gave her the choice and asked if she wanted oatmeal or pancakes. Without any hesitation she replied, "Choc chip pancakes." So "choc chip" pancakes it was.

She then spent most of the day wanting me to hold her. Stand and hold her. But she did get down to play Legos with her siblings.

And at one point I couldn't figure out where the silverware holder from the dishwasher went. Apparently she needed to wash silverware in HER kitchen.

We procrastinated and didn't bake her cake until yesterday morning. It turns out it takes a a village to make a "choc chip" cake. A village in their pajamas.

The mixer is loud.

The finished product. It, like all our decorations, was very colorful, for our very colorful little girl. Not too surprisingly, her big sister picked out the heart shaped pans.

For dinner we went to Wild Wing Cafe, because every toddler likes to eat at a sports bar! Actually, we have family in town, and it was just an easy place for everyone to go and be loud. Natalia came home covered in ketchup, and then it was time to open presents, ketchup face and all. Unlike her brother who still struggles with ripping presents open, she loved the gifts covered in wrapping paper.

The day ended with cuddles on the couch and some puzzle time with CiCi. Not a bad birthday.

Munch Munch

I had great intentions of getting lots of recently recovered pics posted this week, but this week didn't go as planned. Then again, do they ever? So in honor of Natalia's second birthday tomorrow, here are some pics of my (not so) little munch.

She never did look that little. This is her at not-quite-one-day-old. Look at that chunky face.

Sleeping when she was about three weeks old.

And wide awake (and grumpy) the next day.

Most. Awesome. Pants. Ever.

Someone turned a six month old Tank loose in the doctor's office.

The good ol' days when she would sit on a blanket in the backyard. Although I think she was already plotting...

And our very serious (sometimes) big girl playing outside last weekend.

New Phone

We got new phones over the weekend. Now I remember why I avoid getting new phones. Not only am I cheap, but it takes longer than buying a car. Thankfully my parents were watching the kids, and Jeff and I got to have a "romantic" date to Best Buy where we spent a little over an hour and a half hanging out with a truly friendly and helpful sales guy who was feeling the effects of a Starbucks vanilla chai latte with a triple shot. (He repeated his order several times, just so we were clear as to what was coursing through him. And by the time we were done, he clearly looked like he was ready for his mid-morning energy drink if not his lunchtime super sized Coke.)

BUT there are definitely some benefits of having a new phone. I have a working camera on my phone again! And I finally got the pictures off my old phone - my old phone was dumb (seriously, it was a non-smart, or "dumb" phone, not to mention it didn't work like it was supposed to) and I couldn't do anything with my photos other than text them to other people, despite having a USB cable to connect to my computer and the supposed ability to text photos to myself and view them online.

All that rambling is to say, watch out. There are some seriously bad, random, old photos coming up now and in the next few days. And I can't wait to share. First, one of my favorite photos of the boys. I like to think of this as the photo on the cover for their first LP.

Slime!

A couple of weekends ago, when it was normal winter warm (in the 50s) and not crazy winter warm (in the 70s), I took the kids outside to play. Michael instantly started asking for a bucket of water. I told him no, it was a little too cold for that, and I carefully guarded the hoses just to be safe. It turns out my little MacGyvers didn't need me or tap water anyway. They gathered up the rainwater they found in assorted containers in the yard that were left out in the last storm. They combined it with a fair amount of dark black soil (which they weren't supposed to dig) and created "slime." They did have an awfully good time, and they played together without fighting. Go slime.

Why I Haven't Had Time to Write

Just a warning - I am tired, and this is whiny. And kinda gross!

Yesterday afternoon before I took Ree to dance, I put chili in the crockpot to simmer. While she was in class, I stopped for a cup of coffee. All normal winter activities. What was not normal was the fact that I was doing all of this in t-shirts and flip-flops.

For several days we've enjoyed wonderful, warm, sunny weather. It has been so nice! It's hard not to just enjoy life when the temperatures are in the 70s, and warmth at this time of year feels like a vacation. Plus it's been really nice to air out the house, which it desperately needed because we can't seem to get well.

Someone in our house has been sick at all (?) or almost all (?) times since the weekend before Christmas. Nothing too serious, but it's enough to be annoying. Jeff's birthday was on Saturday, and once again we were unable to celebrate something on the right day because someone was sick.

We've mostly had colds with various symptoms, but this round seems to be a bit worse. Last Thursday night Michael went to brush his teeth before bed, and as soon as the toothbrush touched his mouth, everything he ate that day came out. All over the bathroom. While he just stood there. Amazingly, Michael seemed much better on Friday, and he was able to run errands with Jeff.

On Friday afternoon Ree came home from school and slept. And slept. And slept. She normally avoids naps like the plague, and she didn't get up for dinner or snacks. On Saturday morning she seemed somewhat better, and she wanted to get out to celebrate Jeff's birthday. She didn't have a fever, so I gave her some ibuprofen to help with the exhaustion and achiness, and we went to Barnes & Noble and out to lunch. After lunch the kids all took naps, and when Ree got up one of her eyes was swollen shut and extremely red. I couldn't help but wonder if we threw pink eye into the mix. Good times!

Saturday night Michael couldn't get off the couch after dinner, and he asked Jeff if we could postpone Jeff's "party" (opening presents and having desserts). Jeff agreed, and it was a good thing, since snack time brought on an encore performance's of Michael's Thursday night's fun.

Sunday morning Michael felt better, Ree's eye looked normal, and I was done with everyone being sick. Natalia and I headed out early to stock up on cleaning supplies and fresh fruit and yogurt to boost everyone's immune system. We got back, and I went to town wiping off door knobs and light switches. As I was cleaning, Natalia was getting clingy, but it was close to lunch time, and that's just Natalia.

Natalia didn't eat much lunch, she kept asking to nurse (at a really odd time), and she told me her belly was "ow." She was right, and soon she joined the crew throwing up everywhere. For about 18 hours, she was throwing up just about everything, including water. I felt horrible during the night when she kept begging for something to drink and I had to tell her no. Thankfully, she is a smart girl and could at least somewhat understand when I told her she could have a drink when the sun came up in the morning. And thank goodness she does still nurse. She was able to keep down what little breastmilk she got.

So, let's see, that brings us to Monday. Natalia was feeling better, but still not eating or drinking much. Ree went to school and to dance. After dinner, it was Leon's turn to get sick. During the night, Jeff and Ree joined in the fun. I will say we hit a major milestone last night. When Ree got sick, she got herself out of bed and into the bathroom. I found her hunched over the toilet. They never mention that one in the baby books, but having a child who recognizes they are getting sick and does something about it, is HUGE!

I will cut off my whining there. I think it's time to look at a few things I am grateful for.

1. Having a washer and dryer in my home. We have done at least 3 loads of laundry every day for about 5 days now. I can't even imagine the hassle or expense of lugging that stuff to a laundromat.

2. The warm weather. It makes everything better.

3. Having a job that offers sick leave, an environment that supports actually taking it, and the ability to work from home.

That's it from our house. Hopefully I will have something more fun to write about soon, and hopefully everyone is well in your house!

Christmas Break

I have made several attempts to write about our holidays, and they've all been totally incoherent rambling. In short, our holidays were...average. Definitely not horrible, but not super fantastic wonderful either. So instead of trying to share any stories, here are a few pictures from our week off. (And is it just me, or is it really weird to think that a week ago we were still in the midst of the holidays, at least at my house???)

We didn't get around to making Christmas dinner until December 29th. On Christmas Day Jeff wasn't feeling well, and I had already debated scrapping our dinner plans when Leon woke up SCREAMING from his nap and managed to wake up all his siblings. Leon was feverish, and everyone else was cranky, so on Christmas we had pasta with sausage and cauliflower. Everyone liked it and ate it with minimal complaining. Good enough. Then it was a few days before Jeff and I were both feeling good enough for me to be in the mood to cook. And it turns out, all the kids care about is our Christmas Eve make-your-own-taco feast and our New Year's Eve appetizers for dinner. And we did get those in. (Actually, they were disappointed that we also have not yet gotten around to eating our New Year's gumbo with black eyed peas, but hopefully that will happen tomorrow.) When we did finally make Christmas dinner, the girls helped cook. Ree was snapping asparagus while Natalia supervised.

The kids got window crayons for Christmas and decorated the house.

Guess which almost two-year-old girl also decorated the couch with her window crayons? On the bright side (?) we already needed to clean some prior drawings of hers off the couch. Two birds with one stone...

The boys, especially Leon, really wanted to have a game day with me. That didn't quite work out as planned, although we eventually figured out we could play board games at bedtime. On the actual game day, I ended up having to hang out with Natalia. She did figure out that the Hungry, Hungry Hippo board has great holders for her princess playing cards.

Since we've been married, I've made Christmas ornaments for our family every year. Some years (like those pre-children), the ornaments were fancy. Some years, not so much like the year the boys were born and I bought ornaments on clearance after the holidays and wrote our names on them. This year we finally made our ornaments on New Year's Eve. I'm glad I got a picture of this, because while I was at work yesterday, Natalia decided to "sort" the ornaments and took them apart. Jeff found a stack of red ornaments and a stack of letters that used to be on them. Love her!

And when all else failed, we got comfortable and watched TV.

Breastfeeding Goals

 

You knew it was going to happen someday. (Well, I knew it, and you probably feared it.) After a long time blogging (six years!) and a long time breastfeeding (57 months-ish), it's time to combine the two. Yes, this post is all about boobs. You've been warned.


I'm not the only one out there writing crazy stuff like this. This post is part of the weekly breastfeeding blog hop, hosted by Sisters 'N Cloth, and co-hosted by Life as Wife, Mummy, and Nurse. This week’s topic is, “Breastfeeding Goals.”

I have four children, and I had different, evolving goals with each although I somehow always ended up in the same place. The first time around, I didn't really know much about breastfeeding, and what I did know were mostly horror stories. So my initial goal was to TRY breastfeeding. See how it went. The first couple of weeks were a little challenging since both my daughter Ree and I were breastfeeding rookies, and I'm not great at asking for help. (Thank goodness even in his sleep deprived state, my sports obsessed husband could still mumble "Try the football hold!" which always seemed to work.) And once we got the hang of it, it went pretty well. But I knew my return to work was looming, and so my goal became to get as much breast milk into her for as long as possible. Despite me returning to work at a new job when Ree was eight weeks old, we managed exclusive breast milk until 8 1/2 months and some breast milk until the week she turned 12 months.

Not bad, but I'm an overachiever, and by then I had read a LOT about breastfeeding. So, of course, I went into my second pregnancy with Breastfeeding Goals. We were going to exclusively breastfeed for at least a year! We would avoid supplementing with formula! We would establish a great nursing routine in the beginning! Only then I went in for my 20 week ultrasound and found out SURPRISE! TWINS! And they decided to arrive early. And five hours apart. So my first little man was down chilling in the NICU with a bottle of high calorie formula before his "little" brother even entered the world. Breastfeeding goals out the window.

So I went back to the plan of getting as much breast milk into them for as long as possible. It turns out that Leon, the "older" brother, earned himself the nickname "breastfeeding champion of the world." That boy liked him some booba. His "little" brother Michael never figured out how to get letdown. We had just moved and changed jobs again when I got pregnant with them, so this time I went back to work when my little men were only seven weeks old. And with preemie twins at the holidays, that time was a blur, and among other things, I pretty much had to give up on breastfeeding Michael. Thankfully, I had been pumping like a champ while on maternity leave and was able to pump at work again at my new job. So, breastfeeding ended up being Leon, super nurser dude, breastfeeding at night while I pumped in the daytime for Michael. This continued until they were 13 months with even little Mikey getting at least a few bottles of expressed milk a week. Meanwhile Leon nursed at bedtime until he was 21 months old and I was three months pregnant again.

So with baby number 4, I really had no goals other than to give her as much breast milk for as long as possible. As it turns out, Natalia, my youngest, likes nursing even more than Leon. At 23 months, she has never had formula and she still nurses at bedtime. At this point, I don't know what the future holds, but at least I know she got a lot of breastnilk in her for a long time!