My Wild Child

This child is in a world of her own these days. Where she comes up with some of the things she does and says I have no idea!! She is one funny and entertaining little girl!  

running from the camera

why she chose to hide under Carter's rug of all places??

I found you!

Clapping and singing along to Diego!

Blow drying her bunny's hair

While hiding in the kitchen cabinets yesterday, she was pulling out the parts of my magic bullet blender (which obviously the pieces with the blades in them are dangerous, but the extra cups and parts are plastic and ok to play with).  So as I was boiling bottles I turned around and said,

"Maci Rose do you want a spanking? This is dangerous and I don't want you playing with it." (AND by the way this was not the first time I told her not to play with it)

She immediately took off running. I then put the 2 dangerous pieces back in the cabinet and left the rest of it out for her to continue playing with. When she came back and saw that some pieces were still left out she looked confused as to why I didn't take all of them from her and put them back up.

She looked up at me and said,

"Momma do you want a spank? (as she walked towards me with her hand out) I told you not to play with these! And she continued putting each cup back in the cabinet as if she never did anything wrong!!

She's a mess that's for sure!!

Frugal Friday

Making Kids Parties Cheaper!

With these few helpful hints you're sure to provide fun and hopefully without spending a fortune.

1.) Timing it right! Invite guests to a midafternoon party and you'll save. If you set a 2-4 timeframe, you won't have to provide a full menu, instead you can just stick to snacks and candy.

2.) Check on freebies! If your tot is turning 1 many local grocery stores provide free cakes for a child's first birthday. Also, they may have birthday clubs where they can receive freebies as well.

3.) Finding entertainment for less! If your child has his/her heart set on having a magician or face-painter, instead of paying a professional, you can hit up local college kids who will probably be thrilled to make an extra buck or two.

4.) Cupcakes! If you do cupcakes instead of buying or making a cake you will save money because you won't have to buy extra supplies like forks & plates. The little kids can dig right in!

Hopefully these tips may help you save a buck or two when you're planning your kids next birthday party!

The Sweetest Man

I must take a few minutes to brag about my hubby this morning. (And I'm sorry if this embarrasses you Jeremy)

All of you mommies out there know just how hard the newborn stage is. Sometimes you don't even know how you are getting up and going every morning with the amount of sleep you are getting daily. I think there have been some nights that I've literally only gotten 1.5 hours of sleep because of kids being up or because I'm lying awake thinking about things I need to get done, etc. And it's mornings and things like this that keep me going and let me know I'm appreciated.

I saw this on my kitchen counter this morning. Unexpected and out of nowhere Jeremy left me a card and the words on the card describe our love perfectly. It's the smaller things in life like love and family that mean the most. Even though we don't have much money or fancy cars and clothes we have 2 beautiful and healthy children that we live day in and day out for. Whether we say it every day or not, our love is stronger than ever. It's a tag team effort around the clock taking care of two (and 2 still in diapers for that matter). There is constantly one child needing something from us.

I love you Jeremy and couldn't have picked a more perfect match for my soulmate! You are such a faithful man, hard worker, a loving husband, and an incredible father to our children! We are so lucky to have you in our lives!!

On a side note...this little guy laughed out loud for the first time this morning for about 5 seconds and it was the cutest funniest thing I've ever heard. I can't wait to see his little personality in a few months!

3 weeks

This little guy will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and he is growing like a weed! I left him this weekend and I think he has gained a few pounds and gotten longer in just 2 days. He is eating 4 ounces already!! And he acts like he is starving every 2.5 hours. It's ridiculous! Obviously with him eating every 2.5 hours I'm not getting much sleep. Maci Rose only ate 5 ounces total (at 6 months old) more before we started a sippy cup and juice and was only eating every 3-4 hours at this age. People have told me that boys eat more and are hungrier than girls, which has definitely been the case for us. He is becoming more and more alert every day and seems to love his sister talking, singing, screaming, jumping on the bed, etc. around him. It's when he sleeps the soundest. I'm a nervous wreck that she is going to wake him up, but he seems to sleep right through all of her energy. I am enjoying every second of being his mommy, I just wish he would go longer in between feedings. It would make a huge difference in my sleeping at night. I'm also looking forward to the day that we can put cereal in his bottle.

Here is a picture of Maci Rose at 1 month old. It's similar but Carter definitely has a look all his own and we are watching him change daily because we can't quite figure out WHO he looks like.

Flashback Friday

After posting my last blog of Maci Rose with Carter, I decided to do a little flashback friday. These are pics of me with my brother. (again keep in mind this is a pic of a pic b/c I don't have a scanner). Matt was almost a 10 pound baby so maybe I wasn't as scared of him. Carter is so tiny that I think Maci Rose is kind of scared of him. He's smaller than 2 of her baby dolls we've been practicing with.

                                                  Feeding him

Reading a book to him

We are going out of town next weekend, but I hope to return to the Frugal Friday postings after that. Sorry!

Look who's coming around

Well look who is finally coming around and trying to help out. It is very short lived when she does want to help, but I'm ok with that. She loves throwing his dirty diapers in the diaper pale and giving him his passie. She also has been so good about sharing her blankets and covering him up. She even sang twinkle twinkle little star to him last night.

                                                       Big girl holding him

Giving him his passie

Getting impatient

Giving me his hat that fell off.

Getting bored of holding him after about a minute

\

Good thing he is so patient with her! Sweet boy!

Ummm and have I mentioned how blessed I feel enough lately? Well seeing my kids love on each other tops the charts. It makes it all worth it and it makes me feel like maybe I am actually doing something right as a mother. I love them!!

8 Different Positions

Little man has some of the sweetest, cutest, & strangest sleeping positions. Whatever makes him comfortable!
                                                               
 1.)  "throat gargle"


2.)  "pop your neck"


 3.) "pledge of allegiance"                                      

4.) "sweet innocence"

                     
  5.) "fists up boxer punch"


6.) "I surrender"


7.) "deep thinker"


 8.)  "bottoms up"


I think he's cute no matter what he chooses!!

The perfect night

Ok let's be honest before I type this post...the perfect night for many would be a nice glass of wine, bubble bath and at least 8 hours of sleep, but for me with a 2 year old and 1 week old this was what I considered to be a pretty perfect night.

I also need to say "KNOCK ON WOOD"  before I say this....

but last night I got 6 hours of sleep!! Yes that is 2 hours less than the perfect sleep. Not too bad!!

I owe a lot of it to my wonderful and sexy hubby. Usually Jeremy puts Maci Rose down and I take care of Carter. Well last night Maci Rose was watching tv and Carter was wide awake at 9pm. I was soo tired. I think I've had 6 hours of sleep total in the last 3/4 nights together. Jeremy offered to take Carter and rock him/hang out with him since he was up watching tv anyways, so I went to sleep around 9:30 while he put Maci Rose down and rocked/played with Carter and put him in his basinet next to me when he fell asleep. He then went to sleep with Maci Rose in her bed.

With Maci Rose we split the nightly duties because I was working too, but with Carter I've been doing all the night stuff by myself since I'm not working and Jeremy is. So it sure is nice to get a head start on my sleep!

I slept from 9:30pm - 1:00am when Carter woke up to eat. He woke up again around 3:45 and then again around 7 this morning.  It takes him about an hour to be fed, burped, held, changed, swaddled and back to sleep again. That's about 6 hours give or take!

I pray that this trend will continue because it does wonders to my attitude and outlook for the day!

So thanks babe for the extra sleep. Your hard work did not go unnoticed! You are an amazing daddy!

(I know you are at work reading this, love you!)

And so life begins...

.....for a sweet little boy named Carter, as a mom of 2, and a family of FOUR!!

Wow!! This is hard to say the least. I definitely have my hands full, but so is my heart for my amazing God, my beautiful little girl, handsome little boy, and incredibly helpful husband. I owe the world! I do not deserve all of this! How am I this lucky??

I must add that as I am typing this, I'm really wondering why I'm not doing this?

This little one definitely has his nights and days confused. He sleeps all day and is up every hour to hour and a half at night. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't exhausted! And Maci Rose has been a handful for me as well. She doesn't seem to like or be interested in Carter AT ALL! She doesn't come near me if I'm holding him and when we are trying to sleep past 8 in the morning she will do ANYTHING she possibly can to make sure we get up.....

I'm hungry! I want more milk! I need the channel changed! I want to go outside!

Whatever it takes, she will do it!

And feeling guilty for the lack of attention she's getting, I've been practically doing everything she wants.

Well last night I went in her room and we had a big talk about her attitude lately and when I say, "look at me", she better look at me and listen to me. She was crying by the time I left her room and I came back in my room and cried too. I don't want to be a mean mommy, but she is getting away with murder lately and so I had to set some rules for her. My mom had her all week while we were in the hospital, my little sister had her Friday and my aunt brought her out to her pool all day yesterday. She has been getting home late with no nap and fighting bath time/bed time, etc. She thinks she is 5 and on her own schedule and that is just not going to work. I'm working on getting her back on track the most right now. Then I will slowly try to work on getting my baby to realize his days and nights. And then I will work on catching up on my own zzzz's.

In the meantime, Jeremy has been doing whatever it takes to help me out. I'm very sore ALL OVER!! I have the c-section incision, major cramps, and now my milk is in and I can hardly move without screaming.

I know this will all pass in about a week or so. I can't wait until then!

Well I've got a 2 year old with a dirty diaper and a baby crying right now. I will have to finish this one later. Hope you all have had a great weekend!

Like Sister, Like Brother

While Carter definitely has a look all his own and we can't quite pin down who he looks like just yet, these few pictures bring back memories of Maci Rose. It's like da-ja-vu sometimes when I look at him. Below are a few of the pictures that bring back those memories. Maci Rose is the top pic and Carter is the one below it. Let me know what you think? Do you see the similarites?

Maci Rose

Carter

Maci Rose

Carter

Maci Rose

Carter