Word{less} Wednesday

With Micah being a red head {at least for now} people often joke about his paternity. You know the old "mailman/milkman" joke. Pretty sure this clears it up. :)

Decking the Halls

Well, it is that time of year to drag out your red and green totes and deck the halls full of Christmas cheer. I love it when it is done. I wish it was "prettier" because I am horrible at putting things together, but hate doing it. This year is especially difficult because it is a new house and layout. For the last 4/5 years I could do it blind-folded, but this year I had to think. Never good for this tired momma.

Leighton has been very excited about decorating. Giving her input on where the tree should go and where to put things. Surprisingly for an almost 3 year old she is really good at it!

Anyway onto the decorating:

First up putting up the Nativity as a family. We read Luke 2 and place the pieces accordingly. Although we realized that the wise men never came up in the story {last year we read a kids version}...weird. Then Sunday at Church our pastor spoke how the wise men didn't come to visit until later and there were probably more than 3! This was riveting information to me this morning. I learned so much about the history of wise men that I never thought about before! {This kind of thinking is good! ;)}


Then we decorated the tree. I may or may not be particular about how the tree is decorated and may or may not always appreciate a little someone's help. :)
Lovely.
Micah, ever helpful in destroying the tissue paper.
My two most favorite ornaments. Lo's and Micah's first Christmas ornaments.
{Lo's-shoes and Micah's the "silver" spoon}
Not too thrilled with how all this turned out and please ignore the HIDEOUS border in my kitchen, a project re-do for another day. ;)
But I do love these little acorn Santas my grandmother made. How cute are those?! I have always wanted to make more but have yet to get around to it.

The mantle needs a little something more...just don't know what that is yet.
This is my idea for our Christmas stockings...not sure it will get accomplished this year, but it is in progress. The silhouettes are done (thanks again to quick photoshop tutorial I found via pinterest) just finding time to actually put it all together...

Source: beneathmyheart.net via Michele on Pinterest

Our attempt at getting a cute Christmas light photo of Micah...these are way better than that one anyway! ;) HA!

Source: carolinetran.net via Michele on Pinterest

Our halls are now decked and the season has begun. I am really trying to focus this year on giving back to those who really need it and teaching and preparing my heart and Lo's heart for what the season really is about. God's plan to rescue us from a fallen world!
Merry Christmas! And let the traditions commence.

Thanksgiving 2011

I want a clever title but none come to mind. :(

And the Thanksgiving Day magic continues.
Every year we take a family photo and nail it in one take. It is seriously unreal. We can't take any other family photo like it. Micah looks a bit nuts, but that is his per usual "look" {read: wide eyed and surprised at all times} anyway. HA!

Chad had the Wednesday before off. We mostly chilled and finished getting Christmas stuff out.

Thursday we watched some of the Macy's Parade, but the hosts on chnl 12 were weird and annoying. Then we were off to my FIL's family for a great traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had fun catching up and watching Lo and Tyler play in-door football. Those two are hilarious.

Micah did so awesome and was so happy, even staying up nearly 2 hours past his naptime! He seemed to enjoy the food especially the sweet potatoes!
The aforementioned in-door football. It was a beautiful day minus the 50+mph winds!
Tyler is so sweet with both of my kids. He can rough house it with the best of them, but then he could dial it down and rock Micah. He is just so good with babies for a 9 year old. Although I think in a year or two he and MW will be nuts! Shoot who am I kidding he and Lo are already nuts!
Friday was a crazy day of running around some more, followed by decorating the tree. {post to come}
Then on Saturday we had Thanksgiving with my MIL. Sadly I took zero pics of the day. Except the breaking of the wish bone. I won. :)

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. We are thankful for so much and have been blessed beyond measure. We are striving to live with attitudes of gratitude seeing the blessings in the difficult times. However, we are most grateful for this year is our Micah bear and that after a long 10 months he is finally healthy and thriving.

Hope everyone had great Thanksgiving!

One Month Post Op {My Miracle}

The 21st marked one month after Micah's surgery!
I am so thankful all went so well and so smoothly. If you could just see what an awesome happy little boy he is today because of it.

Micah is my miracle baby.
Getting pregnant wasn't an easy task for us. When we decided we would like to try and have another I pretty much just went straight to the doc and said look we are going to need help getting pregnant. He obliged and put me on clomid. Fertility drugs take all the joy out of getting pregnant. I will just leave it at that. However, about halfway through the our first cycle of clomid I just was over this. Too many feelings were coming back about how hard this was and how this is NOT the way I wanted to have another baby. I said forget I don't care what the calendar says.

I remember sitting in the car with Chad telling him this and saying "I would be shocked if we were pregnant and I don't want to do this anymore." I felt like if God wanted us to have another baby then He would give us one and I wasn't going to do a bunch of clomid cycles just to get one. This was a one time deal.

Fast forward a few weeks. That's right One clomid cycle. Two pink lines. Honestly looking back at the charts, I am still not sure how we ended up pregnant, nothing matched up right. Seriously. God's mighty hand for sure. Miracle baby.

Fast forward to our 20 week sono. You can read about all our fears and worries here thanks to an irregular sono not to mention all my pre-term labor and struggling to keep him IN for as long as possible. Fast forward to 35.5/36 weeks gestation. He is here. Perfect and healthy. Miracle baby.

Micah tends to frustrate me at times, he is a high need and demanding baby. Some say it is because of all he has been through physically {read: reflux, hungry, vomiting all the time}, who knows I am not buying it. But what I do buy is that God gave us this precious little boy for a reason, he and all babies are miracles really, but he will forever be my miracle baby. The little boy I never knew I always needed.
 

Gratitude Attitude

This weekend at church our pastor spoke about gratitude. As I previously mentioned on facebook, but less than eloquently phrased it: we need to have a spirit of gratitude all the time; not just in November; all these "today I am thankful for" posts are fantastic and I love seeing what you are thankful for, but I challenge you to do it year long not just for 30 days. This is what I want to focus on. Having a spirit of gratitude through out the years. Join me won't you. My goal is to 1-2x a month write a post displaying my gratitude.

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Every time I drive by the housing addition right before ours I can't help but smile to God and thank Him for our new home He alone provided. Sometimes we think we provided ourselves with "good" things, but that is never the case. It is always God. However, there are some instances where you can see God's hand at work and this is one of those times, therefore I can't help but give Him all the glory and my gratitude.

You see in the housing addition next to ours holds a house that we were this close to putting a contract on, then everything fell apart. We were so heartbroken. We wanted to move to Mayberry so badly. We waited a few more months, putting the whole idea out of our heads and being grateful for the home we did have and making the most of it.

Later we learned that the other home we were interested in that same neighborhood was still available. We thought and prayed about it and decided at this point we would just go for it. As God would have it He slammed the door shut on that one too! We didn't understand why we felt so led to do and go through all of this if God was going to slam the door in our face. To top it off our house was under contract...now what?! I didn't want to give up our house when it wasn't completely necessary.


In the end God provided a fantastic house {read: better than the two houses we thought we wanted} for our family one neighborhood over, complete with the best neighbors anyone could ask for and for that I will forever be grateful to God for this blessing. This house is not something we ever thought we would get, but God provided above and beyond.

These kids became fast friends as did we with their parents. We spent nearly every summer/fall night outside playing. Something we never use to do!

Even trick or treated together.

Thank you God for our home we are blessed beyond measure.

Fall in a Nutshell

Just some pictures that make me smile. I love this time of year because I can hibernate. I am a homebody at heart and enjoy just staying snuggled up at home all the time. I am boring. Probably why no one ever asks me to do anything.

So here is our fall in a nutshell

Lo can't quite let go of summer yet...so she dresses up in her "summer gear" and goes "swimming." What an imagination. She gets that from me.

This is her "pool."

Learning to color inside the lines, mostly.

Kazoos with mommy. Daddy really enjoys are playing.

The other day we got a brief snow "storm." Lo was so excited she had big plans to build a snowman after her nap. Needless to say she was disappointed to find no snow remained.
I know you can't really see the flakes but they are there. ;)

Just the everyday.

The weather is so up and down here. One day snow, next day beautiful.

There are a few people who ask me to hang out, and so we venture out. HA!
We just had to meet {hopefully} Micah's new BFF Ezra, my friend Ginger's brand new bundle and of course it didn't hurt for Lo and Avery to get actual face time too!

And today I am just enjoying being. Being home {shocker!} and playing with my kids. I was going to dig out all the Christmas junk, but thought better of it. Today my kids need me and I need them. Nice just to kick back and be still!
Happy Friday!

Weaning

Recently I have been full force into weaning Micah. Right before his surgery the doctors and I discussed his ever present need to be on formula in order to gain. While I realize his chronic, massive amounts of spit-up definitely contributed to his weight loss, I am fairly confident that my milk supply was not sufficient to meet his little body's needs. This also happened with Lo, only she didn't spit up and still lost. Clearly, something happens to my milk supply around the 7-9 month window and at that point "breast is no longer best."

However, I tried weaning but just couldn't fully get on board pre-surgery. Mostly, because I wanted to be able to offer him that comfort post-surgery and perhaps myself too. Once the surgery was over and we were home I went straight to bottles. My body seemed to adjust to no day-time nursing easily; which once again proves I had very little milk to offer.

Now, night time on the other hand is, well, a night-mare. He was nursing every 4 hours at night, thus keeping my supply up. Now we are down to waking just twice in the night at 10p and 3a. Last week I cut out the before bed nursing and this week I am cutting out the 10p nursing. But I am still hurting. I read somewhere to take sudafed D to help dry you up. Can't tell if it is helping. However, last night when I was researching it I learned that eating oatmeal boost your supply. Guess what this girl has been enjoying for breakfast lately? Yep. Oatmeal. Awesome.

Of course on top of all of that as much as I "dislike" nursing at this point, it is still so hard to break that personal bond you have with your baby. How do you say good-bye to that, especially when you know that this is the last baby you will nurse, and rock to sleep. I hate the newborn phase but it doesn't mean I don't recognize that I am saying good-bye to a lot of those sweet baby moments. Thanks hormones for making this extra difficult. I don't know how to mark a date on a calendar and say this is it, so the other day at 2a when he was still and peaceful, I rocked him extra long and said my good-byes to nursing.

I am hoping in the next couple of weeks he will be fully weaned. Thankfully, I am going through this with another bloggy friend. We actually "bonded" over weaning our daughters, went through our second pregnancies together {via the web} and now are encouraging each other through weaning pt 2. It helps to have someone know exactly how you are feeling in the moment.

Finally, you are probably wondering why I am posting about this. 1. Just for my memory. and 2. You would be surprised how many people ask me about this and the way my memory works right now I wouldn't know what to tell them. Sadly, I don't even remember how this went with Lo. Did it hurt this bad? No idea. How long did it take before I was done? No idea. I don't even remember the last time we nurse. How sad is that? Sad.

We need Christmas...

Like a hole in the head.
Oh and not to mention BOTH kids' birthdays are exactly 5 minutes after Christmas ends. Awesome. Maybe we should just ask Santa for college/wedding fund money.
Well, off to clean this mess up AGAIN!

I do try and get Lo to help, but clearly not very successful in my parenting strategies. Maybe if I threw it all away she would care more.

Micah 10 Months {Watch Me Grow}

Micah Bear you are 10 months old today. Woot Woot! The train has finally arrived at SweetHappyContent Baby Central, better late than never. I am just so happy I could cry now. Micah, you are turning into such a little boy it is scary.

"....one of the scariest aspects of raising boys is their tendency to risk life and limb for no good reason. It begins very early. If a toddler can climb on it, he will jump off it. He careens out of control toward tables, tubs, pools, steps, trees, and streets."--Dr. James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys

You are already so different from you sister in how you approach life I can barely keep up. No wonder I am exhausted! I absolutely love love love this phase we are about to embark on-independence and discovering the world.

Milestones: You are walking running with your walker toy.
And "talking" on your phone. This totally through me off guard, I couldn't believe you knew what to do with a phone already! HA!
You are also cutting your first tooth! And I think the second one isn't too far behind. I will say for all the fussiness I get I have awesome teethers.
Finally you are starting to clap. {this is my favorite baby trick!}


Language Skills: You are getting really vocal again. I love finding you in your crib after nap "talking" to your crib friends. We are also getting into signing. You now can sign "more."

Eating:We are in the process of weaning. You get 3-4 formula bottles per day along with breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. I still nurse at night some, but gradually transitioning you to a bottle. This is more about mommy than you. If you would just sleep through the night this wouldn't be a problem. :)


You also LOVE food. Anything you see you want to eat. I was making dinner the other day and when I turned around to see what you were up to, I found you stuffing as many graham crackers as you could into your mouth!

Sleeping: Mommy failed you (and her) when it came to getting you on a schedule, but we are remedying that now. You nap at 845a and 1230p for about 1-2 hours respectively. Bedtime is at 6/630p with usually only one night waking after 6-7 hours. For now I am ok with this routine. You usually wake for the day between 630 and 7a.

When you go to sleep you are getting fairly addicted to your paci. I don't think you are actually sleeping with it all night, but I do find you sucking away on it in the morning if I don't come get you right away. You also love to rub the silky part of your blankie between your fingers while you take your bottle and doze off. Reminds me of your auntie Meg.

Favorite Toy(s)/Book(s): Still the potty. I really hope you still like the potty this much next summer when we start potty training! You also love electrical outlets. You have showed me several I have neglected to cover. You also love to pull cords. Occasionally I can detract you with blocks. There have been a few times I find you and sissy playing in the playroom together.


Anecdotes/Quirky things you do:
You are so different than your sister. If I told her "no" once she pretty much listened and stopped. You, not so much. You just look at me like "what are you going to do about it?!" Also, you are just a go getter, you don't stop to see you are at the top of the stairs you just keep going.
I remember back in one of my Human Development class the teacher saying how when a girl rode a bike in the mountains and came to a cliff, she would stop, assess the situation and then proceed. A boy, well, what cliff?! Yeah, I didn't it get that until now. Boys.

You also love socks. Not to wear, but to carry around and stuff in your mouth. You get way to excited to see socks discarded on the floor. It use to be burp cloths all over the house, now it is socks.

Temperament: Sweet, happy, content and perfect. You are starting to play more independently. You are actually happy to see daddy and don't always have to be strapped to me. You don't like to be told "no." When you are you have a melt down. This always makes me laugh. You get this little pouty face and put your lip out. I think it is cute.


Stats/Dr Appts: On October 21st you had your fundoplication surgery. I think this has attributed a lot to your current mood and happiness. I think for the first time in months you feel good and aren't starving or thirsty all the time any more. You are doing remarkable. It took another 3 weeks and 24 calorie formula, but you finally gained and now I think we are back on track.


Wt: 15# 8z
Ht: 26in {1%}
Head Cir:
Clothes: 3-6m
Socks: 12-2T {this boy has huge feet, this is the same size Lo wears! HA! You know what they say about big feet...big socks. :) }
Diapers: 2 swaddlers

Happy 10 Months Micah!