Baby Goy

That is what I am calling this baby. We have no names set and we don't know the sex of the baby so it will be Baby Goy for now (boy+girl=goy). I had my 25 week check up and all looks good with Goy! Maeve got to help out and pour the gel all over my belly and then the doctor gave her the doppler. She LOVED that and she found the heartbeat right away! Goy then decided to do laps inside of me and it was hard for the doc to find him/her again. Soccer player? Track star? Maybe. I gained a lot of weight but its all good. I have been really slow to gain this time around so I knew a big month was coming up soon. BAM! This was it. :) I go back to the doctor in three weeks for my glucose testing and then the doctor looked at me and said after that, EVERY.TWO.WEEKS. Um, really? Because I am kind of not ready. Can we just reverse time a teeny bit so I can get Maeve sleeping in her own bed for the whole night? Or maybe stop for a minute so I can relish in the fact that I just have two carseats in the car at the moment. Every two weeks??? Are you kidding me? Already? Okay, freak out for the moment over. But it scares me to think we are nearing the end. We really need to think of some names for Goy!

Our Little Misfit

Look how guilty she looks!



So, I find it amusing that I titled this post and in the same instant, Cara published it without me writing anything! This title suits her perfectly. This is all about Cara. Her little personality is shining through right now. Boy are we in trouble! She is the sweetest most snuggly little girl one could ever meet. That being said, she is also a little misfit (in the most loving way possible). She loves to steal her sisters lovey right out from under her and run for it. It gets Maeve so mad! But Cara just giggles and giggles thinking she is the funniest thing ever. She really does make us laugh. When she gets into talking, she has a whole conversation with us- half of which we have no idea what she is saying! She does love Maeve very much and just wants to play with her all day. This makes for a very hard and frustrating day because sometimes Maeve just likes to be alone. Cara loves to sing and dance! And her love of reading is coming through. Her favorite right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Sometimes I just catch her sitting in the corner reading by herself and it makes me so happy! We love her!!

Shocked and Ecstatic!

So yesterday went a lot better than I thought it would! We got into the car and she was super excited! When we walked into the building, the director came up to say hello. She sctually responded so I knew we were off to somewhat of a good start! Maeve saw so many women walking through the hallway and with each person she asked me if it was her teacher. When I saw her, I pointed her out and she was so excited! She signaled for us to walk down and she let us into the room. Maeve immediately left me to walk around and check the place out. The teacher (Mrs. Law) showed her her cubby and also showed her her pictures around the room. At this point, Cara started losing it due to no nap. The teacher kind of gave me the signal that this might be a good time to leave. I told Maeve I needed to go and put Cara down for a nap. She said, "Mommy, I didn't know they had a crib here for Cara!" LOL. So I said good-bye and she said, "okay mommy, good-bye." I left while she was playing with princesses. Now, what I didn't expect was for Cara to SCREAM for Maeve the whole way home. I never thought about how Cara has had Maeve around her whole life. The two hours were golden. I am not going to lie, the phone was on me the whole time in case she needed me. But lets be honest, did we really think she would need me once she was actively engaged? No. I went to pick her up at 3:15. I peeked in the secret window and saw her doing puzzles at the table like every other kid. Made my heart proud that she was so brave! When it was time for release, they let Maeve out first and her face lit up as she saw me and Cara. Cara was also screaming in delight that Maeve was back!! She talked incessantly the whole way home (wonder where she gets that from??). She had chips and cheese and bananas for snack. She also picked milk and drank it out of a big girl cup! It spilled a little and that made her sad but then Mrs. Law (God bless this woman!) gave her a wipe and she was happy again. She did puzzles and pegboards and listened to a book. She went to music with teddies (I had no idea what that was about) and made them dance. But most of all, she got to ring the bell ALL day to signal clean up time. She loved it. And that makes me feel all sorts of things. Proud, sad, happy... all wrapped up into one. My little girl is growing up whether or not I like it and it makes me love her even more than yesterday.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Deep Breaths.

I knew this day would come. I always read other peoples posts about their kids going to school for the first time and while you can smile and say, that's nice, you just don't get it until you are taking your own. Maeve is starting preschool today. She was a bit apprehensive as I stated before this past weekend but since then, we have moved away from that. She is starting to tell me that she will be doing projects and playing with toys. I am nervous. I am scared. I am not sure why. I am so afraid that when I take her into that room she is going to burst into tears and I am going to want to pick her up hug her tight and run the hell out of there. I know this is not possible nor is it the best thing for her. She will be so much more independent when she goes. She needs friends her age. I am just going to have to hold onto that feeling- knowing we are doing the right thing. So honestly, why do I feel like I might throw up as I choke down my coffee? All the joys of parenting I guess. We are putting on her favorite Horton Hears a Who outfit, taking La La with us (teacher said its okay!), and strapping on her princess backpack and walking in together. I will post later on how she handles it (okay, okay, on how I handled it!).

Pics will also come in a later post. :)

School and Sickness

This week has been crazy! Between the ups and downs of thinking Maeve is going to school and then her getting sick- I have been a crazy person (although, I have tried to hide it well). Maeve had a bit of a breakdown on Sunday anytime we mentioned school. She would start crying and saying she didn't want to go- that she wanted to stay with mommy. Yeah, mommy is a little tired of the clingy/sobbing mess that Maeve becomes when she walks out the door. She did end up getting very very sick (stomach bug) that evening so I am praying that it had something to do with that! It has taken two days of laying on the couch, eating nothing, drinking plenty of water and I *think* it might be on its way out!
She was supposed to go to school today but for obvious reasons, that is not happening. She will be going on Thursday. The teacher called to talk to her and I had to explain that there was no way that was happening (especially after she puked five minutes before she called). So I ended up talking to her and let me tell you- she is awesome! I think Maeve is going to love her! She told me that Maeve IS allowed to bring La La (her lovey) to school with her! When I told Maeve this morning that La La was going to school, she was ECSTATIC! I seriously think she saw school in a whole different light. She wanted to know everything the teacher said to me. I am hoping that did the trick! I am to bring a 4X6 photo of her for her cubby, her epi-pen, forms etc. It was a lot to remember in between cleaning up puke! So that has been our story. Come back and read on Thursday. I am sure it will be interesting!


The Baby's room BEFORE Colleen got a hold of it.....


For those who wish to see the video, go to the actual blog page and view there! :)


My love being CRAZY!

Let's Talk About Sleeping

Sleeping is a funny thing. When you get a lot of it, all seems right in the world. When you don't have enough of it, things always seem to go wrong. For the past couple of months Maeve has been doing decently in her bed with the occasional wake up to come and visit us. A trip to the potty and back in bed always seemed to cure that. More recently however Cara has also been waking up. Now one kid is doable. But two kids? Brings out some pretty scary monsters in me and Kenyon. Let me give you and example of one of our nights.

7:00/7:20 p.m.- Kids go to bed.
All is well with the world until I decide to go to sleep (I swear they KNOW when I get into bed).
10:00 p.m.- Cara wakes up screaming.... takes about an hour or so to get her back to sleep (teething? wet? Who knows.)
11:15 p.m.- Maeve the visitor. "Mommy, you left me. Come lay with me." Me, "I will only stay for a little while."
12:00 p.m.- I leave and get into bed (now exhausted).
2:00 ish a.m.- Maeve again. She comes into our room with a pillow, blanket, and her lovey. "Okay mommy, I will sleep with you then."

Now, one of two things happens here. I either give in and have her sleep with us and it is the worst sleep ever or I bring her back to her room (with Kenyon) and he lays on the floor and I sneak out after tucking her in. Either way, it is a lose-lose situation.

4:00 a.m.- Cara wakes up screaming and won't go back to sleep. Kenyon rushes in there (half in a stupor) and picks her up to rock her. Takes an hour before she falls back to sleep. He crawls back into bed just to have Maeve kicking him in the back.

6:00 a.m.- WAKE UP! Now, you would think they would sleep in, right? No. Not exactly. They are wide awake acting like they got the best sleep in the world. Maybe they did (I mean, one is in our bed all warm and cozy and the other is in our arms half the night)!

We are exhausted. We have tried to let Cara cry it out in the middle of the night (she is so freaking stubborn- she yelled for an hour for us and Maeve slept through it but we didn't). We are in a very rough spot because they share a room. We don't want one waking the other up. And so we have to hope and pray that this is a phase and we will get through it. I noticed yesterday that Cara is cutting her sharp teeth. Maybe when they come through it will be better. I have learned some things though throughout this process that I would like to share. And by no means am I an expert! Take it or leave it:

-At three in the morning, it is NOT a good time to have a discussion on what to do about sleep management. Wait until morning.
-When you are the ones not getting sleep, all books and advice go out the window and you do what you have to in order to survive.
-There is no point in trying to figure out why they are getting up- especially if they can't talk! Just deal with it instead of analyzing why.
- And laugh about it in the morning....otherwise it will just make you crazy!

:)

Happy New Year Everyone!

This New Years, we were thinking about a lot of things that are going to happen this year! The most obvious is that we will be adding to our family. While it is super exciting, it is scary and a little nerve racking as well. Our family dynamics are going to change greatly and I am wondering how I am going to have three knees for all of the kids to sit on! I know that everything will probably be fine and it will all work out and we will get into a great routine in a couple of months but that doesn't mean I am not scared! :) Maeve will start school this year- which is also exciting and super scary. Um, wasn't she just the baby in my arms?? Our family is growing and growing up and I am not sure if it makes me want to smile or makes me want to cry. There are a lot of things that I would love to focus on this year. Obviously, with Dan and Mel's wedding coming up, I would love to lose all of this baby weight that I am packing on... But I would love to do some other things as well. I would love my family to get back to church. They are just so hard sometimes in there and it is a bit overwhelming. I know, I know. Excuses. Excuses. But we will work on it. I would love to spend more time with the man I married. That seems to get less and less the more kids we have. Definitely something we both need. I would also like to be more patient with my kids. I just seem to get at my wits end with them (especially now that Maeve and Cara "play" together now). Just a few things on my mind. I am sure 50,000 other things will come as the year progresses but these are on my mind now.... Here are some other resolutions for my kiddos!
Spend time with loved ones...


Be more active...



Safety!


Better hygiene....