Me: You didn’t cry much before…. before kids.
Yvonne: They broke me.
Me: No, they fixed you.
Car Seats Ready to Go
Chris and I made a decision to not get a van or bigger SUV. It’s just too much of a financial commitment. We weren’t sure if this was going to work or not, but 3 car seats can fit across the back seat of our compact SUV. Our kids are going to have to deal with not having a lot of personal space.
On another note, my mommy nesting instincts are kicking into high gear. I’m having trouble slowing my brain down with my “get ready for baby†task list swarming in my head. Poor Chris. He was so tired, but I made him set up the car seat late at night cuz I really needed to take one more thing off of my checklist. I have a final paper for seminary class due on Sunday (tomorrow). I have a lot of work to do to finish it, but I’m having trouble focusing to get it done. Would love your prayers!
Caleb’s 3rd Birthday @ Boomers
Caleb does like to play. I came home early from Youth Camp, so I could make sure I could at least spend the afternoon with him. Here are some pictures and videos from his birthday.
VIDEOS:
Yvonne Gives Birth To A Baby (Or Yvonne Might Hate Me After This)
I’m not really into those “I’m going poop†Twitter or Facebook status updates. Those types of messages usually fall into the disgusting, boring, and TMI category. But this requires a special post because of the monstrosity I witnessed today. I love you, Yvonne. The wonderful things you get to see while married and pregnant.
So I come upstairs to see Yvonne on the toilet going poo poo. I’ve been downstairs for approximately five minutes, and she’s been on the toilet the whole time. Naturally she’s a quick pooper and is done within a minute or two, unlike me and my male peers who can go for hours. So it was unusual to see her still there. Summarizing her own words, she said she had to go but it won’t come out. I leave the bathroom and begin to move our cat downstairs when she calls to me, “come see the baby I just made.†I’m thinking, “that’s disgustingâ€, and I have to move the cat downstairs. But she insists I look at this baby.
And boy oh boy, was that a big baby.
I have never seen anything like it before. It was beautiful and disgusting all at once. This was the poop of a lifetime. It was hard to measure since I didn’t want to stick my face in the toilet with this monstrous poop. But from my visual estimates standing up, I would have to guess that this baby was at least 4 inches in diameter and maybe 6 to 7 inches long. That’s like a small football (American). Yvonne probably lost like 4 pounds after that poop session. This was amazing.
Pregnancy can do fascinating (or scary depending on how you look at it) things to the female body. This is just one of the side effects, at least for Yvonne. You eat extra food, and that waste has to go somewhere. From a combination of being pregnant and a lack of drinking water, we were able to witness this once-in-a-lifetime poop.
I apologize for lack of pictures. A moment like this should have been captured on camera.
Update: I forgot to mention that this poop, not surprisingly, clogged the toilet.
Kiddie Kandids, 2009-08-10
So we’ve been taking Caleb & Caris to Kiddie Kandids at Babies R Us for their major pictures. It just so happened that we got Caleb’s 2 year pictures, and Caris’ 6 month pictures done at the same time. So we have to take pictures with them as well. Color & picture coordinated, here they are.
Day Late, Dollar Short: Happy Birthday, Mommy
Happy 31st birthday, Yvonne! Yes, her real name.
A day late, and a dollar short, but it’s still here. Yvonne’s birthday gift was a break from the kiddos. At the day spa of course. I think getting away from the kids might have been enough, but I might as well send her away to something she’ll enjoy as well.
While she was over there, Caleb, Caris & I were scheming things at home. A surprise for when Mommy comes back.
Here’s the setup. Letters.
If you’re interested in watching a 11+ minute video, here it is of me and Caleb finishing up the rest.
(Video coming soon after it finishes uploading. Only 4+ hours. I need FiOS)
Here’s the finished product.
Sigh of Relief
Unlike her brother, Caris has liked being swaddled. So, we swaddled her. About a week ago, she started breaking through the swaddle… first with just her left arm, then with both arms. Sometimes, she could only get a hand out (versus her whole arm). I noticed she was starting to get angry when her arm-freeing attempts failed. So, the smart mom I am figured it must be time to unswaddle Caris. That’s what I did 2 nights ago. One sleepless night later along with the multiple early night awakenings tonight prompted my much smarter hubby to look online for ideas to help newly unswaddled babies sleep. He learned that cold turkey unswaddling is not a good idea. Way to go, Mommy…. Take away your daughter’s sleep association.
Caris just woke up again. This time, I went in and swaddled her back up with just her left arm out. She settled immediately. I put her in the crib. She started to fight for about 2 seconds, and then she sighed… not a sigh of frustration due to loss of freedom, but of relief… finally. She was asleep before I could step away from the crib.
I guess that means we need to take the 2+ weeks people recommend for getting our daughter used to being unswaddled. And I thought we could do it overnight.
Train
Caleb, Caris, & I were at Target shopping for a gift for a birthday party we were going to. We were in the “princess†section. Caleb starts to “Oo, oo†(in a very loud voice). What? Choo-choo. There are no choo-choo trains in the princess section, Caleb. “OO-OO†in an even louder voice. I look over and see a red train, completely out of place on the shelf. Caleb frantically keeps saying “oo-ooâ€â€¦ essentially communicating his desire to see the train. I hand it over to him to look at and tell him, “I’m just letting you hold and look at the train. When we leave, we’ll have to put it back.†I turn back to the princess shelf to look for our gift. I turn back to find that Caleb has completely ripped open the train package. Oh no! Can I nonchalantly leave a half-opened/ripped train package on the shelf? I don’t think so. OK, Caleb, you win. You get the train.
The funny thing is this train wasn’t working. It’s supposed to have a button that let lights and sounds go off. But, the button wasn’t working. So I returned the train the next day with its delapidated box. Haha. Good thing, Caleb hasn’t noticed its gone. Mommy wins!
HFMD (con’t)
So, we’re better today. I was a bit worried about Caris last night. She was hungry, but cried every time she tried to latch on to nurse. Her mouth was hurting from all her sores. She kept crying throughout the night, but Chris did a great job calming her down. When morning came, Caris finally had a pretty good feeding… then a wet diaper. Yay! She fed again 2 hours later before she saw the doctor. She has at least 10 sores on her throat and heaps of them on her tongue. Poor Caris.
(Chris finally getting a chance to sleep.)
I saw the doctor today too. It’s my first time seeing a doctor for “sick†reasons in years. I’ve never met my doctor on this insurance, and I need updated lab work done anyways. She looked in my mouth and was amazed at how many sores I had. She noted that I must have at least 50-60 lesions in my mouth and throat. This definitely hurts. So far, cheese and almond milk are friends of this lesion-ridden mouth. Hee-hee, I have lesions elsewhere too…. palms of my hands, the soles of my feet, etc.
(OK, so we couldn’t really get a good picture of these strange sores. Oh well. This is really not a very flattering picture. Another oh well.)
Caleb’s doing better. Still has mouth/throat sores, but able to eat & drink. But, big brother is jealous of baby sister Caris getting so much attention now. He does not like watching mommy try to nurse her so frequently…. or daddy holding her so much trying to soothe her. *sigh*
So far, Chris is doing well. Praise God. Pray for him to figure out how to get all his work done in a timely manner. He had to stay home to help me today. We leave for General Council in 5 days. Chris has deadlines at work he has to complete before we go. Hard for him to keep up with work when he has to take care of the 3 of us.
Thanks for praying for us!
Mother’s Day
So, my hubby went all out for mother’s day this year. If you know Chris, he’s totally not a planner, but he pulled off planning mother’s day stuff for me this year. 🙂
Chris worked at night for several days before mother’s day. Then, he took Friday off. I felt really tired Friday morning, so he took Caleb to his music class. I stayed home with Caris. Of course, Caris decided to not nap very long, but I still rested. Then, in the afternoon, Chris sent me to a fancy spa for a 2 hour massage. This place was nice… there was a quiet room with short Japanese tables, cushions, & tea. Then there was this strange yellow clay room… and another room where you lay on rocks while you bask in this extraordinary heat. They had another quiet room with sofas and comfy chairs… and sleep beds… with aromatherapy and cookies (yum!). There was a wet sauna room and a dry sauna room… and a jacuzzi. I got a 2 hour massage, but they also have special rooms for a milk bath and a mud bath. Interesting. So before I left the house for this spa place, Chris tells me he doesn’t want me back before 5PM. I laughed because I didn’t know this place had so much stuff there. And I’ve forgotten how much I cherish my quiet, alone time. As a mom, you rarely have time to yourself. Even with that truth, it can be such a lonely role. Seems ironic to say that you can be lonely when you’re never by yourself when you have kids, but it’s true. So when I got there, I just relaxed and spent some nice time with God. Before I knew it, it was already 5PM and my breasts were telling that they were way overdue for feeding Caris. So, i had to quickly take a shower and get home. I didn’t even use their shower “pretty me up†amenities. They have face toner, a flat iron, blow dryer, sterilized hair brushes, etc. Fancy, I tell you.
When I got home, Chris had cut me roses from our backyard (he knows I hate the idea of wasting money on buying flowers). He had this cute sign saying, “I love you, Mommy,†and there were pics of my kids holding the sign. Very cute. Thanks, hubby! I love you!!!
