On Sabbatical!

Hello to my occasional dropper-inners due to having to small children, the high volume of summer play, the crazy idea to go back to school full time I will be on sabbatical from my blog for an undetermined amount of time. It may be forever, but if I begin to write something interesting again on a regular basis I'll let you know...

In the meantime enjoy your day...

Creepy Crawly

Finley is so much like his dad, its a bit scary! I have hope for you still Harper :)
Finley loves anything creepy crawly, and since I'm at home with him all day I am the receiver of his creepy crawly creatures. I do my best to be excited and nurture his exploration but sometimes I just feel a bit grossed out!
Here is Finley holding a sac of frog eggs...he said they feel like Jello

You know its not going to last!

It makes me nervous when the kids wake up happy, things are going great, we are all enjoying each other and best of all my patience seem endless! Then usually by 11:00am the wall comes crashing down and they are driving me batty!

Do the right-for-you thing

I have an embarrassing amount of mother/baby/parenting/breastfeeding/potty training/anything to do with raising a child book in my personal library. The first thing I did after finding out I was pregnant was go to Borders and purchase the books I would then read into the wee hours for the next 9 months. After 3 pregnancies I still found myself reading every chapter of "What to expect when your expecting" to now only come to the conclusion that not much happens in a pregnancy that you have any control over, and alot of the times things happen that aren't in the books at all. If I'm not reading up on every little boo-boo, milestone, or some issue my kids are going through I'm googling it. I recently googled "my 2 year old wakes up screaming from his nap" which Finley had been doing for several weeks. All the google responses I got pointed to autism (panic)! 3 days later he no longer woke up screaming from his naps (sigh of relief). After all the reading and googling I've done I could qualify as a human encyclopedia on children from 0-2 years. With the birth of Harper came the birth of my adjusted way of parenting:following my gut and doing what's right for me. This method has come to my attention mostly out of necessity. For instance, Finley wanted to start using the big boy potty a few weeks after Harper was born. This required me to abandon Harper to his pack-and-play,bouncy seat, or swing several times a day to help Finley and his potty needs(Finley was NEVER left alone in any sort of baby container for any length of time, I once peed while he was alseep on me). During these times Harper may have been nursing or sleepy and it would make him cry when he was set down. After a few times Harper eventually got use to this and would put him self to sleep and take his nap appropriately, in his crib alone (not nursing or rocking on me the entire time as Finley did). This has resulted in my 7 week old baby falling asleep on his own for his nap and is sleeping through the night (Finley slept through the night maybe by 7 months). By trusting my gut that Harper was safe in his crib and didn't need me to help him take his nap he is a much healthier sleeper. We are both happier for this. With all the endless reading comes an endless barrage of conflicting advice,then I have too sort through it all and puzzle it together in a sleep-deprived hormonal stupor and in the meantime my common sense (if you keep nursing, rocking and patting a baby he wont sleep soundly-would you?) has fallen by the wayside. Yes, I will admit Harper shed some tears through this and nothing is more excruciating than hearing a baby cry. My gut reminded me-he is not alone, he is not scared, he is not hungry, he is not in pain. Finley being my first child I was afraid of not doing everything just right and if he cried that was a sign of my failure-I always felt like I was failing. Now that I have consciously set the idea of perfectionism and (some) of the books aside, the answers have become clearer-sleeping babies need to stay sleeping (even if still in a car seat) and hungry babies need to eat (probably not for an hour though). My goal now has been to stay somewhere in between neglect and paranoia and to realise there is a maternal legacy we all encompass. I doubt my great grandmother read "What to Expect When Your Expecting"
Disclaimer: In no way is my new approach to parenting guilt-free (but is there really one?)

Shape Up Shoes - the Most Convenient Way to Shape Up!

Shape Up Shoes - the Most Convenient Way to Shape Up!

This made me laugh! I saw this ad in a mom magazine and in big bold letters it said "For the Busy Mom! Need extra help getting to that pre-baby weight?" Watch out if you see this fashionista walking down the street in these ridiculous pound shedding shoes!

Rock Beetles

Here are pictures of Finley's Earth Day Rock Beetles. Its hard to find fun and cute projects for my almost 2 year old to do and this is now on the top of my list. Family and friends you may be getting alot of painted rocks for the holidays this year! Finley collected smooth round bug shaped rocks along a rivers edge. We took them home and painted them all sorts of colors with acrylic paints. (I was really nervous to use acrylic paints for fear Finley and I would be forever rainbow colored but I purchased a brand called Apple Barrel and they washed off better than our Crayola washable paints!) Once they were dry I took black acrylic paint to create the accents-the head, wings, and spots. Once that was dry I sprayed them with two coats of clear acrylic sealer. Once the sealer was dry I hot glued on googly eyes. All of these inexpensive supplies can easily be found at any local store that sells art supplies (Gotta love Wal-Mart!)
Finley had so much fun with this project, I would definitely do it again. I was even thinking this would be a fun, yet messy, birthday party project for kids to do and take home as favors.

So Proud of Finley

We went swimming today at the pool and he loves his new Speedo bathing suit that’s all equipt with the flotation devices and his new arm floaties. Today is the 2nd time he has been a solo swimmer and he loves it! So the last 10 minutes I wanted to take off his arm floats so he could practice without them, which causes him to sink down to his mouth level requiring him to swim more. He did great, then I asked if he wanted to go under the water and he said yes so I dunked him under! He loved it, and let me do it about 4 times. He swallowed a lot of water so we need to work on that but I was so proud because he wasn't afraid. We swam for over an hour he had a blast…much more fun than me holding him the whole time. He is becoming Mr. Independent…(Oh, I was very proud of Harper too, he slept the entire time and gave me the gift of a great morning swimming!)