I am very thankful for my husband who loves me exactly as I am, and the role model who he learned from, who I have never heard belittle his wife or his children, even under the "just joking" excuse.

update on the exercise "plan"....

Do Wii bowling, tennis, etc. count? Some very generous relatives got us a Wii for Christmas. Looks like we'll be getting a Wii fit shortly. But in the meantime, the Wii sports make for decent virtual exercise!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, however it was spent. Hubby's side came here, and everyone except Great Grandma left today. Bear cried when her cousins left. We had a great time with everyone. Ate too much, but enjoyed it. :) And we got some good news. Two of my sisters-in-laws are expecting! We already knew about my brother's wife, but just found out the baby's gender. And hubby's sister is due at the end of July!!!! Congratulations, Caslon & Camera Guy!

I still haven't mailed out all our thank you notes for baby gifts, so I could not bring myself to get Christmas cards out. So, if you are waiting on a thank you note, please forgive me. :) And here's your Christmas card!

the bribe "drawing"

Rather than do an actual drawing, I asked hubby to choose a number between 1 and 17. He chose 12. The 12th commenter in my post for the Christmas bribe/giveaway was.....


Jacinda!


E-mail me your address and I'll mail you your prize! Congrats and Merry Christmas!!!

go away, murphy....

The drive to gymnastics should take about 25 minutes from my house, no more than that. 20 on a good day. We left the house right around 10 am, and arrived at 10:50. Traffic was horrible!!!!!!! EVERYTHING was backed up. Side roads, interstate, you name it.... all of us were moving at a snail's pace. One might think we had snow or ice on the roads... nope. Just rain. Then, of course Bear had to use the potty before joining her class in session.
Of course she had refused to go potty before we left (and it had not been that long since she last went, so I didn't force the issue.)

Ok, I've got piles of laundry to put away. Sorry I'm not posting much that is thought-provoking or remotely deep these days. Right now I feel like I'm treading water, and I have phone calls to catch up on...

Will you de-lurk if I bribe you?

I have some faithful followers of this blog, for which I am grateful. I mean, it's not like I pay to have a hosting site or anything, and the fact that anybody cares to read my mind's wanderings is good for my ego. But since this thing isn't private, I have no way of knowing who's reading. SOOO... in the holiday Spirit, I am going to do a little giveaway here. Leave a comment with your first name, how long you've been lurking or enabling my internet addiction by commenting once in a while, a random fact about yourself and/or your favorite thing about the holidays, and I will do a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card. If you don't like coffee, they have other fabulous drinks. And Starbucks is just more convenient for me than anything else. Trust me, I'm not going out of my way for this one. Well, unless I decided to stroll with the kids there. But in December, that could be grounds for being charged with insanity, even in the South.

I will do the drawing in a week or so....

vanity

Anyone who has given birth to a child will most likely express dissatisfaction with her post-pregnancy body. Oh, we might sugar-coat things by saying we earned our stretch marks, and we are not in a rush to lose too much weight. At some point, at least for me, I begin to feel dissatisfied with my body and the need to take some sort of action.

Well, this morning I decided to see if my size 10 jeans from Bass fit.... and they did! Snugly, but without impeding my breathing! AND this is that bloated time of the month, and they still fit. Woo hoo! So after we returned from Buddy's 3 month check-up, I called the hair salon I have been using... and they were able to get me right in. I got a trim and had my unibrow and moustache taken care of. Okay, so they weren't QUITE that bad. Anyway, I may be vain, but I feel MUCH better about my appearance.

As for taking action... I am pricing out options for gyms (can we afford the Y, or should we just add me on where hubby exercises), but also going to look into some dvd's on amazon. Any dvd recommendations? Anyone? I have yoga, I'm thinking lower impact cardio or pilates or something similar. I have an exercise ball, yoga mat, brick and strap, dumbells and a tower thingy which Bear uses as monkey bars... so I'm leaning toward using what I have and then maybe if I establish a routine at home, rewarding myself with a membership somewhere. In any case, I think this will help improve my physical and mental conditions... they say 30 minutes of exercise a day has the same effect as some anti-depressant meds. (Once you get past the initial soreness from doing things your body has not done in ages.)

baby steps...

no, not my kids'. I am surprised hubby has not password protected the computer to encourage me to get more done, but I think he knows that's probably a dangerous idea. You know you need to clean more when your 3 year old thanks you for cleaning the bathroom and voluntarily scrapes scraps from her plate into the trash... or tries to. Then she started apologizing for missing, scattering mixed veggies across the dining room. Seriously, who is this child? One minute we can be begging her to clean up a mess, the next she is taking initiative to help with something I would not expect a 3 year old to want to help with. Not that I'm complaining; maybe I should expect more from her, since she is so obviously capable. But I don't want to be a nag, either, so I'll just continue to encourage the steps she does take and focus on the aspects that we deem appropriate for a 3 yer old.

Anyway, there's a quote from somewhere... some flair, most likely, that basically says, "Be the type of person you want your kids to become."

Ouch. With that in mind, I am taking baby steps to try to set an example for my kids. Keep in mind that my baby steps are everyday habits or routine for some people, that's how lazy I am. Undisciplined. Lazy. Crap, they both mean the same thing. Today's accomplishments, not even worthy of being called tackles: empty the science projects out of the fridge. Continue working on laundry. Make dinner for the 3rd day in a row (veggie beef soup, using yesterday's pasa sauce as the base.... throw everything in the crock pot, and voila!) After dinner, I had a nice tea party with my little girl while daddy and baby brother napped on the couch. Our daughter offered Daddy some coffee, he requested hot chocolate, so she suggested cream and sugar. Hubby and I were cracking up. Gramma and Papa are training her young. Of course, when it's imaginary, you can pretend it tastes different than the giver intends, so the fact that hubby doesn't drink coffee did not really matter.

And we ventured out. After reading Amy's adventures up in hubby's home state, I am glad to be down here in the winter with a newborn. I mean, what kind of stroller is adequate in a heavy snowfall? Ugh.... And corralling the 3 year old in the chik-fil-a parking lot (or any parking lot) is hard when it's NOT slippery. So, even though it's not as monumental of a task as it would be in other regions of the country, venturing out with a newborn and a toddler is still an accomplishment for me. By the end of the excursion, my intentions of finishing thank-you notes were pushed aside in favor of a nap time, as said newborn actually stayed asleep in his carrier and the 3 year old fell back asleep in her bed upon our return home!

So if you have given us a gift, please accept this apology for our way past-due thank you notes.... and the fact that we will only be sending Christmas cards via e-mail, facebook, or blog this year. Sometimes even the baby steps get interrupted...

Tackle It Tuesday


Ok, it's time to get out of my laziness slump.....

.... to be continued
*******
I would love to report that I tackled a plethora of projects and still had time to read with my kids. No such luck... there is a newborn in this house, remember? And he is fighting a llittle cold, so he's extra clingy. Plus, he's jus spoiled. However, I did accomplish my manageable goal... I cleaned both bathrooms. And did 2 loads of laundry (one is even put away, the other is still in the drier, and I've got one more in the washer. I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, and made dinner. And swept the floor, with Bear's help (and that of her trusty sidekick, sweeping Sam).

And now for the "fun tackle" ... I went into the attic and pulled the box holding Mr. Snowman downstairs. "Mommy, be careful!" Bear exclaimed as I carried the box. She didn't even try to hang onto my legs as I went down the steps. I assembled our festive friend, Bear and I retrieved the decorative candy canes which she picked out at the superstore a couple of weeks ago, and we headed outside while Buddy napped. In addition to putting out our token decorations, we pruned dead leaves off the day lillies.

Thanksgiving came and went without a post.

Facebook has taken over my internet communication I guess.

I'm thankful for a lot.

Today, a friend who I would like to get to know better shared her testimony of dealing with loss... specifically, miscarriage, as part of the "Our Messes, God's Mercies" series at church. Her baby would have been about a month younger than my son, and I was so looking forward to getting to know her better by having one of our kids in the same class or hanging out in the nursing (or bottle feeding) moms' room during the service. But in spite of my disappointment, I was so happy to hear that she is healing, over a year later now. And I don't know if there are hopes for another child, but I pray that if that's part of God's plan for their family, the baby will be healthy. I wish everyone could experience the joy of having a child after losing one, though I know that it's not always practical (i..e. if the child lost is older), or possible, for whatever reason. I am so thankful that I had another chance and now have a precious 3 month old son!

I never really intended this blog to be just about pregnancy, but there's something in the water these days. My brother's wife is expecting, several friends are due before Christmas, and our good friend who hooked us up had her baby boy on Thanksgiving.

Baby's mad... gotta go rescue hubby.

TAGGED!

Kristi tagged me, and since the blog-kitty has my tongue, the timing is perfect!

7 weird things about me (just how weird do you want?):

1) I am not an organized person. But if my silverware drawer or towel closet (now that I've learned how to fold them so they stack well) gets too out of hand, I get extremely annoyed.

2) I will find something to do outside in the flowerbeds rather than tackle what should be high-priority projects inside.

3) I have a harmonica collection. I guess you could call it that. My parents bought me my first one in 5th grade. I don't play any of them well, though.

4) I voluntarily delivered my son without an epidural. (Though I DID change my mind, but it was too late by then!) ;)

5) I once qualified for a national piano competition by placing in the top 3 at the regional competition. There were only 3 of us who competed, and guess which place was mine.... (3)

6) I spent 5 weeks in Sinaloa, Mexico as a Summer Missionary. (Not weird per se, but interesting).

7) I have 2 big scars within 2 inches of each other. One happened when I was in 2nd grade. the other was from a biopsy. They freaked my students out when I tutored.

The 7 people I'm tagging are: Steph, Becky, Jenn, Becca, Samantha, Tech Mom and Grace.

So, I did a search for "Halloween" on my other blog, the one dedicated to my kiddos...

Bear was a year old when she wore the costume I put our 2 month old in today. (It's a size 6 mo, but stretched a lot.) She has changed so much in the past year, not to mention the past three years, and it's documented online.

I really, really need to get back to scrapbooking. To capture these moments in a "craft book", as Bear calls it (when I corrected her, she insisted, "No, Mommy, it's a craft book.") I am terrible at printing out the pics I take, and I fear that if I don't change that, they will be lost someday. Perhaps my blog will help me with my journaling if I ever to get on the ball....

vote early!

Seriously, folks, unless you get some kind of rush from standing in line in the damp, chilly fall air, early voting is THE way to go! We were in and out in 5 minutes. 4 years ago, I waited at least a couple of hours to vote,

happy birthday to... hubby?

Bear's 3rd birthday is tomorrow. I sent hubby out to pick up her gift from us. While he was at it, he found a new car for himself.

My mazda 626 which we bought right after we got married is going bye-bye. It's been an idiot magnet, plus I had one accident that was my fault, so I am only slightly sorry to see it go.... just over 9 years later.

Not looking forward to having a car payment again, but I don't want the transmission to leave either of us stranded, and we were offered a decent trade in value.

He owes me. A new bike and new car all in one year. Yes, he really owes me. ;)

I am not a politician.

The closest I've come to that is raising my concerns over some of our HOA's practices. As I mentioned in a previous post, Senator Obama's extreme anti-child position concerns me. Click HERE to read more if you are so inclined.

I've also posted the link to a Pro-Life blog in my sidebar.

mommy etiquette?

Bear and I went to the playground yesterday. She made a beeline for the toddler swing, barely arriving before a mom and her young toddler who wanted to ride it. The Mom said to go ahead, so I pushed her a few times, then told her that since she is big enough to ride a regular swing, she needed to share and give the little boy a turn. She willingly agreed to get down and chose to head to the twisty slide. When she got to the top, another girl was climbing up the slide. I asked Bear to wait to go down until the other girl finished. The girl stayed put. I told her that other kids wanted to use the slide, too, and she needed to slide down. She climbed up. "Get out of my way!" she said to my daughter. She slid down again, and her friend also tried to cut in front of Bear. Meanwhile, Bear was astonished and frightened, near tears. The other girl was STILL on the slide. "You need to learn to share. Get down and give the other kids a turn." I told her in my "playground monitor" voice. Of course, it was too late for Bear. She had already turned around and ran to the steps. "Mommy, she scared me!" We proceeded to the big kid swings for a few minutes.

Normally, the other parents are around prompting their kids to use good manners. Apparently this 5-ish year old's Mom was too busy socializing to realize her daughter was a bully and slide hog. I half expected her, whoever she was, to come up and address me for scolding her child, but nope, no sign of any intervention of any type.

Later on, Bear decided to try again. The bully's friend was up there around the same time, and let my daughter go first. Bear looked at her as though she expected to be bullied again, but the girl insisted she have a turn. (Apparently her manners returned when the other girl was not around.) She managed to go down the slide successfully.

A few minutes earlier, I had just taught my almost 3 year old daughter to share her beloved swing with a younger child. Then, she waited her turn patiently at the slide, only to be scared by a slightly older kid who apparently didn't listen to the times her parents had tried to teach her playground etiquette.

So, when do you let kids work things out on their own, and when do you step in and "parent" other people's kids?

the roller coaster...

I know the baby blues are normal, but a few days ago I found myself spiraling downward, overwhelmed by everything that I need to do and my inability to do it, or even a quarter of "it." I felt like God messed up somehow when He made me, because I hate that I wrestle with depression and/or anxiety (depends on the day or moment you catch me). NOT a good place to be. Thankfully Hubby and my close friends know just what to say... or not to say. They know when to listen and give a big hug. I KNOW what I was thinking isn't true, that my Creator designed me exactly how He wanted me to be, but there I went again... The rest of the week has gone much more smoothly.

Our little buddy has his first cough, and though he lacks a fever, I am watching him closely. He's been sleeping more today, so he must be fighting something... either that, or his body realized he is only 6 1/2 weeks old and while big sis is fun to watch, he needs sleep. Or maybe both.

The bright side is I've tackled a couple of things which were pestering me AND had some one on one time with Bear while her brother slept. I am thinking more clearly and in light of the Truth. And Hubby's words reminded me of a song that was sung at our wedding:

all of my life
i have dreamed
that somehow love would find me
now i can't believe you're standing here

If beauty is all
in the eye
of the beholder then i
wish you could see
the love for you that lives in me

(Chorus)
And you would know you have my heart
If you could see, what i see
that a treasure's what you are
if you could see, what i see
Created to be
the only one for me
If you could see, what i see

I know there are days
when you feel
so much less than ideal
wondering what i see in you

It's all of the light
and the grace
your belief in me drives me to say
that i promise you
a faithful love, forever true

(Chorus)

if you could see
then you'd understand
why i fall down to my knees
and i pray my love
will be worthy of
the one who gave his life
so our love could be

if you could see
what i see(x2)

You're created to be
The perfect one for me
If you could see
What i see

if beauty is all
in the eye
of the beholder then i
am beholding...
true beauty



If You Could See What I See by Geoff Moore and the Distance

my adventures in babywearing

So far, my babywearing adventures post-delivery have been limited. Tech Mom made me a GORGEOUS ring sling which I posted about earlier, and I had difficulty using it. However, using Steph Precourt's video as a guide, I have been able to make it work for us... tummy to tummy definitely feels more secure. I have also carried "Buddy" cradle hold style as well as tummy to tummy in the Lite on Shoulder Baby holder slings which my dear friends Steph and Anna got me as a shower gift. They are perfect when I want to spend time outside without messing with the stroller/infant carrier. I've even done a little gardening wearing my little guy... cut back dead gladiola leaves. And played frisbee with Bear. It's so nice to be able to hold the baby and spend quality time with his big sister! Oh, and this morning I slipped him into the sling while I ate my toast, because I was not in the mood for a fussy child after a near-perfect night (10:0-4:00 sleeping, feeding, then sleeping until 7 again). I think I'll get the hang of these sling things!

:)

My man is holding our little guy... there's something about seeing it that makes my heart melt. Over and over again.

Bear likes to put off going to bed by giving Mommy and Brother hugs and kisses. Over and over again. That makes my heart melt, too.

A cousin who lives across the country and I have not seen since our Grandpa's funeral, sent us a package today. We've received a lot of packages in the past month, but this one made my heart melt. I think it's because the fact that our relatives are all spread out, yet somehow my parents kept in touch with many of them through the years, and now some of us are keeping in touch. Some day we'll make it out to the SF Bay area for a visit.

Staples.com is prompt. Can't say that makes my heart melt, but it is a good thing. (Oh, yeah, punctuality is always a good thing.)

I think I'm going to see how much sleep I can get before our little guy wakes up for his next snack. But before I do, I am reminding myself that the newborn phase, with it's unpredictability, will pass far too quickly. It won't be long until it will feel like he's been smiling at me forever, and he'll move on to master a bigger skill. These first smiles make my heart melt. I wish I could capture one on camera, but they're still in the unpredictable stage. So for now, unless you happen to be right there and one of the few graced with my son's sweet smile straight into your eyes, I get to keep them for myself.