Karen's Adventures in Mommyland

Small Successes-January 26th

2012-01-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1. I ran off most of the copies I'll need for my religious ed class from now until the end of the school year yesterday, AND I didn't jam the copier at all. Usually I jam up the copier multiple times and it causes me to pull several people away from their work to fix it. They must be really happy when I leave the parish office some days.

2. I utilized the hour that my girls spend practicing in the children's choir prepping a future craft for my religious ed class. I'm surprised at how much I managed to cut out in under an hour.

3. It's not folded, but most of the laundry is washed. I'd love to fold it, but Katie wants to be held a lot these past few days, and she's creating new loads of laundry with her excessive spitting up that drenches her and me roughly every hour so I don't have much of a chance to focus on folding at the moment. I'll just have to be happy that the laundry is sorted into piles for the time being.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2012-01-26T13:25:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{pretty}

Madeline is beaming in this picture because we allowed her to not only hold the baby while standing, but also to walk across the room with her. Prior to last night she was only allowed to hold Katie while she was sitting down.

{happy}

Ellie has taken to separating her goldfish crackers by color and stacking her tostitos into pyramids. She seems to have some OCD snack tendencies.

{funny}

Bryan was trying out his "blue steel" look. Didn't realize he was trying to be the next Zoolander.

{real}

Bryan takes AWFUL pictures of me. They're so epically bad that I doubt anyone could take such unflattering pictures of me even if they had tried. It's a terrible gift he has, really. So I've taken to setting the camera on the bottom shelf of the upper cabinets in the kitchen and using the remote to take pictures of myself holding the baby. Is it sad? Maybe. But, I'd rather take my own picture than not be in any at all.

Bits and Pieces

2012-01-23T20:28:00.000-05:00

It seems like time gets away from me most days and it leaves me with things I want to write about but no time to actually write. Excuse my total randomness as I try to get some of the ideas out of my head and into a readable format.

Katie seems like she's simply not amused with any of the baby items we have for her like the playmat, bouncy seat and exersaucer. Rattles spread out on a blanket also do not amuse. It seems nothing makes this sweet baby girl happy the way she is when she's in my arms. She's exhausting me, but I'm happy to hold my sweet chunk of a baby. When she sleeps she's heavy like a toddler who's trying out passive resistance.

Yesterday was a LONG day. I had to get up early to teach my religious ed class. I don't like to wake up on cold mornings when there's snow and ice on the ground. When I arrived back at the house to the sounds of a hungry baby, I also had to take a call from my mom. Not sure what it is about Sunday mornings, but my mom and dad sure love to call me just as I'm getting home to ask if they can stop over for a visit. We had no real plans, so I said yes and the house descended into the usual tailspin of frantic cleaning so the place would look presentable-ish. I should note that the house typically looks like it was bombed by most Sunday mornings. Two days of Bryan at home and a full day of the girls at home will do that to our house. I think it's a disaster area worthy of condemnation, but Bryan tells me this is what happens when you LIVE in the house. I'm not buying it. Between the stress of having to get the house straightened on short notice plus the total sensory overload from the NOISE, NOISE, NOISE of the visit (It's loud enough that I often wish I could hide somewhere when my parents come to visit.) I don't know if it was the Starbucks coffee Bryan got me (first one that's tasted like it actually had coffee in it in several years) or the excitement from the day, but Katie was WIRED last night. It was after 11PM last night when she finally went to sleep. Typically she's in bed for the night by 9PM.

Today I decided to check out the show I've seen other bloggers raving about. So I queued up Downton Abbey on Netflix and watched the first two episodes while Katie demanded that I hold her. I knew nothing about the show other than other people liked it a lot. By the end of the first episode I could sense that I had found a new guilty pleasure type of show. It's certainly would get labeled a "Karen show" by Bryan. According to Bryan, I like to watch shows and movies that no one else would watch. Surely movies like Anne of the Thousand Days, Washington Square and Mrs. Brown couldn't have been made only for me. Give me some good period costuming and chances are I'll be hooked.

With the exception of a chicken, I have all the food we need to make dinner for the rest of the week. I made up a shopping list yesterday and remembered to take it to the stores with me this morning. Katie and I managed to get all of the shopping done before it started to rain.

I think I need to move Katie to a convertible car seat soon. She takes up most of the shopping cart at the grocery store and Sam's Club. The only store I can take her to where her seat will fit on the top of the cart is Target. I'm tired of being limited in how much food I can buy when I'm shopping by myself because I'm working with limited space. Pretty soon I'm just going to have to wear Katie in the Bjorn carrier so I can utilize the cart more effectively.

I managed to get four more boxes of diapers for the baby with the 30% off deal from Amazon Mom. I followed the advice of a commenter who had mentioned tweaking her subscription to still get the 30% off deal. I played with the settings and managed to get the order to go through and I upped the quantity to four instead of one. I'm probably set with diapers until July or August now.

I got caught trying to kill a few house plants. I have three plants that I'd rather not have, but I won't toss a live plant. Lately I had been ~~accidentally~~ deliberately forgetting to water them. One of them is nearly dead, one is hanging on (it's been through Karen induced droughts before) and the other has a few brown leaves. Bryan noticed that Yao, our bamboo plant in the kitchen was looking a little droopy and asked when I last watered it. He's not in favor of passive plant murdering, so I had to water it. I suppose I should water the other two plants as well. I tried. I failed. Now I'll have to live with the plants happily mocking me with their leafy green presence that my attempts to off them have been thwarted.

I have several reviews that I need to write. I just need to find time to sit down and write them up. Maybe I'll get some spare time here or there later this week.

I've been procrastinating on what VBS program to use this summer. Or, maybe, I'm just busy with the baby. I'm trying to decide whether we should maintain the status quo and continue using the Catholicized version of the protestant program that the parish has been using for years and just adding some Catholic flavor to it in the arts and crafts room, or I can take a chance and give one of the Cat Chat VBS programs a try. I have to have a meeting with the DRE soon and make a final decision. I did go to Sam's Club and get the pricing info for the drinks and snacks that we'll need. At least I'm doing something to prepare for this year's program.

I'm hungry and Katie's sleeping. I need to get myself a snack before she wakes up.

Small Successes-January 19th

2012-01-19T08:07:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I think week three of eating dinner at home Monday-Friday (no ordering take out) is going quite nicely. I used to read blogs where people talked about planning out a menu for a month or the week and I'd think it seemed so odd. Why do you need to plan ahead for that? Umm...yeah, maybe that's why at around 5PM every night I'd realize that we didn't have the ingredients for the dinner I had just decided to make, or would realize at that time that I should have started to cook an hour ago if I wanted to have it today. So I know see the wisdom in planning ahead and going to the store to buy all the ingredients.

2. Both trees are gone and put away. However, I'm not going to tell you that I can't figure out why the Advent calendars won't fit back into any of the boxes that they were in a couple months ago. It's a mystery. Of course, that means that I didn't put any of the totes that hold our Christmas decorations away. I have a couple sitting out in the basement and one in the hall way on the main level.

3. I have the laundry mostly under control. I have a couple of loads that need to be folded and another that needs to be run through the washer. Some days I'm able to get a lot done while Katie naps, but other days she just wants to be held all day and so I try to oblige her as much as I can. I did have to resort to wearing her in the Bjorn carrier a couple days ago so I could carry the laundry up the steps. Going up and down stairs for about a half an hour with a baby either in my arms or strapped to me is a lot of work.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2012-01-19T07:39:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life.

{pretty}

This pretty girl has been captivated by her Legos lately. On Monday she brought herself one of the new girly Lego sets and she LOVES it. Apparently mini figures that are shaped more like people vs. blocks, are a novelty with girls who are into their Legos.

{happy}

I thought Ellie didn't like quesadillas all that much but she was so happy to be eating one tonight [Wednesday] that she insisted I take a picture of her with it.

{funny}

You just never know what you're going to get when you aim a camera at Bryan.

{real}

Katie is growing up way too fast. Just before I pulled the camera out she almost rolled over from front to back. Bryan and I are fairly certain the attempt would have been a success if the pink piggy hadn't been in her way. I'm amazed at how well she can push her upper body off of the floor.

Using Zimbabwe to Prove a Point

2012-01-16T20:28:00.000-05:00

Being the only girl in the family, I never really experienced hand-me-downs. I had older girl cousins and occasionally one of my aunts would give some of my cousin's clothes to me. I suspect my mom wasn't a fan of hand-me-downs given that she almost always found something wrong with the clothes and I seldom ended up wearing any of them.

Bryan, being a younger brother, had to wear hand-me-downs. As a result he has a different take on hand-me-downs than I have. I won't put stained or ripped clothes on my kids. So items like that don't get handed down to the next child. Bryan agrees with that take. We differ when it comes to things like socks and underwear. I saw nothing wrong with saving gently used socks and underwear to hand down, but that's where Bryan draws the line. For the most part, I have humored Bryan in his request that Ellie not wear her sister's skivvies with the exception being training underwear. I figure those who cloth diaper reuse the diapers for their next child, and I don't see there being much difference between cloth diapers and cloth training pants.

I like to rile Bryan up from time to time by telling him that I'm going to put outgrown underwear in the hand-me-down pile. Comments like this are usually met with a resounding "NO!" followed by him telling me that we can buy new underwear.

Tonight he was sure to tell me that Zimbabwe placed a ban on second hand undies. I thought it was a joke, but he sent me a link to the story. I was a bit surprised to see that they're not the first country to ban second hand underwear. Who would have guessed?

Three Months

2012-01-16T20:09:00.000-05:00

Katie turned three months old today. It's hard to believe she's been here for three months already. We're already a quarter of the way towards her being one!

In the past month Katie has really changed a lot. She now coos and tries to talk to us. Some of the sounds she makes sound like actual words. Sometimes it sounds like she says "Hi!" which I frequently say to her. Bryan has commented to me that he thinks she's saying a few different words when she gets going with trying to talk to us.

She's very expressive and loves to give us smiles. Of course, she has her moments where she goes from incredibly happy to angry in approximately two seconds flat.

Katie has developed a love of hockey. Most evenings she will get very cranky if hockey is not on the big glowing rectangle. Bryan is always happy to oblige his little princess and find a game for her to watch. Hockey tends to calm her down to the point that she is riveted by the game. Right now we're watching a game between two teams that we don't even care about, but Katie is enjoying it. I like to tease Bryan that Katie isn't a Flyers fan. She likes all the other teams.

Our little princess is working on getting mobile. She is coming closer and closer every day to rolling over. She just needs to figure out how to position her arm correctly and she'll be set. She's also pushing herself up pretty well. Tonight she was trying to get her knees under her at the same time that she was pushing up with her arms. I suppose she'll be up on her hands and knees soon enough.

Her head control is good enough that she's able to happily sit in the high chair or bumbo seat. She's even spending a little bit of time in the exersaucer each day. She's not at the point of bouncing in it quite yet, but she can turn herself in it a bit, and she's doing her best to reach for her toys.

Shopping the Aisle of Misfit Toys

2012-01-16T15:08:00.000-05:00

This is the time of year when I like to browse Target's toy clearance aisles. Since these are mostly left overs from the Christmas shopping season, I like to refer to this area of Target as the Aisle of Misfit Toys. It a bit like the Isle of Misfit Toys, from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, only different.

I'm trying my best to be realistic about toy purchases. A couple months ago I ~~totally snapped when I discovered our basement was a step away from being declared a disaster area~~ did a bit of a toy purge. The kids had/have way too much stuff. In going down the Aisle of Misfit Toys I was hoping to find things we could actually use or need for the baby. In the week after Christmas I scored a Duplo block set
that will be under our tree this December 25th. I figure since the older girls are really into playing with Legos, Katie will likely want to build with block, too, and more Duplo blocks means her big sisters will be able to make some fun things for her.

My misfit toy shopping has been pretty lack luster this year outside of my 50% off Duplo find. But I wasn't too worried. The less I find, the less I have to store for the next 11 months. And to be perfectly honest, the kids really don't "need" anything.

Since Madeline and Ellie have off from school today I decided I would take them to Target and let them use their gift cards. Madeline hoards her gift cards and has a sizable collection. She's been eyeing up some ugly boots that she wants, and has mentioned wanting to buy something, anything, lately. Since this kid typically won't spend her gift cards I figured it was worth taking her to the store to see if she'd actually buy something. She wound up buying a pair of furry brown boots and a pink Wii remote. Ellie wanted a remote, too, but they didn't have the blue one she wanted in stock.

After we wandered the store a bit I passed by the Aisle of Misfit Toys. I was fully prepared to walk by it since the clearance signs said 30% and 50% off. It's mid-January. I want 70-90% off! I think the economy is delaying Target from price cutting as quickly as they have in the past. Then I noticed that they still had the pink cozy coupes
that have been sitting there since a few days after Christmas. We don't need one, since we have a red one in like new condition that we got at a yard sale nine years ago for $1, but Katie had a gift card from a toy we returned (I couldn't bring myself to suffer the obnoxious battery operated toy she was given). So I decided to take a peek at the price on the cozy coupe. It had been around $35 for the past few weeks, and I was not about to pay that much for something we technically already have. I was surprised when I looked at the tag and saw it was $14.98. Her gift card was for $13 and change so after calling Bryan, I ended up buying it.

Katie got a Step 2 push buggy
for Christmas from my parents and when we went to put it together Bryan and I were terribly disappointed in how badly Step 2 had cheapened their product. Ten years ago we had bought the same car for Madeline and it had a fun clicking yellow key (now it's a boring sticker), wheels that had two sides instead of one hollowed out side, and a nice handle that could be easily removed and stowed under the car for easy transportation. We used the car for both Madeline and Ellie and we all loved it. After Ellie outgrew it we gave it to someone (I wish I could remember who I gave it to.). We were so unhappy with the cost cutting version of the car that we decided to take it back to Kohls and look for a used one. So far I haven't had any luck finding one, although I'm still on the look out. I don't know if the new cozy coupe will replace my need for the push buggy (I don't think it will.) but I was happy to see that it has a floor board so you can push a child who isn't quite old enough to Flintstone it around the back yard. I'm sure Madeline and Ellie will like pushing Katie around in her little car.

I think I'm done with the Aisle of Misfit Toys for this year. Other than the blocks and the car, I really didn't see anything worth buying, but I'm not going to complain. I'm pretty happy with the two items we picked up.

A Happy Medium

2012-01-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I wrote about how I had to remove the bumper from the crib to keep Katie from trying to smother herself. I didn't want to remove the bumper for a number of reasons. I liked the way it looked, I liked that it kept pacifiers from falling out of the crib, and I didn't want Katie getting her arms and legs stuck between the slats. Most articles that suggest you should not have a bumper in your crib claim that your baby won't get his or her limbs stuck in between the slats of the crib if you go bumper free. Personally, I think that claim is bunk.

The first two nights Katie slept in the crib without a bumper she pretty much stayed in the center away from the sides. Our only issue was that her pacifiers were escaping the crib. At 5AM it's never fun to listen to a crying baby and a frustrated husband who can't find a pacifier anywhere despite there having been several of them in the crib at the start of the night. I had a bad feeling that missing pacifiers were going to be a problem for us now that the bumper was gone.

Starting during the wee hours of Saturday morning we awoke to Katie screaming. Usually, Bryan is pretty good about getting to her fast and seeing what she needs. I was beginning to wonder what was going on when her crying didn't stop for a couple of minutes. She was stuck. Katie had wiggled over to the side of the crib and had gotten her arm caught between the slats. Bryan worked her arm out and brought a very distraught Katie to me to be fed. Several more times on Saturday morning the same scenario with her arm getting stuck would be replayed minus her needing to eat. I began to feel sick to my stomach. I felt like we were going to have to choose between using a bumper that Katie might smother herself with, or we were going to sacrifice sleep and risk Katie breaking an arm or leg with no bumper.

When I got up on Saturday morning I heard Katie crying once again and this time I went into her room to find her arm shoved through the slats up to her shoulder. She was lodged in between the slats pretty well and it took me several minutes to free her.

I suggested to Bryan that maybe I needed to make a bumper that was made of only a single layer of thin fabric. I wasn't really in the mood to break out the sewing machine and try making something that would work, but I didn't know if I had any other options. I decided that I'd do a little searching online to see if anything existed that would work for us. It turns out they actually make breathable crib bumpers. With Monday being a holiday, I didn't want to place an order from Amazon and have to wait until the middle of next week to get it. Fortunately, Babies R Us, a store on my list of places I loathe shopping had what I wanted in stock. I was skeptical that this thing would work for us based on some of the reviews, but I'm happy to say that it not only fits our crib better than any other bumper we've ever used, but it also works quite nicely. You can press your face into this bumper and still breathe easily (the first thing I tested out with this bumper) and it keeps Katie's limbs and pacifiers from going between the slats. So far it looks like this bumper is the perfect solution for our crib concerns.

Quick Takes Volume 26

2012-01-13T14:44:00.000-05:00

~1~

Hi, my name is Karen, and I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to Starbucks. We got a lot of Starbucks gift cards for Christmas this year, so I keep telling myself when I go and get my $5 drink that it's a gift so it's ok, but I'm pretty close to exhausting my gift cards. My few time a week habit has become an almost daily habit. $25-35 a week on coffee is a bit excessive, but it sure is yummy. Bryan recently suggested I give it up for Lent. I'm not sure I can do that.

~2~

I decided to be realistic about Katie's clothes and I returned the 3-6 month outfits I recently brought for her after seeing how packed her closet was after pulling out all of the hand-me-downs. This is what happens when you hold on to your favorite outfits from older children and are then blessed with hand-me-downs from three other families. I have the hardest time choosing what to dress Katie in most mornings. Do I go with one of my old favorites or one of my new favorite outfits from someone else?

~3~

I have a partially decorated tree in my living room. I ~~should be undecorating the tree while Katie naps instead of sitting in the dining room blogging~~ hope I'll have time sometime soon to get everything put away.

~4~

Katie is fascinated by hockey. If Bryan puts a game on TV she is completely riveted the entire time. If this trend keeps up we will have to DVR a few games for the off season.

~5~

I had to go to Target today since Bryan wanted Starbucks [he's an enabler, really] so I took some time to wander aimlessly around the store. They had the most adorable baby bathing suits with little tutu skirts. I think one of those will be coming home with us in the future. I'm just waiting for them to go on sale.

~6~

I'm starting to get ready for this year's VBS at our parish. I already know several of the volunteers from last year are coming back for this year so I feel like this year won't be quite as stressful as last year was. My awesome arts and crafts coordinator (Hi Tricia!) is already gathering ideas. I'm so happy I have someone to collaborate with since that is such a big portion of the program. Now I just need to pick a VBS program for this year.

~7~

Did you know that a narwhal is a real animal? I had only ever heard of it in Elf where Buddy is saying goodbye to his arctic friends and this goofy looking whale with a unicorn horn on his head named Mr. Narwhal pops out of the water to say "Bye, Buddy. Hope you find your dad." Honestly, I thought Mr. Narwhal was a made up creature. Ellie had to do a science project for school and she picked the narwhal as her arctic "pet" and so I learned about the narwhal.

Amazon Mom Frustration

2012-01-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I got an email from Amazon.com regarding my Amazon Mom membership. Last March I signed up for their Amazon Mom program which gave me a free Prime membership (Hooray for 2 day free shipping!) for three months and then an additional free month of prime for every $25 I spent on baby products giving me up to 12 months of a free Prime membership. Since I was ordering baby essentials and diapers from them, I managed to get my free year of 2 day prime shipping rather quickly. The main reason I joined their Amazon Mom program was the deal it offered on diapers. I was getting 30% off the Amazon price and free shipping. It cost me about $115 for three months of diapers using this program. The email I received from Amazon today was alerting me to changes in the program. Starting on January 24th, they are no longer going to give me 30% off on my diaper subscription. Instead I'll get my 15% off for the subscribe and save feature and 5% off for being part of Amazon Mom, but the 5% will only last provided I pay $80 for the Prime membership beginning in March. You could say I was not happy with what I saw in the email.

Being the shrewd bargain hunter that I am, I decided that I would order an extra shipment of the diapers (I had skipped the past 4 months since I had no place to store another 4 months worth of diapers.). Actually, my plan was to buy another box of size 2 diapers and then order three boxes of size 3 before January 24th. When I logged into my account to set all of this in motion I found that Amazon had anticipated people doing this and had eliminated the option for an extra delivery.

I decided to contact Amazon's live help to find out why [even though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer] I couldn't place an order for an extra delivery. Unfortunately, I wasn't given a reason regarding why Amazon won't honor their own promotion even though the item is available to ship for the new higher price.

I cut and pasted my help conversation so I could share it here with you. I'm annoyed that they won't just come out and say they were a bit shady in the way they handled the change in the Amazon Mom program. I changed the rep's name slightly.

You are now connected to Gotham from Amazon.com.

Me:

I'm trying to place an extra shipment order on my subscribe and save list for diapers (I had skipped this months delivery and now need to have the order placed) and I'm being told I don't have that option even though they're showing in stock on the product page.

Gotham:

Hello, my name is Gotham. I'll be glad to help you today.

To create a new order to be shipped right away, visit the Subscribe & Save page in Your Account (http://www.amazon.com/manageyoursubscriptions) and click "Extra delivery" next to the item you want sooner.

Once you click "Confirm" you'll receive an extra order now and the next one on the date you select in the pop-up.

Me:

The extra order button is greyed out and says it's not available at this time. It seems like Amazon doesn't want to honor the 30% off with Amazon mom. Would that be a correct assumption? Looking at the product page it's available for delivery now so I don't see why I can't get an extra shipment with my current subscription.

Looking at the subscribe and save page under my acct. now and my only option is to skip the next delivery.

Gotham:

Please give me a moment while I check the details.

I've checked the details and see this subscription is not eligible for extra delivery.

Me:

ok, thanks

Gotham:

Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Me:

Why am I unable to place the extra delivery? I

The email I got from Amazon today tells me that after the 24th of this month they are no longer honoring the 30% off with Amazon mom. Today is the 12 and it seems like they're refusing to honor my subscribe and save price.

Gotham:

I'm sorry about it, however I see there is no extra delivery option for this order.

Me:

is there a reason

Gotham:

Extra deliveries may not be available on all Subscribe & Save items.

Check your Manage Your Subscribe & Save Items page to determine if it is available for your subscriptions.

Me:

its always been an option in the past. Willing to bet it will be an option if I opt to pay the higher subscribe and save price with only 20% off. Seems very convenient that Amazon revoked the option that has always been there once the email was sent out regarding the changes in the Amazon mom program. Is there a reason you won't just come out and say that Amazon is not allowing it because they want me to pay the 10% more? Perhaps I won't be giving Amazon my business in this area anymore.

Gotham:

I;m sorry for the inconvenience Karen .

Me:

I'll be sure to mention it in my product review as well as my blog.

Gotham:

I understand, However in this case, I do not see any extra delivery option for this .

Me:

Thanks for your time, even if you weren't able to give me a clear answer as to why Amazon decided to not honor their own promotional program. I'm sure you aren't the one to blame for their obviously questionable move.

Gotham:

I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Thank you for contacting Amazon. We hope to see you again.

I'm irritated with Amazon. Personally, I hate to keep giving them my business for the diapers because of what they have done, but I also don't want to pay even more for the same product somewhere else. Maybe I shouldn't even be ranting about them in the first place. Their mom program has given me free Prime 2 day shipping (which is really nice) and their invitation only Vine program has also been very good to me. Their Vine program alone gave me quite a lot of the items that I needed for Katie. So really, I can't complain too much. I'm just tweaked that they're going to get me for an extra $4 or so each month.

Bye, Bye, Beautiful Baby Bumper

2012-01-12T07:19:00.000-05:00

We noticed about a week ago that Katie developed a liking for the crib bumper. In the middle of the night she would wiggle herself from the middle of the crib mattress to a particular corner of the crib where she would nestle herself, usually face first into the bumper. On more than a few occasions Bryan or I have discovered her so firmly up against the bumper that we were concerned that she was going to smother herself.

I was hopeful for a few days that maybe we could stop her from migrating in the crib but there is really no negotiating with a determined baby. Bryan and I discussed what we could do about it and the only logical solution to the problem was to remove the bumper.

It absolutely pained me to remove the beautiful crib bumper that made the crib look like such a warm and inviting place. I fell in love with this bumper seven years ago when I was pregnant with Ellie and I was so excited that I was getting to use it again for what I hoped would be another year or two. Typically I only remove the crib bumper if the crib's occupant is trying to use it as a foothold to escape the crib. I have never had to remove it because someone found it to be an appealing place to snuggle up to face first until now.

I took the bumper out of the crib a few days ago and I really don't care for the way it looks. It no longer looks like a warm and inviting place to sleep, instead it looks cold and stark, like a cage for the baby. I really wish she wasn't so determined to sleep with her face pressed into the bumper. (Monday morning I found her with her face in the bumper and her finger shoved between the crib mattress and the side of the crib. I still don't know how she managed that given how tightly our mattress fits in the crib.) For the sake of making the nursery look pretty I would love to put the bumper back in the crib, but I know having a pretty nursery is not worth taking the risk that I may wake up to my worst nightmare.

Small Successes-January 12th

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1. It seems like it took me forever, but I finally got all of the 3-6 month clothes washed and put away in Katie's drawers and closet. I also removed the massive pile of outgrown 0-3 month clothes from the nursery floor. The closet is packed with clothes for Katie so I decided that I will just take the outfits I bought for her back to the store since she doesn't "need" them. Hand-me-downs rock!

2. The bassinet has been cleaned, disassembled, and packed away. It became evident about two weeks ago that Katie was too big for it. We hadn't used it much since early December, but we tried to use it one night when Katie was sick and she barely fit in it. Our little one is getting big way too fast.

3. I've got the laundry under control.

4. Most of the Christmas decorations are down. The big tree in the family room came down on Tuesday and I'm still in the process of taking the decorations off the living room tree. I hope to have it finished by Friday at the latest. Since it was nice out on Saturday, I took down all of the Christmas lights that were on the house by myself while Bryan tried to teach Ellie to ride her bike. He had to sort of start over since the last attempt was before Katie was born.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2012-01-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.

{pretty}

Finally, I was able to get a nice picture of Katie looking at the tree.

This adorable girl makes me want to eat her up!

While playing in the basement this past Saturday Madeline found a pair of Ellie's old sunglasses.

{happy}

Katie loves hanging out in the high chair these days. I think she's enjoying the new vantage point. She's been watching us eat dinner most nights this week.

{funny}

Madeline is such a goof sometimes. She looks like she could be Cousin It's long lost relative.

{real}

Ellie seems to have a thing for Lego mini figures these days. She has spent many hours sitting at the dining room table playing with them this week.

Somebody is tired of me taking pictures of her all the time.

Photography Gateway Drug

2012-01-09T23:57:00.000-05:00

So last Thursday my new camera lens arrived and in the few days I've been using this lens I've become hooked. I'm convinced that an inexpensive*, but decent prime lens is a photography gateway drug.

I'm still playing with the settings on the camera to see just what I can do with the new lens. I have captured several pictures of the girls that make me want to squeal with delight. (I'll be sharing pictures, soon.) I was even inspired enough to pick up a photography book I recently reviewed to find some inspiration only to discover that I ~~NEED~~ want a wide angle lens.

It's funny how this one lens has me hooked. I am, however, disappointed that the cheapest wide angle lens I have come across is over $400. I'm wondering if it's possible to test drive a lens to see if it's worth buying. Somehow I don't think Bryan is going to like my new addiction.

*Inexpensive when compared to the much pricier versions of the same focal length. I still don't think $100 is cheap.

Book Review: Doctors of the Church

2012-01-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

It seems like I've been reading the Pope's book, Doctors of the Church for ages [or roughly two months]. The book itself is actually very good, but my leisure time as of late has been scarce which leaves little time for reading. As you can probably infer from the title of the book, the focus of this book is on those who have been named doctors of the Church. Thirty-two doctors of the church are presented in this volume.

Like many other books written by Pope Benedict XVI, this one is taken largely from the Pope's Wednesday general audiences. I have read several of these books and I enjoy them all immensely. For each doctor featured in this book you'll find a short biography of them and learn about their contributions to the Church.

Reading the story of each of these saints is a great source of inspiration. The Pope has a wonderful way of retelling their stories. I certainly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about the doctors of the Church.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Doctors of the Church. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Quick Takes Volume 25

2012-01-06T14:37:00.000-05:00

~1~

I think Katie is recovered from her bout with bronchiolitis. She's no longer congested and only ~~fake~~ coughs when she's looking for attention.

~2~

The dog's career as a household thief is becoming a bit of a problem. He went from stealing useless items like empty Nerds boxes, toilet paper tubes and the occasional tissue to things like pencils [someone likes smencils] and frankincense. Yes, the dog actually got into the little box of gold, frankincense and myrrh that I placed under the tree last night for the girls to find this morning. He knocked over the shepherds and an angle who were blocking the dog from getting to the box and took a mouthful of frankincense which he wound up dropping on the living room floor presumably after he discovered that it wasn't a tasty treat. Dumb dog.

~3~

I think in another twenty years I'll be a full fledged Christmas wrapping paper hoarder. Apparently I can't resist clearance Christmas wrap. I had plenty left over from two years ago and still brought some last year. Then I brought more last year which I barely dented this year. And in what can only described as a bout of temporary insanity, I brought more wrapping paper this year. I think I brought roughly 900 square feet of wrap in the past 12 days. I couldn't help myself this morning when I saw that Target reduced their wrap to 90% off. How can I resist foil wrap that is fifty cents a roll? I tried my best, but I came home with two more rolls of wrapping paper and a couple bags of bows. I am truly my grandfather's granddaughter. He could never pass up a bargain and would often say that "the price was right" when asked why he brought a dozen or so of any particular item. I think I'm going to see if I can donate some of the wrapping paper I don't like as much as the others to the preschool the girls used to go to for next year's holiday shoppe.

~4~

While I'm on the subject of Christmas wrap, it has not escaped the girls notice that I have a thing for hoarding wrapping paper. Yesterday we drove by a house that had several partially used rolls of Christmas wrap sticking out of their trash can. Madeline and Ellie pointed it out to me and one of them asked me if I wanted to stop and pull it out. Umm, no....I may occasionally rescue things from other people's trash, but I NEVER reach into the can and even I have standards for what I will trash pick! I only pick items that are sitting out at the curb NEXT to the trash can.

~5~

About three years ago Bryan's aunt and uncle gave me a remote control for my camera and a UV filter. The UV filter was too small for my kit lens but is the perfect size for my new lens. The remote was a item I really wanted, but I was too lazy to see what I had to do to get it to work with the camera. Last night I was feeling a little adventurous and I read the instructions for the remote. Hmm...all you have to do is turn it on and push a button on the back of the camera. Yeah, I guess I should have looked into that a few years ago. Setting that up was a lot easier than I anticipated. So last night I took a few pictures of myself to test it out. I'd share my self portrait but my smile looks forced in the pictures and I have two zits on my chin.

~6~

Does anyone else have kids who take books out from the school library that they already have just to show mom and dad that the library has the book, too? I'll never understand why both of my girls do this. I keep telling them to bring home books we don't have and to leave the ones we do have at the library so someone else can enjoy the book. It's so bizarre. This week Madeline brought home Black Beauty, which she has on her new Kindle. She likes the book and wanted to show me that the middle school has it, too.

~7~

The public school gave the kids a half day today. I'm sorry, but after ten days at home, things like a 3 1/2 day school week is simply unacceptable. They barely gave me time to get the house in order and now they're home again.

{pretty, happy, funny, real} Fun with my Christmas Gift

2012-01-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

I used an amazon gift card and some money that I was given for Christmas and finally bought myself a new lens for my camera. I've known for years that I should get one of these lenses, but I'm quite the cheapskate and refused to buy it for myself. So nearly five years after getting the camera with the sub-par kit lens, I'm seeing why I shouldn't have waited so long. The lens arrived this afternoon after I wrote the my {phfr} post, but I simply can't wait until next week's link up to share some of my new favorite pictures.

Let's just say that I'm a bit giddy that I didn't have to use a flash for any of these pictures. The baby HATES the flash. Maybe now Katie won't get that look of horror on her face every time I show up with the camera.

{pretty}

I love the color in this picture. Who knew pictures of the baby's toys in motion could be so much fun?

I know Madeline is a bit blurry, but I love how the lights on the tree look. My twinkle light frustration is finally over!

{happy}

I love the colors. I think the happy little sun on this rattle would agree.

Katie is always happy to hang out on this play mat.

{funny}

He doesn't think this is funny, but I love that I was able to capture his annoyance at having to wait for his treat. Sadly, I wasn't fast enough to snap a picture of him flipping the treat into the air.

{real}

Leave it to Mr. Furkins to keep it real. That bluish glint in both of his eyes is the TV. I think it's interesting that you can see both sources of light for this picture in his eyes. The eye on the right shows the kitchen light and the TV.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2012-01-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life.

{pretty}

{happy}

Watching them interact makes me happy.

Being held by me way past bedtime makes this little one stick-out-your-tongue-and-squeal happy.

{funny}

When I came across this scene on my dining room table I couldn't help but laugh. It looks like it's the Toy Story meets Legos version of Gulliver in Liliput, but I'm pretty sure my kids are unfamiliar with the story and this set up was a really just a case of Ellie leaving Jessie on the table.

{real}

I debated whether this picture should be under funny or real. How can this dog possibly be comfortable laying in this position? He stayed like that for quite some time basking in the heat thrown off by the fireplace.

Small Successes-January 5th

2012-01-05T10:03:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. Katie seems to be on the mend. She's still not back to her usual self, but she's breathing better and hasn't needed the nebulizer since Saturday. She was still very congested up until Tuesday but as of right now [late Wednesday night] she seems to be doing much better.

2. Despite being sick, Katie has been sleeping through the night almost every night. On Tuesday morning I actually had to wake her up since it was getting close to when I needed to take Ellie to school. I won't argue with that! Maybe she'll be like Ellie and like to sleep late. Madeline was an early riser and it drove me crazy that we were up at 7 or a little before. That wouldn't bother me now, but it did back then because she was an only child and we didn't have to be up early like we do now.

3. Bryan and the girls were home for 11 and 10 1/2 days straight, respectively. A few times I felt like I was close to the brink of insanity (a messy house will do that to you if you're a neat freak) but they all lived to go back to work/school and my sanity, though a bit tattered, is still mostly in tact. I did get the house mostly back in order between Monday night and Tuesday, but you'd hardly be able to tell thanks to all the papers the public schools have graciously sent my children home with these past two days.

4. I tackled the laundry. I've got a nice system going and everything is getting washed, folded and put away in a timely fashion. You could say that things are moving so well that it's likely that Madeline will wear the same outfit to school twice in a week. Yes, this child has actually attempted to wear the same clothes to school twice in a week. While you can get away with that in a school where you wear a uniform, it's never a good thing when you go to public school, but Madeline doesn't understand that. What I don't understand is why a kid with a closet packed with clothes wants to wear the same few items over and over.

5. Katie has outgrown most of her 0-3 month clothes ~~sniff, sniff~~ and I am now in the process of swapping out her drawers and closet with 3-6 month clothes. Moving up to the next size of clothing is always bittersweet to me. I love 3-6 month size clothes. I had so many favorite items that I couldn't part with from Madeline and Ellie that I could clothe Katie in those outfits for at least a week or two. Between that clothes I saved and the ones we were given by three generous families, I have more adorable 3-6 month clothes than you can shake a stick at. Actually, I think you could shake a stick at any amount of clothing. It's really not going to do anything other than make you look a little odd if you think about it. Better to do things like that when no one is around to see you doing it. You don't want people to think you're crazy.

6. Typically when someone gives me a gift card or money as a gift I spend it on the kids, unless it's something like a Starbucks gift card. I am not about to buy those girls coffee and have them run around like supercharged lunatics. I can barely keep up with their non-caffinated escapades. Anyway, back to me not ever getting something for me with MY gifts. I decided on New Year's Eve that I was going to buy myself a new lens for my camera. When I told my mom what I bought with the gift card she and my dad gave me she was happy.

7. Remember when I said I didn't go insane with everyone home for 10 1/2-11 days? Ok, maybe that was a bit of a lie. As I recall another "success" for this past week, I'm realizing that maybe I did go crazy and maybe my sanity isn't as present as I claimed it is. You see, I got on an organizing kick on Sunday and decided that I HAD to find all the pieces of two Lego sets that Ellie got last Christmas (2010). Ellie is a scatterer and Madeline has no motivation to organize, both of these "personalities" clash with my neat freak perfectionist tendencies. So I spent roughly 5-7 hours sorting through approximately 3.5 million legos to find the correct 250 pieces combined that made up the two sets (we are missing 3 or 4 pieces). Bryan told me several times that I didn't need to find the pieces, but I couldn't accept that. Those $7 or $8 sets were going to be whole again. So yeah, I was heading off the deep end by the end of Christmas break, but I didn't do anything crazy like try to find all the pieces of a 700+ piece set. Who cares if the $80 Lego sets are in tact? I don't. Apparently I'm too busy worried about the cheap sets. Oh and the rule I made about only having one Lego set out at a time? Yeah, the kids obeyed that one for roughly 3 hours. Sigh. One day they'll tell stories about how I was so crazy that I sat in the family room sorting through Legos to find the pieces of sets that no one even wanted to build.

Do you have a patron Saint for 2012?

2011-12-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

Over the past several years I've noticed that some bloggers pick a patron saint for the year. When I first encountered this practice I thought it was a bit odd. Sure I have my favorite saints, but I've never thought to adopt one for a year although for the number of times I call on St. Anthony to help me find the plethora of stuff that I misplace, I might as well just adopt him as my life long patron saint. Anyway, as the years have progressed, I have warmed up to the idea of picking a saint for the year. So today I decided to hop on the bandwagon when I saw a link to a nifty Saint's Name Generator.

My saint for 2012 will be St. Philomena--that's fun to say! Given that I have a philodendron that I call Phyllis I'm willing to bet that St. Philomena and I will get on just fine.

Quick Takes Volume 24

2011-12-30T19:04:00.001-05:00

~1~

I'm giving blogging from my iPad another try. This time I'm sitting in the van gleaning someone's unsecured network while Ellie is at her ophthalmologist.

~2~

Katie had her follow up visit with the doctor this morning. She's pretty much maintaining the status quo with her illness. The doctor thinks its likely she'll get through this without needing to be hospitalized but he said she could still deteriorate. I'm hoping she will turn the corner. He already thinks her lungs sound better after a day of nebulizer treatments.

~3~

I woke up this morning feeling like I'm coming down with a bad cold. Wonder where I picked that virus up. With the older kids I can try to limit contact with them when they are sick, but it's not possible to do that with a small baby.

~4~

Bryan got me a Dyson for Christmas. I'm a Hoover girl through and through so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like the Dyson all that much. After taking it for a spin on Christmas I'm totally sold on what I previously believed was an overpriced vacuum. For everything it picked up you would think I hadn't vacuumed in over a month.

~5~

Thanks to Target's post-Christmas clearance sales I now have all the gift wrap and tags I need for next Christmas. I even found a small box of Duplo blocks on clearance that I will give Katie next Christmas.

~6~

I felt overwhelmed and rushed this past Advent so I sat down with my Mom's Family Planner and filled in important dates and reminders to buy ingredients for things like cookies and gingerbread houses a week or so before I'll need them. I also wrote myself little notes telling me how many batches of cookies to make per variety so I don't get stuck with a bunch of cookies that won't get consumed.

~7~

I realized on Christmas Eve that even though I have systematically been scaling back on what I buy the kids for Christmas that other family members have not done so in regards to buying for them. It's sort of odd, even though the kids didn't get any gifts from our estranged family this year [a very welcome blessing in disguise although I'm sure it wasn't intended as such] they were still overwhelmed with stuff.

My last minute decision to scale stocking stuffing back to four items and a candy cane meant that the kids actually appreciated what they found in it instead of feeling overwhelmed with a stocking full of stuff. I put a note in my planner for next year reminding myself to buy four specific items for next year (a favorite candy, $5 Lego gift card to Target, a small toy and a faith based gift). Given that the stocking scale back was a success I think I will also scale gifts from Bryan and I back to three or four items going forward. Years ago someone mentioned having their children list items they would like for Christmas under specific categories such as: something you want, something you need, something you wear and something you read. On Christmas morning they could expect to find something under the tree that fit each of those categories. I am now at a point where I really like that concept and will likely use it starting next year.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-12-29T09:26:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

{happy}

Amazingly I managed to capture a picture of Katie when she was very happy. Seconds later when she discovered that my mom and I were about to take several more pictures her mood quickly changed to one of discontent.

Ellie was thrilled to finally get the Jessie doll that she has wanted since June.

Madeline was surprised and excited to get a Kindle. I'm excited too since she's happily reading classic children's literature.

The girls were very happy that they got to visit the aquarium. Their generous Uncle Mark gave us an annual membership to the aquarium for Christmas.

{funny}

Have you ever seen a child who is this happy to get a weather station?

Oscar is fully aware that we have brought him the same gift for the past three Christmases. A couple days ago he pulled out all three of his brightly colored bones and sat in the middle of the family room. Is he trying to tell us that he's happy to have three of a kind or did he bring them all out as a plea for variety? Either way, he's very likely to see another bone like this next Christmas. He had a glow in the dark one a couple years ago. Maybe I'll be able to find another one of those.

{real}

This picture alone pretty much sums up Katie's first Christmas.

She was largely unimpressed and would have preferred to sleep through the day.

She feigned mild interest in presents.

She was happiest when snuggled up on her Pop in a quite room.

Katie's not feeling well at all these days. She was diagnosed yesterday with bronchiolitis. Just look at how sad my sweet baby looks.

Poor Katie

2011-12-28T17:56:00.001-05:00

On Christmas morning when Katie woke up and was completely miserable starting as soon as we went downstairs to the family room which was brimming with brightly colored presents, we figured she had gone into sensory overload. Bryan and I felt the same way the evening before as I arranged all the gifts into piles. When her screaming and crying didn't stop after the room had pretty much returned to normal, I wondered if maybe she was feeling unwell. I thought perhaps it was just a bad reflux day based on the unusual amount of spit up and her arching away from me whenever I would nurse her. She was spitting up quite a lot on Christmas Eve night, too, so it seemed like a logical connection.

Monday and Tuesday didn't see much of an improvement with Katie's temperament or appetite and it became obvious that she wasn't feeling well. She was congested and had developed a cough. Since Ellie had been coughing a bit and seemed to have a bit of a cold I wasn't all the concerned. I've been around the block enough times to know that when I bring a kid with sniffles or a little cough to the doctor that there's really nothing they can do to help it. Following that logic I decided it wasn't necessary to take her to the doctor just yet. I needed something more convincing to make me think a trip to the doctor was needed, something like Katie rubbing her ear. I don't mess with ear infections so as soon as we noticed that Katie was going after her ears many times today it was time to call for an appointment.

I was hopeful on the ride over to the pediatrician that we were either going to be told that she just had a little cold or that she had an ear infection. Both are not fun with a baby, but I don't see them as being a big deal. What I wasn't expecting was to hear that the baby had a problem that if it escalates could land her in the hospital. Few words fill me with as much dread as the mention of a hospital stay.

Katie has bronchiolitis which apparently is a big deal when you are two months old. The doctor tells me that in an older kid the virus which causes this will result in a cold that could either be mild or severe. In Katie's case, she's wheezing, congested, miserable and not eating well. Her wheezing was significant enough that the doctor put her on a nebulizer while we were there. It made a big enough difference that he felt confident that she could benefit from nebulizer treatments at home. So now we're on watch to see that she doesn't get worse. We're told that if she makes it through the weekend without getting worse then we are pretty much in the clear even though she will still be sick for another week or so. If not, she may find herself in the hospital. I'm praying that we can avoid that. The doctor will be monitoring her condition over the next week or so which means we'll be seeing the doctor's office every few days. I'm hoping that she will improve between now and Friday morning when she goes back to be checked. I can tell you that she has clearly degraded a decent amount between Christmas Eve and today.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T23:09:00.000-05:00

I'm posting my card on a tree Christmas picture a little later than I wanted to, but sometimes life gets crazy and my blogging timeline has to take a back seat to living life. I figured you would all understand where my children might not understand why the presents weren't put out for Christmas morning because Mommy had to blog.

Life has been rather busy since Thursday night which has left me with precious little time to blog. I do however have some blog posts that I'm anxious to write.

I want to blog about the ~~circus~~ Christmas Eve Mass we went to in the parish school's cafe-gym-itorium. THAT was an interesting experience that makes me feel compelled to throw my opinion into the great pants vs. skirts debate and my thoughts on appropriate attire for Mass.

I also want to tell you about how Katie seems to have come down with a bit of a cold which made her miserable on Christmas. Like her big sister Ellie, I think Katie freaks out and shuts down when she encounters sensory overload. This poor child was not happy when we brought her into the family room on Christmas morning and sat her next to her gifts. Let's just say I'm very happy that I took pictures of Katie and the girls in front of the tree after Christmas Eve Mass, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any nice pictures.

Despite Christmas day not being as pleasant as I had hoped it would be, we still had a very nice Christmas. Madeline and Ellie were happy [for the most part--a certain 6 year old doesn't like opening presents] with the new toys and gadgets they received and Bryan didn't guess all of his presents prior to opening them.

The Blab

2011-12-24T01:25:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was a child, I have been a notorious blabber mouth. I have the hardest time keeping gifts a secret. In an effort to keep Bryan's gifts a secret I have wrapped most of them in boxes that disguise what is inside. It's a tactic that helps me a bit. When it comes to gifts for the kids I try to stick with telling them we're buying stupid things that no kid would want such as toilet paper and soap.

Tonight has been a particularly difficult night for me and keeping secrets. First, I nearly blabbed to Bryan that I brought him the sauce he likes for wings when Ellie scurried up to my bedroom on a covert mission to hide a gift Bryan bought at Buffalo Wild Wings when he picked up our take out order. I so badly wanted to tell him that I was just there yesterday and got the sauce he and I like. Keeping my mouth shut has been incredibly difficult for me. I know if I tell him I got the sauce for him and me (we like different ones) that it will spoil the surprise of what he got for me. It seems that it's nearly impossible for him to surprise me when it comes to gift giving. Either I guess it or the girls blab. (Wonder where they got that trait!) Even worse, was the fact that I left the link open on my laptop with the temporary membership pass to the aquarium. I'm hoping that Madeline didn't notice it when she was getting ready to watch the Advent Adventure videos for tonight, but the slightly surprised look on her face makes me wonder if I ruined my brother's surprise for the girls. He got us a family membership to the aquarium for Christmas and he wrapped up a printout of the temporary pass for them.

I need to make it another thirty or so hours without blabbing. At this point I'm hoping I don't reveal anymore gifts. If only I could keep a straight face when people try to guess what I got for them I'd be in good shape.

Quick Takes Volume 23 Festivus Style

2011-12-23T19:16:00.001-05:00

Since today is the made up holiday of Festivus, I'm going to do my quick takes focusing completely on Festivus miracles.

~1~

Katie slept for nearly ten hours last night (nine hours and fifty minutes to be exact)! She was awake most of yesterday so that might explain why she slept so well. I was very surprised to wake up at 7am and have Bryan tell me that Katie slept the entire night.

~2~

I helped out at Ellie's classroom Christmas party today and Katie slept the entire time. It was loud, but I left without a headache.

~3~

I went to the incredibly crowded grocery store this morning. I couldn't locate the parsley that Bryan wanted for the turkey and was getting annoyed that I couldn't find it in the produce section. Another Festivus miracle occurred when I found an employee who was able to direct me to the parsley.

The grocery store may have been packed, but I managed to find the items I needed and check out in less than 15 minutes. Not only did I maneuver through the store avoiding the crowds, I also scouted out the long check out lines and found the one lane that wasn't several people deep.

~4~
We went to Target tonight so Bryan could take the girls Christmas shopping for me. (Can we say Daddy is a procrastinator? Good, I knew that you could.) On the way over there Madeline's best friend texted her that they were also heading to the same Target (Festivus miracle #1). When we parked the van I got out to get a cart so we wouldn't have to lug Katie in her car seat since we parked far away and the employee who was rounding up the carts got a cart for me (Festivus miracle #2). Once we got in the store our 17 year old neighbor spotted us and asked us to help her with a scavenger hunt she was doing with her friend (Festivus miracles #3 and #4). While helping our neighbor Madeline's best friend and her mom showed up (Festivus miracle #5). Bryan took our three girls and Madeline's friend to Christmas shop for their moms (Festivus miracle #6). We stopped at the in-Target Starbucks on the way out. I was nervous since the new girl who has messed up my drink a few times was the only one I saw behind the counter, but then one of the baristas who makes my drink appeared and took care of my drink (Festivus miracle #7). It's amazing how many Festivus miracles happened in just one Target shopping trip. Oh, and I also found the lemons Bryan wanted for the turkey (Festivus miracle #8).

~5~

On my drive home from visiting my parents, we nearly got rear ended [TWICE] by an old man who I suspect was not paying attention. The first accident was avoided when I moved my car almost to the shoulder of the road to keep from being hit at the red light. The second one was avoided when I quickly turned onto the road I was heading to.

~6~

Bryan gave me a gift idea last night that involved me having to go to a liquor store. I don't shop at liquor stores, at least not by myself or with little kids in tow. I called my parents and asked if they were going to be near a liquor store today since I was visiting them this afternoon and they said they'd stop at one since they "needed" to buy lottery tickets. (Have I ever mentioned that I can't bear to gamble even a quarter let alone a whole dollar? I simply don't see the appeal in gambling.) They agreed to pick up the item I needed saving me a trip.

~7~

All of the laundry is completed--for now. Bryan worked from home today and he swapped out loads of wash throughout the day.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-12-22T14:51:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

There's nothing quite like napping in the glow of the Christmas tree.

{happy}

Madeline and Ellie was quite happy to see Santa. Katie wasn't sure what to make of the guy in the red suit.

On Friday night we invited our neighbors over to decorate gingerbread houses. The girls had a lot of fun.

Ellie had lots of fun piping the icing on her house.

My happy little gingerbread house.

{funny}

Typically I'm not amused when I can't log into my email, but AOL put up this funny error message so I didn't feel so irritated when I couldn't get my email to load up. Who knew you could make a silly looking robot with a tin can and some other random household items?

I like how it looks like Katie is staring down the girls with Santa in this picture. This is probably when Santa was telling Madeline that she wasn't likely to get the iPad, iPhone 4s and Kindle that she just asked him for.

Judging by the look on Katie's face, I don't think she likes that I got my hair cut.

{real}

Two cookie presses broke in the process of making these 16 cookies.

Cookie Fail

Small Successes-December 22nd

2011-12-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. Yesterday I folded all of the laundry that was littering my living room. The living room looked great for all of 20 minutes before the next round of clean laundry got dumped in the middle of the floor.

2. I spent most of Saturday baking cookies. I made snickerdoodles [from a bag mix], peanut butter cookies [also from a bag mix], and chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I need to make chocolate chip cookies again since they're all gone. I barely had enough to make cookie bags to give to teachers and there was a considerable amount of balking from those who claimed that others didn't "need" chocolate chip cookies. Claiming 14 of these coveted cookies was no small feat.

3. On Sunday night when I accidentally moved a tin of butter cookies on to the fridge door which later wound up all over the kitchen floor, I didn't cry. Instead, I decided it was better to laugh about the disaster of a cookie fail that the night had been. The press cookies didn't want to work (both cookie presses that we own broke in the process that yielded just 16 cookies) and my crappy store brought cookies came crashing to the floor. At least I don't have to eat three pounds of cookies I didn't like all that much.

4. The girls made ~~gingerbread~~ graham cracker houses on Friday night, and I made royal icing for the first time.

5. Katie discovered that it's fun to pull hair this weekend. I got my hair cut on Monday morning because I'm a killjoy. Ha ha, Katie. I know how to play your new game and I say it's game over for now.

6. The family room Christmas tree is up and decorated. Now I don't feel like a slacker.

People Will Buy Anything

2011-12-20T16:42:00.001-05:00

I have a severe dislike of infomercials and commercials that assume the viewer is a complete idiot. As I watch intelligent programming I get bombarded every few minutes with commercials that I find insulting. There are commercials selling knives to people who are incapable of cutting through a tomato. Really? Since when did cutting into a tomato become difficult? Apparently, for the portion of the population who can't figure out how to cut into a tomato (We're not talking about a pineapple or a coconut here, folks) the ad wizards have come up with many products to solve this vexing problem. They now sell knives that can cut through tin cans AND tomatoes. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I have yet to have a need to slice tin cans open. I guess someone out there is totally unaware that a thing called a can opener exists. Those things do a bang up job when it comes to opening a can.

Commercials that promise to solve the age old problem of using a pesky blanket irritate me. As I lay on the couch with my coffee bean throw blanket, I can't help but look at the television perplexed that there are people out there who can't figure out how to use a blanket. It's not rocket science, simply place the blanket over yourself and you're golden. Maybe my kids are just geniuses, but they have been able to use a blanket since they were old enough to crawl. For those who can't figure out how a blanket is supposed to work they sell this irritating product called a Snuggie. The commercials for this product make me want to scream. As if Snuggies weren't bad enough for the blanket using impaired they have now come out with a new product. It's a Forever Lazy. The commercial for this ridiculous product made me wonder if it was a joke. Granted, I saw the commercial rather late at night and thought maybe it was intended as a spoof. After discovering that it was a real product I can't help but wonder 1. WHY would anyone want this? 2. Do people realize this thing is basically a sleeper for adults? and 3. Is using a blanket really that difficult? Not to mention why would anyone want to buy a product called Forever Lazy that pretty much insinuates that the person who uses it is a lazy slob?

These idiotic products and their commercials have lead me to believe that people will buy anything. It's actually rather sad. I suppose if I were a more opportunistic person with no conscience I would prey on the feeble minded and create a stupid poorly made product and market it as the solution to a problem that doesn't exist. And if you are one of those people who are taxed by the difficulties of using a blanket, drop me an email. I've got these great recyclable, multifunctional carrying devices called plastic bags that I can sell you for the amazingly low price of $5.95 each. Contact me within the next two weeks and I'll toss in two more for free.

Quick Takes Volume 22

2011-12-16T21:22:00.001-05:00

~1~

I'm not cut out to go shopping amid crowds of people. Target has been way to busy for me this past week and Sam's Club was simply insane today. The worst part of it all is I know I'll have to go back out to the stores next week since I couldn't buy half of the things I needed to buy (all food items) when I was out today.

~2~

I'm trying to motivate myself to make cookies. I want to have a nice variety of cookies to put out on Christmas day when my family comes for dinner, and I'd also like to be able to make up goodie bags for several people, but I really don't want to actually bake the cookies.

~3~

I took five girls to see Santa this afternoon at a local garden center that has a great Santa set up complete with live reindeer. I began to wonder what I was thinking about five minutes after we got there. The two girls I brought with me were well behaved, but my older girls went into excited puppy dog mode and were showing off and generally irritating me.

~4~

Since we can't have a week without one of my kids mortifying me, Madeline stepped up to the plate and decided to ask Santa for approximately $1200 worth of items. Really. But to be fair she only asked for three things: iPhone 4S, iPad, and a Kindle. [Honestly, what dream world is Madeline living in?] Santa told her he thought the only item he might be able to swing is the Kindle but to not get her hopes up. Thankfully, I didn't know what she asked him for until she got back in the car or I would have publicly chastised her for acting like a spoiled brat. I usually remind my girls to only ask Santa for one small reasonably priced item. At least Ellie was realistic and only asked for a Jessie doll from the Toy Story movie.

~5~

Royal Icing is incredibly easy to make. For several years I operated under the assumption that it was a difficult icing to make and had opted to make buttercream icing when making gingerbread houses. The pitfall with buttercream, of course, is it's not as good at holding gingerbread houses together.

~6~

Up! is the most depressing movie ever. The kids just turned it on a few minutes ago and I'm already bawling. How can such a sad movie be called "Up!"? Even thinking about this movie upsets me.

~7~

I'm reading A Christmas Carol [on my iPad's Kindle app] for the first time ever and I'm amazed at how true Mickey's Christmas Carol, A Muppet Christmas Carol and the version Disney put out a couple years ago are to the book. I am really enjoying the book.

It's Fun to Mess with Your Kids

2011-12-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

Bryan and I have a lot of fun teasing our girls and just messing around. I've convinced Madeline that her picture was being considered at the illustration for the word gullible, as well as many other things. We've told the kids we were going out for a treat only to take them for flu shots [they did get a treat later that day, so we aren't total monsters] and conversely have told them that we were taking them to get the "piggy and bird flu shot" when we were taking them to Cold Stone Creamery for a treat. What always amazes me is they don't pick up on the fact that I'm laughing the whole time. I'm terrible at playing it straight when we're messing around with the kids. However, I did do a good job of not laughing when we took them for the flu shots. You see, Madeline freaks out about shots, so we had decided to take the approach some people take in getting their dog in the car to go to the vet. Instead of asking her if she wanted to go for a ride, we asked her if she wanted to go out for a special treat. So instead of fretting on the ride to get the flu shot she was excited. Of course, the excitement faded away when we pulled into the Walgreens parking lot. Anyway, the reason I'm exposing my sick sense of humor when it comes to parenting is because I stumbled on this video where parents deliberately gave their kids crappy gifts to see their reaction. With the exception of a very spoiled child and another child who needs to watch his mouth, I found this video to be rather amusing. I'm sure Bryan and I could have come up with something worthy of being included in this video.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-12-15T12:09:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

Ellie's felt eye patches were getting a little worn so yesterday I decided to make her one that would match her Christmas tee shirts. She was very excited when she saw her new patch yesterday after school.

Ordinarily, she's not all that thrilled to have her picture taken wearing the patch, but this morning she happily stood next to her advent calendar to show it off. She likes this one so much that she almost went to school wearing it this morning. I had to stop her when she was half out of the car and tell her to take it off. Right now she only patches for two hours a day.

{happy}

For about $2.50 you can make these lovely girls very happy. Cinnamon rolls from a tube always get Madeline and Ellie smiling.

{funny}

Despite her deer in headlights look, Katie likes this little bear hat. She got upset with us when we took it off.

{real}

That would be my living room two days ago. Pretty tree surrounded by a room full of laundry waiting to be folded. The laundry on the floor has been folded and moved upstairs, but the couch and love seat are still covered with clothes to be folded. Can you spot the crying baby in this picture? She sort of blends in with the mess.

Small Successes-December 15th

2011-12-15T07:12:00.001-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1. I discovered on Sunday night that the basement was a dismal mess and I could no longer stand it. I set out to point out to the girls what needed to be picked up, but they weren't exactly doing a good job at that. Actually, they pretty much didn't care that they had made the basement look like a battered war zone. At that point I decided that my empty threat that I had been using for years needed to become a reality. I broke out the trash bag and began tossing the toys they couldn't be bothered to pick up into it. I wound up spending most of Sunday night and most of the school day on Monday cleaning the basement. It looks much better now.

2. On Monday, the girls and I gathered up a lot of toys and household items and took them to Good Will. Let me just say that I'm amazed that my kids will ~~play with~~ scatter toys they don't even like anymore all over the basement floor. I was surprised when they told me that they didn't want the Barbie jet anymore. Bryan and I dislike it because it takes up way too much space, and they don't like it because it falls apart all of the time. Glad it's out of here.

3. I tackled the laundry this week. With the exception of the clothes we wore yesterday, everything is washed. Some of it is folded, but it's all sitting in my living room. The furniture and the floor are covered with clothes. I need to work on getting it all folded and put away today and tomorrow.

4. I cleaned up Bryan's office. Papers were organized, shredded and put in their proper place. I also finally emptied the laundry basket that was filled with mailing labels, card stock, and construction paper and put those in the drawers where they belong. I'm happy to have my laundry basket back after ten months. You read that right, I procrastinated putting these papers in a new home for ten months. I had taken them out of what is now Katie's closet when I was trying to make room for her things and simply left them in a basket next to Bryan's office door.

A Flaky Scalp and Sleep Pattern

2011-12-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

Shortly after Katie was born I noticed what appeared to be cradle cap on her eyebrows. I assumed that it was just dry skin (the poor kid was covered in dry peeling skin when she was born) and waited for it to come off. Ok, I picked at it here and there when she would tolerate it. I'm a picker. I ~~bite~~ pick stray hairs off of Bryan's ears and generally can't help myself when I see things that look like they ought to be picked [like ear wax].

On Saturday, Bryan gave Katie a bath. I'm pretty dismal at this task and I take so long to wash the poor child that she's shivering by the time I'm done washing her. I'm as bad at washing a baby as I am at putting a pullover shirt on one. Small babies just aren't my forte, but I can change a diaper in any position and even while the baby is on the run. At least I've got that skill. Clothing and bathing could be considered optional depending on who you question, but diapers simply aren't. Anyway, back to Katie's bath. Turns out the kid has the beginnings of cradle cap and bathing her seems to make it spread. It seems like every time we get some of it to come off, a few more patches of it appear.

I just washed her determined to loosen some of the cradle cap ~~because picking at it didn't work~~, but I think I only succeeded in making her look like a baby with a dandruff problem and a moderate case of cradle cap. Madeline never had this and I am convinced it's because I used this medical scrub brush that I was given in the hospital. When Ellie was born I used a brush made for removing the corn silk from corn on the cob. She eventually developed a really bad case of cradle cap that took a while to loosen even when using a cradle cap lotion that was supposed to break up the crusty skin. Katie's scalp isn't as bad as Ellie's was but based on where it's forming, I have a feeling it could be worse. I'll probably have a crusty scalped baby for Christmas. Awesome. It will go great with her black sweater.

So on top of the cradle cap we now have Katie toying with our sleep. For a couple of weeks she's been really good about sleeping for a 5-6 hour stretch and then another 3-4 hours after that. Then, last week she made Bryan and I very happy when she slept for about 8 hours straight for three nights in a row. Unfortunately, she has been waking a couple times a night for the past two or three days. I felt so rested after Friday night when she stayed up until 11PM and didn't wake until around 7AM. That was exactly the stretch of sleep I had been telling her she should consider. She tried it and decided it wasn't her her. Saturday night she was up twice and I felt worn out when I had to get up in the morning to go teach my class. I have no idea if she woke up once or twice on Monday but Bryan was unable to sleep the rest of the night because of it. I think she might have been up twice last night. I just can't remember. It is becoming clear that when she's on her back she sleeps for shorter increments. Bryan gets nervous about her sleeping on her belly and typically will not put her down that way when we're sleeping. I on the other hand, prefer to put her on her belly (she prefers it, too) since she sleeps better and she doesn't gurgle and choke when she spits up.

I'm hoping she starts sleeping for longer stretches soon. Bryan is wondering if Katie's very lumpy looking gums have something to do with her not sleeping as well. I'm currently in denial that she could possibly be teething. She has been drooling a lot and trying to chew on her fingers but I'm not ready for teeth.

Quick Takes Volume 21

2011-12-09T11:02:00.001-05:00

~1~

Katie slept in her crib for a little over seven hours last night. The night before she slept for nearly eight hours, but that was in the playard and then the bassinet. Bryan had been a little nervous about her sleeping upstairs in her crib since she's not a back sleeper.

~2~

Bryan, Katie and I attended the Principal's List breakfast at Madeline's school. It was a zoo there. Every time I visit the middle school I'm convinced even more that they aren't incredibly organized.

~3~

I'm coming close to being able to write a few book reviews. I just need to find some time to write them. I keep waiting for a hour or so when the house is quiet and I have nothing else to do, but I'm starting to think that's just not going to happen.

~4~

I'm on the fence about when we should put up our big Christmas tree. Ordinarily I would have it up for the first Sunday in Advent, but I've been putting it off since the baby's playard is in the spot where the tree will go and it's something we still use everyday. I'm leaning towards putting it up either this Sunday or the following one.

~5~

I think I've come down with another cold. I feel like I just got over being sick a couple of weeks ago and now I'm sick again. I'm hoping I'll feel better soon. I don't want to spend another two weeks with a sore throat and congestion.

~6~

This weekend is our first soccer-free weekend since September. We don't have any plans at the moment, but I'm sure we'll think of something to do.

~7~

I think we're nearing a point where I'm going to have to do a toy purge. Every time I go down to the basement and see the playroom I want to scream. Sometimes the mess is so bad I do scream. I keep telling the girls they need to clean up their messes and get in the habit of making sure their are no small pieces on the floor but they continually disregard what I say. One day they're going to come home and find that Barbie and her plethora of accessories have been relocated to the trash can. The funny thing is I don't think the girls really even play with these toys. I think they just scatter them and walk away. I know the wooden blocks and legos get played with and the kitchen and pretend food also see ample play time, but I think the rest of the stuff is just there to make a mess.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-12-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.

{pretty}

Don't you just want to squeeze those adorable chubby cheeks?

I love the sight of the girls happily celebrating Advent each night. They're coloring their Jesse tree ornament for the day in this picture. I think Advent is one of my favorite times of the year.

{happy}

Happy baby!

When there's chocolate involved you don't have to ask Ellie to smile.

Can you believe she came home from school with pipe cleaner "antlers"? And, she wonders why my nickname for her is Dorkish.

{funny}

Madeline lost the privilege of using her cell phone for all of last week because she hadn't been doing her chores even when reminded enough times to inch me towards the brink of insanity. On Sunday, Bryan and I made a deal with her. If she wore this awesome paper hat from Buffalo Wild Wings while we dined at the restaurant, and then when we went to Old Navy, we would let her have her phone back. I then decided that she also needed to pose for this picture while Bryan took a video of her enthusiastically saying "I'm on fire!" She got her phone back. Being a parent is awesome, but I'm sure I'm going to do some serious time in purgatory for having so much fun embarrassing my children at every opportunity. Some parents get upset when their kids go through that stage where they're embarrassed to be seen with their parent, but we will totally understand why our kids feel that way and we'll just ramp up the level of mortification for them.

{real}

Madeline clearly had a long day last Thursday. After going to school and religious ed, she also had soccer practice. She "forgot" her glasses in Bryan's car so she went out to look for them. After her second trip out to his car to look for them, Bryan and I couldn't contain our laughter any longer and she discovered her glasses were on her face all along. Awesome parents that we are, we played along and made a big deal about her being so careless and not knowing what she did with her glasses. She was totally freaking out seconds before I snapped this picture.

Oscar is seriously a pain in my rear. He annoys me and he smells, but he does have some redeeming qualities. One of them is that he loves pancakes or panny-cakes as I like to call them. He is willing to jump in the air and twist to catch bits of pancake. He is also willing to let us stack pancakes on his snout and head and patiently wait for us to tell him he can flip them into his mouth. Just look at the level of concentration and self control he's exhibiting in this picture. Now if we could just train him to not bark and be calm when we have visitors I might admit that I like him.

Small Successes-December 8th

2011-12-08T11:31:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I wrapped and tagged all the Christmas gifts. I had most of the stuff wrapped already but I had a fair amount of things that needed wrapping. Everything needed tags. I decided to be proactive and also tag the gifts for the kids. I usually do that on Christmas Eve to discourage peekers but this year I simply don't care. Madeline made it known to me several times this week that she knows that Santa comes from St. Nicholas and that he's a saint in heaven. She also told me that her friend at school was defending Santa to the non-believing classmates by saying that he's a spirit. So Madeline told me she agrees with that as well, he's a saint and he's carried on in spirit. I'm proud of Madeline for being a good big sister and not coming out and questioning Santa or flat out saying he's make believe. She's playing along with the Santa thing and not spoiling the fun for Ellie. I'm still not a fan of the whole Santa thing, but since he's not causing anxiety in my children the way he did for me I'm willing to go with the flow, but the fat guy in the red suit is only getting credit for a stocking and two gifts per child.

2. Last night Katie slept for nearly eight hours straight. I was stunned when I woke up on the couch at 3:30am and she was still asleep in the playard. Bryan moved her up to our bedroom where she slept until 4:50am. I'm pretty impressed with her almost 9-5 stretch of sleeping. Now if she could just go from 10-6 I'd be thrilled. Madeline and Ellie both slept through the night starting at 6 and 8 weeks respectively so I'm hoping that Katie is following in their footsteps.

3. The laundry once again was out of control but I managed to get it all washed. The other day I had everything folded and put away, but as of right now I have a sizable pile of clean clothes that need to be sorted, folded and put away. A pile of clean clothes is better than a pile of ones that need to be washed.

4. I sent my Christmas cards out in the mail today. Last night I was in a pretty bad mood where I spent most of the evening complaining about everything that was wrong from messes the kids made to things that needed to be done, like getting the Christmas cards labeled, stamped and mailed. I begrudgingly decided to shut up and do something about the things that were irritating me starting with the Christmas cards and Madeline's birthday party thank you notes that have been waiting for me to address them since early October. So those things are now out of the house and I can not longer rant about them being on the dining room table. I'm sure Bryan and the girls will be happy that I'm not going to be complaining about them now.

5. I didn't cause a scene at Mass last night when Ellie was doing lots of little things [that in reality probably weren't as bad as I thought they were] to irritate the crap out of me. What really set me off was when she decided to RUN up and down the side aisle after Mass when I was talking to another mom. I came home and complained to Bryan about his daughter's dismal behavior and proceeded to criticize the poor child for the rest of the night. Yesterday was one of those days where I clearly forgot that Ellie is a 6 year old child and is often going to act like one. I realized by the girls' bedtime last night that Mommy needs to go to confession. The past few days alone have been enough to warrant me needing to go.

6. I have started carving out a little bit of time each day to read some of the books I need to review. I have quite the pile of books to review and it's been bothering me for the past couple of weeks.

7. While I totally failed to remember to buy candy for St. Nicholas day and then forgot to scrounge for candy and put it in the girls' stockings when I remembered the evening before, I did make up for it by going to Target the day of and getting chocolate Santa's (which I converted into St. Nicholas) and coins and having them ready when the girls came home from school. Next year I'm writing a reminder on my weekly planner to buy the candy ahead of time so I'm not unprepared. It's so hard to believe that I taught my religious ed class about St. Nicholas on Sunday and wasn't prepared to celebrate the feast day at my house on Tuesday. The girls were happy when they came home and found candy waiting for them on the kitchen table.

Things You Can't Do With One Hand

2011-12-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

Lately Katie has been wanting me to hold her quite a lot and I'm discovering the multitude of things I cannot accomplish with a single hand. I've had more than a few days in the past week where I wondered how different life would be if I had just one additional arm. Sure, buying clothes would become a real challenge, but I would be able to get so much accomplished.

Here's my list of things you cannot do with a single hand.
1. Fold laundry
2. Sweep the floors
3. Clean a bathroom
4. Send a text message. Ok, maybe this one is possible with one hand but not all of us are blessed with great coordination.
5. Blog. I simply can't type up posts using just five fingers. My thoughts are far too rapid and fleeting for one hand to keep up, plus I suck at hunting and pecking on a keyboard.
6. Wrap Christmas presents.
7. Cut things out.
8. Operate a hot glue gun.
9. Load and unload the washer/dryer. Actually, I can do this but it's a painfully slow process and I wind up dropping clean clothes all over the floor as I try to get them into the dryer.
10. Make a bed
11. Wash Ellie's hair
12. Measure out a dose of Katie's Zantac.
13. Take a decent picture with my camera.
14. Fix Ellie's hair for school
15. Comfortably read/hold a book.

Mind you, I'm not constantly holding Katie, but I seem to always have other things I need (or want) to do while I am. Nine times out of ten I would much rather be holding my chubby little Kitty Katkins in my arms, but for the ten percent of the time that I really need to get things done, I wish she would just be content to veg out next to me in a bouncy seat and be content. For the most part she's a very laid back baby, but she certainly has had some days where crying seems to be the only thing she has on her agenda. It's amazing how a crying baby can just sap your energy and at times your spirits.

Quick Takes Volume 20

2011-12-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

~1~

Soccer will be over for the fall in approximately 30 hours. I'm looking forward to not having any soccer related time constraints after tomorrow for a couple of months. Last night Madeline had soccer practice after religious ed. I really think soccer practice in December is just plain excessive.

~2~

My tried and true practice of getting the kids to clean up after themselves during Advent appears to be failing. In the past they were happy to make sure no mess got left behind so they could write what they did on a strip of paper as a sacrifice for baby Jesus. The papers then got placed in the little manger we have to make a nice soft bed for baby Jesus. This worked wonderfully for one day so far and now I'm back to finding messes all over the place.

~3~

I don't think Katie likes me blogging. Every time I sit down to blog she starts crying. I guess she doesn't want her life story out there for everyone to read.

~4~

Katie is almost seven weeks old and I'm totally amazed at how many people keep asking us when/if we're going to have more. We honestly don't know and the baby we do have is still relatively new. One of our parish priests was already lobbying for a new baby this past Sunday. When I saw him again on Wednesday he was trying to get the kids to start asking for a baby brother, and then proceeded to tell me that I should have seen the look on my husband's face when he told him we should have more babies before Mass. I'm sure it was priceless but I was too busy holding the baby to notice his expression.

~5~

I'm contemplating buying one of those creepy Elf on the Shelf dolls to ~~scare~~ encourage Ellie to clean up after herself. I'm pretty sure the elf won't have any effect on Madeline.

~6~

I'm pretty sure I have a few good hours of craft preparation ahead of me today. Months ago I painted the TP tubes that I needed for the Advent wreaths I do with my religious ed class but I never cut out the plates or bothered to cut up tissue paper for them. I'm hoping I can get all of this stuff done early today, but Katie is being rather needy this morning. I'm telling you she HATES that I blog.

~7~

Target, my happy place, has been unbearable and totally unenjoyable this past week. There are people wandering aimlessly, holiday shoppers who think nothing of trying to edge you out so you can't go down the aisles you need to get to and absurdly long lines. On Monday I almost got run down by one woman as I made my way towards the mac and cheese aisle for Bryan. I decided that it wasn't worth getting injured to get the mac and cheese so I cut the trip short and went to my usual Target instead. This is really the worst time of the year to go shopping.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-12-01T12:31:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.....

{pretty}

Madeline lights up whenever she gets to hold her baby sister.

Katie was kind enough to let me take a few pictures of her in her Christening gown this morning.

{happy}

Katie the Christmas Elf decided to play along and smile at me. She's doing that a bit more these days. Smiles used to be reserved for Daddy only.

I love seeing this site in Katie's room.

{funny}

I've never seen anyone dressed up as a mattress before.

{real}

Katie pretty much did this the entire time we were at my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. This girl sleeps through everything.

We all looked at the same camera at the same time. This type of thing hardly ever happens!

Small Successes-December 1st

2011-12-01T12:11:00.000-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1. We managed to get the house in order for Katie's baptism. That's really no small feat, but with Bryan, the girls and I all pitching in we got it done.

2. I was asked to take on another volunteer position that I know I could have done and would like to have done, and I said no. I decided that while I knew I could do this job that it wasn't what was best for the two children it would impact one night a week. I have a hard time saying no when asked to fill a need which usually leads to me spreading myself too thin. It took a lot for me to say I wouldn't be able to do it, but I think it was the right decision. If it wasn't I'm confident that the opportunity will come knocking again. That's always the case for me with these sorts of things.

3. I had a huge mountain of laundry on Tuesday and I managed to power through it. I completed 7 out of 8 loads of wash in one day. We will not be discussing the new mountain of laundry that is currently forming. I'm only one person and I do have limitations.

4. I ordered my Christmas cards on Monday.

5. Last Friday I finally got around to mailing out the birth announcements that sat on my dining room table for nearly two weeks.

6. I partially decorated the house for Christmas. I made sure that most of our Advent stuff was put out. The rest of the decorations will be pulled out over the next week or so.

A Beautiful Baptism Day for Katie

2011-12-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday Katie was baptized and we really couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was so warm on Saturday that the girls and I were quite comfortable standing outside for nearly an hour in short sleeved dresses. It's not often you can say that at the end of November in New Jersey.

Katie's baptism was delayed a little because there was a funeral that morning, so while we waited we decided to take some pictures over by the beautiful grotto that is in the church parking lot.

Here we are with our best friends, Katie's godparents.

I was so happy with how this picture turned out that I made it our Christmas card picture.

Bryan and I with our beautiful Katie girl.

The baptism was simply beautiful. Katie slept the entire time. I don't know what it is about our girls, but they all slept at their baptisms. I always go in expecting them to scream and wail and instead they are incredibly peaceful. I think Ellie was the only one who was awake for part of her baptism.

We had the church to ourselves since it was a private baptism, so we have loads of pictures as a result. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the baptism:

Deacon Al claiming Katie for Christ.

The baptism. I love how our friend captured the water falling back into the font in this picture.

Here she is newly baptized with a bright soul. No more comments from Ellie that Katie's soul is dark!*

I'm so thrilled that Katie is now baptized. I can't tell you how overwhelmed with joy I am on days like these.

*Ellie loves having me read the Catholic Children's Treasure Box books to her. In those books is a story about a guardian angel named Wupsy. Ellie has learned from the Wupsy stories that the unbaptized have a dark soul, meaning that it doesn't have the light of Christ, not that she's evil. Ellie has been commenting since Katie was a few days old that her soul was dark and that she needed to be baptized. The way she would talk about it made me cringe and had me counting down the days until she would be baptized. I'm quite relieved that Ellie will no longer be telling me her sister has a dark soul.

Katie's Birth Story

2011-11-28T23:18:00.004-05:00

I suppose now that Katie is six weeks old I had better write down her birth story before details get fuzzy or I just forget it all together.

Katie arrived exactly one week after her due date. I honestly am not sure how long I was in labor, but I know I started to feel funny towards the end of the 7:30AM Mass that morning and shortly before 9AM I was wondering if today might be the day that I finally would go into labor.

When I got to Mass that day I spent a decent amount of time ~~praying to~~ begging and pleading with God to let me go into labor. I was pretty much waving the white flag and admitting that I finally acknowledged that A) I had no control over when the baby would come. B) I got the point that this seemingly never ending pregnancy was clearly a lesson in patience. C) Yes, I really get that I'm not the one in control and that I would have to be patient and just wait. Also, totally unaware that October 16th was the traditional feast day of St. Gerard, I decided to ask for his intercession with hopes that I'd eventually go into labor on my own. Mind you, I was three days away from my next appointment where I was told we'd have to look at inducing labor. I desperately did not want to be induced.

That morning I found out that I had a new student coming into my class so I decided to hang around to meet her even though I had a substitute for my class. While I greeted my students as the arrived I started to feel more and more off, but I wasn't about to get my hopes up that I'd actually go into labor. I went home for about 30 minutes before heading back to the school to pick up Ellie and pop in on my class. By the time Ellie and I were on our way home a little after 10AM I was feeling crampy. Shortly after we got home I had a contraction that I would classify as painful.

Bryan and I decided to give walking another try. I must have walked a hundred miles during my last few weeks of pregnancy in a futile attempt to get labor started. As we walked around the neighborhood I began to get contractions every five minutes that were painful enough to make me think that I might be in labor. At this point I was in a serious stage of denial. After we walked for 45 minutes to an hour I told Bryan I wanted to go home and have lunch. We went home and made lunch. While that was cooking I worked on straightening the house a little and spent some time bouncing on my exercise ball.

By noon the baby was clearly dropping. My jeans (my pre-pregnancy jeans which I had worn throughout my pregnancy) which had zipped up and stayed closed with just a hair tie that morning were now unable to zip at all. By the time we sat down to eat lunch I was having a hard time sitting down. I could sit on the exercise ball, but sitting on the couch or at the kitchen table was next to unbearable. I did, however, manage to sit down at the kitchen table and have lunch with Bryan and the girls. My contractions were about 7-10 minutes apart, but they were not lacking in intensity.

Right after lunch I decided that I was not going anywhere until the laundry was folded and put away. Yes, I'm really that stubborn. The bottom line was I was not going to have my mom come up and see laundry all over the living room and I wasn't going to have her fold my clothes for me since they wouldn't be folded my way. Don't try to figure out the logic of a woman in labor who is in a state of denial.

Once the laundry was folded, I tried to just sit down to see if the contractions would continue. They did, but I was unable to sit still. I'd sit for a few seconds and then have to get up and walk into another room to be by myself. That's not easy when you have two kids, a concerned husband and a dog trailing you.

Around 1 or 1:30 Bryan and I went for another walk. I think we made it around just one block in our neighborhood before I decided that I needed to go home. At that point Bryan wanted to call the doctor's office and my parents. I refused and told him I wasn't sure I was really in labor. I was worried that we'd get to the hospital and that it would be false labor. He told me that if I was still like this at 2 he'd be calling the doctor's office. At 2:30 he made the call and within minutes the midwife called back, spoke to Bryan and told us to head over to the hospital right away. Bryan got our next door neighbor to take the girls (He caught them in the nick of time. They were about to head over to their son's soccer game.) and then he called my mom and dad to come up.

We go to the hospital a little after 3PM. It was dead in labor and delivery when I arrived. That meant I got the "good room." I was also the only L&D patient at that point in time. My contractions continued along the same path of intensity. I think they were coming about 5-7 minutes apart once I got there. I was surprised when they told me I was dilated to 5cm and 90% effaced. Finally, I had made it past 3-4cm.

After laboring for about an hour or so I felt a ton of pressure and had Bryan get someone to see if I progressed. The resident who was really excited that I agreed to let her be part of my labor (I had expressly said no residents were to be involved in my care on my birth plan, but changed my mind when my midwife wasn't at the hospital when I arrived) checked and told me I was now at 7cm. My water still hadn't broken at this point.

Bryan and I were watching the Parent Trap (the Lindsay Lohan one) while I sat on the birthing ball and leaned on a chair in front of me. I have no idea how close my contractions were. All I know is that with each one I could feel the baby moving further down into my pelvis. I was also getting to a point where I felt like I was just going to freak out and lose control if I didn't focus on breathing. With every contraction I focused on breathing deeply and simply praying. It was a very meditative labor.

I have no idea how much time elapsed between when the resident checked me and said I was 7CM and 100% effaced and when I told Bryan that I needed him to get someone to check me again. I had hit a point where I felt like I just needed to push. I suspect it had been maybe 15-20 minutes, but really I had no concept of time at that point. When the resident and my midwife came rushing back into the room I was 9-9/12cm and I was given the choice to either wait until I was at 10cm or try to push past it. I chose to push.

After 8 minutes of pushing Katie was born. What I didn't know until much later was that the cord was wrapped around Katie's neck. She came out and was a purplish blue. I thought her color was odd, especially her purple feet, but I didn't think to ask about it. I don't remember when Bryan told me that the cord was wrapped around her neck but I think it was the following day. My midwife, who was taking pictures of Katie being born had put my camera aside and directed the resident to remove the cord from Katie's neck. I guess this was done quietly since I was totally unaware of it. Despite the fact that I pushed for less time that I did with either of her sisters, I think I had more difficulty delivering her than I did with the other two. Perhaps that has something to do with her head coming out sideways.

At 5:50PM on October 16th Katie was born weighing in at 7lbs 12 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. She was my biggest baby and surprisingly I had the easiest recovery with her as well.

Stationery card

2011-11-28T22:32:00.001-05:00

For Unto Us Religious Christmas Card

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Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T20:18:00.000-05:00

I hope you all have or have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great day today and are now relaxing at home after going to my parents' house for a Thanksgiving feast.

We started our day off with delicious homemade pumpkin pancakes. I highly recommend trying them out if you're ever looking for a tasty and filling fall breakfast idea. Even our pickiest eater, Ellie, enjoyed them.

Once we got to my parents' house I had to compete with the girls and my cousin for the black olives and the Wheatable crackers. I find both of those foods highly addictive. I sat down for just a few minutes to look at the Black Friday ads and when I went back to the table with the crackers and olives they were all gone. I've tried convincing the girls that they don't want to eat the olives or the crackers, but they're not buying it.

My contributions to Thanksgiving dinner was a homemade pumpkin cheesecake (Yum!). I also swooped in and saved the day by preparing two can shaped cranberry molds. My dad was about to use a knife to get the cranberries out of the can before I offered to get them out unblemished. It was funny to hear my kids tell my mom and dad that I know how to make the cranberries look like a can. It's like they think I'm doing some sort of special trick that no one else knows about. I couldn't help but laugh.

Katie slept through almost the entire visit to my parents house. She woke up a few times to see what was going on and to eat, but she was quite content to sleep the vast majority of the time. She reminds me of Ellie and how she used to just shut down when there were more than a small handful of people in a room.

Madeline and Ellie had a good time dining at the "small table" with my mom and my cousin Kelly. The small table was actually just a couple inches shorter than the kitchen table, but it had a lot more elbow room than the table my dad, my brothers, my uncle, my cousin's husband and I shared. So really, they could have named the "small table" the spacious table.

Shockingly we're all still wide awake despite eating lots of turkey. I guess that's a good thing considering I have a lot to do around the house to get everything ready for the party we're having on Saturday to celebrate Katie's baptism.

On the bright side...

2011-11-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

Today is one of those days where it's becoming quite evident that I'm simply not meant to get anything done. Apparently I'm also not suppose to do frivolous things like eating either. Someone, who shall remain nameless, but not quiet, has been rather needy today. When that incredibly cute someone finally drifts off to sleep, someone or something always wakes her up within minutes. It could be the dog who is lucky he's not banished to the back yard to sit in the rain, or the children who had a half day at school today. No matter what the situation is, something always prevents me from doing any task for longer than 3-5 minutes.

My new boss is wailing for me at the moment and 2/3 of the candy bar I sat down to eat is now sitting on the couch. And people wonder why I'm so skinny already. It's hard to keep meat on your bones when you can't get a few minutes here and there to eat.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-11-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Capturing the context of everyday life...

{pretty}

Ellie's teacher likes to send home a lot of projects. Some days I wonder if homeschooling her would have required less effort on my part. Anyway, one of her recent projects was to disguise a turkey so he wouldn't wind up being Thanksgiving dinner. Sadly, I threw out the Santa Turkey that Madeline and I made last year. Had I known we'd have this project this year I would have saved it, erased Madeline's name and passed it off as Ellie's this year. And if you're sitting here reading this and thinking that the last statement sounds a lot like cheating, you're right. I'm totally willing to cheat on projects like this if it saves me a few hours of my life. I don't like having to prove to the teacher that I'm capable of doing 1st grade work. I passed first grade 27 years ago, I don't need to do it again.

{happy}

After our trip to the beach to get a Christmas card photo was a total fail this past Sunday, I spotted Uncle Bill's Pancake House on our way off the island. Bryan and I used to eat at Uncle Bills (in North Cape May, not Ocean City) just about every Sunday when we were dating. We decided that we'd have lunch there and I got this nicely plated and super delicious stack of pumpkin pancakes.

{funny}

Ellie lost another tooth on Sunday. Seems like this kid only looses teeth on Sundays. Anyway, on Monday morning she decided she was going to draw a picture of what the tooth fairy looked like when she saw her come in to leave a couple dollars and take the tooth. Mind you, Bryan is the tooth fairy in our house since I'm too noisy to pull off a tooth heist in the middle of the night. I think her drawing is a good likeness, don't you?

{real}

Straight As for Madeline's first marking period at the middle school. She's thrilled and we're very proud of her.

Keen Powers of Observation

2011-11-17T07:37:00.000-05:00

On more than a few occasions I have been known to get things a little mixed up. Last night I was certain that I typed up my Small Successes post under this blog. I distinctly remember making sure that I wasn't under the Catholic Faith Adventure blog that I have for my religious ed class. Then, I went and confirmed after I set it to publish this morning that it was set for this blog. Turns out that in my coffee charged pre-sleep deprived state that I failed to realize that I wrote the post on the wrong blog. HOW exactly did I miss that? The odd thing in all of this is blogger still didn't publish the post at the specified time.

Small Successes-November 17th

2011-11-17T07:26:00.003-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. Our school district has this thing called Power School that allows me to check on Madeline's grades. A year or so ago I set up our account to send me weekly updates with her grades in each subject. I was skeptical when I saw that she had an A in every subject. Monday afternoon a very happy Madeline came through the front door waving a report card with straight A's. We're very proud of her.

2. I went shopping with my mom on Tuesday and found a Christening gown for Katie. When Madeline was baptized ~~her godmother~~ Bryan's aunt, who is also his godmother, spent an obscene amount of money (more money than my wedding gown and veil cost) on a beautiful Christening gown for her baptism. When I tried to use this gown for Ellie she screamed like it was the end of the world each time I tried it on her. I never understood what the problem was and I eventually resigned myself to the fact that Ellie would not wear it for her baptism. She ended up wearing a pretty ivory silk dress from Gymboree for her baptism. The end result was she was happy and comfortable. On Monday I tried Madeline's gown on Katie and while she didn't react the same way Ellie did, I noticed when I removed the gown that she was all scratched up on her face and neck from the beading on the bonnet and gown. Then I noticed that her armpits were all red and irritated. It was then that I realized that Ellie's problem must have been that the gown was very uncomfortable. So I proceeded to try Ellie's Christening outfit on Katie. It was a fail. 3-6 month clothing is way too big on a baby who is just four weeks old. Since Katie's baptism is in just nine more days I realized that I needed something for her to wear. I stopped at my mom's and tried my Christening gown on Katie, but since I was a big baby and wasn't baptized until I was seven months old, my gown was quite big on her. We ended up finding a pretty Christening gown for her at JC Penney at a very reasonable price.

3. The laundry is under control. Everything is folded and put away, too. Everything but my and Bryan's clothes, that is. Our bedroom has piles of clothes all over the place. There's clean clothes for me and Bryan that I never find a moment to put away and then there's the piles of clothes that the girls have outgrown.

4. I boxed up all the hand me downs we've been given for Katie according to size and removed them from the floor of my closet and bedroom. I realized I needed to do something with the hand me downs for her when I could scarcely walk into my walk in closet without tripping on something. The catalyst behind organizing these clothes came on Monday when Bryan came home from work with two big boxes and two big bags of baby clothes from two different families. We're very blessed to have several families who send their little girls' outgrown baby clothes to us for Katie. I've never even met one of the mothers who sends me her little girl's outgrown clothes. She's a friend of Katie's godmother and she just bags the clothes up as her little one outgrows them and hands them off to my friend. Aside from the fact that getting hand me downs gives me that shopping high without having to spend any money, I love digging through the clothes and finding that I can mix and match pieces from different families since all three of them have little girls born within a month or two of each other and they all seem to buy different pieces from the same clothing lines. I'm also rather amused when I open up a box and find the exact same sleepers or outfit that I have for Katie in the next size up.

5. On Sunday Bryan and I did some yard work on the front yard. Bryan ripped out all the shrubs that were either dead or disliked by me. I spent a couple of hours weeding the gardens. The retainer wall where Bryan removed the shrubs looks very sparse now, but it will look better in the spring when we have pretty flowers instead of dead or ugly overgrown shrubs.

6. Katie turned one month old yesterday. It's hard to believe she's already a month old. The past month has certainly passed by quickly. To celebrate, she and I braved the rain and went to the office of vital statistics for the township where she was born and got a copy of her birth certificate.

Thanks, Blogger

2011-11-17T07:24:00.000-05:00

Last night in ~~a coffee induced state~~ an effort to get ahead I typed up my Small Successes post for this week. Being a control freak I decided that the Thursday post wasn't going to be published on Wednesday night so I took advantage of the oh so handy schedule a post option that Blogger offers so that my Small Successes would magically appear at 7:00AM today. I even confirmed that it was there and that it said it was scheduled on the edit page that shows all the blog posts. I am not the least bit amused that my post has now vanished. It's not on the blog and it doesn't show up as anything that I ever wrote up on my edit page. Grrr...

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-11-10T18:13:00.000-05:00

{pretty}

I was going to put up a picture of one of the girls but Bryan told me he was pretty and he wanted to be this week's pretty. So here you go. Isn't he just precious?

{happy}

She's such a goofy kid, but she's happy.

Ok, so Madeline wasn't happy that: 1. I put this hat on her like so. 2. That it did not match her outfit-oh the horror of going to soccer practice in the dark and not matching! and 3. That I insisted on taking a picture. At least she was kind enough to smile for me.

{funny}

I took this picture of Katie two weeks ago. I love how she's sticking out her tongue. Couple that with the "I still live at home" onesie and I can't help but laugh every time I see this picture.

We brought a pie at Sam's club on Sunday. I was rather amused when I looked at the label when we got home and discovered that it's a "New" pie. It never occurred to me that they might sell used pies.

{real}

Bryan and I like to find label fails when we're in the stores. We found this gem at Target while we were looking at blenders. For some reason every blender we've ever owned has had the housing around the blades crack. It's frustrating since we've had a few pricey blenders break the same way. Anyway, if you can't read the fine print on the blender label, this handy kitchen appliance is actually a Dirt Devil bagless cyclonic upright vacuum. This is probably why our blenders break. We're using them to make milkshakes and daiquiris and not to vacuum our floors. In case you were wondering, they also sell a vacuum at my local Target that is really a blender. Methinks there's an employee there who doesn't know his or her household appliances very well.

Small Successes-November 10th

2011-11-10T08:23:00.001-05:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I've felt like a huge procrastinator the past couple of weeks because I hadn't sent out birth announcements for Katie. Yesterday I took a picture of her that I deemed announcement worthy and actually uploaded it, made an announcement and ordered it! You can take a peek at it here.

2. Realizing that Katie's baptism was a little over two weeks away, I also decided to work on the wording for her baptism invitations and had Bryan print them out for me last night. They'll be heading out in the mail this morning. We're keeping it small so I don't have to drive myself crazy. Of course, the fact that we've lost a lot of family members over the past six years also contributes to the shrunken guest list.

3. We had another cavity free visit to the dentist on Tuesday. Katie also slept through her longest car ride that day. I'm so grateful that she sleeps in the car.

4. I found dress shoes that fit Ellie this past weekend. I'm still working on finding shoes for Madeline. Why is it that many stores don't carry half sizes for children? It drives me crazy.

5. I'm trying to get the laundry done today. Last night I discovered that I left clothes in the washer for two days. I had to send them through for another cycle and I'm hoping the funky smell from being left in the washer for two days has washed away. The rest of the laundry is sorted (It's amazing what offering the girls 25 cents a piece can get accomplished!) and queued up to be washed.

6. We had a few nights in the past week where Katie slept for 5-6 hours straight. Last night wasn't one of those nights but I'm hopeful that she'll be sleeping for longer stretches soon.

7. The Zantac is doing a nice job at keeping Katie happy. It's not perfect, but she's not screaming and wailing in pain like she was last week. Actually getting her to take the medicine is the biggest challenge.

8. Almost forgot...I went back to teaching my religious ed class this week. I'm happy to be back with them, although it feels like I never really left. I was there for half of two of the classes I didn't teach. But I still feel like I missed a lot. Would you believe I only have one more class to teach this month? It's crazy. I'm looking forward to Advent and doing lots of fun crafts with the class.

9. Speaking of Advent, I finally decided on an Advent calendar for Katie. I ended up ordering a cute nativity themed one.

Katie's Birth Announcement

2011-11-09T15:12:00.002-05:00

It's A Girl Baby Announcements

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Quick Takes Volume 19

2011-11-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

~1~

It's been 15 days now and I still can't shake this sinus thing that I got hit with right after the baby was born. Last night I broke down and decided to take antibiotics that I was prescribed in case it was strep. I was told it was up to me after I got the negative result for strep as to whether or not to take it. I'm also now taking the Mucinex that was recommended to me. Now if I could just feel better I'd be thrilled.

~2~

I have fur all over my kitchen and entry way floor. Sweeping the floor has been on my to do list all week but I never actually get a chance to get the broom out. Sigh.

~3~

I'm tired of soccer and all other extra curricular activities that my girls are in at the moment. Three nights every week are jam packed with things to do and I'm feeling rather burnt out because of all the running around I have to do.

~4~

I feel like a total slacker because I have not sent out birth announcements yet. With Ellie and Madeline I had them out before they were ten days old. Katie will be three weeks on Sunday.

~5~

At some point I need to also send out invitations to Katie's baptism which is happening in just 22 days. I also need to get pictures taken of her in her baptismal gown.

~6~

I'm on a futile quest to get the house clean. Every time I make some progress the mess grows exponentially in another area of the house. I suppose with three kids and a dog it's just not meant to be.

~7~

Katie slept for six hours straight last night. I'm really shocked at how well she slept, but I wish her timing had been a little better. She went from 8PM to 2AM. Midnight to 6 would have been awesome. Hopefully she'll get to that point soon. I'm not going to thumb my nose at 4 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-11-03T13:36:00.000-04:00

{pretty}

Princess Elisabeth in her glittery pink dress and sneakers.

{happy}

Ellie was thrilled to give Katie a bottle. Let's just say she was very disappointed to learn I am nursing the baby.

{funny}

Our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch rotted and only one survived, so the girls had to share it. This is what happens when you have a newborn in the house and you simply aren't worried about running around to find more pumpkins.

{real}

This motley crew of characters is who I accompanied for trick or treating. I dressed up as a mom, meaning I was too lazy to be bothered with a costume. Katie actually wore a piggy costume over her skeleton sleeper since it was pretty cold that night. So she was pushed around the neighborhood as a pig in a blanket. I apparently failed to take pictures of her in the piggy bunting with the cute little blanket wrapped around her to keep her nice and warm.

Small Successes-November 3rd

2011-11-03T12:22:00.001-04:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I took the baby shopping for seasonally appropriate clothing this past Friday and found five outfits that look pretty cute on her.

2. The Christmas dresses that I ordered for the girls the week before have all arrived. Madeline and Ellie look quite nice in their new dresses. Madeline's dress is all black and I found out today that she can wear it for her school's holiday concert. I'm excited that she will get to wear the dress three times. I haven't tried the dresses I ordered for Miss Stomach Acid 2011 on her yet. At this point I'm pretty sure she'll be in size 3-6 months by Christmas so I'm probably going to return those dresses and just use the ones I had for Ellie.

3. Katie now weighs nine pounds. Isn't that crazy? She gained 17 ounces in nine days. How do I know this? I had to take her back to the pediatrician this morning. Her reflux got pretty bad in the past week and Bryan and I decided that we couldn't wait 15 more days for her well visit to see about getting her on Zantac for the reflux. As of this morning she's now being treated for reflux. I'm hoping that the Zantac will make a difference. It worked wonders for Madeline but it didn't do a thing for Ellie. If this doesn't work our next step will be trying Prevacid.

4. I did some Christmas shopping for the girls this past weekend. I placed my Lego order for them and will be wrapping those items later today, I hope. Yesterday I wrapped all the Christmas gifts that I had on hand that weren't already wrapped. I'm hopeful that I'll have all my Christmas shopping completed by Thanksgiving. I'll be thrilled if I can have the stuff wrapped by then, too.

5. I dusted the entertainment center on Tuesday and cleaned half of the kitchen counter tops. Half is better than none!

6. I made Bryan a pumpkin cheese pie for his birthday.

7. I took three kids to Mass by myself on Halloween for the All Saints' Day vigil Mass and the expedition was not a fiasco.

Quick Takes Volume 18

2011-10-28T12:36:00.005-04:00

~1~

I'm learning that blogging via iPad is not frustration free. But I'm not going to complain since it allows Katie to nap on my lap as I write this.

~2~

It's been two weeks since a desperate Bryan offered me an iPad if I would just give birth before the weekend was over. I thought the offer was a joke. Obviously I didn't realize how serious he was about ending the anxious wait for Katie's arrival.

~3~

I apparently am one of those mothers who are oblivious to her baby's cries in the middle of the night. The whimpering ones, not the I'm hungry ones. So while I'm slumbering for a four hour stretch Bryan is waking every 20 minutes or so to Katie's little sounds. He claims she's wide awake in the middle of the night. I think he's just wrapped around her little finger.

~4~

They're calling for really cold weather this weekend. I'm quite happy that I can use Katie as an excuse to stay home while the girls and Bryan head to the soccer fields.

~5~

Madeline managed to get in a fight with a chair at religious ed last night and lost. Poor kid has a bruise the size and shape of the bottom of a chair leg on her cheek.

~6~

It took me two trips to Target, but I finally remembered to buy the cereal we ran out of yesterday.

~7~

Halloween costumes are finally picked out. This year I will have a baby, a glittery pink princess and a skeleton. I let you try to guess which each child will be dressing up as. I'll give you a hint, Katie won't be dressing as a baby.

Product Review: Easy Canvas Prints

2011-10-27T11:32:00.002-04:00

A couple of months ago I was provided with the opportunity to turn one of my photos in to a canvas print by EasyCanvasPrints.com. I spent nearly two months procrastinating on ordering the print in hopes that I could get a nice picture of the new baby with Madeline and Ellie. Katie, of course, had other plans and decided that she wasn't going to make her entrance until the day after I had to place my order. That left me with the agonizing task of picking just the right picture for this canvas print. Choosing what picture to use was certainly the most difficult part of the entire process. When you have thousands of pictures to choose from, it's never an easy task.

After spending a couple hours in the wee hours of a Saturday morning I decided that the picture which was our Christmas card photo last year, would be the one I'd use for the canvas. Once I had picked the photo ordering my canvas print was relatively easy. To order a canvas you simply pick your size, upload your picture, choose how you want it laid out and how you'd like the wrapped edges to look and you're done.

I did have a slight issue with sizing my photo just right and choosing my wrapped edge. I would have been spared a little bit of frustration if there was a button that allowed you to reset the photo. That small issue was my only gripe about the entire ordering process.

My canvas had an estimated arrival date of November 2nd which would have put the processing and shipping time at around a 2 1/2 week wait. I was pleasantly surprised when the canvas arrived on my doorstep in well under a week's time. Having a newborn in the house made last week a bit of a blur and I had actually forgotten that I ordered a canvas print. I was rather surprised to open my front door on Friday and find the canvas I ordered on October 15th sitting there.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the print. The colors are exactly as they are on the 8X10 prints I had made last year. I particularly like the wrap around edge since I can hang this canvas on a wall or display it on a shelf with out having to frame it.

EasyCanvasPrints.com provided me with the 8X10 canvas print you see pictured in this review free of charge in exchange for my honest review. Having seen a sample of their canvas prints, I would certainly recommend giving them a try if you are looking to turn a photo into a canvas print. I'm sure I'll be ordering a few more canvas prints in the future.

Minted Giveaway

2011-10-27T07:30:00.000-04:00

Over at the blog Like Mother Like Daughter they're hosting a Minted giveaway. I checked out Minted's website and they have a lot of beautiful cards for Christmas and other occasions.

Small Successes-October 27th

2011-10-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

Celebrating the little things that add up.

1. Despite having a newborn in the house, I'm getting the best sleep I've had in months. Katie is kind enough to go 3-4 hours between eating in the middle of the night. That means I'm getting to sleep in 3-4 hour intervals. This is awesome compared to the three to five hours of interrupted sleep I was getting per day during the last month and a half of my pregnancy. Poor Bryan, who had been sleeping soundly through the night while I barely slept more than an hour at a stretch, is not feeling quite as well rested.

2. I'm on top of the laundry. It's getting folded and put away. Katie has graciously decided to wear the outfit I put her in all day long most days. Occasionally she will erupt like a little geyser and require a new outfit, but that only happens once every couple of days. With Madeline and Ellie changing their entire outfit was nearly an hourly occurrence. While I'm happy to have a lot less laundry, this does make choosing an outfit a bit more difficult since whatever I put her in will likely remain on her for the rest of the day.

3. I don't have strep throat. On Thursday night my throat started hurting me and by Friday I was in a lot of pain so I had Bryan run me over to the Take Care Clinic at our Walgreens. They sent out a culture of my throat to see if it was strep. Fortunately it wasn't and I've since developed more cold like symptoms. So I've been battling a rather unpleasant cold since last week, but I'm hanging in there. No one else is sick. That's always a good thing.

4. Ellie lost her first tooth (bottom right front tooth) on Sunday morning while we were looking at birthday cards in Target. She informed me last night the the tooth next to that one is also loose. At this rate the kid may not have any front teeth by Christmas. She got all of her teeth pretty close together and it seems like she is going to lose them at the same interval.

5. While Bryan took Madeline and Ellie to their soccer games on Saturday I stayed home with the baby. I ordered the dresses the girls will wear for Christmas and the baby's baptism. I also ordered Katie's Christmas stocking and a few other things.

6. We rather unsuccessfully gave Katie a sponge bath on Sunday. We have a baby tub with a sling that will keep her out of the water which makes giving a sponge bath easy if the baby isn't Katie. She instantly peed in the clean water I had beneath her and then once I drained that and started over she pooped in the sling forcing me to put her on a towel and wash her there.

7. On Tuesday Katie lost her umbilical cord stump. I'm very happy that it's gone. On Sunday I began to smell something very rotten every time I fed or held her and it took me until Monday evening to realize that it was the umbilical cord stump that was the guilty party. By then it was not only foul smelling but also oozing brown goo. I took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday morning. Minutes before we left for the appointment Bryan changed her diaper and the stump fell off. Some of the skin under it was very raw so the doctor cauterized the area. Katie will get her first real bath tonight.

8. I put together a craft for my religious ed class and Halloween goodie bags. I had sort of forgotten about that until my friend who is covering for my class asked if I had a craft for them. I didn't, but I do now!

9. I finally got around to blogging this week!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

2011-10-26T22:07:00.004-04:00

{pretty}

I love the chubby cheeks on this girl. They're getting bigger everyday.

{happy}

The girls needed to see how they could all fit on Bryan's lap.

{funny}

Katie has reacted this way more than a few times upon seeing my camera in her face. Something tells me she's not a fan of the flash.

{real}

I'm still amazed that we're now a family of five.

Ellie is quite taken with her baby sister and I'm pretty sure Katie feels the same way.

Introducing Katherine Therese

2011-10-21T19:44:00.001-04:00

After exactly 41 weeks of gestating Katherine Therese finally decided that it was time to make her appearance. She was born at 5:50PM on Sunday. Katherine, weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Because the baby arrived before visiting hours at the hospital were over the girls and my parents got to come and meet her a little less than an hour after she was born.

Ellie took a few days to warm up to being a big sister. She liked the baby, but she wasn't interested in giving her a kiss the first two days. Katie's first morning home was when Ellie finally decided that she really liked her baby sister.

Madeline took to being a big sister again very well. She couldn't wait to hold her and every day she gets off the bus and wants to hold her baby sister.

Bryan, despite the total lack of pictures proving that he was actually at the hospital, was there the entire time. This blurry picture of him handing Katie to Madeline is the only picture we have of him and the baby at the hospital. I have no idea how we didn't get a picture of him and the baby or of the three of us. We're chalking it up to the fact that my labor went very fast and we just didn't think of these things. I was actually beginning to push when I had to ask him to grab the video camera and the other camera so we'd have pictures.

In a few more days I hope to blog a bit more about Katie's birth and first week. Things are going very well with the baby. She already has us wrapped around her finger and seems quite content with all of us doting on her.

Looking Forward to Sleep

2011-10-15T06:04:00.000-04:00

Does it not sound insane that I'm looking forward to getting sleep of all things once the baby arrives? I know babies don't sleep through the night right away, at least most don't. I do know people who claim to have these mythical babies who have slept 8-10 hour stretches from day one, but I tend to think they're exaggerating ~~tremendously~~ a little.

I'm barely sleeping these days. During the day things like naps simply don't happen. The phone rings, the pain in the butt dog barks, and being the type of person who doesn't know how to relax I simply can't just slow down and try to rest. Most nights I'm able to pass out on the couch for an hour or two before I go to bed. Last night armed with my new iPhone that is making Bryan quite jealous I was too busy rearranging apps to rest. I also spent a while folding and hanging all of the baby's new clothes since we got very good confirmation yesterday that we are certainly having another little girl.

I think I got 45 minutes to an hour of sleep on the couch last night before waking up at 1:30 to go to bed. Once I move upstairs it takes me a little while to actually fall back to sleep. Since I was annoyed that Bryan left the clean clothes in the laundry room, it took me longer than usual to go back to sleep since I couldn't help yelling at the sleepy guy. Once I finally fell asleep I woke up about three hours later starving. Nothing like needing breakfast at 5am. I spent about 30 minutes trying in vain to ignore that my stomach was gnawing on itself in hopes of me falling back to sleep before I gave up and got out of bed. So here I am now sitting in my dark dining room trying to quietly occupy myself while the rest of the house sleeps. Fun!

I'm pretty sure that once the baby arrives I'll be getting a lot more sleep than I do now. I imagine I'll be able to get several 2-4 hour blocks of sleep throughout the night. Since I'll be exhausted from taking care of a newborn, falling back to sleep should be easy. And if I'm wrong, at least I'll have Bryan to commiserate with me over the lack of sleep. Oh, and I'd rather be sleep deprived with a baby in my arms than overly pregnant and sleep deprived.

Quick Takes Volume 17

2011-10-14T14:42:00.000-04:00

~1~

I'm still continually surprised that I'm still pregnant. I was so certain that I'd deliver by 38 weeks and here I am at 40 weeks 5 days and I'm beginning to think I'm going to remain pregnant until at least this Wednesday when I have my next appointment with the midwife.

~2~

I went for the non stress test over at the hospital today. The baby was very cooperative and thrashed about so they got to see what she's like when she's active. They also did an ultrasound to measure the level of amniotic fluid. From what I understand everything looks good with the baby but they were concerned about my blood pressure. I'm usually around 120/80 and today I was 136/88 when I was what I thought was perfectly relaxed and calm. The maternal fetal medicine tech/nurse was very concerned about it. I'll be repeating the non stress test and ultrasound again on Tuesday morning if I haven't had the baby by then.

~3~

I got confirmation that we are having a girl during the ultrasound this morning. The images that I saw were clear and defined enough that I have no worries about cutting all the tags off the new clothes and washing them now.

~4~

I received a phone call from the middle school principal today and am very happy that she addressed the issue from Wednesday's bus incident. The boy who cut Madeline with the umbrella and bent her glasses will thankfully no longer be sitting next to her. Now I just need to get Madeline's glasses fixed.

~5~

I'm still fretting about Madeline's midterm F in her world languages class (This grade is based on one and only one pop quiz). For some odd reason her class, which meets twice a week, never met at all this week. So she wasn't able to ask the teacher what she could do to help raise her grade. I'm rather annoyed that the teacher also has not responded to Bryan's email regarding this situation.

~6~

One of my "little" cousins is getting married today and sadly I can't go to the wedding. The wedding is about an hour away from here at 4pm in a location that would find us fighting about 2 hours of rush hour traffic to head home if I were to go into labor a the wedding. Bryan and several other people think that it's too risky for me to chance going, so I'll be staying home. I've been looking forward to going to this wedding since I got the save the date card about a week before I discovered we were expecting. I never dreamed that I wouldn't make it to the wedding. I've known since February that I wouldn't be going to the reception, but I had assumed all along that I'd make it to the wedding and would just bring the kids with us. Clearly all of my planning ahead amounted to nothing.

~7~

For the second year in a row our pumpkins have spoiled before Halloween even arrived. We went to the pumpkin patch almost two weeks ago and two of the pumpkins are now covered in mold. Last year I figured it happened because we had a lot of crazy weather where it would be super hot one day and very chilly the next. We also had the pumpkins sitting on the front porch. This year I decided to store the pumpkins in the garage and the same thing wound up happening to them. So now I'll have to go out and buy some new pumpkins. Maybe I should get the artificial ones that you can carve or paint. At least those won't spoil and they'll probably cost about the same amount if I can get them on sale.

Speaking of Halloween. Did you know that it's nearly impossible to get a newborn sized costume two and a half weeks before Halloween?

The Case for Future Baldness

2011-10-13T18:34:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that me going bald sometime in the near future is a real possibility. If this happens it will most certainly be the result of me ripping my hair out by the handful.

I blogged about how Madeline was hit with an umbrella on the school bus yesterday which resulted in her getting a cut near her eye and a pair of badly bent glasses that are pretty new. I spoke with the principal about this last night and I was happy to hear that she was not only concerned but was going to address the situation today during school. It turns out her idea of addressing the issue was to ignore it. Not the brightest thing she could do when the mom of the injured child is overdue. I called and left her a message this afternoon and have yet to hear back from her. She clearly has no idea who she is dealing with. Perhaps she'll move on this issue if I call the superintendent of the school district.

Ellie came home sick from school again today. She was fine all day yesterday and this morning so we sent her to school today. At 11:30 I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Ellie threw up at school again. I seriously can't catch a break here. So since she was signed out before 1:20 today she's considered absent. She also can't go to school tomorrow because she vomited during school today. So she's managed to log three absences in one 3 1/2 day school week. Awesome.

I walked around the neighborhood for an hour today trying to get contractions going. As long as I was walking things were picking up, but as soon as I sat down everything stopped. I was really hoping to have something going by this afternoon so I could head to the hospital tonight. The midwife who is on call tonight is totally willing to break my water and make sure I have this baby provided I can show up at the hospital already having contractions. Obviously this is easier said than done.

I'm on edge right now. I'm tired of being pregnant and I'm fed up with all the school BS that I have to deal with right now. It's all very frustrating. I'm fairly certain that if we had gone forward with homeschooling that I wouldn't be dealing with a sick kid and I certainly wouldn't be having the issue that we have with the bus incident.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day. At the very least it would be nice if it were a little less stressful.

Small Successes-October 13th

2011-10-13T08:06:00.000-04:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I organized the coloring book bin that we have in the pantry yesterday. It's really not anything special to write about, but the papers that had been hanging out of it for quite some time were driving me crazy. So I pulled it out, weeded out all the old school work and drawings and neatly replaced the items that belong in the bin. That part of the pantry looks a lot nicer now and I don't have to cringe anymore.

2. A few days ago I swept and mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors. It's so nice to have clean floors.

3. I've been very good about staying on top of the laundry. I have pretty much no backlog to speak of at the moment. I'm trying to keep it that way so I don't come home from the hospital and find a mountain of laundry. Of course, if this baby never decides to come this won't be an issue.

4. Obviously my fail of the week was going into labor. How I'm 40 1/2 weeks pregnant is beyond me. I was successful in not having a baby on my brother in law's birthday (something my husband did not want to have happen) so there was a success to be had after all. My hunch is that this baby may come on the 14th. My reasoning is simply that Madeline was born on the 12th, Ellie was the 13th, so why shouldn't this little one keep up the day of the month sequence and be born on the 14th? Makes perfect sense, right? (Don't judge the overly pregnant lady for her incredibly odd logic. Just smile and nod. You can talk about me later, ok?)

5. I almost forgot. I wrote up two book reviews for the blog and a product review on Amazon Vine. I even reviewed the plumber who came out and did some work on our house yesterday. Look at that, four reviews in one day and I did it all with my ~~big meaty claws~~ very swollen hands.

6. I did a very good job of not freaking out on the phone with the middle school principal over an incident on the bus yesterday that involved a kid carelessly but accidentally whacking Madeline in the face with an umbrella that he was swinging around. She wound up with a small cut about 1/4 of an inch from her eye and very bent glasses. I'm very happy that the metal didn't go into her eye. We're hoping the administration will move this child to a different seat on the bus. The other child who sits next to him (it's a three seat bench) has had issues with this kid doing things and they weren't willing to do anything. I got the impression from talking with the principal that this child will likely be moved to a new location because of this incident.

7. It's not really my success, unless you count nagging my husband to call the plumber, but our shower is now operational. Turns out that a couple years ago when the second shower stall went in to replace the first leaky one, my father-in-law installed a cracked drain pipe that was the wrong type of piping for what he was connecting it to, and it was put in crooked. So that's why both replacement showers that we have installed have resulted in a leak. So our nice new shower is now leak free. The plumber complimented Bryan on his good installation job of the shower floor and walls, and he also let us know that the shower we picked out is a very good one that shouldn't give us any problems like the last one did--you know cracking under the weight of a person who's 130lbs. I'm happy that my research in the area of the shower resulted in a good pick.

Book Review: Weightless

2011-10-12T10:08:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I picked up Kate Wicker's Weightless and had a hard time putting it down. The focus of this book is that of helping women to find peace with their bodies. In her book Kate shares her own personal struggles with her body image and how she overcame those struggles to appreciate her body and not obsess over things that the media would have you believe are flaws.

Each chapter of this book has a combination of stories and scripture as well as a meditation and reflection questions/points. When I picked up this book I doubted whether or not much in it would pertain to me, but even I was able to find many pearls of wisdom which resonated with me.

I'd recommend this book to any woman who struggles or has struggled with her body image. Whether you're obsessing over a few extra pounds, or bony ankles, there's something in this book that will help you to see past that and look at what's really important. I also think mothers of girls need to read this book. Whether your daughter is an infant or a teenager, there's something in this book to help you help your daughter to be comfortable in her own skin and not get hung up on pursuing an unrealistic ideal set by the media.

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of this book by the publisher, Servant Books, in exchange for my honest review. You can take a peek inside this book at Amazon.

Book Review: Patron Saints

2011-10-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

I recently had the opportunity to read Thomas J. Craughwell's Patron Saints. This book is a collection of patron saints for a variety of situations, family members and so on. The book is divided into eleven chapters so you can easily pinpoint the type of patron saint for the situation at hand.

I enjoyed the easy to use format of this book. Each saint falls under a subtitle within the chapters so finding a patron saint for say a teenager is a snap. For each saint highlighted in this book you will get a short explanation of why he or she is the patron saint for that cause and when his or her feast day falls on the calendar.

Overall I found the book to be both informative and amusing. The book is certainly light reading and one could either read it cover to cover or use the index or table of contents to find specific saints. It's sort of a fun reference book.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Patron Saints. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Never Ending Pregnancy Update

2011-10-11T14:57:00.000-04:00

I just got back from my appointment with the midwife a little bit ago. Just as I had suspected, I haven't progressed any more. So I'm still at 4cm.

The midwife let me know that if I haven't had the baby by next week's appointment that we would have to talk about doing an induction. I'm hopeful that I will go into labor before my appointment on Wednesday.

Because I'm past my due date, I'll be heading to the hospital on Friday for a a non stress test and a amniotic fluid level check. I did some searching on Google and I gather that the fluid levels will be checked via ultrasound. If that's the case then I'm hopeful that I'll get to see the baby and possibly have the technician confirm that I am, in fact, having a girl. I've been waiting over 20 weeks now to find out if the ultra sound I had in May is right.

I found out which midwives are on call for which days this week which makes me feel better. It really doesn't matter who delivers the baby, but I like knowing who I should expect to see at the hospital.

Oh, I did find that at this point there are no more membranes to strip. After having them stripped at the last three appointments there was nothing for her to strip this time around.

I keep referring to this baby as my 10lb baby since she won't come out, but the midwife feels confident that she can't be more than 7lbs 5oz right now. That's how big Ellie was so we'll just have to wait and see. I'm betting she'll be a little closer to 8lbs.

40 Weeks 2 Days

2011-10-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

If you didn't guess it after reading the title, I'm still pregnant. I'm actually rather shocked that I have now gone past my due date. How did this happen?

I'm doing my best to keep busy and trying to stay sane. Keeping busy is easy enough, but staying sane is the hard part. For one, I have Madeline driving me crazy. I received her mid-term grades in my email this morning and went from being incredibly happy to feeling sick. She currently has all As and an F. Seriously, an F. Apparently she bombed a pop quiz in her World Languages class and that is the only recorded grade this teacher has posted on the district's power school site. If there was a class participation grade or some other quizzes or assignments up there I'm sure she'd have a D or a C, but all we have to go on is one pop quiz and it's an F. I seriously want to rip out my hair. Madeline doesn't seem phased by the fact that she's failing the class. She was more upset that Bryan and I asked her to ask the teacher if there was some sort of extra credit assignment she could do to help raise her grade. (The teachers at the middle school are very big on giving extra credit to help you boost your grades.) She's scared of the teacher and thinks he's mean so she's very rattled that we told her she needs to ask him how she can pull that F up to an acceptable grade.

I also have a neighbor who thinks nothing of calling my house every 10-15 minutes like a psychotic girlfriend when I don't answer the phone. She almost never leaves a message. I assume that most normal people would call once, leave a message if it's important and wait for me to call back. This person, however, thinks that calling me excessively is the way to go. I went shopping this morning and when I got home Bryan said she had already called 3 or 4 times. Then she called another 3 times after I got home. Calling me excessively makes me not want to answer the phone at all. I'm tired and quite frankly I don't want to have to field loads of phone calls and IMs these days.

After nearly a month of constant calls, texts and IMs asking me if I've had the baby I really don't feel like communicating with anyone. Really, would you want to have the same conversation 15 times in a day? No, the baby's still not here. No, I really don't know what's taking her so long. I really have no clue when or if she will be born anytime this month. And yes, I'm sure my dates aren't off. Do I really need to tell you why I know I'm not off? Perhaps you'd like me to fax you a copy of my NFP chart from January. Oh, and by my calculations, you'll notice that the baby really should have been due on the 8th, not the 9th, thereby making me even more pregnant at this present time.

I have another appointment with the midwife I like the best at this practice this afternoon. Bryan would like me to ask about being induced, but I'm really not interested. I'd prefer to get through this labor with no IVs hooked up to me and I'd very much like to avoid those horrid fetal monitors as much as possible. I doubt I'd get to do either of those things while on a pitocin drip. Last week the midwife mentioned that if I wanted to just be induced they would get it all set up for me, but she cautioned me that I'd have a harder time going without any pain meds. I'm determined to go completely natural again so I'd like very much to avoid being induced. Who knows, maybe having my membranes stripped for the fourth time will put me into labor.

I do think it's safe to say that I'm a little grumpy. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern at the moment. I have prepared multiple times for the arrival of the baby only to have to repeat the process. I'm tired of cleaning the house thinking that it will be nice and clean for me when I get home from the hospital only to find it a mess three days later. Every day I'm washing all of the laundry and putting it away so I can avoid a massive backlog when I get home from the hospital. Foods I have made for myself because I was craving them are now gone (let's just say I had a lot of help with the pumpkin cheesecake) and I have no motivation to make more only to have others gobble it. Oh, and I've come to the conclusion that the baby is not going to come when it would be convenient for the rest of us. We've had several weeks pass by where her arrival would have been perfect timing. This weekend is a prime example. It was a weekend with not obligations and the midwife I like was even on call. It couldn't have been timed better save for the fact that the baby wasn't feeling it.

Completed Nursery

2011-10-08T10:58:00.000-04:00

I posted pictures a while back of the nursery, but the room was missing the finishing touches. Since I had the camera out, I decided to snap a few pictures of the completed room. All it's missing is the baby. I hope we'll have one we can put in there very soon.

The Belly

2011-10-08T10:52:00.000-04:00

I've been asked a few times to share a picture of my ever expanding belly and haven't gotten around to it. Over the past few months there have been a few pictures here and there of me where you can sort of see the bump my stubborn little one currently calls home. I've never really had many pictures taken of me while I'm pregnant. It's not that I avoid the camera, but rather that I'm usually the one behind the camera, so I don't get into very many pictures.

Here's a picture Bryan took of me at 37 weeks 4 days:

Here's a picture of me today at 39 weeks 6 days:

Sixteen days certainly make a big difference, wouldn't you agree? While my shirts are now barely fitting me, my regular pre-pregnancy jeans still fit. The button is simply held closed with a nice strong elastic hair tie (and has been for months, I should add). I never would have guessed that I'd be pregnant this long or that my regular pants would fit me the entire pregnancy. How crazy is that? The maternity pants I do own are still too loose to stay up.

Quick Takes Volume 16

2011-10-07T11:59:00.000-04:00

~1~

I'm sort of in shock that the baby is due in two days and she still isn't here. How did that happen?

~2~

I'm doing well accepting the fact that the baby missed the October 1st school cut off date. I've had a few people tell me about how they or someone they know has circumvented the system so I suppose it's something we'll be able to do if we need to.

~3~

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the prospect of delivering a real full term baby. I mean, how big is this baby going to be? Yeah, I'm freaking out a little. Oh and the midwife told me when I go into labor she expects things will move very fast. That's nice to hear, but I hope things don't move so quickly that I wind up being a headline for delivering my baby in the Target parking lot or something like that.

~4~

I went out yesterday and today and once again stocked up on food and other household items. It's not fun to do this task more than once in anticipation of having the baby. I pretty much had to repeat the process I completed nearly three weeks ago.

~5~

Once again I need to get the house nice and clean. If I can find the motivation and energy, I'd like to clean the bathrooms and kitchen today. I'm simply not feeling up to the task.

~6~

I've reached a point where I'm not really willing to do anything to try and put myself into labor. I spent two exhausting weeks trying pretty much everything to have nothing work. I'm sort of over it now. My focus now has been on just getting the house in order and trying to get some rest here and there. You could say that I pretty much lost all of my motivation.

~7~

I've come to the conclusion that having a child who takes on lots of extracurricular activities is exhausting. This becomes more so when the child doesn't want to be bothered with things like studying, homework and school projects. I need Madeline to complete a math project that is due on 10/12. I would love for her to finish it before I have the baby so I won't have to worry about it.

Custom Rosary Giveaway

2011-10-07T11:21:00.000-04:00

Cam over at A Woman's Place is hosting a giveaway for a custom rosary made by her. Click here to visit her blog and enter for a chance to win.

Small Successes-October 6th

2011-10-06T08:38:00.000-04:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. The laundry room had been looking like a craft store had bombed the room and it was driving me crazy. So over the past few days I have spent many hours reorganizing the mess. The room went from having loads of clutter on the floor in front of the shelving where I store the craft items, to being nice and clear. I still have a few areas in the laundry room to tackle, but I took care of the nagging areas.

2. Since June I have been craving pumpkin cheesecake. The only reason I hadn't had it, was I was unwilling to make it for myself. Yesterday while ~~wandering aimlessly in Target trying to remember why I was there~~ shopping at Target, I decided to pick up the necessary ingredients for my cheesecake. I came home and made the cheesecake. I'm not sure why I didn't make this for myself sooner.

3. Tuesday was a pretty productive day for me. I ran off copies for my religious ed class for the next few weeks of class in anticipation of me not being there. I've done this exercise a few times. I'm pretty sure that next time my class meets that I won't be there. If I am there, it means I'm a week past my due date. Once I got home I trimmed the hedges out front. I was tired of looking at the overgrown plants. Now the hedges look nicely trimmed. I am ignoring all the cuttings that are now on the grass. Trimming them was enough. I'll let Bryan handle the clean up portion of the job.

4. On Saturday we took the girls on a hayride to go pumpkin picking. I'm convinced that the nice old man who was driving the tractor purposely avoided the bumps. I suppose I should have asked him to hit all the bumps as hard as he could when I got on the wagon. So the hayride didn't put me into labor, but we had a good time picking out pumpkins. To add to the success factor of this activity, we managed to squeeze it in between two soccer games.

5. I didn't do anything for this last success, but the ceiling fan in the baby's room is now operational. Bryan and my brother got everything up and running on Sunday. I'm so happy that we have decent lighting and a fan in there now.

It's A Bit Like the Way I Dress a Baby

2011-10-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

My biggest failing as a mom with a baby or child who cannot dress herself is properly putting on tops and dresses that go over the head. No matter what I do, the poor child's head always winds up missing the hole and hitting fabric. It's not because I have big headed children, but rather that I simply lack the knowhow to properly put a shirt on a little kid without making it an ordeal. It's no wonder that prior to being able to dress themselves that the kids would happily toddle off to Bryan to have him dress them.

The baby is finding out early what this getting dressed by mom scenario will be like. At present time her head is lower than my very posterior cervix. The midwife described it as putting on a shirt and hitting the fabric instead of the neck hole of the shirt. When we heard this Bryan and I couldn't help but laugh. This poor baby is going to know very well what that's like!

This head lower than the cervix situation is the reason why every labor inducing thing we've tried has not worked. That pretty much means that we simply need to wait until this little one is ready to make her grand entrance. The midwife tells me that once I go into labor everything will move to where it needs to be. She thinks that things will move very fast once I'm in labor. Currently I'm 75% effaced and 3-4cm dilated (I've never gotten to 4cm on my own so I'm surprised and a bit excited about that.). Oh, and I have a bulging bag of water.

I'm happy to hear that I have at least progressed. I also feel a lot better knowing that the reason nothing we tried put me into labor is because of something we simply cannot control.

At present time the midwife thinks the baby is no bigger than 7 1/2 pounds. I have been starting to worry that I'm going to deliver a 10lb baby since I've never been pregnant this long. I feel a little better knowing that the midwife doesn't think she's anywhere near that big.

I'm simply biding my time now and wondering when the big day will arrive. I just hope we're prepared and ready when it happens. I've stocked up on necessities that we will need several times now and the whole exercise is beginning to seem futile. Really, who am I kidding? I know I'll have to trek out to the store for something a day or two after we come home from the hospital. That's just the way life is around here.

Random Observations

2011-10-01T18:37:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I will be 39 weeks pregnant, if we go by the due date the midwives set. Based on my chart, I'd say I hit that point today, but I'm not going to split hairs over the date. No matter how you look at it, I'm a week more pregnant than I have ever been. Who knows how long this will last. I suspect that the baby isn't planning on budging anytime soon. Being a person who does not like to be in cramped or close quarters, I can't fathom why this incredibly active baby does not want to seek an area with more space. I bet she's going to be wondering why she didn't come out sooner once she's born and she can flail about as freely as she likes.

I'm amazed at how neighbors, friends, people whom I have never met face to face, and random strangers are more interested and excited about this baby than my in-laws. It's something that totally baffles Bryan and I. We simply don't get it.

Going on a hayride can be placed in the category of things that will not cause contractions. It may, however, be an opportunity for random strangers to perform totally random and unexpected acts of kindness. I was really surprised when it was time to pick pumpkins and the mom of a cute little baby boy handed her son off to another person in their party to extend her hand to help me get up. Then when the hayride was over Bryan and her husband helped me up. It was such a simple gesture that I really appreciated.

The hayride, despite not being bumpy enough, was pretty nice. The girls enjoyed themselves and I managed to get a few pictures of them. We picked four nice pumpkins which I hope to carve up when we get closer to Halloween. You know, things to do with all my spare time. I wonder how the pumpkins will look when they're carved by a sleep deprived me. Let's hope I don't stupidly cut off one of my fingers.

Breathing gets harder as the baby gets larger. If I'm not sitting just right, I find that I don't have very much lung capacity. At some point I wonder if the baby will realize that she's smothering me from the inside. I would think she'd really care about an important detail like that given that her life depends on me being able to breathe at the moment.

I'm finding it rather funny that maternity pants still won't stay up on me. I'm still wearing my pre-pregnancy bottoms with a nifty hair tie holding the button shut. So while I'm still in my regular bottoms, I'm on the verge of needing larger maternity tops. Just how I've managed to require maternity tops for the past six months but have been unable to wear maternity bottoms continues to amaze me. I keep joking with Bryan that I wonder if I'll fit in my jeans after I have the baby.

Equally funny is people who see me from behind keep coming up to peek at my stomach to see if I've had the baby. I'm frequently being told that I don't look pregnant from behind. I have no idea how I look from behind, but I'm surprised that so many people say they can usually tell if someone is pregnant from behind. It's a mystery to me. I just carry out in front. Anatomically, I'm not sure that there's any other way.

I'm tiring very easily these days. I guess that's to be expected, but I'd really like to have a bit more energy. I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to have the energy I need for labor. I'm also beginning to freak out that I'm going to wind up delivering a huge baby. Something tells me a 39+ week baby will be bigger than one born at 38 weeks. I hope I don't have to blog about how I gave birth to a 10lb baby.

October and No Baby Yet

2011-10-01T00:37:00.000-04:00

[SIGH] I honestly never thought I'd make it to October and still be pregnant. I'm actually quite shocked that this little one has not sought a place with more leg room to call home. At this point I'm really hoping that she will decide to be born very soon.

Personally, I think that today would be the perfect day for her to make her entrance. For one, it's her godfather's birthday. How neat would that be? It's also the feast day of St. Therese who just happens to be a patron saint of this little one. St. Therese, please pray that our little one who will bear your name as her middle name will be born today. Ever since I got Bryan to agree to Therese as the baby's middle name I've had this sneaking suspicion that she would be born on St. Therese's feast day. Initially, I wasn't happy about this because I thought it was October 2nd (nothing like missing the NJ school cut off date by one day). I was quite surprised when I realized earlier today that I had the dates for the Guardian angel and St. Therese feast days mixed up.

I'm past trying labor inducing remedies at this point. None of them have worked. My feet and hands are painfully swollen, even if they look like nothing compared to other pregnant women. I honestly can't keep doing hour long walks. I'm not about to try another remedy that requires me to consume something I otherwise would not. I've simply moved onto hoping to exploit my lactose intolerance, which seems to vanish while I'm pregnant. If a delicious milkshake or a coffee topped with whipped cream doesn't put me into labor then I guess nothing will.

After putting the girls to bed several hours ago I went into the baby's closet and removed all the outfits that were intended for very hot days. I doubt Ellie's old sunsuits will be needed. I left a few short sleeved dresses and outfits in the closet, but all the sleeveless items are out. The realization that this baby will not be here for even a single day in September had finally sunk in.

Plans for today include going to two soccer games, possibly going for a hayride to pick pumpkins, and hopefully restocking all the food and household items I stocked up on three weeks ago in anticipation of the baby's arrival that are now gone or almost gone.

Small Successes-September 29th

2011-09-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

Major FAIL edition
I know that Small Successes is supposed to list some of my small accomplishments from the past week, but I'm not exactly feeling it today. Instead, I'm going to list some of the week's failures. Excuse me while I whine.

1. Last Thursday the plan one of the midwives and I had to strip my membranes, drink castor oil (did this 2Xs) and walk myself into labor didn't go as planed. Apparently, when there are snowstorms many couples find ways to occupy their time and the maternity floor where I will deliver was jumping. That meant that when I did go in late Thursday night with contractions 2 1/2 minutes apart for several hours they were in no rush to break my water and hasten the arrival of our little one. Since my cervix doesn't want to progress past 2 or 3 (depending on which midwife you talk to) I'm pretty much stuck.

2. I have spent the past week resting, making sure I'm eating plenty so I have lots of energy if I ever go into labor and trying just about everything to get this little one to come out. The stubborn baby has no intentions of coming out despite the fact that I have spent the past week having loads of contractions, many of them pretty regularly spaced, but not painful enough (because my water hasn't broken) for me to head to the hospital.

3. Finally on Thursday night last week I got my bag for the hospital packed. Because of this I've been down several key items from my wardrobe. Add this tidbit of information to the fact that I can no longer get food in my mouth without some of it hitting and staining my shirt and you can probably begin to imagine my frustration.

4. My appointment with the earthy crunchy midwife this Tuesday was a catastrophic fail. She isn't the least bit concerned that I want this baby to arrive by October 1st at the very latest. In NJ the school cut off date is October 1st. If the baby is born on October 2nd or after she won't start school until she's 5, almost 6. I don't buy any of the crap that redshirting a child for school puts that child at an academic advantage. There are plenty of articles that back up my line of thinking that holding kids back is actually to their detriment. I don't want my baby to have to spend a year in high school when she's a legal adult. I'd rather her be in college at that age. Bryan is telling me that we will find a way around the cut off date if she isn't here by Saturday.

Anyway, back to the appointment. This midwife is against intervening and breaking the bag of water. So if I go into labor and she's on call, she won't break my water which means I won't have the baby. I've never progressed past 3cm on my own. I'm currently 3, or 2 or a stretchy 2 or a good 2 1/2 depending on who you talk to. I also have a baby who's "really low, -2 station or -3 station" depending once again on who you talk to. Mind you all of these assessments were made within less than a week and some of the less promising ones were the more recent assessments. Can your cervix close up after dilating? If that's the case then we've taken a step back.

5. In an act of desperation, I tried to once again drink castor oil to see if we could get things moving. This time I failed horribly. Not only did I not get it down (it was cut with a 3:1 ratio of concentrate lime juice to the most vile oil on God's green earth) I also lost my breakfast on the kitchen floor. So much for not throwing up the entire pregnancy. Sigh.

I think it goes without saying that I'm pretty bummed that the baby hasn't made her appearance yet. I'm uncomfortable, I'm not sleeping well, and I'm growing increasingly more anxious about having her by the cut off date. Obviously my pleading prayers begging that I have this baby before October 1st are either not being granted or God's playing with me and is going to make me wait until 11:59PM on October 1st to actually have the baby who I suspect will probably be 15lbs by the time she arrives.

Rantings of a Still Pregnant Me

2011-09-26T13:44:00.000-04:00

It's official: I am the most pregnant I've ever been. I'm now at 38 weeks 1 day so I can't say that all of my babies come at 38 weeks on the nose. Sigh.

I've reached a point where I tired of being asked when I think I'll have the baby or if I've had the baby yet. Yes, people actually ask me while they're standing in front of me if I've had the baby yet. Wouldn't I have a belly that's a little less round if I had already delivered? If I walk outside and any of the neighbors are out I get questioned. And the phone? Well that's ringing off the hook these days with people calling to ask me if I've had the baby or am I in labor yet. The best, of course, is when people ask me when I think I'm going to have the baby. At this point, I'm leaning towards never. I'm fairly certain that she has no intentions of coming out.

Bryan's nervous Nelly demeanor has been turned way up. As if dragging me to the hospital on Thursday night when I didn't think I was having nearly enough pain for the contractions to do anything, he's now sitting on pins and needles waiting for me to go into labor. He agonized last night over whether or not he should go into the office today. Then he decided to wake up at 5:45AM, head into the office and come home early. So the alarm went off, woke me up and disturbed my much needed/wanted rest. When I got up at 7AM I discover Bryan standing in the kitchen. He got nervous about leaving me and decided to work from home instead. Had I known this I might have been able to sleep in this morning. I'm beginning to suspect that he will be working from home until the baby is born.

The house I worked hard to clean and put in order over the last couple of weeks has reverted to a mess. I'm not sure what happened, but no one besides me seems interested in picking up after themselves. I'm sort of at a point where I'm not willing to go into labor unless this house is clean.

Our new shower which was working nicely early last week began to leak a few days after it was completed. The drain skipped a thread or something and Bryan had to repair it again. It seems that the drain and the fittings for this drain are always a problem when it comes to this particular shower. All Bryan and I want is to have our shower back so we don't have to use the girls' bathroom.

Oh, and the rest I'm craving? I'm not getting that at all since people won't stop calling me to ask how I am or when I think I'm going to have the baby. At this rate, I'm not going to have her until I get enough sleep to make it through a middle of the night labor and have a clean house.

Rant over.

Book Review: I Used to Know That Geography

2011-09-23T17:51:00.000-04:00

After having had the opportunity to review Caroline Taggart's I Used to Know That, I simply had to check out I Used to Know That Geography. Unlike the original I Used to Know That, the geography version focuses only on geography making it a great go to reference book for geographical questions.

Inside this book you'll find all sorts of neat facts that you may or may not have learned in school. As I paged through this book I learned many things I never knew before, for example, this book explains why the ocean is salty. You would think having lived in a shore community as a child that I would have learned about this in school, but I didn't.

I found the book incredibly interesting and I suspect that teens through adults will think likewise. This book would be great to have on hand if you have children in school. While it would be best suited for middle and high school aged students to use on their own this book would also be useful for answering questions that primary students may have when they do units on geography in school.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by FSB Media in exchange for my honest review.

Strange Questions from L&D

2011-09-23T13:30:00.000-04:00

Last night won the prize for the strangest line of questions I've ever had. I've visited the labor and delivery unit of three different hospitals six times at this point. With Madeline I was there four times between pre-term labor and the real deal. Ellie, thankfully, was a one visit baby.

While I was at the hospital the nurse I had assigned to me had to go down a rather long list of questions. I was asked if I had electric and plumbing which sort of caught me off guard. I honestly don't know of anyone, except the Amish, who don't have electric. Then the strangest question came. The nurse asked for the name of my support person, who happens to be Bryan, and then asked if we were married or just related since we have the same last name. I couldn't help but ask if they get many incest couples at this hospital, because it seemed like such an odd question. The nurse proceeded to tell us that we'd be surprised at how many women bring their brother in as their support person. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to ask either one of my brothers if they'd like to be present at the birth of their new niece. No thanks. I'll pass and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even want to be there unless of course, they're looking for an excuse to gouge out their eyes afterwards.

I can't recall all the questions that were fired at me last night but there were more than a few that made me stop for a second and wonder if maybe I wasn't imagining them. All I had to do was look at Bryan's expression to know that I wasn't delusional. My sarcastic nature really wanted to answer some of the questions with off the wall responses, but I figured that wouldn't be a great idea.

Why yes, he is my brother and he's also the baby's father. He and I are just very close. Thanks for asking!

Quick Takes Volume 15

2011-09-23T12:21:00.000-04:00

~1~

After nearly a week of frantically cleaning the house in preparation for the baby's arrival, I have successfully worn myself out.

~2~

I have come to the conclusion that our elementary school likes to target children who attended private schools previously for basic skills instruction. Earlier this week we got a letter telling us that Ellie needed BSI for math and language arts. I don't think they liked it very much when I wrote them a letter and explained to them why my child who attended a school with an accelerated math program and stronger reading program does not and will not be placed in their BSI classes. After speaking with the one BSI instructor my blood was at it's boiling point. Sorry, but my kid can read well, and she not only did over 5 months of 1st grade math in kindergarten last year, but she has also been working her way through Seton's 1st grade math book since early June with absolutely no problems. It's stuff like this that drives me insane and makes me wish we had gone through with homeschooling for this year.

~3~

My hands and feet are swollen and puffy. Of course, convincing people of this hasn't been easy. Bryan can see that my feet look swollen, but nurses and midwives look at my feet and tell me they don't look swollen at all compared to other pregnant women. Sorry that I'm not as swollen as they are, but I'm also don't look as pregnant as they do either.

~4~

On Monday I went and saw a hand specialist about the mutant mystery lump that developed on my right thumb. The lump has been causing me joint pain. The doctor figured it was either a cyst or a benign lump. He took a crack at trying to aspirate the lump banking on it being a cyst. At first it seemed like the aspiration was a success but after the first day the lump has gotten bigger. Not sure if it's just a lump that's now swollen or if it's a cyst that has decided to grow more. Either way, my Quasimoto thumb is being stubborn.

~5~

Madeline is going to learn how to play the flute at school. I'm very happy that she's picking up an instrument that I loved playing when I was her age. The flute I learned on isn't exactly well tuned, and I wasn't comfortable handing my nice silver plated flute over to her. I found her a very affordable silver plated flute that not only got here in two days, but also plays very nicely. She's very excited to have a flute of her own. I hope that she sticks with it. We had her pay for half of it with some of her birthday money to ensure that she doesn't just abandon it.

~6~

I'd say Bryan is pretty anxious about me going into labor. Last night he was getting very concerned that I was having contractions every 2 1/2 minutes. I was fairly certain that they weren't doing anything, but he wasn't comfortable with how close and consistent they were. So we wound up at the hospital last night for a couple of hours. While there, I barely progressed and was given the option to go home which I happily took. He was so hopeful that we'd have the baby yesterday after the midwife stripped my membranes at my appointment. I had told him going into the appointment that I was doubtful that it would work. It just didn't have the feeling that yesterday was the day.

~7~

I'm trying to spend the day simply relaxing on the couch with my laptop. Since I seldom just sit still during the day this is not the easiest thing for me to do. I am at least getting some things accomplished. I've written three book reviews (one has yet to be posted), and I've updated the blog's FB page. And, of course, I've managed to do a little blogging.

Book Review: I Used to Know That

2011-09-23T11:02:00.001-04:00

Nerds such as myself will delight in Caroline Taggart's I Used to Know That. The hard cover book (also available in an e-book) is packed with lots of information you probably learned in school but have forgotten along the way.

This book is yet another from the Reader's Digest reference series. I'd say that while this book is geared to the adult reader, it would be a great reference book for older middle school students and high schoolers as well. The book covers a wide range of topic such as English, literature, math, science, history, geography and general studies. I found some of the sections rather engaging, particularly the history portion. The math section made my head hurt. Looking at much of what is in that section reminded me of what I used to know but have mercifully forgotten. Proof that ignorance can be bliss.

This would certainly be a fun book to have sitting on your bookshelf. You could read it simply to see what you have or haven't forgotten over the years.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by FSB Media in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: I Wish I Knew That

2011-09-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

I'm always looking to pour as much knowledge into my children as I possibly can, so I jumped at the opportunity to check out yet another book from the Readers Digest series of juvenile reference books. This time I had the pleasure of reading I Wish I Knew That Cool Stuff You Need to Know.

The hard cover book is chock full of fun facts and "cool stuff" that your middle school aged kid should know. The book covers the subjects of literature, history, music, grammar, geography, math, science and classics. It's the type of book that your child could read to learn a little something about which they may only know very little or nothing at all.

A middle schooler could easily read this book and find plenty of information to impress his or her teacher if the subject should surface in class. An adult could find this book equally informative. Perhaps you're not very well versed in art. This book will give you a very brief overview of the art world.

My only criticism of this book is the area which highlights a select few U.S. Presidents. This area has a decidedly liberal slant. A sizable section is dedicated to our current President, something which I think should not be added until his term as president has ended. The only modern Republican president featured in Richard Nixon, and the short blurb focuses only on the Watergate scandal leaving young readers to think that there was nothing else notable about this president. I was actually quite surprised that neither Reagan or G.W. Bush were included in the book.

Overall, I think this is a useful reference book to have on your middle schooler's bookshelf. He or she is bound to learn a few things from this book and be entertained along the way.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by FSB Media in exchange for my honest review.

No Baby Yet!

2011-09-23T09:10:00.000-04:00

We went to the hospital last night but I didn't make any real progress while I was there. In the two hours I was there I only dilated to 3cm (up from a "really stretchy 2"). Since I had been up since before 7am I opted to go home rather than stay at the hospital and wait and see if anything would happen. So Bryan and I spent a little over two and a half hours over at the hospital last night.

Bryan is rather disappointed that the baby didn't make her entrance. I'm hoping our next trip to the hospital will be far more productive.

After spending two hours there I've decided that this time around I'm probably going to labor in my own clothes. The gowns at this hospital leave much to be desired. I think I'd rather ruin something of my own than wear their gown.

Since my parents came up last night to stay with the kids, they got to do a trial run at getting them ready for school. I'd say it went well. Madeline made it to the bus on time and my mom and dad dropped Ellie off at school.

I'm planning to spend today relaxing. I'd like to see if I can get my swollen hands and feet to feel better.

Quick Update

2011-09-22T21:39:00.002-04:00

I just got off the phone with the midwife on call. I'll be heading to the hospital in an hour and a half. I've been having contractions that are 2 1/2 minutes apart for the past hour and a half so it's possible that I'll have the baby sometime in the near future.

Waiting

2011-09-22T11:33:00.000-04:00

I just got back from my appointment with my midwife. Apparently, I'm no more dilated now than I was two weeks ago. So I'm a very stretchy 2cm and 60% effaced. She stripped my membranes with hopes that it will put me into labor. At this point we're just waiting to see if anything happens.

I'm hopeful that I'll start having contractions soon like I did with my other two after having my membranes stripped. Timing is quite good for me to have a baby today. That would leave only one school day of my parents having to look after them and I should be home before school starts on Monday. I'm hoping things will get moving and fall into place. Any prayers you can spare would be appreciated. I'd be really happy if I could be holding our new baby girl in my arms sometime before the end of today.

Small Successes-September 22nd

2011-09-22T07:25:00.000-04:00

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. The house is clean and dusted. The laundry is also done.

2. My first class with my new kindergarten religious ed students went well. This is my biggest kindergarten class since teaching VBS where I had 28 children this age. Instead of the typical class of 8 like I have had the past couple of years, this year I have 17 children in my class. I like having a full class, but I need to rethink some of my craft ideas or pull in an extra pair of hands when I do certain crafts. I'm very excited about this year.

3. I managed to write one of the book reviews that I was hoping to get done before today. One out of many isn't too bad, right?

4. I finally made a birth plan and actually brought it to my midwife last Friday. I've been meaning to do that for a while.

5. Not that I had any control over it, but I tested negative for group b strep. This means I don't have to rush to the hospital to get hooked up to an IV for antibiotics when I'm in labor. This also means I shouldn't meet too much resistance from the pediatrician when I request to go home 24 hours after the baby's birth. At least, I hope this is the case. Based on conversations with the midwives, I should be able to get out of there quickly since there's no group b strep involved. I'm praying they're right. I don't want to spend a minute more in the hospital than I have to.

6. I finally ordered a baby book for the baby and thanks to Amazon's prime shipping it arrived a day or two ago. That's a good thing considering that it's possible that I'll have the baby sometime today or tomorrow depending on whether or not stripping my membranes sends me into labor at my appointment today.

7. I have a list of things I need to pack for the hospital. In no way does this indicate that I have actually packed a bag. I do have some things I'm going to pack sitting in the bassinet, but I don't have anything packed. I did buy some cute new pj pants to wear while I'm ~~held hostage~~ staying in the hospital.

Book Review: Why am I Here?

2011-09-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

Matthew Kelly's Why am I Here? is a sweet children's book that answers a big question in a simple yet profound way. The story's main character is a young boy named Max. In the story, Max wants to know why he is here. It's a question just about all of us have asked at one point in time or another. The answer Max gets is that he is here to become the best version of himself.

Throughout the story we see how Max works hard to become the best version of Max that he can be. Children who are read this story will see that sometimes things that we do things that aren't the best versions of ourselves and we should try not to do those things. Children will also learn that we're not here to try to be someone other than ourselves.

Overall, it's a very nice story with a message that will resonate with young children.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. You can learn more about Why am I Here? by visiting The Catholic Company. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.