Haiku… no… Hiatus

I took a long break
There was no time for writing
But I am back now

We got sick.

Then we got better.

Then my family came for Christmas.

Then we got sick again.

And during all that we had a situation with a friend that we had to deal with.

Then Russ left for a Chinese course.

The situation is taken care of (well, it’s out of our hands now).

And we’re getting better. Hopefully. That or we’re just passing the “sicky bugs” back around again. Let’s hope it’s the former.

I’ve been drinking lots of garlic syrup (dice a few cloves of garlic, soak it in a cup of apple cider vinegar for 24 hours, strain, store in a – glass – container in the fridge. Take a few tablespoons each day. I’ve been taking 6-10 tablespoons a day. I WANT TO GET BETTER, DANG IT!)

I’ve been watching lots of Psych. The kids have been watching lots of Wonder Pets, Backyardigans, and Yo Gabba Gabba. Thank you, Netflix. I am sorry your stock has dropped drastically. You are a great service, but you made some really dumb business mistakes. Just sayin’.

I plan on doing a lot more blogging – I moved my computer to the basement/family room/play room, so I can blog while the kids play! Okay, I know, I should probably be playing with them… but I have been alone with the kids – mostly sick – for the past two weeks almost… and it is MAKING ME CRAZY.

I love my kids, really, I do – but… I need my husband. A lot.

I posted on some of the other blogs, too, so go check those out.

Backyard Campout

We love camping. A lot. You wouldn’t know because we haven’t really ever been camping since we were married (other than the summer we spent in a cabin at Scout Camp – which was pretty much the most adventurous thing we have ever done).
Memorial Day weekend this year (2011) was the perfect opportunity for us to head out on a long awaited adventure. We were going to do it. It was going to be a blast. Then we looked at our budget. There was no way we could pay for a campground and gas to get there and still be able to pay the bills. Being the responsible (HA!) grown-ups we are, we decided to have a backyard campout.

It ended up being perfect. The weather was fine (a little cold, but hey, camping out is about roughing it, so that was perfect). Our backyard was mostly a big level area of dirt, perfect for pitching a tent. So pitch a tent is what we did. Then we started up a fire and cooked tinfoil dinners, then roasted marshmallows for S’mores, and then stayed up late into the night eating horrible snacks around the campfire, simply enjoying one another’s company. Then we piled into our little tent (we have got to upgrade before we go on a real campout) and spent the night enjoying the outdoors in our backyard. Doc stood guard over the campsite. And then slept in the tent with us. That sweet dog. We really like him!
Because I have lots of pictures about this campout, and not much to say, I have included recipes of the evenings food for your camping enjoyment!

And remember, you don’t have to even leave your backyard to have an adventure! Camping can be super fun (and super cheap) if you just camp in your backyard. You can even invite a few neighbors over and pull out the guitar and ukulele (what we always did at family campouts) and sing some fun camp songs.  Don’t know any camp songs? Check out the LDS Young Women’s camp songs on the Church website. Or just do a Google search for camp songs. You won’t come up empty, I’m sure of it.
Tin Foil (aka “Hobo”) Dinnerspotatoes
carrots
onions
meat (ground beef, chicken, steak, whatever whets your appetite)salt
pepper
other seasonings as desired (we use seasoned salt and a little garlic powder – we love garlic!)butter
square pieces of tin foil
---------------------------Slice the veggies (potatoes, carrots, onions, and any other veggies you decided to use) very thinly. If desired, spray your tin foil with non-stick spray, then line with carrots, then potatoes, then onions, then meat, then layer it again, but backwards (onions, potatoes, carrots). Your meat should be surrounded on all sides by the veggies – otherwise your meat will get dry and your veggies will be crunchy. No one likes a hobo dinner that is crunchy. On each layer, sprinkle some of your seasonings, and add a little blob of butter.
Once you are finished layering your food, take two sides of the tinfoil and pull them together, forming a triangle with the tinfoil (your food is at the bottom of the tinfoil). Roll the top (where the ends meet) down until it is tight on top of the food. Then roll up the ends.
Throw your dinner on the hot coals. Let it cook about 5-10 minutes on each side (depending on the amount of veggies, etc). When it’s done, dump it all out on a plate and enjoy!
Campfire Cornenough ears of corn for everyone in your campsite (plus extras if you want to share with the neighbors) – do not shuck your corn
salt water
-------------------------------------Make a big bucket or bowl of cold salt water and soak your (unshucked) corn for a few hours (we only let ours soak for about an hour and a half, and that was fine). About five minutes or so after you put your Hobo dinners on the coals, set your unshucked ears of corn on the coals as well. Turn the corn constantly – every few minutes or so – until the husks start looking cooked. It probably will only take about 5 minutes to cook the ears of corn. Take them off the coals and let them cool for a minute (probably about as long as it takes you to unwrap your Hobo dinner). Pull the husks down, but leave them on the corn – no need for ear holder things, just hold the husks. Smother your cob of corn in butter and salt, and enjoy!


S’moresAs if I need to post this recipe.name brand graham crackers (I’ve tried store brand, and unless they are different, store brand crackers are too crumbly to squish the marshmallow – our favorite brand is Honey Maid, but you use whatever you like – or have a coupon for)Hershey’s chocolate (again, a place you should not skimp when it comes to S’mores)Large Marshmallows (here, doesn’t matter what the brand is. But we tried these chocolate swirl marshmallows a while ago – WHOO HOO they were yummy)------------------------------------------------
   Take a whole graham cracker and break it in half. Place three squares (more if you like) of chocolate on one of the crackers. Place the marshmallow on a roasting stick. Hold it over the coals, turning constantly. Don’t worry that it doesn’t brown up all at once – the key to a perfectly brown marshmallow is to be patient, and turn it constantly. Once the marshmallow is all goldeny-brown, lay it (using the roasting stick) on top of the chocolate cracker. Take the other cracker and smash it down on top of the marshmallow. Slowly pull the roasting stick out of the marshmallow. This is the perfect way to make a S’more with the least amount of stickiness.

 

Ultimate Mothering Success

Vincente just woke up from his nap crying, and I could tell he needed to go pee. When he got on the potty, I realized that he had peed a little bit in his undies, but he woke himself up to go pee! And then, he went back to his nap!

He has been dry for the past week or so, but we still make him wear a Pull-Up to bed (mostly because I hate changing pee sheets every morning – especially now that he sleeps in a full bed).

I feel like this is a huge step toward dry nights and dry naps!

I could not feel better as mother as I do right. Not that it has anything to do with me – but it’s just one less thing I have to worry so much about!

Happy Hump Day

Is it Wednesday already? I am so ready for the weekend – probably because it is General Conference weekend.

I hope that I didn’t offend anyone with my breastfeeding post. I was just feeling kind of strongly about it at the moment.

I dreamt last night that I gave birth to a little baby boy who weighed about 7.5 lbs. He was beautiful, and I breast fed him. And Christy (my sister) was there with me at the birth instead of Russ. And I didn’t even have to push him out. Ha ha ha. That was probably the part that gave it away as a dream!

Not sure if it means anything (I am not pregnant – and not trying to be pregnant). Just thought I’d share. It was kind of a crazy dream. And at first he wasn’t crying (he was doing that silent cry that really really made babies do) but then he suddenly started crying, and that’s when I woke up (around 1:30 a.m.) to hear Joseline screaming in her room.

So we spent nearly the entire night trying to calm a freaked out two-year-old. Several prayers, songs, water bottles, and snuggles later, she was asleep. But I think she’s going to need a serious nap.

Monday Musings – Things that Matter Most

There are things that matter, and things that matter most. Being showered, dressed, and looking nice? Sure that matters. But if it takes away the time I get to play with  my kids, I’d rather be wearing my jammies all day and playing Star Wars with my 3 year old in his undies, and my baby in her diaper.

Because that matters more than getting dressed in the morning.

Especially when we’re all sick.

Monday Musings – A House of Order

Sometimes this is what my life feels like. Messy with little bits of life strewn all over. I’ve been doing pretty well keeping my life and house in order, but the weekend was pretty crazy (thanks for coming, all you who came to warm our house!) and I felt like I was getting further and further behind on life – leaving little scattered pieces of life lying around for people to step on. It was tragic.

Thanks to my sweet husband, he picked up all the scattered pieces and delicately put them back together for me, while I slept most of the weekend off. It was great.

Then we had an uplifting evening with some new friends on Sunday, and today had Family Home Evening – a beautiful lesson about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (the Godhead). We sang the First Article of Faith song (in Portuguese – Regres de Fe) and we’ll sing it every day for the rest of the month, and hopefully Vincente will learn to recite the first article of faith himself. We’re going to make a sticker chart to “pass off” the articles of faith as we learn them (everyone, me, Papai, Vince, and Joss). We’re going to learn one a month, starting with the first this month (since it’s such a short article of faith, and the month is over half done, we figured it was a perfect time to start, instead of waiting until January – “New Years” resolutions can be made at any time of the year, in my book!)

So, now that the house is mostly back in order, and I got 8 full hours of sleep last night (plus a 1 1/2 hour nap! Which I wasn’t planning on taking...) I think I will be able to keep the little bits of my life from getting too scattered.

And Family Home Evening always puts me in a good mood – especially when they are followed with conversations like this:

Me: Vince, does Heavenly Father have a body like ours?
Vince: Yup.
Me: Does Jesus Christ have a body like ours?
Vince: Yep he does.
Me: What about the Holy Ghost? Does he have a body like ours?
Vince: Except, he don’t.

Love it. He soaks stuff up like a sponge (and I’m extra impressed, because FHE was entirely in Portuguese – which means he understands more than we think he does!).

What kinds of things throw your life off track? Do you ever feel like you’re leaving bits of your life strewn around? How to you clean up and get back on track? Do you have a sweet husband (or good friend) who helps pick up after you when you can’t seem to hold it all together?

“Es-kah-pey” (funny, it’s spelled just like ‘Escape’)

Name that movie.

Last night, after putting the babies to bed, I heard Vincente and Joseline... Joseline? ... coming up the stairs. Wait a minute.... Joseline was in her crib. My first thought, “Maybe Vincente helped her out.”

Put her back in bed and found her pack and play full of pillows and blankets (from Vince’s bed). Okay, she climbed up all the pillows and got out. Fine.

Fast forward to this morning.

Julia dropped off her twins, and we came upstairs because Vince and Joseline were still sleeping.

I hear someone at the bottom of the stairs. Vince, surely, has heard the girls, and has come to play with them.

Joseline?! What!?

So now I’m curious to see how she gets out of her bed. I go back to put her in her bed, and Vince is still asleep. Okay, fine, no accomplice. She’s a malandra all by herself.

I coaxed her to get out so I could get some pictures. Halfway through, she got stuck, but fortunately all her fussing woke Vincente up, who willingly obliged.

Here’s to hoping my not even 17-month-old malandra doesn’t make this a habit.

*me making a grumpy face*

My Wonderful, Fabulous, Amazing, Very-Good Day!

Today I woke up at 5am.

Did some stretches (i.e. Yoga… it felt great) (did I tell you that my quads feel as if they have been mauled? More about that later… ),  studied the scriptures, blogged a bit, went for a three mile run, did some laundry, took the kids to story time, checked out books from the library, ate lunch, played with the kids outside, went to the chiropractor (really needed that!), ate Coldstone ice cream with my sweetheart (the best part was being with my sweetheart), did some more laundry, made dinner, had FHE with the babies, tutored for an hour, and now… I am going to get in my jammies and snuggle with my sweetie again while we watch a movie.

What a great day!

What did you do today?

My New Normal v 2.1

My new normal includes how our eating habits are changing - we're doing a not-very-strenuous cleanse for the next two weeks. Mostly it is simply no salt, no sugar, no dairy and no carbs/grains (besides veggies and fruits). We eat a lot of white meat (chicken and turkey), beans, and veggies, with some fruits. Lots and LOTS of water. In two weeks when we do go back to eating carbs, they will all be whole grain (well, most of them... I like white pitas better than whole wheat ones, and it may take us a while to get back into the whole grain pasta thing. For a while we were eating whole grain pasta... we'll see). And when we do start eating carbs, it will be like 1-2 servings a day. Once I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I'll do more servings of whole grains.

Anyway, so as far as schedule goes, it hasn't changed a lot. I think we're getting pretty well into a routine:

6:30am - wake up, fix Russ and me breakfast, fix Russ' lunch, go back to sleep if babies are still sleeping

when Vince wakes up - feed him breakfast

If we're running errands that day, we usually leave after I've nursed Joseline and Vince has had breakfast. If we're staying home, then as soon as Joseline goes to sleep for her morning nap, I straighten up the house, and then Vince and I play - if it's a good day, I try to get us outside, otherwise we just play inside with his toys.

12:30 or 1ish - lunch for me and Vince

2pm - Naptime for both babies

5:30 - start dinner

6:30 - eat dinner

After dinner - family time!

8:30pm - Vincente's bedtime

9:30pm - Joseline's bedtime

11pm - our bedtime

So there it is. I think this is the final version of My New Normal for now. But in a few months, Joseline will start going to bed earlier, and I'm sure shortly after that Vincente may start giving up his nap, but we'll see. Hopefully he's going to be one of those kids who naps until they're 5... HA. Only if i strap him to his bed.

My New Normal v 2.0

I realized that I haven't been updating you on my new normal lately - and I think it's because thing are moving more smoothly for us these days. And on top of that, I'm crazy busy with two kids all the all the Dr's appointments and play dates and grocery shopping! Whoo! It's enough to make you feel crazy.

Anyway, here is the normal lately:

7:00 - Russ leaves for work, Vince is up, I hopefully sleep a little longer while Vince watches a show that Papai lovingly started for him

eventually - I get out of bed, get breakfast for me and Vince

Around 9ish - try to take a shower and get ready

10ish - run errands while Joseline sleeps peacefully in her infant carrier

12:30-1ish - lunch with Vince

2pm - nap time for BOTH babies, maybe a quick snooze for me, and then chores or something

6pm - Russ gets home from work - DINNER and FAMILY time! That has been the highlight of our day for the past little while - having family time after dinner. On Wednesday we jumped on the trampoline, then gave the babies baths. Yesterday we all worked out - Russ did push ups and sit ups, I did arms and crunches. Vincente danced to the workout music, and he and Joseline attempted to mimick our jumping jacks. It was hilarious. I should have taken a video. Joseline was the best - sitting in her little bouncey seat and when we would do jumping jacks, she would start waving her arms and kicking her little legs like she was doing them, too! It was adorable.

8:30pm - Vincente gets ready for bed

9:00pm - Vincente should be sleeping, or laying in his bed trying to sleep, but lately he's been coming out of his room, since he just realized he knows how to open his door and it works ANY time of the day, not just when he wakes up in the morning... unfortunately he likes trying out his newfound skill at bedtime, so he won't stay in his room. We're working on it, using the silent return to sleep. Poor little guy just wants to open his door.

after Vince is in bed, Russ studies, I watch an episode of Bones or House or Without a Trace (if Russ has no HW and doesn't want to study, we watch Bones together)

11pm - our bedtime, as long as Joseline is already alseep or is ready to go to sleep with us. 

So there it is, the NEW new normal. Joseline's sleep schedule still isn't completely normal, so that throws things off. Give it a few more months and things will settle down.

I think I'm going to start a food blog. Next week Russ and I are going to do a cleanse (mine will be somewhat modified, since I'm still breastfeeding) so having a meal blog will be a good way to keep track of what we're eating.

The new normal is looking very very good :)

sleep, glorious sleep

I think Joseline is finally figuring out the whole day/night thing. She still has her evening "fussy time" as I call it, but yesterday it happened earlier in the day - which means bedtime ends up being earlier! (and I'm hoping it will do the same today!). She's starting to be more alert when she's awake, and sleep less easily during the day (i.e., she doesn't guarenteed fall asleep in the car on the way somewhere. She may nod off, but will wake right back up when we get wherever we're going. Last night she fell asleep at 8:30, stirred around 9:30 (i.e., woke up, sort of) - I was able to soothe her back to sleep without picking her up! She slept until 6am, with a feeding around 2am.

I'm hoping this will continue tonight. So far things are looking okay!

Now, I'm no expert on newborn sleep, but I've been reading a lot about sleep, and looking specifically ways to teach your newborn how to sleep. Unfortunately, because babies aren't usually developed enough to figure out the sleeping thing until after 6 weeks, most sleep books say just that - "Your baby will probably not learn how to sleep well until after 6 weeks, so don't worry about it now." Okay, so they don't say it just like that, but basically, that's what all of them are saying. Most books on sleep training don't even give any practical advice until your baby is around 4 months old. So I have been scouring every bit of reading material for things to do to help your newborn sleep well - because I believe that you can at least do something. Most sources had one or two good ideas, but none of them had enough to give you an arsenal of ways to get your baby to sleep. I think hitting them with everything you've got is usually the best way to go.

First, before I continue - three very important points to convince yourself of. Do whatever it takes to really REALLY believe these three things, and you will save yourself a lot of frustration and tears:

• Newborn babies are not really sleep-trainable until six weeks after their due date (now, before you get all discouraged, READ ON!)
• There are some things you can do to try to help your newborn's sleep organization mature a little faster - just don't hang all your hope on it.
• The term sleeping through the night, for a newborn (i.e. younger than 4 months) is 4-5 hours.

Okay, now that you've got that through your head, here are the things to do to help your newborn sleep through the night earlier (while these things may not necessarily work right now, be assured that they will eventually help - and if you get used to doing them now, you may avoid problems later):

• Turn on the lights/open the blinds during the day (when the sun is shining), and when the sun goes down, keep the lights low (or off) where your baby is in the house. It's really tempting to keep the lights on in the evenings when you wish your baby would go to sleep, but she's not, so you're up doing things like the dishes, watching a movie, playing on the computer, etc while you wait for baby to decide to go to sleep. I'm not saying doing these things are bad - just try doing them without the lights on (okay, doing the dishes will probably be kind of hard). This will help baby adjust faster to light=daytime, dark=nighttime. Remember, baby just game from 24hr darkness, so the more you can do this, the faster baby will figure out the light/dark thing. I think this is the most effective idea I found.
• Keep stimulating activities to a minimum after "bedtime." You get to decide what "bedtime" is - Since I would eventually like Joseline to be going to be around 9pm, that is what I call "bedtime." The most surprising thing I found out about stimulating activities is that eye contact is a stimulating activity for babies! Making eye contact with a baby causes their pupils to dilate, raises their heart rate, and all that other crazy stuff. So, no eye contact with baby after the time you want them to fall asleep.
• Put your baby in his/her bed to sleep. This idea was from The No-Cry Sleep Solution. I didn't have any problem with this, but her experience convinced me that this is pretty important - she always let her baby sleep in her arms during the day, and so her babies wouldn't sleep in their cribs at night since they just wanted to sleep in her arms. So, the best way to get baby to sleep in his/her bed at night is to...? You guessed it - let him/her sleep in his/her bed! So during the day, for naps, make sure your newborn naps in his/her bed.
• Try to soothe without picking them up after you've laid them down to sleep. It makes sense. Just let them lay in the crib/cosleeper/bassinet/whatever and try to get them to go back to sleep without picking them up. It worked last night for me, I'll let you know if it keeps working.

So, I think for newborns, those are the key ideas. There's not much else you can do for your newborn (and remember, Joseline is only 3 weeks old, so by newborn I mean REALLY newborn). After 6 weeks, basically any sleep book will have good advice for helping your baby develop good sleep habits. Most people don't give advice for how to help your newborn sleep through the night starting from day 1, so this is the list of what I have found that is really newborn sleep advice.

Oh yes, and one more piece of advice - make sure your husband is as convinced as you are of the first three facts (mostly the one that says pretty much no matter what, you can't expect your newborn to sleep through the night until after 6 weeks).

wishin' and hopin'

Joseline is sleeping really well at night... she's just still 3 weeks old. I guess I shouldn't expect too much. For a 3 week old, she sleeps really well. My only complaint with all the sleep books I've been reading is that they all say that newborns can only handle being awake for about 2 hours at a time, then they need to sleep. Well, that's a bunch of bull, because for some reason, Joseline can handle being awake for 3-4 hours in the evening. Crying the whole time unless we're holding her and bouncing her and walking around. The surprising part to me is that she doesn't fall alseep, and if she DOES start to close her eyes, she wakes up right away. She won't even really sleep in our arms. 

During the day she follows the predicted pattern for newborns - awake for 1.5 - 2 hours, asleep for a few hours, up for a few hours, alseep for a few hours. So I just can't figure out why she won't fall asleep at night. Once she does fall asleep, she's out for good - all night long. The problem is she won't completely fall alseep until midnight. Which I guess is okay, but it's not like she'll let me do anything for the several hours she's awake (from about 8pm til midnight). She wants to be held and rocked - but sleep?! HA! Preposterous! (that's what's going through her head, I'm sure). She fights and fights and fights sleep at night. I can tell she needs to sleep - her eyelids are all droopy, her eyes roll back in her head, she's really mellow - but actually falling asleep is out of the question. I'm convinced that she's fighting sleep... but a 3 week old, fighting sleep? I know that can be normal once babies become more social around 6 weeks... maybe Joseline's just socially advanced?

We have a bedtime routine, I've tried keeping her up during the day (which just results in an overtired baby who won't sleep at night at all - I'm not doing that one again), I've tried making sure she doesn't nap for longer than about 2 hours at a time, she naps in a room with plenty of sunlight, but still calm and quiet so her nap sleep is good quality. She's well rested during the day (and in the morning, when she finally wakes up). I nurse her right before "bedtime" - by "bedtime" I mean the time at night (usually around 8:30-9pm) when I notice her drowsy signs and I start trying to soothe her to sleep. Yeah. It doesn't work. She doesn't fall asleep. Even if she falls alseep nursing, she won't stay asleep (and she's not used to nursing to fall asleep, because that's not how she falls alseep for naps... so it's not the whole "put baby down when drowsy but awake" thing, because she falls asleep fine for naps without nursing). 

I'm almost ready to resign myself to the fact that she will just be fussy at nights and go to bed a midnight (this has been basically what's happened ever since she was born). And then she'll sleep fine all night long (she'll sleep until 5 or 6am, and then go back to sleep until I wake her up at 8am). All the books I've read and all the advice I've seen says that babies just don't have the mental development to sleep correctly until they are six weeks old. So three more weeks of this, and then hopefully she'll start sleeping earlier.

I don't remember having problems with Vincente sleeping at night... but then, that was 2 years ago... you forget a lot that long. I know Vincente was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks. Ha, so I guess he didn't even start sleeping the 4-5 hour stretch at night until he was 4 weeks old. I guess Joseline's already working out better than that, so I shouldn't complain. And after that, we never had sleep problem with Vincente (until the nap problems that I've been solving recently - and those are all but history!).

I guess there is hope, and the end is in sight for the earlier bedtime for Joseline. If I can just hold on to what's left of my sanity for the next few weeks, I know things will get better.

less TV, more fun

Now that I'm settling into my "new normal," I have decided that it's time to get back into a routine of actually playing with Vincente. I used to be really good, and then I got hugely pregnant, and then overdue, and then had a baby, and I've been letting Vincente watch a lot more TV than I really should. So, from now on, he gets to watch TV until Joseline takes a nap in the morning - then, it's time to do something more exciting and stimulating! I've put together two lists - things to do inside, and things to do outside. That way, if it's too cold/windy/rainy outside, we'll have things to do inside. I only made my list because it's easier to remember all the fun things to do together if you write them down. I've discovered that boredom leads to boredom - when you're bored, it's a lot harder to find fun things to do. It's like the creative part of your brain shuts down. So I made my lists so that I will have no excuse. After Joseline goes down for a morning nap, I'll check my list and engage Vincente in something much more exciting than watching Cars over and over again (or The Land Before Time). This is actually a really good idea, because he only likes all the PBS shows that come on before Sesame Street. He doesn't like Sesame Street. Sometimes he'll watch Elmo's world at the end (because he loves Elmo) but only for a few minutes. It's odd. He likes Clifford, LOVES Super Why, and Curious George. He'll sometimes watch Sid the Science Kid, but that's an iffy one, too. 

So, starting tomorrow (because it's already the afternoon... and it took him FOREVER to fall alseep for his nap) we'll have less TV and more fun. It'll be better for me, too. Then I'll do chores while both babies are sleeping. I think Vince had such a hard time going down for a nap today because we hadn't done anything today :-p So from now on, our mornings are going to be nice and stimulating!

My New Normal v 1.2

I haven't been posting my New Normal lately because I have been way busy with everything else going on and trying to post pictures from birthday parties and such. So anyway, here is a conglomeration of the past two days of "normalness" -

8am - Joseline wakes up (it varies between 8-9am)

get Vince breakfast, nurse Joseline

get myself breakfast, nurse Joseline again

around 10am - Joseline goes down for a nap!

while Joseline is napping, I usually find time to get myself ready for the day, do a few chores, and some days (like today) blog a little bit

12am - lunch for Vince, feed Joseline when she wakes up from her nap (morning nap is usually only about an hour long)

1pm - get Joseline down for afternoon nap

after Joseline is down, get Vincente down for afternoon nap (read my post about getting Vincente to go down for a nap - it's getting sooo much better)

while the babies nap - take a little 30min-1hr nap, do some chores, blog, read a book (thanks to the library I have some pretty good reading material now!)

after nap - feed Joseline, play with Vince, hang out around the house

5:30pm - start dinner (I've realized that I have to start making dinner a little earlier than I used to so I can take a break to nurse Joseline if needed)

6:30pm - dinner

7:30pm - start Vincente's bedtime routine

8:00pm - Vincente bedtime

get Joseline down (around 9-11, although if we don't go to bed with her, guarenteed she'll wake up - she'll sleep fine out in the living room while we watch a movie, but will not for the life of her sleep in her bassinet alone. Sometimes at night she won't even sleep in her bassinet - she wants to be on the bed between the two of us - I've even tried putting a piece of my (worn) clothing in her bed with her, so she can smell me, but that didn't even work)

Last night, Joseline went to sleep at about 8:45pm. We put her down in her bed, and around 9:15 she woke up. We were watching Die Hard 4, so Russ went and got her, I nursed her for a little bit, and around 10pm, she fell asleep in her bouncy chair while we finished the movie. We put her in her bed around 11pm, and she mostly stayed asleep until 4am (by mostly stayed asleep I mean she made some noises in her sleep around 11:15, and we thought she was waking up, but she didn't wake up). I nursed her at 4am, but she wouldn't go back to sleep. Russ rocked her for a little bit and sang to her, but she still wouldn't go back to sleep. Finally around 5am, I nursed her a little more (laying down) and I guess she went back to sleep because I didn't wake up again until 8:45am when Vincente showed up climbing into my bed (Joseline happened to be awake, too!). So all in all, I'd say I got a pretty good amount of sleep last night.

I feel like I'm getting used to how things are. I'm starting to get a little more solid sleep most nights, I'm mostly able to work out the nursing with doing other things during the day (grocery shopping, going to the insurance office to get a new car insurance policy, visiting friends, park day, going to the Farmer's market, etc). It's nice not to feel so trapped at home becuase I can't get myself and two kids ready and nurse Joseline enough to get out of the house. Now I can and it feels amazing. If I plan it just right, we can do anything, and enjoy it, too. Yesterday I was able to get both kids their naps, go out to the insurance office, and in the evening go to the Farmers' market - our family and another family from the ward. It was awesome. Then Vincente went right to bed, and Joseline slept all night. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

And I'm starting to get used to the fact that for some reason, Joseline has a really hard time staying asleep at night. If I put her down for a nap, she's out like a light and stays out for her whole nap (about 1 hour for the morning nap, about 2-3 hours for afternoon nap, and about 2 hours for an evening nap around 4pm). But when she's ready to go to bed at night, she can usually fall alseep, but won't stay asleep. Really not sure what to do about that. Maybe it will just work itself out as she gets older (that's what the sleep books say).

sleepy house

Nap time today was wonderful. 

Vincente fell asleep on the couch watching Monsters, Inc. I don't really endorse using the TV for a babysitter or to put him down for a nap, but his shows have sure been life savers this past week. Figuring out how to take care of a two year old and a newborn at the same time has been a very... interesting experience for me. By that I basically mean it's the hardest thing I've ever done.

     

Joseline fell asleep easily after nursing for a while (she's actually really awesome - she falls asleep AFTER she nurses... most of the time. Sometimes she's falls asleep while she's nursing, but so far if she's sleepy we've been able to get her to sleep without nursing. It's awesome!)

      

The best part about nap time today was that I got a nap, too. Only about an hour, but I didn't have a nap yesterday, and if there's one thing I've been needing this past week, it's naps. I've decided that starting tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going to get back to normal life. I think I've got a good handle on how to do the two kids at once. Right now, with her nursing so often, it takes a little more time than usual. In a few months, when she doesn't nurse as often, things should be a little easier. But I can do it now. In fact, I may even stop by the part for a little bit tomorrow after Joseline's check up. And on Friday I think I'll actually take Vincente to our playgroup at ACS. I just really feel like I need to get back into my normal activities. It just seems like I don't have enough time in the day because I'm always nursing. And it's hard to do things when Joseline's awake... and hard to do things when she's asleep (unless Vince is asleep, too).

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow...

The Weekend is Here!

It is finally the weekend, and after three days of taking care of myself by myself, I am being allowed to just lounge in my bed and do absolutely NOTHING (although I volunteered to fold laundry as it gets clean - that's something I can do from my bed, so I don't mind).

This morning I slept in until 9 (Joseline slept from 10pm-9am with only TWO feedings - and I had to wake her up for the first one, otherwise I have no idea how long she would have slept!!!) and I had to wake her up at 9 to eat again - she probably would have slept for another hour or so had I let her. When we finally woke up, Russ came in to get me breakfast, and then I fed Joseline. Then the two of us sat on the bed folding laundry, blogging, and facebooking until now. Now I am going to go take a shower (Joseline is napping - hooray! She's such a good sleeper!!) and get ready to go to the Wilde's Kabob-eque. Staying inside all week has been making me crazy, so I'm excited to go out for some low-key fun. We'll just chill at their house for a while, eat lunch, then come home and I will rest some more. I love resting, and I love my baby, and I love love love my sweet Russ who is taking such good care of me!

I'll probably post some more pictures this evening after our fun little get together at the Wilde's. What else do I have to do? :) I'm going to watch a few movies, too. Yay relaxing... it is soo nice, and my body soooooo needs it.

Quickie

I haven't written in a while, and I always hate that. Sorry, no pictures to go along with this post - although my camera is holding a few pics of Vince reading on the potty (adorable, let me tell you). I'll post those when I have enough time to sit down and let the pictures upload.

Potty Training - it's going well, we're mostly just putting him in pull-ups and telling him to "have a potty break" every 30 min. or so, and asking him if he needs to go potty. Usually, the answer to that is "NO!" although I think he's starting to say "No, thank you" since I've been redirecting that one. Earlier today when I asked if he wanted to eat lunch he said "NO! Thank you." Hee hee, self correcting is hilarious in little kids.

Baby #2 - I have my first OB appointment today in about an hour and a half. I'm going to go take a shower and get ready, since Vince fell asleep on the way home from the Presidio (we had to drop Russ off because it's a little rainy today). I'm really excited, but kind of anxious to find out how this little chickie is doing. I keep having Braxton-Hicks contractions. Mostly they happen in the morning, but any time is good for them. They are particularily uncomfortable, but as long as I just ignore them, they are bearable. It's a new experience for me, because I never really had Braxton-Hicks contractions with Vincente. The midwives would ask me every time and I would be like "My uterus does what?" Yeah... so I'm already feeling better about this baby's delivery. If I'm having Braxton-Hicks contractions, that means my body knows what the heck it's doing this time. Last time I think my body had no clue what was going on. So, we'll see.

Russ and school - he's doing pretty well. I'm trying to be supportive and let him study as much as he needs to. Some days are better than others, because some days I just want him to hang out with me and not study, which is completely selfish. Oh well. It'll be all good.

The mama - I am exhausted. Worn out. I wish I could sleep more. I don't sleep well at night (congestion from being preggo - starts at about 12 weeks for me and lasts the whole time), and having to pee. If Russ gets out of bed at ALL, I wake up, and then because I have to pee so badly, I can't go back to sleep unless I pull my achy, stiff body out of bed and go pee. So I do, and then I go back to bed, only to be awoken again when he gets up to go to work. Which is early. This morning, though, I completely slept through him getting up and getting ready! It was amazing. And then I had the fan on in my room, so I didn't hear Vincente at all until I got out of bed at 8 and went in to check on him. Of course he was just playing in his room. Sweet kid. I'm trying to keep the house clean, you know, do all the stay-at-home-mom stuff. Playgroup with the other RS sisters is a beautiful thing. Naps are wonderful... too bad those don't happen very often... in fact, I can't remember the last time I had a nap. *sigh* some day.

Anyway, this turned out longer than I thought it would, and I've gotta get ready to go, so yeah... hope you enjoyed the little updates.

TOMORROW!

I just got off the phone with the driver of our stuff... 

AND HE'S COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!

AAHAAHAHAHHAHAHA!!

Can you tell I'm excited?

ONLY ONE MORE NIGHT OF AIR MATTRESS MISERY!!

Okay... so yeah, that's all I had to say.

It's Official

My graduation, that is!

I officially passed all of my classes and will now be awarded a degree from BYU! (okay, first I have to pay them like $35 from the MFT fees, testing center late fees, etc... but that's just a matter of waiting for the next paycheck)

I did even better than expected in modern physics! Hooray! And passed complex analysis by the skin of my teeth. 

At least it's over. It takes a big load off, you know... being SURE that I'm finished! My GPA isn't what it could have been, but hey, finishing school with a kid and a husband away on military duty I think is a great accomplishment, no matter the GPA. And I'm DONE!

Sweet. 

Life is way good right now (as long as I ignore my aching hips and back from sleeping on leaky air mattresses...) 

Two more days until HHGs!! 

A Full Day

I was so very productive today - which makes me very happy, and helps the time pass. This morning, Vince and I took a shower, got ready for the day, then went up to the Army Community Services office to take a look at the "Lending Closet." It's this big room with shelves full of household good stuff you can "check out" while you're waiting for your own HHGs to arrive. Kind of like the central office at Heritage Halls at BYU - you can check out tables and pots and pans and stuff. So anyway, we got some cooking things, a pitcher, a table and some chairs, and a few futons for under our air mattresses (both mattresses are now leaky... so we end up sleeping closer and closer to the floor throughout the night... hopefully the futons will offset the leaky mattress-ness).

Then I went to the police department to figure out all the stuff I need to get Russ a vehicle pass for on the post. Turns out it will be easiest to get things done if Russ goes to the JAG office on the post and gets me power of attorney for him to "conduct his affairs" while he's in class (since his classes/study hall/PT time extend through business hours). Hopefully he'll be able to do that during his lunch break tomorrow, and then I'll be able to have ultimate power over his affairs!! Mua ha ha ha! Okay... yeah... so... Ha, on a more amusing note, since I bought our Highlander while he was at Basic, it is only registered in my name, which means in order for him to drive it (according to the military) I have to write a notarized letter that says I gave him permission to drive it. Cool, huh. Women have never been so liberated! ;)

After running a million errands around the old military post, I headed to our friends' house (the Saavedra's - fellow ARNG family) to use them for their washing machine and dryer. We were just about out of clean clothes (thanks to the fact that our HHGs are still making their way across the Western United States). Michelle was awesome to let me use her washer and dryer, and I was able to get most of my laundry done. Then she and I took Vincente up to the Old Monterey Farmers' Market. It happens every Tuesday from 4-8. We thought it started at 3, so we got there a little early and decided to walk around for a while. We stopped by the Monterey Maritime Museum and Visitor's Center and checked out what Monterey has to offer. Vince loved looking at all the boats. (I wish I had taken my camera with me on this trip! But I'm sure there will be many more like it!)

The Farmers' Market was GREAT! The best one I've EVER seen. So much fresh produce... and in JANUARY! Ha! Take that, snowbound Utahns!! I love the sun. By the time we got to the Farmer's Market, it was getting a little cold, and we didn't have sweaters or jackets (we hadn't needed them all day) but Vince was a trooper and stuck it out. In the end, he got a blue balloon bear. I ended up with fresh strawberries (delicious!!) and kiwis, and a few bell peppers, along with some homemade pitas and hummus. I was very pleased with my spoils.

The day doesn't even end there! After the Farmers' Market, we hit up the local Save Mart for more food. Since I got some pots and pans, I decided we would have spaghetti for dinner, and I planned out a nice menu for the rest of the pay period!

After grocery shopping, we came home to Russ, and OUR CHRISTMAS PACKAGES! The ones we sent from Arkansas - which included our Wii, Rockband, my Kitchenaid mixer, my scanner, and a bunch of toys Vincente got. After dinner we hooked up Rockband and rocked it out with our new band, the "Rowley Stones" - ha ha. Anyway, Vince enjoyed singing (for a while) and would give us all high-fives after each song. Then he decided he wanted to play the guitar, but that was about when bedtime rolled around.

Wow, just looking back on all this makes me exhausted! Tomorrow will be a mostly relaxing day. We're going to walk over to the next neighborhood (probably a 15-20 minute walk) and hang out with some sisters from the ward and their kids (playgroup at the park!). That's mostly all we have planned for tomorrow. On Friday, if it doesn't conflict with the pending delivery of our HHGs, Vince and I are going to go to a kids and parents playgroup at the Army Community Center - music games and singing and fun. Vincente loves that kind of stuff, so I hope he'll enjoy it. I haven't decided what I'll do on Thursday, but it will probably include a few more errands (like getting the parking registration for the car, etc). Tomorrow though, I have vowed to do NO errands and just enjoy hanging out with Vince. In the evening, Russ will probably go to a "conversation" study thing, and so will Michelle's husband (he's also studying Chinese), so we'll hang out with Michelle again.

At least I have a plan of how to get through the rest of this week.

I just hope I can make it through tonight on the air mattresses.... arg... last night was horrible. I felt like I was drowning in them, since they kept deflating... stupid air mattresses...

The only thing worse than sleeping on an air mattress is sleeping on an air mattress with a slow leak...