Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Zoo Outings

During the last part of July, I took the kids to the zoo on different occasions.  One time, the weather was absolutely amazing and quite mild for this time of year...and Tanja went with us! It was quite the adventure - and that is putting it nicely.  The second time went much better - thankfully!
 
I figured the zoo would be a fun adventure and fairly easy to do with all three kiddos.  I use the term "easy" very loosely! :)  Here is Katie!
Jack did alright in his stroller - he definitely wanted out pretty often.  Once we got to the alligator/fish part, I let him get out.  He loved the freedom!
I told him he had to either hold my hand or Sissy's hand - he chose her hand every single time :)
And here are the older two crazies with Tanja!
And I jumped into a picture too!
This little fella was the best behaved of all!  I love that outfit!
After playing with the goats in the petting zoo part, it was full meltdown mode for Katie.  She just couldn't pull it together to be a good listener and yikes.  Not good.   Which meant no carousel.  Enter another meltdown.
This dude was less than thrilled about getting back in his stroller after playing with goats.  Thank GOODNESS I brought fruit snacks and juice boxes for them!
Tanja hung out with Ryan while I took these two through the area inside where all the reptiles and spiders and fish are!  They love to look at everything in there!
 Like I said, the second time was much more of a success!  And I actually got some cute pictures before we left!  LOVE this one!
And I love this one too - a true action shot!  They both wanted to hold Ryan - he is so very loved!
Since behavior was so much better, we made a stop at the carousel before we left.  It was pretty toasty outside, so the kids had rosy cheeks for sure!  Love this sweet girl!
Jack loves the carousel but wanted me to keep my arm around him the whole time.  I certainly don't mind!
And I took a picture of this cutie once we got home and cooled off.  He was so good!
I can't wait to go to the zoo some more.  I do have a double jogger stroller I can use...or a sit and stand stroller.  Our garage is certainly like a parking lot for strollers, and I am thinking I may need to add one more (a double umbrella stroller) to the mix - yikes!  Any of those will be good for the zoo...especially ones that I can strap Jack into - he is on the move all the time!
 
 
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Friday, August 1, 2014

They're All Mine - For Better And For Worse

I am so glad I can take a step back and realize how lucky and blessed I am.  This summer, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have had all three kiddos by myself.  And it is slightly chaotic, but we survive!  Well, yesterday was the most trying of them all.  Katie wouldn't listen to save her life.  Jack is two and acting every minute of it.  And Ryan - thank goodness for his sweetness.  He started having little laughs when he smiled yesterday.  Sweet, sweet sounds.  But whew.  It was one thing after another...one of those days where I was literally counting down the seconds until bedtime.
 
But when it comes down to it, I have to remind myself that these kids are good kids.  Everyone has a bad day from time to time (note: it would be spectacular if Katie and Jack would try and time theirs on different days so as to not drive their mother insane.)  And while yesterday was insane, there were good, special moments too!
 
When Jack was napping, Katie and I did some art and practiced writing uppercase and lowercase letters (ya know, refreshing before Kindergarten starts) and her name (with the capital K and lowercase other letters).  And then we sat on the front porch for popsicles.  And then she watched a part of a movie while I fed Ryan.
 And this one - I mentioned he was starting to have some little laughs.  And they were precious and sweet and amazing.  Thankfully Ryan is a very sweet, low maintenance baby.  Now if we can just get rid of that middle of the night feeding, Mommy may have an extra bit of patience :) .... Note: This picture was taken almost a month ago.  My, oh, my he has changed!  He looked like a little squish here!
 And "acting his age" couldn't be more appropriate for this one.  He currently has two speeds: running and asleep.  And he is testing boundaries like crazy.  And if his freaking canine teeth don't hurry up and finishing coming through the whole way, we both may explode.  He didn't want to eat yesterday (which I know is fine - he isn't going to waste away...it is just frustrating).  And he was just naughty - eating crayons and not listening and all that jazz.  But there were moments of goodness (thankfully) - when he woke up from his nap, he gave me the biggest hug.  And on a few different occasions, he would walk over and extremely gently give Ryan a kiss on the head.  Sweet, wild child.  This picture is him to a tee - happy as can be and always on the move.
Most of the time, I paint a picture of pure happiness and all that at our house.  I just wanted to say that it isn't necessarily true.  I try to find the positives in each day.  And sometimes it is the whole day.  And then other days, like yesterday, I have to find little moments that made me smile.  And that's what gets me through.  But at the end of each day, I am so thankful and feel so blessed that each of these three calls me Mommy.  Brad and I are blessed enough to be able to be their parents.  Amazing.  Also?  Thank goodness a day is only 24 hours! :)


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Monday, December 30, 2013

And Now The Details of BC3...

Well, in case you missed my post a few days ago, yes I am pregnant!  It still feels so weird to say that.  Remember how I mentioned previously that I had to do fertility treatments to get pregnant with both Katie and Jack?  Well I thought there was no way (since my body typically prefers not to do the things it is supposed to do) that I could get pregnant on my own.  Imagine my surprise when I took this pregnancy test and saw that very solid vertical line!
Let me back up a little.  Without divulging way more information than you probably want or need to know, I will give the background :)  I had some spotting and then a few days later felt just ick after we ate dinner.  Brad joked and asked if I was pregnant and we both were like "there is no way!"  But the next morning, October 28, I had a test in the drawer and decided to just take it to be able to rule that situation out.  I peed on the stick, waited a few minutes, and looked at it.  Well I was really just looking at the window with the lines without noticing what means positive and what means negative.  When I finally compared, I was so confused.  I thought if the horizontal line was there, it meant positive (since the vertical line was so dark, I thought that was the control line).  So I ran downstairs to show Brad before he left to go to work with the instructions in tow.  We read the instructions and kept looking back and forth between the pictures in the diagram and the test itself.  And that is when it hit me.  "I think I am pregnant."  Holy cow.  There was definitely no denying that there was a plus sign on this test.
So while Katie was at gymnastics that morning, I went to Target and took a digital test in the bathroom there.  And it said pregnant as well.  AH! How in the world does this happen?!  Yes.  The old-fashioned way.  But holy crap!  Anyways, so I called my doctor's office and did a blood test to confirm (and also checked my progesterone level because with both kids it had been low and I needed to take a supplement).  Good thing I did - my levels were way low, so I started the supplement right away.
And the first time they tested my hcg level, it was in the 12,000 arena, and 48 hours later it was 19,000 or more.  Whew.  So I went in that Friday, the day after Halloween, for an ultrasound.  Now, keep in mind - going my the first day of my last period was not a good way to determine due date since I am so irregular.  So we are going solely based on ultrasound!  That Friday, I measured 5w5d and saw the heartbeat!  

So they had me come in a week later and I was measuring 7w1d and saw the heartbeat again!  So that gave me an expected due date of June 26, 2014, which is what the doctor went with.  And this is a picture of the little bean.  Absolutely a little miracle. 
And it was so funny - within a few days of finding out I was pregnant, I was so amazingly tired.  So lately, when the kids had preschool, I rested.  And when Jack napped at home, Katie and I get in my bed and watch shows (which means I nap).  I can tell that my energy level is slowly getting better, thankfully!  And I didn't get sick - except for having the stomach virus at 7 weeks.  It was awful.  Whew!  But I survived.  And as for food?  Sweets have sounded good.  And more snacking than regular meals.  Specifically the mint/chocolate combo - Andes mints, Mint Milano cookies...delish.  Oh, and this is awful - double cheeseburgers with fries from McDonalds.  HA!  After the first of the year, I am going to start using my app more frequently and just have it set to gain .5 lbs per week or something like that.  Maybe I won't stuff my face as much then :)

Here I am at 8 weeks.  The first "belly shot" - I should have taken a picture the day I found out - oops.  Oh well!
And here is my 12 week picture!  Just a teeny, tiny little bump.  I hate the awkward phase of just looking like you've packed on a few pounds of holiday weight or something :)
Today I am 14w4d - I definitely feel like I have more of a belly.  I guess we will tell in my 16 week picture!

So, are we excited? Yes!  Did it take some getting used to the idea?  Absolutely!  It is so weird to be a "normal patient" at the doctor's office.  And it turns out the week that I likely got pregnant is the week I hit my goal weight (6 weeks before my 30th birthday!), of course.  And I had just gotten to a mental state that we were finished - I didn't want to do fertility treatments again and I knew it was unlikely that I would get pregnant naturally.  And boom.  It happened.  Now, we had always said we wanted to have 3 kids, but 2 would have been fine!  But we are excited and cannot wait to meet BC3!  

And Katie loves to tell everyone that there is a baby in my tummy :) She thinks it is (and wants it to be) a girl and for her name to be Sofia! HA!  We waited and told her when we were helping her put her Christmas tree up - and she was really excited.  She will be such a good helper now that she is a little bit older!

And obviously Jack is clueless.  He will turn 2 and as long as my due date stays the same, 4 days later we will have another baby (I will have a c-section a week before the due date)!  Whew!  Things will be oh so busy around here but we are excited!

As for maternity clothes, I wore them for the first time on Thanksgiving (maternity leggings) and have been wearing tops off and on.  I bought new maternity jeans and some new shirts - since I lost weight, even all of my maternity clothes are too big!  So I need to go through them and pull out what fits and what can be sold.  But I am very solidly in maternity pants and almost 100% in maternity tops.

I go to the doctor Thursday (which also happens to be my "switch over day") and then at the next appointment, we should be able to find out the gender!  I am thinking girl, but I guess we shall see!

So that about sums up things for now!  Pretty exciting, no? :)


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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Alvin's Antics

This year was so much fun with our elf!  Katie loved waking up every day to see where Alvin was and what he was doing - and I had a fun time coming up with ideas for fun things he could do!

The first day, he brought an Advent calendar and wrote with cereal!
...and he hung out on a Christmas tree...
...and he brought the stack of Christmas books to unwrap and read one each day leading up to Christmas!
...he wrote Katie (+ Jack) a little reminder on the dry erase board...
...he made a snowman...
...and my favorite -- he went ziplining!!!!
He spied on Peppa Pig and her family...
He decorated our Christmas tree with all our undies...
He started to hang our Christmas cards...
He pretended to be Santa!  
...he brought Rudolph goodies for Katie, Jack, and Sadie!
He admired Baby Jesus...
He brought matching Christmas jammies...
Alvin put the new Santa pic in the frame...
He built his own marshmallow house and brought the kids a gingerbread house to decorate!
...he hung out on the oven!
He brought these to write a letter to Santa!
He wanted things from Katie's stocking...
He was sneaky and hid on the puppet theater...
He brought window clings for the kids!
He rode a ladybug in the downstairs bathroom!
He hid in the plant and pretended he was in the jungle!
He was on top of the refrigerator...
...and then finally, he was on the dryer with jammies for the kids to wear on Christmas Eve!
Katie has said multiple times that she misses Alvin and hopes he comes back really soon :) I miss having the threat of, "Alvin is watching and remember he reports back to Santa each night!!" - back to the star charts we go!
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