Post

Alas, I fear that I have alienated all of my readers by my lack of posting. I have just been so busy. I bought a movie a week ago and haven't even opened it to view it. I sits above the TV waiting for me to have an hour of free time. I think it might sit for a while.

And here I sit, late at night, knowing that I will suffer because I am not sleeping. But, I figure you should all know that I am still alive and being taken over by Box Elder bugs here at my house.

This is a sweet pic from my husband's phone. We were able to take the kids out for a little walk. My youngest was able to sit in the stroller instead of riding in the sling and her brother couldn't be happier. She is now 8 months old. I just don't believe it.

Update

Hello everyone-

I promise I have not fallen off the earth. I have just been busy, very busy (and my computer caught a virus). I have not spoken much of my new vocational endeavors as I have waited for them to get off the ground. But, they are officially off and running. And I am busy.

PRESCHOOL
Last year, I went part-time at work to be home with my kids more. I had so many developmentally appropriate ideas for projects and learning and things to do with them. As, I thought about a fun little learning schedule for my boy and eventually the baby, as she grew. I realized I could include other children and expand social interaction and learning for my kids by doing so. Thus, Building Blocks - early childhood education was born. I knew exactly how I would organize the time and how I could make it a GREAT preschool. So, I planned and advertised and started it up this fall. We have a small group right now, which is great! And we are having so much fun.

Aspen Grove Advocacy, LLC
However, this spring I was informed that a lot of administrative funding was cut at work. Things got crazy and we were all very confused as to how the division was going to handle the cuts. In May it was announced that most everyone in my position at work was being layed-off. They had decided to privatize my position. After talking and coordinating with others at work a group of us decided that we would become private support coordinators together. After much work and time, I am happy to announce that I am now a private support coordinator and we have named our company Aspen Grove Advocacy, LLC.

So, as you can see, I have been very busy. But, it is a very good busy. I am spending more time with my children and I am a double business owner. I didn't start out with this in mind, but it has been a fun ride and I assume it will continue to be so.

Summer

It has been cooling down here in our neck of the woods. I keep wondering if summer is drawing to an end. I wasn't ready for it. I have had to dig through boxes to find long pants for my baby complaining all the while that I don't want to break out the fall attire yet. My son keeps asking to go and swim, but it is cool and the change of weather has given both of the little ones stuffy noses so I have held off. Maybe we will get just one more really warm day and we can break out the pool one last time.

Here's to hoping!

Runnin' with the young'un

It is so hard to set aside the time to jog. Thank goodness I have a persistant daughter that pushes me until I go. We went out to jog the usual route tonight, .5 miles to the cemetary 2 laps around for a mile and the .5 mile back to the house. (I know that sounds whimpy, but you have to unterstand that I live on a steep hill so the beginning of the jog is nice and easy and the return is killer. I go to the cemetary because it is close and flat, and I don't have a long uphill return. Spectacular views, difficult jogging)

When we started down the hill, I told her she needed to go slow with her old fart mom until we got to the cemetary and then she could take off and meet me as I finished. It was funny to hear myself saying that to her, as the words escaped my mouth I had flashbacks to my childhood and my father saying those exact phrases to me as. I laughed at myself and spent the remainder of my run enjoying the memories from my father's perspective (love you pop).

As we arrived at the cemetary she did indeed forge ahead of me and I watched her disappear and eventually almost lap me. I had mixed emotions. I was proud of her athletic prowess, and mourning the fact that I am no longer in my prime. However, I quickly came to the the conclusion that I would just let her be a motivating force for me, thanks D. We ran 1.7 miles today, definitely an improvement.

Camping

We went camping on the 4th of July weekend. This time we only had a brief bout with the rain. We have been rained on the last three camping trips. All in all we enjoyed ourselves.

Goals (adventures in jogging)

It has always been a goal of mine to run a marathon. I'm not really sure why. I think it has something to do with the feeling of accomplishment I felt when I rode my bike from Salt Lake City, Utah to the Arizona State border. It is that overwhelming rush you get from pushing yourself futher than you thought you possibly could. Well, I have decided that it is time to push and follow through with my goal.

I am so extremely busy right now, but I figure I could always say that and keep putting it off or I could just take some time out of my day and make myself train. Thus, I begin my training.

I have been using the elliptical machine in the basement irregularly and now that it has finally stopped raining in my neck of the woods, I believe I should go outside and jog. However, this is proving to be much more difficult than I anticipated. Putting the babies in the stroller, getting the water and the snacks, making them happy, then pushing them. It is a bit of a chore to even get out the door. But, I keep telling myself that it will get better once they get used to the routine. Luckily we have a cemetary close by (.5 miles away) with paths that are easy to navigate and I don't have to worry about cars, potholes, or gutters. I have even clocked the place and know that two laps around the outer path are a mile.

I ventured out a few days ago, and was able to put half a mile before my son decided that he needed to get out and run with me, there were sprinklers going. I didn't mind because I thought I might have to colapse for lack of air. Ugh. I felt a little disappointed.

Today I went out again. I wasn't going to, but my teenager is training for volleyball tryouts and asked me to go (By asking I mean she used her pursuasive powers of repetition until I caved.) And I'm glad she did, it was a much better experience this time. My babies were compliant and happy to just ride along and enjoy their stroller. And I ran a full mile. It was very exhilarating. The first half of the mile was hard, but I love that feeling of pushing through the uncomfortable feeling of "I don't think I'm in shape enough to be doing this" to "Oh ya, this is okay". It is like my body enters this different zone where it settles into the strain and numbs a bit to the activity and I am able to just go. I love that feeling. And then I am done and I feel great, accomplished if you will.

So, this is the first of my running (jogging) entries be ready for more, cuz I am determined to follow through with this goal.

(I learned once that telling others about your goals makes you more likely to follow through with them.)

Here I am today after running, my son thinks he needs his helmet for any kind of athletic activity. Yes, he wore his helmet on the run, and the baby fell asleep so she is with Papi for the pic. I was actually able to get my oldest to join in.

Haircut

When my son had his first birthday, I paid to have his hair cut. It was $10. I thought that was pretty good deal. However, I found that his hair grows REALLY fast. It wasn't more than six weeks that I noticed his hair had grown to his shoulder blades. You couldn't really tell because he has curly hair, but when I washed his hair, I was suprised. I started calculating the cost of hair cuts and decided that I would have to teach myself how to cut his hair.



I thought I did a pretty good job the first time, but I realized that he had these long spots throughout. The second cut was better, but after a couple days of looking at him I realized that he had a slight mullet. I believe that over the last year, I have done progressively better. And, I am happy to announce that I cut his hair again last week. This is my best work yet!!! yea!!



I hope my baby's hair is curly and forgiving too. But, I used to cut my oldest daughters hair until she wanted to get all fancy. I still say my cuts are good, but (ya know) it isn't cool to have your mom cut your hair unless she is a "real" hair dresser, which I am not.



Here, see for yourself.

Busy, Busy

I cannot believe how crazy life has been. I have not even had time to look on the internet. So, I am posting very quickly. These are a couple videos of the kids. I think they are cute.

Here, my son is hitting a baseball that his grandparents gave him for Easter. His father taught him how to hit it out of his hand.

And, here are my three children. The older 2 are helping my baby roll out her first belly laugh. I love it!!

The kids

My little baby is 3 months old. I can't believe how fast time has gone and how much she has grown. She laughed for the first time last Friday. She loves to interact with people. She is a very happy child. She watches everything very seriously, but when you talk to her, she eagerly responds and has a lot to say. It is so cute. Here she is talking to me, she must have said something funny.

Here is her watching look, she is trying to figure out what papi has in his hands. What is that black thing with the light?

The boy is so active. He loves to explore and is still obsessed with skis. I'm hoping we will have a bit of a vacation from talking about and watching anything to do with skiing during the summer (no snow). Here he is following some turkeys and peacocks. Serious business.

My oldest just go a haircut, and she is very proud. She had bangs cut, but she has been nervous about wearing them down. Today she made the plung. We will see how well it went. Bangs, are a big move for a 14 year old.

llama llama

We read books with my son every night and he loves it. I'm sure you do the same. Up to this point we have a collection that we cycle through and he just enjoys looking at pictures. However, recently he has started to enjoy the text as well. He is continually choosing to read the books that have rhyming and singing.

I am really enjoying this. I have started to look for books that have some quality text and fun storylines. I found a couple that I am loving and so is he. They are the llama llama books by Anna Dewdney, llama llama mad at mama and llama llama red pajama. Not only are they cute, but they are clever too. I have to say that I highly recommend them to all with children from 2-6 years old.

Happy reading

2 year old speak

I have been wanting to record my son and his cute vocabulary for a long time. Today I finally got him when he was in a mood to talk with me. He says a lot of funny things, but these are some of my favorite for as long as I could keep his 2 year old attention.

Little kitchen

About 4 years ago I took a class about developmentally appropriate preschool curriculums. It was such a fun class. We looked at different cultural practices in countries around the world, the history of childhood education, about 5 different formal approaches to developmentally appropriate practice. I just loved, loved that class. Along with that class, came a list of things I wanted for my own kids and, one day, my own preschool program.

For the last year or so I have been looking for a little kitchen to check off of my list for my kids. But, I have had a few requirements. It has to be a wooden kitchen with a sink, moving knobs, a stove and an oven. I also wanted some little hooks to hang pots. And, as the family mantra goes, "never buy anything at full price".

So, last week as I was out looking for some bargain pants, I found a bargain kitchen (I did not find pants). I think I would have preferred a more natural color, but this kitchen fit all of the other requirements, and I have to say I'm excited about it.

Now for the food and pans.

I hade a couple of food items that I had found on sale from Melissa and Doug but... I was turned onto some felt food while reading a friend's blog. So, I started with her blog and found this fun website that sells patterns. I looked up her free patterns and tried them out.

It is an ice cream sandwich and strawberries. (If you couldn't tell) Antony likes them and so do I. I have been worried about the plastic foods and I think felt is a good solution, it is easy for the kids to work with and we don't have to worry about chemicals.

The free patterns didn't have the best directions and I'm hoping that I will find better instructions if I buy a pattern. Overall, I think she is creative and the food looks great. It didn't take me long to make the food and it was easier to make than I thought it would be. So, my quest for pants took me in a very different direction, but a fun one.

Smile

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to capture my baby's huge gummy smile. She looks so very cute! But, she isn't interested in smiling when I pull the camera out. Her focus immediately shifts from my happy face to the big black thing that I can't seem to hide from her view.

After lots of coaxing, I managed to get something out of her. This was the closest thing I could get to her big smiles that she usually flashes very liberally.

Looking at the picture is cute, but it doesn't do her justice. Not only does she like to smile, it's an interaction. She coos and talks and has lots of very fun little noises as she smiles. I can't help but let out my own little laugh. I just love this baby thing!

Baby Weight

This last weekend I promised myself that I would start to actively work on loosing the weight.
My baby sleeps well at night and if I go to sleep with her I should be able to get up an hour before the kids in the morning and do something like exercise. I have actually been feeling motivated. But, my angel son has decided that he will now be getting up at 6:00 daylight savings time and all. I cannot figure out his motivation. He isn't his usual pleasant self either, he is also determined to wake the rest of the house with him, and does a good job especially waking his little sister. So this week I have been pleasantly arising with 2 small children at 6:00. So much for exercise.

Honestly I'm feeling a little depressed about the whole thing. Today I seriously debated going to buy some "larger" pants. The maternity clothes don't work as well without the belly that has substance to it, but I cannot fit into any of my "normal" clothes. So, I'm at an impasse. The real depressing thing is that these "normal" clothes I am not even close to fitting into were clothes I could wear soon after my son's birth. Ugh. So, now I am faced with the question of "to buy or not to buy".

My internal arguments go something like this: If I don't buy bigger clothes I will be motivated to loose the weight just to be able to wear my normal clothes. But, is it a question of motivation or fitting in the workout with my early risers cuz I sure can't muster up the energy at night, I drag myself to bed.

On the other hand, it would sure be nice to feel like I look good in my clothes. I hate trying on my clothes every week hoping that by some miracle I'll be able to squeeze into them and look good doing it. Hmmm. I will contemplate this issue further and report back on my decision.

Late Night

It's late and I should be sleeping, or straightening my very cluttered home, or something more productive that would ease my overwhelmed mind. Instead I am sitting here just enjoying some time to myself. The house is quiet and everyone is finally sleeping. I know that I would fall asleep within 5 seconds of my head hitting the pillow, but still I sit here just wanting to soak up the quiet.


Tomorrow I will start on my list again and probably only check of a couple things because I can never get the kids to cooperate with me so that I can even feel productive. Today I couldn't even get them to nap. So tomorrow I will wake up and try very hard to exercise then attempt to just straighten up and file and finally tie up loose ends with some phone calls. We shall see how far I get. I love my little angels.

Your Child's Growing mind

I pulled up my blog today and saw that it had been a while since I last posted. I reckon it is time to throw another one up here.

I have been reading this really neat book.

I bought it a while ago at the recommendation of one of my professors. Somehow it became lost in the daily grind of things and was shelved with the rest of the books. A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out the book shelves and came across it, I had forgotten about purchasing it and was pleasantly suprised at my discovery. I love to read about child development, and am particularly facinated by brain research.

As I have delved into the book I have found that it is an easy book to read. It flows well and is very interesting. I just finished the section about infants and thought it was great fun. Dr. Healy explains the child's developing mind and recommends activities to optimize development or things to be aware of as the child grow. She goes all the way up to adolescence. If you are interested in stuff like this, I highly recommend this book!

Birthday Boy

My son has been asking to go skiing since his first trip up to the resort this year. Each venture up to the canyon we hear the words "no" (snow) then "skeen" (skiing). He and his father have been pretending to ski around the house, jumping side to side and making the sound "choos". So, for his second birthday, we gave him a lesson. I was a little nervous, I wasn't sure he was old enough, but they assured me that children his age have taken lessons.

It turns out that he is a decent little skiier. The instructor told us that children his age usually can't balance their own weight, and she has to hold them up as they learn. As you can see, he did very well and enjoyed himself immensely. He hasn't stopped talking about it and we often find him jumping around saying "choos".

We love you little skiier boy!!!! I can't believe you are already two.

I can move

We went out to sled this weekend. I have been feeling cabin fever and I just wanted to get out. There aren't too many places to go around here that don't take some driving, so we decided to stay close. We loaded up and headed up the canyon. The baby was content to sleep in the car while we took turns out playing with my son. I was so happy to be able to sled too, even though I can't fit into my snowpants yet. We kept it tame.

I don't much like sledding. The only injuries I have ever had have happened while sledding. But, my kids should be able to experience it, so I am a careful freak on the sled and they get to enjoy the experience.

Adventures in Photography

Here is the best result of my photo shoot on Saturday morning. I could not get my son to even try to cooperate so this was the best I got. I can't believe my baby fell asleep with all of the noise and then her brother decided to poke and prod her. At least I can get great pics of the oldest. She listens when I tell her to smile or look down.

However.....

He did decide that it would be cool to wear his helmet the rest of the day. He saw his dad and sister getting ready to go skiing/snowboarding and decided that he needed to wear his helmet. I could not get him to take it off. So, here he is safely eating icecream.

Winter

Winter here can be wonderful, or it can be dreary. It's lots of fun when it snows, but we have been in a lul and under a nasty inversion for the last 3 weeks since the baby was born. I think we have had one storm and this air just sits here. It gets so bad that we can't even see the other side of the valley. Luckily we had a little rain last night to clear out a bit of the inversion and I can now see the mountains, but it has been a few days since I have been able too. It makes life very bleak. I wish we could go outside. But, I you can't take the kids out in this air.

Looking out the window you can see the haze and this is much better than it has been.

Baby

Here are some recent photos of our newest little family member.

I have been suprised by how calm and patient she is. She actually sleeps at night (I hope I didn't just jinx that). She is definitely much more accomadating than her brother was.

In this week following her appearance, I have found that I appreciate being able to bend at the waist. I can actually pick things up off the floor.

My son is VERY heavy. I carried him around up to the day that I gave birth and didn't think anything of it. Now when I pick him up, I can't believe I did that.

I am suddenly cold all of the time.

Is there such a thing as a relaxing shower? I used to love showers. I'm not sure I'll ever get one of those again....

And lastly, I am amazed at how much I love each one of my children. Wow they are cute.

Baby

I am sitting here looking at my new baby girl.

I never thought it would happen, but she decided to come. I started labor at around 1:00 in the afternoon on the 12th. I went to the hospital around 10:00 and had her on the morning of the 13th at 4:40 A.M. She was 7 lbs 13 ozs. 20 inches long and just perfect. She is doing very well

and we are hoping to go home today. More to come...

Thank you for your encouraging comments!!!!!!

update

My BP is fine.
Went to the Dr. this morning. A little progress but nothing to big. We decided not to induce me and I have another apointment next Wednesday on the 21st. If I am still pregnant by then, we will talk induction. A few contractions here and there.

update

Thanks for your understanding everyone.
I think I will just do little updates each day till she comes, the due date is the 15th.

Nothing new to report this morning, I am feeling a little swollen, but I have a friend that will take my BP this afternoon.

Waiting...

I never got this miserable with Antony. I wish this kid would just come. I know I am being incredibly boring and whining too much, but I honestly cannot believe that she is not here yet. I'm beginning to think she won't come. Is that possible?

Sleep?

I have been lying in bed for the last hour unable to sleep. I figured I would just give up. It is better to come downstairs and get some things done than to sit there with aching hips as I try to make myself fall asleep. I think I may just have to take a nap. I have come to the conclusion that when you feel like this, it is better to do sleep in small doses. Lying in bed for long periods of time just hurts.

I am one week away from my due date. If this were Antony I would be in the middle of labor right now and have this baby tomorrow morning, alas... here I sit waiting. I just keep hoping to go into labor. I really feel that this is unfair. Please come baby!!!! I am ready and I think she is too. She is getting way too strong in there. I believe that this is becoming torture for the both of us. She moves so much and is beating up my insides. She would be much more comfortable out here in my arms, and so would I.

38 Weeks+

Okay, I am officially tired.

And...

Officially ready for the baby to come out. There is something to be said for knowing you can be physically normal agian. I think my legs have reached an all time thickness that they have never seen before. My stomach hangs so low that I can't even touch the bottom of it anymore. My hands are so swollen that I can't feel them, let alone pick anything up. And, I can't sleep - try as I may- how in the world do you sleep when you go numb in every position and you constanlty feel some muscle somewhere being pulled in a painful direction? I have told people that I do pretty well. But, last night broke me. I am ready for this baby to come. Please come baby.

Sledding

We went for one more fling with mom before the new baby.

Antony tried sledding with "Lala" and "Papi" as I watched. It was very cute.

He enjoyed it very much!

38 Weeks

Well, I am officially starting the delivery countdown. I know I should have 2 weeks left, but I am ready for the arival of this active little child. Even though I know that will bring it's own little challenges.

This pregnancy is definitely a new experience. I'm feeling more aches and pains. She enjoys punching all of my organs (I think they might be bruised). And, I don't remember it being so difficult to sleep.

Not only am I physically done, but emotionally too. If I would have known what I was getting myself into.... pregnant with a 2 year old and a 14 year old. I must be crazy. I experience several mood swings throughout the day. Then, I have to keep up with those same mood swings from my children. I'm exhausted. But, I can't help wondering what it will be like when I have three of them out here. I keep telling myself it will be better, because I will be more capable without my little helper inside. But..... honestly, I'm not sure. So, here I sit waiting.

I must say that I am excited to meet this little being. Will she have blue eyes? Will she have curly hair? Will she look more like me or her dad, or a a good mix like her brother?