Wordless Wednsday

Pack-n-play Naptime Success!

As you may alreay know I watch my niece during the week. Getting her down for a nap is a task in itself. When she sleeps, she can sleep, but she will fight it like no other. So normaly I get my dughter down around 11, then try for about and hour to get my niece down. The hard part isn't getting her to go to sleep, it's putting her in the pack-n-play. As soon as I hit my daughters room she wakes up. So normally it takes a bit to get her down or she doesn't nap until after my daughter. Well today was a success!! I got my duughter down as usual, then whent to put my niece down. She fell asleep in about 15 minutes but when put her in the pack-n-play, boom she was awake. So I laid down next the pack-n-play and slowly rolled out of the room. It's been about 20 minutes and she has not cried! YAY!!! I'm so proud of myself both girls are down by 11!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href= blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So this is my first not me monday but I'm excited.

This last week I did not almsot break down in a fit because my daughter wont stop screaming in public. I did not constantly give her food to keep her from screaming when we whent out to dinner. Nope not me!

I also did not let the dogs eat the food off the floor after the girls (my daughter and niece) ate and threw food on the floor!

I did not take the girls out on playdates and to SoftPlay this week to wear them out. Nope Not Me! I did not do any of these things!

If you would like to join Not Me! Monday's just click on the link at the top of my page and read the directions.

SAHM Mom survival guide

Before I get started I want to let everyone know that the things that work for me may not work for everyone. I saw something similar on a Mom Blog and thought I would share some things that work for me.



1. Look for ways to save

My 3 favorite words are free, sale, and clearance. I am constantly looking for sales, and clearenced items. I also go to the local consignment stores and buy my daughters clothes. Sometimes they still have tags on them, and they are typicaly in good shape. Unfortunately they do not have a consignment store for adult clothes! I also shop yard sales for toys in good shape, this isn't always a great find for me.



2. Cloth diapers

Although expensive to start out it saves in the long run. I have spent about $300 on diapers for my daughter but have had them for about 4 months. I spent more than that in the first 6 months of her life. They have different sizes from xs-xl in various colors, and types. Check out http://nickisdiapers.com/ there are all kinds of cloth diapers on there from All In Ones, to traditional prefolds. They also have free shipping on anything over $75.



3. Find a support group

I don't mean where you stand up and say "Hi I'm Kari and I'm a Stay at Home Mom. I have been a mother for 11 months." I found a wonderful group of women through http://meetup.com where there are plenty of play dates for my daughter and nights where only the mom's get together. All yo have to do is type in your city or zip and they will give you the closest groups in your area. This is very important to me to have others who understand what I go through. Don't worry if you have a newborn there are plenty of things to do in the groups with them.



4. Find time for yourself

This is the MOST important thing. I read in a magazine once that a mother took her childs nap time as her Me time. Instead of worring about picking up or catching up on the laundry she did what she wanted, slept, watched a tv show that didn't have puppets or cartoons, or even read. I tried this and it is wonderful for my sanity! My husband and I also sat down and figured out a way for him to allow me to have my ME time. 2 nights a week and one day on the weekend he is the primary care taker for our daughter. Granted I am still here and I don't just ignore her but if I need to get something done I can.



5. The house can wait

For many this might be a tough one. I typically do a quick pick up after my daughter has gone to sleep but don't do any heavy cleaning. I do laundry and other house hold items during the week but I have realized that my sanity is not completly rapped up in a clean house. Typically the heay cleaning is left for the weekend when I can get some help from my husband. Not to mention it's going to be destroyed the next day.

6. Plan your meals in

I find it easier to schedule our dinners. I have a whiteboard calender that I writte all the meals on. This makes it easier to go grociery shopping and easier when it comes to making dinners. But don't forget to grab things that will be quick to throw in the oven just incase there is some last minute child breakdown. We also planned only 2 nights a month that we can eat out.

7. Have a Date night

Sometimes it's hard to leave your children in others care but my husband and I have found this important for our marriage. It doesn't have to be once a week but maybe just once a month. Go to the movies and dinner and try to focus on each other.

Like I said before not everything will work for everyone but I hope that this may help some new SAHM.

A little reminder

This is not a very long blog just something I thought I would share. Tonight was MNO (Mom's Night Out) for my moms group. We had casino night, $5 to play craps and the person with the most chips at the end wins. Well I know God was listening when I have prayed about our financial situation and how I want our money to be in his hands. We have become a one income family and although surviving we don't usually have alot of extra money to put away or to go out with. Tonight I won, granted it was only $35 but it is still something to help out! That's not the best part. To gear you up I have to explain the signifcance of it. I went to Christian High School and of course we had Bible class, many times I would read other parts of the bible being bored with going over the same verse for the 12th time. I came upon a verse that just stuck out and had been on my heart for a while. Recently we have been strugglin with finding a church family in our area and I have been praying about this and wanting to be closer to God. On my way home tonight God reminded me of how good He is, there on a Church sign was the verse.....

Isaiah 40:7-8 (New Living Translation)
7 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Wordless Wedensday

Talking to God

For a long time I have always beleived that young children and special needs children (such as Downs Syndrome) have a special connection with God. I started to beleive this when I became friends with someone who's sister had Downs and she would talk and laugh to herself. It was after hearing her conversations that I beleived her "imaginary friend" wasn't so imaginary but more omnipotent. I believe this now more than ever that I have my own child. She often will sit in her crib, in the hallway, or the living room and have full blown conversations (more like baby bable) with no one. She points, she laughs, and she has facial expresions to go with what she is saying. The only thing I can think of is that she is talking to God. I beleive that they have a special connection because they have child like minds, they have open minds and know no sin. I just have a strong feeling that she isn't talking to no one but rather is talking to "Someone."

Hats off to mothers of twins!

If there were ever a morning I wanted to lay down and throw a fit it was today!! I started watching my niece full time yesterday, that part isn't bad, she and Riley get along quite well and wear each other out! However today I decided to tak a venture to the malls soft play. This is how my morning started. I feed them babycakes, it's just pancakes made with there formulas since the both can't have milk. Then I get my daughter changed and of course she throws a fit because she wantes to roll around and crawl everywhere instead of sit still for 2 minutes to get changed! All is going well until I started getting ready to go. Luckily my nieces bag was pretty much packed, I just had to make sure she had a bottle, snacks, lunch and enough diapers. I have to pack our bag with just about everything as we don't go out to often and quite frequently empty it out. While I'm in the kitchen in complete view of both my niece and daugher they start wining, which then leads to a full on cry. I have to stop and comfort them both then try to get them distracted so I can finish and they start whining again, so I talk to them and give them a cracker. What should have taken me about 5-10 minutes took me 30! I then had to get my nieces car seat in my car which I wrestled with for another 20 minutes tring to get the anchor hooks on to the anchors! The whole I can see the girls in the laundry room and they are crying because they want me. Then I must come in change both of their diapers and get them in the car! I was 45 minutes late, I was meeting a friend. I was so frustrated and I now have a taste of what it would be like to have twins! So for all of you mothers with multiples, I take my hat off to you.

Well softplay was another adventure in itself. We played for about 20 minutes since there were two little girls that kept pushing or stepping on my two and of course the mothers weren't paying attention. Mind you I went into the corner where there werent any other kids and these to just happened to come over. One little girl just kept following Riley around and would push her off of everything she had gone to. At onepoint I said very loudley "come on Riley lets go over here seeing as this little girl isn't being very nice." No response or even look from the mother. She had no idea what her kid was doing! The other little girl would just walk up to my niece and push her down, or no reason. I never saw the mother of this child until she left. See we left and came back when most of the kids were gone I was so discusted that the parents would not even pay attention to their kids or let them behave that way! I did get some cute pictures.

Riley loves seeing her reflection......

So much so she gave herself a kiss!

Untill next time have a great week and check out some of my other bolgs. Please say a prayer for the Roberts family, http://noahandjulieroberts.blogspot.com, they lost their baby girl yesterday. I do not know them personally but have followed their blog and at this time I am sure they could use a some prayer.

Kari

Lots of fun in too short of time

Well I promised a few pictures from our trip so here ther are!

This is our living room..

We went bowling and my DH decided that this outfit was perfect!

Riley and mommy! See how happy she is!

This was so cute. Riley got a kick out of the mirror! Ever day she would crawl in our room go to the mirror and laugh at her reflection!

Another picture of the livng room. The decorating was a little takey but the room was great!

We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed ourselved. I just wish we had more time! I was so proud of Riley, she hasn't been in daycare for several months and tends to have seperation angsiety. I had a conversation with her before we dropped her off the first time that she would be going to daycare with people she didn't know and with kids she didn't know, but that we loved her and that she would be o.k. I think she really listened because the only time she cried was yesterday morning, but she was also really tired that day! I giver her credit though, she did not want to miss anything. She wouldn't nap at daycare and when we would go out afterwards she would take it all in. Needless to say she is exhausted now. But we will soon be back into our routine.

Kari

A room with a view

We are here at Jekyll island! It is beautiful. Our room is probably one of the nicest I've been in. We have a HUGE bed, and it is SOOOOOO comfortable. There is a kitchen and a back porch for us to sit on. The view is not of the beach it is of the pool, but it is still beautiful. The pictures are soon to come. Tonight we had our introductions and started our seminar. It's on the 5 love languages which I'm really excited about. I've heard allot about and my husband and I even received the books as a gift but have yet to sit down and actually read it. There is also a test to tell you what personality you are, I was quite surprised by mine. I would be considered a sanguine. I will have to explain exactly what that is later, my paper is in the living room and I do not want to wake up Riley. There is not enough room in the bedroom so we had to set up her pack-n-play in the living room.

Dinner was so so, not really my cup of tea but not awful. I ate very little which I guess will help with my diet! There is daycare provided while we are in the seminar, but tonight they were nice enough to watch the children a little later so the spouses could go out and do there own thing. We originally planned on walking the board walk but it was a bit chilly, so we went and had a drink with some friends. I thought it was funny, the Chaplin's assistant showed up and had a glass of wine with us and some people found it to be shocking. Oh my goodness a Christian is drinking?! That was the reaction of most. I guess they haven't read the Bible enough to remember that Jesus turned water int wine, and had wine at the last supper. Drinking is not a sin, it's the part of getting drunk and altering your mind that is frowned upon. I'm not a theologian or a Bible scholar but the way I understand it a (meaning a single) drink with some friends or with dinner is not against the rules!

Anyways I got a little off subject. I am hoping this retreat can bring us closer and help our relationship with God. So far I'm really excited, the best part is it's FREE!! The army paid for it all. It's about time! I guess they were getting a little worried with the divorce rate, not to mention the soldiers that come back with sever PTSD and either kill themselves or their families. So I'm also glad that they military sees it fit to FINALLY do something about the amount of failed marriages. Usually they give a speech every so often that my husband calls the don't beat your wife speech. It's the same thing told to them over and over again. If it's called the don't beat your wife speech in jest what does that say for the speech. Well I guess this is all for now since we have to get up early. Stay tuned, more to come!

Kari

Another long night, and preparing for a trip.

I'm very excited, today we are leaving for only our second trip as family. We are only going about 95 miles away on a couples retreat. The nice thing is you can bring your kids, so I don't have to worry about not having anyone to watch Riley over the next severaly days. We finally got the call from the Chaplin yesterday that we are going so of course I am preparing. I am making sure that all or most of the laundry is done and put away, that our suitcases are packed and of course that we have a clean house to come home to. I only have a few short hours to finish this today as I have to pick up my DH at 2:45.

It doesn't help matters that I am thouroughly exhausted. Riley decided to wake up last night at 2:30 hearing her daddy shuffle around and get ready for work. For those of you who are wondering he doesn't normaly get up this early, just today for some training. I let her be and she went back to sleep. Then I hear her talking at 4, so I get up and go check on her. It was so cute, she saw me come in and quickly laid down like she new she wasn't supposed to be up. I gave her the passifire, rubbed her back for a few minutes and went to bed. My slumber only lasted about an hour and half because she was back up at 5:30. This time she was crying a little. So I go in her room once again pick her up sooth her and give her a bottle. After her bottle and a little rocking she was back out. So I'm off to bed again, and I hear her talking as soon as my head hit the pillow. At this point I just turned off the monitor, her room is right accross the hall from ours so if she is upset I will still here her. I wake up at 7 to her crying for about 2 minutes and she finally fell back asleep. She didn't fully wake up until about 9 this morning. Of course my body is still asking to go back to bed. Unfortunately to much to do in a short amount of time! I'm hoping she will go down for her nap soon so I can get more done. I also wish I knew why she keeps waking up in the middle of the night. She hasn't done this for months.

Hopefully these next few days will be enjoyable and we will get to do alot as a family. The island that we are going to is beautiful and the rooms we get are gorgeouse, we checked them out online last night. I will be bringing my laptop so hopefully I can keep you updated!

Kari

Fun at the park!

I was looking back at some pictures from a few days ago. My sister and I decided to go walk around Tom Triplett park, it's this place with a two mile strip to walk, ride your bike or run. There is also to a little park for kids to play. So anyways, we decided to take the girls to the park when we were done. Riley absolutely LOVED the swing! She just laughed and kicked her feet! I think it's the most fun she has had in a while! Anyways I thought I would share a little video of her experience! It is sooo cute! I also love it because I caught her on video answering me. If you lesten closely I ask her if she is having fun and she says "yeah." I don't think she really knew what she was saying but I still love it!!

A long day, no babysitter, 2 apointments and a fussy baby

Today had to have been one of the longest and hardest days in my life. I had two doctors appts back to back and no one to watch my baby. The person who watched her before moved out of state so until I can find someone else I trust, I'm just out of luck.

Well we started out the day with me waking up at 9 to my actuall alarm clock and not my typical one, Riley talking into the monitor. So of course I'm a little panicked the latest she has slept in was 8:30 and that has only been a few times. I did go check on her and she was breathing, whew, what a relif. I continued to get ready for my two appointments and she finally woke up at 10.

So I head to my first Doctors appt where I sat in the waiting room for over an our. Of course Riley is bored and every toy I give her is not doing it. So I give her the snack cupt to wich she proceedes to take her snacks and throw them on the floor. By this time it is past her nap time so I give her a bottle, she gulps it down and starts talking REALLY loudley. Finally I get called into the office and sit, at this point they hurried along because Riley was being very loud and vey fussy. And as I predicted she fell asleep as soon as she hit her car seet.

In between appointments I grab a quick lunch and go pick up my husband. The next appointment was counseling. To mak a long story short we just want to communicate better. We get into the office, where I was led in the wrong direction and head into the Doctors actuall office where had a patiend! OOPS!! Well our session begins and she does not want to sit on either of our laps. She proceeds to start crawling around the office, bumping her head on the table and trying to get her little hands on whatever she could. Even the doctor tried to occupie her. She ate a bitter bisciute, had another bottle, once again threw her snacks all over the floor and decided to join the session a few times by adding comments of her own!

On the way home she begins to SCREAM at the top of her lungs because she refused to sleep for more than her 30 minute stint in the car. At home she is all over the place, and doesn't know what she wants. If she wanted me, or her toys. Needless to say she fell asleep early. WHEW I am glad this day is over! All I know is I need to find a babysitter and FAST! We have another session next week! I added a picture of her at the end of the day. Don't mind her hair, I just took it out of a ponytail.

Rough Night

Well once it again here I am on the computer, after midnight! You would think I would be sleeping with what little sleep I got last night. Poor Riley is not feeling to well. She keeps getting all stopped up and has a hard time breathing at night. Even though I do the saline washes before bed, have a cool mist humidifier in her room and use vapor rub she still is completely stopped up. Last night was no acception. She woke up at 12, 2, 4 and 6! Each time screaming bloody murder. I think she was scaring herself by trying to breath through her nose. Of course I got up with her all but the last time because my husband sleeps through everything but the alarm clock! I think it is a man thing, most wives and moms that I talk to say there husbands are heavy sleepers also.

This is going to be a bit off subject but I have beeen thinking about the past year and what has happened. I thought I would remember every little detail of Riley's first year but alas there are things that have slipped the mind. My mom was here over the holidays and left her camera with me to record more of my daughter and niece until he returns in Feb. so I watched some of Riley's videos when she was born. I knew she was small but had forgoten just how small she was! The picture above is from when she was only 6 days old, and in my husbands arm. Sorry I tried to post it bellow but I'm still new to this. I had forgoten how she cried when she was first born and little storied that I have written down I had forgoten about also. Thank goodness for my baby book or I wouldn't have these stories to tell her. I guess my mind is foccused on new memories and, like a memory card in a camera, only has so much room and must delete certain pictures to make room for more!

My favorite story right now is kind of gross. Riley gets pretty bad diaper rashes so at my doctors advice I let her go diaperless for about 5 minutes several times. This is to let her air out. Well the other day I did this and while we do expect that there are times she may pee on the floor, we did not expect this. My husband was preparing his PT's and ACU's for the next day (for those of you who are do not speak fluent Military *LOL* PT's are his Physicall Training uniform and ACU's are his como's so to speak) and looking right at her, I had turned away for just a second to throw her diaper away when we both heard her scream. Of course I go rushing over to see what had happend, did she hit her head and we didn't see it? Is she caught in something? What is going on? Apearantly in the 2 minutes she had her diaper off and crawled over to her toys she pooped and decided to eat it. When she realized it didn't tast good she got VERY upset. So at this point my husband and I are disgusted, I'm rushing to get her clothes off, he's rushing to get a bath ready. I scrubbed her off before putting her in the tub and washed her mouth out as best as I could. She still wasn't very happy. Like I said this story is a bit disgusting but I had to laugh, I had heard of kids pulling poop out of their pants and into their mouths but never in my wildest dreams did I expect this! I told my husband it's said when we can say our 10 month old had a poopy mouth that had to be washed out! ;0) She did not swallow any, it was really only on the corner of her mouth. But I don't think she will be trying that again!

So begins another year

Well Christmas and new year have come and gone. It's hard to believe another year has gone by. Time really does fly when you are having fun! This last year has been filled with so much joy and many plans revealed from God. Plans that weren't what we were expecting. We started out this year expecting a baby on March 13th and a move to Germany. My husband is in the military and had orders to be stationed there. Instead God blessed us with the arrival of our beautiful baby girl on Feb. 26 and shortly before our planned move (2 weeks before) the Army decided do to my medical necessities we were not eligible to move to that duty station.

I soon went back to work but my heart ached to stay home. After many months of praying and finally feeling it on my heart to stay at home full time I talked to my husband about this. I wanted to be sure that we were on the same page and make sure that this was being revealed to me and not me making it seem as thought God was telling me to be at home wit my daughter. Anyways, my husband wanted me to wait another month or two to get some bills paid off. Well God had other plans, after my daughter running several high temps, and having to constantly go to the Dr. for an unforeseen stomach issue, it was finally time. This came only 4 days after our discussion.

This next year I know will reveal more from God as I am struggling to find a church family. It's amazing to me that I live in the Bible Belt and cannot find Church that I truly feel at home. I also will lose living close to my best friend, my sister as her family is preparing to move back to California (home). I just hope that soon my family will join hers or that we will see each other often. Our girls are only 15 days apart and have become great buddies, this will only increase as I will be watching my niece while my sister is at work or school.

We will also find out many things of where our journey in the Military will end up. My husband is up for re-enlistment in July and may or may not do it. At this point in time he is wanting to finish out his contract (until 2011) and move closer to our families. This is nice but he has also said this before! There is also rumor of his unit deploying sometime with in the next 18 months. If this happens we are selling the house and Riley and I will move back home to have the support of our families to help me. Of course I would rather God reveal those to me now, but it is all in is plan and I just have to keep faith. Anyways I don't know if this blog makes that much since since I am writing this I am exhausted. For those of you who read this I hope you understand my ramblings!