Crafts

This year, I decided to get all crafty and crochet hats for a bunch of people that wanted one. I spent hours online looking at patterns that I liked and I've made a grand total of 14 hats. I'll probably make a few more to cover Neal's ever growing head and I still need to make a warmer hat for myself. I used a variety of patterns and one hat I made up on my own because I'm too cheap to buy patterns.

Then I was lamenting the fact that I don't have any soft rattles for Neal because they are impossible to find. So, I thought of this rattle we used to have growing up and realized that I could crochet my own! So I did, after some trial and error. It's not perfect, but it looks a whole lot better than my first attempts that I never finished because I didn't like the looks of them. I did find a pattern for an owl rattle that I absolutely love and I do plan on making. First, however, I have a different sort of craft to finish.

Last year, I decided that I was going to sew Christmas stockings for our little family. I figured it wouldn't take too long and I bought a bunch of fabric to that end. Yeah. I only made one that year. It took way longer than I thought it would and now I wish I had just bought stockings. However, I have the fabric and I have enlisted Ashton's help so they will hopefully be done this year. Turns out, I'm not a huge fan of all the things that go into sewing something. You can't just sit down with fabric and sew. Nope. You have to cut out the fabric into the desired shape, pin the pieces together, figure out what needs to be sewed first, then you can sit down and sew something. I like to just be able to pick out yarn and sit down with it to create whatever I want. I have decided to put crocheting on hold though until I finish the stockings. That should be motivation enough right?

I also love the fact that with crocheting, I can pick it up or put it down whenever I need to and it's not really a big deal. I also love that I can look up tutorials online. Seriously, there are so many videos and tutorials online that if you want to learn how to crochet, you can do it easily. It also keeps David entertained because he loves to play with my crochet hooks. Taking them out of the case and putting them back in the slots. No need for toys this year I guess.

I have new ideas for things I want to create and I'm so excited to get back to crocheting so I can put my ideas to the test. Just need to finish those stockings!

Neal

I know I haven't posted many pictures of Neal. There are two reasons for that. One, it's hard to get pictures without big brother in them (not that it's bad to have pictures of the two of them), and two, I don't usually put pictures from my camera on the computer until the end of the month and then Neal has changed so much that I need new pictures. It becomes a vicious cycle. However, I took some pictures a couple of days ago and put them on the computer yesterday morning. Then the internet decided not to cooperate with me yesterday, so you get them today!

Neal is such a happy boy. He's already smiling and laughing at us. It's such a blessing to have him smile at us when we go to get him up from a nap. He's been trying to hold up his head from day one and he's had it pretty much mastered for a while now. His strength impresses us. We're all pretty smitten with this little guy.

Look who's a big boy and holding up that noggin

Such a classic Neal look. The boy loves furrowing his brow.

Love the smile

Nothing like a sleeping baby

Living the Dream

From the time I was little, I wanted to be a stay at home mom. It's the only thing I wanted to do. It's the name I wanted to make for myself and now it's the name that I have. I will always have the name of mom and I feel blessed to have it. Besides my husband, my kids are the most important things in my life.

Although I love being a mom, it's not all sunshine and lollipops. There are those moments when your kids are well behaved or doing something that you've been trying to teach them. You get insanely proud of little accomplishments. There are those seemingly perfect moments where all is right. However, being a mom isn't glamorous. At the end of the day, I'm usually covered in spit up, drool, and snot. Sometimes I get peed and pooped on. Getting a shower in at some point during the week is a highlight. Getting to use the bathroom on my own, if at all, is a miracle. I sing songs and babble like an idiot to keep my kids happy. 

I don't have any personal space anymore. If I am sitting, I'm not alone, unless it's nap or bedtime. I sat today and read the same book to my 20 month old at least 5 times in a row because he wanted to. Yeah, I got tired of reading that particular book, but he loved it and that's all that mattered to me. I sit and feed my almost 3 month old every 1-2 hours. I usually sit on the floor, hold the baby, and play with the toddler all at the same time. There have been times that I'm holding both kids in my lap, reading a book or sometimes even feeding one and holding the other. If I dare to try to have alone time, like sitting and typing this, it means that either the kids are asleep or I'm ignoring the destruction going on (like David making a mess with his lunch right now).

I am grateful for a husband who sees it as his responsibility to provide for me and the kids, which allows me to stay at home. I could go out into the world and work if I wanted to, but I wouldn't appreciate that job like I treasure the job I have now. The truth is that I do work. I work hard. I just don't get paid in dollars for it. I get paid instead by having healthy happy kids who give me kisses, laughs, snuggles, and smiles. Some days, there aren't many smiles to go around for whatever reason.

For me, it's worth all the tears. It's worth all the frustration; it's worth all the sleeplessness. It's worth all the screams, poop, and snot. It's worth every last second because I'm doing the work that matters the most to me. I am living my dream.

Glad That Is Over!

It's been a crazy stressful week here. Neal and I had to spend almost an entire week in the hospital because Neal had a fever.

His fever started Friday (7 Sept) night so we took him into the ER. Since he's so young, they ran tests, urine, blood, and a spinal tap, on him and admitted him. It's a minimum of 48 hours usually to see what all of the tests/cultures were doing to make sure Neal didn't have some serious problem. It was so hard to watch them poke him for the tests. I was a mess and wanted nothing more to make them stop hurting my baby. It took a lot of willpower to just sit there and let them do their job. By the time everything was done and we got a room, it was 2 in the morning. Ashton went home to be there for when David woke up (my mom was visiting us at the time, which made everything easier in regards to leaving David). It was a long weekend of vital signs and updates for Neal and I, and going back and forth for Ashton and David. Neal still had a fever off and on, but it was low grade (in the low 100's and 101 at most). 

We were hopeful about going home Monday, but the doctor wanted to see this particular test numbers going down and since it wasn't, we had to stay another day. In the meantime, Neal started getting higher fevers. Tuesday, he had 3 high fevers, the highest being 103. The 103 temperature was scary. I was woken up by what I thought was just a hungry baby, which he was, and when I touched him, he was burning hot. I had to call the nurse in to take his temperature and was actually surprised it wasn't higher. The high fever meant another 24 hours in the hospital since they wouldn't let us go home without being fever free for 24 hours. It also meant more tests.

Wednesday was a little better after another scare. The doctor (we saw three different doctors during our stay), decided to stop the antibiotics that they had been giving him since we got to the hospital as a preventive in case he did have a serious virus or bacteria. They thought that maybe the recent fevers were a reaction to those antibiotics. While I was talking to the doctor, Neal was asleep on the hospital bed. After the doctor left, I went to get Neal up. Neal wasn't happy about being disturbed, but otherwise fine. The nurse came in and when I looked back to Neal, seriously a second later, I noticed Neal's eye was swollen closed. A bit freaked out, I showed the nurse and she left to call the doctor. I also noticed that his head was a little misshapen. The nurse came back saying that the doctor was on her way, but had told the nurse to take out the IV. The doctor returned to look at it and reassured me that it was just the IV fluid that had leaked and that it would go away, and my  baby would return to normal (I should mention that they had put the IV in Neal's head). Now, the nurses were vigilant about checking his IV for swelling and there was nothing. It happened very fast. After the initial scare, all I could do was shake my head and chuckle. I told Neal that he wasn't allowed to scare me this badly again until he was at least 5 years old. We'll see if he listens.

Neal's temperature returned to normal after this with only one little tiny blip of 100.6. Regardless, the next day, they let us go home and I was very relieved. Like I said, it was one very stressful week. Ashton came to visit us every night during the week, and my mom brought David over in the mornings to see us. It was good to be able to see Ashton and David during this time, but it was much better to be home.

New Bed

This weekend, we decided to put David in a regular twin bed instead of his pack and play. He could have stayed in his pack and play for a while longer, but I wanted to get him out of there before he learned to climb out and so that it wouldn't be a big deal for us to use the pack and play for the new baby come August. It turns out, that the change was the right one at the right time.

He loved his new bed from the start. We set it up after his bath for bedtime (we just put the mattress on the floor). He pretty much wore himself out climbing all over it while we read scriptures. When we told him it was time for bed, he climbed right in and let us tuck him in. He laid there as we left, although, a few minutes later he was crying at the door. The crying only lasted 5 or so minutes though, which was amazing! I was expecting screaming for at least half an hour. When we went in to check on him later, we had to chuckle when we found him lying on his back in the middle of his room. I also have to say, when I went in to get him up the next morning, he was just sitting on his bed, cuddling with his blanket. So cute!

Yesterday, we got to try out the new bed for nap time. I've been expecting this to be the most difficult part of the transition, but it went really well. There was no screaming or crying. There wasn't even any hints that he was running around his room.

Morning nap today is less than successful in that so far, he's not sleeping, but he's at least happy.

I have to say, I feel so happy and blessed that this transition is going remarkably well so far. That's not to say that I think that it's always going to be this easy. I still expect him to go crying to the door after we put him in bed, but I'm always glad when he doesn't.

Hair Cuts

David's hair has been getting a bit mullet-ish the past few months. I know I should really give him a hair cut, or a trim at the very least, but I've been resisting for two reasons. One, I don't know how I'd get this wiggly boy to sit still long enough to do anything to his hair, let alone how I'd get him to not want to play with the scissors or clippers, and two, I don't want to take that step into him actually being a little boy instead of my baby. Yes, I know I have another baby on the way and with David being 15 months old now, he's not really my baby anymore. I realize that more and more every day. There's still something so comforting about his fuzzy hair that sticks up everywhere in little tufts, even if it's getting too long in the back and has had the ability to cover his ears for a while now.

Still, Ashton teases me every day about his hair and whether I've decided to cut it yet or not. I almost start crying every time (I am pregnant after all) and/or give Ashton a scowling look for bringing it up again. I did look up how to cut boy's hair yesterday. Maybe I should tell Ashton I'll cut David's hair when Ashton lets me cut his precious hair.

I'd write more on this, but I have a little boy who sounds like he's enjoying playing with his food a little too much. Guess I should pay attention to him.

Adjustments

For those of you who haven't heard, we're having a boy! Since discovering that we're having another boy, I've been trying to get used to the idea of two boys running around. I admit, I get a bit freaked out at the idea. Thankfully, I've got some time before this one comes out let alone starts running. I've also been adjusting to the incoming thoughts of how I'm going to manage things with two kids.

For instance, how am I going to shower in the morning with two kids, especially since I'm sure David won't be taking a morning nap by the time this one comes out? I guess the easy answer is I won't be, but there's got to be a way, right?

How am I going to get two kids out of the car without one of them getting run over? I have gotten two kids out of the car before without incident, but they were older, not 18 months apart with one being a newborn. I do have an idea of how this is going to work, but I panicked for a few minutes when the idea first popped into my head.

How am I going to get dinner ready with two kids? It was next to impossible when David was a newborn, but maybe this one will be more willing to lay in a sling or otherwise not be held while I get dinner ready. Provided that I can keep big brother from messing with his new buddy/plaything/arch-nemesis for mommy's attention.

I keep reminding myself that David will be older by the time this baby comes out, thank goodness! I'm excited to be adding to our family; I just realize that it's not going to be a piece of cake and that it'll take a lot of shifting how and when I do things.

We're Only Mildly Crazy

I realized today that the number of posts that I've published has gone down over the years. Oops. So here is my attempt to write more often.

Things have been mildly crazy around here. David seems to be gearing up (or down depending on how you want to look at it) to do away with his morning nap. I'm still clinging to it, but the other day as well as today he took a horrible afternoon nap even after only sleeping an hour in the morning. By "horrible" I mean he stayed awake at least for an hour after I put him down and then only slept an hour tops after finally falling asleep. On other days, like yesterday, he'll go down for a morning nap, sleep an hour, and then proceed to sleep for almost 2 hours in the afternoon. Consistent he is not.

This evening, David learned, hopefully, why it's not a smart idea to run around with a blanket on your head. It's something that he likes to do sometimes instead of pulling the blanket off his head, and until today, we've been able to keep him from injuring himself. This evening, however, while I was trying to get the blanket off his head and Ashton was trying to hold him, he fell face first into the rocking chair and crunched his nose. It already looks bruised, but I'm pretty sure that it's not damaged in any way. I had a little bit of a scare when following this incident I asked Ashton how you could tell if a nose is broken and Ashton said, "It bleeds." Then a second later, "Oh hey. It is bleeding." Yes, it was, but only a teeny tiny bit and David definitely didn't seem to care too much that I was touching his nose or wiping it. He only cared that I took his pacifier away to do so.

Next week, we get to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. So place your bets now! We're excited to see this baby.

One Year Old

My baby is a whopping one year old! ...and a week since I'm a little late getting to this post. I can't believe that David has been with us for a year. We love our little boy.

David has learned how to walk and stand up all on his own. He enjoys his new found freedom even though he still thinks I should walk around with him and sit on the floor to play with him. It's funny to watch him just walk around on his own and see where he thinks it's worthwhile going. If the dog is around, that's where he goes. Yesterday he enjoyed chasing the dog around trying to pet her. (We've been trying to teach him to be gentle with the dog, not pet her face, and not share his toys with her. It's a work in progress.)

He climbs the stairs on his own now and has only taken a tumble once. The tumble was due to standing up and looking around while on the stairs. Hopefully, it was a worthwhile learning experience. Going downstairs safely is something that we're working on. It'd help if he stopped trying to climb up the stairs when we're trying to get him to go down.

David is 18 lbs 7 oz and 27 7/8 inches long. Everyone comments on how small he is, which is funny because I never think of him as being small until I see him next to someone around the same age.

We got to have a birthday party the next day with some family that were nice enough to come. He was a little overwhelmed at first by all the people at his house and playing with his toys, he had just gotten up from a nap, but he got used to it after a while and had fun. David got his own cupcake to eat and after he got past the frosting, he chowed down on the cake part.  

The birthday boy on his birthday!

Big dude standing and walking

I'm so proud of how these turned out

Not quite sure what to think of the cupcake or all the people staring at him with cameras

Finally taking a bite

We don't believe in small bites

David has been trying to sit under the coffee table for a while so he was happy when he discovered he could sit under our side table

We're Alive!

We really are alive. It's just been a crazy past couple of months. For one thing, I am pregnant! I'm due in the middle of August, which will mean David and the baby will be about 18 months apart. So far, I've been feeling pretty good. I wasn't very sick with David, but still had my days when I had to lie down for the majority of the day. That hasn't happened this time around so far, and I'm grateful for that. Lying down for a long amount of time isn't possible right now. The weirdest part about this pregnancy is the things that I crave and things that are no good for me to smell or eat. Things that last time I couldn't stand to be around, smell, or eat, are fine this time around and this time around I'm not craving all the carbs and sugars. Actually, I can't have too much sugar without me starting to feel sick. Kind of a bummer, but also a dream come true since it means that I eat better.

Of course, it wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't update a little bit about David. He took his first steps this past weekend, and every day this week he's taken at least a few steps on his own. Some of those have been by trickery, I'll just let go of his hand and he'll keep going for a few steps, but some have been him just letting go and taking off. We've made a bit of a game out of it and he loves it.

Oh, and for more fun, he can climb the stairs. The funny part is that while he can do it on his own, he doesn't want to. He prefers to "walk" up the stairs while holding our hands.  He actually cried when I let go of his hands to get him to go up by himself. Yes, he was going up the stairs on his own, but he was still crying until I took his hands again. It's pretty funny and it means that he still isn't interested in going upstairs without me.

David also loves to tease us. Next to "running" with Ashton, it's his favorite game. For a while now, we've teased him by taking things away and making it a little hard for him to get back. Yes, it sounds mean, but he loved it and still does. Well, it wasn't too long before he started turning the tables on us. He laughs so hard as he's pulling things away from us or as he's running away with whatever he's got. The laughter does interfere with him trying to get away sometimes.