Monday, June 27, 2011

So fast!

We bought Daddy (or as Abi has lately been calling him - for reasons we can not figure out - Boppy!) a picture frame for Father's day and then tried to get a picture to put in it! Getting more and more difficult with a wiggly little guy! :) But Abi did a great job of holding him in place!
Danny is growing up in leaps and bounds. In just one week he has learned to 1) feed himself finger foods (puffs since he still has no teeth!), 2) crawl (though at the moment its more of a very speedy shuffle), 3) move his legs like he's walking while held up, 4) gurgle! ...which he does ALL the time!! :) I forgot, however, that feeding self + crawling = eating off the floor! Guess I have to find time to clean the house a little more often!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Sad Day...

It is a grievous day in NYS:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/gay-marriage-approved-by-new-york-senate.html?_r=1

I'm so sad that my children will now be raised with school systems, neighbors and strangers telling them that this is normal! God help me to teach my children your ways. Give me strength to stand strong in our beliefs and Your ways. Give my children hearts that are softened to hear you Word and want to live by Your commands. Protect my children, Lord, and help me not to be silent in my convictions.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Just checking to see if I can post to my blog from my phone...

Ready to Crawl?

He's is soooooo ready to be on the move!! But we're thinkin he doesn't just want to crawl - he wants to RUN! He's been using the "roll method" to get around for a couple weeks now, and just this week he's figured out how to get up on all 4s and rock. He even pushes up on his toes with his butt all the way up in the air! When you sit with him in your lap he tries to throw himself down on the floor as if he thinks that if he could just get down there, he knows he could run. Silly boy has been able to sit up for a while now, but it was tough to tell because as soon as you sit him up he lunges forward to get at whatever he sees. :)


Its been a good week. :) Last week was horrid - it was probably the worst week (sleep-wise) ever. I spent most of the week listening to screaming. Couldn't get a single nap out of him that was more than 30-45 min long and it took 1- 1 1/2 hours to get him to sleep. I don't know what the difference is this week - maybe just my attitude... He's slept MUCH better at night. Naps have been hit and miss, but I just decided that I was going to go with it. If he didn't want to sleep I wasn't fighting. Must say, I think I've gotten more done this week than in the last 7 months combined. It feels good!

I started a quilt 16 months ago - just a lap quilt. My hope was that by making it a small quilt with fairly easy squares I would actually make the whole thing without giving up and turning the squares into pillows like I've done the 20-gazillion other times I've tried to make a quilt. ...then I got pregnant and had a baby... and well - In 16 months I got 7 squares put together. BUT - in the last 2 days I finished the last 5 squares! Officially the farthest I've ever gotten at making a quilt! Now to put all the pieces together, but some batting in, put a back on it and get it quilted!!

We have lots of house projects that need to be done. I've been discouraged at the lack of time, energy and $ to get at them, but slowly I think we're getting there! The attack is a HUGE priority this summer - it simply HAS to be insulated before winter hits again. This past winter we were the only house on the street with a clear roof - even though we had feet and feet of snow! All the melting built up ice and pulled the rain gutters off. So instead of doing new things on the house, we replaced the gutter for the 3rd time in 4 years. ;) So - we have to clean the garbage out of the attack and get it ready to put down insulation when it gets cooler up there again in the fall.

We also have a couple Adirondack chairs out front that never got painted. I scrubbed them down this week finally - couldn't believe how much gunk came off of them. GROSS! Just need to tighten up the screws and start painting. Then I want to paint the window trim on the outside of the house and paint the shutters. The shutters are terribly faded, and all the paint is coming off the window trim. I think doing these 2 things will greatly improve the appearance of the outside of the house. Then there are the 2 massive decks out back that have to be cleaned and painted!!! Yup - its really all much more than can be done in one summer by a couple of people who have to work and have 2 little kids to look after, but I'm feeling ambitious!! :) We'll see how far we actually get on all of it.

We have new neighbors across our back yard. I'm happy to have another young family in the neighborhood! We're a little concerned though, that no one knows where the property lines are around here and they want to put up a fence. Whoever put the fence up in our back yard didn't put it nearly to the edge of our property. Very frustrating since we have a lot more lawn than it looks like we do. BUT - the fence is in great shape making it hard to decide to take it down! If we take it down to be able to use all our yard, then we need to either be OK with having no fence or have $ to put up a new one. Can't decide what to do, but in the mean time its frustrating to know we have a lot more unusable space... ...and hoping that a new fence doesn't go up on our property. Called a surveyor and can you believe that it costs 1K to have our 4 corners marked??? It would literally take no time at all to mark our tiny little rectangle and they want a thousand dollars for it! Craziness.

7 Month pics

Cutest little boy there ever was. Se Below:


7 Months old! The time goes so quickly! Its been hard and sleepless, but we love him.

Friday, May 20, 2011

5 and 6 Month pics together

Since I'm so late you get them both together :) Here are Daniel's 5 month pictures.


And here are the 6 Month pictures! I just can't even stand how cute this kid is! I mean seriously - check out the faces!!!




Friday, April 29, 2011

...

Down 22lbs. These next 10 are soooooo hard to stay motivated for!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

:(

If ever there was a day that I was going to completely loose it, today is that day. ...but then, I've thought that a gazillion times over the last few months. Guess I'll manage.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

I Love 2-year-olds :)

I truly don't understand why people talk so badly of the "2's." Its true that there are rough times. Two year olds are testing boundaries, figuring out the world, and learning at astounding rates. I LOVE having a 2-year-old. I love our little Lady :) Abi amazes me every day with the things that she knows and the things that she says. We were at Kris' parents tonight and Abi saw something that Nana had - I guess it was a leprechaun playing the bagpipes and from the other room I heard, "Nana, is he playing the bagpipes?" How on earth does she know anything of bagpipes??? I can't keep up with all her learning! She knows all her letters (capitals and most lower case), can count to 20 (only missing 13 and 14), counts backward from 7-1, can do puzzles by herself, knows her way around the i-pod/i-pad much better than I do, memorizes books and "reads" them back to me. He imagination grows daily and keeps me in awe. I wish that I could remember every single moment... Reminds me that I need to keep up with the baby books and her "cute sayings" book... I'm so far behind and its so hard to catch up!!!

Sleeping Troubles :(

I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever get sleep again in this house... Abi was a harder baby in that she screamed for 4 months and never took more than a 45 min nap till she was 1 1/2, but tough times seem to be dragging on this time. The best thing the first time around was that Abi slept through the night at 8 weeks and never stopped so we were at least getting good rest at night. At just about 4 months Daniel was finally able to make it through the night without having to get up and eat at 4am, but he doesn't "sleep through the night." We are up with him anywhere from 3-7x's a night putting the Nuk back in and trying to get him comfortable to fall back to sleep. Often he still wakes up at for an hour or so at a time around 3am. What is that all about??? I finally had a thought a couple weeks ago - he was sleeping absolutely wonderfully during the day. He was taking 2-3 naps and his afternoon nap was 3-4 hours long. So I thought that maybe he was sleeping too much during the day and that was why he was up so early in the morning thinking he was done sleeping.... Having this genius thought I started waking him up from his naps so he would take just a 2hr nap in the morning and a 2hr nap in the afternoon and a 45min evening nap - but they say "never wake a sleeping baby!" What am I doing??? Seemed to work for a couple weeks in that he wasn't thinking he had to stay awake so early in the am (though still up several x's at night.) Now - we've just gotten to the point where he is still up multiple x's at night and will only sleep 45 min at a time during the day - he hasn't had a good nap in days... I don't even know what to do anymore. We have another issue - its a bundling issue... The only way to get him to sleep is to still bundle him. BUT - you have to leave one arm out so he doesn't freak out, lay him on his right side with a soft blanket by his face and a pillow behind his back so he doesn't roll over. He's teething so he wakes up and sticks his hands in his mouth and takes the Nuk out and then can't sleep. He's strong - the second he's at all awake he's all tangled in blankets and completely unwrapped... Tried leaving him unwrapped and he just plays and cries because he can't get to sleep that way... I feel as though I have no idea what I'm doing. We've been trying solid food. Little Man thinks that he's starving to death at his very tiny 17lbs 4oz, and can drink 8-9 oz of formula at a time. He's the same size at 4 months that Abi was at 6 months and drinks as much as a one year old. He has NO desire for solids though. I've been trying for almost a month now and it just ends with him crying and me frustrated. I finally thought that if he didn't like cereal, then maybe he'd like it better with fruit in it. He likes it but has no clue that he has to open his mouth to get it in and then thinks it isn't fast enough. So far I haven't been able to get more than a couple bite in before breakdown. I'm frustrated - but I love my son. I'm struggling, he's struggling - we all are... He started teething in earnest and is proving to be much more tough on him than it was on Abi. He's obviously in pain often and it makes me sad. Nothing seems to help it much either. Sadly I don't think any teeth are close to coming in - I can't see anything yet. I'm partly sad because after a few rough months in the beginning he had turned into a really happy little guy with a great personality... Teething has made him pretty miserable and the happy times have been fewer and farther between. I hope that once he gets a couple teeth in he will get a break to be happy again. Its been a rough couple days and I need an attitude adjustment... I've reached the point in sleep deprivation where I have had a headache everyday for a couple weeks, I feel like I'm in a constant fog, and I can hardly keep my eyes open during the day. I feel like things would be easier If I could just get ONE full night of sleep. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep seems like a dream straight from Heaven... ...and a complete impossibility. I'll keep hoping and praying...