Living the Dream

Moving Forward

2012-01-27T20:46:00.002-05:00

Not sure why I feel like blogging so much today, but I guess I better grab the opportunity while I can. You can bet you won't see two blog posts on the same day again for another year or two or three...

So I changed the design of my blog. It's not nearly as pretty as the one my lovely friend Kim made for me, but I needed something different. Maybe someday I'll put effort into something better, but for now this is a sufficient change. Life is quite different now than it was in the early days of this blog.

My earlier post regarding the miscarriage was extremely emotional for me. This one isn't. I feel the need to just post some about the facts of what is going on with all of this. First of all, after some personal suspicions that things weren't going well, I had an ultrasound on January 6th that confirmed the baby was gone. A week prior we'd had an ultrasound and the baby measured 6wks 2 days with some "cardiac activity" but no measurable heartbeat. So it was sometime in that week that the baby passed away. On the 6th there really wasn't anything to see on the ultrasound. At the risk of sounding morbid (I don't know any other way to explain it), most of the tissue had already broken down and I basically saw an empty sac on the screen. The tech said the sac itself measured 10 weeks at that point, but there was no more baby to be found. So it's been interesting to discuss how far along I was. We never had anything other than ultrasounds to go by in establishing a due date, and since the baby obviously was never developing as he/she was supposed to, we really have no idea if I should have been 7 weeks along or 10 weeks along or somewhere in between.

After I went home I struggled with wishing I could go back in time and make the tech keep looking. Surely she just wasn't looking as closely as she needed to, right? But denial is a common reaction to grief and I had to keep telling myself that this was a professional... and it's unlikely that someone who does ultrasounds all day every day would simply overlook a 7-10 week baby. I had to let go. So we decided to get a D&C done on the 9th rather than wait for my body to miscarry on its own. Since I had no signs or symptoms of miscarrying, it was labeled a "missed miscarriage" - where basically your body doesn't realize that the baby is gone and thus continues to behave as though you are pregnant.

The surgery itself was quick and easy and less emotional than I expected it to be. The aftermath has been more difficult than the D&C itself. Because now we are back to the waiting game. When you are pregnant your hormone (HCG) levels increase. After birth or a loss, it takes time for those levels to drop again. And the amount of time is pretty unpredictable. My body is still acting to some extent as though it is still pregnant. In fact, I still get a positive result on a home pregnancy test (and will until the HCG levels get low enough to not be detected anymore). So of course this has taken a bit of a toll on me. I am very anxious to be pregnant again. Not to negate the life that was lost, but because we do still want to have another baby to hold in our arms. It is frustrating to wish my body would shape up so we can try to conceive again and to have no idea when that might happen.

At my post-D&C follow up exam on Wednesday (the 25th) I had blood drawn to check my HCG. Results came back at 439. Which is pretty good I suppose because it does mean it is falling, but it still could be awhile before I get to 0. I'll go back for another blood draw this coming Wednesday to compare and ensure that it is still falling.

I have to admit that it was a really weird feeling to take a pregnancy test and be disappointed to see a positive result. Maybe because it is a reminder of what "should have been" or because I know it means I probably can't get pregnant again yet... maybe a little of both. But all in all I am trying really hard to have patience. Really I've been pretty impatient with all of my pregnancies, then I look back and see that I ultimately didn't have to wait very long. However anyone who has ever tried to conceive knows that even just a couple of months can feel like an eternity. When you decide you are ready to have a baby, you want it now!

There are a couple of reasons I'm in a hurry this time, though. The first being financial. Our health insurance is a high deductible plan, but once we have paid that deductible, everything else is covered 100%. No doubt with the D&C and all of the blood tests I will max out that deductible this year. If we can also have the expenses of a new pregnancy/birth in the same year then we will only have to pay that deductible once for all of it. If we don't have a baby until next year, then we'll have to pay it all over again. Not fun. So of course God's timing is perfect and He can supply all of our needs, but I have reason to hope for sooner rather than later.

The other reasons for being in a hurry are emotional. I love being pregnant. I loved knowing I was pregnant with our 3rd child. I was really looking forward to having another baby. And so of course I am anxious to get back to that. I had entered 2012 with the idea that it would be another year of expanding our family. I guess I'm still hoping that can still come true. I will always think about the baby that we lost, but I know that he/she is in Heaven waiting for us and in the meantime I still want to see our earthly family grow.

God has blessed our family and I am blessed to know that I have a super special reason to look forward to the day I arrive in Heaven. I love to watch Lydia and Eli grow and pray that God will allow us more of the same in His perfect timing. So for now we press on and trust that God knows the desires of our hearts - and it is He who will direct our path.

The Kids

2012-01-27T07:43:00.003-05:00

Eli is fast approaching 15 months old and I haven't done much writing down of his life milestones. So let's see... a day in the life of Eli...

Well, he usually wakes up around 6:30 (ugh!) but will talk/play in his crib until I can drag myself out of bed to get him. He is absolutely in love with his stuffed frog that is in his crib with him. Every night when he goes to bed he pounces on it and uses it as his pillow. In general he really likes stuffed animals and there are several that he tackles at first sight. Eli is definitely a cuddler. Some mornings I can get him out of his crib and he will lay his head on my shoulder and snuggle in the rocking chair for a little bit before we get our morning started. I love those times!

Eli continues to be our big boy. He is slimming out some as he loses that baby fat, but he's no twig! And he certainly likes to eat. Unfortunately we've been dealing with a milk allergy (that he will hopefully outgrow) so finding things he is able to eat is tough. Between the allergy and his pickiness, the boy practically lives on bread and chicken nuggets. He is very particular about textures, so I've had a hard time getting him to eat fresh fruits, but he still does well eating baby food purees so I just stick with those for now. We recently tried giving him coconut milk and that has worked out well. Eli still does not like to drink anything other than water, but the coconut milk goes well with cereal or making pancakes and is a good source of calcium for my growing boy. He will meet again with the allergist in May.

As of early January Eli is a walker! He took his first solo steps on January 7th and before long was growing more and more confident in his new ability. Today (20 days later) he toddles all over the house. He still looks a little unsteady, and if he does happen to fall down he has to hold on to something to stand back up, but I'm so proud of his progress! Eli is also talking a decent amount these days. He says mama, dada, nana, grandpa (something similar sounding), ball, toes (sorta), uh oh, night night, bye bye, hello (only to a phone), go, and boo. He will sign more, please, eat, and all done. He also does animal sounds for monkey, snake, and puppy.

His favorite game at the moment is anything he can open and close. He makes quick work of our kitchen cabinets, opening all of the cabinets in his reach and throwing things on the floor. And he constantly rearranges the items in my lazy susan. It always means a lot of cleanup, but I love seeing his little mind work. He is going to be like his Daddy, always investigating how things work. Eli is always studying the mechanics of things.

So that's basically Eli's day. Wake up, tornado through the house, quick nap in the afternoon, eat a lot, then go to bed around 7.

Lydia is fast approaching her 3rd birthday. I am constantly having to remind myself that she is still only 2. She is SO smart! I signed her up for preschool for next year but I'm sure she will already know most of the things they teach already. She knows the letter sounds and can spell her name. She is constantly pointing out what letters are on signs wherever we go and is slowly catching on to how to read the words. I have no doubt she'll be reading by age 4. Brent has been working on teaching her left and right, and she can count to roughly 14 (the teens get a little mixed up most of the time). Lydia is a constant stream of questions and we do our best to teach her as we go. So academically I'm not thinking she'll need preschool, but I'm looking forward to her having more social interactions and working on her motor skills as well. She will start in late August and will be in class MWF 9-11:30. A couple of our friends have their daughters in that class as well, so it will be nice to spend more time with them.

Hopefully some more interaction with others will help Lydia get over some of her fears. She has been awful with going to the childcare at church. She used to LOVE it, then suddenly she started crying every time. We'd put her there and try to leave her in hopes that she'd get over it, but usually we get called back and/or they inform me when I pick her up that she's cried basically the whole time. Not sure what sparked this, but it makes it really difficult to go to church these days. Eli doesn't do well in the childcare either, so too often we find it more convenient to just watch the service online from home. Lydia is also pretty sensitive about loud noises. She can absolutely panic if there is suddenly some sort of noise like an alarm going off or someone using a power tool. She sometimes is okay with sufficient warning, but boy have we had some major meltdowns lately when an unexpected noise happens!

Lydia's favorite shows right now are Mickey Mouse and Toy Story 2. She pretty much requests Toy Story 2 every day right now and will quote lines from it all the time. Because of her obsession with this movie lately I thought she might want that for the theme of her birthday party, but she decided months ago that she wanted Dora and she's sticking to it! It's funny to me because she rarely talks about Dora and we don't watch that show, but she isn't budging from her party choice. Silly girl!

This age is a trying time for us with Lydia. Lots of questions from her and lots of testing her boundaries as well. But overall, she is a sweetheart who brings us overwhelming joy. I love being able to have conversations with her and being able to watch her learn. She gets so excited when we get to do special things. I love watching her eyes light up! Love my girl. :-)

We are still a bit in recovery mode after the loss of our 3rd child, but we are hopeful for the future. After having a D&C on the 9th, I had a follow-up exam on the 25th and everything is going okay. My doctor said that we are free to try again whenever we are ready. I would still love to be holding a new baby in my arms in 2012, but we will trust in God's timing.

Untitled

2012-01-19T19:53:00.002-05:00

This post may not make a whole lot of sense. I may not even publish it for anyone to see. But I feel like getting some of my crazy thoughts out, even if they are pretty much a jumbled mess.

That's basically what everything feels like right now anyway. A jumbled mess. I'm trying to make sense of everything. All that happened. All that is going on with my body. All that I want to do and need to do. And sometimes I just want to curl up in a corner and hope that time can pause for a little bit while I pull myself together.

It's been two weeks now since I made my final plea that God would keep my baby healthy and growing so that I could hold him/her in August. I think Thursdays are the hardest right now. It's odd I suppose. Friday was the day I got the sad news. Monday was the day I had the D&C... the day everything was "final." But I think Thursdays hurt more than those days because it is the day I remember that God said no. And for the life of me I can't understand it. I know I won't understand it, this side of Heaven at least.

To even begin to capture where I am in this story I have to start back somewhere around October 2011. We knew we wanted a third child and were ready to take on that responsibility whenever God allowed. However, my "fertility" had not returned since having Eli, so I wasn't exactly expecting to get pregnant. But knowing that it technically IS possible to get pregnant without that, I had a friendly little chat with God. Not an unusual thing, these types of conversations. I just casually prayed, "Alright God. I know that you have the timing all worked out and all. BUT, if you want to know what I would like in all of this, I'm going to lay out what I'd really love to see happen..." And I proceeded to pray that, if it would be okay for me to get my say in this, I wanted to get pregnant without having to deal with "AF" and for it to be in time for the holidays so we could have a little fun with the announcement. Added benefits to this situation would be that I knew I'd probably get an early ultrasound so we could get an accurate due date. My doctor usually doesn't give ultrasounds until the 20th week, so an early peek at the wee one would be extra special.

So anyway... that conversation pretty much came and went without any more serious thought. I knew it wasn't super likely and I knew that it wasn't important for everything to happen that way either. Like I said, just a casual chat with God to put in my request... like when Lydia asks us if we can have something specific for dinner. No biggie if it doesn't happen, but what a special treat it would be to get what was asked for.

And guess what? I got my wish! I could hardly believe it the day I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. "Wow God," I thought, "Thanks!" I was truly stunned that God had given me everything I asked for in my silly little request, but I reminded myself that I serve a loving God who loves to give good gifts to his children. I felt completely blessed.

In the weeks that followed, with bloodwork and ultrasounds to try to establish a due date, I grew more concerned. While I had nothing solid to go by, the timeline didn't seem to be adding up correctly. I couldn't shake the feeling that the pregnancy should be further along than all of the tests were indicating. But I kept pushing it to the back of my mind telling myself that I am a natural worrier and was likely just letting the worries get the best of me. Besides, God gave me this gift. He gave me exactly what I had asked for. I kept coming back to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 - "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" I had to trust that God does not give bad gifts. Why would He give me the wonderful (and unnecessary) gift of granting my request only to rip it away?

I continued to cling to this hope and on Thursday night, January 5th, I prayed. What I knew would be my last (early) ultrasound was scheduled for early the next morning. This would be the day I would finally know something. Either there would be bad news or I would see the heartbeat of a growing baby. No longer would I have the "it may just be too early, we'll have to wait and see" line to fall back on. I was expected to be about 7 weeks along, so there would be no more gray area this time. As I was lying in bed that Thursday night, I gave it all to God. He knew I was scared. I wasn't feeling confident at all. And I pleaded with tears streaming down my face that I'd see that precious heartbeat in the morning. I cried out, "God, not my will but yours be done. But if it can be your will, please let this baby be okay."

As I have since had to deal with the reality that the baby was not okay. That he or she simply never developed as intended. The most heart wrenching part of the ordeal has been trying to wrap my head around God's plan in all of this. Why God? Why? Not why did we lose the baby. But why would you put me in position to feel like I've been given the "fish" I requested only to see it turn into a snake? I almost felt like I was being punished for asking for something so trivial. Like I had to be taught a lesson that I shouldn't bother God with unimportant details and should just be quiet and take what I get. I felt like my heart got ripped out by the one person I trusted most.

I didn't understand it. Honestly I still don't. I don't think I ever will.

It still really hurts. A lot. But even in the pain, I've never found myself angry with God. Just confused.

One night as I cried and prayed and tried to make sense of it all I thought of Job's story. I thought about how Satan was given the ability to try to shake Job's faith by taking away his family, his health, almost everything he had. At that thought I practically exploded with anger at that rat Satan. Perhaps it was all his doing. He wanted to try to break me and took my baby away from me. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe God is holding me and weeping with me - both of us grieving over what this fallen world has led to.

I know I won't really know what spiritual forces were involved in this situation until I meet my Lord in Heaven. I think I'll always carry with me the question of why did God allow this to happen - why did I have to feel so betrayed - but I know that I can't allow this to unravel everything I know to be true. I have to keep looking to His promises.

In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What else do I have to turn to? Jesus Christ is the one who has been my shelter my whole life. Why would I turn from that now? I know that I won't have the answers to my questions, but I have to cling to the truth that He does. For a long time I had on my Facebook page the song lyrics "Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be..." and now I find myself in position to allow the other half of that song to ring true in my life.

Dear Lord, blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering. When there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name...

You'll just have heaven before we do...

2012-01-11T21:29:00.003-05:00

It's hard to come here and post about losing a baby when I had been waiting in anticipation for the perfect moment to announce the pregnancy. That moment didn't come quickly enough and sadly our child didn't get the grand announcement I had hoped for. I have hundreds of thoughts and feelings that I may or may not get around to putting into words, at least here, but for now I want to post the lyrics to a song written by a mother who likely felt exactly as I do now. And she captured it perfectly.

Glory Baby
by Christy Nockel (Watermark)

Glory Baby, You slipped away
As fast as we could say baby, baby
You were growing, what happened Dear,
You disappeared on us baby, baby
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe
Until we're home with you
Until we're home with you

We miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there's a day
When we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away
When we're home to stay
We can't wait for the day
When we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘Til mom and dad can hold you
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little baby, it's hard to understand it
Cause we are hurting, we are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we're stronger people
Through the growing and in knowing
All things work together for our good
And God works his purposes
Just like he said he would
Just like he said he would

We miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there's a day
When we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away
When we're home to stay
We can't wait for the day
When we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘Til mom and dad can hold you
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

I can't imagine Heaven's lullabies
And what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing
Heaven is your home
And it's all you'll ever know
All you'll ever know

We miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there's a day
When we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away
When we're home to stay
We can't wait for the day
When we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘Til mom and dad can hold you
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

Lydia-isms

2011-10-18T21:28:00.005-04:00

A few of my favorite word-pronunciations from Lydia that I've been meaning to write down.

Oatmeal = Oat-Me-Meal

Cinderella = Cinderbrella

Zero (Eli's age) = Cereoh (like "cereal" with an o sound instead of l)

Remote = Nah-mote
Apostrophe = A-pasta-fa-me

Enjoying the Now

2011-06-15T08:29:00.002-04:00

I'm usually pretty good about going with the flow when it comes to the growing up of my kids. I embrace the phrase "This too shall pass" which my mom consistently reminds me of. All of the good moments and bad moments alike will pass and I am okay with that. I love my life as it is right now and a part of me is sad that my kids won't stay this way forever, but another part of me is excited to watch them grow and knows that I will love a lot about the next phases of life as well.

Knowing that keeps me grounded in reality and I don't often get too emotional about "losing" my babies. But it did hit me a little bit last night. I was holding Eli as he was falling asleep nursing. He is a light sleeper and doesn't often sleep in my arms unless he is eating. I hugged him a little tighter and remembered back to his newborn days (nights) when he would snuggle up on my chest and we'd both drift off to sleep. It made me realize just how quickly this is all going. It won't be much longer before I won't get to hold him in his sleep at all anymore.

We are already less than 5 months away from Eli's first birthday!

An Update!

2011-05-31T12:13:00.003-04:00

Life is crazy busy and with summer here we are busier than ever! But here are a few updates.

We've been potty training Lydia since mid-April and things are going okay. Most days we don't have any accidents, but she isn't good at telling me when she needs to go. I take her to the potty every couple of hours and we avoid accidents that way. She still only goes #2 in a pull-up though and I haven't been able to get her on the potty for this yet.

Eli keeps growing and growing. He was 20lbs at his 6 month checkup and is wearing size 12 month clothing now. He is a VERY happy boy - always full of smiles and giggles. Within the last week he has finally started sitting up well on his own. I still have to put pillows behind him because he eventually topples over, but he can sit fine for fairly long periods of time now. He wants to move SO badly. He can roll across the room, but he will get on his belly and just go crazy kicking his legs like he wants to move forward. I have a feeling that once he figures this out, I will not be sitting down all day! Eli is also starting to babble more. Most noticibly "Da da da da da". I'm kinda surprised he isn't saying "ma" at all considering he hears his sister say "mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy..." non stop all day lol.

My coupon craze continues and I've been able to teach a couple of classes to help others learn. I don't enjoy the classes much, though, so I think my next one may be my last. I just don't have the enthusiasm for grocery couponing like I did when I first started. I mostly do Rite Aid these days and that's much more complicated to attempt to teach it at a class. But I really enjoy my Rite Aid shenanigans and can find ways to get pretty much anything they sell there for free if I play my cards (coupons) correctly. Yay for not paying for diapers or household products anymore!

We have several household projects that are moving along as well. Just this past weekend Brent did some work on our deck to hopefully keep the wasps away. We've had a horrible time with wasps building nests on our deck... knocked down 13 of them last weekend! But hopefully that is done now. I'm looking forward to enjoying the outdoors this summer. Being pregnant last year made it miserable to be out in the heat.

We are also hoping to finish our basement in the near future. We've been saving up and doing side-projects for extra money in hopes of getting the basement finished and moving the playroom down there. I think the plan will be to start getting estimates in the Fall.

We're still here!

2011-04-01T16:51:00.004-04:00

Attempting to blog while Lydia is awake (and playing in the office next to me). Crazy? Probably. This will likely be short!

Two. I have a two-year-old. It's crazy! And she is defintely beginning to ACT two. It is common for Brent and I to look at eachother, shrug, and state, "She's two" after any number of Lydia's antics. She is very much developing a mind of her own. Today I asked her if she would share an orange slice with me. As I reached for one, she quickly guarded them with her hands and said, "Um... no thank you, Mommy. No thank you." She tells us "no" and has random spaz sessions where she refuses to tell us what she wants. Ah to be two! :) But she is an absolute joy in our lives and considering how she COULD behave, she is a very well behaved little girl.

Eli is getting more and more fun each passing day. He can roll over now and enjoys sitting in the exersaucer for short periods of time. He's so tall and heavy that he doesn't have the muscle strength yet to be in there for long. He weighed in at exactly 18 lbs at his 4 month check-up. Still top of the charts for height and weight! He loves to smile and laugh and he continues to be a very social boy. Always wanting attention! It's so much fun to see him watching Lydia as she runs all over the place. He gets a kick out of watching her play and she likes to bring him toys and show him how to make things play music.

My life has been busy lately as I have continued in my coupon crazy madness. Most free time (which is limited) is spent looking up deals and planning shopping trips. I'm going to do my first "official" couponing class soon, so this is occupying my thoughts as well.

We're also hoping to potty train very soon. I am sooo not looking forward to it, but had told myself we would take on the challenge once Eli was sleeping better at night. He is finally going to bed around 7 and staying there until 6 or 7 in the morning. Of course some nights are still better than others, but with a more restful household I decided it was time to get back to business around here.

Spring has arrived (supposedly) and I'm looking forward to warm weather and walks outside again. Lydia will love going to the park this year now that she is big enough for more playground equipment. I'm hoping Eli won't take too much longer to be able to sit up on his own. It will be really nice to be able to sit him on a blanket with some toys while Lydia plays with other things outside.

There's a brief update on our lives. And hey, Lydia didn't completely destroy the office in the process - though the pile of clothes I had set aside to take to MOPS is now scattered around the room. Could be worse. :)

3 Months!

2011-02-05T15:19:00.003-05:00

My dear sweet Eli - you are 3 months old already!

You are a very social boy these days. You get upset if you realize you are in a room by yourself and get the biggest smiles on your face the instant someone comes over to talk to you. You are also very vocal. You love to coo on and on as long as there is a person there to coo at.

Eating and sleeping still aren't super structured. During the day you eat roughly every 2.5-3 hours. Most times after eating for a little bit, though, you get much more interested in smiling and talking to mom to eat any more. You are still up at least once at night to eat. This is making Mommy VERY sleepy! We would all really love for you to sleep through the night, but you still haven't figured out your own way to comfort yourself when you wake up. Mommy is trying really hard to be patient and give you time to learn this skill. Praying it will be soon!

Sometimes you have big mood swings too. You will be super happy one minute and then be crying the next. Usually I think it is because we stop paying attention to you and you get mad until we talk to you again. But in general you are a happy guy. I have noticed that you seem to have a sensitive side. You can only take so much of Lydia "playing" with you before you seem to get a little scared. I know... she's loud... one day you will get used to it! But you make the most adorable face when you pout and stick out your lower lip. I know you are sad, but it always makes me smile because it's so darn cute!

You are still a big boy and everyone makes sure to tell us that when they hold you. Grandma and Papa Tom held you today and said you feel like a bowling ball! I love how "sturdy" God made you and know you are going to be a nice strong man someday like your daddy. You are currently wearing size 3-6/6 month clothing and wearing size 2 diapers, but we're moving you into size 3's as soon as the current open pack of 2's is gone and are washing your 6-9 month clothing in anticipation of you needing them soon!

The only place you really like to hang out is still your bouncy chair. You are okay with the swing these days, but if you are fussy that's not where you want to be. We've also tried letting you sit in the bumbo seat and you aren't a big fan of that either. Maybe you'll like it more when you get a tad bit more neck strength. I keep wanting to let you try out other things besides the bouncy chair, but that's really the only place you love! You nap there a lot, but do pretty well napping and sleeping at night in your crib (except at 7 or 8 at night which is the one time you completely refuse to go to sleep in your crib). You don't typically go to bed for the night until 10 or 11, and if we're lucky you'll sleep for at least 4 hours after that. You've gone 8 hours once or twice, but there are also nights that you still want to wake up every 3 hours. We haven't done as much cry-it-out with you as we did with Lydia, mostly because we don't want you to wake her up but partially because we're waiting to see if you find a way to soothe yourself without us having to intervene.

Your sister loves you a ton. It isn't uncommon for her to get up in the morning or after a nap and immediately start saying, "Eli? Eli?" until we let her know where you are. She brings you toys and makes sure you have your blanket on (or off if she sees you just woke up). She even loves to rock you when you get upset over being put in the carseat.

You've only been here for 3 months and already I don't know what life would be like without you. We all love you SO much, Eli! You are getting more and more aware of the world around you, and I can't hardly wait to see all of the changes the next month will bring. Love you, little man!

Extreme Couponing

2011-02-02T16:34:00.002-05:00

A show recently came out on TLC featuring four "extreme couponers" as they show off their methods and stockpiles. While I enjoyed watching the show because couponing is my new love affair, I also found myself annoyed by the stockpiles that most of these people had. One person had enough body wash to last the average person 100 years... another person had a stock of 3000 rolls of toilet paper... and one lady had piles of pasta literally in every room of her house. It made me sad, perhaps even a little upset, that they considered this something to brag about. I have one small corner of our basement, newly outfitted with sturdy shelves compliments of my awesome father & handsome hubby, dedicated mostly to storing my "stuff." And of this space about 50% of it is designated for giving away and donating.

Seriously, if I ever have 3000 rolls of toilet paper in my house - slap me. I simply can't justify hoarding such large quantities of something that would be such a blessing to donate. I certainly understand maintaining a reasonable stockpile for your family. We do keep a large supply of items that we use in our family such as shampoo, deodorant, paper towels, etc, but when I say "large" supply I mean roughly a year's worth at most. With any given item I consider how much would be reasonable to keep in our house for our family and anything obtained beyond that needs to get OUT!

A few weeks ago I had the honor of loading up my van full of toilet paper, tissues, toothpaste, shampoo, and other household and food products to take to Cherry Street Mission. Certainly most of the items were things that we COULD use in our house... eventually... but I trust that God will continue to meet the needs of my family through my couponing as I aim to be generous to those less fortunate through it as well. And beyond donating to a specific mission, it brings me huge amounts of joy to bless our friends and family with these "treasures" I have acquired. Pretty much any visitor to our home is certain to get ushered down to the basement for shopping at "S-Mart" (the name Brent gave to my stockpile shelves)... where everything is free for the taking. :-)

As coupons have become more of a passion of mine over the past year, I expect to make it into more of a business as my children get older and are less dependent on me for every last thing. I always figured I'd have to go back to work some day once the kids reached school age, but perhaps I've found an alternative. And when that time comes I may have to adjust my plans and do stockpile sales to earn an income rather than simply donating all excess, but I certainly don't intend to stop giving altogether... and certainly still would not want to have 3000 rolls of toilet paper or 100 years of body wash stored in my home! Isn't it much more worthwhile to give it away to people who can use it now? I certainly think so.

SICK!

2011-01-05T16:19:00.003-05:00

At the Pirolli household, 2011 entered with a lot of coughing and sniffling. We should have seen it coming. Brent and I both had sore throats around Christmas, but it never turned into any more than that for us. We had a wonderful time in Cincinnati with my family and made it back home on the 29th to relax a bit before the new year.

Or so we thought.

By evening of the 30th it was obvious that both kids were getting a bug. It is oh so much fun to have a sick not-yet-two-year-old and a sick 8 week old. Ha! Lydia was a trooper on New Years Day when we took her to Great Grandma's and then to Grandma's house to open gifts from Brent's side of the family. But the poor girl could only take so much. She opened so many presents that by the last few she was actually pushing them away and saying no. It didn't help that she was completely exhausted from being sick.

With the holiday endeavors behind us, we've been at home trying to get everyone well. I took Eli to the pediatrician on Monday and found he has an ear infection. Beyond that, though, he has been handling this cold quite well. Lydia on the other hand has been a wreck. She's barely eating anything and it takes constant coaxing to keep fluids in her. She wants to be held all the time (very difficult to do as a nursing mom to Eli), she's had a fever, and she has been so tired. Yesterday I thought she was doing better... she seemed to have taken a nap well (short, but no crying before or after) and was playing as normal. But by mid-afternoon she was a mess again.

So there I was trying to cook dinner so Lydia could try to eat before going to bed early, Eli was fussing unless I was bouncing him in his bouncer, and Lydia was super tired and crying on the couch in the living room. Ugh! I just kept plowing through dinner while trying to encourage Lydia to lay down and watch her video... then suddenly I turned around and she had completely crashed. She was on the pillow, mouth hanging open, snoozing away. Scared me at first, but I felt better once I was sure she was still breathing! Poor girl!

After that experience, I decided today that if the whining picked up in the afternoon I was putting her down for a second nap. And thus it has happened that it is 4:30 and Lydia has been in her room for nap #2 since around 3. Here's hoping she'll be a much happier little girl this evening! It's so hard for me to watch her be so exhaused but be struggling to sleep. I know how tough it is to sleep when you can't breathe normally... I can't imagine trying to make sense of it when you are two!

Praying for health to return to both of my little ones ASAP. I have goals for both of them once they are back to feeling better: Potty-training (or at least more prep) for Lydia and a solid bedtime routine/schedule for Eli (with ultimate goal of getting him sleeping in his crib, preferably through the night!). A mom's job is never ending.

2 Months

2011-01-04T20:09:00.003-05:00

Dear Eli,

You are two months old today! Though it always seems a little funny to me to celebrate on the 4th. You were born so early in the morning that by mid-day on the 4th it no longer feels like the anniversary of your birth. Instead I often find myself thinking through the events of that day in the evening on the 3rd. How I called your dad at work to tell him what was going on. How we ate dinner, called Aunt Sarah to stay with Lydia, then headed to the hospital. How I was lying in a hospital bed listening to your heartbeat while watching Survivor on the tiny hospital room TV.

Regardless, you officially arrived on the 4th making you two months old today. I have loved having your in my life for every single moment of those months. You don't smile a ton or "talk" a ton, but I think it's just because you are a bit more reserved and quiet. It melts my heart when I do get to see those precious smiles and hear those adorable coos, though. :-) You are a fiercely growing boy, always at the top of the growth charts. And you are strong too! You like to stand and you do great pulling your head up. I'm so excited to watch you grow and develop even more in the next month (and the next one and the next one and for years to come!). I never once doubted that I would love you just as much as I loved Lydia when she was our only child, and it has proven to be true. You are SO loved, little man! I am blessed to have you in my life and look forward to every minute to come.

I love you, Eli!

- Mommy

Anti-Swing

2010-12-23T10:46:00.002-05:00

I'm so bummed because I'm becoming more convinced that Eli simply does not like being in a swing. The swing was SO nice with Lydia because she could hang out in it (happily) and then drift off to sleep when she was ready for a nap. It really helped me get a break once in awhile.

Thus far Eli has only had one decent nap in a swing. Beyond that, he tends to cry whenever I put him in it until I transfer him to his bouncy chair. I'm really hoping he still grows to enjoy swinging!

I'm no good at this

2010-12-21T20:10:00.004-05:00

I always have high hopes of keeping up with my blog, but there always seems to be so much going on and so little time to write about it! So here's a brief update on our lives.

Lydia is doing great, but noticeably approaching the terrible twos. She tests limits constantly and we've had to introduce timeouts (which she seems to find amusing...) and spankings (which have only happened a couple of times). She usually stops the bad behavior after a warning, but the annoying part is that she gets a warning once or twice a day. A part of me feels like she should get warned if it has been several hours since she was told not to do something... she isn't even 2 yet afterall... but another part of me KNOWS that she is aware of what she is not allowed to do and perhaps enough is enough with the warnings. We're still learning around here.

Her speech continues to skyrocket and she is now using combinations of phrases (ex: "Where is the bear? Oh here it is. I found it.") She knows the appropriate response when asked what her name is and knows the sounds all of the letters make (except vowels). I get a running commentary of what she sees/does/wears/holds throughout the day, and she absolutely INSISTS that I say "Bless you, Lydia" any time she coughs or sneezes. She, of course, makes sure to tell Eli "Bless you" when he sneezes, as well as anyone else in the house. We've been working on counting with her and she quickly recognizes when there are two of something, but generally any quantity above one gets labeled as two or three.

As for Eli, he's still growing! I took him in for a follow-up appointment after he had an infection at his one month well check and he was 13 lbs at 5.5 weeks old! He is now almost 7 weeks old and I'm moving him into 3-6 month clothing already. He smiles a little bit, but it's much harder to get smiles out of him than it was with Lydia. But when he grins and coos at things it melts my heart. I love my little boy!

I've tried to get him on a semi-regular schedule, and he's doing okay with it, but he definitely has a mind of his own. I haven't quite been able to figure out his pattern (if there is one). He's eating 8 or 9 times a day - usually once or twice during the night. He does alright at night, sometimes going 4 or 5 hours between feedings, so I'm hopeful that I'll eventually sleep through the night again. It took Lydia until she was 3 months old, so here's hoping Eli will meet or beat that!

And... now I have to stop blogging because the boy wants to eat. See? This is why I can't blog anymore...

The New Normal

2010-11-29T19:26:00.002-05:00

Today marked day 1 of our "new normal" around here. All of my family members are back at their respective homes and Brent was back at work. It was just me and the kids here all day. I admit the day did not pass tear-free. I had high hopes for at least a short nap after a rough night last night, and it was looking promising when I had Eli fed before Lydia went down and she didn't throw a fit about naptime. I was SO close to having Eli asleep in his bouncy chair and could see my nap on the horizon... but fate would not have it. Lydia slept well (got to give her credit there), but Eli continued to fight it. I'd get him so close to being out, or so I would think, and then his eyes would pop open, he'd start to squirm, and we'd be back to square one. Why oh why must kids fight sleep so much?!

This attempted sleep continued until it'd been a couple of hours since he last ate and I decided to give up and just feed him instead of fighting to get him to sleep. Brent was home for lunch by that point anyway, so I took the boy downstairs and fed him... and cried over my failed attempt at getting some rest. Of course, he eventually settled down and slept. Just in time for Lydia to wake up. *sigh* But his long nap did allow me some time with Lydia and a chance to get some laundry done.

All in all I feel we survived the start of our new normal okay. I know each day will come with new ups and downs, but such is the life of a parent. It's definitely feeling a little overwhelming and I still don't know how I will ever get much done, but ultimately I'm glad we are moving forward. It was SO nice to have the help I have had for the past 3 weeks. I can't thank my mom enough for all she did for us! But I think it will be good for us, Lydia especially, to get back to a sense of normalcy. It's got to be hard for a not-yet-two-year-old to adjust when things are still changing on her. Now I feel like we can get back to her routine and she can better adjust to life with her little brother.

At the same time, I do recall how quickly life with a baby changes. When Lydia was this little, I remember that as soon as I felt like we were at a point of calling something "normal" she would change and we'd be adjusting again. Eli will do the same thing to us. Before I know it he will have a completely different schedule and completely different needs than he has right now. I can hardly believe he's going to be a month old this weekend. Wasn't I just pregnant yesterday?? Oh how time flies...

So here's to our new normal... and the next normal after that, and the one after that, and the many more we have to come. I can't say life is boring anymore!

Life

2010-11-16T19:19:00.002-05:00

Life is definitely different with two kids, but I feel like it was all "normal" the instant we came home from the hospital. But maybe that's because it hasn't been too hard with all the extra help.

Brent has been off work since Eli was born until yesterday. My mom & dad came up this past weekend and Mom is staying all this week to help out. It is SO nice to have extra hands around to keep Lydia occupied while I tend to Eli. I'm a little nervous about how things will work out when it's just me with the two of them! It has also been helpful to have someone else around so I can get a break and get some extra sleep if needed. Most nights have been pretty good and Eli has often only been up once in the middle of the night to eat. It is great to only feed him once between 11pm and 7am, but I admit I wish the process was a little faster. It seemed Lydia was always a very quick eater - we'd be done within 15 or 20 minutes. But Eli takes his time more than she did. He'll get through half his meal in 15 minutes or so, then we'll have to do a diaper change (because he poops like a madman), then it's another 15 or 20 minutes of eating, finishing up with possibly another diaper change, burping, and trying to get him settled in. The entire process can easily take a one hour chunk out of my night. But I'm not complaining! I know it could be much much worse and I also know that he will likely get faster as he gets older.

Last Friday we had Eli's one week checkup. If I recall correctly, they mostly aim for babies to be at or a little past their birth weight at this appointment. My boy? He was up 10 ounces... weighing in at 9lb 8oz! The doctor even commented that he didn't need to ask me how feeding was going, he could tell! He was measured at 21 inches long... actually less than they had him down for at birth, but they guess that's due to cone-head. Either way he landed in the 90th percentile for both weight and length. 50th %ile for head size. Everything looked great at the checkup and the doctor kept saying he looked perfect. He's strong and has good reflexes. So fun to see him grow!

I'll be taking him to MOPS with me this week. Looking forward to showing him off and thankful that my mom will be here to stay with Lydia. So far Lydia has not made it through an entire MOPS meeting for the year. I always have to go get her before we are done. So I'm looking forward to sitting in there the whole time with my little man this week!

Welcome Eli Anthony!

2010-11-15T13:14:00.003-05:00

Before the memories get too foggy, I need to document my sweet Eli's birth story! So here goes...

As mentioned before, my 37 week checkup had me excited thinking that my son may arrive ahead of schedule. So naturally I was anxious to see the doctor on November 3rd for my 38 week appointment. I was really hoping we'd see lots of progress and have a better idea when he might make his debut. But try as I might not to be disappointed, I admit I was pretty bummed when my doctor said I was the same as I had been the week before. No more progress made despite the fact that I'd been having quite a few contractions that morning (strong, but 10-20 min apart and had stopped by late morning). The doctor did however offer me the option to induce that weekend (the 6th/7th) if I wanted to. It was the only time she would personally be available for the birth, otherwise I would have some other doctor in the practice.

I went home after the appointment and spent the rest of the morning into the afternoon stressing over this decision. It wasn't my first choice to get an induction, but with a toddler to deal with and my mother having a 3+ hour drive to get here, I was considering the option. I couldn't come up with a decision, and Brent thought we should go ahead and take the induction on the 6th, so ultimately I figured that would be the conclusion. I called my mom and coordinated with her under the assumption that we'd be telling my doctor to schedule me to be induced on Saturday.

The rest of the afternoon continued as usual until around 4:00 when I started to feel contractions again. This time they felt even stronger than they had that morning, but were still far apart. I sent a text to Brent & my mom just telling them fyi the contractions were back and around 9 min apart. No need to take action at that point, I thought. I tried to get up and keep busy around the house knowing that activity often slows down or stops false labor, but by 5:30 the contractions were ranging from 4 to 6 minutes apart and getting stronger. Fearing he'd be delivering this baby on the side of the road if we didn't act fast, Brent went into action mode. He ordered a pizza and called his sister while I went to take a shower (still wondering if this was truly the "real thing"). I then called my mom and told her we'd probably be heading to the hospital and she could either wait until we knew if we'd be admitted or could just start driving this way. She opted to hit the road!

We ate dinner, got Lydia fed, and packed up the remaining items to be brought with us to the hospital. I was driving Brent crazy by not hurrying as much as he wanted, but I was trying to make sure Lydia was set for the night and into the morning if necessary. We left the house around 6:30 with contractions still around 5 minutes apart and some of them quite painful (hard to talk through). Though these didn't seem to hurt my back as much as they did with Lydia.

After some difficulty getting to Labor & Delivery (lots of areas of the hospital under construction meant that we had to enter through Emergency and get taken on a long walk to the other side to get there) I was in triage by 7. The nurse went through a whole long list of questions and ultimately said she wasn't sure what the doctor would do if they didn't think I was in active labor yet. My chart had two due dates on it: November 13 (based on LMP) and November 5 (based on the ultrasound). Neither had been specified as the ultimate one to go by. But we were told that they could not legally induce labor before 39 weeks, meaning if I wasn't in active labor and the doctor went by the 13th as the due date I might get sent home. In the end that didn't matter much because when they checked me at 7:30 I was 3cm dilated. The doctor (Dr. Neuhoff) said that if I had been at 1 just that morning and was at 3 now, things were progressing and she would keep me there.

By 8:00 we were settled into a delivery room watching Survivor while the RN (Renee) continued to ask more questions and get IV's and monitors hooked up. They did not give me pitocin and said we would wait and see how things progressed on their own, especially after they break my water. The doctor was busy with another delivery, though, so we kept being told she'd be in to break my water soon and then it'd feel like we waited forever. Around 9:30 the anesthesiologist came in to see if I wanted an epidural. My plan had been to wait until after they broke my water since I wasn't in too much pain at this point, but the anesthesiologist said he was called down to help with surgery and wouldn't know when he might come back to L&D. Not particularly wanting to risk not being able to get the epi later, we had him go ahead and do it. The procedure seemed more uncomfortable than I remember it being the first time, but ultimately it did the job.

Just after that was done the doctor came in to check my progress and break my water. I was at 4cm at 9:35pm when that was done. Eli's head was in a position such that he was plugging the hole as they tried to break the water, so it took a little while but it finally broke and we continued on. Brent hooked up the laptop and we watched the movie Yes Man as we waited. At 11:50pm I was up to 6cm, and when checked at 1:45am was unfortunately still at 6. I'd been lying on my right side to watch the movie and they said Eli's head was in a bad position for dropping into place, so we switched to my left side and put my leg up to help him reposition. I was feeling the contractions a bit more due to the epidural meds pooling on my right side, but still didn't feel pressure to push at this point.

We decided to try to get some rest while we waited, and I might have dozed off for a brief minute here and there, but my blood pressure monitor kept going off and beeping until the nurse would come adjust it. The second or third time this happened (2:55am), the nurse was adjusting Eli's monitors when I started to feel pressure. I told Renee and she asked if I wanted her to check me again. I said she could if she wanted, not really feeling confident that I needed a check, but she immediately exclaimed that it was time, I was at 10! She hurried around the room constantly telling me "don't push... don't push..." It almost made me laugh because I wasn't feeling THAT urgent a need to push. In fact, I was slightly afraid they'd go to all the trouble to get ready to deliver and then see that it wasn't really time.

Less than 20 minutes later (3:11am) there were 4 or 5 doctors/nurses/med students at the end of my bed talking me through pushes. I still never felt the strong urge to push, but I knew how I needed to do it and did my best to get in 3 good pushes with each contraction. Three contractions and 7 minutes later, Eli Anthony arrived at 3:18am on Thursday November 4th! I heard them say he had the cord around his neck, but they quickly unwrapped it without a fuss. He was much more purple than Lydia had been (she was unusually pink for a newborn) and had some bruising on his head from how he'd had to shift to get into position, but he was perfect. Tears welled up when I heard his first little cries, but he didn't cry for long. They put him on my stomach to clean him up (where he promptly peed all over me), then we cuddled and nursed. This was when I knew my son would be ALL boy... he snuggled up against me eating... and farting! Yes, my son wasted no time getting around to peeing, eating, and farting. Haha!

He weighed in at a whopping 8lb 14oz. The doctor knew he was big and had even commented that she didn't want to go too far away because she wanted to know how big he was! He's tall too. They measured him at 21.5 inches and said he has big feet too! Going to be tall and strong like his daddy, I bet.

Being the middle of the night we didn't have too many visitors right away. Tom & Rita came in to hold the little guy, but that was it for then. It seemed to take forever for the nurses to finish everything they needed to do. Finally at 5:20am we were moved to our recovery room. More nurses reviewed necessary paper work with us (while we struggled to stay awake enough to at least nod like we were listening) and by around 6 we were attempting to get some rest. I still couldn't believe that not long before I'd been stressing over the option to induce and it didn't even matter. Eli had his own agenda!

We only stayed in the hospital one more night and headed home Friday evening. Lydia had not been very enthusiastic about seeing Mommy in the hospital and I was anxious to get home to be with her and adjusting to life with our new little man.

Nine months of waiting (more if you count the time trying to get pregnant) all wraps up with 7 minutes of pushing and the first sweet cries of my firstborn son. It seems funny how quickly things can change. The waiting seems eternal and then in a flash it is done.

Eli is 11 days old today and I have loved every bit of it thus far. He is SUCH a good baby! He eats well and sleeps well and hardly ever cries. I can already tell that he is laid back. Lydia took a little bit of time to warm up to him, but she loves him now and gives him plenty of kisses. I am so in love with my family of four!

Eli - Words can't express how happy I am to have you in my life. It is such a joy to hold you in my arms at last. I love looking into your bright eyes when you are awake, and watching you peacefully sleep too. You are going to be a spectacular little man, I can already tell. Though the time is already flying by faster than I'd like, I'm so excited to watch you grow. I love you SO much! Welcome home, little buddy.

He's Here!

2010-11-13T20:08:00.002-05:00

Eli Anthony arrived early in the morning on November 4th. He weighed in at a hefty 8lb 14oz! I love my big boy! There will be more updates to come and pictures I'm sure. But I've been enjoying the time with my new family of 4 rather than being on the computer. Just wanted to let everyone know that my son is here at last!

37 weeks

2010-10-25T12:31:00.004-04:00

Just had my 37-weeks-and-2-days doctor appointment this morning and things are looking good! First of all the scale this week lied to me (in a good way) and said I'm only at 157lbs (less than 40 up from starting weight), but that's about 4lbs less than last week so I know it is lying haha. With Lydia I ended at 169 though, so I do think I'll manage to stay under that this time around. I did not get to see my regular doctor because she is out this week, so I am trying to keep in mind that different doctors may say different things and not to get too caught up in what I was told. But regardless, this doctor said I am currently at "a good 1cm", 80% effaced, baby's head is nice and low, and the cervix is nice and soft. I talked to her some about the possibility of scheduling an induction if he hasn't come by his due date and her response was something along the lines of, "There's no way you are going past your due date." Ha!

Honestly I hate it when doctors say things like that because I know that it still may not be true... and I hate to get my hopes up or anyone else's hopes up! But she said it, so there we go. It's in my head now. She said she was pretty convinced that I will go into labor on my own. But again, can one really know THAT well? As always, only time will tell.

It is exciting, though, to think that Eli's arrival could be a little sooner than later. I'm looking forward to meeting him and experiencing what it is like to have a son. I'm looking forward to hearing those sweet baby cries again, holding a sleeping little one, seeing how Lydia reacts to him, and just getting to know another of these little miracles. I've been busily preparing as much as I can around the house. Most of the baby equipment has been cleaned up and moved into Eli's room until he arrives. I've got the spare freezer stocked up with frozen pizzas and other quick meals so resting and getting to know our boy can take priority over having to cook dinner. And I am *trying* to get the house relatively clean so I don't feel so bad about letting it go for a couple of weeks post-baby. The biggest things that are not done are the little keepsake things I want to have - his baby blanket (which I've already decided will not be finished until after his birth - sorry Eli!), his baby book, some scrapbooks that are in progress, etc. But these are nice-to-haves, not things that I need done before his arrival. However, there are still things to be done so I really should get off the computer and do them. It's much harder to prepare for a new baby with a toddler to tend to, so naptimes are crucial!

Updates

2010-10-24T19:57:00.002-04:00

I'm so horrible at making myself sit down and write what's going on in our life. Do I say that every time I post? Probably.

As of yesterday I am full-term with the pregnancy (37 weeks). I'm excited for the day of Eli's arrival, but at the same time feel very at peace about when he decides to make his debut. I am enjoying life as it is now, understanding that change is coming, and will be fine if it is another 3 weeks before my son is ready. At the same time, I would be just as thrilled if he wanted to show up tomorrow! I've been bad about posting little details of this pregnancy, but have one I wanted to be sure to write down. A few days ago we were relaxing and watching TV while Eli danced around in my belly. Usually I am not good at differentiating between body parts (his elbow as opposed to his heal, for example), but that night I was poking at him and could very clearly feel his sweet little baby foot. Looking forward to kissing on that tiny foot next month!

At my last OB appointment I was showing no signs of progression towards labor yet. My next appointment is tomorrow (on weekly visits now) so we'll see if anything has changed. I have felt a few Braxton Hicks contractions (I think... I never had them with Lydia), but nothing substantial. I am not at the point of counting on him staying in there until his due date, but also not convinced he will certainly come early. All we do now is wait and try not to schedule anything too important in the coming weeks.

Lydia continues to do well, growing and learning as always. She gets better by the day at speaking in sentances, though the words are still sometimes out of order. She is a fantastic little helper and does well picking up her toys when we are done with them and following directions. I'm sure if I was not expecting a baby in less than a month we could be successfully potty training. She will talk about the potty and has started to put her toys on the potty for them to use it. But alas, I still don't want to be dealing with all of it when I have a newborn, so we will wait. Good thing I continue to get cheap/free diapers with my couponing. :)

Giveaway!

2010-10-06T10:22:00.002-04:00

My friend Kim is doing a $50 Hallmark Giveaway! Go check it out... and be sure to check out the rest of her stuff too!

My Lydia

2010-10-04T09:36:00.002-04:00

Some much needed Lydia updates:

While I try not to let her watch too much TV in any given day, she has a few favorite shows that we enjoy watching together. Super Why ("Why Why"), Cat in the Hat ("Hat"), Word World, Sid, Curious George, and Elmo ("La-lo") are all enjoyed in moderation, though the programing schedule changed and we don't see Word World or George very often anymore.
Lydia still loves to run, spin, jump, and dance. She has now started to insist that we join in with her at all times. "Mommy up! Mommy spin! Mommy jump!" or perhaps "Ball Mommy! Mommy ball!" when she wants us to play with her ball. It's super cute but she can be really demanding!
For those wondering, potty training is still on hold. As Eli's due date moves closer, I just don't have the time and energy to put into it right now. We will be waiting until she is closer to 2 or perhaps just after her 2nd birthday... depending on what things are like with Eli here.
Lydia is getting good at routines and does excellent following directions. When it is time to clean up she will help put all the toys back in their place. She usually even knows where they all go without being told. Bedtime routine is similar. Once she is in her PJ's we can put her down in her room and she will go pick out a book, give it to one of us, and sit on our lap for her story. As soon as we say "the end" she will take the book, put it away on the shelf, give us each two hugs (one on each shoulder) and a kiss, then crawl into bed on her own. I have a feeling she will love routine just like her mama. :)
Her language abilities continue to amaze me and she talks in short sentences throughout the day. Most of the time I can understand her, but she gets carried away at times and rambles a whole lot of stuff together that I can't figure out.
Lydia's favorite games are pretending to go night-night and playing with her pink ball. Whenever we are in her room she insists that we both flop on her bed and pretend to be sleeping. She also enjoys helping with the laundry and "sweeping" the kitchen floor.
Colors and letters are all pretty well mastered by Lydia now. There aren't any letters that give her trouble anymore, so we are working more on numbers. She knows most of them and will usually count to five if you show her your fingers one at a time. I also randomly hear her saying "six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" though I don't think she's actually counting anything. As far as colors go, we've taught her red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, pink, white, black, and brown. She gets them right 99% of the time! She really absorbs information like a sponge. I can't keep up with writing it all down!
One funny thing she picked up is the fact that Nana drinks coffee. This is hilarious that she latched onto it because my mom never made a big deal about it. Yet Lydia has decided she loves to talk about coffee and pretend that she is drinking it! She even takes her toy barrels and will pretend to be drinking coffee out of them like a cup.

There are probably a hundred more things I could write down, but I'll still miss some. It's so hard to really capture what life is like around here in words! All I can hope to do is at least give myself a few things to remember when I look back.

I Heart Rite Aid

2010-10-03T21:33:00.004-04:00

So here it is 30 minutes prior to my regular bedtime (at least these days...) and I'm going to make a post about how awesome shopping at Rite Aid is. This is a bad idea. I get all excited when I think about my Rite Aid deals and then it gets hard for me to shut off my brain. But I will make the sacrifice for the inquiring minds out there. :-)

My couponing journey began in regular grocery stores and first branched out to drugstores through Walgreens. I found it fun to see that there were ways to actually make money by shopping there. However it did not take me long to get frustrated with all of the rules and regulations that Walgreens has for coupons. I left the drugstore market for a bit, not wanting to get bogged down with learning another store.

Then came June 2010 and reports of Rite Aid having mega packs of diapers on clearance. With the sale & coupons I was getting diapers cheaper than I had ever obtained them before. It was like a drug high lol. I decided to jump back in and see what Rite Aid had to offer. It did not disappoint! I have fallen so in love with all of the wonderful ways to save at this store that I can't stop myself from checking Google as early as Wednesday or Thursday to see if anyone has info on deals for the following week. This week I came home with 4 packs of Huggies diapers, 8 tubes of Crest toothpaste, 11 tubes of Nivea chapstick, 2 bottles of Suave body wash, 3 bags of Hershey's candy for Halloween, and 2 boxes of acid reflux medicine for Brent - all without paying a penny of my own money! It was all paid for by money and gift cards I earned from previous shopping trips at Rite Aid... plus I have over $36 in Rite Aid money to carry over to future purchases!

So of course, everyone always wants to know one thing: How??

Rite Aid has more ways to save than any other store I have ever shopped at. Combine them all and it isn't hard to save big! Here are the ways I've seen that you can save:

Wellness+ Program - This is Rite Aid's store loyalty card program. Basically, this is your first step to shopping at RA. Similar to a Kroger card, if you don't have one you don't get the sale prices. In addition to getting sale prices with this card, you also earn points when you shop. At certain point levels you receive rewards. You will periodically get 10% off coupons and can earn point levels that allow you to get 10 or 20% off every time you shop (this applies to non-sale items, generally speaking). You also must be using your Wellness card to get any of the +UP reward benefits.

+UP Rewards - If you have heard of catalinas or register rewards, +UP is basically the RA version of these. This is a "money off your next purchase" coupon you receive after completing a transaction. For example, this week RA has Nivea lip care on sale for $2.99 with a $1.99 +UP reward. So if you were to purchase one, you would pay $2.99, then on your receipt you would get a printed coupon for $1.99 off your next purchase at RA. I had a coupon for $1 off Nivea lip care, so I was able to pay $1.99 then get $1.99 back... making it free! Managing +UP rewards is currently the most critical part of RA shopping and how I am able to get so many things without paying out of pocket. Often times you can get items for free after factoring in the +UP (like my example) or can even make some money if you have good enough coupons. If a $2 off Nivea coupon had existed, I could have paid just $.99 and received $1.99 in return. And these things are not as uncommon as one might think! Each week you can aim to use the previous week's +UP coupons to get more stuff and more +UP's. After a few weeks you'll find the free stuff can really get rolling in! And one of the best things about +UP rewards - they work like cash! You can use as many of them as you want on a single transaction until your balance is as close to zero as you can get it.

Money Off Total Coupons - Rite Aid is famous (in my mind) for having lots of opportunites for you to get $5 off any $25 purchase. Every month they offer two of these coupons through their Video Values program (see below) as well as offering a bonus coupon (could be $5 off $25 but lately has been $4 off $20) once you watch a certain number of videos. In addition they will occasionally put out pdf coupons on their website that can be used until the expiration date hits. There's also a $5 off $25 printable coupon for Rite Aid available at redplum.com. Given all these options, it isn't too hard to use one or more of these each week to save extra money or to even get paid to shop.

Video Values Coupons - This program is available at Riteaid.com and rewards you with coupons in exchange for watching videos (commercials). For example, this month I can watch a brief commercial for Huggies and then print a $2 off coupon for Huggies diapers. These are Rite Aid only coupons, but can be used in combination with regular manufacturer coupons. Thus you could use a Huggies VV coupon and a Huggies coupon from the newspaper on the same pack of diapers. There are tons of these VV coupons available each month for a wide array of products.

Single Check Rebates - I list this one last because I think RA may be phasing it out. When +UP rewards started this past summer, these rebates began to diminish in the weekly ads. However, they still exist and can still play a role in getting good deals. The basic idea here is that you can sometimes get rebates in the form of a check or gift card mailed to you for purchasing specific items. Today I used some money from a $10 rebate gift card I had from purchasing oral care products at RA to avoid spending any of my own money on this week's deals. The SCRs change each month and all you have to do to claim them is go to RiteAid.com and enter the requested info from your receipt. Each individual SCR is limit one, but you can do as many different SCR's each month as you want. At the end of the month you can request a check in the amount shown on your account.

As you can see, they have a pretty complex system going on over at Rite Aid! It can seem overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredible! When you combine the above savings options with coupons and sale prices you can really save or even make some cash. Here's a small example using a deal I did today (this one didn't quite end up being free, but it will give you a simple example of how all these savings come together).

This week RA is running a deal where you get a $10 +UP reward when you purchase $25 or more in Zegerid products. The 14 count Zegerid OTC is $12.99 at my RA. There is a $3 off Zegerid Video Values coupon available (RiteAid.com) and I had one $4 off and one $3 off manufacturer coupons. My purchase went as follows:

2 14ct Zegerid OTC = $25.98
minus $5 using a $5 off $25 coupon
minus $3 from the VV coupon
minus $7 from the two manufacturer coupons
= $10.98 plus tax
*Received $10 +UP coupon on receipt

So in essence, I paid $0.98 plus tax for nearly a month worth of Zegerid.

If this was my first time shopping at RA, I'd pay the $10.98 out of pocket. If I'm a regular shopper there (which I am), I can use previous +UP rewards to make the purchase. I believe in reality I only paid $0.55 plus tax out of pocket after using +UP coupons I earned last week.

Now do you see why I have fallen in love with this store?

34 weeks

2010-09-29T16:27:00.002-04:00

Well... technically 33 weeks 4 days... but who's really counting?

I am beginning to remember why the end of pregnancy is very not fun. As Eli grows and grows, my body is starting to feel the effects. If I'm standing up or walking around for any length of time my back, hips, and legs begin to ache. I guess an extra 40 pounds will do that to you. This wasn't such an issue last pregnancy because I could basically sit and rest whenever I needed to, but with Lydia it is much harder. She is constantly begging me to get up and dance, jump, spin, run, etc and she really doesn't understand that mommy needs to rest sometimes. I wish we could find more sit-down activities that she enjoys.

The heartburn has kicked up a notch too. I've relocated to a couch to sleep at night so I can prop myself up better, but I have to be super careful what I eat in the evening or I may regret it. Between that and how much Eli wiggles around in my belly, sleep is getting hard to come by. Often I am up every couple of hours. I suppose I could say this is just preparation for when Eli gets here, but lack of sleep isn't really something I like to prep for!

But really, I don't mean to complain. I know that all of this has a beautiful end result that is completely worth it, and I do not take that for granted. I'm so excited to see and hold my little boy! On a lighter note, we continue to make progress preparing for his arrival. He has a good supply of clothes washed and put away in his room along with clean bedding to welcome him home. Brent is almost done with decorating the new nursery then all that's left is to clean up the baby equipment that's been stored in the basement since Lydia used it.

Mom & my mother-in-law are both still thinking Eli will end up being an October baby. As long as he is healthy, I would not be opposed to this!

Born in Sin

2010-09-23T20:42:00.002-04:00

As my sweet little girl grows deeper and deeper into the toddler stage it has never been more apparent that we are born with a sinful nature. I never worked to teach her selfishness and manipulation, yet she is learning every day how to leverage these things.

This is a new realm of "tough" in parenting.

I love my daughter. I want with all my heart to believe that she will forever be sweet and innocent and obedient. But sadly I know this is not the way it will be. Not in this sinful world we live in. And lately I am beginning to see the root of sin - selfishness - creep into my little girl. She doesn't mean it to do any harm, but I can tell that her actions are turning into the result of the question, "What do I have to do to get what I want?" Sometimes it is sort of sweet... like insisting on never ending hugs and kisses at bedtime so that I won't leave her room. Other times, like the past couple of nights, it is screaming and crying until Mommy comes into the room - then the waterworks turn off and she wants to play and read books. When did she learn to manipulate like this?

It is really hard to be an honest parent. I have to admit that my child really ISN'T an angel and that she was born into sin in a fallen world, just like the rest of us. My job description is beginning to get longer. I can't just get by with meeting her basic needs anymore. She is reaching an age where teaching and training will become crucial in shaping her behavior. She will need to learn to obey, and more importantly learn about the One who gives us the strength to obey even when it goes against our human desires.

I am (and always have been) excited to watch my little girl grow. I love watching her learn and seeing her gain independence. I'm so proud of who she is becoming. But at the same time I'm a little terrified at how major a role I play in shaping who she becomes! I thank God that I have him by my side... and an awesome church home to help me out as well. But I sure do wish that they could stay innocent forever!

Shingles

2010-09-21T09:11:00.002-04:00

When I was showering on Friday I noticed a small line of what looked like bug bites under my left arm. I didn't think much of it until that night when my back was itching and Brent saw I had a cluster of around 14 more bumps on the left side of my back. We assumed they were bug bites until I did some research on Sunday night and found that rashes in pregnancy are not only common, but something that should be discussed with your doctor.

So yesterday (Monday) I called my OB and went in to have her look at the rash. I was expecting to hear it was something pregnancy related, so I was surprised when she told me it looked like shingles! I know some people who have had shingles and it was NOT fun for them. The doctor said I am more susceptible to them because of the pregnancy & subsequent compromised immune system. She actually said I was the third case she's seen recently.

Now I'm on medication for the next 10 days to help get rid of it and trying my best not to scratch my back despite the constant itch. It's so funny to me to see the various differences in pregnancies. With Lydia we had several scares that resulted in a lot of stress at the start, but not a whole lot of physical ailments for me personally. With Eli I've already had two illnesses that I've never had before: sinus infection and shingles. Let's hope this is the end of it... less than 8 weeks to go!

31 (and a half) weeks

2010-09-15T16:01:00.002-04:00

With less than 2 months to go until his due date, Eli and I are doing great. I'm still feeling really good with the only complaints being some aches and heartburn at night (oh and the getting up to pee a lot). Eli moves a ton but not in such a way that it is uncomfortable for me often. He stays out of my ribs and only occasionally uses my hip as a punching toy.

Had my latest checkup today and all is going well. I'm still measuring big, but only by a couple of weeks this time. I was that way with Lydia too (I'm short... there's only one direction for the baby to go...) so I'm not too worried anymore. The doctor estimates he will be in the 8lb range. I can handle that. My weight was also better than I expected. 154 lbs. That's up 33 from my first weigh-in at the doc's office. With Lydia I gained almost 50, so I'm quite pleased with 33. 8ish more weeks to go, so even at a pound a week I shouldn't end much more than 40 pounds up from the start. Not bad if you ask me.

Eli's room continues to come together. All of the base painting is done with just a decorative tree left to be painted. Today I bought the letters to spell out his name on the wall. So besides the tree, we just need to buy/install curtains, buy picture frames, and print out the pictures (images from his bedding) to put in the frames to go on the walls. I've been doing occasional loads of laundry to get clothing ready for his first few months and am looking forward to organizing it all now that the furniture is arranged.

It still seems so unbelievable that I'm going to have a son in a couple of months. What a wonderful Thanksgiving I have to look forward to this year! So much to be thankful for... hopefully including a healthy little boy in my arms.

Where is the time going?

2010-09-02T20:31:00.003-04:00

I know I probably say this in pretty much every blog post, but things seem so busy these days and I find it hard to remember to stop and write it down. I can't believe it is September already! Here are some updates on the kiddos:

Lydia

18 months old now and getting smarter by the minute. I was asked the other day how many words I thought she says now and I guessed around 100. Today I decided to try to make a list and made myself stop after passing 250. So the real number is probably somewhere between 250 and 300, and these are words she actively says without us having to say them first. There's no way I'm going to try to add to the total with words she won't say unless we say them first or words that she clearly understands. Within the past week or so she has also become more and more confident with using multiple words together and forming small sentances. Mostly these consist of "Bye-bye {insert person/object here}" or "All done {insert item here}", but there are a few others that pop up here and there in her daily chatter.

At her 18 month doctor checkup I loved seeing the doctor's reaction to all that Lydia knows. Especially the face she made when I said Lydia already knows most of the alphabet! She now recognizes all of the letters and only has slight hang-ups on a couple of them (such as, sometimes "C" starts out as "G" and we have to correct her before she will say it properly). She's getting much better at colors now too and frequently points out orange, purple, pink, and green objects... which I find funny since blue used to be the one she assigned to everything, but now she seems to ignore blue things.

Sleeping, eating, playing... Lydia does them all well and she is a complete joy to watch. She continues to be on the go constantly. My mom, Brent's mom, and I all took her to the butterfly house last weekend and it was nearly impossible to get a picture of Lydia because she wouldn't stop even for a second! She just ran around saying "buh-FLY!" As she is getting older and gaining more independence, we are starting to see her testing her limits a bit more than she used to. I hate punishing her and wish she would go back to just listening right away (and don't get me wrong, she is a GREAT kid and obeys very well), but sometimes she pushes it too far and gets a hand slap for touching things she was told not to touch. But like I said, in general she is very obedient and loves to help clean up, do laundry, or other small tasks I set her on.

Potty training is sadly on hold right now. I was hoping to be getting a good start in these coming weeks, but Lydia decided she was going to get some sort of stomach... something... and be pooping like crazy. We even got to the point of being told to bring a sample in to the doc's office so they can check for bacteria, but as soon as they requested this Lydia has seemed much better (this was just 2 days ago). But there's no way I was going to attempt potty training a child that is pooping out some nasty stuff 5 times a day. So for now we are waiting for her system to get back to normal and will go from there. Still hoping we'll give it a go at some point this month.

As a final note on Lydia's life at the moment, I am getting excited to see her as a big sister. I really think, and hope, that she is going to absolutely love Eli. We talk about him all the time already and I try my best to convey the idea that he is a baby and will be here soon. She loves to give kisses and hugs to my belly and will smile and say "Eye-Yeye" (Eli) whenever she notices my belly or even sees baby boy clothing around. Can't wait to see my two little ones interacting!

Eli

Pregnancy week 30 is just on the horizon. So far things continue to be going along smoothly. If I remember correctly, I seem to recall being a lot more uncomfortable at this point with Lydia. My only complaints right now are heartburn and aches at night, but those are pretty minor irritations.

I had my most recent doctor appointment at about 28 weeks along and she said I was measuring 33 weeks! Yikes! I know those measurements can be off by quite a bit, and that I measured big the whole time with Lydia too, but now I'm slightly nervous that I'm cooking a 10-pounder here. Perhaps this will just mean he will arrive a little sooner. Mom is predicting a halloween baby... so we'll see! I also took my glucose test at that time and sadly failed the 1 hour test. This meant I had to go back in for a 3 hour test where I would get my blood drawn 4 different times and checked for glucose tolerance. While it was an annoying way to spend a Saturday morning, I did get a lot of work done on Eli's blanket while sitting around for over 3 hours, and I passed this time so no need for a special diet.

We finally got started painting the nursery this past weekend. And by "we" I mean Brent and my dad. My parents were here last weekend and Dad helped Brent with Eli's room while Mom & I were at the butterfly house. The walls are slated to have tan and green, so the tan was started and finished on Saturday. This coming Saturday we'll be working on the green, then Brent plans to paint a tree in one corner of the room. So excited to see his room come together!

Weeks 25 & 26

2010-08-13T21:04:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow will mark week 27 in this pregnancy. Eli is due exactly 3 months from today! I'm happy to report that he is doing great as far as we can tell and I'm feeling great 95% of the time too. I also looked up how things were going at this point in my pregnancy with Lydia and was thrilled to see that my total weight gain this time is the same (or possibly less) than it was with Lydia. I was so nervous because I gained a weight a lot earlier this time, and with Lydia I had some major weight gain around 25-26 weeks. If I did the same this time, I'd be HUGE! But Eli has kept me gaining steadily and it's now evened out with my first pregnancy. I weigh around 145 right now and was 119 at my first weight check. With Lydia I started the same and ended just shy of 170. I know that's more than the "suggested" weight gain, but it came off fine the first time and my doc wasn't (and isn't) concerned about it. Though ultimately I'd like to stay under 160 with this one.

We had some maternity pictures taken around week 25. Always a fun time! We had trouble getting Lydia to do much with us since 1) there were toys to be played with and 2) we haven't done much working with her on hugging or kissing Eli. But we got a few cute ones anyway! Check my Facebook page for some of my favorites.

On Monday this week we had the pleasure of going in for a 3D ultrasound! I loved having that done with Lydia and was thrilled to get some of Eli. We had Lydia's done around 26 weeks as well so it is fun to compare.

Lydia at 26 weeks 4 days

Eli at 26 weeks 2 days

A day in the life...

2010-08-09T10:41:00.004-04:00

This is what a typical day in our house might look like right now:

Lydia wakes up around 7am and begins talking, singing, and "reading" her books on her bed. I always make sure to leave a few books on the end of her bed after she falls asleep so she'll have them there when she wakes up. She LOVES books and we commonly wake up to hearing her chant "books! books! books!" As soon as she sees me coming to get her, she will either grab a book or toy to give to me or will say "skooch skooch" as she scoots herself off the bed (usually to grab a different book off of her bookshelf). We regularly spend the first few minutes of the morning reading through a couple of her books. She loves it so much that I have a hard time getting her to let me change her diaper in the morning!

After the diaper change we go hang out with Daddy and make sure he is up for work. Then it's time for juice and breakfast! Lydia drinks a sippy cup (8oz) full of a juice/water combo first thing in the morning, then has water for the rest of the day. She doesn't care for milk much unless it is chocolate, so we stick to cheese, yogurt, and milk on cereal for dairy intake. Lydia continues to be a pretty good eater and uses lots of words for her favorite foods including cereal, waffles, chicken nuggets, apples, bananas, pizza, and spaghetti (aka "getti"). She cracked me up yesterday at a birthday party when she kept begging for cake as we were getting ready to do candles. I didn't realize she knew the word cake so well!

When breakfast is over, we usually have a laid back morning. Lydia loves to watch the shows on PBS. Her favorites are Word World, Super Why, and of course Elmo on Sesame Street. We try not to watch too much in any single day, but letting her watch a little while she plays in the playroom can't hurt. She is usually running all over the place playing with her toys and puzzles while the shows are on anyway. Rarely does she sit still for more than a minute or two!

Naps continue to be unpredictable (what's new?). We have tried going to one after-lunch nap, but I feel so bad making her stay up when she's super tired in the morning. I stuck with it for a week or so in hopes that she would adjust, but it didn't really work. Some days she just really seems to need a break in the morning. But of course, some days even if she is acting completely worn out (rubbing the eyes, yawning, sucking her thumb, and even lying down on the floor), she will decide it's play time after I put her down in her bed. Most of the time I can at least get a 1 hour afternoon nap out of her, but as always she is hit or miss.

Afternoons vary around here. After lunch and cleanup, sometimes Lydia naps (if she didn't rest in the morning) or we will play or go out until she needs a nap. We don't have a lot to do to get us out of the house, so we try to enjoy our trips to the grocery store or when the weather happens to be good enough to go outside. Unfortunately this pregnancy makes it quite uncomfortable to be outside in the heat... and this summer has been one of the hottest on record! As a result we don't get out as much as I'd like. Poor Lydia, she loves being outside! Oh and one other thing I wanted to mention is that Lydia can now go both up AND down stairs. I'm pretty sure she learned how to go down because just a day before she started to do it I was telling some other moms that she wasn't figuring it out no matter how I tried to teach her. Guess she didn't like sounding incapable! She scoots along on her rear-end from stair to stair and is getting quite good at it. This makes me feel a little safer knowing that if she encounters stairs and I'm not right by her side there's a chance of her safely navigating them.

So mostly we hang out and get things done that need to get done while we wait for Daddy to get home from work. Lydia loves her Daddy! She will excitedly run up to him yelling "Daddy!!!" when he walks in the door, then often promptly runs off to grab a ball so they can play. Balls are still amongst her favorite toys, along with her rubber ducks, fish bath toys, and any toy letters we have. She loves music and will dance and sing all around the room. When we are in the car and the radio turns off, she will start singing and making her own music!

There isn't anything in particular that Lydia dislikes. She continues to be pretty easy going. Sometimes she has a rough time still when we clean her off after meals or when she lays back in the bathtub to have her hair washed, but even then she can usually be distracted away from a tantrum pretty quickly. Lydia gets a bath every two or three days, depending on how messy she has gotten, and she continues to enjoy bathtime. She especially loves her foam letters and numbers and nearly knows them all now! 99% of the time she can get all of the letters correct except for "R" "X" and "Z". She's still working on learning those. We haven't worked as much on numbers, but she usually gets 1, 5, 7, and 8 correct. The foam letters are also great for learning colors. Lydia still tends to respond "blue" to any question involving a color, but when not prompted she has been known to point out yellow, pink, purple, and orange objects. I swear at the rate she is going the child will be smarter than us by the time she's 3. Yesterday when we were saying bye bye to Brent, Lydia informed me that he was going to "work." When I told her she was right, that he was going to work and he'd be back later, she looked at me and said "minute" ... as in, he'll be back in a minute. Ha!

Bedtime routine around here is pretty simple. Bathtime comes first if it's bath day, then pajamas and a diaper change, bedtime story, then down for bed. Lydia is doing great in her big girl bed (twin mattress on the floor). No regrets about moving her out of the crib! We don't use a sheet yet, just a toddler-bed-sized blanket that usually has to be put back on her after she falls asleep. She also has a flat pillow to help her not squish herself up against the wall and because she just likes going night-night on pillows.

She falls asleep pretty quickly most of the time, sometimes after a few minutes of talking to herself, and stays asleep throughout the night. Brent and I sneak into her room before we go to bed to place her back in a good position on the bed, re-cover her, or just to give her a little kiss to end the day. I love ending the day kissing my sweet angel... and starting each new one listening to her sweet voice!

Nursery Design

2010-08-03T20:31:00.006-04:00

25.5 weeks pregnant now and feeling great! I keep meaning to look back and see how I felt at this point with Lydia, but pregnancy brain combined with chasing a toddler around makes me incredibly forgetful.

Currently I get comments ranging from "you're so tiny!" to "you don't look like you can make it until November!" so I'm not sure how I really look haha. Tomorrow will mark 100 days remaining until Eli's due date. It's really going by fast lately!

Lydia and I took a quick trip down to Cincinnati this past weekend to visit with a friend who was passing through. While he had the house to himself, Brent took the opportunity to do some work on Eli's room. The guest room is no more (for now). The guest bed has relocated to a corner of the playroom and the crib & changing table are assembled in its place. Brent is super handy with Photoshop and graphic design, so he decided to do a mock-up of what he thinks Eli's room will look like. Here's what he came up with (bad quality on here, but you get the idea):

You have to imagine that folded up into a cube, but there it is. I really like it! I'm looking forward to getting the paint picked out and seeing the room come together. We may make some changes as we get going, but this is our starting point.

In other pregnancy news, we had some maternity pictures taken last week. I'll be sure to share them when I get them back!

She peed on the potty!

2010-07-23T16:31:00.002-04:00

We got a potty seat for Lydia and installed it this week. For the past few days I've been taking her into the bathroom for diaper changes and letting her sit on the potty for a few minutes before putting a clean diaper on her. This is really just for practice and getting her comfortable with the idea of sitting on the potty. No expectations at this point. But today when I sat her down I asked, "Do you want to try to go pee pee on the potty?" And she DID! Could have been total coincidence that she went after I asked, but I was a very excited mama! Lydia turned 17 months old yesterday so official potty training won't begin for another month or so, but I'm loving the potential she's showing!

Lydia has also made the move from the crib to a twin mattress. The first night did not go super well, but I think it was just a bad night in general - not fully related to the bed situation. She had been really clingy to me that day and had a rough time when I left her in her room that night. So we ended up going back to the crib that night, but yesterday jumped right back into the big girl bed. After two successful daytime naps, she also slept all night last night in the twin bed. Yay! The crib is getting disassembled today since we know she will be fine in the new bed.

Eli also continues to do well. Tomorrow will mark week 24. At my appointment earlier this week I was measuring big - a couple of weeks big in fact. But no due date change. I was usually a bit big with Lydia too but she was still less than 8lbs at full term. So I'm trying not to panic at the thought of having a huge baby! He'll come when he is ready. Still feeling great so far!

Nursery Furniture

2010-07-14T09:18:00.003-04:00

I was not planning to buy new furniture for Eli's room. The plan was to transition Lydia to a twin mattress and transfer the crib & changing table over to the new baby's room. However, yesterday a friend passed along a deal too good to let go. Walmart had a crib & changing table set (originally $180) marked down to only $99 for both pieces of furniture! On top of that it will ship directly to our house for free. Yay! I decided to go for it. While my penny-pinching practical side said it was a waste, my preferences really wanted a darker color for the furniture in Eli's room. I wasn't too thrilled about decorating another white-furniture nursery. Plus, there are lots of other benefits to having this set instead of reusing what we already own. It makes things much less complicated with dressers. Now we can keep the changing table/dresser that is in Lydia's room there. It's small with only 2 drawers, so it won't last forever there, but it will be fine for awhile. We also already have a large set of drawers in a dark wood color that will now (more closely) match this furniture in Eli's room. So we'll be able to move that into his room for more storage. All in all, we spent $100 and were able to avoid buying a new dresser for Lydia's room and will get some use out of the dark wood drawers we already have. I'd consider that a win!

21 weeks!

2010-07-06T19:56:00.003-04:00

I must apologize about the lack of belly picture to go along with this post. We have been so busy lately that I keep forgetting to take a decent new one! I'll be certain to get some to share during our upcoming camping trip.

In the meantime, here's a new picture of Eli!

This was taken at my ultrasound appointment today (21 weeks 3 days). He weighs a bit over a pound and was measuring about 5 days ahead of his due date, but that's not enough of a difference to change it officially. So the due date will be staying put at November 13th! This appointment was way different than what I expected... and way longer! When I had my mid-pregnancy ultrasound with Lydia they had me in and out of there in 15 minutes or less. This time I had to go to the hospital because our insurance changed and required that we go there. They have a totally different process at the hospital. The tech took over 120 pictures and the entire ultrasound lasted a whole hour! I really feel like my baby boy got a thorough examination. And yes, we did indeed confirm that we are due to have a son!

Another benefit to the hospital visit instead of my OB's office was that they had 3D capability on their ultrasound machine. I always prefer to see the baby's face in 3D... it looks a little less like a creepy skeleton! Eli was not in a very good position to get great pictures of his face, though. He had his arm up by his head and it kept casting a shadow. Then he kept trying to turn his face inward. I think he was tired of being messed with after an hour of poking!

In the end I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome of the appointment. The tech was very friendly and talked us through all of the parts she was looking at. We asked if everything looked good and she said they did as far as she could tell. A doctor has to look over the pictures and write an official report, but I assume if there were any major problems a tech of 16 years would know (and she said the doc would get called in right away for anything major).

So now feeling completely confident in the gender determination, I spent the afternoon browsing Amazon for a few of the "boy" items we'll want to have for our little man. I think we will be in good shape with everything except for clothes. I'm sure I will pick up some new things for him in the coming months and will fill in the gaps with gently used items from a big sale I go to in the Fall.

Oh - and we'll be even more set for his arrival now because today we bought a van!! I think this officially makes me a mom. ;-)

Randomness

2010-06-30T13:23:00.003-04:00

It feels like there is so much going on these days yet nothing that I feel needs a blog post about it. So instead of lots of little posts, I guess I'll do one here-is-everything-in-my-life post.

It's officially summer and the weather around here has not proven otherwise. It has been hot! Thankfully this week has brought us some milder temperatures and Lydia and I have enjoyed more outside time without me feeling like I'm seconds away from melting. I'm currently enjoying having almost all of the windows in the house open, keeping our home at a lovely 70 degrees inside. Fabulous! We will be taking advantage of this weather and going to the zoo on Friday with Grandma (Brent's mom). I'm seriously considering getting a "leash" for Lydia so she can run around without me worrying about having to hold her hand. She hates when I make her hold my hand.

We are currently transitioning to a one nap schedule for Lydia. After a few days in a row of having her talk/play in her crib for over an hour any time I tried to put her down, I decided she must not really be tired enough to take two naps anymore. Since dropping the morning nap she has been much better about falling asleep shortly after I lay her down and has been sleeping well. Occasionally she'll still only nap for a bit more than an hour, but most of the time since we have made the switch she rests for closer to 2 hours. So for now our routine is to eat lunch, clean up, then take a nap. Today she went down at noon... currently 1:30 and she's still up there snoozing.

Lydia is definitely a bundle of energy these days, as well as a sponge for knowledge! I'm starting to run out of body parts to teach her now that she has mastered hair, head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, belly, legs, knees, feet, and toes. She picks them up faster than I can figure out what to point out next! She loves her letter puzzle and her bath letters so we are constantly going over which letters are which even though she doesn't seem to remember most of them. Her current favorite is O and she is sure to point them out whenever she sees one, even on our clothing. She loves to go outside and point out the grass, rocks, bushes, trees, and birds. I'm pretty sure she knows flowers too, but she doesn't use a specific word for them that I've noticed.

Besides her constantly growing vocabulary, Lydia is learning a lot of other skills as well. She likes to mimic what I do and helps me put laundry in the dryer or get shoes to go out. I've stepped up our "potty" talks in hopes of making an attempt at potty training around 18 months. She loves the concept of flushing the toilet, but hesitates to push the handle hard enough to actually make it go. Usually I help her and we both wave bye-bye to the toilet's contents. Lovely, I know. :) I'm hoping to get around to buying a potty seat and step stool for her soon so we can start practicing sitting on the toilet. With any luck I'd love to have her potty trained before Eli is born!

Speaking of Eli, he is getting stronger and stronger every day! I'm past the halfway point now - will be 21 weeks on Saturday. He loves to be awake and kicking when I am trying to sleep, so I may as well get used to being tired again. Nightly heartburn has also kicked in, but thankfully the pain in my hips that I had with Lydia has not shown up yet. Maybe my body is a bit more used to it the second time around. Oh, but for some reason my knees click when I go up stairs. No pain, just noise. *shrug*

Only 6 more days until our official ultrasound. So excited!

Aside from news about the kids, we have been in the process of refinancing our mortgage lately (and when I say "we" I really mean "Brent" because he basically handles those kinds of things and I just sign where he tells me to). In theory we are supposed to be having our closing tonight, but I think it's still pending. Hopefully soon. Brent has also been able to do a sizable side-job recently that's going to bring in a decent amount of extra income for us. He just finished it up last week and sent the bill to the company. That money combined with our tax return that we've been holding on to, plus some money we've been setting aside for car related things, will hopefully be buying us a van soon! The thought of having two kids in our little cars, especially for any kind of travel, just doesn't work. Our cars are both getting old and we're looking forward to getting something different. We will by no means be getting an awesome NEW van... we have already committed to NEVER having car payments again, so we have to stick with what we can afford to buy in cash... but we're hopeful that we can get a decent used van. Anyone interested in buying our 1998 Saturn while we replace it?

Tomorrow marks the start of July - a very busy month for us! We have a wedding to attend this weekend and my parents will be visiting as well. This month we also have a super exciting camping trip planned and several birthdays (including Brent's birthday and his sister Natalie's 30th!). It seems like I will blink and summer will be over already! Which isn't such a bad thing considering I'm counting down the months to my sweet Eli's arrival. Once we confirm the gender at next week's ultrasound, I'd love to get paint colors picked out and really start getting the nursery figured out. But since his room is currently our guest room, we may delay getting it set up until closer to November. Lydia is still using the crib and changing table, but I'm hoping to work on transitioning to a "big bed" and working on potty training soon (as mentioned above).

So there's a glimpse of my life at present. I love it. I love my family and feel so incredibly blessed. I'd be remiss if I didn't turn and give all the credit and glory to God for these wonderful blessings in my life. I am simply amazed and in awe of what I have been given and am humbled that my God would think to honor my family as such. To God alone be the glory. :)

My toes disappeared

2010-06-22T17:32:00.003-04:00

Today I looked down while taking a shower and realized that my toes are gone. The belly is taking on a life of its own (literally!) and has overtaken my downward view.

I'll be 20 weeks along on Saturday. I can hardly believe we're halfway there already! Oh and let me just take a moment right here to tell Eli how sorry I am that I haven't written a whole lot about my thoughts during this pregnancy. Everything has just been so smooth this time around, and I'm simply not on the computer as much as I was last time. So I'm sorry, Eli. I do love you tons and am so very excited to meet you in another 20ish weeks, even if I'm bad about documenting it all!

I had another appointment with my OB on Friday, just shy of 19 weeks. So far I've put on around 12lbs since my first appointment. I was pretty pleased with this, honestly, despite comparing my number to several others due in November who all seemed to still be in the single digit weight gains. I put on just shy of 50lbs with Lydia. I was okay with that too (not necessarily thrilled, but okay), and all of it was gone by the time she was roughly 6 months old. So I won't freak out if I get close to that number again, but I'm aiming for more in the 30-35lb range for this pregnancy. I must be doing okay so far because my doctor immediately commented on how skinny I look and had to double check my chart to make sure I'm gaining weight okay. So I guess I'm at least carrying those 12lbs well!

Eli's heartbeat was once again around 150 (the boy is consistent for sure!) and the doctor quickly exclaimed "Girl, girl, girl!" ... I just chuckled to myself and decided not to tell her that we already know we are having a boy. I know that she doesn't really believe in the old wives tale about heartrates predicting gender, but she does like to mention it at every visit.

My ultrasound is scheduled for July 6th. Just 2 more weeks! I'm looking forward to getting all of the official measurements and confirming that the name Eli will be appropriate for this little one. :) I'm curious if my due date will change too. Not that I'm getting my hopes up, but I've sort of had a feeling that this one is a little further along. My pregnancy test results were much stronger/darker than they had been when I tested with Lydia, he looked really developed at the 15 week ultrasound, and I've already been feeling really strong movements for weeks now (including Brent being able to feel him very well from the outside). I suppose a lot of this could just be attributed to this being a second pregnancy, thus why I'm not getting my hopes up. But still, I'm curious. Anxious to get another look at my little guy and praying that all looks good in a couple of weeks.

Other pregnancy news: I'm HOT!!! Maybe because most of my last pregnancy was during the Fall/Winter, but this time I'm way more toasty than last time! Lydia loves to be outside, but I can hardly stand it after 10 or so in the morning. I'm okay in the shade, but we have very little of that at our house. This weekend we pulled out the baby pool. It's really nice that the pool is big enough for me to sit in it while Lydia still has plenty of room to walk around and play. I have a feeling the pool is going to be our afternoon outdoor activity a lot this summer! We have a camping trip coming up in a few weeks and I'm very happy we tried to get a site with shade. We've never been to this particular campground so I'm hoping it will be true to the description. If not I may have to train Lydia and Micah to fan me with branches or something while we are there (feel free to let him practice ahead of time, Kim... haha!).

Fun day of Shopping!

2010-06-11T21:23:00.002-04:00

I am not a fan of shopping. At least, not usually. I was never one of those people who would regularly go to the mall and find it fun to spend hours there at the shops. Living in the day and age of online shopping has been a wonderful thing for me.

But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is to point out why, today, I DID infact have a lot of fun shopping. Mostly because I hunted deals and got everything I wanted. What more could a woman ask for?

For starters, I found out earlier this week that mega packs of Huggies diapers were on clearance at Rite Aid. Combined with some Huggies and some Rite Aid coupons, I have been armed and dangerous jumping from Rite Aid to Rite Aid in the area trying to stock up. Hey, I've got a 15-month-old in diapers and a new baby on the way... they will get used! This morning I decided to take an extra trip to my local Rite Aid because I remembered them having a few more packs. They did. Score #1! A friend then tipped me off to another Rite Aid that had some in stock and I decided to take the drive over to get them. Score #2! So shopping fun parts 1 and 2 yielded me roughly 476 diapers (84 of which are size 1, the rest size 4) for about $60. I paid less than $0.13 per diaper and those will last approximately 3 months.

The fun continued when we decided to go out to dinner. We had a $25 off a purchase of $35 coupon for a nearby restaurant, spent almost exactly $35 before the discount, and ended up paying only about $16 (after taxes/tip) for our family of 3 to get a full dinner out (including appetizer). Score #3!

Next we were off to a nearby neighborhood garage sale. Technically the sale starts tomorrow, but they open up Friday evening "for the neighbors." It's an area where several young families live, so we were hoping to be able to pick up a decent double stroller. Additionally, after borrowing one when Lydia was little, I decided I'd really like to have a small travel swing for future babies. We parked and started walking... to my surprise it didn't take long to find a travel swing. It was at the very first house we went to that had baby stuff and was marked at only $15. Looked to be in great condition - 8 speeds, music, lights, the whole shebang. We walked away with it for just $10. Score #4!

At this point a storm was quickly rolling in and the sellers were packing up while the buyers were rushing to return to their cars. Luckily a friend of mine spotted us and I got the chance to ask her if she'd seen any double strollers for sale. She said yes and pointed me in the right direction. I took off speed-walking with Lydia in the stroller while Brent took the swing to the car with plans to drive it over to meet us. We made it to the stroller house before the rain hit and they still had it in the driveway. Just what I was looking for! A Graco DuoGlider in good condition (said they got it 3 years ago) - in need of some cleaning, but should look about like new once cleaned. I had also considered trying to find a sit-and-stand stroller, but I like Graco products and know these ones get good reviews. Sticker price was $85 on it. I'd seen a similar one on Craigslist for $100 and they retail for around $150 or more. We ended up paying just $70. Score #5!

I am one satisfied mama tonight. We've got the diapers, the swing, and the stroller... bring on the baby!

Why waiting could be fun

2010-06-10T21:32:00.002-04:00

There has always been a debate amongst women (pregnant women especially) about whether it is better to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time or to wait until the baby is born to find out. I've always been a big planner and don't think I could ever possibly wait until the big day to find out. With both pregnancies thus far we've kept the mindset that you will always be surprised at some point... either getting the fun news at an ultrasound or in the delivery room, both will be fun and surprising moments.

A part of me still feels this way, but I did have a thought the other day that made me think it actually could be more fun to wait (though I know I'd never have the patience). You see, I AM very excited to know that I am having a boy. And I am already having TONS of fun thinking about what it will be like to have a son, preparing his room, and calling him by name. But the one thing that delivery has over ultrasound any day is 100% certainty. There's no denying after a boy is born that he is in fact a boy. Unfortunately with ultrasound, I find myself constantly having this nagging in the back of my head making me scared that it was wrong. What if I get all attached to "Eli" only to discover later that my son is in fact a daughter??

Granted, I plan to have a couple more ultrasounds before the big day arrives and if all three times I'm told I'm having a boy, those are pretty good odds. And trust me, if you saw the pictures of the "proof" - there's really no denying I've got a son on the way. But kinda in the same way that the ultra faint pink line on the pregnancy test robbed me a little of the "Oh my gosh I'm PREGNANT!" moment when I was testing the first time (with Lydia) because I wasn't really sure if it was a positive result, an ultrasound is never 100% fool proof and it causes me to be scared to celebrate and to embrace the idea of having a son.

Maybe I'll feel differently in July when (if) I get confirmation from my next ultrasound that I'm having a boy... and again, I still don't regret choosing to learn the gender and will likely continue to do so for any subsequent pregnancies... but I now feel like I can understand a little bit of why it could be more exciting to wait.

15 months!

2010-06-10T10:12:00.003-04:00

I found it fun that Lydia turned 15 months the exact same day that Eli was 15 weeks along. Fun. :)

So I realize I'm behind in posting this update, but life has been busy! We've had all kinds of activities including a big family trip to Florida! But those will wait for another blog post. For now, here's an update from Lydia's 15 month appointment.

For starters, she continues to be tall and lean. She is 31" long (75%ile) and weighs 21lbs 3oz (25%ile). I wasn't surprised by these numbers at all. She is definitely getting taller all the time as evidenced by the increasing number of things she can reach throughout the house. And she is a MOVER... all the time! So no wonder she doesn't have any baby chub left. All day long she is walking everywhere. She does laps around the island in the kitchen, runs back and forth across the living room, explores the hallways... it's tiring just to watch her!

There were no concerns at all at her appointment and the doctor was very impressed by Lydia's cognitive developments. I knew I had a smarty pants on my hands. :) When I told the doctor that I had lost count of all of the words Lydia uses, she was thrilled (saying she would have been pleased with just 5 or 6 words). It's true, my girl is a talker. She is almost constantly going around saying the words that she knows really well (ball, mama, daddy, juice, shoes, go, nose, toes, books, no, nana, hi, hello, etc) and often wants me to tell her what other things are. When I teach her a new object, she wastes no time in attempting the word herself. Lydia surprises me on a regular basis by trying to say words I didn't even realize she had learned.

She is also surprises me with how smart she is in other areas. She loves to organize items and put them in their proper places. She understands a ton of commands and usually does whatever I ask her to do. My mom even asked Lydia to give her puppy a drink and she immediately took her sippy cup and put the straw in her stuffed puppy's mouth. She also "sings" for me when I ask her to sing a song. It is adorable! It's usually just 3 or 4 "la's" in some tune she makes up, but I love it. I have lots of fun teaching Lydia different body parts too. So far she can say the word (for most of them) and point to her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head, hair, neck, hands, fingers, knees, feet, belly, toes, and we're working on shoulders. And at bath time I'm working on teaching her all of the vowels. She's pretty good at E and O, sometime I, but A and U need more work. It's so fun to watch her learn! Even more so, I'm looking forward to watching her help Eli learn. It's going to be so cool to see my babies interacting with one another!

It's a BOY!

2010-05-22T08:47:00.004-04:00

I love that this post is immediately following my one about potentially having a girl. Haha!

On Thursday (the 20th) I had my 14 week checkup at the doctor. Everything looked good and the heartbeat was strong around 150bpm. Before leaving I asked her about scheduling the ultrasound (typically done between weeks 18 & 20). I was a bit surprised and disappointed when she responded saying she wanted me to wait until 21 weeks... and even more bummed when I heard that the hospital where I have to go to get my ultrasound won't do it before 22 weeks! I had really been hoping to find out the gender of our little one... and more importantly know that he or she was healthy... sometime in June. It was so hard to think I might not see our baby until halfway through July!

As I sat around bummed about this situation, it eventually dawned on me that I have friends who know an ultrasound tech and they were able to see her for a gender check around week 16. Had I been able to get my regular ultrasound at 18 or 19 weeks, I could have been patient... but knowing the long wait I was in for I decided to talk to one of my friends to see if I could possibly get in with this tech that they know.

Lo and behold I get a phone call on Friday morning saying that the tech was not only able to see me, but could get me in that day (just one day shy of 15 weeks at this point)! We were scheduled to meet with her at 3:45, so I spent my afternoon watching the clock with anticipation. So excited to see my little one!

Brent, Lydia, and I all went to the appointment - which was fantastic! The tech was so wonderful as she pointed out our little one's head, heart, tummy, and feet. At first the baby was squirming around a ton and kept crossing legs and putting hands between them, but eventually we got the view we were looking for. There it was... the "kickstand" as our tech put it... our baby is a BOY! We had fun getting different views of our son and eventually I asked the tech how sure she was about the gender. Her first response was that she never says 100% because she believes nothing is for sure until you are holding the baby. Then a bit later I asked her if we would get the 95% sure from her and she said, "Hmm... I think I'm actually going to go ahead and give you guys the 100%!" When a professional who has done this for 12 years gives you 100% certainty, I think that's trustworthy!

I left still feeling a bit in shock. I was afraid to really let myself believe we're having a son (I'm sure I would have reacted the same way to a girl... because I'm a skeptic like that), but as I sat in Red Lobster waiting for a table (our traditional celebration dinner after baby ultrasounds) I let it sink in and my heart melted at the thought of holding my little boy in November. Over dinner Brent and I discussed names a bit. We had already tentatively decided, but now it was time to set it in stone. We mostly tossed around various versions of the name Eli - Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Eli... in all cases planning to call him Eli. So in the end we decided that our baby boy will be named...

Eli Anthony Pirolli

I've always been a fan of Biblical names and want our children to be named after worthy characters in the Bible. Eli was the high priest who raised the prophet Samuel. Additionally, I've always liked the idea of our children having middle names that reflect our ties to family. Lydia ended up with my middle name and Eli will have Brent's middle name - which has actually been passed down through Brent's father from his grandfather.

So there you have it. Come November, we will be the Pirolli family of four - Brent, Sarah, Lydia, and Eli!

Random fun fact - Lydia's first, and so far only, letter that she learned is "E" ... and we never really made efforts to teach that to her. Perhaps she knew she'd have a brother named Eli someday?

It's a Girl?

2010-05-17T12:42:00.006-04:00

I know I've been pretty lax about writing about this pregnancy compared to my last. Maybe it is in part because it's my 2nd and I just don't think about it as much... or maybe it's because I've not had nearly the complications this time around that I had last time. Regardless, I really AM excited to be pregnant again and do think about this baby quite often! I just don't have the time to sit and write about what I have been thinking or feeling as easily as I could the 1st time around.

This past Saturday I officially entered my 2nd trimester. Yay! I am 14 weeks and 2 days along now and have my next OB appointment on Thursday. Still very much looking forward to hearing that sweet heartbeat (even if I do have to get up waaay early for a 7:45 appointment this time)! I've been feeling really good. It's easy to forget that I'm pregnant since I've been feeling so great. No sickness, the fatigue is wearing off, and no other complications. Still waiting to feel those first little movements, though I've felt a few things that have made me wonder at times. Nothing but shrinking clothes (aka growing belly) to remind me of the sweet little one growing inside.

Random side note - I compared pictures that I took of my belly at 13 weeks with this pregnancy to ones at 17 weeks with my first and they look pretty darn identical except that this baby seems to be carrying a little lower. Looks like the estimate of "showing" 4 weeks ahead of the first pregnancy is holding pretty true for me!

So you are probably wondering what the title of this post means. It's a girl? No we have not confirmed the gender of Baby 2 yet, but I couldn't help but grab an at-home gender test for $10 when I had the chance. These normally cost upwards of $30, which I was not willing to pay, but by agreeing to share my results I could get one for 1/3 of the price at bestbabygender.com. They claim 99% accuracy after week 14 (I don't really buy it), but figured... why not? I followed all of the instructions carefully and took the test this morning. The result? Apparently we're having another little girl!

Green or yellow indicates a girl result (red or orange means boy). Again, I don't put a whole lot of faith in this test. We will still wait for our ultrasound in about a month before calling the baby by name and painting the nursery. I would love for Lydia to have a sister... and I would love to have a little boy... so I'm going to be happy either way. I'm just curious to see if the test turns out to be correct.

My Story

2010-05-02T21:24:00.003-04:00

I've been meaning to take the time to write out the story of my Christian walk on my blog and just haven't gotten around to it. But here I am with a little bit of time on my hands (seems so hard to come by these days!) and I decided that now is just as good a time as any.

My journey has been a simple one. Or at least a straight-forward one. I don't have one of those major conversion stories about how I was a druggie and prostitute who ended up in jail at the end of my rope when God opened my eyes and changed my life forever. Nope. That's not me. And for a long time I felt like my story wasn't worth telling because it wasn't very dramatic. There aren't any crazy intense moments that reach a climax before I at last "see the light" and turn to the happily-ever-after that I've always wanted.

I was so incredibly blessed to grow up in a strong Christian household with parents who were (and are) REAL. They loved me and my brothers. They taught us to value ourselves, respect others, and learn about all that God created us to be. I am eternally thankful that God gave me such wonderful role models, and as a result of their love and prayers I remember sitting on my bed with my Daddy and accepting Jesus into my heart when I was just 5 or 6 years old. And somehow, no doubt only by God's grace, that decision stuck. Even as young as I was, it changed my life. I never looked back and I never questioned if I really "meant it" when I prayed that prayer. I knew that I did.

Unlike many who come to faith as children, I did not hit a rebellious stage as a teen or young adult. Like I said, the decision I made was real and it stuck. I remained active in youth group throughout my high school years and knew that God had a plan for my future that didn't involve all of the teenage drama. However there was one big defining moment for me as a teen. Crazy kid that I was, I remember standing in our kitchen one day and just crying out to God, "Test me! Try me! If faith is strengthened through trial, then bring it on!" Bad move. Ha! Seriously, if you ever ask God for a trial, He will deliver!

Over the course of the next year or so I faced a most unexpected challenge. Something I hadn't anticipated and certainly had never experienced. My expectations were that God would put me through the kind of trials that others would see... a death in the family, some sort of injury or life crisis, you know, the typical hardships that people endure. But God had something different in mind for me. Something I would have to get through more or less on my own. For the first time ever, I suddenly felt alone. God got quiet.

I can't explain why things suddenly felt this way, but confusion and doubt quickly flooded in. Where are you, God? What am I supposed to be doing? As I worked through this time in my life, I came to understand that God had taken my request for a trial and gave me the opportunity to stand on my own. Like a parent who lets go to allow a child to take her first steps. It's not that the parent has left or that they no longer love or care about the child, but they recognize the need for growth. God was helping me grow up.

I struggled for about a year, analyzing my beliefs, considering what God wanted for my life, and ensuring that this truly was the path I wanted to follow. I learned a lot in that time. For starters, I quickly learned that faith is not about feelings. When I no longer felt like God was near me, did that mean that He wasn't there? No. He was always there. I also grew confident that my faith was not just a result of mimicking my family... just following it because it's what I had been taught... but rather an honest decision that I made for myself. And I also learned more about loving others. I learned about stepping out of my comfort zone. Reaching others for Christ rather than sitting in my "holy huddle" of fellow believers. I learned that it's not just about knowing the Bible, but rather about caring for people.

After that period in my life, I felt rejuvenated and recommitted to what I had chosen on that day sitting in my room with my Dad. I definitely still struggle at times with finding the passion in my faith that I've seen in the past. My life feels crazy right now with raising babies and growing a family. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing at my mission. But being a mom is part of the mission that I have always wanted to have. I love my parents so much and am so grateful for the Christian example that they were. They helped me find the right path in life and keep with it. I hope and pray that I can do the same for my children. Even if the only lives I feel like I ever change are theirs, it will be worth it to me. I can only hope to one day be a part of their stories of falling in love with their Creator. That would make the perfect end to my story.

More Words

2010-04-28T14:21:00.003-04:00

I keep trying to maintain a mental list of all the words Lydia knows now and I'm beginning to lose my grip on said list. So for my own memory's sake, I'm going to try to type up a list. Some of these are words that she regularly says without any prompting, others she understands and will use if we say them first or prompt her to say them, and still others are barely "words" at all but a good "mom translation" knows what she is trying to say.

So here we go... Lydia's 14 month vocabulary...

Woof
Meow
Hop Hop
Sssss (snake sound)
Roar
Moo
Oo Oo (monkey sound)
Shoes
Socks
Toes
Crash
Wash
Lala (Elmo)
Mama
Daddy
Nana (for either her Nana or a banana)
Grandpa/Papa (these ones are rare)
Stairs
Go
Up
Down
Night Night
Mmmm (when eating)
Mmmmuh! (giving or blowing kisses)
Kisses
No
Yes
Uh Oh
All Done
More
Bye Bye
Hi
Hello (in context of a phone)
Juice
Fish (most definitely her favorite animal currently)
Movie
Bless You (doesn't really sound anything like that but she says it after I sneeze!)

Additionally, she does signs for more, all done, eat, please, I love you, and help.

Ahhh I love it! She is at such a fun age!

We're really having a baby!

2010-04-22T21:17:00.003-04:00

So I've been trying really really hard this time around to not be a crazy, nervous, nutcase pregnant lady. While I have held firm to the knowledge that God is in control, I have to admit that I was super excited to be going to my first appointment with the OB today to hear the heartbeat. Other than being crazy tired, most of my other pregnancy symptoms dissipated by week 6. This left me with a nagging thought in the back of my mind that maybe something was wrong. Or maybe I just convinced myself (and 2 at home pregnancy tests) that I was pregnant when I really wasn't.

Regardless, I was thrilled when the doctor put the doppler on my tummy and almost immediately we heard the lovely thump-thump-thump of Peanut #2. I had so many little complications with my first pregnancy that by 10 weeks I'd already had 2 ultrasounds (and 2 more followed just a couple of weeks later). So it felt strange this time to not really have "proof" of anything going on. Very happy to have received my proof today. Doctor said the heartrate was around 150 and everything looked to be going as expected. Yay!

On a side note, Lydia was with us at the doctor's office and it was funny watching her face when the doppler got going. She kinda stared at my tummy with a confused expression. It will be interesting trying to explain to her in coming months what is going on!

Greater Things Are Yet to Come

2010-04-19T15:19:00.002-04:00

"There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears." -Philippians 1:6 (The Message)

As I stood in church this weekend singing the song "God of This City" I couldn't help but expand the concept behind those lyrics to other areas. The song could just as well be about greater things to come in a country, in the world, in a local church, or even in an individual. Emotions welled up as I sang...

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God...
Greater things are yet to come,
Greater things are still to be done here...

Sometimes I get so stuck in the moment. I get stuck thinking that the day in and day out of life is all there is going to be. I'll never be anything special. I'll never achieve anything great. I'll never be who I want to be. But those are lies. The Bible tells us that we can be confident as Christians that God is going to continue to work on us... and we aren't going to be finished until the very end! There will ALWAYS be greater things yet to come because he who started the good work in us promised to carry it on to completion! It is an overwhelming and humbling realization. To know that God is working on me. Right now. In this very moment. He has not given up on me or decided that this is as good as I'm going to get. My life, my circumstances, my family, my church, my city, my country, my world... all of them are works in progress, being perfected by the Master Artist himself.

So stay tuned, blog world. Greater things are still to be done here.

Fun Weekend!

2010-04-19T11:17:00.003-04:00

Lydia had a very big weekend this past week! It all started on Thursday with her very first trip to the zoo!

She absolutely loved it. Lydia is very much an outdoors girl, so she enjoyed being out in the sun and wind. The weather was perfect! Temperature got up into the 80's with lovely sun and a cool breeze. Besides watching all of the people walking around, Lydia's favorite part was the aquarium. We walked in and she immediately sat up in her chair and started chanting, "Fish! Fish! Fish!" Such a cutie. :) I have a feeling we are going to love having a zoo membership this year.

Thursday night we got to hang out with family at Grandma and Papa's house for family dinner night. Spaghetti, bananas, and brownies made for a happy little girl. She showed off her walking skills and all of her animal noises and, unfortunately, got a nasty boo-boo too! Poor thing's legs just gave out while she was drumming on the folding chair and she smacked her face on it busting her lip. After a little loving and a wet washcloth, Lydia was back to her happy self and we all enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood to finish off the night.

Friday through Sunday Lydia and I took a trip down to Cinci to visit my family. Brent had to work so he didn't get to go with us, but us ladies had a lovely time! Nana and Grandpa had lots of Elmo toys at their house and also lots of balls for playing catch. Lydia just LOVES rolling balls back and forth with people. She also greatly improved her walking skills over the weekend... growing more and more confident each day. She also stood up on her own without holding on to anything for the first time. Not much longer and I suspect she will be doing more walking than crawling. Over the weekend she also decided to learn the word "no" and finds it so much fun to use. At first it just seemed like she just enjoyed saying it, but caught on to the meaning very quickly. "Lydia, do you want a drink?" "No!" "Do you want more applesauce?" "No!" Time to start working on teaching her "Yes" before she gets carried away!

Moving Forward

2010-04-14T20:01:00.003-04:00

For too long I've felt like my spiritual life has been stalled. It's not that I want it to be that way, or even that I'm just too lazy to do anything about it. Well, maybe there's some of that in there, but I'd like to think it isn't a primary factor. Basically I just don't know where to go from here. Books, Bible studies, even reading the Bible itself (in multiple translations)... it just feels like I've heard it all before. You'd be hard pressed to find something in the Bible that would make me go, "Wow really? That's in there?" Not trying to toot my own horn here or anything, it's just how I feel. I grew up in church. I've been a pretty straight-forward Christian for over 20 years. I've been to more conferences and Bible studies than I can count and I'm having a hard time getting fresh perspective. I've often felt like if I knew what to do, I'd be happy to pursue doing it, but I just don't know what it is that I can do to get that connection to God again.

I've heard it said before that when you get to such a point in your spiritual journey that it's time to turn around and start teaching. Teaching is not my favorite thing. I tend to clam up when it comes to talking in person (one of the reasons I love blogging... I can communicate my thoughts and get them organized before anyone gets to see them!). But I truly do love to encourage people and I love love love talking to people who are truly interested in learning about what God has to say in the Bible. THAT fires me up. Being around people who are on fire. So Brent and I have tossed around the idea of leading a Bible study for new believers through our church before, but it didn't take root. We were already leading a married couples group and didn't want to drop that. But lately our couples group has been changing, and with us now having 1.5 babies, we knew that we couldn't keep up with our current group of young married folks.

Yesterday at the church staff meeting it was brought up that there's a huge need for new believer groups right now. We have around 200 people who are waiting to get plugged into one of these groups and leaders are desperately needed. This was the confirmation we needed. It's time for us to move.

The new group won't be starting for us until June so I'm glad we have a bit more time to officially step out of our current leadership role and prepare for this new one. I'm excited and scared at the same time... have I mentioned before that changes make me incredibly apprehensive? But I fully believe this is a good move for us and I hope to have the opportunity to see lives changed, including our own! Will keep you posted as we embark on this new adventure.

Sponge

2010-04-06T19:52:00.004-04:00

Brent commented tonight after putting Lydia to bed that she is becoming a little sponge. She is definitely starting to soak up EVERYTHING! He was reading her an Elmo book and asking, "Where's Elmo?" then pointing to all of the things that were NOT Elmo and saying, "Is this Elmo? No..." Lydia then proceeded to point to all the different things and say "no."

She's working hard to pick up the words that we use. She's added more since the last list I made including "crash" for when things fall down and some more animal sounds. She recently picked up on "meow" and "oo oo" (monkey), but my all time favorite is when I ask her what the lion says. With a deep throaty sound she goes "rawr rawr rawr!" I love it! We need to try to get it on video soon before she decides she's done with that game. In addition to the words she will say unprompted, she does very well attempting to repeat what we say. On Easter family members were playing with her using bunnies and saying "hop hop." It was so cute to hear her try to say it back (sounded more like "bop"). I think she's working on "more" and "all done" too. Oh, and she's much better at saying "mama" and "dada" now too. Which makes me smile. :)

At long last she is also starting to make some progress with walking. Just yesterday she decided to try a few more steps, so today I tried to encourage her some more. She was doing so well taking 5 or 6 little steps at a time to get to me... one time she was holding something out for me to take it and I backed up a little and made her walk to me to give it to me. She did great! She even did a little walking this evening without any encouragement from me at all. So perhaps we'll finally see her take off soon! She's also become quite a stair climber. We finally got gates to put at the top and bottom of the stairs, but I try to let her still climb up on her own as long as I'm right behind her. Yesterday we took her to the park for dinner and some play time and she climbed up several stairs to a slide all on her own! (Brent was right behind her, of course) And those stairs included some BIG steps that we didn't think she'd be able to do. She is always proving us wrong!

As for baby #2, things are going well. Having been pretty nauseated when I was 5 or 6 weeks pregnant, I was pretty worried that things would get worse before getting better. But I was wrong about that and have felt much better lately. Still very tired, but I don't feel sick as often. Just a little over 2 weeks from now we'll get to hear the heartbeat. Really looking forward to that! Oh, and I've realized that people who say you show sooner with your 2nd pregnancy were not kidding! I'm already ready to get out the maternity jeans and I'm not even 9 weeks yet! I started wearing mostly maternity stuff around 16 weeks with Lydia... I'll be shocked if I make it to 12 this time.

Little bit of Mom - Little bit of Dad

2010-03-29T22:12:00.002-04:00

It's fun watching Lydia grow and seeing which aspects of her personality are like mine and which are like Brent's. From me she gets her incredible impatience. Sorry to see that I passed that on! But this child hates to wait for anything, especially food. If I put her in her highchair and do not have food to her within .3 seconds, I will hear about it. We continue to insist to her that we WILL feed her, we promise, but this does not seem to help at all.

Another, perhaps slightly less unpleasant personality trait I seemed to have passed on to my daughter is a sense of caution. Kim noticed this when we visited earlier this month. Her son Micah would barrel all over the house, tumbling as he went. But Lydia is more precise and careful with all of her movements. She is good at what she does, but does not venture into new territory until she is sure she can master it. I fully believe this is the reason we still have not been able to get her to walk more than a couple of steps on her own. She can stand flawlessly, without so much as a wobble, but when encouraged to take a step I can see her little mind processing. She considers it, but still does not feel she can do it perfectly and thus opts to crawl instead.

I never thought much about this tendancy of hers until recently, but it dawned on me that she is anything but daring. We haven't had to deal with many trips, spills, bumps, or bruises because Lydia doesn't do anything she isn't confident she can do successfully. Even as I've seen her go to lean on something that is unstable, and family members nearby get nervous that she will fall, I know she'll be okay. She'll test it out first. If she senses it isn't sturdy, she won't mess with it. It's rare to see her topple over at all.

In some ways I'm glad she has this trait of mine. It may keep her out of some sticky situations in life because she will take the time to cautiously assess them. But at times I wish that I wasn't so analytical and could just throw caution to the wind and enjoy things. But it is what it is and it is fun to see reflections of myself in my baby girl.

It's also fun to see some of Brent's personality coming through in her. Lydia is definitely laid back like her daddy. She isn't sensitive about things and there isn't much that she doesn't like. She does not at all seem to be a crazy emotional girl. We'll see if this changes some as she gets older, but as it is now she doesn't cry much unless she gets hurt and isn't shy at all either. She doesn't care where we go as long as we let her have something to play with, she'll happily ride around in the car all day and sleep or stare at the scenery out the window, and generally speaking she is not clingy to either one of us. Every time I worry that she'll have a hard time with a change (like when we were weaning or when we changed our morning routine), she isn't phased. I'm always impressed by how easily she handles whatever it is that we decide to do.

Just a quick note about other recent Lydia developments: She has picked up the word "Lala" as the name she gave to Elmo. She somehow knows the letter E and will pick it out of the sea of bath letters floating around her if asked to find it. She says "Dada" in reference to ducks... "duck duck" perhaps? She is also getting better with the words "fish" and "crash" (which we say whenever we knock over a stack of blocks). Lydia gave me kisses on the cheek for the first time the other day (made me cry too!) but refuses to do it again for me or for Brent. She is NOT a touchy-feely girl! She will point to her toes, belly, head, hair, and ears, but despite my efforts to teach them usually will not point to her eyes, noes, or mouth. If I ask her to point to anything on her face, she tends to just point to her ear. As smart as she is I don't get why she won't do this! I think she's doing it to spite me. :-P She thinks it is hilarious when anyone makes a horse noise, and the other day she appropriately called my mom "Nana", even with no bananas in sight!

She is the love of my life and I can hardly imagine what it is going to be like to have another one! It will be cute overload for sure!

The best thing in the world...

2010-03-27T18:53:00.002-04:00

...is when Lydia looks up at me as I put her in her crib and signs "I love you" as we say goodnight.

Trust and Fear

2010-03-23T09:23:00.004-04:00

I realized something when I began to think about wanting a second baby. I found myself once again noticing all the other women in my life who were getting pregnant with their second children and once again feeling a sense of jealousy and urgency... much the same as I had when I so very much longed to get pregnant for the first time. What I realized the second time around, however, was that my feelings were ultimately being driven by fear. It wasn't so much that I wanted so badly to be pregnant, but more that I wanted so badly to be assured that I would and could get pregnant. Even after having no trouble conceiving Lydia I couldn't help but fear that we'd struggle the next time. What if Lydia was a miracle and we didn't know it? What if we try again for years and can't have any more kids? I felt more and more desperate to get pregnant NOW just so I could be assured that it could happen!

I think it was sometime in January when I came to grips with what I was really thinking. Seriously, Sarah... do you really think God is that small? Do you really think that He lacks control over this part of your life? When God says "fear not" what makes you think that He didn't mean it for this situation? It was at that point that I determined to shift my thinking. I reminded myself that God is a loving God and that He fully understood my desire to have more children. He knew that I was hoping for children close in age. But He also knows what is best... and I had to accept that as well. I had to accept, and be okay with, the idea that God may have different plans. God could have given us Lydia and determined that we are to focus solely on raising her... or He could choose to bless us with other children, but not until later, or perhaps through adoption. I didn't know what God's plan would be, but I committed myself to trusting in that plan rather than being controlled by my fears.

I think I have applied this same idea to the question of when to announce a pregnancy. I know a lot of people prefer to wait to make the big announcement, and I don't fault them for that at all, but it's just never sat well with me to hold back such wonderful news. I couldn't help but ask myself why I wouldn't want to share the news, and the answer always seemed to point back to fear. Fear that I'd lose the baby and have to share the sad news. Fear that someone might say something to me not realizing the pregnancy didn't work out, resulting in the pain returning. Or simply fear that people knowing might actually somehow increase the possibility for things to go wrong. I couldn't come up with any reasons for not telling people that didn't stem from fear. Doesn't the Bible tell us to share our joys and sorrows with one another? Then why hide the joy for fear of the sorrow? Share them both and allow others to rejoice with us and comfort us if necessary.

As most people probably already know, earlier this month I got the most wonderful birthday present when I found out that I am pregnant again. I was elated! And it has been so reassuring to feel God teaching me to trust Him through this. I actually became pregnant the month that I was least concerned about whether or not it would happen. And now God is continuing to push me to trust in him with the pregnancy. I was so nervous the first time around. So scared that something would take my precious baby from me before I'd even get to meet her. Looking back, I felt as though I was desperately racing through those 9 months as if disaster was right on my heels.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel any anxiety at all this time around, but I'm learning. I'm trying to be still... remember that God is in control and He has a plan for this new little life. I accept that His plan may mean suffering a loss, and I trust that He would carry me through that if it were to happen. Life may not always turn out the way that I picture it, but as long as I am focused on Christ then it will always turn out the way it should. I am continuing to pray for health and growth for my new little bean, but my aim is always to rest in God's hands, trusting and not fearing.

Words!

2010-03-17T13:51:00.003-04:00

I can hardly believe my ears these days as Lydia is picking up more and more words. She continues to babble like it's her job, but she's throwing in a few real words now.

Her first official word was "hi" and this continues to be her favorite word to say. It now comes combined with a full-arm wave and is directed at anyone or anything that comes into her view. She is incredibly outgoing! Here are the other words she commonly says (most of which she has picked up in the past week):

Night-night
Nana (banana)
Shoe
Socks
Go-go
Woof (more like oof, but she knows it's the sound a puppy makes)
Moo (more like oooo, but she knows it's the sound a cow makes)

She still doesn't really say mama or dada. I can only assume this is because she is smart enough to realize that she doesn't need to say them to get our attention. :) My favorite thing was when she first started to say "go go". This happened while we were driving through Chicago traffic. We kept slowing down and Lydia sat in the backseat and insisted that we "go go!"

When she started saying "shoe" it sounded like she was adding a T to the front of the word. I think she was trying to say "two shoes" because that's commonly what I would say to her when showing her a pair of shoes. Then for awhile everything related to feet was called a shoe. Feet... socks... shoes... they were all "t-shoes." She's been starting to pick up the word "socks" in the past day or so though. I've been trying to show her the difference between a shoe and a sock. I took her out in her stroller yesterday with just socks on and halfway through the walk she took hold of her foot and proudly declared, "shocks!"

It is so much fun watching her learn. She's such a smart kid!

Chicago!

2010-03-17T13:01:00.003-04:00

The week of my birthday Brent and I decided to take a short family trip to Chicago. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove up through the city. Bad move in terms of traffic, but it was kinda nice to look at the building and city-scapes while we slowly moved along. We saw the Sears tower and watched the trains and planes go by. Kinda funny to see trains, planes, and automobiles all at once.

We just relaxed that evening and enjoyed our hotel stay. We got a nice, big room at a good hotel for just $40 a night through Priceline! I was quite impressed.

Our plan on Thursday was to meet up with my blogging friend Kim (whom I had never met in person up to that point) and together take our kiddos into the city to visit the Children's Museum. The day ended up being a bit rainy and due to traffic and parking delays we didn't catch the train we wanted. No big deal, though. I hung out with Lydia and Kim's son Micah (just 6 weeks younger than Lydia) while Kim & Brent figured out the parking situation, and ultimately we were settled and waiting for the next train for only another 15 or 20 minutes. We had the babies in a double stroller and must have gotten at least half a dozen "are they twins?" comments. Funny because they really don't look much alike, but understandable because they are very close in size.

All in all, travel took much longer than anticipated. Something I'll keep in mind next time we visit Chicago! We had a nice train ride and arrived in the city around 11:30, but then had to try to figure out our best method of getting from the station to Navy Pier where the museum was. Walk? Bus? Train? The rain had stopped and it wasn't horribly cold out, but we opted not to walk and waited for a bus. We ate lunch at Navy Pier then decided that it was getting too late to bother with paying $10 a person to get into the museum. We needed to catch a 4:00 train back to our cars which meant we'd likely need to start heading back to the station around 3 to ensure we didn't miss it.

So instead we opted to go visit Millennium Park. We chose to walk there and enjoyed the city scenery on the way. While we were in a tunnel an emergency vehicle came through with sirens on. It was SO loud! Kim and Brent went to cover the babies' ears. Brent told me he had to laugh because here he figured Lydia would be upset (if for no other reason than the fact that he was holding her head), but instead he sees her smile and mouth "hi" in the midst of the chaos. Silly girl! Speaking of saying "hi"... that was Lydia's favorite thing to do the entire trip! Whether we were in the hotel lobby eating breakfast or riding the train/bus, she would wave and say "hi" to just about everyone she saw. Hilarious!

We went to "The Bean" at the park and took some fun pictures of reflections. Then we walked to a coffee shop to get something warm to drink. After Brent finished his drink I asked him to push the stroller for us. It was fun having him carrying all our gear and pushing the stroller while Kim and I walked behind him sipping our drinks and chatting. ;)

Though the trip into the city had not gone as planned, I could not have asked for better company. It was a pleasure getting to talk with Kim and see our little ones together. If we lived closer I am certain that those two would be great playmates! The kids were much more lively on our train ride back. They were babbling and climbing all over us. Lydia taught Micah how to eat out of her snack cup and the two of them shared (and spilled) a whole cup of cheerios and baby puffs. Sincere apologies to the train staff who had to clean up the mess!

Once we got back to the cars we packed up the babies and drove to Kim & Eric's house for dinner. They made their famous homemade pizza (delicious!) and then brownies and ice cream for dessert. While the men stayed downstairs and prepared dessert, Kim and I went up to Micah's room and let Lydia and Micah go crazy with all of the toys. They had mostly been stuck in the stroller all day, so they were ready to play hard! And Lydia had the bruised knees to prove it! The best part was when they both crawled out into the hallway on opposite ends, then would turn and start rapidly crawling towards each other squealing at the top of their lungs. It was like a game of baby chicken! I really wish we would have videoed it.

We let the babies stay up way past their bedtimes since both had slept some on the car ride to Kim's house, but after Micah went down for the night it was time to say goodbye. Lydia was already in her PJ's and we expected she would fall asleep on the drive back to the hotel. I wasn't sure how she'd do transferring from the car to her bed for the night, but she was so worn out that she didn't make a peep when we put her down in the Pack N Play. Just rolled over, sucked her thumb, and went back to sleep.

Checkout in the morning wasn't until noon so we enjoyed sleeping in (as much as Lydia allowed) and taking it easy getting packed up. We opted not to drive back into the city on Friday due to cost and traffic, plus Brent wasn't feeling very well, so we hit the road on our way home. I'm so amazed by how much Lydia is growing up. When we have travelled in the past I have always had to pack tons of baby food and such to make sure she had food to eat. But now that she is getting older, she can actually eat stuff that normal people eat! She still doesn't have many teeth (2 are fully in and 2 more are just past the surface), but there was always something on the kids menu that could work for her. She's even starting to get into different beverages and enjoyed when we got her an apple juice with her nuggets from Burger King. And the men in my family will be happy to hear that she also enjoyed the sip of Dr. Pepper that I let her have. :) When did my teeny baby turn into an actual person???

I had a great time on my little birthday adventure and it was the perfect conclusion to a perfect birthday week. Thanks again to Kim & Micah for hanging out with us, and to Kim & Eric for letting us crash their house for an evening. We had a lot of fun!

Coming soon...

2010-03-15T21:48:00.003-04:00

This is more or less a reminder to myself that I need to blog about Lydia's latest developments including all of her new words and about our trip to Chicago. I too often forget what I intend to write about, so I'm giving myself a reminder. Stay tuned.

Cash Only

2010-03-05T21:30:00.002-05:00

A week ago I was doing my routine budget management and found something very non-routine. A strange charge that appeared to have come from Bogota, Columbia was showing up on my online statement. At first I wasn't too concerned. Brent sometimes buys computer equipment or other tech stuff from random places, so my first order of business was to ask him. Unfortunately this time he had no idea what the charge was from.

So with my parents on their way to our house for the weekend activities, and a house that still needed to be cleaned, I ended up side-tracked with phone calls to the bank and the hassle of canceling my debit card & changing all of our automatic payments over to Brent's card instead.

As a result of this little inconvenience, I've been going cash-only for the past week. It's interesting! I can see why Dave Ramsey is such a big fan of using cash. It's a built in discipline system. If I only have $40 with me when I go to the store, then I can't spend more than $40. Just that simple. It has almost felt like a bit of a challenge. I withdrew $100 in cash and I'm trying to see how long I can make it last.

My new debit card should arrive next week, and I'd be lying if I say I won't be thrilled to have it again, but for now I'm having fun using just cold, hard cash.

1st birthday party!

2010-03-05T21:05:00.003-05:00

The weekend after Lydia's birthday was crazy! But lots of fun. :) On Friday my parents drove up from Cinci (in a crazy snow storm!) followed on Saturday by my two brothers, one of my sisters-in-law, and my 3 nieces - also all up from Cinci. Everyone stayed at our house. Joshua, Erin, and the 3 girls took over the playroom. Mom & Dad were in the guest room. And Michael crashed on the couch downstairs. It was really special to me to have almost my whole family here to celebrate with us (Michael's wife Jenna was unable to come due to having to work on Sunday). I miss seeing them!

We enjoyed hanging out Friday and Saturday, just talking and playing games. The women beat the men twice in a row at Outburst. I just love playing games with my family! We always end up with the best memories.

Then Sunday was party day! We spent most of the morning and afternoon getting everything ready. Decorating, preparing food, and cleaning up from the tornado that occurs when you have 10+ people under the same roof for a weekend. My family helped me a ton in getting ready. I had no idea how much work birthday parties could be!

That night even more people joined us for the birthday celebration. Brent's mom & stepdad came along with his sister Sarah & her boyfriend Jeremy, Brent's grandparents, his great-aunt, and two of his aunts. Brent's sister Natalie & her husband Jay were unable to make it due to a family emergency.

Lydia wasn't phased by the chaos of the party and continued to crawl about playing with things as usual. But she also wasn't super interested in her gifts. I tried to get her to do some of the work opening them, but it basically ended up being me opening them while trying to keep her from completely crawling away. She became obsessed with the box from a necklace she was given and that pretty much ended her interest in anything else. At least until she opened the big ball that Aunt Sarah gave her. My girl just loves playing ball!

The birthday girl stayed up well past her bedtime, so as soon as the party-goers had left she went straight to bed. A big thank you to Sarah who helped us clean up afterwards! It was a really nice party and we all had a lot of fun. :)

1 Year Pictures

2010-03-05T20:52:00.002-05:00

Just a couple of my favorites...

First Birthday!

2010-02-23T19:30:00.005-05:00

We successfully made it through the first year! Lydia is alive and seemingly happy and I have avoided a mental breakdown for lack of instruction booklet. We spent her birthday quietly at home. The big party will come this weekend, so for now I decided we would just enjoy quiet time together. I made her some special foods (cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pizza for lunch) and we spent a lot of time laughing and playing and just having fun.

Today we took her for her 12 month doctor visit. She is doing great and developing as expected. For whatever reason she absolutely hated lying down on the table this time. Maybe it was cold? She's never disliked it before, but this time she really just wanted to be held. Her growth stats have further flip-flopped... which just makes me laugh. She started out as my short, chubby baby with a big head... and now she is my tall, skinny girl with a big head! hehe. She is 20lb 3oz (around 40%ile), 29.5in long (around 65%ile), and has an 18in head circumference (just under 75%ile). Lydia is mostly wearing 18 month clothes now because her 12 month stuff is too short. I'm hoping she sticks with this size for awhile because I stocked up on summery 18 month stuff and want her to be able to wear it at some point!

After all of the regular checks they had to do 3 shots & draw blood to test her hemoglobin and lead levels. No fun! She was upset by it all, of course, but per her usual ways she was all smiles and giggles by the time we got out to the car. Happy for the quick recovery because tomorrow is picture day!

Pause!

2010-02-19T19:33:00.002-05:00

I know I've probably said it before, but I really really wish sometimes that I had a Pause button for life. I don't want to rewind or stop, but an occasional pause so I can get a solid grip on the moment would be appreciated.

I've been due for a "how's Lydia doing these days" post for quite some time, but I think I just get overwhelmed with just how much she is changing and growing that I'm afraid to write it down. Perhaps for fear that I'll forget 90% of what I should be writing down, or perhaps because writing it makes it all that more real. Sometimes I just want to pretend that my baby ISN'T growing up. She isn't going to stop needing me, she isn't going to change, and she for SURE isn't going to start learning how to disobey!

But alas... I've sat in denial too long. Today Lydia took her very first solo steps. Two very wobbly and unsure little steps, but they were there. She did a few more one-step attempts, and one other two-step try after Daddy came home. If she does the walking thing the same way she did the sitting up and standing things, she'll be confidently walking everywhere in a week or so.

Also today we took another big step together... weaning. Today is the first day that I will not be nursing her at all. For the past week she has been down to just nursing at bedtime, so tonight we put her down without it. She was crying at first, but she had been fussing from the instant we got her undressed to put her PJ's on. We got her ready and I rocked her and sang to her until she had calmed down. I offered her a sippy cup of warm milk but she refused to even take a sip. So once she was quiet and calm, I kissed her on the head like I always do, told her I loved her and that it was time for night night, and gently placed her in her crib. She didn't fuss.

While I have never been one who looooved nursing like some moms do, there's still a part of me that is sad for the transition. I'm so happy to have nursed her for almost a year (cut short by a few days so that she has time to adjust before birthday parties, doctor appointments, pictures, etc). It was a great experience and I feel lucky that we didn't have any difficulties along the way. I loved nursing for the special time of cuddling (those of you who know my sweet girl know that she is a major wiggle worm, so cuddle time is special!), but I am looking forward to a bit more freedom. Since Lydia gave up on bottles very early on, I have been tied to her physically for the past year. Date nights for Brent and I have had to fit around Lydia's bedtime schedule, meaning we either had to be home by 7 or wait until 7 or 8 to leave (in which case whoever watched her didn't get to see her). It will be nice once this transition is over to be able to actually go out for a dinner date and not have to worry about bedtime for the baby! I'm trying to focus on the positives here. :)

Lydia is growing and learning so many things these days. She is interested in little puzzles like figuring out how to pull her plastic barrels apart and then put them back together. She definitely has my (lack of) patience though! Lydia will try two or three times to get the barrel halves together, then she will start to cry and flail her arms around throwing the halves across the room. She definitely gets frustrated easily, but I try to help her and encourage her to keep trying again. She continues to be my little mimic. She loves to mimic mouth noises including attempting to whistle... which is hilarious because neither Brent nor I can whistle! She heard my parents whistling when we visited and now I'll see her randomly trying to do it herself. As far as actual words go, she will repeat certain words when you say them to her - mostly mama, dada, and night night - but doesn't do much when it comes to saying things on her own. The only word I'll fully give her credit for is "hi." She says hi a lot in the proper context and without prompting. I cracked up in the grocery store the other day when we were standing at the deli counter and Lydia leaned to the side to look around me and enthusiastically shouted "HI!" to the lady who walked up behind us. My goodness what a friendly little girl I have!

She hasn't picked up a whole lot more sign language, but Lydia did make up her own version of the "I love you" sign. She doesn't have the coordination to bend just the two middle fingers down, so instead she just bends her whole hand down. But it is certainly a specific sign she does for "I love you." She is also learning to blow kisses, however she doesn't understand the second half (the "blowing" part) and instead just smashes her hand onto her lips whenever I mention kisses. Lydia has also learned how to drink from a straw, but still prefers to just chew on it unless she is thirsty.

On to eating... this has been the largest obstacle for me and certainly tries my patience. Especially as of late. Not only does she enjoy dropping food on the floor, but she also feels the need to change foods every 3 bites. It doesn't seem to matter what I feed her. She will take 3 or 4 bites, then refuse to eat any more of that food. I'll then switch to another food for 3 or 4 bites before she won't eat that anymore either. I wouldn't mind so much if I could just cycle through 2 or 3 food and she'd be happy... but no. Once she's had her few bites of something, she is DONE with that. It gets so frustrating! I honestly don't want to have 15 foods prepared to offer her at each meal. The one and only thing that seems to be foolproof to her games is baby food green beans. Yes, she loves them. The other day she ate almost 2 whole packages in one meal. But beyond those, even things that she used to absolutely love like grilled cheese get refused after a few bites. I've been trying to teach her to sign "all done" when she doesn't want anymore of something rather than dropping it on the floor, but it hasn't worked yet. I've tried ignoring the food dropping, and telling her no. Neither as phased her. But regardless, I could deal with the food on the floor if she would at least eat a decent amount before tossing it... then signing for "more" because she is hungry but wants something different now. I'm out of ideas here!

In just 3 short days my baby girl will be one year old. I know it is cliche, but it really does go by so fast. I think back on all that has happened this past year and how much she has changed and it truly is amazing. So much is different now! We will be celebrating her birthday next weekend when my family has a chance to come up to visit. It will certainly be crazy around here... my parents, my oldest brother with his wife and three daughters, and possibly my other brother will all be staying at our house! This will mean 4 little girls (ages 6, 4, 2, and 1) will be running around terrorizing my home. Madness! But I'm sure it will be good fun. I always love having my family around. And in addition to my family, many of Brent's family members will be over next Sunday for the birthday party. We decided to keep it for family only, but even with just family members we will have a ton of people in our house for the evening!

I'm just hoping and praying that Lydia is feeling well. She has been under the weather for the past week and threw up for the first time ever on Monday. Tuesday afternoon and evening she spent hours just cuddling and napping with me on the couch. I can't honestly say I didn't enjoy it because, as mentioned above, cuddle time with Lydia is short and infrequent, but I was so sad that she felt crummy. Things seem to be looking up now, though, and she was mostly back to her normal antics today. The only not normal thing is that she is still being pretty clingy to me, not wanting me to even leave the room. But I'm hoping that is teething related. She was that way when she cut her bottom two teeth and she looks really close to cutting a top one now.

So there ya have it... updated life of Lydia. Long post due to the fact that it's taken me nearly a month to force myself to write it. She'll have her 12 month doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I'll likely post more info on how she's doing after we get her new stats. Is it funny that I am SO excited to find out my baby girl's weight? Don't worry, Lydia... I promise I'll get over it before you reach high school.

Baby Books

2010-02-04T21:57:00.003-05:00

I'm having a hard time keeping up with Lydia's baby book(s) and it's making me very nervous about my ability to do this for future children. I even started out with intentions of not going all-out for Lydia and doing a ton of stuff that I won't be able to commit to with others. But here I am, just doing trying to do the minimum and failing! I finally sat down today to attempt to document all that Lydia learned, liked, and disliked when she was 10 months old and quickly realized that I can hardly remember. Oops. I'm a bad mommy. Ha!

So Brent and I decided that we'll just see how things go with future kids and will hide or burn all evidence of extra stuff that we did for the first one or two. Better to deprive tham all then to gradually deprive them more and more... ;)

The countdown begins...

2010-01-23T15:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Lydia turned 11 months old, and while I realize that many moms continue to speak of their childrens' ages in terms of months through the second year, this is the last time that it is more or less necessary. She won't be "zero" years old anymore. The next step is the big ONE YEAR.

I'm excited and anxious at the same time. So much has changed in this past year. Lydia has grown into an adorable, fun, sweet, joyful, and downright entertaining toddler. I can't get enough of her! As will be the case throughout her life, I find myself thinking about all of the stuff that is over, as well as all that is to come.

We continue to move slowly but steadily towards weaning. Now that she is 11 months old, I have backed off to just 2 nursings a day: first thing in the morning & last thing before bed. Pretty soon the morning one will switch to an after-breakfast thing, but we'll keep with 2 nursings for another couple of weeks at least. I've moved gradually from 4 down to 2, but the last 2 will likely both disappear in the week or two before her first birthday. Lydia does pretty well with finger foods, but gets pretty involved playing with it rather than eating it. She doesn't care for milk very much, so she'll probably be getting her dairy needs met with yogurt and cheese. I really wish she would get more teeth so she could do better eating some of the things the rest of us eat. It can stress me out sometimes trying to come up with enough things for Lydia to eat to provide both nutrition and variety... as well as being easy enough for her to pick up to feed herself.

Discipline is another item on my mind a lot. It's so hard to figure out how much she understands! She definitely can throw little tantrums now, and she obeys often enough for me to believe she understands what we mean when we tell her no... but boy is it difficult to decide how to handle things when she disregards our instructions!

The house has undergone a major babyproofing overhaul as of late. It still looks like a house in which civilized adults live (we are not going to be those parents who clear the entire house out so the kid can't touch stuff), but we've added in a few more precautions. Brent installed cabinet locks on the cabinets containing harmful items (though Lydia still has not shown much interest in opening cabinets anyway). We bought a gated playyard (6 connecting gate panels) and have used these to gate off the entertainment center so Lydia can no longer get into all of the cords. And finally (my favorite) we got the playroom set up upstairs! The bonus room above our garage is one of the largest rooms in the house, and now it is cleaned out and full of toys and activities for Lydia. She loves it! She has lots of room to crawl around in there and space to push her walking toys also. I still want to add some things to help organize all the toys, and also a child-sized table, but I'm so pleased to have it be functional for now.

Passion

2010-01-21T21:52:00.004-05:00

It has occurred to me lately that passion is something you simply cannot manufacture. You can't pretend to be passionate about something. Sure you can pretend to like things, maybe even to love them, but you can tell when someone is TRULY passionate.

This thought has put me in kind of an uncomfortable spot. Namely because I am not feeling very passionate about a number of things that I WANT to have a passion for. Try as I might to muster up some intense emotions, it just doesn't stick. I'm not quite sure what to do.

I've heard a lot of people say how having children brought them so much closer to God. They suddenly realized what unconditional love really was. Instantly they became aware of how much God loves us. I really wish I could say I have had a similar experience, but if I'm going to be really honest here, I don't feel any closer to God now than I did a year ago... before Lydia was born. Perhaps despite this experience of knowing the intense love a parent has for a child something still keeps me from accepting that God can feel the same way about me. I know it to be true, but it's like it still isn't real to me (if that makes any sense). I keep thinking back to the phrase from the Truth Project: Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?

I know this stuff. I know the facts. I've been raised in a Christian household. I know the stories, I've read the books, I've heard countless sermons. I've even dug deeper into the history of the Bible, all of the history and facts that give us reason to believe that this book is all that it claims to be. So why do I still feel so empty? I want to be passionate about Christ and all that He is. He has changed my life, no doubt about that, but too often I feel like that gets forgotten.

How can you get passion back when there is no way to manufacture passion?

Crawling & Cruising

2010-01-02T21:47:00.002-05:00

Lydia is all over the place these days! Just a couple of weeks ago she began to "army crawl" on occasion (still mostly rolling to move though). Now, she is full blown crawling! Still not super quick, but gaining speed every day. She finally got the hang of crawling movements a few days ago while we were in Cincinnati celebrating Christmas/New Years with my family. Additionally she became an expert at sitting up this week (going from lying down to upright position). Lydia just loves to hit all of these milestones away from home!

There's no stopping her anymore. She can sit, she can crawl, she can pull herself to standing, she can cruise along the furniture, she can walk with assistance (holding hands or a walking toy), she can bend/reach from standing to grab toys on the floor, and she can (not gracefully) sit down from a standing position. If I want to leave her for even just a second to do something, I better be making sure she can't get to anything she shouldn't... because otherwise she will!

Lydia was doing very well for awhile with the "no mouth" and "no touch" commands, however we have noticed in the past few days that she doesn't obey them much anymore. I have to believe that she understands them because she used to listen... so perhaps she is testing us? Trying to push those boundaries? Yikes. I am so not ready for that. We're trying to be firm, use stern voices, and take things away when she doesn't obey. Anyone have any other suggestions for disciplining a 10 month old? It's just so hard to figure out what she actually understands!

In addition to all of the wonderful new skills in the realm of mobility, Lydia is getting better at sign language too! At last! I've been trying to remember to do several simple signs to her since she was a newborn... it's so fun to finally see her using some of them! She is improving at "more", sometimes doing it correctly but still sometimes clapping instead. 7 times out of 10 I can get her to do the "all done" sign after meals. I see the sign for "milk" a lot, but I'm not sure she really associates it with nursing. That's probably one of the signs I did with her most frequently, so she might just be using it as a default sign for any type of communication. When I am getting ready to nurse her and say "milk" along with doing the sign, she definitely knows what I'm talking about. But when she does the sign herself, she does it for just about everything. Not to mention that it is similar to how she waves. We are working on "eat" and "drink" as well... what are some other signs that would be good to start with her?

One final note of other random Lydia things: She waves hello and bye-bye. She shakes her head no. She loves to be bounced and will continue bouncing on her own if you stop. She knows how to dance. She points at things. She is still a great traveler. Her babbles and squeals and laughs and noises fill our house every single day. :)

Baby's First Christmas

2009-12-26T16:12:00.004-05:00

What a wonderful Christmas it was this year, getting to enjoy lots of time with family with our lovely little girl!

On Christmas Eve Eve my mom and dad came up to visit for a couple of days. Josh & Erin were in Massachusetts for the holiday and Michael & Jenna were spending time with Jenna's family, so Mom & Dad decided they would pay us a visit for a little bit rather than being alone on Christmas Eve. I was so glad to have them around. Brent worked most of the day on Wednesday and Thursday (Christmas Eve), so my parents gave Lydia and I some wonderful company. :)

Wednesday night we hung out and made frozen pizzas and drank homemade malts while watching a marathon of Christmas movies. Lydia showed off all of her tricks for Nana and Grandpa including cruising along furniture at the speed of light and army crawling all over the living room. She's also getting very good at learning how to obey simple commands like "No touch" and "No mouth." Additionally, her sign language for "more" and "all done" is greatly improving. We're all so proud of her!

Christmas Eve morning my daddy made us a yummy big breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy. Then it was time to get all cleaned up and ready for the CedarCreek Christmas Eve service. What a great service (check it out here if you are interested)! I've said it before and I will say it again: I am truly grateful to be part of a church that is so faithful to God's plan. We had over 20,000 people attend church this weekend across our 21 services at 3 locations. Wow!

Lydia did great and had fun with the other babies at church. She's a social girl, that's for sure. After leaving the Creek we headed for a late lunch / early dinner. The plan was Cracker Barrel but they closed at 2 so we ended up at Bob Evans. Once we got home we spent the rest of Christmas Eve just hanging out. We munched on some of my favorite foods from our traditional family Christmas Eve: chex mix, fudge, rotel dip, and wassail. Have you noticed that food is one of my favorite things about getting together with family? Ha! We watched more Christmas movies and played a few rounds of Mexican Train dominoes until Brent got home from work.

Christmas morning was calmer than I expect future ones will be. Lydia slept in a bit later than usual, followed by her typical morning routine. Once everyone was up, we gathered in the living room and let Lydia open up a gift from Nana and Grandpa. Most of her gifts from them will be opened later at our Cinci family Christmas, but they wanted to bring one up for her to get on Christmas day. It was an activity table that she could stand at and play with the different toys. Lots of music and buttons and lights... Lydia loves it! She really got into the idea of opening gifts and seemed to understand the concept of it. She would rip at the paper until she could see the toy, then would want the toy. But even while playing with a toy, if another gift was offered to her, she'd dive at it to open it up. She really seemed to understand that if she tore off the paper she'd get another toy!

After opening gifts, Lydia took a nap, we all ate breakfast, and the men assembled the new toys for Lydia to enjoy. She loves having new toys that she can stand and play with. Besides the table from my parents, we gave her a walk-and-ride toy that she can hold on to and walk with. At first she seemed pretty cautious, but she quickly got the hang of walking with it across the room. She is already getting herself into trouble walking up to things she shouldn't touch! The ability to steer isn't quite there yet, but it's a lot of fun to see her growing and changing like this. I love her so much!

My parents left for home after the morning festivities while Brent, Lydia, and I went off to spend the rest of the day with Brent's family. At Tom and Rita's place we ate lunch and hung out for awhile, then began the gift exchange there. Lydia got to open her gifts first so she'd have plenty to keep her occupied while the rest of us opened ours. Boy did she get spoiled! Lots of new clothes and lots of new toys. She even got a huge stuffed horse. What'd this girl do to get a pony on her very first Christmas?! Despite her lack of interest in our Christmas tree, she seemed quite smitten by Grandma's tree. When finished opening her gifts, she kept flopping onto her belly and trying to crawl over and grab the lower branches. There just must be something special about Grandma's tree!

Thankfully Lydia was able (and willing) to take a nap over at Grandma's house before we headed over to Brent's grandparent's house for more Christmas festivities. She slept for over an hour before I went in to feed her, change her, and pack her up for the next visit. At the Pirolli household was more yummy food (of course!) and lots more people to love on my sweet Lydia. She cuddled with Great Grandma & Grandpa for awhile, then wanted to hold hands and walk around the house. She did VERY well for Daddy when he told her not to touch the the candy on the table and was generally delightful. At least for the first part of the evening. It had been a very long and busy day and it eventually showed in her demeanor. By gift-opening time she wasn't very interested anymore. She kept wanting to crawl away from me but would then get mad and not really want to play with anything around her. Poor thing was probably pretty worn out! But she was a trooper and we didn't face any major meltdowns. Nothing we couldn't ward off with a distraction or two.

All loaded up with food, toys, books, clothing, and other gifts, we got home after 9:00 that night. It was well past Lydia's bedtime and she thankfully made up for some of it by sleeping in until 8 this morning. Today we spent the day trying to get things organized around the house before we do our last Christmas gathering of the year with my family on Monday. Lydia got so many new clothes that I had to do two large loads of her laundry today! I am so very thankful for all of our family who love our daughter so much. I might manage to get things put away and organized just in time for her first birthday in a couple of months!

Oh and I forgot to mention the lovely gift that I got for Christmas... digital scrapbooking software! My dear sweet hubby got me the Creative Memories storybook software and I am sooo excited to try it out and make my 2009 photo book. Alas we've been so busy that I haven't even had time to install it yet! Two big projects to come in the new year: making my 2009 scrapbook and finally turning our bonus room above the garage into a playroom so I have someplace to put all these toys!

How to save a million dollars

2009-12-13T08:13:00.004-05:00

... or at least feel like you are! Okay, so maybe it isn't quite THAT exciting, but starting my couponing journey has definitely been fun. And while it's not millions of dollars in savings, it all adds up!

For starters, let me point out how I used to grocery shop. I never bothered with coupons. Never even bothered with ads. We don't get the Sunday paper. So basically I just went to the store on an as-needed basis. If we were about to run out of milk, I'd put together a shopping list of whatever we were out of or soon-to-be out of, go to the store, and buy the needed items regardless of price. If any of the list items happened to be on sale, I considered that a bonus. I would sometimes buy things not on the list if I noticed they were on sale, but that was pretty much as close to stockpiling as I got. Our pantry & fridge/freezer never really seemed "full" and yet somehow I was often in the red on our grocery budget.

A couple of months ago I started to see some Facebook friends posting about how they saved tons of money on groceries with coupons. It caught my interest and I began to work on this for myself. Admittedly I was very skeptical when I started. I'd flip through the coupons in the Sunday paper and think to myself, "Am I really going to save money with these $0.25 off coupons for things I don't even use?" But I stuck with it and continued to gather coupons, and you know what? It worked! Eventually I realized that this really IS helpful!

The major players in my change of heart were a knowledge of coupon doubling and education in how to shop the sales. I started to see that if a $3 product was on sale for $2 and I had a $1 off coupon that doubled, I could get that $3 product for FREE! At that point you no longer care if it's the brand you typically buy because hey, it's free. And already in just a couple of weeks of really doing couponing I've scored a lot of freebies and near freebies (see my previous post). Two days ago I went to the store for a few baking items I needed. The original total was $28.24. After coupons it came to $12.50. That's over 50% savings! The receipt tells me that with sales and coupons I saved over $27 off of original prices.

So, how do I grocery shop now? Each Sunday I go to the dollar store and pick up 2-4 Sunday papers for $1 each. Rather than spending the time to clip, categorize, and file everything, I flip through the coupon inserts and enter the ones I'm interested in into my own coupon spreadsheet. Later I will go back and cut out any that I actually intend to use. (Everyone has their own system that works for them. For now, this is mine.) I like the spreadsheet because it is easy to sort by different criteria to find coupons that I need and it helps me keep track of the expiration dates. To help me align the sales with the coupons, I am currently using TheGroceryGame.com. This service costs $10 every 8 week for one store ($5 more per additional store), but offers a 4 week free trial. Check it out if you are interested... and use me as your reference so I can earn free weeks too! You will definitely make back the money you spend on it, so I highly recommend it.

The easiest and quickest way to save some money is to simply get the Sunday paper and get the grocery game lists. Let the list tell you what is a good buy for the week and make one shopping trip out to stock up. You will get really good savings with minimal time commitment this way.

If you want to increase your savings and potential for freebies, you can also do some of your own work. Sometimes I have other coupons beyond what is in the Sunday paper, so spending time looking through the ads myself might find me a few extra deals. Additionally I follow a few blogs that are great sources of printable coupon deals and deals from stores that aren't included in my grocery game lists. My favorite blogs are StretchingABuckBlog.com and DealSeekingMom.com. Most of my freebies are found through tips on these blogs using printable coupons. So when I am ready to head to the store, I make sure to double check the blogs and grab any printable coupons that might be handy for my trip.

I'm still a little too new at this to give an accurate idea of how much time I spend on this each week, but it certainly doesn't feel like a whole lot. Just a few additional steps before venturing off to the store and it saves me a ton of money. I only wish I had started sooner!

Coupon post to come...

2009-12-11T22:42:00.003-05:00

I'm going to write up a more detailed post about my new love of couponing, but for now I just want to jot down some of my favorite deals (at least the ones I can remember right now) that I've snagged since starting this:

4 free 200-count boxes of Kleenex
4 200-count boxes of Kleenex for .97 ea
4 free lunchables
3 cans of Manwich sauce for .33 ea
2 free mini loaves of garlic bread
1 carton of Tropicana orange juice for .42
2 loaves of Aunt Millies bread for .45 ea
5lb box of clementines for 2.99
1 package of Command hooks for less than .50
Half a pantry shelf full of various pasta for .59 a lb
And way too many to count cans of Pillsbury biscuits/crescents/cinn.rolls for less than 1.00 per

For the first time probably ever I feel like my pantry is really getting FULL! Brent and I have already started discussing if it would be a worthy investment to consider buying an extra freezer. I'd love to have the space to really stock up when meat is on sale!

How big is Lydia?

2009-12-05T21:08:00.006-05:00

Soooo big!

Yep that's right. This is Lydia's newest skill! I tried to teach her this about a month ago, then stopped thinking about it for a couple of weeks. Then all of a sudden, she's in playing with Daddy and bam! She's an expert. What gives? I slave all day for her and then she always does her new tricks for Daddy first. No fair! :-P Regardless, it is the most adorable thing ever. I love watching her reach those little arms up whenever I ask her "How big is Lydia?"

She's really beginning to understand a lot. I continue to use some sign language with her, and I think she generally understands what they mean, but I still haven't seen her sign anything to me. I think she's close to doing "more" and "all done"... it's sometimes hard to tell if she's just clapping or waving her arms though! Lydia does wave bye-bye. I guess that can be sign language too!

Today Lydia and I went to the evening service at church and she did excellent going into the nursery, but man oh man has she been severely attached to mama at home lately! This morning she was sitting all snuggled with Brent on the couch watching TV when I came down from a shower. The instant she saw me and I didn't come get her, she WAILED. But I guess all kids get that way at some point. I try not to let it get to me too much and try to make her get used to having me go away some. It's important that she learn that mommy can go away and that mommy will always come back.

My Lovely Lydia

2009-12-03T13:08:00.002-05:00

I have a Thanksgiving blog already in progress, but put it on hold so I can take the time to write about my sweet girl's latest developments. Holy cow she is changing fast! In the last few weeks she has really been working hard on a lot of new things.

First my favorite -she's been so cuddly! She has really started to show how to "love on" things. It is the best thing ever when she puts both her arms around my shoulders and snuggles up to me. Lydia has always been such a wiggle worm and wants to look around at everything. She just hasn't been super affectionate because there's always too much other stuff to look at! I've really enjoyed how cuddly she has been lately. She even sat and snuggled with me to watch a TV show yesterday!

Clapping continues to be one of her favorite things to do. She now notices when other people clap, even on TV, and promptly joins in. She doesn't even have to be facing the TV... if she hears clapping, she starts to clap as well. Too funny!

I can tell Lydia is getting more and more frustrated by her inability to crawl/walk. She's trying really really hard to figure it all out and it shows with a lot of crankiness. She is very close to getting into crawl position, but then stretches her legs out to be on her belly. It works well to get her from sitting to lying down, but not so well for movement. I've seen her inch worm a little bit, and she moves backwards pretty well on the hardwood floor (I don't think it's intentional though as much as she just slides around). On the walking front, she walks quite well if you hold both of her hands and she does a little bit of creeping along furniture (mostly when I'm not looking). Lydia has wonderful balance and plays very well standing up against a couch or chair. I'm still unsure about whether I think she'll crawl or walk first. She seems to just want to figure it all out at the same time!

Speaking of things happening at the same time, Lydia now has her first AND second teeth! I first noticed the sharp point of the first tooth on November 30th (halfway through our trip home from Oklahoma), and today I confirmed my suspicions that the second one was coming... sharp point #2 verified! Poor baby must be in terrible pain. On top of the teeth situation, we've all had colds. Runny nose, watery eyes, sore mouth... sounds fun, eh?

I suppose all of this gives her good reason for being a TERRIBLE napper lately. She's (mostly) still doing well at night, but daytime sleep is a battle. It doesn't happen without a lot of screaming, then only lasts for 30 minutes or less... at which point she wakes up screaming again. She's also been super clingy to me. I put her in her exersaucer and take 4 steps away and she starts pitching a fit. She isn't that bad all day long, but for most of it. Since getting back from our trip I've had a really hard time getting things done around the house because Lydia is either fussy because she's trying to crawl/move and can't, or she's fussy because I'm not within 2 feet of her at all times.

I love it. :) Seriously, this is a tough patch in the mommy life... but I love it all. This too shall pass. Good or bad, it will all go away in time. I want to enjoy the ride. I sure do love watching my lovely little girl grow, learn, and develop. What an amazing gift she is! As I write this she is lying on the floor next to me (after a failed crawling attempt) playing with her feet, blowing raspberries, and yelling "eeeeeeee!" ... her favorite noise haha. She makes my heart smile. :)

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-01T15:45:00.005-05:00

What a Thanksgiving we had this year! To make a long story somewhat shorter, we were supposed to have Thanksgiving with Brent's family and Christmas with my family this year since we did the reverse last year. However, when my brother announced that his family was going to go out of state for Christmas but planned to join my parents in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, we opted to switch as well.

My parents, my oldest brother along with his wife and 3 daughters, and Brent, Lydia, and I all drove from Ohio to Oklahoma to visit my extended family. My mom's parents and my dad's dad all live out there, plus a smattering of aunts, uncles, and cousins. On Thanksgiving day my grandparent's house was filled to the brim! In addition to the adults, there were a ton of kids... especially little girls! For my own future reference, here's everyone we saw during our visit: Mom, Dad, Grandma Bea, Granddad, Joshua & Erin & girls -Hannah (6), Abby (4), Michaela (2)-, Uncle Brad & Glenna & girls -Haleigh (7), Brittan (4), Brianna (1)-, Uncle Brian & Tish, Crystal & Daniel, Pam, Diane & Jay & kids -Trey (12), Christi (10)-, Aunt Rhonda, Eric, Aaron, Elliot & kids -Evan, Jaxson (3), Jailyn (3)-, Grandpa Kuntz & Emily, Aunt Lou Anne & Taylor, and Uncle Jim (plus myself, Brent, and Lydia (9m)).

Whew! That was a lot of people. Most of whom we saw on Thanksgiving day. On Friday we went to visit Uncle Jim. He lives in an assisted living facility due to his MS, but is always in high spirits. Such a wonderful example of faith and joy despite circumstances! It was great to get to visit him and also to see the rest of Dad's side of the family. That was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Other highlights included watching Lydia play with my Grandpa, taking walks with Grandma Bea, getting to eat Granddad's gravy & Grandma Bea's strawberry jelly, and going to Murphy's. Ah yes, Murphy's... one of my favorite things about Bartlesville! Those hot hamburgers are absolutely delicious and unlike anything else I've ever eaten. Brent and I even decided we needed to buy Murphy's shirts to honor the tradition.

After all of the chaos of Thanksgiving passed, Brent and I got the chance to see my good friend Allison and her husband Eric on Saturday night. Allison and I were great friends in grade school and remained close despite moves to different states, but the last time I was able to actually see her was over 5 years ago at my wedding! It was wonderful to speak in person again and to hear about how her life is going. We had dinner at Mazzio's then hung out for a bit at my grandparent's house until they could meet up with the friends they were spending the night with.

The last night we were in Oklahoma Brent and I decided it would probably be best for us to sleep in different rooms so that Lydia didn't wake him up in the morning. We needed him to be rested for driving! That turned out to be a very wise decision. Lydia had a VERY rough night that night... she was waking up screaming every couple of hours. Little did I know at that point that this was fully due to teething! Yep, Sunday night we stayed at a hotel and when I checked her little mouth, sure enough there was a nice sharp point in there. That evening continued to be an adventure. Between Lydia's teething and the fact that we were all in the same room together at bedtime, things were definitely interesting. Despite Tylenol and Oragel, Lydia cried off and on for over two hours after going to bed. I felt so bad about it since we were in a hotel... where other people were staying! But we made it through the night and finished up the long drive home on Monday. We even stopped to get a walnut bowl on the way. :)

Standing like a Pro

2009-11-20T10:02:00.003-05:00

Modesty

2009-11-19T15:23:00.004-05:00

The matter of modesty has been on my mind lately. As a Christian woman, how am I supposed to present myself? What is considered right or wrong in terms of fashion, makeup, or figure? This question can be as simple as addressing what clothing we wear, or can run as deep as whether or not we should diet, paint our nails, or wear makeup.

I'm sure we all agree that what is on the inside, what our hearts are like, is what matters the MOST. But once you address what matters most, is it okay for all of the other stuff to matter at all?

1 Timothy 2:9-10 states that women are expected to "dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."

Granted, there's probably some cultural context to that verse, but those are still pretty strong words. If as a woman you profess to worship God, modesty is a must! But what of adornments? What would "braided hair, gold, and pearls" be in today language? The Message translates this verse as the following: "not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it."

Personally I'm a pretty plain person. I've never been very fashionable, so I stick with jeans, t-shirts, sweaters... whatever is comfortable. I try to look "nice" when out of the house, but certainly don't go to any great lengths to "wow" the public eye. I wear very little or no makeup most of the time. It's just a personal preference... I don't want to look like a different person after I wash my face at night. And as far as accessories go, I pretty much stick to the minimum. No fancy purses or jewelry... just a simple bag, my favorite necklace & earrings (if I feel like wearing jewelry at all), and my wedding ring.

I guess I just don't understand the point of investing the time and money into the relatively unimportant outward appearance. I just want to be real. If people don't like me for who I am, then I'd rather not be around them anyway.

But are there reasons that we SHOULD be concerned about outward appearance? Well there are the obvious matters of health and hygiene. If I overeat and smell bad I'm not doing the kingdom of God any favors either. Not only am I not taking care of the body that God gave me, but it might be hard to get someone to listen to the message of Christ if they can't get over the distraction of the body odor. But beyond the basics, I don't know that we are necessarily given any Biblical reasons to worry about appearance. Jesus himself was said to have "no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." (Is. 53:2)

There are times when I wish I were prettier. Let's face it... I'm a woman and every woman struggles every now and then with her appearance. But when I question why it is that I would want to look different, I can never come up with a reason other than what the media and society pressures that I "should" be doing. Now I like to dress nice and feel pretty every once in awhile. There's nothing wrong with that. It's nice to fancy up a bit for a night out with my husband, and it feels good when other people compliment my appearance. But this definitely isn't something that consumes a large portion of my thoughts. I guess it's just never made sense to me to spend money, time, and effort in this area when it could be spent on things of much greater value in the eyes of God.

What are your thoughts? What do you think of fashion, modesty, makeup, and general appearance? Is it important to look pretty in the eyes of the world? Why or why not?

9 months!

2009-11-18T16:03:00.002-05:00

Here we are just days away from Lydia being 9 months old! Craziness. We had her checkup at the doctor today. Everything looks great! Doctor said we're all doing fine and there are no reasons at all for concern. Here are her current stats:

Weight: 18lb 9oz (50%ile)
Height: 28" (55%ile)
Head: 17.75" (75%ile)

Funny to see how her length has gained and her weight has dropped. She's averaging out nicely. I'm not too shocked by the numbers (though I expected a little heavier... I am, afterall, the one who has to haul her around everywhere!). I could tell she was getting longer lately. Those little arms and legs keep growing right out of sleeves and pants! And she's starting to look more lean. Losing a few of the chunky rolls. Still got those adorable chubby cheeks though!

She's working a lot more on pulling herself to a standing position and then playing while standing up. Today she pulled up on the side of the bathtub trying to reach for the shampoo! And as I've been working with her on standing up while holding on to the couch or her exersaucer, she is getting much more stable. It reminds me of when she started sitting up on her own. It only took her a week or two to transition from instant flop to being able to sit for as long as we'd let her. After just a couple of days of actually working at standing she already has great confidence to stand and play. She even lets go sometimes and can catch herself before she falls down.

My birthday is just a couple of weeks after Lydia's and my mom said I was walking around by Christmas the year I was born. Will Lydia be cruising or even walking by next month? Yikes! I guess we'll just have to see. She picks up on things so quickly that I wouldn't be surprised if it happens, but at the same time she is also generally content and may not feel adequate motivation to take off just yet. Only time will tell. :)

Today I am thankful for...

2009-11-16T08:54:00.002-05:00

our health! As flu season is upon us, I can't tell you how many Facebook status updates I've seen of various friends and family battling illness. It's especially sad all of the children and babies with terrible coughs, fevers, and other general "ickies." I can't even imagine how hard it would be as a mom to listen to your baby struggle all night long! I suppose someday I will probably have to deal with this, but for now I'm very thankful that Lydia (and the rest of us) are staying healthy. Other than a minor cold when she was 1 month old, Lydia hasn't let anything slow her down. :) Thank you, Lord, for my beautiful family and for keeping us healthy!

Block & Barrel

2009-11-13T22:27:00.004-05:00

Just a couple of nights ago Lydia decided to make up a new game to play. Brent and I were enjoying a little TV time while our sweet baby was happily playing on the floor nearby when suddenly I hear a rattling noise. I look over to see her shaking half of a plastic barrel with a wooden block in it. No big deal. But it wasn't long before I realized that she was doing this intentionally! Whenever the block would inevitably come out of the barrel, Lydia would concentrate and work very hard to manage to get it back in. I kept thinking I must be crazy... just imagining that she was doing this on purpose... but she was noticeably fussy when she couldn't quite get it where she wanted, then super happy as soon as she would get it back into the barrel.

So anyway, the next day I tested her again and this time grabbed the camera to capture the moment. Video was too distracting, thus making it very long... so you get pictures instead and just have to trust me that I wasn't helping her at all.

I'm probably just an overly enthusiastic mom who is just certain her kid is super smart. Maybe all kids her age can do things like this? But this sure seems like some major cognitive and fine motor skills for a mere 8.5 month old! I mean come on, she made her own rattle! ;)

(Oh and in other news, today she decided she was totally capable of eating her finger food puffs all by herself. I've been trying and trying to get her to eat them on her own, then she goes and does it like a pro when DADDY is giving her lunch. Go figure! Lydia can officially self-feed now.)

Picky?

2009-11-10T17:00:00.002-05:00

My dear daughter on whom I bragged so much about her good eating habits may finally be starting to develop preferences. I noticed about a week ago that Lydia sometimes wouldn't eat much food when I expected she should be relatively hungry. So one evening when Brent was unsuccessfully trying to get Lydia to eat her squash (something she loved the first time she ate it), I decided to try a different approach. Rather than just assuming she wasn't hungry and putting the food away, I got out a package of green beans and tried offering those to her. She gobbled up nearly the whole container!

So it seems I now have to start being more attentive to which foods I pick out for her. No longer can I be sure that she'll eat until she's full regardless of what's on the menu. Thus far it seems she no longer cares for squash, peas, or the mixed veggie combo of peas, carrots, & spinach. She'll do okay with bananas, but they aren't preferred. Most fruits go over better than the previously mentioned veggie varieties, but there are a few that she certainly doesn't gobble up like others. Her favorite things so far seem to be pears, apricots, green beans, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She also likes when things are really runny as opposed to thicker. This may be what she doesn't find too appealing about bananas.

Does anyone know if grocery stores will let you trade baby foods? I had just bought more before Lydia's change in tastes, so I have a few unopened packages of the foods she has decided she doesn't like. Any chance a store would let me trade them for foods she will eat?

Another interesting development with Lydia is that she is suddenly getting all jumpy about certain noisy objects in the house. Two days ago I went to blowdry my hair and she flipped out as soon as I turned it on. Now this was not the first time I dried my hair with her in the room. She never minded it before. So I figured I must have just startled her and maybe she was sleepy and it all upset her. But today I tried it again. I made sure she was looking at me and aware of the dryer so it wouldn't completely startle her. The instant it turned on the "I'm going to scream!" look spread across Lydia's face. This time I continued to dry my hair despite the look, telling her it was okay, smiling at her, hoping she'd realize it was fine. She didn't. She fussed the whole time. What's the deal? Then this afternoon she freaked out about the vacuum cleaner. She didn't mind it when I was on the other side of the room from her, but as I got closer to her (in her exersaucer), I got "the look" again. What on earth has caused this sudden dislike of household noises? Silly child...

Come and See

2009-11-08T09:04:00.003-05:00

This past Wednesday night our home group watched one of the messages from Andy Stanley's Go Fish series. What a powerful message it was! He spoke about the partnership between us (the fishers) and the church... how we are not meant to be in this alone. As we go out on our mission to be "fishers of men" we are to be inviting people to come and see what Jesus is doing. And the church is the place where we should find that!

There were so many great points in this message and I will in no way do them justice trying to explain them myself, so I'll try to just stick with one. Andy pointed out how Jesus and his disciples had a "come and see" approach when it came to Jesus. Those who were curious about who he was were told, "follow me" (by Jesus) or "come and see" (by others). John 1:45-46:

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip.

Philip didn't stress out about Nathanael's response. He didn't go, "Oh dang, Nate doesn't believe me, I guess I should stop talking." Nor did he sit and try to have a discussion with Nathanael in response to the question about Nazareth. He just told him to come and check it out. "Trust me, Nate. Just come see this guy and you'll know what I'm talking about."

That is exactly how it is supposed to be in our world today. Where is Jesus working? Matthew 18:20: For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. As Andy Stanley puts it, when we gather on "official Jesus business," Jesus shows up. This is the role of the church. The church is meant to be a place of official Jesus business. People should be able to see the church and simultaneously see Jesus at work.

All that is left to do is to simply invite people to come and see. Just come see it for yourself.

The partnership between the church as a whole and the individual members of the church is a beautiful thing when it is working in this way. Jesus shows up and lives are changed.

So what about your church? Is it a place where you can confidently approach your friends and invite them to come and see? Is Jesus present there in such a way that invites the lost to keep going back... to keep learning more... to follow Jesus? What are you doing to provide an atmosphere of "official Jesus business" where Jesus promises he will indeed show up?

We are not meant to be solo fishermen. This is a corporate affair. If we want to be good fishers, we absolutely must find where Jesus is so that we can confidently invite people to come and see.

Meet the Pirolli Family!

2009-11-04T11:49:00.010-05:00

This is me. Well, at least it was me when I was 25... before I had my baby girl and life changed forever. But you get the idea.

I am a jeans & t-shirt, meat & potatoes kind of girl. I love the outdoors (hiking, camping, fishing, etc) but also love my computer and have my "hermit" moments. I am in no way, shape, or form artistic. To this day I have no idea how I managed to get an A in a high school painting class (the only art class I took... I didn't dare tempt fate twice!). I deal in facts & figures and prefer things to be black & white, figuratively speaking. My only creative venues are singing & crocheting, but I don't take much time to dabble in either. My husband makes fun of me constantly about my love of list-making & budgeting and I secretly wish I could marry a spreadsheet. I wear my heart on my sleeve most of the time, so if you frequent this blog you are quite likely going to get a pretty good picture of who I am.

I was born in Missouri into a family with two very loving parents and two (pretty cool) older brothers. I consider myself blessed to have had the wonderful Christian home that I had growing up. My parents worked hard to teach me and my brothers solid morals and values, and I'm grateful to have come to know Jesus Christ at a very young age.

My family moved from Missouri to Ohio in 1995, and I graduated from high school there in 2001. I continued my education at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where I originally set out for a Math Education degree but later decided teaching wasn't the right fit for me. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Computer Science and immediately began a career in that field. However, I was never meant to be a career woman. My heart and passion has always been for one thing: to be a wife and mother. Long before I had achieved any significant level of education I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom someday. I am so thankful that I am now living my dream, staying at home with my beautiful daughter!

But we'll come back to her in a minute. As the saying goes (before the baby carriage) - first comes love and marriage! Brent and I met in college. February 21, 2002 to be exact. One week prior, after a rather horrid Valentine's Day experience, I had gotten serious about giving God control of my love life. It was important to me that the next relationship I got into be one in which I was playing for keeps. I was tired of playing games and wanted to focus on preparing my heart for my future spouse.

It was almost frightening how quickly thereafter God brought Brent into my life. We met after church group on a Thursday night and spent all evening (well into Friday morning) talking and getting to know one another. We were pleasantly surprised to find how similar our values were... including more "extreme" things like keeping the door open when hanging out in a room alone with the opposite sex - to avoid temptation or even the appearance of sin. We really "clicked" right away, but because of my strong desire to be sure that this was the real thing, and because I felt I had already committed this time to focus on God alone, we remained just friends for the next six months. I told Brent we could talk about dating in September... so of course, September 1, 2002 we had our first official date and have been together ever since! By Christmas time that year we were comfortable with the thought of getting married someday. It was official in May 2003 when we were engaged, then on May 14, 2004 I became Mrs. Sarah Pirolli.

Brent is currently employed by our church, CedarCreek.tv, where he has been involved in one way or another since the church's beginning in 1995. He works as the full time IT Director while I have been able to do part time work from home on the church's website since May 2009. He is a big-time tech guy who has been building computers since the age of 12, so this job really suits him and he loves that he gets to use his gifts to serve the church.

After getting married in 2004, we were on the 3-5 year plan regarding starting a family. It was important to us from the start to make sure we took some time to just be husband and wife before kids came into the picture. Additionally, because I wanted to be able to stay home with our children we felt it wise to plan financially for this goal. God blessed our plans and life progressed just as we had hoped.

Meet Lydia. She stole our hearts forever on February 22, 2009 (I find it fun to note that that is just 1 day past the 7 year anniversary of Brent and I first meeting). Right now she is only 8 months old, so there's not a lot to say about her history, but this blog ends up being 95% about her... so you can read about it as it happens.

Lydia is an absolute joy in my life. "Joy" is really the only word I can come up with to describe it. She is always filled with smiles and laughter. I can't wait to see her joy continue to grow and flourish as she gets older! There are no words in the English language that can capture the love I have for my child. My heart practically explodes on a daily basis just watching her smile and learn and grow.

I serve a great God and am eternally grateful and humbled by how richly He has blessed my life. My prayer is that my family and I will continue to serve Him with everything He has given us and that we will be good stewards of these gifts.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Ps. 118:29

Everything changes but change...

2009-11-02T11:24:00.004-05:00

As always, things keep changing around here. Here's the low-down on Lydia's latest developments.

She still isn't crawling yet, but tries really hard when enticed with a toy. She still prefers to roll and will often give up the crawling attempts and simply roll over unless you block her sides. I try to do a little bit to encourage her in this area, but I'm not pushing it too hard. She is pretty mobile just with rolling and I trust she will move on when she is ready.

Lydia also seems to be trying really hard to sit up on her own. Quite often when I go to get her out of her crib she is craning her neck forward, legs and arms stiffened, trying with all her might to do a sit-up. These attempts of hers may be part of the reason I'm seeing her struggle with sleep lately. She puts up more of a fight when I put her down for a nap, often wakes earlier (crying), and wakes more frequently when I put her down for the night. Last night she went to bed at 7 but fussed for 2 hours before I finally rocked her to sleep. But who knows... the time change that happened this weekend may be factoring in as well.

In the realm of food Lydia fed herself finger food for the first time yesterday! She's so silly with the little baby puffs. She seems to understand that they are food and eats them up when *I* feed them to her, but when she gets them in her hand she just stares at them or drops them on the floor. If I put one on my hand and offer it to her, she will move her mouth towards my hand... or grab my hand and pull it towards her... but she doesn't like to take it off my hand with hers to eat it. Silly girl! But she did do a couple on her own yesterday, so we'll keep practicing. :)

We've officially dropped the late night nursing and are strictly doing feedings between 7am & 8pm. I've been working on doing solids 3 times a day instead of 2 for the past week and plan today to try to get away with 4 nursing sessions instead of 5. In theory, I'll nurse her every 5 hours until bedtime... so 7am, 12pm, 5pm, and then somewhere between 7 and 8pm whenever she goes to bed. So far today we're doing well with this schedule. She nursed first thing this morning (7:30) then ate some fruit after getting up from a nap at 9. It's 11:45 now and she's napping, so I'll nurse her when she gets up then she can have more solids around 12:30 or 1. Right now I think my plan is to have 5 hours between nursings, but do solids in there too to have her still eating something at least every 4 hours. She'll see the pediatrician in a couple of weeks so there's a good chance I'll change things up again after that, but for now this is my plan.

In other news, halloween was this past weekend. My parents decided to come up for a visit (yay!) so they got to see Lydia dressed up in her monkey costume. Isn't she a doll??

It was a crazy day, but I think Lydia had a lot of fun. She was REALLY tired because I forgot to put her down for an afternoon nap (oops!)... she had just been so happy all day that I never got that "she really needs a nap" signal until we had to walk out the door. So all evening she was running on a 5 minute catnap that she grabbed in the car. We first drove out to the Whitehouse campus to visit Daddy at work. He enjoyed showing off his little monkey girl. :) Next we headed to Grandma & Papa's house, then finished the evening at Great-Grandma & Grandpa's house. Despite being so sleepy, Lydia was mostly a happy girl. Oh speaking of being a happy girl, she went to the nursery at church on Sunday and when I picked her up they told me she won the best baby award for the day. Those things always make me smile. See? I'm not lying when I say I have the best baby ever!!

Prayer Lists?

2009-10-28T08:34:00.003-04:00

I know you folks are out there even when you don't comment... so today I'm asking for some feedback! If you read this, I would love to hear your response.

Just a question that I have been pondering. How many of you out there have prayer lists? And what do those look like? In a recent series about prayer our senior pastor talked about his prayer list and encouraged us to do the same in our prayer life. He has specific things/people he prays for each day of the week.

Now while I would love to do this because I'm definitely a "list person" and structure helps me stay focused and disciplined, I've never liked it much for prayer. It just doesn't feel meaningful to me and I don't know how to keep things "fresh" ya know? For example, let's say one of my Monday list items is our country. I would quickly feel very repetitive each week praying the same "God bless America" prayer. But I guess when the alternative is constantly forgetting to EVER pray for our country, maybe the structure of a list is better?

So what do you do? What does your prayer life look like? Do you use a structure such as a list? Why or why not?

Gender Neutral

2009-10-24T08:57:00.003-04:00

I had an epiphany the other day when I went to Babies R Us. I realized that baby stuff is EXPENSIVE! Yes, it took me 8+ months for this to really sink in, but as I prepared myself to spend another $40 on 2 sleep sacks because my wiggly baby may never keep real blankets on, this epiphany finally hit me. I very quickly passed up the pink dots and cute girly prints for the gender neutral green fleece and teddy bear print sacks. I plan to have more of these little bundles in the future and I can't be certain they'll all appreciate pink!

So here's my advice to new/expectant moms out there: go gender neutral whenever you can. Now I understand there are some things you are just gonna want to go all out boy/girl with. Clothing is a big one for me. I hate dressing my girl up in yellows or greens (unless obviously girly styles). When we go out, I want people to know she is a GIRL! But I'm starting to let go on some of the other accessories. You can spend hundreds of dollars in blankets, toys, carseat accessories, and baby equipment. Imagine having to do it again if your next kid is a different gender! Trust me, your baby girl will not care if she doesn't have the fancy pink stroller with pink strap covers, pink toys, and pink diaper bag hanging off the back. If you go pink with the clothing and stick with gender neutral for everything else, people will have plenty of evidence that she's a girl.

Yes I know what it is like to find out the gender of your baby and be soooo excited with visions of filling that nursery to the brim with everything pink imaginable... but do yourself a favor and try your best to reign it in a little. Your wallet will thank you later!

Cute Overload

2009-10-22T19:56:00.002-04:00

Is it normal to feel like my heart is absolutely going to explode with an abundance of love when hanging out with my daughter? I'm not entirely sure I can take much more of this! Lydia is off the charts adorable and sometimes I literally feel like it is too much to bear!

Today my sweet girl is 8 months old. As my gift to her, we spent most of the day out and about. As her gift to me, she didn't fuss. :) The day started with huge doses of giggles as I nibbled her fingers in the morning... and ended with an equally large dose of giggles while she "wrestled" with Daddy and played peek-a-boo before bedtime.

Someday I'm going to have more kids (God willing)... and if the amount of love increases as the amount of kids increases, I'm going to explode. Seriously. I don't think that much cute can be contained without some casualties.

A day in the life...

2009-10-19T20:28:00.002-04:00

Periodically I like to try to capture in text (as much as possible) what my life is like at the moment. Obviously life changes constantly around here with a growing girl, so jotting down some things along the way will help me to remember where we have been.

Currently our days start around 7am... sometimes this is closer to 8, but not usually. Lydia's demeanor upon waking ebbs and flows, but lately she's been very pleasant when she wakes up. She might stir and cry for just a second around 6 or 6:30, but then quiets down, goes back to sleep, and wakes up later cooing, squealing, laughing, and other happy noises until I go in to get her. I feed her, change her, and give her her vitamins then we proceed downstairs for a little playtime. Typically she is ready to go back to sleep by 8 (or roughly an hour after she wakes up). She'll nap for 30 minutes to an hour then our day "officially" begins.

Every day might be different from that point. Sometimes she is fussy and tired after being up for just 2 hours at a time, and other times she can go 3 or more hours. Besides the early morning one though, she typically gets 2 more naps. One is usually shortly after lunchtime and the other around 3:30. Each last for maybe an hour.

Food has kinda been an adventure. As she started eating more solids she started having issues with her poop. Without going into a bunch of details, her body just needed to adjust to the diet changes. She had been eating fruit at lunch and veggies at dinner, but now I've changed to wheat cereal mixed with apple juice for lunch and either a fruit or veggie at dinner. The apple juice seems to help her stay more regular, but now with only one additional solid meal I have a harder time giving her a lot of variety. She eats well, though, and hasn't rejected any foods I've offered her. Oddly enough she prefers baby foods to anything else I offer. The first time I let her have some smooshed up "real" banana she made the most disgusted face! I've gotten the same face letting her try apple butter and mashed potato. But packaged baby food peas? No faces there! Silly kid.

Lydia is now nursing just 5 times a day. Her pediatrician said she may drop down to 4 times when we increase to 3 solid meals each day, but at this point I'm not sure how I'd want to schedule those. Presently she nurses first thing in the morning, around 11:00 (shortly before lunch), around 2:00, around 5:00 (shortly before dinner), and then before bed. I'm contemplating dropping the 2:00 feeding and working towards a structured 3 meals a day (nursing + solids) but we'll see. She doesn't exactly "ask" to be nursed in the afternoon... I just offer and she eats. So maybe she'd be just fine if I stopped offering. We'll see. Her doctor expected we'd move up to 3 meals a day around 9 months of age, so we have another month yet to see how things go. I've only recently been able to regularly not nurse her in the late evening (before I go to bed), so I don't want to rush any more meal changes.

When she isn't sleeping or eating, Lydia is a very happy baby playing with her toys. She's content to sit on the floor with toys to shake & chew on. I try to read her books occasionally, but she will either wiggle and squirm so much that I can't hold her and read, or she will insist on eating the book instead of listening to it. Pretty much the only thing that captivates her enough for her to actually sit still is her Praise Baby DVD. She loves that thing! She also enjoys rolling around on the floor. No crawling yet, but she does a good job of rolling herself around to get to the things she wants.

She still really enjoys being out and about. Every time I take her anywhere people are always commenting about what a happy baby she is. Lately it doesn't even matter if she is tired. She'll stay up longer and still be pleasant as long as she's got lots of new and interesting things to look at. This has certainly helped our schedule be a lot more flexible!

I can't believe my baby is going to be 8 months old in a few days. I say it all the time, but this really is going sooo fast!

Faith Like That

2009-10-14T14:17:00.003-04:00

This weekend while leaving church - Lydia strapped in the backseat of the car happily giggling at herself in the mirror - I found myself thinking about Abraham. I thought about the faith required to be willing to truly give it all to the Lord. My mind immediately recounted the story of Abraham's trek up the mountain to sacrifice his beloved son... tears streamed down my face before I had even pulled out of the church parking lot.

How could he do such a thing? I glanced at my precious daughter still laughing behind me and the tears came down faster. I'm sure that Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac just as much as I love Lydia... and I can't even begin to dream of giving her up for anything!

I think too often I take for granted the fact that I know the end of that story. I read about Abraham's calling to sacrifice Isaac, and the 3 day walk up the mountain, and I forget how Abraham's heart must have been absolutely crushed to bits when his son innocently asks, "Where is the lamb?" Abraham did not have the luxury of knowing the ending. He didn't know that God would ultimately spare Isaac's life. Every gut-wrenching step up that mountain required immense faith.

As I drove home from church remembering this story, I had to admit that I don't know that my faith is that strong. In fact, I had to admit that I've really been holding back... clinging to my family, utterly afraid that if I let go and give everything over to God He will ask me to do the unthinkable. Sometimes I feel as though it will take something huge in my life to really bring me back to the close relationship I desire with God, and because I'm so afraid that the huge thing would be harmful or painful to my family, I resist asking for it. Why do I struggle so much to just let go and trust that God will provide?

One of the verses in my Bible study for today stood out to me. Matthew 6:33-34: Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else...

I'm still not where I want to be. I'm still scared to death to truly place my entire life - my home, myself, my family - upon the altar of the Lord, trusting His will. But I'm really praying for strength in this area. I love my family more than anything else in this world, but they are God's first. And He loves them too. Abraham knew that and was able to trust that God had a perfect plan for his family. I want to have a faith like that.

An Update

2009-10-13T20:12:00.002-04:00

So I haven't blogged in awhile. Part of that is because we were on vacation and another part is because I just haven't felt like I've had anything blog-worthy to post. I guess there are the run of the mill details on our vacation and the recent opening of the CedarCreek Whitehouse campus (yay!), but I don't have much profound to say about them.

Vacation was fun. Nice to get away with my family and I'm thrilled Brent was able to come as well. We had a good time.

Lydia learned to clap recently and very much enjoys clapping throughout the day.

After lots and lots of hard work, the CedarCreek Whitehouse campus opened this past weekend with around 1800 people in attendance! I am amazed by what God has done in my church. We stand in awe.

Beyond all of that, life is just normal. Busy but normal. So I really don't have a lot to say on here. Sorry about that. If you've read this far into this lame post, my apologies for boring you. There is indeed stuff on my mind but nothing I wish to post publicly.

So with that, I will end this sad excuse for a blog post and go watch Biggest Loser with my hubby. :-P

Under Construction

2009-09-29T08:22:00.003-04:00

Part of the beauty (and frustration) of the internet is the ability to leave out the details. The author of a blog has the ability to choose exactly what is revealed to his/her readers and therefore the readers likely never get a real picture of who the author is and what his/her life is really like. They just see the snippets that are shared. There's nothing really wrong with that. Like I said, it's part of the beauty of the internet. We are able to share our lives with others without sharing our ENTIRE lives with others. But if we aren't careful, it can become easy to think that these snippets are all there is. Kinda like when we watch TV shows or movies and sometimes slip into thinking that that's what life is really supposed to be like.

I know I've done it before. Lots of times. Whether it's been through blogs or just with friends whom I don't see very often, I know I've had lots of times where I let myself slip into believing that these other people have the "perfect" marriage, family, life, etc. I swear they never fight or have bad days and their houses probably look spectacular and smell like roses all the time. Ha!

Anyway, my point is that these things probably aren't true. I'm seeing a very narrow piece of the whole of their lives. And the same is true of this blog. As the author of this blog, I do want to do my best to be real here. I've always been a heart-on-my-sleeve type of person. But, I also strive not to complain. I don't want my blog to be an outlet for ranting about life's frustrations... mainly because ultimately I know my life is pretty darn awesome and God has blessed me greatly. But to those of you out there who read this (however many or few of you there are), know that my life still has ups and downs. I post mostly about the good things... about fun vacations and how much I love my family. But my life is definitely not roses all the time. I fight, struggle, doubt, cry, and hurt at times too.

I've been struggling lately with a number of things, mostly related to a lack of discipline. It's been over 7 months now since my life felt routine and a lot of stuff is starting to suffer as a result. So last week I decided I was going to commit to some improvements.

Around the house: I'm at home practically all day every day. I decided that I need to start seeing my home as my job and get serious about keeping it presentable. I likely will never become a super neat-freak, but I do want to try to make more effort. It's a really satisfying feeling to have a clean house. So, I've divided up the chores and tasked myself with something each day of the week. For example, today is kitchen day and tomorrow I clean the carpets.

Spiritually: I hate to admit that this has been lacking but yeah... it has been. Majorly. But knowing the importance of spending time with God, and after our church's series on prayer, I knew I had to get more disciplined in this area. I've been spending Lydia's first nap of the day reading the Living It Out Bible study and journaling prayers. Have I immediately returned to feeling on fire for Christ? Nope. I wish it was that easy. I truly miss that fire. But this relationship, like any relationship, takes time and effort. I'm working on the first step right now... taking the time to invite God to work in my life again.

My marriage: Nope, I don't have a perfect marriage either. Told you my life isn't roses! Even with 5 years of experience under our belts, Brent and I still miss the mark a lot. After spending time praying about marriage, I had to laugh a little when my friend Kim blogged about how to like your husband again. God always has fun ways of communicating. In addition to working on following Kim's advice, I started reading through the book "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. I've read most of it before, but I wanted to examine it again. It's given me some new insights into what I need and what Brent needs from me. We had a great talk last weekend and I already feel like we're doing better. (Note: I don't mean to imply that we've been having serious marital problems, just that no marriage is perfect and ours is no exception to that.)

There are tons of other areas of my life that need improvement as well, but the above three are the ones I've been focusing on lately. One step at a time, right? I want to make the most of this life that I've been given. I am far from perfect and I make a LOT of mistakes. I'm just grateful for a loving family and a gracious God who are willing to be patient with me.

My sweetie

2009-09-27T22:30:00.003-04:00

It's late and I'm tired and I want to go to bed, but I have to take a second to just capture this memory before it is lost.

Tonight after dinner I cleaned Lydia up and put her on the living room floor so she could relax/roll/play a little bit before bedtime. She was in such a silly little mood and she kept laughing, so I got down on hands and knees with my face directly above her and we just had the best time smiling and laughing at eachother. Her entire face smiled with her big blue eyes fixed on mine just soaking in all of the fun. Everything I said or did was hilarious and she'd just go crazy laughing and grabbing at my face. I loved it!

I guess what was so special was the fact that she was so fixated on me. Lydia is an incredibly happy baby most of the time. I get the joy of hearing her laugh and squeal with delight a million times a day it seems. But usually she is quite easily distracted. It was awesome to have that moment where we were truly enjoying one another. No toys, no music, just mommy and baby having fun making eachother laugh.

I love my life. :-)

Where's the volume on this thing?

2009-09-23T08:25:00.003-04:00

My dear sweet Lydia has always been a noise maker. So it's certainly not surprising to hear all kinds of things coming out of her all day long. But lately one of her favorite things to do is SCREAM. And let me tell you, she can be loud! We took her to a restaurant last night and let her play with a straw. This, of course, was the best toy ever and required many many joyous screams. Brent was noticeably embarrassed (I mostly found it cute... what mom wouldn't?), so the straw was soon taken away.

Other fun noises in Lydia's repertoire have been growls, lots and lots of raspberries, and my favorites: babbling "mamama" and "dadada." And beyond straws at restaurants, kitchen items have also become popular toys. Lydia's favorite currently is a spatula, though she also got a kick out of holding a tupperware container to her face and babbling into it. Her real toys are no longer interesting. She will ALWAYS choose something on my desk or an item offered from the kitchen over the bright, soft, jingly, musical, or otherwise "cool" baby toys.

She is growing increasingly intelligent. It so fun to watch her learn! She's quite good at pulling on blankets to move toys closer to her. I even watched her figure out that she could get a balloon in her hands by pulling on the ribbon to make it come down. Is she supposed to be this smart already?

People keep commenting that we're going to see teeth soon. But people have been telling me that for 3 or 4 months... and ya know what? We got nothin. Lydia gnaws on everything in sight, but we still haven't seen any pearly whites making their debut. I'm fine with them waiting awhile to show up. I don't look forward to getting bit while nursing, and I kind of enjoy not having to be TOO worried about stuff she's chewing on knowing that she can't easily bite pieces off yet.

In the realm of feeding, we're working on a few changes these days. As of yesterday I'm starting to give her solids twice a day instead of once and I am now attempting to drop her late night nursing (the 10:30 one). She did pretty well yesterday and last night. She had pears at lunchtime and carrots at dinner (while we were at Red Lobster... that made life interesting!). Bedtime feeding was around 7:45 and she slept until 5:30 this morning at which point I went in and found her crying on her belly. So I'm not sure if she woke up due to hunger or because she was on her tummy and too tired to roll back over.

It makes me a little sad to be decreasing nursing times. I love nursing Lydia and I know how healthy it has been for her, but I also know that I have to allow her to grow up. At some point she will need to adjust to "real" food and it has always been my intention to wean her at a year old. So, it's only a matter of time before this will come to an end. One of many phases that I will see come and go throughout her life.

Going to try to take some 7 month pictures of her today. Keep an eye on Facebook and Shutterfly to see them!

I love camping in the Fall!

2009-09-18T10:05:00.006-04:00

Well, except for the cold nights! While I found myself nice and toasty warm inside my sleeping bag, I also found myself constantly worried about my baby girl in her Pack N Play on the other side of the tent. But all in all, it was a great trip!

The weather was absolutely perfect camping weather. Sunny, light breeze, highs around 75 degrees. Perfect. Lydia had so much fun being outside and getting attention from her cousins. I knew she'd love it.

Friday night Lydia decided that bedtime was really just naptime and woke up crying shortly after going down. She didn't want to miss the campfire!

She slept okay that night (once finally back in bed), so I guess she stayed warm enough. But when she did get up in the morning, her little hands were just FREEZING! I wish I could have covered them up, but since she sucks her thumb I know she'd rather have cold hands than not have them at all.

Saturday was all about relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. We sat around the fire in the morning until it warmed up, had our typical breakfast of eggs & bacon, and spent the afternoon napping, playing, chatting, and snacking. Exactly the way a camping trip is supposed to be! Naps were a little difficult for Lydia though. By mid-afternoon the inside of the tent was SO hot. Even in just a onesie she was sweating like crazy. I realized that a tent nap was not going to happen, but my tired baby really needed to rest. So... out came the Pack N Play. By the time I got it out and set up, Lydia had caught a second wind and it took her another hour before she finally fell asleep. There was just far too much stuff to look at outside!

Just as a random side note, there was a large group of Amish people camping a couple sites down from us. Made for interesting people-watching opportunities!

Saturday night we had an interesting experience around the campfire. Lydia was already in bed and my sister-in-law Erin was heading to the bathroom with her 3 girls to get them ready to go to sleep when she saw a raccoon! Right by our picnic tables! Trying not to alarm the girls, they moved on to the bathroom. Meanwhile, myself, my dad, my mom, Brent, and my brother all tried to figure out what we were going to do with this cute-but-don't-want-it-around-camp pest. The men tried to scare it away but it would just run back up the tree then eventually creep back down. It found the Trix under the table that had spilled that morning and didn't seem too bothered by our presence as it chowed down.

After a few attempts, we thought it was gone. They'd scared it off and we watched it run across the other campsites (right towards the Amish!). Back to enjoying the campfire we went. Later Brent is melting the extra marshmallow goo off of the roasting forks... he pulls them out and they are red hot. Someone cracks a joke about him getting the raccoon with the red hot pokers... we laugh... Brent turns around... and there is the stinkin raccoon on top of our picnic table! At this point Brent grabs a log from our firewood pile and proceeds to whack the raccoon. It runs off, ducks into a drain pipe, and Dad & Brent blocked the pipe with a big log and put stakes around it so it can't move. That was the last we saw of the raccoon.

(For all those concerned about it, I'm sure the 'coon was fine... we fed it before pinning it in a hole and removed the log in the morning... chances are it managed to get out the other side of the pipe and just stayed away from us point forward)

Saturday night was cold yet again, so again I worried that my sweet Lydia would be chilly. She did fine until around 6 or 6:30. At that point I got her out of her PnP and snuggled her in with me in my sleeping bag. I nursed her there while warming her up and she fell asleep all bundled up next to me. I didn't go back to sleep because I was making sure my baby didn't get smothered in the thick sleeping bag... and because I was fully enjoying having my sleeping baby snuggled up next to me. For safety reasons I do not co-sleep with Lydia. Never have. And I don't regret that decision. But that morning I really did love having her bundled up in my arms while she slept. :)

The rest of the trip was pretty typical. Breakfast Sunday morning followed by tearing down the camp & heading to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch.

I'm so glad Lydia is already getting the chance to go places and have different experiences. We've already been camping twice and spent a week at the beach... and in a couple more weeks we're heading to Gatlinburg! Lydia loves travelling and she does it so well! I have a feeling that she will keep me on the move as she gets older!

Eek!

2009-09-14T17:27:00.003-04:00

Crazy busy week with family things, MOPS, and trying to get the CedarCreek website ready for launch. With any luck I'll find some time to blog about the camping trip between work, Lydia, and the other activities!

Pictures are up on Facebook & Shutterfly.

Great day!

2009-09-10T16:44:00.003-04:00

I am in the BEST mood today. Lydia has been an absolute delight all day... smiling, laughing, just being a super happy girl. She was totally cracking up when we were in her room and I kept exclaiming "MMMMMM...MAMA!" She played happily while I ran about doing laundry and packing for our weekend. Another thing that made her giggle: I was counting out diapers for the weekend and asked her if 15 would be enough. "That should be plenty, right baby girl?" She promptly responded by giggling. Should I be worried? ;-)

The weather today is FABULOUS. Lydia and I walked out to get the mail and I decided it was too nice out to waste. So we went in, grabbed a picnic blanket, some toys, and the book I'm reading and set up camp on the porch. Lydia played and watched the kids walking by on their way home from school while I got a chance to finish the chapter I was reading in my book.

Another reason for my good mood: we are going camping tomorrow!! I love camping. It's one of my favorite family activities and fondest childhood memories. My parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces head north from Cinci... Brent, Lydia, and I head south from Toledo... and we meet roughly in the middle for a camping extravaganza! (Perhaps I exaggerate, but the sentence sounded better that way). The weather for the weekend is also supposed to be FABULOUS, so it should be an awesome time. Just praying that it doesn't get too cold for us at night... mostly for Lydia. Low temps are supposed to get down to lower 50's and we'll be in a tent. I'm bringing multiple layers to bundle up my baby, so she should be set. Assuming she stays warm enough at night, I know Lydia is going to have so much fun. She's such an outdoors girl and a social butterfly. Spending the weekend outside with her cousins is going to be the best!

Lots of great things to look forward to. Camping this weekend, family dinner with the in-laws on Monday, and MOPS starting on Tuesday. Life is grand!

New Developments

2009-09-09T08:41:00.004-04:00

A few new developments in the life of Lydia:

- She is totally into fake coughing to get attention.

- She is now all about rolling across the room, but only to her one side. She is not an ambi-turner.

- She LOVES being chased. So much so that she laughs hysterically even when we aren't intentionally chasing her... like when Brent carries her up the stairs for bed and I am following behind them.

- She eats socks. Funniest thing lately was when we were in the car and I turned around to see that she had pulled off her sock and had it dangling from her mouth. No hands involved, just a sock stuffed in her mouth. Silly girl!

Separation Anxiety?

2009-09-03T20:29:00.005-04:00

Lydia is currently in her crib crying. I have been running in and out of her room for over an hour now. Every time I comfort her, calm her down, tell her it's time for night-night, and leave. As soon as I am out of sight, the screams begin again. This last time I cuddled her a bunch, then put her in her crib and stood to the side. She smiled and babbled to me, and happily began to suck her thumb (a typical bedtime ritual). But again, as soon as I left it was as if something was ripping her leg off.

*sigh*

She just quieted down again. I'm hoping she's finally going to sleep. I've heard that around 6 months it is very common for separation anxiety to kick in and it is also common for this to disrupt nighttimes that are typically without issue. Oy. I had hoped we were past the need to cry it out. If this was a one-time thing I'd think less of it... but she was doing the same thing last night too. If she does it again tomorrow, I'm going to be in trouble. Brent and I are supposed to go on a date to a Mudhens game tomorrow night after Lydia goes to bed. Bad timing, sweet daughter! :-P

Just another day in the life of this mom... dealing with the ever changing phases of my growing girl.

Still hearing silence over the monitor. Maybe victory at last!

Edit:

It's 9:20 now... about 2 hours since bedtime began and Lydia is completely asleep. It really did end up being a sweet night though, despite the struggle. My earlier proclamation of victory was premature and Lydia began crying again not too long after I wrote that. So again I went back up to her room to pick her up and calm her down. This time I decided to sit down with her in the rocker and see if I could manage to get her to sleep.

Lydia has not fallen asleep in my arms in a long time, so I didn't expect much. I just wanted to give her some snuggle time and see if I could at least get her to go back to sucking her thumb and relaxing. We sat there snuggling in the dim, quiet room, just rocking and staring at eachother. Lydia would gaze at me with a look of complete wonder, then she would reach up and touch my mouth and nose. She'd then pull her hand back and suck her thumb for awhile, still staring, before reaching up again and repeating the process. I couldn't get over how amazed she looked. It was as if she was seeing my face for the first time ever and was trying to take in all of the details.

Eventually she went back to sucking her thumb and her eyelids started to get heavier. I watched her as each blink got ever so slightly longer. Her thumb in her mouth and her fingers gently gripping the zipper of my sweatshirt, she finally drifted off to sleep. We stayed snuggled up in the rocker until her little body went completely limp. Ever so gently I stood up and slipped her back into the crib.

What a beautiful night it turned out to be. :)

No, this isn't something I intend to make a habit of. I'm still a firm believer that it is best for the whole family for her to be able to put herself to sleep. But tonight I didn't mind bending the rules. Just for one night. Sometimes it takes just a little bit of rule bending to form the best of memories.

Caution - Rant Ahead

2009-09-02T09:40:00.003-04:00

In my last post I mentioned how every mother settles into their own method based on their unique lives & children. I said that most parenting books probably only 100% worked for the mothers that wrote them.

With that in mind, let me say how much I hate hate hate HATE reading stuff from people who accuse mothers of being unloving if they do things a certain way. I hate it! Very few things that I read can get me fired up, but know-it-all folks who act like it is their way or the highway can definitely set me off. Come on people, let's be real here. Different things work for different people and just because they don't agree with YOUR way of doing things does not make them cruel, cold, and heartless!

The "cry it out" way of handling a baby and sleeping has been one of the big subjects where I've seen this annoying trend. Some people who oppose this idea practically paint a picture of parents who are sitting around laughing and eating bon-bons while their child lies alone - cold, crying, in desperate need, eventually giving up on the world and falling asleep in pure exhaustion. Give me a break!! Seriously. Can't we all just acknowledge that 99.9% of parents out there LOVE their children and make choices based on that great love for their child? Did I let Lydia cry it out? Yep. Did I make absolutely certain that she was warm, changed, fed, and otherwise comfortable before I did so? Of course! I also was very careful to assess the situation. If she was happy as a clam and then started screaming the instant I put her in her crib, I knew that she was only reacting that way because she did not want to sleep. Despite being tired, she wanted to fight it and stay up and play. She was reflecting her WANTS, not her NEEDS. She needed sleep.

I also never ever just left her there crying for hours upon hours (though sometimes 5 minutes felt like 5 hours to me!). I checked on her frequently, went in to pat her on the back and help her to calm down, and always made sure I was assessing the situation to know if she truly needed something. And no, she did not lay there screaming until she, exhausted, gave up on the world and resigned that life was cruel. She eventually would quiet down, still awake, and then peacefully drift off to sleep.

Anyway, this post is not supposed to be about my feelings on crying it out. It's supposed to be about my feelings on "to each his own" and the fact that too many people don't embrace that mantra when it comes to parenting. I chose not to co-sleep because I felt it could be dangerous and out of love didn't want to endanger my child. Others choose, out of love, TO co-sleep because they feel it is the nurturing thing to do. Am I appalled by their choice? Do I go telling them how awful they are or how I feel they could endanger their babies? Nope. Because I know they are only making that choice because they feel it is the most loving choice for their family. And I respect that. In the same way, I expect respect from other moms who may not choose to do things my way. I love my baby girl more words can express, please stop painting me as cruel for making the choices I feel are best for MY family.

I remember shortly after Lydia was born looking at an article about co-sleeping vs crying it out. The author set it up as if he was going to explore the pros and cons of each. Yay! Something that acknowledges that both sides have risks and benefits... at least so I thought. I got down to the lists of pros and cons and they read like this: "The benefits of co-sleeping; The so-called risks of co-sleeping... The so-called benefits of cry it out; The risks of cry it out"

SO-CALLED? I immediately wrote the article off as biased and closed it right then and there. I get so tired of know-it-alls. Can't we all just acknowledge that no one knows everything and that all things come with pros and cons? And for the love of God let's realize that, besides the random few psychos out there, every mother wants the absolute best for her children and makes her choices based on love, not cruelty.

I could go on and on about other examples of this. Spanking vs not spanking is another of those hot topics. But the discussion is pretty much the same as above. Bottom line: If I choose to spank, it will be a choice I am making because I love my children & want the best for them. If I choose not to spank, it will also be because I love my children & want the best for them. And I personally choose to acknowledge that other moms make their choices for the same reasons... and I will respect their choices, even if they are different from my own. All I ask is for the same respect in return.

Is it really September already?

2009-09-01T09:03:00.004-04:00

Spring and Summer always seem to disappear too quickly. It seems like I just busted out the shorts and sandals, now here I am wearing jeans & sweatshirts with the heat on in the house! Granted, it's unusually cold here right now. The last few days in August had lows in the 40's!

A year ago right now I was preggers in Gatlinburg with my family. Is it weird that I've spent practically this entire year constantly thinking about what I was doing at that time last year? I'm going to assume it is okay and that it does NOT mean I am crazy because hey, 2008 was a big year for me! But anyway, I recall how stressed out I was at this point last year. I was 15 weeks pregnant and still experiencing a lot of spotting. After a huge scare at 12 weeks, I knew that things were fine but I was beyond ready to feel like I was having a "normal" pregnancy. But all of that stressing aside, I was enjoying the experience. I made my first maternity clothing purchases that week in Gatlinburg and I started feeling like I was really showing. Here's a picture of me from September 1st last year... walking in Gatlinburg after dinner at Calhoun's.

Hmm... I really didn't intend this post to be all about reminiscing. And now Lydia is waking up from her nap so I can't really dive into much more now. :P

In short, what I wanted to blog about is the excitement of events to come. Next weekend (the 12th/13th) we will be embarking on another camping adventure. I did enjoy camping with Lydia last time and am looking forward to it again. Just hoping it won't be too cold! And of course, I always love getting to see my family. Camping has always been one of our favorite family activities.

Then at the beginning of October, we're off to Gatlinburg again! Another of my family's favorite locations. Unfortunately Brent is so busy with work and the upcoming launch of our church's Whitehouse campus that there's a possibility he won't be coming with us. This would make me very sad. :( Please pray that everything will get done that needs to get done to allow him to go on vacation. While I'll have my parents with me, it'd be nice to have my husband too!

What I Have Learned So Far

2009-08-31T08:55:00.003-04:00

Parenting is one of those things that no amount of instructional books can fully prepare you for. I babysat a lot growing up. I knew quite a bit about babies and I read a lot before Lydia's arrival. I felt like I had a plan in place and was ready to go. Perfect, right? Well of course I bring my sweet, innocent little bundle home and she decides that she doesn't like the plan. She has her own plan. And part of that plan is to change the plan as soon as I think I've figured out what the plan is.

But despite all of that, I do feel like I have learned a lot as a parent just through my experiences thus far. I've battled through colds, ear infections, sleep training, traveling with an infant, learning to nurse, learning to spoon feed, treating dry skin & diaper rash, and cleaning up whatever liquid of the day is spewing out of my child. I feel like a mom. :) When I first started this mommy gig, I was so terrified of messing up. It was as if some part of me truly believed that I would kill my baby (or at the least scar her for life) if I didn't do things the "right" way. A billion opinions are out there and if you aren't careful, you'll find some that practically imply that you WILL greatly mess up your child if you don't do things THEIR way.

Well I did things MY way and Lydia and I are still here. I suppose I don't really know yet if I've scarred her for life, but the constant smiles and giggles give me pretty good indication that she's doing fine. This morning I tried to think back on how I've done things the past 6 months. Is there anything I would change? They say that the first child is your practice kid and that you know better ways to do things with subsequent children. So, have I learned anything in retrospect that I'll want to change for kid #2? Honestly, I can't say that I have. Partially because I am not so naive as to think that kid #2 will be exactly like Lydia. Things that have worked with her may not work with #2... and things that I could not for the life of me get Lydia to do, #2 may fall beautifully into compliance. Or maybe I'm just tooting my own horn and think I managed to do things so perfectly with my "practice" child that I'll just do it again with the next. Ha!

I suppose my current mindset is just evidence of how being a mom has changed me. I went into it with all sorts of ideas and plans, a belief that if I followed a certain set of guidelines my baby would be happy and healthy... and so would I! But as it has turned out the #1 thing I have learned about being a mom is that you have to roll with the punches. You can read up on the methods and guidelines, but you will ultimately learn to pick and choose little bits of that knowledge to piece together methods that are unique to you and your family. I think it's probably pretty rare to find a mom who followed any textbook method to a T and had it work out (except maybe the author of the textbook!).

So is there really nothing about my "method" that I think I'll change next time around? Well... maybe a few adjustments to diaper changing to avoid flying poop splatter on the wall, or some choices of medications that ultimately weren't necessary, or possibly a bit more bottle use so that #2 doesn't decide that bottles are for sissies... but you know what? I'm not making any plans just yet. ;)

My sweet sweet 6 month old...

2009-08-25T12:56:00.003-04:00

Starting the post off with a few of my favorite pictures from Lydia's 6 month "session"...

(More pics can be found on Facebook... and more still on Shutterfly...)

Isn't she just growing up so beautifully??? I love her! It's hard to believe that we are halfway through her first year already. Halfway through breastfeeding, halfway to her first cake, halfway to her first party, etc. Sometimes it's like she was just born yesterday, but other times like life before her was ages ago. She is at such a fun age right now... and probably the easiest stage (for me) of her little life so far! She sits up so well now that she is content to sit on the floor and play with whatever toys are available around her. I was able to vacuum the entire house the other day while she sat in her room playing (of course I still kept my eye on her). It's nice that she isn't mobile yet. A lot easier for me for sure!

There are certainly a lot of things I'm starting to miss already about the days gone by... and also a lot of things that I'm really really looking forward to in the future (like the words, "Mommy, I love you!")... but I'm mostly trying to focus on how much I enjoy who she is right now. My mom continues to remind me of the phrase "this too shall pass" ... whether good or bad, every bit of it will pass. So I want to enjoy every second before it's too late!

Alright, in my last post I promised I'd post her 6 month stats... so here they are:

Weight: 16lb 9oz (60%ile)
Height: 26" (50%ile)
Head: 17" (75%ile)

Yep... still got a big noggin. ;-) She didn't weigh as much as I'd expected. She's been riding along the 75%ile curve most of her life, so I anticipated her being 17lb by now... but it's nothing at all to worry about. The doctor said she looks fantastic and is doing really well developmentally. We talked a lot about solid foods and I'm feeling a lot less stressed out about them. I went out and bought a bunch more baby food varieties and we are slowly trying them out. Lydia has had prunes and sweet potatoes, and we just tried bananas today. She made a face at the new taste, but got used to it and kept eating. I'm enjoying taking things slowly. We're introducing one new thing every 3 or 4 days and only doing solids once a day. She nurses before the solids so she doesn't eat much. Just enough to practice a little and learn some new flavors & textures. I still think she's more excited about the spoon than she is the food that's on it... it's like a cool new toy to chew on!

Lydia continues to be the happiest baby I know. She is so easy to please and will just laugh and laugh and laugh at the smallest things. She thinks trips to the store are the best thing ever and will just squeal with delight the whole time we walk around. Who needs fancy places like the zoo or aquarium when we have Walmart to explore! Hahaha. Now that she is sitting up so well (and getting so heavy!) I bought a shopping cart cover for her and next trip we're going to try letting her sit in the cart. She's also going to move up to sitting in the "big tub" at bath time. During her last bath in the infant tub she discovered she is long enough now to stretch her legs out against the end of the tub and arch her back like she's trying to stand up. She kept doing it over and over and would hurt her back on the edge of the seat every time and start crying. I can't have a baby trying to climb out of her tub and hurting herself, so we bought a no-slip bath mat and will try the big tub for bathtime tomorrow.

The list of items she is outgrowing keeps getting longer and longer! Just this week I've put away clothes, the Bumbo, the infant tub, and her hanging toy bar. Her swing will likely be on that list soon too (she's getting to the point of trying to climb out of it).

Maybe I just need to hurry up and have another one so I don't have to keep putting things away... hahaha!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Lydia!

2009-08-22T15:51:00.005-04:00

1 week old:
6 months old:

It is absolutely insane how much Lydia has grown in the past 6 months! I treasure every last second of it. We have her next doctor checkup on Monday, so I will post again then with all of her new stats... plus new 6 month pictures!

6 months ago right now, I was mere minutes away from setting eyes on my sweet girl for the first time. Happy 1/2 birthday, baby love. You are such an amazing blessing!

Beach Vacation!

2009-08-14T12:42:00.004-04:00

The term "vacation" takes on a strikingly different meaning when toting along a 5 month old baby. Roughly translated, "vacation" = "a whole lot of work in unfamiliar territory." Feeding her, changing her, bathing her... they all had to be figured out within the confines of a rented condo that we shared with two other couples (friends of ours from church). Every outing required extra attention to what gear was required, what clothing Lydia should wear, if she needed sunscreen, and would she make it without a lack-of-nap meltdown.

We ventured to the beach 3 times with the baby, and once to the pool. Each time we had to very strategically plan out exactly what we could squeeze in during the approximately 2 hours we had between naps (tired Lydia = very very cranky Lydia). The typical scenario was this: Lydia would wake up, eat, get a bathing suit on, and get sunscreened. We would gather all of the gear together (stroller, sun tent, bumbo, beach towels, body boards, toys for Lydia), figure out how to manage to carry it, and make the quick walk to the beach... thankfully just across the street from our condo! We'd then spend the first 15 minutes at the beach finding a spot and setting all of the junk up. Brent and I would take turns attempting to keep Lydia occupied and sand-free (we didn't particularly want her to eat it) while the other one would spend a little time in the ocean. Riding waves alone is far less entertaining than doing so together.

After maybe 30-45 minutes at the beach, Lydia would be getting very bored and nearing the cranky tired meltdown stage. There's only so much you can do to entertain her while keeping her shaded. So we'd pack it all up, drag things (wet & sandy) back to the condo, and attempt to get ourselves and the baby rinsed off and decently clean before putting her down for a nap.

A lot of work for not a lot of time out.

This was a stark contrast to our kid-free friends who joined us on the trip. They enjoyed the luxuries of coming and going as they pleased... staying out late, sleeping in, spending hours on the beach or at the pool. That is not our life anymore!

But seriously, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my baby girl and we really did have fun taking her on vacation. Yes, it was a lot of work, but it is an experience we will never forget. She liked sitting out on the balcony with me, feeling the breeze and watching the ocean. We took her out to eat with us and discovered she loves sucking on lemons. She enjoyed the pool and the beach, even though our time at each was minimal. And we got to hang out with Brent's old friend Tara and her 3 month old baby, Lucy. Lydia and Lucy were immediate friends!

We also got to see how Lydia could do on long car rides. She did great! On the way down we drove through the night, so she slept most of it (yay!). When we came back it was during the day, so she was awake more but was generally content to sit in her carseat and chew on her toys. She wasn't a big fan of being nursed in the car and/or under the nursing cover, but we made due and all got home safe and sound... even took a different route home so we could spend the night at my parent's house!

All in all it was a lovely vacation. Not sure I'd suggest others do the same with such a young baby (especially one that cat-naps like Lydia does), but certainly an experience worth remembering.

In other Lydia news...
My baby girl is now what I would consider to be an "independent sitter." I have been sitting her on the floor today with no pillows or other items to support her and she will stay there playing for very long periods of time. She sat by herself the entire time I prepared and ate my lunch, and while I worked on organizing her clothes. Speaking of clothes, she's moving up to her 6-9 / 9 month clothing now. I held up a 9 month sleeper and thought to myself, "This looks huge! Surely it won't fit her, at least not very well..." But yep. It fit. Quite well actually. Weren't her clothes all of 20 inches long just yesterday???

She is growing and changing so quickly these days. I made my first official venture into the baby food aisle a couple of days ago and made our first purchases. I grabbed one each of the "1st foods" for us to try out. This past Monday I started getting "serious" about solid foods for Lydia. The entire time we were on vacation she was extremely interested in watching us eat and kept grabbing for things on the table. So I decided she might be ready to give it another try. Indeed she was! I mixed up some cereal on Monday and she actually seemed to enjoy eating it. So I've continued giving her cereal once or twice a day all week. I think it plugged her up, though, because today (Friday) was the first time she pooped since I started doing the cereal daily. I'm going to start introducing other foods soon and we may decide to pass on the cereal. It's not very nutritious anyway.

I'm trying really hard to be excited about all of these changes. Typically I'm not a big fan of change. I like structure and routine, so once something becomes routine I don't like to have it shaken up. I'm entering new and unfamiliar territories which always makes me feel unsure and incapable. But, I have to remember that I am in no way blazing new trails. Millions of moms have gone before me and they all managed to figure out how to get through the changes. So here we go... onward!

Calling all housewives!

2009-08-12T11:44:00.003-04:00

Alright, so I admit I am a total rookie housewife. I'm in no way a clean freak and the house primarily gets cleaned when it needs to be (ie, when company is coming). When it was just me and Brent, this wasn't a huge deal. We aren't very messy people.

Enter baby.

Things got a whole lot messier when our sweet little bundle came home... and my desire to have things clean also got a whole lot stronger! But alas, I'm still a rookie and feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. So I'm asking for your help! What are some of your favorite cleaning products? What are some good things for cleaning up those baby messes (wiping off highchairs, cleaning spit-up off the carpet/pillows/everything, surface cleaning the cloth toys that baby insists on stuffing in her mouth all the time, etc)? What do you use to disinfect toys that were, for example, thrown in the sand at the beach?

Cleaning products make me so nervous because I want to make sure anything I use on Lydia's toys or eating surfaces are safe.

Then of course there are bathrooms, floors, a kitchen, and more to be cleaned. So any tips you fellow housewives can pass on would be super appreciated!

New layout!

2009-07-31T08:43:00.002-04:00

Oooo... my blog is all pretty now! :)

This is thanks to the wonderful and talented Kim Neyer! I started following Kim's blog back when we were both pregnant with our little ones and I'm so glad that I did. She is awesome! If you get the chance, check out her blog... you won't regret it! Kim is not only very talented with computer graphics, she's also a fantastic writer. She even writes the pregnancy blogs for Families.com! And as if that weren't enough, she's also a super crafty lady with some cool things available for purchase on etsy. I tell ya... Kim is one impressive chica!

Thanks again, Kim, for the awesome layout! I love it!