New blog

Clearly, this blog isn't working for me. I haven't updated in two months - geez! I have, however, come up with a new concept for a blog, so I am moving over there. I am going to be blogging about being the mom to boys at Raising Little Men. I hope to write about the adventures we have, the trials and tribulations, and maybe where to find cute boy clothes (is there such a place?). I hope to see you there!

Lunchtime fun

Well, I shouldn't say lunchtime, but rather mid-day... all of this happened in the span of about 30 minutes.

1.) While I was making lunch, B and E went into the guest room/office and decided the return address labels are fun stickers and used them on their bellies.

2.) Apparently going on the tangent of the address labels, the boys were orally writing letters to all sorts of people as they ate lunch. Here are a few I can remember...

Dear Aunt Andi, you have a lot of fun toys in your room. Please keep them so I can play with them the next time I come over.

Dear Gramma Rose, have a fun time at your birthday party at Papa John and your house.

Dear Santa, have fun on Christmas. Don't forget your sleigh.

3.) For a special treat after lunch, I gave the boys some of the monkey bread I had left from a brunch this morning. B didn't eat all of his, and upon seeing this, E said, "I better eat this."

4.) As I was finishing up cleaning up lunch, Grandma Jane called. The boys went to play downstairs as I talked to her. Pretty soon, E came upstairs with his scissors. Seeing the scissors, I got a bit worried, and with good reason. I asked him what he was doing. He said something like, "B and I are cutting some of our hair because it is pretty long." After having a heart attack, I ran downstairs to find both of them had cut random chunks of hair off of the top of their heads.

5.) I regain composure after the hair-cutting incident. E is now in the bathroom with the door closed. I figure he is going potty (he is on this kick now about needing privacy), so I knocked to check on him. When he didn't answer, I opened the door to find him putting on my make-up, his face full of blush and lipstick. Unfortunately, I cleaned him up too fast to get a picture of that one!

Ahhh... what a morning! :)

Photo Friday: Map Readers

During our travels this spring, my twins discovered a love of map reading. Here was the first time they fell in love - at a map at Sea World, San Antonio.

Find more Photo Friday travel photos here.

Guest Post on Raising Peanuts

Donielle over at Raising Peanuts is having a series of guest posts titled, "Welcome to My Nursery." I have a guest post there today highlighting Z's nursery. Check it out at http://www.raisingpeanuts.com/2008/12/peek-into-saras-nursery.html.

My Work

"I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly realized that my interruptions were my work." ~ Henri Nouwen

Just saw this great quote on a post over at 5 Minutes for Parenting. Love it. I feel like I found it exactly when I needed it. The boys have all been giving me a run for my money this week, especially E, who is looking for attention by hitting his brother. We are working on sticker charts, but E has yet to earn a sticker in spite of the fact that he is incredibly upset each time B gets one and he doesn't. But I digress... great quote, one I am going to have to post in giant letters all over my bathroom mirror to keep me grounded each morning.

Wordless Wednesday - Post-Thanksgiving Fun

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at http://5minutesformom.com

New clothes for baby

In honor of this afternoon's Bears/Packers game...

NOOOO! I can't believe you would do this to me!

Now, I feel much, much better.

Thanks to the J family for sending along the Packers outfit to add to our cloth diaper stash. :)

Photo Friday: Big Sur, Giant Tree

This is my first foray into the Delicious Baby Photo Friday. Here goes...

This picture was taken this past March in Big Sur, California. Our stop here was part of our family trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. B & E were really excited to actually be able to go inside a tree! To me, this picture really represents one part of the wide spectrum of environments we saw in California, which was everything from the hills and cable cars of San Francisco to the heat and desert atmosphere of Desert Springs.

Wordless Wednesday - Celebrating Fall

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at http://5minutesformom.com

Free photo book

Just saw on Twitter that Snapfish is offering a free 8x11" photo book as a deal stemming from an Oprah show on organization. The book is normally $29.95, so this is quite a deal in spite of the fact that you have to pay postage ($6.99).

The catch is that you have to follow the link to request the credit to your new or existing Snapfish account by Friday, November 14th, and place the order by 11:59pm PT on Sunday, November 16th. You can find the deal at http://www2.snapfish.com/info18.

Enjoy!

Conflicted

I have been feeling pretty conflicted lately, out of my groove... aimless.

I have so many thoughts swirling in my head questioning what I really want to do with my time and my life. Where do I want to head? What is the plan supposed to be?

I hate being aimless.

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I am a planner. My friends make fun of me for keeping track of the calendar in my head. I have this crazy need to know what direction I am headed. A lot of that was broken when I had twins and then seven months later moved to a new state so my husband could go to business school full time. We didn't know until January what school he would be at in August, then we didn't know until the next February where we would be for his summer internship in June. Luckily, he got a full time job offer from that internship, so we knew where we would be moving this past April six months early.

Anyway, I digress...

Right now I feel like I don't know what I am supposed to be doing with my life. I am a teacher by training, with a bachelor degree in elementary education and a masters in administration and supervision. Right now, my plan is definitely to go back to teaching, but not for another five years or so, when my baby is in kindergarten.

So what do I do until then?

I hope no one takes this the wrong way when I say that I am not good at being a stay-at-home mom. Cooking, cleaning... none of it gives me any kind of feeling of pride or accomplishment. I know that I need to find something to do that is just for me. When the opportunity to blog at Polliwogged arrived, I jumped at it, and I have definitely been enjoying it. I am slowly but surely learning about the social media world and the circles of mom bloggers - it is way bigger than I ever anticipated. But is this what I want to do?

I have so many ideas in my head about things I could do. I could concentrate on blogging and writing. But what should the aim of my blog be? I am fairly clueless right now, although I have tons of ideas. I also have thought of starting my own business, but that seems so overwhelming right now. I love being able to be at home with my kids, so something I could do from home would be nice, but where do I begin?

Sorry for rambling, but I just have all of these scattered thoughts in my head and I really don't know where to turn with them. I am all discombobulated, distracted from my life.

I am conflicted.

Congratulations to the United States of America

I know this has been written about a million times this week, but my uncle wrote some sentiments after the election that I thought were spot-on. I am posting them here.

***************

I am proud to be an American today. I am proud that this nation could rise above its past and elect a person of color to the presidency of the United States; I am proud this nation has soundly rejected the mean-spiritness of the last eight years; I am proud that my countrymen still believe in the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's second inaugural address, and Martin Luther King, Jr's 'I have a dream' speech. I am proud we have rejected the fortress mentality and brutalism of the out-going Administration. I am proud we will inaugurate on January 20th of the coming year a man who, like John Kennedy, calls us to stretch ourselves, calls us to believe that 'yes, we can.' Yes, we can embrace all our citizens and give them health care protection; yes,we can find ways to address the increase in poverty of the last eight years; yes, we are ready to face the grave crisis of our environment and difficult changes in our way of life we must make in order to guarantee life for future generations. Yes, we can find a way out of the quagmire of Iraq; yes, we can respect the lives of innocent people in other countries in the pursuit of those who would harm us; yes, we can reject the immoral justifications of torture and other indignities.

President-elect Obama faces a formidable task. Let us pray he will speak truth to the American people as promised in Grant Park. Let him have the courage to speak the truth, no matter how challenging the message may be. Let us have the strength and courage to engage with him in the great and exciting dialog we are entering upon. And Lord, please protect our soon-to-be president, his family, and all those around him.

SitterCity Giveaway on "Just a Mom's Take On Things"

Deb over at "Just a Mom's Take On Things" has a great giveaway going on right now - a membership to Sittercity for full year! You can check it out at http://tinyurl.com/6ggvbj.

For those of you who don't know about Sittercity, it is an online resource of childcare providers in your area (babysitters, au pairs, nannies, etc.) Each sitter has to be 17 or older and they are given background checks. The number of care providers in my area is astounding; there are 506 non-smoking babysitters with their own transportation within 5 miles of my zip code!

With a site like Sittercity, my husband and I might actually get out of the house. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this giveaway!

Wordless Wednesday

Polliwogged Posts

I have been able to get some great posts on Polliwogged recently, so I wanted to link them up here. I am also working on a review of the new Medela FreeStyle Pump. Keep an eye out for that - it's awesome!

The Key to Infant Communication? I'll Keep Looking. - A review of Dunstan Baby Language DVDs

Baby Gifts Moms Will Thank You For

Choosing a Baby Carrier - How to Decide Which is Right for You

American Academy of Pediatrics Releases New Vitamin D Guidelines

You Sure Have Your Hands Full!

This is the single most irritating comment that I get as a mom when I am out with my kids. Oye.

"You sure have your hands full!"

Veronica over at 5 Minutes for Parenting wrote about her experiences with this comment at the grocery store yesterday, and it got me thinking about just how irritating it is on so many levels.

"You sure have your hands full!"

I have three boys now. Yes, I realize that this family is a bit bigger than average, but we are not the Brady Bunch. The size of my family is my family's decision, so you don't get to judge me.

"You sure have your hands full!"

Yes, my older two are twins, and yes, they are boys, but that doesn't automatically make them hooligans. Even if they are sitting nicely in the cart at Costco, it never fails that we get comments on how full our hands must be. This was even before the newborn arrived!

"You sure have your hands full!"

My older kids are now almost three, and they pick up on the comments of strangers in grocery stores. Why must people make comments insinuating things about them right in front of them? It is rude and unnecessary, and this honestly is what makes me most irate about the hands full comments. When I hear "You sure have your hands full!" come out of someone's mouth, I tend to go into the protective mama bear mentality, give people the evil eye and respond, "You know what?! They are actually really great kids."

"You sure have your hands full!"

You're right. I do. And thank God for that.

Lovin' this baby

Important new mama skill - accepting help

I am not a person who very easily accepts help. I realize that this is a weakness for me. I always want people to think I am all put together and "with it." What would they think if I accept help? Would they snicker behind my back? Pity me? AHHH!!!

Of course, no one will think any less of me if I accept help, especially with a new baby. I was broken in the hard way when my first pregnancy blessed my husband and me with twin boys. Life with newborn twins, neither of whom was a very good sleeper, was rough. I remember that for the first six weeks or so, I thought getting more than four hours of sleep at night (TOTAL!) was a win. Oye. I had to accept help or I would have wound up in a mental institution.

I have come to see, however, that accepting help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength. How much more put together can I be if I allow other people to worry about things like dinner and cleaning so that I don't have to? I have learned the joy of letting other people play with my older boys so I can rest at home with my newborn, and I have stopped feeling guilty about it (well, most of the time).

I think the ability to accept help is something all new moms should be trained in before their baby arrives. Just think of how together you will be!

Post-Partum Clothing Options?

Let's face it. For the no-longer-pregnant-but-just-barely types, clothing options are few and far between. Right now, I just feel fat and icky. My maternity clothes actually try to accentuate the belly area, the very same area I am trying to minimize. Of course, none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit either (it appears that the chest area may be an issue this time, too, but that is a whole other ball of wax...). What to do, what to do?! I can't live in yoga pants and hubby's t-shirts forever!

New Baby Z Finally Arrived!

I am so excited to announce that our new little boy Z has arrived! He was born on Thursday, October 2nd, at 4:10pm. He was 7 lbs., 12 oz., at birth and 21" long. Everyone is doing great!

Z did in fact hold out for his scheduled c-section. Hubby and I headed off to the hospital around 11 in the morning for our 2:15pm surgery. It was a bit surreal to walk into the hospital and tell them I was there for my surgery appointment - too much like a dinner reservation for my taste, but I guess that is the way it goes. Here is a last belly picture that we took on our way out the door to the hospital.

After a few delays because of a really busy day in the ORs, I walked down for surgery at around 3:5opm. (Yes, another totally weird thing to me is that I had to take myself to the operating room. What kind of service is that?! Aren't they afraid I could slip and fall while wearing those booty/sock things they make you wear?! "Here hop up on the operating table so we can stick this giant needle in your back..." Too odd. But I digress...) Z was born 20 minutes later. For this birth, the surgery went much smoother than it did with the twins. I stayed awake the whole time, and it was great to be able to see Z in his dad's arms while the doctors finished everything up. Z had a few tricks up his sleeve for the doctors, too. Apparently he was biting the doctor's fingers while she tried to deliver him, and once he was out, he peed on her!

In spite of his reluctance to leave my body, baby Z did great with the delivery. As soon as we got to the recovery room, he was ready to eat (and, I might add, he has been a great eater ever since). Once he was done eating, Z got his first bath, too. Here are some of his first pictures from the recovery room.


During our time in the recovery room, Z got to hang out with hubby and I and meet three of his grandparents.

His first picture with Mom and Dad

We made it up to our room around 7:00pm, where we visited some more with the grandparents before settling in for the night. On his first night, Z did a great job sleeping, although I wish I could say the same for his constantly worrying mom! :)

Friday morning, we were thrilled to have B and E come up to the hospital to meet their new little brother for the first time. (They spent the weekend with their grandparents.) It was so great to see how excited the boys were to meet their little brother for the first time. Here is the first pic of all four of my fellas together.


Both of the twins got their coats of right away so they could get a chance to hold their brother, too. However, as excited as B and E were to meet Z, all of the above happened in a span of about ten minutes. The boys were also excited about something else - the cupcakes Grandma Jane baked and brought up to the hospital! They ripped into those like nobody's business. :)


Overall, Z's birth went really well, and I can't really think of anything that we wish could have gone differently. His first week at home went well, too, especially since hubby was able to stay home from work for the week. We are so thrilled he is finally here!