Singing in the Rain

Last Friday during our garage sale, Audrey was playing outside in the rain. Yup, rain. So, no, the garage sale was not successful. I thought she looked too cute in her boots and umbrella not to get a picture!

If you look closely, you can see that she's outgrown her pants. They are capris but they barely cover her knees. Those are brown knee socks bridging the gap making up the space between her knees and her boots!

Sarah

watering the grass

Audrey has been helping Jeremy water a few patches of newly planted grass

this day, Andrew was helping too.

Sarah

Tuesday April 27

It's quiet. Peacefully quiet in the house, except for the annoying lawn mower a few houses down. My precious Allie is asleep in her car seat. It seems the rice cereal she had for the first time today knocked her out. Audrey is outside playing with Daddy. It's 55 degrees. Too cold for me.

Updates:

Potty Training update: I'm at a loss. Audrey is still having accidents on a regular basis. However, she goes a day or two without hardly any accidents at all. She has yet to have an accident while we're out shopping or on a walk. I thought she was golden today except she waited too long, AGAIN, while outside playing with the neighbors on her swing set. People say she's not ready then. She IS stubborn. It's part of her personality. I told her today over lunch that she could decide, panties or diapers and that I wouldn't be mad either way. She chose panties. She knows when she has an accident it disappoints us, because she says, in the most heart breaking voice, "I'm sorry Mommy, I'm sorry" Last night I was thinking that the girl was darned if she did and darned if she didn't. She feels (I believe) that she needs to wear panties to make us happy, but then when she has an accident and pees a puddle of urine on my kitchen floor and wets through six pairs of panties in one day, she gets upset, because we're upset. True, I'm not thrilled when she doesn't make it to the potty, but I want it to be her choice. I do get frustrated that she isn't getting it after two weeks and that even though she can go in there, climb up on her stool and do the whole routine herself, sometimes she just flat doesn't. I certainly don't want to push her. I understand that could lead to terrible consequences.

Today at Kindermusik Audrey didn't take her turn playing the glockenspiels during class like the other kids did. This was the second week in a row that we would sing a song and the kids would play two at a time to the beat. We would do this twelve times over, so each child had a turn. Her teacher is very understanding and hasn't pushed her during class but offered for her to play them after class. Today we stayed and after everyone was gone the teacher had to practically put the mallet in her hand and hit them for her. She took one and I took the other. When she played her note her face puckered up like she was going to cry! We talked about it later. She said she liked playing them, but I still don't know why she almost cried. Maybe the two notes stirred an emotion in her. Music is very powerful. I don't know. When I told the teacher i don't know why she doesn't like to participate, she brushed it off and said she does everything else (dance, sing, clap, etc)

** Allie just woke up screaming. Darn that rice cereal. It got us with Audrey too. Now I've lost my train of thought. **

Audrey doesn't like group activities where the focus is solely on her. We've noticed that in gymnastics too.

Weight Watchers: I've lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks. I'm hungry.

This and That and Short Stories:

Audrey has been watering the newly sowed (?)/planted grass with Jeremy. It's so cute watching her walk with her little green and yellow watering can around the yard. It's even cuter to see her carrying the large watering can.

I love to watch Allie when Audrey is in the room. She gets the biggest smile and laughs--especially when Audrey jumps!

Allie is wearing 12 month clothes and some 18 month!

Today when we were at the mall (Bergners) Audrey boycotted the public restroom ( I don't blame her) so as we were waiting in our double stroller for the elevator she jumps out of her seat--which is alarming because that throws the whole balance off as she sits in front. I tell her she's got to get back in right away because the elevator has now opened and the stroller is going to tip. I thought she was in so when I moved forward to make it through the doors she falls out and her leg slips under the stroller and through the front wheels. I continue to push her forward out of the way of the doors. She stopped crying by the time we got down to the first floor. Maybe a bruise, no blood.

She chose to potty on froggy (her little potty seat we keep in the van). She did. Funny thing was, today, she chose to only potty (and poop!) on froggy. So even when we were home, she wanted to go outside to the garage, climb in the van and potty there. Such a sight from our busy road, I'm sure! As it was in the mall parking lot. I'm sure you can just picture Audrey sitting on a green frog in the back of our van, skirt around her legs pointing at the UPS guy delivering the neighbors online purchase a few houses down. When she pooped I wasn't about to bring it inside and flush it so I decided to fertilized the lawn. Ah. parenthood.

Before dinner Audrey was outside playing and waited too long to potty, resulting in wet clothes. Jeremy grabbed the first pair of pants he saw in the laundry basket which resulted in a striped shirt and striped pants of differing colors and variations. He looked at me and said, "no one is going to see her." Our neighbor said she looked like a Dr. Seuss character!

Audrey is now in bed, or on her way. Allie is restless on the floor beside me. I started this blog entry a good three hours ago. A mom asked me today at Kindermusik how life with two is. That's the question you get after you have your second. Like when you first get engaged, it's "have you picked a date yet?" And after you get married it's, "So when will you have kids?" And after the first child it's, "So when will you have your second?" Now, people with one child with great interest ask, "So how's life with two?" I told her the hardest part for me was trying to find time to do what I wanted to do and finish a task. "Totally do-able though" I told her. "And totally rewarding." I love my girls.

At our flop of a garage sale last weekend...to be continued. Allie needs food.

Sarah

Random Thoughts

It seems we've been super busy this week. Life in general and prepping our first garage sale in our new house so I haven't written a lot. I'm so tired the thought of writing in complete sentences pains me. So here are some random thoughts.

It does not pain me to get rid of some of the girls' clothes like I thought it might. It did however pain me to sell some of my cute skinny clothes for $1 and then have people try and talk me down. Seriously, the price tag is still on those $70 pants and I've marked them at $1. I still managed to make over $75 on day one. Not a great profit, but sure beats the $0 I would have gotten from the Goodwill.

I'm very hungry and I've gone over my points again already this week (darn pizza!).

My husband is becoming a Mac brat, like myself. He got an iphone yesterday. And, for the sake of our marriage, I'm glad he did. I hated his old phone! It was so hard to use.

I can actually carry on a conversation with Audrey now. She's completing sentences and actually conveying thoughts. I love it! At the dinner table she'll often listen intently to the stories I tell Jeremy about our day and either agree or add comments.

Allie is such a flirt. She has an engaging and adorable grin that she'll flash to almost anyone. My heart melts when she smiles at me.

I haven't gotten my hair cut in over 8 weeks. That's huge when I normally go every 4-5. I haven't let my hair get this long since college. I hate it.

I do wonder how many children you need to have to justify a personal assistant. I would love one now. I'm sure women who have 4 or 5 children would laugh at me, only having two, but there are simply more things I'd like to get done and I find it impossible to do it all myself.

My legs hurt.... ache actually.

I haven't pumped in almost a week. I think I can say I'm officially done. It never ceases to amaze me my outlook and perspective on breast feeding once my hormones level out.

Time for bed.

Sarah

Allie's First Solid Food

After getting the green light to start solids for Allie, we chose bananas and fed them to her on Saturday, April 17th, one day after she turned 4 months. I think she spit more out than she took in, but coincidence or not, she slept for a long time that day. She spent the whole time trying to figure out what to do with the pureed fruit. I made sure she was hungry when we attempted it, and she ended up being more tired than hungry. She'd had enough after five minutes and a few teaspoons. A few days later, we tired it again with the same result.

Sarah

WW

Yep, I finally did it. I became a member of the Weight Watchers online community. I put it off long enough, made enough excuses. I thought about LA Weight Loss a few years ago, before they went out of business but decided it was too much money and I could do it on my own. This was before children, when I was in between jobs. I had time to work out.

My sister in law, who is a dietician, told me she supported WW. Therefore, with her approval and the scale stuck at a number I despise, I joined.

I'm fat. I know it. Life is much more complicated with two kids and my stress level is higher. Logging my food the last day and a half has shown me already how bad the choices I sometimes make are. A 3 musketeers bar is a lot of points. And a blizzard from DQ, wow, that was my entire daily allowance.

I never fully recovered from being diagnosed with celiac disease, now four years in July. I felt great not eating gluten, but my body didn't know what to do with all those calories that hung around. I still act like I'm 18 and 23 and can make a batch of brownies and eat half the pan or make cookies and eat a half a dozen or more and not gain weight. I gained 30 pounds after my diagnosis. I went from the 130's to the 160's in less than 6 months. When I scheduled a follow-up with my DD doctor he laughed at me and told me I was eating too much ice cream. Well, I could eat ice cream. I could no longer have a lot of other foods and I clung to those I could. Eating GF and needing to do so overnight was a huge lifestyle change. I regret not pushing to see a dietician. I believe they could have saved me some of those 30 pounds of weight gain. My DD told me I shouldn't bother as they didn't know anything anyway. Huh.

I digress. So, that takes us to Jan 2007. I decide New Years Eve that I needed to have a baby NOW after hearing that most of our other friends (all of whom younger than me) were pregnant. Apparently I had baby fever for awhile, but I denied it. This is turning into a blog about Audrey.....back onto the weight story. So, somehow through multiple birth control mix-ups I get pregnant with Audrey, still carrying around that extra 30 pounds of celiac weight. Plus 30 more pounds of pregnancy poundage puts me at a number I never thought I'd see on the scale. It took me a year to lose that weight--most of it coming off AFTER I stopped pumping with her at 8 months. My body likes to hold onto its fat. November 2008. By December I'd gained back almost 10 of what I'd lost. Got pregnant, automatically gained 7. Lost the baby. Had a D&E, lost some--maybe 5 pounds. Gained 10 more mourning with M&M's and spending a week down with a spinal headache. (And I mean laying flat on the ground, couch or bed, down.) Get pregnant again, still 10 pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Audrey. Somehow I end up gaining more with Allie putting me exactly where I was at the end with Audrey, plus 5. Uh. I lose 30 almost effortlessly after birth in that first 6 weeks of breast-feeding hell. Then it tapered off and I started gaining weight again. That brought me to not fitting into anything in my closet and finally joining WW.

Part of my problem: I never learned how to properly eat after being diagnosed. I picked up anything that said GF and ate it with no regard to it's fat or calorie content. After all, it was GF, so it wasn't going to hurt me. Hurt my intestines, no. Hurt my hips, yes. I didn't realize I had terrible eating habits before being diagnosed, because they never affected my weight. So, it really is a lifestyle change for me in more ways than one.

I eat when I'm tired, bored or stressed. I used to shop--spent too much money. I used to drink--now it puts me to sleep and makes me feel weird.

I dream of being skinny again. Now that I'm seeing those points disappear, I realize how much I was eating. No wonder I'm fat. Holy cow. In the first two days of WW I have breezed through my entire points for the week and my daily points. I think I'm sitting at -8 for the week and I've got five more days to go. Gonna have to do some working out in order to lose weight this week. In my defense, I joined on a whim, midweek and am fighting these points with what I had already in my pantry or fridge. All of which isn't that unhealthy, it's just high in points.

Such a long entry just to blog that I joined WW and have already run out of points!

Sarah

Wednesday: Pool Fun & Allie's 4 month check-up

The high was projected to be in the 80's so Audrey and I got out her little purple pool at 7:30 in the morning and filled it with water. Quite the task really, as it was buried in the garage and then there was bringing the hose around to the back of the house.....alas, I did it. We filled it up so that by the time Audrey woke up from her nap, the water would be warm. No luck. The water never did warm up enough to play in. Audrey ended up playing at the neighbors house instead with a handful of other neighbors and friends. She was the only one NOT playing in their slip and slide. Not because we told her she couldn't, she never expressed an interest. She instead, colored herself blue with sidewalk chalk.

Allie went to see Dr. Emm today for her 4 month check-up. She passed with flying colors. He noticed she had great head control, saw her reaching with her hands, putting her hands together and then putting them in her mouth (who ever thought these things are to be celebrated!) and concluded with she's a healthy & plump girl. She even gave him a smile or two before he told her she'd have to have 2 shots. Allie actually did really well with them, only minimal crying after the second one. I gave her no tylenol before or after. She got the green light to start solids. Because I had so many problems with breast feeding and pumping this time and chose to wean, she's getting close to 40 oz of formula a day at this point. Dr. Emm would rather her be getting a little food in there and not so much formula. So, we bought some bananas on the way home! We don't do rice cereal here. I believe it's not necessary from what I've read and Audrey puked it up numerous times. I actually plan to make baby food for Allie but haven't even considered it yet, as I was hoping to hold her off until 6 months. I prefer to buy organic baby food and I did with Audrey. That was costly, to say the least. So, my mission this time, is to make my own organic baby food. At least for awhile. Once she starts getting into the third stage I may quit, but I figure I can handle carrots and bananas.

Her stats at 4 months

height: 25 1/2 inches = 90%

weight: 17 lb 4 oz = > 97% (I thought she'd been getting heavier!)

head: 16 1/2 inches = 75%

Allison Jean, before her appointment. She had on the cutest outfit

later in the day, but I didn't get a picture of it. (I need a full-time photographer).

Wednesday April 14

Audrey woke up DRY today. This is a huge deal, as she has NEVER EVER woken up dry from overnight. I'm thinking she's dehydrated. (sure enough, as I write this a day later, she woke up wet. Not dry in the least).

Audrey made it through today with NO accidents!!!! Yeah. We even ventured out to the doctor's office and to Wal-Mart. We used the froggy potty in the back of our van. What an excellent purchase! It was one thing when we just had Audrey and wanted to avoid the germi-ness of public bathrooms, but now with two--I can't even imagine lugging them both in there, trying to maneuver the cart and infant carrier, or worse, the double stroller. Super proud of her today!

Sarah