the (GROSS) things toddlers do...

Now I know that having a toddler means you have to expect them to do disgusting things. I've seen quite a bit, mostly in the way of poop, but last week, Sadie surprised me. She took it to a new level.

It was the afternoon, I was just finished feeding Lucas. Sadie was busy throwing diapers all over the room - typical tornado toddler stuff. I had opened the door to our room to head to the living room when Lucas pooped. So he needed to be changed NOW. I turned around, started changing him, and realized that the door to my bedroom was left open, and Sadie was gone. Normally she hangs out with me, but when an oppertunity arises to get into more trouble, she takes it.

So I start speed changing my little buddy thinking that its way too quiet, shes up to no good. Got my boy changed lightening fast - and took him out to the hallway.

The bathroom door was left open...

This is bad, I thought. My girl, she has this thing about playing with water. So I start down the hall praying "Please oh please keep her out of the toilet".


No such luck. In fact, not only was she standing by the toilet beaming from ear to ear, but she was holding MY TOOTHBRUSH.


AW, SICK!

This little girl must have been making toilet soup (and was having a marvelous time, might I add), and using MY toothbrush to stir it up, cause there was toilet water all over, and a soother had been plunked in the bowl as well.

Quickly, before she started brushing her teeth (heaven forbid), I plunked my little buddy down on the hallway floor, and ran into the bathroom flinging my toothbrush into the garbage. Kept her hands where I could see them, and scrubbed her down with as much soap and water as I could. I didn't even want to think about if she had brushed her teeth with toilet water, but I didn't really stop her right away when she started to eat soap bubbles.

It will clean her mouth right? My boy then starts to cry, so we shuffle on out. Whew.

That was gross.

the hunt continues

We're still looking for places to live. Last weekend was fruitless in terms of even getting appointments made. I called and emailed so many places, and I think we ended up seeing 3. None of which were appealing.

So I'm trying to get some more set up for this weekend, but its tough, cause most places will be listed on Oct 1st. It might end up being that I make appointments as we drive around.

I can't wait to move and get it over and done with. I went home to vancouver last weekend, and lived in half packed boxes, and stuff everywhere. Tony and I tackled our closet and room and such, so its not that bad anymore, but its just frustrating living in mess. Poor Tony, he was so out of sorts living in chaos and disaster that he was ready to throw out most of it. Thankfully I got there, and we sorted and organized and then threw away the crap. 

Oh, and this little girl is ready for the rainy weather. Grandma found these for $2 at value village. Awesome!

Dear Lucas,

I can't believe you're one month old now. You've gotten back up past your birth weight, and love to eat. Some days all  you want to do is eat eat eat!

You are in the 50th percentile for weight and height. You've been thinning out a bit, but not terribly. Everyone tells us that you look just like your daddy. You've got his awesomly spikey hair. I love it. It tickles my chin when I hold you up to burp you.

You are such a strong little boy. Since you were a week or 2 old, you've been very good at holding your head up. You are very good at tummy time, turning your head back and forth, holding it up, and looking about. You are also focusing more on things, and people. You especially love watching your sister play, and looking at the trees outside.

Sleeping is hard for you. You just want to be held. You also can't help the fact that you are sore from all the gas. Poor tummy. When you do sleep though, you snore, and grunt. I call you Lucas "Grunter" Raymond. You are the noisest sleeper. 

You love bath time, although, not the getting in or out parts, just the being in the water parts. You didn't even mind when I spilt water on your face. You just blinked at me. I hope you are a water baby too, cause you and your sister will have a blast together when you're older.

You also really like your bouncy seat. Your sister loves to bounce you in it, but she's not allowed to anymore. She's not gentle enough to bounce lightly.

Happy 1 month little boy!

Sadie Loves...

Hiding behind my legs when she meets new people
Eating bites of apple or pepper, chewing them, and spitting them out
"Kissing" Lucas (she licks his face)

To throw herself on the floor (hitting her head on the floor) when she's scolded
Headbutting Aria when she's mad at her
Wiggling her tounge back and forth
Trying to make a *POP* sound by pulling her finger out of her mouth
Feeding you her food

Corn on the cob and farmer sausage
Being tickled on her ribs and under her arms
Listening to her glow worm sing lullabies to her before naptime
Toppling towers of blocks that momma makes
Touching forbidden cellphones
Throwing tupperware on the kitchen floor and smiling

Happy 16 months Sadie!

 It was around the time that I found out I was pregnant with Lucas that I realized that I'd have 2 babies in diapers at the same time. It also hit me that we'd be paying twice the amount for diapers and wipes per month. That did not sit well with me. It was already expensive to buy diapers for one kid, let alone think about the cost for 2.

So I did some research. I figured we'd be moving after Lucas was born, and I figured that we'd probably have our own washer and dryer by then, so I looked into what it costs to use cloth diapers. Poop didn't gross me anymore, so as long as I knew how to take care of these diapers, we'd be in good shape.

Oh man, who knew there'd be so many different types of diapers and things? I spent late nights on bedrest looking up these things, checking different sites, and brands.

The ones that appealed to me the most were the fuzzibunz and bum genius one size fits all diapers. Don't have to buy all kinds of seperate sizes, and they seemed the easiest for me to get used to. I bought one, but realized that in order for me to give this thing a go, I'd need to buy enough for at least a day. Since they were kinda pricey, I hunted for bargins on craigslist. You know, diapers that were given to someone as a gift and were never/hardly used. After a couple weeks, I managed to get 6 diapers.

So yesterday, I put her in only cloth diapers for the day. It wasn't bad. The only thing I made a mistake on was leaving her in one for too long, and oops, her onesie got a little wet. Pretty much just gotta check them every hour or 2. Since these guys already cause a lot of laundry, I'm not opposed to doing diapers as long as I have my own washer and dryer.

The Diaper Pin website was also a really nice thing to show Tony. It calculates the cost of disposables vs cloth diapers. He's more of a fan now than he was before. He doesnt like the smell factor of the diapers. Smell wasn't that bad in my opinion.

http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp

I'll be really testing these out when I move home. If I can manage one kid, I'll do both. this also means buying more diapers, but thats not bad as long as I do it in small amounts, or find more craigslist scores.

Have any of you used cloth diapers before? 

What were your thoughts on them? 

Did you find a specific brand that worked well? 

Let me know your thoughts on all this.

I'll be making a follow up post on my progress with using cloth diapers.

trouble maker

If you were to write a caption for this photo, what would it be? Post to the comments below :)

Meeting Lucas for the first time

Finally, my best friend Larissa got to meet my boy. I was so sad that it didn't happen sooner, but I'm so glad that she met him.

This photo melted my heart

We met for a Starbucks date and Lucas was as good as gold while we were out. Maybe sometime soon, she can babysit the both of them. That would be interesting :)

alone with 2 kids, yikes!

Wednesday was the first day I was home alone with both kids. Aria had her big nursing exam in vancouver, and Mik was in school. So Mik woke me up before she left for school by plunking Sadie in my bed. Sadie was just waking up as well, so we groggily watched cartoons on the iphone (I mostly dozed) until Lucas woke up.

Lucas seemed to be in a better mood that day, he was pretty peaceful, and stared at me or the trees that were blowing in the wind. He loves watching the trees outside.

Naptime was a challenge for Sadie though. That day, Sadie was going to nap in my bed because its low to the ground, and she can crawl right on up. I attempted to put her to bed a couple times, while Lucas was sleeping, but she wouldnt. Around 12, she was so tired, that when we laid in the big bed, I realized that if I paid attention to her, she'd try and stay up, so I grabbed my phone and browsed Pinterest and then 5 minutes later, I peeked at her, and there she was:

Out cold with her bum in the air.

Just as she fell asleep, Lucas woke up, almost waking her up. I whisked him outta there and fed him in the living room and then we watched crappy day time tv. At least TLC has crappy wedding shows on. 

There was a point in time when I had both children whining/screaming at me, and it surprised me that it didn't drive me crazy. I'm sure that once I'm fully alone with them both, they'll break me, but for now, I think I did ok. The hardest part was keeping Sadie out of trouble while feeding Lucas. She was mostly after the diaper garbage in my room when we were in there. yuck. 

My mom came home around 2:30, and we all headed to the Lucas' appointment for the doctor. But that's for another post.

I remember now why I hate moving...

Tony and I are on the hunt for a new place. 1 bedroom apartments are not good for 4 people, even if 2 of those people are less than 2 ft tall. I was all excited about looking for places, and then I realized how much work it is to find them, look at them, and then hunt some more.

Moving is gross in the normal situations, and being that Tony and I are apart 5 days a week, and I am not at home, it really REALLY SUCKS.

I've been looking at classifides and craigslist, and last weekend we went out to 6 appointments. All of which were duds. The first place was previously inhabited by hoarders. The landlord "renovating" the place admitted this to us. There was a box full of pest repellant, fly tape and paint on the floor in the entry way. I'm sure it was way worse when the hoarder lived there, but when we saw the place, it was pretty bad. There was a makeshift shed in the backyard that looked like the hoarder had taken scrap wood from everywhere, and built himself some storage for his stuff. The yard still had remments of things all over. Ya, no thanks.

Most of the other places we saw were too far away from groceries and such, and transit was mostly shuttle buses. Not good.

One of the last places we saw was asking for $1100 bucks, and upon entering, a waft of garbage smell hit us. Gross. The stink came from the garage. I figured for $1100 you'd get a nice looking place, but this place didn't have a tub, or baseboards, or a properly boarded up part of wall.

So hopefully our luck will change this weekend. I've got a few appointments made, not as many as last weekend, cause I'm more picky and careful with what we're going to see. We'll be driving around more and looking less on craigslist, so I'm hopeful.



Dear God, please find us a home.

Remembering 9/11

That day, I was on the school bus when I heard the whisperings of something on the news. Being the quiet girl that I was, I ignored it and continued reading my book. It wasn't until I got into the school lobby that I saw the footage of the first plane hitting the world trade center on one of the tvs. From that moment on, I joined everyone else and stood there, stunned, watching the tv.

Disbelief, shock, fear all hit me. The bell rang to start school, and as zombies, we headed to our classes. Every class was the same that day. We might have been given a worksheet or assignment, but nobody looked at it. Instead, we sat in class quietly, glued to the tv coverage.

I'll never forget the events of 9/11

Lucas' Birth Story

Its taken a while for me to get this all out, but its done now.

I still cant believe that Lucas went to full term. After the scare of preterm labor, going through a cerclage with the thoughts of still ending up in preterm labor it finally hit that we made it. I remember laying awake in bed the night before thinking, "we've made it baby". We've made it indeed. I laid there in bed thinking about how wonderful my parents have been, taking care of Sadie while I was on bedrest, taking care of me. I was so grateful to God for taking care of everything, even though I stressed and stressed about everything. I shouldnt have stressed so much.

The morning of my scheduled c-section, I was surprisingly calm. I've never felt calm like that going into any hospital situation. Had to have been God. We woke up super super early, around 5:00am. Yuck. Tony took a couple gravol, and woke up all kind of gross from taking the pills. This made for an interesting start to the day. He was grumpy, and I was trying not to argue back with him, but it didn't work. I don't remember what it was about, but we ended up being all snippy at each other. Ya, way to start out the day.

Still both grouchy now, we arrived at the hospital. It wasnt long until they gave me my sexy backless dress and shower cap, and had me wait in bed until the anesthesiologists arrived. Tony was off getting a quick dose of caffeine and a muffin so he wouldn't be miserable throughout the entire thing. While Tony was out, I met with my anesthesiologists, a handsome young aussie guy and his resident. He was super friendly and asked me all standard questions. They had to start an IV, so while the resident was getting that started, I told him that the worst part of this whole experience for me is thinking of the spinal being done. I told him how nervous I was about that, and he told me the most wonderful thing. The needle he was using in the IV would be the biggest needle used. Thank you God! My fears were almost put to ease. I remembered the epidural needle, and it was a big sucker. 

Tony appeared again, feeling better after drinking some coffee and eating a muffin. I was glad he didn't eat near me, I was starving from fasting for 12 hours.  

Once Tony was gowned and ready, they whisked me away to get the spinal done. I sat down on the small operating table, and a nice older nurse came over and explained what was about to happen. She was totally my hero. She stood in front of me, and while I scrunched over into a "C" shape, she calmly  made sure I knew what the heck they were doing to my back. After painting my back with hot pink iodine (I swear, after this whole thing, I was a hot pink mess- covered all over my torso), the resident anesthesiologist grabbed my sides and dug his thumbs into my sides and back. I think that was the most painful part of the whole procedure. Looking back, it makes me laugh that I was afraid of the needle, when really, I should have feared the crazy thumbs in my sides. So, after the numbing needle- which startled me, but that was ok, the fancy spinal needle went in, and I didn't feel a thing - well except for a lot of pressure in my legs before they went numb. Go crazy thumbs resident!

Then it was go time. Everyone was getting ready for cutting me open. Tony came back to hide behind the sheet with me, and we waited for my doctor to start. Crazy thumbs and Aussie doctor were talking and cracking jokes with us, and then it started. The whole thing seemed tons quicker than with Sadie. Before we knew it, they were getting to the good part, the part where they could yank this kid outta me. I was getting all tearyl as they were trying to get him out. The doctors were explaining that it was tough to get him out, so he must be a big boy. I told them my guess was 9 lbs. With the last push on my stomach to get him out, my doctor exclaimed "He's gotta be 10lbs!" She was close alright.

He was out, I was bawling, and Tony was a proud daddy again. 

He came out looking like Sadie with his brown hair, and his cry was nothing like hers. Hers was kitten like. His was loud and boyish. Poor little boy.

They handed him over to Tony and I, and I got my first look at my son. I remember thinking "hello stranger". I mean, I love him, but I don't know him at all. What a weird feeling. The stranger part melted away after a few days, but it did take a bit. I tried breastfeeding, but Lucas had a lot of gunk in his airways and was grunting every few seconds to try to get it out. They took him back to suck it out again, and then he was fine.

Lucky for us, I got to recover from surgery in the maternity ward in a special room instead of in the recovery section. Normally I would be seperated from Tony and baby in the recovery section, but I was able to stay in the c-section recovery room with Lucas and Tony, and it was the best.

So that was it. Planned c-section was not as terrifying as I figured. I was blessed with wonderful doctors and nurses this time, and although breastfeeding was initially really hard, I've come to like it now. More on that later.

what happened in the past week

Last week was nice and hot out, it was almost like regular summer weather. We packed up the little ones and headed to my moms work to swim in the pool. She works at a summer camp, and since camp is over, we got to enjoy the pool all to ourselves. On the drive up, the kidlets got tired, and fell asleep, both slouching their heads to the left. Even propped up with blankets, they still managed to slouch.

Since we wanted to get to camp before dinner time, we cut Sadie's nap short. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper. Just trying to get her in a swim suit was tough, let alone sunscreened and life jacketed. Once she settled down and was ready to go, we let her head out to the pool. She tripped, and then hitting her forehead on the pavement. That had to have hurt. Poor girl.  She wailed, I panicked a bit, cause its her head, on the non forgiving pavement. She got a red/purple bruise on her forehead, and after a couple mintues, she was fine, and ready to swim. The family swam and had a good time with Sadie, and I enjoyed the beautiful view of Cultus Lake and tanned while Lucas slept in the shade.

This week I also got to enjoy a really delicious treat, hummus. I normally dont eat this stuff because Tony despises it. He hates the texture and the fact that you are cursed with garlic breath for the rest of the day. This hummus was store bought roasted pinenut hummus. Oh sweet wonderful stuff, how good it tasted with naan.

I also am catching up on Mad Men. I feed Lucas in my bedroom, and its nice and quiet, and I dont have to worry about flashing my family boobs. I havent watched it in a year or so. Good golly, that show makes me want to smoke, and I'm totally against smoking. Smoking has never looked that cool as it does in that show. I also really want to wear all the dresses that Joan and Betty wear. Gorgeous!

Enough about Mad Men though. Sadie is pretty much used to her brother and his crying. Now when he cries, she comes over and loves him. She leans over and puts her head on him, or pats his hair, or kisses him. Her kisses are licks, and she likes to try and lick his eye. Its gross but cute. She's such a sensitive little being - just like me.

So thats the past week, and now I'm going to try and catch up on blogging. I think having the notebook in my bedroom at night might help me stay awake while I'm feeding the little boy