First giggles
Current mood:
contentCharlotte gave me her first giggles yesterday!! She has been so grumpy these last few months, it seems like it has taken longer for these elusive giggles to appear. I have to say that I LOVE baby giggles! You can't help but smile and do everything in your power to reproduce them. Her voice is higher pitched than Maddie's and it's super cute. She has also started cooing and talking a LOT in the past week or so. Normally Dan gets her and brings her to me whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse and she eats and falls right back to sleep. The other night she ate on one side and then spent a good 10 minutes talking to herself really loudly! It was really funny even though I was still half asleep! She did eventually finish eating and fell asleep, but Dan and I got to listen to her and her adorable voice while we tried to sleep next to her.
I really feel like we've turned a corner with Charlotte. She got over her cold and it seems that along with renewed health came a better attitude and an all around easier baby. I don't really know what caused the change....maybe the bacteria in her gut finally showed up, or we hit the 3 month mark and colic ended (if that is what she had) or her intestines matured, or she's starting to be more interested in toys and they now stimulate her, but what ever the reason she is a much easier, happier baby. I still hold her a lot, but there is a lot less crying, and she will chill under her activity mat, or in her swing or in the bumbo chair for little chunks of time and is really content. She smiles a lot more and is now giggling. She can hold her toys and will reach up to touch toys that are hanging above her on her car seat or bouncy chair. We have started working on rolling over (with my help of course) and pulling up with my fingers. She does really well with tummy time although she's really only good for about 10 minutes and then she wants nothing to do with tummy time! That seems to be pretty normal for babies until about 4 or 5 months. She has also been sleeping really well too and she goes down to bed super easy unlike Maddie when she was a baby. Her most recent trend has been bedtime at 7:00pm, wake up at 4:30am to eat and then back to sleep until 7:30am. Goodness knows things could change, but I like this schedule so far….it's a little close to our normal wake up time so sometimes it is hard for me to fall back asleep, but it's better than a lot of other schedules she could have.Things are going really well although I still take things one day at a time. Maybe in the near future I will start venturing out of the house more by myself! As of right now it is a very difficult task with nap time and Maddie on the run. We went to Dan's work yesterday afternoon and if Dan hadn't been there it would have been impossible for me to chase after Maddie while holding Charlotte….especially when Charlotte needed to nurse. With time all things get easier. I try and remember that but still enjoy each day while my littles are still little.
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words
Current mood:I find Maddie's vocabulary truly amazing. To have watched her go from only being able to communicate through crying to learning sign language to learning just a couple of words to now being a chatter box with so many many words is such a miracle! It seems like overnight she has tripled her vocabulary and is putting words together to make short sentences! She is also in that fantastic stage where I can get her to repeat pretty much anything I tell her to which can be highly entertaining! She has started saying thank you when I give her things and that is almost 100% a product of me using please and thank you when I talk to her everyday. Tonight she came to me and said "more chair da-yee," which means that she wants one of our dining room chairs moved over to the counter so that she can "help." And yes, she calls me daddy. She knows hat I am Mama, she can say Mama, when Dan says bring this to Mama etc. she listens and knows exactly what to do, but from the time she was about a year old she has called me some variation of the word Dad.....whatever she is calling Dan at the time. It was Dada, then Da and now Da-yee (daddy). I don't mind.....in her head she must think that daddy means parent. Something new that I LOVE is she is starting to say I love you.....it's still pretty broken, but it is becomming more clear and I know it is I love you! Everyday she amazes me with something new that she is saying or doing. Yesterday she grabbed a pot holder off of the counter, walked over to the drawer next to the stove, opened it, put the pot holder inside, closed the drawer and walked away!!! I sat there with my jaw on the floor.....I have never told her to do that, or had her "help" me do that, she just knew right where the pot holder went from watching me cook. Now that may seem like nothing spectacular to someone who doens't have kids, but to me that is HUGE, giganticly huge! She is becomming such a big girl, such a loving, sweet girl. It's hard to believe that in two weeks exactly she will be 2. It's so bitter sweet because I am excited for her that she is growing up and I love seeing everything that she is learning and watching her develop into this beautiful girl inside and out, but part of me wants her to stay my baby, my first baby. These years have gone by too fast! Everyone said they would but when you're elbow deep in diapers and exhausted from sleepless nights you want time to pass by, but here we are another year gone by and I wish I could rewind and replay in slow motion.....sleepless nights and all! I'm gonna make sure that I hug her a few extra times tomorrow.....she'll probably think I'm smothering her. lol
hopeful
Cheers to Maddie and all of her words! -
movies, memories and elephants
Current mood:Maddie and I watched Dumbo together last night before she went to bed. It was the first time that we have watched a movie that I enjoyed as a kid and it was a lot of fun to see her getting into it too. Brought back a lot of memories! She actually sat still for a good majority of it too which is not typical for her! This is one part of parenting that I really love.....experiencing things with my kids that I loved when I was a kid. Maddie really liked the baby animals that were delivered by the stork and she liked Casey Jr's train......the fact that I used to drive that train when I worked at Disneyland will be a good story to share with her when she is a bit older. She also sat transfixed on the pink elephant hallucination! lolblessed
Watching Dumbo from an adult perspective was interesting, it had been years and years since I'd seen it last. What really stood out to me was the sadness that I felt while watching it. Maybe it's because I just recently had a baby, and felt overly protective of Dumbo as if he were my own, but I had such a heart ache when his Mama got beaten and thrown into a small cage for protecting her baby. My emotions may also have a lot to do with a documentary I recently watched on elephants and how their emotions and family relationships are a lot like our own. Elephant families stay together and take care of each other until they die. Studies showed that elephant families would even go back to the site where a family member died and mourn for long periods of time. There was a mother and baby elephant that were separated when the baby was quite young and both sent to different circuses to perform. 18 years later both randomly ended up at an elephant sanctuary and upon seeing one another immediately started touching each other and didn't stop touching and trumpeting for 48 hours. They remembered......after 18 years, they remembered. They then spent the rest of their lives side by side, until the mother died. There is so much we are just now learning about the psyche of elephants and its horrible how much harm we have caused them for our entertainment. Its no wonder there has been a large rise in elephant attacks on humans! Ms. Jumbo was just doing what she could to protect her baby and doing exactly what I would have done to protect mine. I'm sure that at some point in my kids lives we will go to the circus.....although I didn't go myself until I was an adult, but I am going to have to think long and hard before we do because I don't know how I feel about supporting something that abuses elephants. Sorry.....I don't seem to have control of my random tangents! lol
So, Maddie enjoyed the movie and didn't seem to be phased by the scary parts. Thus far in life she is totally fearless and I'd rather her watch something that might be scary with me than on her own so that I can explain things to her. We also have Cinderella here this weekend, we'll see how she likes that one. I can't wait till my girls are a little older and we can have a weekly movie night where we wear our jammies and make popcorn and stay up a little later than normal and cuddle under blankets! I also want to have a weekly game night, but that probably won't be until they are significantly older. I'm big into family time....we never really did anything like that when I was growing up and I always wished we did. My parents were very busy with work, and activities, and my brothers and I were busy with our stuff but I always wished that all of us would get together once a week and just do something at home as a family. It's interesting which things we want for our kids that we didn't have! I really want Dan to have a good relationship with the girls, to play with them and be approachable to them because I didn't have that with my dad, and I want a lot of physical touch, and cuddling with my girls and a true friendship as well as parental relationship with them because that is what I felt was lacking with my mother. I want a lot of other things too, but that is an entirely different blog.....again with the tangents.....what is up with me today? lol
Well, I better go before I start on another weird topic that has nothing to do with watching Dumbo with my daughter! I will say this however.....I wish we still lived in CA so that we could have passes to Disneyland like I did growing up. I think that Maddie would seriously LOVE Disneyland and especially the Dumbo ride!
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lemonade?
Current mood:On Monday the preschool called and informed me that Maddie would not be allowed to attend unless she was vaccinated. The woman's exact words were "every child who attends this preschool must be vaccinated." Then she asks me if I'm sure that we aren't going to vaccinate Maddie. I told her that we were sure and asked when we would get our registration money back. They didn't even have a reason for me.....the woman also said that if I have any questions I should feel free to ask them, but that she didn't have any answers. Helpful.hopeful
I was thisclose to crying but decided to take the girls outside to play instead. While outside I called my mother in law and vented to her on the phone. She assured me that we would find something and it would be a perfect fit for us. I was skeptical because we live in a really small farming town and there are very few preschools that offer the type of program that we are looking for. We have pretty specific requirements: 3-4 hour morning program, 2-3 days a week, less than 15 miles from our home, within our budget, and accepts unvaccinated kids. Seemed like a long shot, especially since most schools were starting in the next 2 weeks and would more than likely be full, but I decided to start calling places.
I brought the girls inside after talking to my MIL and saw that there was a messgae on the answering machine. I checked it and it was from a woman at a preschool that I had called a few weeks ago to get information. I called her back and to my pleasant surprise, they had a two year old program on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9-1, they were located 10 miles from our house the tuition was $5.00 less expensive than the last place was going to be (within our budget) and after explaining the situation the director said that it was fine if Maddie was unvaccinated. I could hardly believe that things turned around so quickly! That was a huge answer from God.....not only that right after being rejected by one preschool another one called us, but that they were fine with our exemption. There is no other explaination for that.....that was totally God!!
I went this morning to their open house and filled out all of the paperwork and met with Maddie's teacher Miss Pam. The classroom is like 3 times bigger than the school we got rejected from and has a lot more toys and such, and still only 8 kids per teacher. They have a structured day with circle time and snack time and art projects. They play outside for about 45 minutes.....their playground had more play structures an stuff to do than the other school, but less shade. There isn't a gym for indoor play on rainy days at her school, but they have a semi-large indoor space where they do structured play, and they set up art and play stations. There is no library day, but she will have music class every Wednesday. The school is smaller and only has 1 two year old class, and a couple three and four year old classes.
I'm really happy with the outcome. I think that I would still prefer Maddie to attend the other school just because it is a little closer to our house and I liked the gym and library day, but I think that this is a good alternative and she will be in good hands at Mt. Pleasant Preschool. Her teacher is a very warm woman who has 3 kids of her own and seems to have the same kind of principles that we do. Maddie had a lot of fun at the open house this morning and seemed to feel right at home. We have been talking about her school since we left there this morning!! I got her a little lunch box with butterflies and flowers on it and I am really excited to start making her lunches.....I'm sure it will get old fast, but for now it seems like fun to me! Next Tuesday the 2nd is her first day and I am not at all sad about it....I'm actually really excited. I'll let ya know how the day turns out!
This week life gave us a big ol' bag of lemons, but we were able to turn them into lemonade. Slurrrp....aaahhh refreshing!! How lucky are we?
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Same jammies, different kids
Current mood:So below are pictures of Maddie at 18 weeks old and Charlotte at almost 13 weeks old. Same jammies, but they are totally different kids. I still don't think that they look anything alike. Maybe they have the same ears, or lips, but nothing that stands out to me. What do you think?
amused
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Tattoo you
Current mood:I'm getting a tattoo. I just need to figure out what to get and where to get it. I was going to get something added to the star on my wrist, but then I decided to get something completely new....maybe on my other wrist, but since I've been looking around at art and pictures of tattoos, I think I want a bigger piece on my shoulder or back. I will eventually get my wrist worked on, but one tattoo at a time. I found a cool website www.checkoutmyink.com and it makes me want to get my whole body covered in ink.....I won't because I'm a chicken, but I wish I could. I have found a couple that I really like, but I need to find an artist to kind of combine the ideas and make it my own. Here they are:
melancholy
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New love
Current mood:LOVE LOVE LOVE......calm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq08Mc4eLbw
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Is it nap time yet?
Current mood:I love Maddie to pieces, but this morning I am having a hard time liking her. She is CRANKY! Seriously, ridiculously, cranky. She is testing boundaries and pushing buttons and having major melt downs. Playing with her this morning has been difficult because she only want to play with things for like 90 seconds and then move on to something else. We did coloring, playdough, played with her little house and dishes all within 20 minutes. I tried to get her to sit still to read books but she only wanted to jump on me, and puzzles resulted in her throwing the pieces all over her room. She is being weird. We just tried having lunch because I thought maybe her blood sugar was low (which can result in bad behavior) but all that resulted was her crying and pushing her food away. She didn't even want the yogurt which she normally loves! I asked her if she needed to go to sleep and while crying she repeated sleep and even signed it. Which is another weird thing, her signs have come back these past few days. Since she has gotten a really big vocabulary, she stopped signing months ago, but all of a sudden they are back again. I am holding off on putting her down for her nap because its not even 12:00 yet, so she is watching Kai-lan and calming down from her crying episode. I know that she still isn't feeling well because she has had diarrhea-ish poops this morning and obviously she WANTS to sleep which is not normal, but I'm getting to the end of my rope here. I'm glad that Dan has a 3 day weekend starting tomorrow and his parents are coming to visit so I'll have help, because honestly I need it!! If I can just get through the day, because what I feel like doing is getting into my car with no car seats and driving off to Mexico with my windows down and the radio blaring. lol Is it nap time yet?
crazy
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I didn’t sign up for this! lol
Current mood:We are still sick in the house of Schultz. Maddie had a fever that shot up to 104 degrees this past weekend but she doesn't really have any other symptoms besides being really tired and overly hysterical. She goes to bed at 8:30, gets up at 7:00 and has been taking 4 hour naps for the past 4 or 5 days. Works for me, but during the time that she is awake, she is a mess. Runs into things, falls down.....generally being really clumsy.....not actually hurting herself, but hysterically acting like she is going to die from bumping her cheek on the arm of the couch. I know it's because she isn't feeling 100% and being tired and feeling icky can cause one to be in a foul mood, but it's starting to get a bit ridiculous......maybe a little insight to what life with 2 teenage girls might be like??
tired
I am feeling better although I still have nose issues and for the past couple days stomach problems as well. Maybe a touch of the flu or something? But overall much better except for the lack of sleep our house as had the last week or so.
Charlotte on the other hand is still in the trenches of disease. Maddie was never sick when she was an infant, she had an eye infection when she was a couple months old, but some breat milk in there cleared it right up, she also had a spider bite when she was 7 months old that sent us to the ER, but she only had a slight fever and rash from that.....she was really close to 12 months old before she ever really got a whopping cold, so I am really at a loss dealing with a 3 month old who has so much congestion and snot that she can't breathe! We have been up at all hours of the night suctioning snot, hanging out in the bathroom while the shower runs to create steam, baby vicks on the chest, crib mattress at an incline etc. and it just doesn't seem to be getting better. It doesn't seem to be getting worse either though, except for the presence of more snot, but I think that is the natural progression of a cold. We finally went out and bought a vicks vaporizer and let me tell you, that has been our saving grace for the past 24 hours. Charlotte has not been able to sleep well, and every time we try and suction her nose she screams bloody murder like we are slowly killing her which makes it an event that isn't easy to relax and sleep after, I've even gotten to the point where I considered sucking the snot out of her nose with my mouth because the bulb is mostly innaffective and obviously tramatizing, but the vicks vaporizer has made it so we don't have to suction her at night when she sleeps because it's nice warm vapors that keeps her snot loose. I still have to deal with the suction battle during the day but I do it before she nurses and then put her down for her nap in a warm misty room and she sleeps beautifully. On the plus side this whole cold experience has conditioned her to go to sleep quickly in her crib for both naps and bedtime which I had been having to nurse her down for naps in our bed and Dan had been spending a long time getting her to sleep in her crib at night. Now we just plop her in there and she goes to sleep. Which is where we eventually got to with doing sleep training with Maddie, we're just here sooner with Charlotte.
I feel like I'm rambling. It is not fun to have a house full of sick people....poor Dan was the only one who didn't get sick, but he has had to deal with a house full of dramatic girls! lol I hope that we are on the upswing being completely over these colds so that life as we used to know it can resume. I haven't heard anything from Maddie's preschool, but I did only talk to them yesterday. They have to get back to us pretty soon though because school starts on Sept. 9th and open house is on the 4th. *Patiently waiting* -
Preschool here we come
Current mood:We have signed Maddie up for preschool and I am really excited that she will get this opportunity. However, we aren't totally in the clear yet. We payed the registration fee and brought all the paperwork back today, but we also brought them a letter and a religious exemption form for vaccinations. I have been really nervous about this all week because I really want Maddie to be able to go to this school. It's at a Baptist church and they have 3 two year old classes, it's 8 kids to each teacher, they have library day on Wednesdays and gym day on Thursdays and they do art and eat lunch with their classmates......I really think that it's the right place for her and that she is going to have a wonderful time learning social skills and learning in general!
awake
But the big BUT is we have to wait to see if they will accept her. They had never dealt with a situation like this before and need to run it by their board to make sure that everything is kosher. I told them they could contact us if they had any questions, and I honestly feel like it's going to be okay, but I'm still nervous. It just blows my mind that this school that has 100 students every year under the age of 6 has never had someone try and enroll thier child without vaccinations. That says a lot about our culture. I also find it insulting that our state of North Carolina only has a religious exemption and not a philosophical exemption. I had to write a letter stating our religious beliefs and sign a waiver taking responsibility away from the school because we do not vaccinate. It really isn't against our religious beliefs, but I had to lie and say that it was because they won't just accept our educated decision not to inject our children with poisons. There are a few articles around the web that talk about this increasing trend of claiming religious exemptions that people don't really have to get out of vaccinating. I just don't understand WHY we have to do it in the first place. Why does the government even get a say in how we choose to raise our children? Especially when it comes to putting strains of viruses and chemicals into their tiny little bodies. People say it's wrong not to vaccinate my children because it puts their kids at risk.....well if vaccines truly do what everyone thinks they do, then it shouldn't matter if mine aren't vaccinated because there would be no risk of their kids getting sick from mine......right? And it's not like Maddie is this walking disease, she gets her fair share of colds, but she has never had the flu or thrown up, and she certainly has never had any of these diseases that we vaccinate against. It's not like she is going to walk into preschool and bring polio in along with her peanut butter sandwich. Every American citizen should have the choice to vaccinate or not vaccinate based on thier own beliefs, whether they be religious, or philosophical or based on what their parents parents decided to do or even because they are skeptical of the risks associated with potential side affects. That way, everyone wins; people like us who chose not to vaccinate can go to bed at night feeling secure that we have protected our children from vaccines, and people who chose to vaccinate can go to bed at night feeling secure that they protected their children by giving them vaccines. It all comes down to making the best choice for your children/family, and one choice does not fit all, but we should ALL be able to make that choice without having to hide behind religion. Here are some interesting articles that are floating around right now.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21347434/
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/13778313/detail.html
http://beehive.ivillage.com/ivillage/archives/stephanie/2007/10/
I didn't intend for this blog to go in quite this direction, but sometimes I just get fired up. I believe that there is a place and time for vaccines....when that is for my children, I don't know. Dan didn't get any vaccines until he was 18 and joined the military. But I do know that we went from having about 12 vaccines when I was young to now having over 30 of them and I just don't trust a process that has so much money tied into it, and so many, many adverse reactions for our children. Remember when kids used to get chicken pox naturally and got to take a week off school? Since when is it considered life threatening diesase for our youth and a mandatory vaccine? Our immune systems are amazing and seem to do a really good job when we leave them to it......and if an outbreak were to occur, we would vaccinate for it......but not for 30 other diseases at the same time.
In closing, here are some pictures of my beautiful daughter. Watch out America, my unvaccinated germy child is wandering the world where you live! Be afraid.....be very afraid! lol
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I love you because
Current mood:I love you because:blessed
You wash the dishes every night because I hate doing it.
You are the man who pulls over and helps a car that has driven off the side of the road in a blizard.
You are the dreamer in our relationship.
You clean the bathtub for me before I take a bath.
You always see the best in people.
You let me sleep in on your days off from work.
You are always ready to help someone move.
You change more poopie diapers than any other man.
You never complain.
You have an incredible work ethic.
You eat whatever I make, even if it's not something you like.
You have the courage to work full time, go to school full time and have a family.
You have the magic touch at putting babies to sleep.
You look really good in jeans.
You are really smart and can always explain complicated things to me in ways that I understand.
You make sure that I have coffee in the morning.
You have made a name for yourself at work and are respected by your collegues.
You have crazy hair brain schemes.
You brush your teeth with me every night.
You sacrafice what you have and what you want for our family.
You listen to country music in the car with me because I like it even though you don't.
You read your devotional every morning.
You let me pick at you even though you hate it.
You get teary eyed when you talk about our babies.
You still have the card from the restaurant we had our first date at in your wallet.
You almost always say yes, but you know how to say no.
You care about my friends.
You dream about me.
You are an equal partner in our marriage and in raising our kids.
You really listen to me, even when I blather on.
You never forget to kiss me goodnight.
You play with your daughters.
You are really good at building things.
You make me laugh.
You always have my back.
You love sushi as much as I do.
You had laundry day underwear.
You always apologize when necessary.
You are a good friend.
You trust in God.
You trust in me.
You show me that you love me in small ways everyday, even when you're tired, or I'm crabby, or the girls are driving us crazy !
The world has been blessed by you for 28 years and I have had the honor of your love for the last 5. Cheers to the next 72 years together! (we're gonna live to be 100!) I LOVE YOU!
Happy, Happy Birthday Daniel!
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oopsies
Current mood:My daughter seems to have a knack for getting herself into awkward situations. I guess it's just part of her learning about her surroundings and testing life. Here are a few examples:awake
She
got herself stuck in her baby doll stroller......but it didn't stop her
from continuing to watch cartoons while calling for help! lol
Sugar substitute anyone?
Stuck
in the air conditioner vent. She has a weird fasination with
these.....it was just a matter of time before she got herself stuck!
We are going to a preschool this morning to check it out. The original one we were going to sign Maddie up for couldn't find a director and aren't going to have a fall program. So, we are trying to find a new place. This preschool we are checking out today has a program that is 3 mornings a week from 9-1. I would really like for Maddie to have an outlet outside our home so hopefully we like this location.
We have had a rough couple of days. My friend and her son came over last week and I was told that her son had allergies which explained his thick runny nose and cough, well aparently it wasn't allergies because I have been sick since Saturday and Charlotte has been sick since Tuesday. Maddie has a runny nose, but doesn't seem to be all that affected. It is not a good time when your not even 3 month old is sick and having difficulty breathing. It seems though that we are on the upswing and feeling better today. I'd like to think that the breast milk is making a difference because I've read that my antibodies are in it and that should help her fight off the virus. I'm perturbed though that my friend would bring her son over to my house with a runny nose and cough even if she thought that it was just allergies. Charlotte is still an infant and her getting sick could be a really bad thing this young. Luckily it hasn't been THAT bad.....but it was pretty hairy for about 24 hours and I was seriously worried.....Dan had to sleep sitting up on the couch holding the baby the other night otherwise Charlotte couldn't breathe. I always try and inform others when Maddie is sick when we are going to be around them or their children.....it's the polite thing to do to let them decide if they want my sick kid around them......I just wish others would do the same. Anyway. I best get my day going. Wish us luck at the preschool!
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ramblings of a tired woman
Current mood:Things around here are a little better. We had another trip to the doctor on Tuesday because there was blood and mucous in Charlotte's poop, but since then no more blood and she seems to be feeling better. Everyday is so unpredictable though, some days she sleeps beautifully all day and some days I have to work really hard to get her down for a nap. Most night Charlotte goes to bed really easily but then we'll have a night like last night where it was a pain in the butt to get her to sleep. I have noticed that when I stay home with the girls all day and try and keep a schedule both of them do better. It may be boring for me, and possibly boring for Maddie, but things run smoother, everyone gets the sleep that they need and in turn everyone's mood is better. Today my friend came over with her son who is Maddie's age and they stayed up until nap time and it was chaotic!!! When they finally left I fed Maddie lunch and put her down for her nap and she spent about 30 minutes playing in her room before she went to sleep. Normally she goes down for her nap with no issues. And Charlotte has been off kilter so far today. She's sleeping right now, but I had to lay down with her to get her asleep and she is sleeping really lightly.....I think she needs to poop. I'm sorry for those of you who don't want to hear about poop, but it's a major part of my life right now, and since my blog is about my life, that is and will continue to be a subject matter that I write about. I hear there a lots of non poop related blogs on the internet though.....I'm not 100% sure though because I don't really have time to read blogs and such.tired
I'm really happy that the weekend is here and that maybe I can play catch up with some sleep. I get enough sleep during the night but I still feel tired all the time. I guess waking up in the middle of the night to feed the baby messes my sleep zen up. I don't know if I mentioned this in my last couple of blogs, but Charlotte now weighs 15 pounds 6 ounces and is wearing 6 month clothes. Holy cow. I don't get tiny babies for very long, my girls grow quickly, and I'm wondering when they stop growing so rapidly because Maddie is 34 pounds and 36 inches tall and wears a size 3T and isn't even 2 yet! Enjoy them while they're little cause they don't stay that way for very long; people!
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Raleigh Kids Exchange
Current mood:Last week Dan and I got a babysitter for Maddie and took Charlotte to the Raleigh kids exchange. Dan actually volunteered this time so that we could shop on volunteer day like we did in January when I volunteered. I don't know why people would choose to buy kids clothes and toys brand new when they could buy gently used from the consignment sale. We got SO much stuff and for much much less than if we would have bought it new. So we now have fall and winter clothes for both Maddie and Charlotte and lots of new age appropriate toys for Maddie.....it had been a long time since we bought Maddie toys and most of what we had wasn't really age appropriate! Here's a list of what we got:
drained
25 outfits for Maddie
8 pairs of pjs for Maddie
Winter jacket for Maddie
Winter hat for Maddie
14 outfits for Charlotte (she won't be able to fit into the clothes that Maddie wore during the winter her first year.)
4 pairs of shoes for Maddie
2 dress up outfits
dress up shoes, crown, purse, necklaces and bracelets
7 puzzles
mega blocks
race car track with 6 cars
toy food and dishes
baby doll
baby stroller
tape recorder
battery operated train with train track
toy tool kit
lacing bear with clothes
lacing buttons
felt book with felt animals
sit n spin
wooden toy cake
2 books
doll house with people and furniture
bath toys
potty chair and potty seat
tricycle
extra firm boppy
All for less than $300.
That should hold us over until the next consignment sale!
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random thoughts
Current mood:Every time I feel like I've hit the point where I've had enough and I want to give up, a little unexpected gift is thrown my way. Both of my girls are currently napping which generally does not happen! And even more amazing some girl came to the door selling stuff while I was lying down with Charlotte and she rang the door bell twice and neither of them woke up. I'm sure that this free time won't last very long, but after the last couple of days I really need this silence.awake
I am so excited about the olympics!! I know that I'm supposed to be boycotting them because of China and such, but I just can't. Ever since I was a little girl and watched the Nadia Comaneci movie I have always loved and looked forward to the olympics, especially the summer games, although I like the winter games too! I've already got my DVR ready to go now all I have to do is figure out when on earth I will have time to watch it!
It's amazing the things that kids pick up from adults. Everytime I hand something to Maddie, I say "here you go," and I never really realized that I did it until she started playing with her pretend food and dishes and would say "here you go," when she handed me a tea cup or a plate with cookies. I don't know why, but I find the things that Maddie unintentionally learns from us more amazing than the things we actively teach her. She is such a smart little cookie.....we better continue to have clean language around her!! lol
Afternoons and evenings suck in my household right now, but the nights have been really good, we've been getting 7-9 solid hours of sleep each night. I don't know if that completely makes up for how hard the days are, but it sure makes it a little easier to handle. It's a good thing that Charlotte is so darn cute, and that when she smiles at me I pretty much melt, because otherwise I might just sell her to the circus.
I really like that Maddie is at the stage where she can help me around the house. She has started helping me cook which mostly involves her pouring things, or stirring. She also helps me with the laundry. I sit her up on top of our chest freezer and hand her clothes and she throws them into the washer. She also takes all the clothes out of the dryer and puts them into the hamper. Now if only I could get her to fold the laundry!!! Thats the part I hate the most, and all she is capable of at this point to throwing the clean laundry around the house. No folding! It's hard to believe that she is going to be 2 next month. My how time flies.
Tuesday I am taking the girls to the pottery shop and getting Charlotte's hand and foot prints done! I am so super excited. We got Maddie's done when she was 11 weeks old, and Charlotte will be 11 weeks this coming Friday. The pottery shop doesn't normally do this type of work, but I went and met with the owner a couple of times a few months back and showed her the plaques I have from Maddie and she has agreed to help me make them. Which is fantastic because can't get to CA anytime in the near future to get them done and I so wanted to have them for both girls at the same age.
Dan has Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off this week and I must say that I am truly looking forward to it. The day is SO much easier when I have him here to help me. It's not easy to get the baby down to sleep while Maddie is running around the house screeching and banging her toys around, or when she is trying to get my attention or trying to pull me out of the rocking chair. Just to have Dan home to distract Maddie while I rock Charlotte to sleep makes the day go much more smoothly! A fact of my life is when Charlotte gets the sleep that she needs we are all a happier family!
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life.
Current mood:Just a quick bloggity blog while I wait for my bagel to toast. I have been up since 3:30 this morning which doesn't feel so bad right now with a LOT of coffee in my system, but I'm sure that I am gonna feel like road kill by this evening. lol Things are both good and bad in the house of Schultz. Charlotte is sleeping like a champ I tell ya. She went to bed last night at 7:00pm, woke up 8 hours later to nurse and then went back to sleep until 6:00.....she woke up to eat and then went back to sleep and now it's 8:30 and she is still down. Her naps during the day are great too, we started her on the sleep schedule almost 2 months earlier than we did Maddie and thus far she is rockin' it and there is totally no crying involved. I'm sure we will hit speed bumps along the way, but so far so good. The not so happy part is that her digestive issues are still present. She is still constipated and it's causing her to have reflux because she is totally backed up. We went to the doctor yesterday and came up with a modified plan for her basically to get us through the next 2-4 weeks when bacteria should be in her belly to help with the digestive process. Her doc thinks that all of these issuess will be cleared up once her belly can support the bacteria and enzymes.....there is a nice long explaination of how her gut and digestive process works, but I'll spare you the details! lol But around the 3 month mark the process starts so I'm counting down the days which we only have 14 days until she is 3 months old, but it may take a little longer. It seems that at the 3 month mark a lot of good things happen for babies that make them feel better because I've read that is when colic ends too for babies that have it. We love the 3 month mark. But the doctor listened to ber bowels and she is still cramping, and is very obviously constipated because she isn't pooping regularly but hopefully our new plan will help and time will solve the issues. He also told us we were troopers and should go on vacation to Hawaii for a week and leave the kids with grandma and grandpa because life has been pretty hellacious for the past couple months! lol If only! Other than these issues that occupy a lot of our lives, Charlotte is a beautiful baby and her smiley happy times which happen to be few and far between are fantastic and I cherish those moments!!awake
Maddie has been a stinker the past couple of days. I think she is officially in her terrible twos! She has been a frequent visitor of the time out rug and has been really obnoxious with hitting and kicking.....where she learned that I have no clue, but I HATE it! I'm sure she is acting out to get attention because so much of my day is dedicated to the baby, getting her to sleep, nursing her, keeping her from crying etc. I try and have dedicated time to just playing with Maddie, but it really only works out when Charlotte is asleep which some days is not a lot of time, but even when I spend 3 hours playing with her, she still acts out when I am tied down with the baby. I think that life will be so much easier once Charlotte's digestive issues are under control and she can just chill out with us and play. Once she can sit up I can play with both of them at the same time, but for right now I have to either hold Charlotte and rock her or walk around with her to get her to stay calm and not crying and I don't know how it's possible to play and rock or walk etc. I know that things will get better and life will be a little easier but right now it feels overwhelming at times. Our evenings are actually really comical!! Here is a list of things I juggle all within a 2 hour window (for all of this Charlotte needs to be held because she will not let us put her down in the evenings without screaming her head off!):Maddie needs dinner made and help eating it, dogs get fed, I make dinner for Dan and I, Maddie needs a bath, Dan gets home from work at 6:45pm and we eat dinner, Charlotte needs to eat and get ready for bed and put to sleep which sometimes takes an hour or more if she won't settle easily, Maddie goes to bed which thank the Lord is always easy!! By this time it's nearing 8:30 and the dishes need to be done, the house picked up, I may shower since I can only do so when Dan is home and then it's bed time!! We have a pretty hairy evening to say the least. Oh, and Dan starts school on August 15th so life is going to get even more interesting! lol I try and take each day at a time and stay positive and try and laugh at the situations we are in.....sometimes I have breakdowns, but most of the time I succeed at keeping everything together. All of this is worth it though, I love my girls and my husband and on most days I am really content. Well I better go, Maddie has finished eating the cream cheese off her bagel and is using the barren bagel as a sponge of sorts on the floor. Oh the things toddlers can do with their food!
P.S. I updated my profile the other day and added new pictures to my actual page...check it out if you feel so inclined!
Friday, August 1, 2008
August 2008
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