December 2014....Family Time and Celebrating our Savior!

                We spent the month of December trying to focus on celebrating Christ’s birth as well as spending lots of time together as a family.  We had an advent calendar with family activities for each day and we also had a nativity calendar to help build the nativity scene and spur discussion about Christ’s birth.  We battled the remnants of Declan’s ear infection and the stomach bug for everyone but me early in the month, but thankfully the majority of the month was sickness free!

Sideways Nativity because it won't rotate

Our completed family time calendar

                Some of the highlights of our family time this month were egg nog night, decorating cookies, dinners out, Christmas presents a child from home of the innocence, gingerbread houses, gingerbread waffles, movie nights, popcorn, and more.  Alethea loves learning what the fun activity for the day would be.  Both kiddos took turns rotating between adding a character to our nativity calendar and putting a sticker on our advent family time calendar.  It is so much fun to live the excitement of the season through a child’s eyes.

 

 

                The culmination of our family time was a lot of time spent with my side of the family the week of Christmas.  We had a fun baking/cooking day the Monday before Christmas at our house in preparation for our family Christmas the following day.  Then, after Cody got off work on Tuesday, we had fun getting together at Cody and Justine’s house.  We enjoyed some pizza, custard and cake, and yum-yum bars followed by kiddos opening presents.  It was so much fun to watch all three of them thoroughly enjoy the process and then even more fun watching them have so much fun playing together.  We enjoyed a relaxing Christmas Eve day at home, prepping food for Christmas day, going to Christmas Eve serving, and then watching both versions of the Grinch and wrapping presents.  The kiddos watched the cartoon version and then after they went to bed Ben and I watched the Jim Carey version and I got to wrap presents on Christmas Eve like I always love to do.

                Christmas day was even more special this year.  This is the first year Alethea has been so aware of the Christmas story and the true meaning of Christmas.  We have never played the Santa Claus game, though she does love all the stories about him, but this was the first year she really grasp the concept that Christmas was about celebrating Christ’s birthday.  It was so much fun to read the Christmas story from her Bible and have her make the connections for why we each get 3 gifts on Christmas.  She doesn’t necessarily understand the symbolism behind each individual gift yet, but she does understand that the three gifts are like the three gifts the wise men gave Jesus when they came to visit Him.  She also got very excited about making an ice cream cake for Jesus birthday and she made sure to tell everyone that Jesus wasn’t really going to eat the cake, but He would enjoy watching us celebrate His birth from heaven. J 

We had to get a little creative this year to explain why Mommy and Daddy were just getting one big gift, a weekend away, because that weekend meets the criteria for all three gifts, lol.  Alethea’s gifts included: a cd of hymns sung by kids and a veggie tales movie as her frankincense gift, a water bottle and socks as her myrrh gift, and a scooter as her gold gift.  Declan’s gifts were: a cd of toddler worship songs and a veggies tales movie as his frankincense gift, a water bottle and new shoes as his myrrh gift, and a gears building set as his gold gift.  Both kiddos really enjoyed opening gifts this year and playing with their gifts together.  Delcan was even able to ride Alethea’s scooter with relative ease! 

 

In addition to our little family Christmas, we had my parents and Granpeg over for some delicious homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit, eggs, sausage, and bacon for brunch.  Alethea ended up eating 4 just by herself, but Declan was more interested in the fruit bowl.  Then after naps we headed over to Cody and Justine’s for some brisket, mac n cheese, green beans and mashed potatoes.  Declan’s favorite was his “cheese cheese” as he calls mac n cheese.  Then we just had fun hanging out and eventually sang happy birthday to Jesus and enjoyed our ice cream cake.  It was such a fun day and time of year making memories as a family, and next year there will be 5 of us. Crazy!

Now it’s time for the end of the year update on the kiddos.  Declan is now 32¼ inches tall and weighs 23.8lbs at 18months. Because Alethea has always been off the charts, I am not sure what normal is and the doc reassured me at Declan’s well check-up that he is growing just fine.  I figured as  much, but it is always nice to confirm.  Surprisingly, he has been working on molars all month, only 2 have actually broken through, but we have had no evidence of the process other than chewing on things more and happening to check his mouth wondering when the kid was going to have more teeth, lol. He has a silly fake laugh and loves to do something he is proud of, then walk backwards away from it while pointing and laughing to get our attention.

 He is very vocal even though he doesn’t say many words.  He loves to yell “mama” or pretty much anything else that comes to his mind at the time, especially in the car.  His words list that I can think of consists of: “uh uh” (his version of no and answer to every question) “mama” “dada” “aya!” (Alethea) “mawmaw” (mamaw), “cheese” “cheese cheese” (mac n cheese), “uh ah” (uh-oh), and then he makes car, dog, and duck noises.  He is so aware of what is being said around him and it isn’t uncommon for him to start doing something I just asked Alethea to do. His grasp of language is so good and he is becoming very communicative even though mostly with a variety of sounds/inflections and not words.  He loves to complete tasks for me like going to get a diaper or putting his clothes in the dirty clothes or unload the dishwasher (this one can be nerve-wracking). He loves to make silly faces and has begun to make them on purpose to get our attention and he is becoming more and more aware of how we react to him. 

He is a little Houdini and  can unbuckle his chest clip in his carseat (something Alethea still can’t do at almost 4yrs old).  One of the biggest changes for him this month happened in preparation for Baby E’s arrival and preparing Declan for sharing a room with Alethea; he started sleeping in a toddler bed.  We initially put him in the twin bed on the floor in his room, but he kept rolling off so we decided he need a more gradual transition.  After a few longer nights of crying, he has made a great transition to a toddler bed. We don’t have to worry about him getting out of bed either because he hasn’t done so since the first night and nap in the bed.  Hoping he continues to be like his sister and keeps this habit of staying in bed.

Alethea has slowed down her growth but she is still off the charts.  She is 42¼ inches tall and 37.4lbs at 3yrs 10months.  She is wearing 4s and 5s in pants and 5s, 6s, and 7s in shirts.  She can be hard to predict so we don’t really buy more than a season ahead.  She loves to color and make pictures with stickers.  She thrives in one on one interactions which can sometimes be hard with a little brother but we really try to set aside special time for her whenever we can.  She always wants to know where we are going and is such a social butterfly so she wants to go places pretty much every day.  We are working on the concept that sometimes you just need to stay home to recharge and get things done.  

She is big into matching colors and has a lot of similar habits like her mommy where she wants things to be a certain way and will let people know if they don’t do it right.  I may be unintentionally creating a control freak, lol.  One thing is for sure, she is a lot like me and that creates a lot of conflict at times as a result, but I think we are growing as a result of it.  She definitely tries to be a little mommy to Declan and copies things that I will do for/say to him.  Thankfully, for the most part, he is still at an age he doesn’t mind this but we do try to remind her that she isn’t in charge. The good part of this is that she is very helpful with Declan and helps to keep him safe and taken care of.  If something is wrong with him, she first tries to help him but, if she can’t, she immediately comes to get help from us.  I love her caring and sweet spirit that is so evident in her love for her little brother.

She is still very honest and we can count on her to tell on herself, even if it gets her in trouble, she is much more emotionally volatile lately, maybe partly due to lack of naps, but It can make it hard to get through to her at times.  Sometimes she is just such an emotional mess that we can’t really do anything other than give her some time alone to calm down and then process with her afterward.  She is also a yo-yo eater and many evenings eats a tiny amount of food simply because she doesn’t want what is served for dinner.  I am pretty sure there are nights where she is starving, but if she was hungry enough, and not so stubborn, she would eat. J  She loves her bible songs and is always requesting to listen to them in the car. Sometimes we have to compromise and listen to other music or silence for a bit, but most of the time she gets to enjoy her music.  She is very into princesses lately and loves to sing the songs associated with their movies.  For Christmas, she got a few of the princess Barbie type dolls and she loves them.  So fun!

What a wonderful end to our year and looking forward to all the blessings 2015 has in store!

November 2014

                November was a busy month full of gatherings, but it was fun nonetheless.  The very first day of November we got our first snow and we really didn’t have much more the rest of the month.  Declan got to go out and enjoy it for his first time ever and he enjoyed it…only for a little bit though.  Fall back also happened early in November and thankfully the kiddos didn’t do too bad with it.  They both lost sleep for a while, but adjusted after a week or so and are sleeping pretty normal.  We also took one last trip to the zoo on a super warm day.  We had to bundle up, but it was much better than it had been. The kiddos loved riding the carousel and getting to spend time with Mamaw, Aunt Justine, and Olivia.

                We also enjoyed three thanksgiving gatherings this month.  First we had a meal with the Ginter side of the family at Granpeg’s house.  As always we enjoyed my Daddy’s dumplings as well as many other yummies.  Then the next week we headed up to New York to visit Ben’s family.  We started out in Rochester and enjoyed a gathering at Ben’s moms of friends and family and yummy food.  It was fun seeing the kiddos surrounded by so much love and enjoying their play time.  Alethea is especially fond of EmmaLee and they played a ton together.  Then we headed off to Syracuse after a few days to spend time with Ben’s dad.  Then on Thanksgiving day we enjoyed our final Thanksgiving meal at his cousins house.  The food was delicious and it was so much fun to see how much fun the kiddos had together.  They are all so close together in age and the girls especially had a wonderful time playing together.  So sweet!  Unfortunately, as has become routine, Declan ended up sick in transition and by the end of our time we ended up at the Urgent Care in Syracuse.  Turns out he had a raging ear infection. L  We got him meds and then, since he hadn’t been sleeping well anyway, we drove through the night to get home.  We were all pretty exhausted when we got home, but at least we were home with an extra day to recover.

helping clean out the dumplings pot

                Ben has continued to stay committed to his weight training and basketball. He is at the gym in some way most mornings or in our home gym on the weekends.  It is his biggest stress relief and keeps him healthy at the same time.  He also had the opportunity for some spiritual growth and quality time with men from our church on a men’s retreat.  It was nice for him to get a refreshing weekend away.

I was able to go on a trip with my mom and Granpeg to a Christmas shop nearby and we enjoyed browsing all the pretty directions.  Then we enjoyed a yummy home-style meal at the restaurant associated.  It was nice to have some quality time with some of my favorite ladies. J  I have also been doing a bunch of baking, especially pumpkin related.  I had access to a bunch of pumpkins and so I made a bunch of puree with it and had to use have some fun using it.  We made pumpkin cookies, muffins, bread, oatmeal and they were all delicious. J  I also had a blast doing turkey crafts with the kiddos.

Now for a brief update on the kiddos.  Declan got his 8^th tooth early in the month.  He has been a very slow tooth getter.  He is an excellent eater.  He tries so many different things and actually seems to enjoy many vegetables.  He absolutely loves butternut squash, especially butternut squash soup. He has also become quite the dare-devil, kamikaze kid.  He loves to jump onto things.  His favorite is to pull a chair up to a couch and then dive forward onto. Plus he likes to put his blanket on time of things and then lunge forward onto them.  Thankfully, most of the time, this doesn’t end up badly.  His blanket is still one of his favorite things and does not like to be without it at bedtime.

Alethea is still thoroughly enjoying preschool.  She is such a big fan of learning and always interested in new learning opportunities.  She has a few workbooks from Grandma that she loves to pull out and work on with me.  We don’t really push schooling at this point, but she is so excited about it that we follow her lead.  She is very inquisitive and this is definitely helpful with her desire to learn.  She always wants to know what is going on around her and I think all of her questions (though they drive me crazy at times) have helped her to learn so much.  The connections between concepts she is able to make never cease to amaze me.  Her grasp of often very mature concepts is astounding.  I have also enjoyed observing her child-like faith.  She is very curious about God. She is always asking questions about where God is, or where Jesus is and she is very curious about heaven.  It is so fun to see her excitement about praying and thinking God for what He has given her.  One funny memory involves a rare potty accident (she had 2 in NY though).  We were still awake hanging out with Ben’s mom and I heard a scream from Alethea so I went to check on her.  I couldn’t get any clear answers for what was going on so I simply picked her up and next thing I know I was soaked.  She peed all over me!

These kiddos drive me crazy at times, but I love them so much and thoroughly enjoy being their

Mommy.  They are so precious and sweet with each other most of the time.  It is super common to find them playing all by themselves in the front hall or in one another’s rooms.  And then when I walk into the room Alethea squeals that I am a monster and need to leave and Declan simply squeals.  They also both absolutely love music and dancing.  Delcan tries his best to sing along with Alethea when she is singing songs, but his is usually just squealing, lol.  They both love to dance and often wave around blankets together to dance to their music.  And one last funny happened while I was in the shower.  They usually play super well together while I shower and if something goes wrong Alethea will keep me informed.  She is very good at telling on herself still thankfully.  One day she came to the bathroom to tell me that she had zipped Declan into the suitcase I had out to pack for NY and she couldn’t get him out, lol.  I ended up having to get out of the shower, soapy hair and all, to rescue him. J

         

       So thankful for another wonderful month together!

28 weeks and into the final trimester

How Far Along: 

28 weeks

Due Date: 

February 28th, 2015 (though the ultrasound changed it to 27^th)

Weight Gain:

Approximately  14lbs. More than either past pregnancy, but still in a healthy range so I am good with that!

Boy or girl: 

It will be a surprise come February!  Ben thinks baby is a boy and Alethea thinks baby is a girl.  I really have no clue, but we will all be happy with either. J

Bump Picture: 

 Baby Development:  

By this week, baby weighs 2 1/4 pounds (about the size of a large eggplant) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to heels.

Baby can blink their eyes, which now sport lashes. With baby’s eyesight developing, baby may be able to see the light that filters in through my womb. Baby's also developing billions of neurons in their brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Symptoms:

The biggest symptom is really just headaches.  Thankfully pregnancy seems to treat me well.

Currently craving: 

No cravings.  It’s just important I get food when I am hungry or I am a cranky lady, lol.

Currently Avoiding: 

Nothing.

Belly button status: 

In, but never went out with either kiddo, so I don't anticipate an outie. 

Movement:

I can feel baby’s movements from the outside.  I am excited for movements to get a bit stronger and more regular so that I can give the kiddos a chance to feel Baby E’s movemnts.  Movement seems to be at its greatest after meals and in the evenings, but thankfully it doesn’t interfere with sleep.

Name:

We have an E name whether baby is a boy or a girl

Any appointments?: 

Just had an appointment this past week and baby’s heartbeat is in 130s.  Also, I measured closer to 26 weeks so I am measuring small at this point.  We will have appointments every two weeks now….ugh, but at least we will get to hear the heartbeat more.

Any baby related purchases?:

Nothing recently.  We do have a few necessities that we will need to get soon though.

Alethea and Declan: 

Alethea is still as excited as ever.  She is always mentioning things that sh e will share or give to Baby E when “she” arrives.  She is convinced that Baby E is a girl and plans to share all of her “girl things” with her when she arrives.  If Baby E is a boy, hopefully she won’t be too disappointed, lol.  She also loves to pray and thank God for Baby E and it is so sweet to see her excitement about having a baby join our family.

Declan is still clueless, but it is funny when I am holding him because Baby E is already kicking at him, lol.

Random:

I have already completed my birth plan.  It was much harder to write this time around since I am actually planning for a c-section this time around.  Hopefully, we will be super prepared this time around though since we have been through c-sections two different ways now and know the way we want it to go this time.

October 2014 Update

October was a fun filled month.  We started off the month with a visit from Gaggie and her family.  Ben didn’t get to join us, but the kids and I were able to meet her for lunch.  She brought us some pound cake and the kiddos enjoyed their first taste of yumminess.  I also made a lot of butternut squash soup this month because, not only to Declan and I love it, but we had a bountiful crop of squash through our CSA.  Yum!

One fun event at the library was a visit from the LaGrange fire department.  The head of the department read stories during story time and then they got to see a fireman all dressed up as well as tour the truck.  They both loved the stories and the fire truck, but neither was a fan of the fireman all dressed up. (Declan started crying, lol)  Declan also didn’t like the back seat of the truck as much as the front and actually flipped out quite intensely.  We also had fun seeing the Magic Tree House Dinosaurs in the Dark with my mom at the Derby Dinner Playhouse.  So much fun!

We had lots of fun Halloween fun.  While we don’t get into the  holiday all that much, I am not opposed to some innocent dress up and candy gathering, especially seeing how much fun the kiddos have doing it.  Alethea was a princess and Declan was a spider. We started early in the month with the Halloween party at the zoo and my parents were able to join us for that.  The kiddos had a great time despite the crazy rain!  They walked all around the zoo and met a bunch of characters along the way. However, the only characters Alethea finally did a picture with (only because I made her and stood in the pic too) were Anna and Elsa.  The weekend before Halloween we combine BooDell with a fun walk around downtown LaGrange trick or treating at the businesses.  We weren’t all that impressed with BooDell due to how much it had been talked up in the past.  It was fun to walk around town though and see many of the businesses we never knew existed and the weather was beautiful for it too. 

A princess always needs an umbrella holder, lol

 

Thankfully the kiddos got plenty of candy because we never went out on Halloween for trick or treating.  It was rainy, cold, and both kiddos had runny noses so we just stayed home and made pumpkin cookies.  Alethea’s words when I asked her if she was okay with staying home and making cookies were “I think that is a great idea!”  Both kiddos enjoyed making cookies, but Declan especially loved being able to dump ingredients in and mix the batter. There were no complaints that night and everyone enjoyed the cookies!  We also had fun painting pumpkins a few days before Halloween .  They both loved it and made beautiful pumpkins.

Ben and I are both doing will.  Ben is staying busy with work, working out, and playing basketball.  He is also having fun taking online programming classes with his buddy Sean.  It is fun for them to keep up with each other, but they are also learning some skills to help with work.  I am still working as a Thirty-One consultant, but it wasn’t a super successful month unfortunately.  I have also really enjoyed taking pics for my brother and his family.  This month we actually did two sessions because Olivia got sleepy during the first session.  I am by no means a pro, but I really enjoy taking photos. J  I have also been redoing the elastic in most of our diapers so they not only work better for Declan, but so that they are all set for Baby E come February.  So worth it!

The yellow used to look like the green :-)

                I didn’t do a great job of writing down milestones for the kiddos this month, but I will try to name a few.  A big milestone for Declan was that he completely weaned October 11^th when he dropped his morning nursing session.  My supply was getting lower and things were getting more uncomfortable so we just decided it was time to call it quits.  We did it on the weekend so Ben could get him in the morning for a few days, but he did awesome and there was no turning back.  He wasn’t really nursing well anyway so I think he was ready to be done.  A few of his faves lately are oatmeal (just milk, oats, and chia seeds), butternut squash soup, clementines, trying to jump, standing on the couch (not allowed), standing on chairs to reach whatever he can (not really allowed), dive bombing on things, especially onto the couch off of his chairs that he pushes up so he can get on, throwing balls, etc. up in the air, doing whatever Alethea does and, as always, he loves his blanket.

                Alethea is developing into such a tenderhearted little lady.  She cares so much about what is going on with everyone and wants to make sure everyone is okay.  I love to see her genuine concern about others when they are hurt or sick and she so sweetly prays for them without any prompts.  She is such a people lover.  We do struggle with her strong-willed nature and screaming at times, but I love that she is always able to ID what she has done that was not okay and is usually genuinely remorseful about her behavior.  I know it is all a part of developing into the woman God wants her to ultimately be so we will just continue to guide her over the coming months/years. J  One fun thing for Alethea and I was our first jamberry nails matching pedicure.  So fun!  A few of her faves are Disney princesses (especially Ariel), singing all kinds of songs, dancing, writing her name (she can do it all on her own now), reading books, especially her Bible (both alone and with us), cutting and crafting, playing with Declan, talking and asking questions (lol), and playing dress up (for herself and her babies).

I know it's sideways, but I couldn't get many of her photos to upload straight. :-(

                I am so thankful for all the precious moments with my family, even all the crazy ones.  Life might be stressful and feel like a rollercoaster at times, but it always ends up worth it!