Never a Dull Moment

Having a 4-year-old can be quite challenging. There's never a dull moment in our house with Jace. He keeps us on our toes...well, at least me. He seems to behave a little better when Lance his home. I guess mommy's the one that has taken it more easy on him and he thinks he can get away with things easier with her. Something I need to work on, I guess. That kid likes to make mischief. I can't keep up with him!!! It can be overwhelming at times finding his messes. And usually, I don't even hear him doing it. That's what boggles me. He's so quiet and sneaky. And he's fast too! He usually makes these messes while I'm feeding Ariana or something quick like that. Here's what I mean:

The other day, while I was feeding Ariana, Jace came running into me telling me he had cleaned his floor. I was shocked he could do that because his floor was not exactly clean. Where did everything go I wondered...oh...here it is! In the bathroom. I screamed when I saw the mess, and then I laughed, and then I cried a little because I knew I would have to help him clean it up.

Today, I was in the bathroom getting ready and walked out to find all of his toys lined up outside the bathroom door, toys that had been downstairs. Somehow, he managed to carry his toys from the basement and get them upstairs before I got out of the bathroom. There weren't just a few toys. There were about 20 different cars, 2 racetracks, a toy piano, etc.

How does he do it??? Let me tell you....being a mother can be a little overwhelming at times. I get really frustrated and wonder how I can do it, but I just keep trudging along because I am reminded daily from my little boy that he loves me and those are the moments that I love the most.

I just have to post this as well because I love it. About a month ago, Jace had a pen and paper and I managed to get him to write his name.

I can't get over it! I love it. Then, today, I brought him into my work for a little while where we met Lance. I looked over at the board to see this:

This is honestly the first thing he's ever drawn that you actually know what it is. It's a picture of his daddy. The little scribble on his head is his hat and he also gave him a little beard too. Is that not cute? I love my kids!!!

6 Months!

Ariana is 6 months old. Did I really just say that? Can it already have been 6 months with her part of our family? Time goes way too fast! These have seriously been some of the best 6 months in my life. I absolutely LOVE having a daughter. I love having a son too, of course. There's just something so special about this little girl though. Here are some things about this little girl that I would like to remember at 6 months.

*She's sooo happy. The only time she cries if she's really really hungry or if she gets really tired.

*It took 5 months, but she has finally turned into a binky baby. It has been seriously the GREATEST thing! I don't think she is attached to the binky, but if she gets really tired, all I have to do is stick her binky in her mouth and she's out like a light.

*She loves to sit up. As long as someone is holding her, she's pretty happy.

*She loves to nurse, and I honestly love nursing her, but sadly, I think my nursing days are about over. I nursed Jace up to 6 months and I couldn't do it anymore. Sadly, the same thing is happening with Ariana. I don't think I'm destined to nurse past 6 months. No matter how much water I drink or what I do, my body just stops producing enough milk at 6 months. It's been an emotional time thinking of stopping with her because I've nursed her since birth and I love it.

*We're still working on solid foods with her, but so far, it still hasn't been going very well. I've been adding breast milk to her cereal and I think it helps maybe a little, but she still isn't too interested in it. So far, I've also tried feeding her sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, and even bananas and she hasn't really gone for it. She spazzes out everytime I give her a bite. I think it might be a texture thing rather than a taste thing. We'll just keep working at it.

*She has finally rolled over once from tummy to back and once back to tummy. She still just doesn't understand it very much. She's just kind of a slowpoke at picking up on it.

*She sleeps through the night and has been for awhile. She wakes up pretty early in the morning, but after a feeding, she's back to sleep until like noon.

*She's my cuddle bug. Jace would only go to sleep in his crib as a baby. With her, I can wrap her up and give her a binky and she'll fall asleep in my arms. I love it!

*She's still ticklish.

*She loves blankets and dresses, whatever she can grab and pull up over her. I put a dress on her for church last week and the entire time at church, she laid on the floor with her dress pulled up and nuzzled to her face. Everyone was so concerned about it, but she was happy as could be.

*She lights up whenever someone walks into the room. When daddy gets home or Jace gets home from school, she gets so happy to see a new face.

*She's getting really close to sitting up on her own. She doesn't quite have it, but we're working on it everyday.

*She's still my little chunkeroo. Her 6-month appointment isn't for another month because she had her 4-month appointment so late, but I know she's chunky. I took her to the doctor for eczema a couple weeks ago and she weighed I think 18 3/4 pounds, something like that. I don't know the percentage of that, but I'm pretty sure it has to be in the 90's at least.

*She currently has no teeth, but I know she's teething. The way she drools and chews on things constantly, I know a tooth has got to be popping up sometime soon.

I have a girl in our neighborhood taking pictures of her this week, so hopefully I can post those soon after getting them taken!

100 posts! And what we've been up to...

So, I've been blogging for approximately 4 years now, and I'm just now getting to my 100th post. That shows how much I update my blog. Oh well...I try. So, I know I said last month that I would update after Ariana's 4-month appointment. Well, that was about a month ago and I'm finally getting to it. Ariana did great at her doctors appointment. She weighed 17 1/2 pounds (97%) and honestly, I can't remember her height but I think it calculated to like the 95% or something like that. So, she's a pretty big. This is where the appointment go interesting. They looked at her growth for her head and it was off the charts big. I always knew she had a bigger head, but I guess I just didn't realize how big it was. The doctor got a little concerned about the size and wanted to schedule an appointment for an ultrasound on it at Primary Children's. They thought she was developing normally and stuff, so they weren't too concerned. There's just always concern about water on the brain with some bigger-headed babies. Anyways, our insurance has paid everything for the rest of the year, so I went ahead and went with it. I figure I'd rather be safe than sorry. So, the following week, I headed up to the hospital with baby girl in tow. Lance just HAD to get the stomach flu that morning, so I took my mother-in-law with me for support. Got up there, got checked in, got right back to the room and they looked everything over. Ariana was a real trooper and was happy for most of it. I think it got really hard for her to hold still and eventually got fussy. We got results the same day. Radiologist said everything looked on the high end of normal to her. There is some liquid in her soft spot area, but nothing to be concerned about. It should clear up by the time she turns 1. What a relief! Poor Ariana has the big-headed genes I guess. Our baby is happy and healthy and that's all that matters.

Ariana is now 5 months old and such a sweet and good baby. She's such a joy to have in our family. Jace loves her so much. I hear him every morning when they both wake up talking to her and assuring her she's okay and mommy will come and get her. He loves to rub his head into her and talk to her and it's funny how much she likes it. She just loves her big brother and loves to watch his every move. Some more things about Ariana just so I can remember them (I was never very good about documenting things about Jace and now regret it). She hasn't rolled over yet. I guess she's going to be really slow at it. She loves her mommy! She is really good when her daddy takes care of her, but will eventually get really fussy, but the second she sees her mommy, she just gets a big smile like she's so happy to see me. She is sooooo ticklish! I don't think I've ever seen a baby as ticklish as she is. She loves to stand. I think I remember Jace always sitting, but Ariana, all I have to do is grab both hands and she automatically goes to a standing position. We noticed today she's a little bit of a thumb sucker. She won't take a binky. We pushed it for a little while and she would eventually start sucking on it, but she was never very big on it. Sometimes I think she is teething because she's starting to suck on her fingers and everyone else's fingers and she drools like no other! Good thing she got lots of bibs for Christmas because I think she is going to require one. I started Ariana on baby food, but it has been so hard for her to pick up on how to eat thicker stuff. I've been trying for about a month to feed her rice cereal and even tried sweet potatoes once. It's almost like she just has a really hard time swallowing it. I push some into her mouth and she automatically sticks out her tongue and it all comes back out. I don't ever remember giving Jace baby food being this difficult. She's definitely big enough for it. I'm just continuing to work on it and hoping she will pick it up soon because it sure has been frustrating trying to get her to eat it everyday.

As a mom, I really worry about my kids. I know I'm not the only mother to say that. I just really watch my kids and see how they're developing compared to other kids. Sure every kid is different, but I just really watch and tend to notice things. I noticed a lot of things about Jace and then found out later I wasn't crazy and he has aspergers. I just look at Ariana and worry about her as well. It's a little worrisome that she hasn't rolled over yet. I think it's more worrisome that she doesn't really try to roll over. Whenever I lay her down on the ground on her tummy, she just lays there. I feel like she should be making attempts to roll over by now. I also worry a little bit that she doesn't try to grab at things yet. A lot of babies by this age are starting to touch things and hold onto them. I put a toy in front of Ariana and she just looks at it. I put something to her hand and she just drops it. Maybe my problem is I have 2 kids now and Ariana is very different from how her brother was. I'm not too worried about her yet because she is still young and she does do a lot of things like smile and laugh and react to things. It's just other things physically that she doesn't do. It's just really interesting to me to see the difference between babies.


I suppose I should post about Jace as well. I can't forget about that little guy. Jace is just a super fun little boy. We just celebrated Christmas yesterday and it was a blast with him this year. Lance and I decided to forgo doing gifts for each other this year and focus on Jace. I don't regret it one bit. Jace memorized about every Christmas song that came on the radio. I think he's going to be a little sad getting in the car finding that Christmas songs are now over. I think his favorite was Jingle Bell Rock. Jace was excited about gifts this year. He opened all of his presents and was even excited over all of Ariana's. He went around the room with my family and had to help all of them with opening their presents. We got home so late last night that we told Jace we didn't have time to get his toys out because it was bed time. This morning, I found him sitting with his toys around him just looking at all of them in their boxes waiting until Lance and I woke up to get them out for him. Jace still loves preschool. He has now learned all of the capital letters and most of his numbers as well. We are now trying to focus on helping him learn his lower case letters. He loves to see things written out and tell us what letters they are. He is finally really starting to get good about letting us take pictures of him. If you remember, Jace has always hated getting pictures taken. I'm excited because he's getting pictures tomorrow with his cousins and hopefully they should turn out really good. Getting pictures of Jace isn't such a traumatic thing anymore. And sadly, I don't have any new pictures of with me to post of him right now.

As for an update on me and Lance....I'm still working, but just PRN (as needed). I was worried about not having guaranteed hours, but it has been great so far. I've been picking up quite a few shifts, especially with it being the holidays. Lance picked up a temporary second job, just where he already works but taking phone calls. He's gone all the time, but it's been a blessing for our family his work letting him do that. He had interview with another company to work a second job, but I'd rather him keep doing what he is doing for as long as they'll let him. We'll see what happens with that.

Anyways...I think that's about our life right now. Things are going great with our little family. I'll write again next year!!!

Lots of Ariana

So, Ariana turned 4 months last week. She's already 1/3 of a year old...seriously!?! I plan on posting next week all about my baby girl as soon as she has her 4-month doctor appointment. But for now, I will just post pictures of our first 4 months with her (in no particular order).














We sure love having this little girl in our family!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACE!

I can't believe my little boy is already 4 years old! He's growing up way too fast. He was so fun to celebrate his Birthday with this year. All he ever asked for for his Birthday was Thomas the Train toothpaste. Then, he wanted to go to school on his Birthday and celebrate it with his school friends and have them all tell him "Happy Birthday Jace!" Lucky for him, his Birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, which happened to be a school day. We celebrated his Birthday this year by going to Jungle Jim's on Saturday with Lance and I's families. That way, I didn't have to do anything but make a cake. Jace was in HEAVEN when we got there. He was hugging every one's legs and just couldn't stop smiling. Even though there were a lot of kids and it was a little hectic, it was SOOOO worth it to see that smile on his face. Sadly, I don't have my camera with me to upload the pictures of his party. On Wednesday, he got "Mommy's donuts" (isn't it sad the local donut shop is mommy's donuts?) for breakfast and then he got his wish and got to go to school.
So, here are a few things I love about this kid:

*Even though sometimes he's a little rough with her, he loves his baby sister. He constantly has to hug and kiss her even if she is smothered by it. Yesterday, in fact, she was in her carseat on the floor and next thing I knew, he had her pulled out onto his lap so he could hold her.
*He keeps me on my toes. I'm constantly cleaning up after his messes, whether it be crayons on the wall or strawberry syrup painted on my kitchen floor. Not fun to clean up, but something has to get me up and going in the day!
*He gets excited over everything! And he'll always tell me "Oooh...I love that!"
*He is turning into my big helper. Not necessarily the best thing because things can turn a little messier than they already were, like when I ask for 1 diaper and he brings me a whole armful of them and drops them on the floor, or he unloads the dishwasher and sets the clean dishes with the dirty ones, so I never remember which ones I already washed and which ones still need to be washed.
*He is always so concerned about people. My in-laws all caught the flu on Monday and Jace kept asking me if we were going to go over there so he could take care of them. Unfortunately, I wouldn't let him. Then, my mom had surgery a couple days ago. When we went over there this morning, he asked her "Grandma, are you feeling better? I said a prayer for you that you would get better." Cutest thing in the world!
*He has the sweetest voice I've ever heard. It's hard to turn him down for things he wants because he's so sweet!
*The way he gets excited over a dollar and says "Look! I have 50 dollars!"
*The times I hear him reading to himself or singing a song I didn't realize he even knew.
*The way I find his toys under the covers taking a nap or with food on them because they had something to eat.
*How he predicts the weather forecast for the day. He's always been right telling me which days it's going to rain (when there's not a cloud in the sky) or it's not going to rain.
*He's my little shopping list. I'll take him to the store and he'll tell me which things I need to remember to buy. Leave it to him to remember things I probably would have forgotten.

There are so many more things I could say about this little boy. He's just such a blessing to me. He teaches me patience and a whole lot more. I honestly could not imagine not having him as part of our family.

Newborn Pictures

So, I finally got back all of my pictures of Ariana. I'm very happy with how they turned out. Just a warning....lots of pictures! But they're of a cute baby, so who can complain?













I just love this little girl! I can't get enough of her. She is such a good baby. She only cries if she's hungry. Yesterday, she was more fussy than usual because she had to get her 2-month immunizations. She is such a chunky baby. She's doubled in size since I had her. I took her to the doctor yesterday and here are her 2-month stats:
Height: 23.6 inches
Weight: 14.3 pounds
Yep, she is a big baby. The doctor pulled up her growth chart and she went from the 75% range for height and weight to 98% at 2 months. She sure is a joy to have in our home. Jace can be a little mean to her (if we're not watching him), but I think he loves her. She's starting to smile a little bit and sometimes I think she's cooing at me. It's hard to tell because she grunts so much. We're very happy to have this little girl in our home!

A little update

I finally was able to go to my parents' house and upload all of my pictures to her computer the other day, so I decided to update the blog. For some reason, my computer won't recognize our camera. I'm not sure why, but it's a pain not being able to put pictures on our computer straight from my camera. I guess that's my excuse for not blogging a whole lot....that and being busy with 2 kids and trying to sneak in sleep any chance I get. No, I can't complain. Ariana is a good baby and a pretty good sleeper. As long as she's changed and fed, she's pretty good about sleeping.

Last week, Jace was able to start up preschool again. We took him on Monday to a "back-to-school night" and once he got to go in his classroom and play a little, he was happy and excited for his first day. So on Wednesday, he was up bright and early and all ready for his first day. He takes the bus, so we went outside early to snap a couple pictures. He refused to let me do his hair. Oh well.


Isn't he so handsome? I was so happy he actually let me take his picture!

Then, on Sunday, we were able to bless Ariana in church. I went all out and got her a really fancy dress. I wasn't planning on it, but I loved the dress I found and it was the right price. I had been looking forward to her blessing day since I had her. I couldn't wait to dress her all up. As Jace put it, she was a princess.

Daddy and his little girl.




Lance gave a beautiful blessing. We had a get-together at the park after. The weather couldn't have been better. We're grateful for family and friends that were able to come.
Anyways, that's been our week. I started work again on Monday, but thankfully, I was able to come back to work PRN, which is basically oncall. No more 4 nights a week! Now I just work as needed. It's hard leaving both of my babies to come back to work, but I know they're in good hands. I miss them both like crazy. My first day back, I was nearly in tears I missed them so much. Today was the first day that Jace went back to grandma's to be babysat since both Lance and I had to work. He got there and automatically starting crying and went up to Lance's mom and said "Guess what grandma...mommy had to go back to work." It broke my heart knowing that he was crying that I had to leave him. Anyways, it's been a good week.