Day 40: Got some sleep

Allie & Kaden-Zane

Last night was a good night.  Kaden slept from 11:30 to 3:30 a.m., woke up to nurse for 20 minutes, then went back to sleep and didn't wake again til 7 a.m.  I hope he does well tonight since I start teaching preschool tomorrow.  My dear visiting teacher offered to take Maddie for a few hours tomorrow to help me feel out my first day back teaching.  Thank you!

Day 39: Busy Sunday

Maddie & Baby after church

So tired again after Zane woke up at 2, 3:30, 5 a.m. and then again at 6:30 a.m.  but I was determined to attend Sacrament meeting.  I have missed going to Church these last two weeks, but Kevin and I decided to keep the baby home until he is at least 2 months old, so we are taking turns attending our meetings. There is a lot of sickness going around, and we hope that this way the odds will be higher that he won't catch them.  

Kevin fed the other three breakfast while I hurried and got myself ready - I was still so groggy from being up in the middle of the night into dawn and having just gone to bed at 11:30 the night before!  But I did it! Kevin stayed home with Kaden, fed him a bottle right as I left. Today was definitely was an "I-know-you-need-to-nurse-but-I-have-to-go-right-now" day!

I was off with the other three at 7:35 a.m. (woo hoo!) and even got a soft bench.  I was glad to not miss the meeting today because Ros (one of my favorite ladies at Church and Collin's music teacher) and her family were speaking today.  I was so happy to get to take the Sacrament.  This sacred ordinance makes me feel whole again after a week of busyness and craziness.  I took Maddie home with me after the meeting since she was coughing and having to blow her nose every minute, and that wasn't going to be good for primary.

On the way home she pointed to the Catholic Church on the corner of Galveston and Williamsfield, and asked if we could go there sometime.  I said she could visit, but that she will probably decide that she wants to go back to our church.  She asked why and I said because we belong to the true Church of Jesus Christ.  and she gets to go to Primary.  She repeated that over and over back to me, and I was glad that on our short 2-minute drive home from Church I got to testify that the Church is true and that it is the church of Jesus Christ.

Kaden was half-asleep when we got home.  He was such a good baby to not be picky and took milk from a bottle.  Kevin left to go to Church and I spent the next hour nursing and pumping, and getting dinner started.  Then the afternoon was spent making yummy Lion House rolls (they were so soft) and a salad and hash browns to go with the parmesan garlic pork loin for dinner.  While the rolls were rising, we picked up Allie's Elizabethan get-up from the Miller's, and I helped Collin and Allie straighten up their rooms.  After dinner, we sat down to read the scriptures with the family before bed.  Maddie went to bed at 8 p.m. and Allie and Collin spent time marking their scripture charts before finally falling asleep well before 9 p.m.

Day 38: Talk with Dad

  I love this series (under 50 seconds) of Kaden and Kevin early on a Saturday morning (8:08 a.m. 1/29).  Kevin always gets our babies to talk and smile like this, even laugh, much faster than I can.

Glasses

Last night my mother in law Lorraine was telling us a story about Pop that should have been included in the book I made him years ago.  When Pop was in grade school, he wanted to wear glasses so bad that he for a few days took his mom's glasses to school - then while at school he would get them out during nap time.  I think the story ends with him just tossing them in the trash because he didn't want his mom to find out about it.  We all got a laugh out of that one.

Today I got up and though it was a Friday and should have been a fairly un-busy day for me (relatively speaking of course), it was turning out to be a little trickier than usual.  First Zane woke up at 3,4,and 5 a.m. respectively so by the time 6:45 rolled around, I was so tired still.  The older kids got up late - and didn't finish dressing for school until 7:30 and hardly even ate their breakfast before their carpool knocked on the door.  Scriptures were skipped as a result, and I felt like the day did not start out right.

Then right on cue, Zane woke up during all this morning commotion (it seemed like it was anyway) and cried nonstop until I picked him up to nurse (it had been almost 3 hours since he nursed last).  But I made him wait a little longer since I had to get Maddie dressed for ballet at 9 a.m. -- I figured 10 minutes wouldn't kill him.  So finally as a neat and dressed-for-dance Maddie sat down to eat her waffle breakfast, Zane nursed and it was finally peaceful at home.  It was a good thing we carpool for dance once in a while.  Today I was picking up and Mindy was taking them to dance.

Maddie asked for her "Han Montana" bag and thankfully didn't fuss when I couldn't find it - I was lucky to find a small blue silk purse hanging in the mudroom.  In it she packed her ballet shoes, a wad of toilet paper for wiping her nose, and a pair of Build-a-Bear glasses.

After Mindy came to pick her up, I had about 40 minutes to vacuum the floor, make our bed and dress myself and the baby for the day before picking Maddie and her friend Mayzie from dance.  I was starting to feel a little tired from the non-sleep too!  When I finally got over there and peeked in, her teacher asked me if/when Maddie started wearing glasses.  I told her they were play glasses.  She laughed and said that...

Maddie got them out during dance and wore them during dance!

When I heard that I just had to laugh.  That made my day.

I don't know if Maddie remembered the story of Pop from last night.  Now we have our very own "glasses" story to tell.  When Kevin heard about it tonight he made the comment that Maddie was too shy to dance at her recital but she was goofy enough to wear those play glasses during dance. I of course had to have a picture of her and the glasses in question, for memories sake.  I love being a mom - there are always little funny incidents like these that make regular busy days not so regular.

P.S.  She wore those glasses to See's Candies too.  The ladies at the store thought they were so cute on her as she looked up at them to tell them she wanted "Ba-nella" lollipops.  They thought they were real glasses and got a kick out of it when I told them they were just play glasses.  They put some extra chocolate in the bag!

Day 37: Glasses

1/28/11

Maddie put glasses on Kaden - and he did not like it! He cried and made the glasses all foggy.

Day 36: Morning at Grandma's

Today Zane spent the morning napping at his Grandma Lorraine's house while Maddie and I went to the Riparian Preserve with my preschoolers for a nature field trip.  It was so fun, and Zane slept the whole time we were gone

Day 35: Sneezes

I love Zane's face when he sneezes.

Today was also one of the first times I put him on his belly for some tummy-time

 

and just one more random photo of him in his going-home outfit that he is now starting to outgrow:

Some cousin time

This last month, my sister in law Kristie taught preschool for me. While she teaches and I take care of the baby, Travin and Maddie have fun playing, watching TV and doing whatever they think about doing.  This one day they decided to play with the dress-up trunk.  They went and took the trunk to our room where I usually am with Kaden, and started to get the pretty stuff out.  I had to quickly grab my camera to capture the sweet exchange between the two!  First they get the hair stuff out and Travin grabbed the curling iron and curled Maddie's hair.  Then he got a ring out for her to try on saying, "Try this one on" and then he got a crown out and put it on her head.  Maddie being as girly as could be would tell Travin "oh that  looks so cute" or "no how about this one?"  I just wasn't fast enough to get a shot of them trying on the shoes, or T trying to convince Maddie to try on the purple ones instead of the red ones Maddie wanted on.  Then just like that, they were out of the room and pretended to be frogs again.  Maddie's going to miss her partner in crime now that I am back to teaching preschool again!

Pretending to be frogs

Curling iron time

Trying on a ring

More Maddie

Here is sweet Maddie asleep. 

When she got up she dressed herself and got the counting bears out and lined them all up in my room.  She wanted a few pictures and was giving me cheesy smiles until I told her not to smile at all.  Because she is a tease, reverse psychology totally works on her.  Little does she know.  Love her!

Day 34: Slept thru the night

1/25/11

First smile

Well, almost.  Kaden went to bed at 10:30 and didn't wake up til 3:30.  I pumped then nursed him and he went back to sleep and didn't wake again til 7 a.m.   Today he also smiled at me for the first time - and kept doing it over and over whenever I took his little fist and patted my face with it.

Day 33: Love this little face!

1/24/11

Day 32

Just had some fun dressing this little guy up for Sunday!

1/23

Day 31: 1-month old already!

Here's Mr. Kaden at one month.  I can't believe he's that old already.  He's a good little nurser, and loves cuddles.  He is so much fun to have around, and at 1-month old, he still has that little newborn cry, though every day that passes, he sounds so much older.  I really should take some video, because I don't want to forget his little newborn cry/voice.

 One of the very rare photos of me and Zane and you gotta love that Maddie put on some makeup - she got in Allie's play makeup and has on purple eyeshadow and bright pink lipstick.  She wanted me to know she looked really pretty in the purple eyeshadow to match her purple shirt.

Day 30: Bath Time!

1/21/11

Little guy soaked in the tub for the first time today.  He loved being in the warm water, and was so calm in there, but as soon as I got him out he was NOT happy.  Maddie helped me give him a bath - and Kaden took a LONG nap after he was all dressed.  Baths do that.

It's a cute crying face!

Day 29: Playtime

1/20 when's he's awake and alert, Zane loves his play gym :)

Day 28

Day 27: Maddie and Zane

Maddie likes to call her brother "Zame" instead of Zane and insists "he's not Kaden".  She likes to lay by him and give him lots of kisses and hugs.

Day 26

Day 25: Sisters!

The girls are all over Zane.  He gets lots of snuggles from his sissies. Lucky!

Day 24: Big Brother Love /What's in a name?

Unlike Allie and Maddie who constantly are asking to hold Kaden, Collin just usually watches and kisses him but I guess since he's a boy he doesn't feel the need to just snuggle with the baby.  But today we got a photo of Collin holding Kaden.  So sweet.

 Kaden is so lucky to have a brother like Collin.  And thanks to Collin, Kaden has Zane for a middle name.  Collin wouldn't have it any other way. So what does his name mean?

Kaden - means companion (for Collin).

Zane - is a variant of the name John, meaning God's grace, or sometimes godly light.

When we were trying to choose a name, the only name that Collin liked was Zane.  Our short list included: Ethan, Camden, Ryan, and Zane.  Kevin came up with Kaden while we were in the hospital.  The kids call him Zane, or as Maddie says, "Zame". 

Day 23: First day on the Bouncy

 ...and he loves it!

3 weeks 2 days old

Kaden kept me up late last night.  He just wanted to nurse every couple of hours and wouldn't let up until 5 a.m. this morning.  Of course he took 40 minutes to feed and burp every time, so I only got 3 hours of sleep (1 hour each time, not even a straight 3 hours) last night.  He's much better this morning, but I am sore and tired from it all.  He has been napping from 10 a.m. to about 1 p.m. every day this week but today he didn't.  I got our bouncer out and that seemed to calm him down for a while and I went to nap for a little bit while he was in it.  Maddie Lou played Click-start and kept herself busy while I napped.

New Year's Resolutions

I came across this again today and it is just what I needed to read and make my new year's resolution.


"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all."

 (Julie B. Beck, “Mothers Who Know,” Ensign, Nov 2007, 76–78)

I certainly could use some slowing-down time, and pace myself so that I just don't let life happen, and neglect the important things.   Only three weeks ago I had Kaden, and the first two weeks were a little difficult but with a very helpful husband and family around, I recovered quickly and now starting to feel like I need to be doing more.  Maybe I shouldn't and maybe I should learn to take naps!   Somehow I always think of things I have to finish and be doing when I have some down time -- I can list a few: photos, finish the office, Maddie and the baby's bedroom (Allie and Collin are staying put), blog books to put together (2 years worth!),  keep track of this year's budget, prepare preschool activities (and get back to teaching it twice a week next month) and all the while keeping up the normal daily routine.  Ah, that's just how it is when you're a mom with lots of projects in her head.

People have asked me  the last three weeks since I had Kaden if "I just feel like I need to get out of the house".  Weird thing is my answer is no.  I have been loving being at home and not go anywhere the last little while.  I have so much I want to do and want to be doing, that between those things and nursing and taking care of the other kids, I really don't have time to be bored or feel like I have cabin fever.  It's a blessing.  Maybe in two weeks I will feel like I seriously need a timeout and go shopping. :)

So how did we do with our last year's resolution? 

• Last year we started doing morning scripture study instead of at bedtime, and happy to report that it is now part of our morning routine and life isn't the same without reading in the morning.  The other day I actually felt like something was missing when we missed reading a few verses because the kids woke up too late and had to rush out the door for school.    That doesn't happen often (thank goodness!) and  the kids are learning to love to read the scriptures.  We sometimes only have time to read for 15 minutes, but both Allie and Collin want to read so many verses, they literally fight over who gets to read first, and Maddie has recently wanted her own set of scriptures to take to Church.
• As far as finances, I kept track of all our income and expenses for the 2nd year in a row. I finished our financial summary for the year 2010, which took me a few hours yesterday and today to finish, but feels good to have done.  But not so good to find out that I had blown our budget the last quarter of last year.  Yikes.   I definitely did much better the previous year and determined not to go over budget this year.
• We started half-birthday dates (yeah!), random lunch dates with the kids, lots of family movie nights.  Date nights were not super regular, we definitely need to get more date nights this year. In the fitness department, we got Allie in soccer!  It's a big accomplishment considering she didn't want anything to do with sports last year.

A few specific goals we set in FHE last week are:

• Family - Read Pres. Monson's biography.  We started reading, and my love and testimony of Pres. Monson as our prophet today has increased.  The kids are on board with this one, and enjoy hearing Pres. Monson's childhood stories - their favorite is one of him making a mudball with a frog inside and dropping it on his sister's belly and the frog jumped out, scaring his poor sister and her friend.
• Maddie - learn how to read this year.
• Allie - to be more organized and helpful around the house. 
• Collin - read the entire Book of Mormon before he is baptized this year.
• Me - keep the budget. Enough said.

So here's to 2011's resolution to choose carefully the better, the essential.  Happy New Year!

Old Posts coming thru

Trying to play catch up with my blog before I download all the entries for 2009 and 2010 to print.  So if you see some random posts come thru, that means i found some drafts from a while ago and now just barely posting them.

Old Post: Maddie's Latest 1/14/09

Post draft from 2 years ago!

1/14/09

She cut her two front teeth today! She's singing as I write this post and dancing to Megan's blog music. She throws fits here and there. She loves to crawl on the pavement and on granite rocks, took two steps by herself but is too cautious to walk. She smells her little pink blankie whenever she has it and puts it up to Kevin's or my nose to smell when we're close by. She points to her tummy when asked "Where's your tummy?" and now says 5 words -- bye, uh-oh, mama, dada, and hello.

Day 22: Love the little fingers!

 We just can't get enough of this little guy.

 I love how small his little fingers look wrapped around mine.  It's so sad when they get bigger and they are no longer teeny like this.

Day 21: 3 Weeks Old already?!

In his going-home outfit.

Day 20: 1-11-11

Classic hand/fist on face.

Day 19: Gassy smile