Exercisin'

Our little Boo is growing up so fast! She is such a content baby. If I put her down she usually just plays and coos...well, as long as she can see someone. :) She has transitioned to the "extended night" phase of Babywise. She dropped the late evening feeding and is now sleeping 11 solid hours! So nice!

3 Months Old!

Our little Boo Bear turned three months old yesterday! I can't believe how quickly these first three months have flown by. I need a pause button to enjoy my sweet little baby a little longer! I could say we enjoyed a very nice dinner out to celebrate Boo's 1/4 birthday but we didn't even realize it was the 27th until we were already there. But we can pretend. :)

As you can probably guess, we did end up going with T to his conference. Bug laid on the couch chair for three hours straight on Monday, sleeping on and off, and then popped straight up and said, "I'm better now Mommy!" and was off and running. We tried to get her to slow down but there was not stopping her. So we packed up the car and left.

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The ride down was...interesting. Both girls started out asleep but when we stopped to use the restroom (since it was the last facility there would be until we got there) they both woke up. I took Bug to the bathroom but she just sat there and wouldn't do anything. Fifteen minutes down the road..."I have to go potty!" Great. Big pile of brush or medium size rock? Take your pick. And of COURSE it couldn't be a simple #1...had to be #2. On the side of the road. Napkins from the glove box. Yay.

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Moving on. We got another 45 minutes down the road and Bug started asking to get in my lap. Bad sign. Whenever she asks to sit in my lap when we are in the car it usually means something bad is going to happen. I asked her if she felt ok. She answered yes, but then she started getting really whiny. Her face started to change. I told T we'd better pull over. We were on a really windy, steep canyon road with no shoulder. I'd seen that look before so we pulled over anyway. We almost made it. But not quite. Up came the apple and crackers that I'd given her in hopes of settling her stomach.

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So we were standing on the side of the road, Bug stripped down to her undies and shivering, trying to clean apple chunks out of the car. We didn't want to get the suitcase out in our precarious location so we just put her back in the car with no clothes on and wrapped her in her blankie. Thankfully that was the last time she threw up and we made it to the resort with no further problems.

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I think that place is jinxed. Bug got sick when we went there last June and I had morning sickness so bad that I left my mark on the side of that road as well. TMI, I know. I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't go when T has his other conference in June. I've cleaned up enough vomit for the time being. :) Thankfully the ride home was uneventful and both girls slept almost the entire way.

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And other than all the messes we had a good time! The resort was beautiful, as before, and despite what I thought last year it really wasn't any harder having two to take care of. We spent time at the park both days. We stayed for over an hour each time and barely missed getting dumped on by a huge thunderstorm on Tuesday. The town is built around the lake so almost everywhere you go is a "lake view". It was very pretty.

I thought I remembered taking a picture of Bug on this same set of stairs last year so I got another one.

What a difference a year makes!

And this one was a complete accident. Or as Bug says, an "axe-ih-didn't".

I had forgotten that I took this picture.

I was thinking while we were there that as a parent you really have to sacrifice a lot of your own desires. Both girls slept terribly and woke us up at least two dozen times the first night. Bug's fever came back and she kept waking up and crying, and in turn waking her sister up. The next day I was sooo tired. I just wanted to take a nap, or relax and read a book but I couldn't do any of those things.
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There are a lot of un-kid things to do at the resort...hot tub, spa, weight room...that would have been fun but of course they weren't an option with two little ones in tow. We spent our time at the playground, watching Clifford, reading books and picking dandelions. BUT the pros of parenthood definitely outweigh the cons. I wouldn't trade these two for ANYTHING! I am so thankful for my sweet girls...even when they are driving me crazy. Haha :)
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I just hope our next trip down there isn't quite as...eventful.


Happy 3 monthday Boo!

Black Spider, Green Booger

This morning Bug came downstairs talking about a black spider and a green booger. She said, "There is a black spider in the bathroom and it scared me! I closed the door so it can't get me." I never did get the story on the green booger.

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Since it is bible study morning I got her some breakfast and went into the bathroom to get ready. I came back a while later and she hadn't really eaten anything. It was Lucky Charms, her favorite, something that usually disappears quickly. She said, "I was looking down at Webby and my forehead was like this and now it hurts."

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She said she wasn't hungry and since we were late for bible study I just quickly got her dressed and got the three of us out the door. She was really whiny and saying her head hurt.

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When we got to bible study I fully expected her to run off and play with her friends like she usually does but she wanted in my lap. She just sat there in my lap for about 10 minutes, not doing anything. Then all of the sudden there was an explosion. She threw up ALL over. I tried my best to contain it as we were sitting on my friend's couch, so my sweatshirt was completely covered, as well as my jeans, her clothes, her coat, my book, everything. And some did get on the couch. Ugh. I felt so bad! I would never have taken her over there if I thought she was sick, much less going to puke all over someone else's couch!

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Poor thing. The ladies helped me get my stuff together and get Boo in her carseat and the three of us made a beeline for home. Bug has thrown up two more times and fell asleep on the chair for a bit.

She is currently watching a Boz and seems to be doing a little better.

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We were supposed to leave this afternoon to go with T for his conference, but I don't know if we are going to be able to. I guess we will wait and see though b/c kids are so resilient she might be feeling fine by then. As for me, I have learned my lesson. Never take your child to someone else's house after they wouldn't eat breakfast and are complaining of a headache....you never know whose couch you might ruin. :P

School Carnival

Buggy had her first day of school yesterday! Sort of. :) We went to school with Noni and Bug got to be one of her students for the day! My mom taught sixth grade for quite a few years and then moved to junior high for a while and now she is teaching pre-school! How perfect for Bug! She was SO excited that she was getting to go to school. My mom let her sit in the seat of one of the students who was absent. I was a little worried about how she would do (I was there the whole time) but she did great! She followed directions, and caught on to everything so quickly!

She was not actually that much smaller than the kids. They are all four and five year olds. Of course, being the smarty pants that she is, she knew pretty much everything they did, and even told one boy, "No! That's wrong!" when he answered a question. She also shushed the kids when they got too loud...definitely not too shy...or tactful. Haha :) She made friends very easily and they were all so nice to her. They were a good group of kids.

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I'm not ready for her to be this old yet!!! I want my little girl to stay little for a few more years!
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It was so funny b/c after hearing the kids a few times she started calling my mom by her name, Mrs. *****. I didn't tell her to do that b/c I thought it would confuse her but then she went and did it herself the whole morning without hesitation. As soon as school was over and the kids left she went right back to Noni. So funny.

This morning we headed back to the school so we could go to their annual carnival. Of course Buggy was just ecstatic about all the fun games and things to do. Her favorite was the fishing game.

And she especially liked all the little prizes she got!

All the people let her stand closer to the games since she was smaller than most of the kids there. Here is where she started out, but in a few seconds she was standing right in front of it just putting the ball in his mouth. :)

There was a guy walking around in a huge Fire-puppy costume handing out hats...and yes, I let her get cotton candy. Wow. I am really relaxing as a parent. :)

They had an actual firetruck there too for the kids to see.

If you want your picture taken with a dancing tu-tu wearing elephant I can tell you where to go. :)

Bug is currently asleep upstairs. All that carnival fun tuckered her out. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Fun With Grandpa

Boo had so much fun with Grandpa this weekend! He discovered what is now her new favorite game...playtime with the baby in the mirror. :) She thought that other baby was pretty cute and gave smile after smile to it. :)

Flirting with that pretty baby.

Here is a little video of it. It was pretty cute. They played like this two different times for at least twenty minutes each. She was having a great time. :)

P.S. This is working fine on my computer. Let me know if it doesn't work for others and I will try to fix it. I'm still getting the hang of the YouTube thing, but I uploaded the video and brought it over here all by myself. Haha, I sound like my daughter. :)

Cousins of Cousins

We got to spend the weekend at the farm! Daddy took Friday off and we headed to town to do a little shopping and run a few errands before going out. It was Uncle Wade's birthday so we got to go to his party on Saturday and see our sweet little nephew again! Here is Grandma with her two newest grandbabies.

A little switcheroo...me with Waylon.

And Auntie Nae with Boo.

Bug had the time of her life with her "fends". It was kind of hard to explain to her that these were Waylon's cousins, but not hers. I don't think she quite understood, but she was too busy having fun to care. :) Every time I looked at them I kept thinking of that Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other". Four little blond girls and our dark, curly headed little Bug. :)

The girl's grandparents live on a farm too and they showed Buggy the ropes. The made horses out of hay bales, complete with saddles, fed the cows, and chased the barn cats. I was so impressed with how well they all played together. There wasn't a single incident in the five hours that we were there! They played so nicely and they just took Bug under their little wings. She fell down on the concrete and they brought her in to me. They helped her when she couldn't do something and were just so sweet to her. Very well behaved little girls!

Bug came back completely filthy...

...but happy as a clam. :)

Look at that hair!

We were saying that this is what it would be like to have twins. :)

She's as dark as he is fair. It's going to be so fun to watch them grow and change together!

Bug with her two babies.

I have a few more pictures from our weekend that I'll have to post later. It's time for books and naps for the girls and a little peace and quiet for Mommy. :)

Fixed

Okay, Super Daddy fixed the video so if you go back down to the Peek-A-Boo post you can see it.

No Cigar

Okay, well I just logged onto this blog at my parents and realized I can only watch the video at home b/c I am signed in to YouTube. I didn't want my videos to just be out there where anyone could see, but I assumed that by embedding it into the blog that it would be viewable on the blog. Apparently not. I will have to try to figure it out tonight. Sorry about that. It really is a cute video. :)
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On a side note, I thought it was funny when I heard that people say "Close, but no cigar" b/c back in the day you could win a cigar at some of those fair/carnival games, so if you didn't win the game that's what they would say. I love finding out the origins of different sayings. There are some pretty funny ones. :)

Peek-A-Boo

Yay! My wonderfully brilliant husband figured out how to post YouTube videos! The blogger video upload has NOT been working for me lately. Very frustrating. So my friend Rachel told me to try YouTube. Of course, being the computer illiterate person that I am, I could not figure it out, but Super Daddy came to the rescue. :)

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Here is a video we took last week playing Peek-A-Boo with our baby girl. I love those sweet smiles. I could just watch her precious, little face all day!

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If you listen to Bug in the background you can hear that she is hilariously grumpy...I think it was just about bedtime. I guess we can be thankful that this is the extent of her jealousy. That has been something we pray about constantly, and she does so much better than I ever expected her to. She loves on her little sister all the time and is very rarely jealous, and even then it's very mild. I didn't hear her in the background until I had watched it several times and then it made me laugh to listen to her being so out of sorts. We try so hard to work on a positive attitude and making good choices. I'd say that at this point she's about 75% 25% on the "good" vs. "bad" scale. We'll just have to keep working on that other 25% of the time. Haha :)

Wordless Wednesday

"Laugh With Me!" - Part 2

February 14th

We spent Valentines Day at Grandma and Grandpa's so we were able to watch some of the Olympics (we don't have a TV). I was watching the pairs figure skating and Bug came in and sat down with me. She kept talking about the Daddies and I couldn't figure out what she meant. Another pair came out and she ran to the TV and pointed to the man. "Is that the Daddy one?" I thought maybe she thought he was the daddy because he was so much taller than the girl of the pair. Later when we were upstairs she asked Daddy to throw her in the air and I realized that she has only seen daddies throwing people in the air. She saw the men of the pairs doing lifts and naturally assumed he was the Daddy. :)

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February 17th

I made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

Bug: "Mommy, what's this?" (pointing to the white)

Me: "Whipped cream" (watching her stick a finger in and taste it)

Bug: "Oh my goodness! This is my favorite forever!"

After a few minutes of eating...

Bug: "Strawberries are my best! I LOVE them!"

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February 18th

Daddy took us out to Mexican food, yum! We always tell Bug to say thank you when we leave so on the way out of the restaurant she yells out, "Hey Yellow! Thanks for dinner!" The waiter was wearing a yellow shirt. He was also Hispanic so I'm really hoping he didn't think it was some sort of racial slur!

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February 21st

Bug is really into cooking and wants to do it all the time. Anytime I start to make a meal she runs into the kitchen and says, "I want to help with you!"

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February 23rd

When Boo woke up and I got her out of bed, Bug ran in her room to give her a hug and said, "Oh Mommy, she is soooo cute and peh-cious and dor-able!"

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March 10th

Conversation during dinner

Bug: "Noni got married?" (looking at pictures on the digital frame)

Me: "Yes"

Bug: "You're married to Daddy?"

Me: "Uh-huh"

Bug: "I married to you?" :)

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March 14th

It was a nice afternoon so we decided to go to the park. It was our first trip since last fall so since we hadn't been there in a while Daddy was explaining what we would do there.

Daddy: "They have swings there!"

Bug: (so excited) "Mommy! They have swings there!"

Daddy: "And they have slides there!"

Bug: "MOMMY! They have slides there!"

(getting more excited by the second)

Daddy: "And they have teeter-totters there!"

Bug: "MOMMY! They have TATER TOTS!"

Rollin'

I finally got Boo on video rolling over! She is so funny. She would roll and roll and then as soon as I would get the camera out she would just lay there stock still. But I finally got it. :)

I thought that I had prematurely made the claim of her sleeping through the night b/c after that morning of waking up at 6:15 the next two nights she woke up at 4:00 and then 3:30, BUT the last three nights she's done beautifully. We had a 7:15, 7:50! and this morning was 7:40. Yahoooo! SO nice to get a night of uninterrupted sleep. Love it. :)

Partially-Wordless Wednesday

Instruction:

"Bug, please clean up the kitchen floor."

Action:

Apparently she was playing with a bag of rolls? :)

Easter Blessings

I think it is quite obvious that our two biggest blessings this year are our two sweet girls! They bring so much joy to our lives and we are so thankful for them.

Children truly are a gift.

Yes, it isn't always rosy. They can frustrate me faster than anything else on God's green earth :) but I love them to pieces and wouldn't trade them for the world!

Our little family all dressed up for Easter! The more I look at the girls the more I think Bug looks like her Daddy and Boo looks like me.

Noni and Papa with the girls at church.

This is the only picture I got of Grandma and Grandpa on Easter. (Sorry guys!) I'll have to get a better picture of the girls with them next time we see them.

After naptime we let Bug do an Easter egg hunt in the house. I spent all of yesterday trying to upload a cute video of her hunting eggs but for some reason it wouldn't load. Any of you computer people know what I am doing wrong?? I just don't understand why sometimes they load perfectly and other times they won't work at all. I thought it was the time...it seemed like anything over a minute long wouldn't load, but the one I was trying to do yesterday was less than thirty seconds so I'm not sure what the problem was.
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Me and my little Bug. :) She is getting so big! I can't believe she is going to be three in just a few weeks. Time sure flies.

Bug after her egg hunt.

Next year she'll have a little competition as I'm sure Boo will be walking all over the place by then. :) As I type this Bug is playing with the Resurrection eggs one last time before I put all the Easter decorations away. I really like the way those helped us tell her the Easter story. It was a very tangible way for her to get the story straight. Next year I'm sure she will understand a lot more. I'm looking forward to it already!

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We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Instead

Easter is always a wonderful time of reflection. This year I seem to be focusing on the word "instead". The concepts that Easter time brings are very hard for an almost-three year old to understand so we've been trying to make it simple for Bug as she asks questions about why Jesus had to die. Our best explanation seems to be "instead". Jesus had to die "instead" of us. Yes, all of our bodies will die eventually but because Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, if we accept His gift of love, we get to go to Heaven.

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I've been reading a book series and I just finished it last night. It has nothing to do with Easter time but I was struck by the final paragraph and how perfectly it fit my thoughts this week.

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God no longer sees me as a sinner. Because of His Son's blood sacrifice, He looks at me...and sees Jesus there instead. - Beverly Lewis

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Those few simple sentences pierced my heart. I read through them several times and just let it sink in. There was that word I'd been using to explain it all to Bug.

Instead.

Instead of you.

Instead of me.

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Good Friday.

Today is the day, all those many year ago, that Jesus died.

Died for me.

Died for you.

How very much He loves us to have allowed Himself to be tortured and killed by some of the very ones He was saving. He offered Himself up as a sacrifice, taking OUR sins upon Himself, so that He took the ultimate punishment INSTEAD of us.

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But as we heard in our Good Friday service tonight, "It's Friday night, but Sunday's comin'!" We can remember this terrible night with JOY and HOPE and thankfulness for the LOVE of God, because we know the end of the story. Jesus didn't stay dead. He rose again, on the third day. He is alive today. Alive in Heaven and alive in my heart, and the hearts of all those who love Him and have accepted His free gift of love. And all I can say is I'm thankful. Thankful that He loved me enough to die for me.

Thankful.

Pure and simple.

Thankful for the love of Christ.

Fuzzi Bunz

We've got us some Fuzzi Bunz! And by that I do not mean our baby's bottom is molding. :) Fuzzi Bunz is a brand of cloth diaper! Since I was the first in my circle of friends to have a baby I didn't really try anything I thought would be too hard with Bug.

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Then my friends started having babies and almost all of them tried cloth diapers at some point. Bug's little friend Rowen was in cloth diapers when I used to babysit him and I was surprised at how not-difficult it actually was. By then Bug was already a year and half and I was thinking about potty training so I didn't want to give it a try for just a short time, but I always thought I'd try it with the next one.

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So after talking to several friends and doing a little research I decided that Fuzzi Bunz was the brand I wanted to go with. They are more expensive b/c they are called an "all-in-one" meaning that you get it ready after you wash it so when you are ready to put it on it is just as convenient as a disposable. No pinning, no cover that you have to put on over cloth.

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Thankfully I found a set of six on ebay that a lady had bought and realized were too small for her daughter, so with shipping and tax I got them for $11 dollars each. They are $17.95 (not including shipping and tax) from the website, so that was a pretty good deal. Although, as my accountant husband figured out, I am going to have to use them 74 times a piece for them to break even with the price of the disposables we use. I think I've cycled through them 9 times so far. :P As you can see they just have little snaps, so you put it on like a regular diaper and just snap it together, and there are multiple snaps for growing room. Boo is on the first set on the top and the second set on the bottom part. The one and only drawback for me is that they make her little booty more puffy-looking in her pants, but they are far less bulky than other cloth diapers I've seen.

The website claims "No rashes! No leaks!" One of the main reasons I wanted to try them was for the rash-factor. Bug always got rashes when she was a baby, including some really bad ones that were really hard to get rid of. Boo had already started getting rashes at about a month old so that's when I decided to go for it and try out the cloth. I am happy to report that we have seen nary a rash since we started using them! Even though we don't use them full time! Since we only have six I have to wash them every day so if we are gone for the day they don't get washed. And we only use them at home so that we don't have to cart wet cloth diapers around when we are out and about.

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The other claim of "no leaks" made me skeptical but since that wasn't my main goal I didn't really think much of it. BUT...we have only had TWO leaks! Two. She leaks out of her disposables at least once a day, if not two, so two leaks in two weeks is incredible! When you put the Fuzzi Bunz on they can get kind of tucked up around the leg so that is why they leaked those two times. If I make sure it is folded out they hold everything in...and I do mean everything...she has tested it to the limit! :)

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The only other thing I was worried about was washing them, and that has turned out to be easier than I thought as well. You do have to buy a special detergent...I chose All Free and Clear for the simple fact that Walmart had it and it wasn't any more expensive then my regular detergent. Then you just wash once in cold, then again in hot, and toss them in the dryer. Any stains you can get out with the sun. I had never heard of that before but all the cloth diaper websites said to put them, stain up, in the sun and the stain will fade away. I was not hopeful but it is true! The sun just burns any stains right out of there and they are left sparkling white! Okay, maybe not sparkling but it's incredible how well they come out! I am going to have to try it with other kinds of stains...maybe I can stop spending so much money on Shout products (Bug is pretty messy). :)

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So, while they are expensive and I'm going to have to use them many more times to get my money's worth out of them, I am extremely pleased with their performance and would recommend them if you are wanting to try cloth diapers. We think they are great!

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"Yay for Fuzzi Bunz!"

P.S. Bug spent the night at Noni's last night! It is going to be her new Spring Break tradition...even though it's my mom that's on spring break, not her. :) We are very proud of her as she is getting more brave and independent. We went out to dinner last night and shopped at the mall for a bit (although we had a little boo with us b/c I forgot the bottle of milk). :P It was fun and I know Bug is having a ball with her Noni. I think one of the best parts about her spending time with my mom (for me) is that it makes me miss her. I love her to pieces but she can frustrate me faster than I can say "Ugh". :) So whenever I'm away from her it makes me appreciate her even more and, even when she has gotten into some random thing yet again and made a huge mess, it makes me enjoy the time we do have together. Remind me of that tomorrow. Hahaha:)