Saturday, May 25, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Alli's 5th Birthday!
I can't believe she's 5.
I can't believe she's 5.
I just can't believe she's 5!!!
Well, the birthday party was fun. We invited 8 kids and we got 8 kids and 7 siblings! :) The theme was butterflies, so really, I didn't do much except have Alli make some decorations. The kids came and just played while the parents chatted. Then we had lunch, cupcakes, and opened presents. Voila! One party.
Alli's cupcake cake was super awesome, especially since Molly made it! See below - very talented!
Alli's party was Saturday, then we had Mother's Day, and then her real birthday was Monday, where she celebrated in both preschool classes and then at dinner with the family. For her birthday dinner we had her very favorites - salmon and corn on the cob. Then we got to open the family birthday gifts. It was fun, and I think by then, she was pretty partied out. And why do I say she was partied out? Cause she didn't want any sweets for dessert after our dinner. Wow!! She could have opened gifts forever though.
We have been recovering (and trying to clean up) ever since.
I can't believe she's 5.
I just can't believe she's 5!!!
Well, the birthday party was fun. We invited 8 kids and we got 8 kids and 7 siblings! :) The theme was butterflies, so really, I didn't do much except have Alli make some decorations. The kids came and just played while the parents chatted. Then we had lunch, cupcakes, and opened presents. Voila! One party.
Alli's cupcake cake was super awesome, especially since Molly made it! See below - very talented!
Alli's party was Saturday, then we had Mother's Day, and then her real birthday was Monday, where she celebrated in both preschool classes and then at dinner with the family. For her birthday dinner we had her very favorites - salmon and corn on the cob. Then we got to open the family birthday gifts. It was fun, and I think by then, she was pretty partied out. And why do I say she was partied out? Cause she didn't want any sweets for dessert after our dinner. Wow!! She could have opened gifts forever though.
We have been recovering (and trying to clean up) ever since.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
The Freezer Fiasco
Well, you saw from an earlier post that our freezer was full of milk. And I kept increasing the stock-pile by pumping in the night, so the dilimna of storage was getting worse and worse. Compile that with some odd noises coming from our fridge, the fact that we spent over $800 last year fixing the fridge because of various things that broke, and we got our tax return back. So, do you see where this is going?
Yes. I wanted a new fridge/freezer. So I went looking...online. After weeks of reading reviews, looking at ratings, etc., etc., etc., I decided the only brands for us to look at were GE and KitchenAid. Our old fridge was GE. Based on online pictures, it looks like all the layout internally was the same. There were things that I didn't like about the GE fridge's layout. (You wouldn't think layout would be that important, but it kinda is!)
I knew that we lost a bunch of space in the freezer because of the icemaker unit. All freezers do, but it seems placement of the unit could make or break your freezer space. In the fridge portion, GE had this weird dip that went through the ceiling, making the top shelf an odd place for some items. (Shorter items had to go in the middle where the dip was, where taller items could go on either side.) They also had this "feature" of a "Custom Cool" drawer, which could either cool things down really quickly for you, or defrost things really quickly for you. Personally, I took the special shelf out because I wanted to use it as a drawer, but it was a horrible drawer because it didn't slide in and out very nicely.
Ok. So there was GE. I looked at the insides of the KitchenAid. For the freezer, the icemaker was in the door, which meant the shelf space was not taken. That seemed like a good idea. In the fridge, there was no hump down the ceiling, and no "special drawer" in the bottom. So those seemed like good ideas. The KitchenAid data showed their fridge that would fit our opening had more freezer room, but less fridge room (cubic feet). We hemmed and hawed over this, and finally decided that we needed more freezer space than fridge anyway, even after the milk storage.
So KitchenAid won. And we got our new fridge. So, now that we have it, wanna hear our evaluation of KitchenAid? :) We found that we have as much room, if not more, in the fridge, even though the cubic feet is smaller. I have no clue why. It must be the layout. The freezer is WAY bigger. I have room for another month's supply of milk to store! Woo hoo!! But here are some catches... The icemaker is in the door. This is great for storage but... When the ice falls, I can hear it back in our bedroom!!! And every now and then, it falls so hard it actually goes through the door and onto our floor (only a cube or two once in a while, but still!) hahaha In general, the fridge is a little louder. And, for whatever reason, it sits crooked in our opening. I'm sure our GE did as well, but because it was taller, we couldn't tell. This one, you can tell. We tried to level it, but once it looked level, it shook like crazy when you opened the doors. So, back to unlevel. Thanks saltillo tile!!! Note to self: Don't use saltillo tile under appliances!
But I have to include a picture of our awesome milk storage now. Yes, we are using boxes since we had to pack up all the milk to switch fridges, and this wound up working well for stacking.
.JPG)
I still have room for more milk, but I'm not pumping in the night anymore, so I shouldn't be stockpiling as quickly. Natalie is drinking less and I am working on producing less because of it. I do NOT miss middle-of-the-night pumping and dishes!
Yes. I wanted a new fridge/freezer. So I went looking...online. After weeks of reading reviews, looking at ratings, etc., etc., etc., I decided the only brands for us to look at were GE and KitchenAid. Our old fridge was GE. Based on online pictures, it looks like all the layout internally was the same. There were things that I didn't like about the GE fridge's layout. (You wouldn't think layout would be that important, but it kinda is!)
I knew that we lost a bunch of space in the freezer because of the icemaker unit. All freezers do, but it seems placement of the unit could make or break your freezer space. In the fridge portion, GE had this weird dip that went through the ceiling, making the top shelf an odd place for some items. (Shorter items had to go in the middle where the dip was, where taller items could go on either side.) They also had this "feature" of a "Custom Cool" drawer, which could either cool things down really quickly for you, or defrost things really quickly for you. Personally, I took the special shelf out because I wanted to use it as a drawer, but it was a horrible drawer because it didn't slide in and out very nicely.
Ok. So there was GE. I looked at the insides of the KitchenAid. For the freezer, the icemaker was in the door, which meant the shelf space was not taken. That seemed like a good idea. In the fridge, there was no hump down the ceiling, and no "special drawer" in the bottom. So those seemed like good ideas. The KitchenAid data showed their fridge that would fit our opening had more freezer room, but less fridge room (cubic feet). We hemmed and hawed over this, and finally decided that we needed more freezer space than fridge anyway, even after the milk storage.
So KitchenAid won. And we got our new fridge. So, now that we have it, wanna hear our evaluation of KitchenAid? :) We found that we have as much room, if not more, in the fridge, even though the cubic feet is smaller. I have no clue why. It must be the layout. The freezer is WAY bigger. I have room for another month's supply of milk to store! Woo hoo!! But here are some catches... The icemaker is in the door. This is great for storage but... When the ice falls, I can hear it back in our bedroom!!! And every now and then, it falls so hard it actually goes through the door and onto our floor (only a cube or two once in a while, but still!) hahaha In general, the fridge is a little louder. And, for whatever reason, it sits crooked in our opening. I'm sure our GE did as well, but because it was taller, we couldn't tell. This one, you can tell. We tried to level it, but once it looked level, it shook like crazy when you opened the doors. So, back to unlevel. Thanks saltillo tile!!! Note to self: Don't use saltillo tile under appliances!
But I have to include a picture of our awesome milk storage now. Yes, we are using boxes since we had to pack up all the milk to switch fridges, and this wound up working well for stacking.
.JPG)
I still have room for more milk, but I'm not pumping in the night anymore, so I shouldn't be stockpiling as quickly. Natalie is drinking less and I am working on producing less because of it. I do NOT miss middle-of-the-night pumping and dishes!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Hunger Strike
So Natalie started solids, and is doing quite well. We haven't gone back to try rice cereal again, but all fruits and vegetables seem to be doing well. The problem we are now facing is that she loves eating solids so much she has cut way down on her milk. Like in half. And you know she isn't getting *that* many calories from the couple of tablespoons of pureed food she is taking in! So, we are getting a little skinnier. And there are days that I "hunger strike" back at her by not allowing her to get any solids, which forces her to drink her milk. I mean really! Does she *really* think she's in control of this situation!?!? ;) Actually, I have only done that twice, and only because she wasn't producing much pee.
Now we have adjusted her milk bottles and are trying to stick to a strict eating schedule so she knows which times have lots of milk followed by no solids, and which times she can have just a little milk followed by solids. We'll see if that makes things more consistent. All I can say is, our freezer (and my b00bs) will not allow her to reduce her milk intake that quickly!!! (More to come on that later.)
Now we have adjusted her milk bottles and are trying to stick to a strict eating schedule so she knows which times have lots of milk followed by no solids, and which times she can have just a little milk followed by solids. We'll see if that makes things more consistent. All I can say is, our freezer (and my b00bs) will not allow her to reduce her milk intake that quickly!!! (More to come on that later.)
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Preparing for Alli's Birthday Party
With Alli getting older, preparing for her birthday is a little more difficult. This year, she changed her mind at least 3 times on what she wanted the theme to be, and at least 3 times on where it would be. With a bit of prodding from mommy, the final decision is our house with a butterfly theme. Whew!
So, I went looking for some butterfly invitations. I figured we could make them. Why not! She likes to color. So I found a couple of examples and printed them out for her. She chose one, but she didn't want to color, she wanted *that one*. So I showed her a fancy trick. I covered up all the letters with a blank piece of paper and then made a copy. She loved it! So then we hand-wrote our own information and she proceeded to make enough copies for everyone she was going to invite.
As we were going through her list of friends, she kept adding more and more. I was a little worried about size since the party was going to be at our house and we were inviting school friends now (not just our regular parent friends that don't mind squeezing and helping!) So I said "Alli, you can invite all those kids if you like, but I'm going to tell them no presents. Or, you can invite a small number of friends and I'll let them bring presents." And her answer? "I want presents mommy, so we'll just invite a few friends." :) Hmmm... Like she doesn't have enough toys!! We settled on 8 friends.
So now we had our list of friends and our invitations. I grabbed just plain letter sized envelopes and told her we were going to use those for the invitations. First she put the name of each friend on each envelope. Then I showed her how to fold the paper into thirds to fit into the envelope. That was all she needed. She was off - folding her invitations and stuffing the envelopes. At one point she had Molly help, and here's how: "Molly, I will fold the invitations and put them in the envelopes. And then I'll peel this paper off the envelope to stick it, and you throw the paper in the trash and then put the invitation on the counter. We will pretend to be a machine." Are you kidding? My daughter at 4-1/2 is a process engineer!!! hahahaha
So our invitations are done. They are not glamorous by any means, but they are very much Alli'. Here is a cool picture of the few we had to mail (the blacked out parts are the addresses I had to add - Kim didn't want to post any personal information to the web!)
So, I went looking for some butterfly invitations. I figured we could make them. Why not! She likes to color. So I found a couple of examples and printed them out for her. She chose one, but she didn't want to color, she wanted *that one*. So I showed her a fancy trick. I covered up all the letters with a blank piece of paper and then made a copy. She loved it! So then we hand-wrote our own information and she proceeded to make enough copies for everyone she was going to invite.
As we were going through her list of friends, she kept adding more and more. I was a little worried about size since the party was going to be at our house and we were inviting school friends now (not just our regular parent friends that don't mind squeezing and helping!) So I said "Alli, you can invite all those kids if you like, but I'm going to tell them no presents. Or, you can invite a small number of friends and I'll let them bring presents." And her answer? "I want presents mommy, so we'll just invite a few friends." :) Hmmm... Like she doesn't have enough toys!! We settled on 8 friends.
So now we had our list of friends and our invitations. I grabbed just plain letter sized envelopes and told her we were going to use those for the invitations. First she put the name of each friend on each envelope. Then I showed her how to fold the paper into thirds to fit into the envelope. That was all she needed. She was off - folding her invitations and stuffing the envelopes. At one point she had Molly help, and here's how: "Molly, I will fold the invitations and put them in the envelopes. And then I'll peel this paper off the envelope to stick it, and you throw the paper in the trash and then put the invitation on the counter. We will pretend to be a machine." Are you kidding? My daughter at 4-1/2 is a process engineer!!! hahahaha
So our invitations are done. They are not glamorous by any means, but they are very much Alli'. Here is a cool picture of the few we had to mail (the blacked out parts are the addresses I had to add - Kim didn't want to post any personal information to the web!)
Friday, April 19, 2013
Natalie's "official" 6 Month Checkup
Ok, you ready for these stats??
Height: 27 inches (84th percentile)
Weight: 17.7 lbs (69th percentile)
Head: 41-1/2 cm (18th percentile)
Minus the slight hiccup in starting solids with the rice cereal, she is doing very well with vegetables and fruit. We are going through slowly though to make sure of allergies. The pediatrician said there are lots of babies that react to the rice cereal, and they usually recommend going to oat or wheat. I think we'll wait on that, as long as she doesn't get too thin without grains.
In another week, after we've gone through allergy trials with more foods, we will start feeding solids 2x per day. I think she's ready now, but I want to make sure to get through some more food selections.
Her appetite (or teething, not sure which) is increasing. She hasn't been sleeping through the night, and when she wakes up, the pacifier doesn't do it - only mommy's milk. So I'm guessing she's hungry, but it could be a comfort thing. Who knows. All I know is I'm *really* tired!! :)
Also, her two bottom teeth have poked through and now her eye teeth are coming. We soon will have a little vampire on our hands! Mooahahaha
Height: 27 inches (84th percentile)
Weight: 17.7 lbs (69th percentile)
Head: 41-1/2 cm (18th percentile)
Minus the slight hiccup in starting solids with the rice cereal, she is doing very well with vegetables and fruit. We are going through slowly though to make sure of allergies. The pediatrician said there are lots of babies that react to the rice cereal, and they usually recommend going to oat or wheat. I think we'll wait on that, as long as she doesn't get too thin without grains.
In another week, after we've gone through allergy trials with more foods, we will start feeding solids 2x per day. I think she's ready now, but I want to make sure to get through some more food selections.
Her appetite (or teething, not sure which) is increasing. She hasn't been sleeping through the night, and when she wakes up, the pacifier doesn't do it - only mommy's milk. So I'm guessing she's hungry, but it could be a comfort thing. Who knows. All I know is I'm *really* tired!! :)
Also, her two bottom teeth have poked through and now her eye teeth are coming. We soon will have a little vampire on our hands! Mooahahaha
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Love of Babies
Natalie has always had such an infectious smile. When you smile at her, she will smile back and then bury her head, like she's shy. It's the cutest thing and always makes you smile even more.
This week, I noticed some new behaviors, and I can only say that they are kisses. There's no lips puckering or anything like that, but she will use her hands to pull herself close and put her open mouth on your cheek, or neck, or whatever she can reach. I'd call that a kiss. :) She's given me "kisses", and I've seen her kiss Molly. It's adorable and she gets uber squeezes back!
And soon our family will enjoy some other babies. We found this behind our recycling can, which has apparently been repurposed for the next month to "protector":
.JPG)
We looked it up. Quail eggs. When we found the nest, there were 5 eggs. Now it looks like there are 13 eggs. They lay up to 18. We're hoping the road runner doesn't find the nest before they hatch - road runners *love* bird eggs. But we don't look back there often, cause we're scared we may run into mama and she might desert the nest. Apparently, quails lay an egg every couple of days in the nest until they are done and then they incubate. We are anxious to keep tabs on the nest (carefully) and see how our new babies grow!
This week, I noticed some new behaviors, and I can only say that they are kisses. There's no lips puckering or anything like that, but she will use her hands to pull herself close and put her open mouth on your cheek, or neck, or whatever she can reach. I'd call that a kiss. :) She's given me "kisses", and I've seen her kiss Molly. It's adorable and she gets uber squeezes back!
And soon our family will enjoy some other babies. We found this behind our recycling can, which has apparently been repurposed for the next month to "protector":
.JPG)
We looked it up. Quail eggs. When we found the nest, there were 5 eggs. Now it looks like there are 13 eggs. They lay up to 18. We're hoping the road runner doesn't find the nest before they hatch - road runners *love* bird eggs. But we don't look back there often, cause we're scared we may run into mama and she might desert the nest. Apparently, quails lay an egg every couple of days in the nest until they are done and then they incubate. We are anxious to keep tabs on the nest (carefully) and see how our new babies grow!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Solid Foods!
So Natalie is finally taking in the solid foods. It's been a little struggle, but mostly because the most common beginner food - rice cereal - doesn't agree with her. I think she was pushing it out because she didn't like it. But finally she relented and started taking in, only for us to find out that she puked it all out again. Poor Nat. I went on a search for barley cereal, but nobody makes it. So, time to start with some fruits and veggies, and definitely wait 4 days to see if there is any type of reaction, cause she is definitely our food allergy baby!
Today we just fed her some carrots. I'm really hoping these don't come back up. I mean, could you imagine? Projectile orange puke? Eeeewwww!!!
But she seemed to like them a lot, so I'm hoping she knows what she can handle and what she can't. We shall see.
Here's our happy carrot baby:
.JPG)
Today we just fed her some carrots. I'm really hoping these don't come back up. I mean, could you imagine? Projectile orange puke? Eeeewwww!!!
But she seemed to like them a lot, so I'm hoping she knows what she can handle and what she can't. We shall see.
Here's our happy carrot baby:
.JPG)
Monday, April 8, 2013
Natalie is 6 Months Old!!
Our baby girl is getting so big! She continues to be a very happy baby, even despite the teething that she's going through. Her two bottom teeth have broken through, and the tops are on their way. And despite the fact that her teeth are coming in, she still isn't much of a solid food eater. And despite the fact that she doesn't eat solid food, she's still a whopping 17.8 lbs!!! Mommy's milk must be loaded with nutrients!!! :)
Natalie's favorite song is the ABCs. (It has been for a while, I just never blogged about it.) Her favorite family member is her sister, except when she's hungry, then it's mommy. (Sorry daddy!!)
She's currently wearing 9 month clothes, but might move up to 12 month for PJ's soon because of her big feet and chunky thighs. (Yes, her toes are tight in the footies, and mommy has a hard time zipping up the sleepers through the thigh area. hahaha) She is consistently wearing bibs now, mostly because if we don't put one on her, she soaks her shirts down to her belly button in a matter of an hour with all her drool!!!
She enjoys trees, especially when they blow in the wind - that makes her laugh out loud. It's the cutest thing watching her laugh at a tree!!
Here are some pictures we took on Friday, her actual 6 month birthday. Sunglasses and headband courtesy of Alli, who found them in a drawer and decided Natalie *must* wear them!
.JPG)
Natalie's favorite song is the ABCs. (It has been for a while, I just never blogged about it.) Her favorite family member is her sister, except when she's hungry, then it's mommy. (Sorry daddy!!)
She's currently wearing 9 month clothes, but might move up to 12 month for PJ's soon because of her big feet and chunky thighs. (Yes, her toes are tight in the footies, and mommy has a hard time zipping up the sleepers through the thigh area. hahaha) She is consistently wearing bibs now, mostly because if we don't put one on her, she soaks her shirts down to her belly button in a matter of an hour with all her drool!!!
She enjoys trees, especially when they blow in the wind - that makes her laugh out loud. It's the cutest thing watching her laugh at a tree!!
Here are some pictures we took on Friday, her actual 6 month birthday. Sunglasses and headband courtesy of Alli, who found them in a drawer and decided Natalie *must* wear them!
.JPG)
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The Plan
Alli loves making plans. Sometimes her plans are negotiations for things that we suggest, and other times she just makes up plans. These are usually plans of what we are going to do in the near future, like for the day, or after dinner, etc. So last night, she asked if she could have candy for dessert. And we said no. She didn't eat a good dinner, she was out of sorts all day long, and she had had lots and lots of sweets since we went to three different Easter Egg hunts over the weekend. Well, she didn't like that answer so she came up with another plan (which of course got her candy). And we said no. Now typically, her negotiations work because she comes up with a plan that's reasonable and we will except them, or part of them. But last night, no matter what the plan, the answer to getting candy was no. She was pissed, but finally gave up and watched a bit of a movie before bed time.
I went to go nurse Natalie to sleep and I told Alli (and Kim) that in 10 minutes, the movie was to go off and she needed to brush teeth and go to bed. Both said okay. I nursed Nat, who went down quickly and then came out to remind the two that it was time to get Alli ready for bed. And Alli said "I want a pear for dessert". And we said no. Not because that was a bad idea, we would have been happy giving her a pear for dessert - the hour before, but not right at bed time. So she tried to negotiate again and offered up apple sauce. No. No, no, no. We weren't budging.
The "I HATE YOU"s went flying. We were horrible parents. And there was crying - lots and lots of crying and begging. Kim tried to reason with her and told her that if we gave her her way because she cried, it would just make her think she could cry and get her way all the time. Ok. She understood that. So then she tried to butter him up! (Smart girl.) Unfortunately, the answer was still no. But she was starving! No.
This went on for a while, but Kim finally got her calmed down again and she went to bed. Whew. What a rough night.
Well, at 3:30am, she started whimpering from her bed. We thought "crap, she had an accident". I got up to go check on her. I felt her butt but nothing was wet. I asked what was wrong. And do you know what that little stinker said? "Mom, I have a plan... If you give me apple sauce before everyone wakes up, everything will be okay." Are you kidding me? 3:30am for a plan!?!?! ARGH!!! I told her we do not make plans in the middle of the night and to just go to sleep. I couldn't believe it!!! She wasn't very happy when she woke up either, because she realized that she did not succeed with any of her plans, but that sadness got turned around with the promise of candy that night if she was good and pleasant all day. :)
Speaking of plans, my plan is to keep getting up in the middle of the night and pumping extra milk until Natalie starts decreasing her milk consumption and increasing her solid food consumption. The problem is, that little punk won't eat solids!!! Every time we try, she just pushes all the food out with her tongue. She's just not ready. I think she's in cahoots with her sister to make sure mommy stays extra tired for more months!!! ;)
I went to go nurse Natalie to sleep and I told Alli (and Kim) that in 10 minutes, the movie was to go off and she needed to brush teeth and go to bed. Both said okay. I nursed Nat, who went down quickly and then came out to remind the two that it was time to get Alli ready for bed. And Alli said "I want a pear for dessert". And we said no. Not because that was a bad idea, we would have been happy giving her a pear for dessert - the hour before, but not right at bed time. So she tried to negotiate again and offered up apple sauce. No. No, no, no. We weren't budging.
The "I HATE YOU"s went flying. We were horrible parents. And there was crying - lots and lots of crying and begging. Kim tried to reason with her and told her that if we gave her her way because she cried, it would just make her think she could cry and get her way all the time. Ok. She understood that. So then she tried to butter him up! (Smart girl.) Unfortunately, the answer was still no. But she was starving! No.
This went on for a while, but Kim finally got her calmed down again and she went to bed. Whew. What a rough night.
Well, at 3:30am, she started whimpering from her bed. We thought "crap, she had an accident". I got up to go check on her. I felt her butt but nothing was wet. I asked what was wrong. And do you know what that little stinker said? "Mom, I have a plan... If you give me apple sauce before everyone wakes up, everything will be okay." Are you kidding me? 3:30am for a plan!?!?! ARGH!!! I told her we do not make plans in the middle of the night and to just go to sleep. I couldn't believe it!!! She wasn't very happy when she woke up either, because she realized that she did not succeed with any of her plans, but that sadness got turned around with the promise of candy that night if she was good and pleasant all day. :)
Speaking of plans, my plan is to keep getting up in the middle of the night and pumping extra milk until Natalie starts decreasing her milk consumption and increasing her solid food consumption. The problem is, that little punk won't eat solids!!! Every time we try, she just pushes all the food out with her tongue. She's just not ready. I think she's in cahoots with her sister to make sure mommy stays extra tired for more months!!! ;)
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