6 Months Old

Briggsy boy, you, my dear son are 6 months old. Boy oh boy do we love you. You light up our lives and bring us sooo much joy!! I am so excited to be your mom and sooo excited to see what life has in store for you and what you have in store for life! This month you are a crawling, rolling, drooling, falling, head bumping, smiley, joyous mess. You. Are. Everywhere. 'Nuf said. You are pulling yourself up on things, you are falling and bumping your head. You smile with your mouth open and cry with your mouth open, give kisses with your mouth open. Basically, you do everything with your mouth open. There have only been a few times we've seen your mouth closed. Daddy keeps asking, "Are you sure that there's not something wrong with his mouth?" It's always open. And, its just so cute. I'm convinced you are showing off those beautiful lips that God gave you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't mean that your mouth will "always be open" once you start talking. Not sure I can take two of those J hehehe This month you started saying Mama. It's hard for well, because you always have your mouth open (catch the drift?). It's so fun to hear you say. You also give kisses and you have started taking a sippy cup like no ones business. In fact, you prefer it to the bottle. You still nurse great (especially at night, note this really means all night long) and you still take baby food awesome. We've been giving you a whole slew of stuff to try. I haven't found anything you don't like. You made a few faces with bananas, but who doesn't. I still hate bananas. You love being a part of the action. You have to know where Ella is at all times and you smile the biggest and laugh the loudest when she's around. You also cry the most when she hurts you takes a toy from you or hurts your feelings. She's had a couple of instances this month where she's pushed you down. You cried so hard with real big alligator tears. I'm convinced it was because your feelings were hurt more than anything else. Every morning the two of you love on each other and play so well together. I keep pinching myself because I can't believe how much you like each other. I know that this is too good to be true to stay this way for too long, so I'm just enjoying it while I can. By the way, Ella calls you Briggsy for everything. It's so cute. When people ask her what your name is she looks at them, and then at you and says, "Briggsy." You're starting to reach out for people when you want them to hold you. This month you had your first real "sickness." We took you in and you had an ear infection (well, they said, your ear was red and you had a fever, so they gave you amoxicillian). Right after you started taking the amoxicillin, you had a couple horrible nights in a row. You would. not. sleep. for. nothing. I even spent one night on our hard wood floor under your swing. It was horrible. Probably some of the worst nights I've had in 2.5 years of parenting. As we were getting ready for night #3, I undressed you and noticed a horrible red, raised rash everywhere, all over your body. You were allergic to the amoxicillin. Pharmacist said you probably had been itching everywhere and just broke out into the rash a few days delayed. I felt horrible that you felt horrible and so much relief that we were both going to get sleep. Ever since we stopped the medicine, you've been a dream. Sleeping, eating, everything. You even took a 4.5 hour nap for daddy yesterday. I made him wake you up! The hardest thing about you is having you fall asleep, you don't fall asleep easy. We're working on it, but some nights it can be difficult. Other than that, you are the easiest, most laid back, happy baby I know! Right now you are LOVING your jumparoo. Jump jump jumping everywhere. I love you Briggs. You are the apple of my eye and you make my heart so very happy. SO glad you are a wonderful, necessary part of our family. Love you baby boy!

Ella 31 Months!

Ella Grace- you are 31 months old. I thought I would share a bit about what you are up to these days. You are hilarious! So, so funny. You make us laugh all day long with your knock knock jokes and some of the other stuff you come up with! You are BIG helper, especially with Briggs- always giving him the binky and giving me a play by play of what's happening. You are so loving, always giving kisses and telling us, "Love you too." You are so smart- you know all your letters, shapes, colors and over 30 sight words. You love learning! You are so polite. After I took you to the doctor this weekend, the doctor took your pulse and you turned to her and said, "why thank you." You are always going around saying, "Nice to meet you" while shaking hands. It's so cute. Tonight you yelled to the guy at Menards, "Have a good night." Some of the stuff you come up with, boy, you amaze us! Right now we are potty training. You are doing a great job. You have known what you were doing from the start. You love running to tell us you went. Seriously, you've had no quelms about it, we've only been doing it about 10 days and you've got the hang of it and it's really no big deal for you. Right now your struggles are going to bed (ugh!) and eating. You are too busy to eat, too busy to sit. I should have known, you were this way from the beginning! And you are too busy for bed! Always have something to do, something to see, something to say. You're so funny. Every night when we say it's bedtime you yell out Back Mommy Back. You want me to pat your back. Which I will gladly do, but you won't sit still long enough for me to. You are having bad dreams too which is sad for us. You woke up the other day yelling Daddy Fell, Daddy Fell. Today you woke up from nap screaming Mommy and all you wanted was me! Tonight, Daddy was watching a movie. You said, "Mommy, where's Daddy. " I replied, "Watching a movie." You say, "Oh." You walked into Daddy and said, "Hi Dad, what movie?" Daddy replies and you said, "Oh, is it good, you like it?" You're always concerned about us! AND, you are the life of the party! This week, all of the neighborhood kids started playing outside and thanks to Daddy's playset, everyone (9 kids sometimes!) are in our yard playing with YOU and your things and YOU love it! When I say its time to come in you say, "my girls, my girls" which is so funny because all you do is play with the boys! Ella Grace, we love you more than we can say or show. You are the light of our lives. We are so proud of who you're becoming and the sweet sweet girl that you are to Briggs. You LOVE playing with him and talking to him and showing him things. It makes our hearts so happy. Thanks for filling our lives with joy and chaos- we wouldn't have it any other way!

Mommy Fail #408,284 and Daddy Fail #4

Well this has been a challenging week. First off, the kiddos have the cruds. Ick. Briggsy has his first ear infection, his first anti-botics, we've had many a late nights and early mornings trying to soothe the kid. Poor boy. Ella has also had the cruds, AND, we're potty training. Seriously, potty training is for the birds. I can honestly say, I have never complained about having to change a diaper. It really just isn't that bad for me. Even with 2 in diapers. I'm lucky, Dan helps change diapers (I've heard the horror stories of the dads that won't even look at diapers), but I really don't mind doing it. Weird, I know. The only reason we're even on the potty training band wagon is because I do feel it's time, AND, because those #2's are kiddo #2's anymore, so before I start to complain about diaper duty, I thought we should at least try. And it's going well (more on that later), until Monday. I had to stay home with sicky kids. All of our attitudes could have been a bit peachier, when "it" happened. Mommy Fail #408,284. All weekend Ella had been doing great potty training, seriously, like a total of 4 accidents. But going poopy? Another story. The kid likes to poop her pants. I've heard it's common. We're working on it. On this particular Monday, she poooped everywhere and I had to clean it up (like usual), and since we were spending day 487 (ok really only day 4, remember the "peachier" part?) at home during our "potty training bootcamp" I reached for another pair of pajamas. There was a chill in the air, so I reached for the footed PJ's. Always a household favorite. WAS a household favorite. About 30 minutes after I changed Ella's clothes and under garmets, I was tending to Briggs when Ella gave me a sideways look- not unusual from a 2 year old I might add. I turned, sniffed and said, "No you didn't".... yep, she pooped again. As she started running from me I could hear the splat splat splat in the pants. Where does poop go when you wear footed pajamas? That's right folks. Mommy Fail #408,284. After scrubbing down the whole house, all of Ella and just basically being besides myself, I took a picture and shot it to Dan who (luckily) was at work. The caption read, "Hi Hon, Hope you're having a good day. Look what you're missing out on here. Love ya" I knew, just knew that after taking a glance a little bit of throw up would enter his mouth. It did. Gratitute for all of my diaper days also ensued.

Today was "Daddy day" for the kids. I got home and realized quickly that Daddy had Daddy Fail #4. Dan stated very matter of factly that Ella somehow cut her foot (these details are still blurry) and in her "excitement" of cutting her foot, she ran all over the couch (ALL OVER THE COUCH) and got blood everywhere. I love my husband TO DEATH, but sometimes he can exaggerate a bit (he probably gets it from me), so I asked Ella how her foot was (I think) and hem hawed my way to the couch to find blood ALL OVER THE COUCH. Seriously, I think Ella must have walked every inch of that couch. Luckily for us, we have microfiber (thank you Dan for talking me into that purchase!) and we took the cushions off and washed them. The day has been saved!

Ella funny

Tonight you went to bed late but laid right down like a good girl. When daddy and I came up to bed, I checked on you and then we were chatting in our room when all of the sudden your door shut. Daddy turned to me and said ...she's not asleep. I went in your room again and you looked at me rubbed your eyes like I had woke you up. I told you it was time for bed laid you down (again) and you started talking to me. I replied and then you turned to me and said, shush mom go to sleep, okay? ? Daddy and I are cracking up!!!!

Baby Food 101

A few have asked how I make baby food, it's SUPER easy and well worth the small amount of time it takes to make it, so I thought I'd share.

What You'll Need:
Ice Cube Trays
Steamable Frozen Vegtables (I'd start with peas, carrots, green beans)
Thawed Breast Milk, formula or water (your choosing)
Blender, smoothie mixer, Ninja, or food processor. (I use a Cusinart Smoothie Blender thingy)


First thing you do is microwave/steam the frozen veggies. Usually about 7 minutes/bag. I would microwave it for the most time that it states on the bag to make the veggies very tender. Next, put the veggies in the blender container (if some water drains in that's fine too), and add approximately 3 oz of breast milk (give or take an ounce or two depending on how chunky/runny you want it). Next, blend her on up. I It takes about a minute in mine to get pretty smooth across the board. After you have it blended ( I use the blade with the 4 blades, though I have used the 2 blade one before too and it works fine), I add the mixture to ice cube trays and freeze. Each ice cube is 1oz. So, you'll always know how much your baby has eaten.

A couple of tips.... I also freeze breastmilk this way. It's an easy way to thaw out a couple of ounces without wasting a whole bag of frozen breast milk. Once veggies and the milk are frozen in the ice cube trays, I empty and bag in freezer safe baggies. I also always add some rice cereal to the veggies. This makes it thicker and you can control the consistancy. Veggies are the easiest to make this way. Fruit can be done also, and for the most part the same way.

It's easy, cost effective, and a great way to take to restaurants or to the babysitter! Happy Baby (food) Making!

OH Ella

Oh ella.

Ella Grace, you push my buttons and touch my heart like no other person I know. The last couple of nights have been challenging with you. Last night, I mentioned around 5pm that it was bath night and after bath I was going to cut your bangs as a small hair cut was much needed. During bath, you got pulled out before I could even wash you due to your naughtiness of splashing water all over the bathroom (ugh). While you were drying off, I was tending to your crying brother when all of the sudden I heard you exclaim, “Yeah Mommy I did it!” I turned around to face my worst nightmare, you holding pieces of your hair in your hands. Luckily, it’s not too bad, could have been a whole lot worse. I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better though as its going to grow out and stick up in all the wrong places. Shortly after that, I said, in a second we’re going to brush your teeth and go to bed. Again, turning to deal with Briggs, I turned around and you had opened my makeup bag (from a recent over night stay in Chicago for work) and had toothpaste EVERYWHERE including a teeny tiny bit on my toothbrush. MENTAL NOTE: don’t ever tell Ella what we’re about to do or going to do. She is 2384 steps ahead of me. Seriously child. I couldn’t really be mad at you.
Tonight after some whining and plea bargaining, I took you upstairs for bed which as of late is always a challenge. It started off okay, but as per typical, you started flalling around when it was time for a diaper and jammies. Kicking, screaming, etc… SO, I put you in a holding time out. Where I hold you on my lap until you want to “Listen & Obey” (our key words). Let’s just say that I am still praying with diligence that the neighbors did not hear you (though I’m not sure how they could not) so that no one would call child protective services. Hopefully, most of the parents reading this would agree that their child has on once (or please say more!) occasion had an episode like this. Holy Buckets, you would have thought I was killing you. The thing about it is that I warned you, and warned you again, and warned you again, threatened you, let you get away with more than you should, let you get away with some more and then realized, you were not going to start “listening and obeying” unless I gave you consequences.

Finally, after you calmed down and I was patting your back and you were giving me hugs and kisses saying “Sorry mommy, it’s otay mommy, otay” I realized, this is how God feels about us. He leads us in the right direction, we veer, veer some more, He leads us in the right direction again, we don’t listen, and then we are faced to deal with our consequences all the while asking God, “Why?” And while God is a loving God who loves us unconditionally (meaning it doesn’t matter how much we don’t listen, He still loves us), this challenges me to be more understanding of Ella’s situation. Yes, I can/should have more patience, BUT, I shouldn’t put up with wrong behavior. You choose the behavior, you choose the consequence. A hard lesson for a 2 year old? You betcha. A hard lesson for a 30 year old? No question.

Happy Green Day

We celebrated St. Patty's Day in style this year. Early on, Kimberly & I decided to have a picnic downtown near the parade route and then watch the parade. I made shirts for the kiddos, dressed everyone in green, made green noodles, rainbow cupcakes. Kimberly brought green plates, cups, green milk. We.Went.All.Out. Mark my words: NOT WORTH IT. At least not today, maybe one day ? It had disaster written out all over. Kimberly and I were in charge of getting 3 kids ready, lunches/bags packed, car loaded and out the door on time. The guys were in charge of going disc golfing (which they pulled off successfully). The green lunch started out cool, until the kids saw that the adults had Doritos with their lunch. Forget the nice clean shirts I made, Doritos were EVERY.WHERE. Then insert drunk people. EVERY.WHERE. It was like a Disney World nightmare only with drunk people. The parade finally (and I mean finally) started and the coolness was cool until the no nap meltdown began. At least there were lots of suckers to use as bribes. Parents of older kids were rude, my kids didn't understand the point of what was going on. Bottom line, I hope one day the kids appreciate all we did to pull this off, because I'm not sure it will happen again anytime soon. At least the kids looked cute doing it :)

Details on our green menu:

Green Noodles -Put dry egg noodles in a baggie with green food coloring and 1-2 Tbs of vinegar. Let it sit for 4-6 hours, and then put it out on wax paper and let it dry overnight. Cook normally.

Rainbow Cupcakes-Take a white cake mix. Divide it up into cups. Use 5-6 different cups depending on how many different colors you want to make (or have). Mix a different color into each up (making the color very vibrant). Add a tablespoon or so to each muffin tin, layering the colors. Very important- do not spread, just "plop" on top of the next color and bake normally! Enjoy!

5 Months Old!

Well Briggsy boy, we made it to 5 months. I cannot believe you are that old. You are SO not a baby any more, which makes Mommy very sad. You sit up on your own; you roll EVERYWHERE and put everything in your mouth. You have cut your bottom 2 teeth and they are starting to stick up. You LOVE to stand on your feet, you love to crawl, yes, I said it, crawl. It’s unreal. You absolutely 100% without a doubt love love love your sister Ella. You smile the biggest and laugh the loudest when she’s around. You belly laugh more than any person I know. You get sooo fussy when you are tired and can’t fall asleep. You have a really hard time falling asleep. You love peas and carrots and green beans and didn’t even flinch when we tried them a couple of days ago for the first time. You loved the swimming pool and didn’t even make a funny face when we got into the coooolllld water. You love your swing that Daddy put up outside for you this weekend. You seriously spent an hour in there last night. You like to be a part of the action whether it’s at our kitchen table, the TV or at 5:15 this morning when Daddy was getting ready for work. You love your mommy the most. You follow me with your eyes everywhere I go. You hear my voice and perk up, as long as you can see me, you’re the happiest. You love Daddy a lot too, but you love your mommy. You love eating your feet and playing with toys including your binkies! You love to put paper in your mouth or cheerios, depending on what you can get to quicker. You love to have your mouth open. Every once and awhile we will see you close your mouth so you can try and blow bubbles, but for the most part, your mouth is open ALL.OF.THE.TIME. It’s hilarious. Briggsy boy, you make our days happy and our nights full of joy. We love sitting at the table as a family. Ella in her big girl chair, Briggs in the highchair, and mommy and daddy in between. And you know what? You love it to. LOVE it. You love all of us to be in the same place laughing and smiling. We’re so excited that you’re a part of our family and so amazed at all you can do already. You’re an amazing little boy! We love you more than words can express!

Good For The Soul

Ah, the feeling of being refreshed, of being anew. That’s how I feel this week after visiting with good friends and having somewhat of a “college reunion.” It was good for the soul and frankly, just what I needed! My best friend Bria, her wonderful husband Kris & beautiful baby boy Kaden came to visit this weekend. Right behind her walked in our hilarious and life-loving friend Jamie, her awesome husband Nick, and their beautiful bouncing baby boy Nolan. Right behind them, came some of our dear friends Aaron and Katie, and my awesome sister Marie & my awesome BIL Brad. Our house was packed full of friends, family, babies, food and fun and I couldn’t have been happier. As I looked around, I sighed a deep breath of satisfaction. Back in our college days, this is EXACTLY what we dreamed for. Husbands, babies, a satisfying life full of friends and blessings. We are living our dream, all of us. Yes, there is a lot of snot, poop, worrying about money, house projects, job struggles, house projects and whether or not we are raising our kids up right or royally screwing them over, but all in all, this is exactly what we longed for.
I often say that I miss college. And it’s true; I do miss it a lot. BUT, I don’t think its college so much that I miss as it’s these wonderful people that traveled the college journey with me. I miss the idea of a slumber party every night. The thought of Bria helping me dissect some work problems and giving me a new outlook on things. The way that Jamie encourages me.
While Bria was here, we had a busy few days. We went out to dinner with the group above, came home, ate some pie and drank some wine, ate breakfast, ate lunch, took the kiddos to a waterpark, slept in, worked a bit, had another good college friend over for dinner, worked some more, went to the park and stayed up late talking and laughing. The weather was perfect while they were here. Spring started and the air is fresh and new providing a positive outlook on life, much like my soul feels after having a long weekend of visiting with good friends. Here’s to seeing the Jones Family and the Goins Family again soon. Let’s not wait so long to do this again!

4 Months Old

Briggs, today you are 4 months old! What a wonderful, wonderful kid you are. You are so delicious I could eat you up all day long. You have turned into the happiest, sweetest baby. You rarely whine, fuss or cry. You have started REALLY liking your binky (what a difference a month makes!) and now when you want your binkie you make this cute face with your tongue and roll your tongue all around. You love love love your sister, and she loves you. Just last night Ella was gone from you for a couple of hours and when I saw her, the first words out of her mouth was, “Where’s Briggs?” followed by a “Hi, Mommy.” When she climbed in her carseat next to yours, your face lit up and you were all smiles as she held your hand and “danced” with you and smiled at you. You two are going to be two peas in a pod! Last night, we took you grocery shopping. You LOVED being in the moby seeing everything I saw, you were so good, you didn’t let out one peep. Imagine how awful I felt when I finally made it up to the checkout, I looked down only to notice you were asleep!! I felt horrible because I have no idea how long you were asleep for! The second we set you down, you roll over. You are a moving machine. You roll from front to back and back to front and all around. You love Mommy’s hair and pull on it and everything else you can get your hands onto. You laugh out loud at the funniest things. We caught you on tape this last weekend laughing when we dropped a diaper on your face. You started cereal this month and the first full week we tried it, you just let it drip out of your mouth, you wanted nothing to do with it. NOW, you can’t get enough of it. We are basically shoveling it into your mouth to appease you! You started to sleep through the night on a regular basis last week, that all changed again this week with a growth spurt. Mommy is ready to get sleep, but, she knows her nights of cuddling up next to you are limited, so I’m not in any hurry. You still don’t love to take a bottle. You really don’t like to take one from Daddy when you’re at home. I’m pretty sure you know you’re home, and you think I should be there, but you can’t figure out why I’m not feeding you. You play with toys now and sit in your saucer. You sit up for the most part, toppling over after a minute or so, but you are VERY, VERY strong. Daddy and Mommy have seen you up on your knees a couple of times acting like you are trying to crawl. Boy, I am not ready for that! You use your voice all the time to coo at us and talk to us. You are on a pretty good wake, play, sleep, eat schedule cycle. You still love baths and love your mommy. You follow my voice with your head all around the house and keep dibs on me all of the time. We are so in love with you and so very happy you are a part of our family. Life wouldn’t be complete without you and you fill our hearts with joy everyday. We love you Briggs!