Last Saturday...

... was one of those crazy awesome whirlwind kind of days.  So much to do, and not one thing would have been worth kicking off the list to make it less busy!  In the morning we had a yard sale at my parent's house. Let me just say, I got my exercise for the whole year lol  And by we, I mostly mean me and my dad in the beginning and so by we I mean a lot of me running back and forth answering people's questions and attempting while miserably failing to make change for people (note to people, do not wipe a girl out of her one dollar bills 5 minutes after the yard sale starts, not cool!)  So eventually everyone got up and running and things were still crazy but we got a rhythm going,  The other thing about yard sales is that when you're the one running it, it seems like a lot more time passes than what actually does.  Since I had to leave half way through, I kept panicking that I had lost track of time only to find that 5 minutes had gone by (note to self, wear a watch next time!)

So, about my having to leave half way through.  There are two weekends this year during which everything decided to be on one of those two Saturdays.  I had always wanted to do the yard sale on my grandparents street, turns out that's the same day as my friend's wedding, for which I will be in Georgia!  SO that's a no go.  So then there is the 20th.... I already had two things planned in advance.... the Great Cloth Diaper Change at our consignment store to break the world record of the most cloth diapers changed at one time AND our church talent show in the evening to raise money for a 4th octave of handbells.  As I'm driving down my parents street a bit ago, I see the sign for their multi family yard sale that the corner house always arranges and I think "oh fantastic, this will take the place of that other one I can't make it to"  As I search for the date on the sign, why am I not surprised, the 20th!!!!!  Any sane person would say, oh well, next time.  But I am not that person.  The other yard sale goes twice a year, but I have summer things to sell and this one only goes in the spring.  So I knew that way my only shot!  So I add it to the list.  On top of that, we also found out that my sister was invited to a dance, also the same day!  So that makes FOUR things.

I rush off to the GCDC in the middle of the yard sale.... if you ever go to a record breaking event, take a baby carrier, don't second guess it like I did!  My arm was killing me by the end of the day from holding Oliver while going around collecting Bingo signatures with the other hand.  I don't know what I expected, but the insanity that came with 11 O'clock was outstanding!  Everyone got their own square just barely big enough to fit themselves let alone a baby or in my case a tall skinny toddler baby. You also had to have a changing pad and in my case I had to have a blanket for Oliver to be distracted by chewing on in hopes that he wouldn't freak out like he usually does when I change his diaper at home.  So they are yelling one minute to changing diapers and I'm just praying my kid doesn't turn over and tear off diaper less through the crowd of other moms, many of whom were probably hoping the same thing.  We hold up our clean diapers for the before pictures and when they yell change, I move as fast as humanly possible, forgoing the wipe concept since I knew that would only get in the way (plus i had changed him before we left too so that I knew he wouldn't be needing one) and to my surprise, he thought the whole thing was funny and didn't budge!  So what, do I need a room full of people and someone to yell "change" for him not to throw a fit at home???  Somehow I think he would catch on eventually!  So just as fast as we all got in, we also got out!  I was ready to go home big time so I got his picture taken and got our gift bag and off we went!  Fun fun event!!!

Then home to curl my sister's hair for her dance... unfortunately I didn't get to see her and her date before they left because I had to skip off to the church to practice for the talent show, but I've seen the pictures and she was particularly lovely and I was glad I at least got to help even a little bit!  Hey, hair is a very important part of said dances, right?

And last but not least.... the talent show!  It was such a nice night!  After taking Oliver from my mom's back to his daddy at home, I rushed (responsibly of course) over to the church for the last part of my day.  It was actually kind of the most relaxing part of the day because while I was busy, it was just me... no baby, no change, no diapers etc!  I sang with my good friends, our bell performances went as smoothly as they could go.  We played Over the Rainbow and a phantom of the Opera medley which was really cool!  One of our I bought some things in the silent auction and some of the baked good from the youth group oh and I was in a skit too :) lol I usually don't like to be in front of people, but I admit this was really fun.  We all just had a nice, laid back, easy going night.

So at the end of the day, I made 36 dollars, learned how to bargain and deal with people just looking to make a profit off my stuff (that was fun!), set a world record using my kid's diaper, got up and sang in front of people without dying!, and spent my last $10 on junk food, the best coconut bread on the face of the planet and auction items I probably didn't need!  At the end of which I quickly passed out in bed without even knowing my husband came in or when!  I would like to say that's the end of being busy..... but that most likely won't be til mid May.  But Kateri and Arthur are visiting from Texas this weekend and I CAN'T WAIT to see them... so I know it's all worth it!

Thanks for reading!  And here are some pictures from the diaper change :)

  

A Fantastic Day to be Catholic...

We have a Pope!!!!

At approximately 2:07, Oliver and I watched as the smoke started to come out of the chimney.... within seconds it was clear it was turning white!!!  All my waiting all day paid off.... there was a lot of opinion that it wouldn't be today, but I had a feeling it would be!

And then about an hour later.... mind you this is how my son waits for the new Pope...

After a lot of waiting and cheering....

We are popeless no more!  This is the second time I've been able to see when the new Pope was elected!  God bless and long live our new Pope Francis!

Newness...

It's been a while.... almost a month actually... since I've posted anything.  I haven't really had the chance to sit down at the desktop to upload pictures.  This is a busy time for us, one of the two very busy times of the year the other being around the winter holidays.

So first of all, the most important new thing is that we are going to have a new Pope!  Thus the reason I'm getting this chance to post, because I've decided that seeing when the new pope is elected is pretty much more important than anything else right this second so I'm making sure to be around the TV during the times when there could be smoke indicating a decision or lack there of.

 It's Oliver's first new Pope!  Of course, he's asleep right now so mamma will be excited for him :)  The conclave started yesterday so it's an exciting atmosphere around here!

Next:

We're standing now :)  This picture is from the first days of practicing "steady on your feet" as we call it, which was a few weeks ago.... he's now pretty solid and is always pulling up and letting go of everything, sometimes in places and on things he should not be letting go, but thankfully I've always been there to catch him.  He's quite a dare devil, a climber (we go all the way up stairs too!).  He's chewing on a diaper cover by the way.... why he likes to do this, I don't know, but he always finds them and thinks it's funny!

Earlier in March, Nate and I started building the Lego space shuttle!  He got it for us for Christmas and it's pretty awesome.  Didn't take us NEARLY as long as the Taj Mahal, but it was fun to do when Oliver was asleep.

I recently converted my whole cloth diaper stash.  Oliver was having such diaper trouble with the Flip stay dry inserts, but I wasn't ready to give up on the cloth yet.  He and I took a trip to Greenberries, a consignment store close by... and decided to try the Organic Cotton pre folds.  So far they aren't a miracle, but they feel much better the the synthetic material we had before, which supposedly babies can develop a sensitivity to when their diet changes and they get older (go figure!)  We also bought tow awesome wet bags so we no longer have to use those disposable "diaper sacks" when we're out.  We got a small one for when we are out during the day and a large one for when we need to transport the diapers for washing to my mom's house! They are both worth the purchase (they are kind of expensive) especially since we can use them even if he's out of diapers for trips to the beach or pools where we either need to store wet things or protect something from getting wet!  We also stopped using the diaper genie.  It was great, but I really couldn't keep up purchasing the refills, plus I thought maybe the system that is meant to keep smells in, might also be hindering the cloth diapers smell wise.  We switched to just using a trash can and pillow case and we haven't noticed a problem since with smell in the room or after washing!  Over all it's not perfect, but it all seems to be working for us.  Just like anything else I've gone through since Oliver was born, it seems to take some spending money and trial and error but I know one day he'll be potty trained and this will all just be a distant memory!

Our new set up!

On March 7th... The new Ranch Dorito Tacos came out!!!  Kim and Rylee, Tarik, Tommy, Suzanne joined us to go try them :)  They are awesome.... not as good as the original cheese I think, but definitely worth getting now and then!

The babies are getting so big!  I got this fantastic picture of my aunt and Grandmother with Oliver and Lyla!

And then here are the new pictures from this years handbell Festival this past weekend!  Nate, Oliver and I all went.  It was a good time.  The expected amount of stressful because Oliver is older and busier now and not content to be in one place too long especially if he can't do what he wants!  Then combined with the expected awesomeness of the festival, I always learn things from the director there and I live for the massed rehearsals and spending time with everyone, it was a good weekend!

While we were in Ocean City, we also looked for hermit crab shells.  I was particularly desperate this time because never once has my little green crab changed shells in two and a half years.  I wouldn't worry about that if it weren't for the fact that it was obviously too big for it's shell.  I bought four shells, and then at the last second I switched one out thinking maybe I had been getting shells that were too big for her.  The day after we got back, I put the new shells in the cage and told them this was as good as it was going to get since shells are expensive so they had better like them!  Only a few hours later when it was time for bed, I go into the bedroom and notice that the green shell looks particularly empty and upside down!  Excited, I looked around and noticed the smaller shell I had picked last minute wasn't where I originally put it!  Score one for hermit crab mamma :)  I had been starting to feel like a crab failure with the green crab.... which is now the brown and white crab :) lol The other one is the brown crab (aka shell hog since it's changed like 4 times since I've had them!)

That's about it for now!  Thanks for checking in!

Love Us...

Dear everyone,

Happy Valentine's Day <3

Love, 

Us!

We're growing up...

Today is another one of those "moving on" kind of days.  Another day that says we're growing up and getting bigger every day and have come so far already. Exactly 14 months from the day Oliver was born, we used the very last bottle of the milk that I had pumped while he was in the hospital.  I never thought I would ever be able to use it all.  Was devastated when I knew I couldn't donate it because I had been on blood pressure medication. And was so excited when I realized I could use it with baby cereals, but still never thought I would use it all.  I still can't believe that just in July we were using only a half an ounce a few times a day for oatmeal... then as he wanted more we were using a whole two ounce bottle a day.  Then he would go on strike and it was only once a day.... then back to twice.  And back and forth until we settled on oatmeal for breakfast, the whole 5Tbs serving size of it, using a whole 2.5 ounce bottle at a time.  And suddenly, I could see the bottom of the last bag in my mom's freezer and the end was in sight, what a bittersweet feeling!

This time almost exactly last year, on the day he was transferred to Mount Washington:

This is what they sent over to the new hospital from the NICU, but this wasn't anywhere near all of it.  My freezer was full, my mom's basement freezer was full, and there were still four more weeks to come of bottle twice this size.  It was madness.  But getting there was even madder!

I won't lie, pumping was miserable with a capitol M and lots of exclamation points!!!!  Thirteen plus weeks of practically slaving over it, finally giving up on pumping in the middle of the night, spending my money and sometimes my mom's on trying to find ways to make it feel better, finally finding some relief when Veronica lent me her spare Madela electric... it was a roller coaster to say the least.  BUT, all that being said.... Oliver is still nursing to this day and I couldn't have gotten there without that experience.  And if I thought pumping was hard, when he finally came home the transition to full time nursing was the whole ride all over again.

I could not have done it without the support I had.  Kathleen was the lactation specialist at Franklin Square.... she had faith in me that I could get through.  And initially that was all I needed, was someone behind me saying I was doing great.  Her voice stayed with me even through the transition to Mount Washington where lactation support was less than available.
Then, if Veronica hadn't been willing to let me have her Madela, sure I might have made it through, but not as strong as I did.  The last weeks with transitioning to nursing were hard enough as it was.  The stress of hearing "supplement", "he has to wake up and eat" even though he didn't want to, "breast milk is only 20 calories and that's not enough for him to gain weight" that was all hard enough.  I needed the relief of an excellent pump, or maybe I just believed that Madela was better than anything else out there and so it worked because my mind said it would, to get me through all that in one piece.  Even looking back on everything, the fact that Nate set up a "station" of sorts in our bedroom....a chair in front of the tv, a bed stand to keep the pump on... even that was a little something that got me through and sometimes I look around the bedroom and can't believe it's been a year since it was like that!

Then there's the small fact that Oliver wouldn't take a bottle. Boy was he just not interested!  And did the hospital ever want him to be!  I can understand why they had to push the way they did, it's their protocol.... but he just wasn't having it and neither was I.  I guess looking back I had to go through all that to get where we are today... To the last bottle in the freezer and a still nursing 14 month old!

Sure, he'll still get his oatmeal in the morning.... but it will be with that half gallon of whole milk in the fridge (note the tone of sketchiness in which I say 'that half gallon' lol). No more putting a bottle out to thaw the night before, no more having to heat up the water extra because it didn't thaw all the way when I forgot to put it in the fridge soon enough, no more running over to my moms to get more out of her freezer, no more being attacked by one flying out because we just went grocery shopping and the freezer was too full.  After several boxes and two reusable grocery bags, donating a bag of the newer stuff to my friend, and using handfuls for "attempts" to get him to take a bottle, here we are!  Tomorrow when I pour the first bottle of whole milk, I think it might hurt a little.  This was an era for us... and all I knew for three months out of last year.  It will feel like something's missing for a while.  But hey we have our freezers back now, silver lining right? ;)  And goodness was it a triumph.  A battle well fought and won.  Definitely something I can look back and feel good about!  And my have we grown up through it all!

Twenty-how old now???

According to my grandmother, I'm to stay 26 forever, she says today was my last birthday because they aren't allowed to have grandchildren any older than this :)  But I may have to bargain with her since I've been looking forward to turning 27 on the 27th for ages now!  Anyway, today was a fantastic day!  I owe a lot of other pictures to this blog, some catching up to do as far as Oliver goes, but I have to edit those pictures for red eye and whatnot and Nate has to get me a new editing program since the one I was using is no more. But for now...

The best people!

Kim (Rylee was sleeping and missed the picture), Meghan and Axton, me and Oliver, Suzanne and Alisha (with baby Jonathan on the way)

Suzanne spent the night with me last night and this morning we had birthday day donuts.  Then we went to my family's house and visited with my grandmother and Lyla.... grandma got me Ravens pants to add to my purple collection!!!!  Kim and Tarik through me a party :)  We ate pizza and cake and HUGE cupcakes and we girls played Just Dance 4 at which we are of course professionals!  Nate bought me a cake and a new memory card for my camera and the Dr. Who cook book for the Kindle.

Now I'm going to crash in bed <3