Olivia's Birthday!

I remember enjoying brithdays SO much as a kid! It began with anticipation, oh months in advance! Laying in bed the night before your birthday, willing yourself to fall alseep so the big day would finally be here. Waking up to a pile of presents on the kitchen table and a special birthday breakfast, having a party, and just being the special person of the day!

Did you ever know that your parents were not as excited as you were? Or that they were even sad?? I didn't! Maybe my parents were just excited for me to move past wheter year I was in...I was a little, well we'll use the term "spunky", as a youngster. Probably similar to Olivia...maybe vivacious would be a good term... Anyhow, I was sad on Olivia's birthday! Just a little, of course, because I was thrilled to celebrate with her. But my baby girl is 2!! She isn't a baby anymore!

Well we had a great day, starting with dinner with my parents the night before. (Darn blogger for not putting my pictures in the right order, and darn me for never remembering about that!!)

We went to Adventure Park to play with our friends Marci & Michael (Michael's birthday is the day before Olivia). She had a blast!

Monkey bread for breakfast at Daddy's work.


Just proof that I was there too...

Yum!!

Olivia's pink pig cake!

The Haircut

The battle rages on...

I keep getting more and more humbled by the minute.

I was going to make a post and complain about the 3 hour nap battle that I just engaged in, resulting in no nap, a tired mom, and a very tired toddler who just wouldn't give in. I was going to write about how I "neglected" my 7 wk old in the process. I say "neglected" in quotes because I tended to him every time he cried, brought him toys, cradled him to sleep (2x), and nursed him. But I felt neglectful because I couldn't do as much as I wanted and was frustrated with the situation. It's a battle I usually chose to fight because I am not willing to allow her to not take naps anymore. That's my fight to win--but after 3 hours today it was enough.

Then I thought about how "neglectful" I would be if I had 14 children. Or how frustrating it would be to have 14 children who wouldn't nap. Or even 4 children who wouldn't nap. I have one child, and it's one day. I felt guilty for being angry, frustrated, yelling, and even though those feelings had subsided during the process and I once again became consistent and caring mom...how do you do that for 14 children?

Then I was humbled once more. My mother-in-law just called to report that Ryan's cousin's wife, Leah, who is 30 weeks pregnant was just taken by ambulance down to the cities because she has a blood clot in her leg. She also has a disease where they cannot put in a "strainer" (I don't know the technical term) to keep the blood clot from moving to critical areas of the body. All they can do is blood thinners. And they may have to take the baby early. She will be in the hospital until this clears up. She also has a 2 year old and a one year old at home. And her husband is working in Madison, WI right now. And there is a blizzard making it difficult for him to come home.

Please pray for them. Pray for healing for Leah, for the baby to be okay and not have to be taken early, and safe travels for Matt.

My nap battle is just not that big of a deal anymore... (but if you do have some nap tricks, I'd be thrilled to hear them!)

Oh honestly...

It's been an "oh honestly" few days in our household! Olivia came down with a flu bug on Friday night which carried on all the way through Monday...and she still had diarrhea yesterday. It was miserable.

Then yesterday Ryan's brother and Ryan came down with the bug in the morning. I was still feeling awesome! Good to go! I went to town in the afternoon to visit my girlfriend who had just had a baby (and still in the hospital) for a "no touch" visit due to my germ infested house. I had been sitting visiting for about 10 minutes when I found myself thinking "hmmm....I all of a sudden, do NOT, feel good." I was in the midst of telling her that I should go due to these strange feelings I was having when I had to frantically run into the bathroom so as not to barf all over the floor of her room. OH embarassing!!!!!!!! She was lovely about it and felt horrible that I was sick. I just pray that I didn't infest her family with my germies now!!!

The bug was short lasting, I am completely cured today, as is the rest of my family. Thank goodness! Olivia is back to her old self, playing away. Aidan is taking a nap, still fully dressed in his snowsuit, from our excursion to play outside earlier, and I (well, was) enjoying some time on the computer. Now Olivia is sitting on my lap...how short lived time alone can be!

What else...

We're planning for Olivia's birthday party next week. She has decided that she wants a pink pig cake...hmmm...

Aidan has been sleeping AWESOME the last few nights...last night he slept 6 hours straight! YES!

Tomorrow I am chopping my hair! I am so excited! I'll post pics. Here's a pic of current hair...well it was a few months ago (if you can't tell by the belly!) but close enough! And a sneak pic to the maternity pics I got back from Bridgit last week. I'll post more of those later too!

Nothing better...

Aidan has been smiling and cooing for a week. It's too adorable!! I just LOVE it!

Daddy's Bath

My New Year's Resolution

I vowed to keep up on laundry! My biggest hassle because, as you ALL know, it NEVER ends!! :) I vowed to wash at least 3x a week, fold loads immediately, and put them away. Well, I have been doing great! At least on most of it! I've been doing awesome at washing and folding immediately. It's the putting away that I don't get to! The hazards of having a laundry room in the basement that no one sees! This week I brought up our last months (yes, month) worth of clean clothes to be put away...


Wow.

The Noises You Hear...

Here's a chaotic moment at my house...2 babies crying...the funny part is that when I turned on the video, Olivia started saying, My butt hurts! Can you hear her?

What does your house sound like?? Let me know if you post one!

Struggling & Finding Peace

I am struggling this week with patience and anger. A while ago I started a bad habit. I habit that I knew would be a bad one when I started it, but being 9 months pregnant and anticipating a newborn, I had to maintain some sanity. I started laying down with Olivia when she falls asleep for naps. I know that this is not the worst habit a parent could do, nor am I the only one who does this. But, I have always taken pride in good sleep habits and this is not one of them. Olivia worsened in her naptime habits about staying in bed. When we first started the big girl bed, it took a few tries, but she would stay in. Then it started to take hours to get her down. Not okay with me, so I started the habit. She didn't even want me to lay with her, it started out as a consequence for not staying in bed. She'd totally be happier if I left her alone to crawl out of bed and be a stinker. But then she'd never sleep and my sanity would be gone.

Recently, I had decided it was time to break the habit. Not because it wasn't working anymore, but because I was feeling guilty about the badness of my habit. I want to be a perfect parent after all...right... So I tried to make some changes. These changes have led to long, drawn out naptime drama that leads to very angry, frustrated, mean, nasty, ugly, regretful, guilty mom. I do not like the me that I become when this happens. All of my good parenting priciples go out the window and nasty mom comes out. When I finally just lay down with her because I'm spent and regretting my nasty mom behavior, I watch her precious little face and body relax and I think, How can I be so nasty to such a sweet, innocent little girl?

I've decided that this habit doesn't matter. I've sought advice for how to change it and none of it seems fitting for Olivia. I would rather take 15 minutes out of my day to lay down and cuddle with my sweet little girl (who isn't going to be little for long) than take 2 hours trying to put her down for a nap and end up being nasty mom. However resigned I am to this habit, I still feel like a bad mom. I've told her I was sorry for when I became nasty mom and she doesn't seem any different, but I don't want to be that person anymore.

So here's the time to change! I will vow to take that special time with my little girl each day and lay down with her for her nap so that we can spend that time together. I will look at that time as quality time with her, and not as a bad hait that I should not be engaging in.

What "bad habits" do you do as a mom, and how do you make yourself feel better? What brings out the nasty mom in you? (Because I know I'm not the only one!!)