yesterday

I turned 27. it happened so fast, in the blink of an eye really. I just graduated High School yesterday (what my 10 yr reunion is coming up?)

We went to Sea World to celebrate, it was an awesome day. the first day we've gotten to spend together as a family since my return to work excpet for Labor day. Nathalie had such a good time, it was so neat to watch her and her extreme amazement of all the animals. She sat for 25 minutes and watched the dolphin show, and all of you that KNOW Nathalie KNOW how amazing that is! William was a happy guy all day. I am so glad we went, it was a great way to celebrate my bday, Sam, the kids, my sister and me!

Poor little William has been having terrible bouts of constipation, he'll go 10 to 12 days w/ out pooping all the while having terrible (I mean enough for me to think its Sam and not William hee hee) gas. and then when he goes its sooo much. He still has been spitting up terrible amounts and some days are worse than others so I have eliminated Dairy from my diet, to see if that will make any difference, I hope it does!

Well it is that time of the evening for me to go get ready for work :(

i'm going out.alone.nokids..nohubby...first time in over a year and I am utterly giddy!!!! I am going to the toby keith concert tonight with my sister and our friend carolyn...and im not driving oh but i do have to work at 9am ha.

beauty is.....

Beauty is
Looking into my children's eyes
and seeing unconditonal love.
a smile
a laugh
the giddiness of a 2 year old

Beauty is
the sound of my dh's heart beating
next to me in bed.
a soundly sleeping infant inbetween us
and the moon shining in the window.

Beauty is
the blessing of a family
a roof over our head
food on our plates
and peace in our hearts.


this weeks theme at www.mamasaysom.com is beauty is and this is what it brought out in me! hop on over to see what so many other wonderful people had to contribute to this weeks theme!!!!

Halloween and my sad day today!

well Halloween is just around the corner and I am as excited as all get out I LOVE HALLOWEEN its my favorite I just simply love it. My dh who I love dearly normally could careless about what my kids wear when especially at halloween normally (for the past 2 yrs) i pick up a costume and say oh look what Nathalie is gonna be this year! well the other day the following conversation occured in my household....

S: what is William gonna be for halloween?
me: well I don't know I honestly hadn't thought about it!
S: Well, I saw a really cute Lion costume the other day, and I really want to have him be a lion
me: okay

So then in my brain I kept thinking what am I going to have Nathalie be and at Walmart the other day I saw a dorothy costume! and the following conversation occured between my 2 yr old and I

me: Look Nat a DOROTHY costume do you want to be DOROTHY for Halloween?
(mind you my daughter has no idea who dorothy is)
Nat: Yeah momma me dorothy red shoes too redshoes
me okay

so I bought the dorothy costume , but have yet to get red shoes but will........


Now re: today....DH had to give william 3 ounces of formula and I have been crying about it all day....he finished all our bm that was frozen and I have been pumping my heart out.....I will continue to nurse him as much as possible and pump to keep up the supply while im working but it breaks my heart I'm sad.....but life will go on!

will's stats

william is 17 pounds and 26" woo hoo my big boy...and i must say I LOVE< LOVE, LOVE OUR NEW PEDIATRICIAN!!!!

Hello (many echoes follow)

I know its been forever.and yes we are still alive. I missed writing a post for William's 4 month bday on Monday, but he is now 4 months, he laughs all the time and talks to all of us, especially to Nathalie, He rolls, He scoots, He has graduated out of his infant carrier and is now in a convertible carseat, my baby is growing up to fast. I missed Nathalie's 1st gymnastics class on Tuesday, but she did go to her first gymnastics class! I am a working mom! a Busy busy working mom. I cried a little when I wasn't the one taking Nathalie to her very 1st gymnastics class. and then I realized I will probably miss many of my children's 1sts. I wish I could stay at home. I hate child support (see previous post regarding step daughters). Don't get me wrong I think it is the right thing for my husband to do he is their father too, it just makes me sad sometimes to realize that I could probably stay home if there wasn't that. but could i really? aww I guess we'll never know! William has a wbc tomorrow so I'll post with his stats once I get them! I'm tired and I have to go to work in an hour; immeadiately after my husband gets home. I ordered pizza for dinner as cooking really wasn't an option tonight. I hope you all are doing well and I will be back with more another day :)

teenager

well, today is sunday and I have had the past 3 days off, only to return to work tomorrow :(.....my middle step daughter Briana (14) was in for a visit for the past two weeks (and left wed.) and my older step daughter Jocelyn (17) flies in tomorrow.....I really don't want my daughter to ever become a teenager, thats it end of story, they scare me!!! I told my mom today that when Nathalie is 12 she's going to move in with her until she's 19 my mom said and I quote "I don't think so, I already had 2 teenage girls thank you very much"....So to you all I pose this questions, anyone want an extra daughter in about 10 yrs....that scares me as well, I have been out of High school the same number of years that it is until my daughter is a "tween" ok enough of that gotta go nurse william!!!1

update :)

William 3 months old and Nathalie and The afore mentioned vaseline incident!


well its been a week since my last post....William caught Nathalie's cold, and was taken to the dr's on friday for a freakishly strange rash... He is 3.5 months now and weighs in at 16.4 pounds woo hoo my big boy.....not to much is new here just wanted to post some pictures :)....talk to you all soon

stranger

I feel like a stranger to my own blog. I have worked the past 5 days straight, and am working tonight and tomorrow night. 7 days straight. I am GRATEFUl that I have a job, that I can provide extra income to our family, and insurance to our kids, but I dearly miss my kids the days I'm at work...I despise the mess I come home to every night, but Iknow that it just means daddy had fun with the kids that day which is the most important thing anyways! 2 more nights of work, and then I'm off for 4 days wooo hooo... ON top of it all Nathalie has been sick.and.constipated. both issues which have resolved themself thank goodness. William is sneezing and coughing every now and then but nothing near as bad as his sister was....well baby wants to nurse so i must answer to his call.

my need for breakfast...and cereal

I love breakfast....I am the kind of person that needs to consume calories immeaditely upon waking up or else I become a total b**ch from low blood sugar. Lately, since returning to work, I mostly just eat cereal because its easy and convienent. Well 2 weeks ago in the Sunday paper Kellogs had there own coupon section which included several cereal coupons, which I of course cut out ( I love coupons). One of the types of cereal that the coupons were for was Special K. Growing up I always thought of speical k as "adult" cereal, and figured it wasn't that good, and then I bought it. I am in love. For those of you that haven't tried it, try it its utterly delicious. I bought the yogurt berry and Vanilla Almond....the Vanilla Almond is by far my favorite cereal ever....Wow okay I can't believe I just wrote a blog about cereal.

3 months old

Dear Son;
Today you are 3 months old, and I can't believe how quickly it has flown by. I returned to work this week, and although leaving you is a very hard thing to do, I find comfort in the fact that I am only leaving you with Daddy. You are getting so big, already wearing 6 to 9 month size clothing and although I don't know your exact weight, I know its somewhere around 15 to 16 pounds (when I get on the scale, and then get on again with you, the difference is 16 pounds).....your still waking every 2 to 4 hours to nurse and I envy the sleep I got when Nathalie was an infant, but in the same moment I cherish those mid-night feedings we share. You smile all the time, and your laughter makes me giggle...Your beggining to ineract with Nathalie, smiling and laughing when she talks or sings to you and it is an amazing bond, I am so happy that I could provide both of you with a sibling.
My dear baby boy you have stolen my heart and I couldn't be happier that you are part of our lives and our family forever....Until next month, your mom

Nathalie's New shoes

Hi everyone, I've been soo busy this week, I worked m-th, so finding time to do anything has been limited, with that to my defense I wanted to tell the story of Nathalie's new shoes, and because I'm lazy, I simply cut and pasted an IM conversation I had with my friend Lauren, sorry its not more personal....(I am edeanne552, and she is Laurinic) im pretty sure you all would have figured that out lol...

So Nathalie needed new tennis shoes b/c her old ones suddenly didnt fit so I was like Forget this I am not going to spend another 30 bucks on a pair of stride rite that she'll outgrow again in a couple months....so I went to target
edeanne552 (8:20:16 AM): ...
edeanne552 (8:20:28 AM): they had an awesome selection and great prices
edeanne552 (8:20:48 AM): I had the cutest pair that were grey and pink sporty picked out and then IT HAPPENED
LauriNic (8:21:03 AM): it
LauriNic (8:21:07 AM): kid freak out?
edeanne552 (8:21:56 AM): Nathalie spotted the Elmo.velcro.Lite up shoes...the three things I said I never would buy in a kids shoe...1...a character....2 ...velcro...and 3 lights.....she looked at me and said "OH MAMA ELMO PEEEAASSE" now tell me who could say no to that?
LauriNic (8:22:24 AM): HA!!!!!!!!!!!!
LauriNic (8:22:27 AM): you are a changed woman
LauriNic (8:22:39 AM): oh that is so funny 1,2,3 knock um down
edeanne552 (8:22:46 AM): needless to say my 2 yr old is now the proud owner of velcro light up elmo shoes and I actually think htey are cute
LauriNic (8:22:50 AM): well i at least hope you got both pair
LauriNic (8:22:58 AM): as long as she loves them

work

okay, so I went back yesterday and it wasn't as bad as I expected. Of course I missed my kids terribly...I called to check in 3 times (not to excessive for being gone 9 hours right) William drank 4 expressed bottles WOW and nursed the second I walked in the door....I'm nervous about having enough milk pumped for him, I need to pump everyday at least once, plus the milk i pump while at work....although I'm hoping when I work my 2 short days (4 hours) that I can nurse right before I leave and as soon as I get home. This boy can eat, I find that today I am cherishing him nursing more than ever, the pump is not my friend, dont get me wrong I express plenty of milk when doing so but it is not the same as having my last darling baby suckling right?! I love the bond he and I share during this time, I missed it soo much yesterday, as i will miss it again tomorrow... I pumped 3 times at work ( 2 breaks and once on my lunch) when I went to pump the 3rd time (really only the 2nd time that my boss knew of, he didnt know i pumped on my lunch) my boss acutally had the NERvE to say to me "how often do you need to pump?" I took a deep breath and explainedthat I will be pumping 3 times per shift in an 9 hour day and one time (or maybe not at all?) in a 4 hour shift...Seriously as a man that has 2 small children you'd think maybe he'd be a little more understanding....he also asked me "how long do you think you'll breastfeed for?" "until my child is ready to wean" "oh" was his response and I just left it at that. I will not allow him or anyone in my workplace to influence my decision to breastfeed as I know it is the best thing in this world for my child and the bond it builds between us can not be captured in words....As I end this blog I leave you with a saddening statistic that I read earlier in this week.did you know that "Only 10 percent of mothers who work full-time are still breastfeeding their baby at 6 months, according to a 2005 CDC report."

Tomorrow :(

So, I have to go back to work....My due back date is monday the 31st....they have me scheduled monday through thursday.yes 4 days in a row....my boss just called asking if I could come in TOMORROW as in tomorrow from 9 to 6, wait, leave William for the first time for 8 hours (ok im crying now)...Sam is off tomorrow after all so what reason did I have to say no....I said let me think about it and i'll call you back...my very loving husband could find no reason why I shouldn't go in, so I am. and i am very sad. tommorrow i will re-enter the "real world" and I dont wanna!!!

tumble

this weeks theme at mama says om is tumble....I instantly thought of my little Nathalie and her broken wrist that occured in May; exactly one week after turning 2 and 2 weeks after her new brother was born.

our "vacation"

Well the kids and I made it back all in one piece woo hoo....the trip up took 7 hours and home took 6, so really it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. We had an awesome time, Nathalie had her first trip to the beach and LOVES the ocean. I am going back to work in one week and I am SO SAD, I really wish I could stay home with the kids. But at least I'm only leaving them with sam so it shouldnt be as hard right?!

a little kid at christmas and I hate the electric company

I'm tired. Exhausted actually to put it more precisely. I woke up at 4:30 this morning after going to bed at midnight. WHY is she up so early you all may be asking yourselves and then little answers may pop into your mind like "oh maybe she was nursing William, or maybe Nathalie woke up" NO my friends neither of those are the answer the reason I'm awake is because yesterday I decided that the kids and I would leave today instead of tomorrow to drive up to see Kersti, Aric and Hayli...and so I tossed and turned all.night.long. like a little kid at christmas time and finally at 430 i had enough i got up i got everything together i got myself all ready to go all the kids stuff ready to go and now i sit and wait....wait for william to wake up to nurse so he has a full belly optimising my driving time before stoping. Once he's fed Ill reluctantly awaken Nathalie, unless of course she awakens before then....Did I mention that if I was able to drive STRAIGHT through without ever stopping it would be a 5 and 1/2 hour drive...HA so wanna take bets on how many times I'll have to stop....this is the first time in 3 months that Ihave been thankful that Nathalie is NOT potty trained, b/c at least I won't have to stop for her to pee...lol....It will all be based on William (fingers crossed that I only have to stop once)......

SDG&E...I want to be them, we got our electric bill and its 135 dollars GASP....my dh's response "well at least we've been cool" OMG....we live in a 3 br appt wtf is 135 dollars....I told him he needs to go be cool somewhere else lol.....

alright, well I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I'll update you all on the trip when we return on Sunday or Monday.

relax :)

This weeks theme at www.mamasaysom.com is relax and I had this wonderful thought in my mind to search my camera for a picture of me relaxing and then as mentioned in my previous post there were some techinical difficulties so instead I'll be expressing my contribution in writing :)

Take A Walk;
Walk and breathe in fresh air.
Fresh Air to help you relax;
Relax and let down your hair.

Listen to the silence;
Silence broken by a child's cry.
Crying for milk from mommy,
Mommy runs to his side.

As a mother I try to find time,
time to just stop.breathe.relax.
relax.with tiny inquisitive minds
minds that I impact.

there's my little tiny tidbit I just came up with as I went hopefully not to cheesy, but hey I made it through without any "tiny minds" interupting me pretty impressive heh? it gave me a chance to relax :)

where do the days go?

Well...time goes so quickly and it all runs away from me!!!!!! I want to post pictures on this thing right, so here I go get all excited for it & my stupid printer wont read my memorycard GRRRRRR so I have to wait, but i'll put an old pic.... that was taken when william was 6 weeks old!!!! now he's 10 weeks so yeah a whole month ago...but once I can make it up to my moms to upload newer pics ill post those.....

I got a new cell phone WOO HOO Nathalie threw my old one in the TOILET which in a way was a blessing b/c I got a razor phone with photo and video capability WOOO HOOO.....

Nathalie's new favorite word is yeehaw although sometimes it comes out as HAAHAW lol....

Oh me and the kiddos are leaving thursday morning to drive up to Los Osos to visit Kersti and Hayli, and will be gone until Sunday...Sam gets 4 whole days to himself....lucky man hee hee...


PS Jen thanks for teaching me how to put a picture on here

vaseline

so this morning i was nursing william when i suddenly noticed immense silence from my normally not so silent toddler HMMM???? what is she up to... so i sneak out of my room (where i was feeding william) and she has pulled the step stool up to the changing table (uh oh) and has opened the vaseline (uh oh #2) its everywhere, her hair her face her hands so i sneak back in my room snap a couple pics (which she catches me doing and says "chhhheeeessse") and then i explain to her that playing w/ vaseline isnt the best idea, all the while trying to contain my laughter.....