Good advice about eating

http://www.raisehealthyeaters.com/2012/09/10-things-you-should-never-say-to-your-child-about-food/

I came across this link on Pinterest and thought I would share.

I have pictures to post but taking care of two boys is keeping me pretty busy, who knew??

2 Weeks later

Hudson arrived safely on October 9. This time around everything was so much simpler. We knew when to check in to the hospital and what to expect. Everything flowed smoothly and it was a pretty calm day. He was born at 1:30 pm. He weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He was able to start breastfeeding in the recovery room after my C Section. He has been a good boy so far. He sleeps pretty well and eats well. He lost weight in the hospital but had gotten back to his birth weight by his one week check up.

Jackson is a great big brother. He loves Hudson and gives him lots of hugs and kisses.

Keith's aunt Carol has been staying with us and helping out since we came home from the hospital. It is really nice to have her here to help out with Jackson since I'm not supposed to pick him up for a few more days.

Is this real life?

Holy shit, I'm having a baby tomorrow!

 I just felt like I needed to get that out there. I am excited, of course, but also a little nervous. With Jackson everything happened so fast there wasn't time to get scared really. Knowing the exact day and time Hudson would arrive made planning things much easier, but also left lots of time for worries and fears to creep in. Deep down I know that everything is going to be fine, both with the surgery and caring for my two babies but I still find myself feeling nervous and anxious.

One of my biggest worries is that I'm not allowed to eat breakfast. This may seem trivial but I KNOW that I get super crabby when I'm hungry and tackling such an important day without food seems like a terrible idea.

I also keep having nightmares that the epidural doesn't work and I can feel them cutting my stomach. Probably another completely irrational fear but it keeps waking me up.

I am worried about my big boy too. I have never been away from Jackson over night. I worry that he'll wake up and be sad without his Mama and Daddy. I worry that I'll be so busy with the baby that he'll feel left out. In the realm of irrational and trivial worries lies my worry about what he'll eat for lunch and dinner without me and what he'll be dressed in for daycare.

So hopefully I get some sleep tonight and have an awesome day tomorrow. Maybe sharing my real and imagined fears will help to clear my mind. Thanks for reading :)

What year is it?

Lately I have been trying my hand at home canning. I want to make Hudson's baby food like I did Jackson's but he'll be starting solid foods at a time when fresh fruits won't be local and affordable. I ran into the same problem with Jackson. I ended up using frozen fruits and some dried fruits. I didn't want to do that this time so I decided to make the purees and can them. 

I read about canning on the internet and found that for baby food you have to use the pressure canning method so I bought a pressure canner. I bought about 20 pounds of fresh, ripe fruit and got to work. It took me an entire day but I ended up with 24 half pint jars of baby food. I did pears, plums, peaches, apricots, and berries. 

On the baby food websites it says that making your own baby food saves money over store bought baby food. I can tell you that I have not saved a cent! By the time I bought the canner, jars, and organic produce I probably could have bought 1,000 jars of baby food. However, saving money is not my goal; I want to know that my baby is eating the best foods I can provide for him. Making my own baby food lets me know exactly what's in the jar and as he grows I can introduce him to lots of flavors and textures that aren't available in the baby food aisle. 

Last week I also did some canning for Keith's grandfather. I did beef vegetable soup and some vegetables. It's been interesting trying new things in the canner. Next year we plan to plant a bigger garden and do some vegetables, soups, and sauces. That'll be no problem with 2 toddlers, right?

New bedrooms

This week we have been working on moving Jackson over to his big boy room and getting the nursery ready for Hudson. We did a dinosaur theme for Jackson and whales for Hudson. I love both rooms, I think they turned out really cute. Jackson has done well with the transition. Sometimes he takes advantage of his ability to get out of the bed by himself but after I put him back in bed he usually stays.

Vacation

On June 16 we headed out for a family vacation to Indian Pass, Florida. Our good friends, the Beachums, went with us. The 6 hour trip took us close to 8 hours. Keith decided that traveling with a baby, a pregnant lady, and a 7-year old was not the fastest way to get anywhere! We had a great week of relaxation and got out of there just before the tropical storm moved in. Jackson really enjoyed the sand but was not a hug fan of the water. We also learned that he hates canoeing. That was a disaster trip, he ended up laying in the bottom of the canoe and crying.

                                                                                                      

Red Snapper

Dancing in the breeze

Playing hide and seek

His favorite part of the beach

snuggling with Mama

waving to the Beachums

Our traveling buddies

Sand is so fun

Waves are not as fun

His preferred way to be in the water

playing in the hose

how boring is this blog? sorry...

I always think of these funny, witty things to post about and then I decide I would rather nap than blog, so my poor old blog is pretty lame. Sorry, to anyone who still reads it.

I'm out of work for the summer so Jackson and I are having some fun. We started swim lessons yesterday. He loves the water and did a good job at the first lesson. Today he was tired and about 10 minutes before class ended he just hung on to me like a baby monkey. We got out of the pool a little early and came home for lunch and a nap. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I wish I had some pictures to post but I can't manage a camera and a baby in the pool.

Baby #2 is growing well and I can feel his movements now. I'm pretty sure his name is Hudson, his daddy still needs some convincing though. I might just start ordering personalized things that say Hudson and Keith won't want to have wasted the money so he'll just call him Hudson out of frugality. I think Hudson and Jackson go together well and both sound like strong, successful men.

With this pregnancy I have only gained 12 pounds so far. I think I had gained about 400 by this time with Jackson so I'm ahead of the curve. I haven't felt nearly as sick, maybe just because I don't have time to feel as bad. I did rely heavily on Zofran for a few weeks, but not nearly as much throwing up as with Jackson. Maybe I'll make it out of this pregnancy gaining under 50 pounds!

I'll try to do more posts, I have some fun pictures with some new toys and whole list of things that annoy me. Stay tuned...

My funny baby

Jackson is at such a fun age. I've probably said that before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but he does so many hilarious things right now. He recently started blowing his own nose. He will find a tissue, napkin, baby wipe, or sometimes a blanket and just start blowing his nose. He really gets into it, he moves his whole body side to side and makes a lot of noise. We think it is hilarious, which is probably why he continues to do it. 

The nose blowing is usually followed by one of his other favorites- throwing things away. He will throw the tissue or whatever else in the garbage when he is finished. He loves to push the trash can around the kitchen, which is funny because it's about twice his size. Unfortunately he also likes to take things out of the trash can. Once he took out the grocery receipt and put in a clean diaper. He also likes to transfer trash from the downstairs trash to the kitchen trash. Before you start thinking I'm a terrible mom, I don't support his trash can love and I always wash his hands after. Even though I think it's funny, I would prefer he not play with the trash.

He has also become really good at kissing. He gives kisses bye bye and night night but sometimes he just gets in a kissing mood. He is pretty free with his kissing too, he has opened his mouth wide to kiss both a lady at Whole Foods and a man at Lowes when they said bye after we checked out. When I leave for work he gives me several kisses then stands at the window blowing kisses and kissing the window. His favorite person to kiss might be himself though, when I picked him up from daycare he was kissing himself in the mirror and didn't want to go home. I had to pull him away from his self-kissing to get him to leave with me. 

Stupid comments about being pregnant

I should start this by saying I don't normally have a lot of patience, pregnancy takes whatever I started with and cuts it in half. EVERYTHING annoys me. So with that said...

I get that it is hard to find the right things to say when someone announces they are pregnant. It is a joyful announcement but also an admittance that, yes, you had sex (probably more than once). So I can appreciate that some people might feel a bit awkward and not know what to say. But the next person that says, "you know what causes this" is likely to get punched. I just don't think it's a funny comment, clearly I know what causes it and I don't think I need to lay out a detailed explanation of how this baby came to be. This is my 2nd child, not my 20th so I don't know why people need to say that. Also it's not like I'm going to be on the next season of 16 and pregnant. I'm 30, married, and employed. If I were saying, "I'm pregnant again, can I have $100 for provisions" I could see offering up a snarky remark but since Keith and I will are capable parents, that's not the case.

The second most annoying comment: "were you trying?" Again, I don't know why people ask that. I am a married 30 year old woman, I know how babies are made. I have actually answered that way a few times, usually the person just stares at me. No, we weren't taking my temperature every day and praying to a voodoo doll. Yes, apparently there was a day a few months ago where we both weren't completely exhausted and at least one of us had probably showered and Jackson must have been asleep and there probably wasn't a new episode of Swamp People on and we made a baby. Maybe I should get that printed on a shirt so people wouldn't have to ask.

I also find it interesting when people say "what are you going to do with two under two?" Tie one up in the closet. What do you think we're going to do? We're going to be busy but we're going to manage. This goes right along with "you know it's going to be hard having two in diapers." Yes, I do know that but lots of people do it so I think I can manage.

Not as irritating but still worth mentioning "how much is daycare going to cost?" I don't really mind answering this because you could call Jackson's daycare and ask for the rates. It is going to cost $1800 a month approximately. Usually this answer is followed by some sort of loud exhale and a follow up "why don't you just stay home." Because I don't want to, because I make more than $1800 a month, because it's not what Keith and I have decided. Maybe the next time someone has me over for dinner I should ask their mortgage payment and how much they paid for the food we are eating...

Thanks for listening to my rants and when I run into you just say congrats and DON'T rub my belly (but that's another post)...

Jackson's big announcement

Baby #2 will be here on or around October 10, 2012. My due date is October 17, but since I will have a scheduled C-section the baby will actually be born a week sooner. We are so excited and a little nervous about having two babies under 2.

With this pregnancy the sickness came almost immediately and is different than with Jackson. I rarely throw up but I feel nauseous all the time. I found Preggie Pops at Babies R Us and they do help. Between those and the Zofran from the doctor I am able to make it through work.

I also started showing much earlier this time around. With Jackson I wore most of my regular clothes for the first 12 weeks or so. Then I was able to get by with Bella Bands for another few weeks. This time I had to start wearing the bands around 6 weeks and ended up telling people earlier than with Jackson because I was already showing.

Mounted Wall Art

  Wall Art

Click here to browse Shutterfly's modern graduation invitations.

View the entire collection of cards.

one year stats

I can't believe it's been a year already! Jackson has changed so much. He is 29 3/4 inches tall and 19.1 pounds. The doctor said he is a little skinny so we need to try and get him to eat more. Jackson is allergic to milk so finding good sources of fat is hard. He can tolerate butter without getting sick so the pediatrician recommended putting butter on everything! Don't we all wish our doctors would say that?

Jackson can walk and go up the stairs by himself. He can say Mama, Daddy, hi, dog, and most recently banana. He loves bananas! He also knows how to point to my nose and his nose, wave, and put his arms up when we say "so big". He usually says "hi" and smiles when he is doing something he is not supposed to do, a charmer already! I can only imagine what fun and hilarity the next year holds for us.

long December

December was full of fun. We went to Illinois to visit family and friends. Jackson was such a good boy in the car. Jackson's pile of gifts began during our visit. He got gifts from both his grandparents and my grandma plus a few family friends. I was worried that it wouldn't all fit in the car on the way home!

Jackson's first Christmas was so much fun. He liked opening presents, more for the paper than the gifts inside. I got him a little kitchen with sorting shapes, my dad was appalled and bought him a little workshop with a hammer and nails that make noise. I think some of the most famous chefs are men, and it's never too early to start practicing!

He especially loved gifts that came with tissue paper. He would tear off a little piece then walk around waving it in the air. We opened gifts here then went over to Keith's parents to meet up with his whole family. It was a great day.

The day after Christmas I took down the tree and began the preparations for Jackson's birthday. Keith said we should have called it "Jackson's Super Sweet 1st Birthday" and had MTV film it. It was such a cute party, even if I say so myself. I know that he won't remember it, but I feel like the 1st birthday is more of a celebration for the parents for making it through 365 days with a new human :) I made Jackson's cake and his banners. I used my Babycakes maker to put blue polka dots inside the cake. Jackson didn't eat any of his cake but he had a blast playing in it!


After both of these celebrations we had more toys than we knew what to do with, most of which made noise! I packed up a big box of toys and put them in the garage to bring out later when Jackson gets bored with what we have in the house.