Friday, December 31, 2010

Favorite Fridays: New Years Eve

I’ve decided to start a weekly tradition of sharing a favorite “something” every Friday. These “somethings” may be memories, recipes, books, songs, or any other favorites of mine. In light of the New Year approaching, I thought I’d share my favorite New Years Eve memory.

It was the year 2005 (almost 2006) and Andrew had come to Norwalk to visit me over my “winter break” (because Christmas break was too formal of a title for Wartburg). We had been hanging out a lot during my first semester at college (we already knew each other from working at Riverside Bible Camp). Some of our favorite things to do were watch movies, sword fight with wrapping paper in WalMart, go to coffeehouse at the Vineyard every Friday night, and go for walks around Waverly. The first movie we ever watched was Elf in the RA office one night when Andrew was on duty. We then decided that we had to show one another all sorts of other movies. For me it was The Lord of the Rings trilogy since I had never seen them, and I loaded Andrew with tons of chick flicks. To this day Andrew still watches chick flicks with me, AND enjoys them! But anyways, back to New Years Eve 2005. Andrew came to stay at my house and hang out with me and my silly friends for the New Year. I remember sitting next to him on the loveseat and saying that my hands were cold. Instantly, Andrew put his hand on mine to apparently keep them warm, but really it was an excuse to hold my hand. Later that evening my mom pulled me aside and said she saw us holding hands. I remember blushing and simply smiling at her because deep down I knew that Andrew and I were more than friends, I was just waiting for him to make it official. When I returned to Wartburg from my winter break (technically on January 9, 2006) Andrew asked if we could make it official….and obviously I said yes. That was one very special new year!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Baby's First Christmas

Playing in my new bouncer (his pants are undone because he was sweating and had a little diaper rash so I thought he might like to air out a bit)


Christmas nap with mommy while listening to our new musical puppy


I like my new puppy book that barks at me!


Smiling at all my new baby gifts from mommy and daddy!


Mommy got a little carried away and thought the headband would look cute on me.


My first Christmas outfit (that will probably only fit a few more weeks!)

Friday, December 24, 2010

Poop Galore!

Don't you move up a size in diapers to prevent blow outs? Josiah is around 12lbs. now and is right at that point where size 1-2 diapers are too small but size 2 are just a little big. That means that no matter what diaper we use we are bound to have poopy clothes. Yesterday we changed him 3 times out of poopy clothes and boy am I tired of all the laundry. We tried to come up with ideas on how to prevent so much poop getting all over his clothes, like putting a pair of pants underneath his onesie. We even discussed putting on 2 diapers (the smaller one underneath the bigger one), we never did try it though! I understand that some babies are just powerful poopers (we have some of those at the day care) and that no matter what you do that poop will sneak out of every corner of that diaper and only end up on the clothes. Guess I better stock up on some good stain remover.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch!

I was at work today listening to Christmas songs when "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" came on. I used to watch Mr. Grinch as a kid (personally, it kind of scared me a little) and today was the first time I really listened to the song. I can see why this show freaked me out as a kid, just look at words to this song!

You're a mean one Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
And as charming as an eel,
Mr. Grinch!
You're a bad banana,
With a greasy black peel!
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch!
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders.
You've got garlic in your soul,
Mr. Grinch!
I wouldn't touch you
With a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch!
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile,
Mr. Grinch!
Given the choice between the two of you,
I'd take the seasick crocodile!
You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch!
You're a nasty, wasty skunk!
Your heart is full of unwashed socks.
Your soul is full of gunk,
Mr. Grinch!
The three words that best describe you
Are as follows, and I quote,
"Stink, stank, stunk!"
You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch!
You're the king of sinful sots!
Your heart's a dead tomato,
Splotched with moldy, purple spots,
Mr. Grinch!
Your soul is an apalling dump-heap,
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,
Mangled-up in tangled-up knots!
You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch!
With a nauseous super naus!
You're a crooked jerky jockey,
And you drive a crooked hoss,
Mr. Grinch!
You're a three-decker sauerkraut
and toadstool sandwich,
With arsenic sauce!

I don't think I want to teach my son this song when he is older. Not the most cheerful song in the world at Christmas time.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Week Away

This was my first week back at work away from Josiah. I was not prepared for this...Monday morning came and I held him in my arms and bawled because I didn't want to leave him. In my mind I kept thinking "what if this is the last time I see him? What if something happens while I'm gone?" I had a dream the night before that someone left the gas running on the stove and the house exploded, so I made extra sure to warn my sister to keep an eye on the stove. I cried the whole way to work and fought back tears all day long. I have a very deep longing to be a stay at home mom and on the way to work I had the feeling "this is not how God intended it." I really wish our financial situation allowed me (and ALL MOMS) to stay home to take care of and guide their children. It seems strange to me that I am spending all day taking care of other people's kids while mine is at home being taken care of by someone else. It will be really weird when he comes to the daycare with me in January (although it will be nice to see him more often)!

Thankfully I made it through this week. I am so thankful to my family who are willing to step up and help us out with watching Josiah while I return to work since he can't come to the daycare until January. It's nice to know he is in good hands while I am away (even though I miss him terribly!).

What made this week even more difficult was the fact that Josiah was going through a growth spurt and I wasn't home to nurse him every hour and a half. He ate my entire stash of milk I had stored for daycare and on top of that I'm not producing enough to keep up with how much he wants to eat. I'm lucky that my boss allows me to pump 3 times throughout the day but even with all of that pumping I'm only getting enough for 2 1/2 bottles (I pump in a tiny laundry room and have to put a sign on the door so people don't walk in on me, which has happened a few times already. It's pretty awkward when your employees walk in on you using a breast pump-but thankfully they are all women!). Since Josiah ate my entire stash and I'm not making enough for him we had to do part breastmilk/part formula for a few days so I could try and catch up. He did not react well to the formula (we tried both Similac w/ Iron and Similac Sensitive) and it made him have some VERY SMELLY diapers. We were on our way to my parents house yesterday and Andrew and I looked at eachother at the exact same time and said "he pooped" because all of a sudden the car was overtaken by a horrid poo smell. To help solve this problem of lack of supply I am now taking Fenugreek supplements for a while to help me produce more so that he can be just a breastmilk baby. It's only been one day, but hopefully in the next few days I will start seeing an increase so I can keep up with my growing boy!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Going Gluten-Free

Andrew and I have been talking about going Gluten-Free. I've been suffering from lots of intestinal issues for the past 3-4 years (chronic gastritis, acid reflux, IBS) and it was suggested by a friend that I try going Gluten-Free for a while to see if it helps. This will also be good for Andrew's weight. So far it hasn't gone very well. The only thing I've been successful with is creating gluten free meals for us to eat, it's snacks that are the problem! We just love our goodies! I attempted to make some homemade gluten-free bread and it was an epic failure! It looked nasty and it was way too runny before I put it in the oven. It was also a little too spongy when it was done, so it's in the trash. My hope is to find a good bread recipe so we can still eat sandwhiches. Hopefully we can try and give up the chips, brownies, cookies, and other goodies (haha, what am I talking about? It's the Holidays!) or maybe instead I could try and make some gluten-free snacks for us.

In other news, I go back to work next week and since I work until 6 every night I am trying to come up with some quick, simple meals (that are gluten-free remember) that we can use for dinner. This week I experimented with my Crockpot and made some yummy Crockpot Enchilada Casserole. I also made my very first meatloaf! If you have any easy meals idea please pass them on!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

My Two New Life-Savers

The past couple of weeks have been pretty rough. It seemed as though there was no end to the constant crying, fussiness, spitting up, and unhappiness with my little boy. He wasn't nursing well and would rarely sleep. I thought about calling the doctor but instead I just kept telling myself "this will end, this will end!" and my friends reassured me that it's just a phase and it will pass. Well, I sure hope it has passed because yesterday was our best day since he's been born! Let me tell you about my 2 new lifesavers!


My Medela Pump-In Style Breast Pump...

...and these AMAZING Dr. Brown's bottles!

Since breastfeeding wasn't going well, hubby and I decided to try a bottle. A gal at church gave me the Dr. Brown's Natural Flow bottle and let me tell you, my son is a completely different baby when we feed him with this bottle! This particular bottle vents out the air so that there are no air bubbles in the milk, ultimately preventing gas, excessive spitting up, and colic. What a difference!! My little boy can now eat his fill and sleep when he needs to without having gas problems or spitting up all over himself all day and night. He's even smiling now which makes mama and papa very happy! This last weekend we decided to do a trial run with me pumping and bottle feeding him all day. It worked great! Then I tried to breastfeed him and even though he ate well he was a fussy mess again, so back to the bottle it was. I really want to try and breastfeed him as much as possible since he will be bottle fed all day at daycare, so this week I am really trying to see what I need to do to fix whatever this "problem" is that is making my son so fussy after he nurses. I went back to using the boppy pillow to position him well and I'm really working to make sure he latches on well. I also thought that maybe noise and light were distracting him from eating or latching on well so I have only been nursing him in his bedroom where the lights are dimmed and it is quiet. So far so good! Next week I return to work and will have to see how it goes only nursing him in the evenings. The nice thing about bottle feeding him during the day is that he has less tendency to cluster feed at night since he eats so well, which makes our evenings much more enjoyable. Even though I'm going to keep trying to breastfeed, it's nice to know that when he doesn't nurse well that I can rely on my pump and good ol' Dr. Brown to help us out.

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Good Ol' Times

One thing you should know about me: I watched the BEST TV shows when I was a kid. A few of my favorites were: Full House, Little House on the Prairie and Boy Meets World. Although these shows can sometimes be really cheesy, what I love about them is that they are 1. very clean compared to the TV shows that are on these days and 2. they always have a life lesson to learn!

Being on maternity leave I've found myself watching more TV, which is a really bad habit of mine anyway and I really do try to have some quiet time or listen to the radio, but what I love about Direct TV is that I can watch all of these great shows that I used to watch when I was a kid!

When I was a kid I LOVED Stephanie. This is most likely because she was the middle child and so was I. It wasn't until I was older that I found out the actress Jodie Sweeten was a Meth user and pregnant, but thankfully I looked up to the "Stephanie" character and not Jodi. BTW: I'm watching Full House as I'm writing this!

Now who wouldn't want a Pa like this? He's strong, has lots of wisdom, is very humble, and always comes to the rescue! When I was younger and in Girl Scouts we went to Missouri to visit where Laura lived, tour her home, and visit her grave. It was a really neat experience and makes the TV Show and books so meaningful. I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie series while on maternity leave since I didn't take advantage of this when I was a kid.

And then there is Cory and Topanga, the childhood sweethearts that made us girls wish we had a "Cory" of our own (and also a cool name like Topanga, ha!). I remember when I was young I thought I needed to find my life-long love as a child so we could go to all the dances together, go to college together, and ultimately get married just like Cory and Topanga did. Boy did I make the mistake of dating way too many guys in high school and thinking they were "the one" for me. I'm glad God had other plans and gave me the perfect man for me!

Funny story-I asked my husband for the DVD series of Boy Meets World once for Christmas and he laughed at me and said the show was a joke. Obviously he didn't have the same fantasy I did. He also came home one day recently to find me watching Little House on the Prairie and laughed at me. That's when I also confessed to him that I enjoy watching The Waltons. Am I just plain weird?