Well, it's official. We have managed to keep our two children alive and well for over a month now. I have been fully consumed with a lifestyle of sleeping, feeding, and cleaning up after two little ones. Whenever I can find some spare time, I try to eat and clean up the house. Very seldom I will find some extra time to bathe, which has become quite a luxury. I know I'm probably telling you what you already know and expect from a newborn's mom. However, I have managed to try a Pinterest recipe to celebrate all this cold weather we've been having. I have had a Potato Soup recipe pinned for a while that I wanted to try:
In my opinion, it was not worth all the work. It took me a good 30 minutes just to chop up all the vegetables/potatoes, and then it had to cook for about 8 hours. Not only that, but once it's cooked, you have to blend it all up somehow. The only thing we found that made it a good consistency was the actual blender, so we had to do each individual bowl at a time. It was really delicious, but required a lot of work, time, & cleanup!
Nothing too exciting has happened in the last couple of weeks. We've spent the majority of our time at home holding down the fort and creating a circle of creating messes and cleaning them up! Clark has actually done pretty awesome. From what I can remember, I think he's a little more high maintenance than Grace was. Luckily, he is a super happy baby and I usually know exactly what he wants--but he does require his attention. The good news is that breast feeding is going WAY better than it did with Grace, and we've been blessed to have him do so well at it. It is saving us a ton of money and it's an all around better situation. The not-so-good news is that I'm pretty much doing it all on my own. With Grace, Mike shared the middle of the night responsibility and feeding was pretty much divided down the middle. We've recently introduced Clark to the bottle, and he's doing fine with it, but I'm trying to save those bottles for a rainy day. (AKA having a much needed glass of wine or maybe a night on the town- haha)
This Saturday, Clark will be six weeks old, and he recently had his one month appointment. Everything was looking perfect. The only concern I wanted to address with the doctor was the fact that Clark likes to projectile vomit on me about 100 times a day. I was concerned about his acid reflux and digestion. Fortunately, Clark almost gained two pounds since being discharged from the hospital, so the doctor was in no way concerned about him throwing up so often. She said that if he was more fussy and it seemed like it was upsetting his stomach- combined with him losing weight- that she would be more concerned. So, basically, I'm just learning to deal with it. At first, I changed clothes about 10 times a day. Now, people need to call before coming over because more than likely I will be covered in day-old throw up.
I also had my post-delivery appointment about a week ago, and I'm happy to say that everything is looking good and I'm cleared for normal activity. We are so thankful for Cecily for setting up our meal train and for all the amazing friends/family that brought over food. With that being said, it is not a good thing for the 'losing weight' portion of having a baby. Everybody was so generous in not only bringing over amazing meals, BUT also coming with a delicious dessert---which I have zero self control around at this point. Here's a pic of some of the cutest (and highly delicious) cookies that were brought over by a church friend.
I thought Mike and I did pretty good at controlling ourselves and being healthy during my pregnancy, but that has all gone out the window in the last six weeks. I've been giving Mike a hard time for being lazy because technically I've had a doctor's note and couldn't work out. Plus, my doctor basically told me to eat fattening food to help supply good breast milk. (That's what I heard anyway) Now that I've been cleared from the doctor I have no more excuses. I'm starting to kinda freak out at this point because I have lost little to no weight since when I was pregnant. Isn't that crazy. I'm obviously smaller than I was when I was nine months pregnant, BUT I have only lost 10 pounds from when I was nine months pregnant until now. That totally weirds me out. With Thanksgiving coming up, I plan on getting back into some sort of a routine next week. I don't really know what I'm going to do since I have a very small window of opportunity during the day, but I will work something out! My goal is to lose 25 pounds by May! I'm still in the market for some new athletic shoes and a simple athletic watch! Any and all suggestions appreciated!
In other news, we did make a road trip to Granbury for a couple of days and that was a nice getaway. I am finding, however, that traveling with two little ones (even if it's only 90 minutes) is a ton of work. Packing alone is ridiculous! We had a good time in Granbury visiting Loli and Pops. The first night there, I got to go out on the town with Victoria. It was so nice being able to get out and catch up...with a little bubbly of course.
Grace got a lot of play time and we visited our first brewery. How momentous!
Coloring with Loli- trying to look 'smart'!
Grace playing with Shelby!
My dad had back/neck surgery, so we housesat while my parents stayed overnight at the hospital. Thankfully, Dad's surgery went well- BUT I think recovery is going to be a long road. I just hope he sticks to the doctor's orders and heals the way he should.
Grace has some cute new habits that she has developed in the last couple of weeks. I swear she learns more words/phrases every single day. A new thing that she likes to ask is 'What happened?' Any time anything out of the ordinary happens or Mike and I react to anything, she'll ask about 100 times. She also wants to be naked all the time now. It is a struggle every morning to get clothes on her, and the second she gets home in the afternoon she wants to take all her clothing off. Also, thanks to Barney, she can sing just about every children's song that there is. There's just so many moments I wish we could capture and save forever.
Hanging with two of my favorites!
The most peaceful sleeper ever!
Brother & Sister <3
Mike and his girls. Daisy's such a good girl.
Since we're on a crazy budget, newborn pics were definitely out of the question. I decided to save and get some Spring family pics instead. So, I just tried my hand at some very DIY newborn pics. I also have some one month pics--ALREADY!
I'm tired of pictures!
Here are some good videos:
Clark being a happy boy today! (5 1/2 weeks)
Grace being crazy with her new 'game'
Grace and Clark hanging out!
On a final note, I hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow full of family, food, and love! We have so much to be thankful for and life is truly a blessing!
I will be exceptionally grateful if Tech comes out and ends their season with a bang! Not very many things make me happier than a Tech win against UT. Football day tomorrow! Wreck 'em and Go Cowboys! Happy holiday and safe travel to all!
Two weeks down…well almost! For the most part, Clark has been pretty easy. He really only cries when he's hungry or is getting his diaper changed. He is just the sweetest little cuddle bug. He is already so alert and tries to lift his little head all the time. Every time we got a sonogram, you could always see his little hands around his face, and he is the exact same out of the womb. He always has his hands around his little face. It's super cute…except when I'm trying to feed him…they always get in the way.
As amazingly cute and sweet as he is...he does have some rather irritating things he likes to do (and usually in the middle of the night). At night, I'll feed him a little, un-swaddle him, undress him, and change his diaper. He likes to wait until I put on a new diaper, redress, and re-swaddle him before he has a huge blowout! If I look close enough, I swear I can see a little grin on his face. Stinker. (quite literally) He also spits up a lot more than I can remember Grace spitting up, and just like with his diaper, he always has perfect timing. I will have a bib on him all day long, and the moment I take it off, he spits up everything he ate in the last hour. Fun times. I guess it's time to retrain myself to constantly smell like throw up. We've also had multiple times where we have gotten peed on. Everyone warned us about the boys peeing on you, but we apparently weren't adequately prepared. He has peed all over us, the couch, his bed, our bed, and (sadly) one time he peed directly on his face. oopsy. We've tried covering it with burp cloths and baby wipes---no success. I've been looking everywhere for those 'pee pee tee pee's' and haven't had much luck. I found one at Babies R Us, but it was $10 for one. I need something a little more practical than that-ain't nobody got time to be washing pee pee tee pee's all day!
Other than that, we've been doing a good combination of laying around, housework, and errand running. It sure is fun to hang out with the little guy with no other worries---and I forgot how quickly they change! Clark will be two weeks old tomorrow, and he has already changed so much!
He is the most peaceful looking sleeper!
Halloween was yesterday, and I just love that holiday! Grace was so excited to wear her costume. She was Dorothy from 'Wizard of Oz' and Clark was her little 'Cowardly Lion'. We went to a Halloween carnival at Prestonwood Baptist church, and it was crazy! It was so huge, and there were so many people there. It was perfect though, because they had a smaller 0-2 year old section full of different bounce houses---which Grace is obsessed with. They have a bounce house at gymnastics, and she has loved it from day one. We played for a while and had some dinner (they had a huge section full of food trucks), and then we headed home.
*Thanks Jennifer and Mrs. Beall for our lion props!
On another note, Grace has been doing great at potty training. We are not ashamed to say that we have a jar of M&M's in our bathroom for bribery-- hey, whatever works! People have come over and are confused why we are keeping candy on our bathroom sink, but it has proven to be very effective. She officially tells us when she has to go potty, and I would say she pee pee's in the potty 85%ish of the time. She obviously still needs her diaper in the middle of the night and nap time. I realize that this is a little TMI, but I'm just so proud of her progress! She goes #2 at the babysitter's all the time, and she did it for the first time at home this week. Whoo hoo---you would've thought she found a cure for cancer the way we reacted! :)
On another note, this week has also been very exciting because we got a new niece! Matt & Cecily had their baby girl yesterday! (Halloween baby!) Her and Clark are only 12 days apart…went from 3 Bolding grand babies to 5 in a matter of 12 days!
ALSO, a few weeks ago I started a Pinterest project and I finally finished it this week! For the first time, I tried my hand at a door wreath. Here's the finished product!
To leave you…
Don't forget to roll your clocks back Saturday night, and here's a video of Grace enjoying some twirling--poor Clark will never know a quiet house! Have a great weekend and get your guns up…BTHO Oklahoma State tomorrow!
