cracking me up

here are the kids right after In N Out.

DRIVING ME CRAZY

I drove up to Newman with the kids to visit my family this Labor Day weekend. Newman is the town I grew up in and while my parents no longer live there we have a lot of friends who still do!

The trip up there was pretty uneventful. We started out by leaving the house @ 10:30. We ran a couple of errands on the way out of town. Stopped at the grocery store, dropped off a movie at the library, got a few items (including disposable dipes for Jo) at BabiesRUs and then went did a "drive-thru" oil change on the car. The kids ate their lunches while the car got ready to go! We finally got on the road @ 12:20. Josiah fell asleep by the time we were at the grapevine . . . but woke up about 30 minutes into his nap because his ears were popping. So here I was driving down the grapevine and Josiah in the backseat screaming because he was in pain! I was throwing whatever food I could at him to try to get him to eat and pop his ears but it wasn't working too well. Finally we got down the grapevine and stopped at the first available stop! Then it was back in the car and both kids played with toys and did pretty well the rest of the way. Josiah had a few more screaming fests, my favorite being the one where both kids were screaming at each other . . . for fun.

Our time in Newman was pretty uneventful. We had a great time w/ my family. Saw some old friends on Friday evening. Went to the Fall Festival on Saturday (didn't even make it around the whole park)! Watched the Nebraska game Saturday evening and had dinner w/ the family and the friends whose house we were staying at afterwords. Put the kids to bed and then I went back to the park to meet up w/ my siblings and hang out for a bit. Sunday I took the kids to their first parade. They LOVED it. Josiah was dancing to the band and any other music he heard and Ellie was in love with all the horses. Monday we hung out with a few more friends before heading out of town @ 2pm.

Now . . . about the ride home. After a FABULOUS lunch at the Gardners home we headed out. Ellie was immediately hungry so I gave them snacks off and on as we drove. There was a lot more traffic than usual . . . end of Labor Day weekend . . . what did I expect? We stopped at a rest area where Josiah was drawn to the big trucks and dirt, Ellie to the dogs and other kids. Then we headed out again. Ellie fell asleep shortly after but Josiah took a little longer. I had to rub his feet to get him to calm down and fall asleep. He woke up right before the 5 and 405 meet . . . and all the traffic slowed down. He was screaming. A LOT. I was finally able to pull off and into an In N Out. We hung out there for an hour. I was in NO hurry to get back on the road. I gave Ellie some gum and Josiah his pacifier for the drive up the grade, put on a movie and off we went. Josiah did pretty good the rest of the way home. He freaked out a couple of times and I think I remember hearing Ellie say, "dude, don't cry" at one point! It was stop and go once we got over the hill until we hit the 210. Then we were able to move again! I was so happy to be moving . . . until Ellie said, "I've got to go pee"! We pulled over again, Ellie went in her little potty chair and Jo started to cry . . . again. I gave him a hug, put him back in his carseat and off we went. We ended up getting home at 9:20. Do the math . . . that's 7 hours of travel that only took us 5 on the way up!!

All in all it was a good trip. Would I travel alone again with the kids . . . yes, but not any time soon!

CTRL + ALT + DELETE

That is what last week was for. I needed to clear my brain and just be a mommy w/ out the internet distractions! It went very well. I noticed the most clarity on Monday and felt like I was more "in tune" w/ my kids throughout the week. I didn't have a perfect week, of course, because I am human (surprise!) and media is not to blame for me being short w/ the kids, snapping at my husband or not doing the dishes! There were, however, three main things that I took away from the week.

#1: I am not that important that everyone is waiting around for my next status update on facebook or waiting around for my next blog to be published.

#2: Everyone else is not that important that I need to know what is going on in their lives minute - by - minute.

#3: My children are the most important thing (besides God & my husband) going on in my life right now. They are what I need to focus on and anything (not just media) that gets in the way of that needs to be "put in it's place" from time to time!

I also decided from this experience to limit my facebook time (ie: not be on EVERY day) and to limit the kids movies to one a day and none on the weekends. So far I've been doing good! If it gets out of hand I'll just take a week off again!

Turning off the computer

I'm finally doing it! Turning off the computer for the whole week. I was actually inspired by my friend Laura Komarek ('Lil Dasies) who did this very thing quite awhile ago. This evening I will be officially shutting it down and not opening it again until next Sunday evening. This actually applies to movies too. I'm not going to put on a quick movie to distract the kids when I need to get something done. I'll actually need to be CREATIVE!!

During this week I'm hoping to actually get some things accomplished around the house including keeping it clean! I also hope to be more focused and purposeful in what I do with the children. I'm also specifically going to be thinking and praying about the tools I currently use as communication & if I should change anything I'm currently doing. I'm actually looking forward to unplugging - even though I know that I will probably go through withdrawls!!

I'll blog about my experience next week!

sleep training

I posted the following on my facebook status a few days ago.

Tara Burton is wondering if I should start letting Jo cry it out when he wakes up in the middle of the night (yes, the boy still nurses once at night).

My girlfriends gave me a lot to think about. I ultimately concluded that Josiah needs to learn to sleep through the night. Ellie was sleeping thru the night between 6 and 8 months of age and the only reason Josiah hadn't yet was mainly because of him & Ellie sharing a room. It was very difficult for me to let him cry in the night when his sister was in the crib next to him! About a month ago we put the kids in separate rooms so I KNEW It was possible - just wasn't quite sure HOW do go about it! I just knew I didn't want to do the CIO (cry it out) method - at least to start with. The next night I spoke with my mom for quite awhile and we came up with a "plan" for getting Josiah to sleep through the night. . .

When Josiah wakes up in the middle of the night to eat instead of nursing him I would pick him up and try to get him back to sleep in other ways. Rocking, giving him some warm milk, and as a last resort putting him in his jumper - just no nursing until morning!

That was the plan and this is how it's been going... the first night Josiah surprised me and didn't wake up until 5am! I went ahead and nursed him and then put him back down. He then slept until 8:15

The 2nd night Josiah woke up @ 3:30. He was standing up in his crib. I picked him up and brought him into the livingroom to try to rock him back to sleep. I could tell he just wanted to nurse. So I warmed up 4 oz of cows milk and fed it to him from his sippy. He took about 2 or 3 oz and then laid in my arms as I rocked him for about 10 minutes. I laid him back down while he was awake. He did the "butt-wiggle" which usually means he's content, and he fell back to sleep on his own. He didn't wake up again until 7:15!

Last night Josiah slept until 4:40. I went in, picked him up and tried immediately to rock him back to sleep. Nope, not interested. So I gave him some warm milk again, held him for a few minutes and had him back in bed by 4:55. He was up @ 6:30 though!!

I have noticed a few things through this process. The first being that he is eating MORE during the day. Today all he wanted to do was eat - and he drank more milk than usual! The second is that I can't SLEEP after he wakes up. Both nights I just tossed and turned after putting him back down - aaaah!!! And the third is that I think my milk is starting to dry up . . . we may be finished with weaning earlier than I was expecting! However I feel fine with that and more importantly I think that Josiah is doing well with the transition. He still has ME and I think that's the most important thing right now!

Now it's off to bed so that I can be ready to give that little boy some love tonight should he wake up!

nutella and brownies

when I was pregnant w/ Josiah I ate a lot of nutella. Not just by itself though. I would put a pile on my plate, along with some peanut butter and then dip green apple slices for a late night snack. YUM!! But nutella's expensive - and it's not that "good" for you. SO . . . I was going through a couple of my favorite blogs when I found a recipe for cinnamon-hazelnut brownies and then a recipe for nutella! Now, the nutella is not as creamy as the nutella you buy in the store - but hey, when it tastes just as good and is at least better for you I won't complain! And the brownies . . . my little sis was here when I made them and we were blown away by their deliciousness!

Also, in case you didn't know I LOVE to bake. Cooking, not so much. But give me a recipe for a dessert, bread, casserole dish, and you've made my day! That's probably why the kitchen is the hardest area for me to keep clean - as soon as I clean up after dinner I get an exciting recipe to try and all my pots and pans come out again!

So Sugar Plum is one of my very favorite food blogs and steph chows is another. Steph has an AMAZING whole wheat pizza dough recipe. The first recipe I've found that actually cooks all the way through! I HATE doughy pizza! One trick she gave was to invert the cooking sheet. Brilliant idea! I tried it and it worked wonderfully! I also inverted the sheet when I made focaccia bread the other day - I have NEVER had my focaccia bread turn out as good as it did then other night. Even Chris agreed - it tasted just as good as the bread you get at Macaroni Grill - not joking!

I feel so inspired tonight. I can't wait to go see the movie, "Julie & Julia" and become even more inspired!

one reason I love cloth diapers

They look so beautiful on the line!