A mother's Amusement

As a mother it doesn't take much to amuse me. My children are my entertainment and being a mother is my greatest accomplishment in life. I pride myself on my children's eating habits. Chris and I always said we would not cook 2 meals; 1 for us and 1 for our children and to this date we haven't. My kids will eat almost anything; it's awesome! I always have fresh fruits and veggies on hand for them, they vary from week to week but there is something fresh and healthy in our fridge, always. This is why my food budget is outrageous, why would you charge so much for something so healthy-it makes no sense to me but what's a mom to do. Each week I mull through the produce section, typically buying what's on sale or what I know my kids want everyday. We always have grapes, apples, usually strawberries, salad, and carrots. This week I decided to buy tomatoes for our hamburgers. I usually forget these just because I'm not a huge tomato eater, I do like them but I'm not going to eat them by themselves. My children have a different outlook on tomatoes. Sweet Pea saw me walking through the kitchen with a plum tomato and she proceeds to climb my leg and jibber jabber the entire time. Obviously explaining to me why I should give her this beautiful tomato NOW! Because the jibber soon turned to screams. This sent my 3 year old running, afraid he's going to miss the chaos, in which time he proceeds to stuff his face with the freshly sliced tomatoes that I was preparing to give his sister. I took this moment to look at how deprived my children were! Mas chaos over a small veggie, yes they may cost $2.50 a piece but hey what are kids for. I must now figure out how to explain that we are entering "winter" and the fresh fruits and veggies just don't taste as well. I wonder if they care?

Hunting Season

Hunting should never be a title for anything of mine, however I have two wonderful guys who love this sport-Is it a sport? Anywho, hunting season is fast approaching and my life this winter will be ever changing! Not really but I do want to give some props to my dear husband. Chris and I have known each other over half my life, 16 years, we've been married 7 years and he is the love of my life, my best friend. Seeing him blossom into a father has truely made my cup runneth over. You see fishing and hunting are 2 things he has always enjoyed and I've just kind of accepted the fact that during winter; life would be missing Chris quite frequently, he's always been a little selfish when it comes to the hunting thing. Fortunately for Chris our 3 year old son is into the whole fishing/hunting stuff. Last year Chris took him hunting 1 of the 3 times he got to go and they shot a deer! Chris wanted to take him every time he went, but other hunting companions differed! I've always thought in Chris' mind he would always think, 'when am I going to get to go hunting' but I've learned he's actually thinking 'when am I going to get to take Li hunting'. This is his main focus, a loving father who wants to share the joy of the sport with his son at every opportunity. It overjoys my heart to know that Chris has grown to be such a great father who wants to make his children happy, even if that means his life may miss opportunities. For our son's opportunities my DH is performing sweat equity at a hunting club! He did the same thing last year however opportunities did not blossom. You should always be able to trust someone's word, that is what we are taught, but it's amazing how little that means to some people these days. My wonderful husband has taken certain moments in stride, but he ceases to amaze me, he is ever changing and growing, and I can honestly say that I am very proud that he is less passive than in the past. He's grown tired of being "used" and has made vast changes in our life recently, so far for the good. As life is ever changing I do see more in our future, some may be heart wrenching, some difficult, but sometimes you just have to let go and live life and be happy because God and your family are the most important things that life has to offer.

Seen and Heard:

3 year olds are so intuitive. It makes our life so interesting/entertaining. Li just explained to me how he was born-the 3 year old version. Amazingly he was quite accurate-kind of. He got to experience Sweet Peas c-section and the stressful recovery that followed (no he wasn't in the delivery room but he laid beside me everyday my mom had to pack my incision). In his eyes all babies are cut out of the belly by the doctor. A much easier explanation than the "normal" version. Out of the blue this morning he tells me that he was in my belly and would run down to my knees and then the doctor cut him out and gave me a new belly! Well I definitely got a new belly alright!

Seen and Heard:

I've stollen this from someone else's blog, but it is such a cute idea, I can't resist. Kids are notorious for entertaining mainly there parents or parents to other children. That's why we have them right? Well I sometimes think that Li is the most hilarious child out there, however I do have two nieces (by adopted friendship, blah, blah, it doesn't matter these could be my own children kind of nieces) that can pretty much out funny Li any day. I routinely tell Li -"You crack me up!" Simply meaning you make me laugh, right. Well the other day he did something or said something funny and I said, "You make me laugh", in which he replies, "No mommy, I make you crack!"

Here we Go!

I love that my children are growing up. It is very sad but at the same time so much fun. Well we are beginning our journey into childhood with preschool and trying not to overload on extra curricular activities. We will be starting with gymnastics. Li starts tomorrow and he is so excited, I can't wait, I may be more excstatic than he is. DH and I wanted to do soccer this year also but he's really not old enough, which is fine because I'm sure once spring hits, we will definitely be t-balling it. Preschool is loading us with activities for the rest of year, starting with the cornmaze in a few short weeks. My neice's second birthday-Wow i remember the day she was born like it was one of my own! Who can believe it's Halloween! Li says he will be a fireman, I better go purchase that outfit! Then we will have Wetumpka's tree lighting and Eclectic's parade, oh my! I've got to fit shopping for Christmas and Thanksgiving in there somewhere. My dad is concerned about pushing him into activites, my philosophy-he will never know if he likes it unless he tries it. On second thought maybe Poppy should be concerned about mommy overload. Of course if he doesn't want to play or participate then we will definitely allow him to stop but he seems so excited about each adventure, which overjoys me. He is such a mess now. He told Chris the other day that "I am angry" with his hands on his hips-I'm sure he wasn't getting his way!

My Sweet Pea

My sweet pea turned 15 months on the 23rd. Why does this seem like such a big deal? Why does her delivery feel like it just happened oh i don't know a few months ago? Maybe because i'm almost 30 now. My hubby turns 33 in just a few short days-can't even imagine how fast his days are flying by, especially since he is so much older than me! Lol Chris. Sweet pea had her check up yesterday and everything is perfect. She weighed 23 lb 8oz (50 %) and is 33 3/4 inches long (97 %), all of this is on the girl growth chart for all my moms to boys only! She's acheived all of her benchmarks and can speak better than is necessary at this age, demonstrated to the pediatrician by mimicing the word attitude, meaning she has to much! We went on vacation- a mini one thank goodness a few weeks ago and Li loved the beach, sweet pea not so much. Probably had something to do with the fact that the water chases you.

a date to remember

Two years ago today I learned how powerful aspirin would be in my life. It's not just for old people! However it was also the worst day of my life-so far. My husband and I went in for our 12 week OB appointment to learn that our baby no longer had a heartbeat. We had an ultrasound at about 8 weeks and everything seemed fine with the exception of my low progesterone, so the Dr. put me on supplements. Instead of waiting to see what my body would do I opted for a D & C, I didn't think I could wait days or weeks knowing and nothing happening. The one thing that came out of it was a diagnoses that related my sons birth to my now two miscarriages. Li was born at 37 weeks (with a little help of modern medicine) and he only weighed 4 lb 15 oz. So tiny for a 37 weeker, his delivery was a c-section due to preeclampsia and his being breech. He was in the NICU for 2 weeks, had to be ventilated and he had to learn how to eat. Our questions went completely unanswered, we had no idea why Li was so small nor why I had blood pressure problems. 2 years ago we got our answer and to save you from the long medical terms, my blood was thicker than normal, therefore he wasn't getting the nutrients he needed and my placenta was clotting with my miscarriages. We would try a baby aspirin and if that didn't work there is a shot that you can take to help. Li was and is our miracle baby, a lot of babies born to moms with this condition die in utero. Also the baby aspirin works, I took it with Sweet Pea, absolutely no problems and she was a healthy 7 lb 2 oz. But today will always be a day of mourning and triumph. I mourn for the babies that I will not get to meet in this life but I triumph for the two children that God has blessed me with.