Contentment and Baby Crack

These days have really been flying by. I have been trying to drink in these moments :

~and~

 

 

because all too soon, this cutie will be joining in the fun with his big sister . . .

(side note . . . Having a toddler has really made me understand what people were referring to when they said, 'Toddler Diet'. Seriously, how much of what we give them is actually consumed? Luckily we have a dog. I think we would buy one if we didn't already have one for the sole purpose of making our lives easier by helping clean up all that food that ends up on the floor!).

Yes.

So you can take your time in growing up, little Sebastian!

It has really struck me lately how fleeting these days are. Sometimes, it feels like all I do the entire day is change a million diapers and nurse non-stop in between. And when I have a chance to fold a load of laundry or clean a bathroom, it feels like a mini-vacation (weird. but it actually does! never thought I'd EVER say that).

But then I look at these little sweet faces, these faces that change every day. Kateri is so different then she was a year, month, even a week ago! My goal is to really drink each and every moment in and relish the here and now. This is definitely a challenge for me because I tend to look forward to the next step and think, "I just need to get through until this next point". Whether it was the following weekend, a holiday, Christmas break, the next trip overseas, that was always how it went. So it is definitely a shift to try to just focus on the present, but that is my new goal.

Nothing like a sweet little baby (or two!) to make you thankful for these dear precious moments!

The other day, Sebastian was very happy to be held by Mihi (the name Charlotte has given my mom).
Could he possibly look more relaxed and happy?

Not in a rush to get anywhere, just enjoying the present moment!

And yesterday, Sebastian and Kateri got to take a BATH. Sebastian looked like he felt completely at home in the water~ maybe it reminded him of his pre-born days in utero. And Kateri is always thrilled at any opportunity to get in a body of water, whether it is a pool, a big bathtub, or even the kitchen sink!

(Thanks to my mom for snapping these cute photos!) And yes, quite a lot of water ended up on the counter and the floor!

See how content they are? All they need is a sink full of water, and they are thrilled. What simplicity. What a lesson to notice and be thankful for the little things in life.

Yesterday was my birthday, and a wonderful one at that! Pat showered me with gifts and love, Kateri showered me with her joy and cuteness and Sebastian showered me with his sweet smiles! And yes, these smiles are like crack~ they are addicting to look at (for me!) and make me so happy. The only difference is the 'high' is just the same each time!

He just loves to look at you and smile! It is seriously the most charming thing I have ever seen in such a young baby.

And this one. Oh my! I just LOVE this next picture. I cannot get enough of it! Look at that happy sweet baby!

I know I'm pretty biased, but seriously~ how adorable is he??!! pretty impressive for three weeks, right??

A few updates on the kiddos

Every single day, I plan on writing a post on this blog, and every single day,  free time is non-existent and other things (like sleeping and eating and changing diapers and pulling Kateri down from off the table) seem more important.

But, guess what! Kateri is napping, Sebastian is in the swing, so hurry hurry! Write a post now! Or it will never ever ever happen!

So, while I have been focusing so much on Sebastian lately (and his ever voracious appetite), I want to focus this post on darling little Kateri!

She is very adventurous, and one of her favorite endeavors is climbing. She will try to climb anything. And she is very quick, scooting up her high chair, onto the tray, and from there crawling over to the table in no time. So we have had to try some interesting baby-proofing techniques, especially when I'm nursing the baby!

This has come into play because if you use a stern voice and a serious face with Kateri, it just busts her up. She thinks it's the most hilarious thing ever and will not take you seriously at all! Oy vey, what to do with this dear child?! So the strict voice that 'means business' is not an effective means of convincing her to climb down, at all.

She is very proud of her climbing techniques, even if it is not super high.

One thing that has brought her endless frustration is the dining room table and chairs. When all the chairs are pushed under the table, she climbs onto the chairs and is stuck with the table directly above her. She just knows she should be able to get up to the table from that point, but figuring out the next step has been elusive. Generally, she will start fussing in an effort to get some help from mom or dad (who generally don't help her get up there on the table, as a general rule, but you know~ hope still springs eternal!).

The other day, I was feeding Sebastian, and I could hear that Kateri had climbed up onto the chair and was stuck. But after just a couple moments of whining, all was silent.

Uh oh. Usually means something bad.

So I got up right away and came over to see what she was in to.

And this is what I saw:

Completely sound asleep!

Sweet precious girl!

And she even stayed asleep and took a nap in her own crib after that (pretty amazing, right?!)

She has been a big help to Pat lately, and has gone on many trips to Home Depot to help him with the mulch, or deck paint, or plants. One time I tagged along to get a few pictures.

And I learned that trips to the store with Papa-Bear are FULL OF FUN AND ADVENTURE.

Kateri loves Home Depot.

 

She is also so intrigued by Cisco, Aunt Jeanne's cat. He tends to maintain a healthy distance, but once he did allow Kateri to come within five feet of him. At that point, neither of them were quite sure what to do from there. . .

 

 

Eventually Cisco decided it was time to leave after Kateri decided it was time to grab his fur.

 

 

Kateri has also been enjoying Signing Times.

 

 

 

 

It is so cute to see her signing various things! Her absolute favorite things to sign are bird, fish, and airplane. She LOVES to point them out whether we are on a walk and she spots something or if she sees something in a book! She is getting better and better at signing and communicating what she wants, which has been so nice for US.

 

And one more pic: water and pots and pans on the deck: Happiness.

 

 

Of course, I can't do an entire post without a single picture of Sebastian. This little guy is a sweetie and has been doing honest to goodness open eye smiles since he was a week old. So don't you dare tell me that he has just been doing gas smiles. I know what his face looks like when he has gas, and I can assure you that there are NO smiles!

 

I have yet to snap a really good picture because every time he smiles I just want to drink it in! He really reacts when I talk to him and then his whole face lights up and he smiles! It really is amazing.

 

Here is one shot I did get, but it doesn't capture his big smile at all!

 

 

Still cute though :) 











Why I Opted to Try No Epidural This Time Around . . .

Disclaimer: I actually really loved  Kateri's labor and delivery. Everything about it was so exciting and it was one of the most thrilling, fulfilling and joyful days of my life.  Nothing can possibly compare to the excitement and extreme happiness of seeing Pat holding my beautiful little girl for the first time. I got an epidural almost as soon as possible after I got to the hospital and had no serious complications or problems related to it. I truly have nothing against medicated births, and may opt for that in the future (who knows?).

                                        Kateri and I right after she was born!

SO, why would I want to do anything different with baby numero dos?

Actually, even the possibility of trying something different was not on my radar until the end of pregnancy. I was really inspired by Mary who was due one month before me and opted to prepare for a non-medicated delivery.

 My aunt told her, "The thing is, you just never know if the epidural will take. So you might as well prepare for a non-medicated delivery, and then if at any point you need it, just go for the epidural! But that way you will be prepared regardless."

After hearing Mary's story (non-medicated delivery! yay!), and thinking about the whole thing for a few days, then weeks, I decided to (finally!) go to the library. I love the library, BUT I hadn't been there in so long that even my library card had expired. Yes, it had been forever! That is what having just one kiddo will do to you. Or me, maybe it's just me. As luck would have it, I ran in to my aunt at the library. She even held Kateri so I could pick out some books! Awesome. And she was so positive and sure that I could do it. It was inspiring!

So I grabbed a pile of books, renewed my library card, and headed out. There was so little time to read because of all the things on my pre-baby to do list. And Kateri. And it was SO HARD to get into the books. So I ordered some other books that had high reviews on Amazon and devoured those. And any and all birth stories I could find on various blog link-ups and web sites. And thought and researched more, and then thought some more.

Finally, after a lot of reading, and encouragement from a lot of people (Anne, Jess, Mary, Danielle, Aunt Betty~ I'm looking at YOU!) I decided that YES! I will at least try non-medicated. Here's why:

1. With Kateri, my contractions started less then two minutes apart. BAM! We left for the hospital well within an hour of the first contraction, and by the time we got to the hospital I was 4 to 5 cm dilated! Things were moving. The whole labor was only 12 hours, BUT my guess is it would have gone quicker had I not gotten the epidural. So, for a quicker delivery.

2. A quicker delivery would be quite nice for obvious reasons (hello pain), but ALSO, because I am group B strep positive, I get the wonderful IV antibiotics during labor. I got two doses (which is what is considered ideal) with Kateri's delivery. Afterwards, I got a huge infection related to those antibiotics. It took over six weeks before it was eradicated! And it really affected breastfeeding. So, shorter deliver, hopefully only ONE dose of antibiotics, to decrease the likelihood of another roaring infection.

3. So with Kateri, I actually felt like I was ready to push for four hours. FOUR. HOURS. That is not an exaggeration. I kept calling in the nurse and saying~ I'm ready!! She encouraged me to just "Relax and let the baby do the work." Well, this definitely did make pushing easier. Finally, after four hours of really and truly thinking I was ready, two pushes and she was here. Yes. Pretty much less then ten minutes from Dr C walking in the room to seeing that beautiful baby girl for the first time. Now, only two pushes is nothing to complain about, and I have no problems with that. But for months and months afterwards, I had some issues that Dr C was sure were due to the four hours of being ready to push, and not pushing. I definitely wanted to avoid a repeat of ANY of that, if at all possible!

4. No terrible tearing with Kateri, though everything I read and all studies I saw referenced specifically said the risk and severity of tearing is decreased with no epidural. Yes. Please.

5. Curiosity. People have been doing this sans meds for . . . how many years?!! So how will I ever know what it's like unless I try it?

6. I learned an interesting fact from Amy Bookwalter (who is an amazing doula and offers some fantastic classes on labor and delivery, whether you're looking for non-medicated or epidiral). She said, regardless of how long labor lasts, the average time that a woman is actually having contractions is THREE HOURS. Same amount of time that Christ hung on the Cross suffering for my sins. Interesting, right?! I read quite a few blogs where women wrote down a bunch of intentions to pray for during labor, and I was really attracted to that idea. My life is so posh when I think about it (AC, hot and cold water at any moment, a fridge, freezer, washing machines, dishwashers, all these conveniences), it seems like a blessing to have a little suffering to offer up. It also makes labor much less daunting to think of three hours rather than thinking of facing excruciating pain for 19 hours. We get breaks!

7. RECOVERY. So, after doing quite a lot of asking around, some people find that recovery is easier after an epidural and some people find it is easier without one. I realized the only way to know which category I fall in to is to try both! Recovery with Kateri was rough, so rough. I have no doubt that there were a lot of factors that played into that (serious breastfeeding issues, infection, first baby) but I wondered if the epidural may have played any part in that. So I was faced with the decision to try or forever wonder if no epidural would make recovery easier.

So, those are the main reasons I decided to try a non-medicated delivery. As Sebastian's due date approached and then passed, and then day after day went by, I became more and more anxious that induction was looming in our future and, with that, the inevitable (to me) epidural.

Stirfry . . . a little of everything

First things first, Happy Birthday to my amazing dad! I unfortunately didn't get many (or any, really) pictures, but we had a great evening celebrating his birthday! Delicious dinner (main course, chicken pot pie~ made by Lu).  Mimi and Johnny got an ice cream cake from Coldstone~ YUM! And it was extra fun because everyone was able to make it, a tricky thing these days.

Here is Kateri waiting for the chicken pot pie:

Which she loved!

So we had a great Monday celebration for Dad! :)

In other mundane news, the bread turned out like this:

Clearly I need to work on my braiding skills. BUT otherwise the loaves turned out fine!

And I made a tuna sandwich the next day,

which did taste better then it looks, I promise! And there was none of that over-risen yeasty flavor I was worried about. Sweet! So, on Saturday, we went to Costco and bought a huge thing of honey for future bread. Now I have no choice other than to use it!

And, on an entirely different topic, a couple weeks ago I took some pictures for Mimi. It goes without saying, Mimi is a bombshell! And, aside from some hilarious pictures like this:

 Buddy co-operated and smiled for the camera.

 

 

 

{PHFR} Spring Edition!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Linking up with Like Mother Like Daughter to capture some contentment in our day to day lives!

{Pretty}

One of my favorite things about spring, believe it or not, is actually a weed. As much as I can't stand what weeds do to my garden, I still have to admit that this little weed is just so charming and cheery that it fills me with nothing but joy.

And, I learned something new about this weed today: the flowers close in the evening! I went outside to snap a picture just a couple moments ago, and the flowers are all turning inwards for the night.

So, although this most definitely does not capture the minute perfection of each bloom, it at least gives an idea of it! 

{Happy}

Happiness is holding little precious newborns!

Most especially our newest little niece, Miss Olivia! 

And, not that we are counting the days, of course, but Mary is exactly one month away from her due date and we are exactly two months away from our due date (!!!!!!). Hard to believe (although when I look at how big I'm getting, it isn't!).

Kateri is also exceedingly happy to help with any chore that mama is doing. Today, she took an active part in laundry. As it was mostly her laundry anyway, it was appropriate!

I think she is going to be a lover of organization and order. She very carefully went through and collected all of her socks.

  

(After taking out her hair bow, mind you).

But only the white ones. According to Mutti, this is the exact opposite of what I would have done as a 13 month old, which was strew ALL the clothes all over the floor with wild abandon. 

I can just hear people saying, "Put a hair bow in that child's hair!". I hear you, I really do, but there are times when it just doesn't happen (especially after it's been taken out about seven times already!)

{Funny}

Pat has continued to work extra hard on our tank rabbit hutch. The giant thing weighs at least 1/8 of a ton, or 250 pounds, whichever sounds heavier. This has been a project of much larger proportions then initially thought! 

Last night, Mac and Nanny came over to help.

Even after the sun set, they were still hard at work.

You know it's a huge hutch when your husband can fit inside . . .

He thought about sleeping out there,

But eventually decided against it!

{Real}

So what is the story with using honey instead of sugar in bread-making? I'm gradually making the transition from store-bought bread to homemade white bread to honey white bread (no white sugar) to partial whole wheat bread and so on. 

Gradual being the operative word here. As in, I've been on the home-made white bread step for about 2 months now. 

Until today!

Today, I used a very similar recipe that called for honey instead of white sugar. 

And boy did this bread RISE like gang busters.

It is supposed to double in an hour. 

Instead, it tripled or more in about 40 minutes.

When I punched it down, it looked more like it quadrupled.

So does the mere fact that I used honey make the bread rise more quickly or is that a fluke?

Here is the bread after I punched it down and put it in the pans:

A

After ten minutes:

 

After ten more minutes:

And after about five more minutes (slightly less . . . whatever it took for the oven to hear up):

And, yes, they rose so much in that short time that they grew together! 

Also: that goofy braid: keeping it real round these here parts.

So we will see how this bread comes out~ it is currently baking and I am hoping that despite the fact that it really seems to have over-rose, it won't have that overly yeasty over-rose taste! 

We will see!!

Spring Fever

So, after this surprise day before yesterday:

Pat kept saying, "This is insane. Opening Day is tomorrow, and it's snowing. This is so stupid. Not baseball weather at ALL. And Opening Night is tonight.. . . Why did they have to start Opening Night, anyway? This is BASEBALL, not some Broadway Play!"

But, luckily, just to show old Man Winter the door (hopefully for good this time), spring weather came out in full force and yesterday was gorgeous and sunny and all the plants are getting ready to burst! 

Pat came home early since it was Opening Day (it should be a National Holiday, he always adamently maintains). We got some work done around the house. And even had time for a walk!

Well, I walked. Pat ran with Kateri!

I felt the crazed need of someone shut up in a cold, brown, snowy world to document Every Single Plant and Living Thing. Mostly to convince myself that Spring IS COMING!

When we passed by this:

there was a thunderous cacophony of spring peepers. And if that sounds like hyperbole, it's not, I assure you. They were blaring and croaking and singing their joy at the tops of their lungs and it was NOT quiet or subtle in the least.

I tried to spot one close enough that I could snap a picture on my phone~ but sadly no such luck.

Kateri is also so happy to see the spring!

(Pig tails courtesy of Aunt Mimi).

Today, Mutti, Kateri and I went to Southern States because I have been thinking about CHICKENS! And chicks are so cute and irresistible. So what better time then now to get some and start a little coop outside? We have so many spiders and bugs, and chickens would take care of that problem in no time. Plus, fresh eggs. What could be better?

Kateri was very intrigued by what she saw, and helped pick out a few chicks! Five is a good number for now, we won't need more then four and probably at least one will end up being a rooster anyway!

We can't wait until Pat gets home to show him! 

Addendum: We did not actually buy any chicks, as much as I dearly wanted to. I was hoping to fool Pat in to believing we did get some since, after all, that IS something I would absolutely do! But he is too wise and wasn't fooled at all. Maybe next year! Now I just have to figure out if there is some loop-hole in our HOA laws that would allow backyard chickens . . .