the blog-a-thon is over!

Wow, September's over! Which means the September blog-a-thon is wrapping up - the month totally flew by! I only missed two days out of the whole month, so I'd say it was pretty successful, as my main goal was to get kick-started back into blogging. I hope you guys have enjoyed the little peek into our family life. I'm glad it ends today because this weekend we'll be having some family time at our family cabin - of course it's supposed to be a really chilly weekend!!! Ah well, we'll bring sweaters and blankets and have a lot of fun.

Prior to September, I was blogging mainly to keep people updated about Kieran, but this month I have enjoyed sharing a bit more. Blogging daily, however, has been HARD! Many a night I did it right before midnight. It was so tough carving out time with the two kids and the other responsibilities I have. There are many things I wanted to blog about but simply didn't have the chance. But I definitely think I can handle blogging 1-2 times a week from now on.

Happy October tomorrow - my favorite month of the year! We have so many things to look forward to: decorating for our favorite holiday, celebrating our first wedding anniversary, apple orchard trips, making Halloween costumes, fall baking, carving pumpkins, and of course, Halloween (we are Halloween freaks!) I would love it if you'd continue to follow along with our little family!

wordless wednesday

This is the photo I was referring to last Wordless Wednesday. He just looks so old to me here! Like, in one instant I see him as a big kid....*sigh* They grow up too fast, don't they?

Maybe he just looks older because he's being so serious. Either way, he's so stinkin' cute...even if he has been falling asleep close to midnight and waking up 3+ times a night. Yeah, sleep regression? You can go away aaaany time now, thanks.

fun in dairyland!

I've been meaning to post these pictures and video for about a week now. We made a trip out to Wisconsin two weekends ago because Josh was asked to sing and play guitar with his friend Brent at Brent's cousin's wedding. Brent's family has a farm nearby the wedding locale, so we headed out there the day after the wedding and Maia LOVED it! They're a dairy farm, so there were mostly just cows, but we did see one goat as well as farm kitties and dogs. We had a ton of fun, ate well (thanks to Brent's mom!) and we can't wait to go back again soon!

amber necklaces, part 2.

The kids' amber necklaces arrived! Inspired By Finn had a 50% off sale the other week so I bought two for the price of one, getting Maia a longer size and Kieran his very own! How cute is he in his necklace!?

I had a few friends ask some questions about the amber necklaces after my last post on them. One of them wanted to know if we keep them on all the time. The answer is: Yes, we do! With Maia, we kept it on through baths, never took it off once. This time around though, I learned you are not supposed to get it wet and try to keep lotions off it because it will mess with the natural oils of the necklace. So now we're taking it off at bathtime and putting it back on when skin's dry. This is no big deal since we do baths every other night.

That leads me to the next question - do we let them sleep in them? And again, yep, we do! I'm comfortable with this for a few reasons. Since my children are so chubby, it tucks under their fat rolls, so they can't grab it easily. If they did grab it, and happen to pull on it, each bead is individually knotted so if it broke, the beads would not scatter everywhere. Also, because we put it on them at a young age, it sort of becomes "part of them" - they're just used to it!

Do you have any more questions about amber necklaces? Let me know! P.S. Isn't Maia silly? That's how she's been taking pictures lately!

how preemie moms are chosen

Well, it did not go unnoticed - I had a couple readers notice I missed two days of blogging! Yes, it's true, my streak is over! Ah well, the true goal of the September Blog-a-Thon was to get me back into blogging, and it's done that, right?

This weekend has been busy with a capital B. Or maybe it's just me that's been busy. Friday night Mr. Sleep Regression didn't go to bed until midnight, and that's why I missed blogging Friday - can't wait until he goes to bed to do anything lately! Then I worked at the group home (did you know I worked at a group home? I do! I've been there 7 years now, but I only work 1-2x a month right now.) Anyways, I got home, nursed Kieran for about 2 hours straight (ahh, gotta love the cluster feeding) but he went down at 11pm this time - an hour improvement over Friday night! So we're getting there. He is harder to put down to sleep but sleeps very well once he's down for the count, so that's actually nice. We'll see what he does tonight! The sleep regression will end someday, right?

I have school this afternoon so I've got to get back to doing some reading before I go, but I wanted to share this poem that two of my preemie mom friends have shared with me. It makes me tear up a little each time I read it.

How Preemie Moms Are Chosen

(Adapted from Erma Bombeck)

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?

Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments

for propagation with great care and deliberation.

As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.

"Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter.

Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard.

He's used to profanity."

Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter?

That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.

I watched her today.

She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother.

You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own.

She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect.

She has just the right amount of selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive.

Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect.

She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied.

She will never take for granted a spoken word.

She will never consider a step ordinary.

When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it.

I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them.

She will never be alone.

I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

cute kid-isms

Well, it's been about 3 weeks and I'm finally stumped about what to write. Actually, I have things I'd love to blog about but have no time to do them. Kieran is still up, even though he usually goes to bed at 9:30, 10pm at the latest...what the heck!? He just refuses to sleep. Maybe the sleep regression is messing with us again, I don't know. Josh is trying his hand at getting him down, nothing I have done has worked!

So I'll leave you with some cute things that happened today, since I have yet to find my camera cord to share pictures. Maia was hovering above Kieran while he was waiting for a diaper change and got really close to him. He ended up grabbing her hair, since she was so close, and I heard "mom, Kee-wan (because that's how she says his name, you know) grabbing my hair, owwww!" So I go over there to help him unhand her hair, she stands up and playfully scolds him...and he laughs at her! A big huge belly laugh - SO cute! Which in turn got Maia laughing, which made K laugh even more. Ahh, siblings. I love seeing them interact these days, it's so fun!

The other cute thing happened when I went to Babies R Us with the kids. I had to grab a lock for the fridge because it's not latching very well on its own, and Maia gets in there a bit more than I'd like. Anyways, I was checking out and Maia tried reaching for the credit card machine. When I told her not to touch it, she quickly shouted "I'm mad at me!" I laughed out loud, because not only was that really cute, but I've been encouraging her to use her words instead of hitting or whining when she's mad and doesn't get her way, specifically, I have practiced with her "mom, I'm mad!" or "I'm mad at ____." So tonight she actually did it, albeit a little backwards. I was a proud mama.

wordless wednesday

Okay, I take that back. I do have a few words.

Have you ever looked at your child and suddenly, you can see their future self? As in, you look at your toddler daughter and suddenly "see" her as a teenage girl? Or you look at your baby boy and think "holy crap, I can totally imagine what he's going to look like as an adult!" It happens to me every so often and FREAKS me out. This photo really capture that, for me, anyways. (I had a cute one of Kieran, too, but Maia is in "hide-my-parents-stuff" mode and must have hidden my camera cord so I can't upload it! Ugh!)

Can't you just see my sassy future teenager in this shot of Maia? (She is very serious about her cupcakes, you guys.)

PS. Welcome to my new Wednesday feature! Maybe next time it will be more wordless...and be uploaded closer to Wednesday than Thursday, heh.