2016

10 Goals for 2016!

1) Quit "bad mouthing" Eli. He is a terror sometimes but he is almost 3. He is learning life and it is hard. I have a tendency to refer to him as a difficult child and talk about his negative qualities and I don't want to do that anymore. I want to work with him and help him grow and love every minute watching him figure it all out. 

2) "Love" my husband more. A rough pregnancy and a newborn haven't left a lot of time for lovin' but my husband is a good man and he deserves my attention.

3) Get more done. By this I mean to be more productive with my time...not add more to my plate. I want to keep my life simpler by just saying no to extra events I really don't want to do and saying yes to offered help. I want to use the time I do have at home and at work being productive.

4) Get into weight lifting. I hurt...I'm sore all over... Having a child is rough on the body and so is being a mother. I don't want to hurt and I want to have the energy and strength to play with my kids and be there for them.

5) Complete some 5ks. I always put this on my list but I want to run some races. Casio is important too and I feel cool when i run a race even if I suck. 

6) Spend more time with God. I want to pray more and read more and if love to start a devotional and join a bible study but in general...spend more time with God. 

7) Be more organized. My car, house, job...everything. 

8) Pay off some debt. We don't have a lot but we want none. 

9) Eat at home more. Healthy, non healthy...at this point who cares. We just need to eat at home more. 

10) Random act of kindness. Once a month or more I want to do a random act of kindness. I want Eli to see it some as well and understand that it feels good to do nice things for people.  

I always make a list of ten things and typically accomplish like 3 but hey, that's 3 more things I did better this year and the year before!

Happy Nee Year! 

Danielle 

1/116

2 Weeks Down

We made it through two weeks! Well...almost, tomorrow will be Noelle's two week birthday and she and I will be spending the day at the Birdstore. I hate to jump right back into work but it's Christmas time and we knew it was coming. We had a staff meeting last night and I went back a few days before just to check on things. Noelle is feeding so much better now. She had gained over a half a pound since her last weigh in when they were a little concerned. That was fantastic news. So far we've only had like 2 rough nights and maybe 3-4 rough days. The days were mostly because Eli was acting out and I feel so bad for him but at the same time he's driving me a little nuts. Yesterday I took him to the playground with Noelle and we had a good time. He laughed a lot and i played with him some. It was nice to just enjoy him for a while like I used to all the time. He has a cold which doesn't help. The school called today to say he bit a child. That doesn't happen often but again, I hate it because aside from me not wanting my child to be a mean bully...I also don't want him to have had a bad day at school since it's one of his only places to get away from Noelle. It hurts my heart to see him struggle and watch the rougher side of his personality emerge so much with this new transition. He is great with Noelle though and I know times will get easier. They say the first two weeks are the hardest with a new baby so I can hope we have a slightly easier next week and an even easier following week. 

Danielle

12/18/15

Lactation Consultant

Thursday I saw a lactation consultant and she was very helpful. Noelle had pretty much munched both my nipples off and I didn't have much hope for the LC. She gave me some great tips which helped Noelle feed without hurting me and lots of support. As of today, Sunday, we are still struggling with a good latch and then we both get frustrated but she is doing much better and with the help of some medicine I am too. As a matter of fact it's almost been 24 hours sine I have pumped and I'm hoping to squeeze a pump session in tonight to build storage but I'm hoping we have turned a corner and she won't be given a bottle until we leave her to be watched by someone. I've been praying hard for help from God with this to give me patience, healing, and health for Noelle. I'm just so nervous we will go to her check up Wed and she will have lost weight. Other than nursing there have been little struggles. She is such a sweet beautiful baby that seems to not have her days and nights confused, though I know that could change at any time. She is 1 week 1 day old today and I just want to stare at her and hold her all day everyday. She is truly a blessing and I thank God for my family. 

Danielle 

12/13/15

Day 4

It's day 4 with our sweet little Noelle. Really day 3 since she was born at 5:15pm on the 5th. Breastfeeding her has been way more challenging and painful than I remembered with Eli. My nipples are on fire and have sores on them, my milk came in yesterday and my boobs are swollen and very painful to the touch. Noelle doesn't seem to be emptying my boobs and she hasn't had a poop in 24 hours. She's so content and easy so far so I have a hard time thinking she's starving. I'm also torn between pumping to help build supply and empty boobs or wanting to reserve it all for her. I just started using a nipple shield and while there is still some pain it is manageable where it wasn't before. 

I know it's only day four but we are having a hard time balancing Noelle and Eli as well. Eli is acting out some but mostly j think it's that mark has been his primary care taker these last few days and neither one is used to that. Noelle is just the sweetest best thing and I'ce been glued to her since she's come home. It's hard not to be when I know this time passes so fast and I'm just so in love with her. She is so beautiful. I know all of this will get easier I just need to keep reminding myself of that. 

Danielle

12/9/15

Oh Christmas Tree

Photos to come in this one but I wanted to get it all typed out in case I never got back to this post. We bought our Christmas tree yesterday but Noelle decided it wasn't a great day to decorate and be festive so we decorated it tonight. 

We made popcorn and hot cider and listened to Christmas music while we decorated the tree. Eli loved the lights and he loved putting the ornaments on the tree. We have a broken dog ornament that looks like Giedo and he thought it was so cool. He showed it to Giedo (our dog) and asked do you like it and saying "Giedo loves it". He didn't want help putting the ornaments in and is becoming a tad pushy with his independence. We only lost one ornament to this however we do have a clump of ornaments in one section of our tree on the bottom where Eli could easily reach and apparently liked to hang ornaments. 

I tried to just watch for a bit as he decorated the tree and just enjoy the moment but then I did have to pull out the camera. Photos are still so special to me. 

After decorating the tree it was bedtime and Elis bedtime prayer went like this tonight "Dear Jesus, our Christmas tree because it is so beautiful!" 😍 So sweet. I'm pretty sure he meant thank you for our Christmas tree because he pretty much starts every prayer thanking Jesus for something and had recently started adding why as well. I should write down his prayers every night because they are so sweet and cute. 

The inside of our house is decorated and ready for Noelle and Christmas! We'd love to get the outside Christmasfied soon and I'd love to get the house deep cleaned and organized a tad more but those "nesting" instincts just aren't kicking in for me. Hopefully I get that burst of energy sometime before little Noelle arrives. 

Danielle

11/20/15

Catch up?

Do I even try to catch yall up? Eh, for my sake and memories I'll do a quick re-cap. Eli started a day school at 20ish months. There's more to it than just a babysitting service, he actually learns stuff. It's hard to tell how much he learned there and how much was normal growth but at 2.5 he had a great vocabulary and told he talks a lot for his age. We hit our terrible twos. I want to say they stared at 16ish months and went until about 27 months. He still has his tempers but WHEW for a while there I was ready to send him packing. I had no idea what to do but alas he turned a corner. Praise Jesus! Speaking of Jesus, we read his bible every night and I try to tell him things like "look at the clouds. God put the clouds in the sky, aren't they beautiful?" So randomly he'll look at something like the trees and say God made the trees Mamma. That's cute. 

He says a few other cute things regularly. I'll show him something new and he'll go "No WAY Mamma!!!! I can't believe it!" As if it's the most exciting thing he's ever heard. Today he hugged my growing belly and said, "Mamma, I love Noelle." That made my heart happy and gave me small hope for the future. He is not yet potty trained and has developed some weird fear of the potty all of the sudden so we are kind of at a stand still with that. He eats great but I still cut up his food. I'm trying to do it less but he won't take good bites on his own and in general always asks for help with eating. I end up finishing my meal and then feeding him the rest of his. I want to break the habit but so far he eats anything and everything, is well behaved at the table, and it's just hard to want to mess that up. He's gotten super helpful around the house. He puts his dishes in the sink, throws away his diapers and other trash, puts his clothes in their basket, and even puts his toys up when asked. He also loves to try and "help" with things. Like vacuuming, cooking, moping, dusting, yard work...pretty much everything which is great but also a little pain. I pretty much have him make every meal with me. He sleeps from 9pm-7/8am and I'd like to have him in bed earlier but it just seems like our days keep getting pushed back later and later. He also naps from about 2-4/5 everyday. As he learns how to better behave he also is gaining new independence and he'll say weird stuff like "don't come in my room Mama" or "don't look at me".  Not quite sure how to handle that yet. Sometimes I just do what I was doing or if I don't really need to go in his room I'll just say "ask nicely," then he'll say please and then I just walk away. I also have totally ruined his day by not letting him do something by himself that he wanted to do because either we were in a hurry or I just didn't feel like waiting. For example, climbing into his car seat. I picked him up and he was saying "I want to do it all my byself" (for some reason he swaps my and by) but anyways, I didn't let him and he screamed and cried for like an hour. And talked about it the whole rest of the day. Sorry not sorry buddy. For the most part those fits are few and far between now. He knows his letters, numbers, colors, and pretty much what everything around him is. He can count to about 15. Overall we think he is doing fantastic. Im a little nervous about throwing a newborn in the mix and also starting over when things are so very smooth in our lives right now. I can't think of anything else major to share or any big issues that we are having at the moment. I could recap every moment from the past year but that's just ridiculous. If I think of anything critical to share I'll post it another time. 

 

Ceiling Medalion

While searching pintrest for girly nursery ideas I came across this photo:

 

http://houseofwentworth.com/2012/02/05/childrens-ceiling-medallions-by-marie-ricci/

I totally fell in love with these ceiling medallions but realized they were custom made and way out of the budget so I did some google searching and found other inspiration. I thought I'd be buying a white medallion online once I saw what Lowes had to offer but with a quick trip to Home Depot I found exactly what I was looking for. There were 3 sizes all different styles and of course I liked the largest one! This thing may be overkill when all is said and done or it may be absolutely perfect. 

I LOVED the detail on this one and floral was just what I had hoped for. I knew I wanted it pink with possibly green leaves and darker pink roses or I may just want it pink with gold accents. I bought every shade of sample pink, every can of gold spray paint (mostly for other projects), a pale green, gold regular paint and gold sparkles. You know what they say...

Well anyways, during Eli's nap I got the working on my creation. I painted the whole thing a pale pink and loved it. I debated on gold or colors but decided to add green and darker pink. I then painted it with gold dust to accent certain parts and painted straight gold into the border grooves. The gold detail is a little hard to note in the picture but once it's on the ceiling with the chandelier more photos will come. I love it so much and right now it sits in my dinning room table so I can adore it as it deserves all throughout the day! 😝

Danielle 

8/11/15

Big Boy Bed

I'm sure you've seen those posts around Facebook about the last times with your kids that you don't realize are your last times. Like the last time you bathe your child, the last time you kiss them goodnight, the last time you help them brush their teeth..... I always start reading them, see where they're headed and then click X before I bawl my eyes out. I get it time flies but I can't dwell on this fact or it leaves me in tears for days. 

Two days ago we randomly decided that we would transform Eli's crib to his full size bed. The poor thing is 2 & 1/2 and the size of a 4 year old but we still had him in his crib figuring we might as well keep the beast caged as long as we could but, alas, the time had come. 

The process was easy, the transition was smooth and Eli can't tell me enough that he "likes and WUUUVVS his new bed". It's had "Cars" theme bedding and he loves that too. Mostly I feel happy about this but part of me feels sad. The night before his big boy bed was his last night in his crib and I didn't even know it. In fact, I'm pretty sure Mark tucked him in that night and even sadder than that, I can't remember if that's true or not. I didn't peak on him that night or take a picture or relish in the fact that it was his very last night in his baby crib. The crib he slept in (or lack there of) from the time he was 6 weeks old! He didn't know either. I didn't tell him it was his last night in his baby crib and he had no idea he was about to make a change that would never be reversed. 

The only thing that keeps me grounded through this "milestone" is that his mattress now sits in his future sisters crib. Up high in the crib where she will lay safe but Eli would jump right out. I know time will fly with her too but I know before it does, time will seem to drag through sleepless nights and cries. This makes me smile knowing that tonight I will sleep, all night! Tomorrow Eli will tell me when he wants a drink, food, if he hurts. He'll give me hugs, go on walks with me, tell me he loves me, sing me a song, ask for a story and it took us 2.5 great years to get to this point. All throughout those 2.5 years were wonderful too but I love & cherish the present. It really is the best gift God has ever given me and I never realized how much so until Eli came a long. 

Stalker mom of his first night in a big boy bed!

And a few new car accessories to go along. 

Baby Girl Motley

It's official! Eli is going to be a big brother to a baby sister! He knew it was going to be a girl right from the start. We are so excited to expand our family. I'm almost 1/2 way there and slightly less obsessed with being pregnant than I was last time. We even waited a good month or two before sharing the news with our family unlike the 1 day we waited last time. We've also been so busy and had lots of other life changes going on but over this past weekend we really got our house in order and are ready to get baby girls room started. There's lots to catch up on so I hope I'll be in better touch but just wanted to do a quick announcement before I started some catch up posts!