tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88729773021344678312024-02-19T04:16:57.987-06:00Life As Their Momthe true stories and misadventures of my life as a stay-at-home momAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-72067543576803306432014-10-25T10:50:00.001-05:002014-10-25T10:50:40.830-05:00Saturday Scrapbooking<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-5J6tQtzPess/VEvGecyThLI/AAAAAAAAE0Y/Oo5QTDZqGsA/s1600-h/Oct25-New-Releases---Scrapbooking---life-as-their-mom%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Oct25-New-Releases---Scrapbooking---life-as-their-mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Oct25-New-Releases---Scrapbooking---life-as-their-mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-583g10ayWoM/VEvGf6rsSqI/AAAAAAAAE0g/-IKKh76vfHo/Oct25-New-Releases---Scrapbooking---life-as-their-mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="460"></a></p> <p>Can I tell you how much that I have missed sharing my scrapbooking pages with you all? Because I totally have. There’s just nothing like getting to share what you love with others, now is there. </p> <p>This week I got to work with products from several different Sweet Shoppe designers, and best of all – with their 2014 Mystery Grab Bag, a promotion that the store hasn’t done in several years!</p> <a name='more'></a> <p>First up I got to work with the most adorable pregnancy kit,<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=29296&cat=0&page=1"><strong>Baby Bump</strong></a>, by <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=49">Digilicous Design</a>. I saw it, and well being pregnant and all, I just couldn’t resist it.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tD2dVnQKUwI/VEvGhkHG3FI/AAAAAAAAE0o/Fmz2vJciYbw/s1600-h/2nd%252520Trimester%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="2nd Trimester - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="2nd Trimester - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-FgNvTmzIG8o/VEvGjPzgdNI/AAAAAAAAE0w/6QNTtTRcDGY/2nd%252520Trimester%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5U9YY7432GiriNKs0M1nzhImlpxFJlYlAZ7dfOZ1taNAM6kohPIvu8CZXjXwOf0UpHrybNgqUwYHBmtiqdpAD_L61K3SuPNAYNoyGAJt8ZmTHJ3H4hFkL3vRPM2Am0HD5GaXXsc266SX7/s1600-h/1025A%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="1025A" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="1025A" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-taiJp5EHgUw/VEvGl2_Mm6I/AAAAAAAAE1A/V-v4dgiHzEE/1025A_thumb%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p>Next, I got to pair <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=32">Cindy Schneider</a>’s cute new <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=29311&cat=0&page=1">Halloween Layered cards</a></strong> with <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=16">Lauren Grier</a> and <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=23">Shawna Clingerman</a>’s spooky cute Halloween collaboration, <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=29310&cat=0&page=1">Smell My Feet</a></strong>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PUm0lKKGdEo/VEvGnX_hk5I/AAAAAAAAE1I/qbG51E7h7yI/s1600-h/Halloween%2525202013%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Halloween 2013 - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Halloween 2013 - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-yvjFNHnpS8k/VEvGo2WRDFI/AAAAAAAAE1Q/jMulwB4YsCs/Halloween%2525202013%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sQM3663hZok/VEvGqG8FxdI/AAAAAAAAE1Y/Ixh2zvcJmtg/s1600-h/1025B%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="1025B" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="1025B" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-EU9wPMwAgto/VEvGrPlpeDI/AAAAAAAAE1g/WDaqy1NFoHw/1025B_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p>I also got to work with <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=19">Misty Cato</a>’s oh-so-adorable (really you might go ‘awwww!’ when you see it) <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=29292&cat=0&page=1">Growth Spurt</a></strong> kit. And bonus! You get the kit free with your $10 purchase from Sweet Shoppe’s store through November 6th. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Yi56xIuR2bc/VEvGsALg3cI/AAAAAAAAE1o/WpaSjA8r9Kc/s1600-h/Hello%252520Love%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="Hello Love - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Hello Love - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-E0sybIaVaxk/VEvGtTlYlyI/AAAAAAAAE1w/pMEYNSW0SNM/Hello%252520Love%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-qqoA2VF6ye4/VEvGussdOBI/AAAAAAAAE14/twz48yAs504/s1600-h/1025C%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="1025C" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="1025C" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-g2z_s7vWbPY/VEvGvYmmchI/AAAAAAAAE2A/NYBc1vHoXeM/1025C_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p>And now for the <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=29300&cat=0&page=1">2014 Mystery Grab Bag</a></strong>! Trust me, you WANT this grab bag. It is jam packed with stuff – lots and lots of stuff. I didn’t even know what to start with. And just like Misty’s kit, you can get the Grab Bag for free. Spend $15 in Sweet Shoppe’s store between now and October 31st and you get the Grab Bag for FREE. It is an amazing deal! You get 24 treats from the store AND Misty’s kit – all free.</p> <p>Oh and remember <strong><a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2014/10/breaking-down-inspiration.html">my Pinterest inspiration post from yesterday</a></strong>? Well this is the final page that I ended up with from the inspiration pieces!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/--dmPa4LW1Og/VEvGwX2WgHI/AAAAAAAAE2I/0w8MiORshKg/s1600-h/This%252520Right%252520Now%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="This Right Now - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="This Right Now - Trish Harden - Life As Their Mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-MGef7TjkhcI/VEvGxk2IQ3I/AAAAAAAAE2Q/C6opjOZcRKQ/This%252520Right%252520Now%252520-%252520Trish%252520Harden%252520-%252520Life%252520As%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-gpk_JvieXoc/VEvGyu6dZhI/AAAAAAAAE2Y/IAljX8eL8jw/s1600-h/1025D%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="1025D" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="1025D" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9WyP2jNpx0c/VEvGzb7wTLI/AAAAAAAAE2g/jMvkIz8TkBQ/1025D_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-83871571935879656182014-10-24T10:14:00.001-05:002014-10-24T10:21:29.219-05:00Breaking down the inspiration.<p>Like most people who do creative things (is there anyway to not make that opening sound pretentious…?) Pinterest has become my go-to destination to look for a little inspiration. I mean, hello, isn’t that what the site is for? Actually, I have no idea what the site’s real primary function is – that’s just what I use it for. </p> <p><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mommatrish/"><img title="pinterest" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="pinterest" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TS9WB3sUeoo/VEpsuAP8n3I/AAAAAAAAEy0/mYmbSObfjq4/pinterest%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="600" height="637"></a></p> <a name='more'></a> <p>While I have 48 boards that I go to for different sorts of ideas and inspiration for all sorts of things, when it comes to my scrapbooking I usually draw from just these two:</p> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mommatrish/inspire-me/"><img title="inspire" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="inspire" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-3nwhjUbMmcQ/VEpsu0fDpEI/AAAAAAAAEy8/s_IrS86pcxs/inspire%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="229" height="238"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mommatrish/scrapbook-ideas/"><img title="scrap" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="scrap" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-IFZMTYkyurM/VEpsvjh19rI/AAAAAAAAEzE/8ZqG7gpOkVo/scrap%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="227" height="238"></a></p> <p>My <strong><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mommatrish/inspire-me/">Inspire Me</a></strong> board is full of just all sorts of different things – doodles, items stacked in interesting ways, prompts, color sets, design ideas for rooms and magazines, paintings, cute things – just anything that I see that makes me stop and go “Hey! I bet I can find a way to incorporate part of this into a scrapbook page!”</p> <p>My <strong><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mommatrish/scrapbook-ideas/">Scrapbook Ideas</a></strong> board is actually full of paper scrapbook pages. (I have a separate board for digital pages, however I don’t ever pull from it.) A lot of what I like to look at paper pages for is to see the current trends going through the scrapbooking community, and, most importantly, to see how things lay on a real paper page. I like to see the way that things stack in relation to each other, and how it changes the shadows, journaling, stamps, and paint of the page.</p> <p>When I first started using Pinterest for getting inspiration for my scrapbook pages I put one strict rule on myself – <u>NO</u> <u>SCRAPLIFTS</u>. (<em>Not sure what a scraplift is? That’s where you basically make your page entirely on what another page looks like. It’s actually a great learning tool if you are new to scrapbooking or trying a new style of it.</em>) Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with scraplifts, I just like and need my pages to be a reflection of me and my own style. I just didn’t want to lose myself or become to dependent on needing something other than my own ideas to create pages that I love. </p> <p>So how do I use those boards then?</p> <p>Well, once every so often I will go to my boards and pull 2 – 4 pins that have aspects that I like. I’ll then open those up in Photoshop together and use them as a type of mood board to get a feel for my page. For example, last night I shared the following pins as inspiration on Facebook. Let me tell you what I used them for.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-IeATgA7vVSE/VEpswS9nQII/AAAAAAAAEzM/ysVSH4g4WC8/s1600-h/IMG_4724%25255B8%25255D.jpg"><img title="IMG_4724" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_4724" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-5w8LIToJnhY/VEpswzy4BKI/AAAAAAAAEzU/jC2icz9aQr0/IMG_4724_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="175" align="left" height="235"></a>(<em>Doodle and Watercolor Flowers from </em><a title="http://jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk/" href="http://jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk/"><em>http://jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk/</em></a> ) </p> <p>I pulled out this pin to use as background inspiration for my page. I wasn’t planning to do a watercolor background, however, I did like the contrast of the doodled outlined circles filled with a different look than the rest of the background. I used that by taking two visually different papers, overlaying some circle doodled frames, and then removing the top paper from the inside of the frames.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ajykcOX-8v8/VEpsxQZOc5I/AAAAAAAAEzc/ON9-d_bYKyA/s1600-h/il_570xN.439005735_o3gs%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img title="il_570xN.439005735_o3gs" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="il_570xN.439005735_o3gs" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-rvxtAXukFeg/VEpsyIdt7XI/AAAAAAAAEzk/K2hm6IDk3Ps/il_570xN.439005735_o3gs_thumb%25255B9%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="250" align="right" height="265"></a></p> <p> </p> <p>(<em><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/126133955/isla-baby-announcements-stationery-set">Baby Announcements and Stationary Set</a> from inhauspress via Etsy)</em></p> <p>I have a LOT of pins like this. I mean a lot. I love seeing the way that different papers sit on top of each other and the way their shadows fall. I knew that I wasn’t planning on doing a lot of paper layering on my page, BUT I always have some, so I tend to look for whatever pin calls out to me at the time. Last night this one did. I ended up using it more for the basis of my paper shadows than for my actual page design though.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-gML_m9lZ6I8/VEpsykltpRI/AAAAAAAAEzs/O1MkCjuNmqY/s1600-h/SimpleMoments%25255B8%25255D.jpg"><img title="SimpleMoments" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="SimpleMoments" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mv6uzBHwsT4/VEpszKW4WtI/AAAAAAAAEz0/EBBVMuWOe_8/SimpleMoments_thumb%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="248" align="left" height="228"></a></p> <p>(<em><a href="http://www.studiocalico.com/galleries/141176-simple-moments">Simple Moments</a> paper scrapbook page by ChantalPhilippe via Studio Calico</em>)</p> <p>I am not usually one for overly large elements on my scrapbook pages. My first instinct when I move them to my page is to shrink, shrink, shrink them! But I just loved the whimsical feel that the large elements gave this page paired with a photo of about the same size. And that is exactly what I pulled from this page. The minimal amount of large elements pulled together with a photo of about the same size.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0Dwpa0NcGaw/VEpsz8VgEkI/AAAAAAAAEz8/Qx3hgXq2gTU/s1600-h/kafe%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="kafe" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="kafe" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-jCQM_N2hRuo/VEps0nZ58DI/AAAAAAAAE0E/61ndUMjRN4A/kafe_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="326" align="right" height="240"></a></p> <p>(<em>Magazine Layout from </em><a href="http://www.erinlancaster.com/#/magazine-layout/"><em>erinlancaster.com</em></a>)</p> <p>This one is pretty straight forward. I liked how a large corner of the design was cut off by an overlapping triangle of white. So I added a large overlapping triangle to one corner of my page and a small one to another. I went with a striped vellum to get a similar feel to the white on white of this.</p> <p> </p> <p>Want to see the finished page? Well, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for that. </p> <p><strong><em><u>Do you find any of those images inspiring? Well, I highly encourage you to follow the links to their original sources and pinning them from there – NOT from here. Give their creators the credit they deserve.</u></em></strong></p> <p><strong><font size="3">How do you use Pinterest in finding inspiration? Do you only use it for DIY things, or home things, or do you draw from it for all sorts of creative outlets? And hey, if you have scrapbooking boards I’d love to see them if you want to leave a link to them!</font></strong></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-37623575377609310272014-10-22T12:15:00.001-05:002014-10-22T12:15:01.447-05:00Thirty-four weeks.<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-WkPY9W7Dr08/VEfmD4KLKfI/AAAAAAAAEyc/OoEMr1aLkjU/s1600-h/SAM_0298%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="SAM_0298 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="SAM_0298 copy" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-24-Y3we9Va8/VEfmEz0qgxI/AAAAAAAAEyk/ms6CtcCnj3s/SAM_0298%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p>I’m pretty sure Baby’s dropping was just a joke on me. Either that or this baby is going to be going from the right position to breech on and off repeatedly like Bella did.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-41773844647522634182014-10-21T15:47:00.001-05:002014-10-21T15:48:00.600-05:00A morning with Mason.<p>Just a little post to give you a little chuckle over life with Mason this morning.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ZqnG6HD0yOU/VEbGVCyBmdI/AAAAAAAAEx0/6kWKNS3SAdM/s1600-h/SAM_0182%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="SAM_0182" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="SAM_0182" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PDBKAXUjjEw/VEbGV6iEUuI/AAAAAAAAEx8/tn-XDS4iUtM/SAM_0182_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p>Lets start with when he second wakes up (the first time he wakes he gets in bed to nurse and sleep for another hour… or two… ):</p> <p><strong>“GOOD MORNING MOMMY! I love you, Buttcheeks!”</strong> Are you ready to get up and eat some breakfast and start your day? <strong>“Nooooo…. I stay Mommy cozy bed. I swee-sie (nurse) BOTH sides boobies all day!”</strong> No, why don’t we just get up, Mommy has to go potty and eat. The baby needs food. “<strong>No, no baby need food.”</strong> Then he jumps out of bed, runs to the bathroom. <strong>“I go tee-tee potty first! No Mommy tee-tee potty! MINE POTTY!”</strong></p> <a name='more'></a> <p>Then we move to breakfast:</p> <p><strong>“Yo-yo! I want yo-yo milk!”</strong> Ok, well get your yogurt drink and I’ll put it in a cup. <strong>“No, no cup. No yo-yo milk cup. Mayme CAREFUL. No mess yo-yo milk.”</strong> No dude, your yogurt is going in your cup. You ALWAYS make a mess with it. Come on you can pick out your cup colors. Do you want a blue, green, or yellow cup? <strong>“BLUE! BLUE!”</strong> Get out the blue cup. <strong>“No blue cup, Mommy! I drink GREEN cup! GREEN!”</strong> OK…. switch cups. <strong>“NO!!! MOMMY! BLUE CUP!!”</strong> Fine, use the blue cup. I am not touching another cup. Now do you want your yellow lid today? <strong>“Um….. huh?”</strong> Ma’am. <strong>“Huh?”</strong> He giggles. No, say ‘ma’am.’ <strong>“Ma’am!”</strong> Good boy. Do you want your yellow lid? <strong>“OK!”</strong> Get the pieces of his cup out, pour the yogurt drink in… <strong>“WAIT! No! Want pink milk! No yo-yo milk!”</strong> Dude, the yogurt is in the cup, the pink milk train has left the station. What do you want to eat? Cereal, waffles, or a bagel? <strong>“No…. want cookies.”</strong> Cookies aren’t an option, dude. <strong>“Yummmm, cookies yummy my tummy.”</strong> Still not an option. <strong>“Cookie cereal?”</strong> TOTALLY not an option. Ever. <strong>“Ugh. Moooooommy….”</strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-LCA1nOmSJvQ/VEbGWhNI_kI/AAAAAAAAEyE/ttKAEADvAjc/s1600-h/SAM_0255%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="SAM_0255" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="SAM_0255" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ISP6cyMCqwI/VEbGXZHhQUI/AAAAAAAAEyM/FbwmRM_buMY/SAM_0255_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="300" align="right" height="400"></a>Playing this morning:</p> <p><strong>“Mommy, I watch doggy movie (Lady and the Tramp).?”</strong> Not right this moment buddy. You know we don’t do movies this early. <strong>“Mommy, I watch George.”</strong> George is over. <strong>“Watch Elmo?”</strong> Elmo isn’t on yet. <strong>“Mommy! Mommy!”</strong> What Mason? <strong>“I go outside?”</strong> You kind of have to get dressed first. You can’t go outside in a sleep shirt and a naked butt. <strong>“My buttcheeks cute.”</strong> Roll eyes. Yes baby, your buttcheeks are cute. He goes in the back of the house for a moment, comes back with a pair of underwear backwards and over his sleep shirt. <strong>“I go outside now!”</strong> Dude, you are not dressed. <strong>"No Mommy, I dress. I go outside. I wear unies." </strong>Big sigh. Mase, you need pants and a not-sleep-shirt shirt. And your underwear needs to be turned around.<strong> “No, pocket my buttcheeks. Mayme buttcheeks like pocket.”</strong> Fine leave the pocket on your butt. Putt on clothes. He goes and gets pants and a smaller sleep shirt that is actually one that is normal size on him. <strong>“I wear planes today. MINE planes shirt.”</strong> Fine dude, wear the shirt. His pants are backwards. I choose to ignore that. He then goes outside to chase the dogs around with his car for the next half-ish hour. Comes back in and brings me the orange paint. <strong>“Mommy, I paint. OR-WANGE. Orwange paint. No mess paint!”</strong> No buddy, we aren’t painting orange paint right now. <strong>“OK! No orwange paint now. LATER.”</strong> Maybe. Sit for a minute and then I smell it – paint. He’s painting, on a tiny piece of paper on the carpet, with purple paint. Mase, what do you think you are doing? <strong>“I paint, Mommy! See it cute! PURPLE paint. No orwange paint. Purple.” </strong>I slap my hand over my face, he has a point, I did tell him no to just the orange. Well, lets at least put your mess mat under your paper. There’s already purple splatters and streaks on the carpet all around him.</p> <p>The morning and lunchtime continued in that vein, ending with me handing the boy a cup of orange juice and a whole box of Cheese-Its for lunch, because by that point I had given up. After I laid him down for nap I sat on the couch and observed the disaster he had created. There were Cheese-Its all over the floor, and stacked in Bella’s princess castle. There were pieces of waffle scattered everywhere. Every car, man and cartoon figurine he owns was piled in the floor. There were three sets of clothes he got out and rejected, plus, every clean pair of underwear he owns. Crayons and papers scattered about. Oh, and purple paint. We can’t forget the purple paint on the carpet.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-82333838653815810512014-10-19T21:40:00.001-05:002014-10-19T21:40:31.453-05:00Cry It Out–We don’t do it.<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-BdT6zvrUPlw/VER2GRcXEBI/AAAAAAAAExc/V6PIM5PoXuo/s1600-h/we-dont-do-cry-it-out---life-as-thei%25255B1%25255D.jpg"><img title="we dont do cry it out - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="we dont do cry it out - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-guPBl6XTQXw/VER2HBZLILI/AAAAAAAAExk/iptMdAQG5Ws/we-dont-do-cry-it-out---life-as-thei.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="359"></a></p> <p>This isn’t meant to judge any of you who do practice the Cry It Out (CIO) method, it’s to give you a look into why we do not. And don’t worry – this will be long.</p> <p><em>It’ 11 pm and a little boy is laying in dark room whimpering. </em></p> <p><em>He looks to be about 6 or 7 and you can see him shifting about in his bed and you can tell that he’s about to wake up. The whimpering gets louder and the boy wakes up. It’s dark and he is alone and scared in his room. He wants his mother or father but he has no way of getting them. He can’t leave his bed so he can’t walk to them. The whimpering is slowly turning into soft crying. He just wants someone to come and tell him that it’s ok, it was just a dream, he isn’t alone. He wants someone to come and give him something to eat to take care of these hunger pangs that were bad enough to wake him up. He wants someone to come soothe this pain he is feeling through his whole body. </em></p> <p><em>His crying gets louder and louder, progressing to wails and screams. Still nobody comes to him. All he wants is someone to come to him and make it better.</em></p> <p><em>Downstairs his mother looks up to the ceiling with a weary look and then turns to her husband, “He’s at it again.” Her husband sighs, looks up at the ceiling, looks at the clock, and then turns back to the TV and turns it up. “Well, he’ll stop in a little bit, if you go and get him now you’ll just be spoiling him and he’ll never learn to comfort himself.”</em></p> <a name='more'></a> <p><em></em></p> <p>If you read that in a book, or saw it in a movie, or even on the news you would probably think that the were neglecting that child. That it was evil or at least wrong of them to leave a crying CHILD alone locked away in a dark room. Yet, people tell parents to do that to their babies every day, and because they are just babies it’s ok. They get told that they will be spoiling their babies if they go to them, they need to learn to self soothe, they need to learn that after bedtime it’s mommy-daddy time.</p> <p>When Zach was younger he suffered from night terrors from almost as soon as he was born. I don’t mean like once every so often. I mean three to four a week until he was almost two, and then weekly until he was three, then once or twice a month when he hit four. To say it was rough is to put it too mildly. There was nothing that we could do about them, so my mother always told me to just put on my headphones and to try to tune it out. I listened to her. I hated it, but I listened to her. And every time she was gone during his bedtime I always went right to him if he started crying. </p> <p>One night when he was about 4 months old he started crying not long after we put him to bed. Like full on crying and wailing. My mom insisted that since he had just been changed, just been fed, and had everything taken care of that he could possibly need, that I should just ignore it. After about 5 minutes I snuck into my room to see about calming him down. What I saw left me feeling horrified and to this day I feel guilty over it. A piece that held his mattress had broken and his mattress had tilted to such an angle that he had rolled off of his mattress, through the break, and was trapped on the floor under the crib. There had been no loud noise from the break, just some piece had worn out, and there had been no noise from his fall. Just his crying. His crying that I had been told to just ignore.</p> <p>Thankfully, other than a minor scrape and a small bruise he was fine, I on the other hand was not. Not only did we do away with the crib, I refused to even get another one until he was over a year old. He either slept in bed with me or in his pack and play.</p> <p>After that night I never left my children crying in bed not for any length of time at all. Not even for all of those years and nights of Zach suffering through night terrors. Always I was right there with him, and after we were married, so was John. We sat up with him rubbing his back and singing to him through them. We rocked and I nursed or gave them a bottle to get them to sleep. Or if needed, we laid down with them in bed or on the couch until they were deeply enough asleep to move them. </p> <p>I was told sometime when Bella was little that we were just lucky because we had great sleepers, and I won’t lie, we did. The older three were all sleeping through the night almost immediately. Bedtimes and naptimes when they were babies and toddlers was a breeze. I was regularly told if my kids weren’t sleep freaks I wouldn’t feel so anti-CIO and I wouldn’t baby them to sleep so much.</p> <p>Now we have Mason, who is a notoriously HORRIBLE sleeper. He’s two and still does not sleep through the night. He will not just lay down and go to sleep at bedtime or naptime, but requires me either letting him nurse himself to sleep or that I pat his back until he is asleep. Failure to do so results in meltdowns. The funny thing is though, our views on CIO haven’t changed at all. We still don’t do it. Sometimes getting that boy to sleep is so arduous that I end up falling asleep also. It won’t be this way forever – despite what some people would have us believe. Even now he’s progressed at bedtime to just nursing for a few minutes, getting his back patted for a few minutes, and then I get up and tell him goodnight before he’s even asleep. He might get up for a minute or two and yell at me to come back here through the bedroom door, but that’s all, and eventually, he puts himself back to bed and goes to sleep. </p> <p>We did decide one night to give CIO another shot. Not even the full on CIO that I know some do where you don’t go in at all. I gave him five minutes. Five minutes of crying that broke my heart. Then I went in patted his back, told him goodnight and walked out again. We repeated this for an hour. Never again. It’d have been easier and less time consuming and less heartbreaking just to do our usual routine. And as he is two, and very vocal, we knew that he didn’t “need” anything. He just needed me. So I don’t see how someone could do that to a baby when you have no real idea what could be wrong or needed. It just seems mean.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-71221406814767881762014-10-05T17:38:00.000-05:002014-10-05T17:39:18.959-05:00The baking of Pollywog #5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgxMK5YaqMHYyl_kxciFN2dg_G-h4o2toUPwcv_-O71Ra_1JlO7IECREWNyoUHd8lmPH64RGjT46nsALSn0KCuHfpGzTAvW3hJtT0wc-XoTAY2gBDhCTbdX52k3merpY0La5crYBT_hS7/s1600/pregnancy+pictures+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgxMK5YaqMHYyl_kxciFN2dg_G-h4o2toUPwcv_-O71Ra_1JlO7IECREWNyoUHd8lmPH64RGjT46nsALSn0KCuHfpGzTAvW3hJtT0wc-XoTAY2gBDhCTbdX52k3merpY0La5crYBT_hS7/s1600/pregnancy+pictures+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>14 weeks, 20 weeks, 26 weeks, 30 weeks</i></span></div>
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I feel like I announced Baby #5 and then just sort of left you all hanging. I mean, I'm in the final stretch of this pregnancy and this is only the second mention of it on the blog. And to think, I was actually worried when I announced the pregnancy on the blog that all of my posts would turn into pregnancy posts.</div>
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So, here is what you have missed in the baking of Pollywog #5:</div>
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For months (even up until a week ago) people have still been asking me if I'm pregnant, or acted shocked when I have mentioned things that deal with me being pregnant. What drives me crazy is when people I see once or twice every week at church still seem surprised. I've taken to using the rude approach and telling them that no, I am just getting incredibly fat.</div>
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On the opposite (I guess... ) side of it is how crazy I was getting about the twins comments. It seemed like every week when I would post my updated bump shots one or more people would comment on how it MUST be twins. Or was I sure that it was really JUST one. Plus all of the people who would actually comment to my face about how huge I was getting so early. It was making me livid. I mean how rude can you possibly be to keep insisting that, basically, someone is looking so fat that they can't possibly be having just one baby. Finally one Wednesday I just blew up on Facebook and posted a long and very angry rant saying that I would unfriend and block the next person to make a twin comment. To that day no one has made one since.</div>
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Around 20/24 weeks I made my doctor super nervous. I mentioned to him how I was already having a lot of trouble with swelling, dizziness, trouble breathing, and exhaustion. He then decided that instead of waiting for the usual glucose test time that we'd move it up to the next appointment. I failed it. It was my first time to actually fail the stupid thing, with all of the others I only barely managed to pass it. I went back a week later for my three hour test, which I did thankfully pass. I have no idea how well or semi-well I did though since I swore the nurse not to give me specifics just pass or not pass. The general consensus between John and my family though is that I must have just barely passed since there is now a whole slew of foods and things that make me incredibly sick feeling when I eat them. (Case in point - donuts - they make me want to pass out from dizziness.) So I still have to stick to a stupid diet even though I passed my three hour test.</div>
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It was a little before this that we supremely angered many of our friends and family. We informed them that we aren't finding out Baby's gender. We'd actually been telling them this since we found out about the pregnancy, but I guess everyone expected us to change our minds... ? Who knows. But we held firm. We took Bella to our big ultrasound at about 21 weeks where the very first thing we said when we went into the room was that we absolutely do NOT want to find out baby's gender. Turns out, much to everyone's dismay, we wouldn't have been finding out Baby's gender anyway. Baby was very stubbornly covering his/her goods the entire time, the technician was actually really glad that we weren't finding out so that she didn't have to feel bad about not being able to tell us. </div>
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In that same vein, we've also made everyone angry by not sharing any of our names that we have picked out to use for Baby. The girl first name has been picked since the beginning, the middle name recently switched out for a different name that John feels goes better with the first. The boy name that I had picked, that John originally loved, has been vetoed, and now we are still up in the air about names. The problem is that we've sort of used up all of the boy names that we both like, and John is dead set convinced that baby will be a girl.</div>
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At my last check up I made my doctor nervous yet again. I've been steadily having on and off again pains (Braxton Hicks) several times going in a nice steady rhythm. One night and morning it was so bad and so steady that if I hadn't already had an appointment to go in for my checkup I totally would have called the doctor about them. The doctor checked everything out and while everything is still looking good, he is worried that my body is trying to go ahead and get labor going, so I've been told that for the next month I need to take it as easy as possible to keep from going into labor. Yeah, that is totally doable being home alone with a two year old all day and then with four kids until John gets home. We won't even get int the state that my house is in...</div>
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Finally - Friday I noticed that Baby has... DROPPED.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_YRdvol9et6fIZdp7Ju-sk0G-yjL0RvVrllcZss12ukUEp1Bv0BrUlYzQSWbZ6U0iFLK27tmzE-ecm4ckPRAqNDfORLDsb5RNityah6WAGVcJWtT0_dJviXjgZHSRJvhKdKsRPpHL9sTd/s1600/SAM_0148+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_YRdvol9et6fIZdp7Ju-sk0G-yjL0RvVrllcZss12ukUEp1Bv0BrUlYzQSWbZ6U0iFLK27tmzE-ecm4ckPRAqNDfORLDsb5RNityah6WAGVcJWtT0_dJviXjgZHSRJvhKdKsRPpHL9sTd/s1600/SAM_0148+copy.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8jE5fFRm7ivP-8AxrF2x9-ez9IQEGhri3-_3Zf0ihYt42wEgRCIlbObhw2RR3QPLyuZfqErcuJ80RzZr58Po_OdRA5ogbSfCRdt2Uz5LZVRc1Rt5HyHic-0yfrf5W25NdRXVfJEibaLk/s1600/the-days-without-internet---life-as-their-mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8jE5fFRm7ivP-8AxrF2x9-ez9IQEGhri3-_3Zf0ihYt42wEgRCIlbObhw2RR3QPLyuZfqErcuJ80RzZr58Po_OdRA5ogbSfCRdt2Uz5LZVRc1Rt5HyHic-0yfrf5W25NdRXVfJEibaLk/s1600/the-days-without-internet---life-as-their-mom.jpg" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-23196334240591748312014-10-02T06:00:00.000-05:002014-10-02T06:00:01.190-05:00Zach's Monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS7YscGR0l1XhEgW3pMXZtQnSJ3e_ODUBvRDSvguRGBZQT1OyvKSaZl5UqWvUOi4OXelc01qwTuMoaB2Hgxavgmum5plsuhx3eDQnajHVZptn_P60RgyOLFfYXlo5TSRiSWqUKLuA3MbbW/s1600/zachs+monster+1+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS7YscGR0l1XhEgW3pMXZtQnSJ3e_ODUBvRDSvguRGBZQT1OyvKSaZl5UqWvUOi4OXelc01qwTuMoaB2Hgxavgmum5plsuhx3eDQnajHVZptn_P60RgyOLFfYXlo5TSRiSWqUKLuA3MbbW/s1600/zachs+monster+1+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">I won’t lie, Zach’s monster felt like a
never-ending project.</span></strong><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"> You would think the time consuming parts
would have been the body or arms, because really, a 2 round stripe gets
tedious. But no, I zoomed through those. The longest most time consuming parts
were the legs. I got one done, but it was in his original orange that he
picked, and it looked BAD. Like eww. I told him no way, he needed to pick a new
color. He stuck with orange, but instead of a neon orange he went with a
pumpkiny color that looks surprisingly great with the teal and neon green. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Family/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter1286139640/supfiles100859A7/zachs-monster-1---life-as-their-mom4.jpg"></a></span><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">That
monster sat around unstuffed and legless for a month while I did nothing to it.
Just the thought of starting the legs again (<em>after
the original orange</em>) made me think of like 20 other things that I
should have been doing instead. I just could not make myself knit those legs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Well all of the sudden it was June and Zach was wanting to know
if he’d be getting his monster anytime soon. Any time he saw me knitting
something else, or looking at other patterns, or talking to </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWf8zw_2IwKQtaQcuspcx8XhXyn1b3yEW2u1I3-IRm8ZXBu7EErofjDBIfP2fJuHzplAV62AeJjNeWN4dqU3_2walJt2QgjOnYfSu7pHfsh19lYfT5sAWk4BpqI_eC9PzZBtUrxUuPkBM/s1600/zachs+monster+3+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWf8zw_2IwKQtaQcuspcx8XhXyn1b3yEW2u1I3-IRm8ZXBu7EErofjDBIfP2fJuHzplAV62AeJjNeWN4dqU3_2walJt2QgjOnYfSu7pHfsh19lYfT5sAWk4BpqI_eC9PzZBtUrxUuPkBM/s1600/zachs+monster+3+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a></div>
Bella or Ryan about
other projects he’d ask me again when I was going to finish his monster. <strong>Dude was really patient about it all,
and I was starting to feel really guilty for not getting it done.</strong>
The first week that our internet was out I sat down and decided I <a href="file:///C:/Users/Family/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter1286139640/supfiles100859A7/zachs-monster-3---life-as-their-mom5.jpg"></a><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Family/AppData/Local/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter1286139640/supfiles100859A7/zachs-monster-3---life-as-their-mom5.jpg"></a></span><span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">was
getting this monster done and getting it done now. Or well, at least before
Zach’s birthday which gave me about two weeks. Yes, two weeks just to knit two
legs. Yes, I did continue to put it off. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Finally one day I sat down, started a Harry Potter marathon and
gave myself that day to get the legs done. And I did. Once I sat and made
myself do them I flew through the knitting. By the time I was halfway through
the third movie I had not only his legs done, but his body stuffed, a piece
knit up for his bottom (<em>Zach
wanted him to be able to sit</em>), and all pieces attached. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">The end monster is way bigger than Ryan’s, but then the monster
pattern that Ryan picked was for a mini-monster. Zach’s is almost 15 inches
long, and is the perfect cuddle size. Mason keeps trying to steal him from
Zach, but I have promised him a t-rex and that seems to be keeping him happy,
well, that and the fact that Zach lets him play with his monster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Zach loves him and has added him to his collection of stuffed
animals that he sleeps with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhzA2W-nkRg7LSOF40RCQ4ZGK9Twkgjb_5STUeg-UAlfu2iGH6mjqvCmz5aex31wsdZXW2fwHWtkpH3qZbYSBrOpGXTZkYPYn2sE_yPKg3n6AemONwA1gyvSkEarndc24AAN4ng6LryRd/s1600/zachs+monster+2+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhzA2W-nkRg7LSOF40RCQ4ZGK9Twkgjb_5STUeg-UAlfu2iGH6mjqvCmz5aex31wsdZXW2fwHWtkpH3qZbYSBrOpGXTZkYPYn2sE_yPKg3n6AemONwA1gyvSkEarndc24AAN4ng6LryRd/s1600/zachs+monster+2+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Zach’s monster is based on <strong>Rebecca Danger’s Frankie the Striped Sweater Monster</strong>
pattern with a few modifications. <em><b><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/thetrish/frankie" target="_blank">To read about the modifications you can visit my monster’s project page onRavelry. </a></b></em><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-21531415058121964162014-09-30T06:00:00.000-05:002014-09-30T06:00:06.160-05:00You can do a lot of changing in 10 years.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOp5hW0ghxPQNX3ez3-UA6Gp0ZVOZGgl9lM-Emd2YWWWRcRStEsNi5wlKPqzqNBQHklwx0GmM-u3X5b1YgasPFhltSk1clYUM9chSnJ8zJQNrxzqF0utdfKCTte_EzNOWCFTlBQqWw1q/s1600/10+years+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOp5hW0ghxPQNX3ez3-UA6Gp0ZVOZGgl9lM-Emd2YWWWRcRStEsNi5wlKPqzqNBQHklwx0GmM-u3X5b1YgasPFhltSk1clYUM9chSnJ8zJQNrxzqF0utdfKCTte_EzNOWCFTlBQqWw1q/s1600/10+years+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ten years ago I had just had Zach. I didn’t put much thought at
all into parenting stuff, and I didn’t put any thought at all into labor. I
didn’t put thought into breastfeeding or circumcision or vaccinations or
co-sleeping or, well, anything. I had just been trying to get through my junior
year of high school and praying that he stayed in until I was done with the
school year and that, please Lord, my water wouldn’t break while I was at
school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">After he was born we did breastfeeding and bed sharing. Zach was
such a sweet and easy baby and he made my first year as a mom such a breeze. I
never put thought into if were going to be breastfeeding or not. I was raised
seeing my mom breastfeed my younger siblings and my aunt breastfeed my cousins;
it’s what moms did, so, I did. He was exclusively breastfed until I returned to
school in the fall, and continued breastfeeding until he was about one. My
favorite time of the day was coming home from school and nursing him. It wasn’t
until years and years later that someone pointed out how odd it was for a 17
year old high school student to go into breastfeeding so unquestionably and
continue doing it for a year. He also continued to sleep in my bed until right
before Ryan was born.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Eight years ago I was 19 and Ryan was six months old. I’d like
to say that I went into Ryan’s pregnancy and birth a little more educated than
I did Zach’s, but honestly, anything more I knew at that point was just from
experience with Zach. I knew I didn’t like my last doctor’s ways, so I changed
doctors. I didn’t enjoy the pain of birth, so I made sure I got adequate pain
medicine throughout labor. I knew of more to ask my doctors about in regards to
the overall health of myself and Ryan during my pregnancy. But all of that was
about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">I ended up not only not bed sharing with Ryan, Ryan didn’t even
sleep in my room. He wouldn’t sleep well in the bed with me so when John and I
married a few months after he was born we just moved him and the crib into
Zach’s room. Also, he wasn’t breastfed. I tried breastfeeding Ryan. I really,
and desperately, wanted to. It hadn’t been so long since Zach had stopped and I
still remembered the love and connection and joy I felt when nursing him. There
were many, many tears over the fact that for some reason Ryan wouldn’t nurse.
He wouldn’t even latch on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Five years ago I was 22 and Bella was just a few months old. I
was so nervous and had been fighting my doctor on the idea of a c-section. I
had had more time and experience in parenting and I went into the doctor’s
office for my first visit prepared with all of this information and research
and how I would be doing this, this, and this and definitely not any of that,
that or that. I was going to breastfeed, and bed-share, and not vaccinate and I
most definitely wasn’t going to blindly listen to my doctor and get a c-section
just because Bella was stubbornly transverse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Instead I ended up with a two day induction and by the time she
was one year old I felt pretty firmly like a parenting failure. She was
exclusively breastfed for the first 5 months of her life, but after being
diagnosed as failure to thrive, and showing such huge improvement once being
switched to formula, she quickly stopped showing an interest in nursing.
However, I did hold firm in most of the rest, and after more research and
talking with her doctor we decided on delayed vaccinations due to all of the
health issues she had to struggle through her first year from being failure to
thrive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Two years ago I was 25 and Mason was three months old. I still
held firm to all of my thoughts and research that I had done with Bella’s
pregnancy, and I was even more vocal on not wanting a c-section or even an
induction, I didn’t care if Mason measured 6 – 6.5 pounds at my 36 week
ultrasound. Ryan was projected to be 10 pounds and he was barely 6, so I had
little faith in their weight predictions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">To this day I still have nightmares over Mason’s birth. It was
some scary stuff. However, all of the rest has been as wonderful as Zach’s time
as a baby was. The only downside being that Mason is now two years old and
still doesn’t sleep through the night. Our breastfeeding journey has done so
much to heal my past scars over Bella and Ryan’s. Our moments of cuddling at
night are some of my most cherished parts of the day. I’ve fallen in love with
things I never thought that I would, such as cloth diapers and baby carriers.
Unlike the majority of my previous time in motherhood, I’m a full time
stay-at-home mom. I’m not in any form of school or work. My days revolve around
the kids, housework, and enjoying my precious few moments of solitude. I do
things like knit and read my Bible and use a computer to create art, things
that seventeen year old me would be in slightly nauseated shock over the
thought of. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Right now I am 27 and am 17 weeks pregnant with my 5th baby. I’m
actually looking into information about c-sections as this baby seems to be on
track with Mason in the growth department. I’m also looking into more natural
birthing information, because while I might be more accepting of an eventual
c-section, I’d still like to try to avoid one. However, I’m not violently
opposed to one this time around. I am also deeply considering not bed sharing
with this baby. I won’t mind him or her being in our room, but I think I’m ready
to not have kids or babies in my bed anymore. This is also the first time going
into pregnancy with plans of not finding out baby’s gender and with plans of
not sharing any sort of name ideas with others. Both of those are things that
would never even have crossed my mind as possibilities even with Mason. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #787878; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">I’m sharing all of this to show you that just year to year in
life – especially in life as a mom – you change a lot. Things you fervently
believed in one year you might find yourself ambivalent about another year.
Things you couldn’t even picture yourself doing might become so commonplace
that you don’t even think about it anymore. When I dreamed of labor ten years
ago it was a nightmare that involved an octopus, a giant cake type stage, and
mutant babies. (I seriously kid you not, it was a reoccurring dream.) Now when
I dream of labor it’s nightmares of real life complications and babies coming
out not breathing. Ten years ago I threw away baby clothes that got any
significant amount of poop on them. Now I use cloth diapers, and cleaning poop
out of stuff has become an art form. Life changes and changes you and you
should never feel like you have to be set in one way or path, because the thing
is, as soon as you are, life will throw you a curve ball and you’ll have to
adjust. You just will. And life won’t be worse for it, it might not be better,
but it won’t be worse – it will be life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-39409692635901437722014-09-28T15:54:00.000-05:002014-09-28T15:54:21.443-05:00Four months away.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlX5gvrvgEegMeAEX-p_zn_J12OXVrGWUJh9v5eXoQzMXfws6vk3G4DMfosKqbo3HhEeGFcwtryJDnHBkV52TTlRB711cHn4hI0wJFiRPe5BGAnEWg6JIUQp_SIrFjdO8Vg9sGNeqvw82i/s1600/the-days-without-internet---life-as-their-mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlX5gvrvgEegMeAEX-p_zn_J12OXVrGWUJh9v5eXoQzMXfws6vk3G4DMfosKqbo3HhEeGFcwtryJDnHBkV52TTlRB711cHn4hI0wJFiRPe5BGAnEWg6JIUQp_SIrFjdO8Vg9sGNeqvw82i/s1600/the-days-without-internet---life-as-their-mom.jpg" /></a></div>
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I've had breaks from the blog before - generally brought on by not having internet for a weeks or a month. However, I do believe, actually I know, that this is honestly the first time that I have ever been away from the blog for roughly four months.</div>
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It isn't like I woke up one morning and decided, "Hey, I don't want to blog. I have nothing to write about." No, it's more like I woke up one morning, days before the boys got out of school, and I no longer had internet (or cable, but I can honestly make due without that most of the time). It was supposed to be a short break, I was promised a week, maybe two. Somehow that week or two has turned into four months. FOUR MONTHS. I die a little each time I think about that. The problem is, for some reason, the company that we go through is expecting us to pay a bit over $500 to get it back on and even paying a little on it at a time (and a few big amounts) we still haven't been able to pay it all down to get it back on. And of course that isn't even the only big huge bulk thing we're paying on. We're also working on paying down the labor/delivery cost for our doctor, paying him for the regular visits, and all of the testing that for some reason our insurance is paying zero to zilch on. Lets just say that right now internet is not the priority.</div>
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(No matter how much I wish it was.)</div>
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BUT.</div>
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I have not spent this time wasting away. I do have several posts waiting on my computer at home to post. I've given up waiting on posting them until my internet comes back, so I'm slowly converting them to Word documents to move to my external hard drive to post from my mom's computer on the days that I'm at her house. Those posts cover a lot of the summer, and start of fall, and will be labeled with the image at the top of this post and the tag "stories from the days without internet."</div>
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I'll have posts about Mason meeting a local political candidate, SEVERAL knitting project posts (as I've completed like 5 or 6 projects since I have nothing better to do with my free time at home), changes in some of my views on motherhood, life without internet, the desolation that I have faced with the loss of my beloved camera, my thoughts on "cry it out," pregnancy updates, and well, a lot of other stuff as well. </div>
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For now I will leave you, so I can get the first of those posts up and scheduled to go for Tuesday, but enjoy my most recent tummy shot - for my THIRTY week mark.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w0ZEPvp9iTPO2vgPVp3gXtqqLqv4uPyNT5-AbpmWIaIcb3cGGJP7Hh7zWJe2KubaRo_zCUirTOivCMMQUgyfhjqEZgWM_6_H3uHVO12pNe68JS5OmlSzvsuEgPAOiF55KgC2fjRcGbnp/s1600/30+weeks+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w0ZEPvp9iTPO2vgPVp3gXtqqLqv4uPyNT5-AbpmWIaIcb3cGGJP7Hh7zWJe2KubaRo_zCUirTOivCMMQUgyfhjqEZgWM_6_H3uHVO12pNe68JS5OmlSzvsuEgPAOiF55KgC2fjRcGbnp/s1600/30+weeks+-+life+as+their+mom.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-54668057896932586722014-05-21T12:50:00.001-05:002014-05-21T12:50:52.942-05:00Wordless Wednesday–Our Morning<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-D5KX8iNbLPg/U3znPLn3SEI/AAAAAAAAEuE/-acrQzO79Es/s1600-h/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="our morning 0521 4 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="our morning 0521 4 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-ZGr7e_kAf_4/U3znQpBelbI/AAAAAAAAEuM/CEH7uuttW00/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="353"></a></p> <p>What are your mornings like?</p> <a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-k_J675-rksM/U3znTPBbMxI/AAAAAAAAEuU/DLxPJo9xMOY/s1600-h/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525205%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="our morning 0521 5 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="our morning 0521 5 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-hS9Xs0cu9SI/U3znUYLzstI/AAAAAAAAEuc/KwUgXQHu8Gs/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525205%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-7wz6hkKLGL-NvcYcWc7ca7LjgLDoL_YppSDcxNz6eX3WBb85V-8DEfPPw9kHzsiYEiQtCvRKo23e5vlPYM0TwJ5MZEx6CkR5YiDxw-bbJAJWPCPzZzDSPTZ5UVfN2y5syRcZ2eaI9Pc/s1600-h/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525201%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="our morning 0521 1 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="our morning 0521 1 - life as their mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-9nBlFzV5MFA/U3znXr-AuGI/AAAAAAAAEus/ttRwM7ayjqQ/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525201%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-sMKTFhEk0Kk/U3znZIRbukI/AAAAAAAAEu0/8GRbJE2qb-8/s1600-h/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="our morning 0521 2 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="our morning 0521 2 - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9s-x6uitIV8/U3znary7MbI/AAAAAAAAEu8/Mqt6Rfqdd-w/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hdIXOIA3NJw/U3zndT095FI/AAAAAAAAEvE/CaE3UhWpDUA/s1600-h/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="our morning 0521 3 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="our morning 0521 3 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_mzTen6T_9w/U3znes5u_oI/AAAAAAAAEvM/6FJwY93hBlU/our%252520morning%2525200521%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-88320864555089365062014-05-20T14:55:00.001-05:002014-05-20T15:02:38.238-05:00Flats and Handwashing Challenge–So you failed it.<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-SJmE2FSyaq0/U3uzK83cSwI/AAAAAAAAEts/du6JS16J-oY/s1600-h/10001114_10101253043577787_364640679_o%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="10001114_10101253043577787_364640679_o" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="10001114_10101253043577787_364640679_o" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-i9wTU7QPG-s/U3uzNe_eVrI/AAAAAAAAEt0/t65Y0dnGGMA/10001114_10101253043577787_364640679_o_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="360"></a></p> <p>I have to tell you, as much as I hated handwashing the diapers last year,<strong> <a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/search/label/flats%20challenge">I loved the flats and handwashing challenge</a></strong>. I loved using the flats, but most of all I loved the feeling of accomplishment when I finished it and could say <strong>“Hey, I did that, and it wasn’t that bad.”</strong> All year long I looked forward to doing it again this year. I still had most of our flats (<em>John took a liking to the red ones for kitchen towels</em>) and I even went and picked up a new package of white ones. I had the fold that works best for Mason perfected since flats were my go to diapers during the summer last year for playing in the hose and on diaper laundry day (<em>so that they could just be handwashed the next day so that I didn’t get stuck with a dirty diaper sitting around until the next wash day</em>). </p> <a name='more'></a> <p>The Saturday before the challenge I was all hyped up and ready to go. I had my new flats (<em>and all of the old ones</em>) prepped and ready to go. I got a brand new non-broke-down drying rack. Took advantage of the last day to use the washer on the diapers to wash <strong>EVERY SINGLE DIAPER</strong> in the house. I had my camera ready to go to capture cute pictures of Mase in flats, because, seriously, babies and toddlers in just flats make for such a cute nostalgic look. The funny thing is that I’d actually been slightly hesitant to formally sign up for the challenge. Mase is in underwear 90% of the day (<em>or naked</em>) and mainly only in diapers during nap or bedtime or on the rare occasion we leave the house. But I was convinced to go ahead and sign up, so I did, and actually planned to just keep him coverless in the flats during the day instead of in underwear. Saturday night I folded a flat prefold style, just laid it inside his diaper, and put him to bed like that.</p> <p><strong>That was when failure overtook my house.</strong></p> <p>I had just gotten into bed when I heard (<em>and smelled</em>) it. <strong>Mason was pooping. It sounded like Mason was pooping a lot.</strong> Night time poops are now really odd for Mase as he almost always goes during the day around naptime, and usually wakes himself up to go to the potty for it. By the time that he was done I knew immediate changing was going to be needed or we would be in for a mess. I got him up changed him (<em>oh Lord, was that a change, ick…</em> ) and with another diaper with a flat laid inside we went back to bed. That morning we woke up, and he was poopy again. And so was the bed. But. I didn’t give up. I decided to go with flat stuffed pockets for the day (<em>since we would be gone all day, and make a little less mess if he kept up the pooping</em>), stuffed the bed stuff in the wash, and put Mase and I in the shower to clean up and get ready for church.</p> <p>And so it continued all day. He was miserable and droopy and pooping a TON every few hours. He’s usually a once every 2 days kind of dude. We figured it was teething, or maybe even the onset of an ear infection. But oh no, it was not.</p> <p>We got home that night and Mason threw up all over the kitchen floor. Then Bella threw up. They were both throwing up and having other stomach issues all night long. The only plus to it all was that at least we finally taught Mason how to puke into the toilet or a pan. </p> <p>The next morning was a little better. No more throwing up, though they both did still have the other tummy issues. We were still using the flats inside the diapers, however I noticed by lunch that we were about to be out of clean ones. Thankfully I’d been rinsing diapers as we went, so I just needed to find the time to handwash a day’s worth of stomach bug diapers. (<em>*gag*</em>) <strong>Each time I’d get ready to start washing, a child would need me.</strong> It got to bedtime, I still hadn’t washed the diapers – now making it two days’ worth of stomach bug diapers – and there was only one clean flat left. I figured oh well, I’ll just wash first thing in the morning. </p> <p>Well, then Zach got sick. Then I got sick. Then I decided that I was totally just throwing those diapers in the washing machine. BUT – I did hang them out to dry. And it was just in time, because then Bella and Mason got sick again. And then Ryan got sick. To wrap it all up John then spent the weekend sick. </p> <p>I sort of kept up with the challenge. <strong>I only used the flats through all of that, even though half way through the first Sunday, for the first time in about 2 years, I felt a very deep desire to go and buy disposables.</strong> Which I am happiest that I held out against that. I hand rinsed the diapers as much as I could, and I hung them all out to dry. But I didn’t do handwashing.<strong> I hate that I can’t say that I completed it this year. </strong>I’m sure this would have been the ultimate test, and probably a time when I could point back and say <strong>“Ha! I did it through a stomach bug, you could totally do this!”</strong> However it all came down to I was just too tired, and too sick of cleaning puke up to also handwash poopy diapers.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-14660201431684797642014-05-12T09:40:00.001-05:002014-05-12T09:44:13.171-05:00The only way that I can keep a secret.<p>I hate secrets. Really. It may be something small and silly that I wouldn’t normally even give two thoughts to, but if you tell me that I can’t talk about it it will be all that I can think about. Big secrets? They KILL me. </p> <p>One of the things that I have noticed is that when I have something big going on in my own life, and it isn’t something that I can really blog about, it is all that I then want to blog about. I can’t get inspired or motivated to blog about anything else. Thus, I tend to just not blog so that I don’t have to worry about it. As you might have noticed, I haven’t been blogging.</p> <p>And this is why. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-RayyvFEeptw/U3DdKEioKcI/AAAAAAAAEsU/nAIrUSDgvIg/s1600-h/DSCN4323%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN4323 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN4323 copy" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yr-l_LhQqwU/U3DdLHg0okI/AAAAAAAAEsc/ZWCHwIt0d8E/DSCN4323%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a><br>(April 1, 2014 – Because of course we would get a positive pregnancy test on that day.)</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-U3dGpw2MdgA/U3DdNWgBvAI/AAAAAAAAEsk/zzNrOMexQM8/s1600-h/DSCN4809%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN4809 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN4809 copy" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-QHJoA-9jA_U/U3DdOZYX2OI/AAAAAAAAEss/6_t51HX-c9w/DSCN4809%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a><br>(April 22, 2014 – Hello baby #5!! Nice to see you!)</p> <p>We told our families last Monday/Tuesday and then this past Sunday, Mother’s Day, we announced it on Facebook to the rest of the world. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihz8Mk6jG8ae9dKli1RM3JWu5BysFbLkZu_QWM52QrY-YKbS5SQKu1IDwP8j5S43SnZvl4prFa77_ehEO_P-Swzm7WLenvBlppJZVGFJRvlJW_PcdyXs09mQYHfocDAbpeQD13O1h90WvH/s1600-h/DSCN5017%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN5017 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN5017 copy" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-38uTH2PkkrY/U3DdSDCSg5I/AAAAAAAAEs8/lUoO7BEiyeM/DSCN5017%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p>Harden baby #5 was a complete surprise. Well, a non-surprise surprise. Yet we’ve decided the same as we have with all of the others – to be happy even though we’ve been very vocal on being done. I mean, what else is there to do? I’m only about 10 1/2 weeks, but am pretty noticeably showing already. Some of it is where I just never quite got over carrying an almost 10 pound baby, and some of it is, as one friend put it, that my uterus just knows what to do by this point. I was getting glances and stares at my tummy from friends and acquaintances who I’m sure were all just too polite to ask. I was tired of trying to find ways to hide it, and Mother’s Day seemed like a good day to make the announcement on.</p> <p>So, there you go! That’s why I haven’ been blogging.<br>(<strong><a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2014/03/patterns-are-scary-when-you-have-4-kids.html">And did I call it, or what?!</a> I told you that patterns were bad!</strong>)</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-HKrohPX_vVQ/U3DeMSO8njI/AAAAAAAAEtU/wjZAXnKI42k/s1600-h/DSCN5016%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN5016 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN5016 copy" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-OEXHrr9LhjE/U3DeOOijYAI/AAAAAAAAEtc/ToYXYOV9vrg/DSCN5016%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-47986617039783233652014-04-02T10:24:00.001-05:002014-04-02T10:29:45.301-05:00February 2014 Project Life Pages<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pDffiZSxJl4/UzwrJEG0a-I/AAAAAAAAEo4/9LeuzGBgqMo/s1600-h/2014%252520PL%252520-%252520February%252520-%252520Life%252520as%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="2014 PL - February - Life as Their Mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="2014 PL - February - Life as Their Mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-MJoZP0cMLmo/UzwrKTsUisI/AAAAAAAAEpA/jX64NHGLJLc/2014%252520PL%252520-%252520February%252520-%252520Life%252520as%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a></p> <p>I’ve been done with February’s pages for weeks, but just never got around to blogging them. Actually, I’m almost done with March’s now too! </p> <p>For <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=27141&cat=0&page=2">February</a></strong>, like January, I used <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=24">Traci Reed’s</a></strong> Pocket Life collection to make my pages. I also use her <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=27059&cat=0&page=1">Stitched Grids</a></strong> and Libby Pritchett’s <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=26590&cat=0&page=1">2014 Calendar 3x4 card templates</a></strong> to create the calendar cards for each month.</p> <p>Oh, the 2013 Project Life tab at the top of the blog has been replaced with one for this year. If you want to look through my pages for last year there is an icon on the side of the blog that says “2013 Project Life Pages” it takes you to the same place the old tab did.</p> <p>Now… for the pages!</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3HRS1yqsc5c/UzwrLSmkLcI/AAAAAAAAEpI/wIetgLhlpsU/s1600-h/02wA%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="02wA" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02wA" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_LdPV0EOYIg/UzwrMM8SQ_I/AAAAAAAAEpM/jC-gAm8RNPk/02wA_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a></p> <a name='more'></a> <p>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sSf4c6Po31w/UzwrNfNTjNI/AAAAAAAAEpY/h8uJuT7eCqA/s1600-h/02a%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02a" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02a" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-q78mfztLMVU/UzwrOlIDvoI/AAAAAAAAEpg/oiL4-3EUsTw/02a_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/--1scmoHhRW0/UzwrQDofCuI/AAAAAAAAEpo/bjnABE4Yf1U/s1600-h/02b%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02b" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02b" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-X1Vag4hvl3M/UzwrQ9t7KCI/AAAAAAAAEpw/ZftxrxlbfF4/02b_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwGLdVE9EvtAe4VOV_e1jCLLYhPW0E1fb-Rv5MLhp9FgsmQMwHPj7tRHG5TnsJUjMAbUlSeyXLvJIvO7BFA8vOi_-kkV01t1FhU9sJYpnmQLdSyjYmva3PcPgKR5kvWAw_pwKtafAyWmw/s1600-h/02wB%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02wB" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02wB" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-M4w0mj4lZXg/UzwrSpJn1XI/AAAAAAAAEqA/uoHGedbavY0/02wB_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-GA7ZaoDVkwQ/UzwrTzNlMGI/AAAAAAAAEqI/-9gsQY7aieo/s1600-h/02c%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02c" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02c" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ZcQ5JhmxuyY/UzwrU0MIPmI/AAAAAAAAEqQ/LHHitcaYIeo/02c_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-D8tjFcN_xgI/UzwrWEKPHXI/AAAAAAAAEqY/O-4sdE29egg/s1600-h/02d%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02d" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02d" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3CoOSE6NtqU/UzwrXCiXAEI/AAAAAAAAEqg/zKNFyTqI6yw/02d_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ea7Zx9ZoCyE/UzwrX7NynpI/AAAAAAAAEqo/H98JFdiSaMw/s1600-h/02wC%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02wC" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02wC" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-sUGxNAOKV34/UzwrY5ug2HI/AAAAAAAAEqw/NsfZ-hf6yGM/02wC_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-k-l0TE9eqME/UzwrZypNt2I/AAAAAAAAEq4/qmL83MZresM/s1600-h/02e%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02e" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02e" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-UbzmXsieHCg/UzwrbM7bc_I/AAAAAAAAErA/LBPDmo0kGAE/02e_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-VXdpqrUcktI/UzwrcJf4-6I/AAAAAAAAErI/xpESBSaqygQ/s1600-h/02f%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02f" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02f" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4TQtN9xY8dw/UzwrczjOaBI/AAAAAAAAErQ/pbr3YFGoj4c/02f_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-4NP58jN_gTQ/Uzwrd25TkxI/AAAAAAAAErY/MqauGOzxmXA/s1600-h/02wD%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02wD" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02wD" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-s7Pycx3zmug/UzwreqxNSVI/AAAAAAAAErg/uTBLMVqlCI4/02wD_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-C2_b_355_EE/UzwrgNmQNRI/AAAAAAAAEro/D1NCqbRFuug/s1600-h/02g%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02g" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02g" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Kt0ZDq9-pvM/UzwrhvDBgiI/AAAAAAAAErs/tH9mC3xR9MI/02g_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-74L5-xPzwZo/Uzwri_DNotI/AAAAAAAAEr4/rCDzGQ5Rnx4/s1600-h/02h%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="02h" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="02h" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-uRxEEUbpzSA/UzwrkMQxInI/AAAAAAAAEsA/919skanMpws/02h_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-45156204995738175912014-03-26T13:24:00.001-05:002014-03-26T13:24:43.088-05:00The Mason Sleep Journals–Nights 1&2<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sFShg8wVWNs/UzMbZY9q7-I/AAAAAAAAEog/09hLKDRh4ZE/s1600-h/sleep%252520journals%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="sleep journals - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="sleep journals - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ejwe5RrJPOM/UzMbaR2ZYXI/AAAAAAAAEoo/ywCj46S-GnI/sleep%252520journals%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="156"></a></p> <p>Remember when I said that <a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2013/09/let-him-sleep.html">my goal was to get Mason sleeping through the night, without nursing and in his own bed before he turned two</a>? Yeah… that never happened. I started working on it, but then he decided to cut in all of those pesky eye teeth and, well, it ended up not happening. On his birthday we decided that it was time. It’s time to try this for real – no excuses – and get him out of our bed. Step one is getting him to sleep through the night without nursing. I figure if we take care of that first we’ll have better luck getting him to sleep in a room (or bed) without me.</p> <a name='more'></a> <p><strong>The first night.</strong> Oh man, the first night was hard. I got to bed and of course he woke up the moment I laid down next to him. I told him the same thing that I tell him at naptime and bedtime, he could nurse for five minutes and then it would be time to be done. It really went on for more like ten minutes, oh well. I said it was time to stop and go night-night now and put them away, and he cuddled in and went right back to sleep. At this point I’m thinking, man, I got this. This is going to be way easier than I thought and everyone told me. Boy, was I wrong. Thirty minutes later as I’m starting to doze off he started rooting and when that didn’t work he opened his eyes and lifted his head and said “Swee sie, Mommy. Swee sie.” I told him no, we were done for the night, so he sat up, looked at me, pointed at my chest and repeated himself. I told him no again and he told me “No mine Mommy. BOOB.” You know, in case I didn’t understand him the first several times. And it all sort of melted down from there. There was crying and leg kicking and hitting. There was flinging all over the bed. And in between all of that he would doze off for 15-20 minutes. Then he’d wake up and start all over again. This lasted until about four in the morning, or at least that’s finally when I got to fall asleep and stay asleep for about 2 hours. At six he started up again and I just let him nurse and we both slept for another 2 hours.</p> <p><strong>The second night.</strong> Honestly, I’m not quite sure how we did last night, I was just so exhausted. It started out the exact same. I know there wasn’t the same all night long fit throwing like from the night before, but he was definitely restless and moving around a lot. He also kept waking me up by trying to take them out on his own – a few times he even managed to latch on before I caught him. This tells me that I need to find a new top to sleep in. At about 5:30/6 he started crying for them again, and like the night before I just went ahead and let him nurse then. I still didn’t get a good sleep, but hey, at least I got more than I did the other night. So that’s a win, right?</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-37009832188937649922014-03-18T15:51:00.001-05:002014-03-18T15:52:14.889-05:00signs of spring…<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-R3tnLNWQvps/Uyix-VjDgBI/AAAAAAAAEoI/LG_k_pFXgKw/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%252520main%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B4%25255D.png"><img title="signs of spring main - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring main - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-h_el1LS0uD8/Uyix_DClTfI/AAAAAAAAEoQ/N1pDKZ5gzdg/signs%252520of%252520spring%252520main%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="600" height="284"></a></p> <p>Last week I got this weird bug in me to clean and rearrange my living room. Call it spring cleaning if you like – I won’t – but the nice weather after the never ending winter had me feeling inspired. After all the cleaning and rearranging was done I realized that there was one sore part left – under the tv. While the pumpkins had all been taken down long before, <a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2013/10/our-life-in-craftsoctober-pt-1.html"><strong>our fall banner</strong></a> had ended up carrying on from the time we put it up to now. (Hey, the kids liked it, and I never got around to making a winter banner) So the day after the cleaning and rearranging I decided it was time for us to make a new spring banner to replace it. </p> <p><strong><font size="3">Continue reading to see the supplies, get directions, and see our banner!</font></strong></p> <a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tMmfDFeHZnQ/Uyixerb5ueI/AAAAAAAAEl4/u0xXANyzNfE/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-n4iAnGwIJac/UyixfJVf-bI/AAAAAAAAEmA/yvF1B5m_Dgo/signs%252520of%252520spring%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="366"></a></p> <p><strong><font size="3">Supplies: 1 piece of yellow construction paper, 1 piece of green construction paper, and three pieces of construction paper for your flower colors, plus 1 piece of extra paper. (we used red, blue, and purple) 3 notecards (or small pieces of sturdy cardstock), 6 popsicle sticks, tape, yarn, a kid sized cup, a black marker, scissors, glue and crayons – I gave the kids two similar colors for each color of paper.</font></strong></p> <p><strong><font size="3"><u>To put the banner together</u>…<br></font></strong>Use the cup and trace a circle on to your extra paper, cut it out, lay it back on your extra paper and then using the cup trace 5 overlapping circles around it (the petals for your flower), cut out as one piece. Draw a leaf shape on to the last bit of the extra paper, and then cut it out. </p> <p>Using your first circle trace six of them onto your yellow paper. Then using your petal cutout trace two onto each of your flower color construction papers. Lastly trace six leaves onto your green paper. Do not cut any of them out yet. </p> <p>Give the papers to the kids for them to color – I found it less time consuming to give them the yellow and green first, then the flowers, and then for me to cut them out as they finished coloring them. </p> <p>Give them the glue and let them glue the leaves and middles onto the flowers. </p> <p>Cut off two pieces of about 4 feet of yarn. </p> <p>Tape the popsicle sticks to the notecards. </p> <p>Lay out your flowers, upside down in the order you want them to go with a little bit of space between them. Lay the yarn over the middle of the flowers putting a little bit of room between the two pieces. Tape the popsicle stick notecards over the yarn and center of the flowers. </p> <p>Hang the banner up and enjoy! </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-uTpqsnpbb_0/Uyixgj-62fI/AAAAAAAAEmI/W1UYU4OBzYs/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 2 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 2 - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-iggekvY0BK4/Uyixhdj0a7I/AAAAAAAAEmQ/GaA8Yy_V0V0/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-fnVSh_h42DM/UyiximwfqCI/AAAAAAAAEmY/ANCgl02oHdY/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 3 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 3 - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-EohhMCE2DyY/UyixjAojYJI/AAAAAAAAEmg/8g9FkRAELEw/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-8sWZvt9Lqwk/UyixkQ-Kp2I/AAAAAAAAEmo/J9_laihB5Uk/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 4 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 4 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pAjMzr8uvy0/UyixlR0HhbI/AAAAAAAAEmw/KkC_wctEX2A/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-2hbE4k9zj9I/UyixmTTfgFI/AAAAAAAAEm4/A1FgOxbZH0I/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525205%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 5 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 5 - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6eRsg0hlL-0/UyixndtkO8I/AAAAAAAAEnA/auNDmWGBnA0/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525205%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-pAZkAF6M5lI/Uyixojg3jKI/AAAAAAAAEnI/b6RV4oQ3QI8/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525206%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 6 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 6 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-gs2OZO9VBU4/UyixpNBkqtI/AAAAAAAAEnQ/NPLrhaEzbkc/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525206%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-jdMJUH4IUuE/UyixpzHbq-I/AAAAAAAAEnY/0U8x8sCV2Y0/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525207%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 7 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 7 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Xv1Zpx3T1c4/Uyixq28ttAI/AAAAAAAAEng/EFLW5QICCX8/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525207%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-dCjlfSU5ytU/Uyixr1WMG7I/AAAAAAAAEno/lmuLn-AhlzA/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525208%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 8 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 8 - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-cNBqfq6HRa0/Uyixs074X7I/AAAAAAAAEns/GJsGo-34RFk/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525208%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-8cEuXhikuwo/UyixtoFbJOI/AAAAAAAAEn0/odi0ent3V-U/s1600-h/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525209%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="signs of spring 9 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="signs of spring 9 - life as their mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Unv2NdWJHGE/UyixuW0ZK3I/AAAAAAAAEn8/QjAWDK9J79g/signs%252520of%252520spring%2525209%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> <p align="center"><strong><font size="4">Hey, and don’t forget! If you like the post feel free to share or pin it (<em>hover over image and a “Pin It!” button should appear in the top corner of the image</em>). Also, take a moment to </font><a href="http://www.topmommyblogs.com/"><font size="4">click this link and vote for the blog</font></a><font size="4">. You can vote up to once a day every day.</font></strong></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-39383382458636552772014-03-17T13:10:00.001-05:002014-03-17T13:17:02.379-05:00Patterns are scary when you have 4 kids.<p><strong>Maybe I should clarify that and say that patterns are scary when you already have four kids, and you don’t want any more, and you notice patterns that go the same with your previous times of having kids.</strong> <br>(<em>I’m not overthinking this at all, am I?</em>)</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-j2gd2t0bZf8/Uyc6dL2_K3I/AAAAAAAAEjc/_EQVBoemIRw/s1600-h/patterns%2525201%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="patterns 1 - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="patterns 1 - life as their mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-yZCqyOmDy3g/Uyc6d65cT5I/AAAAAAAAEjk/QJQsL3lBo9c/patterns%2525201%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="340"></a></p> <p><strong><font size="4"><u>THE PATTERN</u>:</font></strong></p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-2rqNEwv1UlA/Uyc78V06vpI/AAAAAAAAEkg/F3mvLcfxVMo/s1600-h/patterns%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B11%25255D.jpg"><img title="patterns 2 - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="patterns 2 - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-sBeAW2k1nDs/Uyc78xaTz2I/AAAAAAAAEko/b_qkKGRdNj4/patterns%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="left" height="267"></a>1. Someone gets potty trained.</strong> When I got close to having Ryan the little boy that my mom watched – Jared (<em>also Zach’s best friend</em>) was getting potty trained. Even though Zach was only about 18 months at the time, he too started potty training then. (<em>Though he still wasn’t fully potty trained – daytime – until he was 2</em>.) Then with Bella, Ryan started potty training at about the same time I got pregnant with her and made it out of diapers and pull ups about a month before she was born. Bella first started potty training a few months before I got pregnant with Mason and was fully potty trained right before I had him. Mason has recently started showing a real interest in the potty and has gone to the bathroom several times in the potty. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p><strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Kq3Ho3vWxo4/Uyc79h0a0lI/AAAAAAAAEkw/FBZOe2NbzcA/s1600-h/patterns%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B12%25255D.jpg"><img title="<KENOX S630 / Samsung S630>" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="<KENOX S630 / Samsung S630>" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-YY1g5M4QVD8/Uyc7-EKzP6I/AAAAAAAAEk4/J2JK-F0Z3MA/patterns%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="right" height="300"></a>2. Someone turns 2.</strong> This one has been a never-fail. Not long after someone turns 2 (<em>generally 2-6 months</em>) I end up pregnant. Right after Ryan turned two I got pregnant with the baby I miscarried. Before he turned three I was pregnant with Bella. Five months after Bella turned 2 I was pregnant with Mason. Bella was born 3 months after Ryan turned three, Mason was born one month before Bella turned three. Mason turns two in less than a week now.</p> <p><strong>3. Someone gets ready to go to Kindergarten.</strong> The little girl that my mom kept when Zach was a baby started kindergarten right after I got pregnant with Ryan. Zach was in the spring before starting kindergarten when Bella was born (<em>bonus points – he was starting the K4 program the same time I found out I was pregnant with her</em>). Ryan started kindergarten at almost the exact same time that I found out that I was pregnant with Mason. I’m going to register Bella for kindergarten in about two and a half weeks.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-csBzyTzXcQI/Uyc7-8Dj84I/AAAAAAAAElQ/9pxSdBUT9bc/s1600-h/patterns%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B11%25255D.jpg"><img title="patterns 4 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="patterns 4 - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-c0SFTPkPBJE/Uyc8BKrUutI/AAAAAAAAElY/N24ImvvV8MQ/patterns%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="left" height="267"></a>4. Certain other friends get pregnant or just had babies.</strong> There are a few of my friends who almost always get pregnant a few months before I do. One family we’re hitting 4/4 the other 3/4. They both announced pregnancies in the past few weeks. </p> <p>Don’t get me wrong or anything. If we had another baby, once I got past the initial shock and dread, we’d bounce back and be happy and find a way to make it work. However, we would really rather, well, not. We are currently bursting out of the seams of our little 3 bedroom, basically 1 bath, 1100ish square foot home. Plus our money situation is complete crap. <strong>But if it happened, we’d make it work and we’d get happy, because to us, every single baby is a blessing and deserves to be loved and celebrated.</strong> But all of that aside, please don’t let me get pregnant again.</p> <p><strong>I guess I have three options in this situation:</strong></p> <ol> <li>Banish John away from me, and give him the evil eye every time he so much as looks at me for the next year and a halfish. <li>Use some form of birth control – which I won’t, I don’t trust them. Please allow me to introduce you to Zach, Ryan, and Mason – all conceived while properly using contraception or birth control. <li>Refuse to allow Mason to continue potty training, refuse to sign Bella up for school, refuse to acknowledge Mason’s birthday, and refuse to acknowledge my friends’ pregnancies. </li></ol> <p>I think option #3 sounds good to me.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-38685695936096074352014-03-16T15:10:00.001-05:002014-03-16T15:16:04.016-05:00March Sketch Inspiration–Part 1<p>So I am going to tentatively try this idea out. I’ve attempted similar things, mainly in providing templates and offering prizes, without much success. Which makes me wonder why I would even think this would work… especially since I don’t plan on offering any sort of prize. But hey, who knows? Maybe this time you’ll all bite.</p> <p>Each month I’ll offer a sketch version of one of my more popular recent pages for you to use as inspiration. I will also make a new page – but more than just that, I’ll do a video of me making it (<a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2013/10/project-life-pages-with-art-journal.html">sort of like I did on this post</a>). If there’s ever a particular page of mine that you would like me to do just let me know in the comments, or email me. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-b7xDbSWmsRE/UyYFC5IleeI/AAAAAAAAEi0/HBjG-_z7I3o/s1600-h/sketch%252520inspiration%252520-%252520march%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="sketch inspiration - march - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="sketch inspiration - march - life as their mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Fo2loFN1p6I/UyYFEKNYPsI/AAAAAAAAEi4/Qd2Rf32A3EA/sketch%252520inspiration%252520-%252520march%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="889"></a></p> <p>The sketch (you can click on it to get the full 12x12 version to save):</p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ8YFLGEW3mldtC1k5B-LhDSON8IBnm4xMFQStvgeLT8INwoCQkMw77J1YTlV61KGiGwyKk0_veE5HsGnmBVbzzPol3y2Z8SVrTMOpH2OAdW5TOaBwa1EXQ7rz89xBHZXDNaph9Xa6kdGL/s1600-h/triangle%252520scrapbook%252520page%252520sketch%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="triangle scrapbook page sketch - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="triangle scrapbook page sketch - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-frmkPC5Qt2U/UyYFGPgDYXI/AAAAAAAAEjM/2a6aSytSmkA/triangle%252520scrapbook%252520page%252520sketch%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p>And I will try to get my page and video up before next Sunday!</p> <p><strong><font size="4">The inspiration page is my layout “</font></strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=311935&title=swee-sie&cat=500"><strong><font size="4">Swee Sie</font></strong></a><strong><font size="4">” made with goodies by </font></strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=33"><strong><font size="4">Jenn Barrette</font></strong></a><strong><font size="4"> from </font></strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/"><strong><font size="4">Sweet Shoppe Designs</font></strong></a><strong><font size="4">.</font></strong></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-65814493157492552722014-03-07T14:45:00.001-06:002014-03-07T14:45:30.386-06:00“Why are his eyelashes white?”<p>The blog recently got the following email:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>“Hey! I was reading today’s post on your blog and realized that your son’s eyelashes are different on one eye from the other. Are they white? If so, do you mind if I ask why?”</strong> (<em><a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2014/02/i-love-you-bushel-and-err-monster.html">post in question</a></em>)</p></blockquote> <p>Yes, his lashes on part of one eye are white, while the rest are all a dark brown/black. The reason for that is because Ryan has <strong><u>vitiligo</u></strong>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-KrBt2-dpSg4/UxovwJsKWGI/AAAAAAAAEhI/ozGZ3Nt3Zl4/s1600-h/vitiligo%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="vitiligo - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="vitiligo - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-QQbR1mn9epo/UxovxVXNJNI/AAAAAAAAEhQ/lhC9jZ99ZCY/vitiligo%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="696"></a></p> <a name='more'></a> <p>I was so sure when I got the email that I could just go and link to a post on the blog already about it, but then I realized that I never actually did post anything about it. It’s not that we are trying to cover it up, or even that he’s embarrassed by it, it just never really occurred to me to blog about it. We’ve had a few other issues come up with the kids that I never blogged about, more because unless someone specifically asks I don’t want to just put it out there and seem whiney. I can’t stand the blogs where the mom is talking about some new horrible thing that her child has or might have every week. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-1qVON--DAfw/UxovyKxH-MI/AAAAAAAAEhY/rHs5KzooAwg/s1600-h/DSCN8969%252520copy%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN8969 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 6px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN8969 copy" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hSZWfKRv2gw/Uxovy3-xQJI/AAAAAAAAEhg/QdFeEmYKI08/DSCN8969%252520copy_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" height="240"></a>Last spring I noticed that Ryan had one or two lashes that stood out from his others, but each time I actually noticed I just sort of shrugged it off. (The first time we really noticed them was with <strong><em><a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/2013/04/thank-you-lord-we-made-it-to-monday.html">the battery incident</a></em></strong> when I was trying to get a close up picture of his tongue.) However, by the end of the school year it was just a really sort of obvious thing. He had a wedge of them that were all white right in the middle of his lashes. I thought maybe it was a reaction to his Adderall, but couldn’t find anything saying that there was anyway that the two could be related. I kept thinking “Hey, maybe you should take him into the doctor and ask him about it.” But I didn’t. I never noticed anything else changing, so I figured it was just some sort of weird fluke that led to his lashes changing. And they did keep changing. The white patch has slowly been growing over the past almost year. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ym7OJYspiDY/Uxovz5uSBdI/AAAAAAAAEho/R30ui2ngXbE/s1600-h/DSCN8064%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN8064 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN8064 copy" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ILwo-zJaxJk/Uxov0isR4LI/AAAAAAAAEhw/wc8QLSPXwM4/DSCN8064%252520copy_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="250" align="left" height="333"></a>It wasn’t until summer was ending and the school year had started that I finally decided we needed to take him in to be seen at the doctor’s. We had gotten really hot, red, and sweaty on a particularly long walk home from school and I was talking to Ryan about something and noticed that while the rest of his face was red all around his eyes wasn’t. And it sort of spread out, but not like in a sunglasses pattern (which he didn’t wear anyway) but in a sort of odd splotchy look. When I noticed this I went into full on freak out Mommy mode and called John, and my mom, and my grandmother (the nurse) for good measure too. They all said to call and make him an appointment to go in and see his doctor, because as my grandmother pointed out – skin color changes are never anything to take lightly. I called and we made an appointment to go in later in the week. That night, after much extensive googling, John and I came to the conclusion that it must be vitiligo, it was the only thing that we could find that fit. We asked Ryan to let us look over him to see if there were any other spots that we’d never noticed so we could know what to point out to the doctor. </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-cE2SaW5OKaE/Uxov19JvRhI/AAAAAAAAEh4/OcoV_JGOls4/s1600-h/DSCN9976%252520copy%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN9976 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN9976 copy" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_kMCOGmGsgM/Uxov2dVlqNI/AAAAAAAAEiA/uzp3coxfEvQ/DSCN9976%252520copy_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="245" align="right" height="240"></a>That night we noticed it. How we never noticed before – since modest or shy Ryan is not – I don’t know. Ryan had these huge spots on either side of his hips and below his belly button that almost banded together around his whole waist of white splotches. This wasn’t a tan line. For one thing, it wasn’t an even line, some areas would go up way higher and way lower than others. Plus, he has an olive skin tone, and this was like almost a white blue and you could see where the spots ended on his legs. We also (once we knew what to look for) noticed small spots in several places on his back and on one arm. We were just shocked. How could we have never noticed this on him before? </p> <p>We were very firmly sure about it being vitiligo at this point, so when I went in to take Ryan to the doctor and the nurse basically told me I was overreacting and that it was just an odd tan line and that his lashes were simply turning blonde I sort of wanted to hit her. Lashes don’t just turn blonde, and his aren’t blonde – MINE are blonde, I know what blonde lashes look like, and there was no way in heck that he just had an “odd tan line.” I called the doctor’s office back that same day and demanded to speak to the doctor – not the nurse – and to get an appointment for him to see Ryan. After just a quick look at Ryan’s eyes and hips the doctor very firmly agreed with us that it looked like vitiligo. He said that he had seen it before, but never in someone Ryan’s age before, and never had to make the diagnosis himself. He then set us up with an appointment with a dermatologist, and took a few blood samples because apparently it’s not uncommon for people with vitiligo to also have other autoimmune issues. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Yv3jDGPxd58/Uxov3aAjufI/AAAAAAAAEiI/TyoEYc74GqI/s1600-h/DSCN3803%252520copy%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN3803 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN3803 copy" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-qK1d44mCkQo/Uxov4TKO9AI/AAAAAAAAEiQ/hyGsAbBWheU/DSCN3803%252520copy_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" height="240"></a></p> <p>The dermatologist took one look at Ryan’s face when we got into the room and said “Oh yeah, that is definitely vitiligo.” She then went on to explain to us – well more she explained to Ryan – what exactly it is and what it isn’t. She told us how there are some treatment options, but how it isn’t something that is just going to go away. Even if the skin creams (there are only two, by the way that are FDA approved for use on children under 12) do make his spots appear smaller, they will just come back or show up on other parts of him. Plus, the creams can’t be used around his eyes at all. She told us with the lashes that they are constantly falling out and being replaced anyway, so while some are white now, they may eventually seem dark again one day. We were also told that if the creams don’t work we can move on to laser therapy when he’s older. </p> <p>Well, the creams haven’t worked. Not even a tiny little bit. And after reading over all of the potential long-term side effects of the laser treatments, John and I have decided that until he is a grown up, and legally responsible for his own health, it isn’t even an option. It’s just too much of a health risk for us to make a decision to do for something that isn’t going to impact his actual health any. Plus, it might not even work, and if it does, the results can fade over time, and it’s a very extensive procedure. As of the last time we checked, Ryan is with us. He says he’s done trying things that aren’t going to work and that he’s fine with his spots and eyes. Really, this is what we want. We would much rather Ryan be OK with the vitiligo and accept it than always trying to find some way to fix it.</p> <p>Now, in case you are wondering…</p> <blockquote> <p>“Whether fair, dark, or any shade in between, most kids have skin that is generally the same color all over their body. But this isn't the case for those with vitiligo. <p><strong>Vitiligo</strong> is a loss of skin pigment, or color, that causes white spots or patches to appear on the skin. No one knows exactly why this happens, but we do know it affects people of both sexes and all races. In the United States alone, an estimated 1 to 2 million people have the condition, and more than half of them are kids and teens. <p>The good news is that vitiligo <strong>—</strong> upsetting as it can be to those who are living with it <strong>—</strong> isn't medically dangerous. It's not a form of skin cancer, it's not an infection like <a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/staphylococcus.html">MRSA</a>, and it's definitely not contagious. In fact, most kids who have it are every bit as healthy as everyone else.” <p>(all information above and below from <a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/vitiligo.html">kidshealth.org – vitiligo</a>)</p></blockquote> <p>And yes, if you are starting to wonder, it was vitiligo that Michael Jackson had that made him lose his skin pigment. There have been others with it, but he is the most common one that people think of. <p>A very simplified overview:</p> <ul> <li>Vitiligo is when the melanocytes stop producing melanin. (Meaning your skin stops producing the color)</li> <li>There are three types/classification of vitiligo: focal, generalized, and segmental.</li> <li>All races and all genders can get it. It effects about 2% of the world’s population.</li> <li>There is no firm cause of vitiligo. Experts have theories that it is caused by an autoimmune disorder or/and genetics.</li> <li>It can generally be diagnosed by a doctor just with a look, but on very fair people a Woods lamp may be used (basically like a black light).</li> <li>There is no “cure,” but there are treatments to even out the skin tone.</li> <li>The white spots can NOT tan – because there is no melanin – so you must be very careful to wear sunblock as they do burn very easily and are more susceptible to scarring from burns.</li> <li>While it is no way dangerous to your health, it can still be a very big deal emotionally. </li></ul> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKRSJXUbdyDuKTrUmvL5DfUTB1vkGxKPrcjzBane9-b-NrhiFn9bMpqB5U_29DDgwvJw6FmE7Jvbp8ncJqgRZusnRMfQ7xhAkdaI1lfZdwoCEVJ_o_32urhew2AnbkUJuwIFMlrLK_1QGp/s1600-h/DSCN0063-2%252520copy%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="DSCN0063-2 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="DSCN0063-2 copy" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvyDvXLUkbKgj4_9nQbaKoblwFKwm7qI877AQd7fxh9WrBz1d1HPeiEPl9uQr9VQKpyjHQmBtZukHk7lC8sEDLqEkpSaFF5NSDzjTFRw3QqQAriZ8FlyF0iyXVw5P90ZFUULlkS2FjlkEg/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="201"></a></p> <p><font size="4">Got any other questions for me (about vitligo or anything else mentioned on the blog)? If so you can always comment, or email me (</font><a href="mailto:lifeastheirmom@gmail.com"><font size="4">lifeastheirmom@gmail.com</font></a><font size="4">), or go up to the “<strong><a href="http://lifeastheirmom.blogspot.com/p/ask-trish-question.html">Ask Trish a Question!</a></strong>” tab.</font></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-67792688178455956812014-03-05T11:45:00.001-06:002014-03-05T11:45:10.303-06:00Wordless Wednesday<p>This is not what our March – or heck even our winter - usually looks like, but hey, I’ll take a chance to get wintery snow pictures whenever so that I actually have some to work with next winter.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-saRqLigM7dY/UxdifzonaLI/AAAAAAAAEfM/uS_HxV3_dcs/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305a%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305a - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305a - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-oVMJE-oCoLk/UxdihCcFGdI/AAAAAAAAEfU/lqvj1eIygZs/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305a%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> <a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ZvmZIV3EaR0/UxdihyMPoiI/AAAAAAAAEfc/8AHjLL7JcKI/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305b%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305b - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305b - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-SSyw_eBD-Ow/Uxdiijiyv2I/AAAAAAAAEfg/dsfRJLyuAjY/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305b%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-mJTn8fGQFc0/UxdijRraYyI/AAAAAAAAEfs/swiAuKQRSqk/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305c%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305c - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305c - life as their mom" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PVmC29ouMpf16DWZIp75F2F9vimyXjqd7qHMh-DCJqYP1vnO1TkLR9m-7m8_f6Zd1KR0gV86Qj5ogkuvHAf1AHIFtx_PBvHkMTGqi2e9tAxhL6bRT4cKrqT-_btd2Vdp1S9IpfNeSUjq/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-lTxEWcoJAXE/Uxdik_hDn0I/AAAAAAAAEf8/wlu_gAtNFRk/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305d%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305d - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305d - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-oIDfnzBUOG8/Uxdil99KFgI/AAAAAAAAEgE/HRgtoApvPA4/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305d%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-bbcxMzIgJCY/UxdimpdPqtI/AAAAAAAAEgM/t_XHDX4wGEU/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305e%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305e - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305e - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-jtuC9_bbyxw/UxdinO2loUI/AAAAAAAAEgU/fiq9aYnvC3U/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305e%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-pioa1g_esWA/UxdioM276fI/AAAAAAAAEgc/oSeIkyrDAmQ/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305f%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0305f - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0305f - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-D7ujSc7fSoU/Uxdioyq-DGI/AAAAAAAAEgk/oGOpePkyU0s/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200305f%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p><!-- start InLinkz script --><script type="text/javascript"><br />document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http://www.inlinkz.com/cs.php?id=380092&' + new Date().getTime() + '"><\/script>');<br /></script><!-- end InLinkz script --> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-22625284428031687522014-03-02T06:00:00.000-06:002014-03-02T06:00:03.528-06:00I was going to blog Saturday.<p>I was going to blog yesterday, but instead I spent a good chunk of my morning doing this instead:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-lF_SryPFd_8/UxKjECDUy2I/AAAAAAAAEeU/UThM0sdeSFI/s1600-h/my%252520boy%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="my boy - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="my boy - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Xu7EdW4De7I/UxKjE17648I/AAAAAAAAEec/7rgsz5CqWuQ/my%252520boy%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p><strong><font size="3">I am, like, so totally and completely in love with that.</font></strong> In case you can’t tell, it’s Zach. I did it based on a current favorite picture that I have of him. Only in the picture he has an awesome mustache as well. You can see it at the bottom of the post. But no, in love. I keep coming back and staring at it. It captures him so well. And he loves, loves, loves it too. As I was drawing it he would offer the occasional bit of advice, and he was tickled that I remembered to add his curl between his eyes (<em>he trained it to lay that way</em>). His only request was that I please <strong>NOT</strong> make him look girly, what with the freckles and the hair and the lashes. He said his lips (<em>which are really light and thin</em>) made it look girly, so I left those off, but kept the lines I did for the boy’s super dry lips. </p> <p>I did all of that to make this:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7ZGWlt2S-7g/UxKjFgruRXI/AAAAAAAAEek/b8dbfpuCBrs/s1600-h/9-and-3-quarters---life-as-their-mom%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="9-and-3-quarters---life-as-their-mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="9-and-3-quarters---life-as-their-mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-aJo12zL56iU/UxKjGokAH_I/AAAAAAAAEes/MiEqWcWZwCU/9-and-3-quarters---life-as-their-mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="646"></a></p> <p>And that I made for the March 2nd <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=196">Think Outside the Box challenge at Sweet Shoppe Designs</a></strong>. I used Studio Basic’s <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=27361&cat=0&page=1">Go To Elements: Art Journal #3</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=27360&cat=0&page=1">Beyond Basics Paper Pack #1</a></strong> digital scrapbooking packs to create the page. I did the drawing, the hair coloring, and the writing all with my tablet and in Art Rage.</p> <p>And here is the drawing with the original photo.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-yprBSMLBrvs/UxKjHqaim8I/AAAAAAAAEe0/gmMNNmoq-JE/s1600-h/Untitled-1%252520copy%25255B11%25255D.jpg"><img title="Untitled-1 copy" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Untitled-1 copy" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-BXjAPW-Ml1I/UxKjIcnXF2I/AAAAAAAAEe8/zCHRJrMHVHo/Untitled-1%252520copy_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-83269487148506690992014-02-28T14:04:00.001-06:002014-02-28T14:05:50.762-06:00I love you a bushel and a… err… monster?<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-nzxNocuvIA0/UxDruXF9XgI/AAAAAAAAEdM/9GLhCB7p658/s1600-h/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="bushel and a monster - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="bushel and a monster - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-PQC_6czk1GU/UxDrvGhoKpI/AAAAAAAAEdU/_aH-5gpgv3E/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="229"></a></p> <p>As a birthday present to myself I got myself a copy of “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Knit-Monster-Nursery-Practical-Patterns-ebook/dp/B00FKJ6BF4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393609479&sr=1-1&keywords=knit+a+monster+nursery"><strong>Knit a Monster Nursery</strong></a>” by <a href="http://www.rebeccadanger.typepad.com/">Rebecca Danger</a>. No, I’m not pregnant and secretly hiding the news and letting my purchases hint at it. I’ve been eyeing this lady’s monsters for a long while now, and this was the only one of her pattern books the store had. If you’ve never seen her cute creations you should totally go check her out, and then you will understand why I didn’t care that it was a baby geared book. </p> <p>I was so excited and just didn’t know where to start first. Ryan solved that by telling me a little after his birthday that he really wanted me to make him a monster after I had told him that it was his turn to have something made next. So I sat down with him and we went through the book, looking at all of the patterns and deciding if he wanted a monster someTHING or an actual monster. He ended up picking out the striped mini-monster (from the monster mobile) as the one that he had to have. To make it a little bigger than the one in the book I went up several needle sizes and double stranded the yarn. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_eKmdmSXZpA/UxDrwN702bI/AAAAAAAAEdc/WIW3oSxRGAY/s1600-h/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="bushel and a monster 2 - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="bushel and a monster 2 - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-NyBm1tNLjBo/UxDrw37ssGI/AAAAAAAAEdk/X_Q3HgZpwEI/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525202%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p>I won’t deny it, at first I absolutely HATED the colors of yarn that Ryan picked out. He wanted camo throughout (it’s leftover from his hat I made him several years back) and he wanted orange and brown as the alternating colors. The boy had no hesitation in picking them, so I’m guessing that he had already had them picked as soon as he decided he wanted a monster. I mention this, because, the main thing I keep hearing (after how cute people think it is overall) is what wonderful colors it is. </p> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtX5ELAYps-35voyInymnbJ7gAK4K4_gp9PqCvcco6PwSefqUpScyNPWxcC9A6B7dZVveNeGe-JWNeMBX22IiUJZfHgGFShiqHvetYDymzGomi-RqY0TVsXmVLozwsIyKcv0zha7lAbAs_/s1600-h/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="bushel and a monster 3 - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="bushel and a monster 3 - life as their mom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TXbWvTmVafk/UxDry-jS6qI/AAAAAAAAEd0/4Lipt-w9dqg/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525203%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="300" align="left" height="300"></a>Ryan also picked out the mismatching button eyes and decided that they should be at such an angle from each other instead of straight across.</p> <p>The finished monster ended up being almost the same size as my Kindle – which is good since the one in the book would only measure about 4 inches. </p> <p>The best, and most important, part is that Ryan absolutely loves and is delighted by it. He even took it to church the night I finished it and then school the next day to show it off. He has even taken to sleeping with it at night.</p> <p>Now Zach wants one (though not the same pattern one as Ryan picked), Bella says he friend needs one, and Mason wants one too. And Bella wants me to make her a cute pig – but no monster for her please.</p> <p>I say overall, I did pretty well for my first stuffed cutie. You can get a closer look at the little cutie here: <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/thetrish/monster-mobile"><strong>thetrish’s Ryan’s Monster on Ravelry</strong></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-VpAXmBTaCyw/UxDrzXcfw9I/AAAAAAAAEd8/-bDRKlbudzk/s1600-h/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="bushel and a monster 4 - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="bushel and a monster 4 - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-hFmbKnBeTLU/UxDr0PjE6XI/AAAAAAAAEeE/O6KfAenEKhQ/bushel%252520and%252520a%252520monster%2525204%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="800"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-58874234472650740052014-02-26T10:31:00.001-06:002014-02-26T10:31:06.225-06:00Wordless Wednesday<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-LSRhOWMYwg0/Uw4WxMsf1tI/AAAAAAAAEc0/nMUw9D56H-w/s1600-h/wordless%252520wednesday%2525200226%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="wordless wednesday 0226 - life as their mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="wordless wednesday 0226 - life as their mom" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_xgdrh7goPpiU7ySuKalXfjPWdYBM5TamLVdxTbC9ZdT3w9ClQ7GeKHd36fcElnbPYhGHa6vdeO_8AYN48INJI_Nuxiali41p1Djil_biqUEDnc8MJ2up6ayPbN-ro3wfUwv3SYXw2wI/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p align="center"><strong>this is our normal</strong></p><!-- start InLinkz script --> <div id="376922" class="InLinkzContainer"><a title="click to view in an external page." href="http://new.inlinkz.com//luwpview.php?id=376922" rel="nofollow">An InLinkz Link-up</a></div><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.inlinkz.com/cs2.js?v=007"></script><!-- end InLinkz script --> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-54765640949733061492014-02-25T16:31:00.001-06:002014-02-25T16:31:55.968-06:00“… the light in my world …”<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Bjk3xXDoir8/Uw0Z17P2WnI/AAAAAAAAEcc/sMTTALNpwqE/s1600-h/my%252520light%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B11%25255D.jpg"><img title="my light - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="my light - life as their mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-80eVG_pDDFQ/Uw0Z2o3kIzI/AAAAAAAAEck/I2R_xqmS4ug/my%252520light%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="450"></a></p> <p>For the past almost ten years I have been holding onto a little scrap of paper. And I do mean little. It’s about 1/2 an inch tall and maybe two inches long. About 9 years ago I took the little scrap and taped it into the back of a rather pitiful scrapbook that I had to make for my senior year of high school. Since the scrap was from high school it seemed like a fitting place for it. </p> <p>When I feel like maybe I’m failing as a wife, or maybe failing as a mom, or just kind of sucking at life in general, I look at the scrap of paper. After all of this time I have it memorized like a favorite part of a poem. I even have the writing memorized. That little scrap is one of my most treasured things. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p>The little scrap is a piece of paper that I tore out of my agenda my junior year of high school. On the date for mine and John’s one year anniversary he wrote in my agenda “You are the light in my world… and I don’t want that ever to change.” My junior year of high school was not an easy year. I was literally pregnant with Zach for about the whole year. I got pregnant in September and he didn’t come out until the June after it ended. By late March (our anniversary) I was feeling beaten down. I’d just found out I wouldn’t be able to attend a special summer art program because it was happening the week that I was due. I was having a hard time in some of my classes because a few of my teachers were not only unsupportive, two told me I should just go ahead and drop out now. It was really hitting me hard how all the plans I had made were either not going to happen or have to be changed. Plus I had lost several friends who either dropped me because of changes I was making with my life, and some who dropped me simply because I was pregnant.</p> <p>None of that factors in the overwhelming terror at soon becoming a mom, or all of the uncertainty and doubts I was having that the only reason John and I had gotten back together was because I was pregnant. And on top of all of that I was six and a half months pregnant and still fighting all day morning sickness and was constantly being reminded how I let down people in my life. (Not by my parents mind you.)</p> <p>And then I open my agenda and there is this sweet little one sentence note. I have no idea when he put it there. He never told me it was there. But there it was, right when I needed it. I’m sure he was going through his own troubles and struggles at that time, but at no point was he ever anything but encouraging to me. He talked often about his own doubts and fears about becoming a dad, but he never seemed to doubt me.</p> <p>To this day he doesn’t ever seem to doubt in my abilities. Or if he does, he hides it very, very well. I do. I doubt myself and my abilities constantly, but he only ever seems to have faith in me. It a little daunting at times, but for the most part just knowing that he is there believing in me makes the hard times a little easier.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-87969266104347679092014-02-24T12:53:00.001-06:002014-02-24T13:04:23.295-06:002014 Project Life!<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-bzpoGiuMc-M/UwuU-kBI0-I/AAAAAAAAEXs/V0-CHneQBtA/s1600-h/2014%252520PL%252520-%252520January%252520-%252520Life%252520as%252520Their%252520Mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="2014 PL - January - Life as Their Mom" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="2014 PL - January - Life as Their Mom" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Z8AHKGSx9RA/UwuU_Wijv0I/AAAAAAAAEX0/pstIP76vgKY/2014%252520PL%252520-%252520January%252520-%252520Life%252520as%252520Their%252520Mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a></p> <p>Last week I wrapped up 2013’s Project Life on the blog, so this week I thought I’d go over this year’s. </p> <p>Before I start sharing my page spreads from January, let me first address a few changes that I’m doing…</p> <p>First off, I am not breaking it all down by weeks. Instead I am breaking it all down by months instead. This makes it a little easier for me as I just open up a template and stick in my favorite photos from the photos I just uploaded. I make sure I leave blank spots for cards, especially next to photos that I know I’ll want to add a snippet about, and as each template fills up, I just open a new one. At the end of the month I just stick in the cards and add the journaling. </p> <a name='more'></a> <p>Next up, while last year I used a combination of templates, this year I’m just using 16 rather basic page templates. Eight of them are broken into thirds for horizontal set up, and the others are in halves. I’m alternating between the setups for each month.</p> <p>Also, I am going for a much simpler look for my Project Life pages this year. There won’t be nearly as much on the spreads, the focus going to how the PL idea is slated and being mostly just photos and tidbits about them.</p> <p>Lastly, each month is going to be done with one kit. This isn’t too different than last year’s one kit for each week, but it does lead to a lot more sameness to the spreads. Last years you had new colors and stuff ever 2-3 pages, and while I liked it, this does go along with the whole breaking it down by months instead of weeks.</p> <p>Now… MY JANUARY PAGES!</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-N2OeGk0-DGE/UwuXWnKmoCI/AAAAAAAAEZQ/IpC1p33KG50/s1600-h/01wA%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="01wA" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01wA" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-0fnqPKqpW4k/UwuXXlICdsI/AAAAAAAAEZU/oWa_HAKKhks/01wA_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-FODJd1f27QY/UwuXYnhBYKI/AAAAAAAAEZg/qBsFP51Bx3U/s1600-h/01a%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01a" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01a" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xmCvxqsrAXE/UwuXZtReU-I/AAAAAAAAEZo/s7qwOWQo1OE/01a_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6Wf_l4E1z2M/UwuXauNpCOI/AAAAAAAAEZw/hq2sqMu1kHc/s1600-h/01b%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01b" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01b" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7d60M7eTZbU/UwuXbaGutoI/AAAAAAAAEZ4/4LZCY8sggiA/01b_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-19fwJ0awgMo/UwuXcXYzLiI/AAAAAAAAEaA/DvUJOwwz13o/s1600-h/01wB%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="01wB" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01wB" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Hdpxk6nyqjY/UwuXdKondVI/AAAAAAAAEaI/9jp8-Ktmjik/01wB_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-5WdO6FI5kR0/UwuXeZxI-jI/AAAAAAAAEaQ/DHjGsIXJtZU/s1600-h/01c%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01c" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01c" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MVDeSFTZsNqMjxjIE25yCQceYXzFL_X7h16K2569Wxrldi9sO1ejmFQPZYcFuF06VK5j9tm_fpPzn514EfY47FnfEoPutmUCXemlmfqRG0Vd_qNpGV1iN6A7wWE0ta4ELKb1LSi5KCPn/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7dkKBvwE6jo/UwuXgmi5WuI/AAAAAAAAEag/quMilq-jQ80/s1600-h/01d%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01d" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01d" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZepCVbmeGR4s9HxGQO5KJu-24LYVZ_DzqkhHgHhAGVum9sO__jmK0F7U9t3c5MecGZCiw90FMpy-u5TDmnB9-rT8KF7IlcjJFnFfye7R7tRpBO10NaXi9K98_0bqFJU1H54Lekjup_Dc6/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-zUwCYTgHm-A/UwuXi58E4oI/AAAAAAAAEaw/YI4cziE3M7I/s1600-h/01wC%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="01wC" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01wC" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-F-BAXTYhlGQ/UwuXj0m-6OI/AAAAAAAAEa4/LuyAC4_YR54/01wC_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-HRNqXaS-gkc/UwuXk4KWpuI/AAAAAAAAEa8/gfSvnIwrBN4/s1600-h/01e%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01e" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01e" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-eWUvreI-8Gc/UwuXltF4bXI/AAAAAAAAEbI/Ge6Qba-dI5Y/01e_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Mci3-a-U6L8/UwuXmpccCqI/AAAAAAAAEbQ/RiQUNWgDJgQ/s1600-h/01f%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01f" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01f" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yHm8Sy4SCs8/UwuXnnkTxEI/AAAAAAAAEbY/yI-NbHKoxy4/01f_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-bTKXjLiEP7E/UwuXozr_N3I/AAAAAAAAEbg/x6KR6vdHELM/s1600-h/01wD%25255B10%25255D.jpg"><img title="01wD" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01wD" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-lk6wzHJ6AYU/UwuXpm9oXEI/AAAAAAAAEbo/QxfdeEPPPQA/01wD_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="300"></a><br>left:<br><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Qj0GQm-9u18/UwuXqu-iZUI/AAAAAAAAEbw/YDtDt1lUkR0/s1600-h/01g%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01g" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01g" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLMe9ILzw4uDWevj0Fwd9JoOR-pE8OMRWNTVuyTY9G91e6KREd_O6cjzNSL_RMWf6E9ju1xKrBCghQqjz_yXHiblEKUGyg4WqY7i9fxulXZEh83Y-Cv-Urnr-9NOVbN1g6jq-3V31UAgu3/?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br>right:<br><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-aA0XwVB_2rg/UwuXsaa6LZI/AAAAAAAAEcA/vLzWsbrNepw/s1600-h/01h%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="01h" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="01h" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-bO2TiODtC-8/UwuXtdOhpKI/AAAAAAAAEcI/zZjQ_7kSpyw/01h_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8872977302134467831.post-73611312856537044932014-02-21T12:50:00.001-06:002014-02-21T12:50:28.321-06:00He dreams.<p align="center"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-qfw2_IQ9G6Q/Uwef5S0Ww1I/AAAAAAAAEXE/J0wh6wo5oSk/s1600-h/he%252520dreams%252520sample%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="he dreams sample - life as their mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="he dreams sample - life as their mom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-KybRyAhvAps/Uwef5-YudlI/AAAAAAAAEXM/cpvEnTVFQL8/he%252520dreams%252520sample%252520-%252520life%252520as%252520their%252520mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="236"></a></p> <p align="center"><strong><font size="6" face="Times New Roman">he dreams.</font></strong></p> <p align="center"><font size="6" face="Times New Roman">and there he lay;<br>his head softly pillowed,<br>his mind off on adventures.<br>his dreams taking him off<br>to lands so far away.</font></p> <p align="center"><font size="6" face="Times New Roman">he sleeps and he dreams.<br>he dreams and he flies.<br>he dreams<br>and he builds worlds<br>and futures<br>so bright.</font></p> <p align="center"><font size="6" face="Times New Roman">he dreams.</font></p> <p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKb8Ts0zdldHnARwMfkMZHZcXI0G2Qq_mOzQJFQhdtXBW7OW9__dSkrEcw_54gxx8mKvFApdtHGiymwlyMGCRjy4ueX71VtVxtgJ_-b4pAXEB86uR4jGHrok-6CLaKdLvaCBxaVTclefEG/s1600-h/he-dreams-full---life-as-their-mom%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="he-dreams-full---life-as-their-mom" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="he-dreams-full---life-as-their-mom" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Pt5m9WHQyrg/Uwef7h-1iHI/AAAAAAAAEXc/yzHJSJ7jspw/he-dreams-full---life-as-their-mom_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="600" height="600"></a><br><em><font size="1">(digital scrapbooking supplies from <a href="http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/">Sweet Shoppe Designs</a>)</font></em></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110248074737771236noreply@blogger.com0