Big Happenings

1. We have TEETH. Max finally sprouted his two bottom teeth over the weekend. Sharp little boogers.

2. We have a new baby cousin, our first actually.

Addison Adele Kettler

09.05.10 12:36pm

6lbs 8oz 18"

We made a quick overnight trip to STL to visit with newest addition to the family. We only stayed for 24 hours, but we'll be going back this weekend for a longer visit.

3. Lily's first day of preschool was Wednesday. We had to beat feet it back to KC from STL on Monday because preschool orientation was Tuesday. I'm really excited for her. She'll be attending preschool at our church- Church of the Resurrection, three days a week. So far she seems to like it. She's also started soccer lessons, she's not quite old enough for team play yet, but we wanted her to have the experience.

Watch Me Grow

Max is 5 months and 1 week old now. He is rolling from left to right, front to back and can inch worm his way around a room. He doesn't care to much for Rice or Oatmeal cereal, sleeps in his bed like a big boy and is sprouting two bottom teeth that are making him an absolute crab apple.

Things Lily Says

Me: Lily what's my name? (We've been working on teaching her our first and last names, in case she ever gets lost)
Lily: Mom
Me: my- Mommy- my
Lily: (rolls eyes and says louder and with more emphasis): MOM

She doesn't call me Mommy anymore, just Mom. So in retaliation I call her Lil. If she's dropping a Y then so am I.

What we did (are doing) on our summer vacation...

Lots of things have been going on since Max was born:

1. I finished my second semester working on my paralegal certificate

2. James has started taking classes, studying computer programing

3. I went back to work

4. We went on a wonderful family vacation to Gulf Shores Alabama, luckily before oil started washing ashore.

We have lots of pictures to share, but are in the process of reorganizing our lives. James is off work for the summer, staying home with the kids and keeping busy with them. We're trying to clean out our house and get rid of the stuff we don't use but hang on to "just in case, I might, maybe have a reason to use it in the near future".

Max is nearing the end of the newborn phase. He is much more alert, lifts his head like a champ, and doesn't take nearly as many naps. His night sleeping has improved somewhat. When he was brand new he woke every 2 hours on the dot. Now he can sleep in stretches of 4-6 hours. He will sleep longer if someone is cuddling with him. He is not the biggest fan of his crib (he prefers our bed, memory foam) or the baby papasan chair, but enjoys the swing. Unlike his big sister he enjoys the front pack (must be the cuddling thing) and likes going on walks.

Lily is so grown up we can hardly stand it. She is no longer a baby, and very much a big girl at 3 years old. I am proud to report we had her potty trained before Max was born, and no accidents since. She got her ears pierced for her 3 birthday, something she asked for. And she is looking forward to swimming lessons in July (first time in a parent-free class).

Until we can get back on track these are some cute pictures of Max taken by Rebecca Haas of RPetersPhotography.

The one where I explain why I don't post much anymore

Really its because we have a new baby, Lily is out of daycare for the summer and I'm trying to finish up my semester of Civil Litigation and Business Organizations. Everyone tells you that 2 kids is NOT 2x the work, but rather 4x the work. I disagree. Its 10X the work!! And talk about lack of sleep. James and I are walking zombies right now. He's officially a stay at home dad now, Lifetouch season ended in April. Lily doesn't go to Preschool until August. Max sleeps a lot, but only in 2 hour spurts and does not extend them at night. By this point in her life Lily was at least giving us 4 hour stretches at night. Oh well. James and I have a system. I go to bed early, usually with Lily and he stays up playing video games or watching something on Netflix streaming and keeps Max with him. So that way I get a good 3-4 hours of solid sleep. Then if Max wakes up in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning I get up (since I have to feed him anyways). And James gets a good 3-4 hours of sleep. Max usually wakes up at 2am on the nose and again at 5 or 6am. Sometimes I get him to go back to sleep after the 6am waking, but usually hes up and stays up until about noon. You would think with all that awake time he would sleep more soundly at night. But he's what I call a hungry hippo. He eats all.the.time. If I nurse him, I'm lucky if he'll go 2 hours with out being hungry. If we do a formula bottle, we can get somewhere between 2-3 hours out of him. But lately he's been overfilling his little belly and urping, so we've started just giving him 2 ounces at a time. Which means sometimes we can spend 2 hours feeding him 6oz, only to start the process again an hour after he finished. It's a growing thing I hope. He has his 6 week checkup Thursday so I will be asking about this.

I need to post pictures, I'll get around to it eventually. James takes all our pictures then edits them on our home computer which is upstairs. I normally NEVER go up there and he's now to the point that he doesn't like to go up there either, if he has to tow both kids with him. We need to figure out a place downstairs for the computer. We haven't even done Max's announcement. We will get that done before we leave for Gulf Shores in 2 weeks. If we even get to go. Stupid Deepwater Horizon had to go and blow up and potentially ruin the only family vacation my family has planned in like 2 decades.

Ok, enough procrastinating. Must.do.homework.

3W6D

That's 3 weeks and 6 days.

Maxwell James Wear
March 24th 2010
9:47PM
6lbs 10oz 19 inches

Having 2 children had decreased my IQ significantly and I still have about 5 more weeks of school to go this semester and James has another week left of work before his summer break. Once we are back in the swing of things I'll post more. But for now I have a cute baby to cuddle.

37W5D

Its go time. Looks like Baby M's birthdate will be March 24th. My water broke last night at about 930pm, we got to the hospital about 11pm and they confirmed it. Its now 1:04am. They are going to let me go all night until Dr K does her rounds, if I haven't progressed on my own, they will induce (gag!). I also recently discovered my netbook has a webcam. This oughta be fun!

37W1D

How Far Along? Full Term!!
Labor Signs? Unfortunately none
Sleep? I slept last Sunday. Mon-Thurs Lily was sick and kept me up most of the night. I'm slowly catching back up but now I have a cold.
Best moment this week? Finding out the new building going up a mile from our home is a DUNKIN DONUTS!!\

(New Category) Worst Moment this week? KU losing to UNI, not that they deserved to win, but still.....blah.
Cravings? Sweet Tea. Thats normal.
What I miss? Open toed shoes
What I am looking forward to? Meeting Baby M
Milestones? Hit full term. Now I am fully baked.

Bubbles in the Park

Yesterday, even though Lily was still sick, we decided to get some fresh air and go to the park. She had her temp taken at my doctors appointment and it was back down to normal, and it was sunny and in the mid 50's. She really wanted to play with her bubbles. The bubbles were her Potty Training reward. The first day we took her to school with no pull up or diapers, I promised her a toy if she didn't have any accidents all day. That was the beginning of her potty training and she's been pretty much fully potty trained since then. Almost 2 fulls weeks, including naptime and night time.

This is Lily in the living room after we steam cleaned the carpet. All the furniture is at the other end of the room, but she couldn't wait to watch Sesame Street.

B and B

Means Basketball and Brackets. The only other sporting event I can sit on my tush for days and watch besides the Olympics is March Madness. And I didn't even go to a NCAA Div 1 school. But like the rest of the nation, I get sucked in. It helps that they set up big screens at work and give us free popcorn and soda. It also helped that I once went on vacation to Las Vegas during March Madness. Talk about MADNESS.

It's 66 degrees and sunny here today. Fabulous spring weather. And I'm at work. I took Tues and Wed off to finish "nesting" but Lily got sick at the same time and couldn't go to school with 102 fever. So we modified our nesting a bit and did some other stuff that still needed to be done. Laundry, baby clothes folding, steam cleaning the living room carpet, paid off my car, returned some items to BRU, doctors appointments (one for me, one for her). Tomorrow its going to be a bit cooler, then Saturday??? I don't think our weather people have any idea what is going to happen. One minute they say rain with a possible snow mix. The next they are saying a lot of accumulation. Whatever. All I know is that I can sit on my tush, watch some b-ball and no one can complain. If it was nice outside I'd feel obligated to take Lily to the park again. Or go to the Zoo. I've got more than one "party" to go to this weekend, and I don't think I can handle going to more than one. So I have to decide. And that's only if James doesn't have a lot of b-ball videos to edit. We shall see.

Update from Doctor: No update! She saw my sonogram results. Said "behave this weekend, I'm going to be out of town". No change in due date, no cervix thinning, not concerned with baby's size. All is good. Which is great, I don't really want this baby coming before April. I've got a very tight maternity leave schedule without a lot of wiggle room.

35W6D

How Far Along? I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow.
Labor Signs? Not really
Sleep? None last night. Heartburn so bad I was praying for baby to come sooner rather than later, but DR said I could take Zantac so hopefully that helps.
Best moment this week? Last Sonogram! Saw baby, looks just like Lily. Baby weighs about 6lbs 70z already. More than Lily's birth weight of 6lbs 4.5oz.
Cravings? None really. The heartburn is too bad to care what I eat.
What I miss? sleeping on my tummy
What I am looking forward to? 8 weeks off work and a beach vacation in May
Milestones? Last Sonogram!

Skating with Clifford!

Saturday was KCPT's fundraiser at Crown Center Ice Terrace: Skating with Clifford! Crocodile Tears, she really wasn't enjoying it!

Went limp and Daddy had to push her around the rink.

But then she got to give Clifford a kiss and all was well:

34W3D

How Far Along? 34 weeks 3 days
Labor Signs? Same old braxton hicks, like clockwork, every night starting at 6pm. Also had some kind of allergic reaction last week, and had a virus that caused a nasty fever blister. The fever blister thing happened with my 1st pregnancy too
Sleep? Getting better, Lily's room is being repainted so she has been sleeping with me, and Daddy sleeps upstairs in the guest room, will be glad when he can come back to bed with me, I don't sleep well when he isn't there
Best moment this week? Got tax return filed, getting a refund, something that hasn't happened in like 5 years
Cravings? Food, just food in general, I lost a pound last week, so I must be trying to catch up
What I miss? Warm Weather
What I am looking forward to? warm weather (see a pattern)
Milestones? pre-registered at hospital

Lilyisms Con't

When we pick Lily up from daycare or see her after a long day at work she now asks us: Did you have a fun work?

32W5D

How Far Along? 32 weeks 5 days
Labor Signs? Intense contractions on occasion, especially if I forgot to drink water that day
Sleep? Now that the Olympics are on, I watch until 11 or 12 every night, and then sleep like a baby until 6am
Best moment this week? The Olympics, duh!
Cravings? Brownies, I made homemade ones last night
What I miss? blue jeans that are comfy
What I am looking forward to? birth
Milestones? none that I can think of, its getting pretty boring and predictable at this point

Let's talk about my obsession...

...with the Olympics. Seriously. I knew it was bad, but I always forget how bad I am about it. I'm not sure where it stems from. I vaguely recall watching some of the Nagano Games. But I think this all started back in college during the Salt Lake Games. Because instead of doing homework, studying, or I don't know...drinking beer....we were sitting on our butts watching every.single.olympic.event. Curling became our new obsession. I think we even watched the biathlon. Then Torino happened. Torino is the reason James and I don't have a TV in our bedroom anymore. I stayed up all night watching all things Olympics. And you know they have stuff on at 3am. Needless to say the TV disappeared and my dreams of watching the Olympics in HD from my comfy bed went with it. Instead I watch them in HD from the comfort of my couch. With a Pepsi Throwback in hand. But I am limiting myself to watching what is on during prime time. I can not get sucked in to the all day events. Especially since I can work from home if I want. Nothing would get done. But I'm still checking the MSNBC Olympics page during the day. I'm not totally crazy.

Ask me if I'm prepared

And the answer would be "no, not really". Now ask me if I am a nervous wreck about it. Again "no, not really". Thats the difference between 1st and 2nd babies, and also? The Olympics are on. The WINTER Olympics. That means I get nothing done that can't be done in front of the TV. I watch it all. I don't do this with the summer Olympics.

Today I did a few more things to prepare that make me feel a bit of relief. I bought 2 nursing bra's after realizing I didn't own one. I don't know what I did when I had Lily?? Tank tops I guess. I bought Lily some new tennis shoes one size bigger than her current ones, because I fear I'll go into labor and the grandma's will be trying to stuff Lily's feet into shoes that are too small. I bought Lily's "big sister gifts", a few things to have on hand to show her she is still special. And I bought her some spring time clothing in 3T. She's always been a bit small for her age, but I've started noticing her 2T clothing is starting to get smaller. The pants are shorter and occasionally I see a belly button. Since this baby is due in the Spring (very early Spring) I bought her a few "warm weather" outfits just in case.

And I bought storage tubs. Which means I can finally start washing the baby clothes stored in old diaper boxes in our basement and get them organized in case peanut here turns out to be a boy.

Things left to do:

Paint trim in kids room (right now its pepto bismol pink)

Wash baby clothes, baby blankets, etc

Put car seat back together

Figure out supplemental STD coverage (that means Short Term Disability)

Stop spending money, start saving money

Buy a baby bathtub, I didn't say I was going to totally stop spending money

Stock up on formula using the $35 worth of Enfamil coupons I have that expire before my due date (that's how they get ya) and the formula is a "justincase" measure, because Lily was supplemented the whole time I BF her.

But first I have to watch some ice skating.

Homemade Salsa ALA Pioneer Woman

My new director at work put me in charge of a team potluck for Valentine's Day, he wanted a Mexican Theme. Well he really didn't chose me to do it, rather he asked someone else and she immediately pointed at me and said "Kristin will do it". Thanks KD. I guess I really shouldn't complain. I've worked there for 6 years now and never had to organize a potluck; whereas at my last job I was the "potluck guru" and was organizing one almost every significant holiday...you know like President's Day. Normally the Administrative Assistants do the organizing but now that we've had so many layoffs each admin has to support more than one director so they just don't have the time, or patience I've learned.

To go with the Mexican theme I decided to make PW's "homemade" salsa. Homemade in quotes because how homemade can you get with canned tomatoes and rotel? To be fair she calls it "retaurant style salsa" not homemade. Here's my picture of the ingredients (minus the spices).

You can get the full recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/restaurant-style-salsa/

I doubled mine because there are 30 people coming to this potluck and I didn't want to run out. Not that there aren't going to be 4 things of queso (I swear no one was reading my email of who was already signed up to bring what). I also did not use the Jalapeno. I was somewhat timid about cutting one and James ran off to the gym while I was doing this (he's the designated chef around here) so instead I used a can of Rotel w/Habanero's. Its not lacking in the spicy-ness.

Here's the finished product:

There are some benefits to making your own salsa. Cost is not one of them. I spent $10 on ingredients for a double batch, about the same price I would have paid for either a giant bottle of salsa at Costco or a couple of Jars at the grocery store. However, I'm super picky about my salsa. This is how I like it; runny! This is more of the consistency of a restaurant salsa than the super chunky stuff you get in the bottles. Also I can control the spicy-ness, or how much onion is in it *yuck*. Overall I like the taste. I think its missing a little something, maybe I should have put more cilantro? or Lime? Or sugar/salt? I just don't know. But I will probably keep making this and tinkering with it, until I get it just right.

Next up: Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme. Sounds yummy.

31W4D

How Far Along? 31 weeks 4 days
Labor Signs? Baby is head down now, does that count?
Sleep? getting better, but I can only sleep on the right side of our bed, the left side just doesn't do it for me
Best moment this week? My "sprinkle" on Saturday! Good food, great friends a really good time!
Cravings? Cake and cupcakes are good
What I miss? How about what I won't miss. I won't miss having to walk a mile to the bathroom 10 times a day.
What I am looking forward to? Setting up the crib and re-painting the trim in the kid's room (they will be sharing)
Milestones? James finally, finally! got to feel lots of kicks and tumbles this morning.

Lily and Willy

This is Willis, Willy for short and Lily. Willy is one of our two cats. Our other is his twin brother Wesley, and they are the nephews of my parents cats Zeke and Zoey (Z&Z were my cats, but you try having a baby and 4 cats, one of which needed Prozac. It wasn't easy. Thank goodness Mimi and Papa Dude wanted some cats). Lily and Willy get along just fine. He sleeps at the foot of her bed most nights and lately he's started snuggling up next to her, once she has fallen asleep. She must be warm. Anyways, he was laying on our bed the other night and Lily grabbed a brush and mirror and said she was "cutting" Willy's hair. Then she grabbed an old cell phone and said "here let me take your picture". I guess we must take a lot of pictures of her with our phones!

30W4D

How Far Along? 30 weeks 4 days
Labor Signs? Same as before, only braxton hicks
Sleep? nope, not me, can function without
Best moment this week? James brought me a Campfire Mocha from Caribou Coffee
Cravings? Hummus and Pita Chips and PB&J, and my new discovery Pepsi Throwback
What I miss? being able to bend over at the waist
What I am looking forward to? My "sprinkle" on Saturday!
Milestones? Debilitating Heartburn at night!

28w4d

How Far Along? 28 weeks 4 days
Labor Signs? Just the Braxton Hicks, every night before bed
Sleep? still elusive
Best moment this week? Found out I'm going to be an AUNT!!
Cravings? M&M's, specifically Valentine's M&M's in Dark Chocolate
What I miss? Being able to get off the couch unassisted
What I am looking forward to? My "sprinkle" on Feb 6th
Milestones? I'm in the 3rd trimester now and the heartburn is getting really annoying

Big Sister Training

Saturday we went to the hospital we'll be delivering Baby M (same hospital Lily was born in) and Lily learned all about being a big sister. It was supposed to be a big brother/big sister class but all 9 participants were girls! And the majority of them were getting little brothers, we were the only ones that didn't know gender. Lily did awesome for a 2 1/2 year old. She was the youngest there, but there was a girl who barely looked a day over 3 and her mom is due on Saturday. The kids got to play with baby dolls, practice changing diapers, went up to view the nursery (no babies though, they were all with their moms) and to see a hospital room. That way its not so foreign when she comes to visit me. Not that Lily hasn't see her fair share of the inside of a hospital room. One ER visit, and 3 Children's Mercy urgent care visits, I think she knows what a typical hospital room looks like. That could be why she was a little skittish about being in there! They also got to watch a silly but age appropriate video and make bibs for their siblings. Lily's is a masterpiece. At one point in the video I had to giggle, they were talking about breastfeeding and showing babies BF and the little girl to my right, about 4 years old, very loudly said "ewww". You are in for a rude awakening kids if you think that's gross, just wait. At another point in the class the teacher was asking the kids what do babies do, and got the typical answers "eat, sleep, cry" and my kid says "poop". We may or may not have been encouraging her to say that.

27W4D

How Far Along? 27 weeks 4 days
Labor Signs? Occasional braxton hicks, this time I know what they are
Sleep? Not really. I would like to. I have no problems falling asleep but then don't stay that way for long
Best moment this week? Baby M has hiccups at least once a day, it tickles
Food Cravings? Sheridan's frozen custard, James bought the baby a gift card ;) so I've had it twice this week.
What I miss? Wine
What I am looking forward to? Wine- Cave Rock White if anyone wants to buy me some
Milestones? I start my bi-weekly appointments now.

I think I like reading about other peoples lives better

That's why I haven't posted in a while. I have no excuse. I sit in front of a laptop all day with Internet access. I read all sorts of blogs on my google reader, and I compose all sorts of fun, witty entries in my brain but then never type them out.

Funny things Lily has said lately:

She got tangled in her sheets last night: "Darn it, darn it!"

As I was leaving for work yesterday: "Are you wearing a dress momma" Yes I am "I have dresses too momma".

Anytime she doesn't like something we do: "I don't yike that"

We had her going pretty good on the potty training, she would go first thing in the morning and then we had a couple of days where she would tell us that she needed to go, but then something happened between last Thursday and Friday because now she won't sit on the potty chair at all, nor does she want anything to do with the big potty. I'm thinking it had something to do with our terrible weather. We had another snow storm, blizzard if you are inclined, that dumped another 5 inches on top of our already 10 inches, and then we had an arctic blast. So cold that it was colder here than it was in the Arctic. Like -15 with the wind chill. So I worked from home for 2 days and we didn't leave the house. During those two days was when she was going strong on the potty training. Then I went back to work. And she regressed.