Rundown

I think I need to let myself relax a little. I am getting sick. A stay at home mommy of an 8 month old and 20 month old just isn't allowed to get sick. Today I layed on the couch the entire 2 hr nap both the girls took together and just read a few magazines. It was nice and well needed.

Poor little Amelia is teething and she has been a sad little baby when the medicine wears off her little self. It has been extremely hard getting her to drink a bottle. She is basically eating like a newborn right now. She is loving her solids though. I think it is because the spoon feels good on her gums.

Today she learned a fun new trick. She now LOVES to spew her food all over everything every time she takes a bite. She thinks it is hilarious. I was covered in spots of baby cereal this evening. Aleigh also thought it was funny and decided to take her drink and also spew it all over the couch. Nice. They must get it from Jake. :)

After cleaning up spewed juice and cereal they then took a bath. I thought a bath was when you clean up. Apparently you actually walk away having to clean more. Haha. Aleigh peed in the tub so I asked her if she wanted to go on the potty. She made her yes gesture. I then start singing to her the "this old man" song. Well when it comes to the 4 part I knocked on the door. This made Kea go bezerk which made Aleigh almost have a heart attack and sit in my lap. I then get Amelia out of the empty tub and guess what happens. Aleigh peed on the floor. So I ask her if she wants to go back on the potty. She says yes, so on she goes. In the meantime Amelia pulls to a stand on my shoulder. Within 20 seconds she pees all over my leg. I get up, Aleigh wants down so I help her, I wash Amelia and I off. I look over and there Aleigh was peeing on the floor again. I had a lot to clean up! I didn't realize how dirty kids are until I had 2! But I love 'em.

Another note, Jake has an interview with a job in Salt Lake city Thursday. Be praying he is confident in himself and he is sharp with answering questions. I know he will do great though. It is a job we are really hoping for as long as it is what God wants. So far Jake has turned down 2 jobs. The only way this one would be turned down is if it doesn't pay enough.

What I love most

Today is my "Friday"meaning for the next two days I only have to work part time. The work never ends for a mom of 2 little ones. They have been way too much fun lately. Seriously, just a little too much fun. I have been exhausted every morning. A mom's work day starts as soon as those littles wake up. Mine wake at about 6am.

Amelia is a playful little gal. She will not stop to sit still at all. I can hardly get her to drink a bottle. Oh but she makes up for the loss of daytime food and down the bottle in the middle of the night. Silly girl.

Because of all the exhaustion I am going to remind myself of what I love most about being a mom to 2 little girls, instead of thinking about the exhausting parts.

1. The pitter patter sound little feet make while running.

2. Holding Aleigh's sweet little hand as she walks beside you.

3. Little slobery open mouth baby kisses.

4. Happy baby trying to talk.

5. The funny faces a baby makes when you give her a food she does not like.

6. The endless giggles when they are overly tired.

7. The squeals I hear constantly from my little Amelia, happy baby.

8. When sitting on the floor they come from all directions to practically tackle you.

9. The looks on their faces when they discover something new.

10. The proud grins when they accomplish what they have been working on.

11. Excitement every time their Daddy walks through that front door after a day at work.

12. Chasing the toddler down for hugs she tries to pull away from, yet she has a grin on her face. Uh huh she enjoys it.

13. Walks in the park

14. Wonderful excuse to jump in water puddles again, that splashing sound never gets old.

15. They help me remember to stop and watch the birds, or the trees blow in the wind.

16. The smiles they give eachother warms my heart.

17. Watching Aleigh try her best to help me do anything and everything.

18. When Aleigh shares anything she has with Amelia.

19. The times when Aleigh and I are in a different room and Aleigh thinks something is missing. She then runs to Amelia and tried to pick her up to bring her to me.

20. Cute little baby feet that like to be tickled.

21. When Aleigh tries to walk around in our shoes or try on our clothes.

22. How adorable little babies look with a bow on their head.

The list could go on and on. I am so thankful to have Aleigh and Amelia. We are going to have way too much fun together over the years. I am also thankful for Jake. He works so hard to let me stay at home and then on his weekend he still works part time by giving me a part time break. Cheers to my Friday!

A normal day

I woke up at 5:45 this morning. I probably could make myself fall asleep again at this point but I know my kids are going to wake soon enough, so instead I give myself some quiet alone time.

I then hear Amelia wake 30 minutes later at 6:15, screaming. I then realized yay! she slept through the night! She must be screaming because she is starving. I quickly run in the room to grab Amelia in hopes Aleigh will sleep in a little longer. Nope, Amelia rolls and wakes as soon as she hears the creak in the door.

Time for a diaper change. Amelia is in that stage where she now hates laying still to get her diaper changed or change clothes. So I do my best to distract her so she doesn't try to roll. I then change Aleigh.

By this time the girls were starving and cranky and I have only been out of bed for a few minutes. I make Amelia her bottle, give Aleigh some applesauce and sit down to a bowl of cereal. A few minutes later Amelia decided she doesn't want to eat and wants to explore instead.

I start to smell some stinkiness and I just changed diapers 30 minutes ago. Another round of diaper changes and baby wrestling to put that clean diaper on.

Meanwhile Aleigh has decided she wants to read some books. She loves reading it is her favorite thing and has been for about a year. Amelia on the other hand will hardly sit still for one book. I think OK we will read a few. No, she ended up giving me the cute face and making me read every single book she has. I counted 36 books! Some she only wanted to read a few pages in, others she wanted to read 4-5 times. Amelia practically explored the house while we read.

I knew Amelia was still hungry so I then went to feed her some cereal. Well apparently Aleigh wanted to read more. She then put up a fit. This toddler fit went on for about 10 minutes while I fed Amelia.

This is a time when a stroller comes in handy, distraction. But it was left in the car which is at Jake's work. We really need to buy a 2nd double stroller so I don't have to keep remembering to take ours out of the car. I decided to instead do some cleaning. Amelia now has separation anxiety so leaving the room makes her really sad.

I run to grab the vacuum so Amelia knows I am returning and didn't just disappear to never be seen again. The vacuum, Amelia loves it, Aleigh hates it. You would think Aleigh would be used to it by now. Sometimes she just looks slightly worried but it keeps her distracted. Today though, she screamed and wanted to be held. Amelia just wants to play with it as it goes by her.

Aleigh and I then go get the broom and swiffer. She loves helping me with this cleaning project. Today though she apparently really wanted the broom. I kept telling her to help me swiffer instead. Once I was done with the broom she didn't want to give up the swiffer for the broom. She gets her stubbornness from me, what can I say.

Amelia then decides she finally wants a bottle. Just kidding, a few minutes later she again just wants to play. We all finally get out of our PJ's 3 hours later and brush our teeth. Aleigh doesn't mind brushing her teeth sometimes it even makes her laugh. Amelia just had her first tooth pop through a few days ago. So far, she can't stand having her teeth brushed. I then leave the girls to try and "brush" their own teeth to go and brush my own. After I brush I walk in to the living room and see Aleigh sitting there with Amelia's toothbrush in her mouth and Amelia was fast asleep with the bottle in her arms. Oh man....I hope that one time doesn't give her a bottle-sleep association again.

I was hoping to put the girls down for thier naps together today to give myself some down time, nope. Amelia gets put in her bed and I rinse the toothbrushes. I guess sisters that young and close in age don't mind sharing germs. :-p.

I have been teaching Aleigh how to wash her hands. She loves it because it gives her a chance to play in the water. She ends up sitting in the sink and basically turning it into a pool. That's ok it gives me a 5 minute break.

Now that the girls are getting older I am able to treat myself to some amazing things like lotion. My skin was getting a little rhino like. :-/  I never put lotion on either of my kids just because their skin doesn't need it. Before Aleigh was born I bought some baby lotion so now I have been using it up myself. Johnson and Johnson has officially been tested on animals as of today. Aleigh thought it was a blast wiping it on Kea, who then went crazy trying to lick it off. Kea loves the taste of lotion, yuck.

We live on a really dry side of the island, almost desert like. I have been trying to keep what little grass we have alive, so I then water the grass. I usually do this while the girls are sleeping so we don't get muddy feet/doggy paws. Aleigh thought this was too much fun. We played for a little while with the water hose.

We run, we chase each other, we skip, we "jump", we hide from each other and we have snacks. Amelia then wakes up screaming. Poor girl she is still teething. Just the beginning of teething really. Aleigh and I then read a few books and she goes to bed.

Here I am writing this now. These girls are exhausting but I love spending my days with them. I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with them. I will look back on these days and know the financial sacrifices to stay at home were so worth it.

I have to go spend some one-on-one time with little Amelia now before Aleigh wakes up. She is such a sweet girl.

A sight to be seen

Now that Jake and I are becoming "masters" of having 2 little ones, we are also realizing just the sight we are giving others around us. It must be hilarious to watch really. We have always been somewhat annoyed by how many people just seem to stare at us. Yes we have 2 little ones that look almost close enough to be twins. They must surely be twins because nobody in their right mind would have 2 so close together right? We thought that was what everybody thought. Now we know we are just entertaining to watch is all.

On our anniversary we brought the kids with us. We don't have family in Hawaii and Aleigh still has some stranger anxiety even around friends. We went on a movie tour at a ranch where they have filmed some big name movies. Right from the get go people start watching. We have to change their diapers. We have a tool bag in the back of the car with everything needed, diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, rash cream, snacks etc. just in case we forget it in the diaper bag. I change one then we switch kids and I change the other. The whole tour Aleigh wanted to walk as much as possible. Jake had to chase her around while I wore Amelia in the baby carrier. Amelia was squealing the whole tour while Aleigh was screaming every time we saw a cow, horse or bird, which was often. No wonder how many stares we received from the bus full of people.

We decided to attempt to eat at Outback steakhouse. From the get go we receive more staring. From Aleigh who waves at everybody and is demanding to walk on her own in a restaurant where she has no idea where she is walking and keeps walking in front of people even when we are guiding her and holding her hand. Then to the high chair dilemma. Do we have 2 high chairs, or 1 chair and hold Amelia, or 1 chair and let Aleigh sit in a booster seat? We decide on one high chair and a booster seat. Well we decided to put Aleigh in the high chair first and hold Amelia. Aleigh was taking her kids menu, crayons, napkins, coasters and swishing them around the table and throwing them on the floor. We gave Amelia some toys too. She constantly kept throwing them on the floor. We recieved I don't know how many "you have a toy/item under you" by I don't know how many people.

We then receive our meals and guess who else wants to eat with us? Amelia, so Jake gives her a bottle while trying to eat his salad with his other hand while Amelia is trying to grab at his fork. Meanwhile Aleigh has a plate of some of our salad and bread. She of course doesn't want the salad. Instead she thinks the plate is a drum set. When Amelia was finished with her bottle we get a 2nd high chair and put Amelia in if. Well, Aleigh was then making a huge mess so we decided to move her to the booster seat. Our main meals come out and Aleigh was then sliding out of the booster seat and almost falling under the table almost the same time as Amelia is sliding down in the high chair and crying because she couldn't lean back without sliding down. All high chairs do not fit 7 month old babies apparently. So then Jake holds Amelia again while we try to get Aleigh just to sit in the booth. Every couple minutes she starts to stand again so we have to remind her to sit again. There was a baby in the booth behind us, so she gradually would make her way to a stand so she could wave and stare at the family behind us. Do you ever feel like you are being watched? Well you probably are. At one point Aleigh gets into my diaper bag. I didnt even realize it was next to her. Next thing I see is Amelia's little baby shoe is slammed down on top of Aleigh's plate of food. Lovely. Thankfully since Amelia isnt walking a baby shoe really isnt dirty but still clean feet even dont belong on a table especially not a plate of food. Apparently Aleigh got Amelia's shoes out of my bag. Nice, that will make for some rubbery tasting food.

After lots of giggles, screams, random crying for no reason, squeals and food being dropped because Aleigh doesn't want it, 2 empty high chairs along with 1 empty booster seat, and dirty fingers smeared all over the table we finally finish our meal, pay, and then leave again with our 1 yr. old walking in front of waitresses and waving at them as she passes. We are quite the sight to be seen. It is a little stressful at times. Sometimes we wonder how we even get food in our mouths. Sometimes we are so stressed that it is hilarious and we both just crack up laughing at the scenario. It is a lot of fun though. We love our kids, we love our life. We wouldn't have it any other way. We are the "crazy" people who have 2 kids just under a year apart, our Irish twins.

The perfect pair

Amelia is in that stage of dropping things to have you pick them right back up. Well Aleigh is in the stage of wanting to hand things to you over and over again. Guess what? They are the perfect duo. Amelia drops an item, Aleigh fetches and gives it back to Amelia and they can entertain each other doing this while I sit back and get a minute breather.

Amelia is now a crawling pro. She follows you all over the house. She also knows the nightly routine pretty well. When she hears the bathtub faucet on here she comes crawling in ready for her bath. She is also pulling up to a stand on anything that comes her way. If you are laying on the floor watch out unless you want a hand full of hair ripped out of your head. She thinks hair is a great thing to grab onto to pull up to a stand. Haha that's ok it grows back.

Jake has been applying for a lot of jobs recently. He had one job offer, but the job itself didn't seem right for us. Right now we are waiting to hear back from a job in Las Vegas, Louisville Kentucky, and Salt Lake City. The job we really thought would work out didn't. This made us very confused and didn't know what direction to go next. We finally realized the meaning of God's will for a person.

God's will is for you to do something that makes you happy as long as it is not sinful and as long as nothing in the Bible contradicts what you want. Before we were constantly thinking what does God want us to do? Well if there is nothing wrong with that option and God didn't close the door then more than likely it is in God's will, you just have to decide if you want to take it, if it would make you happy. Knowing this now, it is so much clearer what path we want to take. If we start to take a path and the door is closed it obviously is not the right path. If the door stays open and you are trying to follow God then it is a good path. Now we are testing the paths. We will see where they lead. Wish us luck!

Bye bye bedtime cuddles

It has been a long time since I have updated everyone on life changes, so here we go!

Aleigh for the past month has been trying to get her way and stay awake when it is time to sleep. Starting about 7 months old I found that holding her until she was sleeping worked best. We also off and on tried just putting our hand in her bed because she liked playing with our hands while falling asleep. 90% of the time she was held though. Now she will shove your hand away, try to climb off your lap, cry and scream and turn while being held etc. We have decided since she no longer wants to be held and is just going to throw a tantrum it is now time to put our foot down and when it is bedtime it is bedtime. If she is going to cry one way or the other then she will learn to fall asleep on her own. We are going to go in every so many minutes and tell her it is OK, mommy and daddy are here but it is time to go to sleep then give her a kiss and leave again. Tonight it took 35 minutes. Hopefully this will work.

Tonight when we were reading a book before bed Aleigh picked out a book that has different textures to feel. It was the cutest thing every time I turned the page without even prompting she would grab Amelia's hand and make Amelia feel the texture. Cute kids, she is such a good big sister already.

If I am smiling really big at Amelia, Aleigh has started doing the same, she will crouch down and give Amelia the cheesiest smile she can muster and Amelia just smiles right back at her.

Amelia has started to pull herself up to a stand this past week and the week before she learned how to crawl on her hands and knees. If you are on the floor trying to do something beware of the baby she will now climb all over you, pull your hair, eat your nose and stick her slobbery wet finger in your eye. I love my little baby wrestler. Her two favorite hangouts are the backyard and the bathroom. If the back door is open you better believe she will be out there soon. If you put her on her bedroom floor while changing Aleigh's diaper next thing I hear is pounding on the bathroom scale.

Its pretty neat that Aleigh and Amelia learned the exact same week, 32 weeks old, how to crawl and the very next week they both learned how to pull up to a stand. It will be interesting to see if Amelia also starts walking at 9&1/2 months. Not sure if I am ready for that!

We found out this last week the new update on the place we are living in. We were originally told that we would have to move out by the time our lease ended, that was the end of May. We never heard from anyone as to if we could sign a new lease. Well we finally heard and more than likely the bank will sell the place. They said we will have to be out in about 3 months but they don't know specific dates yet.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there. Today can be tough though. Hard for the people who have lost their moms, for the women who desperately want a baby but it just isnt happening, and it is a tough day for the moms who have lost a child or baby. Those people need a little extra love on a day like today. I am thinking of everyone I know who fits in those tough spots. You are all amazing.

I am so blessed to be a mom to 3 kids, 1 in heaven and 2 right next to me. Being a mom is the best thing. At times it can also be the hardest thing and I am only 18 months into it. After I had Aleigh I worried about every little thing. I felt like I was always doing something wrong. I googled everything to see what was normal, what I should be doing and comparing my parenting to other moms. I felt like everywhere I went someone was watching and critiquing my mommy skills. I also felt like most other moms were comparing my baby with theirs as far as milestones go but also comparing personalities. If I said my baby is crying and fussing and won't sleep through the night they would say well you are doing this and this wrong like it was my fault when I was already doing everything humanely possible to change things.

I since have learned how ridiculous I was being. Every baby is so different and if they want to do something they will on their own time. With my 2nd child if the paci falls on the floor...that's ok a little bit of germs is ok for the body. If she doesn't sleep through the night...that is ok because she is a baby and one day will sleep so soundly she won't want to wake up for school. If she isn't held every minute of every day...that is ok because she still knows I love her even though she is not being held. If she doesn't have bows in her hair, or socks or shoes on her feet everyday...that's ok because she is seriously adorable without them and who needs shoes when you can't even walk anyways. We have to stop perfecting our kids and just let them be kids.

Mommy wars are ridiculous. Breast vs. Formula. Home school vs. public schools. Stay at home mom vs. Working mom. Baby wearing vs. Stroller riders. Baby led weaning vs. early solid feeding. Girls ears pierced vs. non pierced. Circumcision vs. not.  Co-sleeping vs. Them sleeping in their own space. The list seriously could go on and on and on. We need to stop comparing with each other because for 1. What are we teaching our kids? To compare with others, like you aren't good enough. 2. Celebrate in your child because they were made in the eyes of God and they are perfect for themselves. Nobody is perfect and every person is unique, babies included. Let them be themselves and stop comparing.

In all honesty moms you are all amazing. Stop being so harsh on yourself. You are doing a fantastic job! Enjoy your kids while they are kids and the only way you can do that is by taking it easy on yourself. Being a mom is the hardest job, we worry, we want the best for our kids and that is what makes us so fantastic. I know I think I am pretty darn fantastic so start thinking those things about yourself. It can teach our kids to learn to have good self esteem and not rely on what others think of themselves.

Happy Mothers day! I love you mom, Oma, my 2nd mom Pam, and all the other mommas I know. You all rock!