Weekend Rewind

Happy Monday friends!! What a happy Monday? Well it's a Happy Birthday to me Monday - we will see what the day has in store for me. In the meantime we will rewind the weekend:

Friday night M burnt our burgers to a crisp! I thought Noah was just saying "FIRE" but the BBQ was legit on fire! Guess M will have to clean the BBQ! We ended up having grilled cheese for supper... M had baseball, so I was on solo bedtime duty. It didn't not go down well at all. At one point they were both screaming. Emilya isn't napping well at all with her new teeth coming in! She is definitely getting a bottom tooth (it's poked through already), but I am convinced that it won't be long before the one beside it comes up. This is soo crazy to me, becaus Noah didn't get teeth until 9 months!! 

I did end up getting both kids down and by 9 PM! So it was half a mommy win! I decided to rent a pay-per-view since Bell offered me a free one. I chose Mother's Day, since the cast was loaded with big actresses like Jennifer Anniston, Julia Roberts, etc. It was alright, maybe I just expected better because of the fully loaded cast. I was glad I didn't pay $6 for it! But I will say the renting process was super easy! 

Saturday morning M and Noah went to the farm to get the pressure washer and the backhoe. They
had a small job to do in the morning. While they did that, Em and I worked upstairs for a bit. I took an inventory of Noah's wardrobe and I think I bought the wrong sizes for fall! Let's just say Noah has a whole bunch of 4T clothes... Like I won't buy another thing in that size and not so much in 3T... - the size that fits. Oops!! I will go through his drawers and get a better idea on the situation and see just what he needs. 

When the boys got back, Em was napping, so I went outside and quickly came up with a new plan for the front porch! We need to repaint the porch and the one side of the railing was actually rotting. So, I decided that I would like an opening to come off the side of the porch instead of walking around to the front. So M ripped off that part of the railing and will have to fix up the posts and build a new step going up to it! I think it will look great! I got started with power washing. I always wondered why
people cleaned thier driveways, etc. but this made a night and day difference! Our house was filthy! I've got a lot of painting coming up in the nearest future, after we give everything a light sanding. But our screen door (wooden), rocking chair, front porch, garage door trim, and front door all need some paint and we will reseal the front porch deck. 

The day literally flew by with M and I taking turns watching the kids as we tackled various jobs around the house, with power washing being mine, his was cutting the lawn, working on the pool, and working on the deck railing. I managed to get just over half of the house and porch power washed before we decided to make a run into Home Depot. Emilya screamed the whole time - over tired for sure, but we got everything we needed except sand paper! 

We grabbed Swiss Chalet for dinner and headed home to eat! This kid was spun!! So we played for a bit before bedtime! 

Pretty sure I went to bed early! 

Sunday morning we just had some good old fashioned family time! Playing, waffle breakfast and then we planned out the day, as we still had a list of things to accomplish! 

 

 

I finished power washing the house, with a few breaks to hang out with these two. 

 

 

Check out the difference... 

 

M and Noah went into town to pick up my birthday cake (ice cream cake - my request) and brought home lunch. After lunch the kids napped. While they napped I finished the power washing and got my work out in! I missed two days... Technically one if you count one of the missed days as a rest day! Sometimes life just gets to busy, although I am sure I made it up for it on the days I missed! 

M went swimming to try and find the hole in our liner and was successful!! Then he headed to ball!!

When the kids woke up we headed down to the ball park just as M was finishing his ball game! So we played at the park for a bit instead!! 

 

We came home, had a spaghetti supper and then went back outside to work on the new step for the front porch! Best little helper around: 

 

 

Next thing we knew, it was bedtime!! 

Today we are hanging around home and then heading to the farm for my birthday dinner and ice cream cake! 

The Truth Is:

The struggle is real! This season of life is crazy and chaotic, but it's a beautiful chaos and I wouldn't change a thing!

Our days are long, the mom guilt is strong, the house is a mess, the projects are all adding up and the to-do lists are never ending. The main goal at the end of the day is that everyone goes to bed happy, no matter how long the day was, how exhausted we all are, we survived and we did it together! 

Stop comparing to the moms who look like they have it all together, because chances are they do have it all together, but that's today, not everyday. You can't see behind the scenes. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but like I mentioned above, as long as by the end of the day everyone can goto bed happy, then you have done it in my eyes. Look at your strengths and be proud, and looks at your weaknesses and reassess. There will always be room for improvement! Ask for help when you need it. I struggle with this one myself, but when I do have the help, it makes the worlds difference! 

I can remember wishing for these days, the long days, the fun days, the crazy days, heck even the bad days!! They are here and I am embracing them the very best I can! That's not to say that some days I don't get overwhelmed, because heck, I am no super mom!! My patience level is exhausted every.single.day on the constant, but I must say, even it is getting better, or I am just getting better at acknowledging when I need to step back or pick my battles. 

Toddlers are no joke! They are needy, emotional, loud, frustrating balls of love and energy. I'm pretty sure they are bipolar as well, because there is no way someone can actually go from being super happy to the angriest in less than a minute. But what I have learned is that being a toddler is hard work! They are literally figuring out how this world works! They are learning what is acceptable and what is not, what is considered good behaviour and bad and they are testing what they learn constantly! Throw in the variables of teething, tired, and sickness and they are like ticking time bombs!! Consistency is key! 

 

My days are constantly divided with who needs what first! Priorities become a constant equation. Both kids end up crying and I have to decide who needs me first! 

Babies don't keep! Especially second born babies! I used to think it with Noah, but with Emilya, the days are just flying by!! Luckily she gives one heck of a good snuggle hug, but otherwise she already planning her next move - literally!! Noah didn't move or crawl until like 8 months, but Emilya is already moving around the room with rolling or army crawling.

I will say that while dealing with Emilya's hearing issues and sitting in various waiting rooms with other children with issues, it just opened my eyes big time when I think about how lucky we really are. Even after getting blood work done on Emilya, I went home feeling soo defeated, babies shouldn't have to have blood work and in a perfect world, they shouldn't be able to get sick either. It was soo heartbreaking watching her get blood drawn and then walking back into a waiting room full of children with all sorts of visible and non-visible problems waiting for various procedures and blood work. 

Being a parent is hard!! I think there is even more pressure on today's society of parents as well, because with all this wrong in the world, you want tknow raise them right. You want to teach them about love, yet prepare them for how harsh the world has come! You want them to be kids, but yet cautious in such a crazy world. Soo much violence and hate and it is our job to see them through it, to choose to make them aware or pray they can't see the world for how it really is! When I was a kid the biggest problem was not taking candy from strangers, today our children deal with extreme bullying, bombs, shootings, and BAD people. That isn't to say these things didn't happen when I was younger, but they didn't happen like they do now. 

 

So that is the truth - parenting is no joke. In every single aspect, it will be the most rewarding job, but the most difficult job. The pressure is on to raise a child right, and albeit, maybe it's a pressure we put on ourselves, but with good reason! At the same time, give yourselves a pat on the pack for surviving each and every day, even the days where you coasted by on survival mode! 

 

Emilya - 4 Months

Eating: We are still breastfeeding and things are continuing to go well! She does not nurse well in public areas or loud areas and will get easily distracted. We increased her "overnight" bottle to 5 ounces, but she has been sleeping all night most nights and ends up getting it at 5 AM or 6 AM. I think we will consider introducing pablum next month! 

Sleeping: Emilya is a great sleeper. We are in the middle of sleep training because we found ourselves getting into the habit of rocking her to sleep for waay to long! So now we put her to bed on 

her queues, which is often after nursing or she will just get fussy and we will rock her for 5 minutes and then lay her down drowsy. So far it is working! We are no longer swaddling her and she is sleeping in a sleep sack now! She is going to bed around 8:30/9 and waking between 5/6 AM, at which time she will get her bottle and then go back to sleep for an hour or two. 

Clothing: Emilya is wearing size 3-6 months in most of the clothes. Shorts are still 3 months, as 6 months are too big in the waste. Her 3 month pants are getting short, but 6 months are just a bit long, so 3-6 month is the best. She is wearing 3-6 month sleepers or 6 month sleepers! Emilya is wearing size 2 pampers swaddlers.

Skin and Hair: I am happy to report Emilya has quite a bit of hair growing in on the the top of her head, however it is very light!! The back of her hair is still pretty dark. So far it is pretty straight like her mama's! Emilya's eyes are very blue, but it is hard to say if they will be as light as Noah's or not. 

Weight:   4 Months: 15lbs, 1oz

Her Length is 26 inches!! She is soo tall!!

               

What The Doctor Had To Say: Emilya is healthy and doing great! She did much better with her shots this time, despite the syringe breaking where the needle screws on during the second needle. She wasn't as miserable for the few days past the needles either, so that was a bonus! We see the ENT this month as well. We also for,owed up with the audiologist and her left ear is still considered moderate hearing loss, and although it improved slightly, it wasn't enough to change the fact that she will likely still need a hearing aid for that ear. 

 

Nicknames: Emma, Em, Emy, Baby, Little Miss, Littlest Squish, Baby girl, Baby Bunny, Emilya Hope, Sis

 

Big Brother Update: Noah is still doing a great job! He shares his toys with her for the most part and has really figured out the trading system if she has something he wants, he will ask her if he can have it and then give her something else in place of it! He lives introducing her to people and loving on her! Greeting her after naps is his favorite job and he goes marching in our room gets to her bed and says "Hi Emilya Hope!"

 

Likes: rolling around, Nemo and Dory, her play mat, her Muslin blankets, her lovey, her brother, being read to, being outside, bathes, a few different toys, being carried in the baby bjorn, the exersaucer, standing, and dogs. 

 

Dislikes: the car, or sitting still.

 

Personality: Emilya is overall a happy girl and is super easy going for the most part. She will pretty much flash a smile at anyone who gives her attention! As long as there is no car ride involved, she is pretty much game for anything! Even sleep training has gone pretty smoothly! We are hoping to start napping her up in her nursery soon. Even with the issues with her left ear, you would never know she has a hearing problem, as she does respond to voices and sounds! 

This months photos were taken a little late! 

Weekend Rewind

Likely the most boring weekend rewind in a while - just sayin!!

Friday night Noah was off to the lake for his first weekend sleep over!! M and I ordered take out from the restaurant and hung out in a quiet house before he headed to ball and I headed to hang out with the ladies with Emilya! She stayed awake the whole evening and flight sleep like a champ fort he whole girls night, but she was at least happy while doing it! 

Saturday morning we all woke up at 7:30, I got some laundry started and we picked up the house a bit. We face timed with Noah to see how his first night away on the boat was, and it went well, aside from waking up early! 

We packed up for the ball game and headed out!! I will say Emilya travelled not to badly this weekend!! Fingers crossed she's growing out of it or getting better at entertaining herself! Once we got to ball park, I put her sleep and enjoyed watching the whole game, interruption free without worrying where Noah was! They won that game, but had a huge gap inbetween games, so we welcomed the team back to our house inbetween games. 

The kids swam, we ordered pizza and relaxed for a few hours. M and and I at least enjoyed getting the photo updates of Noah's weekend away - my one request haha. 

The guys won their next game and then didn't play again until Sunday at 12:45! I had a pounding headache, thanks to his head cold M shared with me, so we picked up supper and came home! I enjoyed a soak in the hot tub, which helped my headache and then we had a quiet night! Pretty sure I was in bed by 10 PM! 

Sunday morning we were all up by 7:30 again! M and I decided that a full weekend away from Noah is just too long, plus then M doesn't get any time with Noah! We will stick with overnights instead! 

 

I finished making the zucchini loaves - the zucchini our neighbour gave me made 8 loaves in total!! We are going through freeze them! We hung a few pictures in Em's nursery, cleaned Noah's room and I had a quick shower before we headed back to ball! 

 

The ended up with only 9 players and got mercied! 

So we headed home with a tired Emilya and while she napped at home with M, I ran into town and grabbed groceries! I also bought a dual DVD player for the car to see if it will help distract Emilya by giving her something to focus on! 

 

Noah didn't get home until 6 PM! M and I were pretty antsy to see him and we did get the biggest hugs when he got home. We had dinner with M's parents, and played for a bit before they went home and we got everyone ready for bed! 

This little lady was especially happy to see Noah, although she learned how to make up for the noise she was missing and was constantly chatting all weekend!! 

 

We all sure missed this squish this weekend! But he did have fun at the lake with Grandma and Grandpa!! 

 

So there you have it, a rather quiet uneventful weekend it was, and as much as it was a nice break, just too long!! 

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!! We are having a quiet day today!! 

Friday's Flare

This week was crazy busy, but it was good, aside from a certain toddler waking up early all week! But we have lots to report this week!! Let's get started!

1) We successfully left Noah with a sitter last night and by sitter I mean someone other than family!!! The babysitter we have chosen was busy last night, so we asked one of our employees that Noah loves to watch Noah and it went well!! We had a funeral visitation to go to. Noah was good and didn't seem to mind that we left him!! Maybe this will break the babysitter curse!! 

2) last night we had both kids in bed by 8:30!! Parenting win!! However this mama went to bed early too thanks the M sharing his cold!! Mamas can't get sick! Can I get a sick day please??

3) we had Emilya's appointment with the specialist. We didn't really get more information unfortunately, however it did help us to decide to move forward with getting her hearing aid! We also ruled out that her carsickness is not an inner ear problem, which is good! The doctor did order new tests to rule out further problems that run in pairs with hearing problems as a precaution and ordered some genetic testing to try to figure out what has caused the hearing loss. Emilya will also need an
ECG to rule out heart problems, she will see an eye doctor and have a urine test to rule out kidney issues. We did the blood work while at the hospital, since they have a paediatric department for that. Seeing her get blood taken was no fun at all. Babies just shouldn't have to have tests done this young. But we all survived. 

4) don't forget to enter the give away I'm running on Instagram!! 

5) we had a birthday party to attend yesterday and Noah had soo much fun!! 

6) Noah is going to the boat for the weekend without us!! Grandma and Grandpa requested a sleep over and it turned out to be a good weekend for it since M had a ball tournament but the truth is, this will be the first time I won't see him EVERYDAY and that is going to be hard!! But we also know it will be good for him and us. I know I am going to miss him like crazy!! I will be requesting photo updates though, because as well all know I document Every.Single.Day of our kids life. 

7) Monday night I had my hair appointment and I cut off 4 inches and I am back to blonde! My hair feels soo much better!! 

8) Tuesday night I hosted a girls night! Ten of us went to see Bad Moms and took up almost an entire row at the movies! The movie was great!! We all loved it!! After the movie we all came back to my place and had some appies and fun discussions on the patio and a few more ladies joined us too!! Soo much fun! 

There we have it, the week summed up and the upcoming weekend plans. 

A Bundle O' Bows Give Away

Let's talk all things girly today!! Having a baby girl is seriously soo much fun!! Maybe it is because I have always dreamt of having a girl, dressing up my dolls as a kid, and now I have my own baby girl!! Now if only she would stay doll sized for just a little bit longer??

I am soo happy that at this point, Emilya doesn't seem to mind a little hair accessories at this point and as soon as she was born, you bet I was hair bow shopping. The nice thing is, they don't grow out of them!! You can always repurpose them later!

I came across this Canadian shop, because let's face it, with the dollar these days, Canadian shopping is where it is at!! I ordered a few bows and they threw in a few extras!!

A Bundle O' Bows

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Ashley Walters is the shop owner, along with her husband Reid. They created A Bundle O' Bows mostly to give Ashley something to do on maternity leave and a creative outlet. They have a baby girl named Oaklyn Willow who just reached her 6 month mark! 

 This is another awesome shop that donates part of their proceeds to Operation Smile. Ashley's husband and his brother were both born with a cleft lip/ palette. Reid recently got into Dental Techology school with a goal of one day being able to profoundly impact Operation Smile by creating for these wonderful children!! As a family they hope to be able to volunteer in a big way one day.

They sent me the sweetest package of bows:

And it is pretty safe to say, that it is easy to incorporate these into our daily lives! Em doesn't quite have enough hair for the clips yet, but the headbands are a common occurence:

 

We really love the nylon headbands, they really do stretch!! The quality is great and they really are well-made!! 

Ashley and Reid were kind enough to send an extra headband for me to share, and I was going to do a give away with it, however, Ashley has offered to send a package to the winner instead!! 

 It is is open to Canadians and Americans only and you can enter the give away on my Instagram!!  <<< click there to go enter!! 

Best of luck everyone!! 

Thank you soo much Ashley and Reid for the bow package, we really do love them!!