By The Numbers

I'm sorry my blog posts have been so wordy lately. After I put up a new post, I always let Mike know so that he can read it. I am always amazed that it takes me so long to write it, but it takes him only a minute or two to read it. And I usually think of a thing or three that I forget to say every time I post.

Tonight I thought I would attempt to be brief (for my sake and yours!)

So, By the Numbers ...

Sleeping

6 - Noah slept over 6 hours straight last night, from 9:30pm to 4:00am. When Mike woke up at 7:30am, he woke me up and asked if Noah ever woke up during the night. This reminds me to never leave my kids with Mike at night if he's planning to be asleep at all.

2 - Newly purchased swaddle blankets to match the swaddle blanket that I used last night and may have contributed to Noah's longer sleep time.

Feeding

2 - Ounces of breastmilk + 1 ounce of formula = 3 hours on average between feedings.

3 - Ounces of formula + 0 ounces of breastmilk = a huge spitup for Noah. Not a good idea.

Entertainment

71 - Brady Bunch re-runs that Emily likes to watch = Lots of Laughter at our house.

2 - Brady Bunch songs on CD in the car, repeat repeatedly.

6 or 7 - George Strait songs, for the kids of course.

School

20 - Snacks for the Kindergarten class on Tuesday.

1 - Show and Tell Item for Tuesday (possibly, a pink laptop computer).

1 - Line leader for the day named Emily, also Tuesday.

1 - B.E.E notebook (Bring Everything Everyday) that will contain daily papers and notes from the teacher.

1 - Pair of new Skecher shoes for school.

5 - New fall outfits, Thank you Nanny!

Mama

16 - Days Postpartum.

5 - Pounds below pre-pregnancy weight, and still dropping.

1 - Sore incision line, especially first thing in the morning and at the end of each day.

1 - Ring finger that started hurting on Friday. Still swollen yesterday, but back to normal today. Still no idea what caused it to hurt.

1 - Blessed lady. So thankful for my sweet family.

Family Day

4 - Wonderful family members.

10 - People met us for lunch at Outback Steakhouse today.

2 - Kids to Nanny's house while Mom and Dad tackled Wal-mart. Thanks, Nanny!

100 - Dollars spent although we only had a few things on our list. Why does this always happen?

4 - More episodes of Brady Bunch.

3 - Loads of laundry.

1 - Delicious dinner.

1 - Easy bedtime for Emily (We love to see that improvement!)

1 - Early morning tomorrow and a busy day.

Good Night!

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Rewards

After our difficult day at home last Monday, Mike told Emily that he would buy her a whole banana split all to herself if she would listen to Mama and be a good helper the rest of the week.

On a side note - You might remember that we have our behavior chart on a dry erase board in the kitchen. Someone came to visit us this week and commented on all the red X's that Emily had beside her name on Monday. It was really a hard day.

Since school started on Thursday, she also had to follow the rules at school and not get her color moved in order to claim her reward. They use a "light" discipline system in her class this year. If she stays on green, then she is displaying good behavior. If she gets moved to yellow or red, then she's not following the rules and doing the right thing. They used a similar system last year in Pre-K and she never got moved off of green. We are expecting the same thing this year.

And true to form, Emily was much better the rest of the week. She earned her allowance every day this week besides Monday and she didn't get moved off green at school.

So this evening, we took Emily to Braums for her banana split. I fully intended to take pictures of the dish before she started eating it, but it was already starting to melt and make a mess so I just let her dig in.

Her Dad had a great idea and gave her a straw to use to drink up some of the melted stuff. That worked a lot better than the spoon. And she eventually found the banana at the bottom of the dish. She enjoyed her banana split very much. You can tell because she has chocolate all over her face! She even shared a bit with Mama and Daddy.

Tonight, Emily is spending the night with Nanny and Poppa so that she can go to Sunday School with them in the morning. We had been talking this up all week in hopes that she would agree to spend the night. And this morning, she confirmed that she would. But she made sure I knew that "she would come home tomorrow." And she kept telling me that she would miss me. I miss her too!

And you know this little cutie misses her too. He was napping in his pack 'n play this afternoon and I caught him sleeping with his hand behind his head. When I nap in my recliner, I sometimes put my hand behind my head like that too.

He wore a dinosaur onesie with some navy pants this afternoon. He looked like such a big boy wearing a shirt and pants instead of a stretchie/sleeper. He's been wearing a knit hat when he sleeps at night and I think that's so cute too. He's pretty good at leaving it on his head. Now if we could just get him to leave his socks on ...

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Twos

Two Weeks

This morning, Mike and I took Noah to his two-week doctor's appointment. Noah weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long. His weight, height and head circumference were all in the 5-10th percentile on the growth chart.

I told Dr. K that my milk supply has not been able to keep up with Noah's needs in the last few days and I asked him if he thought it would benefit us to spend some time with a lactation consultant. He said he thought it would be worth our time because any breast milk that Noah gets is better than none. If he gets 30% breast milk, then that's 30% benefit.

When the hospital called to schedule our appointment, I tried to get one with the lactation consultant that we saw in the hospital but she only works on the weekends and the weekend ladies only see in-patients. I hope whoever we see next week is as good as the one who helped us in the hospital.

Two Days

Today was also Emily's second day of Kindergarten. When I dropped her off this morning, she gave her teacher another hug. She came home this afternoon and said that she had a good day. She brought home two pictures that she had drawn and they were both pictures of Emily, Noah, Mama and Daddy. And they both said LOVE. I guess she does think about us during the day.

This evening, I noticed that Emily's lunch box already has a rip in the back of it. I have no idea how that happened within the first two days of school. I guess these companies just don't make quality products any more. How sad.

We'll have to figure out our morning schedule for next week when Mike is back at work. Newborns can have such unpredictable schedules. It will be hard to make sure Noah is satisfied before we have to leave for school. He can be such a slow eater. This could be a problem if we're pressed for time.

Two Wonderful Children

And look at those perfectly kissable cheeks!

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Kindergarten Begins

So today was Emily's first day of Kindergarten. It's hard to believe that I have a child old enough to be in Kindergarten now.

We prepared as much as we could last night before we went to bed. Emily picked her first day outfit (with a bit of guidance from Mom) and we discussed options for our lunch box. We did anything we could think of to help the first morning go smoothly.

Thankfully, Daddy was home to help us this morning. He fixed breakfast for Emily and helped her with her clothes.

Even though Noah's schedule was not the best, we were able to make it to school on time. Emily was a bit hesitant when we got to her classroom. I was a little worried about her, but then she went up to her teacher and gave her a big hug. Mrs. B said "Thank you, that's just what I needed this morning!" And I knew the would be fast friends.

I think it was just a bit of first day jitters combined with the fact that she really enjoys staying home with mom and baby brother. When we were getting ready to leave, her dad gave her the I Love You sign and she made sort of a sad face. But when we went to pick her up, she said "Mama, I love Kindergarten."

Here are some pictures of Emily on her first day of Kindergarten. I don't know why I didn't think to have her put on her backpack. That would have been perfect.

And, seriously, I did not know her hair looked this bad close up. I swear I had my contact lenses in when I fixed her hair this morning. She is still a beautiful girl though! (Aunt Heather, check out her shoe choice! We need to go shoe shopping this weekend so that we won't get the silver sparkle shoes messed up at school.)

This afternoon, we had a visit from Aunt Charlene, Kim, Brynlee and Sarah. They stopped by to love on baby Noah a little bit. Kim, it was great to see you! It was nice to be able to chat with someone who's been in a similar situation. Can't wait until the next time you come to visit.

Tomorrow is the second day of Kindergarten and Noah has his two-week doctor's appointment in the morning. It's going to make our schedule even more difficult, but we'll make it work somehow. I am very glad that Mike is going to be home with us again tomorrow. It just makes things run so much smoother when he's here.

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Last Day Before School Starts

Today was the last day at home before school starts for the year. Emily and I had some things to do to get ready for school. We had to fill out all the forms that we picked up at Meet the Teacher Night and we had to write her name on all her school supplies. I am STILL working on sharpening all the pencils. To tell you the truth, I'm lucky I could even find a pencil sharpener! Too bad it still doesn't work very well.

Noah has had a good day today. He has been eating allll day long though. I have figured out that he'll be happy if I feed him enough. I just hope I can keep up with him!

This morning, I wanted to take Emily's picture with Noah.

And she wanted to take my picture with Noah. 'Scuse the face. I did get my shower before this, but that was about it.

And then she wanted to take a bunch of pictures of Noah while I pumped. And I do mean a bunch. She took about 35 pictures today I think.

She wanted to make sure she got a picture of his feet. I think she did a pretty good job all things considered.

So tomorrow we'll have to get up bright and early and be ready to go to school by 8am. I don't know how that's going to work with Noah's unpredictable schedule. We'll just have to do the best we can.

Thankfully, Mike has taken off work tomorrow for the first day of school and on Friday for Noah's two-week doctor's appointment. It will be very nice to have some reinforcements around the house during the day. Maybe I will actually get a nap! Wouldn't that be nice?

Hmmm ... that's a wonderful thought.

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Baby Blue

Today was the second day home alone with two kiddos. Thankfully, the night went better last night. It started out rough and I ended up being up with Noah for about an hour and a half, but then he slept for about 4 hours.

Emily was up before 7am again today, but I convinced her to lay in my bed until about 7:45am. She said "get up" at least 150 times, but I didn't move. My strategy is to lay with my back to her so as not to encourage conversation.

Noah woke up while Emily and I were having breakfast. He was fussy and hard to settle most of the day. He took two decent naps, but fussed most of the rest of the day unless he was nursing. I'm thinking maybe he is going through a growth spurt right now? I don't know. Babies are hard to figure out sometimes.

My shower even got interrupted this morning. Noah had been asleep in his pack and play for about 15 minutes and I told Emily to come get me if he woke up. Sure enough, as soon as I lathered up my hair she came in there and told me that he was crying. *sigh* Better luck next time.

As I mentioned last night, we had Meet the Teacher Night at school tonight. We went and found Emily's classroom and her teacher will be Mrs. "B". Emily was excited to find out that her friend Jayden is going to be in her class again this year. And their kindergarten class is going to have a pet frog. Emily was not-so-thrilled about that one. Emily wouldn't tell Mrs. B her name either. She was being shy tonight and squeezing my hand really hard as we were talking to the teacher.

Noah did good while we were at the school. We put his carseat in the stroller and he just wheeled around like he owned the place. He slept most of the time. Emily's teacher didn't say anything about him, but the principal and the school secretary ooh'd and ahh'd over him and I heard a couple people comment that "he's so little" as we walked by.

When we got home, Noah woke up and wanted to eat (again). After he ate, it was time for his nightly "Daddy Time." Mike likes to sing to Noah. He often sings "Baby Blue" by George Strait.

This is a picture of Mike and Noah rocking and singing. My two handsome men!

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Daddy's Home!

And I could not be more thankful. The kids and I had a good day at home, but it was long and tiring.

It started with a long night last night. Mike made the comment this morning before he left for work that he thought I was up with Noah every hour during the night. I blew it off at the time, but the more I thought about it the more I think it was true. The only hour I am not sure about is the 3am hour.

If it was not one thing during the night, it was another. He ate twice during the night, had several diaper changes (but none involving an entire outfit change, thankfully), one false alarm with the Angelcare monitor (more on this later!!!), and several pacifier emergencies. All that added up to be a very long night for Mama.

Noah last ate from 4:45am to 5:30am, Mike left for work at about 6:15am, and Emily woke up and came into my room at about 6:30am. I convinced her to lay down in my bed so that I could doze until about 7:30am. Then Noah started crying because he had a dirty diaper, but after that he went back to sleep until about 9:15am.

After his "breakfast", I sat him in his boppy seat for a few minutes and Emily laid down beside him to show him how to play her Nintendo.

At first, he looked a little scared ...

But then I think he was really getting into the lesson ...

And then maybe a little bit back to confused ...

But the two of them sat on the floor like this for probably about 15 minutes without much fussing at all.

Noah seems to have a hard time sleeping after lunch time. It seems like he wants to sleep, but he just keeps waking up. I tried to keep him awake for a while after he ate, but that did not seem to work very well.

Emily did not take a nap today which means I didn't take a nap today either. She came out of her room at least 5 times during naptime. I was really really hoping she would cooperate with naptime today. I prepared her ahead of time for what was going to happen. Noah and I played in her room with her before it was time to take her nap and did a countdown until naptime. But still, she chose to disobey. *sigh*

But even with the disobedience, this day was not a total loss. I managed to get a shower, do some laundry, and have dinner in the oven by the time Daddy got home from work. Dinner was some spaghetti pizza that Emily and I had pre-made and frozen. All I had to do was heat it up and brown it in the oven. But it was good! And even better, we have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night.

Tomorrow night we have "Meet the Teacher" night at Emily's school. This is going to be a little difficult for me because I will have to get Emily and myself dressed by the time Mike gets home and somehow manage to have Noah's feeding schedule match our schedule for the night. Good luck with that, right? My only saving grace is that Meet the Teacher night is open for a two-hour time period. So we'll plan to get there when the doors open, but it's okay if we're up to two hours late. Ha!

So that's how my first day at home with two kids went. Despite the frustration, I would call the day a success. Now if I can just get some sleep tonight, we'll be on path for a good day tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

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Huggies, what is your deal?

While we were in the hospital, they provided us with Pampers newborn diapers. These were fine, but they came up a little high near his umbilical cord stump and we were constantly having to fold them down on the top.

I always used Pampers when Emily was a baby and I liked the way they performed very well. But I had heard some bad stories about the new formulation of the Pampers diapers. I heard that it caused a lot of diaper rash and irritation in some infants. This weighed heavily on my mind because nobody wants their infant to have any type of discomfort if it can be prevented.



When we got home, we switched to Huggies newborn diapers. Within the first few days of being home, we noticed that the diapers often leaked. They leaked urine out the sides and they leaked poop out the top and around the legs.



This leakage happened multiple time a day and I think just about every night since we've been home. The other night, Noah woke up with a wet bed three different times. I'd had ENOUGH. Noah hates having his diaper changed and it's worse when we have to change all his clothes and the bed at the same time.

And on top of that, Noah has had diaper rash since we have been home. We had been using Desitin on it, but our pediatrician recommended Aquaphor ointment. Both creams helped a little, but neither cleared up the rash completely.

So last night when we went to the store, we bought a big box of Pampers newborn diapers. We started using them immediately when we got home. Noah had NO LEAKS during the night last night. He had one huge poop today that went all the way to the edge of the leg openings, but didn't come out of the diaper at all.

It's still too early to tell about the diaper rash situation, but I hope the new diapers help clear that up as well.

See you later, Huggies. I don't know what your deal is. Are your diapers not made to fit a 6lb 8oz baby?

Regardless, we're sticking with Pampers for now.

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First Visit to Nanny and Poppa's House

Noah made his first visit to Nanny and Poppa's house. We more or less worked all afternoon to get out of the house and finally left home at around 5:30pm. Yeah, we'll have to get quicker with that. But it was a good day - I showered, fixed my hair AND put on some makeup.

Nanny and Poppa watched Emily and Noah while Mike and I went to Walmart. We had to get some new diapers (more about this tomorrow) and a few other things. We were going to take Emily with us, but she said she wanted to go with her little brother. Aww, melt mama's heart.

This is Noah getting buckled into his carseat for the trip.

He did really well in the car and slept the whole way. He was good at Nanny and Poppa's house too. He didn't fuss except when he had his poopy diaper. Emily was good too. She kept hugging and kissing on her brother.

We made it all the way home before Noah had to have his dinner. I hope he continues to like riding in the car.

Tomorrow is my first day at home alone with two kiddos. Please pray for me! I know I can do it, but I am sure it will take some juggling. Emily always seems to need something as soon as I start feeding Noah. She's going to have to learn to be patient and wait until I'm done. Overall, she is a good helper though.

Mike said that if I need him to come home and help me, all I have to do is give him a call. I hope I can make it through the day without having to resort to that though. The weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow so we might be able to go outside and play for a little bit if we need a change of scenery.

I'll try to update tomorrow to let you know how it went.

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Being Real

My mom has been staying with us for the past week. She came up the night before we went into the hospital for Noah's birth and has been staying with us since then. She has helped us with everything - cooking, cleaning, laundry, baby care, mommy care, girlie playmate, expert advice giver and the list goes on.

Today was the day she had to go home and we already miss her. I will admit that I have cried a lot this afternoon and evening. It was time for her to go home and I am fine with that. I will definitely miss having her around. But I also know that things will be more difficult here at home for the next few days as we try to figure out how to live together as a family of four.

Thank you, Mom for everything you have done for us in the last week. We really appreciate everything you have done to make this transition easier on us. We had a lot of fun and we can't wait until next time you come to visit.

I wanted to share a few pictures with you that Mom and I took this morning before she left. We wanted to get some pictures of Emily too, but she wasn't ready to have her picture taken yet. We'll have to work on that another day.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. For now, we're off to bed. Midnight will come too quickly.

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Noah - One Week Old

It's hard to believe that Noah is already one week old. He is such a good baby. He eats about every 4 hours and sleeps much of the time in between. He has a few periods of wakefulness during the day and loves to look around and listen to people talk to him.

He likes having his bottom patted, but he hates the hiccups and having his diaper changed. Anything to do with his diaper is just the worst thing ever in his little world! He is a good eater, but he's slow. He will get faster as he grows bigger, but right now I will just enjoy this special time with him.

In the evenings, he usually has Daddy time where he will curl up on Daddy's chest and listen to Daddy talk or sing to him. I love watching them together. It is so sweet.

Sometimes Daddy even does double duty where he'll hold both kids and talk to them. Isn't he just a rock star???

On Wednesday, we had to take Noah to the doctor for his newborn checkup. I was worried about having to walk so far to the doctor's office, but Mike helped me with everything I needed. He got the stroller out of the car, got Noah out of the car and handled everything for me.

The doctor said that Noah was looking good. He weighed 5lbs, 14oz which was 1oz smaller than when we left the hospital. Dr K thinks this is the bottom of the plateau and his weight should start coming back up now that my milk is coming in.

Noah has a couple spots of baby rash that we can treat with Neosporin ointment. Other than that, he's doing great. He's eating right on schedule and having plenty of wet and dirty diapers every day.

After we got out of the doctor's office, we went back home to feed Noah. Then Mama and Daddy went out for a little lunch date. We went to Mazzio's pizza for the lunch buffet. Here, again, Mike took care of everything I needed. He got my pizza for me and refilled my drink. Then we went over to Best Buy to find something for Emily for being such a good helper. While we were in the store, I noticed that I was beginning to walk slower and slower. My pain medicine had pretty much worn out and it was hard to get around.

Speaking of my pain medicine, one of the prescriptions that I take makes me very drowsy. I have been blessed to have my mom here for the past week so I have been getting some extra rest during the day. But I was realizing today that I will be home alone caring for two small children next week and I will have no room in my schedule for extra naps. So I am going to have to somehow wean myself off the heavy pain medication before Monday. I am sure I will need all my resources to make it through the first few days.

I am going to try to do better with updating my blog. I want to do a better job updating, but it is hard to choose computer time over sleep time. And I am sure that part will just get harder as we move into the next few weeks.

So ya'll just pray for me and I'll continue to do the best that I can.

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Emily's Little Brother

Well, we've been home from the hospital with Noah for a couple days now. We got to go home on Sunday evening. Nanny and Pops brought us some fajitas for supper and some pain medicine for me. Both were much appreciated!

Noah has done well at home. He's eating and sleeping well. Right now, he usually goes between 3.5 and 4 hours between meals. We go to the doctor in the morning for our newborn checkup so we'll see if he's gaining well or if we will need to start waking him up to eat. He got down to 5lbs, 15oz in the hospital before we went home. That's well within the normal range, but we want him to grow!

Emily has done well since we got home too. She is SO excited to see Noah when she wakes up in the morning and likes looking at him in his crib. She helps with diaper changes and feedings and any other way she can think of. At diaper changes she holds his hand and gives him his paci and says "it's okay baby Noah, it's okay". Soooo sweet.

The first time Emily saw Noah was when they wheeled us by on the bed after surgery. Pops held her up and she looked really unsure about the whole thing. My mom said she seemed to be surprised at how small he was.

This is a picture of Emily holding Noah right after we got to our hospital room. He was maybe an hour or two old in this picture. I think it is just adorable how she is holding him so tight and snuggling him with her cheek.

It looks to me like whatever reservations she had about him were long gone by this point.

This afternoon, Emily helped with Noah's first sponge bath at home. Of course, she wanted to put every kind of baby product on him imaginable - baby oil, baby lotion, baby powder. She did a good job helping and talking to him during his bath.

He was not really excited about taking his first bath at home, but he did really well. He smelled so sweet and clean when we were done.

He must have felt really good because he took a long nap in Daddy's arms after that.

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What day is this?

This will be a short post tonight. Mom & Dad are tired tonight. Today the doctor advised Jennifer and I that the hospital considers today as the first day. Noah was born yesterday morning. Jennifer and I thought that today would be the second day, but we were wrong according to the hospital. We also have been wrong about some other things during our stay, but I will probably leave that for Jennifer to tell you when she gets back. Daddy is too tired to get into that tonight. I will say that today was a good day and we are excited to learn new things about Noah. We hope the hospital releases us tomorrow. Doc says we may be able to go home, if everything goes well. Please keep us in your prayers, and we promise to post more pics soon. Time for bed.

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Happy Birthday Noah!

We arrived at the hospital this morning at 6:45am, and we left for the operating room around 8:15am. Jennifer went through the spinal process four times. It seemed like forever before I was allowed to go in. Jennifer handled the C-Section like a champ. I was very proud of her, and I love her very much. Noah was born at 9:02am today, and he weighed 6lbs 8oz, 19 inches long. Noah is in great shape, and Jennifer and I are very proud of him. We are also proud of our daughter Emily. Emily was very excited when she was allowed to help with Noah's first bath. She did a great job. Noah also had a birthday party tonight at the hospital. We had a great time and it was a wonderful day!

We want to say a huge thank you to all of our family and friends. You helped us out BIG TIME and we sure do appreciate it. We love you, and we feel very blessed. We also want to thank God for answering our prayers, and blessing us with two beautiful children.

"Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD"...Genesis 6:8

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We are having a baby tomorrow!!!

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Never Been This Pregnant Before

That's right, I've never been this pregnant before. Emily was born at 37 weeks and I'm now almost a week and a half past that.

I meant to take a picture of my pregnant self tonight for the blog, but we had to go to the grocery store after work and I forgot about my plan until I had already changed my clothes. So maybe tomorrow night I can remember. I need to get one more picture before "D-Day" for sure.

Rookie Mistake





Several months ago when we picked out Noah's baby book, we also purchased a First Year Calendar. It included some stickers to use to mark special events in the first year. It also included stickers with the month name and then I'm supposed to fill out the dates for each month.

I had been waiting to do this just in case Noah decided to come early. I had to be sure he was going to be born in August so that I would get the starting month right.

So Sunday was August 1 and I was so excited to be able to fill in the dates on the calendar. That night after Emily went to bed, I started filling in the dates. It took me a while, but I finally got all the months filled out. Then I started applying the stickers for a few of the major holidays - Christmas, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.

I got to Easter and didn't know date it was in 2011 so I asked Mike to look up the date on the internet. He said it was April 24th, 2011. So I looked on my calendar and it COULDN'T be the 24th because the 24th was a Saturday on my calendar and I knew that Easter was always on Sunday. Mike checked again and said it was for sure April 24th. OH NO! I quickly realized what I had done. I used all dates in 2010 instead of going to the 2011 calendar starting in January.

OH MY GOODNESS I can't believe I did that. I totally messed up a full eight months of my unborn baby's First Year Calendar. What in the world was I thinking? Apparently, I wasn't thinking.

So after I got over my error, I quickly went online and ordered a new Baby's First Year Calendar. Oh yes. I did. I'm not gonna lie. I just couldn't go back and white out all those dates. I think it was a $14 well spent.

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Want to See My New Storage Shed?

You may remember a few months ago around Memorial Day that we got a new storage shed. I have failed to blog about it and post pictures since then, but I wanted to show you.

Do you want to see it?

It's a beauty. I love it!



So what do you think?

Want to see inside?

Okay here it is ...




Now, we still have some rearranging to do, but we are making good progress. We got all the metal shelves at Homer Depot.

We got a loft as part of an upgrade program through the shed company. We put all the baby/kid toys up in the loft since they are lighter but bulky.



I am working on getting a section for "future yard sale" merchandise - things I don't want, but think I can sell. That will make it super easy to get things ready for the next yard sale. And we have plenty of room to store that type of thing now.




I'm looking forward to the cooler weather this fall so that I can get out there and rearrange some things. It has just been way way way too hot to do anything outside lately. Especially for a pregnant lady.

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Ouch!

Two posts in one day? Yes! I can do this.

Last night, not surprisingly, I slept in my recliner again. I just could not get comfortable in the bed.

But when I woke up in the morning (because I heard Mike's alarm going off, coincidentally) and tried to get out of my chair, it hurt SO bad. I guess I slept wrong in my chair because it felt like I pulled something in my groin. Ouch!

I'm going to try to sleep in the bed tonight and see if it feels better tomorrow.

The Weather Man

For the third day in a row, it was 103 degrees outside today.

It is SO miserable to walk outside the office in the afternoon into temperatures like that. I just get into the car out in the parking lot and it's like I cannot even breathe. Every surface in the car is just burning hot and the air conditioner will not cool it down fast enough. Ouch!

The good news is that it's supposed to be slightly cooler by Friday and there's a possibility of rain. It rained buckets on Emily's birthday. Wouldn't it be cool if it rained on Noah's birthday too? I think it would be really neat for their weather-lovin Daddy.

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Incentives

We have started a new incentive program for Emily. We're rewarding good behavior with a sort of allowance system.

We have a wipe board in the kitchen where we track her behavior and her allowance earned. She gets "strikes" when she does not follow the rules at our house. This also applies when she's with Nanny and Pops during the day. If she gets in trouble at their house, it's a strike on our board as well. If she gets three strikes in a day, then she loses her allowance for the day.

Unfortunately, there are many days where she does get three strikes by the end of the day. The picture of the board was from last week, but the board from this week looks just as sad so far. She gets a lot of strikes for coming out of her room at night or during nap time. I think this should be an easy rule to follow, but she continues to come out of her room for the silliest excuses imaginable. I think she has been out of her room about 14 times so far tonight and she's only been in bed for an hour and a half.

Yeah, not fun.

Now ... occasionally, Emily does earn her a allowance. Right now, she earns $0.50 per day that she does not get three strikes. She gets her money on Saturday mornings.

A couple weeks ago, Mike found her a safe to keep her money in. We looked for one all around the metro area, but never found what we wanted. But he did find a perfect pink one online. It has a pad lock and even an alarm that goes off when the safe opens up.

After we got the safe, we gathered up all Emily's money and it ended up equalling over $40! She and her dad like to look through her safe and talk about the U.S. Presidents that are on each bill denomination. She is learning to recognize and name each one. It's fun to see her soaking up all this knowledge.

We are teaching her about tithing 10% of her earnings at Sunday School, but most weeks she gives more than 10%. This past week, she earned $1.50 for the week and I think she gave $1.00 at Sunday School. She is so generous and loving.

Now if we could just get her to stop getting so many strikes and earning some more money for her safe ...

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Last Weekend as a Family of Three

Even though the weather was not cooperating, we really wanted to spend our weekend having fun as a family of three. It was so so hot!

On Saturday, we wanted to go to Andy Alligator's Fun Park with Emily. We told her that we could go after she took a nap, but ... she had to take a nap. And, as luck would have it, she did not take a nap. Not even a little one.

We were SO disappointed that we didn't get to go to Andy Alligator's. We ended up staying home most of the day. I just did not think I would be able to handle the heat.

Then on Sunday, we got up and went to Sunday School. This was our last week with our current group of kids because they will all promote to the four-year-old class next week. We will get our new group of three-year-olds next week, but I will be in the hospital so I won't get to see them for several weeks.

After church, went to lunch at Ted's with the family. We had a good time visiting with everyone. And the food was good, as usual.

After lunch, we headed home for our nap. Emily did much better at nap time today. I think she only came out of her room once. That's still a no-no, but it's better than it has been recently.

I think I went to sleep in about 5 minutes and slept for an hour and a half. It was a great nap after a very long and unsettled night.

At our house, we have been counting down the days until Noah comes. Today we have five days left. Every morning, we have to check the wipe board to see how many we have left. We asked Emily how many days we would have left tomorrow and it is so cute to see her mind working to count backwards to figure out how many more days. She is really excited to meet her new baby brother. I hope that feeling lasts after he gets here! I keep stressing the fact that once he gets here, he'll live with us "forever" and we won't be sending him back. Ha!

Guest Blogger

I forgot to mention that I've lined up a guest blogger to post some pictures and tell about our experience in the hospital. The guest blogger's identity is a secret, but I know they will do a great job! Stay tuned to find out who it is.

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