Aaaand... We're Back! Back East I mean UPDATED TO INCLUDE WORKING VIDEOS!!!

Well, here we are. We have officially moved into our new apartment and finally (after a long and stressful wait) got out boxes. Hubby has been plowing through them and getting things put away in the general area they belong. I'm better and detailed organization so I've been making progress at putting clothes away and organizing our living spaces as much as I can.

Mr. X and Baby A have been SO VERY CUTE! They really have a lot of fun playing together. Here are some of the stories we have to share with you from our trek across 10 states and many hotels :).

-Baby A woke up one night and was crying out loud. X begins singing to him (just like I sing to him when he is sad or hurting) and immediately A begins to calm down and talk to X.

-Sometimes Baby A has tummy-time on my bed and X gets so excited that he jumps up and down and gets A to giggle. X also loves to grab A's hands and "dance" with him.

-X loves to ask A for "a hug"

Videos (Until I can fix them)

-X was doing something naughty, Mommy asked him, "X, please stop." A laughs at X's naughty-ness, X laughs back and continues to do the naughty thing, Mommy says, "Wow, Baby A, you're starting early..."

-X flirts with a woman at the store. She flirts back. He follows her for a while and tries to flirt with her again all the while she's laughing hysterically and loving the attention for a charming 2yr old.

-X loves "kissy kissy" and will sometimes lay next to A and give him sweet kissy kissies on his cheeks. It's sweet and make my heart swell

We've been having pretty nice weather, it's been pretty warm and raining. Hubby's been working hard at his new job and has had a few projects he's been plowing through. One great thing is the first paycheck shows up on Friday so it'll be good to have income again! We're pretty broke right now but we're happy :)

We've been given lots of help and support during this struggling crazy time in our life. We are so very grateful for all of the help we were given and we are planning on returning the help and also going to pay forward as much as we can.

A is drooling like no tomorrow now, he's showing all the starting signs of teething. He's also getting very fat and getting to wear stylish clothes now he doesn't poop through his clothes. Yay!

X is getting more and more vocal. Sometimes though he doesn't want to use his words because A doesn't use words! So unfair!!! He's starting to become a bit of a three-nager (he started terrible twos early too) so he can be quite stubborn and bossy. He also does NOT like inside voices but has a beautiful singing voice.

We are going to start homeschool again in a couple weeks, I'm working on new lessons for X right now and he and A will have individual time. It'll be good.

Thanks for reading my ramblings!
-TBC

Much more busy and fun filled!

I apologize for the lateness in posting, it's been a very busy day!!! I'll get to that in a moment though.

This week we've have a lot of adventures and craziness, much more exciting than the majority of last week.

Hubby and I got to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I liked it if I didn't compare it to Harry Potter. I'm not saying that the Harry Potter movies were necessarily better but the feel from the Harry Potter movies was different than Fantastic Beasts and if I keep trying to get that same feel then I get disappointed. I really enjoyed the mating dance that gets performed at one part. That had Hubby laughing heartily and loudly. It was really entertaining. Apparently, (according to an interview) the actor read that he had to do a mating dance and he looked up videos of mating dances performed by birds and other animals and sent himself doing a few of them to the director. The director then had him do a combination of what he saw. So, the outcome was quite hilarious.

We also got to see Santa Claus on Thursday when we visited my Mom's book fair. I've been prepping X to not freak out when he sees Santa by watching Christmas movies that feature him in some way and reading stories. We aren't really emphasizing Santa but more of what Santa stands for, I just wanted him to not scream when we took pictures with Santa. When we got there X went right up to Santa, climbed and his lap and even sort of smiled for a picture.

We also looked around a little bit before leaving and found an amazing book called "King Baby", it's hilarious and very accurate of how babies act. We've always called our babies, "Your highness" or "Your Poopiness" so we found extra joy because it applies to a family joke (? probably not the best word but all I could think of).

My in-laws were so kind to buy us tickets to see BYU's Christmas Around the World and provided us with babysitting. It was really fun to see the different dances but what blew our minds the most was the work and effort that the people exerted to give a beautiful performance. I also saw someone I knew when I did theater dancing. I checked out the program and confirmed it, he's always been a superb dancer and his performance was flawless! It was good to see someone I knew still doing something they love and excelling at it in every way.

Yesterday I spent a good part of my day baking/cooking and cleaning. I made brownies, rolls, corn chowder, cracked up TONS of walnuts, and packed up more of the living room breakable decorations. The walnuts came from my Dad who has a coworker or boss(?I can't remember which) who has a walnut tree and gave him a huge bag full, my mom can't eat them so he gave them to me to use up and I've been finding ways to incorporate them into dishes. So by the end of the day, my hand was pretty red from using the nut cracker so much and my hands were a darker shade because of the dirty shells. But all done, no more shell cracking for me for a good long while.

We also went to a Christmas party that night that was put on by my parent's ward. The theme was "A Night In Bethlehem". The meal was catered by a Mediterranean restaurant called Galilee. They  were pretty good, they had some chicken that seemed like it was marinated in a yogurt sauce and they had delicious rice and grilled veggies. They had this interesting garlic type of sauce but it was really over powering if you weren't careful. They had a cute little slideshow of the Nativity story that was done by the Primary kids and it was pretty cute. While I was there though I needed to feed Baby A and so I walked into the Mother's Lounge and while I was there I got walked in on twice... I thought people knew that it's not a hang out spot it's for nursing mothers to use. Oh well... I guess the teenaged girl got an education? Sort of?

Today was a very special day and was the reason for all my baking/cooking yesterday. Baby A got blessed today!!!! Hubby did a very short and powerful blessing introducing him to the church. It was nice having all the people we love come to a special event like this. It'll be harder for them to come to baptisms and future blessings so it's nice that we could at least do this. Baby A wore the same outfit X wore for his blessing. X was only a month and a half old when he wore it so it was a lot more snug on Baby A, when X wore it it was kind of large. He still looked cute though, here's some proof:

We are so incredibly blessed to have our family around for this event and that they've all been so willing to help us and take care of our little family.

This morning X was pretty cute when Hubby went to go get him, he was pretty groggy and a little concerned and told Hubby, "Baby A.... a fish" apparently A was in his dream and it had something to do with fish... it was pretty cute. X is getting so good a praying, he's catching on to the fact that when you pray you need to pay attention to the prayer and not do other things during it (like eating or looking at books). He's becoming more and more understandable. He tries to have conversations with him and we're getting better at actually being able understand what he's expressing and can respond most of the time with a response he wants/ was expecting to receive.

Baby A's personality is starting to really come through, he's super smiley and it's infectious. He's also kind of ticklish and does a really cute laugh when you get him going. He loves to play with X and Hubby on his toy mat and loves being held and bounced. He's also discovered his thumb and loves to self soothe himself to sleep that way.

I'm still working my way through with the packing slowly but surely. Hubby finished school this week and when that happens we'll start packing a little quicker and continue to deep clean the apartment so we can get as much of our deposit back as possible. So far it's going pretty well, I've been able to get into all the little crevices and remove lots of stains.

Until next time,
TBC

Craziness and Growth

Baby A had a doctors appointment on Monday, he's a very big boy measuring the the 84% for height and weighing in in the 74%. He also received some shots and he took them pretty well. He didn't want any milk after them though so I had to use the binki to soothe him.

Baby A is starting to smile and laugh at will, it's infectious and I love trying to find things that please him. He also really likes to play with toys the best way a baby can play with toys. He wacks them with his fist and giggles while he's wacking. We have a play mat that we put him on that has toys dangling at various angles and he's in heaven while he's on there. He has all the signs of being an early crawler, he loves tummy time and would just like to play all day if he didn't take naps. :)

Mr. X and I went on a Mommy-Son date! We had so much fun! We visited Grammy (my mom) and then we went to the mall to play in the play center. But X had other plans, he grabbed my hand and walked all over the mall with me. We eventually made our way into the Disney store and he started gathering characters from The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and acting out the scenes with the characters. So I bought him Piglet, who is one of the characters he didn't have yet. After that we went to a store that sells inexpensive soft serve ice cream and got that for our treat. We had a lot of fun and laughs and I really needed the one on one time with him. I've missed it just being the two of us.

Here's pictures of the boys showing some love:

With them in the bed, Hubby took A into X's room and plopped him in the bed and X affectionately say "Baby A!" and began to cuddle him. Then I asked X if he wanted to hug A, he said yes and the picture on the chair came to pass.

I'm very blessed to have these sweet boys in my life. I love how affectionate X is and how A always smiles for X.

This week I've been working like a mad woman to make the house presentable for people to come look at our apartment. We had an open house this week and two people showed up during the morning showing and the landlords sold our contract to one of the people who came. Then they spent the next half hour telling people that the apartment was taken. I'm glad it was solved so quickly because if our contract wasn't sold then we'd have to continue paying rent until someone did buy it, even after we've left. So it's a huge weight off my shoulders to have that done.

 Now I can focus on deep cleaning and packing because we are only about 1 month away from moving. Which isn't actually that long if you factor in the holidays and the time they take up. So, no rest for the wicked!!!

Today my family is having Thanksgiving dinner due to many of my family members being unable to come on the actual holiday. So I made the turkey by brining it ahead of time and my brother-in-law cooked it in his Traeger and it came out perfectly!!! I also made cranberry sauce from scratch, which is super easy, and a dressing from freshly crushed walnuts.

We're about to eat, so make sure to enjoy your time this week with your family and Happy Thanksgiving!!

-TBC

An update, how life flies by

We have some updates to do!

Baby X is now grown to be a toddler and will be called X or Mr. X from this point onward.

I'm also pleased to say we have a new little human in our family, Baby A! He was born in mid-September in 6 hours, more than half the time it took to deliver X. He didn't have to see the NICU at all and was able to be with me for most of the hospital stay. The only time I sent him to the nursery was because he is a very loud grunter and I could sleep with the noise so he got escorted away for a couple of hours so I could rejuvenate a bit.

We had an enjoyable Halloween were X was Peter Pan again this year, though much more excited about it than he was last year (“A Pan!”). Hubby was again Hook and I would have been Wendy, but this year I'm nursing and that costume is not nursing friendly. So I put on a blue striped shirt I already owned, some shorts and quickly crocheted a red beanie and went out as Smee. Baby A was supposed to be Micheal but no one knew who he was so I dressed him up as a beanie baby instead. I put a coverall with bear ears on him and attached a heart with a white “ty” that I made onto one of the ears. It was very cute. We had a cute X trick or treat and Grandmother's homes and show off at other homes as well. By the end of the night X had mastered his own way of saying “trick or treat” which ended up sounding more like, “Tic ah tee”. Hearts were melted :)

We are also sporting some exciting news. We'll be moving to Maryland in a couple of months! It's going to be an interesting change. I won't have family support so close by anymore and we'll be the farthest away from anyone on either side. It's scary but a necessary change in order to progress in our lives. This company had Hubby intern for them during the summer and apparently has wanted him back ever since. They were in a hiring freeze though so they couldn't hire right away. They were convincing higher ups to make an exception for Hubby and it eventually happened. They gave an offer we couldn't refuse. We're very optimistic about what the future may hold for us.

X is talking so much! He is even starting to try and tell jokes, laughs, and proceeds to tell us, “ees fun!” translating to “it's funny”. He likes to help clean, put things away, read books, and watch Disney movies. He loves hugging Baby A and giving kisses. He's a really good and kind big brother.

Baby A is turning out to be quite strong. He already can hold his head up for large amounts of time. He loves tummy time and already has a fascination with toys. He'll one day talk my ear off with words I can understand but right now he's talking it off with grunts.

Hubby is trying to survive this semester, he's trying to still do well in his classes despite his employment because he plans on finishing his masters once we become official residents of Maryland. It's tough on him because his hardest class he was taking for his current job but now that class is going to be useless to him. He can't drop it because his funding will have to be refunded and we can't afford that. So I try and soften the burden by making him treats and trying to keep the house as clean as possible.

Life is good, til next time!

TBC

He's here!...

My sweet Baby X has been here for a month! Even though his due date was May 24 he wasn't able to make my body contract and make the trip out on his own. So Hubby and I went to the hospital on our 1 year anniversary, June 1st and I got induced.

The contractions didn't start to hurt for a while, but then I ate some lunch... bad idea! After getting sick with the food I started having severe pain with the contractions. I got an epidural to make it more manageable. After about 5 hours though, I started feeling all of my contractions in all their glory! At first the nurse and anesthesiologist thought I just wasn't pressing my button enough or I was just super sensitive. So they kept giving me stronger stuff through my main line with my epidural. I felt really light headed and they weren't really concerned, except for the fact that none of it took away the pain. At all.

The next 5-6 hours I was in constant pain, begging and pleading for it to stop. When the anesthesiologist got back from helping with a C-section, he gave me the "strongest stuff [he] had". I blacked out. Hubby says that I was out for a while and the nurse said, "That isn't supposed to happen". All I can remember is being able to hear Hubby's voice and feeling pain. When I finally was able to function somewhat they found out that my epidural was not in the proper spot anymore. It had wiggled out when I moved or something and they had to do it again. When they finally got it in the right spot I only got to enjoy 2 hours of my labor before starting to push.

I pushed for 2 hours. With the help of my doctor manually turning him face down and a vacuum extraction we discovered that my little guy had a hard time coming out because his umbilical cord was wrapped his neck 3 times. They immediately checked his respiratory and he was perfectly fine. And he had fantastic RED hair!!! He came out 21" long and 8lbs!

We are so proud of him being such a trooper! I loved meeting him for the first time.

However, his blood sugar started to drop and no matter how much I nursed him, he wasn't getting any higher. So they gave him formula. Nothing. So they admitted him into the NICU. I pumped with all my might and they fed him through a series of tubes and put him on antibiotics. Slowly but surely over the next 3 days we got him off the machines but he still had his IV in his head.

 

Then he turned extremely yellow that day. His jaundice was pretty high. They put him under the billi-lights for two days and I finally got to take him home! As long as I put billi-lights on him at home.

I wish I was a glowworm. A glowworm's never glum. 'Cause how can you be grumpy when the sun shines out your bum!?

 Look at him with the billi-lights on! He was a cute little glow worm his first week home. With the cutest hiccups!

Having him home we've been adjusting and figuring each other. Also, I've been finding out that Baby X is a really sweet boy. Most of the time at night he will wake up only once if at all. For that I'm extremely thankful!

So fast forward through all the diapers and screaming and bottle pumping. He was blessed two Sundays ago at our church. I've worked for a few months on his out fit. 100% hand sewn or crocheted:

Look at how charming he is!

Our first picture together as a family outside of the hospital.

He was so well mannered the whole day! Hubby also did a fantastic job in blessing him. It was a great experience to have.

In the family pic, do you see his had in his mouth? That boy will suck on anything and everything. He doesn't care if it's a binki, me, a bottle, or your chin; it's his to suck on!

He is so funny. I love his guts!

Now, Baby X is officially 1 month old! I can't believe that it was a month ago that I gave birth to his sweet soul! He is such a blessing into our lives already. I find that Hubby and I are try more actively to love and respect each other. We are quicker to forgive flaws and try to make improvements in our lives. I find it's easier to love my Hubby when he comes home after taking care of a baby all day. I may be tired but I appreciate him working and supporting us.

Baby X is growing so well too! Check out his recent milestone:

I'm so proud of him! I made his do it about 4 or 5 times in row to make sure it wasn't a fluke! He's getting so big!

Sorry this was such a long post, I needed to catch up :) But you got to see cute baby pics so it's all worth it! :)

Have an awesome day!
-TBC