22! Are you serious?!

Today I am 22 weeks pregnant. 22! Over half way there! In 15 weeks I could possibly be holding my new smooshy baby (I tend to pop them out a little on the early side.)  It just seems so crazy to me. Even though the baby has been VERY active, I still can’t believe I’m going to have a third baby. I feel like at any moment the doctor’s office could call and tell me this has all been some big prank. Ashton Kutcher will show up at the next ultrasound to tell me I’ve been Punk’d.

Mixed with the disbelief is anxiety. How am I going to do it? A preschooler, a toddler and a new baby. I’m really trying to slow down and remember that the chaos will not last forever. We’ll find a new routine/chaos  to fall into.

But mostly I just can’t wait. No idea what we are naming her. Not sure where exactly she’ll sleep. I have no idea what we still need to be ‘ready’ for her. But I can’t wait to hold her, watch her newborn expressions, smell that sweet baby smell and even spend those quiet moments in the middle of the night when we’re both exhausted, but it’s just us two. Can. Not. Wait.

Scream-Free Wisdom

I get daily tips from the ScreamFree Parenting website. I really liked this one and thought it would be helpful to all my mommy friends who read!

“Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk about you as they please.”

                                                                        – Pythagoras (582 BC-50 BC)

   Parenting Tip:

             I once read a comment by an author about human behavior. He noted how horses never looked sad and birds never looked overwhelmed. He said that it was because they don’t care what the other horses and birds think of them.

Some people think that being a strong parent means “putting kids in their place” very loudly or physically. But being ScreamFree is a totally different way of thinking. You are probably going to get strange looks and a few raised eyebrows now and again from others when your child flips out and you handle things calmly. So what? Chances are, those raised eyebrows are caused by surprise rather than judgement. But even if they aren’t, that doesn’t matter. What matters is your relationship with your child and your own integrity. Never compromise those in an effort to appease someone else.

– Jenny Runkel Director of Content for The ScreamFree Institute

I loved this. As I said in my previous post, I’ve been pretty grouchy lately. And when I’m grouchy, I yell. I hate it. It doesn’t get the results I want and makes both me and the kids feel like crap. My next order from Amazon.com will include this book! Being a more peaceful momma sounds pretty good to me.

              

Menu Plan Monday & Grouchy Ladybugs

I have not been in the best of moods lately. Lack of sleep and high standards I place on myself (and then miserably fail at) make for one crabby mom. I absolutely love this post from Moms In Need of Mercy about The Crouchy Ladybug and have been reading it frequently.

Here’s what’s for dinner this week…simple, easy and mostly grilled/slow cooked foods!

Monday – Chicken, Broccoli, Parmesan Pasta

Tuesday – Cheesey Chili Soup 

Wednesday – Chicken Lo Mein

Thursday – Beef Kabobs

Friday – Homemade Pizza and Breadsticks

Hello world!

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It’s All in the Cloth: The Final Chapter a.k.a. Sorry Al!

I intended for this little series to be much longer. But due to unforseen circumstances the cloth diapering has been put on hold indefinitely. Here’s the scoop:

   

   I recently ordered three diapers from Fuzzi Bunz. The shipping was superfast and the diapers were so cute (I ordered one in red, apple green, and a purplish-blue). They are also SO soft. If they made them big enough, I would probably give them a whirl myself! Fuzzi Bunz have snaps, which is nice for a toddler than has figured out velcro (and has a fondness for being naked). Brenna wore this diaper for a few hours, kept her dry and wasn’t too bulky! Over all I was pretty happy with the performance of the diaper. However, after using these diapers she ended up with a really bad rash. It wasn’t a diaper rash and it wasn’t on her baby booty, it was like severe baby acne on her hips. To be completely fair, I also had changed the type of disposable diapers we were using, the type of detergent we were using on the cloth diapers (although I don’t that was the issue, I’ll discuss the detergent more in a bit) and Brenna is extremely fair with very sensitive skin. So who knows what actually caused the rash. But after a few days of lathering her hips in creams trying to get it to heal, we decided to just go back to disposables. In fact, she is now wearing pretty Princess Pull-ups to help move along the potty training!

 
Here’s a quick review of some of the other products I’ve tried:

– Bum Genius AIO 3.0’s are probably my favorite cloth diaper. They are super easy to use and we never had an issues with leaks. At night we did have to double up on the inserts, but that’s pretty expected with a toddler since they are heavy wetters.

– Rocking Green detergent well, ROCKS! It’s formulated for cloth diapers, but can be used on anything. I’ve used it on towels that have been wet at the  bottom of our hamper and it got the ‘funk’ out! There are tons of online shops you can buy it from, or buy directly from the website. Their shipping is pretty quick!

    I like having my stash of cloth diapers as kind of a back-up. And I’m still tempted to put the cute things on her occasionally. But for now, we aren’t cloth diapering. So, sorry Al. Someone else will have to save the world from the millions of disposable diapers!

Too Darn Hot!

Sunday was SO hot. So we broke out the kiddie pools and spashed around!

The dogs seemed to think that the pools were their own personal drinking/splashing pools.

After we played for a while, we loaded up in the car and went to The Chief (the local AWESOME ice cream shop). We came in to put shorts, etc. on and Brenna decided she needed to be a little fancier.

Menu Plan Monday

I love having a month of menu’s planned out. It’s made things SO much easier. On the other hand, this is the week when I started running out of ideas – so it’s full of all new recipes! Yikes! Luckily they are pretty simple (because I don’t cook anything gourmet!) so I’ll leave the links. Give them a try too!

Sunday – Chicken and Noodles
Monday – California Club Sandwiches and corn on the cob
Tuesday – Mexican Tortilla Soup
Wednesday – General Tso’s Chicken – this is one of our favorite Chinese dishes and it’s hard to find it made well. I’m excited to try it out on my own!
Thursday – Leftovers or Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore
Friday – Chicken Salad Croissants
Saturday – Hot dogs – we hardly ever eat hot dogs! But summer weather calls for it and I imagine there will be some decent sales on them this week for Memorial Day.

Caffienated Randomness

– In the ten minutes I’ve been on the computer so far, my kids have dumped two board games and a tote full of trains.

– In a similar thought, I often consider hog tying my kids while I clean – just so they can’t follow behind me and make more messes.

– I’d like to know how people get their little girls to let them fix their hair. Trying to even go near Brenna with a comb is like trying to catch a spider monkey on crack. And one of us usually ends up looking like this:

– I’ve found that if I don’t shower very first thing in the morning (even before Jeff wakes up) I will not shower until the last possible minute which will result in rushing, being late and lots of yelling. It’s taking me over a year to figure this out.

– I’ve learned that I shouldn’t judge other parents for letting thier kids listen to Ludacris if my kids know the “Family Guy” theme song by heart.

– I’m really beginning to wish I was more of a ‘finisher’ and less of a ‘starter’ when it comes to projects.

– Even though I’m incredibly excited about having a third baby, I’m also beginning to seriously wonder how I’m going to handle three kids.

– I’m thinking this random blogging thing works just fine for me. Because that’s how my mind works anyway. 🙂 

For more caffinated randomness, check out Andrea’s blog Under Grace and Over Coffee. (You SHOULD check it out! It’s a great blog!!)

I think I’m in love!

I absolutely loved this. The guy in khaki’s and a plaid shirt kind of reminded me of my husband when we first started dating – but he wouldn’t be caught dead doing this!!!

Distraction

To distract you from the fact that I haven’t posted in a looooong time, here’s a picture of Miss Brenna FancyPants during high tea at Rudd Manor…

Will there ever be new posts from the Mighty B? Only time will tell. But I’m hopeful! 🙂