Monday, November 21, 2011

Yay!!

What a relief!! After many failed efforts I have gotten my blackberry set up so that I can blog from it! I'm so happy!!
Going through their normal process of registering, then entering a code never worked!! Every time I would get a 404 Error! I've tried several times in the last few months. No luck.
So today I sat down at the desktop and googled possible solutions, and lo and behold, found an alternate way to get it set up! So don't mind my 2 little test blog posts to make sure things were working correctly.

In other news, Thursday is Thanksgiving!! Already! I'm not sure where the time went.
We won't be Black Friday shopping this year, no funds. We've done it the last couple years and it was actually pretty fun (albeit cold), and we got some great deals. But we are really scaling back this year, and everyone is only buying for the kids. So no BF shopping for us. Oh well.
So far I've got the kids a couple toys, and a few pairs of pajamas/clothes. I'm not sure how much of what else to get them. Most of Logan's old baby toys and gender neutral, so they will be handed down to Meredith (I mean, how many shape-sorting toys do you really need?? I think we have 4 already!). So I feel a little bad and am really not sure what to get her. I know she won't remember any of it. But it's her first Christmas.
And Logan has tons of clothes to last him until fall of next year, and tons of toys!! I've been trying to focus a little more on maybe books and movies for him. I'm sure no matter what he gets he will be thrilled.

What else have I been up to. Well I've finally gotten a few chances to use my Deep Covered Baker by Pampered Chef that I've had forever!! I made a roast which I thought came out good, but reviews were mixed, and a majority of the people weren't as excited as I was about it. Tonight I have a chicken cacciatore that I basically made last night. I threw it all together last night, and cooked it for about an hour. Threw the whole pot in the fridge, and am heating it for another 2 hours or so in the oven right now. Hopefully it comes out good.
I also made our pumpkin bread recipe last night x 8!! So that's a whole lotta pumpkin bread. But we make most of it in disposable foil pans for people to bring to work and whatnot. I made a huge nice bundt cake pan one for Thursday dessert. And some muffins which we've been munching on :-)
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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sorry Blog

Sorry blog. I've been neglecting you.
Again.

I think I've just got myself involved in too many things, too quickly, all at once. And with little spare time!!
My mom and I have always been couponers, but over the summer we were trying more of the "extreme couponing". And it's been a little more time consuming. Definitely worth it. But time consuming. But we have managed to save 50% or more at a lot of our shopping trips. One trip I think we paid $160, but saved $180. So definitely worth it.
Then we got ourselves involved in selling stuff on Ebay. I/we've sold before, but it's been QUITE a while. It started because my brother purchased a storage unit at auction (a la Storage Wars). And we were helping him resell his items, and we would get 50% of the profits. We put some things on Craigslist, but things that were smaller/easy to ship, we found could better benefit on Ebay.
Then we started all kind of doing a spring cleaning, for lack of a better word, and getting rid of these we all don't need or use anymore. I went through both kids clothes, and decided what was worth keeping, and what wasn't, or I wasn't too attached too. I definitely was a little more attached and kept more of Meredith's clothes. Logan had totes and totes full of baby clothes, a lot of hand-me-downs, and things that just aren't quite my style. IF we have another baby, it's not stuff I'd really use again. So I ended up with a good amount of boys stuff to sell/get rid of. But I made sure I still have PLENTY of stuff for the next babe if we have one (Matt always said he didn't want more than 2 kids, but I'm really pulling for a 3rd in a couple years).
So Ebay-ing has taken up quite a bit of time in the last few weeks, but definitely been worth it. We've made decent money (although mom and i did spend some of it right back on Ebay buying things for the kids! haha).
I've also been trying to continue doing a better job of getting a home-cooked meal on the table every night. Definitely been slacking though as of late. I need to get my butt back into gear.

Then there's the slow sort of potty-training process we've been going through. It's a little hard to dive into it full speed since Logan still doesn't talk a lot right now. (He's 2 yrs, 3 1/2 months old). Once he can talk a little more I'm hoping we can communicate better on the whole talking about when he has to pee thing. For now, we are just sitting him on his potty a few times a day. About 50% of the time he will pee on the potty. I think the rest of the time he just doesn't have to go. Although lately he's been fighting us about going in the bathroom to go!! I have no idea why! I carried him kicking and screaming into the bathroom yesterday morning, but as soon as he sat down he peed! So I don't know what the tantrums are about. And he likes putting his big boy diapers on (Huggies slip-ons). He knows he pees, then I wipe him, then he puts a foot out for me to slide his slip-on on him.Hopefully he can continue and we can keep moving forward. I decided come January we are going to make a harder push on the potty-training. He will be 2 1/2 come January 11th, and I want to have him trained by the time he's 3. I always used to think kids were potty-trained before that, but lately I keep hearing more and more parents saying that they didn't start training until about 2 1/2 (especially with boys). So we'll see.

And then my sweet little baby girl finally cut her first tooth on 11/5. It's made me nostalgic. Yes, already. I've been thinking a lot when I lay in bed at night about my babies. And how they got big too fast. I try to sit and remember holding Logan as a little newborn in the middle of the night. I have a few really fond memories of some really great bonding time we had in the middle of the night a few times. But as time goes on, the picture in my head fades more and more. Yes, I have photos, but there's no replacement for those images you keep stored in your brain of times you loved. And I was frustrated as a new mom with him with the breastfeeding. I had a very low milk supply, no matter what I tried, and couldn't breastfeed him for long. Plus the emergency C section. I was very emotionally drained from feeling like I failed from both those things, and probably couldn't enjoy him the way I should have. And now I regret it. And similarly with Meredith. The first couple weeks with her were great. Then the colic set in. And believe me, I know it can be hard to understand if you haven't gone through it. I had a friend tell me about her fussy baby a few years before I got married, and I always used to think either she should have/could have been doing something differently, or that she was exaggerating. But no. If you have an infant with real, true, colic......it can be crazy. I was convinced there was something wrong with this poor child. Nothing seemed to soothe her. I even had her see a second pediatrician (who also verified that she was fine). I had prepared myself that something was wrong with her in some way. But they said no, probably just colic. And from 1 month old, until 5 months old, this poor child cried and cried. For HOURS every day and night. And it drained me. I had help, but it drained me. And I was making a better attempt at breastfeeding longer this time. They advised I do breastfeeding and formula when she was a newborn because of how quickly she lost weight (due to my slow milk production).So I tried like heck to breastfeed that baby as much as possible (and pump too). I went about 3 days with an hours sleep one time. And I can only remember feeling like I wasn't going to survive. People would say, it normally starts going away at 3 months old. So I wished she'd be 3 months old. People would say, it will go away when she's 4 months old, so I wished for 4 months old. And I wished away her newbornness.... If I could go back in time I'd find a way to change it all. Some way to make it work better. Some way to be more tolerant. Some way to enjoy my infant sweet baby girl.
Because now.... she's just not a newborn anymore. She's so big. So different. And I feel like once again, I missed some of her childhood. And I get angry at myself for that. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would. But I guess that's why they say hindsight is 20/20.

But looking forward, and enjoying every minute of everyday is hard. But I am trying. I am making a better effort. Even in those pull-you-hair-out moments when the kids are screaming, and everyone needs to eat and be changed all at once. I am trying to take in every second. Because this is it. This is their childhood. And it is going by so quickly. And I'm such an emotional sap that I'm always worried about them getting older on me too fast.
And with Thanksgiving being next week, I am definitely trying to be more thankful. And so far, I think it's working.
Because I am truly blessed. I have 2 happy, healthy, sweet kids. And a loving husband. And amazing family. And some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. A roof over our heads. And food to eat.

So that's it. That's life. And it's hard, and exhausting, and amazing, and wonderful.
I'm going to try and blog more (I know, I know, I always say that). But I'm also trying to enjoy my kids and life more. So I may not make it on here as much as I would like. We shall see.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Disheartened

Well, I am feeling a little more disheartened. I tried using a few blogging aides to expand my blog, but haven't been able to donate as much time as I had wanted.
So I had been taking advantage of the whole "next blog" button on the top to search through public blogs and find other moms/families with similar backgrounds or interests as me.
While commenting on one I had chosen to follow today, I realized it looked like my introductory message had been deleted by the owner. I can only assume she w not a fan of a stranger being on h blog :-( and now i feel like a creep
I had left a message on the blogs I had chosen to follow, just saying, hi, my name is Tiffany, I found your blog while searching through other mom blogs and wanted to say hi.
Oh well I guess.
Even though rejection by people you don't even know sucks too.

10/10/11

Yay! Second post in one day!
Although I still can't remember most of what I'd been thinking about blogging about these past few weeks.
I've been slacking a little bit in the past few weeks on making a homemade dinner each night. Due partly because we are getting low on meat. We have one of those vacuum food sealers, so we buy a lot of things in bulk and then repackage it and freeze it. We did a huge shopping trip back in lie April or May and bought some meat by the case at Sam's Club. If you buy it by the case they give you an even deeper discounted price. So we had bought a case of ground beef, and a case of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We stIll have quite a bit of ground beef, but we are the very last few packages of our chicken. We are also just about out of pork (chops, roasts, etc). So that is making planning dinners a little bit harder as well. I've been trying to do a lot more with the ground beef since we still have so much of it, but we have some picky eaters and any recipes I find never seem to work. I found a recipe online and made Swedish meatballs for the first time yesterday. I served them over egg noodles, with corn and green beans the side. Myself and my hubby liked it, Logan ate his noodles and gravy, but not much of his meatball. My dad thought it was okay, but my mom didn't really care for the gravy. Tonight I'm making just regular old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce. So it's meatballs 2 nights in a row, but totally different recipes. Hopefully I can get a couple hundred dollars extra and head back over to Sam's Club and get more chicken and maybe more pork too. It was great to not have to worry about buying meat for the last 6 or so months!!
Anyway, what else is going on. We have Logan's halloween costume, and Meredith's is being shipped. Logan is going to be Buzz Lightyear. He is really into Toy Story right now. We had bought a portable DVD player, and brought it with us on our trip to NJ last month for the car. For the first time he really sat and watched entire movies. And for Meredith, my mom found a cute flower costume online "baby blossom" it's called. Hopefully it looks cute on her.
Logan is starting to talk a lot more, but is definitely not where I want him to be. His doctor wasn't concerned at his 2 year checkup in July, but most of the other moms I know that have kids his age or younger or saying a lot more words and talking a lot more clearly. I had the pediatrician give me some information on a speech therapist just in case. I have decided if he isn't really talking more and better by January (when he'll be 2 1/2), then I will see about scheduling an appointment with someone. I don't want to be one of those pushy and overly worried parents, but i don't want to be overlooking anything that might be holding him back. I do find myself getting a little embarrassed sometimes at his lack of speech. I don't want other parents thinking I'm babying him or not doing a good job parenting.

I feel bad

So I feel pretty terrible.
I started this new blog promising myself I'd paid more attention to it in ways I never did my old blog.
It's a little hard when I don't have many followers though (ie-1).
Not that that's WHY I'm doing this. I'm doing it for me, an outlet for everything I think and am going through. And I wanted to start fresh. I didn't really want most of the "friends" from high school and other moms I know on here just yet. I want totally new eyes and opinions. Some of the people I know are rather judgey. But I'm going to try harder from here on out. I'm not even really sure where I left off or what's been going on since I last wrote.
Let's start with Meredith I guess. She is 7 1/2 months old, and I don't know where the time went. If it goes fast with your first child, it goes LIGHTSPEED with the second!! I can still remember and feel sometimes being pregnant with her just a second ago......crazy. At her 6 month checkup they told me she was 50th percentile for weight, and 75th percentile for height. Well, she is currently wearing 9 month clothing, and has just jumped into 12 month pajamas!! At first I was just factoring in the weight, and so confused why she seemed to be outgrowing everything so quickly, when 50th percentile is absolutely average, but then last night my mom and I remembered how long/tall she is for her age, and I'm sure that's got a lot to do with it! Crazy still. My sweet little baby is getting too big too fast!!
She started her first foods on 7/19/11-Rice cereal. Then throughout July, August and even September we did the whole adding one new food/ingredient at a time. I'm sure I'm more of a worrywart about it then need be, but I always was worried about a bad reaction to something. After the individual foods with only one ingredient though, you have the ones like "Banana Plum Grape." Well, they make banana in a 1st food, but don't make plum or grape in a 1st food! So when you do that, you're really adding TWO new things at once to her diet. So I slowly integrated all those types of foods too, even though I am getting a feeling most moms don't worry about that type of thing once they get through those single-ingredient first foods. So by the end of September she had gotten through pretty much anything I wanted to introduce singly.
Rice cereal
Green Beans
Prunes
Apples
Peas
Squash
Carrots
Pears
Mango
Mixed Grain Cereal
Kiwi
Banana
Peaches
Spinach
Sweet Potatoes
Cinnamon
Pumpkin
"Mixed Berry"
Raspberry
Cherries
Apricots
Pineapple
Pomegranate
Corn

Then I had some organic baby food I had bought at a really cheap price with some different type of ingredients like "Yumberry"!


Now I just recently started her on the second foods dinner. I am doing the same dinner, 2 days in a row while I introduce them also. So far she's had:
Vegetable Beef
Apples and Chicken
Sweet Potatoes and Turkey
Turkey Rice (which is the first food ever that she didn't really seem to care for)
and tonight she tries Chicken Noodle.

So she's doing really great with eating it seems. A very good eater most of the time.
And she is a rolling maniac!!! Mostly likes to go from her belly to her back, but not a big fan of going vice versa.

Well I have to run for now as both kids need a diaper change. I hope to be able to hope back on here later.