Saturday Social

Here are a couple of new blogs that I am loving!!

1. Homeschool Creations - I love the printables that she has available and I love that she blogs about the different school lessons all the kids are doing!!

2. 1+1+1=1 - I love this blog because she had TONS of really great ideas to do with toddlers and preschoolers!! If you have toddlers or preschoolers at home, check out this blog for some new, fun activities.

3. This website is great! I love this idea of raising our kids to be "Rock Stars!" Check it out to see what I am talking about!!! If you want some ideas on how to intentionally teach your kids about Christ, this site is for you!

Accountable Kids

Has anyone heard of the Accountable Kids program?

It sounds intriguing - I could see it working here, but don't really want to spend the money since I don't know anyone who has tried it.

Be a Yes Mom!

After reading Nicole's blog and then hopping over here, I decided to also take the "Yes" Mom Challenge. Daily I tell my kids no they can't do something because I don't want to deal with the mess or the clean up or because it is just easier to do myself. I am going to try to let my kids do more fun, messy things that they ask to do.

I actually already had an opportunity to say "yes" to my kids today. Lucy asked to wash the dishes today. I realize that I should look at this as a great time to teach her some responsibility, but normally I would tell her "not right now" because it is less messy and goes much more quickly if I do it myself (our dishwasher is broken, by the way - has been for about 2 months). Today, I decided to let her help and she had a great time and she worked really hard. Norah also asked to help with something so I let her snap the green beans for dinner. She, too, worked really hard and I only have to do 1/2 the bag! There are green bean ends all over the counter and floor, but who cares!!

As Nicole and Jill Savage stated, this is not about permissive parenting. Our kids obviously need boundaries, but it is about saying yes when we are only saying no for selfish reasons!!

No One Said Parenting Was Easy

I know I haven't posted recently - we have had a rough week with Norah. I'm not going into too many details - I know Grandpa Steve doesn't like to read the negative things about his grandkids. Let's just say we are experiencing some behaviors that are typically seen in 2 year olds - but Norah never did as a 2 year old.

We (when I say we, I mean me - Kevin was at work) were faced with a situation today that was incredibly frustrating. We have taken things away from her and sent her to her room, but nothing has worked. Today I had had ENOUGH.

She was supposed to go to a birthday party tonight of one of her good friends from church. Since it was time to step it up a notch and I told Norah, "You are not going to the party and I am calling Kate's mom now." I called Karen right away and told her - I knew if I didn't call right away, I might change my mind.

So in the end. . . Lucy and I went to the party (the whole family was invited) without Norah. It was a really tough decision because I knew Norah would be DEVASTATED, but she has to learn that she has to be kind and obey.

Hopefully, the rest of the weekend will go smoothly.

On a lighter note, Daphne is now rolling over both ways. She is now a girl on the move. She hasn't figured out yet that she can get to something she wants, but it won't be long!

Whew!

Hard to believe that we are 2 weeks in already.  So much to post about -  but my brain is in zombie mode so this will not be the most organized post ever.

Daphne is doing well - though not gaining weight as quickly as the doctor would like so we will be back in a week for a weight check.  She is a decent eater when she is awake enough for a full feeding.  That's the trouble, though, she does not want to wake up to eat.  The last 2 days have actually been better and Kevin gave her a bottle last night so I could go to bed a little earlier.  She actually drank 3 ounces and then went 5 hours between the next feeding!  I think we will stick with a bedtime bottle for a while so I can get an extra hour or 2 before the next feeding.  

Kevin and the girls went to church without us this morning.  We typically try to avoid too many public places for the first month or so of life.  Norah was about 5 weeks when she got sick for the first time and we have been doing breathing treatments basically ever since!  Whether or not getting sick so early affected her breathing issues or not, I don't know, but I am not willing to take a chance on that.  Probably next week, Kevin will go to church on Saturday night and I will take the girls on Sunday - that's how we did it for a few weeks when Lucy was a baby.  

  Lucy has officially become a middle child.  She just seems out of sorts.  I'm sure having grandparents here for 10 days and having NO routine hasn't helped, but, wow, that girl is giving us a run for our money.  She isn't sleeping well - naps or nighttime!  She is waking up at

 the crack of dawn - often before Daphne is even up.  She screams if we try to take her back to bed - waking Norah, of course.  Any suggestions on getting her to stay in bed are welcome!!!!  She spends most of the day crying or whining about  being tired, yet somehow is able to keep herself awake all of naptime.

I have homeschool stuff to post - mostly for my own sake of getting thoughts together, but I will do that in a separate post.  

Now for a few pics (I know I am a few days behind on my photo blog - I  have the pics, just haven't posted them).

I need to try to get a good picture of Daphne's hair and post it next to a picture of Norah at the same age.  For those of you who knew Norah as a baby and were thoroughly amused by her hair, I think Daphne's is going to be the same.  Not even kidding - Norah's hair stuck straight up for the first 3 or 4 months of her life.  It was long, too - not just 1/2 inch or so.  She had about 2 to 3 inches standing end to end.  Every where we went random people would comment, "Oh!  Look at that hair!"  

One of Those Nights

Last night was one of those nights where both girls were awake at different times.  I think Lucy was awake 4 different times in the night (2 of which we were still up).  Norah was awake once - crying.  Now, it is 8:00 and both girls are still sleeping.  In fact Lucy is in our bed sleeping.  She came into our room about 6:30 and climbed in bed with us.  Neither Kevin nor I could fall back to sleep so we got up and there lies Lucy - sound asleep.  

I should be doing something productive - instead I am blogging!!

Not Much to Blog About

Not a whole lot to blog about.  We had my nephew's birthday party yesterday - my sister blogged about it.  The girls had a great time with their cousins!  

Lucy is as feisty as ever.  Can she sense that her life is about to drastically change?  She is wearing us out!!

Norah is napping again almost everyday.  If she misses - she is fine, but she seems to crash pretty quickly if she is in her bed.  

We might be a little closer to names for the baby.  Well, for the boy we are probably down to 2 or 3.   If we have another girl, I don't know how we'll choose.  Our list is atleast 5 long.  We don't have middle names either.  

We have less than 6 weeks to go - hard to believe.  I know I haven't posted any belly pictures.  I may have Kevin take one this week so this child knows that I did in fact carry him/her.  I just try to avoid too many pics of myself when I am pregnant.   

Had dinner with the Morrison's.  It had been a while since we had seen them - sad, I know, since we live 4 minutes apart.  The kids played great together!!

That is about all the randomness for now.  

Quick Little Update. . .Nothing Exciting

Other than the girls being sick - nothing else is gong one here.  Norah has an ear infection - according to the doctor it is really bad.  Besides the antibiotic, he prescribed her some eardrops for the pain - which he has never done before.  Poor girl!  

I had to go for the 3 hour glucose screening on Friday because my numbers were too high after the 1 hour.  Oddly enough, this time I was 140 (seriously no idea what the number actually represents) and they want you to be below 140.  What does that mean you ask?  I have no idea.  I don't technically have gestational diabetes - thank goodness - but I'm also a little higher than the doctor would prefer.  According to the nurse I am just supposed to monitor my diet a little better - limit fast food intake as much as possible and try to eat a balanced diet.  Other than sometimes indulging in a craving, I don't think I eat that bad.  I'll just try to be a little more carefull - I will need some serious willpower over the holiday season.  I LOVE to make Christmas kind and often make 8-10 different kinds.  I may have to take a year off, though, so I am not tempted to eat too many!!

It is hard to believe that we will be having the baby in 9 weeks!  I have my c-section scheduled and we have started to count down.  I think we have actually narrowed down our names to a couple of boys names and we may actually have a girls name!  Middle names are still totally up in the air.  With a last name like Swinigan (kind of a mouthful to say) I am incredible picky about the length of names!!  

Today was the last week of the women's Bible study at our church.  The study I did was Lord, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur.  It was excellent.  It is interesting to me that although I grew up in a great Bible teaching church, I didn't know much about the names of God.  Sure, I had heard them before (names like Jehovah-jireh, Elohim, Adonai), but I never actually knew the specific meanings of each name.  Nor did I know how and when the names were revealed to the Israelites.  It was a great study and I would highly recommend it to anyone (our facilitator was excellent, too).  I will miss not going after Christmas, but I just don't think I could with the baby coming.  By next fall - we will all be ready!  

I haven't posted a lot about school with the girls for a little while.  We are still trucking away (mostly with Norah), but I have been a little too tired to worry about posting the details.  We have about 4 or 5 weeks left of the curriculum that we are using but we are going to take a break next week to do Thanksgiving stuff and we will take a break in December to do Christmas stuff.  We will still have school - we are just adding some of our own stuff so basically we will finish up the My Father's World curriculum the week before the baby comes.  Should be perfect timing.

As I said - nothing too exciting - just normal everyday stuff. 

After 6 Weeks. . .

We think Norah is officially over her finger sucking habit!  I say, 'think,' because we obviously don't really know what she does in the middle of the night.  She doesn't put her fingers in her mouth at the times she used to - when she is tired, watching TV, in the car, when she is hurt, etc.  I have even napped with her a couple of times and she hasn't even tried!  Yea!

Norah's big reward for filling up her chart (she got a sticker every morning if she kept her gloves on all night) was a trip to Build-a-Bear.  Last weekend, we dropped Lucy off at Shawn and

 Shawna's house (Kev's brother & SIL) and we took Norah to the mall.  She was very excited to pick an animal - of course, she chose a PINK leopard.  She was amazed at all the clothes to choose from (actually we were, too) and ended up picking a denim skirt that is similar to one she has and a purple shirt and leggings.  

We finished our little outing with cookies from the Great American Cookie Co.  Yummy!

Regression

While I have several fun things to post about (Norah is no longer sucking fingers!  We moved girls into their new bunkbeds!) I am too tired to upload pictures and write a lot.  However, I could use some advice.  Lucy has totally regressed when it comes to the potty training.  She is having accidents all the time - not even just one a day.  She is probably having more accidents than she is actually going on the potty.  If I remind her then she will go (although today I was helping her pull her pants down to sit on the potty and she peed right there on the floor), but if it is up to her - like at MDO, Bible study, or church, she just goes in her pants.  She also doesn't seem to care - she actually laughs when she sees that I am frustrated!  She has also started going in her car seat and tells me after the fact - even after she just sat on the potty before we left.  Yesterday we were going to Kevin's brother's - about 40 minutes away.  We had to stop about 20 minutes in so she could go potty.  She had been holding it for hours if we were in the car. 

I realize that it is totally normal after a new baby comes that she would regress - I just didn't think it would happed before.  Although, she talks often about being the baby and says "That baby is your belly be the big kid."  

Anyway, anyone have any advice?  Being so tired doesn't help my attitude about it, but it is driving me crazy!!

Uh-oh

So I've been trying something with Lucy that we learned at the Love & Logic Parenting Seminar we are attending. It is called the Uh-oh Song. Every time she steps on the bricks of the fireplace, I say (in a sing-song voice) "Uh-oh, time for a little playpen time. So sad." Then I put her in the pak 'n play that I put in the dining room. I have done this about 15 times today. The first couple of times Lucy just laughed and then waited for the minute or 2 until I got her out. Now when I pick her up from the fireplace she says "uh-oh" and then hugs me as tight as she can. I have to peel her off of me. Then as I set her in the pak 'n play she says - so sad - which comes out "doh dah." Then she fusses for about a minute - once she stops, I give her a minute of calm and then I get her out. I don't know if this technique will work, but I am going to stick with it for a couple of days. We'll see.

She doesn't look to unhappy, does she?

No Guarantee

So my plan of not making Norah nap and putting her to bed early - not so great. Yes, she did fall asleep right away. However, around 11:30 I woke to BOING, BOING, BOING. I went into her room and she was JUMPING! I told her to lay down and go to sleep - it is still night time. I go back to bed, fall back to sleep (which is an accomplishment in itself since I have been dealing with insomnia for about 2 months now) and I wake up at 12:30 a.m. to BOING, BOING, BOING. She was jumping again!!! This time, I went into her room and laid her down and walked out. I think she fell back to sleep pretty quickly. I, on the otherhand, was awake until 2. So, now I am EXHAUSTED! Norah woke up with a cold - which for her means extra breathing treatments. So, we will try to get in 4 today.
I am going to remember Isaiah 40:31 "Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord with renew their strength. They will run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint."

So I guess this is a good Thoughts for Thursday topic. Do your kids do crazy things in the night? Do they still nap at 3 1/2? How about insomnia - anyone been there? If so, any suggestions!!

Ahhhh. . .

It is just after 7:00 and the girls are asleep. Yes, that's right, asleep. It was one of those days - no nap for Norah and just a little cat nap for Lucy. They were both crying and whining all evening - so off to bed for both girls.

I am struggling with the whole nap thing for Norah. Monday, she napped for about 2 hours - she seemed exhausted so I let her sleep - but then she didn't fall asleep until after 9. Yesterday, I woke her after about an hour - she didn't fall asleep until after 8:30. I know that may not seem like a big deal to some people, but we like our kids going to bed at an early time - 7 or 7:30. Today, I didn't make Norah sleep - she just had a rest time or play time in her room and as I said she could barely make it to 7. I can't seem to find a happy medium. Maybe a nap every couple of days will work - who knows. If you have any suggestions - I would love hear them!!

I know it has been awhile since I last posted and we have actually been pretty busy. I won't bore you with all the details - just a few pictures.

Friday - My Little Pony Live with Norah and her friend, Kate

Late Friday night - Max, Denise, and Contessa came to town

Saturday morning - Playing with sweet little Contessa

Saturday afternoon - Will's birthday party

Sunday - Church & Kevin's parents came to town

Monday - School for Norah, I went to the gym and grocery while Kevin's parents played with Lucy

That's it in a nutshell.