The Routine

As a stay at home mom, it is easy for me to get 'stuck in a rut' of the daily routine, the day in day out of life. You know: get up, breakfast, get ready for the day, play, lunch, nap, play, dinner, bath, tv, bed. That is our day. (And for the 'play' portion of the day, insert any various activities like going to the pool, playing outside, going for a hike, crafts, etc.)

Fun, yes. Routine-ish, yes.

Sometimes as a mother, I just get caught up in the schedule and/or routine. I feel like I just 'go through the motions,' and I get through the day.

I like a schedule and the kids do best when they know the schedule for the day as well, but I just, well, I don't know...

I am feeling a little uninspired.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being able to be a stay at home mom. It is a HUGE blessing and I am very grateful, but as with any 'job' I just feel, well, I don't know...

Anyone else know what I mean??

A Few Steps Behind

Ashlyn had her one year doctor's appointment a few weeks ago and it didn't go as well as I had hoped. Although I was not surprised what the doctor had to say about Ashlyn's growth and development, it isn't always what you want to hear.

Mariah and Ambria were ahead on most of their milestones when they were younger. Ashlyn, well, not so much. She is taking her sweet time.

The doctor thinks that Ashlyn is 3-4 months behind on many of her milestones for a one year old. Socially, Ashlyn is doing well, but she is behind physically. Of course, she is tiny, she has never been on the growth chart. She formed her "own" curve on the chart but now has slipped off her curve a little. This is no surprise, both sides of the family are petite, but we will try to increase her daily calorie intake. She is having a few feeding issues and difficulty with food textures so we are working on this as well.

Ashlyn also has poor muscle tone in her legs. I am hoping she is just being lazy, and that she just thinks standing and/or pulling up is overrated. The doctor will reevaluate her leg muscle tone in a few months and in the meantime, we will work on strengthening those little legs.

Until then, we will just keep on keeping on with our Little Miss Ashlyn, who brings us more and more joy each day!

Loving the pool

Peek-a-Boo!

A Peaceful Moment

A few hours after I put Ashlyn to bed tonight, she woke up crying so I took her outside.

We peered through the darkness and saw fireflies light up the yard.
We heard thunder rolling in the distance.
We saw flashes of lightning over the mountains.
We felt the wind in our hair.
We heard tree frogs and crickets.
We felt each other's heartbeat as we cuddled under the night sky.

She stopped crying.

ERGObaby Carrier

I have been drooling over the ERGObaby carrier. So, I finally decided to splurge and buy one. I am in love! This carrier is so awesome and easy to use. It is pretty much like having the child ride piggy back and it goes up to 45 pounds. I figured out how to put Ashlyn in it by myself on my back and she really enjoys riding in it. It is also a front and hip carrier, but I think I will probably use it on my back for the most part. I have seen people wear the ERGO everywhere, stores, library, downtown, hiking, and just going for a stroll.

I can't stop thinking about my new purchase and I am so excited. I laughed and asked my husband if it would look funny if I just wore the ERGO with no kid in it. He said probably. :)

Love, love, love my ERGO!

My Gray Toothed Little Girl

A few weeks ago, Ambria took a nose dive onto our hard wood floor and hit her mouth and teeth pretty badly. There was blood, a lot of screaming, fat lips, and toothaches. Her top two teeth were knocked loose so we were hoping the teeth would tighten up and we would go on our merry way.

Well, that was two weeks ago. Now her teeth are still loose and are turning gray. Yikes!!

A trip to a new dentist 35 minutes away, revealed no cracked baby teeth and no cracked adult teeth. Hooray! The dentist is hoping the gray color will fade as the mouth trauma and nerves heal. I am hoping for this too!!

Crusty Old Green Beans

What dried, crusty green beans (or any other miscellaneous food or snot) on my shirt can mean:

*I take care of young kids
*It is a bragging tactic that says: Everyone take note, I feed my kids healthy food like green beans and NEVER junk food :)
*My shirt is a makeshift washcloth
*I need to do laundry
*I have had better days
*Crusty green beans on my shirt is a totally acceptable fashion accessory
*I have worn this shirt two days in a row because I knew I would get some sort of food or snot splattered on me again so why dirty a clean shirt
*I love my kids so much that I have no shame in wearing dried, crusty green beans
*Shoot, I totally didn't know this was on my shirt and I wore it out in public!!

Security Blanket Washing Day

Security Blanket Washing Day can prove to be an interesting day.

It is the day where I sneak the blankie away without the child seeing and I quickly whisk it away into the soap filled washing machine.

It is the day when the "blankie substitute" comes out but is quickly identified as a fraud, and there are tears when the "true" blankie is discovered "missing."

It is the day when I have to secretly disappear into the laundry room to switch the blankie from the washing machine into the warm dryer (because we all know it can be a travesty if the child sees the WET blankie!)

This is the day when you wish the dryer would HURRY UP!

It is the day when cheers from mother and child can be heard from the laundry room when the blankie comes out of the warm dryer smelling fresh again and is returned safely to its rightful owner.

How do I know all this?? How am I a Security Blanket Washing Day expert?
I have been on both sides of this Washing Day dilemma.
I remember my childhood blankie, my green and white blankie with lace on the edges. I remember the slow discinegration as holes appeared in my overly used blankie. I remember the smell of the "fraud" and I remember the feel of the "substitute"

Two of our three daughters have a beloved blanket and I feel their pain on Washing Day.

My name is Jamie, and I am a security blanket expert.

Strabismus-Eye Drops

Ashlyn went back to the eye specialist last week. We have seen some improvements with Ashlyn's eyes and people have recently commented on how her eyes were looking better.

I have still noticed her eyes crossing at various times during the day, especially when she eats and when she is tired.

As noted before, I was having trouble keeping the eye patches on Ashlyn, as she would rip them off as soon as I covered her eye. This was beyond frustrating (probably for her as well). Because of this obstacle, we have not done the patches for the past three weeks. (I know, shame, shame).

So, at the check up, the doctor said that Ashlyn was still favoring one eye. Rather than continue the patches, (aka: rip off these stupid things as soon as my mom puts them on my face) the doctor prescribed some eye drops.

The eye drops are similar to the medicine used to dilate your eyes at the eye doctor. I am supposed to just put one drop in Ashlyn's good eye, which will dilate her pupils and make her vision blurry in her good eye. This will force Ashlyn to keep using her weak eye to see. We have not started the drops yet, so hopefully it will go smoothly and Ashlyn won't get too frustrated while her one eye is blurry. The doctor wants to see Ashlyn again in two months to check her progress.

We are continuing to pray for healing for Ashlyn's eyes and that she continues to show improvement.

Mysterious Sounds

Have you ever been in another room and a toy starts playing random music from a totally different room?

This morning I was feeding Ashlyn and the girls were eating breakfast and all of a sudden, the Leap Frog Learning Table burst out into full song and lights from in the living room. WEIRD!! The table didn't just go through one song or part of a song, it kept playing and playing and playing until we had to turn it off.

Just sayin'. Kinda crazy.

(Added note: I know sometimes toys do this when the batteries are low but I just changed the batteries a few weeks ago. I guess the table just has a mind of its own. Now, if more toys start to do this random music playing.....)

Our Daily Hike

Every day, the girls and I have been taking a walk half way up the mountain behind our home. (We only go half way because we wouldn't be able to make it down the mountain and back to the house without tired legs and whiny girls). The girls are absolutely LOVING this time and they beg me to go for our daily hike as soon as I step out of bed in the morning.

On our walk, we look at the plant life, smell the flowers, observe insects, collect rocks, search for wildlife, listen to the birds, pick up litter, talk about the weather, and our favorite part: taste raspberries and blackberries!

Little do the girls know, we are a walking science lesson. Ha. I guess that is the teacher in me. And another thing, I actually look forward to this time as well. I am enjoying the hike as much as the girls...especially when they want to hold my hand.

I will walk with my girls forever.

Memorable moments with my girls.

Priceless.

First Grade Dictionary

A few weeks ago, Mariah brought home her 1st Grade Dictionary that she used throughout her first grade school year. Each letter of the alphabet had a separate page and there were some words already typed in the dictionary. For example:

Aa: after, about, again, another, around

Bb: beautiful, because, before

Cc: children, called, city


On each page, there were also blank lines for the students to write in their own words.

As I flipped through Mariah's First Grade Dictionary, I saw that she only wrote in a few words....



Bb: butt

Jj: Justin Bebr (Bieber)

Pp: Poop, pee







We got a good laugh. I will be saving this dictionary in her keepsake box! Hahaha!

Ambria: "Is this for Ashlyn's butt?"

I Will Always Remember This Week

A year ago, unknowingly, my blood pressure was on the rise. The levels would land me in the hospital for a few days before the emergency induction of our premature baby girl.

Ashlyn's first birthday is next Sunday, June 19. I will forever remember the days leading up to her delivery. I spent a few days looking out at the mountains from the hospital window wondering when I would be discharged and put on bed rest, little did I know, this would not be the case.

I was put through countless tests, needle pokes, and ultrasounds to monitor myself and the baby. I remember my husband and the girls coming to visit me, the girls anxious and curious as to why I was in the hospital and not at home. I remember the nurses and doctors coming into my room at 2:00am saying that the tests did not come back good and they are taking me to labor and delivery to start the induction. From my new room, IV's were started and continuous meds were given, making me feel horrible, groggy, and nauseous.



Ashlyn was delivered, healthy and hungry. The moments following her birth as I hemorrhaged and lost consciousness. I remember in a blurred, cloudy vision, my husband pacing, crying, and praying, nurses running and doctors scurrying. After a while, I remember the doctor staring in my face, asking me questions that I was unable to answer. I was unable to hold my newborn baby girl because I was so weak.

Three days after we were released from the hospital, I was yet again back in the hospital for blood pressure that had spiked to higher levels than when I was pregnant. My eyes filled with tears as all I wanted to do was go home and be a family of five.

That was a year ago. We are grateful that my blood pressure is finally stabilized and that Ashlyn continues to grow and develop by leaps and bounds. This is a memorable week for me. We are blessed. We are blessed. We are blessed!

Ode to the Gerber Puff

**Gerber Puffs should be added to all restaurant appetizer menus.

**Gerber Puffs tag line should be: "Throw this tasteless miracle food at your kid and they will be happy and satisfied for at least five minutes...and then repeat process to satisfy your child again...because for some reason kids LOVE Puffs!"


**I carry a small container of Puffs in my purse, and in my car, and in the diaper bag, and if they would fit, I would put some in my husbands wallet too.


**The Gerber Puff can also be called "staller food." Aka: Stop crying because your food is not ready yet.


**I bet if these tasteless puffs were dipped in chocolate, adults would love them too.

Can You Hear Me?

It is not uncommon for me to hear Mariah and/or Ambria speaking loudly "AT" the television. They answer the questions that cartoon characters ask. They even respond to cartoon characters' commands without the characters saying "please."

Dora: (unnecessarily yelling) "SAY BACKPACK!"
My girls: BACKPACK! Backpack, backpack!

Go, Diego, Go has his own commands and list of questions, as does Little Einsteins, and on and on.

The point: MY GIRLS LISTEN!

Um, yeah, pretty frustrating when I am trying to get the girls to do something, like clean up their toys or clear the table, I EVEN SAY PLEASE, and they 'can't hear me' or they just plain don't want to listen to me.

At times, I feel like Dora has more leverage than me.

The Case of the Missing Tooth Fairy

This is not the normal "Hey, look, my kid lost their first tooth!" post.

Mariah lost her first tooth back in April. This was a memorable experience for the whole family as we waited patiently for Mariah to get "brave" and pull out her then 'hanging by a thread' tooth. She did it. We cheered.

As a mother, it was emotional for me as my oldest daughter reached yet another milestone.

That night, instead of placing the tooth under her purple pillow, Mariah placed the shiny tooth on her dresser. She did not want the Tooth Fairy to take this precious piece of her life. She didn't want the Tooth Fairy to fly off with her prized possession.

The Tooth Fairy did not show up. The Tooth Fairy did not steal the tooth out from under her. The Tooth Fairy did not have Mariah's permission to visit.

Mariah took her tooth to school for Show and Tell the following week and her teacher gave her a cool 'tooth necklace' to place her tooth in. Mariah came home from school skipping, smiling, and even more proud of her tooth, now inside the plastic necklace.

Mariah proudly shows me the necklace after school and opens it up to reveal her first tooth. She exclaims, "look, mom, there is A LOT more space in here for the rest of my teeth!"

What does this mean? Mariah wants to keep her teeth.

I asked Mariah if she ever plans to place her teeth under her pillow (not to catch the Tooth Fairy off guard) and she thought MAYBE she would after 5 or 10 teeth have fallen out and then she would put them ALL under her pillow and see what the Tooth Fairy would leave for her.

Interesting. Not the 'normal' Tooth Fairy story.

Unique and inventive...just like my Mariah.

As seen in this picture, Mariah has since lost ANOTHER tooth! Tooth #1 and Tooth #2 reside inside the plastic necklace to this day.

Strabismus Eye Patches

Ok, so we are going on almost two months of eye patch therapy (read on for details about how the patches have become a tasty treat). Some days we see an improvement in Ashlyn's eyes and some days seem like she has taken a few steps back. Before starting the patch therapy, we were noticing her eye crossing about 50% of the time, and now it seems like her eye is crossing 75% of the time (like I said, a few steps back). We will continue the patching until the middle of July and then go back to the specialist.

Here is a pretty cool new eye patch (but of course it is more expensive). It has glitter and sparkles on it!! Mariah and Ambria were jealous of this stylish piece of **bling**.
The first month or so of patching went well and Ashlyn tolerated them REALLY well....but....that wore off and now she HATES them!!! She attempts to rip them off within a few seconds of me putting on the patch, and most times she is successful.
Rip off first patch.
Take two.
Rip it off.
I get upset.
Money down the drain.
Try again.
Try to hold Ashlyn's hand, push her hand away, say 'no', distract her with snacks, distract her with toys, go outside.
No luck.

One day, Ashlyn was playing in the living room while wearing her eye patch. I walked in to check on her and she looked like she was up to no good. Upon closer inspection, she was eating something. I pry open her mouth to find...HER EYE PATCH! Ashlyn now rips off her eye patch ASAP and tries to EAT them. So, not only do I now have to try to keep the patch on her eye, I also have to make sure that if she does successfully tears it off and eats it, that she doesn't choke on it. Nice.

Eye patch therapy just got a little more difficult.
Our new idea and pretty much last resort: we put socks on her hands. I am sure it is only a matter of time before she learns to get the socks off too. Lovely.

Learning Numbers

Well, not exactly sure if this is considered great parenting or not, but Ambria has learned her numbers...thanks to the remote control.

Ambria: "Mom, what channel is Dora?"
Me: "2...9...5"
Ambria: "ok"

Ambria: "Mom, dad left the sports channel on."
Me: "Push 3...0...1"
Ambria: "ok"

Boom. She knows her numbers. :)

Thief.

I just ate Goldfish crackers off of Ashlyn's highchair tray.

And, I didn't say please or thank you.

Happy, Sad, or Mad

A few years ago, we started doing something at the dinner table. Every night (or whenever we all sit down to eat dinner together, usually 3-4 times a week) we ask these three questions:

1. What made you happy today?
2. What made you sad today?
3. What made you angry today?

Each person in the family, even me and my husband, gets a chance to speak and everyone else has to be polite and listen.

Of course, this can prove to be interesting on some occasions. When we started this tradition, Ambria was just learning to talk. We would ask her what made her happy, and her response was, "happy." On other days, we get looonngg drawn out stories from Mariah about good and/or bad things that happened at school and who her best friend of the day is, or what new club has been started and what friend was left out.

We learn new things are each member of the family.

The girls learn that mom and dad have emotions too.
We learn more about each of the girls' personalities, likes, and dislikes.
We learn about events at school.
We learn to respect each family member and validate their feelings.

I really enjoy this tradition. I can only imagine that stories will get more interesting as the girls get older, well, I guess if they don't refuse to talk and have an attitude...

Going Solo to the Grocery Store

I liken a trip alone to the grocery store to a short vacation.

Funny, but really, pretty much true when you have young kiddos.

This is what grocery shopping by myself looks like:

*not taking forever to get kids unloaded from the van and into the shopping cart
*not having to look for and disinfect a shopping cart with one of those cool drivable pretend cars attached to the front of it.
*not having to push a gigantic shopping cart with one of those cool cars attached to the front of it
*not having to attempt to shove a Puff into the baby's mouth every 30 seconds while trying not to interrupt our forward momentum and slow our pace
*not continuously telling a child to stay in the cart at all times and keep hand and feet inside the vehicle
*having no kids means I can take my time, I can look at food options, I can look at my coupons, I can notice new products, and did I mention, take my time
*I don't have to worry about getting home before nap time, lunch time, crabby time, bed time, etc.

The downside to shopping alone:
*no cute kiddos to smile, coo, and talk to
*I can't blame talking to myself on the kids and just act like I was pretending to talk to them when in all actuality, I was audibly talking to myself about which kind of cereal I should buy or if that produce looks and feels ripe enough. (Oh, and don't worry, I felt pretty stupid when I noticed a man staring at me while I was chatting to myself. Feelin' pretty sweet).

Eye Patches

We are still experimenting with different brands of eye patches for Ashlyn. What is there to experiment? If she has any allergic reaction to the adhesive, if her eyebrow gets torn off, if the area around her eye becomes red from irritation, etc.

So far so good. I have been using Aquaphor Lip Repair (aka chapstick) on her eyebrow before I apply the patch just in case the patch takes off her eyebrow. That seems to be working well. We have received some cute samples of eye patches so we are having fun with different patterns and styles on the patches and we have some more coming in the mail. (I usually let the big sisters pick out which patch they want Ashlyn to wear). I want to try different brands before I place an order.

Ashlyn is doing ok wearing the patch. She gets a little frustrated when she tries to rub her eye and she only cries a little when it is time to pull it off. I wince.

It is early into the patch therapy but we haven't noticed a difference in her eyes yet. We are still praying.

Photograph Worth More than Words

For some reason, I love this picture. Earlier this week, we were all outside enjoying the spring sunshine. We had a picnic in the yard, the girls had wind blown hair, dirty feet, and sticky hands from drippy popsicles (and I was trying to stay calm about the dirt crusted feet and red popsicle drool down their chins realizing that the girls WILL get clean in the bath later andI was trying to tell myself just to enjoy the moment and let the girls have fun).

So, this picture says so much more than the actual events:

This is how the shot went:
Me: (I place Ashlyn between her big sisters)
"Now, girls, look at the camera. Ashlyn! Ashlyn! Ashlyn! Ambria, put the umbrella down. Ok, Ambria then just peek at me from behind the umbrella. Mariah, turn around. Mariah, please turn around."

Girls: no response and/or opposite response for what I was looking for and/or wanted for this cute little picture of the three girls having a picnic.

Great.

Although I didn't get the girls sitting all cute on the blanket, what the photograph encompases is so much more. The picture expresses all three of the girls' personalities.

In one word:

Ambria: shy
Ashlyn: spoiled
Mariah: stubborn

I will look back on this priceless photograph for many years to come and I will be able to remember the stages each of the girls were in during the time of this shot.

I love it and I love them.

Fashion Consultant

This is how I chose what clothes to wear today:

I stood in front of my closet and posed the question, "now, which shirt can get snot all over it?"

Boom, decision made.

Time Away

Sometimes I just need some time away from the girls (a normal feeling but feelings of guilt can also intrude). My husband is very sweet, considerate, and sensitive of me needing time alone, and it also gives him some quality time with the three girls so he can get more than enough of his fill of estrogen.

Last night was one of those nights...

As I drove out of the driveway, I audibly cheered.
I didn't turn on any music.
I just drove and relaxed in the quiet.
I smiled.
(and I think I even cheered again).