G @ 6 months

this is my placeholder for the post that is yet to come. my goo (my fav gus nickname...clara called him guster goo once and the goo really stuck with me...maybe cause he's got a SERIOUS amount of sweet baby chub?!?!) was 6 months old yesterday. holy cow we made it a 1/2 year. seemed like we'd never get here, and yet it was already yesterday (follow that?).

i have some super fun chair photos of him and some notes started but i want to do a proper post for my goo's half birthday. but it is 8:51p, and i promised myself i'd be in the shower by 9p. cause i haven't showered yet today. and i'm a shower freak. i hate not being showered by 10a. one of the hardest adjustments to being a mama instead of a professional was not being able to jump in the shower the moment i woke up. but i digress.

so anyway, right now i need to shower, and then i need to sleep. and if i start to post it'll be 11p before i know it and i'll be kicking myself in the morning. sooo tempting, but i'm going to do the right thing. and G if you are reading this someday feeling shafted, please know it is so that we can enjoy tomorrow...cause while the days are long, the weeks & months are FLYING by at this point...and i don't want to waste my days away wishing i was sleeping. i want to enjoy every minute with you in all of your wonderful sweet baby gooey-ness.

and look, it's already 9p. i stink. and apparently take a long time to post.

wordless wednesday

gifts

my bestie has many. many. many. talents. i'm so glad she shares them with me.

luci's favorite place to go in the whole world is clara's house. you'd swear it was Disney World or something. her excitement is so great that she can't sleep the night before, and tears flow the minute you mention it is time to go home. thanks for always showing her such a good time lawrence family.

more new tricks

look at me...i'm sitting, i'm sitting!!

uh oh...

help, help!
whew! upright again.

somebody is sitting on their own!!! it's tough to tell because he's 'buried in a mountain of pillows' (lulu's words), but trust me, it's better this way. keeps him safe from his sister pushing him falling over. but really (i promise), he is sitting on his own under all of those pillows.

but he'd rather be over there....

lulu loves it. if she only knew what was coming next...this boy is going to be all up in her junk very soon. he says baby toys schmaybe toys...i'll have what she's having. poor thing, she's in for a world of hurt!

feeding & wiping...

glass half full alternative title: developmental progress
glass half empty alternative title: eating & peeing & pooping

g is now eating solids 3x a day per his pedi...we are trying to end the night feedings so everyone is more well rested. so he's now eating solids 3x a day and nursing 4 or 5x a day. that is a lot of feeding/development progress/eating.

lulu is basically potty trained. she pretty much did it herself...i guess she was just ready (although clay says in all fairness he wasn't involved in my other 2 attempts, and i'm sure his presence made all the difference....um, yeah...right...) she's had 2 accidents since the afternoon of 5/31. that's 2 accidents in 2 1/2 weeks! she's still wearing a diaper at night (and she's not happy about it), but during the day she's a potty pro. i actually just took away the kiddo potty in favor of a plush seat insert that sits on top of the regular toilet. she had started emptying the little potty deposit into the big potty 'all by myself'...which really meant she was flinging pee everywhere. or even poop. yes. fun times. she's got the bladder of her parents (we both have tiny bladders...something i loved about him when we started dating!!) and goes what feels like every 20 minutes. that is a lot of wiping/developmental progress/peeing & pooping.

between all of this feeding & wiping i'm beat. and sort of grossed out.

Gus @ 5 months

this is the most 'gus' looking photo of them all :)

ready for church

i hereby pledge

not to try a new recipe for 1 month.

one of clay's biggest complaints about me is my 'slow' learning curve. now let me argue i'm a super quick study when i want to learn something. but i have to want to learn things, and i need to learn them in my own time, in my own way. i'm sure it is very frustrating to be married to someone with said personality trait.

eventually i just have these big epiphanies. i've had several since i met clay, and each time i do he just shakes his head in amazement that it has taken me (x) long to 'get it'. he's always dumbfounded that i really didn't 'get it' the whole time before...like he thought i'd been putting him on or something.

which brings me to today.

his knee is still healing, so i offered to mow the lawn. he looked at me like i had 6 heads...and literally said something like, "seriously? you are going to mow the law?" i very casually said, sure, why not...not comprehending why this seemed like such a big deal to him. i mowed our yard growing up ALL.THE.TIME. it was a HUGE (at least huge to me now) lawn. i did it like once a week from the time i was 8 until i was 19 or something. not a big deal. i know how to mow a lawn. and so i did, in fact, mow our tiny little postage stamp lawn. and my husband was SHOCKED. and i couldn't understand why he was so shocked. probably because not once since he's known me have i volunteered to mow or shown any interest in the yard or mowing. not sure why, i just haven't.

then i come in the kitchen to get started on dinner...a new recipe i've been wanting to try for awhile. i realize somewhere along the cooking process that i'm MUCH more comfortable mowing the lawn than attempting said recipe, even though i hadn't mowed a lawn in like 15 years, and cooking is something i attempt everyday. sure enough, after 90 minutes, $20 worth of groceries, a bit of anxiety & a few nasty words about needing help with the kids while I ruined finished dinner, we had crap to eat.

i finally get it. i'm NOT a naturally gifted cook. i can make a few things really well, and i should stick to them, especially while i'm the mama of small children running around like a chicken with her head cut off 90% of the time. dinner is insane enough at our house with 2 kids to feed and get in the tub/bed by 6:45ish without the pressure of trying new recipes every other night.

duh. not sure how to articulate why mowing the lawn helped me see this, but it did. i'm sure if i reflected some more i could more appropriately explain, but alas it is time for bed in the house of sleepless babes. the moral of the story? if i can do a better job mowing the lawn, something i haven't done in 15 years, than preparing dinner, which i do every night, maybe i'm spending my precious energy in the wrong place. therefore, i hereby pledge not to try a new recipe for the next month.

poll

I am in our church's mom's group here...I volunteer in the meals ministry which requires that I prepare occasional meals for new mothers and sometimes our two priests. The request was for two portions of a healthy dinner by 3p. The priests then warm them up whenever they are ready to eat.

So I decided to make my favorite breaded baked chicken breasts. Here is the breading mixture (the recipe is for nuggets, but I leave the breasts in tact), and here is the recipe for my side dish, Beets n Sweets. I'm also including a side of Uncle Ben's 90 second Wild n Brown Rice, and Symphony Brownies for dessert and two kiwis for a taste of fruit.

Here is where we need your help. I say, roasted vegetables are healthy. I've prepared this dish before and let me tell you it is TASTY. And healthy. And filling. And it re-heats well. And generally speaking, I've found people in the South love them some sweet potatoes. One of our priests is from Houston, the other is from India.

Clay says: Baked breaded chicken with wild rice and brownies are all fine - quite good, in fact. My problem is with the sweet potato, beet and onion concoction. Maybe I've become a tad jaded as the last month has yielded vegan culinary surprises such as mushroom loaf, crunchy vegetable risotto (not supposed to be crunchy), and four unopened quarts of non-dairy ice cream (why bother?!). Past experience notwithstanding, this roasted vegetable dish is far outside of what I'd call the generally accepted cooking practices. On the Interesting Food Spectrum, we've gone far beyond "unique," we just passed "hmm... interesting" and are perilously close to "Ugghhh - what IS this?!" All kidding aside, it's not a mainstream dish and isn't appropriate to serve to someone whose tastes you don't know.

So...help us out. Am I ridiculous for preparing a unique side dish? I find when we are the blessed recipients of prepared meals something unexpected is an appreciated change from the usual (albeit tasty) casserole. I bet they get casseroles 70% of the time. I just thought I'd mix it up.

So please vote on the right. Thanks for your help.

new sleep rules

the boy rarely sleeps more than 90 minutes at a time. like EVER. day or night. often at night it is more like 20 - 40 minutes. TOTALLY not enough sleep for ANYBODY. i'm starting to lose it. actually, i've pretty much lost 'it' all at this point so i've got to try something different. just hoping he grows into a better sleeper isn't working.

so...the analyst in me has decided to implement some new sleep rules. it's all about the illusion of control...but even if it takes a month before it works it isn't like i'm getting any less sleep than i was before. just less comfortable sleep.

night sleep:
1. after the night time routine he goes in the crib, in the magic merlin suit. if he starts to cry, he must cry showing no signs of self soothing for 5 minutes straight before i go in/get up.
2. when i do go in/get up, i try just the paci first with head & tummy rubbing. i try this for 1 minute before i pick him up to soothe.
3. if i do pick up, i hold him for no longer than 1 minute after he's soothed.
4. if he starts to cry again, he must cry showing no signs of self soothing for 5 minutes straight before i do the paci/pick up aided soothing.
5. repeat until he's alseep or until 11p or 4a when i'll feed him.

last night i slept on his floor...somehow it is easier to listen to him cry when i'm right there. the sound of his cries via the monitor somehow trigger a physical reaction of urgency & anxiety in me that i MUST respond to, whereas when i'm right there on his floor i can manage a little cheer for him in my head. it goes something like this..."come on buddy...you can do it, i know you can! that's it...good soothing...you can do it big boy. i'm doing my part...i'm teaching you what you can expect...now you do your part...you can do it!!" somehow i can't do that from my room through the monitor so his floor it shall be until we get this figured out. it's not like i'm getting any less sleep, just a little less comfortable sleep. and best to do it while dad is still home to man luci's monitor. he was treated to a few wake ups himself from her last night...fun times for all.

last night he cried off & on (more on) from 9:30p to 11p when i fed him - he fell right to sleep after that. he was up again at 2:30a, and i let him cry off & on (more on) till 4a when i fed him again. he then talked to himself a bit and he may have cried 5 minutes (can't really remember), but then went right back to sleep after the first paci attempt. he then slept until 7a...which is pretty awesome for him. usually the time between the 4a-ish feeding to 7a is filled with 20 minute wake-ups. overall, not bad for a first night but a well rested house we are NOT.

day sleep:
1. after the sleep time routine (1 song) he goes in the crib, in the magic merlin suit. if he starts to cry, he must cry showing no signs of self soothing for 5 minutes straight before i go in.
2. when i do go in, i try just the paci first with head & tummy rubbing. i try this for 1 minute before i pick him up to soothe.
3. if i do pick up, i hold him for no longer than 1 minute after he's soothed.
4. if he starts to cry again, he must cry showing no signs of self soothing for 5 minutes straight before i do the paci/pick up aided soothing.
5. repeat until he's asleep, or until he's been in his crib for a total of 1 1/2 hours.

for some reason it's been harder to let him self soothe than it was luci. maybe because she was better at it, maybe because she didn't wake as frequently, maybe because she didn't have the reflux for so long (i wasn't worried with her that the crying caused pain)...maybe because there was no big sister to wake up during the process...maybe maybe maybe. who knows. all i know is that i've had a headache & an eye twitch for over 3 months now and i'm spent. i know where the phrase 'i'm so tired i can't see straight' comes from. i need to sleep. we all do. our family dynamic will be better for it.

wish me luck with day 1, night 2.

ps. i have 5 month photos...just no energy to put together that post yet. it'll come...better late than never.