Parenting three

It's so funny how things change from the first child to second to third and how you parent. The things we worry about as the parent of one and the things we worry the least about with child number two and three. I am finding it funny today.

I used to worry so much about: eating, strict nap times, teething, etc etc. The third child is the first to sleep in a crib (at 4 months on), the others slept with me. Teething...i worried nonstop about teething with the youngest, i'd pop some homeopathic tablets in the second one's mouth when she was teething, and the third...oh, you have a tooth? Wow. Time for frozen peaches. LOL. Nap times...Little Dude had a schedule and i didn't mess with it...everything was organized around naps. The second napped in the car, and the third is woken all the time from perfectly good sleep to drop someone off, pick someone up etc.

I remember meeting moms of three when i had one and they would say "by the third blah blah blah..." and i used to be horrified about how insensitive they were. Funny how things change. Pictures are another thing...this third one has very few as the camera battery is always dead, or lost, or the card is full. With LD i'd always have a backup of both with me. I gotta say i like the chaos of three...i miss that focused time on one child too but my third is so flexible and such a happy baby i have to think it's a good thing. The things i don't budge on are breastfeeding and nutritious homemade food, hugs and kisses. Everything is very flexible these days....especially baths it seems. ;-)

Sooooo, wow, time flies. When i left you guys baby girl was just starting walking, i broke both my arms, yikes... got lyme's disease and just had a rash of bad luck. Then got really busy when i opened an ebay store. I closed that and want to get back to the things i enjoy...crafting, cooking more extensively again and just doing more home stuff. I'm itching to create again. The only things i've made since blogging are very basic...a few pairs of pajamas for the kids and knitting. It is Muharram so i won't be blogging a lot, but i will be back soon with some fun stuff. Oh, yeah, and now there's another baby boy and i'm told the last of our flock. Boo to that but I gotta say, the trifecta is working. This last one...wow, he's just delicious. He has the most delicious milky baby cheeks i've ever tasted, and i taste them a lot. He's 6 months old today so happy half birthday to milky boy. :-)

I'm baaaack....

So let's start off with a recent treasure i found after a fellow blogger made me itch to go thrifting. I went to the older part of town and wham, look what i found! Do you remember these? This was what i loved playing with when i was small and they are valuable...especially the wooden ones. I recently sold the schoolhouse etc on Ebay and did nice. These will end up on there too once the kids get over the novelty of them. Such a huge score. I've found them it bits but never a load like this!





And the baby is calling now but i do promise to post more regularly...i've missed it here.

Been missing this space and am thinking about coming back....a lot's changed...another baby, a move....so much more. Is anyone out there?

Rhythm of the Home

It's been a long while since posting. When i broke my arms, my babes was just starting to walk and well once they healed (well for the most part) i got real busy with her. Things are crazy busy around here but i hope with summer everything slows down and i'll get back to this place. But in the meantime, check out this great online magazine....

Rhythm of the Home. I love the natural crafts and ideas they share. It's a wonderful project they are doing and they really put a lot of work into it. I'm excited to build these with the boy tomorrow. He's going to love making them and then sailing them.

Hope to be back here soon. I hope I still have a few readers. :-)

Better

So, my arms are better. Not all the way, but i can do everything now with them. There's just still a lot of pain and by the end of the day they feel like they are going to fall off. But thank God at least i can use them now. So i've been getting caught up on everything around here and spring cleaning and playing outside.

I'll be back soon! How have you been?

Prayers

I broke BOTH of my arms so will be offline for about six weeks. Please send some prayers my way...

When?

When did she begin looking like such a big girl?



I think it may be the jeans. I don't like my kids in jeans until they are walking. Seems constricting. Dresses too. But i just unpacked the dresses i've been squirreling away. Hurry up spring!

Winter Sandbox

This box has been a lifesaver this winter. With it being so cold here and one outdoor day in the last 3 months, i made this for my sandbox loving boy a few weeks ago.

I tried to let the girl play with it but after repeated fistfuls of rice being flung about, she has been exiled from the rice box. She tries to scale the kitchen table to get to it but so far there has been no mishaps (except by the boy). When he gets bored with one thing (trucks were first, then snow plows, and now dinosaurs) i change it out. I can usually get a good hour (and on a good day twice) with this thing. I made it when i was trying to get a book review done. Success!

I don't usually like food oriented play. I tend to never do it because food is, well food, and i don't like it being wasted or treated indifferently. But when potato's sprout, they become stamps (drawn by the boy, etched by mom) and when a half bag of rice that i don't even usually use accidentally gets buried for three years...well, it becomes a rice bucket.

Easy DIY project

A friend of mine has this cool framed bulletin board thing that i really like. She told me where to get one but i didn't like the $125 price tag so went about making one. I did this way back in September, right about when i fell off the blogging bandwagon. Anyhow, everytime i go to my sewing room (these days it's about bimonthly to dump stuff off rather than stick around) i love it hanging there. Now we have two. One for the kid's artwork and one for my sewing room. It's not perfect because my saw stinks and I did it in all of 5 minutes (thinking and planning time not included).

Take a cool old frame (mine's a rummage sale find for $4). It took me forever to find one big enough for what i wanted but finally i did.

Take a bulletin board and cut it to size (you could buy the corkboard but the only stuff i could find was thin and not cheap so i used and old bulletin board i had laying around)

Push it in and hope you don't tear the corkboard like i did in one spot.

Adore what you've just made.



I use it for an inspiration board or a "i-sure-wish-i-had-time-to-do/make-this" board. It'll need a serious dusting off before i tackle anything on there. Seriously, will i ever have time to make things again? How do people do it that have more kids This baby girl of mine does not leave my hip. If i so dare as take a bathroom break i get a verbal lashing. Sigh. I do the mantra of "they are only little for a little while" but it's getting a little old now.

Randomness

So....i said i was going to be on here more but haven't. Sigh. I just can't seem to stay on top of things anymore. One of my good friends here realized it and demanded (in a friendly albeit demanding way) that i need time to myself and i need to let go of my overprotecting nature so she took my son for the late morning/ early afternoon so i can get some things done. I took a shower while baby was sleeping then ate breakfast without anyone grabbing stuff off my plate, i had coffee while i checked my email and i folded AND put away ALL of the laundry. All in an hour. This usually takes me most of the day if it even gets done. My sitting room seems to be one big laundry room lately. It doesn't help that i've been selling a lot on ebay lately but it's all part of my big purge plan of 2010.

I've also been doing a lot of reading on gluten/dairy and autism. I am a strong believer that God gave us the cure for any disease, for that is how He is. He provides. It's a matter of finding the cure. Removing artificial colors and flavors has helped a lot but we have a long way to go. I've read that removing gluten and dairy helps (as in rids completely) 66% of kids with autism/ADHD/etc. That's enough for me to give it a go. But it's going to be a lot of work. My boy loves his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bread in general. The gluten free loaf at trader joes felt like a brick so i've been checking out gluten free books from the library and studying up. If anyone has a good gluten free bread recipe i'd love to have it.

And with that...the baby woke up. Time to go pick up big brother. I'll finish later...

conversations....with my boy

1. While looking at the New York Natural History Museum's Dinosaur exhibit information.

Little Dude: Mommy, i sure wish they had made a sweater.
Mommy: Who honey?
Little Dude: The dinosaurs.
Mommy: What do you mean?
Little Dude: Well if they had made themselves a sweater, they wouldn't have froze and they'd still be here with us.

(lol) he got a big hug with that one

2. While driving to preschool stuck in small town traffic.

Little Dude: Why do we do this?
Mommy: Do what?
Little Dude: Sit in traffic. We could just fly to school.
Mommy: Well you need a special license to fly a plane. Maybe you can go to schol to learn to fly a plane.
Little Dude: Yeah! (long pause) Mommy? Could you help me fly the plane?
Mommy: Sure honey, i'd be your copilot any day. :-)

The sad thing about this last one is when i told him maybe when he's older he can fly a plane a pit hit my stomach because realistically, he probably won't. He's Muslim and has a Muslim name. Muslims and planes don't go together anymore. How sad is that? He loves airplanes. Studies books on them and can tell you all the different types, spends most of his days playing with playmobil airplanes, lego airplanes, drawing airplanes and being an airplane. It bugs me that if he wants to fly a plane as a grown man, he may never get the chance because of who he is. Will things change? For my 4 year old pilot, I sure hope so.

I'm going to try posting a bit more. It's been too long!

Breathe in, breathe out

When will i have time again?

Today while doing the dishes...had just started, I turned to see what Baby Girl was up to. She was eating Little Dude's paint brush with bright red (wet) paint all over it. Ugh.

Tried to wash dishes a second time while cooking their dinner. I turn to see what has Baby Girl squealing with delight. She's STANDING on top of Little Dude's table happy as can be. This girl is a climber. Drives me nuts! STANDING on TOP of the table. Grrr.

Dishes still aren't done and I've yet to even eat lunch today. I was hoping to make this.

Comments

Haloscan is now charging for comment keeping so i've decided to go to blogger's default comment system for the time being but that means i lose all my comments.

Can anyone suggest a good commenting system... I'd prefer free. :-)

AND, can someone please leave a comment. It's so lonely in here now. And i want to see that it's working properly now.

Time flies!

I don't know where I've been but it hasn't been here.

Just got a book review done that was due. Those wear me out. It's stress that i just don't need but i feel i need to keep doing them so i can keep my contacts. This one was particularly annoying. But it's done. Yay. Back to having free time...what little of that there is with these little people. My baby girl has gotten a big bad attitude with her first birthday. Temperamental little one. She throws food. She shakes her head no if you try to feed her. She only wants to feed herself which limits what you can give her. Not only has she not left our bed, now she insists on sleeping across me so i can't get up. If i dare move she screams bloody murder. Bathroom breaks are not in her vocabulary. I'm worn out and tired and i think i'm close to having no other option than letting her cry it out for a few days to get used to sleeping in a crib. She's just stubborn. Half my day is dragging her down from the stairs. And removing her from the table she climbs up on. Yet she's not walking. How strange is that she can climb tables but isn't walking. She'll take a few steps on the bed and that's also the only place she stands. She's smart like that. Knows it won't hurt.

Anyway. She's feisty. She's a piece of work. And i'm not looking forward to her being two because she already throws some horrible tantrums where she throws things and hits. It's crazy. Big brother never did these things.

You should see me around more although I don't think i'll have any craftiness going on for some time. I'm all about winter cleaning right now. Mostly to protect the littlest one.

I do plan on trying to figure out how to make this (since Garnet Hill's website is down right now) blanket. I so love it. I don't think it would be as hard as it looks and may have to give it a go tomorrow night.

Must sleep. The anarchy continues tomorrow. I must be rested for it. Oh. And Happy New Year!

Adorable.

I'd love these for Baby Girl next fall. Too cute!



Speaking of shoes. I can't wait until she fits into these. :-)



Something about having a girl has put the shopping bug in me. I love my paypal account. ;-)

It's bittersweet that my babe will be one in one week. We had our little family celebration today since my inlaws leave on Wednesday. I'll get back to blogging in a bit too. Hope you are well!

about last night

That was not fun. My poor baby was so miserable and just begging me to feed her. To turn her away like that..... ugh. All night long she asked for milk. I would offer her a bottle in various forms but she won't take it. Nor this morning. While i pump and dump milk. And now this morning she's mad at me. Ignoring me, won't look at me, going to my husband instead. I feel like crying. I'm miserable. Bad headache, arthritic bones and nauseas. My poor baby. Please say some duas/prayers for us.

2 needle mittens

I love this pattern. Mostly because i don't like double pointed needles. I just lose track of where i am etc with two kids and a husband that need me all the time. I can knit for about 3 minutes before i have to put it down to do something else. I really wanted to knit mittens though so i was very happy when i found Bev's two needle mitten pattern and have used it twice now with good results.

The first time i was a new knitter so i just did one mitten at a time but this time i did both (until the last part) and really loved it because i find you get a little bored after that first one. I'm sure there's a lot of people with one mitten sitting around waiting for the second to get done. Same with socks i imagine. I was very happy to find this pattern and hope someone will find it useful too.

Happy happy joy joy

NOT. I went to the doctor a week ago because i felt funky. Old. Like my knees were aching. Feet too. I chalked it up to one of three things 1) colder weather 2) getting older 3) residual from meningitus i got from West Nile Virus years ago in Colorado. I hadn't been to the doctor forever. Funny once you have kids, you only go for them and forget about yourself. But i figured after years of this knee pain increasing I better go. They drew my blood and i just got the results. I have Lyme's Disease. Not a surprise living in NJ, deer outnumber people here it seems BUT what is really really bothering me is that i need to go on meds for a month, two weeks minimum and they told me i can't breastfeed. This put a pit in my stomach. I nursed my son until he was 21 months. I may just pump and dump for the course of the antibiotics. But my daughter is NOT going to be happy and neither am I. Sucks bigtime. This is our time together. Damn tick. Now i'm thinking that i do need to get both kids blood drawn. I was supposed to do it a month ago but it makes me cringe. I won't even be able to nurse baby girl after that horrible experience. God this sucks.

I was going to post today that my inlaws are coming on Tuesday for 6 weeks so that means you may see more of me or you may see less...i'm not quite sure which.

I was also going to post a very cool two needle pattern for mittens that i've used twice now and love

but that'll have to wait while i figure out how formula works and dig out a breastpump and get some meds etc.