January 7, 2018 by Stephanie

Hopeful For 2018

As I mentioned the other day, 2017 brought me some of my greatest joys but also some of the scariest things our family has had to endure.

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As we start 2018, I am hopeful for so much.

I am hopeful for growth.

Growth in spirit, growth in my job, growth as a parent and wife. I want to wake up a better person than I was the day before.

I am hopeful for my children.

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It can be scary when you turn on the news and having the pressure to raise human beings in our current world. But never before have we had the resources that we do now, and I am hopeful that we can use that for good. I look forward to seeing who these two are meant to be. They are my greatest joys, and I want to help encourage these tiny wonders to be world changers.

I am hopeful for my marriage.

Dare I say it that this is the year for boring marriage life? We aren’t having a baby, moving, changing jobs, or doing major construction. It is year seven for us, and I am ready to continue strengthening our relationship in this boring, but great, life we have created. We have been together for more than a decade, but there are always ways for us to grow more in our partnership.

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I am hopeful to be present.

Life is moving so fast. Faster than I would like most days. Our calendars are constantly full of things to do, and these babies of mine are growing much too quickly without my permission. I hope that this year, I can take a breath and soak up this time when they are little and my life is so beautiful.

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I am hopeful to get my body and health back.

I am not growing a human being, and here in the next few months I more than likely will be done feeding that human being. So my body will be fully mine again. I want to get back into shape, and be the healthiest I can be for my family. I also hope that I get my core strength back so I don’t have to be afraid of peeing my pants every time I cough or sneeze. #momtruth

2018 has so much potential. I don’t want to get in a rut and just go through the motions. This is our one life. I am hoping for the best out of this year.

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What are you hopeful for in 2018?

December 31, 2017 by Stephanie

In 2017

This has been a year.

It has been awhile since I have blogged just to blog because of this year.

There has been tremendous gaines and losses.

There have been things that I never imagined happening to us, and yet there were things that I have prayed for my entire life.

It has been a year.

Here’s to hoping that I can come back to this space more in 2018. For now, here were my top posts of 2017.

The Days Following Daphne-This is the horrific part of Daphne’s birth story. I had forgotten some of the details. I also have started getting baby fever and sad about the fact of being done having children, so this was good for me to read again.
Daphne’s Birth Story-She came so quickly once we got the party started. I remember being at peace that day knowing even before going to my appointment that I would be meeting her by the end of that week. It’s hard to believe it has been over 7 months with her.
My Reality-I feel so grateful that I was able to get through this pregnancy without being on bedrest.
And We’re Having A…-I still love how we announced we were having a girl. And my how George has changed. He has such a baby face in these photos!
This is Hard-Looking back, Daphne has been such an easy baby. However, it has been hard at times to go to work knowing I am missing parts of them.

Most of my posts this year were about the pregnancy and our life with Daphne.

This next year is already shaping up to hold new experiences and watching these kiddos will always be my favorite thing.

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December 18, 2017 by Stephanie

Daphne-7 Months

Weight: She is 15 lbs. At her check up, she was in the 7% for weight, 25 inches tall (10%), 42.5 inches head circumference (50%). Our peds said that she is doing well enough with growing that we don’t have to keep coming back in with extra checkups. I feel that she is gaining weight when I hold her, but I don’t feel like the scale reflects it!

Health: Besides a diaper rash (which I think comes with the territory with solid food poop), she has been healthy this month.

Diet: We started supplementing soon after she turned 6 months. One thing I told myself this time around was that I was not going to work myself to death to exclusively breastfeed. I don’t want to get to a point where I am a slave to pumping to make enough. So during the week, she gets one formula bottle. For the most part on the weekends, we get by with just breastmilk. Sometimes when we are out and about, I will take a small formula bottle to get through our outing. I am feeling pretty good about this whole thing because at this time with George we were almost completely weaned off and only down to one nursing feeding a day and no pumps. The no-stress/no-pressure approach has been working for us! She has also really gotten into solid food this month. She eats oatmeal at lunch, and then dinner is where we explore with whatever we happen to be eating that day. She has tried all kinds of new things: broccoli, mashed potatoes, fries, apples, eggs, cous cous, peaches, peas, meatloaf, and salmon. Her favorites are broccoli, meatloaf, and mashed potatoes. We are doing mostly a baby led weaning approach, but we have done some purees.

Clothes: She just went up to 3-6 month clothes. She is in a size 2 diaper, and size 1 shoe.

Sleeping: We have hit a hiccup with her sleeping. Our peds wants us to transition her out of the magic sleep suit because she has been full mobile now with rolling over for awhile. She is afraid Daphne doesn’t have the mobility and range she needs while sleeping. Plus, her flat spot is coming back again. So we are trying to transition her to the Halo Sleepsack at nap times right now. Her nap times have been cut in half, and she fights going to sleep really hard in that thing. She rolls over in that thing a lot more, and I am panicked that she is going to die with her face in the sheet so it is hard to do anything while she is attempting sleep. I have been looking at the Zipadee-Zip to help, but the sizing is throwing me off. We are still using the magic suit at night, and she is still sleeping through the night (8pm-6:30am). She won’t sleep in past 6:30.

Likes: Eating. Me. Chewing on her sleeve to go to sleep or chewing on her burp cloths. Any teething toy and George’s mega blocks. Tom’s voice. Puppy Dog Pals theme song. George. Her own feet.

Dislikes: She still hates a dirty diaper, but even more so now that her poops have changed with the food intake.

Milestones: She started CRAWLING! She is getting faster and faster. She will finally let Tom pick her up without crying for me. While she was sitting up on her own last month, I wanted to note that the pediatrician was surprised at how well she was doing with that.

Nicknames: Sister Friend, Girlfriend, Chunker Cheeks, Daphie, and Daph. Most of the time it is still Sister.

Quirks: She does this thing with her hand where her palm is stretched out all the time. See below. It takes a lot to get her to belly laugh, but when she does it is such a good deep laugh. She has started using a pacy more, which is beneficial. However she only likes the one they sent her home with from the hospital. She wont even use the same brand in a different color.

We parents are: doing pretty good and getting into the holiday spirit! I cannot believe Christmas is a week away! Tom has been on day shift which I always love because it is just more time at home all together. I also got a promotion at work. My boss got a huge promotion to another part of the institution, so I was named Interim Director of my department until we do a search. It has been kind of a whirlwind of a month with the added duties and the new learning curve. It’s definitely a great opportunity to advocate more for students.

George is: the perfect big brother. He thinks Sister is his best friend, and is always telling her how much he loves her. He likes to get her toys for her, and if she is crying he tries consoling her with her pacy. He also helps me sing to her at night and “tuck” her into bed. It is seriously the sweetest little thing.

The dogs are: going to be 7 this week! That is even more crazy than Daph being 7 months old! Grace has been a little off this month. I don’t know what her deal is, but she has been going potty at the front door a few nights while we are sleeping. Tom is a light sleeper, and she doesn’t even let him know she needs to go until after she has already done the deed. They are loving Daph eating in her high chair though. Crosby is pretty much always at her side.

Sweet Daph. You are such a joy to watch.

Here is George at this age.

October 16, 2017 by Stephanie

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Party

George’s birthday was a while ago, and yes I am just now getting to his pictures.

George loves anything that goes and has wheels, so this was the perfect theme for our three year old.

This was a pretty low key party, and it came together so nicely.

I got the invitation from this Etsy shop. (Those blue boxes are just covering up our personal info.)

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We love doing our parties at our church because they have this full kitchen, so much space to play, all the tables and chairs we would ever need, and most of all, I don’t have to clean for visitors. Win all around.

The birthday sign I got from this shop. I didn’t get a close up of it I guess, but it has trains, planes, and automobiles on it. We also went really simple on the food. It was mostly snacks. I did not theme the food or have food labels.

We got these books from Usborne. They were one of George’s birthday presents from us. They are so very cool. Those are little wind up toys that drive on the pages of the books. So much fun!

These cupcake toppers are from this shop. We printed these off ourselves, cut them and taped them to toothpicks. Easy peasy. I opted for cupcakes this year over a cake, and it seemed so much easier. Hy-Vee (local grocery) for the win!

Our party give aways were train whistles. I got the whistles from Oriental Trading, and the tags came from this shop. They say, “Thanks for zooming by.” All the paper products, I ordered instant download and printed ourselves.

The table top decorations were all George’s toys. I love little personal and FREE touches like this. We had a couple tables of planes, trains, or cars.

Like I said, I love having it at the gym so there is space to play. We had a couple activities for the kids, and they seemed to love it.

We had a paper airplane station. I wish I would have gotten video of them competing for the best “flight.” It was so fun to see what they created.

We brought all of George’s wooden trains, and they built some awesome track scenes. George was in heaven.

My favorite part of the party was the car making station. This was so easy. I collected boxes from some friends who were moving (perfect timing), and just bought several packs of construction paper. We brought our markers and colored pencils and let the kids at it. It was the “mechanic shop.”

They built some really cool cars.

George had so much fun taking them all for a test drive.

I bought these little car candles off Wish.

We loved celebrating our little man, and it is the one time of the year that I become a Pinterest mom. Seriously though, this was a simple party because most of the stuff for decorations we already had or could easily print off. We had all the craft items, so that wasn’t an additional expense. Including food, I think I spent around $200 when all was said and done.

It was a great birthday for our THREE year old!

September 18, 2017 by Stephanie

Daphne-4 Months

Daphie Girl is four months old today.

Weight: 13 lbs. Half of that is in her cheeks.

Health: She has been doing pretty great. We do not have to go to physical therapy anymore for torticollus. She has a slight bump on the right side of her head, which does mean she has to work harder to roll over. However the PT said that she is so strong and moving so well that they are confident that will subside as she grows. It is not noticeable to really anyone who doesn’t see her every day. We are still doing daily exercises with her to make sure that she doesn’t lean more on the right side and get lopsided. Overall she is doing really well with them.

Diet: I am really proud of myself. At this point with George, we had to start supplementing with formula because I just wasn’t making enough. I have been doing really great with keeping up with her demands so far. Since she sleeps through the night I also pump an extra time before I go to bed. That’s mostly so my boobs aren’t rocks in the morning, but it has been nice to stock up some with that extra pump (or fill in when I had a low pump).

Clothes: She is still in 0-3 month clothes. She is in a size 2 diaper.

Sleeping: This girl is such a good sleeper. She goes to bed at 8pm and does not wake up until I get her at 6:30 to feed her before I leave for work. On the weekends, she will make it almost 12 hours before stirring. She takes one long nap during the day (generally in the morning), and she will take cat naps in the afternoon. I think she sleeps so well because of being swaddled. She will whimper a bit at first being a baby burrito, but within a few minutes she is out like a light. We are still using a sleep sack swaddle, and I am dreading the day when she starts rolling from back to tummy. I have been looking at the magic sleep suits for this transition. Anyone use one? Thoughts?

Likes: Me-I am apparently the ultimate pacifier. Eating. Funny faces. Standing (assisted). She loves tummy time, which I know makes her very rare. Mornings-she is such a happy baby in the morning. She loves show tunes. I haven’t found a song yet that she doesn’t respond to with smiles when I sing to her. (That’s my girl!) She also likes to suck on her fingers. She likes her head to be rubbed, and she has even started rubbing her hair on her own.

Dislikes: Unless she is sleeping, she does not like laying down. She needs to be sitting up or standing to watch what is happening. She doesn’t even like to lay her head on your shoulder. She still hates a dirty diaper. She is not the biggest fan of swings.

Milestones: She sits up pretty well in the Bumbo. I think we need to get her bouncy activity center out because of how much she loves being in a standing position. She is rolling a lot more, and I am afraid that rolling both ways is going to be happening soon. Right now she just rolls from belly to back. She has started giggling too, which is fun to hear.

Nicknames: Sister Friend, Girlfriend, Sweet Cheeks, DC, Daphie, Daph, and Daphne June. Most of the time it is Sister or Daphie Girl. The other day, I was trying to calm her down, and I kept saying Daphie, and George would respond with Girl. It was super sweet.

Quirks: Anytime she is in the Z vibrating chair at home, she has a blowout. She enjoys the sh*t out of that chair. But honestly, she has pooped/peed on me more times in 4 months than George has in 3 years (including potty training). She has a real knack of starting that crap when you are changing her diaper.

We parents are: TIRED. With the start of school, my brain has been going non-stop, which is a little exhausting. I have been trying to get up early to work out, and I do that late pump at 10:30, so that cuts into my sleep time. Tom has been working constantly on the house when he isn’t at work, so he has been exhausted lately as well. We are slowly tearing away at the living room renovation. Tom has been working himself ragged on the project. We hope to be done by the beginning of October.

George is: THREE! He had his birthday this last month, which is always a good time. He is still doing so well with sister friend. (I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop…) He is still at the sitter for the time being, but Daphne is staying home with my mom now. He asks for her a lot on our way to the sitter or home, saying he misses her or we need to go get her. He has asked to hold her a couple times.