New Year, New Goals.

It has been quite a while since I posted an update here.

 

Instead of actually updating this though I am going to turn this blog in a new direction. My household has decided that we are going to become healthier. We are changing our eating habits, working out, just all around trying to get on track with a healthy lifestyle.

 

Katie and I as well as our two roommates, Jordan and Mistylynn, will be doing this together. We have a juicer and have found recipes we are wanting to try. We plan on substituting two meals a day (breakfast and lunch) with juice and then having a healthy dinner.

 

This morning, Monday December 30th 2013, Misty, Katie and I weighed ourselves and took our measurements. I may post what my weight and measurements are in the next post so that I can genuinely document my progress. Lets just say that my current weight is over 200 and my goal weight is under.

 

On top of juicing and eating healthier we will of course be implementing exercise into the process. We are starting slow with walking and will gradually work our way up from there we also plan to do Zumba a few times a week.

 

I will probably post a before pic with my weight and measurements on the next post. (possibly tonight or tomorrow)

 

Feel free to follow us on this journey and if you have any suggestions for us leave them in the comments below. 

BIG NEWS!!!

We are getting married!

 

That's right, after two years of engagement and two children, we are taking this to the next step. With all of the recent changes to federal laws regarding same sex couples we feel it's time. While it isn't yet legal here in Nevada (hopefully it will be soon!), we are going to head over to California to tie the knot. 

 

We have the date picked and our hearts set on a beautiful location. Katie has her dress picked out and I know what the boys and I are going to wear. We are working on decorations and have our colors picked. We have two months to get everything ready. Honestly I couldn't be happier to finally marry the woman I love, in front of our family, friends, and for our beautiful boys to be a part of it all.

 

 

 

<3



3 months (WELL ALMOST)

I feel like this blog isn't as exciting as it would be if this was our adventures with a first born.

 

Regardless, there is always something new to learn as a mother right? Since we are doing so many things differently this time around we still have a lot of firsts! With Gage, I was unable to breastfeed. Kayson is exclusively breastfed. Gage we used disposable diapers and with Kayson we are cloth diapering and using cloth wipes, and loving it I might add. When Gage was born I was so scared because of being young and a first time parent that I didn't do the amounts of research into every possible option for raising a baby that I should have. I had no idea that baby wearing was a thing when Gage was born, this is something we do with Kayson. Another huge thing that is different this time around, of course, is the fact that we now have TWO littles depending on us. We got to struggle with the final stages of potty training while taking on the exciting adventure of cloth diapers at the same time.

 

 

Keeping this one brief but will try to have another update up soon!

Like what you see here? Check out my other blogs:

 

Here you can follow our "green babying" adventures:

http://goinggreenwithbaby.blogspot.com/

 

Here you can follow my home schooling adventures:

http://talesoftoddler.blogspot.com/

 

and here you will see my photography:

http://gailalvarezphotography.blogspot.com/

 



He's finally here!

He made us wait a few extra days but he's here now and that's what matters!

The week prior to Momma's due date we, well I guess it was more myself than her, went through a nesting spell. I cleaned every bit of his clothing from 0-5T got it sorted and got his little area in our room all ready for him. I started 4 days prior to her due date taking count down photos:

 

 

 

Then we came to our due date. We waited anxiously all day long. We of course know that the fact that a doctor gave you this due date means nothing in regards to when your baby is going to make his appearance! None the less, we were still hopeful! Momma had, had enough of this pregnancy thing and was ready for him to be here!

    

 She saw her doctor on the third day past her due date. We were hoping for better news than what we got. She was a centimeter dilated. We definitely wanted more! So she was scheduled for induction on Thursday the 16th. The rest of the week went by very slow as waited until it was time to head to the hospital!

 

Thursday arrived and we got to the hospital at 10 p.m. we were already tired at this point but were in for a very long night! Her labor was slow going all night. She was still only a 1 and the measures that the doc was taking to help her along weren't helping out to much. The pain meds prior to the epidural made her so sick! My poor love threw up more times than I would like to remember! The doctor realized that her body was doing a lot of work but she wasn't progressing so despite still only being 1 they gave her the epidural. After that she slept the rest of the morning and into the afternoon.

 

They finally decided to give her the meds needed to further her labor but each time they upped the dosage the babies heart rate would drop dramatically to the point that the nurse would run in and shut the drip down and put an oxygen mask on her. At this point I was going on  over 24 hours without sleep. Talk about exhausting! We were told that they would give the drug one more chance to do what it needed to but if the baby's heart rate were to drop again, she would be having a C-section. Something that she definitely did not want! After only another half an hour she sat and said that she had the urge to push and was feeling pressure. Her mom rushed to get the nurse and come to find out she had gone from 4-5 cm all the way to 9 cm in less than an hour. Her body was definitely doing what was needed to prevent the C-section.

 

While all of this was going on, we had no one at the hospital yet to sit with our oldest so he was sitting out view range of what was happening. Each time the nurse told Momma to push and would count it out, he would count right along with her! He is so cute! Luckily he was only in the room for about 5 minutes before our friend arrived to take care of him for us. In the process of me trying to leave him with her though he got upset and started crying. I literally almost missed the baby being born! Talk about a rush of emotion!

 

Once things had settled down and Momma was all better as was our Little Monster, I went back to the waiting room to get Big Brother so he could meet his Little Brother for the first time. At first Big Brother was very excited. Until Little Brother started making noise and crying then he just wanted to go play with Grandma instead! Eventually though, he opened up to him and is even starting to want to hold him.

 

In all that went on before, during and after labor and delivery, I was constantly terrified that Big Brother would now take back burner to Little Brother. The fear generated from the fact that I had birthed Big Brother and Momma had birthed Little Brother. I was so afraid that for whatever reason she would love Big Brother differently than she does Little Brother. Luckily that whole fear was squashed when, the day after Little Brother was born Big Brother was with his dad and grandma for the day and Momma looked at me and said, Little Brother is perfect and wonderful but she really wished Big Brother was there to share this time with us as a slightly larger family. She even started to cry because she missed Big Brother so much. My heart was literally so happy to hear that I almost cried!

 

Little Brother was born on 5/17/2013 at 3:13 p.m. after almost 16 hours of labor.

He was 7 lbs. 9 oz.

20 and a quarter inches long.

 

 

 

He is beautiful and amazing! Big Brother is warming up to him daily and today even gave him a kiss unprovoked. These little things make Momma and I so happy. They actually make Momma tear up! (Pregnancy hormones you know.)

The Final Countdown!

We are literally days away from our due date!!!

 

 

 

With less than a week to go until our due date, this may be my final pre-baby update. A few days ago Momma's feet started swelling followed by her hands the next day. She is more annoyed by this than anything but she is saying that her hands are hurting. Her doctor said that unless she starts getting headaches and seeing spots this is completely normal. WHEW!

 

Anyway, being this close to getting to hold our new little monster! This whole experience has been one of joy and at times annoyance, yes annoyance. It has definitely strengthened our relationship and our love as well as our family as a unit. I think that G is starting to understand that there really is a baby in Momma's belly. We set up the nursery and he will go in there and say this is K's room! Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part or maybe he really is comprehending what all of that means. Regardless we couldn't be happier or more anxious to finally meet our new little love!

Short Update

At her last doctors Appointment momma was told she appears to have 4 to 5 weeks left. This is slightly upsetting to her because she is 2 weeks shy of her due date.


We know that when it comes to baby being ready to make his appearance things aren't set in stone so we are prepared for him to get here when he is ready. We are just hoping it will be sooner rather than later!

The Last Two Days has been...

A hectic whirlwind!

We gained two new Littles on Tuesday! X and R so I am now watching four boys during the day and I am so happy for that! Boys are not as fragile as little girls and I don't have to worry as much about the boys getting to rough. It still happens of course but not as easily. My mornings now start at 6:20 with K getting here at 6:30, X and R get here in the afternoon and my day ends near 10:30 and them being picked up at about 9:30 then allowing time for cleaning for the next day. I am hoping by the end of the week my body has adjusted but in all honesty I don't see that happening since I have been watching K for a while now and am still not at all used to or a fan of getting up before 7 haha!

I can promise you that this blog is going to be quite long, but enjoyable!

 

 

Tuesday was basically a get used to each other type of day but that didn't stop the activities from rolling!

 

 

 

First thing we tore into was magnets. I know all three boys know the alphabet and numbers so I wanted to put them to the test by having them name off the letters or numbers they were putting onto the board. The best part about activities like this is that they don't even realize that we are "learning" they just think they are having an awesome time!

 I also had them use the magnets to show me how old they all were. This then turned into them trying to trick me by telling me that they were older or younger than they are! Silly Littles!

 Remember the slime I posted about in my DIY post? I pulled that out for them to kind of gauge their reactions to sticky consistencies on their hands really hoping that they weren't like Gage or the other Littles have been about things like this. These two are definitely 100% boy in all areas!

 They squealed with delight at the way it moved. The fact that if they held it up over their heads it would stretch down to the floor, they could mold it, make it into a ball that bounced. I know I have said this before, but I always love when things I make for the kids are thoroughly enjoyed. Especially this much! It is nice having a few older kids that Gage can communicate with.

 R stretching it out.

After that Gage wanted to show them the sensory mats. He kept telling X to jump from one to the other and I just love that I was able to catch him mid-jump!

 When the Littles do things like this K would rather just watch (that and he had just woke up from his nap!). He will usually sit back and giggle when they do something he finds amusing!

 Our final activity on Tuesday was music time. Gage pulled out all of his musical instruments and after a little bit of arguing between X and R over who wanted to use what, they all set to making very loud noises with their individual instruments.

 

 Wednesday:

 

When X and R got here on Wednesday we headed straight for the backyard because Momma and I wanted to get the pool set up and ready for this summer. In order to keep them occupied for a bit I filled the sand and water table with water and soap for them to play and explore in.

 The entire concept had them very excited. I pulled out some cups a few funnels and a lot of toy cars and they had races, car washes and all sorts of fun.

 

All the way up until I walked away for a minute or two and Gage thought it would be a fun idea to add a TON of dirt and rocks to the mix. The other boys were not very impressed by this and I had to dump out the bin. Water table time: OVER.

 

 Momma and I were finally able to get the pool up and running, with quite a bit of whining on the boys' end about being bored and wanting in the pool now. You know the typical things that young kids whine about! I am sure the wait was well worth it once they got in there. I warned them all it was going to be VERY cold but they didn't seem to care. Well R did he was not a fan of it at first but after a bit he played as well.

 They chased each other around, hopped all over and splashed a whole lot as well. But honestly would it be any fun for them if they didn't splash?

 Of course I had to get in with them, which resulted in my getting splashed and soaked as well.

 I brought our bath blocks out and showed them that they would stick to the walls of the pool. We had quite a bit of fun naming of shapes.

 Moon dough was quite a hit with them.

 After they asked repeatedly if they could use their hands, and me repeatedly answering of course, they began to mold balls out of it. Like always with these bins, no matter how many times I told them to keep it in the bin it ended up out of the bin and all over them. Go figure right?

 The fun ended when X was trying to get up and used the side of the bin as leverage. The WHOLE thing tipped onto him and the play mat! Everyone found it quite hilarious.

 Now this was one that I was so excited for! I believe I have posted about our glow bath before when I have done them with just Gage. I was so happy to finally be able to do it with more than just him. X and R were awestruck when they walked into the bathroom and saw the set up. They instantly wanted in!

 They painted, so excited that each of them had their own bowl of paint.

 And afterward they all wanted to show off their works of art to me. "Look at mine!" This was definitely a good time had by all of them and will be happening again!

 

 Our final activity was the light table. Gage and I haven't pulled it out in a while to play with and now that we have two new Littles who are actually here when it is dark out, I don't have to destroy my front room and try to black it out to do things like this anymore! So it is a win-win.

 They played with the treasure and the pirates.

 Filling up cups with "treasure" and then dumping it back out like they were rolling dice.

 You can see that they are intrigued and enjoying this that is for sure!

 

Like I said, the past two days have been quite the whirlwind! I would like to blog every night but by the time everyone has gone home, and we have cleaned the house we are exhausted and literally just crash out! There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day!

 

As always thanks for stopping by, to follow our activities daily and more frequently visit our page on Facebook and click that "LIKE" button.

 

Tales of a Toddler

 

If you would like to see where I get my inspiration from, follow my Pre-schooling board on Pinterest:

 

Here

 

 

Until next time!