Alex

Alex is becoming such a big kid now. I was just realizing the other day that he has gotten big enough that I no longer have to lift him up to wash his hands in the sink. I also had to move up to the boys section in the store when I bought him some new underpants the other day.

Tonight as I was getting Abbie ready for bed he sat down in the glider, pulled up his shirt and asked to feed Abbie. I suggested that he go downstairs and get a baby doll and feed that. In the end he settled on his blue "care bear". I thought it was totally cute, and no I did not set this up just for the photo op :)

Alex has also really been bonding with our male golden Zed lately. Often when he takes his afternoon nap he will call Zed into his bedroom and shut the door to keep him in there. Tonight I went to check on him and he and Zed were happily sleeping together in Alex's closet. I am so glad that Alex and Zed are getting close. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dog Candy who used to sleep in my bed almost every night.

I have got my certificate

Well it's official, I passed and got my certificate in the mail. I can officially call myself a lactation consultant. When this adventure started at the beginning of the year it didn't seem like this day would ever come. For now I'll be working one 8 hour shift a week for lactation and then we will probably reevaluate after the 1st of the year.

Measuring time

I had a sort of funny revelation today. In the last 6 years I have changed how I measure time. I used to measure time by months and days but now I measure time from events in my life such as that happened before I was married, I have had these pj's since I was pregnant with Alex, on Alex's birthday I will have been breastfeeding continuously for 3 years. It's funny how our perspective changes. For example when I was single and childless I was nuts about my birthday but now that I am married with 2 kids it feels like just something that is stuck in there between Alex and Abbie's birthdays with an anniversary thrown in for good measure. I am not saying this so you feel sorry for me, it is just not as important anymore.
In other ways to measure time, Abbie has gotten another molar so we are up to 9 teeth total. I can't believe that she is getting to be such a big girl.
Quilt wise I should be able to tell of a UFO finish soon. I finished quilting my Butterfly Garden quilt and have the binding sewn to one side, I just need to get some thread to match the binding and then I'll finish it up (since I anticipate that this quilt will be used I will stitch the binding down by machine rather than by hand). It will feel good to have this completed I have been working on this quilt since Alex was a newborn.

I need a good stiff drink

Tonight I taught the breastfeeding class at work for the first time. I was nervous but I had convinced myself that I was going to do great. I don't have a laptop for the power point presentation, but my boss was going to meet me there at 6 to help me set up and bring me a laptop to use. So I get there early and start to set up. Six pm comes and no boss, that's ok she will be here I tell myself. Six fifteen and no laptop, I'm starting to get nervous but I tell myself that she will be there. Six thirty five, five minutes after class is to start and still no laptop, guess I'm going to have to wing it. Luckily there were copies of the power point for everyone, but I had taken extra time to put video in the presentation and I am disappointed that I am not going to be able to share it with them. So I am going along and about 20 minutes later the receptionist comes in to tell me that the laptop will be there in 10 minutes. Whew! I was doing well on content, but I wanted to be able to show people the video and pictures. The laptop did finally get there and I was able to show my video clips and all went well. The surveys were all positive, there was one note about needing to slow down a bit, but given that we finished about 30 minutes early I had already figured out that I was talking WAY too fast. Talk about a trial by fire! I am glad that I have gotten this first experience out of the way and I am proud of myself for acting graceful under pressure.

One Step Closer

I think that I have mentioned before that I am training to become a lactation consultant. Well part of becoming a IBCLC is to take (and pass) a 200 question test that is only offered once a year. Today and yesterday I took a review course that is designed to prepare you for the test. I think that the course was excellent, but I also have come to realize how much I DON'T know. I have some studying to do between now and July.

On a cute note here is a picture of my sweet baby girl and her 5 teeth.

I have received the final clue for my quilt guild's mystery quilt. I think that the solution is nice, but I think that I might change it a bit. Look for some pictures coming soon (one and a half more blocks to finish).

Running around all day

I ran errands for most of the day today and feel like I didn't get anything accomplished. I left the house shortly after 11am and didn't get back until after 5pm. I brought the baby with me so I wouldn't have to worry about getting back to feed her or bringing the breast pump. Unfortunately she is teething and likes to take a couple sucks and then pop off and chew on her fist for a bit and then repeat the process over and over. This has made for a bit of engorgement on my part since she is not feeding very effectively and makes it a bit more difficult to nurse discreetly in public. I really hope that these teeth come in soon.

Tonight I finished another knitted wool soaker for my daughter. Now she has a total of 4 soakers. I don't even bother to use the other kind of covers on her anymore, the wool is just so much better. I have two skeins of yarn that I bought at a local knitting shop that I think I am going to make some knitted shorts for the summer. I have decided to learn how to knit in the round in order to make the shorts that way.

I think that I am going to go to a quilt show/auction on Saturday. It is at a retirement community on the other side of town (60 + miles, the Phoenix area is Huge), so we will see how I feel about the drive come Saturday morning. I'll post pictures if I do go.

I have a couple of stamp sets for sale on ebay if you are interested. Here is a link:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZneorn3QQhtZ-1

Sorry for the disjointed post but it is late and I am tired. Good Night.

Siblings

This afternoon my son was jealous of my daughter as I was holding ans nursing her. So like a toddler with limited coping skills he decided to hit her with one of his cars. Truly he didn't hit her any harder than he has in the past, but he must of gotten her just right to burst a blood vessel and gave her a lovely shiner. He was of course appropriately disciplined and made to apologize, but my husband and I felt terrible for our daughter. She was such a trooper though cried for a bit, but was fine after I finished nursing her. I have no doubt that someday she will return the favor and give our son payback for all the times he has been mean to her. It is so hard to make sure that you are giving equal attention to both kids. Since our daughter is breastfeeding and needs my attention so often it is easy to leave the care of our son to my husband, but that is not fair for anyone. Being a parent is harder than I ever imagined it would be.

In quilty news tomorrow I plan to bring a quilt to the hand quilters that work at the local historical society museum. This quilt was made by my great grandmother (I think, have to check on that) and passed down to my grandmother who gave it to me well over a year ago. I have been intending to bring it to them and have it quilted ever since. I have resolved to finally bring it in tomorrow (I even have the backing fabric in the dryer as I type). I was told that there was a 9 month to year long wait, but if I never bring it in it will never get done.

In other news my sister had a baby boy this morning. Both her kids are about six months younger than mine, so hopefully they can grow up close. I have attached a picture of the happy family.

A Few Stashbusting Projects

Well this is the second time that I am writing this post since my window crashed the first time. Hopefully I can remember everything.

I completed a stash busting and scrap busting quilt last week and gave it to my sister on Saturday for her baby shower. This is a string-x quilt a-la Bonnie. This is pretty much identical to one that I have made before. I have been making the string blocks as leader/ender pieces and before I know it I have enough to make a quilt. I intend this to be a quilt that gets used and abused. I used my favorite batting for kids quilts, dream angel batting. It is flame retardant and I just feel better that they are sleeping with something that could help them in the event of a fire.

The other two finishes are both bags, one for me and one for my son. The one for me is from a pattern in the Winter 2006 Quilts and More magazine. I used recycled corduroy for the outside and a reproduction 30's fabric that I just love for the inside. I am using this bag for my knitting. the other bag is for my Cars obsessed son so that he can carry his own toys, drink, snack etc. The bag is made out of some Cars fabric that I bought from Walmart to use for a tablecloth for his 2nd birthday. the inside and handles are made from a worn out pair of my husbands pants. I decided to use the heavier pants material so the bag would have some body without having to use interfacing.

My daughter had her 4 month check up today, she currently weighs 15# and is 26" long. That is 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. I apparently don't make small children, my son has always been big for his age too. My daughter remains an avid breastfeeder and has not been showing any interest in solids, which is just fine with me. My son didn't much want solids until he was over 7 months old also. Today she got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. I feel so bad for her, she has been fussy all evening, I am sure that she is not feeling so well. On top of that she is getting two teeth in the bottom front. The teeth have not broken through yet, but you can see that they are there. Developmentally she can roll from her back to her belly and my husband says that she can roll from her belly to her back but I haven't seen it yet. Also, when she gets on her belly she has been pulling her legs up like she is trying to crawl. I am so not ready to have two mobile kids.

My sons is doing well also. In the last month or so his vocabulary has just exploded. it is so amazing to watch him learn. For Christmas we got him a book about potty training and he has been showing a lot of interest in using the potty so we have been letting him use it when he asks. I figure as soon as it is warm enough here for him to wear training pants and a t-shirt I will make a more concerted effort to get him to potty train.

A Busy Two weeks

I can't believe that it has been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Life has been busy. First both of the kids got sick with a stomach virus that lasted about a week. My son was throwing up (all over my husband and thankfully not me, I don't do puke) had diarrhea and a fever, my daughter had a much milder case (thank you breast milk) with just a fever and a desire to nurse or scream. My husband was a great help in that we were able to divide and conquer. He took our son and kept him entertained and I took our daughter and just let her nurse as much as she wanted. Consequently after a couple of days my milk supply was greatly increased. They are both doing much better now. I then worked a shift (7am-7:30pm) and came home just aching all over. I chalked it up to needing new shoes, but it became apparent by the next day that I had caught whatever my kids had. I was very careful to wash my hands and try not to get infected, but it's hard when you have a two year old that constantly wants to eat off your plate and drink whatever you have. I was lucky and only was sick for a couple of days.

My friends and I have decided to have a monthly work day to get our Christmas presents done early and avoid the stress of trying to complete projects at the last minute. We had our first get together on the 14th and I started work on about 7 wall hangings that I will give out next Christmas. I hope that we can keep up the progress on these it will be so nice to have a stress free holiday.

I have decided to learn how to knit. Since I use cloth diapers you can also use wool covers, either knitted or from wool fabric. Both are expensive to buy, but I have found that they work wonders for nighttime with my daughter who is a heavy wetter. The wool lets the moisture evaporate so that her clothes are slightly damp and not totally wet like they are with other covers that I try to use at night. So, I have decided to knit her a wool soaker. With the use of the great videos on a knitting site that I found and a pattern from fern and faerie I am doing pretty well. I am actually enjoying learning a new skill, plus I have found that knitting is not as difficult as I have always thought it to be (although so far all I have done is knit and purl).