Since Christmas

On Friday, the day after Christmas, our new dishwasher was delivered. Perhaps you remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that our dishwasher broke? It proved to be beyond repair, and with some Christmas money we received we purchased a new one. To expedite things, Keith removed the old dishwasher from underneath the countertop days in advance. To prevent Isaac from playing in the empty, somewhat dirty hole under the counter, with a hole in the floor for the water line through which one could see our lovely unfinished basement, Keith decided to cover it with Elmo wrapping paper. See below.




There was definitely an argument over whether or not we should pay Sears to install it for us. I know that Keith is very handy and capable of doing such things, but it takes up his time. In my opinion, his time, especially when he's off from work and supposed to be enjoying time with me and the boys, is priceless. However, Sears wanted $130 for installation. So much for Keith's time. Naturally, it took longer and was more complicated than expected, requiring not one, but two trips to the hardware store. Finally, though, it was in and ready to go!

My favorite thing about the new dishwasher is how quiet it is. Our old one was so loud (due to the fact that the motor was frying) that you couldn't hear yourself think if you were in the kitchen while it was running. Forget having a conversation, or watching a movie in the family room while it was on. Impossible!

While Keith was installing the dishwasher, my sister Kristin called to let me know my Pittsburgh Zoo membership came in the mail! This was her Christmas gift to us. Right after dinner I went to her house to pick it up, because they were calling for beautiful weather on Saturday. Then, after the boys went to bed Friday night, Keith & I drank herbal tea and watched the movie Amazing Grace. This is a most excellent film about William Wilberforce, the British politician who worked tirelessly for the abolition of the slave trade in Great Britain. It was a wonderful, uplifting, inspiring flick, and only 1 hr. 50 min. long!

Sure enough, it was beautiful on Saturday. The temperature was well into the 60's. We loaded the boys into the truck & headed for the zoo! We had light jackets on the boys, and baseball caps to keep their faces from getting sunburned, but Keith & I were walking around with just sweatshirts on! It was a great day. The only bad thing was that everyone in the tri-state area also decided to go to the zoo that day, and I do not like big crowds, especially not with a big double stroller to push around. We made the most of it, though. Now that we have a membership we can go anytime we want, so the things we didn't get to spend very much time on we'll be able to go back & see again shortly.

After the zoo we went straight to my parents' house because my mom was making beef stew. I don't know what it was about her stew that night, but it sure hit the spot! While the stew was still cooking my parents watched Amazing Grace. After dinner we watched 24: Redemption. It was fantastic! Can't wait for the new season to start in January!

On Sunday Keith was feeling a little under the weather. It was my turn to volunteer in the nursery at church, though, so Isaac and I went together by ourselves. Josiah stayed home to take his morning nap since Keith would be home with him. I don't think we did much else that day. Since Keith was home, he made a delicious pork butt roast for pulled pork burritos (one of my personal favorite dishes!). I sorted laundry, and started a few loads. Same old, same old.

On Monday Keith was back to work, and it was back to life as usual for me with boys. This is going to come out the wrong way, but sometimes it's easier when Keith is at work and it's just me with boys. I guess it's just what I'm used to. It's my routine. He has his routine, I have mine. Mondays are laundry days, and I had plenty to do. I'm proud to say that I got it all done too! It was leftovers for dinner. And this night, after the boys went to bed, we watched Prince Caspian, which was one of my Christmas presents! We both decided it was a great movie, but that we had to go back and read the book again because we could barely remember a thing! Also, we had heard that the Biblical references in this movie were even more pronounced than in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, we don't agree. We hardly recognized any glaring Biblical references at all. I also want to add that Disney always has to ruin almost every movie they make by having a romance going on in it. I'm going to assume, since it's already out on DVD, that most readers have seen this movie already. If you haven't, then skip to the next paragraph right now. I found it so irritating that Susan gives Prince Caspian a kiss on the lips good-bye, and they embrace, at the end. I fully admit that I need to re-read the book, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't in it! Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Tuesday, yesterday, I was very irritable for some reason. I assume it's because I didn't get much sleep after going to bed so late (because we were watching Prince Caspian) and because Josiah did his thing at 5am again. I think I made the most of it though. I actually completed two pages in Isaac's scrapbook! Last night after dinner we headed to the mall to do some walking and to let Isaac play at the PBS Kids play area. For some reason, though, Isaac wasn't feelin' the play area, so we went to Petland instead to check out the animals. This he loved, and we let him walk around until we got in the truck, rather than putting him back in the stroller, so that he could burn up some energy!

This is New Year's Eve! I've got a stuffed turkey roasting as I type. Only have to prepare the green bean casserole and we ready to go. I want to add that I went to the grocery store to pick up "a few things" for tonight and tomorrow, and my bill came to $71.09! What!!!??? I am shocked and discouraged by the cost of groceries anymore. I did have to buy a couple more expensive items, like AAA batteries and Arm & Hammer Pet Odor carpet stuff, but $70! Come on!!! It's discouraging because we're really trying hard to stick to a budget, and have been ever since I stopped working. Oh well, guess I still have a lot to learn about spending less.

Anyway, tonight we're looking forward to having our friends, Jess & Phil, and their 4-year-old daughter, Jenna, over. We plan to have a nice turkey dinner, some sweets and popcorn, and wine of course! Hopefully we'll get a movie in too! Right now we have You Don't Mess With the Zohan with Adam Sandler. Looking forward to it!

Come back tomorrow for my New Year's resolutions! Ha! This oughta be good!

Drudy Family Christmas

Although Isaac was still less than impressed with all of the presents wrapped up under the tree for him, it was quite an enchanting Christmas nonetheless. This picture was taken Christmas Eve, anxiously awaiting my parents' arrival. "Why so anxious," one might ask? Well, we expected to make homemade popcorn and begin the first of several games of 500 of the evening. Actually, we forgot to make the popcorn and ended up watching the 17 & Counting marathon on TLC until we put the boys to bed around 8 o'clock. Then we played 500 & Pit.

My parents left around 10 o'clock. Keith & I got ourselves all ready for bed, brought the presents downstairs (they were "hidden" in the spare bedroom) and arranged them under the tree, made some herbal tea, curled up under our blankets, and spent the rest of Christmas Eve watching my all-time favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life!

Fiberoptics, nativities (even if they were porcelein), Nutcrackers, and snowglobes were a few of Isaac's favorite things this Christmas season.

Isaac quickly figured out how to plug this one in on his own-not the safest thing for a not-quite-two-year-old to know, but what are you going to do? He also enjoyed taking the little train off of its tracks several times a day and then saying, "I'll fix it!"

Even though we filled the stockings as we bought things, it never occurred to Isaac to look in them. The two ridiculously enormous stocking, the teddy bear & the snowman, are Isaac and Josiah's stockings, of course!

See that snowglobe he's reaching for with his right hand? About thirty seconds after this pictures was taken, Isaac went into the bathroom to go potty, and dropped the snowglobe on the tile floor, shattering it into a million pieces. The nutcracker was actually part of a centerpiece that Keith & I won at the Westinghouse Christmas party earlier in December.

My first ever real Christmas tree. Among the reasons why my parents said we shouldn't get a real one were, 1) it will catch fire and burn the house down, and 2) Maggie will pee on it. I'm happy to say neither of those two occurred. It did, however, fall over once. There were only three casualties, one of which was one of my favorite Gone With the Wind ornaments! Keith bought some superglue though and fixed it perfectly! Keith also went out and bought a new, bigger tree stand. While it was completely decorated and everything we transferred it from its old, smaller stand into the new one. Never fell over again! Nor has it caught fire or been peed on by the dog.

We finally went to bed around 12:30am on Christmas Eve. Actually, I guess it was technically Christmas Day already. Josiah stirred a little around 1:30am but easily went back to sleep on his own. Either because we had drunk some wine, ate tons of cookies, or had gone to bed so late, neither of us slept well. The boys woke for the morning around 7:30am. I took videos of us going into their bedrooms and getting them out of their cribs. They had no idea that it was any different from any other day. I recorded Keith carrying them both down the stairs, trying to catch their first reaction to all of the presents (which I now remember that I forgot to take a picture of). Josiah was actually much more impressed with all of the brightly wrapped boxes than Isaac. Isaac didn't get it at all, until we started opening of course!

We began with the stockings. In each of their stockings they got some books, puzzles, needed personal care items, and appropriate treats; teething biscuits and Gerber snacks for Josiah, peppermint patties for Isaac, which are his favorite candy. Next comes the presents. By this time Isaac is just beginning to notice the Elmo & Cars wrapping paper. We opened all of Isaac's gifts first, and then Josiah's. Among Isaac's gifts were a Thomas the Train tent, a Magna-doodle, a dump truck and a fire engine. Josiah got the Fischer Price Laugh & Learn Home, bath toys, a little basketball net with little balls, and one of those Fischer Price toys where you flip a switch or turn a nob and different animals pop up (I don't know the official name of it, sorry!). Naturally, Josiah was all up in Isaac's stuff, and vice versa. Any suggestions for how to help them both distinguish their toys from one another's? Or should we just stop trying now?

Next Keith & I opened our stockings and gifts. We do the same thing with our stockings as we do for the boys, stuffing them with candy, personal care items, and some fun stuff. I got Keith a lot of clothes this year, as he's lost so much weight he basically needs a whole new wardrobe. I also got him a Redwings Christmas ornament, as he always complains that the tree is covered in ornaments I had before I met him and none of the ornaments are his. A couple of other neat things were The Universe Seasons 1 & 2 DVD's (he loves watching those shows on the History Channel), and a gift bag full of various types of malt powder. For a long time he's wanted to make me homemade Belgian waffles, but said we had to have malt powder. After going to Giant Eagle, Community Market, McGinnis Sisters, and calling Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, I had to purchase the malt powder from King Arthur Flour online. One of my favorite gifts was my Steelers hoodie (which, I'm embarassed to say is my first ever Steelers apparel). I also got a couple of books on my list of things to read, Prince Caspian DVD, some Bath & Body Works stuff, and a new outfit fom Aeropostale.

With our family room ransacked by Christmas presents and wrapping paper, we then made Belgian waffles for breakfast. I was amazed that Isaac ate two whole waffles. Josiah had his usual baby oatmeal. (Sorry JoZo, next year you can have a waffle!) I tried my best to clean up/organize the family room before we all headed upstairs to get ready for the day.

Around noon we went to my parents' house. We were the first there, so we opened the boys stockings as soon as we arrived. My mother also stuffs stockings with needed personal items, treats, and some fun little toys. Then Mackenzie and Damian arrived and immediately did their own ransacking of my parents' living room by opening their stockings and gifts. I decided to wait to open Isaac & Josiah's gifts as they didn't even notice they had presents to open. Next it was time for Christmas dinner: ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli casserole, and coleslaw. There were other things, I just didn't eat them. Oh, and did I mention...tons of cookies!

Josiah soon had to lay down for a much-needed nap, so I took advantage of that time to try & open presents with Isaac. There couldn't be anything Isaac was less interested in than opening presents! As we started showing him things, though, he got into it, again. My mom got him so many neat things. One really cool thing was a big easel with chalk and magnetic letters and numbers. We also opened our gifts from my parents while Josiah was napping. Again, my mom got us so much cool stuff: The Office trivia game, a couple new Gone With the Wind Scarlett O'Hara ornaments, new bedsheets, a digital photo ornament. I think my favorite though were name plaques for Isaac & Josiah, with the meaning of their names. We knew the meaning of their names already, that's why we chose them, but it's so nice to have something to frame and put in their bedrooms.

When Josiah woke up we opened his gifts of course. He, too, got many cool things from my mom. And again, Isaac and Josiah were all into each other's things. I'm taking suggestions on how to alleviate that crisis when Isaac sees Josiah playing with one of his things and frantically exclaims, "Share, brother!" as he's yanking the toy out of Josiah's hands.

After that, we had to load up our truck with all of the gifts (and Maggie) and take them home, because there was no way we could fit everything in the truck with the boys & Maggie in it! After taking everything into the house, we went back to my mom's to get the boys and then headed to my Aunt Dar's house. Seems like it's been years since I went to my Aunt Dar's on Christmas, so it was nice to be there again. One of my younger cousins has a baby girl who is just a little older than Josiah, so it was really fun to watch them look at each other and play around one another.

We finally got home around 9pm, promptly put the boys to bed, again organized the family room, and went to bed ourselves. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Below are some more cute pictures of our Christmas.

Almost Christmas

Keith has the week off work, and I fear he isn't enjoying it much. He's so restless & just wants to get out of the house everyday. I think he's happier at work, with his mind occupied.

Isaac has had a rough couple of days. I don't know if having his daddy home has thrown him off or what, but we're having to put him in time-out multiple times a day. Have we officially crossed over into terrible-two territory?

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, & I still don't know what our plans are, if we even have any. We invited my family over for games & snacks, and of course It's a Wonderful Life, but no one seemed terribly interested. My sister is planning on baking cookies with her kids, and my mom wants to go to church. My dad is always up for getting together. Our church has a Christmas Eve service, but my mom won't go to it. Plus, after thinking it through, Keith & I decided we wouldn't be able to worship or even pay much attention with the two boys at that time of evening. Maybe next year.

I do know that Christmas afternoon will be spent at my mom's, and in the evening we're planning on going to my Aunt Dar's. I am so excited for Isaac this Christmas. I hope he gets into the whole present-unwrapping thing. I am excited for Josiah too just to have his 1st Christmas. I'm planning on taking lots of pictures & videos for the next two days so we have lots to remember this Christmas with.

Kind of a boring blog this time. Sorry.

What's New

I've finally mastered the art of grocery shopping on my own with two kids! No more do I have to wait until Keith gets home from work! No longer do I have to rely on my mom to watch one

or more of the boys! Last week I put Isaac in the part of the cart where kids normally sit and I put Josiah, in his carseat, in the big part of the cart and just piled groceries up all around them and underneath. This week I just pulled a second cart along behind me. I'm just so glad to be a little more independent, just a little less reliant on other people.

Isaac had his allergy testing on Tuesday this week. Ever since I first fed him baby oatmeal when he was just 5 months old or so, he always broke out into hives with any kind of oats. Then other times it seemed like he got hives for no reason. He's also had eczema since he was about 6 weeks old, and just very dry skin in general. Then on our way home from Michigan after Thanksgiving we stopped at Panera for breakfast bagels. Isaac took a couple of bites of his sesame bagel and his lips swelled up. This is what led us to the allergist in the first place. It turns out Isaac is allergic to oats, peanuts, eggs, sesame, dustmites, cats, and possibly dogs. The very good news is that his allergies are not life threatening. He just gets itchy! Also, because he has never cared for peanut butter or eggs, they should be fairly easy to avoid. I just have to start paying more attention to ingredient lists for "hidden" eggs. The ironic thing is, because of his eczema, I've used Aveeno bath cream and lotion on his skin all along, and Aveeno has oatmeal in it! So we've switched to Cetaphil for cleansing and Vanicream for moisturizing.

After his doctor appointment, Isaac and I went to my mom's for the day, as she was already watching Josiah anyway for me. The boys napped there and I just hung out. I finished reading Jon & Kate Plus 8's book Multiple Blessings while I was there.

Wednesday was the only day this week we didn't go anywhere. I did my workout during the boys' naps. Actually, i don't think Isaac napped that day, he more or less played in his crib for two hours. Then I made chili and cornbread. My good friend Dana came over for dinner and brought a bottle of vino! We talked until about 8:30pm. Keith was very helpful with the boys so I could visit with my friend.

I wasn't planning on doing much Thursday (yesterday), but my dad, true to form, started telling me all that he wanted to get my mom for Christmas. This is his subtle way of asking me to do his Christmas shopping for him. So, I had to go to my parents again. Fortunately, my mom did let me go shopping while the boys napped at her house. I finished Keith's Christmas shopping and bought the stocking stuffers. I also took care of one thing on my dad's list for my mom. We had dinner plans with some friends, so I had to go back to my parents to get the kids and then head back out to Monroeville. Fortunately, again, my mom offered to watch Josiah so I just had to take Isaac out. We met our friends Jason & Mabry at Mad Mex. Isaac flirted with every girl that walked by. He has his carrot and celery sticks dripping with ranch dressing hanging out of his mouth as he leaned over to say "hey baby" to a little girl on his way to the potty with her mommy. He also said hello to the manager on duty. What a boy. Oh yeah, funny thing about my Isaac...we ordered him a nice kiddy burrito. Kids' meals come with carrot & celery sticks with dressing as well as a nice dessert of a small brownie with vanilla ice cream. What do you think he ate all night? Nothing but the carrots and celery. Wouldn't touch the burrito, brownie, or ice cream. So characteristic of him and his eating habits. I love it.

This morning Isaac had his toddler gym class at 9:30. True to form, I was late getting out the door. Again. Thankfully, my mother does watch Josiah for me during this class as I have to be in the gym with Isaac helping him and supervising him. This gym class is really cool and a really rich learning experience I think. He gets to be out with other kids his age, he has learned to climb a ladder in this class, and there's about 5 min. when the kids sit in a circle and do a quick activity. Of course, Isaac is totally not interested in this part of the class. I have to hold him down to get him to stay in the circle. But it's good for him to start getting exposure to this kind of class environment.

After picking Josiah up at my mom's we came home, had lunch, I did dishes, and then after some playing it was nap time. I have my homemade pasta sauce on the stove, I'm about to go make the meatballs, and I can't wait for Little House on the Prairie to come on in 7 minutes!

Long Time, No Blog

Thanks to Keith's stepdad, we all came home from Thanksgiving vacation with a wicked outbreak of the cholera plague. It was the first time I ever had to deal with a vomiting child, which was not fun. Isaac had the worst of it & it actually took him a full week to recover. Praise God though, we are all well now!

Because we were all so sick when we came back from Michigan, we did not get around to Christmas decorating until a week ago, and we did not get our Christmas tree until this past Saturday. Therefore, we are quite behind on sending out our Christmas cards. We just did our little photo shoot in front of the tree last night. Isaac was anything but cooperative. We did manage to get a few good ones though. The photocards are expected to arrive between 12/15-12/19. I usually have my tree decorated the day after Thanksgiving and the cards in the mail before December 1. Just wasn't happening this year.

Sidenote-this is the first time I've ever had a real Christmas tree! I love it, but it isn't very fragrant. I thought a pine scent would permeate my house more, but that hasn't happened.

Moving right along, our dishwasher broke, for good. Not sure when we're going to be able to get a new one, so we're doing dishes in the sink. I was really trying to clean my fingernails up for Keith's work Christmas party this Friday too. Now I have dishpan hands. Oh well. Life goes on.

Over the weekend I finally got around to watching a DVD on vaccines that my friend loaned to me. Hearing the information on this DVD made me sick to my stomach that I've blindly allowed Isaac and Josiah to have all of their vaccines without hardly asking a single question. The issue definitely warrants further investigation . I want to encourage all moms out there reading this to learn more for yourselves. Don't just take the pediatrician's word for it. Do your homework and learn both sides of the issue.

On a lighter note, Josiah is sitting up very nicely on his own. He's also trying so hard to get up onto all 4's and crawl. He officially has two teeth. He has worked his way through all of the vegetable purees, except zucchini and yellow squash, has mastered oatmeal, and is going to begin more fruit purees this week. Because he stopped nursing so early (2 1/2 months!), I wanted to find some other special thing I could do for him in place of breastfeeding, as Isaac nursed for 8 solid months. What I decided to do was make his own baby food homemade. It really isn't that hard or time-consuming at all. I just make as many different purees as I can one day a week, pour it into ice cube trays to freeze, then pop the cubes out and store in Ziplock freezer bags. This way I can better control the consistency of his food as well, as he prefers thicker consistencies.

I am vexed about one thing with Josiah. He still doesn't sleep all the way through the night! He's 6 months old and I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. He makes it until usually about 5am, and then will not fall back to sleep without having a bottle. I'm afraid we've gotten into a bad habit by giving him a bottle in the middle of the night like that. The only other thing I know to do is just let him cry it out. I hear that the first night is bad, the second is worse, the third is better, and then they have it. I'm going to check a book out at the library called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and what it has to say. I really want a full night's sleep again!

Isaac is still a human sponge. He just says more and more words everyday. He is beginning to use please and thank you. He also says words like hungry, food, vitamin, banana, elephant, fork (though it sounds like a bad word, if you know what I mean), coat, hat, and mittens. He's even starting on some phrases like daddy working, josiah sleeping, i'll fix it, and i'll get it. He calls Josiah JoZo. We call Josiah that a lot and that's easier for him to say. He's just so adorable right now. Still loves books & music. He's really good at identifying shapes. We're still working on colors. He's doing very well with potty training too still. I guess the next step though is to actually put him in either a pull-up or underpants and teach him to stay clean and dry. I mean, the kid can't run around naked forever, and it's cold outside. The only thing that worries me about this is that he's never pulled his pants down or up before. I guess he'll just learn. He'll probably learn very quickly at the rate he's going. Right now though, with no bottoms on he can just go to the potty whenever he has to. I hope the added step of pulling his pants down doesn't totally make him angry and give up. We shall see.

This Week & Next

On October 26 I came down with fever, chills, body aches, and general malaise, which turned into a nasty cold. This then evolved into a terrible cough and chest congestion before I got a little better. Then last week the stuffy/runny nose and chills resumed, followed by an even worse cough and chest congestion. Finally this past Tuesday night I decided to take one of Isaac's breathing treatments leftover from when he had bronchitis a couple months ago. Today, Friday November 21, I can finally say I'm feeling better! Except now Keith is basically going through the same cycle. I assured him last night he'd feel better in 2-3 weeks.

The same week that I began to get sick, Josiah came down with an ear infection. He finished his course of antibiotics but he still has a terribly stuffy nose. It's so bad that sometimes he can barely breathe to take a bottle.

Isaac is the most healthy of us all, with just a little runny nose at times.

Because I was sick for so long I decided not to go anywhere this week. We skipped mom's group and storytime at the library, and I did not arrange any playdates for Isaac. We went to the mall twice: once just to walk (and then we went to my mom's), another to finish Christmas shopping for Keith's family. Other than that, we've been homebound this week.

On a positive note, I am finished with the Grand Rapids family Christmas shopping. That's half of our total Christmas shopping for the year! Yay! Another positive note, when I was at my mom's on Tuesday I read a lot of Jon & Kate Plus 8's book Multiple Blessings. I always read a little more of it every time I'm there. There are two things that will make me cry every time. One is a bride walking down the aisle. The other is a baby being born. Just reading about Jon & Kate's sextuplets being born made me bawl!

It's been a very low-key week. Tomorrow will be spent packing for Grand Rapids. There is a lot to pack! In addition to normal clothing and baby/toddler items, we will be packing Christmas presents, Josiah's humidifier (since he's still very sick), Isaac's breathing machine and Albuterol (just in case), and Isaac's Elmo potty as he's been doing wonderfully with potty training. Oh, and I'm sure I'll have to run to Giant Eagle tomorrow, at least to pick up Josiah's Zantac. However, Keith promised me Belgian waffles for breakfast. Yum! My mouth is watering already!

While we're in Grand Rapids we will be doing lots of visiting, so it really won't be very relaxing. I do always looking forward to seeing Keith's family and friends though. I just pray for God's travelling mercies to and from and that all of our illnesses are healed before we even get there! 'Till next time....

Recent Pics

A young man in training. Yes, that's Glenn Beck's Fusion magazine he's holding. He's a young conservative in training as well.

"I'm a wabbit slayah

A guitah playah

With a nasty habit

Kill the wabbit!"

Do They Make Zap Collars for Little Boys?

Isaac does this little thing where he shrieks at the top of his lungs at the highest pitch he can reach and it's like nails running down a chalkboard to me. It's one of my pet peeves I think. I like peace and quiet. I know this is impossible with two little/baby boys, but I always look forward to nap time when the house is very quiet.

So as soon as I laid Isaac down for his nap this afternoon, he starts doing this shrieking and I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if he had one of those zap collars on & I could just shock him every time he does that?" I know, a sick, evil, twisted thought. I think it could come in handy though.

And if there's anyone out there reading this thinking, "What kind of mother would even think of such a thing!" Here's my advice: go have a kid or two. But you can't give them to someone else to raise, like daycare or your mother. You gotta stay home and raise them yourself. Then tell me the zap collar wouldn't be a great idea.

Real Quick

So today my mom took Isaac shopping at the mall. That means that during Josiah's 2 hour morning nap, I was able to vacuum the carpets, do the dishes, run the dishwasher, clean Maggie's kennel, wash her blanket, and rearrange the family room to make room for the Christmas tree. My question is: what in the world do you do with all of your kids' toys come Christmas time, when they're about to get a bunch of new toys? Isaac still plays with EVERYTHING! And what he doesn't play with, Josiah will be ready to play with soon. I don't know what I'm going to do. I am open to suggestions if anybody has some.

Isaac has been doing very well going on the potty as long as he's naked on the bottom. If he has anything on, even cotton underpants, he feels safe to pee/poop in them. I don't know how we're going to proceed from here. For now, I just have a naked 21 month old running around all day. Again, I'm open to suggestions.

Christmas shopping has commenced! Since we will be in Grand Rapids for Thanksgiving, we plan to exchange gifts with Keith's family then. As usual, I have no idea what to buy for Keith's stepdad, dad, and stepmom. For some reason I find his mom easy/fun to shop for. I have to keep from spending too much on her. Everyone else, I'm clueless on. Again, open to suggestions.

I think I'm going to go bake muffins or something now.

My Breastmilk Theory

I nursed Isaac for 8 months, and continued to pump breastmilk for him for an additional month after that. So, in all, he received breastmilk for 9 months. At 10 months, Isaac became sick for the very first time. He got his first real fever and cold. I had to suction his nose, run a humidifier, and rub Vicks on his chest for about two weeks.

Josiah, due to his severe reflux and refusal of the breast, nursed for only 2 1/2 months. However, with what I pumped everyday and the supply I had in my freezer, I was able to give him breastmilk until he was 4 months old. Now he is 5 months + 1 week old, and he was just diagnosed yesterday with his first ear infection.

Coincidence? Maybe. Both Isaac and Josiah's firsttime illnesses did occur in Nov/Dec. You might argue that a lot of people get colds/flu or whatever at this time of year. My theory, however, is that about a month after a baby last receives breastmilk, he/she is likely to get sick for the first time. My boys never got sick while they were getting breastmilk, no matter what season it was.

So if there are any breastfeeding moms out there reading this blog, I encourage you to strive for that recommendation to give breastmilk for the first year! Give 'em those antibodies! Even though many of the nutritional benefits of breastmilk diminish after the first 6 months when most babies begin eating more and more solid foods, if it means not having a sick baby, it's well worth it!

Excerpt

I just finished reading Kim Meeder's Hope Rising, a wonderful book of stories about how her horse ranch in Oregon is used as a ministry to broken children/youth as well as a rescue operation for abused horses. The last chapter entitled The Choice spoke directly to me and my life. It is exactly what I needed to hear in order to figure out how to carry on day after day amidst all of the challenges I'm facing right now. I don't know how to properly give credit to someone when I quote them, so just know that this is from Hope Rising by Kim Meeder, pages 249-251. I put it all in italics since it's a quote, and put the phrases that hit me hardest in bold.

"So much of our life seems to just happen. We have all shared moments of throwing our hands in the air in utter dismay of a raucous day's offerings. Yet in reality, most of our life is what we choose for it to be. As violently as external forces push, we are still the master of our own will.

Difficulties, hurdles, hardships, whatever name we know them by, one thing is certain-they visit us all. No life is immune from suffering. As certain as we breathe, we will know pain. It is a shapeless void that shifts into as many faces as humanity itself. It has no sense of justice or timing. Like a wall of fire, pain rises where it chooses, consuming whatever it can. It is a famine that gnaws at the soul.

Mounting like impenetrable black fog, pain envelops everything-light, love, hope. It is a dark chasm of loneliness. It is a precipice of despair. It is a wailing child collapsed in a barren orchard.

The view from within this lifeless place is the same in any direction-it is all ash. It wraps around us like a black desolate ring encircling our impoverished soul. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. It becomes the truest definition of being surrounded.

When our hope falls to its knees and takes its last gasp before death, there is an answer. It is simple. It lies free for every soul to choose. When you are surrounded, instead of anxiously looking from side to side, look up. Change your view with a new perspective.

Look up and see what the Maker sees. Instead of a destroyed circle, He sees a vital clearing where the light of truth can penetrate. Instead of a ring of ash, He sees previous snaring distractions burned into usable nutrients. Instead of barrenness, He sees a circle where something enduring can grow, something that is beautiful, something that is permanent.

God doesn't see wild flames on every side lapping at our souls. He sees cleansing fire that consumes the dross of complacency. He sees hearts tempered with strength, purified like gold.

God doesn't see a descening black fog encircling its shrouded victims with the icy grip of despair. He sees a temporary veil that encourages faith to rise out of meandering convenience and be galvanized with power into a force that moves mountains.

God doesn' see a hungry precipice yawning open to swallow us whole. He sees the perfect opportunity for hope to unfurl its wings and soar free over logic that tells us what is and isn't possible....

It is true, the pain that we feel in this life is certain. What is equally certain is how we choose to feel about the pain. It can destroy us-or define us.

Like standing on a mountainous trail, we can choose which way to go. We can choose where we end up. When confronted by pain, we can choose to take the descending trail that most often leads to a dark and lonely place, pitted with mires of helplessness, hopelessnss, despair.

Or we can select the ascending trail and, with some effort and perseverance, we can choose to allow our pain to motivate us toward becoming better people, to move us toward a better place. A place where love transcends selfishness, where faith bulldozes the 'what ifs," and where peace enfolds the heart like a warm blanket...."

I am reminded of a scripture that was shared with me by someone dear during another major trial in my life.

"But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tested me, I will

come forth as gold."

Job 23:10

This is one of those moments for me when I can feel God's presence like I can feel these keys under my fingertips.

That's What Mothers Do

It's 6am. Without turning on any lights, I put the empty bottle on top of my dresser and crawl back into bed, hoping against hope that last 4oz. will hold Josiah until 8:30. I turn my heating pad on. My upper back has been killing me. The Aleve I took before bed never seemed to kick in. The back massage Keith gave me last night turned out to be useless, though I won't tell him that because it felt good at the time! The heating pad is all I have left to try. Very quickly after lying down, I decide that I'll never get comfortable with this stuffy nose. After blowing my nose about three times I'm much less congested. I crawl back into bed again. Thankfully Josiah fell back to sleep, and so did I!

7:36am. I hear him, rolling around in his crib and cooing from behind the closed door to the nursery. My back still hurts, but I can't ignore the sweet little sounds he's making no matter how badly I want just five more minutes of rest. So much for 8:30. I roll out of bed. Slowly and quietly I go into the nursery to give him his pacifier. It'll never work. He's wide awake and the sun is illuminating his room just enough that there's no way he's going back to sleep. I can dream though. Back to bed I go to lay down on that heating pad again. "God, my back hurts" I say, just talking to God, telling him what's going on with me and my body, as if he doesn't already know.

It's all for naught. Josiah is still cooing up a storm in there. I go back into the nursery to put the pacifier back in his mouth again, and I turn his "fish light" on, which is actually just one of those Fisher Price aquariums that hang from the crib rail. I go back into my bedroom, but not to get back into bed and pretend like I can hold this day off any longer. Rather, turning the heating pad off, I begin to make my bed. Thus starts my day.

After making my bed, next it's time to change Josiah's diaper. Maggie is trotting around the upstairs, which usually means Isaac is up, even when I can't hear him. Dogs are like that. So I set Isaac's "changing table" up on my bed. He's got severe diaper rash, again, so instead of wipes I have to dampen a washcloth to clean him up, which for some reason is easier on his bum. I sneeze a few times so I have to blow my nose a few more times. I am starting to hear Isaac now. I open his door and sure enough, there he is happily sitting up in his crib giving me a big, beautiful smile. "Good morning!" I say, as I stroke his hair and his soft cheeks. Then it's time to open his blinds and get him out of his crib; that is, unless he wants to play the game where I put his siderail down and he puts it back up again, saying "up" over and over.

This morning, however, he was happy to get out of his crib right away because he'd already pooped in his diaper, which, as one might imagine, is extremely uncomfortable when one has open sores on their bum. So I change his diaper, wash my hands, and start heading down the steps. After he fell down the steps and hit his head on the floor really hard yesterday, I make sure that I'm in front of Isaac going down, and that he's holding onto the rail, as he not only goes down the stairs forward now like a big boy, but has to carry his blanket down with him too.

When we get to the bottom, I have to put Josiah in the bouncie seat. I often worry that I leave Josiah alone too often, but I haven't figured out a way to take care of Maggie and Isaac's every need with him in my arms all of the time, and probably never will. This guilt I simply must bear. He won't be a little baby forever. He will crawl someday, sooner rather than later I'm sure.

I let Maggie outside. While I'm putting food in her bowl Isaac gets a Milkbone out for her. Maggie comes back in & I can start Isaac's breakfast and Josiah's bottle. Isaac sees the yogurt on the table where he sits and starts fussing for it. I put one of the new bibs with pockets on it to catch food that I just bought yesterday on him and put him in his booster seat. I may as well have skipped the bib because he still got yogurt all over himself. I get his sippy of milk ready, his vitamin, and split his english muffin to put in the toaster. Normally I only toast half of it, but this morning I figured I'd eat the other half to save time on making my own separate breakfast. As the english muffin is toasting, I make Josiah's bottle. Then it's margarine, grape jam, and I'm finally ready to sit down.

First things first, Josiah gets 2mL Zantac for his reflux. He spits most of it out. Oh well. Then his bottle, which, even though he hasn't eaten for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, he immediately proceeds to push out of his mouth with his tongue. I look up at Isaac who has "finished" his yogurt already, but that just means there isn't any left in the container. Most of it is in a pool on the table and on his new waterproof bib, and the rest is smeared all over his hands, face, sleeves, and sides of his booster seat. Now he figures he'll try a bite of his english muffin.

Josiah has never been easy to feed. Even when I nursed him he would grunt and arch his back, cry and fuss. This morning was no different. So while my back is aching, I'm sitting in a chair without arm rests at the kitchen table, trying to keep Josiah's arms down while keeping the bottle in his mouth, while he's arching his back and grunting because I guess it hurts. All the while, Isaac is sort of pushing his empty plate around the table with his sippy on top. Must've gotten too close to the edge. Both plate and sippy wind up on the floor. This upsets Isaac greatly. Now, while holding Josiah, I must pick the plate up off of the floor, put it on the counter so as to prevent such an incident from repeating itself, and give him his sippy back.

At last, Isaac is happy again, Josiah is drinking his bottle easily now, and my back is still hurting me as I wonder if I'll get to drink my tea before it gets cold. What makes it all worthwhile? I don't know. Maybe it's that I got to praise and reward Isaac like three times just this morning for peeing on the potty! Maybe it's seeing my JoZo's face light up when I get him out of his crib after a nap. Maybe it's all three of us lying on our tummies on the floor reading a book together. Somehow these precious little moments more than make up for how chaotic a mother's day, everyday, can be (as well as her sore back).

What I've Been Doing Lately

In case you're wondering, I'm no further along in Isaac or Josiah's scrapbooks. Well, I did finally print some pictures. But that's it.

Sidenote, I requested information on having a solar panel installed on our roof a couple of weeks ago. Someone was supposed to call me but never did. Hmmm. I'm going to have to follow up on that.

Josiah was dedicated at church yesterday, so we had all of Keith's family from Michigan at our house all weekend. When my house is packed like that, and the TV is blaring, I think I suffer from sensory overload. I'm more jumpy and anxious. I hate all that noise & disorganization! Ever since having Isaac I like a nice quiet house. No television. I guess that will have to change as my boys get older. There will be fewer and fewer quiet, peaceful moments to enjoy. Anyway, the dedication went smoothly, the food was good, etc.

However, as the afternoon wore on yesterday I grew more and more feverish, achy, and nauseated. I unfortunately had to take a couple of Tylenol and lay down on my bed with all of my guests downstairs because I was afraid I was going to vomit. A couple of hours later I came downstairs and everyone was gone! My friend Jess put away all of the food for me. What an angel. I feel better today, but I do have a cold and body aches. But the fever and nausea are gone.

Right now I'm reading a great book called Hope Rising by Kim Meeder. She and her husband Troy run the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch in Oregon, where they not only rescue abused and neglected horses but also minister to troubled youth. The stories are so heartwarming and inspiring. The reason why I became interested in this author is because I was looking for something to encourage my niece in her faith as she is my goddaughter. She loves horses and is taking horseback riding lessons again. I just pray that this book and the stories contained in it fall on fertile ground so to speak. She is fourteen years old and right smack in the middle of the worst puberty has to offer. She knows it all, I'm an adult and therefore I'm stupid, church is boring, etc.

Well, I gotta go feed my youngest. Hopefully next time I'll have some progress to report on the scrapbooking.

Oh, I almost forgot! Isaac peed on the potty for the first time Sat night! Yeah!!!!

What I'm Working On Next

With our church we read the Bible, cover to cover, in 90 days. This began July 13 and ended Oct 8 I believe. We had to read 12 pages a day. This was beneficial in that everything stayed fresh in your mind, especially in the Old Testament. I know it wasn't an in depth reading, but I still picked up on A LOT that I missed the first time through, which took me 8 years. So 12 pages a day would take up about 45 minutes each day.

Now that that is over, I've started cleaning my house again like I used to before Josiah was born. Thoroughly! All I have left to do is dust Josiah's room & my room. Then I'm going to devote myself whole heartedly to my pictures and scrapbooking! I only finished Isaac's scrapbook up until he was about 4 or 5 months old. Needless to say I haven't begun Josiah's yet. So I have a lot of digital pics that were never printed. I want to finish Isaac's first year and get Josiah's scrapbook current.

After that, I may pick up my Spanish lessons again. I haven't decided yet.

My Adorable Boys! And Maggie.

Just wanted to share one of the most recent and adorable pics of my boys. Out of the blue Isaac decided to cuddle with Josiah on the floor. Priceless! And you can see Maggie Louise sitting in the background. If you look hard enough, you can see the "bat" symbol on her chest. I tell you, Maggie's a champ with the boys. Isaac's always cuddling all over her, and she just takes it. She's such a good sport.

I've Been Tagged

I just learned that I've been tagged, and I guess the game is to tell 6 things about myself most people don't know.

1) I've had little career direction in my life. My mom is the one who guided me into dietetics and nutrition. She tried to push me into physical therapy but after shadowing a PT for like a day, I decided I totally hated it. At various times in my life I wanted to be a financial planner, teacher, professional muscian (I played tenor saxophone, but I wasn't that good), doctor, travel agent, and stay-at-home mom (yeah!).

2) I'm on my second marriage. Most people know this, but what no one knows is the reason why I married my first husband in the first place! Here's one reason: I was foolish enough to think that because I grew into a much closer relationship with God as a result of meeting my first husband, that our marriage was meant to be. Summarize no. 2 by saying I've made some pretty dumb mistakes in my life that have cost me a lot.

3) I was raised Lutheran, and I actually enjoyed going to church, but I hated how the hymns sounded like dirges and we repeated the same prayers and responses week after week. It never felt sincere, or heartfelt. It seemed so rehearsed. That's what drew me to Pittsburgh East Full Gospel Church, and eventually Covenant Church of Pittsburgh.

4) My middle name is Marion. That was my grandmother's name. There is a debate, however, as to whether my grandmother's name was Marion Emily, or Emily Marion. So no one is really certain what her first name was.

5) When I was in 8th or 9th grade I was in the preliminary competition for the Junior Miss Dance of Pennsylvania Pageant. It was my first time competing as a soloist, but all of the girls from the dance company I was in always made it into the finals. Not that year! I was the only one who didn't make it as a final contestant, and I cried like a baby! I was at least 13 years old, and I was shattered, embarassed, and utterly demoralized that I was the only one who didn't make it from my dance company.

6) When I was little the other kids, boys and girls alike, on the street would make fun of me because I couldn't spit. My best friend Melissa could spit with the best of them. That's another interesting fact about me. I've only ever had 2 best friends in my life, and they were both named Melissa.

So now, because she's the only other person I know on blogspot that blogs regularly, I'll tag Denise at Bryant Family Blog!

Perhaps I Will Stop at 2 After All

So, it was about 10:30am. Isaac and I were outside on the deck playing while Josiah was napping. Well, of course, Josiah woke up from his nap early, crying. So I had to get Isaac inside so I could go upstairs and try to settle Josiah. I can usually get him to go back to sleep. Ha ha.

I take Isaac inside and it turns into a full blown tantrum. So I go upstairs anyway to try & settle Josiah, and I bet I could have, but for Isaac's wailing. Every time Isaac would shriek, Josiah would open his eyes again. So I laid Josiah down in the hope that he might fall back to sleep on his own. Hey, I can dream can't I? And I took Isaac back outside.

Within 5-10 minutes Josiah was screaming again. So I brought Isaac inside again only this time I put Sesame Street on TV. The TV is never on so I thought this might be just enough novelty to distract him while I take my time in putting Josiah back to sleep. Well that wasn't working. Isaac wouldn't let me go. So I put him in the playpen for a sort of time-out while I went upstairs with Josiah again.

After 8 minutes I had Josiah back to sleep, but Isaac was fit to be tied. I took him out of the playpen, tried cuddling him, giving him a soft blanket, his water, etc. He wasn't having it. Obviously I wasn't going to take him back outside again if this is the way he was going to react everytime we came back inside. I mean, we would have had to come inside eventually anyway. So I removed our shoes and jackets and continued to try and pacify Isaac.

Do you know what finally settled him down? A banana. He spotted one on the counter, reached for it, and peacefully sat on the chaise lounge in the living room to eat it. (This was the second banana of the day, mind you. He almost always has one for breakfast.)

At last, both boys were settled and at peace with the universe!

Then just as Isaac was finishing the last bite of his banana, Josiah woke up again. On our way to the garbage can to throw the peel away Isaac grabbed another banana off of the counter top. I was not going to allow him to eat 3 bananas in 1 morning, so I took it off of him and put it back in the basket. So of course, Isaac started freaking out again. And there I was, making a bottle, with Josiah screaming upstairs and Isaac screaming right in front of me.

It would be easier to go back to work.

This is why I can't get any help, and I feel so all alone. No one else can handle this. I am alone in this everyday, by choice. Like I said, it would be easier to go back to work and let someone else deal with this. But daycare is too expensive and my parents could never handle it. This is my life.

I know in a couple of years I'll forget days like these and only remember the good ones, the sweet and precious days when Josiah never wakes up early from his naps and stays on schedule all day and Isaac is just so blessedly well-behaved all day long without a single tantrum. Then I'll say to Keith, "Let's have another baby." Here we go again.

I've always wanted 4 children. Two didn't seem like enough. I've always wanted my kids to have lots of siblings to lean on when my husband and I are gone. Three is an odd number. What would it be like going to Kennywood? What about that "middle child" syndrome? Four seemed just right.

After mornings like this though I think, "Maybe I will stop at 2 after all!"

Another Milestone!

So Josiah is 4 months old, and yesterday he rolled over, back to front, for the first time! He actually did it twice! He's such a big boy! However, for the last two nights he's woke up at 4am and refuses to go back to sleep. This morning I actually gave him a bottle to go back to sleep. This week we cut out his late night feeding, but I think we're going to bring it back again!

Also, yesterday I took the boys to a local gymnasium to check out their infant/toddler tumbling class. It was really cool, and the boys outnumbered the girls, which was something I was worried about. So we're going to sign Isaac up for the winter session beginning in December. He will love it!

I ended up hurting my knee really badly yesterday too. I started running in August, and I've been pushing myself harder & harder week after week to run longer. Last night I ran 27 solid minutes on the treadmill. I felt great! But when I was up with Josiah at 4am this morning, I realized I couldn't bend my knee or put any weight on it (like going up & down stairs, sitting down in & getting up from a chair). I took ibuprofen this morning but it hasn't helped so far. I'm really bummed out because Keith & I were planning on running a 5k next weekend. I don't know what I'm going to do. I really want to do it, but I don't want to do any major damage. I'm really disappointed.

On a positive note though, Isaac is very interested in the potty, and very aware of his bowel & bladder habits. I think he'll be in big kid underwear in no time! I just have to get my act together & figure out how I'm going to potty train him. I'm so overwhelmed as it is!

One of These Days....

Since Josiah's been born, I've found myself keeping a journal again. So I figured, why not start blogging?

Someday I'll actually find time to blog!

I'll just start by saying that this week we've started Josiah on baby food. We gave him carrots last night and he seemed to really like them! Also, Isaac is experiencing a word explosion right now. He is taking in so much new information right now. He said about 5-10 new words yesterday alone! Some of his words include up, go, off, on, head, love, cookie, mommy, daddy, ga ga, pappy, maggie (which comes out more like gaggie), baby, uh oh, happy, whale, and car. He's identifying shapes, as well as "characters" like Cookie Monster, Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto!

But it sounds like nap time is over already. So I'll have to post more some other time.