Thankful Thursday

Christmas gifts have always been big news in my family. My sister and I (okay maybe it was just me) would wake up silly early (like 4am) on Christmas morning. We simply couldn't wait any longer, there were presents waiting to be opened!

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Our gifts would be overflowing from under the tree. In fact, on Christmas morning, when we arrive at my parent's house, it is STILL like this - maybe even more so now that there are grandkids. Yes, of course getting lots of stuff was fun as a kid, but more than that, it was the anticipation of opening each gift knowing there were more to come. It didn't really matter what was beneath the wrapping paper. Santa knew this as typically items that could have been wrapped together were wrapped separately. Why put 3 nail polish bottles in a box when it can be made into 3 individual presents to unwrap?!
So first off, I'm thankful for the fun Christmas morning memories I have as a child. Second off, I'm thankful that while sure, there are things I'd love to get our kids for Christmas that we simply can't - for the most part we are able to provide them with plenty of gifts. Not only that but we will be donating a few gifts this year as well. 
As you are doing your holiday shopping this year, please keep families in mind that may be unable to provide gifts for their children. If you are able to, please help provide their children with an exciting morning. I know the parents would be forever grateful. It would be tough to wake up on Christmas morning and not have a gift for my child. That thought alone is enough motivation for me to drop a toy in the donation bin next time I'm at the store. 


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Thankful Thursday

This week our girl started at preschool. Well kind of. A church in our community has a program that is basically pre-preschool and it is called, "Parent's Day Out". She attends twice a week in the mornings. We decided to enroll her because she doesn't really have a lot of socialization time or structured time with adults other than the hubs and I. We want her to learn to make friends and the ever important sharing aspect. Also it will give some one on one time at home with the little mister than he doesn't typically get. 
She loves it! On her first day she didn't even look back when they took her in from the carline and she came home sporting an oh so cute fireman hat that she had colored :) Oh and in case you were wondering she said they had "fishies" for snack. 
I'm so thankful that our community has a program like this for her and that we are able to enroll her. I really think she's going to love getting away from mom from time to time and go to "school". 
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Thankful Thursday

Often my "Thankful Thursdays" are filled materialistic things so I wanted to change it up today.

5 non material things I am thankful for (in no particular order):
1. My children. As I've shared before, there was a time when I wasn't sure if I would be able to carry a child. I feel so incredibly blessed that I am on this side of my infertility battle and that I get these moments with them - all of them, from the cranky, snot nosed, no sleeping, time out taking times to the hugs, cuddles, kisses, first times.
2. My faith. I'm continually growing. I'm thankful that I have a God that is patient with me, that is willing to guide me and comfort me. I'm thankful I know God.
3. My parents. We loved living in Florida, absolutely loved it. In fact most days I'm ready to pack up and head back down. I miss it to my very core and if I could I would most certainly live the rest of my life there. But I can't. My family is up here in boring ole Indiana and unless they get the memo on the fantasticness of my "home" in Florida, we'll be here to stay. 
4. Health. None of my immediate family has major health issues. I'm not in and out of the hospital myself nor am I in an out of the hospital visiting loved ones. My children are healthy and I don't have to watch them being poked and prodded. I know just how lucky I am to have seen the inside of a hospital very few times.
5. My education. I never decided to go to college. It wasn't really something I decided it just happened. I always just assumed that came after high school. I often complain about the six digit amount of college debt we have but I'm thankful that I even had the opportunity to get a degree... even if I will be paying for it long after my children are adults most likely. 
So what non-material things are you thankful for today? Have a "Thankful Thursday" post? Share it in the comments!
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Thankful Thursday

Rain! I'm thankful for rain. We haven't had a good rain here in our area of Indiana for quite a while. We aren't going to get much, but a little is more than nothing. I actually would love a good play in the puddles rain. Wes is a tad young but I think Norah would love to slip on our rain boots and splash a few puddles. 
I don't remember playing in the rain much as a young kid but I do remember several softball games where we played while it was raining and it was especially nice on a hot day!

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Thankful Thursday

Lately I've been in a bit of a "my babies are growing up!" phase and a bit sappy about it so I'm going to change things up a bit for my Thankful Thursday.
Today I'm going to write about why I am thankful they are growing up:
1. Wes was colic. It was terrible. He spent his first 4 months sleeping, eating or crying. We don't feel like we "met" him until about 4 months in as we didn't see any personality until then. I'm very thankful he's out of that stage. 2. Norah is almost 100% potty trained (aside from sleeping). Yay for no more poop diapers for her! 3. Norah is FINALLY 27 months into her life sleeping through the night!! For over a week now she's slept all night, which is HUGE news in our house.  4. Wesley has almost outgrown his infant carseat. I hate that thing. Not because it's a bad one, in fact we were blessed that someone gifted us such a nice one - but they are heavy and awkward, especially for a short gal like myself. 5. Norah can communicate so much better than she could even just a few months ago. She can repeat after us and she is hilarious! I'm so thankful we get to experience some of her thoughts :) 6. Wesley no longer is nursing every single hour, which was tough on my sanity. He's a normal child that just nurses every few hours now.  7. Most of all I'm thankful that my children are growing up healthy and happy and that I get to be a part of that.  What are you thankful for today?
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Thankful Thursday

We've spent the last month traveling, celebrating birthdays and being all around busy. We're not even half way through summer and I feel like we've already had a whole summer's worth of fun.
Today's Thankful Thursday post is a tad different. We've been reading a lot of Dr. Suess so I'm using the alphabet to inspire things I am thankful for. 
A - Apples (Norah LOVES them!) B - Baby toes C - Curly Hair D - Dancing E - Eggs F - Fun G - Games H - Hugs I - Ice Cream J - Jumping K - Kisses L - Laughter M - Muffins N - Norah O - One more story P - Playfulness Q - Quiet R - Running S - Steps T - Time U - Unconditional V - Video W - Wesley X - eXtreme  Y - Yarn Z - Zest
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Thankful Thursday

Thankful for my little man at 4 months old has finally gotten over being colic. 
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Thankful Thursday

5 things I'm thankful for this week:    1. Second chances    2. Norah sleeping through the night.    3. Days when I get a shower before the kids wake up.    4. My Kitchen Aid mixer.     5. Smiles
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Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for a second vehicle. The husband and I had been using one car from 2008- this January. It was never that big of an issue because we always worked at the same place. After we moved and I started staying home I found myself stuck. I really disliked being stuck at home all day every day without the option of going somewhere if I wanted or needed to. We paid off our car last spring and this January we finally invested in a second vehicle. To be honest I don't use it all that much but it is so nice to have it for when I do need it. 


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Thankful Thursday

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Spring! I'm so thankful that spring has finally arrived. I was starting to wonder if it would ever come. Spring is used for many metaphors in life and rightly so. Spring often feels like it will never come at the end of a long grueling winter that doesn't seem to want to let go. When Spring does finally come, at least for me, it makes everything better. I forget those slushy gross days, those long months where we couldn't do much outside (which is hard with an active toddler!) and those chilled to the bone days. My mood is so much more peppy and I just have a better outlook on life in general. Flowers start popping up, there are buds on the trees and oh my, is that GREEN grass?! 
Spring is certainly a season of life as well. I know sometimes I feel like I'm in a very long winter. The sky is gray and everything around me feels dead and cold and I want to hid away from it all as I wait for those better sunny days. Then suddenly without warning I can start to see flowers popping up and I know that "spring" is coming in my life. It certainly gives me a new energy! 
Everything is better when there are flowers around right?
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Thankful Thursday

Over the last week or so we've settled into as much of a routine as we can considering we have a 3 week old and a 20 month old. We haven't really had a normal bedtime established with Wesley yet as he's just kind of went to the cosleeper in our room when we went to bed at night. Tonight though for the first time I was able to sneak away for a few minutes and rock him to sleep for the night (well for his first round of sleep) in our room. 
I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the few quiet moments alone with him in our darkening room as he drifted off. With an active toddler running around the house I haven't gotten very many quiet calm moments with him and I saw the opportunity for it and took advantage of it. I'm thankful that I was able to safely rock my baby to sleep  and not worry about him being in danger or worry about his comfort  unlike so many parents in the world. He had a full tummy as he happily was in my arms, I thankfully (thankfully isn't nearly a strong enough word) don't have to feel the anguish of knowing that my child is falling asleep with true hunger in their gut. 
Tonight as I put him to sleep in that frozen moment in time, it didn't matter that our house is sometimes often chaotic, that there are clothes to be washed, that there are uncertainties in the world, that evil exists or that one day he'll be all grown up and I'll no longer rock him to sleep - none of that existed at that moment because in that moment all that was happening in my world was my rocking him to sleep. I'm so thankful that I'm so blessed to be able to have that moment with my child, as I know not all parents are given that opportunity. 

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Thankful Thursday

As I near my due date for our little man I am reminded of how thankful I am for modern medicine. While I believe that as women our bodies are capable of birthing babies without modern medicine I am thankful that we have the knowledge to make it safer (though not all interventions are for the good, but that's for another time...) and I'm especially thankful for the drugs. I'm not someone that has a desire to be able to say that I delivered without drugs. With our daughter I only dilated 2cm in 8ish hours before I got my epidural. After I received it I was pushing 2 hours later and then 40 minutes later I was holding our little girl. I fought the contractions and just wasn't progressing without it. I have prepared myself a bit more this time (though honestly not much) in the event there isn't time for an epidural or if it doesn't work but I very very much enjoyed the pushing portion of labor and loved that I felt pressure but not pain and it was an amazing way for me to bring her into the world. I feel like I truly got to actually enjoy it verses cursing being in labor. 
So today I'm thankful for at least the possibly of an epidural :)
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Thankful Thursday

Yesterday we took a tour of the Women's Center where I will be delivering Wesley. It is important for me to know what to expect (as much as you can when you are talking about labor/delivery!) as it helps ease anxiety for me. I like to be able to envision what my room will look like and what I can expect as far as policies go. I'm pretty excited because they are very flexible and let mom and dad make most of the calls. You can labor and deliver in whatever position you want assuming you are capable of moving which I will most likely have an epidural so I'll be limited, but the fact that if you want to deliver in a position other than on your back tells me a lot about the facility. I'm also excited that it is standard practice for them to wait until the cord has stopped pulsating to cut it, such a small thing but it means they have put thought into things. Another thing I like is unless there is a problem they do not require continuous monitoring, every 30 minutes during active labor and 10-15 minutes at the end of labor is their desire - which is great!
While I'm thankful for what I'm hoping to be a great experience, that's not what my Thankful Thursday really is today.
During our tour we were taken into the NICU. The center has a Level III NICU which is great. The NICU was nice and seemed like the babies are well taken care of. I don't want to step foot back in there again. I hope I never see the inside of that part of the center again. I'm thankful we have the technology and know how to help those small needy babies (and the big ones too like my niece who needed it), I hope we never need them. We passed by a room on our way out and there was a baby who is probably about the size Wesley is now in an isolate, so about 3ish pounds. While I can't wait to meet Wesley, I don't want to meet him before he is ready. 
So I'm thankful that for the most part at this point I have had uncomplicated pregnancies. I've never thought with either Norah or this pregnancy that I might not make it to full term. I might complain that I'm not sleeping well, that my back hurts or that I'm tired (I'm sure my husband can attest to all of this) but I will gladly take that for the next 9-10 weeks in exchange for the alternative. 
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Thankful Thursday

Seemingly not too long ago we had some major sleep issues in our house. Norah would scream (a terrible loud screeching scream) the second we would lay her in her crib. If we did manage to get her transferred into her crib without her waking up it wasn't long before she noticed and freaked out. She was only 6ish months old and so I wasn't comfortable with letting her cry it out and so she ended up in our bed A LOT which is something I never planned for. When she was about 8-9 months old she started to get better but was still waking up 3ish times a night and it was exhausting. 
That doesn't sound too thankful though. My thankful part is that she now sleeps and for the most part sleeps well. We put her down in her crib awake for both her nap and for bedtime and rub her back for no more than 5 minutes (most nights) and she's out and stays put. She is sleeping from about 7pm-6am depending on the night and while I'm pregnant so even if I slept 15 hours a night I'd still be tired - I'm thankful for a normal sleep pattern. 
When she wasn't sleeping even at a year old and several of our friends had infants sleeping through the night it was frustrating and it felt like we were doing something wrong. Maybe we should be letting her cry it out? No, we weren't really comfortable with that - especially because even when we left her in her room for only 2 minutes at a time she got so worked up she would throw up and after changing her sheets multiple times we decided it just wasn't for our family (or at least with her). We still felt like our daughter was out of the norm and that we were doing something wrong. 
Then we did some research and discovered it is very common for children to not sleep through the night until 2 and sometimes not until 3-4. A lot of it depends on if they are prone to fully waking in between sleep cycles. Some children sleep right through that sleep cycle transition, other's don't. 
I'm thankful she does now :)
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Thankful Thursday

Have you ever looked through and old family album from when you were a child and thought to yourself, gosh I'm glad this is the only place this picture is? I'm sure I have several of those types of pictures sitting around in the upstairs loft at my parent's house. 
Unfortunately for Norah with the internet and social media in full swing - hmm assuming the internet isn't just a fad of course ;) she will probably ask me several times throughout her life how I could have dared to put such and such picture online. You know... like this one...

So today I am thankful that Norah cannot yet express her embarrassment of me posting a picture of her first time on her new potty. Isn't she cute though?! Even if she is sitting on a potty chair, which is only a picture a parent can love. 
P.S. We decided to get her a potty because even though she is only 15 months and I realize she doesn't understand the concept yet I figure it can't hurt to get her used to it. I have this secret fantasy about getting her potty trained for the most part by the time she is in her early 2's that way I don't have two in diapers for very long. Am I nuts for thinking that could happen? Of course I am. Remind me to check back to this post in a year so I can laugh at myself :)

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Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that I got my computer back this week!! I'm so excited to stop using my phone as a computer and get back to regular blogging. It is really difficult to only blog via a smartphone. 
yay!
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Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful that I am 15 weeks pregnant today. It seems like a distant memory but I still remember the pain of thinking I might never get to be pregnant. 15 months when you are trying to get pregnant feels like forever. When you are having test after test done and medicine put into your body that makes you feel awful it makes you wonder if it will ever happen... and if it will all be worth it in the end. When I look at my beautiful 14 month old daughter I have no doubts that it was worth it. All of the tests, the emotions, the pain, the anger and the confusion - all worth it without question.
But the joy in not having to do those things and for God to just bless us with this second pregnancy without having to go through all of that is simply amazing. We weren't even sure if my body would cooperate at all a second time, and here we find ourselves 15 weeks into a second pregnancy. I feel so blessed that God has trusted us with a second little one. I can't wait until it is time to meet Norah's sister or brother. Of course I'm a bit anxious about how it will all work out (how will I ever chase two around?!) but mostly I'm just so excited. I know it will be here before we even know it though because so far this pregnancy is flying by! Honestly there are times I forget that I am pregnant, although I know soon when I can feel him or her wiggling around in there, there will be no way for me to forget :)

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Thankful Thursday

I don't know where you live, or how your summer has been - but here in Indiana we've had very little rain. As in they said we are 11 inches behind from our average since April 1st. The corn crops are ruined (you will probably see an increase in food prices as a result). We were headed home from our trip last week and saw some corn that was only about waist high and was completely dried out - there was no yield to be had from it. I suppose that doesn't sound so thankful does it?
The thankful parts comes from the fact that we are suppose to be having some rain heading our way tonight. With everything being so brown it will be great to get whatever we can. Most of the corn crops can't be saved but I'm still thankful that our lakes, rivers and other plants will receive some much needed water. Now hopefully we do get the rain that they are predicting :)
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Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful that even though my computer still isn't fixed, I do have access to the Internet.

I am bummed though that it causes my blog quality to be down though of course. I miss jumping on my Mac to do them. But in the end, I'm just thankful that I have a computer to miss.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am simply thankful for Tums and milk, both of which help me when I have heartburn.

Aside from my Thankful Thursday post, I have an annoyance I would like to share. I am all for organizations fundraising money. I understand that a lot of organizations have no other funding and they must do this, whether it is a baseball team, Vets group or girl scouts. I gladly buy girl scout cookies and don't mind buying cookie dough from baseball teams, I help them out, and they make my stomach happy.

That isn't my annoyance of course. What annoys me is when I am walking in or out of a store such as Walmart and I'm approached to donate money. I tend to feel like I'm being heckled and I feel like I jerk when I don't give anything (kind of like when cashiers ask if I want to donate $1 to help children fighting for their lives and the times that I say no... I can't donate every time!). Typically we don't carry cash so we honestly have nothing to give. I suppose it doesn't really bother me when they are selling something like candy bars or flowers or maybe say a car, but I don't like when they have 5 year olds standing there with their big brown eyes and buckets waiting for me to deposit my money just because they are cute.

I don't have any deep meaningful reason why groups shouldn't be allowed to do this, but for some reason it bothers me. Maybe I'm just a bit of a scrooge, I'm not sure.

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