My Sweet Kallie

So, I said I was going to post funny things Kallie said, and haven't been doing a very good job! Tonight, she gave me the chance to record two new ones, so here goes:)

(I posted this one on facebook...too cute to pass up!)
'Mom!' 'What Kallie?' As she held my face in her hands (squishing my cheeks a bit) and stared lovingly into my eyes, 'You have chubby little cheekers just like Judah and me!!!' She thought this was hilarious!

Lyndon was at worship band practice at church tonight, so just Kallie and I got Judah ready for bed. After we put his jammies on, I asked her if she wanted to pray for Judah too tonight. She said yes, so after I finished praying, I then said a short prayer that she repeated one line at a time. After I prayed, 'Lord, please bless Judah as he sleeps tonight' she said it, paused, and then said, 'Ok Jesus? Ok?' . It was so funny, she was making sure He was going to do it;) And then on her own, 'and protect him and keep him safe Jesus. In Jesus' name, AMEN!!' And then as I put him down in the crib, 'mom, can you pray over me now?' Oh, how I love you sweet, sweet girl.

Our boring (but wonderful:) life

I haven't updated in awhile because, well, I don't really have much to update on. Things have been quite laid back, and a tad bit boring around here lately. The kids are both doing great, Kallie is as sweet and funny as ever:) She's had a fun couple of weeks, going swimming with her Oma, having a sleep-over at Oma and Opa's, and we've had a couple of parties (birthday and Valentine's) at daycare. She did have the stomach flu last weekend, but has completely recovered:) Judah is growing, eating, and sleeping like a dream:)! He's already given us a couple of 7 hour stretches, and consistently does 4-5 hour stretches at night. A couple of weeks ago he had his days and nights mixed up, so I started waking him up and nursing him more during the day (upon the advice from my lactation consultant and from my best friend) and it worked like a charm! He doesn't sleep any longer than 2 hours during the day, but when we put him to bed between 7-8 pm, he does his first long stretch for the night. He already puts himself to sleep, which is miraculous to me, b/c things were so much harder with Kallie. I think it's a combination of knowing SO much more about babies and their sleep needs this time around, and him just being a great sleeper! Whatever the reasons, I'm just thankful, b/c with a daycare to run, I'd be losing my mind otherwise! He is an incredibly happy, sweet, bubbly little baby:) He loves cooing, smiling HUGE and giggling:) Sigh, it just makes me so happy I feel like my heart could burst! Kallie loves making Judah smile, and she literally squeals when she makes him laugh, which again, makes my heart feel like it's going to explode:)

Kallie has been having a bit of trouble with her sleep lately, she's been having nightmares:( It's really sad, she wakes up hysterical in the middle of the night. We always bring her into bed with us because we really want her to feel secure and safe. It only happens 1-2 nights a week, but for her to be scared like that, it's a lot! We've been praying over her and about it, but any other suggestions from parents who have had kids with nightmares, would be appreciated! It's pretty cozy in our bed those nights, especially b/c I nurse Judah lying down in our bed...quite the feat cramming all four of us in there:) We co-slept with Kallie for quite awhile (she just moved into her big girl bed in November) and I have to admit, both Lyndon and I enjoy snuggling with her some nights again:)

Things have been slowing down a bit for Lyndon workwise, so we've had a lot more time together as a family, which has been great! I've been feeling a little less overwhelmed lately, and making my 'Six List' every day is REALLY helping me! I get it done every day, and so feel productive every day, but not overwhelmed or out of control! I still have quite a few moments where I look around the house and realize all that needs to be done (and then panic a little bit), but I just talk myself down from there...I have to be able to just not care about some things in order to enjoy life! And making it a priority to have one-on-one time with Kallie every day really helps too, I tend to have a hard time just living in the present...I'm always thinking ten steps ahead about what I need to get done, but when I'm with her, I'm able to just *be* there, because that's the most important thing I could possibly be doing:)

We have a fun month coming up, the first week of March, one of my best friends from college, Kat, is coming to visit us from Calgary! She's staying for a whole week, and I can't wait! And at the end of the month my mom is coming for a visit, and then we're all driving to Winnipeg for Easter. I can't wait to spend time with my family and see my wonderful friends. No one there has met Judah yet, so it'll be fun! AND I get to meet my good friend Kelly's beautiful baby girl, Ava, when we're home! She and Judah are just a bit over a month apart:) Congratulations Kelly and Bryan!!!:)

Hope everyone is doing well, I'm so excited for this weekend, not too much happening, but we're having lots of time together as a family, and I have a couple of playdates lined up too, so it should be fun!!!

Look At Me, Two Posts in One Week:p

Well, bet you didn't think I'd be back so soon! This week has been a really challenging one for me. I feel like everything kind of piled up, projects or things I had pushed to the back of my mind all reared their ugly heads, and every way I turned I was behind, inadequate, or struggling. (wow, that was a long sentence) I was dealing with issues about myself, and issues about our life, feeling as though I'm never 'caught up' or where I want us to be. And in the midst of it all, I just don't think we're getting enough time together as a family. So how do we do it? How do we work to support our family, keep our house running day to day with things like laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc. , do the extra projects around the house like organizing, taxes, renovating, cleaning out, etc. , spend time with our friends, spend time by ourselves enriching our lives doing things we're passionate about, spend time relaxing so we don't go crazy, and most importantly, spend time together as a family, either doing fun things, or just 'being'. I'm serious, HOW DO WE DO IT!?!?! I feel like the transition to two kids has been easy. I honestly do. I think running a daycare really helped, and Judah is an extremely content, sleepy little guy. But somehow, this last month has been the absolute busiest of our lives, and I feel like we're just spinning in circles, and at this point we're running on empty. So I'm putting the question out there: How do YOU do it? I know that we're a common case, young working family, with tons on the go, never enough hours in the day. So what do you do to stay sane and ahead of the game? I'm really working on figuring this out, prioritizing, and being more efficient with our time. One thing I've started doing is a 'six most important things' list every day. I list the top six things I HAVE to get done in a day, and carry over anything I don't get to. I love lists, and it really helps me feel like I'm being productive each day. And as cheesy as it is, #1 on my list each day is play with/hug/cuddle/kiss/read to my kids. I find between running the daycare and everything I have to get done around the house, that oh-so-important one on one time with my munchkins (especially Kallie) can get overlooked. So I'm doing a list, and hoping it makes a difference! We'll see!

Ok, enough of the complaining. I had a fantastic Friday/Saturday! My friend Laura, who I've known since I was 12 or 13 came to visit:) She lives in Duluth MN, which is about 3 1/2 hours away. It's so amazing for us, being two military kids who met when we lived in Europe, and who are from different countries, that now as adults we live so close to each other! When you're a military kid, it's a rare blessing to be able to spend any amount of time with childhood friends because you usually end up in completely different cities, if not countries:) We're going to go down next month to spend the weekend with their family. We had a great girls night last night (stayed up until past 2 talking) and had a relaxing day together just hanging out and, what else, talking:) It was wonderful! Thank you so much for coming up Laura, we will see you SOON:)!

I've decided I want to start recording the funny things Kallie says on the blog. I always say I'm going to write them down, but I don't. So this will be the place:)

I don't have any coming to mind right now, but look for short blog posts in the future, just with funny things she's said:) This is my way of committing myself to doing it:)!

And to finish this (kinda random) post off, enjoy some pictures of our little munchkins:)

Keeping Up

Wow, my goal is to stay consistent...so far, not doing so well! Where does the time go? Judah is almost 7 weeks old already, and we're into February!!! Last week was our last midwife appointment. The midwives provide 6 weeks of postpartum care, which was really amazing! It was definitely a bit sad to be saying good-bye, they've been taking care of us for almost an entire year! Our baby boy is doing wonderfully! He's growing like crazy, 13.25 lbs and 25 inches long at 6 weeks! Yes, he's huge:) He really does look like a 3 month old, and actually, he just outgrew all of his 3 month sleepers! He's above the 90th percentile for weight and above the 95th for length. Kallie was really high in her percentiles too, until about 4-5 months, when she dropped to below 50. She was completely healthy, her growing just slowed down:) I wonder if that will happen with Judah...Kallie has turned out to be on the taller side, but certainly not as big as I would have expected our children to be:p Maybe because Judah is a boy he'll be bigger...we'll see:) He is SUCH a great baby! He's completely content all of the time. He starts to grumble a bit when he's hungry, and he'll squawk a bit if I go a few minutes past when he should be sleeping, but those are two easy fixes:) He's sleeping really well, I've started putting him down awake (swaddled, soother in), and he falls to sleep on his own! I'm ecstatic about this! Sleeping was a nightmare with Kallie, and it's already going so much better with Judah!

Life has been really busy, Lyndon has been working a lot and we've just had a lot on the go, but things are settling down a bit now. We have finished renovating our basement, which was the biggest time consumer this month. I'll post pictures once it is all set up. Sometimes I wish we could win the lottery, not for all the money or stuff, but just so that we could not work, and spend WAY more time together. My absolute favourite part of the day is supper and the hour or two after, when we just spend time together as a family:) I love being a mom and a wife so much!

Kallie is such a little character, I can't get over how grown up she seems! I was just looking at pictures from when she was one, and can't believe how much of a baby she still was then, and how now she is all little girl! Most of our evenings are spent being entertained by her stories, singing and dancing. One of her new favourite things to do: 'Mom, dad, I'm going to sing a song, and then you can clap, and then I'll say Thank you! Thank you!' What a little goofball:) We're so proud of her, she's such an amazing big sister, she just loves Judah so much and is always trying to help. She is very kind-hearted and compassionate, and I love watching her with her friends. She's also extremely strong-willed, and we have definitely been dealing with a lot of defiance the last few months. I hope and pray as parents we're handling everything the best way possible, but admittedly, sometimes it takes me to a point of frustration that I wish I hadn't gone! Parenting is such an amazing, difficult, rewarding, joyful journey, right now everyday brings something totally new!

I've decided not to post pictures with every post, b/c if I make that commitment to myself, then I will post A LOT less! And really, I want to make sure I record this journey so I don't forget it all!