It's that time again....

It's that time again...no, no not back to school (my kiddos obviously aren't at that stage yet), it's time for me to have a birthday again. [Though I should add that I can't wait for the neighborhood kids to go back to school. Me thinks some of them have been a little bored this summer due to our mailboxes getting messed with and toys left in my yard.]

I'm turning the big 2-8 this year. Yeah I know...it's not really that old or big. Our priest once said in a homily that 35 is the prime of your life, so I'm clearly not there yet. Looking back on this year of life....well it's been another fast moving one.  Last year on my birthday I suspected I was pregnant, but didn't know for sure and refused to test for another week or so.  This year I am definitely not pregnant and plan to just take it easy & be lazy with the cutest kids ever. Oh and definitely try some of the blackberry wine at a local festival this year!

Reflecting on this past year of life...nothing extraordinary stands out for me I hate to say.  Sure I got through a second successful pregnancy and had my second child, but I don't feel I did anything significant. (Except maybe how to care for 2 young kids at the same time.)  I guess the biggest thing was working on being comfortable in my own skin (which really is a work in progress) and being at peace with getting rid of the negative. I have a lot more confidence in my abilities now. I know I'm good at what I do as a wife, mom and health & human service professional.

Here's to me!

And if someone could put my name on the flowers to go sign...I'd be a happy woman (hint hint hubby!)

19 months and 3 months!

Okay, so I'm a little behind on this post.  Last week, Little Miss turned 3 months old and Little Dude hit 19 months old.  I can't believe how fast is passing for my baby girl.  It seems even faster then with Little Dude.

3 months old and wearing a tutu!

Julia's Stats for this month:
Height/length: Unknown, but she seems "tall"
Weight: 11.4 pounds
Clothes: A few NB dresses and 0-3 months in everything else, though she drowns in some of the brands.
Diaper: Size 1 (again some of the brands are still big on her, but we're using them anyway.)

She smiles & laughs frequently. She also must have a high pain tolerance due to her brother bopping her on the head. She loves to sit in her bumbo seat and look at the world. Sleeping very well at night. Bless her little heart for that one.  Nursing very well and taking the bottle when I can't be with her. Has discovered how to stick out her tongue, which is hilarious!  She's still our little peanut and is such a fun little baby.

Matthew 19 months old and enjoying a cookie

I haven't done an update like this for Matthew since 12 months. He's changed a lot since then.
Matthew's current stats:
Height: Over 33 inches
Weight: 23 pounds (we're finally back on track with growth for him!)
Teeth: All but the 2 year molars have broken through. They aren't all descended all the way though/
Clothes: 12 months and 12-18 months. We've tried 18 month clothes and some fit him, but most are too big.
Shoe size: toddler 5 (though he can still wear the size 4's, but he's got wide feet!)
Diapers: Size 3 still

Matthew is a busy, busy boy! He hardly ever slows down. He loves books and today I caught him sitting in his rocking chair reading a book to himself. I wish I'd had a camera, it was the cutest thing. He takes a book to bed too. He's clearly my son!  He walks very well and only stumbles when he's trying to move too fast for his feet. He has a wide set of words and impressed the pediatrician with all he can say. He started saying 2 word sentences a month ago. I'm so proud of him.

Accidental SAHM?

The title of this post is how I've been feeling lately. I never really meant to become or was supposed to be a SAHM (stay at home mom), it just sort of happened.  As those who've been reading along for the past few years know, I was supposed to finish my degree and get a job. Instead we all know I got pregnant with our Little Miss within 2 weeks of finishing said degree.  Despite the pregnancy, it was still always in my mind that I'd be going back to work as soon as possible and thus I avoided getting involved in any type of activities that I deemed were for SAHMs.   I recently decided I just need to embrace this life change.  I've taken on some bigger volunteering opportunities that will look lovely on the resume once I do go back to the career gig.  It's nice to feel a little more content with where I'm at.

So there you have it....Liz: the accidental SAHM. :-)

In other news:

-My 2 super gorgeous babies were baptized on Sunday.  I was really nervous, but they did really well and neither of them cried and the Priest was pretty generous with the amount of water he poured on their heads. Little Miss wore the baptismal gown that I wore as a baby. It was big on my peanut, but she worked it. ;-) Matthew just wore a white polo shirt and dress pants. I nixed having him wear one of those all white sateen suits they sell. It just seemed silly for him.  Interesting tidbit: Matthew was the oldest of the 5 kids who were baptized and Julia was the youngest.

Well back to the grind. My Little Miss doesn't want to nap unless Momma is holding her. Which I'm pretty okay with since I want to savor every moment.

Little Miss is 2 Months Old!

Julia at 2 months

I can't believe it's been 2 months already!! Our Little Miss is just a joy. I absolutely adore her! She's definitely still a peanut in terms of size. I did her laundry this week and swore she had to be out of newborn clothes. Nope, she's not! I've put her in 0-3 month stuff just to have some variety and she just drowns in it.  She is, however, growing out of some of her NB sized sleepers. She's just too long for them. We tried her in size 1 diapers and those were also a no go for now. Everyone says she's taking after me. I sure hope so. Though I must admit when I see her give an expression that looks like mine...it startles me. Little Dude is a carbon copy of his Dad, so I never experienced having a little person look like myself. I like it though.
She's a champion nurser! I also pump and she's able to take a bottle when I'm not able to bring her with me. This is about the age with Matthew where my milk supply just started to drop off, so I've been super vigilant about pumping. I figure it's best to be pro-active this time around.

Tomorrow both kids go to the pediatrician for well baby appointments. Julia for 2 months and Matthew for his 18 month.
They are both being baptized on August 11th. Julia is wearing the baptismal gown that I wore as a baby, which I think it pretty neat! Matthew will wear a nice white shirt and blue pants. The white suits for baptism look silly to put on a toddler, in my opinion. I'm looking forward to their journey into the Catholic church beginning. It seems fitting that they'll be baptized around what is the 10 year mark from when I was received into the Catholic church. :-)

5 on Friday- Linking up!

1.  Bad luck with babysitters! Yeah, that's me. If anyone could have bad luck finding, keeping and not being lied to by baby sitters...it's me. The stories I can tell about this topic are just comical now. My latest favorite was the one who told me her Grandfather passed away and she was going home, 7 hours before she was supposed to show up, only for me to see her posting locally & asking questions about local things on the Navy Wives page. I didn't want to believe that she could possibly have had told such a crazy lie so I stalked looked at her FB profile, which guess what? She keeps public! And guess again...no death in the family, just feeling ill. Such a strange lie to tell. Needless to say, she will not be allowed near my kids.
Thankfully after that fiasco, I ended up finding a great sitter. I paid her very well, b/c in the words of my friend D, "you need to keep a good babysitter for once!"

2. No Technology Day.  My husband came up with the idea to make Sunday's no technology day in our house. This means no cell phones, tv or computer unless it's an emergency.  Last week was our first time doing it. It turned out well. It seemed so quiet, but I can tell where we definitely need to put down the cell phones! We're doing it again this weekend.

3. Maui. Yeah my cousin and his new wife just moved there. I'm jealous. Can the Navy move us back to Hawaii? 

4. My Pretty Princess. Isn't she adorable??

5. Back to School. It's that time in the stores. They have all the school supplies for sale. I love buying school supplies. The smell of the aisle in the store...the whole experience has always been something I enjoy. Nowadays since I'm not in school and my kids aren't in school yet, I just buy to donate to our church. I took Matthew with and tried to instill the fun into it. He doesn't get it yet, but he will if I have my way! :-)

What We're Up To....

SO....I read recently that if you want to have a cool blog that people actually read, you have to post several times a week. That is probably incredibly obvious, but sometimes I need to hear/read the obvious.
I know all of my friends are just dying to read a birth story for Julia (aka Miss J, Little Miss, Peanut) and I really have no reason not to have written one, especially considering my super awesome doula wrote me out a timeline of my whole labor & delivery, but yet here I am not having written it.  Instead I'm doing a what are we doing/reading/wearing etc post. Enjoy!

Miss J on the day she left the hospital. The hand mitts didn't last long, as she hates them as much as her brother did.

What are we doing? Well we're just living the normal life. Running errands, going to the park, eating & pumping and doing the household stuff. Since Peanut has arrived I have revised our weekly schedule- formally called the USS [Our Last Name] Plan of the Day.  I am even more religious about following said schedule now that I have 2 little ones. It just makes the week a little easier on me. I highly recommend it.

How we shop Target...Little Dude holds the stuff, while Julia is in the back.

What are we reading? Kids books for Matthew. His favorites right now include: Brown Bear Brown Bear and several animal sound books. We read them over & over! He says "ook" (he can't always get the B out with the ook part.) It is so much fun! I am glad he loves books as much as his Daddy & me do. As for me....I've been reading books I put on reserve from the library. Recently I finished Two Kisses for Maddy. Total tear jerker and definitely not the next great American novel, but worth it to read.

What I'm Wearing:  Okay so this isn't new, but for the past 9 months I've been wearing tinted moisturizer. I've never been a big fan of foundation so when I found this I was instantly in love. When I don't wear that though, the wonderful staff at Sephora got me into this BB cream from Urban Decay. I can't decide which one I like more. As a nursing Mom not getting as much sleep, it has helped me feel a little better about how I present myself every day. I also have added a lip pencil from NARS into my beauty routine.

What I'm drinking: Besides water, a lot of Mom friends all seem to swear by Spark by Advocare. Now I don't drink it everyday, but when I really need a boost...this stuff does the trick.

That's us in a nutshell.  My dryer just sang it's little song, better go, it's laundry day in our house. This Mommy of two thing keeps me busy!

She's here and a month old!

So the last time I posted I was bemoaning the fact that my children do not like to come out of the womb in a timely fashion (or timely for their Mother.) Well I wish I could say my daughter promptly made her exit after that post, but she's stubborn like her brother and didn't. She too was forced out. Only this time it was for an actual medical reason; her fluid level was too low. On May 21st, we headed to the hospital to be induced. I was not looking forward to it as my induction with Little Dude was horrible. Thankfully it wasn't even close to being as awful as that one. The induction started around 11am and she was out shortly after 5pm on the same day.  I did it all without an epidural, which scared the crap out of me and had me crying. And then I hemorrhaged. But not to worry....I was fine and a detailed birth story will come another day when I don't have 500 things to do during my son's nap time.

Here are the quick details on my second born child. Julia was born at 5:01pm PST on May 21st. She was 8 pounds and 20.5 inches long. She's adorable and depending on who you ask, looks like me.  :-) In her first 5 weeks of life, she's already flown on a couple airplanes and met all the relatives on my Dad's side of the family (we attended a wedding in St. Louis.)  I absolutely love having a daughter, as I suspected I would, and am getting into the groove of being a Mom of 2. It's not as bad as I feared (I have Matthew's amazing schedule to thank for this I think.)

I'm making our new weekly schedule so hopefully blogging will get accomplished more often.

Toodles my friends!