Titus Update

This kid is crazy.

And I love him!!!

We are currently in the middle of toilet training. He was breaking out in rashes and sweating really bad in the hot weather so I decided to ditch the diapers (except for sleep). He's rocking it! I'm sure we will have lots of accidents before we are done (and even after). But it hasn't been too bad yet! I'm still the initiator but that will change the longer we do this.

We are in a phase of Titus needing to learn how to express anger/frustration the right way vs screaming or yelling. It's hard and frustrating but he's learning.

This boy is so sporty!! He can throw pretty much anything and with dead-on aim if he tries. He LOVES baseball and soccer right now. He loves to play outside and absolutely LOVES to wrestle with Daddy.

Titus loves learning his numbers and letters and I'm trying to encourage that. It's not always easy but he's getting it slowly! I have a bunch of homeschool printables that I can use for him but I'm holding off on that for now. Rya is adjusting her naps so we don't always get one-on-one time where the printables would be easier.

He drives me crazy! He ignores me a lot and I am not as patient as I should be, but God is using that to work in my life. It reminds me of my God's unconditional, patient love and how I should have that for Titus. I'm a work in progress and I'm so thankful my God hasn't given up on me!!!

I'm so blessed to be Titus's mommy. We have a blast and it's more than worth it even when it's frustrating.

Another Announcement

Cutting to the chase- I ended up having a miscarriage Friday. It definitely sucks but I'm praising God it wasn't more physically taxing. I don't think I was very far along, which I think aided in my body's ability to do it all on its own.

I'm definitely sad that I have to wait to meet this little one, but I am at peace about it...usually. Bryan made a good point: we are sad for us but not for the baby. They didn't suffer, and didn't have to experience this fallen world. I'm sure I will have my moments. Part of me feels a little numb. So working through this with my loving Father.

Praising God for His goodness and grace!

Announcement and Ramblings

The Announcement: we are adding to our family again! The third (and last) mini free will be joining us between Christmas time and the middle of January!! We are so happy and excited and extremely blessed! I'm also scared out of my friggin mind! Some days it seems like I can barely handle the two I have already been blessed with and to add another one to that...really??? BUT overall the excitement and thankfulness win over the fear.

I have always viewed this blog as some sort of platform for I don't know what. I barely post because I'm self-conscious about what to say. I want it to sound just right and to be helpful, or entertaining. But my friend (Hi Heather!) pointed out that this could just be a journal of sorts, a way to record what's going on in life and what I'm thinking or feeling. So true!! If people like it and want to read it, great! If not? Oh well! I cant still look back and see how God was working in my life. So here's to a new chapter of blogging- to writing what I want, when I want and not worrying about the attention I could get from doing so. Hopefully this means more posts, but I'm not sure that's a guarantee. :o)

With the baby coming my brain is going INSANE!!! I started making a "Baby need" list the day I found out I am expecting. I am constantly making plans in my head of what needs to happen in our family and in our house before this baby comes. Because we all know this baby will be here NEXT WEEK! (Or that's at least what my brain thinks and therefore is puts a crazy urgent label on EVERYTHING!) 

Here's some of the stuff that needs to happen before this baby comes:

-Rya NEEDS to wean- sooner the better! I know there's the option of tandem nursing and no offense to those that want to or have done that but I'm not interested. I would like my boobs to myself for a short time before they are hijacked again for at least a year. (I willingly nurse so maybe hijack is too strong of a word??)

-Both Titus and Rya need to sleep through the night. Yes, what were we thinking wanting to add another sleep interrupter to this craziness?? :) Titus wakes up 1-3x a night and just climbs in bed with us. If we sleep through it, no harm no foul. However, he usually wakes me up. We are going to make him a bed on our floor and teach him to sleep there if he wants to be close to us. Our bed is not big enough so Mr. Titus and his elbows and horizontal sleeping. I've found that if Rya has a later bedtime (9ish) she will usually sleep straight through to about 6-630. I'm going to keep rolling with that because not getting up with her is AWESOME!

-The bedrooms in my house are a mess and NEED to be cleaned, straightened, and organized! I'm sick of random piles of crap EVERYWHERE! Totally our fault that it's like that. And that as a family we live out of laundry baskets. It just needs to change. It's ridiculous and I'm over it. (But still too tired to do anything about it, so here I sit and rant...)

-My housework needs to get on a schedule/routine and I NEED to actually do it. It's not that hard, right? Oh wait, yes it is...apparently...because I suck at it. The clutter hot spots in my house are the stairs (can we say safety hazard??), our bedrooms, and what I call the diaper station. My kitchen is also rather annoying at dirty dishes keep popping up and I don't know how to get rid of them. ;o) My pantry is also rather annoying. My kids like to rearrange the items on the shelves and then there's item that are a no-no for them to mess with. So it's just a hot mess. Although I can find everything. Not sure anyone can, though!! 

I have decided that I start nesting super early, but I just have no energy to do anything about it until 2nd tri or later, which makes me pretty crabby. :o)

On to other things! Bryan has a new job! He now works at LocalEdge which is a huge company! He is working in the web design division as a web project coordinator. He says it's mostly clerical and kind of boring but it's a step in the door, higher pay, great people, and gives him opportunities to learn about web design, which he would LOVE to get into. He schedule is even a little better...830-430. He hasn't really left on time yet, but when he does it will be great! His position is a new one to help alleviate some of the work from the web designers. So right now he's playing catch up. Once that's over I'm sure he will be able to leave on time more often. 

Okay I'm done. I could keep going because that means I could continue to sit on my butt and essentially do nothing but my kitchen is ridiculous and my Mom-in-Love is coming over later and I don't want to have to hang my head in shame.

Good Friday

I am so grateful for today. For the reminder of what my Savior did for me. The love He displayed as He took my punishment for sin is unimaginable to me.

But yet, I am discouraged today. I realized that I haven't been seeking my Jesus on a daily basis. I haven't been in the Word or doing much other than quick prayers here and there. I feel so busy, tired, and burnt out and like I haven't really been able to appreciate today's reminder.

Granted this has been a hard week- I've been sick. But still. That is no excuse!!

Thank you, Jesus for the reminder of what is really important and how badly I need you first in my life.

Happy Resurrection weekend!!

Precious Faces and Moments

It's late so this will be a short one. Today was a good day but I didn't make time to blog until I got in bed. My bad! Here are some pics from my phone of my cuties!!

I am in love with these eyes!

Rya- sleeping/nursing after a very long day.

I'm so bummed this picture is blurry but I CAN'T get over this face!

Surgery Day

This past Monday Rya had tubes put in her ears and her tongue tie clipped. She rocked it!! She was a champ about not eating or drinking before hand. She went with the nurse like it was no big deal.

Right after surgery was a different story. I still say she did great but she was like I've never seen her before. It took awhile before anything I did helped to calm her down. It took about 30 min before I could get her to stay calm enough to nurse. We were able to take her to a different room after she nursed and there she fell asleep on Bryan and slept hard for 45 minutes. After that she woke up and was a brand new girl! She was still a little off but she started smiling, playing with her belly button, and waving at people.

I kept her drugged all day but overall I don't think she was in very much pain. :o) Now hopefully the current ear infection she had Monday will go away and stay away!!

Little Ears

Poor Rya Grace is on her third antibiotic in the last 7 weeks. Her ears keep getting infected as soon as she has any sort of congestion. And she seems blessed with sinuses like her parents that react to the weather constantly so congestion at some level is the norm.

She had her first double ear infection (a bad one too!) at the beginning of January. She went on an antibiotic for 10 days. Her congestion cleared up and her ears seemed better. Then at the beginning of February she got congested again (I think it was just a sinus flare because the congestion was only for 3-4 days) and started messing with her ears. Once again a double ear infection. We did a different antibiotic this time that was for 10 days. (That ended this last Saturday.) Her doctor and I discussed consulting with and ENT and decided that would be a good course of action. We saw the ENT on day 8 of her medicine. Her ears had fluid and she has hearing loss in her left ear (hopefully from the fluid!!) but her ears were not infected. The ENT said tubes would be a very wise choice so that shin-dig is scheduled for Monday the 25th. (Please be praying!) This last Sunday her nose started running and shortly after she started grabbing at her left ear. (Which btw the only tip is her playing with her ears- no fever, no miserable baby.)

That brings us to today. I took her in for her one year check up and again both ears are infected. She is trying a new antibiotic and we are hoping this clears it up! Between this new antibiotic and getting the tubes in on Monday we will hopefully not have ear trouble for awhile!!

I'm so looking forward to warmer, sunny days where we can get outside. With that usually comes the end of cold and flu season and I am psyched about that!! :)