Joey sits though Owen's T-Ball

Joey has decided to sit up unsupported and enjoy the view of what's going on around him. He loves to watch Owen and looks for him all the time.


He also loves to feed himself now, including munching on Cheerios, Club crackers, baby puffs, Ritz crackers, soft green beans, soft peas, soft fruits like apple, pear and peach, and baby wagon wheels. He would much rather put food in his own mouth (THANK YOU VERY MUCH!) but still pleases me by eating from a spoon when asked nicely. We gave him spaghetti noodles the other night and he went WILD! He had them all over the place and still managed to get a few into his eager little mouth! It is so much fun watching him learn how to feed himself!
And now my big boy Owen, um, plays(?) t-ball. More like plays in the chalk, plays in the dirt, picks flowers, whines that all he wants to do is hit the ball, etc. But he knows the order of running the bases and will do it with a little bit of prompting and guidance from parental coaches! And by the time the game's over he's covered with chalk dust. I've been thinking about buying some iron on decals and putting "Owen aka Chalk Boy" on the back of his shirt! What a stinker, my little batter! Watching t-ball is a blast!

Two vacations in May!

Oh we had the busiest month EVER in May! Our first trip was to California to visit Papa Tom and Mema Holly. It was Joey's first airplane ride and he did GREAT! No fussing, just nursed him on take off and he slept for most of the time. He is learning how to travel well with the family. We also took a boat ride to San Fransisco from Vallejo and then another boat out to Alcatraz Island. Since Ryan is a BOP employee, we got to take a special behind-the-scenes tour of the prison where we saw the gunner's catwalk and the prison hospital where the Bird Man once lived. It was a very interesting tour and what a great view of the city!

We also took Joey to Carmel Beach where he had his first dip in the ocean, he wasn't sure about the water on his feet, but he LOVED the sound of the ocean. He was not happy being left on the blanket while we played in the ocean - what a water bug!

Then we came back home for two weeks and turned around and flew to South Carolina to see Stevie graduate from Basic Training! HOOAH! We are so PROUD of our new soldier - what a sacrifice he's made to serve our country. I never thought I'd see the day that both brothers would be in uniform! And Stevie looks great! He must have lost 20 pounds from all those push ups!

Also while in S. Carolina we caught up with some old friends, the Phoenix's, they have Bryce who's 7 months younger than Owen and Austin who is a month younger than Joey. They graciously invited us over for a wonderful BBQ at their house on post and now I really wish they lived next door to us! It was so much fun catching up with them and reminiscing about good times in Germany!

After all our fun in S. Carolina, we headed down the coast to Savannah, Georgia where we took a pit stop at Tybee Island and a quickie drive through the city to see some of the splendor of the south. I would love to spend a week in Savannah walking through all the beautiful squares and mansions!

Then we hit the road and landed ourselves in Palm Coast, Florida where we stayed with a long time friend of the family. We heart Pam and Nick!

Owen fell in love with Pam's house and wanted to stay with her forever. She has dogs and birds and a screened in pool with lizards and critters all over outside. Owen was really hoping to spot an alligator, but much to his disappointment (and my delight) we didn't see one while we were there! We took a trip to Marine Land and watched people interact with dolphins. Saw a sweet mommy and baby dolphin team and roasted in the sweltering heat and humidity.

So off to the beach we went! We stopped at Jungle Hut beach and attempted to boogie board in some LAME waves.

Owen LOVED playing in the ocean with Papa and Mema - he is a water bug too!

Joey once again wanted nothing to do with staying put on a blanket, he decided to dig in the sand a bit, taste it, feel it, roll in it.

Then he cried until I just held him by the ocean until he fell asleep.

What a fun day we had at the beach! Many thanks to Pam for opening her home to us! We can't wait to go back for another visit some day!

Happy 4th Birthday, Owen!

My labor started at 5 am on May 5, 2005...just a twitch, enough to wake me up. My emotions were all over the place, I remember calling my dad before we went to the hospital (crying) and he asked if I was scared. Oh I was scared alright! I was freaking out by this point because nothing, and I mean NOTHING prepares you for the pain of childbirth. It's so intense. I remember telling Ryan that I changed my mind - too late! :) So we drove to the hospital in Heidelberg, Germany - Ryan doing his best to miss all the bad bumps in the road and avoiding the flash boxes that snap your picture when you drive too fast. We got there in under 5 minutes. I had been having contractions for at least 4 hours and was leaking fluid. They took me to the mother baby unit triage to check if my water had broken then decided to let the doctor check me out. They put me in a room with the most uncomfortable table I've ever sat on (at least while in labor!) I had a big contraction that made me roll over to my side and *GUSH* my water was broken everywhere. I remember telling Ryan to grab the nurse and tell her that we were checking in and having this baby TODAY! The rest of my labor is a blur for the most part. I remember hearing Ryan eating some chips from Subway and I about ripped his head off for daring to eat in front of me...the IV drugs made me loopy and I talked about my children back at home (?)...my best friend Christine was there and I remember her stroking my head telling me to relax and breath deep...and I remember the pure bliss it was to get an epidural after 18 hours and the nurse telling me I was so cute and skinny from behind, and that the pain was dulled for about 20 minutes before I went into transition when the contractions got really strong and I told Ryan the drugs had worn off already. Then came the pushing, and more pushing, and more pushing...for three long hours I pushed until my eyes almost popped out of my head. Then I just had no strength left...I remember looking at Ryan, teary eyed, telling him I just couldn't do it anymore, it was just too hard. He was at the end of his rope too and ran for the doctor. So the doctor came in and told me that I had two options, vacuum suction or c-section. I was not about to have them suck my child from me so I opted for the c-section. Ryan got to go in with me and was there to hear Owen cry for the first time, born on May 6, 2005 at 0342 (23 hours after my first labor pain) at a big 9 pounds 7.2 ounces and measuring 21 1/4 inches long. Whew, was I tired! This is the first time I got to hold my new baby... Owen was born on a Friday and by Saturday afternoon we knew something wasn't right. The doctor's told us they were trying to figure it out with x-rays and tests and by asking us scary questions...then they told us that because he was born c-section all the fluid hadn't been squeezed out of his tiny lungs, add that to the fever I'd had while in labor and you get an infection...he had congenital pneumonia. The hospital we were in did not have a NICU and Owen had to be transported to the University of Heidelberg Kinderklinikum. I bawled all night, shook with sobs so great they scared Ryan, I didn't have the ability to hand my newborn baby over to the paramedics that came to take him to the NICU. I felt like my heart was breaking to pieces. It was me and Ryan dealing with our first child, sick. My heart was so broken. Ryan followed the ambulance all the way to the next hospital, they ran lights and sirens the whole way. It was 11 o'clock at night and I had no one at the hospital with me, so I call my old co-worker Lindy. She came and let me cry on her shoulder for three hours and then drove Ryan back to the NICU at 3 in the morning to let him check on Owen. God Bless Lindy, she was my rock that night. The next morning they discharged me from the hospital...we went straight to the NICU to hold my baby...

He had an IV in his head and I cried again (although I don't think I ever really stopped until he was safely in my arms again). We brought Owen home on Wednesday and I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I was to escape the constant whirring and beeping of machines that were hooked up to little teeny tiny babies that looked so incredibly sad. I was trying to recover from major surgery and all I had to sit in was a rock hard chair with my trusty boppy pillow. Ryan and I pretty much lived in the NICU for 4 long days with a relatively healthy newborn...we just had to wait for his white blood cell count to go down. He never needed oxygen, just monitoring. I was so glad to get him home in our safe little piece of heaven.

This was a sweet afternoon nap with my precious little baby boy.

A year goes by so quickly and before I knew it my parents were flying to Germany to celebrate Owen's first birthday. We had already been back to the states twice, once when he was four months and the second when he was nine months. He gave me another scare with a trip to the ER in Chicago while trying to fly back to Germany when he was nine months old, this time with severe bronchitis - all this after my dad had just gone through a heart surgery.

They grow so quickly in one year! He was crawling by nine months and walking at 13 months.

Then all of the sudden we were celebrating Owen's second birthday in California with Ryan's family but still had a party at our family home in Colorado Springs. He got to take his first trip to Disneyland! By the time Owen turned two we had moved from Heidelberg, Germany to Colorado Springs, CO and we were packing up to move to El Paso, TX to be with daddy - who had joined back into the Army Reserves and was stationed yet again at Fort Bliss.

We spent his third birthday in Colorado Springs with a big birthday party in my grandma's beautiful backyard. Between two and three we had moved to El Paso, had our horrendous moving accident, bought a house, got pregnant with Joey, and moved back to our family home in Colorado Springs (again...although this time a bit more permanently!) What a trooper Owen was through the whole year, he learned how to talk and loved to ride his little green poliezi car through the house. His fourth birthday was again spent in California with Ryan's parents. And again we had a second party in Colorado with our friends and family. We spent the day in Santa Cruz at the Boardwalk on beach. Owen loves the beach!

We got to ride some rides on the Boardwalk and we let him eat a churro and drink root beer because it was his birthday. He is finally at the fun age of birthdays, he knows what they are all about!

We ended the evening in Monterey Bay where we stayed at the Presidio of Monterey in one of the guest houses generally reserved for officers and their families while in transit - it was a beautiful old bungalow with three bedrooms and one bath. Owen, you got chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and lots of sprinkles on top! The birthday evening ended when we put you to bed and you asked if mommy would stay with you while you fell asleep. I was so honored and touched to be allowed to stay with you and watch you as you fell asleep. I am amazed by how much you have grown and matured in four years. I am still so in love with my baby boy Owen! Happy 4th Birthday!

Busy Bees are We

So we have been on the go since we all recovered from the tummy flu and ear infections (almost) and pink eye...you name it, Owen so lovingly brought it home from the petri dish known as preschool. Sigh. And now we are off to bigger adventures - time to make over our horrid backyard! We moved the swing set (much to Owen's dismay) and had someone tear up the hill-billy-installed-never-worked-in-the-first-place sprinkler system, move some of the rocks around, and pour cement to extend our patio. Here's a before shot:

And here's an after shot:

We are so excited to finally have the opportunity to make our backyard into a personal get away. A safe place for the boys to play and run and swim. I am starting to get anxious for summer!

Joey went to his 6 month well baby back at the very end of March...his is tipping the scales at 19 lbs 3.5 oz. and measures almost 29 inches already! He LOVES to eat food along with his big appetite for breastfeeding. I have succeeded in surprising myself by nursing for this long - we've made it 6 1/2 months now! Such a proud achievement for me considering how much I struggled and lost the opportunity with Owen. I love watching Owen and Joey interact with each other - Joey watches everything Owen does and Owen pats Joey when he cries and tells him "it's okay". He is such a sweet big brother!

Easter was great. We had Ronnie, Desiree and Anna come over and dye 4 dozen eggs - which made for some interesting deviled eggs!

The kids had a blast and surprisingly 4 dozen eggs went fast with two 3 year olds! For Easter dinner we had my parents and grandparents come over and we dined on ribeye roast (way yummy), mashed potatoes, asparagus, corn, orange jello salad, crescent rolls, broccoli soup and we topped it all off with delicious ice cream cake that my mom made for Ryan and me as a joint birthday cake. Yes, this year we both turned 30. So long to the 20's! We are actually okay with it, looking forward to watching the kids grow up and not worry about having anymore. My goal was 2 kids before I turned 30 and we slipped kid number 2 in just 6 1/2 months shy of my 30th birthday! :)

So Joey has another double ear infection and didn't sleep very well last night, so I am beyond exhausted, surprised I even made it this far on blogging. I am hoping the combination of antibiotics, ear numbing drops and Tylenol will allow for a better night sleep for him tonight, poor little guy. Two more ear infections and we'll be looking at tubes...that's a lot quicker than how they handled mine as a child! Strange that Owen has only had 2 in his 4 years of life and Joey's already at 2 by 6 1/2 months. Just shows that no two kids are alike I suppose!

You Do What it Takes For This

NOTHING in the world wakes you up from a dead sleep and makes your heart skip a beat faster than hearing a small scared voice say, "Mommy, I need you!" in the middle of the night. And in order to be a good, kind mommy I think God has to instill certain characteristics such as the ability to hold your stomach while a) cleaning up puke b) holding your child over the toilet as he pukes and c) being able to sleep with one eye open as you lay next to the pukee waiting to thrust the trash basket under his chin the minute he sits up to puke again. I am ever so grateful that Owen has a full sized bed because I don't know where else I would've slept the last two nights with him. He has been so sick and so groggy from being up all night for two stinking nights in a row. And I am so sick and tired of washing his sheets and cleaning up puke off the floor! But in the end I am still so in love with my little Bubba. He is a trooper, even asking me nicely if he could have some "Scooby snacks for bedtime" because he was finally hungry. I hope tonight he sleeps a restful sleep with no more puking.

Joey, on the other hand, is feeling just fine and has decided to really start hamming it up to the camera! Check out some of these poses he lends:

Look at me and big boy that gets his own chair at the table and gets to eat!


Do I have you wrapped around my finger yet?!

Look at my snaggle-tooth grin! I'm growing some good chompers!

Shhhh, be quiet, can't you see I'm trying to concentrate?

Being a mommy really means that you do whatever it takes to make your babies smile, giggle, laugh, love, and be happy.

What a Week!

Oh the week we've just been through is not one that I would opt to do-over! Owen had what started out as allergies then moved onto something stronger that ended up giving him an ear infection (his second one ever) and of course, being a good big brother he shared his cold germ with Joey who wound up with a double ear infection and double pink eye! And of course I caught it and my grandma caught it - she has a horrid cough and I ended up losing my voice for a couple of days. Oh they were both SO miserable on St. Patty's Day...And since this week is Spring break, I've decided to take advantage of not having to take Owen to school and opted to do SPRING CLEANING! What a difference it makes when you get the chance to toss out crap you haven't used in more than a year! I am almost done, just the kitchen and the family room left. Then when the weather warms up we have to shovel our way out of all the crap that piling up in the garage, ugh! Watch out Craig's List here I come to sell some junk and make some major curb alerts!
So I haven't been on for a while, but we've been busy bees with all the work I've cut out for myself lately. And tonight I'm having some issues with feeling resentful...upset that we moved back here from quite a distance and my family still can't seem to figure out a way to help me with the boys when Ryan's working evening shifts. Sigh...sometimes I wonder if it was worth the hassle.

5 Months of Poop

So I am a self-proclaimed expert baby poop remover! Any outfit, any style, any color - I can knock it out with my powerful concoction of 20 Mule Team Borax, Clorox color safe bleach (free for sensitive skin) and Shout. Rinse the poop off in the sink, fill it up with the Borax and the bleach then spray the stain with Shout (Shout it out!) and let it soak for a good long while...then rinse and retreat if necessary. I have never seen a baby blow out so many stinking diapers! And when he really explodes it just goes everywhere - front, back, legs. Oh what a mess that child can make - almost enough to want to rush him into potty training! :)

So Joey is 5 months old now and officially "slept through the night" a couple of nights ago by going from 7pm to 6:30am. I was SO thrilled! Then he woke up absolutely starving and gulped down a ton of breast milk, only to spew half of it back up all over me, him and the bed. *Sigh* My washer and dryer are going to be worn out before the next decade for sure! And now he is getting more difficult to breastfeed in public or even with other people around, he is so curious and just wants to check it all out - especially whenever he hears his daddy's voice. He's learning how to sit up and is getting very proficient at sucking his thumb. I am a very proud mommy of my "Big Brother" and my "Little Brother"!

Owen, age 3 years and 10 months & Joey, age 5 months - my two favorite momma's boys!

Love, Logic and Baby Food

So this past Saturday I attended a Love and Logic conference in Arvada with my best friend Desiree and her sister-in-law Melissa. It was very interesting to hear what the authors of the book had to offer in terms of giving a little extra guidance on how to handle certain behaviors and how to actually use some of the techniques that they give in the book. But as in all parenting advice and techniques, I take a little from each and make my own concoction of discipline, rules, and consequences. Owen is a quick learner and he knows almost all the tricks I come up with to get him to comply, so I often find myself looking for the next best solution to the current behavior problem. The latest problem is listening. The child is simply too busy to listen to what's being asked of him at the moment. He's either too busy talking, playing, or watching TV (yes, my child watches what I consider to be a healthy amount of TV!) So the Love and Logic discipline teaches compliance through choices that the parent can live with and consequences to that must be followed through with when the choice isn't made by the child. They also include an "Uh-oh" song that your are supposed to SING when you are sending them to their room for some "time away from the family" as opposed to Time Out; and they advise you to sing it because you can't use anger in your voice when you are using a sing-songy voice. Makes sense, but is very hard to put into everyday use when you are a yeller by nature! So for now Owen is good at making choices, his toys go to toy jail when he fails to comply and we still use the naughty spot technique learned from the Supernanny. Its a mix that changes on a daily basis to meet Owen's behavior and attitude for the day. So far though, from all the discipline techniques I've read up about and contemplated my favorite saying is from the Love and Logic book: "I love you too much to argue."

So I thought I'd share some tips for other mommas out there (the ones that actually read me) about how I make my own baby food. When Owen was a baby I decided that I wanted to make his food at home because no matter what they try to sell in the baby food jars that say "no preservatives added" I still can't quite grasp that the bananas in the jar stay yellow without any additives - mine always turn to the natural brown! So since I learned with Owen I am repeating with Joey. Not only is it easy, but it saves money and waste with no little jars to toss! I have a couple of books that I use as my reference and guide for recipes and storing, "Blender Baby Food" and "Super Baby Food". I just recently made Joey a batch of organic red apples that I purchased at the Commissary for about $1.50 and it was enough to make two ice cube trays full as well as a couple of small containers. I store by freezing the food in ice cube trays (I cover the trays with foil while freezing to prevent any contamination from anything in the freezer):

The picture above is from the day I made both apples and sweet potatoes. I purchased about 4 medium sized sweet potatoes and boiled them for about an hour, peeled the skins and threw them in the blender with some nursery water, poured them in the ice cube trays and here they are ready to freeze and store. Each ice cube measures out to just over 1 tablespoon worth of food and in the beginning he'll eat about one cube per meal, when he gets older he bumps up to 2 or 3 cubes per meal.

After the cubes are nice and frozen I place them in freezer safe bags, label them with the name, date made and how long they are good in the freezer. As Joey gets older I can stop using the blender and start mashing the food with a potato masher to give the food some texture. I found that my Owen is not at all a picky eater and I really think it's because I made all his baby food. To get some good meal ideas I occasionally browse the baby food aisle and look at the combinations - like chicken and pears or ham and apples (those were a couple of Owen's favorites). The only two foods you are not supposed to make at home are carrots (too much zinc) and ham (too much sodium) so those are about the only two items I purchase in jars. So when I am ready to make a meal with the cubes I usually set them up three days at time and put the cubes in sealed baby food bowls in the fridge and let them thaw, when in a pinch to thaw I just zap 'em in the microwave. Then when serving I sneak in the boring old rice cereal or oatmeal so he's getting the extra nutrition without the added fuss!

Simple, easy, healthy, logical (especially with today's continuous food scares!)