Time to get caught up on the kids again

It's been a little while since I got caught up on where the kids are at, so I thought I would do a summary post.

Adam at 9.5 months - All he wants to do is walk around. He is no closer to crawling now than he was when he was a month old. I still don't think he will crawl at all. He can stand for several seconds at a time under the right conditions - today, Brian counted 7 seconds. He also takes several unbalanced steps at a time when he's walking between Brian and I (we're not counting these as his first steps yet - too unbalanced).

He is almost completely done with baby food, even though he still only has his bottom two teeth (top two teeth are looking very close, but knowing him it could still be months yet!). He is down to three bottles a day, and actually drinks quite well from a sippy cup! Considering how long it took Lynsey to learn to close her mouth around a sippy cup spout, I'm thrilled that he has learned this already! At 10 months, his afternoon bottle is going away so knowing how to drink from a cup will become more important.

He sleeps from 7:30 to around 7:30 pretty much every night, and his naps vary from week to week - he'll do really well one week, and then the next week he'll only nap 45 minutes for his morning nap. He did have a 3 hour nap one day this week which was nice - it had been a while since we'd had one of those! Overall, still a very good sleeper, and becoming much more resilient. He used to have to sleep with us whenever he had a cold or for the first night when we were in Edmonton, but we were just in Edmonton and he slept through the night all three nights. He also has been suffering with a cold for the last week or so, and again, sleeping well. This is a relief!

In summary, he has been very high maintenance lately and I really just want him to learn to walk. He is still happy in his Jolly Jumper and Exersaucer for limited periods of time which is a life saver, but for the most part when he's awake, he needs my attention.

This brings me to Lynsey - I think she is acting out a bit because of the lack of attention I've been able to give her. She has had a few really bad days this last week, blatantly ignoring me when I ask her to do something, and sometimes pointing at me and saying "No" very defiantly. She even hit some kids with toys at Mom's group on Friday, which is quite out of character for her. It's been very frustrating. As usual, she also has her very good days, making me think I must be imagining things:). She's starting saying "like" when she's telling a story (something she has obviously picked up from me!) which is kind of funny - she sounds pretty grown up:). One thing that we have been dealing with for the first time in her short life has been FOOD BATTLES! For the last month or so, she has been very difficult at meal times. She tells us she doesn't want to eat and complains and complains, and then finally she'll agree to eat if I feed her. I don't know if I should indulge her in this or not, but for now, I'm doing it because I just want her to eat her food. I guess I'm lucky that it's taken this long to have to fight this battle - she's always been a really good eater.

Lynsey's turning three in a few weeks! Has it really been that long?? In some ways, it seems like such a short time, and at the same time, it's hard to imagine a time when she wasn't with us.

My Thousand Word Picture

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sometimes, those words can be very unkind.

On my 31st birthday (back on July 12th of this year), my good friend Coraleah offered to babysit and Brian and I went out for dinner to celebrate. I got her to take a few pictures of us, as pictures of just the two of us are so rare. The next day, I uploaded the pictures to our computer, as my intention was to upload them to this very blog on my next post. The picture never appeared on the blog.

I had known for some time that I needed to lose some weight. Most women struggle with their weight to at least a small degree after having a child or two, and I was no exception. Except, I knew this was much more than so-called "baby weight". God has blessed me with a body that is made to carry babies. The baby weight excuse didn't fly, and I knew it. My weight struggles started years before I even got married, much less had children! This was not baby weight, and I knew it. But I accepted it. I didn't like it, but I accepted it. I was in denial, thinking that it wasn't that bad, that you couldn't really tell that I was carrying an extra 15-20 pounds. I squeezed into my pre-Lynsey clothes and decided that no, it couldn't be that bad.

Enter my Thousand Word Picture.



I tried to crop this thing so that it looked nice. First I tried to cut out my tummy, but that wasn't enough. I had it cropped all the way to just our faces, and it STILL wasn't enough, because I had weight in my face, too! It was like a wake-up call - "Sarah, it's time to get moving and get back to where YOU KNOW you should be!".

And so I did.

I had been jogging about once a week in a semi-serious attempt to try and lose the weight, and I actually had at this point already lost about 5 pounds. However, this weight loss was totally stalled and I knew I needed to step it up, and I did. The biggest thing I did was start eating less. I re-trained myself on how to eat, and this was the single most important step I took. I read the book "Women Food and God" by Janine Roth, but to be honest, I wouldn't recommend it. It's kind of a weird book - she has some odd ideas. I'm still glad I read it, though, because what the book did was bring me back to the principles that I learned years ago when I read "The Weigh Down Solution" (I can't remember the author's name). It reminded me that food is just that - FOOD. It is not there to solve all my problems, to take away pain, to comfort me and be my companion. And so I started seeing food for what it was, and the weight loss began.

It's been three months months since that first picture was taken, and I'm down 13 pounds. The weight loss has been a bit stalled for the last three or four weeks (my goal is actually to go down another 3 pounds), but I have never felt better! We bought an elliptical machine, since the weather is turning and I don't jog in the cold (definitely not that hardcore!). Right now, I am working out 5 times a week and I feel fantastic. My muscles are getting stronger, my cardio improves daily, and I feel really good about myself. I don't know if I'll lose the last 3 pounds or not, but I am at the point now where I am not too worried about it.

I know weight is a superficial thing, and you should never place your self worth on how you look. This was something I had to do for ME, and becoming more active and eating better is an improvement that has helped me in all areas of my life. Really, the weight loss was just a side benefit:).

Brian took this picture of me yesterday. Like I said before, I'm still not at my ideal weight, but I can say for the first time in a long time that I'm happy with where I'm at. And like I also said before, that statement does not just refer to my weight:).

My little man is 9 months old!

I think we have officially given up on Adam ever crawling. We are putting all our eggs in the walking basket now. He just loves to stand up and walk everywhere, and is actually not far behind where Lynsey was at this age in that area (minus the whole crawling thing, which I know would really help him in learning how to walk). For whatever reason, he continues to refuse to be on his stomach and just cries until we pick him up. It's a bit disappointing, but he is determined not to give in!

While there are definitely still differences between him and Lynsey, we are noticing more and more similarities all the time. He is just as restless and curious to explore the world as she was - she just had the advantage of being more mobile and more able to do this on her own. Unfortunately for us, Adam wants to do things that he just can't (or won't because he won't crawl) and so he is upset a lot of the time. Even when we're doing what we THINK he wants us to do (walk him around, carry him around, etc.), he still sometimes will just drop his hands and cry and cry. It's like we just can't meet his exploration needs! I just hope that he learns to move in some way soon, because my heavy boy is absolutely killing my back.

One thing he DID decide to learn how to do was clap his hands! He started last week, and THAT he did before Lynsey did - she was about a week over 9 months before she discovered that one:).

Lynsey has discovered board games! I bought her some really simple preschool games last weekend to see what she thought of them, and she loves them! She doesn't completely grasp the concept of games yet, but she likes to win, and frowns when she suffers a setback in her game. So far, she hasn't been a sore loser, so that's a good thing:). I had another interesting moment with her today. I had given her a few ice cubes in a ziploc bag for her hand (she had gotten it caught in a door earlier that day, although I don't think it was that sore anymore by the time she asked for the ice I had promised her earlier!) but informed her that she couldn't take it to her room for her quiet time (the water was leaking out of the bag a bit). She looks and me and says, "Tell you what - you go wash bottles, and I'll go upstairs with my bag of ice for my quiet time". So sneaky, that little girl! It's so funny the way she uses phrases that we use all the time - she told another mom at Mom's group today that she would "deal with" one of her kids that was running away. So wise beyond her years!

I took Lynsey to get her hair cut on Thursday. I was just so tired of all the tears and dramatic pleas of "PLEASE! NO MOMMY PLEASE DON'T!" whenever I went to comb her hair or make her ponytails. It's a little bob now and pretty cute. I'm getting my own hair cut tomorrow, too - long hair is becoming boring, so I'm going shorter. Not totally short, but shoulder lengthish. Hopefully it looks good - we have family pictures on Sunday!

Painting DONE!

Well, the painting is done - PRAISE THE LORD! I am so glad to be done. I know that come Spring/Summer when we get ready to sell, we will be pretty thankful that we don't have to paint:).

Adam STILL hasn't cut those two teeth that have been bothering him for going on a month - good times. His crankiness comes and goes, so at least it's not constant. He is definitely discontent for reasons other than teething. He wants so badly to move around, and yet when we put him on his tummy he just cries and cries. It's really sad actually - the tears are flowing and everything. He seems to think we are trying to torture him or something! Like I was saying in my last post, he just wants to stand, and more and more wants us to walk him around. He still likes his jolly jumper, but when we walk by, he tries desperately to reach out for us and then cries. He is definitely starting to reach for us when he wants to be picked up (which is most of the time). He is getting better at feeding himself (figures that would be one of the things he masters first! Not gonna put much energy into learning to crawl, but I definitely need to learn how to FEED MYSELF!:)). I love watching him and Lynsey interact. While she still makes him cry a lot of the time, more and more I see her making him smile and laugh, and it just makes me so happy! I have visions of them entertaining each other in the very near future!

I think I've mentioned this in other posts, but Lynsey has pretty much memorized most of her books (and she has A LOT of books - no small feat!) and she often sits there reading to herself for a long time. It's very cute:). I don't know if this is normal for a kid her age and I don't even care if it is (I refuse to be one of those moms always looking for ways that my kid is "ahead" of other kids) - I just think it's really neat and I'm glad she is so interested in books! I did some fall shopping for her yesterday and it was so much fun! For the first time, I let myself go a bit and bought her some really cute clothes that weren't necessarily always the most practical:). I decided it was time to take advantage of the fact that I have a little girl and have some fun with it!

Labour Day festivities in Red Deer

The last week and a half have been filled with a teething Adam, a challenging Lynsey, and right in the middle, a Brian-less Labour Day weekend. Good times:).

We painted our ensuite bathroom and bedroom last week, so that was a relief to get out of the way. Just two bathrooms left! I will do the upstairs one tomorrow, and next week finish off the main floor bathroom. When this is done, there will be a ceremonial storage of paint and paint supplies, at which time I vow never to see them again (at least not until we move!).

Brian left on his annual guys camping trip on Friday afternoon, and the kids and I took off for Red Deer for the gathering of the Penner women right after supper. We stayed at the Red Deer Lodge. It was the first time I had the kids in a hotel room, and it actually wasn't that bad. Adam's first night wasn't fantastic (it always takes him some time to get used to new surroundings), but him and Lynsey both had a great nap on Saturday afternoon and then he had a great night! Lynsey was up until 11:30 on Saturday night (the latest she's ever been up by quite a bit) so she was a bit grouchy on Sunday. The weekend as a whole was pretty good. Brian's mom helped me with the kids a lot, which was great, but we had a different schedule than everyone else so it was a bit tough to do things together. We were up early and everyone else slept in (trust me - I would have liked to be in their boat!) so our meals didn't really coordinate. The pool was a bit deep for Lynsey, which was a bit disappointing, but as you can see from the pictures, Adam loved it! I bought him a new baby boat where he sinks in a bit further, and he just leaned back and floated around looking at the ceiling, saying "ba ba ba". It was pretty cute:). Lynsey just needs a shallow end to gain some confidence - she can be okay in the deep end with her arm floats, but she always spends some time in the shallow end first. Too bad - we'll just have to make sure the next hotel we stay in has a shallow end!

Adam is not one of those kids that wakes up one day and you look in his mouth and say, "oh, when did that tooth show up?". No, we always know when teeth are coming - for like a month beforehand:(. We had a nice break after those bottom two teeth poked through, but the last few weeks have been a bit tough. He's cranky and while he still sleeps well most nights, he's waking up a lot more than usual, especially in the evening after he goes to bed. I have to hold him and comfort him for a while, then he can usually go back to sleep. He's working on the two teeth beside his bottom two - I think he might get all his bottom teeth before the top ones make an appearance! I just want them to come out already . . . I want my content boy back! I don't think this is related to teething, but he also hardly lets us sit him down anymore - he just wants to stand all the time! I really think he'll walk before he crawls. He is perfectly happy if we stand him up and let him step around a bit, or jump (this one is very difficult with his weight!). Oh, speaking of his weight, I had him weighed on his 8 month birthday (the 31st) and he was 25 lb 9.5 oz, 29 inches long. Weight gain is slowing slightly, but that is still very heavy for his age. Lynsey at this age was the same length, but under 19 lb!

Lynsey continues to be very interesting, and continues to really test us some days. Today was one of those days. She just wouldn't listen to a thing I said! All day! It was very frustrating. On the whole, I continue to be thankful for her because I know she isn't as difficult as a lot of kids her age, but my patience can hardly handle a crying Adam and a rebellious Lynsey. She does make up for her bratty times by making us laugh and sometimes I just want to crush her with hugs for being so sweet:). She did do really well at the grocery store today which was a bit of a saving grace - I'm proud to say that when she asked for a treat, I told her no and stuck to it. I'm even more proud of Lynsey because she complained a bit about not getting a treat, but she pretty much just got over it and moved on! It's hard to believe she will be turning three in less than two months - she's growing up so fast!