Bedtime Antics...

Ok so, night time has been a bit hairy around here lately. A lot of NON sleeping going on by both me and the kids (and daddy too most nights). Not sure what is going on, but they are each getting up several times a night, leaving me on 3 hours or less a night of sleep for a few weeks now. Needless to say I'm suuuuuuper tired!

So a friend let me borrow her book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Aside from being the most boring book I have ever read, it does have some good tips and points. One being that overtired kids have more trouble getting to sleep and staying to sleep at night. I know Chenda is overtired. The poor thing hasn't had an afternoon nap in who knows how long and rarely goes to sleep before 10pm. Not by my choice in that I WANT her up like that, but it's a relentless fight to get her to sleep. On top of all this getting up at night, just GETTING Chenda to sleep is a fight in itself involving a lot of screaming and crying (and not just by me!! HAHA!) causing a lot of stress on everyone and probably just exadurating the issue. I always figured that she just wasn't tired and would fall asleep when she was.

I know now that I was wrong. She can't sleep because she is SO tired and her body is pumping out adrenaline and other hyper hormones in order to fight fatigue. Thus causing hyper alertness, fussiness, and higher levels of agitation (hence constant fits through the day). *This is all according to the book, but fits her like a T"...So in light of being fed up with no sleep and really not wanting to do any permanent damage to her (according to the book, these kinds of sleep habits usually develop into ADHD and insomnia as they grow), I have decided to implement a new sleep schedule.

After dinner, we will begin our night schedule with a bed time (for now for the sake of easing her into it) of 8:30-9, and wake up time of 8am (eventually I will be making bedtime 8pm and get up no sooner then 7am but no later then 8am), nap time at 1 or 2 and on and on. Of course the baby gets one extra nap in the morning around 11am which she pretty much already takes anyway.

And that puts us where we are now. Chenda is currently up in my room hollering because I am making her take a nap. I promised myself I wouldn't go in there till 3pm to check on her. Because then if she is awake she can come downstairs and we will do bed time earlier, or I will let her sleep till 4pm if she is sleeping. We'll see what happens. I'm glad the baby is easy to get down at this point!!

Growing up!

I realize that I am wayyyyy overdue for an update here. My apologies, but I figure it's OK. A lot has gone on in the last couple months, and has kept me quite busy from blogging, and really doing much of anything.

The kids are growing in leaps and bounds here. Kali is officially mobile and expect she will be walking in the next couple of months. She is already trying to walk from one thing to the other, but the balance isn't there yet so she just lets go and falls. She's really giving it some good tries though!! She is now eating mostly table foods, so I haven't made her baby food in a long time. She really doesn't like the purees much and prefers mashed soft fruits and veggies that she can pick up and eat herself. This is quite a surprise for me, since Chenda was on the purees for a long time and didn't have a lot of interest in table foods until she was slightly older.

I tell you, once you think you have parenting figured out you have another kid! They are so different but similar at the same time!!

On top of the table foods, Kali also has a taste for anything laying on the floor. I am constantly vacuuming/chasing her around digging something out of her mouth before she chokes on it. This is one of the things she is just like her big sister on. Chenda did her fair share of choking on stuff off the floor when she was a baby, and Kali is no different! So I am whipping out the vacuum about 3 times a day and sucking up everything i can.

Still a boobie monster, Kali loves to nurse. I think this is great, although at night she is waking up several times wanting to "comfort nurse" which is making me very tired. I talked to the pediatrician about it and hoping to implement some of her ideas soon. Another thing I don't like so much is TEETH!! AHHH! Well, of course I like that she has teeth but not while she is nursing and, well, you get the picture.

We are also going through some (OK major) separation anxiety with her too. Perhaps because I wasn't nursing Chenda at this age she was never really like that. Chenda would literally shut the door in my face when I dropped her off somewhere to go to work. Kali doesn't want anyone but me. Even Chan can't hold her if I am in the same room. It's definitely different and taking some getting used to since I can hardly leave the room to go to the bathroom without a little one chasing after me crying! But I do love that she wants to be around me so much and I will definitely miss it when she is OK with me not being around when she is older.


Speaking of going to the bathroom....Potty training Chenda is still underway, but getting better. She's got the #1s down but the poos are a bit more difficult. I am trying to convince her that squatting in the backyard isn't where we do that, we need to go in the potty, but it's really not sticking too well. I'm sure she'll figure it out soon though! I can't wait for the day we aren't spending money on pull ups for her!

Chenda is getting great at counting, and ABCs and all that! She can count to five in English, Khmer and Spanish and can say please, more, and *we are working on* thank you in sign language. Kali can also say "more" in sign language too. Chenda loves to play mommy to her dolls and baby sister too! Sometimes she tries to discipline her baby sister, which kind of makes me laugh because she's not doing anything to hurt her but I have to tell her no because I don't want her to think it's OK to give her sister a spank!

My babies are growing up so fast! I will try to not make it so long before my next post, but as you can tell I'm sure things are nuts around here!

Life's Lessons...

Wow what a month July has been!

I realise that I have not updated in a while. I definitly haven't forgotten this, I just haven't had a ton of motivation to really sit down and write *not to mention no time either*. Recent life events have left me more then slightly drained, as our family has prepared for the uncertainty of major life changes. Now, don't get yourselves too worried, we are ok, but it has definitly got me thinking about things that I don't often pull to the forefront of my mind. Hard times, uncertain times...And how people often deal with them.

Not that I have never been a religious person, but I haven't always been a "church" person. I enjoy church, but I have never made it a priority. That has changed now. I don't by any means think that I get any extra brownie points from God for going to church..Plenty of people go every week and manage to do damage to other people's lives. Even still I don't think that making it a priority will make my life easier (not that it's hard in comparison to many). I just love the lesson. I have been trying much harder to make my work schedule work around church as apposed to the opposite which is what I was doing before. I still can't make it EVERY weekend, but the majourity, and even if I cannot my husband takes the kids. That is most important - that my kids go. I don't want them growing up not knowing about God the way they should, and that was another of my main motivations.

I guess that is how my little family has dealt with one of our darker periods of life (of which we are finally coming over the fence on), we are bringing ourselves closer to God, and in return God is bringing us closer to each other. Sometimes it feels like we kept getting knocked down, but we are able to stand together, and find the good in a situation and come up from it. If the path of our lives leads us to be knocked off the path again, then we will stand up and get back on. And that is how it goes.

And so, I ask you this question: How will you handle the dark days that come your way? They can't always be sunny.

And when your children go through the tough times in their lives, and they will, what will you tell them about your life experiences?? Did you ask "why me?!" or did you see what you could do to help those still less fortunate then you? Did you take the easy way out and run away, or did you stand head on into the storm and fight through till the problem was resolved?

Perhaps this post is a bit off topic from what my blog is about, but I think it is important. Our children will always look at how we handle all situations in life. They will mimic us, learn from us...

...How do you want them to see you?

Potty Days....

Woohoo I got both kids down for a nap together AGAIN *dang I'm good!* Although I'm pretty sure this will be short lived because Kali has been asleep much longer then Chenda (she's a sleep fighter). So this might have to be a quicky.

Our main focus (well, one of them) right now is getting Chenda potty trained. She's doing pretty well, actually, but seems to have lost interest the last couple of days. I think it's because we have had a few really nice days and she wants to be out playing after months of being couped up in the house. I even asked her yesterday if she wanted panties and she told me "no mommy!", so I didn't push it but asked her after her next diaper change and she said she did. She did really well but then after about an hour took it off, and brought me a diaper and said "byper mommy"...So i put it on her. And that was that! She still "peepee pottied" a few times but really right now doesn't have a whole lot of interest in the panties.

I have heard some hardcore mommies online talk about this "3 day potty training" stuff before and I thought I would look into it. So I googled it and (wouldn't you know) you have to BUY it. Like $30!! Uhm, no thanks! I kind of read up on it and it's pretty much you put the kid in undies and let them run around the house in them. Then after a few days they get it and want to potty on the toilet more to keep dry. And you wake them up at night to potty so you do day and night training at once.

Ok, first off, I don't need to pay that kind of money to figure out that just letting them wet/soil themselves for three days is going to help, and if anyone knows my toddler, waking her at night to pee would only mean I would probably not get back to bed! The offficial website even says that if you have an infant it probably won't work because you have to give your WHOLE attention to the kid in training (probably chasing them around cleaning up pee and poop all day)....Soooo pretty much that's out. I'm sure we'll get through this, but it would be nice to be done with diapers for Chenda. I just hope we get it done before the fall because we might look into some spring time three-year-old preschool programs and I'm pretty sure potty trained is a pre-requisite.

Chenda is becoming such a smart little kid! She is really starting to pick up on colors, shapes, numbers, etc....She can count to 10 all on her own, and draw hearts, circles, and triangles! She also knows a lot of shapes by name, and can sing her ABCs. It's really fun to watch her grow intellectually after watching her develop physically as a baby. This is like a whole new world! A lot of people who know her know that she really only started talking after her second birthday, so all of this new communication is a lot of fun...Except the "no mommy!"'s I get on a daily basis! But that's just a part of her learning her independence and I usually get what I want out of her anyway. Speaking of, it's amazing what you can get a toddler to do while singing the "clean up!" song from Barney!!!

Kali is on her way to crawling! She's pretty much got it down backward, and is working on forward movement. But I'm really excited to see how she discovers her world once she's mobile (I'm sure I'll be taking this back when she's all over the place in a month!) I think she might be teething again because she's back to waking every couple of hours wanting to chew on everything. I was really enjoying the rest I've been getting but I suppose it will just have to wait until they are out of the house or something in 18-20 years. I am most likely going to graduate her from her bassinet to the crib today and I'm pretty excited about it! Maybe she'll sleep better in there, since she will have more room to wiggle.

I can't believe how big she is getting! I found myself the other day looking up things to do for her first birthday! I was thinking a joint birthday party for both of them maybe at the Children's Museum would be fun, but not sure yet. It blows my mind that in just 5 months I will be the mom of a one year old AND a three year old! What a whirlwind!

Life continues to truck along here in our home, and what a great adventure it's been!

It's been a while!

So I've been a little busy lately. Well, actually a lot busy! We had family come into town and visit us for a week. Talk about tons of fun! All of them stayed at my house (about 6 in total), and the babes finally got to meet their cousin. They had tons of fun playing around when the weather was nice (it wasn't for most of the days, but we still had a great time and did many outside activities). Travelling around the state was a really great experience. It's not often we take the time to see how beautiful OUR home is! People are so often wanting to see where other people live, what other states look like, but when you just hop in the car and take in your own home it's a totally worth wile experience. Of course, I have the privilege of living in the best state ever, so I suppose I'm biased.

After a week off it was definitely hard to leave the kids and head back to work! Lucky (not lucky) for me we all got sick this week to I ended up having to stay home one of my return-to-work days. I have to say I have never known life so hard as to be home alone with two sick little ones! I was thinking how when Chenda was a baby (my only baby) I would remember how easy life was before I had kids. Not to say that I have ever wished I didn't have them, quite the opposite, but who doesn't think things are simpler when you just have you and your spouse to worry about?? Well, to my surprise I found myself saying "wow, I remember how easy it was with one kid! Two is so much harder when they are sick!". I got a good chuckle out of that thought. It's funny how life's blessings also bring on some of our most challenging moments...

Take my strong willed two year old, for example. This kid tests my overflowing cup of patience like nothing else. And if you know me you know that cup is DEFINITELY overflowing, and yet I find myself getting flustered more then ever. Not that she's BAD by any means. She is a sweet and loving little girl who loves to be fun! Her determination, strong personality and ability to hyper-focus on a tasks is something that most adults lack....But I think I'm starting to see why God gave me the gift of patience! I do look forward to 20 years from now to see what she is doing in life. Maybe kicking butt and taking names in some top career, who knows?! She's definitely got the goods already to be the best at anything she does! For now, we are getting through the "terrible two's" and she's cuddling in bed going "night night" with her daddy while I type away.

Little baby Kali is in her early attempts to become mobile. If I thought things were difficult NOW I wonder how they will be a month from now! She's not quite made her forward motion yet, but she's pushing up on hands and knees so I know it's not far off. I still can't believe it's been almost 7 months since her birth! Her first birthday is going to be here before we know it and I still see her as that little newborn sleeping on my chest. Even Chan the other day was telling me that he keeps thinking she won't be able to eat cake at her birthday, because he still sees her that way too. Of course, we'll probably think that way when she's a teenager!

The little ones are growing up before our eyes! I know they are still small and I shouldn't look so far into the future, but the future keeps coming before I'm ready for it so I might as well be prepared right? I feel like I'm going to blink and when I open my eyes I'll be sitting there holding my grand kids or something! Maybe I'm crazy (probably) but it's true. I'm sure that's how my parents feel. In the mean time, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy these short, precious times with my babies and take it all in, through the fun, and the frustrating... because I know it doesn't last forever.

What a slacker I am!

Whew it's been a little bit since I've made a post! And so much has happened in the mean time.

We took Chenda to an appointment at the Shriners Hospital to see an Orthopedist. She's crazy in-toed (pigeon toed) and trips on herself constantly. Basically we were told that she is turned in at all three locations that can cause in-toeing (usually kids have it in either hips, knees or ankle...she is in all three). The said it should get better over time but will probably get worse before it's better and if it doesn't improve significantly the only thing to do is surgery. They don't do braces anymore because they found that they don't solve the problem correctly and often the child feels like they are being punished when in them. So in about a year we are to take her back if things are the same/worse and take it from there.

Kali is developing before our eyes! she now has TWO teeth (I have no photos because they aren't up far enough to see in the camera yet), and is starting to sit up like a champ! Still not overly interested in rolling over, but she really doesn't need to because she gets around just fine (thank you very much) by scooting herself backward. She can cross a room doing that! Unfortunatly it's not helping that bald spot on the back of her head!

I took her to her six month check up last week and she weighed in at 18 lb and 17.25 inches long. She's about a half inch longer and a pound lighter then her big sister was at this age. She did great in the appointment and the doctor said she looks great and is doing everything they want her to be at this age.

Making baby food for her has been going great and is really enjoyable for me. So far I have made her sweet potatoes, apples, and butternut squash, and I'm going to try some more new things next week. She is eating great and I'm about to put her on more meals a day since she's really gotten the hang of it!

On the mommy side - I'm finally going to get serious about making my bows. Hopefully one day I can make a full fledged business out of it (I would love to own a baby boutique shop), but for now I will be selling on Etsy. I don't have it all set up just yet and when I do I need to make some stuff to post and sell, but I am really excited. In the mean time I am going to make a few for a great organization a friend of mine founded up in Canada called Made By Momma. They help mothers and their babies in times of need...illness, post partum struggles, etc. They do it all free of charge and in their short time have helped so many women! I am so excited to make them, they will be giving the bows to a few of the mothers with little girls who are having a rough time.

www.madebymomma.org

So that's the update for now! Hopefully I won't be such a slacker in the future!

Six Months Already?!

Today marks my little baby bean's six month "birthday". I can't believe it has already been six months. It feels like just yesterday she was being placed in my arms for the first time. I thought it would only be appropriate to tell the story of how little Kali came to be:

As you read from an earlier post, I became pregnant just a few months after a very devastating loss of the pregnancy before. I was very happy and excited, as was Chan, and we spent the first few weeks looking forward to what was to come. I was a bit apprehensive having just had the loss, but I was still happy.

The next few weeks pretty much went off without a hitch. I decided to wait to tell anyone but close family until we had our first ultrasound at ten weeks, but then around six weeks decided I couldn't take it anymore and made my announcement. Then at the beginning of my 8th week I started to get a bad feeling about things. It was weird, I just knew something wasn't right, something was going to happen. Which takes us to Easter weekend...

The day before Easter I was feeling really nervous. I knew something was wrong, I knew it was to do with the pregnancy but I didn't know what it was. I just walked around with this terrible feeling, trying to ignore it. It wasn't until we were in church that night and I was able to sit there and think about it that it got really overwhelming. Sitting there in the sermon on the verge of a panic attack I remembered a little saying that I found on a support forum after my last loss:

God does not instill a desire within your heart without intending to fulfill it. Wait on him and you will see your dreams come alive.

I sat there, closed my eyes and repeated that in my head through the whole sermon. In fact, walking out of church that day I probably wouldn't be able to even tell you what the pastor had said because I was concentrating so much on that. After church Chan and I stopped at the store and then headed to my parents for Chinese food. I got my food, sat down and started eating, and then felt something. I ran to the bathroom and low and behold, I was bleeding....again....and a lot. Like, a LOT! So here I was trying to keep it together, I got things under control and went back to sit at the table but couldn't keep it together long and went back to the bathroom and started crying.

I remember thinking "oh not again!", I told my mom I felt stupid for crying because I thought it wouldn't be so hard this time around to loose another pregnancy. I felt stupid too, because I was crying in front of my WHOLE family, but I know they didn't care that I did. Chan and I decided to go home, and I spent the night praying for a miracle. What better weekend for a miracle then Easter weekend, after all..right??

Easter came and went and by then I was pretty much at peace that things could be going horribly wrong. Monday I called my midwife and they got me in that day for an ultrasound. Chan and I went in and I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be shown what I thought was happening. We waited for someone to call us and I told Chan I'd rather be going in for a root canal (and if you know me you know that's saying something!) but eventually we were called and went back into the small room. The technician put the little ultrasound wand to my belly and I saw the baby...and a little flicker in her chest! I started to get excited but stopped myself since he hadn't said anything yet. then the most wonderful words ever! "well, you're still pregnant!"

STILL PREGNANT!

I sighed out loud and he let us look a little longer while he tried to figure out what had happened. Turns out I had a Subchorionic Hemorrhage. Which is basically a pool of blood behind the placenta that forms when something doesn't attach right in the first few days of pregnancy. I just had to take it easy for a while and everything would be fine! I had my miracle....

The rest of the pregnancy went text-book great, although after the scare I found it really hard to connect, to bond. People would tell me congratulations and I would say thanks all the while thinking "but we'll see what happens" in my head. It wasn't until almost mid way through the pregnancy that I was listening to the radio and the song "Halo" by Beyonce (I know it's cheesy but I'm being serious here) came on, and I listened to every word of the song. It was the first time I had heard it, and while I'm well aware this song isn't about babies or anything like that, it just made sense to me. As I was hearing the words it was like God was telling me to let go and really love this child with all of my heart and not just the part that was comfortable with it. And so I did...

The day she was born was a day of excitement and anticipation. We went into the hospital where I was going to be induced, but I was already 4cm and having regular contractions so it really didn't take a lot to really get things going. I labored hard for a few hours, then at about 6cm requested an epidural. The epidural came when I was about 9cm. No it didn't take that long, that's just how fast my labors are. I literally got it, laid down, and felt that it was time to push. And so I did....twice....and there she was, placed on my belly and into my arms. My little survivor, my angel, my Kali.









Halo -Beyonce...
Remember those walls I built
Well, baby they're tumbling down
And they didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make up a sound

I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo
I got my angel now

It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
It's the risk that I'm takin'
I ain't never gonna shut you out

Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace

You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away

I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo

Hit me like a ray of sun
Burning through my darkest night
You're the only one that I want
Think I'm addicted to your light

I swore I'd never fall again
But this don't even feel like falling
Gravity can't forget
To pull me back to the ground again

Feels like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
The risk that I'm takin'
I'm never gonna shut you out

Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo
You know you're my saving grace

You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away