Monday, April 30, 2012

My 8 Year-old Daughter

Eight years ago today I met one of my best friends.  I gave birth to a beautiful little girl 8 years ago today, shortly after noon.  I had gone into labor the night before while I was at work.  I waited to go in and see my doctor until the next day, when she announced I was at 3 cm.  I was ordered to go to the hospital and prepare to have my baby girl.  I had to get my husband from work. 

I picked him up and then we had to figure out who could watch my 13 month-old son while I gave birth.  Since he was a C-section, my baby girl would be born via C-section as well.  I called everyone I knew.  Everyone was at Womens Conference except my visiting teacher.  Although she had a young child herself, she came to the hospital and sat with my son so my husband could be with me. 

She has grown a lot since that day.  She loves to read.  She is an outgoing child with many friends.  She is protective of her brothers.  She reminds me a lot of myself.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple.  She enjoys cooking.  She is still in the beginning stages, but she can make a good bowl of ramen noodles.  She loves those!  On more than one occasion, she has asked for Ramen noodles w/ chicken, corn and peas, as her meal for the week.  She has recently made chocolate chip pancakes (a favorite that her grandma makes), macaroni and cheese, and Rice Krispies treats.  She even prepared the dough for oatmeal cookies one day.  She has developed a love for Food Network.  "Sweet Genius" and "Chopped" rate high on her list of favorite shows.

Tonight we went to an indoor playground and had supper and let the children play.  Saturday was the birthday party.  My two oldest children had their party together, they went to see "Chimpanzee" with their friends.  Needless to say, I didn't get to see much of it, but I am glad the children had a great time!  We got a cake from Costco and I bought ice cream and strawberries from Wal-Mart.  That was a fun day as well.

I am so thankful that my daughter was born 8 years ago.  It was a wonderful day in my life and I thank our Heavenly Father daily for her and my other children.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

It Will Be Like Getting a Shot...

Today I had a great idea, so I thought.  It ended up being one of the worse ideas I've had in my life, I think.  I thought it would be a good idea to get my baby's ears pierced.  I thought it would feel like getting a shot, that it would hurt for a moment and then be over with.  Nope, it was very painful.  Painful to her to have happen, and painful for me to hear and see. 

I keep telling myself, "At least she won't remember it when she is older...."  It doesn't seem to make me feel any better.  I have never heard such a sad cry from a baby.  It is one of those things that I wished there was one person doing each ear at the same time.  She was crying in pain after the first one... and then she had to get the other.  I didn't want her running around with one hole in her ear.

My husband and my sister both pointed out that I could have just had them take the first out and not do the other.  Wish I would have thought of that!  Now she has two holes and two beautiful earrings, but I am sure she wants me to feel her pain.  Every time she has nursed today, he has bit me.  I think I deserve that.  When she gets her first tooth, I think she is going to try to single-handedly pierce her food supply.  I can't say I'd blame her.  My sister pointed out though that once her tooth comes out, it won't bother her much, since she knows the pain of ear piercing.

So, to any one that reads this, and is contemplating having a baby girl's ears pierced.  It isn't like getting a shot.  It is like the most painful thing you could ever imagine happening to a healthy baby girl.  I wouldn't do it again.  I wish I didn't do it this time. I will advise my children not to do it to my granddaughters.  I thought I was doing her a favor so she wouldn't remember it when she was older, but I think she would have taken it a lot better.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Guest of the Day

My sister got a hotel room for us all to go down to on Friday night.  She thought it would be a fun time for the kids to be able to go swimming and meet a friend to go to dinner with.  She was right.

It made the children's day when we got into the room and there was something on the table announcing her as the guest of the day.  There was a small package of Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies, a little ziploc bag of samples and a couple bottles of water.  There were also two bedrooms, a family room/kitchen, a fireplace, two bathrooms, and 3 flat screen televisions.  It was as if we landed in the lap of luxury.  The rooms were beautiful!

The kids went swimming twice.  Once on Friday night and once on Saturday morning before we had to check-out.  They also left their swimsuits at the hotel.  Keith called this morning and thankfully they were still there.  He will pick them up tomorrow before he comes home from work.

We ate at the Chinese Gourmet restaurant.  It was good food and good company.  My children seemed to love the mashed potatoes, shrimp and all-you-can-eat dessert.  I love salad bars.  Perhaps, when dinner costs as much as it does these days, I shouldn't fill up on salad, but it what I prefer.  Nothing like a good salad with a lot of yummy, fresh toppings and ranch dressing to top it off.

It was wonderful to get away for a night.  I tried to work, but the internet connection was too slow, so it was probably meant to be.  I can't deal with slow internet.  We hung out and had a wonderful time. 

Thanks Sis!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Six Months Ago

Six months ago, I gave birth to my little girl.  It is hard for me to believe that it has been 6 months since I was blessed with her in my life.  I am so thankful for the health of all four of my children.

It is amazing how fast they grow up.  They are born being completely dependent on someone they don't even recognize.  She wouldn't have known me from any other woman in the world.  A baby's life literally depends on their family.  At birth, a baby is a spastic, uncoordinated, very flexible person.  There were times she would hit herself in the face, or kick herself in her bootie. My older children found it quite hilarious that she would kick herself.

Today, she knows who I am.  She isn't a fan of me leaving the room, let alone the house, without her.  She will often break out in a full-fledged cry. Perhaps it is because she sees her buffet leaving.  Who knows?  You can already tell that she has an amazing sense of humor.  Sometimes she will laugh so hard that she has to stop to take a breath.  She likes to figure things out too.  Yesterday, my husband came home from work and fell asleep on the couch.  She was in her Bumbo seat sitting next to me.  My husband started to snore, and she was leaning over in his direction just looking at him.  She couldn't figure out what was wrong, or right for that matter, with her daddy, but she certainly wanted to.

My children still love to hold her.  It is the first thing they want to do in the morning when they wake up.  Even if she is still asleep.  I love to see them with her.  You can see complete love in their eyes.  When she is awake, it is reciprocated.  She will sometimes look at them, and they don't know it, and she will just smile so big.  I enjoy seeing her, and my other three children, growing up. 

As a parent, I have always wanted my children to be happy.  For the most part, they always are.  There are definitely those moments when they want something that they don't need, that they aren't too happy when I say no.  There is also chore time which is not always a joyous time.  Those are just small moments, compared to the eternal perspective.  

Life is good :)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Running Again

Last week I found a Couch to 5K (C25K) program online.  I had started to feel that I was trying to do too much, too soon.  I guess that I had been driven by pride, trying to get back to those days of running miles at a time.  I had to finally breakdown and admit to myself that I was just overdoing it.  My body was hurting and it just wasn't too much fun.  It was actually quite the opposite... depressing.  I thought that I should be able to run miles at a time in no time flat... since I have run a couple marathons.  It just doesn't work that way.

I asked my daughter if she wanted to do the C25K with me.  Then I asked my 9 year-old son.  My 4 year-old also wanted to join in.  So, I had my crew and they wanted to join in.  My husband also decided that he would like to give it a try.  My sister has a bad knee, so she stays home with my baby.

The plan for running is quite easy, and it is nothing I have done before.  I have never done a walk/run plan.  It seems to be working for all of us.  I don't feel like I am doing more than I should.  I am enjoying the time with my family.  I enjoy being able to share my love of running with them.  My daughter started to show an interest in running with me right before I found out I was pregnant with my baby.  We had gone out running a couple times before that.  I would let her lead the way, she would pace the run. 

I am so excited to be doing this with the children and my husband.  I hope that someday they will be running the long distances with me.  It takes a lot of time and a lot of training, but I would love to have someone running a half-marathon or a marathon with me.  Someone that I can talk to and have motivate me to keep going.  I believe it would go a lot faster with someone beside me.

We are currently in the second week of our nine week program.  I will keep updates on here. 

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Baby's First Baby Food (Mar 30, 2012)

My daughter who will be 6 months old on Apr 5 had her first baby food on Friday.  She had eaten little bites of Rice Krispies here and there and bites of other things, but no baby food.  I bought her a jar of baby squash.  I remembered that my other children liked squash, so I thought that would be a safe one to start with.  Her older sister had been wanting to feed her, so I allowed her to give the first few bites. Her first bites of baby food were on Mar 30, 2012.


Feeding a baby isn't easy though.  They don't chew and swallow... they roll it around in their mouths, swallow some, spit a lot back out.  My older daughter was having a hard time understanding what to do with the regurgitated food.


 She gave up trying to feed her little sister after a little while.   She did a good job.  I don't know if it might have made her stomach turn every time her sister would spit food out.  My daughter handed me the spoon and jar and told me I could feed her.  I fed her few a couple seconds until my 4 year-old decided he wanted to help out. 

 He fed her for a few minutes and then decided he would like to be the photographer.  He took some pictures and then she decided she was done eating.  She liked her food.

 


 When she was done eating,  I wiped her face with the bib and she was nice and clean.  I will be getting her more squash soon!