So my kids are 2 8/12 and 9 months...

I was having lunch with my darling friend Erin (you know her from The View From 510) and she asked how old Reid was. She couldn't believe it when I told her he was already 9 months. Really, I can hardly believe it myself. Where the heck has the time gone? How have we already gone from this...

...to this?

This boy of ours truly is an angel baby. He's so easygoing, and kind of just goes with the flow. At 9 months, he hasn't crawled yet, although he has mastered rolling and sits up pretty well on his own. He is still breastfeeding like a champ, loves his mommy, daddy, and big brother, and is constantly saying "da da." (We're still working on mama). He has two teeth and very little hair. :) He is also smaller than his brother was at this age. At his 9 month checkup, he weighed in at 20 lbs and measured 28.5 inches tall. He's in the 70th percentile for height, but only in the 45th for weight. Tall and slim. He's still not sleeping very well, but I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that he is perpetually teething and/or sick from daycare germs.

And Colin... oh, Colin. He's a sweet, silly, crazy, strong willed two year old. All boy. He knows what he wants and does not like to be told no. He has the kind of personality traits that can drive a mom insane sometimes, but I firmly believe that he's going to be an amazing man because of those same traits. I can already see that he's going to be a leader, an extrovert, and incredibly intelligent.

I really cannot believe that in a few short months, we'll have a three year old and a one year old. Someone make it stop! Just like we did with Colin, we will probably have a small first birthday party for Reid. I want to do something fun for Colin's third birthday though, since he kind of got jipped out of a second birthday party due to the fact that his baby brother had just come home from the hospital a couple weeks before. I doubt we'll do anything huge, but we definitely need to invite some daycare friends. I'm thinking maybe a restaurant playplace party so we don't have to clean up after. Ha.

More to come!

Yummalicious Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Do you ever walk into a really dirty room and have no idea where to even start, so you just stand there staring at it? That's been me with this blog lately. I love to write, I love the blogosphere, and I have so much to tell you all about, but I don't have a lot of time, and I'm not even sure where to start.

So instead, today I'm going to share a yummy cookie recipe. Sound good?

My hubs convinced me to make these the other day. His reasoning? "They'll give your supply a boost." He's right, by the way. Oatmeal does wonders for breastmilk production. You're welcome, nursing mommies.

So, the recipe.

Gather your ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cups Quaker quick cooking oats

Get to mixing.

I use a hand mixer for this part. Throw the butter and sugar in first and mix well. Then add the eggs and vanilla and mix again.

Let me let you in on a busy mom secret. I don't sift my flour, and I don't mix my dry ingredients separately. There, I said it. Go ahead, dump in all of your dry ingredients now. Right on top of that buttery, sugary goodness. Try not to clutch your pearls too tightly, ladies. Now mix it alllll up with a fork. See, that wasn't too bad, was it?

Now drop those puppies onto your cookie sheet (or baking stone, which I lurve) and bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. The key is to take them out when they're a little underdone. Let them sit for a few minutes, and then transfer them onto a cooling rack.

Then, eat them the heck up. They're delicious, and they taste like fall. You're welcome!

Sorry, I don't have any pictures because the cookies didn't last long. Next time. :)

 

Wordless Wednesday: Our Family

Getting By on Prayer and Coffee

You might notice I haven't been blogging as often as I used to. It's not because I don't have anything to say. Can I be completely honest with you for a minute? I haven't written as much lately because I'm one of those "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" kinds of people, and I'm afraid that I might sound like a Debbie downer.

Let me start by saying that I am incredibly thankful for the blessings in my life. I am fully aware that I am blessed to have a job, a husband who loves me, and two beautiful children. I thank God for His goodness all the time.

But... since this is my blog and I feel like being candid right now... some days I don't feel as blessed as I know I am. Like... today, I changed a nasty, poopy pull-up in the parking lot outside the church we've been visiting. I shared my shower with a two year old. I held a fussy, teething, drooly baby while he fussed. I had my nipple bitten - hard - by the same teething baby while nursing him and howled in pain. I ate oatmeal for dinner after everyone else had already been fed, and most of it got cold while I was tending to the busy toddler and the teething baby. I sat on the edge of a "big boy bed" for far too long because someone did not want to go to sleep even though it was past his bedtime.

I wish I could say today was just a bad day, but let's face it. When you have a two year old and an almost nine month old, this is kind of just the norm. Our house is never clean anymore. The laundry is never really done. The dishes pile up amazingly fast, since we haven't cooked in a while. Date nights are few and far between. Between my job and my family, there are days when I don't really get to relax until after 9 pm, and by then I'm too tired to really enjoy it.

And still... having said all that, when I see these two little faces, I can't help but overflow with love for them. This motherhood thing is a wild ride. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is this. If you're a parent, and you feel like you're on the verge of pulling your hair out on a regular basis, know that you're not alone. It doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. On the contrary, I think it means you're doing something right. If you're totally spent by the end of each day, that means you've given your time, energy and love to your kids. That's a good thing, even though it doesn't always feel that way.

Being a mom is sometimes a thankless job. It's easy to feel like your kids want more from you than you can even give. But somehow, each day you do it all over again. I'm honestly not sure where I get the energy to press on some days. Prayer and coffee, I guess. But every day, there it is. I hope that my kids don't see the frustration and fatigue on my face. I hope that they can see past it and that they feel the overwhelming love I have for them. Because it's not always right there on the surface, but it is there, and it always will be.

In which I answer the question "do you want more?"

For some reason, this question has started to come up again. Maybe it's because my baby is not a tiny little thing anymore. Maybe it's because the two we have are spaced pretty close together. I don't know. I'll be chatting with a stranger in Target  a friend about Colin and Reid, and they'll smile and ask, "Do you want more kids, or are you done?"

I can usually sense just a hint of sarcasm in there. Like they're hoping I'll say, "Yes! I want ALL THE BABIES as soon as possible!" so they can laugh at me behind my back.

The truth is, I really don't know. There are days that I would honestly tell you that two is enough. That we're done. And there are other days... days when no one is sick, and both boys go to bed without a fuss, and everything is right with the world. On those days, I would tell you that yes, I would love a third.

What I do know for sure is that if it's up to us, it won't be any time soon. We've decided to wait it out before we do anything hasty. We are not going to try and get pregnant again anytime soon, but we are also not going to do anything permanent to prevent it. I'm on the pill now, and will keep taking it until we have "the talk," which will likely be years down the road.

So, back to the "do you want more kids" question. If I'm lucky, it will be quickly followed by, "Will you try for a girl?"

The answer to this question may surprise you. While I would be tickled to have a little girl, and buy frilly pink things and headbands with huge bows on them, I love being a boy mom. I really do. Boys are great. Yes, they're crazy, and messy, and they break things, but oh my word are they great. I love having two sons, and between you and me, I would love to be able to have another one. 

Just not right now.

Wordless Wednesday: Two Pieces of My Heart

The Great Paci Purge

We've done it, you guys. We are a pacifier free household.

It's kind of funny how it happened, really. A couple Saturdays ago, we had a babysitter come to the house so we could have a date night. That night, the sitter didn't give Colin his paci, but he went to bed just fine without it. He's been without it at daycare for a while now, but we were still allowing him to have it in bed at home.

That night, we decided that if he could survive one bedtime without it, that it was time just to get rid of it for good.

Someone stole a paci intended for baby brother...

The first couple nights were too easy. The second couple nights you would have thought we were torturing him. After that, things kind of leveled out, and the last two nights he hasn't mentioned it at all. Saturday will mark two weeks since he's used one at all, so it's safe to say we're done.

Since Reid still won't take a pacifier at all (he prefers his thumb or a blankie to suck on), I think it's time to throw out the few pacis I've kept in hiding.

It feels really good to have a parenting "win" under our belt. Next up? Hopefully, more potty training successes.

I just love this little boy-man so much.