And she slept

And so did I.
Life is so much more rosey when you sleep don't you think?

It took her forever to get to sleep. We started trying around 9 and she didn't actually fall asleep till close to 11, but she did and didn't wake up once all night.

Now Jon and I weren't exactly so lucky as I heard a bug and it turned out to be a roach in our room and Jon spent 15 minutes chasing it out from under things moving the bed and end tables around till he got it... ICK!

But besides that, sleep I did :)

She is with Christina today and though she is still fussy, she at least isn't running a fever. I haven't heard yet how nap time went... here's hoping for the best!

I'm so excited about tonight! It's the 2nd installment of our Book Club! We will be talking about New Moon tonight. It should be a blast as we have more people coming this time around. Someone is even bringing vampire cupcakes :)
I got all the discussion questions together and even found a short quiz for us all to take! Food, girls, wine (diet coke), books... can it get any better? I think not.

AND tomorrow! DUM-DA-DA-DUUUMMMM!!!
I have a sonogram tomorrow and HOPEFULLY we will find out if BabyVDP is a girl or a boy! I'm SOOOOOOO excited! I am going to have a full house for spectators as usual. Even my dearest Mabes will be there! I'm so excited! I can't wait to tell everyone... though if it's a boy, I won't be able to announce the name because we still haven't decided on one. But that's okay. Maybe we could have a poll on which name you think it should be. I think we are now between 2 names... but not anywhere close on middle names... sigh.

Anyways, so I have an exciting next 24 hours planned! Good times people.

Thanks for all the well wishes and encouragement on my last blog. Motherhood can be so trying at times... but I think we all know how worth it is.

Tough Weekend

Man this was a tough weekend for me.
It's those types of weekends that moms don't like to talk about. The ones where if they were very honest, they would say, 'I don't want to be a mom anymore'. Although those moments are fleeting, it's still true on certain days when it just seems too hard and too overwhelming.

I've had one of those weekends unfortunately.

Lyric is teething hardcore. Her gums are swollen and red, but those dang suckers won't poke through.

She's run a consistent fever since Friday afternoon and if I say she's been fussy/whiney that would be the largest understatement ever given to man.

Just the slightest thing incites a meltdown. Like she can't get her little person to sit in the car right, meltdown. She trips and falls, meltdown. She wants to grab something she's not suposed to and I say no, meltdown.

Then add on the fact that she won't sleep. You would think if your mouth hurts, sleep would be a happy relief... oh no, she won't sleep more than 30 minutes during the day.

And then when she wakes up screaming, even when you pick her up, she just cries and cries.

Last night was the worst night... she even got choked up and threw up all over me, right after I had taken a shower.

Today I only went into work for a few hours, and then came home with her.

It's just been soooo hard for both of us. Me because I'm trying to be there and be a good mom and love her and comfort her, but all the while my patience is wearing thinner and thinner. Her, as she just doesn't feel good and is in pain.
It's not even like Jonathan can help. She literally won't go to anyone. She just screams and cries. I broke down on Sunday and Jon tried to take her in the other room and she just had a meltdown and wouldn't get off my lap. Jon even went and got a popsicle which she loves and tried to bribe her and she still refused. She just doesn't want anyone but me. I'm her comfort, which is nice normally... but seriously... even comforts need a break.

So, ya, it's been one of those weekends. It's not that I want to be away from her. I'm exhausted, I don't want to be anywhere but home. I just want her to not be so fussy! I want her to nap! I want a good night's sleep!

I did get out of the house once this weekend though. Jon had to go to the Apple Store so we went with him, feverish baby and all. Though she was out of it:


But I was happy to be out of the house. Plus we ate at Uncle Julio's in Grapevine and I have wanted to eat there for awhile. I really liked it. Their queso is YUMMY!


Friday night, Jonathan had gone to Danny McCoy's birthday party and they started "fighting" like Jon and Danny do best. They get twigs and start beating eachother. I don't see the interest in it, but they think it's hilarious.
Here are Jon's wounds:




Then we babysat Ash and Maddy that night when Courtney and Nathan went to a birthday party.
Here they are in my room watching a movie


Then after, Ashlyn fell asleep with Uncle Jon


Lyric did learn how to sing the B-I-B-L-E though (baby style) and I caught it on video :)



So that was my long extended weekend full of more crying and whining than I would care to think about.

Everyone pray that tonight is better... or I may go insane.

A Real Day of Rest

Today has been really relaxing and I'm so excited about it.

I just have chilled. I haven't cleaned (well I picked up a little), I haven't done laundry, I've honestly just chilled.

Jon got up this morning and made Lyric and I breakfast of fresh strawberries and bananas.. yum!

Then he had to go downtown to an immigration appointment, and around this time Lyric should be going down for her first nap. Well she hasn't been taking a very long afternoon nap, so Christina and I decided to cut out the morning nap and make her just have one nap a day. Well she gets so tired in the morning still, so around 10:30-11:00 she was fussy and crying and wanted her pappy (Passy). So I called my sister and she sent down the troops to keep her occupied :) My nieces Ashlyn, Madysen and Kadyn came over and kept Lyric up till 1pm :) We ate lunch together and they played with the Little People, and colored and we watched Princess Bride. Parents of only children totally understand the fabulousness of having other kids over to occupy your child. You just havd no idea.

I just now put Lyric to bed and hopefully she'll have a good long nap that will coincide with my good long nap :)

No shabbat meal tonight as my parents are in DC, so I am hoping that we literally don't do anything all day and all night. I would be fine not even leaving the house :) I feel like I just need a major recoop time and life will become peachy.

Last night I literally woke up 4 times to pee. I am having some major constipation problems and I think it's making my bladder hold even less pee than normal. That was SO annoying! But then I keep reminding myself it's only going to get worse from here... :)

My dearest me (dear meat) friend Missie is having her baby boy today! She went in this morning and I can't wait to hear all the details, and yes she will dish all those details because she's cool like that :) Her blog always makes me laugh :)
So good luck and congrats Missie!

So off to watch more Law and Order SVU. I'm in season 3 now, and I've already seen season 6 and 7, so only 2 more seasons to go :)

I hope everyone has a relaxing/productive/fun day today!

Shabbat Shalom!

Anxiety Attack

So last night, in the middle of the night I woke up suddenly.
Jon said I started gasping and saying "something's wrong, something's wrong."
I don't remember saying that, but I do remember waking up and knowing that I was in the middle of an anxiety attack.
I couldn't breathe and it felt like sharp stabbing pains in my chest. I knew what was happening, although it has never happened to me before. My family has a history of these things, so I just sat still and took deep breaths. It took about 5 minutes for me to be able to breathe normally and for the stabbing pains to go away.

It was really strange. I of course didn't sleep well the rest of the night.

I think I'm just kind of stressed. Mainly it's just money stress. I wish I knew how we were going to be able to work everything out that needs to be worked out in the coming months. We are trying to adjust our lifestyle to make it rely solely on Jonathan's income and I just don't see how that is going to happen. I mean, I can see to an extent, but it just makes me feel panicky. It's not that we don't have money right now, we are doing perfectly fine. I just know that in the coming months we have some huge bills that need to be paid (Europe trip, $2000 deductible, holidays, etc.) and the whole time we are trying to adjust to living on a smaller income as I know inevitably it's going to have to happen at least for a time after the baby is born. I don't think 6 weeks maternity is going to cut it, on any level, so we are going to have to figure out a way to live on one income for a time.
I just wish I had a plan. I don't, and that's what's stressing me out.

Ok, so I just wanted to write about my funky anxiety attack as I've never had one before.

On a positive note!

We went by Kristina Hippman's toy extravaganza last night and picked up some awesome Little People sets. Lyric is having SO much fun with them. I love seeing her happy and playing, it's such a peaceful thing, when your kid is just happy :) She also loves a Belle doll we picked up from them and carried it around, even to bed last night.

Here is her Little People collection thus far:


I was talking to Jon this morning and Lyric was playing with the castle. Normally she jumps at the chance to talk to me on the phone, especially when it entails holding Jon's iPhone. But this time, Jon couldn't even get her to hold the phone. All she would do was yell hi and not even turn to look at him as she was too busy playing.
I've been replaced by Little People.

Just for fun, let's talk about my belly button for a minute. Normally I have a very deep, innie belly button. When I was pregnant with Lyric, it took quite a while for it to flatten out and it only popped at the very end.
But this time around, my belly button is almost completely flat and the top is already starting to pop out... how strange is that.
For your viewing pleasure, my belly button

I guess it just has sensory recall and decided not to fight it, but seriously, it's kind of nuts.

Finally, my parents left today for DC. They are with the Hogans and are touring around DC today and then tomorrow going to be attending The Call. They are going to have a BLAST! I am so jealous and I wish I was with them. Have fun mom and dad!

Well today is my Friday as I don't work tomorrow. I am wishing the hours to pass quicker as I'm exhausted after last night... pass quickly time!

PRINCESS BUTTERCUP

I have no idea why I always call her that... or actually I do as it's from Princess Bride... but I don't know why I refer to Lyric as that... anyways. Here is a picture Christina sent me of Lyric playing dress up today... can she get any more adorable?! If she does I might die.

Lyric Hallel

Ok, Lyric has to be one of my favorite people. Bar none. 

She just makes me laugh.

Here she is in the midst of toys, just hanging out. I love when she does this, crawls onto her belly to play with toys. She looks like such a big girl!

And here she is being a little mommy. She does this all by herself. She gets her baby, puts it in the highchair, then pulls up her Elmo chair and gets a spoon and bowl and feeds the baby. It's SO cute!


She looks so much like a Vandeput


Here is a video of her doing one of her favorite things, DANCING! She loves to watch So You Think You Can Dance and here she is getting her groove on



And here she is "crying", it makes me laugh :)

So as you can see, Lyric is fantastic :)

My aching...

I wish I could sit here and go on an on about this TMI ailment that is "ailing" me... okay fine, I will. I have a case of the roids.
DEAR GOD!
I blame Ryan and Tiffani as if they had not gotten married, I would not have been on my feet for 2 days straight, dancing and carrying around a 16 month old baby who didn't want to be put down... in honor of them, I've actually named my roid after them, I call it Ryffani.
So Ryffani- I curse you and hope you go away very, very soon!

In other news, I'm still tired :)
Yesterday I left church early, only to go home and lay on my side the entire day, hoping that Ryffani would go away once and for all, which didn't happen. Let's just talk about how Jonathan needs to get a cousin of Ryffani so he can understand the pain I feel. He basically just called me lazy all day and everything he did for me, he did so begrudgingly, which is so frustrating when all you want to do is say RYFFANI MAY BE SERIOUSLY MAIMING ME PERMENANTLEY! but he just doesn't get it.
One of these days, he will. He'll be moving a couch, running a marathon or be playing racquetball and he'll come hobbling into our bedroom, begging my forgiveness. "If only I had known how evil Ryffani can be... I would have gotten your diet coke without telling you to get it yourself 3 times. I would have made you a tuna sandwich and remembered to bring you the cheese dorrito chips too... I wouldn't have told you to get your lazy butt out of bed and get them yourself..."
One day Jon, one day.

So today hasn't been the best day for me, but I've been REALLY busy which is nice, except when I have to walk upstairs, that's not nice.

Lyric has hit another talking zone and is saying more and more words! It blows my mind. This past week she started to put together 2 words. "Hi Dada" "Moe pssz" If only I could get her to say drink better. She said "daay" which no one but those who keep her know what she's talking about.
Also, she is getting into that stage where I have to start watching what I watch around her. Yesterday I was watching XFiles the movie and she was fascinated with it, so I had to keep distracting her during the scary parts. I liked it better when she was blissfully ignorant of everything on tv... but I guess that is just part of her growing up!

My oldest niece Ashlyn is GONE!!! She went to our church's Kid's Camp this week. Oh goodness was she excited about it! You would have thought that she was going to Disney World. Courtney got all of her stuff ready, and she got a new sleeping bag and got to pick out her own snacks for the week. I saw her off at the church that morning because I had to be there early. I was able to help her put her tshirt on and her bandanna (she's on the pink team). She is going to have to much fun! Her counselor is Brad's sister Brandi and the Jr. Counselor is Taylor Smith. I can't wait for her to get back and hear all her stories... then in another week or so, SHE STARTS SCHOOL! I swear I view her as one of my own, so I feel this motherly pang when thinking that she is going to start school... she's just so big now!

Well I need to wrap some stuff up so I can get home. I've been craving Olive Garden and Baked Potatoes. Since I don't want to drive to Olive Garden tonight for dinner, baked potatoes will have to do the trick. So I need to get on home to get the oven turned on! Yum!

Later people!

The Wedding Day

The wedding day began a little hectic. I went to get a mani/pedi and I got a trainee and it took them 2 hours to get it done... omg I was so frustrated. So then I get back and we still had a million things to do. Thankfully I have the best sister in the world and she fixed Lyric's dress and I found Kadyn's size 4 white dress shoes, it all got done. I put the baby down for a nap and I got ready.
Jon and I had decided to rent a hotel room that night and send Lyric home with my parents. It was actually the first night I have ever been away from Lyric... how crazy is that! I wasn't nervous about it, it just so happens that we take Lyric with us everywhere and we live so close to family that when we are out late, it's easy just to go get her. So ya, good times. But of course I had to get her overnight bag, my overnight bag, all the stuff we needed for the wedding, take a shower, go buy my shoes for the wedding and get us both fed and be in Dallas by 3. Oh ya, when I put Lyric down for a nap it was 1pm :)

I was getting pretty stressed, especially since Lyric woke up crying from her nap and was in the WORST mood! I was thinking, please no, please no, please no! But of course, the show must go on, so at this point it was 2:30, I drove quickly to go pick up my shoes, get my lunch and started driving to Dallas. I was feeding lyric pieces of grilled cheese in the car on the way... well we get there and as she eats, she starts getting in a better mood. I get my hair done, Lyric won't walk in her dress because it was too poofy and then I realized I didn't have any socks for her. So I run with her next door to Neiman Marcus, but they don't have any. Oh well, no socks today! I was getting really stressed at this point... everyone had already left for the ceremony site...

So then I get in the car to drive to the ceremony site and I couldn't remember exactly how to get there. So I call Jon and my phone runs out of batteries... so I'm driving around for 30 minute, with only a vague idea of where it is... I stop a few times, ask for directions, borrow some random guys cell phone... it was awful. Finally I get there, and I was about to lose it. I was so tired of my fussy daughter, I was late, sweating bullets, Lyric wasn't dressed, I didn't know if I had missed the pictures... I was just about to start balling!
However, I quickly calmed down and took a few deep breaths... my mom helped me dress Lyric and everything was ok.

So that was my hectic wedding day :)

I walked into the reception area and it was GORGEOUS! It looked like a fairy land. The room was filled with flowers and plants. It looked like a magical rain forest.


Tiffani looked absolutely beautiful!
Here is one of the center pieces
Amanda and Tabitha
All the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked in together so it looked really cool. Jon and I both held Lyric's hands and walked in together. She of course stole the show :)

Here you can see Tiff walking in with her dad in the distance

During the ceremony

>Us during the ceremony
Now Mr. and Mrs. Frederick!
Ok, here are some lovely pics of my daughter :)




Courtney and Nate
Another one of Lyric for good measure
The happy couple
Court, me and Abby
The bride's cake
The groom's cake
Dancing
The speech right before the fireworks.
The fireworks were to the Misty Edwards song, Relentless. It was pretty cool and synchronized. I didn't think to record it till the very end, but here is a short clip:

LyLy wasn't too sure about it. She just hid the whole time:

Then of course it was time to boogy. Pregnant or not, I shake it. Note that this is how Abby and I groove:

They had a lounge area with Go-Go dancers
Ry and Tiff getting down

As they ran out to the car, they ran through this:

Ok, here are some of the cool parts of the wedding:

They had a free photobooth that was set up in the back. We had so much fun taking a bunch of group shots :) This was an actual photobooth that you had to squeeze into, it was a blast! Also, the guest book was right next to it, and people print a picture and put it in the book and sign it.

During the ceremony, there was a woman with a big loom and at one point Ry and Tiff both gave her spools of thread and she wove into this blanket during the ceremony their thread to make a unity blanket.

There was a lady who during the reception was painting a portrait.

Fun times people, fun times!

I am so happy for Ryan and Tiff. The wedding was the most amazingly cool wedding I've ever been to. It was over the top, but in a good way. The food was great, man I wish I was able to take of that top shelf open bar and strawberry mojito's, but oh well! :) I would rather not have a baby with brain damage :)

They are going on an incredible honeymoon to South Africa and Ireland. They will be shark diving, going on a safari, going to all the cool breweries and just having an amazing 3 week vacation! 

I talked with them a minute this morning and my parent's went to the airport and brought Ryan his iPod that he forgot... they look SO happy and I can't wait to hear all the stories from their awesome trip.

Is it possible?

Today when I opened my email, I had a lovely email discussing my 16 month old baby...

wait, there must be some mistake... I don't have a 16 month old... what's the date... holy crap.

Yup, actually, I do have a 16 month old.

I've been so consumed with the passing weeks of this new little one, that I'm kind of forgetting the passing weeks of my first little one.

She is almost a year and a half old. Man, time really does fly.

I am so proud of that little girl. She takes on life with such tenacity that it puts me to shame.

When I was pregnant with her, I always prayed that she would have fire. I wanted her to know what she wanted and to go wholeheartedly after it until it was in her grasp.

And guess what? I got that :)

She is so full of life and, well, attitude that at times it gets so frustrating, but then I think of how much I wanted this for her.

Not everyone has that type of 'push'. The part that never gives up. I never want her to be afraid of anything. I want her to see a hurdle and think, "ahh, that's nothing" and leap over it. I want if she falls to think immediately on how she is going to get back up.
I want people to refer to her as a woman with fire in her eyes, a firecracker.

I know that wanting her to have everything will be a big responsibility on me and Jon. We need to teach her to hold her temper and teach her to be loving and forgiving. We need to teach her sensitivity to others. We will need to give her very distinct boundaries and keep to our guns. It's already proving to be easier said than done. Especially with me being pregnant, I just don't want to fight with her... and although she gets away with more than I would like, I still think she is a pretty well rounded kid.

She is so stinkin' cute and is talking SO much! She has the best faces of any child in the world.

She can basically mimic anything you say to a certain extent.

Her favorite new word is Ash. She talks about her cousins all the time "maaaaeee" and aayyee" (maddy and Kady). She says all your basic words, ball, go, mamma, dadda, no, yes, more, hi, bye, baby, jedi, etc.

Like I said, she can basically mimic anything, so she can sort of say whatever we want her to, as long as it's simple.

Her hair is growing! :) and she knows where all her body parts are. Just ask her where her mouth is and she will be glad to show you :)

She still loves baby dolls. But now she also likes to "make food" for you. She gets her dishes and comes over to feed you. She also loves the Little People sets. Reading is still one of her favorite past times and she will come over to me with a handful of books and sit patiently while I read each and everyone to her.

I am so blessed to have Lyric. She makes my life so much more fulfilled and I couldn't imagine life without her.

Bath Time - Fun Time

Last night was quite productive in the Vandeput household.

As I've previously mentioned, our house is in chaos. When our house is in chaos, it feels like my life is in chaos. I don't like to move as I'm too overwhelmed with the ridiculous state of my household and I just don't want to do anything as I know it's going to take a lot of work.

Well enough is enough. So I sat down and wrote a long detailed list that I could just check off throughout the next few days.

Jonathan became the world's best husband and when I got home, he already had the living room checked off (besides that i need to re-sort toys and get most of them back in Lyric's room) and the kitchen done.

I proceeded to go through and collect all excess dishes, throw away all the trash. Go through the mounds of mail, sort dirty clothes, etc.

I then proceeded to make a scrumptious meal of chicken spaghetti. Before commencing all of this, Lyric and I went down to Aunt CoCo's house because she was standing in the kitchen crying "dado" (which means CoCo) because she is used to going there directly and we deviated because I had groceries. She is quite in love with her Aunt and her cousins.

Well upon our visit, I decided to bring Kadyn home with us to entertain Lyric while Jon and I continued to cook and clean. It worked out nicely.

Then we ate and the girls got SO dirty, that I decided to give them a bath. Here is the cuteness of the bath time-fun time!





Lyric fell and bit her top lip. Look how swollen it is:


Here they are swimming (yes the floor was soaked)


So it was super cute and super fun.

Jonathan also decided to COMPLETELY rearrange our room. I don't know how much I like it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It just emphasised how much we need to get a bed frame (yes we are ghetto like that).

Anyways, today is my Friday as I don't work tomorrow, but it's already shaping up to be kind of stressful because the restaurant we are going to today refused to give us the back room by ourselves and we have a meeting where we need to talk, so we are going to have to be louder than normal... and of course this will be my fault, but I just now got ahold of the manager this morning to try to talk to her. But she said she could do it if we moved the lunch to after 1, which of course we can't do...

sigh.

Anyways, happy times.

I think this weekend is going to be great!

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KORBIN!


Korbin turns 2 today and he is such a great little boy! Just ask him what a horse says and you'll be rolling with laughter :) His birthday party is Saturday, so be expecting a fun kid picture filled blog soon! :)

Ok, back to the grind!

First of Many

I know, I know. I have been a horrible blogger as of late.
I can't help it! Would you like to take a look at my weekly calendar? it's nuts. I'm doing something like every night of every week.
Though I can't complain all that much because this weekend, I had my first of many long weekends. Yes that's right. My work schedule changed to 30 hours a week and now I don't work Fridays.
How amazing is that! It was so nice to fall asleep on Thursday and know that Friday morning your alarm wouldn't go off (though your 1 year old alarm and your baby dancing on your bladder would). Jon woke up when he heard the baby, I guess out of routine and got her up and fed her breakfast and I didn't wake up till after 9.
I then proceeded to do a boat load of laundry, which has hence found itself on the floor of the guest bedroom.
I also didn't get our house cleaned... and to many of you that doesn't seem that big of a deal, but we are now into the 3rd week without the floors/bathrooms being cleaned... it was not ok. But once again, we were busy all weekend.
Friday the Frederick's flew in from Cyprus to help prepare for Ryan and Tiff's wedding. We also celebrated Norm's birthday that night too.
Here are a few pics:


Praying over the birthday boy :)


Ashlyn Rose


Dad singing with the birthday pudding


Norm orchestrating his praise (please note he is not 55, but 51, however my mom could only find 2 fives)


Judah is now 6 months old, he is getting SO big!


Ry and Lyly


Maddy showing her braid


Landon, Austin and Hannah


Lynn and my mom


Court (looking oh so busty), Christina and moi!


Then on Saturday I finally cashed in on my Mother's Day present, and I got a "I survived the 1st trimester" pregnancy massage. OMG, it was glorious. I did not want it to end. I still have enough left on my gift card to get another massage, so I'm thinking I will wait till November then have a "I survived my 2nd trimester" massage. I get relaxed just thinking about it. sigh.
After that, we quickly had to leave for Ryan and Tiff's house in Dallas where they were moving in. When we got into Dallas, we discovered that 75 was shut down. So it took us forever to get to their house. Lyric was getting bored, so we stayed entertained by making silly faces.




She is getting so big!


I was of no help, but I did play house nanny (my sister and all her kids were there). We played hide and go seek and let me tell you. Lyric is the worst hider ever. She follows me and stands right in front of me smiling saying "mama" and pointing. I would be like, "go away" and she would just laugh. She totally kept giving my awesome hiding places away.
They also have a cute swing in the back that Lyric had fun on:



Sunday I actually got out in the sun for a bit. But I realized why I'm so white this summer. it's because I hate to be hot! And you can't go outside without getting hot.
We did find a way to ensure that my daughter does not drown in the pool. We put a floatie swim bathing suit on, with floaties. She resembles that kid from "A Christmas Story", you know the little brother Randy that has to wear that snow get up and he can't move or put his arms down? Ya, that's Lyric, but she has the summer version. But she doesn't go under and she can float around the pool without me holding her (or being in a floatie) which is what she wants because she thinks she's 6 and can swim by herself.

Anyways, this weekend was so nice. I can't wait to have a repeat this weekend! Working 30 hours is rockin' my world! :)

The Woes of Motherhood

*WARNING- this blog is a long rant about how frustrated I am with motherhood. proceed with a sympathetic mind*

I'm sure mother's have this feeling quite often, but it was really overwhelming for me this weekend.
My daughter was on a rampage with her 2 favorite words "NO" and "MINE".
OMG, I've never been so frustrated and tired.
Jonathan was gone all weekend at a bachelor party, which left me and Lyric to fend for ourselves.
Friday night we decided to have a late night (8pm) swim at my parent's house. We brought some dinner over because we didn't have shabbat dinner that night, and then went swimming. Normally Lyric just sits on the steps and is normally ok and not too high maintenance when we swim. OH no. Not this time. This time she decided that she could swim just as well as her cousins and kept going off the side and off the step and under the water. I would pull her out and she would just sputter, then smile. Not even cry. Then she would immedaitely start squirmming trying to get out of my arms so she could go back in the water, off the edge again... so it was not a relaxing experience! She was stressing me out! I put floaties on her, but she has no balance, so she goes backwards and forwards in them. Then we get out, I take her swimsuit and swim diaper off outside, have her wrapped in a towel and go into my parent's living room to put her clothes on. The moment I put her on the ground, she runs off towards the toys and I immediately go run after her, but in that 5 seconds she was free, she decided to pee all over the floor. Fun times. Then I had her dressed and we went back down by the pool and she kept trying to get back in and was crying and throwing a fit when I wouldn't let you let her. I didn't have a passy, so that meant we needed to leave.
I get her home and in bed. But around 3am, she wakes up crying.
Normally Jon jumps up immediately because he never lets her cry it out, but he was gone. So I went in there and patted her back and got her to lay back down and I thought she fell back asleep, but by the time I get in my bed, she's crying, "mama, mama, mama". So I decide to let her cry it out, because hey, I'm a mom. I can sleep through crying and I was exhausted. Well I do fall back asleep, but I wake up like 30 minutes later and she's STILL crying. So I get her up and take her in bed with me and she falls asleep, tossing and turning, so at around 5 I take her back in her bed, where she stays asleep till 9:30.... LONG night.

Then my sister calls and wants to know if I want to go to breakfast (Nathan is gone also). So I'm like sure. So we pack up the kiddos (her two oldest spent the night with my mom) and we head out to Cracker Barrel. We called Abby who decided to join us with Sophie and Korbin.
We ate, but of course it's always a little stressful dealing with a table of 5 kids all 2 and under. But we managed. We then decide to go to Abby's house who so graciously (after we begged her and bugged her) said she would do our hair.
On our way to Abby's house, we get a call from the guys who say they are home for like 30 minutes and they "have a surprise for us", not a big one, but for us to come home. So we drive all the way back home (ok, only like 10 minutes, but still), and we walk in the door all excited, expecting something sweet for them abandoning us to go party, and they are standing there in their new suits they got for the wedding. They are really nice custom suits, but still, they are their suits.
And just in case you were wondering, yes that was their surprise. They wanted to show us their suits. Isn't that a great surprise for us! Courtney acted like she was happy, but I was like, "you made me drive all the way back here when I was on the way to get my HAIR DONE so you could show me your suit, which you can show me any time because I live with you?"
So that was a waste of 30 minutes. But we pick up Ashlyn and Madysen and head over to Abby's house.
So now we have 7, yes 7 kids ages 5 and under at Abby's house.
Things were fine, but nap time was soon approaching. She does have 4 bedrooms, so that makes it a little easier and thankfully Courtney had a pack-n-play. So we start getting kids down for naps (in between foils, bleach and hair cuts). Brad came home in between a photo shoot, so he was in his office, so we decided to put the pack-n-play/Lyric in the guest bathroom. Lyric goes down very easy as she was tired.
Well unfortunately, neither of us informed Brad of our plan and he walks in there and Lyric wakes up after about 15 minutes (TOTALLY not your fault Brad). And of course, no matter what I do, I can NOT get her to go back to bed.
So now I have a napless child on my hands who is already on a rampage that day.
So then let's get into the wonderful behavioral problems I've been dealing with.
First off, let's deal with the not sitting still while mommy is changing your clothes/diaper. We've never had an issue with this. I never have had to fight her to sit still during diaper changes or anything. We dealt with that early on and she now just knows she has to sit still. But this week? Oh she's pushing the boundaries. Squirming and trying to roll over, sticking her hands down there, just wanting me to go insane.
Then we have the "Lyric, come to mamma" then her looking at me with a gleam in her eye that says "now the fun begins" and turns in the OPPOSITE direction and takes off in a run squealing thinking this is some sort of game....
Then we have the newest word of "mine" that she perfected while we were at Abby's on Saturday. She constantly grabbed toys out of other kids hands and would get into a "MINE" fight with Korbin... I thought I was going to go insane! She just was not obeying!
I do realize that I need to start being more forceful with my discipline. Swatting her a few times on the leg is not doing anything anymore (yes I spank her- believe me, sitting her in "time out" would not work). I'm going to have to start being more forceful with my discipline, but I'm so focused on making sure she knows why she's getting disciplined, "you can't run away from mommy. That is disobeying and when you disobey you get a spanking. Mommy loves you that's why I want you to obey me immediately..." blah, blah, that by the time I'm done with my speech, and her looking at me with those wide eyes saying "ss'mm" (yes mam), I just don't have the desire to be real forceful in her spanking. But I know the point needs to get across.
My sister/Abby really encouraged me that day and pointed out that what I am doing is not enough, and I did give her one good spanking that really made a difference in her attitude I could tell. It's just HARD!
Every parent is different the way they parent. Even though my sister is an incredible mom/disciplinarian, I can't mimic everything my sister does because our kids are different and our own personalities are different. Finding that line of who you are as a parent and a disciplinarian is so hard because the line is always moving. Your kids are always evolving and maturing and your constantly having to adjust.
Jonathan is SO much better at it than me and I tend to let him discipline her the most. But then the problem is she acts fine for him, but not fine for me if he's not around- hence this weekend.
So anyways, we had a fun time at Abby's, but by 8:30p, with Lyric having no nap, Kadyn having just a short nap, Court and I were ready to get our kids in bed!
Lyric, who normally doesn't hit the hay till around 9:30, was zonked out in the car on the way back home and she was asleep in her bed before 9, and I didn't hear a peep from her all night.
I was sitting in bed trying to go to sleep that night and I was just so tired and so frustrated and I felt like all I did all day was spank her. And that all I did all weekend was have a battle of wills with her. I just felt like a failure! I know it's silly, but I just did.
Then on Sunday I was on worship team, so I had to wake her up early a little before 8. She was immediately in a bad mood and her bad mood did not change that whole day.
By the time we were at lunch after Church and she was crying and fussing and stealing books from her cousins and then hanging on for dear life yelling "MINE" I just about had it. I felt my blood boiling and I really did feel like slapping her upside the head. I know that sounds dramatic, but that's how I felt! I couldn't decide if I should burst into tears or scream right there in the middle of On the Border. I just looked at Jon and said, I need to get away from her.
She fell asleep in the car, so of course when I put her in her bed, she thought she had already taken a nap and wasn't ready to go to sleep. I just threw her baby doll and a book in her crib and left her in there. I could hear her talking, but she wasn't crying. I fell asleep and woke up like 30 minutes later and could still hear her talking (not crying or even calling for me), I fell back asleep and woke up an hour later and didn't hear anything. I fell back asleep again and this time woke up to her calling for me.
So I got like an almost 3 hour nap that day.
Then my sister called and her and my mom and wanted to go see the new Batman movie. So we left all the kiddos and had a good time!
I really needed that and Jon was due for some parenting alone time, so I didn't feel bad.

OK, all of that to say, I'm just really frustrated with my daughter. I know what I need to do to fix it, so I'm not at a loss. She just needs stricter boundaries. She doesn't act like it at home, it's just when we are out or around other kids. So I'm going to just spend some time with my nieces this week to specifically put her in those situations and then come down really strict on Lyric to deal with this.
It just makes me so tired...
BUT I started my new schedule this week and I get off early tomorrow to go to the doctor, so I have an easy work week, so we should be fine. I really think my new schedule is going to infuse a lot of life in me. Especially since I haven't been nauseous for the past few days. Still dealing with headaches, but I would take a headache any day over throwing up.

Well this was a really long blog, but I just needed to vent. So if you made it this far, you are a true reader! :)

Oh so relaxing

Today has been nice.

It started off gloriously with Jonathan getting up with the baby and letting me sleep in till 9:30! That is the latest I have slept since I don't even know when and it was SOOOOOO nice!

Last night was Austin's birthday shabbat. We had a good time, but I was really out of it most of the night due to my incredibly tiring day yesterday.

Here are just few pictures:








We went and saw HellBoy later that night. I thought it was really good, but I am a huge fan of stupid comic book type movies.

Then today I slept in and then Lyric and I took Maddy to Build-A-Bear to celebrate her 1/2 birthday! :) She had so much fun!

Maddy helping to fill her bear up


Getting the heart ready to go in the bear


Giving the bear a bath


After "Lyla" was all ready in her pink and rhinestone outfit


Then we came home and ALL took a LOOONG nap and then decided to go to Olive Garden where Aaron Goodman waited on us and I proceeded to eat waaay too much and now am sitting on the couch trying not to upchuck my dinner while Jonathan is playing xbox and Lyric is playing with her babies.
She has a baby packnplay that she likes to climb into. Here she is:




Tomorrow Jon and I are on Aaron and Christina's team. I need to get Lyric bathed and in bed and somehow manage to keep my dinner down. So wish me luck!

A Day In the Life

Yesterday was a typical day for me... typical meaning random.
That's how most of our nights are. There isn't ever anything planned. It's not always KNOWN that we chill out at home on week nights.
With all my family living in a 2 mile radius, and more specifically my sister living 4 houses down, it's always a draw where we'll end up.

Last night Jonathan informed me that he was taking a pastor who was in town from Belgium out to dinner. Not speaking French all that well, I was able to easily get out of having to go with him.

So... what does an extremely tired pregnant, full time working mother of a toddler do? Calls her sister with 4 kids under the age of 6. No one can be more tired than her right? True, but still even though she's always crazy busy with 4 kids ages 5, 4, 2 and 5 months, when I'm super tired, she always helps out with Lyric because she's super mom!

So she told me they were going up to the Church because the youth group (which my BIL is one of the pastors of) is having a summer party complete with dinner and a bounce house. At first i was like...nooo... I'm tired! But then she gave me the whole, "Lyric will have so much fun..." line and I figured I better do it. And Lyric did have so much fun. My niece Kadyn and her always have a great time playing together, and so they kept eachother company.
Here are some pics:

Aunt CoCo and Lyric on the slide




Kadyn and Lyric playing






We didn't stay too long because it was freaking HOT, which caused me to get a headache. We did stay long enough to snag some food for the kids and catch a bit of Princess Bride which they had playing in the Atrium.

Then I went and got Courtney and I some Pei Wei's and we went to her house and watched So You Think You Can Dance.

Good times had by all!

I was just thinking about how random my life is. It's not scripted in anyway. Jon and I rarely get into routines. But it's nice. It's fun. It's different. I like that.

Which brings me to blogging. My sister is about to start up on her own blog. I'm sure that is going to be really interesting as her life is FULL of crazy stories.

Are you BLOG deprived and interested to know what other Mom-Type blogs I read on a daily basis? Come on, you know you are a sucker for reading about other people's lives! Don't try to deny it! Well here is what is in my RSS Feed in alphabetical order.

Adventures in Baby Wearing- I really enjoy her posts. She is a SAH mom of 3 boys and is pregnant with her 4th which is a little girl! She posts a lot and it always seems to be upbeat and genuine. It's a great read.

Chicken and Cheese- I just recently started reading this blog. She is also pregnant with her 2nd child... though she is just about ready to pop.

Culture Feast- This one isn't a Mommy Blog. But it's a blog with many different authors and just talks about life and culture as it relates to the DFW area and other random things like book reviews, movie reviews, political analysis and more.

Dooce- I mean, can you seriously have an RSS feed and not include Dooce in it? She's basically one of the most popular bloggers in the world and always has something wildly inappropriate and over the line. She talks a lot about her daughter and her life as an ex-morman. Really funny stuff, if you don't get offended easily. She also has a new picture of the day, a new dog picture of the day and a new style section of the day. Dooce is one of my faves. I was watching an interview with her and do you know she makes like $40,000 a MONTH off of her blog. Wow.

From Dates to Diapers- This is a mommy of SIX kids AND she homeschools! Wow. Mostly this blog is a product review, but she does giveaways ALL the time. I have yet to win, but I'm going to keep on pluggin away!

Her Bad Mother- Ok, this one is a bit crude at times, but still always makes me laugh. She just had another baby about a month or so ago and a rough time at it. And boy does she let you know! It's a great blog though!

I Should be Folding Laundry- Once again, this is a great blog. It's a mother of 2 who recently just lost her identical twin boys when she was around 20 weeks pregnant. She is openly grieving and I find her blogs so raw and honest and I really enjoy them. She also is just a great blogger.

It's Not Me, It's You- Which is my friend Liz's blog. Though she doesn't update NEARLY often enough... but when she does, they are always fantastic blogs!

Jessica and Her Boys- another friend of mine's personal blog. She has two boys and is pregnant with her 3rd boy.

Motherhood Uncensored- once again a little R rated, but I love this blog. It NEVER ceases to amuse me. She is OH so honest and OH so blunt about it seems everyone in her life. I wish I could be that blunt on my blog, I think I play politics too much... Great blog!

Musings of a Housewife- Ok, I just subscribed to this one today, but in reading it over, I think it's going to be a good one!

Savvy Auntie- This AMAZING website is going to get it's own post very soon. I just need to get it all together. But if you have EVER thought of starting your own business, you need to eat up all the wisdom from Melanie. She is absolutely awesome and gifted.

Alexis Neely- This woman is a lawyer focused on the family and helping families have the right kind of planning in bad situations. She's pretty stinkin' cool from how her blogs and Twitters portray her. She doesn't update super often, but I always enjoy it when she does.

Twilight Series Theories- this site will give you ALL the goods on the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. This site updates A LOT, so be prepared to have a full RSS feed every morning.

Penelope Trunk- Her blog subjects don't always apply to me. She writes a lot about business and what not. But they are always great reads.

Of course this doesn't cover all the MySpace blogs I keep up with, plus a few others I peruse via Twitter links. But those are the ones I read daily in my RSS feed. I encourage you to click on a few of the links and check them out for yourself!

Oh the joys!

So I know I've been a bit lax in the writing once again.

I just haven't been feeling all that swell, but I'll try to do better this week. It's not sickness, it's just tiredness. Which is evident by my dirty, dirty house and laundry that is piled up.

This weekend, per usual, was filled with activities. Although I did manage to have some cute little niece bonding time as well as some quality Zelda playing time that did make the weekend that much better.

One crazy story that did occur happened while my 2 nieces spent the night with me. The next morning we woke up and decided to go get donuts and chocolate milk. Like good girls they put their chocolate milk on the table and were sitting on the floor in front of the tv watching cartoons. I walked into the kitchen, only to walk back right in time to see my daughter attempt to grab the chocolate milk off the table, and manage to pour the entire thing on her head.
She immediately starts crying as the milk is cold and she is surprised, but of course, due to the exorbitant amount of milk on the floor, she immediately slips, tries to stand up, slips again, hits her head on the corner of the table, stands, slips and I grab her right when she is about to slip again. She is SCREAMING so I grab her and run to the bathroom and put her in the bath tub. I manage to get her clothes stripped off and diaper off (thank GOD there was no poop) and all the while she is still having a panic attack. Then I quickly turn on the water, however, I didn't make sure that it would come out the faucet, and it was still on the overhead shower, so freezing cold water from the shower head shoots out and lands on her which made her jump 3 feet in the air and scream all the louder. I fix it quickly, but this time I couldn't get her calmed down. I couldn't even get her to sit down in the bath after I got it fixed and she loves baths. So Maddy is standing next to me and I'm like "TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES AND GET IN THE BATH" thinking that she would calm down if her cousin was in there, but oh no. She just kept screaming. Somehow I manage to get her washed and cleaned and out of the tub. All this happened in a matter of less than 5 minutes, so it was a bit of a panic time.

Oh the joys!

But we did have a great time with the girls. We went and saw Wall-E, which I really enjoyed! As we were driving home, a storm was rolling in and Ashlyn HATES storms. So she is sitting in the back seat of the car, shaking like a chihuahua. It was pretty funny! :)

OK, back to the grind.

"NO"

Picking up a cue from the always hilarious Missie, I need to write a blog about this wonderful new world of "NO" is.

In the last 2 days, Lyric now says the word NO for everything that possibly might have an answer to it. She says it so wonderfully well, too. Perfectly pronounced. Do you want that Lyric "no", did you go poo-poo "no", Can you bring me that "No" (as she brings it to me) "NO" is her favorite word. She even yells it at the dog when he is barking. Even right now she is standing by me holding her baby doll looking at it and telling it no (she also gave it a spanking- so it must have been up to no good).

Her learning how to talk is so freaking hilarious! She just will randomly come out with a new word and shock Jon and I.

Currently she can say (I may be forgetting something):
Hi
Bye-Bye
DaDa
Mama
No
DoDo (which is suposed to be Coco- my sis)
Ass (Ash her cousin)
ssss (yes)
oowww (ouch)
edi (Jedi)
psss (please)
a'mmm (yes mam)

And a variety of consistent grunts.

I'm trying to teach her thank you and drink but we aren't really doing so swell with those. Even though every now and then I can get a "tata" for thank you out of her

Even as annoying as the "NO" stage is, it's still pretty stinkin' cute.

Other recent fave things. To sit on the potty chair. Her cousin and Saeler are doing it now, so why can't she. She runs into me making grunt noises and pointing at the bathroom. So I take her in there and put her on the toilet (fully clothed mind you). She sits there for a second and I say, "Are you done?" she nods and then we get off the potty. Good times.

Ok, well we are having dinner tonight with the Smiths so I need to skidaddle. I just wanted to blog about it before I forgot!

Well Lyric is trying to put these bloomers on herself and is getting really mad that she can't get her feet through them and is yelling no at them as they keep slipping off, so I better go help her.

Feeling GREAT!

Ok, so besides the EXTREME lack of sleep I've been getting due to a sick baby... I am feeling TOTALLY VOMIT FREE TODAY!

I haven't felt this good since I've been pregnant. I haven't been nauseous all day, nor have I had even the slightest inkling to throw up. Case in point, I didn't feel sick this morning and was late for work so I didn't grab breakfast at home. I start getting busy and lo and behold it's 12pm and I still haven't eaten anything... and guess what? I wasn't sick! That's almost a miracle!

Now if only I could get the bottom half of my body jump started so I can get on the poop train and I would be one happy pregnant lady!

I seriously can't believe that I only had about 3 weeks of nausea and only a week or so of throwing up. This must be a freaking miracle... I guess I will be having that 3rd baby alright... maybe even a 4th! :)

Hopefully I won't be retracting all of these statements in my blog tomorrow (knock on wood).

I have been craving me some tuna- and although it's "not allowed" for pregnant women, I decided one measley tuna fish sandwich from Subway couldn't hurt me. So I partook of the glory of that sandwich and after eating that and my bag of nacho cheese dorritos, I was still freaking hungry. To this moment, I am still freaking hungry. That sandwich was so good, I may do it again tomorrow... how much is too much tuna? Anyone want to let me know?

So Lyric is still not feeling that snazzy. She had a rough night last night, but apparently is doing better today according to Christina.

She and I both are not riding consistently on the poop train and so I think she was just having some stomach issues last night.
But please note the adorableness of her though sleeping next to daddy:


Also, I finally took a picture of my pooch. Obviously at 9 weeks, I can't say that I'm "showing", but I like to pretend that I am. So together we will all pretend that my pooch is all baby, and not leftover fat and skin from my pregnancy with Lyric over a year ago, okay? Okay. Thanks.



And here is my daughter really happy that I am her mom.


Ok, I need to leave you now. Go eat some tuna fish and think of me.

Return of the Phantom Fever

Lyric came down with a fever again yesterday. Once again, no other symptoms besides a 102.5 fever.

This is SO strange. She's not acting that sick. A little more lethargic than normal, not eating as much as normal, but other than that, she's fine. Not super fussy, not super clingy. Just feverish.

It's SO strange!

Christina went ahead and kept her today because both Jon and I had to work, but it's still crazy that she just randomly comes down with high fevers with no other symptoms.

I am having some major back pains. It started yesterday and just got worse throughout the day and evening.

Today is no better. It just feels like a whole lot of pressure on my lower back... could this be pregnancy related? I don't think so as this 9 week old baby can not be big enough to create any real pressure in my body, right? But I didn't do anything strenuous yesterday, bottom line I'm not feeling that snazzy today.

But what day am I?

On a good note, I haven't thrown up in 2 days! Yippee! I still feel nauseous most of the day, but not nearly as bad as last week. I guess this is God telling me that he won't give me twins, but he will make it easier for me so I'll go through another pregnancy :)

So pray for my little girl and my back.

Eating Alone

So it's taken me almost 25 years to finally get comfortable eating alone at a restaurant.
I never liked it, I felt like everyone was staring at me wondering why I didn't have friends who would go to lunch with me.
But then when I started working, and dealing with the demands of a fast paced job, I found that sometimes your only sanity lies in taking a break from everyone, for just one measley hour.
And that's how I discovered that at least once a week, it is good for me to go to a restaurant, by myself and eat.
I normally bring a book, or some papers I need to go over. It's nice to just relax and not to talk to anyone. Just chill and eat at my own leisure.
It's realy nice and I've actually come to enjoy it and even somewhat prefer it during lunch breaks. (Although nothing can take the place of Jon and I's last minute lunches to Bennigans).

So Lyric is still sick. Her fever has gone down and is intermitten, but she is still not up to par. Jon said she walked around the house all morning calling, "mama". Awww! She loves me!!! She slept ok last night. After a few times of waking up, she went down for the night around 1am. I just feel so sorry for her when she is like this... she's just so helpless and she needs her mommy.

Speaking of mommy, my mother-in-law's visit has been great! I wish I was able to spend more than just the evenings with her, but alas,