Stay-at-home Mom

The girls at a birthday party for a little girl I do therapy with

Our new sign -
we had to have some way to let the neighbors know whether it was okay for Ellie to play or not and it seems to be working well so far. It also helps Ellie know when it's okay to play and when we need to do other things.
(I tend to not get much done when the neighborhood kids are over here, although they are very well behaved kids and we are blessed for Ellie to have such great friends to play with !)


Now for my real reason for this post:

So, my friend Emily posted something on her blog that I've been thinking a lot about lately. She talked about being a stay-at-home Mom and what she teaches her kids. I want to know if any of you have suggestions to share with me. I feel like I wasn't a good stay-at-home Mom to Ellie because I was so used to working full time that I didn't know how to transition to staying home full time. Now that I work 2 days a week, I'm struggling to juggle staying at home and working, although I am home most of the time with my girls. So, here's what I want from you, my readers. :-) Send me ideas that you have. Things you do on a daily basis with your kids, ways you teach them, how you teach them to love God, your daily schedule, crafts...whatever you do with your kids and any advice you might have. I think having 2 kids made me think even more about what I'm teaching them, so I've tried to be much better about keeping the house clean lately and we started a chore chart for Ellie, including allowance (thanks to another friend, Amber, who has a little boy very close to Ellie's age - she started it with her little boy and gave me the idea). Anyway, can't wait to hear from you!

Otter Ball

We somehow managed to get free tickets to an Otter's game tonight and it was so nice to get out of the house and do something different as a family! We all had a great time, even if none of us really care much for baseball. We got to sit with one of my newest friends, but we laugh and say we're long lost friends because we feel like we've known each other for years! Janet is great and she and I have the same job, plus we both like to do crafty sewing projects! The girls loved being outside and they enjoyed the balloons the clown made them, although those balloons didn't last long. Jeff was trying to explain the game to Ellie and she was surprisingly attentive and of course, Ava's tongue is out of her mouth - isn't it always? :-)

busy busy

Ellie loves to do crafty stuff - especially now that we figured out how to use her sewing machine that my parents gave her for Christmas?!? better late than never!

My latest project - a sling. We both love it. Ava is too big to ride in it like a newborn, but she fell asleep while we were walking, so she obviously still likes riding that way.

The sling is a great way to carry Ava on my hip and still have my hands free. She likes it...until we're talking past an animal or something that she wants to touch
- then she wants to get down. :-)

PRECIOUS!!
This was at my mom's house. Ava kept picking flowers.
She can stand on her own, stoop down and stand back up, and she has even taken a step on her own, but she's still really timid...which is fine with me -she's not even 9 months old yet!!

Ellie's favorite place to be - outside at her Nonee's!

Recital weekend

Ellie headed to VBS

Ava's funny faces...this one was at KinderMusik

Playin' the drums with Daddy at the children's museum

another VBS picture - the last day

dance recital pictures

Daddy's girls

headed to the big dance recital

kissy faces

dancing through life - Friday, June 13, 2008

Ava's walking wings
(she loves to walk holding our fingers, but it's not great developmentally for them to learn to walk that way. I found these "walking wings" and it's much easier for me and her!)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Update

Ellie's KinderMusik class

Happy girls!

Memorial Day weekend at Patti's with Nick and Amber

campin' cousins

Ava's KinderMusik class

Memorial Day weekend with my parents

headed to VBS

such a sick little girl!

neighborhood drink line-up

Ava was sick in this picture, but paper makes everything better in her world!
(especially when I just turn her loose and let her go crazy with it!)

The girls have both been so sick this week! It started with Ava having a fever and snowballed into high fevers with both girls, both had Hand Foot and Mouth disease, Ava had an ear infection, and Ellie had pneumonia. Good grief! 3 doctor visits, some antibiotics, bottles of ibuprophen and tylenol, and lots of rest later, and they are much better. Poor Jeff has it now, though. I think I'm probably immune to it because it's pretty rare in adults, but he's out of town (which makes it even worse) and has a fever and blisters on his throat and in his mouth. Maybe he'll be better tomorrow.

Daddy

So, Daddy is out of town and boy, do we miss him! Ellie said, I really want Daddy to come home one day. (He's only been gone one day so far!!) You don't realize what you've got until it's gone...like the help I get from Daddy around the house and with the girls. This time away will be good for us because we'll all realize again how much we need and love each other.

our smiles by wire

go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: becky hughes
Access Code: LTP32202020001JCP

I wanted these sweet pictures with the girls and me...
but I waited too long to really get what I wanted. 
I was hoping to have one where Ellie and I were looking at Ava,
but she was too big to do pictures that way.
I honestly like taking my own pictures
because I'm never really happy with "studio" pictures.
I still think these turned out okay, though.

8 months old

and Ava is standing, cruising, trying to walk (holding your fingers), jumping (in her johnny jump-up), laughing, talking...she thinks she's as big as Ellie! :-)

fun in the summer sun

HOW MANY GIRLS CAN YOU FIT IN A BABY POOL?

Our neighborhood is filled with kids...and we have a pool, trampoline, swing set...the list goes on and on. Which means, the kids usually end up all playing together and at some point during the day, they are at our house. Ellie and Ava LOVE to have company and Ellie asks to have friends over every day. $1 water balloons provided some great entertainment today!

Holiday World "08

Click here to see pictures of our trip to Holiday World.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37388&l=5756d&id=504816953

standing

Ava is almost standing...she is trying SO hard!!!!!

funny stories

Ellie tells such funny stories and is just a sponge right now. She sounds exactly like me, which is so scary. I'm constantly thinking about what I'm going to say and whether it is completely appropriate or not - especially when my little mocking bird is in public and decides to tell the world something I have said, without saying I said it. One of the best examples was tonight right before she got ready for bed. She was playing in a little tub of dried rice, noodles, and beans. She loves to scoop and pour them and she was making us strawberry milk (for me) and chocolate milk (for Jeff). It was actually just a cup of rice, beans, and noodles. Anyway, she asked me if I wanted "lsdkfjsldjf". I had no idea what she was saying, so I asked her several times. I never could understand her, so she finally got frustrated and said, "It's a recipe I got from Hopey's mom's blog. You can check my blog and get it from there."

Can you tell how I spend my free time? :-)

random labor comment...

Okay, when I was in labor with Ava, I hadn't had any child birth classes, including breathing/labor techniques. We signed up for a class before Ellie was born, but it was rescheduled for after her due date, so it wouldn't have done me any good. With Ava, I was planning to get my epidural early on like I did with Ellie, so no worries...right? Well, I was not in labor for very long with her. It started at 5:30am and she was born at 6:38pm, but the earlier contractions were not "hard" and I was waiting for my water to break - but it wouldn't on it's own and my contractions just kept getting stronger and stronger - and lasting much longer (some as long as 3 minutes). However, when I got to the hospital at 3:00, they decided to break my water at about 3:30, so things progressed quickly after that, since I had been in labor for so long already. I asked for my epidural and they ordered it...but they had me lying in the bed doing nothing, just trying to breathe through my contractions. Nobody told me to get out of the bed and try to walk around, which really gets to me, even to this day. Poor Jeff was trying to remind me to breathe because when the contractions would come, I would hold my breath. I read on another blog (some of our friends from TX are due soon and they had a child birth class) that labor is not an illness and you should NOT have a love affair with the bed while in labor. I SO WISH I HAD HEARD THAT BEFORE I WAS IN LABOR WITH HER. I wouldn't have asked for medicine to help with the pain until my epidural came, which ended up making me puke in the poor doctor's face while I was pushing. I might have not even asked for the epidural. Once I sat up in preparation for the epidural, I was able to breathe through the contractions, but no one told me to get out of the stinking bed?!?!? Shouldn't that nurse have known that??? I finally got the epidural about 45 minutes before she was born. Live and learn, right? I'll know better next time!! :-)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

4 Generations!

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all the Moms out there ~
aunts, cousins, friends, babysitters, grandmas ~ young and old!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Today was a day of good news!! First of all, CONGRATULATIONS Landy! My cousin got in to nursing school!! (You can see her picture with the girls below.) I am so excited for her! She just found out today and she called to let me know. I don't remember all the details, but I do know that it is hard to get in, so it was a huge blessing that she was able to get in and she'll start in August. We also found out that 2 of our good friends are expecting - one couple is expecting their 3rd, and this is the other couples' first!! God is good!

Donations Accepted

We are doing the "walk" for Juvenile diabetes and are accepting donations...let me know if you are interested. :-)

Landy aka "Effie"

My cousin came to stay with us last night. We have had the best time. We ate, went for a walk, watched old videos, talked, laughed, and just enjoyed being together and playing with the girls!

boots with the furrr...

This is what happens when Landy comes to town! :-)

bogged down

I sometimes feel like such a loser. My "to do" lists keep growing, not getting smaller. I need some organizational tips, so feel free to leave some comments and help me out! I am so bogged down with work that I feel like my life revolves around it right now. I still work "part time", but I'm having a hard time doing my paperwork from home while trying to be a stay-at-home mom. I just work on Mondays and Tuesdays (and make-up appointments one other day), but my paperwork at home keeps piling up. I'm thinking about hiring a babysitter for a couple more hours a week and specifically doing paperwork during that time. That way, I have a set time with no distractions and can get something done instead of starting something and changing a diaper, then starting again and getting somebody a drink, then starting again and drying some tears, then starting again...and never finishing ANYTHING. I don't even finish changing a diaper before my mind is racing again, thinking of what I'm doing next. I'm ready to just slow down and enjoy life more!!!!! Again, if any of you have any suggestions or tips, I'm all ears (or eyes, I guess since I'll be reading them).

On a much happier note, Ellie and Ava are doing really well! Ellie loves her KinderMusik class and her dance class and she's now in a tumbling class until the end of May that has been a big hit! She scored at 51 months in her fine motor skills of writing, holding a pencil correctly... and at 63 months in the fine motor skills area of cutting on a line, cutting out a circle, using buttons... It was fun to hear the results of the evaluation, although we don't have the written results yet. She did qualify to receive some occupational therapy though, for a delay in the area of sensory integration.

Ava says hi now, walks with help, and is on a much more normal napping schedule (short morning nap, long afternoon nap, and sometimes a really short cat nap in the evenings). She's working so hard on cutting teeth, but the silly things just won't come through. She loves it when Ellie hides - she will reach and stretch as far as her little neck with let her to try to find Ellie...then Ellie jumps out and scares her and she laughs a big belly laugh...then it all starts over again. She's our little jokester and she knows it! She loves to be funny!

My Nannie will turn 75 years young tomorrow (my mom's mom)! She never gets on a computer so she'll never see this, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANNIE!!! We went to Texas Roadhouse the other night and they made her get on the saddle!! I have the video and will post it one of these days. We also went to see the Gaither's Homecoming concert and we're all going to eat lunch with her tomorrow. Then, my cousin Landy is coming to spend the night and we're all so excited!!! Ellie can't wait.

I love pictures!

Ellie is so affectionate with Ava! (and Ava eats it up!)

PRECIOUS!

Ellie on our way out the door to Ava's check up.

this is one of my new favorite pictures of the girls together -
I may have to make it black and white and print some of this one!

I love hooded towel pictures!

we visited some friends in Nashville over the weekend

EARTHQUAKE

I can honestly say that I was the most scared of my life at 4:30 this morning when I realized we were having an earthquake. I woke Jeff up (he sleeps through everything) and took off to get the girls...my fear was not being able to get to them. I had to think fast because I wanted to get one and have Jeff get the other, so my reasoning was that if I needed to for whatever reason, I could maneuver better holding Ava and Jeff could handle Ellie better, so I yelled for him to get Ellie and we stood in their doorways. The weirdest part for me what that I could tell that it started on the end of our house that our bedrooms are on and moved to where the office is. Thankfully, we are all fine and we had no damage, it just wiggled a safety gate loose outside going to our swimming pool.

Ava had her 6 month check up today. She weighs 18lbs. 5 oz. and is 27 3/4 inches long - those measurements, along with her head are in about the 95th percentile. (We think they measured her length wrong at her 4 month check up because they said it was 27 1/2 and there is no way she has only grown 1/4 of an inch in 2 months.) Anyway, all is well and she's growing and meeting milestones wonderfully.

Ellie had an evaluation on Wednesday because we're dealing with some sensory issues. Nothing big, just little things that if targeted, will help her in school. She chews on things a lot, has trouble with balance/vestibular, and really doesn't like her hands to be dirty. Although some of the things sound quirky and silly, I didn't want to just let it go, so she will receive Occupational Therapy for a short time to try to help her in some of these areas. (Being a developmental therapist makes me so much more aware of some of these things.) She also tested her fine motor skills, and Ellie scored in the 98th percentile, so she's well above average there!

6 months old!

Locks of Love

Jeff and a fellow BCM'er, Cole, finally cut their hair for locks of love tonight! Here are the before and after shots.