Strawberry Fields forever....

Our local berries are ready for picking, and Mark and I have been trying to go for 2 years now with no luck. something always comes up. Work, school, babies being born, rainy days, you name it, we made an excuse not to go. This year I drove past the farm numerous times watching their countdown. $weeks to go, 3 weeks, 2 weeks and them whammo It's picking time!

We packed up the girls and the John Deere Wagon and off we went. Poppy had a blast and snuck in a few tastes as she picked. (Who am I kidding Mark egged her on!) It turned out to be a lovely day and I am so looking froward to these berries for breakfast.

Toddler Tales

Poppy "Mommy smell my finger..."

Me thinking to myself...this could be bad "K gimme your finger...OH NO Your finger stinks! Where did you put your finger?!"

Poppy "In my BUM! MOM! hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

I knew I shouldn't have smelled her finger!

Is it stubborn as a goat?

If it is then I am A OK, I love goats!

There have only been a couple of things that have made me want to break down and cry in the last couple of months. Most of which had nothing to do with the fact that Ola has DS, and mainly to do with the fact that I wasn't able to breastfeed her.

Ola and I just couldn't get our stuff together and co-ordinate. Some of it has to do with the DS. Her tongue thrusting, the low muscle tone, and her LOVE of the bottle. We have tried many, many times over the last 9 weeks to get her latched and I always felt like a complete and utter failure every time it didn't work out. I would give up and not try again for a few days. Most tries consisted of a 10 minute session. I probably ended sooner than I should have for fear of her getting to tired to even eat at all. (This happened, and it sucked) I have been pumping numerous times each day as well as taking Domperidone to get more milk to come in. The pumping has gotten to me many times in the last nine weeks, I have felt like a cow, humiliated to be sitting on my "breastfeeding" chair pumping rather than cuddling with my baby like I planned. Defeated to "still" be doing this, as it was supposed to be short term. Really I guess in reality 9 weeks is short term :) Sad to have to admit that we "couldn't" breastfeed and super annoyed that I knew that it would be better for her later on for speech and eating if she was. I was determined and being "stubborn" as my mother told me. I decided I would pump long term until she was ready for more solid foods if that was the way it was going to be.

She had her first inoculations yesterday, and for some reason seeing another milestone of 10 pounds on the scale made me think it was time to try again. I waiting until this morning, until I was good and "full". It would be easier I figured, it would be easy for her to get some milk and maybe she would be ready to work for it. and SHE DID IT!!! She nursed for 45 minutes (poor Poppy waited like a champ for breakfast!) and she has nursed 3 more times since then with the last time her attacking me like she hadn't been fed in a month! It was great!

I know that the next week or so will still consist of top ups of formula and I am OK with that. I hope that with her nursing for so long more milk will come in and we can switch over. I am looking forward to calling our nurse and telling her that We did it!, and then telling our pediatrician that We did it too!!!

*EDIT* I just got an email from my mom informing me that it should be stubborn as a MULE! haha Mom, I knew something wasn't quite right about the goat bit, but that's ok. I had goats and they are stubborn too!

Dear Friends

Making dolls has introduced me to some really nice ladies. So nice in fact that I mustered up enough courage to ask a few of them if I could come hang out with them. Little did I know that the one coffee meeting I had with them would blossom (note the peonies in the background in my feeble attempt at heart shape with my little sausage fingers!) into a really nice friendship.

Cynthia (Merry Monsters) has become one of my closest and trustworthy friends. We talk...ok we don't actually talk we text everyday. Texting her has become my little break in the day from crying kids, to ask for advice, to ask her opinion, or just to check in.

Cynthia was the first friend I attempted to tell that Ola had DS. I made it 3 words in before breaking down and crying. She showed up at the hospital with her little one a couple of hours later to visit, and without knowing it, helped me get through that day. It was nice to have a "normal" moment amid the chaos that was going on inside my brain.

I have never had many girlfriends and I was terrified that I would never make anymore after having kids. I always thought I got along better with the boys, but longed for a great girlfriend. I have found her in Cynthia :)

Cynthia has also joined together with a couple of her friends to come up with a very lovely online magazine called Delish. (Like she didn't already have enough to do!) Cynthia worked tirelessly to design this mag, and she did such a lovely job. I am so jealous of her creativity and ability to come up with such beautiful things. She did the header for this blog and my etsy site. I am so happy that I have a little piece of her work just for me. :) Please go check it out!

Cynthia and her hubby made dinner for me and my hubby the other night, it was so nice to get together as families. Oh yeah....and the food was delish as well! I also got to go home with a HUGE bouquet of peonies from her garden. (see photo)

I just wanted to use this post to say a BIG THANK YOU to CYNTHIA for making me smile everyday.

Who knew a little texting could mean so much?

Things I learned today... has now been changed to Toddler Tales

Because lets face it, all the posts thus far have been about my things my little chatter box has said to me.

So Toddler Tales it is.

Speaking of toddler tales...

Me having to help Poppy brush her teeth every night has become an issue with me. I want her Dad to help her, but no, she just wants me. I forgot to help her brush her teeth tonight, she didn't forget and called for me about 10 minutes after putting her to bed.

Just for fun I said to Mark, "you do it tonight."

Mark "she won't let me..."

Me "What would you do if I was dead? Never brush her teeth?"

Mark "No, I would say Mommy is dead and I need to brush your teeth."

Me "Nice..."

I go into Poppy's room and just for fun I say...

"Can Daddy do it tonight?"

Poppy "No, you do it..."

Me "I don't wanna do it, let Daddy do it..."

Poppy "No! you do it..."

Me "What if Mommy wasn't here to do it?"

Poppy "But Mommy you are here..."

Ahh...this kid! "Yes, yes I am, come on, let's go brush your teeth..."

Poppy "Ok..."

Oi, I guess I am brushing teeth every night.

The pill vs. The IUD

OK, So Ola is 8 weeks old, I figure it has been at least 16 weeks since "doing it."

Birth Control is in order. I don't think I have the strength to do this one more time. Poppy and Ola are both great kids don't get me wrong, but I like my sleep and besides they would have to start sleeping in dresser drawers!

After some thought and research I have decided to go the Mirena IUD route. Less hormones than birth control pills, and I don't have to remember to take a pill everyday (because I have enough trouble remembering to take the other ones.)

You have to get a prescription, and it's pricey ($354.00 to be exact!) and holy smokes the box that you have to take to the DR is huge! It's as long as my arm. This does not make me feel any better about having this thing fitted tomorrow. The price up front does pay off in the end if you decide to keep it in for the five years it's good for, and it is easily removed just in case I decide I want another baby.

Still a little apprehensive about having a little plastic thing inside my uterus, but at this point in the game it's a good decision.

Things I learned today...

I really like to watch a show called "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food network. Have you seen this show? The food on this show is the reason why we as a population are FAT!, these places are serving up heart attacks on plates, faster than the cooks can make them!

anyhoo, I was letting Poppy stay up an extra couple of minutes so I could see how this place was going to cook up some wings. Who doesn't love a good wing right?

They did their thing and piled them on to the plate and did a close up...

Poppy "Mommy...those chicken?

Me "Uh huh, they are called chicken wings" (drool drool, I am on a diet you know!)

Poppy "Mommy...we need those"

Me "Yes... Yes we do..."

This story has no moral of the story, I totally agree with her.

ugh....the diet

Knowing what it feels like to lose almost 30 pounds in 3 weeks (Thank You Ola!) really makes it suck when you put back on 5 of those pounds in the following two. I knew after having Ola and realizing now more than ever how important it is for me to be around for my girls (and Mark) that I would need to lose some of the extra pounds that I have been lugging around for the last 10 years.

I have done a lot of diets including one that involved me eating 9 cups of lettuce for each salad (That's a lot of lettuce!) I had success years ago on Weight Watchers and after seeing Sarah do so good on it recently I have jumped back on the bandwagon.

It has been two days...

It is going okay....

Except for the fact that I know there is salami in the fridge and it is constantly calling to me from the meat drawer. Oh how I love Salami, and cheese and artisan bread, and BUTTER.

I decided that Poppy and I would share a salami sandwich for lunch, I throughly enjoyed my half a salami sandwich until I realized that those two pieces of salami were 4 points. If you are not familiar with Weight Watchers, this is bad. Real bad.

And this makes me sad. Real sad. :(

But it is all for the greater good right? Get healthy, show my girls that it is ok to not be a size 2 if you just are never going to be that size, cause lets get real I can maybe pull off a 10, but I don't see anything smaller than that in my near future. I have some blood pressure pills that I would love to never pay for again, and a few rolls that I would really love for Poppy not to knead.

Ahhh... the post baby diet. Wish me luck :)

Things I learned today...

Poppy " Mommy Ola Pissy!"

Moral of the story:

Tell husband to quit describing you as pissy.

things I learned today...

While taking another break from jumping on the trampoline with Poppy she lands face first into my armpit...

Poppy "Mommy you armpit stinky!"

Me "No it's not." (I take a whiff, yup it's stinky) "Well I have been playing with you all day."

Poppy leans in for another whiff "Yup you stinky"

Me "Thats not very nice to tell someone, I am not that stinky..."

Poppy "Mommy... (puts hands on hips) Me Poop stinky, me pee stinky, me bum stinky, you arm pit stinky!"

Me "ok, you are right, my armpit is stinky"

Moral of the story:

Take the 5 seconds and put on deoderant, and quit calling your daughter "stinky" as a nickname :)

Things I learned today...

Conversation between me and Poppy as we were taking a break from bouncing on the trampoline.

Poppy "Mommy I am dinosaur..."

Me "Really what kind of dinosaur are you?"

Poppy "A yellow one!"

Me "oh, well that's nice..."

Poppy "me have BIG teeth!"

Me "really?..."

Poppy "Yes...Rar!" (jumping on me from behind and chomping down on my cheek)

Me "OW!!!"

Poppy "Told you I was a dinosaur wit big teeth" (showing fangs again!)

Me "That is true, you did warn me"

Moral of the story:

When your two year old warns you she is a big yellow dinosaur with big teeth, make sure you watch your back, she could attack at any time.

Things I learned today...

Todays lesson:

Cleaning up dog poop in the yard sucks, but cleaning up dog poop that has squished it's way through a two year olds toes is far worse.

Moral of the story:

When you don't want to pick up the dog poop, just take a minute and do it, and be thankful you don't have a great dane.

A multitasking mommy