Hello, Bye Bye.

My baby is a year old now! She turned a year old on May 14th. I still wonder what her real birthday would have been had a I not consented to another c-section (after being pregnant for 42 weeks and running out of options, and medical care.) But ah well, we can't change the past can we? Just look forward to the future...Naomi has developed into such a sweet, and sassy little girl. She loves to snuggle up to me, Joel or even inanimate objects. She is already loving to play dress up, she wears my headbands on her head, or will put on a hat and crawl around. She is very independent and can play with herself or her sister for fairly long periods of time, like if I need to make supper or walk on the treadmill. I will go and check on her and she will be reading her books with her feet. We have a gazillion of those textured books and she feels of the fabric with her feet, mostly thanks to this book. She is pretty smart, too. She can do a couple of baby signs. She does more, dog, and bird. She can say mama, dada, hello, and a new one today: bye bye. Watching a baby grow into a toddler then a toddler to a little girl (Libby), is truly the most amazing experience of my life. Oh yeah and she is starting to walk now, too. She is so adorable!!! I can not wait for what is to come! I am loving every single minute of my life. Sure, I live in a tiny house but I get to stay at home with my girls. I wouldn't trade this for anything. We've been active in the Texoma Moms group. We do cheap things like playdates at the park, museum, etc. It gives me a chance to get the girls out to play with other kids and to be able to socialize (offline) with other moms. I am a firm believer that it takes a village to raise a child. And the more I mother my children every day, the more I realize that we are not supposed to be doing this alone in our 'nuclear family' way of life. I would love to go live in a commune for a week just to live that life (minus the drugs and open marriages). I want to live off the land, I want there to always be someone there to hand over my children when they frustrate me too much. And I want to be there for another mama who needs to hand over her children they are frustrating her. But for now I have a great group of moms that I've met and some ones that I've really clicked with. I am so happy that the days of never leaving the house during Joel's work week are gone. We leave the house every single morning the days that Joel works, no matter what. I got a gym membership and I have fun going there trying to lose some of this flab that I've retained since my pregnancy with Naomi. How long can you call it extra baby weight anyways???

Naomi is such a special baby girl, and her sister is so special to me as well. I am so lucky to have been blessed with such sweet, and smart healthy girls. Speaking of healthy, Naomi is still breastfeeding a couple of times a day. We are trying to nightwean her for the sake of my sanity. Four to six nightfeeds just seem to take a toll on me no matter how pro-breastfeeding I may be. I cannot fathom weaning her now, or being a mother who has never nursed at all. It is so convenient to have something right here on my body to comfort her when she gets upset, takes a nasty fall, or needs to unwind after a long day of playdates and the gym nursery. I plan on nursing her until she is at least two even if that means nursing through another pregnancy and then doing the tandem thing again. It is her birthright and I'm not going to take it away from her.

I am closing with a link to her birth slide show. I know I have posted it a million gazillion times but, I cannot talk about my baby and her birthday without adding it. Who even reads this anyways? I have not posted in so long I am sure everyone has forgotten about this blog. Anyway, here is the link ...and it is better if you turn the speakers on.

Long Time No Post

I know...I know...I haven't posted in forever and a day. Didn't I say that I would probably do this?!? Well. My writer's block has been partly because I haven't taken any good pictures lately. And I feel kind of silly posting a blog with no pictures. What's the point ya know? The picture above is from today. We met some other moms and kids there from our meetup.com group.

Today we went to the Texoma Children's Museum and Libby had a lot of fun. She did not really play with anyone but, she had a lot of fun on the slide. I've read that two year olds "parallel" play with other children, and that is exactly what she does for the most part, unless she is very comfortable with the other child. And even then it's not like real playing...it's more of a "gimme whatcha got" type of deal that sometimes ends in tears. Naomi had fun cheesing and showing off her (still) toothless grin. I took her to the doctor yesterday because, she has a small rash on her face and it turns out that she has eczema like Libby. I started giving her yogurt and wheat products last week so one of those might be the culprit. I'm going to eliminate dairy from her diet first (breastmilk is not dairy), to see if that helps it out. If that isn't it then she's gonna have to say bye bye to these wheat teething biscuits that she is loving for awhile. I had a lot of fun at the playgroup as well. It's fun talking to other moms about mom stuff. I won't go into detail here to avoid boring any of you. Unless you of course, are a mom. ;). I've better go...I'm sure that these girls are going to be getting up from a nap any minute now. It's already four! They are worn out!!! If I had the money, I'd go to the museum more often!!!

Shipoopi

This afternoon Libby pooped in the potty! She normally saves all deuces for her pull-up, so we were all thrilled when she exclaimed that she went poopy in the potty all by herself! We were all surprised since she did this on her own, we usually take her to the potty in regular intervals so she can pee! She got a candy cane (her new fav), and some markers from her birthday that I had put up. She is in heaven now coloring with her new markers. Let's hope that she has seen the light and wants to poop in the potty from now on! Only time will tell!

We're Back!

We have been gone since December 27th. We are finally back at home! We had a lot of fun in Zapata. Libby and Naomi had muy fun playing with their cousins. We ate well; I don't think I have ever eaten so many avacados in such a short period of time! The girls both had a cold while we were down there which stunk, but they are getting better now. We made many great memories with everyone and we are looking forward to going back as soon as we can.

Visit with Anita

We had an exhausting day today, too! We went to Target to get some batteries for some of the girl's toys. It was super crowded! We were in line for a long time, so I had Joel take the girls to the restroom to change Naomi's diaper and take Libby to go pee. Thanks Joel. Anyways he had to wait forever at the family bathroom to go in. A person without kids came out after being in there for 5 minutes. Seriously people, don't go in a family restroom unless you have a reason to! We FINALLY got out of there and hit up the mall. My mom (thanks mom I know you are reading), and my sister in law (who is pictured with her husband), both got me gift cards to New York and Company so I wanted to go there. And O-M-G they had a HUGE sale going on! They had shirts and pants for $3.99. I got 10 items and still have $30 left to spend. (Yay me! I can put up my maternity shirts for real this time! I have real people clothes yay!) I was having so much luck with the clothes that I lost track of the time. We were supposed to meet Joel's sister and brother in law at his aunt Anita's house around 5:30 or 6:00. Well, I assumed that 6 was still a good time so when Joel told me to hurry up because it was 5:30, I thought that I had plenty of time since they live just about a mile away from the mall. After leaving the store with some great finds, I looked down at the phone and saw that there were three missed calls. Ooops. I guess 5:30 was the meeting time so, were 30 minutes late. I hate being late for anything. I felt pretty bad when we got there. We ended up having a great visit. Libby was being extra charming, telling her great aunt and uncle about witches (The Wizard of Oz) and Doodlebops. Naomi got quite messy with her turkey and sweet potato meal. I need to give her some more greens; her nose has that orangish color to it again. Joel brought is new ukulele that my mom and I got him for Christmas. Anita put some records on (yes real vinyl) and Libby and I danced to some songs on one of the best albums ever made. Anita and Don got the girls matching pajamas, and we put Libby's on over her clothes because it is fun to dress up sometimes. Anita might be riding with us on our trip to Zapata on Sunday.I am looking forward to having fun on the road and stopping at many HEB's and McDonald's on the way. It will be fun to finally get there and visit with family and, watch Libby have fun with all of her cousins.

Merry Christmas!

I'm too tired to write about the day but, I wanted to include some pictures before I forget. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas! We are very blessed.

My Early Christmas Present (That Will Not Be Paid Off For 5 Years).

YaY! We got a new van!!! It is no Volkswagen, but it is perfect for us. We spent almost all day at a dealership. I loathe buying a car. I'm always worried that we are going to get screwed over, and the salespeople are almost always rather douchey. We ended up getting it for only $5 more dollars more a month than what we were paying for the Hyundai Sante Fe, which isn't too shabby. I like the new van a lot, it is a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country. I like that there is seven seats. I told Joel that this is a sign that we need more babies. I think that he is warming up to the idea more than he'd like to admit. I do not want to fill all of those seats up with car seats but, I think we need at least one more baby in the future. Maybe once the girls are out of diapers it will be a possibility. No more having them two years apart. That was a really tough transition for all of us. It was worth it but, it was really rough. I do not know how my grandmas did it. One grandma had her first two 18 months apart, and my other grandma had her first two 11 months apart! Whew. No thanks!!! Oh, and Joel found my keys for me last night. They were in the side door of the Hyundai. I guess I should have looked in there better. I am such a dork sometimes. I swear if I do have anymore kids, I will be brain dead.