After trip mess.

Yup.  My house gets messy too.  Most of the time it's like this.  Only if you come over I do a whirlwind clean up.  haha

For the record

Just wanted to write this up for the record book.  A typical night these days. (It's been this way for the past month I might add...)
Between 9:30-11pm.  -- Rhone goes to sleep.  I go to sleep.  Yay!!
1:00 a.m. - Rhone wakes up.  I nurse him.  He falls asleep.
3:00 a.m. - Rhone wakes up.  I nurse him.  He falls asleep.  I fall asleep in the rocking chair.
3:45 a.m. - I wake up realizing I am in the rocking chair.  I put Rhone in his crib and go back to bed.
4:30 a.m. - Rhone wakes up.  I nurse him.  He falls asleep.
6:00 a.m. - Rhone wakes up.  I nurse him.  He falls asleep.
7:15 a.m. - Rhone wakes up.  I am upset.  It really is morning.  Adalyn will be up soon.  Oh dear.  In slight denial, I take Rhone to bed with me despite the fact it will disturb Mark who is still sleeping.  Maybe I can get a few more minutes of sleep myself before really being up for the day. 
And that's how it goes...  Will I ever sleep again?  It's only for a time.... Hopefully.  It feels like an eternity.

In keeping with the thankfulness theme, however, I must continue to remember things aren't all bad.  I am thankful that:
a)  I don't have any trouble falling asleep
b)  Rhone always goes back to sleep
c)  Adalyn sleeps perfect at night
d)  Mark is around to help me during the day

Sister's visit and a Rhone update

Ahhh... it's quiet and I am alone.  The birds are singing outside the window and the room that I am in is quite tidy, thanks to my marvelous husband!  The kitchen is clean, the dishes are done.  Doesn't seem that this happens very often anymore, and it feels SO good!!  Life in this house has felt like a bit of a chaotic mess lately.  Not that it is exactly, but 'feel' is the key word.  Adding Rhone to our family has seemed to add a bit of chaos that wasn't there before.  Not in a bad way, but there is not quite as much time to relax, and sometimes it means that I have about 5 things started and nothing done.  I hate that.  I love for things to be very orderly and organized and all to be done in their turn.  I have always said that I'm not the best at multi-tasking which apparently you have to be an expert at when doing anything with children.  It's been feeling like it takes a huge effort just to get supper on the table.  

It's not even that Rhone demands much attention.  In fact he is a very contented baby, who doesn't require a whole lot.  He even falls asleep for his naps on his own a lot of the time!  I can just wrap him up, pop in his soother, rock him a few minutes and set him down maybe with some music playing or the dishwasher humming and he'll go to sleep on his own.  If he doesn't settle quickly I nurse him to sleep (which I often end of doing sadly.  It's not really the best way to do it, but it's easy :) )  It's just that he's a baby and he needs things.  He's awake more and actually goes for naps now instead of just sleeping and eating all day.  That means I have to stop what I'm doing and get him ready to sleep.  He has to get dressed, have his diaper changed, ect.. He's a baby.   

Adalyn needs things too, most of all my attention.  She likes me to be involved in everything that she is doing.  I feel quite torn a lot of the time between caring for my family physically (providing good meals, a clean space to live and clean clothes) and caring for them emotionally (playing with them ect...)  I try to get Adalyn involved with some of the jobs I'm doing, and sometimes that is fun for her, but I believe that it's important for me to play her games too.  So I try.  And things get messy and left unfinished.  What I don't understand is why this seems so difficult when Mark has still been home!  Oh dear.  What will I do?  Sometimes I feel like an all around failure at everything I'm doing, cause I'm doing so many things at once and not able to give myself fully to one thing.  I'm trusting God will and is making something beautiful out of this unorderly, chaos of our home.  (or so I feel...  :) I'm pretty sure Mark would say otherwise...  this is my feeling at this time.  haha )  So anyway, this quiet and tidiness is so extremley nice!

Yup, so my dear sister has come and gone.  That month went by WAY too fast!  It's been so busy and this week is a bit of a down-to-earth kind of week as we get back into our regular life routine.  Adalyn was getting quite used to going out almost every day.  She was asking every day first thing in the morning, 'where are we going Mommy?'  I've noticed in the last 2 days that she is really starting to settle down again.  She was having a very hard time doing anything by herself and I think it had to do with being busy all the time.  Even children's church which she had no problem with before was a scary venture by herself.  Now that we've been home a few days in a row, she is feeling more secure.  Just this morning she asked me if we were going anywhere and I told her no.  Then I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere and she said 'No mommy.'  She's been quite happy to play with her toys.

We had such a good time with MB though!  At the beginning of her visit we spent a weekend as a family at our church's camp in ON.  It was so nice to be all together and spend some quality time together.  The weather was pretty nice too so we were able to spend some time outside.  

It was fun to be able to do just simple, everyday sort of things with MB while she was visiting.  Just being in the same space as her was a treat.  It was funny to see Adalyn's response to her when we met her at the airport.  It was a bit too bad she was pretty tired and in a bit of a bad mood.  She seemed to not know what to think of MB at first.  The last time MB was here Adalyn had just turned 1 so she doesn't really remember it at all. She's seen and talked to her lots on skype, but she didn't seem to recognize her and I think she was wondering what we were all so excited about.  MB gave her a little monkey keychain and she dropped it immediately like it burnt her hand with a very sour look on her face.  She quickly warmed up to her though!  

We also had a great visit from Mark's brother and his fiance in the last month too, one last visit before they are married in May!

4 months old!

A Rhone update:  It's hard to believe our little Rhone is already 4 months old!  He is such a smiley happy baby and we are enjoying getting to know him!  Lately his favorite thing is his jolly jumper and his baths.  He gets SO happy when we put him in the jolly jumper.  He loves to be upright, whether that's standing on our laps or sitting in his bumbo chair, he's not very content to lie on the floor anymore at least not for too long.  He has mastered the art of rolling over onto his tummy and does this soon after getting laid on his back.  He is ok for a little while like that, but starts to fuss if left for too long.  He's really become quite interested in toys and reaches for them if they're in front of him.  He has also been noticing his feet lately.  He LOVES to munch on his hands, they are his favorite toy right now.  It's quite wet and slobbery most of the time and I was starting to get a bit concerned when I saw how chapped his one finger was getting. 

Well, time is ticking and I should be getting to bed again.  Mark has gone off to play soccer in the city.  A late game -- I think it only starts at 10:30 or something so I won't be waiting up.  Rhone will be waking up hungry soon.  He's awake every 2-3 hrs at night.  Silly boy.  I always nurse him because it's the easiest quickest way to get him back to sleep and get me back to sleep.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't need it at this point.  We'll need to start working on that soon, it'd be nice to sleep a longer stretch again.  Naps for me aren't quite as available as they used to be, but they are still needed unfortunately. 

Family Pictures

 For the first time ever other than weddings we hired a photographer to take pictures of our family.  They turned out so nice!  Here are some of my favorites.  Compliments to June Derksen Photography! 

Rhone and our family of 4!

2 weeks before Rhone was born (38 weeks)

I've been meaning to write something for quite some time now, and now that I'm actually here I'm not sure where to begin!  I started writing a post on Rhone's birth a while ago, but that really seems like the distant past and so much has changed since then!  So I will just say Rhone Mark was born on December 29, 2013 at 8:12 pm after about 14 hrs of pre-labour (contractions 10 min apart or stopping) and 3 hrs of intense labour.  My experience all around was much better than the first, though I won't go into too many little details. I felt so much better physically which I believe contributed to my emotional state being positive as well.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:00 pm had the baby and were home the next morning by 11.  I ended up being moved from the birthing room to a regular room which was actually much more comfortable for sleeping.  There was no place for Mark to sleep so he had to go home for the first night, but that was ok for us.  Home was only 5 min from the hospital and at least one of us had a good sleep which was much better than both of us being exhausted right off the bat!  We had a lot of company again the first few days including our good friends from Ontario the day after he was born!  I feel a bit sad I didn't even get a picture with them!  My Mom and Dad kept Adalyn for a few nights after Rhone was born which gave us a much more relaxing transition into life with a newborn again. 

The first time Adalyn met Rhone!

Watching Adalyn meet Rhone for the first time was so special!  My Mom and Dad brought her over to see him and he was crying when she came.  She was quite shy at first and hung close to her daddy, but warmed up very quickly.  I had a lump in my throat introducing him to her.  He was crying and Adalyn ran to find one of her dolls and said her baby was crying too.  She put her baby up to her shoulder like I was holding Rhone and patted it, just like she saw me doing.  Then she handed her doll to me and made me put it up on my other shoulder like Rhone was doing. She has grown into her role as big sister so well.  The other day on our way home from church Rhone was crying and she chanted in a soft calming voice to him 'We're almost home Rhone, we're almost home!'  She seems quite sensitive to his needs most of the time (unless she is wanting attention for herself, which happens from time to time.... :) )  and always needs to give him a hug and kiss good-night when she goes to sleep.  She seems to have grown up a lot since he was born though maybe it is just my perspective. 

Adalyn changing her baby

Reading a book to Rhone

Our first family picture as a family of 4!

Blessed is the woman with a full lap.  :)

One thing we are both finding a little difficult at this stage in our lives is alone time together.  Rhone doesn't have a set bedtime yet and usually goes to bed around 10 or 11 which is when I want to be going to bed too.  Adalyn and Rhone don't necessarily nap at the same time in the afternoons either.  It seems as though whenever Rhone wakes up then Adalyn goes down for her nap.  I feel much more like a mother at all times and that I don't get much time just alone.  Some people spend too much time alone though and I think I would rather have the first one. 

 We haven't done too much this winter.  I ventured out a few times with Rhone and Adalyn, but Rhone hasn't seemed to enjoy being outside much.  He has a hard time breathing and has scared me a bit when he can't seem to catch his breath and has spit bubbles foaming out of his mouth.  Not sure if this is normal for a little baby in the cold?!  He also hates wearing his hat.  I'm excited for spring time and not having to bundle everyone up!  We did get to take Adalyn out skating for her first time.  She did pretty well considering she's only 2 1/2.  By the end of our time out on the ice she could make it a short distance without holding on to us.  We also managed to take in our towns little family day and took Adalyn and Rhone on a sleigh ride.  

All bundled up for a 1 minute walk down the driveway to get the mail.

Hanging out with cousins after the sleigh ride

Weather's slowly warming up!

 Another very exciting occasion was Auntie Mary Beth's visit!! We've been having lots of fun with her!  More on that to follow hopefully!

Adalyn's 2 1/2 year update

Adalyn is exactly 2 1/2 in 7 days.  I haven't written anything about how she's doing, what she's up to and in to these days, and I'm sure I will be wondering in a few years when our next child is this age!

Our little Adalyn is a very sweet, kind, happy little girl.  She has a very even tempered personality and doesn't get rattled too easily.  She plays really well with almost any child, though she's not a big initiator.  If a kid doesn't show interest in her, she doesn't make an effort to change that.  She avoids conflict and doesn't really get into fights over toys much, it seems to happen mostly when she's already tired.  She likes to test the boundaries at home and often tends not to listen or obey until we make a threat.  That could be her age at this point...  hopefully?!!  When she's tired she gets destructive and deliberately rebellious.  Thankfully this only really happens when she needs to sleep.  She's also very eager to please.  Hmmm...  wonder where she got that trait?!

She has been playing a lot better on her own in the last month and doesn't follow me around every where I go, though that still happens some days.  She still loves to help me with things, but that is also fading as she plays more on her own.  She is playing a lot of pretend these days.  It is SO cute to watch her take care of her dolls and stuffed animals, just like they are real babies.  Some how she knows exactly what to do with them.  Her favorite thing is to feed them supper.  Another toy she is really using a lot is her Fisher Price Little People house.  They are always doing interesting things too, like going potty, and going for naps.  Go figure!  haha  She loves her duplo as well especially the cars, trucks and train, and is often asking for us to build a house with the blocks.  She sets up all the men to watch a movie in the house after it's done.  She is very animated in her play!  She is listening to stories a lot better now too, without wanting to turn the pages immediately. 

She is talking using sentences now and can say most anything she wants to.  Some times she gets muddled up with the order of words, or you can see her thinking hard about what she's saying which is really cute.  She still says some words wrong even though she knows how to say them properly.  Pillow is usually pippo.  Music is still mekicks.  Adalyn is still Anoun.   When she says open it is usually shortened to op and carry to care.  She tends to talk 'baby talk' when people come over, or will not say anything at all.  This is the case when I try to take videos of her too. 

She eats really well and a lot most of the time.  She is a fruit monster, but doesn't really like her vegetables.  That is the one thing we have to really force her to eat.  It's probably because I don't make vegetables on their own enough.  They're usually mixed in with something else.  She doesn't eat lettuce.   I'd say fruit is probably her favorite food at this point.  She also loves avocados.

She is a really good sleeper, though naps have been weird lately.  A month or two ago she was napping for 1.5 hrs very consistently and then one day she stopped.  I thought it was just the day, but the next day was the same and the next and for a whole week she didn't nap.  I knew she needed the sleep because after quietly talking and playing in her room for her whole 'naptime' I would let her out and she would be grumpy, getting destructive with no attention span, obviously tired.   A few times I went for a walk with her and she fell asleep right away each time.  So that has become our new nap routine.  She plays and talks quietly for about an hour, she wants to get up -- usually to go potty now -- and then I make her go back to her room and she usually ends up sleeping for her 1.5 hrs again.  We have to be pretty stern about her going to sleep though which is sad to me.  She's added an hour to my alone time in the afternoon though which has been AMAZING!  :)  She will usually wake up from her nap around 4:00-5:00 and goes to bed around 8:00.  Then she sleeps till 7:50 at which time I usually wake up from her calling out 'I peed Mommy!  Mommy, I peed!'  That is in the potty...  :)

She's basically potty trained.  Today she had her first nap with panties.  She's been dry for naps for about a week or so now and dry during the rest of the day for quite a while.  She still has trouble with the poop though.  I sometimes think she just doesn't have patience to sit there to wait for it because she definitely knows.  I still don't feel super confident with her going out with panties on and so we have still been using pull-ups for going out.  Night time is still a diaper too and it's usually full in the morning. 
 

Jesus brings joy

We had Mark's extended family Christmas gathering this last weekend.  There is still the tradition of sitting around singing Christmas carols, reading the story of Christmas and then opening gifts.  They also have a time of sharing.  I don't know if it was my pregnancy hormones combined with being very tired, but I was feeling very weepy during the singing this year.  Adalyn and her cousin Isabelle were twirling and dancing in the middle of the group the whole time we were singing.  They had such big, beautiful smiles on their faces, laughing and 'singing' too, not caring at all what anyone else would think, just happy and so very innocent and free in their joy.  The singing is always very enthusiastic and loud at this gathering and I thought maybe the little girls were being a bit distracting, but as I looked around the room and saw the smiles and laughter on others faces, I knew this is what worship is about and though I wasn't necessarily thinking about the words of the songs, I was drawn to think about Jesus and the message of Christmas.  Two words we often hear at Christmas are joy and peace.  Jesus came to bring joy and peace on earth, and I really felt His presence there in that moment, in the joy and love on the faces of all 45 some people in that room.   It is such a beautiful thing in this world to see how when a family follows Jesus and teaches their children about Jesus how true that message becomes.  Especially in this day when you look around at the world and see all the heartache, pain, and trouble that has come as a result of sin.  I am so very thankful for the family God has blessed me with.   Both in Mark's family that I married into and my own family.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  Praise Him for sending Jesus to save us from our sins, so we can be free to experience and know real peace, joy and love and all things good!