Category Archives: Marriage & Family

God has blessed me with such an amazing husband and a cutie pie son. Life is a big fat classroom and I am always learning.

Sweetest

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I love this season of Micah’s life – this age and all the little things he does. He can be very stubborn and very mischievous, but most of the time, he is very, very sweet.  I love the sound of his tiny voice. I love the way he says “I love you” – it takes a trained mama’s ear to pick it out – sounds like I yah voo. I really love the way he hugs and kisses. Bear hugs. He won’t accept a cheek, he’ll grab your whole head and turn it so he can plant one on your lips. He doesn’t hold anything back. He’s not embarrassed of me. He gets really excited when he sees me in the morning, after a nap, or when I pick him up from the nursery at church. “Mama! Mama!” he cheers as he does a little joyful dance. He gets so much joy out of everything: his favorite foods, his favorite toys, a visit from a family member, or a trip to the park. He is still so much a baby…. and yet so much a boy.  This could last a little longer… I wouldn’t mind. He can stay 2 as far as I’m concerned.

A Possible Fix?

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Earlier this month, my second blood test confirmed that I have low progesterone and that I  have not been ovulating. Kind of makes me look back on all the efforts I was making to get pregnant and chuckling…. I never had a chance.

This past week I had a discussion appointment with my doctor about what action I should take. He said I could wait to see if things got resolved on my own are begin a course of hormone therapy and try to trigger ovulation so I can get pregnant. Being the incredibly patient person that I am (not), I chose the latter. He wrote me a prescription for Clomid, estrogen and progesterone. I am supposed to start taking them my next cycle.

Of course, because I’m always losing my mind over things like this, I have myself convinced that maybe I won’t need the treatment after all, because I swear I maybe, might have possibly, hopefully ovulated this month. Unlikely, but super hopeful. Right? Hahaha.

Despite my clear impatience, I am not without hope. I know that God has a plan for me and my little family. I am quite certain that more babies are on the way… eventually. I trust that God will time it out perfectly. I am not worried, but I am still waiting with my whole heart, mind and soul.

So in the meantime, I decided to grow our family in other ways. Meet Chloe…

Micah’s Birthday Party

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I can’t believe it’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve last updated this thing. I don’t know why, but my desire to blog has gone on the wayside. I think a lot of it has to do with Facebook – I’m updating that often and then I feel like there’s nothing left to say here. It also has to do with the fact that not a whole lot has been happening. Mmm.. well, maybe not. I think I’ll just take it one thing at a time rather than doing one big catchup post.

The first weekend of April was Micah’s 2nd birthday party! I had so much fun planning it. I put a lot of time into preparing the decorations this year. The theme was western/horse and I really went all out with the rope, bandanas, horses, etc. I think one of my favorite party decorations was the 42″ horse mylar balloon, which amazingly is still floating around.

Eric and I made soft pretzels from scratch the night before. We stayed up until 2am, shaping them into twisted horse shoes, baking them and dunking the hot pretzels in melted butter. They were incredible – we served them with nacho cheese dip.

Most of the decorations were printables that I had designed in Photoshop and printed at Office Max. I made water bottle labels, food label tents, a birthday sign, and little bandana triangles for a banner. I taped the triangles to twine and hung them over the patio.

In the future, I’ll probably find a more secure way to attach them, a few of them kept falling down because the tape wasn’t sticking very well.

Probably one of my favorite elements of the party was a custom birthday cake made by my friend Robin. She made it completely Micah-allergy-free (no soy, dairy, nuts or eggs). It was incredible! And I absolutely love her marshmallow fondant!

Micah had so much fun at his party, it was all he talked about for weeks. In fact, he saw a candle at my parents’ yesterday and started singing the Happy Birthday song. He sings, “happy bir-day youuuu Micah!” It is so cute!

Patient Mommy Peaceful Child

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During the first few years (and maybe longer) of being a mom, I’m fairly certain the mom learns more than the child. At least it seems this way after a long day of teaching the same concepts over and over, and then suddenly coming to some huge revelation…. usually having nothing to do with my son. There are some revelations I wish I had picked up on earlier, and this is one of them: a patient mommy makes a peaceful child.

One evening, when Eric got home from work, I told him, “Micah was really good today!” I thought about it for a moment and sheepishly added, “I think it’s because I was in a better mood.” I have noticed a direct correlation between my mood and my son’s mood. When I am impatient, my son seems to feed off of that and tantrums happen at a drop of a hat. Tantrums make me even more impatient and it becomes a vicious cycle! It’s awful and embarrassing to admit. But every mom has her bad days and her good days.

On a good day, I resolve to be patient and most of all gentle.  Proverbs 15:1 says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” I have found that nine times out of ten, if I approach misbehavior (or potential misbehavior) very gently, obedience, rather than a tantrum, results.

Let’s say I have removed Micah from the TV for the third time (he really likes to push those buttons, which has a tendency to push my buttons, too). Then I see him sneak up to the TV for the fourth time. I have two options. I could snap, “No!” fiercely, hoping to shake him from every trying to do it again (yeah right). Or, I could walk up to him, kneel on his level and place my hand on his shoulder, look into his eyes, and very gently (yet firmly) tell him, “Remember what mommy says and obey, do not touch the TV.”

I have approached situations like these both ways, and I can tell you that the gentle and firm response really does work well. He listens when I get on his level and stay perfectly calm. I’m not reasoning with him, I’m simply instructing him, and of course there are consequences when he disobeys after such a clear order. But if I snap at him, it almost always results in him throwing a tantrum.

It makes perfect sense. If you were in a store and you asked to use the bathroom, which would you prefer? “No!!!” or “I’m sorry, but the bathroom is out of order.” It’s so obvious, it’s funny! You would get upset at such an indignant answer, right? And yet, how many times do you find yourself (or the tired mom in Target) snapping at your child because you are frustrated, only to deal with the added frustration of a tantrum?

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again because it’s so true. As a wife and a mother, you set the tone for your whole household and everyone in it. You have tremendous power just in how you choose to compose yourself. Choose gentleness and patience, and you will receive (most of the time) peace and joy in return.

Have a good weekend!

Taken with my new iPhone, hooray!

A Day In My Boots

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Let’s preface this “day in pictures” with a short blurb that explains my title. Last week I found the perfect pair of boots at Kohls on clearance for $22. I have been searching for a certain type of boot for years, literally, but every time I would find a pair, they would either be the wrong size or too expensive. Needless to say I was pretty psyched to find these. So imagine my feelings this morning when I found Micah’s missing sippy cup, upside down, inside of my new beloved boot, dripping milk down into the sole. Gross!! Thank goodness the cup had only been missing for a matter of minutes and my son knew how to answer “where is your milk?” by pointing to my boot (which made me shudder). I only soaked one paper towel trying to clean it out, so hopefully it will not stink like rotten Rice Dream tomorrow…

Last week, I loved looking through blogger/photographer Jennie Perry’s A Day In The Life post on her blog The Perrys of West Seattle. I was inspired to do my own day-in-the-life post, and so starting this morning, I tried to capture all the hum-drum of my daily life with my camera. I think today was pretty typical: we didn’t go anywhere, I did some laundry, we read some board books, and I prepared snacks, etc. I guess you’ll just have to see for yourself…

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Monday Monday…

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I have stuck a sheet of paper to hood over my stove with a magnet. On the paper I wrote out three verses that I would like to memorize this week – they are from the devotionals that went with this weekend’s women’s retreat:

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42 ESV)

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 ESV)

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20 ESV)

These verses represent three important things I was reminded of this weekend.

1. Make time to meet with Jesus. While everything else you do will be undone (think about doing the dishes, how long does that last?), spending time with God is never a waste of time. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t clean your house, but spending time in prayer and reading your bible should be priority #1.

2. Stop worrying about everything on that to-do list. Stop worrying about all the things you can’t afford. Stop worrying about whether you’re doing A or B well enough. Get to know God personally and seek to obey Him always – then let Him worry about everything else.

3. Be gentle and patient with your little ones. Don’t complain to your husband when he walks in the door. Stop taking everything personally (that’s pride, by the way).

I am trying to read those every time I walk through the kitchen. Hopefully I will not only memorize them this week, but the truth will permeate my heart and become a part of me.

Today I am thankful for Netflix streaming. When I woke up this morning, I felt significantly worse than I did yesterday, meaning I did not have the energy to entertain my 22 month old. I am sorry to say he watched Caillou for most of his waking hours, particularly in the morning. I seemed to get better later in the day, so I had more energy to play then. I am just glad he took a nice long nap so I could finish a section of my Esther study and pull some things out of my closet for my next Goodwill trip. The rest of the day I just kind of sat. Nothing like a bad cold to take the fight out of a girl, especially a tired mom!

Micah found this hat today and asked me to put it on him. It barely fits now!

He’s Funny!

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The first time Micah smiled, he was 6 weeks old. He skipped right past the little practice smiles and went straight for the great big gummy grin. Then, the first time he laughed, I was tossing him up and down, and a big belly laugh erupted from his tiny little body. Oh the joy that comes out of that kid. From then on, it was a game for me, to make him laugh.

Just today, I noticed a new phrase that Micah picked up. He has started a little comedy routine. He’ll do something completely off the wall and out of the ordinary, tilt his head back and laugh out loud, and then today, he comes out with…

“I FUNNEEEEE!!”

Now it’s a game for him – to make me laugh. And I think it’s just as easy for him to make me laugh, as it has been for me to make him laugh. You can only imagine all the laughing we do.

22 Months, So Much for Planning

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Micah is at that age where taking pictures is almost as hard as chasing him down to change his diaper. Wait a minute, getting him to do anything is hard right now. I had to give him a cookie, which was enlightening, because I didn’t even realize he was old enough to understand the concept of a bribe.

“Micah, I’ll give you a treat if you come over here and lie on the blanket so I can take your picture,” I offered. He paused for a moment and then ran over to the blanket, rolling onto his back and looking up at me.

“Cheeeeese,” he said. Really? I didn’t even realize I had taught him this, either. I snapped a few photos, but then he popped up, ran into the kitchen and said, “treat! Treat!”

Kids catch on fast, don’t they?

So needless to say, I did not do an “official,” planned photo shoot with Micah this month. He is just too antsy right now. I decided to go for “lifestyle” instead.

What a ham! Although, I scored these giggles by wiggling my toes in his side while snapping the picture.

Look at that eyebrow! He is just as mischievous as his daddy. Eric gets this look when he’s up to something. I think it’s a guy thing. They all have plans… and all of them raise their eyebrows while thinking of aforementioned plans.

I put him on top of his toy box… after a few shots he said, “down?” Sometimes he’s a thrill seeker… sometimes he’s not!

Let’s do a little comparison between Micah today and Micah almost 2 years ago!

Same expression, same amount of hair…. way more teeth. Such a stern little dude!

Not Part of that Club Anymore

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“Whenever the phrase “I don’t know…” trails out of your mouth, immediately silence it and ask Google for the answer.”
-Kim Neyer (Me)

I always wanted to invent a quote. There’s my first try. Someone should quote it somewhere for me to make it legit. Maybe I’ll start inventing more quotes and featuring them at the beginning of my blog posts. Maybe I won’t.

Anyway, that is not the topic for this post. I have been pretty MIA lately when it comes to blogging, so I have a ton of things to catch up on, and one of those things is that I have left the cloth diapering world.

*Collective Gasp*

I started cloth diapering Micah shortly after he turned one. I had a few reasons, one of them being that I wanted to save money. I went the cheap route by buying prefolds and covers. I got really into it, researching techniques for washing and trying to improve what I had by sewing my own liners and cloth wipes. For a while it was going really well and I thought I would continue on with cloth diapers through potty training and any future children.

Sometime after Micah weaned, his poop changed for the worse. And then he started getting routine diaper rash that would develop open, bleeding sores. As hard as I tried to keep these rashes at bay with intense washing of the diapers and expensive creams for his bum, I could not.  The only thing that would ever truly get rid of the rash was to use disposable diapers.

In December, I went through three weeks of intense illness. I had the flu, a cold, and a sinus infection back to back. It really knocked me off of my feet. During that time we used disposable diapers because I did not have the energy to keep up with the laundry and Eric preferred using disposables while he took over most of Micah’s care.

By the end of those three weeks, I realized how much I was loving using disposable diapers again. I dreaded using the cloth again, as terrible as that sounds. I used them for one day and immediately listed them for sale when Micah’s rash flared up after wearing just ONE cloth diaper (which was new, so it wasn’t build-up). Within 24 hours of listing my diapers for sale on my Facebook page, they were sold. Every single piece and accessory was picked up and gone by the end of the week. Eric was amazed. I sold my entire stash for exactly half of what I bought it for. I had used it for just 8 months.  Essentially, if you consider what I would have spent on disposables during that time, I was able to diaper for free during those eight months because the cloth diapers more than paid for themselves. So it definitely wasn’t a waste.

Every time one of Micah’s diapers leaks, I miss my cloth, but I would rather deal with occasional leaks than severe diaper rash any day. I just hated the sound of Micah’s cries and screams when I would try to clean his very sore bottom. I just couldn’t justify saving money when it was causing him so much pain.

So when I redid my blog layout, I removed the cloth diapering buttons, because I’m not part of that club anymore. Honestly, I hope to be out of the diaper club soon altogether. This mama is looking forward to potty training! I didn’t mind changing diapers when Micah was little, but toddler poop is so nasty!! He can sure clear a room!