Snuggly Babes

Aside from the fact that Tessa is 10 months old in this pic, just wondering if you see a resemblance?

Charley
Tessa

I stand corrected

To the few people who noticed, it's spelled TONGS not THONGS. I really did think they were spelled the same way. Baby brain :)

Our Favorite Things to Do

Look around the room and make grunty sounds, and occasionally ponder my baby acne afflictionSuck on pacis and sleep. Mommy likes pacis cause when I don't have them I want to nurse all day and night. She's trying to trick me.

Pretend my Mardi Gras beads are dog food and I'm Rosie. After Mommy took this picture I got in trouble cause I'm not allowed to touch the dog bowls.
Dress like a country girl
Demand hugs from anyone who will give them. If they ignore me then I scream HUG!! It almost always works
Help Mommy cook dinner. My jobs are always very important like stirring cabbage with thongs

Or transferring my snacks back and forth from a bowl to a cup, then peeling garlic and stabbing it with a fork. This is my friend Asa who joined us for lunch and playing yesterday!

As for Mommies, a fun thing to do is prick your finger and squeeze out drops of blood! Okay not really fun but I saw the doc about my dizziness and weak feeling and he is testing me for anemia and thyroid and also gave me an Accu-check thingy to test my blood and see how low my blood sugar is during these down times. The other day I just felt soooo dizzy that it made me nervous being here alone with the kiddos.

Of course in the couple of days since I felt horrible, I now mysteriously feel much better....so it could very well just be post partum and nursing body weirdness, but I thought it was good to check in with the doc anyway. It could also have been the after-affects of Charley's growth spurt, in which he wanted to nurse ever 1.5-2hrs. His spacing is getting alot more manageable.

Unfortunately this has derailed my first week of WW a bit cause I've been eating too many points, so we're starting that again next Monday. Do over!

4 wk checkup

Can you believe Charley is that old?

We went to the doc's today and Charley is doing great. He weighs 11.6 lb, so he's gained 2lb in the past 2 weeks. He also gained 1 inch of length.

He is in the 90th percentile for weight and 70th for height. So whereas Tessa has always been tall and skinny, he's the opposite!

I talked to the doc a little about how much he's been nursing and how I feel weak and hungry alot, eventhough I'm eating all day long and lots of protein. I'm taking iron supplements and drinking craploads of water (which is what his advice to me was) so I'm not sure why I still feel so hungry ALL the TIME. But I'm sure Charley nursing ever two hours might have something to do with it. I hope we can figure it out cause I really want to start counting WW points and losing weight. Ugh.

Twice As Cute

Both Kiddos.......love sushi. Well Charley not so much he liked the restaurant anyway. Tessa made up for him by eating her own whole order of California rolls.

...have cute shoes (or footies)
...like to take baths. Well Charley not so much in this picture but he was hungry and ended up having a snack in the tub ( I was in there too by the way, hence the cropping of all of Charley so you don't see, ahem...all of me)
....okay only one child needs to run around naked in Mommy's shoes after bathtime
...but both kiddos wear cloth diapers! This is Tessa's badonka-donk diaper that she wears to bed, stuffed with three inserts to get her through her 12 hr sleep.


Another lovely Sunday :)

Here We Go Again

I did two brave things today. I weighed myself for the first time post Charley, and I went to stroller aerobics. Both went well although my weight was pretty depressing. I feel good though cause we are starting WW on Monday.

I can't afford to go to meetings this time around so Jeremy and I are starting our own 'meeting' here at home, completely with weekly weigh ins. I have all of my old books/materials so that's good. I calculated my points yesterday and I get 45 per day (10 of that is for nursing)...I know all who speak WW language are salivating over that number cause it allows me a pretty nice amount of calories.

So I have about 50lb to lose to get to my pre-Charley weight, another 30 on top of that if I want to be smokin' hot (which would be awesome but not necessary) Ugh, wish me luck!

By the way I love using the new double stroller during aerobics. Our old stroller has a broken wheel that wobbles so this new one is nice to maneuver!

Yes I know I need to post new Charley pictures..I promise I will soon!!

Crockpot Thursdays

How domestic of me to make something in the crockpot. I've never used my crockpot for anything other than serving hot apple cider so this is new territory for me, but it looks good. It's Cajun chicken which is basically chicken, tomatoes, onions and green peppers (which I halved cause I don't like them) and lots of herbs and spices...served over rice. Seems easy enough.

I'm hoping some of my more domestic friends out there can suggest some crockpot recipes. Weight Watchers is officially starting in our house on Monday, so healthy recipes please! I've consulted the calendar and decided Thursdays would be a good day for the crockpot meals. We'll see how that goes.

Speaking of the calendar, it's my goal to keep a super anal detailed weekly calendar on the fridge with all the things we need to accomplish including diaper washing days, regular laundry days, WW weigh in days, Tessa's activities as well as things I'd like to do with her (like 'work on learning colors') AND in my first effort of superior meal pre-planning, a MENU for each week of what's for dinner (gasp)

I'd even like to write in all those longer term things like bathe the dogs and get myself a haircut once a month, etc. I posted the first calendar on Tuesday and so far it's been super helpful. I'm just a list and schedule person....I HAVE to have this stuff written down or it could get a little crazy around here, especially with Charley around now. I don't want to drop the ball and forget to water my plants for a month...which could totally happen.

Cleaning? Well that's written at the bottom of the schedule under 'as time allows', haha. I've put myself in charge of all the cleaning with the exception of bathrooms which are Jeremy's responsibility (as well as mowing in the summer).

Yay for anal-ness! I'm excited about our organization system and starting WW too. I'm ready. Although Jer and I are going out for dinner Saturday so maybe I should have one more pig out fest. Oh and maybe some ice cream tonight on the way home from small group :)

This is just to make you smile. Jessie and I found these Sesame Street hair scrunchies at the dollar spot at Target. Yup that Oscar the Grouch in her hair...tee hee.

Aunt Jessie's Visit and Charley's First Farm Trip

I'm skeptical as to whether Tessa actually wrote the chalkboard message above. I had no idea her writing skills were so advanced! We had a great weekend with Jeremy's sister Jessie. I wish she could have stayed longer! Tessa does too, she cried for about 15 min when we pulled away from the airport.

On Saturday we just hung out and went out to lunch and Target, and Jessie got lot of baby time. We also played Risk, which I've never played before. It was fun although I've rarely seen Jeremy get so power hungry and nasty. It was a good thing Tessa was in bed cause there was lots of cursing.

On Saturday we made Charley's first trip to the farm to meet the rest of his family. He mostly slept through the whole thing but Tessa had a great time. We've had so much cabin fever lately I think she was just super happy to go somewhere fun!

Tessa also stuffed her face with tons of beans, potatoes, deviled eggs and cake. I wonder if both kiddos are going through a growth spurt, as Charley got up to nurse about every hour last night, which is wearing me out and making me hungry too!

Anyway, here are some great pics from our great weekend.

Mark-5, Bob- 3, Tessa- 21 months, David- 8 months, Charley- 2.5 weeks

It's not Mark's fault that Charley is crying btw, he was ready for his lunch and we were bothering him with a photo shoot.

After lunch, much more content..

I didn't get the message about blue stripey shirt day


In the background there Tessa is eating her second helping of cheesecake. Since she insists on spooning it herself it took her about an hour.
Mamaw holding her 7th great grandchild




Jeremy gave Jessie the grand tour of the farm on the 4 wheeler

Toddlers with Glue

Can be fun!
Sounds crazy but we needed a new art project so I diluted some elmer's glue with water and gave Tessa paint brush and some paper shapes that I had cut out. And we made cards!

Not only did she not eat the glue, she actually got the hang of painting the glue on the paper and then placing her 'stickers' where she wanted them. I was impressed with our finished product.



During art time, Charley just watched and wondered


During Tessa's nap I had big ambitions of throwing Charley in the Moby Wrap and cleaning bathrooms. Well I did both but not simultaneously. The moby is actually super comfortable, although I need to practice getting it on a few more times. But it rendered one of my arms useless so I couldn't quite scrub the toilet while wearing him. Practice practice!

Paula (our doula) came over tonight for our post-natal meeting. She gave us a little book she made with our birth story and pictures which is so cool! It was fun to recount once again what an incredible story Charley's birth was.

What Happened?...

To cause all of Tessa's stuffed animals to get a 'bath'? Well, an angry male dachshund gave them a 'shower' first.

In his defense this is not related to Charley's arrival. He peed on her basket of stuffed animals a couple weeks ago, we're just now getting around to washing them. I think it's more related to Tessa moving rooms. It took us a few days to figure out why her room smelled so bad.

And just for fun, a cute video of the siblings getting along. She's pulling the strings on my sweatshirt there at the end in case you're wondering.

Ooops, missed one..

A picture that is. Hayden just wanted to let everyone know that he likes this one too...

Push Presents

In honor of Charley's birth, we all got 'push presents'. Well Charley didn't get a present, just life.

Jeremy got me a beautiful Amber necklace which is funny because Charley brought home a little amber necklace for Tessa too! When Tessa was born I got Jeremy engraved cufflinks that said 'Dad'. You can see this time we promoted him even more (or at least stoked his ego).



Charley made his first trip to church today. In the 1.5 hrs we were there Charley wanted to nurse twice so we mostly camped out in the cry room. But he got to meet lots of new friends and watch Daddy sing onstage.

We also had a big outing to the mall yesterday where we hit a sale at JCpenney's. I found a bunch of cute short sleeve shirts for Tessa for $3.99 each, so we are already stocked for spring and summer! It was nice to get out of the house for a few hours and for me to stretch my legs and walk. I couldn't believe that I was actually sore after just walking the mall for the morning.

Other than that we've been hanging out with Janet and Dave, who are taking Tessa to the Children's museum tomorrow. The weather will be so warm, I'm hoping Charley and I can get out walk the neighborhood. Amazingly with all the warm weather this week, our many inches of snow are gone, but now it's a yucky muddy mess out there.

Just a few random pics from today....

Momentous Day

-- Charley made his debut at church where he met a bunch of new friends and watched Daddy sing. He wasn't much on the service though, and we had to leave 3 times.

-- Charley now has a belly button!

-- Because of the above, he is also now wearing cloth diapers

-- Mommy now apparently has bones in her ankles and feet, who knew?

Stayed tuned for pics...

Just for Jessie

...who has accused us of shafting the second child due to lack of photos. I have a feeling Aunt Jessie's going to keep us in line to make sure Charley gets enough love.

So far I think he's well loved. Especially right now because his Mom-mom and Pop are visiting (Jeremy's mom and stepdad). There's been lots of baby cuddles and toddler chasing. I'll let the pictures do the talking.