The Unmatched Beauty of the Childs Mind

Today was a good day in my household, after my children being gone for 2 days (with their grandmother so i could go on a cleaning spree). I was filled with joy and excitement to get them back in time for our family Christmas with my father, sister, brother, his wife, and their wonderful son. Upon picking them up I found them excitedly captivated by a Maltese puppy that my mother-in-law had. Whilst commenting on the bonds they formed with the puppy all the way from my eldest to my young 7 month old daughter I realized I would love nothing more then to bring this animal into our chaotic life. That is when my MIL responded with take him, please, take him now! I was all to happy to want to oblige but animals coming into our household is an absolute must discussion with my husband. So when my son's looked at me with pleading eyes i told them they had to talk to daddy. So we loaded up in the car and off we went. As we were going down the road I spotted a 27 inch TV set out for garbage pick up... now seeing this triggers many memories of my mother dumpster diving for tables, rugs, TVs, blinds, really anything you could name... So my knee-jerk reaction was to speed up, but i surprisingly found myself more willing to slow down, inspect the item, and then proceed to load it into the car with the thought... "maybe it works."
When we made it home, kids in tow with a 27inch TV and dreams of a puppy dancing in our heads, we were greeted by my father and sister bearing gifts a plenty and a very tasty lunch. When my brother arrived with his wonderful family we sat down to eat with a good movie in the background and warm conversations to pass the time. Although the whole time we were eating my oldest kept asking, "can we open presents now!" It kept us entertained in a slightly annoying way, but it was a situation you could not help but to make the best of. But when the time came to open presents he was so excited he handed out all the presents while opening his own. The thoroughly enjoyed unwrapping all the gifts with pure looks of interest and curiosity as they were anxiously tearing through the paper to see what goodies lie beneath. Once all the mysterious presents were revealed there was a awesome count of toys from remote control cars to a baby gym, from that to a Nerf gun (BTW OUCH DAD), and then on to gifts for us adults which included a wonderful screen print from my extraordinarily talented brother to very comedic and brightly colored t-shirts from my dad.
Once our family Christmas was over, my son asked for the puppy, and although my husband immediately said no, I later talked him into curiosity and interest over the animal and instead of the stone cold no, i got the answer we'll see, which in my hubby's speak means yes but on a trial basis... i can swing that ;)
SWEETEST MOMENT OF THE DAY: That evening as the kids and I were baking cookies for Christmas, my youngest son was helping me cut out ginger bread men and as he gazed at them he had a light bulb moment and proceeded to point and say, "this ones mommy, this ones daddy, and this ones me dilly" Nothing can warm a heart quicker then that ;)

My happy family...

Today, I got my tooth pulled... today i was filled with pain and sat dwelling in misery. Today my family took care of me... i know we are a happy family. I love my family.

I hate love my teeth....

Growing up, I will have to admit I was never great at remembering to brush every single night. In fact I hated the very idea of what I had to go through with teeth. Its not fun being a kid having your teeth fall out, be pulled out, or in some cases slammed out with the shutting of a door. But alas, as a kid I had great dental hygiene naturally. After all my adult teeth came in I only remember getting 1 to 2 cavities till I turned 16. To revisit my remembering to brush every night comment, once my adult teeth came in I was much better at that.
Dental visits were much dreaded for me after one particular visit when I was a young child. And this is how it went...To my excitement my mother brought me to the dentist, and when we left I had medal bars guarding the roof of my mouth to keep me from sucking my fingers. It was an extremely unpleasant feeling, especially when it came to talking and eating. Well not even a week after this guard was put in place a friend on the school bus one morning gave me my favorite piece of candy, a now and later. I proceeded to chew the candy with much delight until it dislodged the bars and caused a massive tear in my mouth which poured out blood. When my teacher saw me she just about shrieked in terror. She must have thought i was throwing the blood up. At any rate this resulted in another painful trip to the dentist to where the bars were removed.
That particular memory is my driving force in wanting to help my kids maintain healthy teeth and habits. So far, so good in their cases. But now here I am, 22 and miserable at the idea of having to go to the dentist November 2ND to get my first ever tooth surgically removed. This particular tooth is a constant pain to me. It was awesome till a filling I had in it popped out leaving the nerve exposed for a cavity to form in it. So now the tooth is beyond saving and in my opinion its removal is worse as a sign of aging then getting grey hairs. It is giving me nightmares of having false teeth that pop out when I try to smile at my children.
Luckily I finally found a good dentist. She is very sweet and understanding, she really is very supportive of getting the job done so that I can eat pain free. The fact that I like her so much is great because my history with my past dentists have always been uncomfortable. For instance my first dentist was also my preacher at the church we attended. So whenever I had to get a filling I felt like I was committing a sin. My next dentist was a old jerk, and when I was getting a filling from him he didn't wait for the numbing to be complete before he started. So when I jerked in pain he told me to shut up and suck it up. By the time I chose to go to the dentist again, it was about this tooth before the cavity had infected the nerve. He treated me as if I was a lowly peasant and he a mighty King. So I have to say having a nice inviting dentist is a WONDERFUL change. And even though I dread the idea of being toothless I am looking forward to her getting the job done.
My recent visit there was so very pleasant that I chose this clinic as our dental destination and I made my first appointment for my 4 year old there. I hope that this Dentist will make him feel as comfortable as she did me. Because I truly hope he learns to enjoy trips to the dentist, it will make it easier on all of us.

Breastfeeding, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!

Now, I could give you all the factual information possibly found on the internet. But I'd rather talk about what I've learned from breastfeeding. Some of the things i have also been told about breastfeeding are interesting too. Let me start off by saying that my first two breastfeeding attempts with my 4 yr old and 23 month old were both fails... i never made it past 8 weeks with either of them. Now that I've given birth to my now 3month old and I'm still breastfeeding and no words can describe how prideful I feel.

Since breastfeeding I have learned patience... wow I have learned major patience. I tell you breastfeeding on the couch (immobile in my case) while my boys do everything in their power to destroy the house within a 20 minute time frame and I with nothing but my voice and a flyswatter to try and stop them makes for a very interesting situation. Thus comes in the lesson of patience, since breastfeeding I have learned to try to come up with some type of activity for my boys before i settle down to breastfeed. This makes both parties happy, my house stays relatively clean and my kids stay relatively entertained.

I have learned the beautiful blessing of the natural bond formed between a mother and her newborn child. My heart swarms with love and joyful thoughts fill my mind as I look into my daughters eyes as she gets everything she needs to grow and survive from my breast-milk. My thoughts lead to those of awe in the fact that my body is able to produce liquid gold well fortified to combat illness. One thing I love that my daughter does while eating is her breaks to coo and smile at me. We have some of our best talks during feeding time.

Now I'm not sure if this is for everyone or if it is just something that has happened for me and my family. But, since breastfeeding I've realized that she is trying to do a lot more, at 14 hours old she started sleeping for 6 hours at a time at night. Also at two weeks she started supporting her head extremely well for her age. She is already bypassing milestones set by her brothers and I am one to beleive all the credit is due to being a breastfed baby.

I love breastfeeding and I don't know why I wasn't able to do it in the past, I know it takes drive and determination now. But if I had known how the love would continue to grow like this in the past I would have made sure to work harder at reaching the 12 month milestone that I am shooting for with her. I tell everyone now that if you can push through the necessary pain of learning how to do it (yourself and your child learning) and make it past 8 weeks then it should become as easy as a cakewalk. Please remember to believe in yourself. Breastfeeding is worth all the pain and frustration because once your lil' one masters their latch and you find the positions most comfortable to you, you won't remember the trials of the past you will only remember the joys of the future!!!

The Craziness of being Home

Yes, it has been quite sometime since my last post... having a baby can make things go a little crazy. Just a little and that is in terms of measurements where a little is an exponentially large amount of crazy. I hate not being more faithful to my blog but hey that's life :)

Since giving birth to a beautiful 6lb 13oz 19inch long bundle of joy 11 weeks have passed. In those 11 weeks she has acquired a weight of 10lbs 10oz and a length of 21 and a half inches long. She is quite the lil' chunk only surviving on breast milk definitely does her body good. While we were at the hospital it was really easy to relax and kind of forget about the havoc wreaked back at our home. We had many visitors at the hospital and seeing people you know when you are confined to a hospital bed with nothing but bad cable to keep you company is always awesome. My father was among one of the visitors to the hospital, he brought my boys and my best friend with him. He seemed really proud to be holding his 3rd(2ND biological) granddaughter. We named her after my recently passed mother, who is and will always be my main source of inspiration for my parenting style. Anyways enough about that let me tell you about the craziness that ensued in the days and weeks following her home arrival.

Once we left the safe easy going surroundings of the hospital, I was eerily ready to get back to the crazy lifestyle I had left. The ride home was long and hot, and let me tell you a car with no a/c in the beginning heat of summer and a newborn riding in the backseat is horrible. Once home though, we were greeted with family and cool a/c inside our quaint 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. Its been nice being home and with my family, its definitely taking some adjusting having 3 kids now, but it is a welcome change.

Unorganized Organization

So, here I am THREE days till I am set to be induced to give birth to my first daughter. I have two lovely boys already, the oldest is three and the youngest is 20 months old. Whether they care to acknowledge it or not their world is about to change forever. But, that is a different subject all together and no where near the craziness that I call my current state.


I am not a messy person, and I am not a clutter bug. But, I am definitely not a neat person. Before having kids I had order to my methods of keeping a house clean. Now that I have kids, there is no order just mass chaos to keeping even the living room floor mess free. So of course, I am facing the challenge right now of having a multitude of chores done before Sunday night and having them stay done. The reason I call this a challenge mainly is because I want my house orderly for my friend who is going to be watching my two lovely boys. So that maybe, just maybe it will be easy for her to keep it orderly so that when we come home with new baby, nothing will have to be done very much cleaning wise before visitors come to meet our new little girl.


I have already accomplished shopping for this upcoming event. The fridge and pantry are fully stocked and ready to go with items to keep the boys full and satisfied. There is even enough to give our "kid wrangler" a variety to chose from. I have a schedule typed up for her with general guides of what should and should not be done with the boys. She has kept them before but for never this long, so I'm nervous she is going to be too nice to them. Meaning mainly that she may let them take advantage of her... my boys can be a bit to handle when you aren't stern with them.


So over all, this weekend is going to be a mass organization of my two bedroom one bath apartment, yes it is small for a family of five but we make it work. I'm hoping to say by Sunday night that this was a success... but we shall see.