My Due Date

My due date was yesterday.  It was very strange to think about going through the whole labor and delivery thing and just meeting Otis only yesterday!  It was very strange to think about having all seven or so squirmy pounds of him still inside!  I'm pretty glad we had him early, we got to have an extra six weeks with him.

Today we got some things at the consignment shop, and check out what I found--a little baptism outfit in perfect condition!!  The tag looks vintagey, too, but I don't know, it's so white and crisp, it can't be that old.  I think it will be adorable when we finally get around to having Otis' baptism!

Thank You, Miss Wendy!

Dear Miss Wendy,
Thank you so much for letting my Gramma have us over to your house.  We had tons of fun sledding and playing in the snow.  Gramma helped me build a snow fort, it was pretty cool!

 

Pearl had fun, too!

Mom didn't come out with us, she just carried Otis around all day. 

Thank you also for letting my Great Grandma and Grandpa come over.  It was fun to see them, and they were pretty excited to be able to hold Otis!

I loved to play with the farm, Legos, dollhouse, and of course, the rocks!!  After all that fresh air and excitement, I got tuckered out.  Thanks for letting me crash!

Hope to see you someday soon.  Love,

Ingrid.

Go Pack Go!

I really don't care about football but yesterday we had fun.  I made the kids these shirts:

I made soup, we watched the game, Brendan paced around.  When there was a touchdown Brendan would jump and yell, which Ingrid found very exciting.  She made him get up and jump around with her well after the game was over.  It was a fun family afternoon, and the Packers won and are off to the Super Bowl!!  I think Otis is a good luck charm.  Brendan jokingly said he's going to use our tax return to get tickets, ha!  As if we don't have a million more pressing things to spend money on.

Like moving.  Hopefully soon, people!  Brendan's off to Missouri for an interview this week.  And hopefully soon he'll be getting asked to go to another one in Milwaukee, fingers crossed he gets this one and we can move home again!!  So maybe we'll just watch the Super Bowl on tv instead of flying to Texas, okay, honey?

Vibrating Chairs and Football

Yesterday we finally got batteries for Otis' vibrating bouncy seat.   He was so funny when we turned it on!  He was all wide eyed and quiet, totally occupied for a long time! 

 

He is getting to be such a big kid, or so I think.  I am used to the wee five pound peanut, so seeing him two pounds heavier makes me think he's huge.  Then I see a full term baby and I laugh at how small he really is!  We went to Urban Toddler the other day and there was a baby that was a month older and about six pounds heavier.  He's still got a ways to go.  He is just starting to fit into his newborn clothes, but still is swimming in some of them :)

Well, I'm off to go play with felt.  The Packers are playing a big game today so I'm making the kids shirts.  We have to show our Wisconsin pride!  Anyone who has known me for a long time knows how strange this is.  I never was into sports, never watched anything, never knew who the teams were.  Then I met Brendan and now through osmosis I have some knowledge of sports.  If you'd have told me ten years ago that I would be making Packer shirts for my kids, I would've laughed my ass off.  But alas, we grow, we change.  I still couldn't tell you what the hell is going on in a football game, but I know that today at 3pm the Packers are playing the Bears.  That is way more than I would've known before!

Hanging Out, Being Crabby.

It's been snowy and gross around these parts lately.  It makes me want to cozy up inside and not go anywhere, but I think that's getting to Ingrid.  She wants to play and move and I want to sit on the couch and read or just look at Otis. 

Ingrid has been doing well with having a brother, but just the past few days it seems like it's hitting her that she isn't the only one.  I'm not sure why, it's been over a month since we've had Otis, but just recently she has started acting out in a major way!  Lots of power struggles, lots of demanding we do things for her, lots of not listening.  I'm trying to be patient but it's hard.  REALLY HARD.  Especially when it's already been a long day and I'm alone with both kids and downstairs feeding Otis and she screams that she needs me to help get her water bottle that is right by her bed.  And when I call up the stairs that she can get it herself, she starts to cry "Mama, you don't have to yell at me!" 

Sigh...

Anyway, today was fun even though we had a couple rough patches.  I got her wings to stay (ribbon tied at her shoulders!) and she wore her new dress around and played with her fire truck.  I laid Otis on the floor and we sang songs to him.  It's so interesting to see him wide eyed and awake, he is really starting to act like a normal baby.

Hopefully soon I'll feel like getting out of the house again and we'll be able to go play with her friends.  And hopefully soon Otis will sleep more at night and I won't be so tired during the day!

New Clothes

Yesterday I finally got my ass in gear to sew again!  I told Ingrid right before I ended up in the hospital that I would make her a pair of new cozy pants.  And since I've been home she keeps asking me when I'm going to make them...So I did yesterday and then what do you know, they are enormous and won't fit for another year.  Oops. 

Otis' fit him, though.  Do you know how hard it is to make newborn pants??  Their inseam is like three inches!  I cut these out based on a pair of pants I'd make my Cabbage Patch doll that Ingrid plays with.  No joke, my kid wears doll clothes...

We got a package in the mail from my brother and his family yesterday.  Guess what was in it for Ingrid?!  She gasped "ooh, a tooth fairy dress!"  There are wings as well but I have to come up with something to keep them on, they kept falling off.

Ingrid threw the world's biggest tantrum last night, it was amazing.  Brendan was trying to get her pjs on and she kept kicking him.  We told her no books before bed if she kept doing it.  She kept kicking, we said no books, and she lost it.  LOST IT!  Screaming, crying, stomping her feet, hitting the walls, you name it, she did it to show how pissed she was.  It's really the first tantrum we've had, usually she lets it go pretty easily.  But last night she kept carrying on for over an hour!  I put her in bed, she jumped up screaming about books.  She finally calmed down for awhile and then twenty minutes later she'd start crying about books again.  One am and she wakes up crying for books.  I hope that lesson will stick with her!  It was not a pleasant thing to go through, and I totally see why parents cave in and just give the kid what they want...

Dishes and Diapers

Since we have a dishwasher I never have to wash dishes in the sink.  That being so, I forgot how much Ingrid loves to splash around in dishwater.  The other day I had a bunch of bottles and pumping stuff to wash, and Ingrid came in all smiles "can I wash dishes, too??"  So we put a towel on the floor and she went to town splashing around.  She told me she was making me a water cake.

Today after our doctor's appointment--where we found out Otis is 6lbs 6oz!!!!--we headed over to the cloth diaper store to see what they had in the used section.  We have a bunch of prefolds but the newborn size Prowraps are a bit big on our little man, so they leak a bit.  I was so pleased to find a huge stash of Bum Genius AIOs in the extra small size.  They are truly newborn sized diapers and fit our chicken legged guy really well.  We bought all six that they had!

While looking through this little colorful stash it hit me that we have only bought one diaper brand new!  I found an extra small FuzziBunz on Amazon for super cheap in only one color (bright green which I would've bought anyway!)  Other than that we have always gotten used diapers.  I am such a cheapskate :) 

In other news, Ingrid is learning new things in leaps and bounds!!  Brendan has been drawing letters with her and she is getting really good at making Ws and Hs.  Tonight she drew one and said "this isn't good enough for me, I'm going to erase it."  Ha!  Little perfectionist.  She's also recognizing that words on the pages of books actually tell the story.  This will be a problem someday, as I usually skim over parts of books if they are too long for her attention span.  But now she's asking me what each word is.  I have a feeling she won't let me get away with the skimming over thing for much longer!!

Holy Crap, I Have Two Kids!

Yep, I have two kids.  It hit me yesterday when I told a friend I was chatting with that I had to go get "the kids" ready for their baths.  The kids.  Not just Ingrid, the kids.  Wow.

I love it!  Yesterday I was a complete multitasker, nursing Otis in my arms while sweeping up a mess Ingrid had made.  And the picture above is from story time before putting the kids to bed.  Every day seems to get easier, and I'm happier than I ever could have imagined.

Before we decided on having another baby, I worried a lot about what that would mean for Ingrid.  Would she get enough attention?  Would she feel left out?  Would that take away certain opportunities for her?  And now I know, the girl gets plenty of attention, she doesn't feel left out because we include her in everything, and yes, she's going to miss out on some opportunities, but the new family dynamic seems so worth it.  We may not get to travel when and where we would without another baby, but we only travel twice a year, the rest of the year we're at home.  And our home life is so much more amazing with Otis in it!

When I had Ingrid I was bound and determined not to have another.  I got rid of all her baby stuff as soon as she was out of it.  I dreamed of when she'd get bigger and we could travel all over with her and show her the world.  I never ever ever wanted to be pregnant again.  And now here I am, a month out of having a crazy ride having number two, and I'm already thinking I'm not done having kids.  WTF?? 

Brendan says I can't because I'm a bitch when I'm pregnant, and I agree.  Pregnancy is not my forte.  But motherhood IS, so unless we adopt, which isn't out of the picture, I have to get knocked up one more time to have one more babe.  Only one more time, honey, I swear!   Who can blame me, my kids are great, why wouldn't I want another one?

First Bath.

Otis' belly button stump fell off last night, so he was able to take a bath in his little tub for the first time!  Ingrid always thought it was a piece of poo stuck to him, so she was happy to see it gone.  And she noticed his penis for the first time while looking at his belly button, so we had to have that talk...She said ooh, we have to show Daddy!  I told her I think Daddy already knows about them!

When I was drying Otis off I was reminded of a picture we have of Ingrid when she was tiny, so I had to take one of him, too.  Here they are, siblings for sure!  I never realized how similar their noses are until looking at these pictures side by side!



The nurse came for the last time yesterday to weigh Fat Man.  He's now tipping the scales at 6lbs 1oz!!  Way to go Otis!

Playdates and Vintage Cards

We were lucky enough to have friends that braved the snow to come play at our house today.  It was Otis' first playdate!  He slept the whole time, as three toddlers ran around and screamed and threw stuff, I don't know how he does it...

The little man is so cuddly, it's hard not to want to hold him all the time. 

And one last random thing, birth announcements.  I had made some up online at different places but couldn't decide which one to get.  Then luckily, before I spent $50, I remembered that the last time I was at Dretzka's I found a bunch of baby announcements, and that I had gotten some from Heather at 3RingCircus.  Yay for vintage cards!  They are super cute and totally unique, no?  Now I have to figure out which picture to send along with them.  How to choose when my babe is so adorable?

Gain Weight Otis!

Ingrid and I made a sign that said that while Otis was in the NICU.  And it has worked!  Otis is home with us again, weighing about 5lbs 8oz and gaining steadily.  Or at least we hope so...I found that nursing him doesn't give the calories he needs because he can't suck hard enough yet.  So, we are back to bottles of fortified breast milk.  He's sucking them down like a champ and will hopefully have gained enough weight when the visiting nurse comes back tomorrow. 

Ingrid is pretty cool with having a little brother.  He is now officially "Bub" and she has to kiss him and say goodnight to him.  I love seeing her as a big sister! 

I tried out our XS Bum Genius today, it totally fits!  I have smalls in other brands, but they still look pretty huge.  And I have some prefolds but they need to be washed still, so we're still using the disposables the hospital sent home with us.  Today I had the BG on, though, and it looked so enormous and cute I had to take pictures.  Can't wait to be strictly cloth diapering again!

An Ingrid Weekend.

This weekend was pretty fun, even though we didn't do anything for New Years.  We just hung out and enjoyed time with Ingrid, visited Otis, and did laundry, of course.  The weather was amazing on Saturday so we actually got out to go to the park!  It has been SO LONG since we've done that!!  Ingrid had a great time, but Brendan found out the merry go round makes him puke...

And might I share a nerd joke my husband made??  I said boy that merry go round is rusty.  Brendan said "It's a ferrous wheel!  Get it?"  Oh, chemistry jokes are just the best, aren't they??

Something else cool about this weekend, Ingrid has really gotten into drawing actual objects.  Instead of just scribbling, she likes to do smiley faces, and now has even gone into drawing legs and arms.  Today she drew what looked like Oswald the octopus, and when I said that, she immediately drew his sidekick Weenie the dog.  How clever!!  I know I sound like such a mom, proud of a stick figure her kid has drawn, but it's so cool to see her learning stuff right in front of my eyes!