Mama Bear

Zoey eats an apple

2012-02-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Today Zoey gnawed on an apple, or a grapple actually. She liked it, but never ended up actually ingesting any of it. We are doing the no babyfood approach to solids with Zoey, and this was her first experience with a food item. (Besides the complete rejection of mashed up banana and breastmilk a couple weeks ago). I am very excited that babyfood will not be part of my life! I hate that stuff, homemade or not.

She kept dropping it and trying to grab it with her mouth off her chest.

And one of Gideon for good measure, and because he made me take his photo when I was taking photos of Zoey. He's so neglected.

The yellow on his cheek is mustard from lunch, and the red stuff is blood from his bike accident over the weekend. Ya know, he's tough, scars and stuff.

5 months already??

2012-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

Zoey is 5 months old today. I know I've slacked on taking photos of Zoey at all, much less on her month birthdays, but ya know, two kids and all. So let's pretend I'm an awesome mom and move on with our lives.

At 5 months old Zoey is...adorable. Chunkier than Gideon. Talkative and giggly. Her hair is always a mess. Her face is scratched to hell (her own fault). And she loves Gideon most I think. She is ALMOST sitting and a champ at rolling over and holding up her head. She's not crawling or teething yet, but both are probably pretty close. She is still surviving on breastmilk, because feeding her real food seems like a lot of work (and I don't think she's quite ready for it). She likes to hold hands. She grabs her feet whenever she can.

And for those who want to compare, here is Gideon's 5 month post. They don't really look alike at all anymore.

Shouldn't you be in school?

2012-01-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ever since Gideon was born I've had every telling me that I am so lucky that Gideon's birthday is in late September, because that means that he misses the cutoff for school and will get to wait until he's older to start. Based on the current laws, Gideon will be 6 years old when he starts kindergarten. SIX YEARS OLD! I know all mom's think that their kid is smart, and I'm sure they are, but my kid IS smart. And I can not imagine waiting until he is 6 to send him to school. He will be so bored and I see that being a pattern following him throughout his education if forced to wait. I also don't want him to be in kindergarten when he's 6 with 5 year olds, there is a big difference.

Anywho, so because of this and other random reasons (including the price of private schools and the quality of some public schools), we have decided to home school.

Yes, yes, I know, we've somehow become hippies along the way. Exclusive breastfeeding, home made baby food, no gluten, cloth diapers, and now homeschooling! What can I say, we're only kind of crazy.

So I found this list of what a kid should know by the time they are out of kindergarten. Gideon is currently almost 2.5 and can already do about half of those things. So we are starting school early for sure.

I'm currently deep in research of the best curriculum for a kindergartner. I guess the plan is to get the curriculum and just start going through it and skip the parts that are too advanced until he's ready and then I'll be able to judge at what age he's ready to start and end kindergarten.

I'll be using my blog to track his progress, you know, so I can see where the screw ups are avoid repeating them with Zoey.

Let the great experiment begin!

Lies and tattles, already?

2012-01-10T06:10:00.000-08:00

Me: Gideon will go check on Zoey and make sure she's ok.

Gideon goes to check on Zoey, who I can see is just laying on my bed.

Gideon: Mom, Zo's in trouble.

Me: Why is Zo in trouble?

Gideon: I don't know. Zo's in trouble. "some toddler jibber-jabber" timeout.

We Care...

2012-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

So as of late Gideon is OBSESSED with Care Bears. To an extent that worries me. He basically spends all his time asking to watch "Bears". We have The Care Bear Movie, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, and Season 1 of The Care Bears Family. But his favorite by far is The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland. These are all the vintage 1980's Care Bears, not the new lame Care Bears. And I must say they are a little creepy/scary for a little kid. And the Wonderland one is VERY trippy and clearly involved much drug usage during it's creation.

His favorite Care Bear is Grumpy Bear or "the blue bear".

I mean there are worse things (Dora for one), but man, the boy loves Care Bears.

Wakes up in the middle of the night and asks to watch "Bears".

Eating lunch and asks to watch "Bears".

Watching a different show and asks to watch "Bears".

It is his first full on obsession.

I'm not sure how to feel about it. I mean it's cute and I really like the way he says "Bears", it's kind of a "Bee-airs". I also loved Care Bears as a child.

Also, I know Care Bears toys were in the stores awhile ago, but now I can't find anything.

So, thoughts on Gideon's love for vintage Care Bears programming?

Pink Pig

2011-12-06T19:44:00.001-08:00

So I guess growing up in Atlanta you ride the Pink Pig come Christmastime. So ride the Pink Pig we did. This was Gideon's first year, he seemed....mildly interested? I'm not gonna lie, he was much more interested in riding the escalator up and down after. For those who don't know, the Pink Pig is a small pig shaped train that goes in a small circle through a large storybook themed tent. Yes. That is the fun.

Gideon went with a friend of his.

Stats

2011-11-14T10:59:00.001-08:00

Number of times I say "potty" in any given day - 25

Number of times Gideon says "no" - 100

Number of diapers I change - 10+

Number of times I have to say something to Gideon before he will even start to listen - 12

Odds that Gideon will call me dad or sir instead of mom - 50/50

Number of times I have to sing SJP's child luring song from Hocus Pocus to Zoey because it's the only song that calms her down, no matter how creepy it might be to everyone else in the house - 500 (it only has two lines)

Number of ornaments I have finished for my swap - 1

Number of ornaments I have to finish within the next 2 weeks - at least 10 (I should really work on finding more time in the day)

Length of Zoey's longest sleeping stretch at night - Between 7 and 8 hours (now that I have said this it will promptly switch to 2 tonight I'm sure)

Length of Gideon's longest sleeping stretch at night - 4 hours? (He has been having so much trouble sleeping lately, I think he's just used to getting water at night, so I guess we're going to try some cry it out tonight and see what that does. But he wakes up crying, or rather cries in his sleep, several times a night and that's not working for anyone. If anyone has ideas or suggestions please send them my way!)

Hours a day spent in my PJs - 24 (it's been one of those weeks)

Dishes in the sink that need washing - 15

Number of toys on the floor - 57 (no matter how many I pick up the number seems to stay the same)

Times Gideon tries to feed his food to either Zoey or the cat - 3

Times I have said I was going to call the eye doctor/dentist and make an appointment - 7

Times I called the eye doctor/dentist to make an appointment - 0

Times I have to say out of your eye/ear/nose/mouth - 66

Times I was interrupted while trying to write this short blog post - 8

Halloween Photo Bomb

2011-10-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

We went to a pumpkin patch. Gideon was Paul Bunyan and Zoey was Babe his blue ox. If you need some background info to understand here's the wiki. And now for the main attraction...

Me and the kiddos.

The boys in their matching Ghost Busters T-shirts.

Our best attempt at getting a cute shot of our kids.

Paul & Babe

Paul attacking Babe with his ax.

Little Zoey, I mean Babe.

Gideon at our first trick or treat of the year.

We are doing the for real, outside, trick or treat in a couple days. More adorableness to come I'm sure.

Zoey's To-Do List

2011-10-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

These are the kinds of things I find in my house. I get out of the shower and find this on my bed.

Check out her pocket.

Close up of her To-Do List.

running, running, running, running...

2011-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend our whole family participated in our first 5K. It was a free 5K through Blue Cross Blue Shield to promote healthy habits in kids. It was really nice. We all got free T-shirts, and there was a little health fair as well with lots of free goodies. We had to get up rediculously early to drive downtown in time for it to start, and walked about a mile around the park trying to find to where the welcome booth was before the race even started, but it was fun! We were the almost last to finish, but that was because Gideon ran all by himself at the beginning (the only kid his age not in a stroller), and most everyone passed us. He's a good runner, his tiny legs just don't let him run super fast. He rode most of the way in the stroller and then ran the last bit across the finish line. He was perfect. Zoey slept the whole time in the Moby, which was wonderful. We got a lot of comments about doing the race with our 2 year old and our 9 week old! Our time ended up being 1 hour and 3 minutes, which isn't too bad. We walked the whole way. My body is sore today!

Adam & Gideon showing off their race numbers.

Our time trackers on our shoes.

Adam & Gideon doing stretches. Gideon had no help, he just started doing what the leader was telling everyone to do. The whole while asking to run. He was amazing!

The whole family after it was over. Gideon is wearing his finisher ribbon.

How champions celebrate.

All phone photos, we didn't want to lug the camera around, that's why they all kind of suck.

Thrifty or How Gideon Views Family

2011-10-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Today Zoey and I went to check out a local thrift store. It's a newer thrift store, so I was hoping it would be nice and it was. I mean it was still a room full of old, used stuff. But pretty clean and organized well. They were also having sales on a bunch of items. They had a great selection of kid's clothes, so I think I'll be checking there before buying new for the kids from now on. You know, since they grow out of everything in a week anyway?

So for $11 I was able to get an Old Navy button up for Adam, a Batman T-shirt for Gideon, a pajama outfit and sweatshirt for Zoey, 2 books for Gideon (a Thomas Look & Find and a Cars book with the sound buttons on the side, all still working!) and a collection of vintage Fisher Price Little People for Zoey to grow in to. I call that a win!

The Little People are the big score for me. I remember these from when I was little and think they are so much cooler than the current Little People. I got everything pictured for....69 cents! Can you believe that?!?

Gideon was going through the loot when I got home and wanted to play with the Little People, so we opened the fancy Ziplock bag they were packaged in and let him look through them. He pulled out the little baby and started treating like his little baby.

The baby in question. He has bite marks on his head, not from us!

Giving the baby his pacifier.

Kissing the baby.

Hugging the baby. You can't see the baby, but it's that little fist near his head.

He also put it in the bouncy seat and turned it on for him, but we couldn't catch that one fast enough.

He then started acting out little scenes with the Little People. He put the baby on the table and says "Down!" Then put the Daddy on the table and says, "Down, Dad!". Daddy ended up getting thrown across the room at one point and I think Sister ended up in a tragic boating accident, she had her life preserver on, but no one was going to save her. I'm not sure what that means for how he views the family!

Tummy time fail.

2011-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

She fell asleep almost immediately.

I wish she had this kind of dedication to sleep during the night hours.

1 Month: side by side

2011-09-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

I hear you should ~~always~~ never compare your kids.

In the face.

Body shots.

They look related for sure. Even though Zoey was smaller at birth she is looking larger at the one month for sure. Her check up is tomorrow, so I'll actual stats instead of just comparing photos.

Dos!

2011-09-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

Gideon is two years old today. Here are some random facts about the best two year old around.

He loves his baby sister and tries his hardest to take care of her.
He doesn't listen. Sometimes we wonder if he's deaf, it's that level of not listening.
He is very smart, he knows all his letters, colors, animals, animal sounds, some letter sounds, and so much more!
He loves TV or "shows" and asks to watch them a lot.
He gently pats the spot next to him when he wants you to sit down with him.
Just within the past week or so he has really started talking a lot more and a lot more clearly. But he's still not the most eloquent toddler you'll meet.
He is a total boy. He is always picking up sticks or knocking things over or pretending to be a dinosaur while running around the house growling. We love it.
He's cute. I mean super cute. I mean we can't go anywhere without strangers telling us how cute he is. I can tell this will lead to trouble down the road.
He knows what he wants and won't take anything else. This will also lead to trouble I'm sure.
He's a lot of fun to play with. His imagination is just starting to take off, and you can really see that when you play cars with him and he will tell you one of the cars can fly and start laughing, etc. Really loving this age with him.
He still doesn't really play with his friends, but he loves playing near them and watching them play. This is especially true about older kids, he wants to be in there with them so bad, but just isn't big enough.
He likes to have his clothes on, if his shirt is riding up and his belly is showing it must be pulled down. Modesty is his policy apparently.
He has just started to really enjoy taking a shower with dad instead of his usual bath. He's so grown up.
He is a dancing fool. So much rhythm and talent in that little white body.
He is very lucky to have two such wonderful parents. ;)

I'm still in shock that it has been a year since he turned one, because it doesn't seem it. But it does seem like he's a two year old in so many ways. I look forward to him being three and being even more human like. I'm sure this next year will go by even faster. Every year goes by faster than the one before it, that's what they say right? Must remember to take more and better photos!

(I was going to link to last years post about one year old Gideon, but apparently I never got around to doing that? So um, yeah, 2010 mom of the year award goes to....anyone but me.)

3 week update.

2011-09-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Zoey is just over 3 weeks old. And according to my oh so scientific method of weighing myself with and without the baby, she weighs about 9 pounds.

She is a handful. She cries a lot more than Gideon, but sleeps better than he did. She's doing good at night. Obviously enjoys eating based on her weight gain. Is a co-sleeping fiend. And looks adorable in the plethora of tiny outfits in her closet.
I am not a fan of babies. I would like to have more kids, but would be ok with no more babies. Adam and I are just counting down to the 6 months mark. We have decided that's when kids start being fun and stop being tiny, crying meatballs.
Gideon is adapting to big brotherhood as well as can be expected. He loves his little sister. He likes to hold her, tell her "It's ok!" when she cries, cheer her on at tummy time, and of course make sure her bouncy seats are always vibrating, playing music, or what have you when she's in them.
Of course he also likes to share his snacks with her. Throw his toys in her direction. Play the "I'm not touching her" game. And sometimes doesn't realize she's there when he's trying to climb or sit somewhere. Let's hope we all survive the squishy infant stage of her life.

Zoey is her name.

2011-08-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well we had a baby! Zoey Beatrice. I might type out her whole birth story, but not now. Here's an overview.

I went in Thursday to start my induction process, at 2 days past my due date. I was very large.

I had a really awesome delivery. Labor was not so awesome. But this time was much better than Gideon's. So much more relaxed, we got to hold her when she was still goopy, and Adam got to cut her cord.

Gideon got to come meet his little sister at the hospital. He seemed really interested in her and even asked to hold her. That interest has since faded, and now he mostly ignores her, unless he's poking her body parts for us to identify (one of his favorite games).

We are all doing good. I'm still in recovery mode, but functional. Adam is back at work today. Tomorrow Zoey will be 1 week old, and we are doing some photos. So stay tuned. I think she looks a lot Gideon did when he was a baby, not exactly the same, but very similar.

Puppy

2011-08-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Today Britta and I took Gideon to play with a puppy. Because I thought it would be fun. It was.

And yes, I am still pregnant (39 weeks) with no sign of labor in sight.

Update.

2011-08-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well just a short little update.

The baby is still in my belly. Tomorrow marks the start of the 2 week countdown to my due date. Hoping for a much earlier delivery date.

Brittany is coming tomorrow! We are excited to have her come and I'm sure Gideon will love her.

Gideon had a playdate yesterday, it was a zoo! He had a blast though and it was good to see all (most of) his friends before he becomes a big brother.

I love root beer floats.

Let's talk names.

2011-07-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Baby names have been on my mind lately for obvious reasons. More specifically baby girl names. So far we can not find a name we love for our daughter and that makes me sad. Here are the problems.

I feel like girls are harder to name than boys for some reason. I have a million (well not a million, but at least like 5 good boy names ready to go!)
Adam and I seem to have different taste in girl names.
I don't want anything too boring or popular. Although I might have to let go of the popular thing.
Adam HATES a lot of the names that I LOVE.
It can't clash with Gideon or our last name.
You have to take all the names that you can't even consider because of people you know/have known that have ruined those names forever.
Then we are left with about 2% of all the baby girl names out there and out of those we have to find one that we not only agree on but that we can picture on our little girl and can imagine saying all day long.

In conclusion, our child may not ever have a name.

Productive

2011-07-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Today I have been super productive, it feels good and sleepy all at the same time. Here's what I've done so far, and still so much of the day left to be used!

Made a pot roast for dinner. Not sure what the best part of making pot roast is, how easy it is? How delicious it is? How it makes my house smell? Knowing I have to do nothing to prepare for dinner come dinner time? Having leftovers? It's all wonderful. We should eat roast more often.
Cuddle time with Gideon.
Spent a lot of time going through our finances and setting up a new budget and debt plan while reading my Dave Ramsey books. Changes need to be made!
Got Gideon to take a nap.
Blogged not once, but twice!
Worked on sewing some cloth wipes for a friend.
Vacuumed.
Worked on the dishes, they really pile up after a long weekend of not doing them.
Laundry, I am determined to stay on top of the laundry leading up to giving birth.
Emptied out all of Gideon's toy boxes and downsized from 3 boxes to 2 boxes. Putting the extra box of toys in the basement for now, and in 6 months or so we will bring it up and switch out some of his current toys for "new" toys. Makes it fun for him, and cuts down on the trillion toys laying around our house. This is especially necessary since I recently pulled out all the "baby" toys again. Note to self: Empty the toy boxes for cleaning every couple months, because there were way too many bugs (dead and alive) at the bottom of the boxes.

There used to be 2 overflowing toy boxes where this 1 sits now, success!

What to do with the rest of my day, I have done more today than I usually do all week. I should probably rest, but getting things done feels so good!

The 4th in photos

2011-07-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

We attempted to watch fireworks, but it rained and Gideon feel asleep before it got dark. I think if the weather had been nice and we kept him outside, Gideon could've powered through, but alas. So we will try again next year for Gideon to see his first fireworks. But we had some pizza and some fun.

34 weeks pregnant.

2011-07-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

That is all.

Nap time.

2011-06-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is where Gideon has been taking most of his naps lately.

It's a little blurry because I was trying to be quiet and quick.

Naps are his nemesis most days, and he fights them as hard as any good superhero would an evil villain. So I lay him down and he hops out of bed, and within 15 minutes of complaining at the door he falls asleep.

Before baby to-do:

2011-06-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am about 32 weeks pregnant, which means only 8 weeks until 40 weeks, and I'm really hoping this baby wants to come early! Time to get organized and get everything done that needs to be done before this baby arrives.

Pack hospital bag for me and Gideon's bag for while we are in the hospital
Deep clean the house, including getting these nasty carpets steam cleaned, hoping that will help a little
Prepare and freeze several meals for post baby eating (I have never done this before, but it seems like a really good idea, so if you have any tips or recipes send them my way!)
Get cloth diapers for Chloe (pretty sure we going to be able to get most of these from a friend, so almost taken care of)
Finish making cloth wipes for Chloe
Learn to love the name Chloe
Plan Gideon's birthday party so it's all set to go come September
Install carseat
Clean out the car
Make sure all the baby things (swing, bouncer, etc) are clean and ready to be used
Get fatter, not something I want to do, but it's going to happen
Try not to melt in this ridiculous heat
Attempt to do all this (and more I'm sure) while keeping an almost 2 year old entertained

Wish me luck. This list grows everyday.

Father's Day 2011

2011-06-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Gideon has the best dad. We all think so. Today we spent the day doing one of our favorite things, NOTHING! Well we went to church and the store, watched Cars, played in water in the yard, ate a delicious meal, and celebrated all that is Adam. After yesterday we all needed a day of rest for sure.