Chinese People are funny

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Candy

My father in law called me today, on accident. He always calls my cell phone by accident when trying to reach my husband. This is our conversation:

Him: How baby doing? (Try to imagine a very thick Chinese accent)

Me: She’s great!

Him: Good! She no have hair huh? *chuckle chuckle* (Still imagining the Chinese accent?)

Me: Yeah *laugh* It’s growing in a lot more now though!

Him: Oooh *chuckle* She look better with hair, ya know (Are you laughing yet?)

The brutal honesty of their culture can either totally hurt your feelings or make you laugh hysterically. It never hurts my feelings because I just know how they are. The funnier part is that my husband already had this EXACT same conversation with him last time he talked to him, which wasn’t too long ago. So now we are wondering if they think she is going to grow up bald LOL!

By the way, I just wanted to point out that my husband was born and raised in the U.S. and (thankfully) didn’t inherit some of the more blatant aspects of the Chinese culture. Oh and I love my in-laws.. Just thought this was pretty hilarious!

Bad Mommy Alert!

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Candy

I am such a terrible blogger! and Mommy!! I feel SOOOOO guilty that I have not blogged at all about Kiera or her milestones. Life has been quite an adjustment with a 2 year old and an infant. It’s not bad or extremely difficult thanks to having a laid back toddler, but finding the time to write here is pretty much impossible.

Kiera is doing great. We started her on Prevacid about a month ago and it has helped her acid reflux tremendously. We have to open the capsules and dump the little granules into her mouth then quickly give her the bottle so she can drink it all down. It’s not that bad but sometimes it’ll gag her a little. I don’t know WHY my children have such weak gag reflexes (they’re BOTH pukers) but they do. Kiera is a little over a week away from turning 5 months old and the child is already taking 8oz bottles! I called my pediatrician yesterday and we are now introducing cereal into her diet. So far she has had a couple of tablespoons and seems to do pretty well with it. This girl is the definition of Chunky Monkey lol! She is getting really good at holding her head up. She LOATHES tummy time so we barely ever do it. She would much rather either be standing (with assistance, of course) or sitting up. Not a fan of laying down for long periods of time.

She is starting to love her Bumbo seat, which makes it easier for me to get things done or feed her the cereal. She is starting to laugh a lot, which I just love. She still loves seeing Zoey and she will laugh and smile at Gene or I, as long as we have an “Who can make the biggest ass out of ourselves” contest in front of her. She has Thunder Thighs and her general girth is… GIRTHY. But her little ankles and feet are so skinny. I know she has a neck but I have yet to find it. Her cheeks are too much for my heart. She is VERY high maintenance. She wants to be entertained during the day time and doesn’t want to be in one position for too long. She needs constant attention and it feels like I am CONSTANTLY feeding her. At night you feed her and lay her down wide awake at 8:30 and she goes to sleep on her own. She doesn’t get up until 8 or 9 AM. So even though she wears me out on most days, I can’t complain because HELLO SHE HAS SLEPT 12-14 HOURS AT NIGHT SINCE SHE WAS 8 WEEKS OLD! Her gums are all swollen, especially the canines and I am always seeing little white nubs/spots at the surface. She is drooling constantly, everywhere!

Zoey is great. Talking more and more every day. Starting to repeat a lot of things we say (Um, we better start watching ourselves!). She is such a big helper with Kiera. She gives her a paci when she cries, she helps feed her, she brings her toys and blankies. She takes her diapers to the trash can for me. She brings me clean diapers. She is just generally a GREAT big sister. While she is helpful with her and I know she loves her, she is also a very independent kid and usually just does her own thing. Plays and talks and plays and talks and plays. Movies and cartoons don’t really keep her attention for very long anymore like they used to. She’s too busy for that stuff! She is best friends with our dog, Emma.. She plays with her ALL THE LIVELONG DAY. Well, she DID.. She messed with Emma’s bad leg a couple of nights ago and Emma snapped at her. I think she either bit or scratched her eye. It’s been red for a couple of days.. So now I am keeping them separated when I am not in the room to supervise them. Emma was just defending herself the only way she knows how, she wasn’t being viscious and Zoey was just playing and despite me CONSTANTLY correcting the way she plays with her and teaching her to be gentle with the dog, it was bound to happen. I’d like to say she learned her lesson but this morning I caught her messing with Emma’s leg again. Gah!

Gene is well. Working and taking care of two kids and we have no time to breathe sometimes. But we love our girls and wouldn’t change a thing. I’m personally having some struggles. I think maybe either PPD or a birth control pill dosage that isn’t working for me.. Not sure. Right now I am trying to help myself with herbal supplements and other things before resorting to seeing a doctor and possibly getting on some real medication. Last week was a downright miserable week for me. I was in pain in so many ways. It was emotional, physical, mental. It was awful! I cried a lot, I lost my temper, I yelled, I cried more. I’m working on it. I’m working on myself.

Sooo… I’m really trying to keep up with this thing. I want to. I want to post about all of the fun we are going to have this summer. Pictures pictures pictures! I have not been very good about taking my camera out, due to the issues I’ve been struggling with lately.. but I am hoping things will lighten up and I can get back to myself and get my life back.

Kiera Claire, 2 Months

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Candy

Can you believe this?

Because I can’t. At all. Wasn’t she JUST a month old? Like, YESTERDAY?

Everyone warned me that having baby number two would make time start speeding along at an infinite rate. I shrugged them off but hey what do you know? It’s actually true and they were being serious.

Kiera is amazing. Sometimes fussy, sometimes finicky, always beautiful and always my love.

How can you NOT fall in love with this beautiful face and those chubby arms?

Kiera Claire, 8 weeks

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Candy

Well, we survive the first 8 weeks of babyhood. More importantly, Kiera survived us taking care of her, albeit bleary eyed and zombified, during her first 8 weeks of life! We’re learning more and more about her personality as the days pass and it’s a lot of fun. We are so lucky to be her parents!

One of the main things we are learning about this little potsticker is her temperament. She gets pretty upset if you hold her the wrong way, don’t lay her down gently enough, bend her arm in a weird way while putting clothes on her, etc. She definitely isn’t the laid back baby that her big sister was, which in all honesty, I love. I love that I am already noticing some major differences in the two of them.. It just means that they will have two very different personalities!

I’ve found myself walking on egg shells around her in the last few weeks. Scared to make her erupt. Her cry is SO loud and startling. I had a realization a few days ago that I just needed to stop worrying about it so much and if she cries, she cries. It’s not going to kill her! So, today I had to let her cry while I helped Zoey with something and you know what, NEITHER ONE OF US DIED. She was fed, she was in a clean diaper and she safely strapped into her bouncy seat. Oh the fun of juggling a 23 month old and an 8 week old! Thankfully, Zoey isn’t a demanding child and has patience most of the time and will wait for me to deal with Kiera before I tend to her.

She’s eating about 5oz at a feeding these days. Sometimes she finishes the entire 5oz, other times not so much. She is sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night, which helps. I have to be honest, I much prefer the 4 hour stretches over the 3 hour ones. I’ve been able to get both girls down for naps around the same time this week and accomplishing that alone makes me feel like Mother of the Year.

I still have a hard time believing that I am so lucky to be the Mommy to these two amazing people. Yeah, I get a little frustrated when I’m changing diapers for a solid 30 minutes (thanks to a baby who likes to poop in a clean diaper and then pee all over herself during diaper changes) or when, although rare, my toddler is melting down at the EXACT same time that the baby is inconsolable. At the end of the day, none of these things matter and all I can think about is how absolutely perfect and amazing these little girls are and how I am the luckiest person on this earth to be their Mama!

Kiera, I love you so much. You are an amazing little person. Your eyes are stunning and I love staring into them. I know I make funny faces and I know I say the most absurb things in a stupid baby voice but I do this because I LOVE YOU and I so badly want to see what your smile is going to look like. I love to cuddle you and I love to smell your head. Thank you for being my baby, thank you for expanding my heart in a way I never knew possible. You are amazing!

Our weekend in pictures

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Candy

We had a busy but great weekend. Friday was my sister’s 20th birthday so we took the girls to see Tangled. Kiera slept through the whole thing and Zoey made it through most of the movie but melted down with 15 minutes to go. Gene took her out. To be fair, it was dinner time and she was refusing the snacks we brought so I know she was just hungry. Saturday night we took our friend Malinda out for a birthday dinner (her birthday was also on Friday!) and watched The IT Crowd Season 3 (hilarious!). Today was a day of laundry and hanging out around the house. We had $10 for Kohl’s that expired today so we went and grabbed a few things.

Here are some photos from our weekend:

My family. Love these guys!!

My beautiful little potsticker. Oh she is just precious!

Zoey helped me do dishes (aka play in the BUBBLES!) this afternoon. I taught her how to make Bubble Beards and she thought that was pretty hilarious.

Little Oinker

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Candy

This girl is changing every single day, as most newborns do. She is FINALLY starting to stay awake once or twice a day for a few minutes, so I’m really enjoying that time with her.

She is quite the chubby little girl. She is eating 5 oz at a feeding now.. Zoey wasn’t eating 5oz until she was around 15 weeks old! I call her my little oinker! I love her chins. All of them!

This is my new favorite picture. Her little grin, her chubby face, her little nose and those big eyes. She is just so gorgeous!

Her head control is getting better each day and I was amazed tonight by how long she sat up and looked around without the inevitable head drop. It was so nice to see her little tongue. We never saw Zoey’s because she was born with a tongue tie. This little girl sticks hers out from time to time and it’s so cute!

Quiet Time

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Candy

Here it is 10 PM on a Sunday night and I’m actually enjoying some quiet time alone. I’m sitting on the sofa in a house that is only lit by Forrest Gump on the TV and the screen of my Macbook. There are soft baby breaths coming from the cute little munchkin asleep on the boppy next to me. My husband is asleep in bed with a headache and Zoey has been in bed for two hours already. The dryer is working on my last load of the night and I’m feeling so accomplished.

I changed our bed linens and the dirty ones are in the dryer as I type. Does anyone else find changing bed linens a big chore? It feels like SO much work. I just love slipping into bed on clean bed linens though. I always make an effort to shower RIGHT before bed on Clean Linens Night. I also cleaned/dried/put away our laundry and I cleaned out a big portion of my clothes and put a bunch away to donate and trashed some others. I’ve just done a lot of picking up crap all over the house tonight and that alone feels like a BIG chore.

Having time to myself is something I am slowly but surely working on. I haven’t talked about it but I had a panic attack, my first one ever, a couple of weeks ago and it really scared me. I think all of the mess I’ve dealt with ever since Kiera’s crazy birth had finally caught up with me. It’s amazing how much better I am feeling these days, both physically and mentally but I have caught myself with early signs of a panic attack coming on and have to work hard and focus to get control. Editing and posting pictures of my girls is something that ALWAYS puts a huge smile on my face.

Today we just hung out around the house, didn’t do anything big. We took the girls outside for a short while but it was just too chilly to stay out long. I took a few snap shots of the girls.. I just love them so much! Every single day I catch myself staring at them and admiring their beauty. Every single little feature.

Zoey’s big, almond eyes. Her pouty and pink lips that pucker so perfectly that I find myself begging her for kisses on a daily basis. Her cute little nose and puffy cheeks. Her short and stubby fingers and her short and chubby (and I mean CHUBBY!) feet. Her stubby and crooked toes (thank Grandma for that one!). I cannot get over how absolutely perfect she is.

Kiera’s small and dark almond eyes. She looks at me with those glossy eyes and I am lost in love. Her flat nose, just like Daddy’s. Her cheeks are most definitely puffy and I love to kiss them. She has a wider mouth with smaller lips that sit right on top of the cutest little indented chin I’ve ever seen. Right below her chin is another chin, which I love JUST as much as the first one! Her hairy ears just make me giggle and I often find myself stroking them. She is perfect in every way.

These are my girls and I can’t imagine my life ANY other way. I cannot believe how lucky and blessed I am to be THEIR Mama.

nerdwagon.org

Category Archives: Baby