American Idol

Well Ben has been gone in North Dakota for the last week again (he should be driving home right now). This should be the last trip for quite awhile. At least that's what he keeps telling me. But I've learned to never count on it. Just like when he goes hunting or fishing and says he'll be home in 2 hours. I've learned to always multiply that number by 2, meaning he'll actually be home in 4 hours. So he says this will be the last trip to ND for a long time, I'm actually anticipating another trip there in the next month. That way when he does come home and says he has to go back, I'm already ready for it.

Usually when Ben is home, he and Connor spend the night playing legos, building things, racing cars, all that fun stuff. So without Daddy here, Connor has been pretty creative in his play. The other night I had american idol on and he came up with an idea. He went into his room, came back out in his cowboy hat and some other misc. clothing and said he was going to sing for me and I had to be like the guy with the white shirt on(Simon). So he stood in front of the tv, made up a song and sang it to me and I had to tell him how he did. And let me tell you, it was pretty serious. I couldn't just tell him I liked it, that he sang good, or was cute. That just didn't cut it. He wanted lots of feedback. (But not the kind that Simon usually gives). After his song he would go into his room, change his clothes, come back out and sing another made up song. This went on for probably an hour. It was pretty fun to listen to him sing his songs (and he really got into some of them) and to hear what he was singing about. I got a few of the songs on video, but haven't figured out how to upload the video yet (I guess I should say I haven't tried to yet). So here are a few pictures that I snapped of him in action. He was too cute and we had too much fun.

Movin on Up...

literally...Bella has moved UPstairs to her own bedroom, finally! And it only happened by chance, (I had not made the decision to move her to her crib yet.) The other night she had fell asleep earlier than usual so I decided to just put her in her crib knowing she would wake up before I was ready to go to bed (so I didn't bring her downstairs to her bassinet). Well she didn't wake up, so I contemplated picking her sleeping self up out of the perfectly good crib to bring her down to the bassinet in our room. But the better part of me won and I decided she would be just fine sleeping in her crib (she is 6 months old, it's about time most people would say.)

I know she's been ready to sleep in her own room in her crib for awhile now, I just haven't been ready to let go so easily. Part of it is the ease of having her right next to me when she wakes up and needs to nurse, and then I can just put her back in her bassinet all from the coziness of my bed.

So when she woke up at 5 am in her own bed in her own room, I had to go all the way upstairs to get her. At that point I had decided I wasn't ready for this business yet, so back down to my room she came. I fed her, changed her diaper and put her back to sleep in her bassinet. Only for her to wake up 10 mins later. Apparently in her big crib she had learned a new trick, she learned she had room to move, and here in this little bassinet she didn't. When she woke up, she was on her back, stretched out and her head was hitting the top of the bassinet as her feet were pushing on the bottom. Well I finally took that as a sign that she is too big for the bassinet now :(

So last night was her second night of sleeping in her bed in her room. It's a whole new routine for me to get accustomed to. But I'm learning, and she's learning, and I'm sure in no time, it will become second nature to both of us. Until then, I'm still sad that she's movin' on up. (She's even taking a nap in her bed right now....this will be one of the great things to come from this move. I'll get a little independce during the day when she actually takes a nap.....without me)

Just another Friday

Sandy, Jed, Dane and Leyla came over to visit for the day.

We just hung out,

ate food,

played with babies,

and did this,

and this,

oh yeah, and this!

It was pretty funny to watch them attempt this many times before it actually worked. And it was hard to get a picture of it, where I could tell what was going on, and get everyone in the picture. Unfortunately, Ben was cut out of the picture. He is actually crouched down right behind connor, but got blocked out by Jed. And that is Dane at the bottom of the whole mess.

5 and 6 months

Right before Christmas Bella turned 5 months, and the pictures are just making their appearance today...oops. Better late than never I guess.

This weekend celebrated her half birthday. Wow I can't believe it was 6 months ago already. But the last few weeks she's grown up so much more I find myself wondering where my little baby went. She's getting quite the personality. It's so fun to watch her grow.

She's definitly got a preference for her momma and won't let anyone else put her to sleep. Which makes it hard for me to leave her. But thats ok, I don't mind taking her with me. She's also been pretty spoiled bt taking her naps with me (because I enjoy it just as much), but last week I finally started laying her down for naptime. Sometimes she does ok, other times she wakes up as I'm walking to her bed. We've got a long way to go before naptime is figured out, but until then, I'll savor up the snuggle time we get.


She has also learned a few new tricks too. When she's laying on her tummy bshe scoots backwards all over the floor. (I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet so I think I'll just confine her to my lap, hip, or her saucer ;)

She's also learned how to sit up by herself. The other day I thought I'd see how she would do andsure enough she was sitting up by herself.

We haven't started any foods yet, but I'm thinking sometime this week we might. She can't wait to get food, she trys to eat everything I have. She loves to drink water out of my cup, and loves to try to drink from a straw.

She really is such a good baby. She rarely crys. When she is hungry she just sucks her thunb and snuggles up to me, it's so sweet.

I think Bella is now up to 17 pounds, and I have no idea how long she is, but will find out the true measurements at her check up (which I still need to schedule).

Bella still loves to watch Connor's every move. She just giggles at him all day. And he loves to do whatever he can to get her to laugh at him. But he still needs to learn that the face is not a ticklish spot. He always tries to tickle her on her head or her cheeks and then doesn't get why she doesn't giggle at that.



Now if you have a weak stomach you may not want to look at the next picture. I didn't even realize I had caught it in a picture. But since I did, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of what dealing with a baby with reflux is like.

I feed her she does this. You lay her on her tummy she does this. You lay her on her back she chokes on this. She bounces in her saucer and she does this. But here's the weird part. She started taking zantac when she was a week old after she was vomiting all day long, and having a hard time breathing at night when she was sleeping.

So after a month of being on zantac, I stopped using it and she was fine. She just had what I considered normal baby spit up. But about a week after being off it, she got really congested, had a hard time breathing out her nose, and she was getting wheezy. So I asked the doctor and and she said it was probably once again from the reflux. Apparantly if the refluxed tummy contents reach the throat it creates a slight degree of swelling and irritation that results in a noisy, congested breathing. So back on the zantac she went. Every month I continue to take her off it thinking she doesn't need it anymore, and everytime I do, she gets congested again so I start giving it to her again. But the last few times she started spitting up while on the zantac. So here's our choice right now, keep her on the zantac and she spits up like crazy all day long, or take her off it and she doesn't spit up but she has a hard time breathing. Obviously not a hard decision to make, but it's one that really doesn't make sense. She shouldn't be spitting up like that when on zantac. So we'll have to see what the dr thinks at her check up this week.

Babywearing

The best purchase I made as far as baby gear goes is most definitely The Moby Wrap. I cannot say enough good things about it. When Bella was a newborn, I could wrap her up in it and it honestly felt like she was just holding on to me. Unlike all the other baby carriers I've tried, this one doesn't hurt the back at all, or the shoulders, and there are so many different ways to use it. Now that she is getting bigger we tried out a different hold, and Ben even got to try it out. She loves just hanging out close to mommy or daddy.

So this isn't exactly what it's suppose to look like, (shes supposed to be in the front), but Ben thought he could use his arms better when he pushed her to the back (and away from the stove)

But if anybody out there is having a baby or has one, I would highly recommend this type of carrier (there's also a hold that you can do for carrying a toddler on your back!) The only downfall is the wrap is very long, so it does take some practice to figure out how to wrap it on, but once you got a feel for it, it is pretty simple!

And another pic of my cuties taking a bath last night.

A couple of cuties

Connor can't wait for the day that Bella is big enough to sleep in his room with him. He's got all kinds of plans already for the days when they can "camp out" in his room.

He says, "Mom, I'll sleep on the top bunk and Bella can sleep on the bottom. I'm bigger so I'll be on top so that she doesn't fall out. But sometimes we can both just sleep on the bottom together." And this goes on and on....

So every night when I put him to bed I let her lay in bed with him for a few minutes and he just eats it up. Lovin every second she is in bed with him. It's too cute!

And this is a pretty usual sight at about 9:00 at our house.

quick christmas recap

The holidays have come and gone....so fast! The week of christmas I took the kids to ben's moms place to hand out and to get there before the snow came. (Let's just say, at the time, Bella hated being in the car, and screamed from turtle lake to ladysmith, which is the better portion on a 3 hr drive!) Everybody else made the journey the day before christmas eve. We spent the time playing games, hanging out, and actively checking the computer for updates on the weather/snow storm. Our plan was, as always, to head home christmas eve night, after church. (I have a rule that no matter what, I always want to wake up in my house christmas morning.) So after checking the weather, seeing how bad it sounded, we decided to make our way home in the early afternoon. Mainly to avoid driving in the dark. Well, it's a good thing we left when we did, the drive home was nasty. I sat in the back to entertain Bella and try to avoid the screaming. I was so nervous the whole drive, I tried knitting a hat, and well, after starting over numerous times, decided that was not going to happen. But finally we get a mile from our house.... on our way up a hill...and we stop....can't make it up the hill. I'm telling Ben to turn around and go the other way, and he keeps pushing it saying we can make it. I eventually won, we turned around and finally made it home. Here are some pics from our time at Jed and Sandys.

Then Christmas morning, the kids must have been good enough during the year because Santa came and left them each a present and filled their stockings. Bella got a new pink glow worm, that really calms her down when she is tired and doesn't want to give in. And Connor got a transformer.

After they opened all their presents we once again, set out to battle the roads to get to my mom and dads place. We decided to take the truck (thankfully!) and Ben built a snowman in the bed of the truck (he said it was for weight in the back). I'm really bummed that I didn't get a picture of it. But believe me everyone in the town of New Richmond took a picture of it. (It was very reminiscent of the day we took a picture of tiny car and gigantic tree on top!) On the way to NR, we almost went in the ditch multiple times. I had 3 heart attacks on the drive there. As we pulled into NR, I realized we had no diapers, called my mom and we had used all the ones I kept there also. So the roads are pure ice, it's christmas day, stores are all closed and we have no diapers for our baby. We decided to try a gas station, see if luck was on our side, sure enough, it was. We finally made it there and guess what else I forgot...my camera. So no pics from christmas at my moms this year....bummer! (more to come on the diaper situation later)

Anyways, it was a great holiday spent with family. I hope all of you had great holidays as well! (I really thought this post was going to be quick, guess not:)