In the next 17 days, there will be 1 day where both Steven and I are not working. That's how come we comment on each other's posts. FYI Dad, Steven's still got the Red Lobster gift certificates in his wallet from his birthday, we're working on it, someday we'll get a date.

We qualified for WIC for 3 months while I was on maternity leave. It's about $130 worth of groceries a month and I was going to take it dang it. Despite what Steven thinks about government handouts. I actually really liked it. Milk is $4.79 a gallon (at the commissary) and we go though a lot of it, so to have someone else pay for it was nice. They also give out carrots, cheese, eggs, tuna, juice, cereal and evaporated milk. We used all of them.

The one thing we did not use was beans. I have no idea how to cook beans. And after 3 months we had 8 bags of beans that I had no idea what to do with. All they were doing was sitting on the shelf taking up room (that we really don't have).

So what did I end up doing with them? Putting a sheet down on the carpet, putting them in a really big rubbermaid container, throwing in cups and spoons and setting a toddler there to make a mess.

Felicity has no toys. Seporah owns all the toys. Every single one of them. We've been tying to help Felicity ever since we were told she has reflux. When she's up right, she's significantly happier. But she gets bored in her swing and Steven and I get tired of holding her. So I decided to get a baby chair. There's 2 brands, Bumbo and Bebe. First I checked out Freecycle and Craig's List to no avail. So I shelled out the cash and bought one (it's funny I thought I wouldn't need to buy more baby equipment after the first one, yeah there goes that thought). Steven and I discussed the fact that we didn't want Seporah to break it because she was too big. Steven said that she would get stuck so there wasn't any worry after the first time.

We brought it home. Placed it on the floor and went to another room. Sure enough, Seporah gets in it and gets stuck. Good, we thought now she'll leave it alone. Yeah well we were wrong. She continues to get stuck and gets mad when Felicity gets into her chair.

So Seporah has got the baby concept down. She sees babies and calls them 'Baby.' She usually calls Felicity 'Baby.'

The above picture is in a frame at our house. She brought it to me and said "Baby." I said "Yes that is a baby, That's you when you were a baby. That's Baby Seporah." She looked at me like I was crazy to suggest that the baby was her, she shook her head no and then said, "Sorry."

For our 5 year anniversary he gave me chocolates from www.zchocolat.com Then he gave me some for Christmas this year. They're handmade French chocolates and the best chocolate I've ever tasted. He gets these promotional emails all the time and I see them and my mouth starts watering. I want them, but they're terribly expensive (and no I'm not kidding, when I found out my mouth dropped open). But if you're not broke and you need something to give your woman for Valentine's Day send her these.

If you are broke, blow up a whole bunch of red and pink balloons in her bedroom while she's asleep. Jeremy did this for Heather and their son Ethan. I was like ahh, would you believe Jeremy's a romantic?

So Felicity has reflux, I guessed it around 6 weeks but didn't want to say it out loud. Instead keeping it to myself, in denial, saying there wasn't anything wrong with her. I mean this is MY baby, not someone else's. I initially couldn't even say colicky until someone else said it, I just said fussy. And to say she has reflux means I have to do something about it. As much as I give out medications, the thought of giving my baby medicine on a daily basis isn't so cool. However reflux is fairly easy to treat and she'll outgrow it within 6-12months. So here is a list of diseases that I see in other people's babies on a daily basis that I should be thankful my own don't have (instead of whiny about a little reflux).
Diabetes
Cancer
Sickle Cell
Tracheolmalcia
Recurrent Ear Infections
Recurrent seizures
Being born prematurely with all the crap that goes with that
One of thousands of disorders and syndromes

I really should have person proofread business card before I spend the moneys on them.

-Herbal Essence in toddler eyes will make the toddler scream "EYES! EYES! EYES!" for 20 minutes.
-2 sick babies are even more fun than 1 sick baby.
-Baby diarrhea when squeezed out the leg and onto the couch stains the couch.
-When you haven't seen anything but Disney movies in a long time, Toy Story 2 will make you a little teary eyed.
-Washable markers wash out of clothes, Sharpie permanent markers do not.
-The board books with extras like magnets on them are actually more entertaining for adults than toddlers during church.
-Popcorn when mixed with water is really gross and no longer tasty.
-Lincoln Logs make excellent play swords.
-Stickers are the coolest thing sine sliced bread.
-A bag of fruit snacks will shut a toddler up for about 73 seconds, then they'll need another bag.
-Raisins are very difficult to get out of the carpet once they are ground in.
-You may have 10 pacifiers in the house, but when you really need one, you can't find 1 anywhere.
-"A cow goes 'MOOOOOO!' " is the first line of my toddler's favorite book that has unfortunately fallen apart.
-Board books are between $5-15 each, finding them used is a good thing.
-Toys break way too easily.
-The computer is the most expensive toy in the house and perhaps the most fun for a toddler.
-Before children, your topics for conversation include (but are not limited to) politics, the weather, work, real estate, movies, music, religion, entertainment, clothing and celebrity marriages and divorces.
-After children, your topics for conversation include (and ARE limited to) child#1 and child#2.

 

 
 
 



 

After being gone for 75 days, there was a congratulations letter from the Commanding General of the hospital, a box of toothpicks, 4 pennies and 3 VERY large white staples inside of a bubble wrap bag in my mailbox at work.

Just as a FYI, I made it through my first 2 days back to work, it is now 8:30pm though and both girls are asleep. And I've worked 24 of the last 36 hours and spent the rest of the time pumping and taking care of 2 little munchkins, so I am going to sleep.

Well recovery from wisdom teeth extraction, what can I say. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Probably because I was so sleep deprived that anymore dings to the body was too much. I'll spare you the details, but my bottle of Vicodin is now empty (unfortunately) and I have a bruise on my face that makes it look like I should go to a woman's shelter (Steven's not too pleased about that).

Thankfully over the past week Felicity has been sleeping a little better. I've been getting 6-7 hours of broken sleep as apposed to 3-5 hours. She can still cry and scream quite well, although it has subsided a bit. I appreciate and like my children and husband significantly more when I don't feel like the walking dead. It's nice to be able to quietly admire their beautiful features, both physical and personality wise (maybe that's the vicodin haze I'm feeling).

For those of you that don't know, I am going to be an aunt again. Jeremy and Heather are expecting and it's going to be a....GIRL!!! I was actually pretty surprised, since as Jeremy puts it "I only have Manly Sperm." I better go, it's time to start our bedtime routine, sometime I'll have to tell you guys about that. Who knew I would have to start at 7pm to get everyone asleep by 9?

Well, I've been telling people Seporah has about 200-300 words, but I wasn't sure exactly how many. So we decided to write them down. This isn't quite all of them, but it's what we could think of. Apparently we were off on the count. Only about 100.

OBJECTS - box, ball, dog, duck, book, balloons, mommy, daddy, baby, Seporah, Felicity, shoes, tree, flower, moon, car, shirt, bottle, fish, bird, Jesus, Pooh (as in Winnie-the-Pooh), Roo (Pooh again), Avu (TV), crayon, sticker, paper, poop, bubbles, pool, swim, teeth, swing, bed, block, bowl

PHRASES - hi, bye, hello, please, thank you, you're welcome, sorry, let me out, it's all right, you're all right, here, no, yes, me, mine, here you go, side (as in outside), go, I see, yummy, owie, I know, all done, all gone, uh oh, it fell, jump, good morning, good night, stuck, what is this

FOOD - raisin, apple, banana, juice, milk, drink, pop-pop (popcorn), cereal, cheese, fries (as in french), rice, eggs (normally for omelets), pepper (she loves red bell peppers)

NUMBERS - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (although not always in that order)

LETTERS - a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,x,y,z (although not always in that order)

MISC - stinky, dirty, bath, cook, help, color, brush, hug, mmmmm (kiss), hot, really really hot (weally weally hot is quite cute =)

So they tag teamed it last night. I slept from 10:30-12:30. The rest of the night, one of the two of them was screaming. Security came to talk to me it was so bad. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out this morning. I don't care that it will cost me $515.83. I don't care that it will be drug induced. I don't care that I will wake up with a very sore mouth. I am going to go to sleep for an hour and a half and not wake up to a screaming baby.

Meaning, everyone was happy. See, I have the pictures to prove it. Look again, yes indeed those are smiles.









You'd never believe she's the type of baby that could/would scream/cry for 6 hours straight, but it has happened on more than one occasion. However not today. It was Steven's 27th birthday and we were going to go do something. First Steven went to go donate blood (insert plug to encourage all who can to please donate blood). Then we went to the zoo.

As we were all kinda tired and didn't want to walk around so much, we skipped over most of the big animals and went straight for the petting zoo. Every single animal on 4 legs was a dog according to Seporah. The elephants were dogs, the llamas were dogs, the pigs were dogs, the goats were dogs and the miniature horse was a dog. Thankfully the fish were "shishes." We hung around there for 45 minutes and then went to the playground.

There's actually a pretty decent playground inside the zoo and it is always packed. There must have been 50 kids playing on it (and 30 or so exhausted adults sitting on the benches next to it). Anyway we were there in total about an hour and a half and we didn't get any tears, any crying, any screaming or any fits for the whole time. It was great.

They were cute
They were comfy
They were on clearance
They look like I can wipe baby spit up and dirt off easily
I had a gift certificate
I still don't like going out to buy real clothes, I've got about 18 more pounds for that
And they may not buy lasting happiness, but with a colicky baby I'll get my kicks where I can







In other fashion news: Seporah's known how to dress and undress herself for awhile (how do you think she ends up naked with poop all over her crib), but now she's really getting into it. She'll dress up in Mommy's clothes and Daddy's ties. Try to fit Felicity's socks on and put her own shirt on the bottom half of her. It's great and often very funny to watch, as long as her diaper stays on.

When we're in the car and Felicity's crying and Seporah can't quite reach her, Seporah will reach over and pat Felicity's carseat and say "Iz awl rite" (It's all right).

When Seporah sees something she wants and I decide to give it to her, her response to tell me that she wants more than one is "2,3,5!"

I don't know if it'll stay that way, so I should write down that Felicity has fine bright red hair (I'm really hoping she'll stay a carrot top, don't know where it came from, Steven jokes it's a good thing the mailman is Hawaiian).

Whenever Seporah comes and sits with Felicity in her baby gym, Felicity stops crying and stays happy (if I could, I'd make Seporah stay there alllllll day).

Seporah has tried to share many things with Felicity including oranges, bread, gapes. candy and cow's milk. She usually tries to smush it into her mouth and Felicity scrunches up her face as if to say "Hey Big Sis, whatcha tryin to pull?"

Seporah hugs and kisses Felicity all the time now. I know you guys have heard the sound, but the kisses are adorable and sound like "mmmmwhaaa!"

We can't pass by a balloon without Seporah going absolutely crazy "BABOON! BABOON!" (even if she has one in her hand)

We can't take out the vacuum without Seporah going a different type of crazy "NO! NO! BYE! BYE! NO! NO! ALL DONE! ALL DONE!"

Whenever Felicity and Seporah are actually sleeping, it's sometimes hard to go to sleep because they're so cute (I have to think, ok time to sleep, both girls sleeping and if I don't sleep, I won't find them cute in a couple of hours).

Seporah's word for popcorn is "pop-pop."

When we yell really loud at Seporah because she's doing something she really, really shouldn't be doing, she makes the biggest frown ever, starts crying and hides behind the curtains in our bedroom (it's really sad and really cute and we don't yell that loud at her very often just when she really needs to stop RIGHT NOW, is that enough "reallys" in one really long run on sentence).

must not say anything good about felicity's crying or sleeping on blog, even as a footnote. it will come back to bite me. written at 4:42 am.

So there's this lady at our church who's in her 20's and she gave a talk on Mother's Day. I was really impressed with this talk, maybe because she validated what I was feeling, running around chasing a toddler while having the pregnant morning sickness. I didn't know her name, but I really thought she'd be cool to hang out with. However she didn't have any kids and I've got Seporah, who's not easy to hang around with for women who have kids. Women who don't have kids, well Seporah's an excellent form of birth control, but anyways. I never even figured out her name since she works as a leader in the teenage women's group and I'm in the women's group.

Flash forward to now. I tell every pregnant lady I know about my doula and that she was great and terrific and the best and to hire her (www.laborofloveoahu.com). This lady has become pregnant, I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks and well I'm really tired as you can tell from previous postings. Last Sunday I decided I was going to talk to her so I go to young women's and ask for the skinny pregnant lady who spoke on Mother's Day. They give me her name and tell me she's been on bedrest. Oh, I'll have to give her a call. Putting it off, putting it off.

Today I actually pick up the phone to call her, maybe chat, I know bedrest bites, a lot. "Hi, you really don't know me, I'm Märia Rushing, I'm in your ward at church, I had a baby a few weeks ago, I loved my doula, wanted to tell all the pregnant ladies I know about her, yadayada (lots of rambling)" Her very tired, hesitant response, "Um...I just had my baby yesterday." "Oh sorry, I guess you don't need a doula." Um yeah, I was embarrassed.

Well I realize it's not the first, but I thought I'd tell everyone my resolutions now anyways. Steven says he won't be telling his, I don't even know what they are.

1. 20 pounds in 6 months-I've never had a weight New Year's Resolution before, but since it's the number 1 done (and I just had daughter number 2) I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. I think most people say 6 months because that's when swimsuit season is. That's not the case with me; this is Hawaii, I actually went swimming on Christmas Eve. Actually seeing myself in a swimsuit was probably what really influenced this resolution.

2. I'm going to write at least 1 snail mail card a week-I love to get real mail, Seporah loves to get real mail (seriously, it's like a holiday for her) and I'm sure so does everyone else. So I thought I'd spread the love. I'll tell you what though, writing a thoughtful note to one person is a lot harder than writing cynical blog posts to a number of people. So if you get an early note and you're like, this is the stupidest letter I've ever read, please realize I should get better. If you would like to get snail mail and you don't think I have your address, please email it to us at steven.rushing@gmail.com .

3. Read the Sunday School Lesson before Sunday-Since I've had 2 girls my reading material consists of other mommy blogs, comments on this blog (which I really enjoy), directions to the carseat and the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block." ***see below*** I haven't even read my magazine's I've gotten in the mail or any of the books I've bought. The scriptures are there like every 4, 5, 6, 7 days and then I'm like, where do I read. Steven's 1 of 2 Sunday School teachers, so if I get him on board I should be able to finish at least the lesson by Saturday night at 11:59.

There you have it, my New Year's Resolutions, can I make it past January 31st? We'll see, I'd say this blog makes me somewhat accountable to them. However since I doubt very many people will remember their own resolutions past January 31st, I'm not all that worried about you guys remembering mine and quizzing me on them.

*** "The Happiest Baby on the Block", I only read 4 days ago. I have been applying it's principals and I can now stop Felicity's crying in less than a minute usually. Holy cow! This actually should have a post all to it's self, but I didn't want to jinx myself the first day. I never thought I'd read a how-to-get-your-baby-to-stop-crying book but I have and I am utterly shocked it actually works! She is also starting to understand the difference between night and day and she's actually sleeping at night. True she still gets up every 3 hours to eat, but she's going back to sleep.

For all the many, many difficult parts of being the mother to 2 difficult girls under the age of 2, there are some very wonderful, magical moments. A lot of the time they happen while on Mom and Dad's bed. Seporah wakes up and comes to snuggle with us. She tucks herself in (for about 2 seconds), we play peek-a-boo, pillow fight, rough house and get lots and lots of hugs and kisses. Felicity quietly eats, looks and tolerates being squeezed and smushed as her older sister hugs and kisses her. The 4 of us bask in the warmth of each other, ahhh, those are the moments I live for. When they're both unbelievable cute and adorable, yeah that's what makes baby screaming bearable. There ARE moments that look the way Hallmark cards sound.

toothpaste
kid's toothpaste
sunscreen
bar soap
shampoo
baby liquid soap
hand sanitizer
desitin
nystatin
deodurant
lanolin
tums
raw onion
raw garlic cloves
chapstick
mascara
lotion
face foundation
room scent makers
markers
glue
dead cockroach
bird poop
Diet Pepsi

This is what you get when your toddler can climb everything and even though you've put it out of her reach, she can still get to it. It's a really good thing all adult meds have child proof lids, she hasn't figured that one out yet. I'm not sure if I should toss the adult meds, I think I should and then I get a headache from her screaming because I took away the toothpaste she climbed onto the bathroom counter to get and well, I really need the tylenol.

You'd think I'd get better results from my parenting considering I'm a pediatric nurse and have seen many children hospitalized for eating something that really wasn't good for them. For example, there was this one 3 year old who ate grandma's meds and his heart rate was like 45 beats per minute and he was pretty lethargic (average is 70-110 and anything but lethargic for a 3 year old).

BTW I have poison control on speed dial in my cell phone.

Here's one example of a typical night
8:01 Place Seporah to bed after a 30 minute bedtime routine
8:05 I go to bed after brushing my teeth for an unacceptable 15 seconds and going to the the bathroom
8:06 Felicity wakes up, and I don't mean to eat, I mean she wakes up, completely 100%
10:15 Felicity goes to sleep after eating, being changed, being rocked, screaming because Mom put her down to try to sleep after not sleeping all day because her children can not nap at the same time, getting picked back up eating again, changed again, falling asleep for 3 minutes, waking back up and then falling sleep again.
12:23 Felicity wakes up again, change, eat, cry, scream, cry, scream, cry, cry (that one's mom's), screams (op, mom's again), eat, eat, eat
4:30 Felicity asleep
6:00 Felicity awake, eat, eat, eat, scream, please sleep, eat
6:25 felicity did sleep good
6:30 Dad home from work "she went to sleep 5 minutes ago, I don't care that she's on your side of the bed, if you wake her up, you're dead, I'm going to sleep." Dad goes to computer. Mom goes to sleep
7:15 Felicity wakes up, eats and Dad takes her, Mom goes to sleep
8:30 Felicity goes to sleep, Dad goes to sleep, Mom gets up. Seporah watching movie, Mom eats breakfast, checks email, plays with Seporah and stops 3 temper tantrums (and gives a couple spankings)
9:46 Mom fills bathtub and gets in with Seporah, Seporah mostly gets clean, Mom gets shampoo in hair
9:58 Felicity starts screaming, Mom gets soap off of hair, gets out of bathtub, feeds Felicity
10:05 Seporah gets out of bathtub, finds starburst from off of computer table, gets very sticky in about 3 seconds. Mom gets halfway dressed with Felicity screaming on floor. Gets Seporah unsticky and dressed. Seporah throws huge temper tantrum because she would rather be naked and kicks toys at Felicity's head (I should probably not admit how many times that's happened, CPS may come get me)
10:20 Seporah gets a very hard spanking and placed in crib for time out
10:23 Mom, Seporah and felicity all crying, that's it, Dad gets Felicity and Mom gets the couch. I'd say it's only 9 hours, 38 minutes until bedtime, but that's sure a lie.

BTW, I did not send out Christmas Cards.

And this post was written at 1:30 am the next night.

And last Monday I asked for 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I went to bed at 8pm, please don't wake me until midnight, there's milk in the fridge. Did I get to midnight, no, I got until 10:09. To be fair Steven was the one not asleep with the not asleep Felicity.

Go here --> www.apple.com/getamac/

When you first go clothes shopping after having a baby you should ALWAYS bring a friend. This friend will kindly and secretly rip out the size tags of all items you are trying on and repeatedly tell you how fabulous you look, "No Märia you don't look like you had a baby 5 1/2 weeks ago, in fact you look like you've never had a baby!" I didn't know this after I had Seporah and went shopping alone. I knew it this time around, but forgot it since the first incident occurred 2 years ago. Big Mistake.

3 hours, 8 stores, 8 dressing rooms, and a whole lotta clothes later, I have one shirt to show for the experience. And I didn't even have a child to blame it on, Steven had them... Well tomorrow is my 6 week check up and the treadmill is ready to be used. Now if only I had some exercise clothes to wear...

Hatched! The Big Push from Pregnancy to Motherhood by Sloane Tanen

If you are thinking of becoming pregnant, are pregnant, or have a child 2 years old or under, buy this book! It includes 80 pages of pictures with chicks and funny captions.


 
Baby Uggs: $85.00. Bugaboo Stroller $800.00. Knowing your child is better looking than your best friend's kid: Priceless



Goodnight Moon, hello Martini

I have come to an important conclusion. Seporah has come to the point where she is not allowed out in public with us. Public includes restaurants, movie theaters, anywhere with breakables, the commissary (at least not until we're absolutely starving), and anywhere with breakables (oh wait did I already say that?). Some might say this is harsh. However she'll get her justice. I'm sure in her own time (like when she's 13 years old) she will come to the conclusion that we will not be allowed out in public with her.

Would you believe my not quite 2 year old can peel an orange all by herself? I was going to peel it for her, but she demanded to do it. I didn't think she would have the dexterity to do it, but hey what do I know, I'm just the mom. She did a good job too, it was nice and neat and she split it down the middle and then ate it section by section.

According to these pictures, we have 2 little angels. Yeah... right... We have 2 little devils is more like it.

Everyone's probably tired of me saying how active my babies are, but I have witnesses this time. Grandma Pam and Grandpa Russ. They have come for a visit (mostly to see Seporah and Felicity, Steven and I just come with the package). And I got an early Christmas present (probably the best present they could have come up with), family pictures. Last night, I could not fall asleep I was so worried about it, I was imagining all the havoc Seporah could wreak while Felicity screamed her head off. I wasn't far off.

Seporah's dress is older than she is. It's been hanging in the closet for when she was big enough (thanks Grandma Lynda). However, this did not impress her. Both her and Felicity found the dresses to be itchey and not made for tumbling. We tried to explain to them it wasn't time to run around and play, that it was time to sit still and smile to no avail. We thought about bribing them with french fries and cookies but Seporah's really not old enough for negotiating and we would have just had another temper tantrum. And Felicity, well I think they would have been a choking hazard. Instead there are raisins in all the pictures (or a stolen Christmas ornament off a Christmas tree) and a sleep induced Felicity.

But thanks to a 4'11" woman with too much coffee this morning and a surplus of patience (who really scared Steven), there ended up being some really cute shots. They even had a sign that said "We work on baby time, please be patient" (Insert plug for Sears Portrait Studios). We got 3 seconds of angels between the hour of devilness.

(we then paid for the few seconds when we got home and put Seporah down for her nap...she woke up with a crib full of poopies...she was laughing)

1. After a horrendous trip to the commissary, Seporah would not take a nap, leaving a tired Mommy to continue to be tired.
2. The $1500 water heater which was replaced 2 weeks before Felicity was born started tick tocking like a time bomb, making it so no one got a shower and we all smell like a mixture of sweat, breastmilk, urine, and mud.
3. A huge storm occurred last night, waking Seporah up 5 times screaming, leaving a tired Mommy and Daddy to be even more tired.
4. A tired, scared from the storm Seporah ripped her diaper to shreds to get attention, leaving the crib and nursery smelling nasty (at least there was no poopies).
5. I won $1000 off a radio show, since I'm now a stay-at-home-mom with all the time in the world to listen to radio shows and with nothing better to do.

(as a side note, the day before Steven went back to work we had this conversation):
Steven "You're ready to go back to work aren't you?"
Me "Yeah, how'd you know"
Steven "Because I'm ready, I need a break"

Chorus to the song "The Humour of the Situation" by Barenaked Ladies:
"Come on now, now
Come on now, now
Enjoy the humour of the situation
Come on now, now
Come on now, now
Enjoy the humour of the situation"

...it was even worse than the day before Thanksgiving. It was the first time out of the house with 2 babies by myself. Holy Cow. At least I fed and changed Felicity before we started.

Somehow Seporah lost one of her shoes before we made it out of the car. I decided to ignore it, she wasn't even going to be touching the ground, just the shopping cart (some mommies would say that's bad enough, but desperate times call for desperate measures).

I always use to call my friend Felice SuperMommy because she would carry both her babies and the diaper bag around. Well I reached SuperMommy stage today by carrying about 50 pounds from the car to inside the commissary between Seporah, Felicity and the diaper bag. I then found the "cool" shopping cart, the one that looks like a car and put Seporah and the diaper bag inside of it and continued to carry Felicity in a sling. Down about 40 pounds, it was much easier to shop.

Then came the I want, I want, I want. By the time we had exited the store, I had opened and Seporah had eaten banana cookies, dehydrated minifruits, prunes, strawberry gum and another lady's in line's pretzels (God bless understanding older ladies in line who don't mind sharing their pretzels with a screaming toddler).

Due to the temper tantrums, I shopped as fast as I could. I only spent $52.96, that's a record for me. Felicity only cried a little bit in the VERY long line that took about 25 minutes. All I could think was it's Monday afternoon, why are all these people shopping, I picked now so I wouldn't have to mess with the line.

When we got to the car I realized Seporah had helped me steal the pack of strawberry gum. I thought about doing the right thing and going back inside and paying for it. But instead I put the girls in the car and decided to chew a piece myself as the girls whined in the backseat.

The Ensign is an monthly LDS adult magazine (there's also a teenager and children's magazine). Each month there's a Q&A section that anyone may write in and answer. Apparently one of the next magazine's questions is "I love and am grateful for my young children, but I sometimes get distracted or discouraged by the practical details of raising a family and struggle to remember what an important work it is. How can I better align gospel truths about family with my day-to-day actions and attitudes?" I don't think at the present moment I should write an answer for the question. It would be a long vent about young children right now. Tomorrow Steven is going back to work, so if I wrote it then it might be even longer.

So does anyone else have an answer? They are taking submissions until February 8, I'm hoping by that time I could have an acceptable one or at least one that they wouldn't send social services on me.

...And Daddy would like a shepherd to watch his flock.

So our tree is up. Seporah did the bottom 2 feet. It was pretty cute, she would be all serious and meticulously put an ornament on a branch that already had 4 ornaments on it. Someone may have to redecorate the bottom 2 feet at 2 am when Seporah's not looking (hey, if I'm gonna be up anyways...).

Felicity went for her 2 week check on Monday, 8lbs 13oz and 20.5in. I guess that's pretty good, most babies lose 5-10% of their birth weight and gain it back at about the 2 week mark (Felicity lost 10.5%, she was at 7lbs 7oz at 3 days). So at 2 weeks most babies are at their birth weight. Felicity was up 9 oz, yeah!

So I know different people read this blog, I don't know everyone, but hey people visit from Brazil, Russia and China as well as all over Europe. I'm not sure why exactly, maybe they think we're funny Americans. I guess the competition isn't so tough since Seinfield and Friends retired. But anyways, if any pregnant women on the island of Oahu read this blog go here --> www.laborofloveoahu.com That's the website of my doula, Tammy Uva and she was great. What you have no idea what a doula is? Well you really need to go there then.

By my estimates, between Seporah and Felicity, we are going through 20 diapers a day. Wow... We're certainly doing our part to fill up landfills. It almost makes me want to switch to cloth diapers...I said almost. It HAS made us run out and buy a potty for Seporah though. So far we've made it so she'll sit on the potty for 5 seconds without screaming. This is progress. And she gets a sticker for it.

In other news, I can eat 6 cookies a day and still lose weight. Literally, I have come to crave carbs and Cookie Corner cookies. Usually I don't eat a lot of carbs, but I've been starving for them the past 2 weeks. I'm just like yes! Helena Bonham Carter says breastfeeding is nature's liposuction and breast augmentation. And I didn't even say anything about the pudding and Halloween candy being consumed.

Well that pretty much covers the last 2 weeks, diapers and breastfeeding. Well I suppose I could throw in a little sleep deprivation and a lot of toddler tantrums, but if you're a parent you already know that. And if you're not a parent, well you really don't know what sleep deprivation or tantrums really are. You know both of those are used as torture methods some places.

Hey, so Steven lost his cell phone about 4 weeks ago and apparently told no one because we keep getting calls asking why he isn't returning messages and that his mailbox is now full. Sorry to those who did not know. Don't feel bad if you weren't in the loop, no one was apparently.

So I read a lot of mommy blogs, they're fun. Sometimes the only options to motherhood are to laugh or to cry, those blogs help to keep me from crying 24/7. This is a video I found on one of the blogs, the triplets are actually 3 years old now. I thought I'd post it and rewatch in when Felicity's 6 weeks old and think "Good Lord, at least there's only one of them."

Just as a side note, I HATE it when people come up and touch Seporah. It's like hello, that's not yours, get your hands off. They started when she was just itty bitty and it still goes on today, not quite as much, but it still happens and I always want to smack them. So don't touch other people's babies or kids without asking, it's just plain rude.

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I went to pick up my daughter out of her crib this morning and as I opened the door I took a whiff. It smelled like poop...a lot. Occasionally it smells like poop in her room, but never this bad. And then I saw it, on the crib, on the wall, on the floor, on my baby girl, on her dollies, and on the noise maker. I am really glad Steven didn't go to work last night. Read More...

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So Steven's suppose to get 3 weeks off when Felicity's born. All I can think about that is wow, that sounds like an awesome vacation, neither Steven or I will be working for 3 weeks. I know we'll have a newborn, but there's no way we can be more sleep deprived than we already are...or at least I hope not because that would be REALLY bad.

p.s. 3 more working days for mom, yeah! Read More...

Come on, were we not cute babies? That's how come Seporah came out so gorgeous and Felicity's bond to come out as a knock out.



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So I have tickets tonight for a Fountains of Wayne concert. Steven and I bought them last month when we found out they were going to come here. I don't know what I was thinking because there is no way I'm going to a rock concert at 36 1/2 weeks at 8 at night. I'm not even going to go to a orchestra concert with padded seats at 3 in the afternoon at this point.

Yeah, we really like music, a lot, it's playing 24/7 at our house. We have 6,690 songs on our iTunes playlist and the top 12 most played songs are all by the same artist-30 Seconds to Mars. I can listen to the one CD by them over and over and over again. This morning I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep (again). I got out of bed and decided to do some mindless surfing on the internet. Apparently the CD I have is the second CD, they actually have one before that one. All I could think was, why did I not know this?

Kids, yeah, they change your music. No concerts and no unimportant music knowledge stored in your brain. Unless you count the piece of knowledge that the 5th song on the Baby Einstein CD "On the Go" is the song playing during the race scene in Baby Einstein's "Numbers Nursery." Well at least I still know what I like and it's not all from the decade I was born in.

There are many Manly things that Steven is quite good at:
1. Being a Daddy - there's this shirt that I found that says "Real Men Change Diapers," if that's true, Steven's as real as they get.
2. Being a Mr. Mom - the pictures showing the before and after carpet cleaning ought to be enough to prove that one
3. Anything with the Computer - I am so glad I don't have to pay to have someone fix the computer, I just say fix it

However, there's some Manly things that Steven's not so good at:
1. Plumbing - the kitchen sink has leaked the entire time we've lived here
2. Sports - He likes to play, but doesn't watch them on TV, which I am soooo glad for
3. Car Stuff - and that is what this post is actually going to be about

So I've been bugging Steven to do the car stuff for months, literally. You're suppose to have a safety inspection every year and the sticker on the car says it's been expired since April. Since the car needed registered this month, the safety inspection HAD to be done. It's one thing to drive the car illegally by having a safety inspection expired, you can claim ignorance due to being in the military and just really not knowing. It's another thing to drive the car illegally by having an expired registration, I think they can put you in jail for that one. And since we've been pulled over multiple times to get it fixed and our home association keeps putting notes on our windshield (why is it their business anyways), I figured it really better get done.

I had planned on having Steven fix everything sometime this month (I was anticipating Halloween, that would be October 31st, the last day possible), but I lost my driver's license sometime in the last 2 weeks (I think that Seporah threw it away) so I figured I might as well do it since I had to go to the DMV anyways. But first things first, must get the safety inspection because no one will give me anything without it done. I go to a place that looks like a junkyard, pay the $20 and say let's get it started. They check all the lights and everything and say sorry, we can't give you the sticker, you don't have a license plate on your front bumper. There's no place to put a license plate on my front bumper and I only have one anyways. Well you're just going to have to buy another set of plates and a bracket to hold it on, here's a temporary form you can use to get the license plates and thanks for the money. To the DMV I go, however, this was Saturday and it's not open, I have to go to another that's 30 miles away.

I stand in line to get a driver's license as mine is gone. Sorry ma'am, you can't get one since you lost it and such, you need to take a written test, but you can't take it here, you have to take it at the one that's closed today. Ok, well can I have a book to study Hawaii Laws. No ma'am, you have to buy them, they're sold at Borders or Barnes and Nobles. WHO ON EARTH HAS HEARD OF BUYING THE STATE LAW BOOKS? HELLO! THEY'RE SUPPOSE TO BE RIGHT THERE AT THE DMV. Fine whatever, here's $6 at Borders for the dumb book. But while I'm at the DMV, let's get the car re-registered and license plates, that'll be $158, Lord Almighty, you've got to be kidding me.

Now to the Dodge dealership to get a bracket so I can attach the license plate on the front and get a safety inspection. What do you mean parts and services are closed on Saturdays, what am I suppose to do? Back to safety inspection place, would you just sign it, look I've got 2 plates now, but they're closed. Sorry ma'am, you can go to an auto parts store down the road. To there, sorry ma'am you'll have to go to the dealership. ARGGG! Screw that, home I go.

Monday morning, to the commissary I go, we're down on food, pulled over again. Ma'am do you know you're safety inspection is expired. I better get this done today. Calling the dealership because I don't want to drive down there again. Calling the dealership again since they're not answering and it's 10:30am. calling again, and again, and again, and again, and again seven times total. Yes, I need a license plate bracket, hmm let me check, what's your model, year, VIN number. Why do you need my VIN number? Sometimes the models are different, I just wanted to check what yours was. Well why didn't you just ask for that first if you were going to look up my specific car anyways? OK, yes ma'am we have one in stock, it's $46.61 plus installation. WHAT? FOR A PIECE OF PLASTIC? And how much is installation. I don't know let me transfer you to Service....ring....ring....ring.....ring, no one's answering, screw this. STEVEN! make it so I can get the license plate on the front bumper without spending an arm and a leg.

Steven did fix it, it took $4, big screws and bolts and tiny fingers going in between the air intake holes. Good, back to safety inspection place. The guy looks at it and says "Could you have gotten the bolts any bigger?" Haha, just put the sticker on and leave me alone.

So the car's registered and has a safety inspection. I still don't have a driver's license, but after looking over the booklet and decided I didn't want to take a test, I've been out of school for too long, I'd fail it even I knew the stuff in the book. So I sent another check and various things to Washington to get me one. I'm expecting it in the next 5 weeks, I'm just hoping I don't get pulled over again. If anyone would like to take it to go get the oil changed, I would be very grateful. I'm sure we could work out a Manly exchange, like Steven'll fix your computer for you or change your kid's diaper. Read More...

Yeah so I am 36 weeks today! Less than a month till my due date. I'm telling Felicity anytime is fine with me. I'm like today is fine, tomorrow is fine. If you really wanna hang out till November that's fine too, but Mom's cool with now. Especially now that the only way I sleep is with the aid of tylenol and benadryl and I'm still waking up 3-6 times a night with it. I tell people I was more sleep deprived before giving birth to Seporah than after and they don't believe me. But by the time she was born I literally woke up every 45 minutes to pee, If I made it an 1 1/2 hours straight I was like yes! So I'm just not looking forward to that and I'm like dude you can come out.

Yesterday I got floated to the Pediatric Clinic at work. It was really quite nice, they really didn't need the help, they just needed an RN. So mostly I just sat all day for my title. I was like ahh, this is the life. I want the next 5 shifts to be just like this one (5 more and I'm on maternity leave). Of course, I'm glad nothing went wrong where I would have had to actually use my title. It was just nice. It was twin day down there I swear, I saw 7 sets of twins. Seven?!?!?! I don't think I've ever seen that many sets of twins in one day.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm just plain rambling. It's easier to type and ramble than do actual work, like the dishes or something to that effect. I plan on rambling for the next 2 months. I'll probably say nothing important here for the next 2 months because I'm too pregnancy brain (and then new momma brain) to think of something intelligent or coherent. Good thing for spell check or you wouldn't even be able to read it probably. I kinda feel bad for Jason's friends who come looking at the blog. Instead of seeing what's happening in Southern California, they get to read about some whiny pregnant lady and they're like "what is this, did Jason give me the wrong link?" Read More...

I'm not exactly sure how old Seporah is in this picture, but I just thought I'd post it to show how much has changed.

1. She's sitting still-that sure doesn't happen anymore
2. The shirt she's wearing has no stains-um yeah right, I just did laundry, she's a messy girl now
3. The carpet's white-I'm now not sure what color to call the carpet
4. All the toys are not only in one room, they're in one place-mmhmm
5. She's cute as cute can be-well that one's still the same Read More...

Yeah, so today wasn't a good day at work, it had nothing to do with management or pharmacy or dietary or even parents. I had a 13 year old kid that got stuck 6 times, 6 times! And it wasn't like he was a little tiny baby. The veins were there and I just couldn't get them and neither could my co-workers. I hate sticking kids over and over again, it makes me feel really, really pathetic and incompetent and just plain mean. After the 4th nurse tried the 4th time, we called and said hey doc his veins suck, we thought you'd like to know this, we don't have an IV in yet, and he was just like the kid needs it. So again and again.

Anyways I came home and I feel like the bad nurse, even though I actually only stuck him once, but still it just makes me feel bad, and I was like I could use reading about someone else's experiences. So I went looking for a pediatric nurse blog. I found blogs from ER nurses, labor and delivery nurses, OR nurses, student nurses, male nurses, med-surg nurses, but no pediatric nurses. I'm like man, it would just be nice to read someone else's failures and successes who knows what working on a pediatric med-surg floor was like. I just hate to be trying to do good and instead end up being the bad one. Read More...

There are times when living far away from family really sucks. Take when you're 34 weeks pregnant and tired and hungry. Now if I lived close to Grandma and Grandpa, I could drive over say feed the pregnant lady and I'd get food auto-magically, plus someone else would play with the toddler for free (when the going rate is $7/hour, it's just tough to justify getting a sitter to take a nap). Not only that but if I looked really sorry, someone might even offer to come do my dishes. Instead the house is trashed, Seporah is crawling over tired mommy and daddy and daddy is going to get Mexican pick up on a Sunday (FYI, we usually don't do that on Sunday, but I'm like, whatever just as long as it shows up and the only finger I have to lift is the one holding the fork). Read More...