Little Stinker!!

This past week has been so full of ups and downs with this little cuttie! He went on a huge nursing strike. (I'm thinking because of his top teething trying to break through.) He would only nurse at night and first thing in the morning. From the hours of about 6am through 7pm he would totally refuse to nurse. He'd bite me, turn away, cry, push away from me, and just in general be seriously upset by me even offering him the goods. But then, the magic hour of 7:00pm would come and he'd get on and not want to get off. So weird. By Friday (day 5 of strike) he was showing great signs of improvement! He nursed all that day just like normal.. HOORAY! His 9 month checkup was also that day. He's great. :) 18 pounds (75%) 29inches (75%) and his head was also 75%... pretty perfect! The doctor commented to him that "You could've been an even bigger boy if you would have eaten last week!" lol So true! So, I'm thinking by last night, after many many easy and smooth nursing sessions, that he's back on and problems are gone. Well, this morning he's back at it. sigh I don't know what to do with this boy. I'll just keep offering and keep being on top of this. The only trick that works with him is to let him go to sleep, and once he's totally out, pick him up and lay in bed with him and nurse him that way. He likes to nurse when asleep.. but not any other time. At this point I feel like if I can convince him to breastfeed for one solid year we'll have made a huge accomplishment! (someone please quote this to me many months from now when he's still going strong!) I never thought my big eater would refuse to eat mommy milk! What's he thinkin`?!

My big boy

Little Samuel is determined to grow up on me. He's been working really hard at standing up without holding onto anything, and now he's trying to take a few steps here and there. I'm so not ready for this! Why is it that with your first baby you can't wait for them to grow and change and do "something" and it seems like it takes forever for them to sit up, crawl, and walk. (even though looking back it went in a flash!) Then with your second, third, and I'm guessing any that come after, you know how fast it goes by so you just want to beg them to stay babies, to stay small, to stay still, yet they seem to take off in record speed? The baby stuff is slowly seeping out of our house. The cosleeper is long gone, along with the infant bathtub and the swing. Newborn clothes are packed up, some have been sold. Maternity clothes are sacked up and ready to get rid of. (anyone know of anyone that needs size small maternity clothes? They're way cute!) Recently the pack-n-play has been taken down b/c Sam hates it and won't sleep in it, and the mobile has been removed from the crib b/c he can reach it now and pulls it down. Things like burp rags, baby washclothes, and recieving blankets are also out of the house. A soft newborn cloth can no longer tackle the messes this little guy makes! Spit up breastmilk on his chin has been replaced with mashed up bananas, green beans, and cheerios. We no longer lay a quilt down on the ground outside for him to lay or sit on... why bother? He won't stay on it. A blanket under him for a diaper change? Nah, he's alright. Our 30minute long nursing sessions, that would conclude with him falling asleep soundly in my arms, have been replaced with 2 minute long sessions that end with him biting me with his new teeth and him squirming to get down.. he's got things to do. Someone fed him a piece of a chocolate doughnut at church yesterday and instead of cringing (like I would have with my first two) I laughed at how delighted it made him and wondered how he managed to get THAT messy from one piece of dougnut. So, things are rapidly changing around here! It's a shame that you wait for so long to hold your precious baby in your arms, and as soon as they get placed there they immediately start trying to grow up. They definitely become more fun, and easier, as they grow up... but a part of me always longs for that little newborn. I'm cherishing every single bit of my little man. Trying to hold a piece of how he is at each age somewhere in my mind. Knowing that, no matter how hard I try, years from now I'll watch an old family video and wonder how it is that I forgot him at "that" age. How can I be here for EVERY minute of his life and still forget them?

Yet another reason to hate drunk drivers

Besides the fact that drunk drivers kill people or cause accidents daily in Arkansas, last night my family found yet another reason to hate drunk drivers. It was 6:00pm exactly. The kids were watching a new movie we rented from Red Box (which we LOVE! Hooray for Red Box!) and Clayton and I were watching one as well. We were just getting to the suspenceful, nail-biting, what's going to happen next, part of the movie when everything shut off. The entire house went dark. The kids scream and run out our room (frustration from the movie going off mixed with fear of the dark) and Clayton and I sit quietly, somehow thinking that sitting still and not moving would magically help the lights flick back on. It didn't, and they didn't. A few minutes later Clayton's cell phone rings. It's a fellow officer calling to see if Clayton would assist him with a drunk driver since they were just a mile from our house. Clayton was off duty, but his passion for getting drunks off of the road always prevails and he heads out. A few minutes later he's back home, another Trooper that was on duty showed up to help. (I was so thankful... I did not want to be in the house, in the dark, alone with the kids AGAIN. The two days of that in the snow storm was enough for me) The drunk driver had wrecked out on our highway and knocked over a light pole. Oh, thank you, Mr. Drunk Driver. Because of your completely selfish attitude, your in ability to think of what MIGHT happen if you get wasted and then drive your 2 ton automobile going 60mph down a two lane highway, you slammed into the light pole that supplies electricity to all of our little community. Leaving us to be in the dark, again, for nearly 6 hours. Thankfully you didn't hit a family driving innocently down the road... and by God's grace you didn't kill yourself. But, as always, your actions effected so many. It ended up okay, of course. We all slept in the living room, just as we had done in the snow storm, with a candle for a nightlight. Clayton was here this time so I wasn't overwhelmed with a dark house and three kids with no adult conversation. Clayton's now ready to get back on the highway and find another drunk driver to take his frustration out on. (he's been in a very intense Drug Recognition Expert training class for the past three weeks) So, Mr. or Mrs. Future Drunk Driver, I feel for ya when he finds you... because he will... and you will go to jail... and you will beg him not to take you as if it's his fault you're going. Because, as always, you also lack the ability to take responcibility for your actions. Talk about a soap box... this is one I could stand on for the rest of my life!

Why Recycle?

Here are some recycling facts I found on http://www.dosomething.org/ Hopefully it will encourage those of you that are not currently recycling, to start.

FACT 1
Paper products make up 40% of all trash. That can all be recycled!
FACT 2
The highest point in Ohio is a literally a garbage dump that is now called Mount Rumpke.
FACT 3
Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups that cannot decomposed or be recycled.
FACT 4
Only about 30% of paper, trash, and food waste is recycled.
FACT 5
17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water can be saved by recycling 1 ton of paper!
FACT 6
80% of papermakers in America use at least some form of recycled materials to create new paper.
FACT 7
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour!
FACT 8
Recycled plastic is can be made into polyester carpets, plastic lumber, clothing, flower pots, insulation for sleeping bags & ski jackets, car bumpers and other products.
FACT 9
All soda cans are made from aluminum. Each American uses about 400 cans a year. If aluminum is recycled, 95% less energy is used than if it were made from scratch.
FACT 10
Cell phones, computers, and other technology release toxins into the environment when they are thrown away. The only way to stop the pollution is to recycle them.
FACT 11
Although 75% of our trash can be recycled, the EPA set a national goal of 25% for 1992.
FACT 12
The first real recycling program was introduced in New York City in the 1890s. The city's first recycling plant was built in 1898.By 1924, 83% of American cities were separating some trash items to be reused.
FACT 13
About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material!
FACT 14
Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted.
FACT 15
One-third of the water used in most homes is flushed down the toilet.
FACT 16
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

My update

Some of you may remember my post baby posts about trying to drop this pregnancy, and trying to get pregnant, weight. Well, I'm happy to report that since I started trying to lose weight (when Samuel was about 8 weeks old) I've lost 17 pounds! I have 5ish to go to get to my goal weight. I am THRILLED! I am back into single digit sized jeans, which just shocks me. I really thought I'd never get down to this size again. I still have a lot of toning to do and those last 5 pounds really will make a big difference, but I'm really proud of myself. It's so hard to make time to exercise and to make myself work out when I'm running on so little sleep. Eating healthier is tough because when I'm nursing my cravings are just insatiable. But, I'm doing it! For a LONG time I just enjoyed eating more than I wanted to lose weight. lol Not anymore! I forgot how good it feels to feel this good. :) I still enjoy my treats. I'll never give up my Coke Zero or two a day. (zero calories, just not the healthiest thing on the planet) I just have finally learned some self control. My mom saw me a week or so ago and said, "Wow! You look like Mandy again!" I have to agree. I feel like "me" again too!

The Kids

I haven't done an update on the kids in a while so I thought it was time. First is little Sam... he's quickly becoming not quite so little anymore. He's already 8.5 months old. Where has the time gone? He's crawling and pulling up and trying to let go once he's standing to stand alone. He can for a few seconds... but then he gets excited and drops right to the floor. (or sometimes he falls forward onto whatever he pulled up on and gets a nice little head bump) He's such a talker! He crawls around the house saying "dada" and "mama" and "bye bye" all of the time. I LOVE baby talk! He's already slowly losing some of that precious baby squish. Now.. don't worry.. he's still plenty squishy! But he's getting so long that he's just stretching it all out. His favorite past time is eating. He loves to eat! That includes nursing and solids... anything I'll allow him to have, he's excited about. He's borderline obsessed with food. Eating out with him is quite a chore. He already has figured out that what we're eating is not what i'm feeding him, and that makes him a little cranky! He's still an easy going, social, sweet, cute as can be baby! Oh, he finally got two bottom teeth just in the past two weeks. I'm sad that his gummy smile is fading away, but it's neat to see him have a 'bigger baby' look to him all at the same time. My days now are spent asking the two most asked questions for anyone with a mobile baby/toddler in the house. "Where's Samuel?" and "What's in his mouth?"

Carter and Madison.. those two are quite something lately! Carter has become even more silly... if you can imagine! He's still always out for a laugh, he takes NOTHING seriously, and he's still a big time lovey kid. He makes Madison insane a lot of the time because she's the exact opposite. She is more calm and sometimes moody, likes quiet, takes everything seriously, and isn't too touchy feely. The good news is, they're really becoming great friends. Now that Carter's getting older and he's "more fun" to play with, I can see a different relationsip forming. They choose to play together now because it's a good time, not because it's the only option when we're home. It's so neat to see siblings together! (unless they're fighting....) Madison is still doing great in school. She's a great reader, and she loves music and art. She says she can't wait until second grade because she thinks she'll have science then. (no science in first grade?) She's so much like me. She LOVES animals... to a fault almost. She says she wants to be a zookeeper or work at a pet store when she grows up. That's exactly what I wanted to be when I was young. (I guess being a stay at home mom is sort of like being a zoo keeper...) Carter's doing great at his school work here at home. He knows his entire alphabet by sight now and can write the letter 'A' on his own. Also the letter 'C'. We're working on 'B' but that's a tough one! He loves doing letters... I'm shocked at his thirst for knowledge! I'm taking advantage of it while it's here. So, the kids are all doing great. We have bumps in the road here and there but we work through each of them one day at a time! I'm still amazed at how relatively simple having three kids has been. I really thought it would be more of a big deal. I guess once that first child paves the way.. you're just doing more of the same!