You are my sunshine....8 months already

Sweet girl time is flying! I am enjoying every precious moment with you. I love walking into your room in the morning and when you see me you just giggle.  You wake up slowly like your momma. You like to lay in your crib and just sing. You melt my heart! 

 You are sitting up so well and reaching for everything. Today you reached for a puff and picked it up with your pointer finger and thumb.   I was so proud and cheered you on! Your not sure of what to think about puffs yet.  However you do like bananas. You want to try everything.  I think you would try a burger if I let you.  Today you grabbed a water bottle and pulled it tightly to you and drank water from it. It's all happening so fast! 

   I'm so glad that your able to sit up and I know you are too! You like to see everyone and start to cry when your in the room by yourself. You had your first ear infection baby girl.  It's not been fun. Your a trooper though.  You still swing your arms and twist your wrist and feet.  I will be carrying you and look down to see feet twirling and hands doing the same.  You've started flapping your arms like a bird. It is precious! When you get excited you flap your arms and squeel and giggle.  Melts my heart to the core and I just squeeze you all the time.  

  Eli does the same but you grunt when he is squeezing a bit too hard. You laugh at him all the time. He likes to "see Eden Claire" in your crib in the mornings.  He wants to climb in your crib and play with you and show you your mobile or whatever he has pulled into the crib. You just watch every move he makes.  I can see the love you have for him already.  I'm trying to enjoy every moment with you two. I love being your mommy and staying home with you. 

You are the best baby ever.  You lay in your pack n play and watch is whirl around you.  You love your vetch alphabet ball, cloth I love you book, sit and stand push toy (just the toy part right now). You will find the tag on anything and suck in it.  Today you found a sticker off your bouncy seat the Eli put there when you were 3-4 months old and had it in your mouth before I could see u pull it off. You love to play pee-pie and when I eat your belly.  You love to snuggle with mommy. You would love it if I held you all day.  I really wish that I could but your brother is a bit demanding these days.  We stay home most of the time. If we go anywhere Me-Me is with us. Today is one of the first times I've gone into a clothing store with the two of you. At one point Eli was hanging out the side of the stroller and at another time he was underneath in the basket. We left without a purchase.   Which made daddy happy. 😉

  You are wearing size 9 month clothes and your malkong your way into a 12 month. You are 17.4lbs and wear size 3 diaper.  Your eyes are a beautiful deep blue and everyone comments on how beautiful and captivating they are.  You have one big roll on each upper thigh that is so squeezable and soft! You pull off every shoe and sock. You will wear a hair bow for now. You wear size 3 diaper and size 1 shoe. Bath time is your favorite and you are starting to take two long naps a day.  If I'm lucky you and brother take the afternoon nap at the same time. I try to nap then too.  You both wear me out! 

I love you sweet Eden and I just know your first birthday will be here before I want it to be.  

Love with all of my heart, 

Mommy

Trendy Swim suit for Mommy

Since becoming a mommy my style has changed from feeling frumpy in maternity and nursing clothes to wanting to be trendy but still functional for mommy duty. It's almost like an identity crisis of who you become once that beautiful bundle of joy is placed in your arms. The "me" is lost somewhere between lost sleep and the diaper pale. It took me several years and two babies later to embrace the "new me" and my newly makeover body. Talk about extreme makeover...the old me just doesn't exist anymore although I vowed to myself that it would.  The realization that change in every aspect of my life slapped me in my face when even my pajama pants wouldn't even pull over mid thigh 1 day post baby! 😳 

  So now 7 months post baby I am in search for a swim suit. A WHAT? I know I just said the horrible two words that every women in a dressing room dreads. After trying on 10 and passing by a miracle suit in a size 6 I learned to find the humor of it all and embrace my new body that my babies had given me. Once I passed the point of realization that no matter how much cross fit I tortured myself with my body just doesn't have the ability to lipo itself in 8 weeks after creating life for 39.5 weeks. Just not realistic and time to embrace and move on! 

 My new motto was to look for something I felt good in and attempt to nail a trend or two while trying.  So I ordered a few tops and bottoms from Lime Ricki and when they came I was shocked that I loved every single one of them! They offer a 15% off coupon and I've seen a 25% off sale so if your looking for a modest trendy bathing sit go check them out! You can see all of my reviews on their site under JennyH. I ended up keeping the polka dot halter with front rouching, the cream and polka dot one strap with rosette top to mix with the aqua mid rise bottom and mini polka dot shirred skirt bottom.  They all mix and match and the tops are super long.   Also I'm not afraid of  being pulled down either the fit is higher than most. Which I was looking for a suit to be comfortable around neighbors and parents ya know. 😉 the quality is high end and lined. The halter has a wire bra and the one shoulder has a shelf bra. Both have soft bra cups. I would highly recommend these suits for teenagers too. Super trendy and cute colors and patterns.  Go check them out! whww.limericki.com  I've not been endorsed in any way but wanted to share an awesome find to help you with the dreaded bathing suit delimma of the season.  

Cheers! 

Jen

How to be Super Mom 101

  To start off with, everyone knows Superwomen has a cape, right? So if I could choose what color I wanted my cape, I would choose white.  Mainly because that is the color of towels that I have on hand in this laundry pile. My leotard would consist of a nursing tank because that is the first thing I could grab before collapsing in bed last night. My tights would be lavender plaid...my pajama bottoms that were on the next shelf down from the nursing tank.  It may not be as color coordinated as the "real" Superwomen and my boots may be stashed in the back of the closet, but I've earned my title.  Not from other mothers but from my son and daughter.  They are the only ones who can crown a true Super Mom and think she is the best super hero in the world! 

  Today I had a friend send me words of encouragement on the morning of a sleepless night. Her words were "You are doing an awesome job with your babies. You are still nursing which is impressive, working out regularly, eating clean and still finding time to work. You are super woman!" It was then I realized that I accidentally had her fooled.  She and I went to high school together and still stayed in touch through Facebook. What she knew about me was through mutual friends, my status post and Instagram.  She recently had a baby and was feeling over whelmed and felt things such as cleaning house and dinner prep came easy to me.  I had "impressed" her because I was "still nursing Eden" at 7 months strong.  Me being the transparent friend that I am, I Responded to her message by saying "I'm in no way super women! I was queen of the grouch yesterday.  I came home from a work out and bit everyone's head off before I dug into some kind of frozen grain nasty burger and Brussels sprouts that I scarfed down like Oreos.   Yesterday felt like a complete fail.  Some days are just like that.  So I just pray for 8 hrs sleep and the next day to be better..... I'm trying to figure out a stylish way to wear a fanny pack with two garbage bags tied to it... One for trash other for laundry.lol.....Around the 16 week mark I normally loose my mind and cry every day when J comes home.  It's just such an adjustment he doesn't understand and that's fine.  It frustrating to not have the dishes out if the sink and laundry folded etc.  I'm learning to let it go.  My goal is to feed everyone including the dogs. Brush everyone's teeth. Keep diapers dry, clothes dry and maybe baths for everyone. Sometimes I have to ask J if I've had a bath in the past 24 hrs! Being a mommy is the toughest job ever.   I'm sorry if I make it look easy...I've totally fooled you! It's not! I work from home when I can. Not a set schedule. And not 8+ hrs a day."

   She didn't mean to judge me based on the post she had seen but the fact is that's what we all do.  I can promise you that the mother who you feel has it "all together" does not.  If you had a one on one conversation with her you would see she struggles too.  

   Breastfeeding does not come easy to me.  I have to work diligently and sleeplessly to keep my supply up.  It makes me feel hungry all the time and drained. I supplement one bottle a day to give myself a break and allow my husband to "take over" for at least one feeding.  This allows me to feed myself or shower and quite possibly brush my teeth. I will be the first to admit that I put myself last to the demands of the day.  The kids come first and the dogs demand second place by barking at the door relentlessly.  I make myself go to work out two nights a week at a place that doesn't care if I have my kids in tow. If I don't commit to going somewhere with a trainer then I simply won't do it.  For me it helps me regain my sanity to be around other full grown humans.  After putting myself through bootcamp to the point of exhaustion there is no way I'm going through a drive thru just to regret it on bootcamp day.  I try to eat healthy and organic and clean, but truth is I don't have many resources where I live and taking two kids to the grocery store is the equivalent of a root canal without lidocaine to me.  So some nights it's simply something frozen or boiled eggs and what ever is left over.  I have learned the value of a crock pot to a mother and I can promise you on the day it dies I will purchase another one that day with amazon prime! That's just one of my survival kit must haves.  

  Today I read a comment on @k8_smallthings IG post of a new mother who looked up to her for being able to nurse and thanked her for her transparency and faith.  That's all women need. We need other women to be transparent and to share their survival tips at motherhood. If you are comparing your survival skills to someone else's then your always going to find someone who has found a better way.  We have each been formed in a different womb with different DNA and we may look similar with eyes, nose and a mouth and think similar but never the same.   That's why I want to be transparent with you and share my insecurities, struggles and every day happenings with you so that you can see that your not alone.  Indeed there are women every day who are struggling to juggle work stress, dishes and diapers.  It's a tough job that never ends at least our true prayer is that it doesn't.  And even though we collapse in bed only to remember that load of laundry that was left in the washing machine, all of the hard work is not in vain.  Our children are the only ones who  can crown us Super Mom in their eyes.  So if today is one of those hard days stop what you are doing and go grab your baby up or open a picture on your phone if your at work and remind yourself that those little eyes think you are the best Super Mom in the world and that is all that matters today.  Your children will rise and call you blessed! 

Eyes wide open with tooth picks, 

Jenny 

Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.    

Simplified ABC's

  After having Eden, our second baby, I felt a rush of overwhelming chaos and uprooting of the old routine of our family of three. That sweet little addition was sending a new current my way and I felt the need to simplify my life.  The house was a wreck and I could barely manage to have my teeth brushed, toddler feed and diaper changed, dogs fed and myself fed, oh and of course that sweet little treasure fed and diaper changed every 2-3 hours. I literally down loaded a home organizational app that guided my day and it literally included "feed and change baby", "feed dogs"... I just couldn't get it together.  In the moments of fight or flight I would find myself very over whelmed. Which I heard was normal and I checked with my closest girlfriend of two small ones and she confirmed the rumors to be true.  She assured me that one day it will "just click". I don't remember when it "clicked". I think it was somewhere between 8 hours of sleep and brushing my hair before 5 pm.    It finally has clicked and we have found our new normal as a family of four with two fur babies.  

  I started the simplification process by eliminating anything that wasn't necessary and moving things closer to my finger tips.  I started storing the trash bags under the sink in the kitchen for easy refills and the kids pjs in the bathroom drawer instead of their rooms.  I found myself running in circles for hours feeling like I needed a fanny pack with a trash bag attached to it.  This is when I realized how much trash two littles can make! 

 Don't misunderstand me here. There isn't an ounce of complaining just the reality of growning pains for a family.  No one talks about those.  You only see the happy pictures of sleeping babies and snuggly kisses on Instagram.  Not the real deal of how it looks like an F4 tornado just blew three the entire house. (Do they even categorize tornados with F's? I'm not sure but it sounds good. I'm to exhausted to google it.) Trust me. Your house will recover and it will one day "just click".  

  Purging the apps from my phone and unfollowing Instagram feeds was my way of feeling closer to control.  It was a quick fix to help me get back to the ABC's of life and to what matters most...my family. I will be the first to admit that scrolling through feeds and comments has taken too much of my time and energy.  They are wonderful mental outlets for a break from the baby and tot world. However simplify was my goal and therefore I deleted those apps too.  

  The past six months has been incredible with up and downs of managing a family in this media driven society that consumes us. I pray that the next six months are full of simple memories of my babies in our daily routine in the middle of our simple days of pancakes, diapers, rice cereal and sippy cups.  I'm not perfect and I never will be. But I will be the best mom that I know how to be.  I will give it everything with in me. I want to look back and remember these fleeting moments that are just a vapor.  Most of all I want my babies to know how much they are loved and that I gave it my all. 

 So if you visit us on any given day you will find a cold cup of coffee, bed heads, abc mouse, a baby in the play pen, dishes piled in the sink and toys all over the living room floor with a load of laundry or six shoved in the corner.  

  Welcome to our simplified life! We are happy.  We are safe and warm and our bellies are full and blessed.  It's the simple things that makes life good.  

Matthew 11:28-30."Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

;)

Jen