Green Punk Mama

you can see my heart beating

2011-07-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

I suppose it is a day where God wants to know how much I can handle. How big my heart is. And how open my mind is.

But I am here and strong for any friend or family that needs me, because that's just the kind of person I am.

And I guess God knows that.

Getting it all together

2011-06-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

My "dining room" is really just a play room. We managed to fit my grandmother's kitchen table in the kitchen. It's a bit tight but over all I like eating in the kitchen anyway rather than walking back and forth. And this way the kids play where I can see them rather than in their room.

The living room is still a work in progress, we need to move the TV to another wall, I'm not big fan of where it is now and it causes Lillian to go near the corners of the table which drives me nuts. I tried putting foam on the corners but Lillian just pulls that right off and chews on it...

The kids room :) Gavin wanted me to post all the work he did to line those stuffed animals up along the side of his bed. His book case is full of his favorite books, the other two books cases have all of my vintage children's books :) I know none of the furniture matches but I didn't know too many people with matching furniture when I was a kid :p

we're working on it

2011-05-29T09:02:00.001-07:00

Still working on moving in lol Lillian decided to play some N64 while I cleaned :p I have to make it to 2 different family picnics or I would post more photos. now off to be hot and eat BBQ foods....

soooo busy!

2011-05-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

I really do keep meaning to blog.... I've just been so busy! We saw the apartment last week, it's being redone so the bathroom was totally gutted but that's not so bad! Here's a sneak peak at my kitchen....

Sure it's nothing to be excited about, but it's all mine, so does that count?! I have been running around collecting boxes and packing boxes and getting items ready to take to the thrift store or to drop off with friends and family. Trying to to have any JUNK when we move lol. If that's even possible.

So yes maybe a real post soon? if I get the time :/ but once we move and are settled in it should be better! :)

Stocking Up on Boxes

2011-05-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

with just 22 days until we get our keys I've finally started collecting boxes lol oh sure I could buy them... but I have so man Rad friends who work in retail ;) one friend works at autozone and was able to get us a bunch yesterday and today too! another friend works at another store and she'll be loading us with boxes too :) I'm so lucky to have so many awesome friends, met them in college :)

On a side note I also picked up prescription cat food for Lucy, she had another UTI yesterday and Tiggy has been sneezing so I took them in... *gulp* $145 but my vet was great and dropped one exam fee because I brought them in together. Tiggy has a cold and had an infected ear, he just required a good cleaning and quick shot. Lucy got a shot and the prescription food :/ it's $24 for a 5lb bag! but it's worth it and as she calms down she may not have as many issues.

Ok time to get the kiddos in bed, tomorrow is Gavin's birthday and I have a cake to bake! :)

while the world is going crazy

2011-04-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying the warm weather here in Jersey but playing outside for hours :) not that I'm getting any work done when it comes to packing or cleaning, but the kids are having a blast!!

We get to see our apartment next week. This week they're remodeling the bathroom so it's a bit of a mess, here's hoping the bathroom looks good hehe
Also Gavin's birthday is next week! He'll be 6, how the time has flown! I bought the frosting for his strawberry cake last night too :)

He went to kiss her, and he gave him her hand hehe

She loves sitting there in the sand box, for as much as an hour! No shoes, they make her trip outside and I'm afraid she'll hurt her face... Sorry about the yellow recycling pail in the photo, but if my neighbors don't keep them on the side of the house their 90 year old grandma will try and collect he pails and that is not a good thing :P

She's a smiley little lady now :)

coupons

2011-04-18T09:54:00.001-07:00

So after watching an episode of TLC's Extreme Couponing I decided I wanted to really get into coupons. For the first 5 years Dan I were married all the driving and grocery shopping were my job. I actually found it fun, I often took Gavin to speech therapy, then we went to shoprite and afterwards across the street to the autozone to visit my good friend D before driving the 10 minutes back home. I was obsessed with the circular that came in the mail and loved the coupons you got at the register... But then I was so sick while pregnant with Lillian that Dan took over my beloved grocery shopping, and man, he stunk at it ;) he always goes to Target instead which is way over priced compared to my little shoprite that has been there for over 30 years, their taxes are much less you see. And then he buys crap he doesn't need.

Anyway I activated my online shoprite account and signed up for Cell Fire where I can go ahead and click on a coupon and have it go right onto the shoprite price plus card so for my husband who never remembers to bring the coupons I can put them right on his price plus card! and on top of that I can email him the list that I created from the circular and added the rest onto via shoprite so it's a lot easier!

My total savings this past shopping trip on sale items and coupons came out to $13.75

(and yes I know I'm crazy!)

Test Results are in!

2011-04-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

I am allergic to Dairy Protein, allergic as in I go into anaphylactic shock from a bite or two of cheese. Trace amounts of dairy such as whey will give me stomach ulcers and butter on my skin causes hives and in some cases I will bleed right through my skin. Because of this allergy that I have not out grown both my little ones had to wait until they were a year old and had their allergy blood panel done before they could have any dairy. Lillian's results came in and they were all normal which means no allergies!!

So yesterday Lillian had her first yogurt and loved it :) And Mac N Cheese for Lunch today as well! We'll also be able to switch her to whole milk rather than drinking soy or rice milk :)

home sweet home

2011-04-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not announcing this on face book yet too much in the way of family on there lol But we'll know tomorrow if we move in June or July but either way we have found an apartment complex that we can mostly afford, decent schools, and 1075 square feet, dining room, two bed rooms, eat in kitchen, bath room and living room.

Now of course starts the fun of packing and finding homes for all the junk! lol

less than perfect

2011-04-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to be one of those well put together blogger moms who posts these thought provoking entries and uses her Cannon DSLR to take all these beautiful pictures of their kids and all the things they do all day... oh I really do. But some how I capture these pictures... Notice the diaper isn't snapped all the way, diaper wings... And it's always messy... Some how Lillian always seems to have a package of mum-mum rusks and Cheerios smashed into my carpet (this is a before the smash picture).

Gavin at least eats his breakfast at a table. but that day it was 3 mini donuts... yeah mom fail. It was quick and easy and he did eat a good lunch later on. sadly though the box from dinner McDonalds... was still on the table. He went out with grandpa to buy some things for the grill and suddenly was starving, so of course they went to McDonalds. (oh but you see my aunt is a manager of McDonalds so it was free so often...).

So yes, I want to blog beautiful things... I want to show off my kids and talk about my life but... My life is so boring! I even make my baby food again after that weird not eating thing Lillian did a while back we now found her true love in baked sweet potatoes and avocados along with pasta with smart balance melted over it...

Maybe some day I'll perfect my blogging but at least I can always look back on what I've been up to :)

Mice and Thrift Stores

2011-04-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Went thrift shopping again, Lillian needed some more 12 month tee shirts since she grew out of all of her 9 month clothing :) These were all pretty cheap except for the one that still had a tag on it, that was more expensive but still a nice deal. The brown with the kitties is an 18 month sleeper though but she will probably fit in it come spring, 12 month sleepers are still a bit big in the legs.

These were $1.75 each at walmart, more of her favorite fleece sleepers! 1 is 18 months and the other is 24 months :)

And now the reason I mentioned mice... It sounded like an elephant was in the kids room, so I went to check on them and found Lucy beating the heck out of a mouse. It was one of those ugly ones that hop... She broke it's neck. So that was the end of that. I don't really like her playing with them since my neighbor lost his cat to a poised rat once :( We get water rats outside because the way the street is, our street, a main road, and the Delaware Canal. Then behind our house runs the Delaware canal feeder. Then the end of the street is a fence, two double lanes of high way, and the Delaware River. So unless we have enough cats, we always have BIG fugly rats... So back to the mice... they really bother me, we don't get them often but when we do they are so gross.

cats

2011-03-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

Lucy was sick this week :( Poor baby :( $85 in vet bills :( she's so worth it but that and Lillian's co pay left me BROKE haha. We love our vet Dr Nelson though! I had to buy her different dry food though and it's a lot more expensive than what I've been buying but if she keeps getting infections it won't save me any money either. She's been mostly sleeping in my bed for the past for days I think today she finally feels well :)

Ah see this frumpy old guy?? He's not actually that old! Only 2 :( He's been staying in my yard for maybe 3 weeks now and he's always getting beat up by neighbor cats. The clipped ear says he's neautored by a trap and release program. He's a sweet guy. He also needed to go to the vet, my dad helped me out with that bill he needed to be tested for some diseases and he needed some medication for a scratched eye :( He's totally laid back and just sleeps in the basement with my cat Tiggy. Lucy does not like him though, not at all.

Hopefully by the time I pay off these vet bills I'll be good for a while lol No more cats! But he reminds me so much of my cat Jam that I couldn't leave him out there...

Now I'm off to sew some cloth wipes!! I'm kinda hoping to get to Joanns to pick up a FEW more flannel prints since I have a coupon... but that's only after Dan gets paid Friday and I pay for the beautiful Dragon I won in an auction for Gavin! I think I'm saving it for his birthday in May... But I might make it his Easter present :)

High Risk Follow Up 13 Months

2011-03-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Today was Lillian's High Risk Follow Up Appointment :) She's 17lbs and 27in long and she walked for the Dr. BUT when it came time for he Baily test (cognitive) she refused to do any of the tasks asked of her :( She mostly just looked away and whined at them. She didn't like her speech therapist either but she still scored well because I had taken notes on the words that she uses. Same with the Physical therapist sadly. She did a little walking but then retreated under the chair with her mum mum cracker. She's a very stubborn bean.

She did get to enjoy the nice weather this past Friday! She played outside with her brother and even walked barefoot over the grass! She seems to like it outside, but isn't a big fan of the sand yet.

Lillian attended her first large party! It was my neighbor's 90th birthday :) I have known her my entire life so we made the special trip over to see her at her party!

school

2011-03-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

I got a letter today from the Village Charter school and I have to admit I was really exicted... But there were a lot of applications so there will be a lottery on the 31st which wasn't the letter I was hoping for :( I'm trying to decide if I want to go to the drawing or not. They'll mail me the results. And I think I will be heart broken if he doesn't get in. Unless we can find an apartment that's not in Trenton he'll have to go to public school and it's not about the education per'say but the fact that there are stabbings and drugs even in the elementary school...

Lillian walks!

2011-03-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

And she's really walking!! Don't mind the mess... I really do clean, I PROMISE but it just never looks like I do... there's even a basket of clean diapers on the floor and the crumbs... She says "Have that" and points whenever she wants something, she's a silly girl.

Lillian Kisses :)

2011-03-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

Don't mind the mess in the background, I'm going through my craft stuff :) But I just ha to get a video of Lillian kissing her baby doll it's so cute!
I'll post a real post later :)

Give away

2011-03-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

Nifty Nappy is having a flash give away tonight on facebook at 6pm MT and asked for donations so I donated these leg warmers :) I figure they're a good color for boys and often lots of people donate girly things so this one's for the boys or gender neutral :)

Lillian is teething like crazy. A whole bunch of front teeth coming in poor baby girl :( All she wants is her bottles and nap time. At least she sleeps when she's teething, Gavin never would have slept. last month when Gavin's two front teeth and his 6 year old molars were coming in he hardly slept and wouldn't eat anything. I was really happy when he started feeling better and would eat and sleep again.

First Pair of Sneakers

2011-03-05T16:38:00.001-08:00

Today we took Lillian out and bought her a pair of sneakers! these were her first pair, infant size 4 :) 6-12 months in baby shoes I believe. They are adorable :) She seems to like standing in them, I think she feels more stable, and who knows, maybe she'll walk some time in them. She's still not convinced that walking is any way to get around!

She loves this stuffed cat. It looks a lot like my real cat so I guess that might be why :) She's a funny little lady. Her next high risk infant fallow up appointment is the 21st I'm really hoping to have her walking by then but we'll see.

Shop Closing Sale

2011-03-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

The competition has been tough, and only tough because they friend my friends and then bash me. The paper work for the cpsia is more than I feel like doing. And we're looking to move soon. So from now until the end of April everything in my shop will be on sale and then, at last for the summer, my shop will be closed.

But on a good note a real estate agent called and will be looking for some rentals for us, I'm hoping for a yard! If we get a rental house with a yard I'll be able to get a small swing set or something since we'll still be down to just one car. I'll probably get the set used anyway :)

washing cloth diapers

2011-02-25T13:40:00.000-08:00

Last year the big thing to buy for your cloth diapers was Rockin' Green. It was pricey but you only needed a small amount of it. But Lillian's diapers started to stink of ammonia and stain with purple/gray from the ammonia. So I nearly gave up on cloth diapering. I tried stripping and adding more and more rinses. It wasn't really working.
So I admit I went to Walmart (oh yes hate me but I do shop there sometimes) and I bought a box of Tide free and gentle. I put my diapers in on a large wash with a scoop of tide filled to the 1 line, a full load. Washed them on hot and did a cold double rinse. Dried them outside in the sun as always (I LOVE the sun and line drying) and woah, no more stinkies. Once a month I run a cold rinse with white vinegar and I wash them on hot with Planet detergent double could rinse to get off the Tide build up and you know, never a rash or a bad smell.
I am NOT saying to works for everyone but I have found it works perfectly for me. I suppose my real point is find what works for you before you give up. I love cloth diapering, I never run out and I can resell them when I'm done with them!

oopx

2011-02-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

So this week my hard drive went. It probably had something to do with my kids hitting my laptop, and what do ya know, if you hit one hard enough it dies! (or scratched inside) My poor laptop. Start up takes forever after many windows check disk and repairs :( I had a dirty volume (that's gonna attract some funny people) but I cleared it, but it found the damaged sector, and to make a long story short, it's dying from it's damage. So I ordered a new hard drive from amazon.com, 500gigs! that'll leave me tons of space for photos and videos :) I backed up my current hard drive and once this one comes in I'm ready to install it.

Extended Rear Facing

2011-02-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

Babies r us is having a great trade in event :) so we traded in Gavin's old car seat for this car seat for Lillian :) She's just 16lbs and almost 13 months but this car seat was originally priced at $179 and we were able to get 25% off with the trade in program :)

We decided that we needed a car seat that allowed Lillian to rear face at least until 40lbs and while there are cheaper seats out there it is recommended that you keep a child rear facing as long as possible.

http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html is a great resource, I'm not saying everyone should choose to keep their child rear facing but I am very sensitive about car safety after my husbands accident and surgery.

Because I'm so wrong in all the right ways

2011-02-13T12:31:00.001-08:00

I've learned despite how others feel about me I'll always be myself, the dirty little freak but at least it's me!
I apply this to everything in my life. Sure I dye my hair and wear funky make up. But I also never spend money I don't have, we don't use cards of payment plans for our TV or furniture. I'm not afraid to get dirty and help others out. I'm ok with thrift store shopping and walmart. I never do drugs and rarely drink. I was an active part of Rock for Life for over 2 years.
So yes I'm quite the freak.

Pic Spam

2011-02-11T14:50:00.001-08:00

Lillian's favorite rockerbyebaby blanket. I'm not sure why this one is her favorite but it is :) she still doesn't walk yet but she drags it around when she crawls :)

Awww soooo cute! that's what we say when she's laying down like that, she's a funny little lady.

Ahh don't mind the insane mess behind her... I'm not feeling too hot and cleaning only happens twice a day.

Tooth

2011-02-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

I went to sleep with a burning throbbing pain in one of my molars :( Still bugging me so dentist tomorrow morning. I take such good care of my teeth, it drives me nuts that they still end up needing root canals and other not fun things :(

I keep telling myself it's only bothering me because I haven't had much sleep in the past 4 days because Lillian is cutting teeth but I'll still keep the appointment anyway.

Good-bye to Nifty Nappy

2011-02-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

My friend Brooke told me about NiftyNappy.com and I gotta tell you, I fell in love with her diapers! I wasn't working but I did have my shop so Vilate was kind enough to trade with me! Her diapers fit well even on Lillian at 6 weeks, but all of these photos were my favorite, and she must have been at least 7lbs, I think the rainbows were from her two month appointment :)

I'm a fitted fan, no doubt. I love pockets ( LOVE her pockets too) but I'm a fitted fan :) and wool, have I mentioned wool?? These diapers work so well and they're super soft, I mean bamboo velour, I wish I had that in my underwear ;)

The ducky diaper on the Little bean, look at those chicken bone legs!! Can you believe she's 12 months and 16lbs now? my oh my how time has flow :)

Sadly though, today is the last day to buy Nifty Nappy diapers. The consumer product safty has ruled that all items made for children 12 and under must under go 3rd party testing for lead and certain plastic chemicals :( fine for large business but sadly the reason I started buying hand made was the lack of attention and quality control for toys my son had. All those recalled toys that I tossed. I love our little dolls from Sunflowerradiantlove they're the best, Lillian and I play with them all the time :) Vilate had deiced to close down her shop and stop making diapers. I'm going to miss her amazing diapers (though I have stoked up!) I hope to stay friends with Vilate as she's an amazing person and an inspiration to me as well!

wool cover

2011-02-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

My first wool diaper cover :) it came out ok, I messed up a bit on the legs... I might do those a bit differently next time but the reset of it looks great! Now time to lanolize it :) Then I can use it in a couple days when it dries out!!

Dan's New Job

2011-02-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

The day after Lillian's 1st birthday my husband got a phone call from a place he had interviewed for the week prior. They had a full time permanent job for him! It's much better than the part time / temp work he has been doing for the past 3 years! The accident killed his ability to work with his step dad in construction, our income last year was 15,000. It's not even enough for an apartment. We were stuck staying in one of my parents houses, my grandparents left several houses behind when they passed away, a town home and a summer / shore home.

We'll be able to move out and into a better school area for Gavin, it isn't as much as we would like but his job has promise raise wise and best of all it's permanent!

Happy Birthday

2011-02-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

Birthday Girl with her birthday cupcake! She had a Dr appointment the same day, she weighed in at 16lbs and was 28in long :) far from my 4lb 5oz 17in long mini baby hehe

A smile! These are hard to catch! And 95% of those toys are second hand from the thrift store or friends/family. I know some people gasped but it wasn't that much money. She's nearly up to date on her sensory and motor skills. Just no walking yet.

These were her cupcakes, we did hearts, for our sweet heart!

Opening a gift, we only bought her two new things for her birthday, she was happy mostly because Gavin helped open and play with them lol

One More day

2011-02-02T12:09:00.001-08:00

Beautiful baby feet! Her tiny foot prints next to her feet now, what a difference! I hope to frame these foot prints soon :)

What a face... but that's her and her fist preemie outfit. Everyone thought she was a doll she was so tiny. I'm glad she wears 6 month clothing now :)

I baked her cup cakes today :) tomorrow she has a dr appointment and then we'll have her cake, I can't believe it's been a year!

Looking back

2011-01-31T18:38:00.000-08:00

I met Lillian for the first time nearly 12 hours after she was born, Dan had seen her a few times but I was out for the surgery for her birth and so Dan wasn't allowed in the room. She had a crazy amount of hair.

4lbs 5oz 17in long. My midwife told me at my 6wk appointment that Lillian cried when she was born. I don't have any photos of her being born, this is the first photo of her. Dan brought it to me when I work up 2 or so hours after surgery.

This was me Feb 29 2010, woah lol I was in and out of the hospital in labor starting on th 29th and then Lillian was born on the 3rd, one day after my late grandpa's birthday. I gained just 25lbs with Lillian, I'm short though. I don't miss that scary belly. Nope.

Lillian in the Nicu, Dan's hands were huge compared to her little body. Those were long days. her little heart rate would dry so low, she wouldn't eat anything, she just slept. Sometime we came in and we couldn't hold her, it was hard.

Tomorrow I'll try and get a picture of her next to her preemie clothing now, and her feet with the nicu foot prints :)

Snow - Again

2011-01-28T05:54:00.000-08:00

Our 4-8 in of snow turned out to be 18in of snow... and it's so high in the front it covered the bushes! My dad's mini van, and my poor little sedan. My husband couldn't get to work yesterday there were no buses running and our street STILL isn't plowed. And so many cars were stranded on the street it was crazy. My dad works a few blocks down so he was able to walk.

Gavin suited up and headed out to play, because to him this was the most fun ever lol No other kids on the street went out. It wasn't that cold and since there's a layer of ice you could walk clear across the snow lol

And all I can say is I put him to work, someone has got to shovel that snow! lol well ok he was putting snow ON the walk but he's still cute

Trenton Schools

2011-01-24T08:16:00.000-08:00

Gavin is 5 and will be 6 on May 4th of this year. I kept him home this year and didn't send him to school. Trenton public schools are terrible, and on top of it Gavin just wasn't ready for full time Kindergarten. So despite all the nasty thing my mother in law had to say about me I kept him home and he started with his Kindergarten work. Slow, and steady, he has worked his way up to being ready to go to school.

So I applied to a Princeton Charter school. Sadly he was turned down as there were already enough residents trying to get in. I tried one in Hamilton, and they didn't even get back to me. We've tried a local Charter school in hopes that he'll get in, so far, so good. I was pretty disapointed about the Princeton school, it would have been great for him to get in.

Hopefully it all works out. Mean while he's doing great in math, maybe he'll be better than I was lol

Babes in Toy Land

2011-01-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took my brother out for driving lessons and then we went to the thrift store... I picked up a few baby toys, they always have great toys for $1.95-$4.95 and since we set up a little play area for Lillian I also went to Walmart and bought Lillian an area rug. I wanted something girly, as he's my only girl. This rug was perfect and it's nice and soft, a great place for her to play! She looks really tiny in the middle of her mess of toys...

These are a great mixture of handme-down and thrift store toy finds, many of which will either go back to the thrift store or be given away to others once Lil is too old for them.

Dinner Time

2011-01-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

We got Lillian a pretty little plate at Target last week, she ate her dinner on it the other night, she has to eat some puree baby food before she can have whole food, but she ate part of a chicken nugget, a mum mum, and some gerber Lil Crunchy Things :) She's working hard to eat like a big girl we're hoping she puts a little weight on soon too :)

Sure that outfit doesn't match at all but she keeps tripping on her pants so I put some leg warmers on her and she also choses her own diaper now. We were out of Nifty Nappy Pockets (all in the wash *sigh*) so she chose this one, but she is already such a diva about her diapers, she's all girl I guess lol

She's also doing a lot of talking, she says dipe (diaper) nye nye (night night) my baba (my bottle) cat, umba (brother) bebe (baby) and a whole bunch of others but I can't believe how many words she has compared to her brother at even 3 years.

Now I need to go ahead and clean up the crazy mess that my two kids make before they go to bed.

Copy Cat

2011-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

The fat striped one at the top is Tiggy. He's pretty and fat and I've had him 9 years now. This year though, our yard has a lot of cats just like him. at least 3 of them that I have seen. So when my Tiggy lost his collar some where in our basement, it kinda freaked me out. There's a bunch of him in the yard... ugh. My Calico on the other hand is the only Calico that I have seen on years and years.
So there are too many copy cats, Tiggy must wear a collar and for now it has to be Lucy's pink collar, he will never know, he is after all color blind.
And yes I know it is silly but Tiggy is one socially stupid cat and he gets beat up outside so he's not allowed out ever lol

Puzzles

2011-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of puzzles from Sunflowerradiantlove we really love them :) Gavin loves this mountain so much that I had to bug him to let me take pictures of it, he's been playing with it all day, it's the mountain behind his Lincoln log fort, the huge crazy fort.

New bamboo, there's a new cactus in bloom but I didn't remember to take a picture of it.

Beautiful mountain, seriously one of my favorites.

Sun / flower, Gavin says it's a flower tho :)

I love this little cloud! One of our first puzzles :)

This was a Christmas present for Gavin, it's a gorgeous wave!

Flame and Ice cave!

Dark cave and a tiny rainbow, these are adorable!

Next time I'll try and get pictures of the wooden birds, turtle, and giraffes we have as well! And maybe Gavin will let me take pictures of the wooden boats and whales that my grandfather made me, I gave them to him when he was born :) can you tell I love wooden things? lol <3

Stay at Home Mom

2011-01-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

I finally got the chance to go out and get a hair cut, the hair cut I've been meaning to get since November. My stylist asked what I do. Was I a student? I felt funny saying no, I'm a stay at home mom. Everyone just stared at me. Oh well. I quickly recovered and said I do some web design/information design here and there and I have a small shop online... but yes, I guess I am a stay at home mom. Not that it's a bad thing, and every day I look through job listings and I've been turned down for a lot of tech jobs because a mom is not "reliable" as a programmer because I need to be on call over night. It's sort of like being building maintenance in an apartment complex.

Now I will say, when I was 11 years old I babysat for the most adorable 3 year old little girl, she was spirited and yet adored me and I will tell you, that was my favorite job ever. They moved when I was 13, but those years of babysitting were the best job of my life. They were the reason I knew I would love being a mom.

Lily Food

2011-01-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

So while I was at my cousins house she gave Lillian some Mum-Mum rice rusks and she really liked them so I bought some off amazon.com the only down side is that it's only sold in boxes of 6... but they are dairy free and that's really important for us until we know if Lillian is as allergic as I am. I also bought her some of the happy baby food, I love making her baby food but sometime when I'm tired it's nice to just give her something premade.

They are apparently fun to squish. I am hoping they are fun to eat as she's not really been eating the past week or so. I think it's because she's teething but all she will do is drink her baby bottle :( I'm so worried about her weight, having a well baby check up an a high risk follow up appointment I hear about her weight twice as much :(

See the hand in the mouth?? I think that's the toothy that is keeping her from eating. My poor Lillian.

My bookcase garden

2011-01-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

These two are my living rocks. They don't need a lot of care or anything, but in the spring they will bloom with what will look like daisies :) But either way they are really cool to look at.

One of my two bear paws :) Behind it is my chocolate panda, both of these are super fuzzy feeling plants.
The large picture, some of my planters are my grandmas, some of them are from home depot, and some from the good old red white and blue thrift store. And all of the beautiful puzzles you see are made by my friend Saskia's talented son Draven :) sunflowerradiantlove if you would like to buy a puzzle of your own :) Gavin loves to take them off the shelf and play with them. We just got a bunch more that aren't in the photos, I'll have pictures of them when my dslr's batteries are charged :)

These are the rest of my bamboo plants, and then Dan's office plant too. Pardon the lampshade, it came to my like that and I have yet to do anything with me.

blessings

2011-01-02T18:15:00.000-08:00

These toys were all handed down from my cousins son who just turned one :) I'm grateful not to have to buy any toys :) She loves them and now I don't have to worry about money, considering how long little ones play with these toys any ways :) My cousin also gave me some clothing for the kids too. I'm always relieved when I can breathe easy over money! And it was great to see my cousin and her little ones, I had so much fun! The drive is 2 and a half hours so we don't get there often.

Trading and such

2010-12-29T18:40:00.001-08:00

Set of 30 wipes in trade for a really cute doll :) These were fun since I had just a little bit left of most of these flannels so it was cool to get one last project out of them all :) I still prefer the terry cloth myself for diaper changes along with Wee Essentials wipe bits so of course I sent two little jars as well :)

Lillian is cutting her 4th tooth this week, another top tooth. Gavin has another loose bottom tooth. It's a very toothy week. (can you tell I've only had 4 hours of sleep???) Once my diapers are done running around in the dryer with their gingerbread scented wool dryer balls I'm going to bed :)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

The stocking holders were ones I picked up at a dollar store when Dan and I were fist married 6 years ago, they now work perfectly for the two kids :) Gavin's stocking with the skulls on it was made by Rockerbyebaby 2 years ago, we were big fans before she was super popular and we still love her!

Opening stockings Christmas morning, Gavin doesn't like chocolate (he wants everyone to know) so he had a non chocolate gift in his stocking. The red house in the background is the doll house book case that I painted myself two years ago. It's where the kids play with their sunflowerradiantlove dolls usually, I hope to eventually replace the plastic furniture with all wood.

This is Lillian's Hippo from Sock Punky, it's super cute, Lillian carried it around most of the day. She didn't really care about opening presents so Gavin opened the few things she got for her, so no great pictures, and because we woke her up early she was napping by 9am lol so I will hopefully have more pictures later in the week.

His Lincoln logs! He wanted these so badly, we also traded one of Dan's coworkers for all of her son's Lincoln logs and in the process got ride of all the paint ball stuff in the basement! He plays Lincoln logs along with his wooden train tracks. He loves building, and Lillian loves taking everything apart. And a new Leapster 2, his old one bit the dust and while I don't really like the screen time I do admit that he still needs it to build his vocabulary since he was so far behind in speech. He also spends a lot of time using it to color.

The rest of Lillian's handmade toys, she got a mini play silk, a bib from enchanted dandelions as well as a set of bean bags :) And of course the beautiful wooden toys from sunflowerradiantlove, she loves these and so does Gavin! I think the birds spend a lot of time in the dolls house but they use them with the logs too when they play.

11 Month Follow Up Appointment

2010-12-26T07:50:00.001-08:00

This past monday was Lillian's high risk infast follow up program appointment. She score around 12-13 months in speech and listening skills. Around 10-12 months on the physical part, her hearing test was great, and her cognitive skills were good because they took into account the fact that Lillian was tired after all her testing. Her only issues are her weight, because she lost a few ounce since her regular appointment November 3rd, and here it was December 22nd making it over a month without any weight gain :( She's about the size of a regular 6 month old baby. They compared her to another preemie in the office. She weighs less than most 6 month old adjusted babies because she is just 15lbs. The doctor wants her to go back to eating stage 2 baby food and adding at least 2 extra bottle feedings :( She has a tiny tummy and needs all the room to be taking up by only the best of calories.
She also sleeps more often then they'd really like. She naps every 2 hours and sleeps about 2 hours during these naps. She goes to bed at 9pm and wakes up every 3 hours for a feeding still (dr's orders and all) and she doesn't usually really wake up until 7am or 8 am. They said it may just be she's so active she needs the sleep, it might also be her low resting heart rate.
Next appointment is in 3 months, hopefully by then she will be walking and will have gained enough weight to finally graduate out of the program.

more projects

2010-12-19T06:34:00.000-08:00

Mini ribbon blanket and a ribbon 6 sided minky block. I think if I sold this block in the shop I would sell it for about $15 because of all the minky but either way it's really cute!

I think I have tomorrow wayyy over booked... Lillian's high risk infant follow up appointment, then off to NJEA to drop off baby stuff orders, then home depot for a few new succulant plants and a gift card for my FIL then red white and blue thrift store to drop off a box of little boy toys that Gavin has out grown (all clean and nice with fresh batteries) and I'm hoping to stop in and check the vintage pyrex section and then we have to head to dunkin donuts to buy coffee for my dad's gift and go some where to buy something for Dan's grandma and I know I need Yogurt Cheerio's for Gavin and Lucy cat needs more dry food (that girl can EAT she goes through two bags a week...) Then once home I need to vaccuume and take down Lillian's pack and play and put up her crib, she's 10 months and finally wearing 6 month clothing I think it's time to get her in a bigger bed.
I don't think I'll get half this stuff done lol

Wolfy's Blanket

2010-12-17T14:04:00.001-08:00

My cousin's little guy turns 1 year old on New Years Eve :) so I made him his first ever minky blanket, double sided minky blanket! I've been working with minky for over two years now but I have never had the guts to make a blanket lol I'm always worried I will ruin it :p But it acutally came out beautiful and so soft of course :) His party is Jan 3rd, now to hide the blanket from the minky monster known as Lillian hehe

Gavin lost his first tooth!

2010-12-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

Gavin lost his first tooth tonight! It's been wiggly for a few days now but tonight it was so wiggly a wet wash cloth took it out! He is so excited for the tooth fairy, although he seems to think that the tooth fairy will also bring him the tooth... I tried telling him it wouldn't work that way but he was excited either way lol

The monster tooth pillow is where we put his tooth! It's super cute and soft <3 Frank & Me's etsy shop :)

Tree and Ginger Bread House

2010-12-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

She looks like she's excited about the tree but she's really excited that Gavin is playing in their semi-handmade doll house ;) Either way she's grinning like a rock star ;)
Tree! It's a different kind of tree this year but it's still pretty :) Lillian pats the tree but she's not a fan of it, it's not real soft I guess she's a minky addict lol

Ginger Bread house! $5 at the 5 and Below! Came with the candy and frosting ready made. He enjoyed putting it together, even if we had to use soda cans to keep the house standing up in the beginning. I fail at mixing frosting... ;)

This was the best smile I got out of him. He wanted to eat the house, even though he doesn't LIKE ginger bread... He ended up not eating any of it, just some of the candy. We may skip Christmas cookies this year, he doesn't eat them and Lillian is really mobile now and Gavin doesn't eat cookies... so we'll be doing cupcakes!

One of Those Years

2010-12-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

So this month the car insurance told us we have reached our "cap" money wise and the rest of the medical bills are sadly our obligation to pay. With the money the car insurance DID pay though We could have put down a down payment on a beautiful house in our area, and NJ is a VERY expensive place to live.
So Christmas sort of sucks this year. But Dan traded all of his paint ball equipment for a bunch of Lincoln logs for Gavin and I was able to trade with my friend for some baby dolls for Lillian and I bought a few hand made items on sale. I'm a little down that I couldn't do more for my friend's 4 year old daughter this year, I have always spent as much on Nancy as my own kids since I know they can't always pay the bills. And I know they'll never know, but sometimes it's just stressful knowing we're a few years away from getting any money back.
AND let's add insult to injury, the Cab driver who hit my husband, drives down our street at least once a week to pick up missionaries at the parsonage across the street. I still hate seeing him.
I can not wait for this year to be over all in all. From Lillian's NICU stay to my little pookie cat dying and straight into Dan's car accident and surgery I am SO over 2010!

Meet Lucy the Calico

2010-12-10T16:55:00.001-08:00

Meet Lucy the Calico cat! My cousin's friend told me she had a Calico who was part of the Trap and Release Program down at the Jersey shore who had turned to to be quite friendly. She felt bad putting her back outside especially with the winter coming. So we drove the two hours down to pick her up, she's about 2 years old and the adoption fee was just $40 so I managed to scrape it together, the shelter helped me out and paid to have her tested for a few diseases so I wouldn't have too. She's a beautiful young cat (despite the fact that her ear was clipped for tagging purposes before we got her). A little (ok really) hyper and very sweet she's been here for about a month and a half and I we adore her :)

Santa!

2010-12-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

For Saint Nicolas Day we went to see Santa at the mall! Can you believe the smiles?? Both of them?? These are the only professional photos we have of the kids this year and I gotta say, I love them! My little shrimp was drowning in her 6-12 month old navy sweater suit lol
And no, neither of them are dressed up, I'm bad about that!

Happy First Thanksgiving Lillian

2010-11-25T13:47:00.000-08:00

Happy first thanksgiving Lillian! She ate some of pretty much everything on the table and loved it :) Her bib is from Rockerbyebaby <3 Can you believe she'll be 10 months old next week??
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Woolie Pants!

2010-11-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

I traded with Sweet Violet's Mama for this beautiful custom made pair of woolie longies! They're warm and fuzzy and perfect for pairing with prefolds or our beloved Nifty Nappy fitted diapers! No plastic, no rashes, and did I mention, FUZZY?! Awesome person to trade with, and the quality is amazing! I will be back for more longies (we already have two soakers!) and I hope you check her shop out too!

6 months

2010-08-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

I need to jot down a 6 month post because she's almost 7 months! After a great dr check up she is now 13lbs 5oz and 24in long! At her high risk infant follow up appointment they tested her for speech and put her at about 5-6 months, which is still good! 7-8 months in sitting and 6-7 months on how well she holds sand moves her head on her belly! The only thing they said was that she should have more toys that make noise and light up... She's a quiet little one who prefers to sit and watch more than she likes to play.

But we bought her a few light up toys and after watching Gavin play with them for a while she deemed them safe and is playing herself now. Not to say she doesn't still love all her dolls, her beautiful blanket doll and the butterflies are still her go to in toys, like I said, she's a quiet one.

Still no crawling yet, surprising as her brother crawled at 4 months and was standing and holding furniture at 5 months, walking by 9. She doesn't like to push herself at all. But I will say she eats well, really well. She prefers savory foods to sweet, which again surprises me.

I'm hoping to get myself to blog more often I promise!

I love these two :)

2010-08-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel weird about the age gap between my kids, I was only 20 when Gavin was born. At the time he was my entire world. I went to school, came home, took care of him, and did my home work after he went to sleep. I was never a party person or anything I really just stsayed home with Gavin. Adding Lillian into the mix has been a surprising delight. He may have been an only child but he has fallen in love with his baby sister. I'm sure as soon as she starts getting into his stuff more he may get a little annoyed but she has him wrapped around her little baby pinky ;)

Featured Shop sunflower radiant love

2010-07-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

As you know, Lillian is a tiny bean, a lot of the toys out there but Sunflower radiant love butterfly doll is perfect for her! The doll is about 6.5in tall and She's made out of a upcycled wool sweater and stuffed with wool! The detail is AWESOME! And not to mention soft and wool, I love wool! Lillian loves chewing on the little knots in the hat, I love how easy it is for Lillian to grab the doll while playing, a must for tiny baby hands!

We are saving up for a blanket doll mama and baby, I want to put one away for Christmas! Sunflower Radiant Love also makes the most adorable baby shoes, they are the cutest prints ;)

Check out Sunflower Radiant Love on facebook as well!

Prefold Love!

2010-07-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

While I do love my pocket diapers, and even more so my fitted diapers, sometimes prefolds are awesome :) I bought a snappi, it's a little crooked in the picture, Lillian is learning to wiggle around and roll all over so getting her to stay still can be really hard. Often times I let her go cover free, and it's great for feeding time when she can make a mess and I just toss the diaper in the wash ;)

I paired this prefold with a thirsties duo diaper cover, you can also just lay your prefold in the cover and skip the snappi all together, these covers are awesome that way!

Lillian has on an unbleached Indian infant prefold, she's about 12lbs, he duo cover is a size 2 with snaps :)

5 months old

2010-07-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Still no interest in tummy time but she's working on the sitting! Ohh and you should see her rolling back and forth, we can't seem to keep Lil on her play mat! I think she's growing hair on the top again, slowly but surely lol

We started solids this month, mostly just some cereal from Happy Babies and Plum organics baby food. We puechased a Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair, I LOVE the adjust-ability as well as the weight limit it starts at 5lbs which is awesome for my mini girl! So far Lillian is an awesome eater!

Her favorite person is still her big brother Gavin, no matter what he can make her stop crying and smile!

Featured Shop

2010-06-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

I decided to start doing a feature shop every weekend, so first up is Brook Van Gory Designs on Etsy! She makes some of the raddest bags! Brooke sells various sizes for your diaper bag needs! There is a tote bag which is your usual size diaper tote bag, only way more awesome than the bags you pick up at Babies R US!

There is also a full sized bag, awesome for day trips and all your baby stuff lugging needs! And if that's not enough, maybe you're also a Fluff toting mama (cloth diapers) you can up size your bag! All bags are totally custom, you pick the fabric, zipper color, ect. so whatever you love, she can make an awesome bag that fits YOUR personality!

These are for sure my dream diaper bag, between how awesome they look and the hard work and craftsmanship that goes into they're sure to out last any cheap bag your might find on etsy, there are tons of skull diaper bags out there on etsy but non as high in quality!

If you want to be a feature shop, leave me a comment, message me on twitter (babyboofelt) or email me ailieschooley at gmail.com

(you aren't required to send me anything but your shop link to be featured!)

New Car

2010-06-11T18:29:00.001-07:00

My new car!! 2007 Ford Taurus SEL sedan! So it's 7 years newer than the one I lost, paid cash of course! A HUGE thanks to the Folks at Bella Motors for the car! http://bellamotors.net/ Just a shade lighter but it has a sun roof just like my old ford!!

Happy 4 Months Lillian!

2010-06-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

(Bib from RockerByeBaby)

Happy little lady I can't believer it's been 4 months today! Monday is your check up but I am guessing you are 12lbs now :) Still not a fan of tummy time but you sure do love banana baby food!

3 Month High Risk Infant Follow Up Appointment

2010-05-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

This past Monday was Lillian's 3 month high risk infant follow up appointment, the tests were pretty simple and we got to skip hearing and heart tests since she had an EKG done in the nicu. She was full term at 37 weeks but she ended up pretty tiny because of my preclampsia. They checked her vision and made sure she follows objects. She tested a 3-4 months in speech since she babbles and coos but theres not much in speech just yet. She has great control of her head and trunk they helped her sit and she can sit with her fists on the floor in front of her with very little support. They also weighed her, she's now 9lbs 13oz totally naked lol 20 and 1/4in put her in the 10th percentile which is good. They tried putting her on her tummy and she hated it just as much as she does at home. She scored a 1-2 month on tummy time but they suggested buying her a wedge since she doesn't like her boppy. Over all she scored well enough they said to just bring her back at 6 months.
My son Gavin was 7lbs 3oz 21 and 1/2in and born at 40 weeks 3 days, I thought he was tiny lol

Diamond Cab Company

2010-05-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

These are photos taken at the scene of the accident where a man driving a cab ran a stop sign and made a left turn right in front of my husband. Our car is badly damaged and Dan's collar bone is broken. The man, and I truly put this lightly, was also taken to the ER. I was neither nice nor sympathetic towards the man, instead I spoke loud enough no one in the ER was sympathetic towards him. I don't feel bad as he lied repeatedly to the cops from saying he didn't own a cell phone to Dan saw him turning.
I am glad Dan is ok. This is his second time breaking the collar bone and he may need surgery to repair the damage. We will be going to court for the accident and suing Diamond Cab Company as Dan can't work in construction like this.

Give Away!

2010-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hurry and enter the give away! Part of RockerByeBaby's Blogging Bash!
Just jump on twitter and tweet this: Fabric Blocks giveaway @RockerByeBaby by @BabyBooFelt MUST FOLLOW THEN RETWEET to win! #BabyBloggingBash http://bit.ly/di4IhV

Fight World Hunger For Mothers Day

2010-05-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

A child clings to its mother in Butala, Kenya. To help mothers like her, send a Mother's Day eCard from gifts.wfp.org/mothers

I get a lot of email asking me to blog, but this request was not only legitimate but it tugged at my heart strings.

A child’s future starts with its mother. When pregnant or new mothers don’t receive proper nutrition, neither do their children, and up to 17 million children are born underweight each year.

The prevention of maternal and child undernutrition is a long-term investment that will benefit the present as well as future generations.

This Mother’s Day, choose your card wisely. By sending a special WFP eCard you can honor a mother in your life - and save a life at the same time: wfp.org/mothers

Please sign up and blog because something as simple as a blog entry can mean food for a mother and her child and above all else, this is a gift to five this mothers day.

A great video to watch

Happy Birthday!

2010-05-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today my Gavin was born at 2:25pm after 24 hours of labor. Ah my little boy who totally changed my life! You were my first and always will be! Sweet, charming, stubborn and difficult you made my life such a challenge. But you also gave me purpose and helped me to strive to graduate with honors, to always keep my life straight and clean, to always work things out with your dad. I learned to be strong, to follow my instincts, and I will be forever grateful.

Gavin loves spider man and anything zombie or skull related. His favorite TV shows are Yo Gabba Gabba an Max and Ruby. Music wise he loves loud music, anything rock makes him happy. He loves riding his scooter, skating boarding with my old board, coloring, playing action figures, and playing Duplo's. He doesn't sleep unless he's got his stuffed buzz light year monkey or all of his Rockerbyebaby blankets they are his favorites!

To Write Love on Her Arms

2010-04-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

For anyone hurting
For my family
For myself

Sleep My Love and Peace Attend Thee

2010-04-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Angel 2001 to April 20 2010

Angel my orange cat passed away today after a 6 month long battle with a tumor, safe, at home, with lots of cuddles.
She was a stray kitten, left behind by her mommy cat as a tiny kitten. She was a sweet loving cat who loved every chance to cuddle and sit in the sun. Best friend to Tiggy, gone home to the rainbow bridge to see Jam who passed away three years ago this month.

Shop

2010-04-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly working on stocking new items in my shop! Fleece diaper liner sets, cloth wipes and the return of ribbons to my sensory blocks!

I purchased a wood burner so I could heat seal the ribbons, bow all I need is the time this week to spend on sealing ribbons. I have the squares cut out for nearly a dozen blocks so I'm pretty excited!

Lillian at her 2 month appointment weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz so she's finally really gaining weight! She's a very alert and happy baby. She has a high risk baby appointment May 10th to see if see if she needs any physical therapy or anything.

Nifty Nappy AND Brooke Van Gory Designs Review

2010-03-27T19:59:00.001-07:00

Even before Lillian was conceived I knew that I wanted to cloth diaper my next baby. Of course my awesome twitter friends only fueled the love of cloth diapers, and now a staple of our diaper stash is Nifty Nappy diapers AND the awesome fleece longies from Brook Van Gory Designs! Together they're just plain awesome. The Longies are super comfy and keep her (and me!) nice and dry! Lillian has quite a stash.

These are all varying sizes but oh-so awesome! Really if you don't have any go buy some!!

Nifty Nappy Diapers are super absorbent and I love that you just fold them down to make them smaller, no extra confusing snaps or extra snaps to break lol. I used other fitted diapers and she would leak through in just one pee, but not these diapers!! The inside is super soft way nicer than any disposable diaper, and none of that gross disposable smell ;) She's had a non red bum every since we switched from disposable to cloth it's wonderful!

And check it out, Lillian was a preemie at birth, but by the time she was 6lbs she could wear Nifty Nappy leak free! In this close up you can see just how great the fit is :) And those are chicken bone baby legs hehe

Annnd let's not forget all the awesome prints! Nifty Nappy also has woolie wraps, pockets, and more on her site! I love my woolie, I just don't seem to have any photos on my computer of Lillian in it, I need to buy her another one soon :)

So seriously, if you're not rocking Nifty Nappy and Brook Van Gory, you sure should be!

Fisher Price New Born Rock and Play Sleeper

2010-03-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a quick post/review for the Fisher Price New Born Rock and Play Sleeper. My mom got this for me in place of a bouncer, because I had recently heard it wasn't a good idea to sleep babies in bouncers or car seats and this meets all the standards as a bassinet. You can purchase one here on amazon.

I had a C-Section and found it impossible to sleep her in a pack n play as I had thought I was going to at first but this is actually the height of my bed and so I was able to get her in and out of it quite easily. Another issue we had with her was that she was waaay too small to fit in her sleep positioner properly, she seemed to slide down in between the wedges and it really scared me :( I also wanted to point out how great it is for Co-sleeping because she's RIGHT there but at the same time she's not in the bed all the time. It also has the incline that makes it great for babies with reflux. It's super easy to rock and doesn't make any noise.

I also really love how portable it is, just fold it up and carry it where you need to go which is awesome! It washes nicely too and has a tiny storage pocket that can hold a burp rag or binkie quite nicely.

Lillian Ailie Rose - Birth Story

2010-02-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

After spending Sunday night into Monday morning in the hospital for contractions that were 3-5 minutes apart the hospital ended up sending me home because I wasn't dialting and they were guessing that it was early labor. By Tuesday night I couldn't take the contractions any longer and Lillian wasn't moving much that I could tell, in part because there were just too many contractions, some of them 1-2 minutes apart. They did an ultra sound and found Lillian was side ways, and not only that but I had a crazy amount of amniotic fluid. I was told to rest up because I would have a baby in the morning.

Morning came and I got an ultra sound that told us that she wasn't engaged at all. But they decided to go ahead and break my water because I had so much of it. Well I still hadn't dilated at all :( so they got someone to dilate me and break my water. I will say, it was not at all fun. The scary part came when they stopped being about to find my baby's heart, so they went ahead and put in a fetal monitor, which they barely got in and it was terribly painful. My contractions were still way too close but not effective because of the fluid and poor Lillian wasn't handling the pressure. With a still rather low heart rate they called code and rushed me into surgery.

There was no time for an epidural, so they used local anesthesia and put me out, I remember there being a ton of people in the room, and a wonderful alien abduction light set up and table lol But as soon as they gave me the shot I was gone.

I woke up without pain meds, and no idea where my husband or baby girl was. I asked if Lillian was alive and the nurse told me yes. I had no pain killers at that point, they later on gave me morphine. Dan found me a while later and showed me pictures on the camera of my sweet baby covered in tubes and wires, but she was alive!

Lillian weighed 4lbs 5oz and was 17in long. There's almost nothing to her! She had her cord around her neck as well. They did double check my due date (Feb 18) I was 37wks 6days and they're not quite sure why she ended up preemie size.

I spent the rest of the day in bed in and out of consciousness and wishing I could see my little baby, my sister in law had photos printed of her so I had something to look at since Lillian was staying in the Nicu because of her tiny size. I got to meet her almost 12 hours after she was born, when they let me hold her finally I felt so guilty that she was so tiny.

Dan and I spent a lot of time in the Nicu as Lillian decided she liked breast feeding we would go down for every single feeding, pretty much every 3 hours and spend an hour with her so she could eat. Unfortunately they wouldn't discharge her from Nicu at the same time as me, so I was forced out of my room as a patient and the Nicu Dr's fought to get me a room upstairs in Pediatrics. After a final night of getting up to feed my baby, they let us go home! She's still tiny, losing 5grams and gaining it back before leaving, our main focus at home is to eat, and eat, and eat!
Gavin seems to still think his sister is some sort of pet, but he does come in and say I love you and pets her all the time.
So while I am still sad that I didn't get to see her being born, or her daddy, who couldn't be in the room with me, and I had a C-Section wasn't how I wanted my baby to come out, but I am in the end so glad that my baby girls is safe and home with the family where she belongs!

THANK YOU to everyone who prayed and sent good thoughts our way, for all the retweets and all the awesome facebook messages, text messages, and love! You guys are amazing :)

Buzz Monkey!

2010-01-30T16:02:00.001-08:00

So I decided I totally needed to blog about Gavin's monkey ;) For Gavin's 3rd birthday he was in love with Buzz Light Year and I started looking around for something special. I knew Stacey from the mlparena where I'd seen in her signature that she maade sock monkeys. I got this idea that a Buzz Light Year Monkey would be perfect and Stacey went above and beyond even my imagination and came up with an AMAZING monkey!!

Check out Stacey Jean's site: http://staceyjean.com/, etsy shop http://zparkleys.etsy.com she even sells sock monkey kits if you wanted to try making one yourself! They're really great kits too. I would seriously buy a new monkey every week if I had the money! ;)

That grin seriously says it all, that monkey never left his side! It went with us to speech therapy, Sunday School, and every over night he's ever had!

These monkeys have some amazing craftsmen ship! The detail on him still blows me away over a year later!

Buzz is a bit dirty but as you can see he's held up super well! And I mean this monkey does go everywhere... You honestly haven't met a sock monkey until you've met one of these!!

Silly and snuggly we have a best friend for life here, for sure ;)

Our love of Wood Shop Bob's Cars!

2010-01-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

I first read about Wood Shop Bob's wooden cars in Rockerbyebaby's blog, and I have to admit, I was sold right away! Gavin has a a lot of wood carvings from my grandpa and they've always been some of his favorites! As soon as he saw them he took them all out and began lining them up and telling me what kind of cars they were!

So we LOVE our Wood Shop Bob's cars, can't wait to buy the truck set too!

You can check out Wood Shop Bob's here!

Pink and Lace

2010-01-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

My aunt Mary bough this dress but since it was so plain she crochet the lace and then sewed it onto the dress! I'm in love with it :) The detail is amazing! She also made the mittens that Lillian will be wearing on the way home from the hospital. I love my crafty family!

I told all my friends and family that I love anything hand made and rather than buy me expensive baby clothing I wanted handmade, all my friends and family rock! ;)

Gavin's art

2010-01-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Gavin drew this about a year ago but I still have it framed <3 The blue dude is daddy, and he has ARM PIT HAIR. This amuses me no end, his drawing has since improved and he's started working on better shading, eyes, noses, and more, (mommy and daddy are both artists and so is my brother!)

But I had to blog Gavin's most amusing piece!

Felt Tea Party

2010-01-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have been sewing like crazy for the past say, 5 days lol but check them out, 6 cakes with strawberries on top, 3 heart shaped cakes, a dozen felt cupcakes, and Petits Fours. They all came out really pretty and it sure was fun making it all. Lots of facebook comments about how good it all looks and people wish it were real lol

I'm just working on adding as much to the shop as I possibly can before Lillian gets here, if it's all pretty much ready to ship then I can send Dan out to the post office, especially since his current work assignment ends this Friday so at that point in time he will be unemployed until he receives another assignment or gets another job some where else. So any extra money I make until then will come in handy!

Today I am taking a felt break to go ahead and make a whole bunch of blocks and skully ice packs. I find if I switch between the felt and the baby stuff I never really find myself bored :)

Now it's time to make Gavin his snack he asked for mac n cheese for snack today lol

My Top Hand Made Baby Items

2010-01-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

I know Babies R US gives you a list of the top hottest baby items, but here's my top 10 HAND MADE items! Way cooler, and all awesome! Can't wait for my Lillian to get here, due February 18, give or take ha!

1. Rockerbybaby - http://www.etsy.com/shop/RockerByeBaby Awesome baby Blankets, I know Gavin has 4 and he's getting a 5th one when baby sister gets here as his special new over night item while mommy is gone. I've also got an awesome Skully, burp cloths, and booger bashers, so yeaaa we're big fans ;)

2. Rocky the Zombie Onesie - http://www.etsy.com/shop/rockythezombie Awesome Onesies, she is totally wearing this for her birth announcement, it's just too cool! If I really had money I would buy her something to wear everyday lol

3. Brooke Van Gory Designs - http://www.etsy.com/shop/BrookeVanGoryDesigns Fleece Longies, now how awesome are these?! I loved fleece on Gavin when he was a baby even if he was in disposable diapers, but these will be awesome for cloth diapering as well! And you have to see the diaper bags, sure, mr. squirrel killed my chances of getting one before Lillian gets here but those are AWSOME looking ;)

4. Nifty Nappy - http://niftynappy.com Fitted diapers, and some of the cutest I've ever seen! I hear nothing but awesome awesome words about all the diapers, can't wait for mine to get here, and to for Lillian to be here to wear them!! Helping feed my cloth diaper addiction ;)

5. Wee Essentials - http://www.etsy.com/shop/WeeEssentials I already stocked up on these soap bits for the baby, but I keep some in my bag for when we're out and there's no soap where we are lol it happens often enough and they sure come in handy! Plus they'll be great for the cloth wipes stash I've got ;)

6. Small Wish Sling - http://www.etsy.com/shop/SmallWish My favorite sling and organic cotton! Sure I haven't used it but it's uber soft and the organic cotton obviously had me in love at first site.

7. DiapeyDooDiaper - http://www.etsy.com/shop/sparkliestar83 Adorable New Born Diapers, I've heard tons of good things about them and I figured a few new born and preemies would be great for a little one who keeps measuring so small.

8. Lofjes - http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lofjes snow doll, my mom got me one of these little lovies and I have to say, they're SO soft! The pictures do not do them justice, and I know Lillian doesn't have to worry about any yucky plastic.

9. Grandma Kays Treasures - http://www.etsy.com/shop/grandmakaystreasures Hat and Booties also bought by my mom, they're adorable! And warm, which is good because it's sure been cold here in Jersey!

10. My Pretty Peanut - http://www.etsy.com/shop/myprettypeanut last is the headbands from my pretty peanut, they are adorable! I just had to have one, obligatory photo op I'm sure... hehe Well made and just waiting for Lillian to get here!

Little Lillian

2010-01-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Another ultra sound, her long bones are growing, but still haven't caught up to either her head or torso. But she is other wise great! And to be honest they can't say for sure why it's such a big deal that the long bones aren't as long seeing as my family has a history of shortness, 4ft 9in is quite common for a woman on my dad's side. I am 4ft 11in....

Oh and let's just add that the fire alarm went off and I didn't have to get genetic counseling again! woot! did get stuck in the lobby for like forever but oh well...

Now I'm just waiting for all my awesome hand made baby stuff to get in, Longies, diapers, onesies, yay!

hmm off to make a top 10 list of hand made baby things...

.....

2010-01-06T11:29:00.001-08:00

..my car trouble was MUFFIN RAPPERS all jammed up under the hood by SQUIRRELS?! crazy animals, muffin rappers do not belong on the engine! darn things could have really caught my car on fire and I'd be out a car.

Cause it can't be simple right

2010-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

When I bought my first car I used the guide that my grandpa wrote for me about how to buy a used car. I was like 11 when he wrote it but since he wasn't here to help me buy my first car (ok I was driving my grandpa's last used car HE bought for about 6 or so years till it really died). I love my car and it's been good for the year and a half or so that I've had it.

Buuut yesterday on the way to the Clinic for my appointment as I turned into the parking lot I realized my car smelled like French Toast. Oh and then I noticed the smoke... I called my hubby who said he'd take his lunch break to check it, then I called my dad too to tell him about the smell, he told me it had to be coolant. By the time I got out of the Dr's both my dad and hubby had the hood up and had figured out it was a busted radiator hose. Since my Dr's is less than 10 minutes away my hubby drove it home and called a tow truck. I am totally going to add that I love how my dad works 15 minutes away and hubby just 8, it's cool lol

Free towing by the insurance company and the auto shop B and E who has been really good about all those times I brought that oldmobile I loved so much in to have it repaired. The repairs on my wagon could have bought me 4 of my current car. But damn I'm stubborn and was in two accidents where I was unharmed and the other car totaled.

And yes I probably could have had my husband or dad fix the hose but it cold, there's no drive way or garage, so whatever let the repair shop do it. Wow there goes all my money lol But it's cool cause I know they'll get it fixed.

Funny thing is the towing company told us they'd just towed someone else earlier that day off our street too, ahh it's the time for cars to die I believe ;)

Still Rockin at 33wks Pregnant

2010-01-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

Oh yea I'm 20 some pounds heavier, and my hair needs to be dyed for sure... But I sure love my Glitter Sniffer Cosmetics! You seriously have to check this stuff out!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/glittersniffer I was totally rocking AMBER as my eye liner and BROOKE as my eye shadow and I must admit, I felt good ;)

But the REAL fun is, what will I wear tomorrow?! hehe

46 days to go, give or take!

2010-01-03T18:43:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it! My due date is SO close it's driving me nuts! I actually bought stuff for my hospital bag and Gavin helped me pack Lillian's diaper bag :)

I'm continuing to grow my diaper stash, check the flip diaper, grow baby, and Haute diaper plus all that wonderful Rockin Green ;) I've also since done a really cool trade with Niftnappy.com for some very beautiful and well made fitted diapers that I will post pictures of when I get them!

Ah and of course Lillian has a nice collection of Rockerbyebaby blankets going already! I bet she'll love 'em as much as her brother Gavin loves his! The skulls on black with hearts is Gavins for when I go into the hospital, it's larger than his other (4) blankets and I know he's gonna love it! He doesn't know he's getting it, it's wrapped and my mom has it so she can give it to him because I will be gone for possibly 2 or more nights and well we are a crunchy still semi co sleeping family... I love my little boy, what's cooler than half a night with your hubby, little guy, and 2 cats in the bed? hehe

Can't wait to show off everything else I'm waiting on in the mail ;)

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

Gavin was nervous in the morning, in part because he totally froze up when he sat on Santa's lap and he told Santa his name was Yoshi. My Mario loving little dude forgot his own name... But all was well when we came down and Santa knew who he really was ;)

Gavin has a thifty mama / santa who did everything off amazon prime's lightning deals, this awesome car set cost me $30 and was his favorite part of Christmas! His face was priceless, heck even I was grinning (woot using my new flip video cam to tape Christmas!)

I think dad caught him mid sneeze, not sure, but leap frog alphabet fridge magnet set while he can write them all I can't seem to get him to know all their names, so here's hoping this helps!

Glow doodle! paid very little for it but we needed to replace the dead magna doodle and he loves the color change part! He's also got there some Mustache crayons, and hiding under some pokemon toys are his new Dr Seuss books that I got off ebay $8 for 10 books ;)

Another Dr Seuss DVD as well as his own copy of Coraline, he's watched Coraline so many times already, but it figures, I'm such a HUGE Tim Burton fan it's not even funny ;)

Oh hah this was bad on mommy's part, it's a penguin who poops candy... I couldn't help it, it's 4 year old humor!

Candy canes!! Santa knows the little ones are best of stuffing Gavin's stocking
Gavin's stocking made by http://punkrockerbyebaby.blogspot.com and of course an awesome new stuffed animal ;) He's also wearing brand new Nick and Nora PJ's and being the sock monkey lover he is these were the perfect PJ's!!

And that was our quiet Christmas morning, the rest of the day was spent moving watching and race car racing in his PJ's!

Gavin Decorating the Christmas Tree

2009-12-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Lillian's bassinet

2009-11-18T08:55:00.001-08:00

Working on getting things together for the little one! Her bassinet is now put together, it's a summer infant organic cotton, and it's so soft and delicate! I never knew organic would be delicate but it really is. I've also done many loads of clothing and prepped all the cloth diapers.

Now to adjust the straps on the car seat and put the Bundle me Cover on so she'll be nice and warm on her way home from the hospital! Only 92 more days until my due date, and tomorrow we go in for another ultra sound to see how things are going, here's hoping for another normal natural birth!

Poor Gavin recently realized that my lap is disappearing and he was a little confused as to how to sit in my lap for stories. We had to switch to his siting next to me, there's just no more room! Poor little dude.

The death of Spider Man

2009-11-15T09:13:00.001-08:00

Last night was a very sad night for Gavin, his favorite toy Spiderman Died. It was a highly articulated figure from the movie and after a year of "love" he finally snapped in half. Poor dude sang the saddest song I've ever heard bout Spideyman being dead.

So the silly mom that I am, I went onto my ebay account and bid on the same figure, I'd already looked this summer in the store for a possible replacement since the toy goes everywhere and does everything with him... But ebay was my only choice this time around, poor dude. But I'm hoping I win "fingers crossed" and he'll have his buddy again.

But meanwhile it's off to the shoprite to buy groceries, including the fruit, oat meal, and yogurt required to make the things that seemed to peak Gavin's interest from the Toddler Café: Fast, Healthy, and Fun Ways to Feed Even the Pickiest Eater awesome book by the way, if you've got a toddler you should check it out!

Cloth Diaper Stash!

2009-11-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

We decided that Lillian would be cloth diapered since I never really liked the smell (ugh perfumes and chemicals) in disposable, and I never had an issue when he had blow outs with just going ahead and washing out his clothing by hand.
I never bothered buying a changing table for Gavin and wasn't worried about getting one for Lillian, instead I organized her diapers in a plastic set of stacked bins very much like the one I used for Gavin's clothing and diapers. Bottom drawer is her towels, wash cloths, burp rags, and the awesome Booger Bashers that Rockerbyebaby makes!

Next drawer is all the diaper inserts, doublers, and liners as well as her cloth wipe Shea butter cubes from Wee Essentials. Ah and of course the pink dryer balls!

The diapers themselves! Minus one Applecheeks raspberry cover that's on it's way in the mail it's about 20 diapers, some Applecheeks, Thirsties all in ones, and lots of Bumgenius all in one diapers. Hoping some of the money from my black Friday sales will bring in enough money for a bumgenius flip stay dry day pack! :)

Wipe warmer full of cloth wipes, some are the thirsties wipes, they're so soft, and some are bumgenius terry cloth wipes, and on the very top the 3 bamboo applecheek wipes, again, super soft.

Bonus shot, check out the guitar blanket from Rockerbyebaby, it's SO SOFT and pretty! Tons of baby products as well as her sleep positioner as well.

Baby Shower for Lillian!

2009-11-07T18:59:00.001-08:00

Everything from the shower, I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends and family! She's set for quite a while on baby clothing! TONS of new born clothing!!

On a note of handmade, Kate is knitting a baby blanket for Lillian :)

Another handmade gift, baby blanket with tons of fabric tags!

Skulls dress from my sister in law!!

Gavin before the shower, check out his tee, hand painted by Rocky the Zombie :)

Oh and check out the gift bags, they have chocolate and Handmade Soap hearts, made by hand by Maureen!

It was a lovely day all in all :)

Lillian

2009-11-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

Sweet little princess I'm already dreaming about holding your tiny hand in mine! 14 days until I see you on ultra sound again, I can't get the picture of your long slender fingers and tiny little arms out of my head! I hope things are well so I can breathe again! I feel like I've held my breathe for the past 50 some days praying you'd make it through. So far, so good, as you seem to wake as soon as your brother starts talking, you must already be ready to play!

Can't wait to meet you, I've hoped all this time for a little girl your brother is something else, yet all around wonderful, you must be an amazing child as well :)

Rockerbyebaby is loveee

2009-11-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

This pregnancy hasn't been the easiest, but I will say it's totally worth it for my little punk princess! Forget those cheap gerber burp rags, I got an AWESOME custom listing from rockerbyebaby.etsy.com for two dyed burp rags with minky down the middle! They're gorgeous and super soft for my little one! They're so gorgeous in person, you have no idea!

I am SO buying her a matching blanket before she's born, because you can never have too much rockerbyebaby!! Even Gavin still sleeps with his blankies, they also go with us when we travel he adores them.

Halloween

2009-11-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Gavin was Spiderman for Halloween and my nephew was the Grim Reaper! We drove over to PA where Dan's grandparents live (right across the bridge) they had a blast! Gavin made it just a few blocks before he was tired but he got to see cousins and have daddy take him out!

Good bye Hampires

2009-10-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Gavin's been obsessed and afraid of 'Hampires' coming out and attacking him. So I broke down and purchased this Cloud b Twilight Constellation Turtle, it seems it has done the trick as he told me that the 'hampires' turned into bats and flew to the moon. Plus he loves sleeping having all the starts around him.

I think it's adorable, and I'm all for anything that gets ride of those yucky hampires! And when the 4 year old sleeps through the night, the mommy gets to sleep through the night!

wordless wednesday

2009-10-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Making his first Pizza!

Snagged these yesterday

2009-10-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

I will note that with my current restrictions for traveling and making trips out that I did end up buying both of these on etsy, but they were $3 for the glasses and $10 for the cups :) The clear juice glasses were perfect to go with the few other random floral glasses I have from grandma Griscom's. And the tea cups match the mugs, and I already have all the saucers from the goodwill! So I've been quite a happy mommy when it comes to vintage kitchen ware this week!

I'm KINDA hoping that hubby will take me to the Goodwill, it's small and right next to the grocery store so it's not too far away... hehe I miss my thrift store shopping!

Gavin's finished his lunch so I'd say it's time to go play :)

Baby Sister Poking me!

2009-10-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week Gavin was laying with his head on my tummy while watching TV, Lillian kicked him at least a half dozen times from inside my tummy, Gavin sits up and yells "STOP POKING ME!!!" Ahh already she's annoying him, what great friends these two will be!

Mean while things are going pretty well only 32 more days until my next ultra sound to find out how things are going with Lillian. Hoping to be off some of my restrictions soon! She's found my ribs recently, moving on up nicely and kicking me as much as her little heart desires ;)

Lillian Ailie Rose

2009-09-26T19:09:00.001-07:00

Thursday morning we went in for my ultra sound and found out our second little one is a GIRL!! We're naming her Lillian Ailie Rose. The downside is that I do have placenta previa and am on strict pelvic rest. So while I'm ecstatic that I have a princess on the way, I'm disappointed that I am unable to do as much for the next two months when I will have another ultra sound to see if things have changed.

Every Little Bit

2009-09-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Yes so far I only have a little boy, but my best friend who lives in RI needed some help buying winter clothing for her 3 year old little girl. This is about half of what I sent, yes shipping was insane, but I purchased every last piece at either Red White and Blue Thrift Store or the Good Will. Everything is in great hardly used condition. I spent around $100 and got an entire little girl wardrobe for fall as well as winter in all beautiful colors :)

Van's All Natural Waffles

2009-08-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking for quick snacks at shoprite yesterday and found Van's All Natural Waffles. They also have dairy free French toast, some of the stuff is also gluten free as well. I must say, for someone like m who's never had french toast, it was really good! And the waffles, the ones I bought were whole grain and I LOVED them. My son, he had TWO for breakfast and begged for one as a bed time snack.

So Two thumbs up and check out the website! http://www.vansfoods.com

Little One

2009-08-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

I had my ultrasound for the second little one, baby measured in at 13weeks 1 day instead of 12weeks 4 days :) But baby is healthy and already managing to put it's fingers in it's mouth lol Already feeling the little one move around, it seems to have a favorite spot an everything!