They grow up so fast...

...so why are we so tempted to make our kids older than they are? I really truly and honestly don't understand why we, as a society, are so determined to make our kids 'independent' so fast. I hear all the time about mother's letting their 4 week old cry because it's good for them. Or they are bound and determined that little Suzie should sleep in her OWN crib through the night the SECOND she comes home from the hospital. Suzie needs to be totally off the bottle at exactly one year old, she needs to have 4 teeth by her 9 month birthday and she should be eating table food with a spoon and fork by no later than 10 months. Now, I'm all for letting your child grow at a natural rate, but come on people! If little Suzie is still waking up every three hours to be fed when she's 4 months old, what's the big deal? Give the kid a bottle! If she wants to snuggle with Mommy and Daddy, let her snuggle! If she likes to be carried in a wrap or a sling, carry her in a wrap or a sling.

Just imagine, if you will, what it must be like to be a baby. You have absolutely no means of communication, other than crying. So, you cry when you're hungry, when you need your diaper changed, when you're scared, when you're lonely, if you're too hot, too cold, etc. Now, imagine it's the middle of the night, you wake up in a big giant crib in a pitch black room and you're hungry! So, you cry! Well, Mom and Dad have decided that you're old enough to sleep through the night with out a bottle, so they let you cry. You cry and cry and cry begging and begging for a bottle, or even just a little comfort. Nobody comes. So, you're all alone in this big crib, in the dark, now you're hungry, wet, and scared. Nobody comes. You finally cry enough to tucker yourself out and you fall asleep. In the next room, Mom and Dad are congratulating themselves on a job well done! After all, Suzie only cried for an hour this time!

I co-slept with my daughter till she was 4 months old and she slept in our room till she was 6 months old. I got up in the middle of the night with her until she started sleeping through the night at 9 months old. She had a bottle before bed (not in the crib, but while I was holding her) until she was 17 months old. It didn't hurt her at all! In fact, she's well advanced for her age. Adelae speaks in complete sentences, knows all her colors and her letters (upper and lower case). She is a thoughtful and affectionate little girl. She loves to play with other kids, big and small, and loves to share her toys. She listens well (for a two year old!) and very rarely throws real temper tantrums. Everyone tells me what a joy she is to be around. She is spoiled rotten, but not in the material sense of the word. She knows if she ever needs her Daddy or I, we will drop what we are doing in a heartbeat to take care of her. I firmly believe that my mothering techniques made her the wonderful little girl she is today. And if that makes me a bad mom in your eyes, well...so be it.

I'm not saying that children who are made to cry it out can't be wonderful human beings. I'm just confused as to why people subscribe to this method of 'teaching' their children so early in the child's life. Why are we so afraid to 'spoil' our kids?

Adelae rides a horse!

We spent Memorial Day at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo with our good friends The Daniels Family. The day started out a little chilly, but wound up being almost perfect.

Adelae has been talking about riding the ponies since we went to the zoo the last time. I kept telling her "Oh, we'll ride the pony next time sweetie." Apparently, she has a good memory. When we told her we were going to the zoo she said "And I ride the pony Mommy!" (I would like to mention that her memory amazes me sometimes). I'll admit Mommy was a little apprehensive about the ponies. I knew they had miniature ponies for the little kids and an adult can walk along side, so I agreed that she could ride the ponies. I really expected Adelae to get a little scared when she got on the pony, but nope! Daddy was at her side and she was ready to go!



I'll admit, Ben is a little less careful (paranoid) than I am. He never actually held on to her while she was riding. I would have had a death grip on her! But, as you can see, she was just fine!






She adored her brown pony and now wants one of her very own. The scary thing? I swear when she said "please" to her Daddy in her sweet little voice, he was actually thinking about it!

We took a ton of really cute pictures of Adelae, Caitlyn and Crosby. They're all over on our Shutterfly site.

What are you having?

People are forever asking me "Are you having a boy or a girl?" When I respond "I don't know." They shake their head and say "Oh, you're not going to find out?" Then I feel the need to go into the whole explanation of how we had the ultrasound too early to tell the gender, etc, etc. Then they always say "Oh! Well you'll find out soon then!" Ben and I really want to find out the gender of the baby (I hate surprises), but I wonder, would it be so weird if we didn't want to know? What if I did want to be surprised? Why would it matter to the perfect stranger at the grocery store? And why do they always look so sad when I say that I don't know the gender yet and so relieved when they find out that we will know before the baby is born? It's a strange phenomenon to me. It almost makes me want to NOT find out the gender. Notice I said "almost." As long as this baby cooperates, we will know the gender on Monday, June 8. We are scheduled for another ultrasound at 11:00 am. I'm hoping that they will be on time and I will know if it's a he or a she by 11:05! :)

On another note, no we don't have any names picked out.

Does this make me crafty?

In the past, if anyone ever asked me "Are you crafty?" I would reply with a big sigh and say "Nope! Not me!" Then I would dream of all the really cool stuff I would do if I was crafty. Just think, if I could scrapbook all the cool things I would make, or if I could sew I could make...well, I never really knew WHAT I would make if I could sew, but I KNEW it would be cool! A few years ago, when I was trying to quit smoking, I picked up a needlepoint kit at a hobby store. I thought it would keep my hands busy and possibly give me a new hobby. Well, it took me over two years to finish the project, and no it didn't help me quit smoking. (Getting pregnant, however, worked like a charm!) Needless to say, I wasn't too pleased with my new "hobby." When we moved to Fort Wayne, I gave needlepoint another shot. That project turned out a little better, but was lacking the fine details to make it really stellar. So, I put needlepoint aside again. I picked it up again when I started substitute teaching. It was something I could do to keep my hands busy, but I could still keep an eye on those rebellious kids.

I am proud to say that I finished two needlepoints in record time this school year. I am even proud enough of them to share them with all of you! The first one made for Adelae's room. The plan is to get some purple ribbon to hang it by. I'm trying to talk Ben into painting a 7"x7" white square (the needlepoint is 5"x5") on Adelae's wall to sort of "frame" it in. He's not totally sold on the idea yet. But, at any rate, this will be up in her room shortly!


This particular needlepoint I made for someone. I plan on giving to our niece Carolina. I don't know why, but when I saw the pattern, it made me think of her. Cara recently turned two and I think this will be a great present for her! I can honestly say, this is the VERY FIRST thing I've EVER made that I feel comfortable giving to someone as a gift. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to gift giving, especially if it's something I've made myself. I really like the way this turned out, so I hope she likes it! Oh..but keep it a secret...she doesn't know she's getting it yet ;)



Last, but certainly not least, is the crayon roll I just finished. I am lucky enough to have a stepmom that let me borrow one of her old sewing machines. I'm also lucky enough to have a friend to teach me how to use it. (Thanks again Becky!)I found this pattern over at Skip To My Lou . I thought it looked fairly simple, I recruited Becky to help me and away we went! The first one didn't turn out so well. Sewing straight lines takes a patience! Today I decided I would make one from scratch. I measured, cut, pinned and sewed the whole thing on my own. The one pocket is a little small, I'm guessing my measurements were off, and I didn't add any fancy touches, but I'm proud of it all the same. I haven't sewn anything other than the project we did in 8th grade home ec class. I think I have a right to be proud! :) There are definitely a few things I will do differently next time, but I like this one. (BTW...if you have small children and are related to me, you can expect to get one of these sometime this year! And don't worry, I have something up my sleeve for the big kids too.)




So now if someone asks me if I'm crafy, I can say "I'm working on it!"

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my third Mother's Day and the last one as a Mom of one. Ben is, of course, working today, so Adelae and I have a very special day planned. First, we're going to church, then to lunch with my Mom. After that, I'm really hoping to make it to the Botanical Conservatory for the Butterfly Exhibit. Then we're off to see my stepmom for a bit.

I was lucky enough to get my Mother's Day present a little early this year. Ben stopped at the store and got me flowers and ice cream. I can't think of a better present! Does he know me or what!

My Mommy and I

It's Small Talk Six time again! I'm a little late with this weeks post, but better late than never!
The topic this week is Six Ways You are Like/Unlike Your Mother

I have a sort of strange relationship with my mom. I didn't grow up living with her or even seeing her that much. So, I've only gotten to know my mother as an adult, not as a child. It's interesting how much we are alike though! And amazing how incredibly different we are too!

1) My mom and I share a lot of the same physical characteristics. I can remember looking at pictures of her when she was little and comparing them to pictures of me at the same age. It always amazed me how much we looked the same. Now that I'm older, the resemblance is there, but not as much as when I was little.

2) My mom and I have the same voice. In all fairness, so do all of my aunts and my female cousins. We all have a fairly deep voice for women. Also, we all are very very LOUD! The more of us there are in a room, the louder we get!

3) My mom and I are both bookworms. In fact, we have almost the exact same taste in books. I refer to her collection as my personal library.

4) My mom HATES clutter and I live in constant clutter. (I do have a two year old after all.) When Mom comes to visit, she's always folding blankets, picking up toys, trying to do my dishes, etc. She came to stay with me for the day after I had Adelae. I had a c-section and was fairly limited to what I could and couldn't do. Ben had to work at 6:00 am, so my mom came over about 5:30 am to stay with me and help me with Adelae. She started cleaning our apartment as soon as she got there. I'm not ashamed to admit that I went back to bed and let her clean!

5) My mom is a definite homebody and I like to get out and go. I think part of that is the fact that she works all week long, so on her days off she's perfectly content to stay home. I, on the other hand, like to GO on my days off (not that I really get days off). I want to go shopping, out to lunch, to the movies, pretty much anywhere that's not my house. Mom would much rather prefer to kick back at home with a good book and her TV shows.

6) My mom is much more of a Negative Nancy than I am. Sometimes it feels like she can find the negative in any situation. I often joke that if she won the lottery, she'd find something negative to focus on. I like to think that I'm much more of an optimist than she is.

This a picture of Mom, Adelae and myself taken this past Christmas.

Welcome to the Third Trimester!

I'm officially in my 3rd trimester! Yahoo! Better yet, no signs of blood pressure problems! My weight gain is good (well, as good as weight gain can be) and I feel really good. I do have some swelling in my legs and feet, but that's to be expected at this point. The baby has recently found out that pushing on my bladder and ribs at the same time is lots of fun. I'm whole heartedly disagreeing with that! This little bean absolutely LOVES it when I eat ice cream though! It will kick and roll the whole time I'm eating it! Of course, it could be that it's picking up on my happy vibes...I do love my ice cream! :) The nasty 3rd trimester heartburn has reared it's ugly head, but it's manageable at this point.

We still don't know the gender of the baby, but we will get another ultrasound when I'm 32 weeks along. According to my estimation, that makes it roughly June 8. I'm so excited to FINALLY know the gender of this baby!

For those of you that are wondering...we don't have any names picked out yet. In fact, we really haven't even started looking. I think we're waiting to know if we're looking for boy names or girl names. I'm confident that we'll be able to find something fairly quickly. At least I hope so! :)

Here is a picture of my belly at 28 weeks. It's getting bigger and bigger!



On another note..thanks for the shirt Maria! I love it!

Look What I Found!

I love pictures. I love to take them (even though I'm not good at it) and I love to look at them! While I was browsing for topics to write about, I remembered I ♥ faces. I did this a few weeks ago. It gives me opportunity to post a picture that I may not other wise post, or to dig up a picture from the past. This weeks topic is Faces and Hats. I was wracking my brain trying to think of a picture to post. As I was sitting at the computer, I looked up and AHA! found it! I took this picture on May 1, 2007. That was almost exactly two years ago! It's still one of my favorites, even if it is a little blurry!



Click the button to see lots more fabulous faces (and hats)!

Small Talk Six: What I always wanted to know...

About my teachers!





1. Did they ever gossip about the kids in the teacher's lounge? The answer is yes!

2. I still wonder about my high school Science teacher. He was extremely touchy with the boys, almost to the point of inappropriate. One time he smacked me across the face with a rolled up stack of tests. I still wonder how he got away with behaving like that. I hated him. In fact, I think my hatred of Science can be attributed to him!

3. I wonder what happened to my Educational Psychology teacher from college. He was the nicest man, but the worst teacher. All he did was make outlines from the book, put them on transparency, then read them to us. Of course, all his tests were application questions that he never covered in class. I also wonder why he never got the hint that he was a bad teacher. Everyone always failed his tests. In fact, I remember one test he had to grade on a huge curve because the highest grade was 46%!

4. I always wondered if the really young teachers ever got crushes on their students.

5. If you are an elementary teacher, is it mandatory to wear the sweaters with the little things embroidered on them? (aka pumpkins for Halloween, leaves for fall, turkeys for Thanksgiving, Christmas trees for Christmas, etc).

6. What did they do during the summer, especially the teachers with out kids. Did they have to get summer jobs? Or did they get to lay in the sun all summer? Maybe go on a three month vacation? I think that three month break was one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher so bad!

What a Crappy Day

I really try to keep my blog positive and up-beat, but I'm just having one of those days. You know, that day were it seems like EVERYTHING goes wrong?

I was scheduled to work today and I slept through my alarm. Lucky for me, I woke up in time to get everything ready. Then, I woke up Adelae to take her to the sitter's house and she started screaming and throwing a fantastic temper tantrum. Picture it..It's 6:45, I'm 6 months pregnant carrying a screaming, kicking and crying toddler down an extremely steep and narrow set of stairs. Not so much fun!

I did make it to school on time, thank goodness! My day was filled with a lot of nothing. Ok, that part wasn't that bad, just sort of boring. Then I rush to the insurance agent's office to fill out paperwork. I had called three hours before so that he would know I was coming. I even stressed the importance of having the papers ready to sign so I could dash in and out. Well, he didn't have the papers ready. In fact, he had to re-quote me the whole thing. Um, couldn't he have done that three hours before when I called? So, I had to run and get Adelae from the baby sitter's. Adelae loves her baby sitter and I had to drag her out of there kicking and screaming. Literally! Also, she was covered in chocolate pudding. Not a big deal in itself, but I had (of course) sent her to the sitter in good clothes. I probably should have mentioned that to the sitter right? Especially since I normally send her in play clothes. So, that's a big DUH on my part! (BTW..I'm confident the pudding will come out of the clothes, so it's not a problem..just one of those things!) So, with a screaming toddler in the back seat..back to the insurance agent's office we go. He's STILL not done re-quoting and printing, so we had to wait even longer. Finally we leave! Hooray..home at last!

We get home and I try to flush the toilet. Oh wait...I didn't tell you that part! We've been having some problems with our toilet not flushing. Having never had a septic tank before, we never even thought that could be a problem. We've been assuming that the ditch is too full of water for the toilet to flush properly. Well, last night we determined that the toilet is not flushable and the ditch isn't all that full. But, I was keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it would work today. Guess what? It didn't. Not only did it overflow, it overflowed ALL over the floor. So, I used literally every towel we have in the house to sop up the mess. Not my idea of a good time. Have you ever tried to lift a laundry basket of soaking wet towels while 6 months pregnant? (Not the kind of wet like when you get them out of the washer, but dripping wet and covered in toilet water?) Well, it's not fun, or possible really. At this point I was so frustrated, I cried. Then I cried some more. And in case that wasn't enough...I cried more.

Just for kicks I decided to check our online banking. (I'm sort of obsessive about checking it.) I found out that the insurance agent charged me almost $30.00 more than what he said he did. Of course, the office is closed and will remain that way till Monday morning.

To attempt to make my day a little better I thought I'd try out a a new chicken recipe. Then I realized that it's 5:45 and the recipe takes at least an hour or more. So, scratch that for dinner. Now I'm sitting here typing this thinking "What in the heck are we going to have for dinner?" Nothing is unthawed, I have NO desire to cook anything and nobody delivers. I could have Ben stop and pick something up, but I have his debit card, so that's a no go. Perhaps someone would like to bring me something? Please?!