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!