Friday, June 20, 2008

Four Months

Well, if you can believe it, because I barely can, Matthew is four months old now. This little boy has really changed my world. Throughout most of my pregnancy I worried and fretted about how I could possibly love another child as much as I love Devon. Devon and I have such a strong bond that just keeps growing. So naturally at the time I didn't know how I could share my love with another.
When I first laid eyes on Matthew, it was love at first sight! It's so bizzar how in an instant my bodies ability to love multiplied. All my worries were thrown out the window and I never looked back. Although I will admit it has been a little tricky learning how to evenly distribute myself, but with kids like these it's totally worth it.Matthew couldn't be any sweeter, and is just waiting for any opportunity to smile. And it's incredible how much Devon loves him too. She is so nurturing in spirit, we just have to help guide her toward more delicate means. I love watching them together because I can really see the love in their eyes, and I know I've got to be doing something right.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Why I Love Being a Mommy

Setting: Chili's Restaurant
Time: Dinner

Me: Is your pizza good Devon?
Devon: Yeah.
*Pause in conversation*
Devon: Mama?
Me: Yes.
Devon: Can I have my pineapples now? I don't want anymore pizza.
Me: Of course!
(Big smile)

You gotta love a kid who craves pineapple instead of pizza. I know I do. :)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Kermit Had It Right

It's not easy being green. For all you outsiders, Austin is a hippie city and the majority of the population strives to reduce its' ecological footprint. We are not the greenest city in the states, I mean who can top Portland? But I would guess we are in the top ten. Now I have always been drawn to environmental issues, and even when I lived in the dorms I took recyclables to the landfill. In Austin the green lifestyle can include anything from only riding a bicycle to get around, recycling almost everything, buying organic/local foods, buying organic clothes, composting, using reusable bags when shopping, and I could go on, but I won't. Any everybody differs in their level of greenness.

As for us:
  • we use the recycle service from waste management
  • we bring things the curbside won't collect to a recycle service downtown,
  • we try to limit our energy usage (our whole house has the swirly light bulbs!)
  • we have the energy efficient front loading washer
  • we use the reusable grocery bags
  • we occasionally buy organic, very occasionally
  • we use "green" cleaning chemicals

But compared to the city as a whole we are probably at a level five out of ten, maybe a six. But I have turned into "that person" who grumps whenever someone (no names mentioned, but take a guess) puts a plastic container in the trash. ;) And next spring we will hopefully build our garden in the back yard and I can grow my own veggies, YUM! But first we have to wait for the grass to spread out. It's getting there slowly but surely. A little rain would help though!!

Monday, June 9, 2008

No matter how small

I read a story on MSN about a "miracle baby being born twice." Well, being the baby lover that I am I was naturally drawn to the story. Basically, a woman went to have an ultrasound to find out the sex of her baby and there was a tumor attached to the baby the size of a grapefruit!! She had surgery to have the tumor removed from the baby (the article being politically correct called it a fetus, but I'm not going there). The odds that the baby would survive were less than ten percent. The surgeon cut open the mom then opened the uterus to get to the baby where he took most of the baby out to remove the tumor and then closed everything back up. The baby survived (YEAH!) and ten weeks later was "born again."

Here is the link if you want more details. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24999650/?GT1=43001

This story just blows my mind. Medical technology and knowledge is so grand that we can perform surgery on a baby in the womb! This is simply incredible! And now all I can think of to say is a quote from one of Devon's Dr. Seuss books, "A person is a person, no matter how small." (That's from Horton Hears a Who, thanks Jon and Tina!)

You know many of Dr. Seuss's books have an underlying statement or issue attached to them, such as The Lorax being about deforestation. This starts to make me ponder whether he was trying to touch the issue of child abuse or maybe even abortion. But it is also possible that I have no idea what I am talking about. It's been known to happen from time to time.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Yeah, They're Related

It is pretty obvious that Devon looks alot like me and Matthew like Chris. So tonight after snapping a few pics after Matthews bath I decided to get a three month picture of Devon after a bath too. Well, let's just say they can never deny each other!




This one is Devon at three months.




And this one is Matthew right now at three months.




And one more thing they have in common is LOVE!



Monday, June 2, 2008

Just Like His Daddy

Now I have mentioned my obsession with baby/parenting books, well a couple of them mention that sometimes babies will wake up in the middle of the night to practice a new skill they learned. I thought this was the silliest thing. Devon never did that, and I had never heard another mom speak of this phenomenon either.
Well, it turns out that little Matthew fits into this category. When he first found his hands he woke up one night and would not go back to sleep by nursing or with the binky. He just kept slurping on his hand and then he would get excited and kick and squirm. Mind you this was at three o'clock (random moment: o'clock is one of my favorite words!) in the morning. So out of desperation for sleep I scooted him over a few inches so he wouldn't whack me when he got excited, and I turned my body on auto-snooze. This is when I sleep for 5-10 minute spurts and then wake up to glance at Matthew. It's not the best way to get sleep, but it is better than nothing. And by the way, he stayed awake for an hour doing this!

I know what you're thinking, that was a fluke right. Well, last week he woke up one night rocking from side to side trying to roll on his tummy,which he hadn't accomplished yet. (Did you notice that key word there? Yet.) So I did the same thing, scooted him over a few inches, and went on auto-snooze. Except this time, I hadn't been snoozing more than three minutes when all of a sudden Matthew bumped into me. I opened my eyes to see Matthews eyes wide open and a big drooly grin on his face. He had finally done it. He rolled over on his tummy. He was so proud if himself he celebrated with a nice helping of mommy juice and fell back to sleep. Yesssssss.

This reminds me of Chris because he is the type to keep going until he figures something out. Not even a silly little thing like sleep can stop him.




Crikey!!

The other day I was driving to the grocery store and I saw what I thought was trash blowing in the road. When I came up to it I realized it was a snake over two feet long!! I couldn't help but think of good ol' Steve Erwin, also known as the Crocodile Hunter. If you were a fan of the show like I was (back when I was living on campus and had cable!) then you know that he would always come across these huge snakes while he was conveniently driving around. Who knew that could happen to everyday people, and not just herpetologists.

I was so tempted to spring out of the car and creep over to it just like Steve-o would, but then I remembered the last time I tried to pick up a snake and decided otherwise. I looked in my reptile book to see if I could identify it, but it wasn't in there. It covered reptiles in North America, but obviously didn't have them all. I'm guessing that I would need to look in a Texas reptile book or somebody bought an imported snake and just let it loose when it got too big. That is really common for people to do!