Sucky sucky sucky

You know what sucks? Getting your period at only 7 weeks postpartum. Especially when you are used to not getting it until 13 MONTHS postpartum (it's always been about six weeks after I stop nursing, in the past, anyways...)!!! Seriously, I am one very pissed off woman right now. That is supposed to be one of the perks of breastfeeding - no period to deal with. I am not supplementing at all, so seriously, there is no reason for this!!! WHAT the HECK?! I just really have issues with dealing with leeky boobs AND nasty period nonsense - ugh. Sorry for oversharing, but that's the risk you take when you read this blog. That's all for now - I will fume about this more on my own time...

Edward's Blessing

It's always a wonderful day when a baby is blessed...

Sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that I have THREE children!

Proud Parents :)

Oh man, I am just sooo in love with this sweet little boy...

The picture above is a face that he makes a lot - the furrowed brow, as if he is concentrating really hard - love it.

Oh, my Edward - I love you so...

New baby - bigger feet?!

Okay, warning, I am about to complain. I toughed my way through all the aches and pains of my third pregnancy, all the while having my eye on the prize - a beautiful healthy baby and bye bye to the physical discomforts of pregnancy. Well, one of my unfortunate side effects has decided to stick around - FOREVER. My feet have gotten bigger. I have heard of this happening to women as a result of pregnancy, but since I skated through two pregnancies without this side effect I thought I was safe. They got swollen a lot during this pregnancy, limiting my shoe choices to flip flops all summer long, but I figured - hey, no big deal, as soon as the baby's born, it will all go back to normal and I can go back to wearing my cute shoes. Well, they may not be swollen anymore, but I still can't wear my old shoes. Apparently, the extra weight gain this time around and the fact that I wore sandals all summer long, giving my feet ample room to s p r e a d was a deadly combination, and now my little feet aren't quite as little anymore. Besides the vanity factor (I like my little feet, thank you very much - they match my short frame quite well), there is the monetary issue (um, so I now to have replace my ENTIRE shoe wardrobe?!!!), not to mention the emotional one (I got a BEAUTIFUL pair of black patent leather Calvin Klein heels for Christmas last year that ran Lou over $90. I got to wear them for only one season, and will never fit them again...).

Am I stupid to be absolutely devastated over this? I have multiple pairs of shoes that I have gotten over the years as gifts from my husband and mother (who both know my love of cute shoes) that I absolutely adore (and that are, for the most part, quite pricey) that I can't wear anymore. I mean, what am I supposed to do with them - give them to the freaking salvation army? Um, no - I'm sorry, I refuse to donate $90 Calvin Klein shoes to the Good Will. And then there's the fact that I now have NO shoes to wear...if only I were rich I might think of this as a great excuse to go shopping. But I am NOT rich. That's why almost all my nice shoes are gifts from Chirstmas and Birthdays, because I could never just go out and get them on my own for no reason.

Okay, I know - I should stop complaining and just focus on my beautiful baby - he's healthy and perfect and...sigh - call me shallow, but seriously, I just can't stop mourning the loss of petite feet and all of my beautiful shoes... :(

What's old is new again

So we finally have some before and after pictures of our house...two years later...and of only one room...how sad. Oh well! The upcoming arrival of our baby gave us the kick in the butt that we needed to get one of the rooms done - TOTALLY DONE (not ALMOST done like every other room in our house)!! So here are the good ole' before and after pictures of Edward's room:

Don't you just love the Shrek Green? Ugh - we hated it, and it was even more offensive in person. And you can't tell from the picture, but I think the carpet was from the 80's or so. Nasty, musty shag with who-knows-what living in it...

Here is another before picture

Primed and ready to paint!

We did a total overhaul. We painted the walls, the ceiling, the window, the doorframe, the door, and the baseboards. We also replaced the nasty 80's musty shag carpeting that was in there.

I don't know that the pictures really do it justice, but this is just such a great, warm orangish butterscotch color that is bright but not overwhelming. I love it because it always looks sunny and happy in there - so warm and inviting... :)

Now to add furniture - we'll start with the Amish rocking chair that we bought at farmer's market when Maria was a baby...

Next we'll add our trusty crib and bedding set that is now being used for the third time - I'm glad we're getting our money's worth!! :)

You can really see here how low our ceilings are, especially in the two kids' room that have the sloped ceilings. It makes it tricky to arrange some of the furniture. But hey, we love our cozy little cottage-esque house, so it's all good.

The front view - kind of tight quarters!! But I think it turned out cute!

This dresser and the valence on the window are also hand-me-downs from the girls - it's so great to get so much mileage out of baby stuff, considering how much it costs.

So that's Edward's room - the only room in the house that is completely done, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. Isn't it amazing the huge difference that a little bit of new paint of carpet makes?

Happy Halloween!

This was kind of a weird fall for us. Eddie and I didn't go apple picking with the rest of the family (he was only four days old and it was freezing out), and we also weren't there when they picked out the pumpkins (which Lou paid outrageous prices for - grrrr...). Even more sad was the fact that our pumpkins rotted before we even got a chance to carve them because of all the rain this fall. :(

Another oddity was the fact that our ward, for the first time in EVER since I can remember, did not have a Trunk or Treat or ANY kind of Halloween party at all. I don't know what the reason was, I just know that there wasn't one, and it was a bummer.

Well, we found another source of festivities. Wegmans has a Halloween party/trick or treat for kids, so we took the girls there this year. There were a TON of kids there (a few hundred, at least), and it was really cute the way they had it set up - trick or treat stations all over the store (and all the employees wearing costumes), with donuts and cider and pizza along with all the regular candy stuff. Gotta love Wegmans. :)

Here are the girls at the Wegmans party - their costumes from Nana's costume supply (aka, my Mom's attic) hadn't been dug out yet, so they sported their hand-me-down princess dresses - it worked.

Here is Maria before heading off to to school the day before Halloween (the whole school has a costume parade and a party in their classroom) - she's supposed to be Tiger Lily from Peter Pan.

And here is Josephine in a costume that is quite fitting to her personality - a little devil... :)

...and here are the two of them right before heading off to trick or treat, which was a short trip indeed. Only ONE other house on the block had the lights on besides us - what a bunch of party poopers!!! Oh well, our friends the Johnsons were having a fun party at their house, so Lou took the girls out to their neighborhood and had them trick or treat out there (where they made out like little candy bandits) before going to the party. Eddie and I stayed home and handed out candy, since we are still trying to limit his exposure to tons of people (yes, I am a paranoid germiphobe right now...). It was a pretty quiet night - we only got about 25 trick or treaters.

It was kind of lame year in the fact that Lou, Eddie and I didn't dress up (the lack of a ward Halloween party kind of sucked all of the incentive out of me), but we figure we have a whole year to plan on making next Halloween better. :)

Oh, and for those of you who didn't see it on Facebook, click here to see our family's goofy Halloween video, inspired by some of our friends who shared theirs with us first - silly, but so fun to watch!

Sweet moments...

Maria and Josephine spend a lot of time fighting like two cats with their tails tied together nowadays, so I am loving that they are at least sweet to their new baby brother (give it a couple of years, and I'm sure the story will change...). I sing to Edward a lot, and Josephine, who loves singing, has gotten into it lately, too. I caught her this morning doing just that, and ran to get the video camera to capture it. These moments are the best, the moments when I am so glad that I am home with my children!

Adventures in cloth diapering...part II

A number of months back I blogged about possibly trying out some newer fancier cloth diapers. I was a bit hesitant because of the cost, but when I figured out how much I was spending in disposables for nighttime use (my cloth ones never kept dry all night), I realized that I might as well splurge and get some of the Grobaby cloth diapers I have been drooling over for months

Here is Edward modeling a pair of them:

Anyhow, so I have to admit that I still wasn't thrilled about the idea of using cloth diapers on the go (running errands, traveling, etc.), no matter how absorbant they are. There is just something about carrying around poopy diapers that isn't too appealing...

But, I also don't like the idea of piling up nasty disposables in the landfills that NEVER biodegrade just for my convenience sake, but again, the poopy diaper thing - ewww...

Well, I have seen a lot on facebook lately about these Bio Soakers made by Grobaby (click here to see the website and more info). I didn't pay much attention to them - I had already already bought my diapers, so whatever. Well, come to find out, they are these inserts that go right in your Grobaby cover that you can use, toss like a disposable, and they are BIODEGRADEABLE!! Sweet! All of the convenience of a disposable, but environmentally friendly.

Here is a picture of what the inserts look like:


And here is how they go inside the regular Grobaby shell that you use for your cloth diapers. There are little adhesive strips that stick them right to the shell (see the purple square in the drawing below):

They look like an everyday disposable, but, again, they are biodegradeable, and are also way more gentle on babies' butts since they are hypo-allergenic, fragrance free, dye free, plastic free and chlorine free.

Now, I have to tell you, by posting this info (which I am happy to share regardless) I am entering a chance to get an intro package of biosoakers (50 soakers and a Grobaby shell to use them in) for free. Shameless? Maybe, but I do love these diapers, and I would tell anyone who asked me - giveaway or not. And besides, who doesn't like freebies? :)