I need my sleep too!

The first few months after my son was born he slept pretty good for a newborn.  We had a nice little routine going. We'd all go to bed between 10-11pm and he would  sleep in his pack and play in our bedroom. He'd sleep until 3-4am and then I'd nurse him, change him and he'd go right back to sleep in his pack and play until about 5-6am and then I'd take him into bed and nurse him and we'd all sleep in bed until 7am. I few times he even skipped the 3-4am feeding and slept right until 5-6am! It was going great, and I had said a few time what a 'good little sleeper' he was.

Well... I'm pretty sure I JINXED it.

It all stopped when he was about 3.5 months old. He started waking every two hours.. and still does now at 7 months old. Yikes!

But anyways, I was getting sick of getting out of bed and walking to the pack and play over and over and over all night long to feed him or stick his soother in his mouth. I was exhausted!

And then I came across this sidecarred crib link. It looked like a good solution to my problem. I told my hubby about it and he thought it was a little odd, but he went along with it anyways.  So we went and bought a bunch of bungee cords and hooked the crib frame to our mattress so they can not separate. I used a pool noodle and a tightly rolled blanket to stuff the small gap between the mattresses and it's a nice fit.

 We have had this set up since Ryan was about 4 months old and I really love it! I love that we all have space to sleep comfortably. I love that I don't have to get out of bed at night to feed him the multiple times that he wakes up. I love having my sweet little baby close to me so I can snuggle him whenever I want.
Most of all I love waking up and feeling like I actually got some sleep! My sleep is incredibly important to the happiness of my family, because if mommy is not happy than nobody is happy, right?! :)

Her ears must have fallen off!

Oh wait, look I found them!

 (well this proves she still has at least one anyways)

My little 7 year old girl Hailey has been challenging me a lot more lately. 

 (but really how could you stay mad at a face like that for too long)

She seems to have forgotten how to listen and obey the rules around here.

I have been on the look out for a behaviour system/chart type thing that might work with us.   We've tried the sticker chart type thing when she was a bit younger and we never stuck with it for longer than 2 weeks.  A few weeks ago I came across this post at Trendy Treehouse and I wanted to give it a try.  This is what I came up with...

I plan to pretty-up that clothes pin sometime soonish

So far it's been we've been sticking to it, I just wish I saw that clothes pin above the green more often.

Here are the labels if you would like to make your own.

Click the image to open it to its original size before saving it.

Muffin Tin Monday - First time!

This is my first Muffin Tin Monday post

My husband isn't going to be home for dinner this week and my daughter Hailey did not want a leftover meatball  ball sub that I was having so I decided to do my first ever muffin tin meal and she loved it.

I didn't really plan it out in advance so it's not spectacular, and it's in a foil muffin tin, because my other tin was in the dishwasher and I didn't feel like washing it.

Here it is!

Top, left to right - pudding for dessert, celery with peanut butter, cheddar cheese

Bottom, left to right - mushrooms, cucumber slices, grapes

Here is my daughter Hailey with her Muffin Tin Meal

She thought it was wonderful. She said it was the "best supper ever!"  LOL :)  Whatta kid!

For more Muffin Tin Monday posts check out Muffin Tin Mom

Menu Plan Monday - Dad's on afternoons

This is going to be a eat-whatever-is-easiest kinda week.

Dave is on afternoon shift this week, so it's just Hailey and I eating dinner together.

And since Dad's not here this week to help with the baby (who has decided it's not his best interest if mommy puts him down and walks more than 2 feet away from him or i'll screeeeech and whine my head off until I get her back ) this menu is not going to be anything grand.  I have about 20 minutes to get something on the table before big sister Hailey is just not a good enough substitute for mommy to keep baby Ryan happy.  The littlest ones make the rules don't they?!

Now, onto the main reason for this post.

Monday - I had left over meatball subs from yesterday's dinner

                Hailey doesn't like that, so I made her a muffin tin meal which I will post about separately

Tuesday - Chicken meat pies, noodles, green beans

Wednesday - Soup and Sandwiches (probably cream of mushroom soup because it's mine

                      and Hailey's favourite, and most likely grilled cheese sandwich to go with it)

Thursday - Slow cooker roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn

Friday -  leftovers

Saturday - Going to my mom's for dinner since it was cancelled last week

Pretty boring eh?! :) Dave is on day shift next week so hopefully it will be a more exciting menu next week when I have more help.

For more Menu Plan Monday posts check out http://orgjunkie.com/

Mud Pies

When I was a little girl I liked to play in the mud and make yummy mud creations with my friends.  I never ate those kinds of mud pies, but they sure were fun to make!  But those are not the kind of Mud Pies that this post is about. 

The ones I'm talking about are definitely yummy to eat, and super easy to make and are sometimes known as chocolate macaroons.  My mom made them several times a year while I was growing up, and I was the lucky one whose job it was to lick the pot after she was finished with it. 

 Now I make them with my daughter.  She helps me measure the ingredients, and start stirring them together until it starts getting hot. She tries to spoon it on the waxed paper, but she is the kind of kid who gets frustrated easily and  looses her patience quickly, so she usually lets me do most of them.  But she sure does love the licking the pot and spoons job at the end! :)

Give them a try, you'll love how easy these yummy treats are!

Here is the recipe card I made,  if you would like to save it make sure you click the picture to open it larger before you save it. Then you could print it like you would any 4x6 photo and it's a nice little recipe card.

I found the idea for these recipe cards at Controlling my Chaos, check it out, she's got a great blog with many creative awesome ideas! She has tons of recipe cards available for free on her site. She makes her recipe cards in 5x7 size. I have chosen to make mine in 4x6 size to fit in my recipe box.

Menu Plan Monday - Getting back on track

That's IT I've had ENOUGH!

NO MORE wondering what's for supper at 4 pm.

NO MORE "oops I've been so busy, I didn't think about supper, can you go pick up something Hun?"

Ever since my son was born 7 months ago mealtime around here has been a mess, we've been eating more junk than I care to admit! It's just been so hard with a baby who only naps for 30 minutes at a time and still is breastfeeding every 2 hours day AND night. Not to mention taking care of my 7 year old daughter also, I've been a tired/busy mommy!

But enough is enough, I'll make a menu plan and try my darndest to stick to it!

Monday - Honey garlic chicken theighs with baked potatoes and corn

Tuesday - Mini english muffin pizzas (mmm we love these)

Wednesday - Grilled pork chops (not sure about sides yet, maybe rice and broccoli )

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Not sure.. We *might* be going to the zoo.. if we do we'll eat out, if we don't then we'll probably have BBQ Hamburgers

Saturday - We are going to my Mom's for  a family dinner

Next week I'll try to add links to my post

Oh the Joys of Motherhood...

My sweet little baby boy Ryan is going to be 7 months old in a few days.  I can't believe how fast this year is flying by, but I guess that's just one of those things to be expected when you have a baby. When you want time to sloooow dooown so you can enjoy the baby days longer before they disappear forever, time is a big meanie and speeds up on purpose. Ugh no fair I tell ya!

Well as much as I hate how fast my LAST baby's first year is going by, there is one thing about babyhood I can't wait to see go. NASTY BREASTFED BABY POOP. Don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE that I have been the only form of nourishment that my baby has had or needed the first 7 months of his life (starting just within the last few days to except little bits of baby food). With that comes the explosive, up the back, out the sides, all over his clothes, excersaucer, bouncy seat, car seat or ME, which was the adventure last Tuesday (I started writing this the day it happened, but have not managed to come finish until now, one week later, LAME) Anyhow, where was I? Oh yea! My baby got poop all over me!

I'm going to share the story, but before I do let me explain a little more than you really need to know. Like most breastfed babies, when he was a newborn up until about 2 months old Ryan pooped several times a day, yellow mustard seedy poop, it was unpredictable and happened many times right in the middle of a diaper change. My husband was changing him once when he was a few weeks old and the poop SHOT out of the sweet baby bum and right over dads shoulder, all over the carpet, a little got on hubby too. Another time during a 2am diaper change it happened again, this time mostly on hubby. Well we got smart and learned how to avoid the poop squirting everywhere after that. Then at 2 months he went from pooping multiple times a day to pooping once a day. Then a while after he started going every few days, and now it's once every 7-10 days, but it is a big DISGUSTING mess! It's thicker but still manages to leak out the sides of the diaper and go right up his back. We tried different brands of diapers and moving up in size, but nothing can contain the mess. The only thing that we haven't tried is cloth diapers, and I wish we could go cloth but we live in an apartment building and the laundry room is two floors down and cost $4 per load, so there's no way I can talk hubby into that unfortunately.

Anyhow, the other day I got covered in poop. It had been about 9 days since Ryan last had a big poop. I had him in his excersaucer for a few minutes in the morning so I could load the dishwasher and get it started. He was being a little fussy so I picked him up, put him on my hip and went into my daughters room to talk to her, sat on her bed with baby on my lap, chatted a few minutes, got up slung baby back on to my hip and headed to her bedroom door to leave. Then I turned around to say something to her and her eyes almost bugged right out of her head! She says "Ryan pooped!" I said "What?" confused as how she could tell from across the room when I was holding him and had no idea. Then she said "Ryan pooped and it's all over you!" so I lift him up and look down at myself and there it is all over my pajama shirt!

So I put him on the change pad and have Hailey watch him for a second while I ran to the bedroom to change my shirt and then I go get ready to clean up the mess and he is of coarse being very wiggly like usual. I open the diaper grab his feet, lift them and start wiping, he wiggled a foot free and sticks it in the poop! Ugh little bugger! So I clean off the foot and hold them again and ask Hailey to hold his hands so they don't end up in there too! I got him some what clean and then had Hailey keep an eye on him while I got the bath ready. I was so thankful she was there to help me! Or there would have poop a lot more places than just my shirt, his onsie and a change pad!

It has been one of my fears that he'll have a major poop-splosion when I'm alone with no helper! I keep trying to tell baby that he's only allowed to poop when dad is home to change him, but it goes right in one ear and out the other!

Well that was incredibly long! If you got all the way threw that then thanks for reading all about my baby's poop! Haha!

Better late, than never. Joining the blogosphere!

I have been sitting here for about an hour just trying to figure out how to start my very first blog post. I even went as far as googling 'first blog post' which didn't help me much. Everything that I started typing sounded boring, awkward, and cookie cutter-ish, none of which are labels that I want for my blog.

I want my blog to be seen as inviting, helpful, interesting and honest (in no particular order of importance).
I will talk about my adventures as a mommy of 2, digi-scrapping, books, baking, cooking, organizing, and whatever else comes up along the way.

I wanted to start a blog to document my children's lives better. My oldest is 7 and my baby is almost 7 months, I didn't document my oldests first 7 years very well, and I plan to do a better job from here on out for her and for my baby son. He is my last baby, and I want to cherish and remember every little bit of it.

Also, I really enjoy reading blogs and learning from them, so I wanted to join in all the fun you all have been having without me!