Random Thoughts From a Mommy

I've gotten lazy, as you can see. I'm barely updating these days, yet so much has happened! I really need to make it into a habit to start writing more often. I don't want to forget these moments, but they're happening so fast, it's hard to remember them all! Well, first off - Halloween! In hopes of getting the most out of the costume (because most just wear it for like a hour or two), we ended up wearing it 5 different times. That's right, five! We even went trick-or-treating (ok, it was only 4 houses afterall, but it was still fun!). Mack had a blast, and we still have candies left over here at our house. Then Bryan went away for a week for business. It's not normally all that bad, but this time around, Mackenzie decided to get sick and get her first teeth at the same time! (I think they were related) She was super stuffed up (hence, no sleep), and she was super cranky because she was cutting in the bottom two teeth. Oh, the joy! I wasn't real...

Yup, missed a few weeks there. Got busy and just didn't feel inspired enough to write. But here I am! Well, there have been quite a few milestones the last 3 weeks. Mack is now fully rolling over, attempting to crawl backwards, and STTN (again). She had her first nosebleed 3 weeks ago (when we were travelling because it's dry in the desert!) where Bryan totally freaked out because his girls have never had nosebleeds before. After being in Utah where there were 5 kids and 2 babies in the house for a week, Mack came home and was like, "what the heck? I want them back! I'm BORED!" She got bored of all of her toys within 5 minutes. So what was the solution? Making sure there's something to do every single day. Between swimming, Mother Goose, mommy group, library time, and walks, I still don't have enough to occupy her throughout the day. I have created a bit of a monster... Mackenzie started solids consistently finally. We are doing the baby-led weanin...

When Mack was first born, I told Bryan that I couldn't possibly think of having any more kids. I mean, how you can you love anyone more than this perfect baby? What if I don't love the next one as much? I feel like Mack took up all the cuteness there was plus all the love we could give! Then we travelled to Utah to visit one of our best friends last week who has 5 kids. I thought having 5 kids would be super chaotic. And it is. There's never a moment of quietness, and you're just not going to please every child. But I can tell you, I think my heart expanded 10 times just being with those kids this past week. I understand now how you can have more than 1. I'm not saying we'll have 5. But I'm definitely considering more than 2. Mack quite enjoys the attention from the kids. They all wanted to hold her, to play with her, and to just look at her. After coming home the other day, Mack immediately got bored with all of her toys. She wanted attention. Which...

I don't think I'll ever get over how fast they grow. Today, I'm officially a stepmom to 2 grown up adults. My youngest stepdaughter just turned 18 today. Wow. There's a little evil part of me that's really relieved that child support is over as of today. After 9 years of sucking up a good part of our pay cheques, it's finally over. I'm a terrible person, I know. Don't get me wrong though. They deserved every penny. I wouldn't have it any other way but to pay child support. Those kids are great kids. And their mom is a great mom. So I know that money went to good use. She wasn't one of those women that took the money and spent it on herself. Still...I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. Of course, there's a big part of me that is sad that they're now grown up. They're supposed to be able to conquer the world and know everything about everything. (Remember when you were 18?!) They talked about ordering a b...

I'm a bit travelled out if you can believe it. Travelling with a baby is not as fun as I had anticipated, especially when doing it on my own. We have a trip to Nevada/Utah next week, and I think after that, I could do without travelling for awhile. Mack has been grabbing her ears, drooling, and having a slight fever all week. I can only assume this means she is either teething or has an ear infection. Then just last week, she decided to get a cold. So yeah, it's been great. Mackenzie was congested and started rolling to her side to breathe better. Only she would roll all the way over to her stomach. Then she would proceed to get really cranky because she doesn't want to roll back on to her back on her own. Needless to say, it's been a trying few days going in to roll her back over. So yes, soother back in and no more CIO. Good news is that she's still STTN about 7 hours. And mostly she will go down on her own. Went to visit my friend's baby the other day...

It's hard to believe Mack is 20 weeks old already. That's half a pregnancy, LOL! Nothing too drastic happened this week. She's not rolling over anymore (she's decided it's too much work), she's not sitting up yet (but she'd rather stand because there are places to go, you know), and she's not giggling yet (we even ripped some paper like this dad did ...nothing worked!). So you know, nothing earth shattering to write about. We are in Red Deer/Edmonton this week. Any sleep training we did are well...gone. Soother back in, rocking to sleep, her sleeping with us. (sigh) We go home tomorrow. Bryan doesn't come home for 5 days. Which means, it's me and the kid against the soother and sleep. Wish us luck. This could get ugly. If you don't get a week 21 update, it means the kid won.

I just noticed this week that I can no longer wrap my fingers around Mackenzie's thighs. She now has the thunder thighs I was dreaming of in the beginning. But now that she has them, I'm a little sad that she's growing so fast. We'll be starting solids in just over a month! I realized today that I am more sad about Mackenzie growing than actually enjoying her. Most days I look at her and I go, "I can't believe how much she's grown! I miss her being so little!" So I think I need to stop, take a step back, and actually enjoy this whole journey. Otherwise, I'm just going to miss out on it! So operation sans soother, sans swaddle, sans rocking, CIO, and STTN is well...a semi-success. Out of the 3 naps during the day, Mack will go down on her own once without crying, then once crying for about 5-10 mins, then once absolutely wailing. All 3 naps are with a sleep sack, no swaddling. The last 2 nights, Mack has gone down to sleep for the night on her ...