Poor, neglected blog.

We’re all still here! Don’t worry, you can call off the search party.

It’s terrible, I know. It’s been, like, 3 weeks since I’ve posted something. And one of those weeks (this past week, in fact) was spent with me acting as basically a single mom, with poor Derek off fighting the raging wildfires that have been plaguing Texas. Most of the large ones in our area have been contained, but this dry windy weather we’ve been having the past few days sure “helps” to rekindle some of the smaller fires. And can I just say, kudos to all the single parents/military parents/parent-whose-spouse-travels-a-lot-for-work… it is hard work being in charge of the kids 24/7! We were lucky enough to see Derek for a few hours most days, but doing mealtime, bathtime and bedtime alone every night sure wears a person out. So you can see why the poor ol’ blog has fallen to the bottom of my list of priorities lately.

I couldn’t even tell you the number of posts I would like to catch up on… Auntie Lindsay’s visit and the Dollins Family Reunion. Adelyn’s big girl bedroom. Sibling Love. Auntie Mikaela’s graduation from Texas A&M (Whoop!). A fun craft! A trip to watch a TX Rangers baseball game. Attempting (and then postponing) potty training. The wildfires. The search for the perfect Halloween costumes. Pinterest, my newest obsession hobby. The list goes on…

So while I try to sort out these posts over the next few days (week?), let me leave you with a few recent pics of the kids. {Sometimes I still can’t believe we have KIDS. Plural!}

Momma likes to nom on Colton’s cheeks. Colton likes it.

Our lil man.

Look at these two, reading together. Can you tell they are siblings??

Addy cleans windows.

Our Aggie cowgirl.

Looking at the horses by the fire station.

Be back soon!

PS. Just want to take a moment to brag about my husband. He has worked so hard since these fires started last Sunday, fighting fires through the night and getting next to no sleep or down time. And yet he still managed to come see us and spend a little quality time with us when he could. I’m so proud of him, and am so thankful for all the firefighters who are slaving away against the vicious wildfires in the state. Praying the fires die down soon and the firemen get a well-deserved break!

Adelyn is 2 years, 3.5 months old and Colton is 2 months, 3 weeks old.

“Spilled milk” adage not applicable to pregnant lady.

I cried today because Addy accidentally knocked over her glass of milk.

Stupid, I know, but the thought of having to mop it up, pull the table apart to clean between the cracks, then get down on the floor to mop THAT up was just so… daunting. So I had myself a little cry. And Addy just looked at me like “Pull yourself together woman.” She did give me a kiss though, because she doesn’t like it when I cry (Hmmm, I guess I’ve been a bit hormonal this pregnancy…).

In other news, our gender poll is on equal ground now! The number of “boy” guesses has been way ahead up until today when the “girl” guesses finally caught up. So, P-squared, when will you make your appearance so we can settle the debate??

And to finish off this short post, here are a couple pics of Addy and Daddy. We had a fun outing yesterday and met Derek for lunch at Chilis! Was a nice change from our usual lunch routine, and Adelyn clearly loved spending lunchtime with Daddy.

Oh ya, I have to sit down and do Addy’s 2nd birthday party post… gotta do that before P-squared arrives! Ahhh!

Adelyn is 2 years, 3 weeks old and I am 38 weeks, 4 days pregnant.

I swear…

Overheard at lunch today:

Me: I have to go pee. Again. (I’d gone not 15 mins earlier)
Derek: So go…
Me: I don’t want to.
Derek: Why not?
Me: Because I’m tired of going to the bathroom.

My need to pee has increased about a hundred-fold over the past 24 hours. I kid you not, I have maybe 10-15 mins of reprieve before I feel like I have to go again… I practically make more trips to the bathroom in an hour than I care to in a day. And like I said above, I’m genuinely tired of going to the bathroom. I get up 3 or 4 times a night, so there’s no break there. Anyway, I just noticed this increase in frequency today so my guess is that P-squared has started to drop. I don’t remember this quite as vividly with Adelyn, but I’m sure this happened then too.

::sigh:: And with that, I’m off to the bathroom before my nap. Because laying down only to get up 2 seconds before I fall asleep just to empty my bladder?

That’s just plain torture. Especially when it takes a crane to get me out of bed.

End of complaint.

I am 38 weeks, 3 days pregnant and I feel the need. The need to pee.

Florida! Pt. 2

In case you missed it, here’s the link to Florida! Pt 1.

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As a quick recap, Days 1 and 2 were mostly spent lounging by the pool, enjoying the outdoors and being chased by Gram Z in the evenings. Good fun!

Day 3
Time for a boat ride on the Zivney’s new boat, Play Hard! This day also happened to be Friday the 13th, and as luck would have it… it was an unlucky day. Addy was not happy to be out on the boat, mostly because she missed her morning swim (that’s sure to make anyone cranky). So she was ultra grouchy and spent almost the entire trip whining, crying and throwing fits, making it hard for any of us to really enjoy the time out there. Then a fresh water hose sprung a leak and dumped a ton of fresh water into the engine room. And then the fuel injector pump on one of the engines broke… tough trip. But at least we got to get out on the water! And we even spotted some dolphins!

Arriving at the Marina.

Addy wanted to check out some of the other boats nearby too.

I would call this one unhappy child.

Trying to make the most of it.

Derek was happy as a clam ! Can you tell that he wants a boat?

Game face on.

Derek and Pops, getting things ready before we head out!

Gram Z and Addy

Studying the water, looking a lil cranky… (not you, Gram Z )

Captain Pops and Co-captain Daddy

Comforting his cranky daughter.

Look, dolphins! We think they were…mating.

Is that… could that be a… a small smile? Of course, this was once we had docked and were getting ready to leave. Oh well, next time will be better!

Day 4
We decided to make a spur of the moment trip to Bathtub Beach, a strip of beach that is sheltered by a live reef. The day we went was pretty windy so there were decent sized waves further off shore, but within the reef area, it was quite nice. This was Adelyn’s first trip to the beach (EVER) and she had a pretty good time!

Checking out the surf and the people in it.

Heading down to the water.

Wave to Daddy!

Momma, Addy and Pops, getting comfortable with the waves.

She liked the feel of the sand.

Daddy and Addy playing.

Lunch time! I see you in there.

Just was we were leaving the beach, clouds started to roll in and we ended up getting a nice rain storm that afternoon (a much needed rainstorm. They are in a drought over there!). After a nice nap, Addy did some major coloring. Well actually, she did major coloring every day. Doesn’t she look like a little school girl??

She works so hard.

Day 5
More swimming in the pool, with the added bonus of an early birthday party for Addy and Momma! Oh, and a very exciting moment… Adelyn caught her first fish! Believe it.

Trying on her new shoes.

She is such a model. We asked her to show us her shoes and she totally worked the runway. We didn’t even tell her to put her hands on her hips, she just started to strut her stuff!

Taking Pops for a walk with her new shoes.

Lovely, Adelyn!

Admiring the cake Gram Z and Pops got her.

“One, two, we, go!”

Blow that candle out, girl!

Yayyy!!!!

Feeding herself cake. She’s a big girl now.

Doing some early evening fishing with Daddy.

Helping Daddy with the reel. He would cast out, she would reel the bait in.

Except one time, she actually caught a FISH! Her first one ever! Look at that sucker!!

Hoping to catch another fish.

I’d call this some quality Daddy-Daughter time.

{Days 6 and 7 coming soon!}

Adelyn is 2 years, 1 week old and I am 37 weeks pregnant… but I was only 34 weeks on this trip…

Happy Mother’s Day!

So far, my Mother’s Day has been like any other day.

We didn’t sleep in. We ran errands. We dealt with a screaming toddler who wouldn’t nap.

Except there’s a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers on our kitchen table. And I was pampered yesterday and now have freshly painted nails and toes (I got a mani/pedi… ahh, first time in a while!). And Derek has been trying his hardest to get me to leave the house, to have some me-time, to go do anything I want without worrying about Addy.

So all in all, I’d say it’s been a pretty good Mother’s Day.

Oh look, barefoot and pregnant. And P-squared in the belly!

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom, Mom-in-law, Gram and all the other Momma’s in our lives! We love you!!

Adelyn is 23 months, 1 week old and I am 33 weeks, 1 day pregnant.

Happy Easter!

We spent a beautiful Easter weekend in Austin with my parents and sisters.

Unfortunately, Adelyn started getting sick the day we arrived and it developed into a full blown cold by Easter Sunday so she was pretty cranky and miserable throughout the weekend, especially at bedtime and naptime. (Stuffy nose, anyone?) She didn’t even get the chance to wear the Easter dress I made for her on Easter Sunday! Sad day. And now Momma and Daddy have caught her cold, so we are feeling miserable too. But she’s doing much better now.

Anyway, despite the cold, we had a wonderful time with the whole family! We hope you all had lovely Easter celebrations as well!

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Playing with Grandpa Joe

What could this be?? Grandma Lo and Grandpa Joe made Addy a special Easter present…

Tearing the paper off…

It’s an Addy-sized oven!

And she even gets her own pots and pans to cook with!!!!!

Checking out her awesome gift.

She had a blast playing with the stove the entire weekend. She was quite the little chef and made some delicious “soups” and “stews”.

Check out her use of “spices” here.

Very good job pouring the water, Addy.

She was so careful not to spill her tea kettle after filling it with water.

Learning how to blow bubbles!

Popsicle break with Auntie Kim.

Goldfish snack break with Daddy.

And now, back to cooking!

It’s very important to keep one’s feet clean while cooking.

And if you get too hot while cooking, you can cool off with a dip in a bucket!

Enjoying Easter breakfast before we hunt for eggs.

Mmmm, bacon.

Look at what the Easter bunny brought her! A delicious chocolate bunny, and he even filled up the Easter Egg basket that Momma made (see bottom of page for an aside about that)!

Her favorite part? The coloring book and crayons. She even skipped the chocolate so she could color. Whose child is this?! (She eventually came back to the chocolate though… in fact, she’s been eating chocolate eggs non-stop since we came back home. She’s addicted.)

After the egg hunt, we checked out the goodies in the easter eggs. She was sweet enough to share all of her candies with the family!

After all the candy consumption, we went for a nice family walk.

What a great weekend!!

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I made Adelyn an Easter egg basket for the Easter bunny to fill up, and thought I’d share a pic of it up close.

It was super easy! I followed this tutorial from HMH Designs and I love the way it turned out. I even had the same purple flower ribbon they used!! I remember making something similar way back in elementary school, so it was neat to recreate something from my childhood for Addy.

Adelyn is 23 months old and I am 31 weeks, 4 days pregnant.

So how did Adelyn do?

I’d say she rocked her big girl bed!

Starting from bedtime last night…

Addy was super excited about her big girl bed. During the whole nighttime routine, she kept pointing and saying “Bee Beh” (big bed). When the lights were finally off and the door was closed however, she seemed a bit nervous. So Momma read to her and rocked her in the rocking chair as usual. We snuggled for a bit and then I lay her down on her bed. She wasn’t quite ready for me to leave yet, so I lay down next to her and rubbed her back for a bit. When I tried to leave, she started to sit up but I told her it was bed time. Then I asked if she wanted one more book and she nodded, so we read through it. Then she said “One mo’” in a wobbly voice that made me squeeze her tight because I knew she was feeling a bit scared, so we read it again. After we finished, we cuddled a bit longer and then I put her down one more time. I asked if she wanted me to lay down with her again and she nodded so I put my head down on the bed. She grabbed her pacis and Mr. Bear and hid her face for a while. I finally said goodnight and managed to get out the door. That was at 8:45pm.

We didn’t hear from her again until 2:45am!

I think she just woke up and didn’t realize where she was, because she started to cry quietly and she just sounded so sad. It broke my heart. So I went in there and rocked with her for a while and then put her back on the bed, where she grabbed Mr. Bear and her handful of pacis again. I was able to say goodnight and sneak back out after a few extra kisses and back rubs. Time in room: ~10 mins.

She woke back up at 3:45am and then again when Derek left for work at 6:30am, but each time we did the same thing…. rocked for a bit, and then back to the bed we went. And I got to go back to our bed after about 10 minutes. What time did she officially wake up this morning? 9:15am!! She managed to sleep through the majority of a thunderstorm (I have no idea how), but one particularly loud crack of lightning jolted her awake. She’s been running in and out of her room ever since, wanting to be on her big girl bed.

So as I said, overall, she rocked the big girl bed. I mean, it would have been even more amazing if she hadn’t woken up at all, but we anticipated a few late night calls. Plus, neither Derek nor I were sleeping very well last night… I guess I was keeping my ears open for her. We are so proud of our big girl!!!!!!

Now we’ll see how naptime goes…

Adelyn is 22 months, 1 week old and I am 28 weeks, 2 days pregnant.

How Momma and Daddy almost had heart attacks.

See this?

This right here?

That would be the impression from 3 of Adelyn’s top teeth. On our coffee table.

We were watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Club House, Addy’s new obsession (oh boy, more on this later). She tried to slide forward off our couch (nothing unusual there), but she leaned too far forward and fell headfirst. Sank her chompers into the table.

Did I mention I nearly died?

She cried for a minute, wanted some cuddles and then she insisted we turn “hot dog” back on (we had paused the show). No blood, no puffy lip, nothing.

Just an anxious Momma and Daddy, trying to recover from death-by-heart-attack.

Bless her little iron teeth.

Adelyn is 21 months, 1 week old and I am 24 weeks, 3 days pregnant.

A diaper explosion…

But not in the way you are thinking.

I was being a good housewife/momma and doing some of Addy’s laundry yesterday. I took her hamper and tossed her clothes into the washing machine. Fast forward 30 minutes or so to when I go back to toss the clothes in the dryer. I start moving the clothes over when I pick up an unusually heavy bunch of clothes. I sort through them and find…

a water-logged diaper.

When they say don’t put a diaper in a pool because the water absorbing beads will explode? It’s true.

The front seam of the diaper had opened and water-logged beads went everywhere. On the clothes and all over the washing machine…

Now, you may be wondering how a diaper got into the mix of her clothing. That’s easy. Sometimes we give Addy a clean diaper to play with while she’s on the changing table. She inevitably ends up tossing the diaper onto the floor, but sometimes it lands in her hamper (which sits right next to the changing table)… and when a distracted housewife isn’t paying attention when sorting clothes, said diaper ends up in the washing machine.

And then, said distracted housewife has to wash the clothes twice.

Adelyn is 15 months and and 3 weeks old.

5 things…

I have a bunch of little anecdotes floating around in my brain, so I thought I’d combine them into one semi-large post!

1.  We had a lovely Father’s Day!  However, what I said about Daddy waking up at 5:30am on Father’s Day was true…  We couldn’t get Addy to go back to bed, so Derek took her for a walk at 6:30am.  So much for sleeping in!  The rest of the day was nice and low-key.  Church, lunch, family nap (Cranky Addy really fought her nap but finally fell asleep on my lap after lunch, so we decided to all have a rest).  Derek’s Grandparents invited us to a fish fry at their church for dinner, and we all had a great time.  An a cappella group performed during dinner and Addy loved listening to them.  She clapped and bounced in her high chair along with the beat.  She sure likes music!

She found her baby tub and decided to play in it. With socks. Thankfully, the socks are clean.

2.  For the past couple nights, Addy has been bathing herself.  That’s right!  After watching us for months, she knows that her body wash goes on her arms, legs and tummy and not in her mouth (for the most part).  Of course we make sure she actually gets clean, but her imitation skills astound me.  She’s so smart.

Getting some soap!

3.  Over the past 3 weeks, I’ve been weaning Addy. We’ve gone from 3-4 feedings down to a single feeding before bedtime.  And last night, we dropped that bedtime feeding!  So I am officially done breastfeeding Adelyn.  I’m sad.  I’m happy.  It’s a mixed bag… Overall, my nursing experience was a very good one and I’ve loved that bonding time with Addy, so I’m bummed that it’s over.  But it sure will be freeing, not having to nurse anymore! We’ve been giving Addy whole milk and, man, she sucks that stuff down.  She loves it, but we think it may be making her tummy cramp.  I’m hoping she’s not sensitive to lactose so we’ll keep an eye on that.

4.  I spotted Addy’s 5th tooth a few days ago and get this:  it’s a molar!  She’s got her 4 front teeth, and now her first molar.  And then this morning, I felt the 2nd first molar coming up on the other side.  She’s got a mouth full of chompers.  I guess it’s a good thing I’ve stopped nursing…  yeeeeouch.  She definitely has her cranky moments too, so I know those big suckers must hurt. I mean, look at the size of the molars compared to the incisors!:

Addy has her 1st first molar (bottom left)!

5.  My iBook is 6 years old. During my laptop’s existence, we’ve had to replace 1 hard drive (yikes… thanks for doing that, Dad!), 1 power adapter, and 2 batteries. The “a”, “s”, “c” and “e” keys are almost completely worn off. And now, the computer is shocking me. As in, electrical current runs through my body when I put it on my lap. When I touch Derek’s arm, he can feel the buzz… although maybe that’s the electricity between the two of us… ::wink wink:: Haha, just kidding. Derek is worried that I’m cooking my eggs, though.  My eggs.  And because we plan to have more children, it may be time to update my laptop soon.  Although as my uncle, the M.D., suggested, maybe we would end up having children with superpowers. 

Adelyn is 12 months and 4 weeks old.