Merry Christmas

Santa Visit

 This year went so much better then last! 

I ordered a package that is shipped from Santa and that seemed to really help with Emma not being scared of him. 

www.packagefromsanta.com  

It comes with a phone call and video free of charge so that was fun to personalize to her. She LOVED it! 

We talked a lot about what she was going to say if he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and if she was a good little girl this year. 

Here...she is telling him she would like Elsa. 

 I knew Charlie was going to do great.

 It is next year and the year after that he is going to put up a fight.  

Throwing Up Christmas

Month 3 & 4

Yes...so month 3 came and went without me updating on my little man and now here I am, forcing myself to stay awake to write his 4 month because I will be kicking myself if I don't have the post to look back on...wow, can anyone say, run on sentence...and because he is almost 5 months.

Lets just get right down to it....this boy just does not sleep. 

I guess I just have babies that don't like to rest because Emma was the exact same way. I still have trouble getting her to go to sleep and stay asleep so I'm guessing he will probably be just as difficult. 

I had one night that I saw every. single. hour and that made for a tough day. Usually he is up 4-5 times wanting to nurse, then right back to sleep but at full awake at around 6-6:30. I find the days that he is up more than his normal nights especially hard because I don't have a great supply of milk because I didn't get enough sleep. He is fussier and hungrier because he drank the little that I had all through the night. I actually gave him his first taste of baby food hoping that it would keep him fuller, but that didn't work.  Yes...baby food before the doctor gave the OK, second child problems.  So, we have now been working on self soothing. I have to let him cry a little to try to put himself back to sleep. It kills me to hear him struggling but we need to change something because I was totally drained physically and mentally. 

Nursing is still going great when he actually lets me replenish my supply. He is a hungry boy all the time, so taking his mind off eating and focusing on playing helps. 

He hates getting in his car seat. I would too being all tied down like that.

 He hates wearing hats. 

He hates not being held.

He hates getting out of the bath...our house is freezing (more on that topic in another post) 

He loves blowing raspberries on his belly.

Speaking of raspberries....Charlie has a "Angle Kiss" on his thigh. The Dr. says they go away when they are about 7 years old. I love it though. I think of Mikes mom every time I see it. 

I don't see any birthmarks on him though. 

He loves his diaper being changed.

He loves being talked to. 

He loves being smiles at. He smiles right back. 

He loves sucking on a rag during bath time. 

He loves being swaddled during bedtime. 

He loves being held.

I am actually still holing him through his naps. It has been really rough because I could be getting so many other things done during that time but he doesn't care. He wakes up around 6-6:30. Takes his first short nap around 8. Next nap is usually in the stroller if we are on a walk or the Ergo if we are out at 10:30-11. That one is about 45 minutes. The next nap is right around 1:00 pm. That is Emma's nap time so I like them to sleep at the same time. She usually sleep for 2-2 1/2 hours and I try to sleep with him or play on my phone and regret not sleeping. Once Emma is up I try to get her to do something quietly while he naps for another 30 minutes or so. After that long one, he might nap for 15 minutes but his witching hour is 7:00 on the dot! If he is not being swaddled up in his room a 7 then forget about it. Screaming his head off! 

I am excited for his first Christmas. I started shopping a couple days ago which for me is trouble. I buy more through the month and I don't stop till the actual day because I see so many cute thing that I just have to buy. 

So this is about it for now. 

I am hoping that I will be better with my monthly updates for him in the future. I was on top of my game with Emma's and I only feel right if I do the same for him. 

Such a sweet little boy with so much personality already. He is going to be so much fun to watch grow up.

(the above was written in the beginning of December)

We had a doctors appointment last week and he now weighs in at 14lbs 14oz. So much bigger then when Emma was his age. He is still doing really well with everything else. We had a bit of a cold (thanks to his sister) and have been really slow to get over it.
We are heading into teething at full speed. Lots of drool and hand always in mouth. I am trying the Amber necklace again like I did with Emma. Still not really sure if it works but I will try anything.
The swaddling thing I have been a little concerned about. I would love some feedback if anyone has any because I never did it with Emma.
So, I would like to start weaning him out of it but I think he is going to have a hard time by just the few times I haven't put him in it and he cant sleep. I end up putting him in mid-way through the night because I cant keep getting up every 15 minutes. In my mind, I guess the only thing is my suffering and not sleeping in till he is get used to it?.?
Rolling over has been a big successes this month.
I have been giving him more foods to suck on then actual baby food. He really enjoys bananas and pineapple.
This may be TMI, but I never experience so much baby poo coming out of diapers before. I probably change him at least once a day...maybe twice for that reason. There is hardly any in the diaper but a ton on his back and clothes. I don't get it!

So, I am going to leave it at this. I am once again so excited for his first Christmas so I am sure there will be tons to write about soon.

Things that I hate because I am a mom

I have never hated some things so much since being a mom. Things that I used to do myself and enjoy are on this list.

First things first...loud music in cars that drive by. Mainly during nap time. I still think it is obnoxious when my house shakes and my kids are awake also, but most of all when nap time rolls around I want to wish this person with this unnecessary bass that has it turned up to maximum volume to fly off a cliff. (that's a little far, but you get what I'm saying)

The mailman...at 2pm.
Yes, I like getting mail, not really bills, but what bothers me is the time he comes. Yes! Smack dab right in the middle of nap time! I have a crazy dog that can hear him four houses down.

People loitering. I live in the suburbs, across from a church. Yes, it is our fault that we live right there and I would do anything to move and not have any neighbors. This church has people outside of it all day long. Talking and slamming doors is pretty much the main problem...because it is nap time...and I have a crazy dog.

Dogs barking... my neighbors dog is extremely vocal....and you probably guessed it...nap time! That's the only time it really bothers me.

Motorcycles. We live right by a stop sign. Its like a race track and the light just turned green to start the race. I swear!

People with loud cars...sports cars and old cars. I swear the race track is right in front of our house.

Trains. We have somewhat gotten used to the tracks being 2 blocks away, but it still doesn't mean I am used to them during nap time.

So pretty much to sum up what I have just written...please let the earth stay still while my children are sleeping.
 I need a break!!! 

Life

I have not been doing to well with this little page of mine. It has been neglected and that bothers me. We have been doing too many fun things and now I don't remember all of the little things that I would like to have written down. I have to look back at all of my pictures on my phone and camera but when I already moved all of my photos to my hard drive that makes it even more difficult because my hard drive is the biggest mess ever! Why didn't I label anything (crying face emoji). So let me just update on a couple of things that I can remember from my phone. 

We made a extremely quick trip home for Thanksgiving. We were going to wait for Christmas to go home but Mike needed to get his truck re-registered and it has Ohio plates...and our luck, he needed a E-check and they only do those in the norther part of the state so we packed up the kids and spent a short 3 days seeing the little family that we could. Christmas will be the main time that we will actually be able to see everyone that we would like to see so that time will not be as rushed. But, Charlie did get to meet his grandparents and Mikes aunts and cousins during the holiday. 

Now, with re-registering your car...a birthday is soon approaching. Mike turned 32 on the 2nd. 

During the time back home, Cami had to spent the nights in boarding. I have never put any of my dogs in a boarding facility so it was totally new for me. We took her to her vets because they have a facility there.  I am sure she was totally stressed out the whole time being locked up, but if she just would calm down 90 degrees and maybe got along with cats we could have taken her home with us. She ended up getting a cut on her nose from rubbing it on something but other then that she is still well.  The girl that came out with her when I picked her up told me she was nuts. haha.

We also got our Christmas tree. We wanted to make up for last year so we got the biggest one we could fit in our house. 

I really need to go crazy after this holiday and buy new decorations for the tree. We have a ton but I don't want to put any of them up. Just not my style anymore so this tree will just have to look plain with lights and a couple ornaments. 

Speaking of Christmas. It never fails! Something always happen right around the holiday that puts a huge dent in your pocket. Back in July, we went back to our rental property to get it fixed up to rent after the pigs moved out. We spent a TON of money getting it back to being able to rent. The problem was we were not able to do all of the work because Mike only had 5 days off. The really really big things that needed more then one person and extra days just couldn't happen. One of those things was the railing that the jerks broke that needed to be replaced. We rented it out without having it but we couldn't leave them with no rail. It ended up that they had to dig through cement...which costs way more in labor then just a couple of holes in dirt. 2 weeks later after paying $$$!!!...I get a phone call from the woman that lives across the street saying that we might want to have someone look at the tree in our front yard. Our tree is the biggest tree on the whole block. It is huge! Massive trunk, tons of branches high in the sky. It is hundreds and hundreds of years old...maybe!? We were thinking that we would just have to trim a few branches to keep the dead ones from falling but we were wrong. They recommend the whole thing come down. If we did a couple branches this year, next year it will need the same thing...and so on. So now, $2000 quoted, we are going to be removing our tree. I still blame the stupid kids for this tree. Even though I know they didn't make the tree grow it is still somehow their fault!  I still hate them and we are still going to be perusing our money they owe us!

Anyways...

It is now 12am and I only have this much written. 

Ill have to come back and keep updating, and also all of the fun things that need their own posts. I have to take it all the way back to before Halloween. That's how long ago I have not written about.