The Crafts

Today is Claudia's official one month birthday! The time has both flown by and dragged on. Like most new moms I can't image life without Claudia. She seems like a natural fit, despite the challenges and constant interrupted sleep. Kate is doing fabulous with our big life change. She is still potty trained, she has begun to play by herself (a teeny, tiny bit) and she has helped me out with lots of CJ related activities. I love my girls! But I do feel as if I deserve a big bowl of chocolate ice cream for surviving one full month of this. Whew! It is tiring. However, I see more routine entering our life everyday. And having two kids has really allowed me to see the day to day changes in both Kate and Claudia. Claudia is filling out more and more each day. Her neck muscles are getting stronger and we get to see her blue eyes more everyday. Kate seems like a true little girl with her ever expanding vocabulary and tricks. I need to take some video of Kate playing soccer. That girl is...

I went out for my first run since having CJ. Actually, I haven't run since very, very early in the pregnancy so it has been a long time coming. I ran a full 20 minutes and I am as pleased as punch with that. My legs are pretty achy now but I'm not sure if that is from the actual jog or if it is just a lack of sleep. Speaking of sleep, I have gotten only a little. CJ has been a champion sleeper during the day and a champion crier at night. Most of the time I can get her to sleep after an hour or so of trying but she wakes the moment I put her down. I may resign myself to sleeping in the guest room with her from here on out. That is about the only way I can guarantee any rest. But back to my happy news, I ran today! It was 20 minutes where I felt like myself again and not someone who is needed at every waking, and sleeping, moment. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mommy but I also fully enjoy the occasional kid-free moment. To continue my random topics, I also want to menti...

I have had the most wonderful day today! Last night CJ slept great! She was up only twice between 9:30 and 6:00. And both times I was up no more than 45 minutes. Then we all got ready for the day by 8:00 a.m. and were out the door for Mom's Morning Out. Kate moved up to the big kid room and spent her morning in the gym riding bikes, playing basketball and generally running at full speed. When I picked her up she jabbered on and on and on about all the fun things she did. CJ slept the ENTIRE TIME at Mom's Morning Out so I actually got to listen to the discussion and afterwards I was able to engage in adult conversation for over an hour! After picking up Kate we headed for home and were greeted by my friend, Laura, who lives in England and is home visiting for the month. Laura spent the entire afternoon here and we had a fabulous time catching up and watching all our kiddos play. To top it off, both CJ and Kate took a nap this afternoon so I got some mostly uninterrupted...

Here is a recent conversation between Kate and Matt. "Daddy, what's this?" "That is my briefcase, Kate." "What does it do?" "I take it to work with me." Long pause.... "Daddy, maybe someday when I get big I get briefcase of my own...PINK briefcase!" The girl loves pink!!

First off, thank you for all the well wishes on the sleep issue. An angel in the form of a 5'3" mother-in-law came to my rescue and took Kate while CJ and I napped. It was a great refresher. I've had lots of other offers to play with Kate, so thank you to all of you out there. Now on to my next post. I have adopted a few bad habits that have proven to make life easier. While I probably wouldn't condone the practice of these bad habits under normal, non-newborn circumstances, I currently have instituted and rejoiced in my new bad girl lifestyle. Here are my top recommended good bad habits. (In no particular order.) 1. Run the dishwasher whenever you want. Don't worry if it is not full or the dishes are not in perfect order. It is so much easier to just have everything clean. 2. Don't sort the laundry, just throw it in the washer. If I let the laundry pile up it takes me days to sort, wash, dry, fold and put away. But if I do one large mixed load every...

Excuse me while I have a mini-pity party for myself. I am tired. I am so very tired. My good baby who never fusses, fussed all day long and needed to be held constantly. And my 2 year old is incapable of playing by herself...ever. All this broken sleep is preventing me from keeping up with Kate. My body aches. I somehow hurt my knee which makes going up and down the stairs very painful. And so now, at 4:15 a.m., I am watching my newborn, with wide eyes, tell me that she is not tired. I have been up since 2:30 and I just want to cry. But that is not going to fix the situation. I will get to sleep again someday, right? On a peppy note, we have lots of ice cream in the freezer. If I have to be up all night I may as well enjoy a treat.

I just realized that six of the blogs I follow are written by women who have recently had or are expecting a baby...and I did not include myself in that count! I have been noticeably absent from blogging, facebooking and emailing lately. Life has just been busy. Well, I also have been trying to squeeze in naps when I have free time from children. Kate has struggled to stay in bed for both nap and bedtime. I therefore cannot put CJ nor myself down for a nap when I continually have to chase Kate back into bed. But I have been very fortunate to have both kiddos' naps time up so I can crash. CJ and I had three rather rough nights but last night was almost a dream. I really hope to have more of those types of nights. It makes the days SOOO much better...especially when Matt is at work all day. Speaking of which, Matt was supposed to work only half days last week but a sick coworker forced him to go back full time early. So I have already begun the adjustment to a full time stay...

As I mentioned in a previous post, Matt and Kate typically sing the Iowa State Fight Song for naps and bedtime. Below is a link to a video displaying their singing talents. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFGTZGw6gs

CJ taking a break from her busy life. Everyone has one of these pics...Dad and baby bonding over a nap. Both are really good at this high stress activity. :) This is Kate's first attempt at holding CJ. She held her arms in the air like she was stuck in a bank robbery. She has since warmed up to CJ. My friend, Heather, had a baby girl just five days before we had CJ. This is a pic of Baby Harlie visiting Baby CJ in the hospital. Aren't they cute! I can already tell they will be friends. Matching outfits.

Life with two kiddos has actually been pretty great. Although there is a HUGE disclaimer on my statement. And that disclaimer is that Matt has been home all week from work. So he has taken Kate to the park, golfing, to the bakery, etc. Which means I have had to take care of only one child most of the time. But next week Matt will return to work for mornings only so I will slowly get back into life as a true stay at home mom. CJ has been fabulous most of the time...especially considering the fact she is only seven days old. The only real challenge with CJ is that she goes through feeding marathons. She will literally want to do nothing else but eat for two hours straight. This happens at least once, sometimes twice, a day. But I guess we haven't established a real pattern because again...she is only seven days old. Night time for the most part really has been a positive experience. Kate sleeps like a champ, as usual, and like most babies, CJ has struggled to return to sleep after wa...