Life is Funny

So again it's been a month since my last post. As any of you with children may know- I'm keeping a pretty good track record!

Since my last post I've gotten some pretty incredible news! We are expecting another bundle of joy in September! I've been a slacker and haven't gone to the doctor yet but I've got an appointment set up with my local midwife for Saturday.

We are thrilled! I have always wanted to keep my children close in age- no matter what that does to my sanity. Two-ish years apart is perfect for us. Especially if I'm still banking on having four kids some day.

Finding out about this new pregnancy has gotten me really excited and really anxious. My first experience with child birth was not exactly what I had pictured (what in life ever is?) so the thought of going through all of the madness again was enough to make me take a deep breath and ask if I were ready?

Are we ever? It's like riding a bike down a hill for the first time. You're going to wipe out and it's going to hurt like crazy, but then you're going to do it again and master it. I don't expect to go in and she-hulk this second baby out in one hour flat (as opposed to the three day ordeal the first time) but I'm going into this with high hopes that my body wakes up this time and participates in this wonderful occasion.

Will we find out what it is? Probably. I'm impatient, so impatient that the one thing on earth that can actually be kept a secret from me I'm spoiling. Call me a party pooper, I like to know whats growing in there.

Will I continue to nurse the little dude? OF COURSE. There is nothing that shows breast feeding is harmful to your growing fetus. I'm still 1000% behind letting weaning happen on it's own terms.

Am I open to Tandem Feeding? Why not? Mothers of twins do it. As long as there is milk in these machines- my little humans will be fed!

Let us all prepare for another adorable face to make it's entrance.

The Gifts

Home made gifts are ruling my small kitchen table right now. I couldn't be happier. I am so in love with making him things that are going to last forever.

The couch we made him has been an INCREDIBLE success. With the help of his "Pop-tart" and "Gram-Crackers" power tools we were able to cut out the pieces from a piece of scrap wood in the basement! From there we took advantage of a super sale at Jo Ann Fabric and bought the foam, fabric and batting. 

After the assembly of the pieces I recruited my sister to give me a hand with the upholstery. It was my first time, and I don't know about you guys but I like to have a guiding hand when doing things for the first time.

I was so eager to get this thing done that we put the entire thing together in one day. I mean stayed up until 2 AM to get it finished, and after all that I HATED it. There was bunching in the fabric and it was just gross looking. 

So  I woke up in the morning and took every single last staple out to try it again. This time we made a slipcover for the whole thing that we just stapled to the bottom and its FABULOUS! This birthday is coming together. 

 I've also made him this super cool universe tie. And on the agenda is an apron and chef's hat. Those are still in pieces on my table, begging to be sewn together. In time little pieces of fabric....in time.

For good measure he's also started helping me make dinner and clean up dishes after dinner. He loves it!

And lastly- I can't stop listening to this song. So if you haven't listened to it, you probably should!

I'm Nursing The Next Star of Cirque Du Solei

I’ll spare you the pictures of my “tee-tah’s” for now. But you must know the beating they are taking with my extended nursing plan.  Harvey is just a few days away from being a year old.  *moment to process the fact that an ENTIRE year has come and gone* Along with the one year of life under his belt he has also developed a few other fun things, like 10 teeth and dexterity!  My normal 30 minute bonding sessions have turned into wild acrobatic adventures.

He has learned to maneuver himself into all sorts of fun pretzel like situations. My personal favorite is the alligator death roll, while still nursing the entire time! A new one developed just yesterday is balancing his head on one arm of the chair and his feet on the other making a perfect little Harvey triangle- again, all while still nursing.

Another fun one (we co-sleep) is demanding to have both breasts present while eating. I don’t know about where you live and how well your home is  heated but our is old and drafty and hovering around the 60 degree mark inside. My nipples were not meant to withstand that sort of cold! So while I’m trying to wrap my free milk machine in the t shirt he is wiggling his icy hands under it to get in there.

I am more and more impressed with his crafty ways.

Bring it on year two!

The First Birthday

I've never been one of those people that requires a huge over the top party for much of anything. And when it comes to my little man, that hasn't changed. I want him to have values that are based around the love and excitement of celebrating with friends and family that doesn't involve having to spend 500 dollars or be at some extravagant place. 

I remember being little and always excited about my birthday because my mom would make my cake. She had this great chocolate cake, frosting, and crushed oreos all over it. It was simple and that's the way I like it.  I can't make that same cake for Harvey because of our food restrictions- but I can still make him a cake! 

I have gotten a lot of questions about where this party is going to be, what is the theme, how many people are coming? Enough to make my head spin! He doesn't even have friends yet. Who is this party for?? He's going to want to eat cake and then have nothing to do with us! 

So my plan is to keep it simple and small. Family. My house. A cake I make, and gifts I've made. Since he has become enamored with stirring things and putting things into pots my mom and I are making him a kitchen! I'm sure I'm more excited about this than most moms should be- but come on! Kitchen sets are so cool! A fridge, an oven, a range!!! AND  he can grow into it! My little chef in the making!

The second gift will be from Jason and myself and we are making him a couch! We went and had a few pictures of the family done and there was a little couch there as a prop- you'd think Harvey won the lottery. He could climb on it, bounce on it and not have to share with mom and dad! I've got high hopes for this project as well. As soon as we can get them assembled I'll post some pictures. Until then you'll just have to enjoy our little faces. :)

We've learned to "kiss"

Happy New Year

All right! We have successfully made it through our first year as parents. How did we do it? I really can't say other than I'm so very thankful for gut feelings and mommy instincts. 2012 was a year full of rewards. We gained a beautiful baby boy! We lost an entire income and became more aware of what was important to us. We read almost 30 books between the two of us and lost nearly 100 lbs. All in all I think we rocked out 2012.

Now for 2013. Our goals for this year aren't extravagant.
1- Become a self sustaining household.
2- Find a job for Jason that can satisfy his desires rather than just our bills
3- Add another sweet face to our family
4- Find a place that we can really start to call home.

I think those all satisfy a greater part of our lives. Sure we can all always stand to lose a few pounds, tighten up here and there but I want to start looking at the bigger picture and what impact each decision I make has on it.

We are happy first and foremost. I'm satisfied and then some with how our lives are going at this moment. We continue to make strides towards our dreams and most importantly we continue dreaming.

A farm? Yes.
A big family? Yes.
A home to house us all? Yes.
Convince friends to go with us so we can have a small community of like minded people? It's in the works.

I'm keeping in mind that every day is a new day full of opportunity and choices, I'm trusting myself to make the choices that will bring us closer and closer to our end goal.

You never have to wait for a new year to "start things off right". There is always the next moment that you can decide whether or not things are going how you want them to and make the choice to blow that out of the water.

Here's to all of your resolutions and may you all stick to them and realize whatever goal you have set!

What are you looking for in 2013?

Raising Harvey

WHOA NELLY! How is it already christmas???? I have been terrible about keeping up with my posts but I've got an excuse. Whether or not it's a good one is up to you to decide.

As you all well know my little family is less than rich. That being said I decided that this year I was going to hand make all of our gifts with items I already had around the house or that I only needed a few dollars to purchase and make. I've always loved crafting gifts for people. I find myself walking around stores with a dazed look on my face when I try to buy someone something. I just think most every thing out there is so impersonal and that just isn't my style.

I've been trying to squeeze in crafting time, which has cut down dramatically on all of my "other" time. I'm cranking this out quickly as Harvey naps. (Letting my shower go for today) I tell myself that I'll stay up late and craft while the boys sleep, but I'm awful at being up past 10. Firstly, if I'm awake past 9:30 I am automatically hungry. Secondly, I get grumpy because I'm ridiculous.

Okay- so there is my excuse for there being a MONTH between posts. Bear with me folks, I'm new to this :)

As you all may well know, our little family has been vegan for awhile now. It wasn't nearly as hard as we had imagined it being. It takes knowledge to motivate us, and after doing all of our research we found that our new life style choice was going to be one that did not include the consumption of any animal products. Recently we've decided on another new life style choice to partner with our already vegan life. We are now a gluten free family.

Are we crazy? I was just starting to get in my groove with cooking vegan meals. I had found all of my go to recipes and replacements for the things we liked to eat. VICTORY! Or so I thought. After again, educating ourselves on the effects that eating wheat can have on a human body we decided that it was time to cut that out of our lives as well. In short- we eat raw (sort of) still no meat, and we like to cook our veggies!

Immediately after switching to our gluten free diet both Jason and myself have lost a dramatic amount of weight. I mean dramatic. Since January, with all of our lifestyle choices we have lost close to 100 lbs combined. WHAT?!?! And let me tell you, it feels so good :)

I'm more and more encouraged and motivated to get my family on a healthy track. I love knowing that what I'm feeding Harvey is not processed and that I made it with my own two hands. We do not eat out, anywhere, ever. How could we? Almost everything has gluten in it, and even if it says gluten free the substitutions they use to replace the gluten are just as bad. So if it's not a vegetable, fruit or corn product we aren't eating it.

I will readily admit that this transition was a little harder because of how much I love and live for bread. Any kind of bread, sweet bread, savory bread, frozen bread, home made bread and how well bread pairs with things like pasta and casseroles.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel here. After your body can detox itself from all of the cravings you will still experience you will feel so good!

I am nervous about sending Harvey off to school or friends houses and hoping that he always can make the right decisions. I imagine that if he grows up only knowing one way of eating he will be more confident in basing his choices on that than just on what tastes good.  I will be posting recipes as I come across them on here- hopefully with pictures of Harvey helping.

Oh yeah- maybe you all know already. This kid is MOBILE! And I mean it- walking, running, pulling on everything in sight. Please think good thoughts about all the breakable things in my home.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. I hope that you all travel safely and love all over your families.

Here are some pictures of my loves :)

Pregnancy and Parenting

My pregnancy in itself was a beautiful surprise. I was so happy and eager to spread the news when we found out about our little Harvey. I was taken back at how many negative things were hurled in our direction. So much talk about losing sleep, not showering, forget doing anything you like, giving up on this that and the other. 

And while some of these things have come to be true, the negative connotation they were presented with have not. I've said it a million times before that I don't get sad about not showering, I don't miss sleep because my time is now filled with this beautiful little boy. My son. I wish that when you told people you were pregnant it wasn't responded to with "ohhhhhh boy are you in for it".

So, with all of that in mind I want to let everyone know that my pregnancy and now my parenting has been amazing. I have really and truly loved every minute of it. Every time I get a little frustrated with him staying up late, or just being cranky I think about how lucky I am to have him at all. Please, if you are pregnant or know someone that is shower them with positive thoughts and advice. Let them know that times may get tough but that they pass and that the good is always outweighing the bad.

 

I thought that after he was born all of the negative comments and judgement would stop. This has not been the case. To everyone that can't leave well enough alone I have this to say.

 

You are not the parent to my child. You are unaware of how he functions, or how our parent child relationship works. I feel that each parent is going to parent their child in a different way. If there were a cookie cutter way of going about it well we would all be the same wouldn't we?

I would never put my child's health or safety in jeopardy. I take comfort in having him in the bed with me at night and I am NOT ashamed that I do that. Jason and I feel much better knowing we are right there with him and he doesn't ever have to wake up alone. Jason has to work all day and at night he's got a few waking hours with him and then gets to enjoy snuggling up to his son all night and being there for him in that way.

I'm also not ashamed that Harvey is still breast feeding at his age. He will be able to breastfeed as long as he is wanting for it. He eats solid foods, he plays all day and he nurses occasionally. It is recommended to breastfeed your children until they are two because of all the benefits for their brain and immune system. Unfortunately in our culture it has become so taboo to do so. 

Society can kiss my rear, Harvey's well being is more important then everyone else's opinion. I love him and want the best for him. (This is in no way directed towards those mothers that were unable to breastfeed)

I understand that parents can be uncomfortable with it, and I would never stick my nose up at someone for not doing it. But in my case I am okay with it, and Jason is behind me 100% with all of it. So please don't send your negative thoughts at me for doing what I feel is best for my family. 

Harvey will find his way to his own bed in his own time, and he will wean himself off of the breastmilk when he is ready. Give your children the benefit of the doubt, they will guide you just as you guide them. 

There are so many ways to raise your children, listen to your heart and your child and your family will find it's way into the perfect groove.

Thank you for your ears, or eyes rather.

Courtesy of Kristen Horton

Courtesy of Kristen Horton

Courtesy of Kristen Horton

Courtesy of Kristen Horton