Usually after I get the boys ready and settled with breakfast Riley is up for her second morning feeding. I spend about 30-45 minutes feeding and burping her. After that I usually get her dressed for the day. I try to have myself ready in the morning before tackling the kids but that is not always the case. Therefore I am either the very first to be ready for the day or the very last. I use to spend at least 15 minutes on myself now that has dropped to about 5-10 minutes. I wish I had more time.
Tuesday and Thursdays are our very busy days. We head out for the day to drop Caleb to preschool. That takes up most of the day and we arrive home in the late afternoon with just enough time to get dinner ready. However, sometimes I like to cheat and eat out. I know I am guilty of it. But I am honestly always so tired that the idea of cooking doesn't always sit well with me. I try to give myself at least two breaks a week from cooking. And that is usually on Tuesday and Thursday. I would have Ryan cook but his idea of cooking is opening up a can good and heating it up. Dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with can goods but I dont like the idea of eating can goods every day!
A few updates:
Ryan-He is still working for Safety-Kleen and loves his job. He earned his associates degree this past December right before we welcomed Riley. He is now working on his BA in Accounting. He likes to do school work at the last minute, which drives me nuts but he always gets it done. Kudos to him! He recently went out of town to Phoenix for some work trip.
Deanna-Well I pretty much gave you my update above. I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I can button my pre-pregnancy jeans however they dont fit as comfortably as they use too. I suppose that is the fact of having three kids and your body changes. I am just not that fortunate like other mothers who shrink down and look like they dont have kids. I still have more work to do and I work at it every day! I am nursing Riley and have started taking some natural remedies to help promote health lactation. I am drinking mothers milk tea and taking Fenugreek capsules. I also was informed that an essential oil called Fennel helps as well. I plan to head down to whole foods and see if I can get Fennel in a capsule. The tea and Fenugreek is working but I thought I would try something else to add to my remedies.
Caleb- He will be turning 5 in August, which means we are ready to enroll him in Kindergarten. Enrollment starts March 1st. Ryan and I both cannot believe that Caleb is ready for school. We will attend an enrollment meeting at the school we plan to enroll him in on February 28th. They will talk to us about the half day and full day programs they offer. We are highly thinking that half day is the best option for Caleb considering he will be going every day of the week. Plus the school charges a somewhat expensive monthly rate for full day Kindergarten. He enjoys preschool and looks forward to his Tuesday and Thursday sessions. He gets to do show and tell every Thursday and every third week of the month they have a bounce house for exercise. They also have holiday parties, and had one for Valentines Day. Caleb gave out Spider-man Valentine goodies.
Thomas- He is very active and has selective hearing. I feel like I am always repeating myself with him. I guess repetition is necessary with toddlers. He is interested in learning to use the potty, which is nice because he is wanting to learn way earlier than Caleb ever did. I suppose that is because he observes his bigger brother going to the potty. I also think he is tired of diapers. We will more than likely attempt potty training within the next few weeks. We are just waiting for a weekend that we can effectively concentrate on the training. He loves to sing his ABC's and 123's. He also enjoys tugging his Mickey and Minnie mouse stuff animals that he begged us to buy for him around the house. He is also very smart with many of his education shows he watches on the TV or iPad. He is always answering the questions out loud that the show will ask. We plan to hopefully enroll him into preschool this upcoming fall. We would like to enroll him in the same one that Caleb is attending now. If we get him potty trained in time he will meet the deadline of Sept 30. He has to turn 3 by that date.
Riley- She is almost two months old and is certainly getting bigger by the day! She is more filled out now with baby fat. She is wearing 3 month clothing and we are finding that some of her 3 month clothing is already too small on her. She is very long so I have a feeling she will take after her brothers in height. I guess that means I may just be the shortest in the family! We have an upcoming appt for her two months check up this coming week. We will find out the numbers on how much she has grown. I do know that she has to be at least over 10 lbs now. The last couple of nights she has been good and sleeping through the night. She may get up around 5:30 a.m. for a feeding but I say that is pretty good considering she was getting up every two hours or hour and half to eat.
Our Pets-We recently put down one of our dogs Brandie on January 9th. We learned shortly after having Riley that Brandie had developed cancer throughout her lungs. The cancer spread to her lungs from three tumors that developed in her throat. Coming to this decision was very difficult for me. I didnt want to put our first child down, but after several days of much thought I came to the conclusion that I must end her suffering. Also, when we do sign up for having a pet we must remember that putting them down or losing them to natural death is bound to happen. I suppose the hardest part is just coming to terms with it. I am comfortable with my decision and I am at peace knowing she is not suffering anymore. I am just happy that Ryan and I were able to give her a quality life filled with love and joy. We know deep down she truly felt like one of our kids and a part of our growing family. We still have our dog Buddha (Brandie's son) he is still taking her "disappearance" hard. But we make sure he feels loved and still apart of the family. He is often chasing our cat Cocoa. I think those two are getting a long just fine in Buddha's thoughts... Cocoa probably just tolerates him.
Ryan and I are planning a few weekend trips to get out of Las Vegas. I told him we really need to focus on doing more family things together. Even if it means we take a short trip out of town to a place that is 4 or 5 hours away. I am looking forward to these short weekend trips. I think its refreshing for all of us considering we do spend most of our time indoors at home while Ryan is at work. I am still trying to overcome the anxiety of going to a store or any place with three kids. Loading and unloading them is a job in itself.
Here are some other photos to enjoy!!!
That is about it for our updates... Will write more later! Thanks for reading!
