I made you an e card! (or two!)

I made brownies for Adam* (FROM SCRATCH!) the other day and they inspired this card:

*Don't let the fact that Adam requested the brownies make you think I didn't eat any.  I ate. . . some.


This was a thought I had constantly during my pregnancy with Axel.  Let's just say I was hard to live with!

April's Goal

Once again, this is not Olivia, just a cute baby.

So April's goal was to potty train Olivia.  First, the excuses!

-I wrote them before Axel was born, so I didn't know how demanding potty training could be.
-I kept putting it off because of this trip or that event.

Okay, those are out of the way.  We started full swing on Monday April 22nd.  I don't feel like writing out all of the things we tried or didn't try.  Basically I just put some panties on her and tried to take her every fifteen minutes.  That usually works pretty good, but if I don't make her sit on the potty long enough she might wet just minutes after "trying".  That's where most of our accidents come from.

I'm waiting for her to learn to tell me she needs to go potty before she does, not while she's doing it.  Thankfully I don't mind changing accidents and her panties are absorbent so they don't make a huge mess.  I've only had to change one poopy accident.  This is what I wrote about it on facebook:

SKIP IT IF YOU DON'T LIKE POTTY STORIES!
"It started when I put a diaper cover on because all her panties were dirty (he training pants are really absorbent, this diaper cover was just one that went to a cotton dress). Then I forgot to take her potty before lunch. I started nursing Axel while she was eating. She peed and it went everywhere! Then she started pooping. I told her to wait and that I would take her potty. So I put down Axel (screaming!) and got her out of her high chair and decided to pull off her pants rather than drip all the way to the bathroom. Well. . . it was too late. "DON'T MOVE." But she didn't listen and the contents of her pants landed plop on the bathroom floor (SO grateful we missed carpet!!!!) I sat her in the bath, stripped off her shirt and washed her as best I could. Diapered her, and put her in her crib for her nap. Finished feeding Axel and then DISINFECTED everything." 

Soooo, we're a work in progress over here. Still, she loves wearing panties and she goes most of the time I take her.  And as long as I'm on top of things, we're pretty accident free.

*     *     *

On  another note, I convinced my sister Kellie to finally start writing her blog again!!  Check it out.  She's like 100x funnier than me, and 1000 x less vain.  Its good.

30 x 30 Challenge

I have been wanting to do the 30 x 30 challenge for at least a year, since I started reading Sunday Crossbow.  Sadly, she doesn't blog anymore.  And I kinda forgot about the challenge, until I started following Mrs In Training and she was just about to start the challenge this May!  And so I thought, why not?

Reasons why I'm doing this:
*Satisfy my fashion creativity without having to buy new clothes (okay confession, I had to buy a few things to fill my 30 items)
*Not have to ponder what clothes are good for nursing Every.Morning.
*This might help me learn to accessorize better.  I've never been one to wear a lot of jewelry, and I have so much.
*For fun!

I'm still not in my perfect body (heck, not even my "okay" body) but maybe getting my picture taken daily will motivate me a little more :)

TOPS:

Shirts

From left to right, top to bottom:1) Rose and lace shirt from TJ Maxx, 2) Mint stripe shirt from TJ Maxx, 3) Cream sheer top from Target, 4) Blue floral from Express, 5) Coral top from Anchor Blue, 6) Light blue button up from Old Navy

Cardigans and Jackets

1) Navy sweater from Abercrombie and Fitch, 2) Brown cardigan from Target, 3) Red cardigan from my mom (thanks to my sister Kellie for giving it to me!), 4) Brown corduroy from Wal-Mart (a loooong time ago.  I refuse to shop there any more), 5) Gray cardigan from Target, 6) Aqua cardigan from Target. 

Tanks (Another confession.  Some of these are maternity tanks.  BUT, I still like them because they're long and they still fit fine even when I'm not preggo.)

1) White tank from Shade, 2) Floral tank from Target, 3) Black tank from F21, 4) Gray tank from Old Navy, 5) Aqua tank from Old Navy, 6) Ruffle tank from my mom (thrifted)


BOTTOMS: 

Skirts and Dresses

1) Salmon stripe from Old Navy, 2) Gray stripe from Old Navy, 3) Brown floral dress from a little shop in Fiji, 4) Floral skirt made by me

Pants (I feel like this is the clothing item I have the hardest time with post-baby, so my blue jeans are old, worn out and not my favorite, but I'm not getting new ones until I get my weight back down)

1) Skinny jeans from Forever Young Shoes, 2) Flares from Wal-Mart, 3) Peach skinnies from my mom (thrifted) 4) Red skinnies also thrifted (by me!)


SHOES

1) Metalic wedges from my Mother-in-law (They're so worn out I don't know what brand they are!) 2) Black heels Franco Sarto, 3) Tan flats Tommy Hilfiger, 4) Gray stripe Toms

Of course, its snowing today!  So I guess I'll have at least one chance to wear my corduroy jacket.  :)

Check out these other ladies who are also participating.

Nicknames

My dad is the king of nicknames.  We all had several growing up.  Some are obvious, like Kim Kim.  Some are less obvious, like Monchichi (my brother Rob's because he had a buzz cut and looked like this) 

I guess I take after my dad (I can hear Adam laughing in my head.  He would say that is an understatement!) Axel has several nicknames.  My favorite thing is watching Olivia call him by what ever name I just used.  It's very sweet. 

Just a few of the names we call Axel:

Axel Boy

Baby Axel

Axel Waxel

Little Nuget

Little Strawberry 

Chuga Chuga

What do you call your babies? 

PS.  I'm also over on Shannon's blog, The Scribble Pad, talking about my first six weeks as a mom of two! 

I'm not good at being serious

I was reading Erin's blog, as I often do, and she asked herself a bunch of deep questions.  I thought it would be fun to answer them as well!  Here we go:

1. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?
Um, this is hard because I'm one of those people that freaks out wondering how one different decision would change my whole life. If I could do it over again I would probably go to a school with an interior design major, but how would that change my life? I don't know, but I'm betting I wouldn't be married to Adam since I met him while I was teaching high school and I wouldn't have Axel and Olivia! Scary!

Basically I just want to be an interior designer.

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In five years I'll be almost 35, so I guess I hope I have all my kids by then.  Let's think this out. . . I want my next child to be born in the spring of 2016 (no more January babies, that was rough!) And then another one in the spring of 2018.  And that might be all.  Or I'll have one more.  Who knows.

I do want to be in a house!  I hope I'm doing something creative.  I'm about to open my etsy shop, I'm excited to see how I like it, but its too soon to make a long term goal yet.  As long as I'm sewing and creating, I'll be happy.

3. Do you honestly want kids?
Yes!  I love my babies.  I mean, sure I see other people with all their free time (you think you don't have free time?  Take care of my kids for a week and you'll realize how much you do have!) but soon my babies will be more capable and I wont have to mop the floor after every meal Olivia eats or nurse Axel 8 times a day.


4. What has been the best moment of your life so far?
I'm with Erin, I feel like I'm supposed to say my wedding.  That might have been the most important and the most significant, but there are things I would do differently if I could (ooh, question #1! And I don't think changing my wedding day schedule would have a big impact on my life today. . . ) It was a busy stressful exhausting awesome day.  But I like the small things, the moments when Olivia hugs me tight or when Axel falls asleep on my shoulder.  So maybe there isn't just one, but a bunch of little ones I never want to forget.


5. What is your life theme song?
I know my funeral song!  Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum.  But honestly, I've been trying to answer this question for a long time, aaaaand.  I can't.  I can't pick one song.  Maybe I can make a mix tape, but ONE?  No, not possible.  I think the problem is (after reading several other people's answers to this question) is I don't really like serious songs.  So its hard to say that my theme song is California Girls by the Beach Boys (hey, that is not a bad idea!) when it seems so superficial.  But I like an upbeat song, because I like to dance around the kitchen while I clean, dang it!


6. What is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die?
Travel more.  Other than that, I'm super content with my accomplishments.  I know I could do a lot with my education career if I want, and knowing that is enough.  I don't actually need to do it.


7. If you could choose one thing to be known for, what would it be?
As a kid I think I answered this question: Being pretty.  I'm not going to lie, that thought did just cross my mind.  I haven't changed much.  No, but seriously, I would want to be known for my cooking.

8. If you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc), what would it be?
No consequences?  Sleep through the night without Axel getting hungry!  Soon enough, soon enough.


9. What has been the most challenging moment in your life?
Its a three way tie between:
1) Taking care of Olivia when I was super sick from being pregnant with Axel
2) Taking care of Olivia and Axel when he had "colic" (Still not sure if that's what he had, or if it was just gas!)
3) Freaking potty training.  


10. Summarize yourself in one word.
Blonde.

(Its the only word general enough, everything else I thought of was too specific or too boring)


So there you go.  Learn anything you didn't know?  Because I sure did!

Facebook: Its love/hate

So many people rag on facebook.  Its like the cool thing to quit it.  I get it, I do.  But you know what?  I can't get out of the house most days and I don't really have many friends close by even if I did.  What I can do is type with one hand while nursing Axel eight times a day.  And so thanks to facebook (and of course this blog!) I still manage to chat with some mom friends every day.  Yeah, it might look like I'm online all day long.  I am.  No I'm not neglecting my kids.  I read Elmo four times today and held Olivia or Axel or both almost the entire 8 hours Adam was gone.

That being said, I've become a facebook status update connoisseur (that is a hard word to spell, thank you google for figuring out what I meant to type) Here are my favorite and least favorite types of updates:

Love
-What we're having for dinner.  I hear a lot of complaints about this one.  "Why do I care what you're having for dinner???"  Those people have obviously not tried to come up with a months worth of meal ideas.  I love when people share, I almost always want the recipe.

-Funny stories.  About anything.  Your kids, your job, heck even your dog if its really truly funny.  (Sorry, I'm not a dog lover.  Or a cat lover.  Pretty much I just like my human children).  Is having kids a requirement to liking these kind of posts?  I don't think so, but to be honest I can't remember much before having Olivia.

-On that note, I love mom stories, even if they're not funny.  Didn't sleep last night?  I want to hear about it (makes me feel better about my five hours if you only got two!)  Its just nice to know there are people in your boat.

Hate (is a strong word, but its the yang to the yin of love, ya know?)
-Negative Nellys.  Okay, so I get it, life is rough.  But do you have to complain every.ten.minutes?  Especially people that complain about how mean their kids are.  They are KIDS.  If you don't have the emotional maturity to realize they don't actually 'hate' you, well its going to be a long 18 years.

-Quotes that you didn't write.  Or memes.  Are those the same thing?  In any case, this isn't pinterest.

Just call your grandkids and tell them you love them.  No need to repost this tackiness.

-False information.  Snopes, have you heard of it?  Onions aren't going to kill you, microwaved water isn't going to make your plants die (or do anything harmful to you either) and the government has not removed "In God We Trust" from the new dollar coin (heads up, its on the edge of the coin, cool huh?). 

What do you love/hate about facebook? 

A quick run

I just got back from my first run post baby.  And by just, I mean a half an hour ago.  And I'm still wheezing.  And it was 1/4 of a mile.  And I worked hard not to pee my pants (sorry, tmi)

Speaking of wheezing, thanks to Weezer for making it happen.  My iPod was on shuffle and I would skip songs if they weren't making it easier to run and all three songs that I listened to (I might have song ADD, it doesn't take three FULL songs to run 1/4 mile) were Weezer.