From the mouth of toddlers :)

Funny story....

Rob and I have not been very avid church goers since we moved to Peoria (read - I've gone a few times...like 2). I have had a hard time finding a church I like. Our church in Chicago was too big - it had a gift shop. I went to one in Metamora, but it was a one room church..no lobby or cry room or anything. I finally found St. Thomas in Peoria Heights and I really like it. It's not too big, not to small and I really like that they have a ton of mass times every weekend. Saturday 8am or 5pm and Sunday 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 5pm. Lots of options!

Anyways - Today I decided to venture out with both boys to 9:30am mass. We got there a little early becuase the website said there was a nursery and I wanted to check it out for Justin. Turns out they do not have one - no biggie they have 2 nice big "cry rooms". So we walked into the church and there were probably 30 people there. The picture below is the alter at St. Thomas.....



.....Justin in his really loud voice says "Look Mommy - he's flying!!!" I think that is a dead give away that we don't take our kids to church enough :)

On a good note I don't think we'll sit in the cry room again. Both of the boys were SO GOOD! They were the quietest ones in there. To me a cry room is a place to enjoy mass without worrying if your kids make a few noises so you can teach them to be quiet in church. Apparently the parents I sat by saw it as story hour with their kids...animal noises and all. I was really proud of Justin & Mason!

Tanners Orchard

We headed out to Tanners this afternoon. It was not really a planned trip, but it was such a beautiful day and Justin was too wound up to nap. We had a great time! Here are some pictures from our afternoon :)

Daddy and Justin scoping out a pumpkin
Justin was looking for a baby one for Mason
Me and my boys on the tractor pulled covered wagon out to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard
Mommy and Mason
Justin trying to carry his pumpkin - it was pretty heavy :)
Daddy and Justin taking a break
Justin with our goodies - apples, cider, popcorn, and cider doughnuts...yummy! Not so good for the eating healthy plan though :)
Justin with our pumpkins - two big ones for Mommy and Daddy and a medium one for Justin and a baby one for Mason...
Holding the apple he picked from the orchard - good thing we didn't have to pay for what went on the ground!

Brothers :)

Well, they are not twins...but I think that you can definetly tell they are brothers! They are both outgrowing 6 month clothes at 6 weeks :)

Relaxing Saturday at home

Guess what we did today? Nothing! It was great! Well, not NOTHING...I don't think our family is capable of that, but we didn't have things all day long scheduled! Justin had skating this morning and he did GREAT! He improved so much from the first two weeks! Then we went grocery shopping and went home. Once the boys were both napping I went to the Riverplex to work out...I say "workout" but I don't think that what I'm doing qualifies as that yet. I am only walking on the track and doing 5/10 pound free weights. I don't want to jump in and kill myself and not want to go back. So I figure that something is better than nothing! I was still sore today, so I'm getting something back in shape - other than round I hope!

Things around our house are starting to calm down a little bit. Mason is getting into more of a routine. He is still a bit more challenging than Justin was. We are realizing how spoiled we were with Justin! Mason is just not as content to be left alone on the floor or in his swing as his big brother was; he loves to be held! That's okay though...we love holding him :) It just means that cleaning, cooking and other things around the house seem to take 100 times longer to do or don't get done at all. I need to learn to be okay with everything not clean or in it's place, but I'm not good at that!

Here are some pictures from around the house today - enjoy!

Daddy and Justin playing Wii
Mason watching and learning :)
Here are some of Mason just chilling while Daddy & Justin play Wii...I got a little camera happy :) It was funny becuase I took the one of both boys and then I went to take more of Mason and Justin said "Hey - you forgot to put me in the picture" :) Love him!





When Justin was born, Gramma & Papa got him a cloud blanket and then when Justin got older he called it his "Airplane Smoke" blanket because we'd alway look in the sky for gramma's airplane. I put it in Mason's room since it doesn't even cover Justin's legs anymore, but he took it back out and said he wanted that to be his blanket and we could buy a new one for Baby Mason. I know my mom looked all over and couldn't find another one, so when I saw this one I had to get it! Now Justin has his "airplane smoke" one and Mason has one with actual airplanes :)
Justin washing Mason's feet at bathtime. He wanted to "help" and I figured this was the safest job :) He's such a good big brother!

Here is a video of Justin explaining the "Helper Chart" that they use for school. Have I mentioned how much we love Ms. Ericka & Ms. Stephy? They have so many good ideas and take such good care of our kids :) I'll have to do a tour of the "school room" one of these days :)

Rivermen!

We had such a fun family night on Friday! We started out at the Toyota dealership looking to possibly buy a new Tundra. We loved the truck, but they would not get to a number that we agreed with...we'll see what happens. The truck was SO NICE! When we test drove it on Thursday, I sat in the back seat between the two car seats and was not crowded at all and I had my legs crossed in front of me - so much leg room! Oh well; if it's meant to be it will happen :) The boys were both so good while we were at the dealership; it was quite a surprise actually!

After that we had time to kill so we went to BW's for dinner before the Rivermen game. Mason slept the whole time and Justin was much more well behaved than normal for being at a restaurant. It again was a pleasant surprise! Oh, and I had the honey BBQ salad and it was FABULOUS! I liked it so much I recreated it for dinner tonight - for much cheaper!

Then it was time for the first Rivermen game! It was pre-season, but it was nice to see all of our hockey friends again. At the end of last season I was pregnant, so it was fun to show off Mason :) The only bad part came in the first period. I was holding Mason in his Baby Bjorn on my lap and a puck came flying over the glass right at us. I felt the wind as it went by my head (between me/Mason and Justin). It hit the row behind us where no one was sitting thankfully. I started crying. I couldn't help but think of what a tragedy that could have been if it was a few inches either way. I know that you have to be prepared for things like that at hockey games and the chances of it happening are slim, but that just scared the crap out of me. Justin had no clue - he just wanted to find the puck and could not figure out why I was crying :) The worst part was I saw it coming and it was so fast I couldn't react. It was almost like it was in slow motion... Oh well - hopefully that won't happen again this season!

The Rivermen lost, but it was a pretty fun game to see all of the new players. Justin is so funny because he LOVES to dance to the music that they play during the breaks. He dances until he realizes we are watching him and then he gets embarrased :) So cute!

Here are a few pics from dinner and the game!

The Hills

Such an angel.....
....however this is more like what has been normal :)
Back to angel in his little monkey onesie
Just chilling so Mommy can cook dinner
Justin with this two favorite things lately...his fleece one piece PJ's and an apple! I think he likes the PJ's because they are like what Mason wears; and this kid has gone through SO MANY apples lately! Ever since he went to an orchard with E&S he wants them all of the time! Not a bad snack to keep around I guess :)

St. Louis Blues Game

On September 19th we headed down to St. Louis for the pre-season game against the Dallas Stars. We had to get to a professional sporting event before Mason was a month old :) I didn't take many pictures at all, but here are a few! Mason slept pretty much the entire time; only opening his eyes when the goal horn sounded!

Family pictures

We got these taken a couple of weeks ago - I forgot to share on the blog! I am glad we took them; Mason is SO much bigger already! His one month check up was Friday and he is 21 1/2" and 11 lb 3 oz!!

1 month and other ramblings...

I can't believe Mason is one month old today! This month has gone by pretty quickly. Mason for the most part is a really good baby. He's not quite as content just being left alone as Justin was, but if you're cuddling him and holding him he's happy :) I really think that part of the difference is that Justin was formula fed and stayed full longer where Mason is hungry all of the time. Thank you to everyone for your comments and emails on my last post. Things are still up in the air right now about which way we're going to go. I called the lactation consultant and she recommended nursing every 60-90 minutes. That is not practical for our family. If I were a stay at home mom without a 3 year old that would be a great plan - but I have a career, a toddler, etc. I don't want Justin to resent Mason if I'm feeding him all.of.the.time. We'll see - I know that a lot of people have strong opinions on this issue one way or another, but I have to do what is right for us. I decided on Friday that I was going to stop nursing, but then I got sad about losing the mommy/Mason time and started again. We will see how it goes. I just ask that since this blog is open to close friends & family that you support whatever decision I make. I don't want to feel like I can't blog about what is going on for fear of being judged.

On to more fun topics - Mason went to his first professional sporting event yesterday! We went down to St. Louis for the Blues pre-season games against the Stars. It was fun! It was fan fest day where they had inflatables, activities and autograph sessions. The lines were SO long for autographs though that we passed on that part. Mason did really good at the game - he slept through most of it! He woke up when the goal horn went off (really loud!) but he just looked at me and went back to sleep. Justin did good too considering he didn't take a nap all day!

Speaking of Justin - we are having a little problem with him. On the way to St. Louis he peed in his pants on the way down. He has not had an accident in SUCH a long time! Then this morning we went to Walmart and he did it again - then he pooped in his pants twice after that. What the heck? I know that some people have said that kids sometimes do that when a baby comes along, but it's been a month and he has been absolutely fine. I'm just sad because we don't want to punish him, but we can't let him think it's okay either... We are at a loss for what to do.

I have a few (very few) pics from St. Louis that I will post tomorrow. It's harder to take pics now that I have a baby in my arms all of the time!

Breastfeeding....

<**DISCLAIMER** This post will be all about my boobs and nursing - Dads, Grandpas, Brothers, etc. if you choose to continue reading don't say you were not warned!!!>

Okay - I need some advice from any of my mommy friends out there who have had success with nursing. This little guy is just hungry ALL OF THE TIME. Sometimes I can't even get him to go two hours and he wants to eat again, but my boobs can't keep up with him! I have had to supplement with 1/2 formula 1/2 breastmilk a few times when I just had nothing for him or I wanted it to keep him full longer. Even adding the formula only seems to get me another 45 min or so between feedings. Did anyone have this problem?

I also found that although I would nurse him on both sides, he was not getting all of my milk. When he'd be on the first side and the milk would let down, it was also letting down in the other boob so it was just spraying into my bra pad. I found this out when I fed him right after I showered and did not yet have a bra on yet. So since then I've been feeding him on one side and pumping the other side at the same time and then feeding him the bottle that I pumped. It seems to work, but it's not very convienient! Any ideas?

I am also worried because I'm going to AZ for 3 days in October for work. I have some pumped and frozen, but not nearly enough and I can't seem to get anymore to freeze because my little piggy eats everything I make!! I think I'm just going to have to have to have them use what I have frozen and mix it with formula?

I REALLY want this whole breastfeeding thing to work. I told myself that I was going to give it a valliant effort since I did not with Justin and went right to formula. Although Justin seemed to be a happier baby and I really thing it's because he was full all of the time. Ugh. I'm torn :(

Any help/tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If you don't want to share your boob stories on my comments you can email me at melissamet@hotmail.com.

Thanks!

The Hills 9-16-09

I know - it's been a while again. What can I say; things are busy, busy! I'm working from home now so when Mason is sleeping I'm working. Not much time for blogging!

This past weekend we just hung out at home most of the time... Friday night we didn't do anything exciting; just played outside and hung out. Saturday morning Justin had his first skating lesson. He was SO excited for it!! He did pretty well for the amount of instruction they gave. I was not really impressed with the whole program - quite a cluster if you ask me. He is in the lowest level because he is by far the youngest one, but the teachers in his group were 3 figure skaters (probably young 20's). They were nice, but the kids pretty much just did what they wanted; no structure. I am hoping it was just because it was the first class and it will get better. He did better with Rob and I when we'd go skating after the Rivermen games. The teachers sort of each had 2-3 kids they were helping and it didn't help that the little boy in Justin's group had on jeans and a short sleeve shirt....no gloves, no sweatshirt, nothing. His parents looked like they were straight off the boat from India but still. The paper you get when you sign up is pretty specific about what to dress them in. I felt bad for him...he was so cold. Anyways; there are a few videos of Justin skating...or falling would be a better description :) But he got up every time and can't wait to go back!

Saturday night I went to the bar with Katie and her mom. I had qualified to win Kenny Chesney tix from 7-9 at Sully's, but no luck :( We had fun anyways! It was nice to get out for a few hours and just chat!

Sunday we ran a few errands in the morning and then just hung out at watched football! Very fun, very relaxing. Then Katie, Josh and her mom came over for dinner - fun times :) Justin loved the extra attention and her mom is great with Mason; she was a L&D nurse for a long time so she's awesome with babies!


Here are some pics from the weekend....


Justin practicing his hockey in the garage Friday night


He is actually really good when he has a stick in his hands; we think it helps him with his balance and he's concentrating on something other than trying not to fall :)









All ready for his skating class on Saturday morning - his backpack is great; it holds his skates, helmet, hockey gloves and socks!















Sitting on the bench waiting for Group A to be called so he could start his lesson!









Mason's first full Sunday of football! Of course I had to dress them sportsy for the day! That Bears onesie on Mason is size 6-9 month!!! And it fits :(


Mason just hanging out on the couch :) He's getting so big!