Boston

I have been trying to decide how to approach this blog, but I wanted to write something for my memories sake on this historical moment.

First of all - where was I when this happened. April 15, 2013 was a Monday (tax day) and I was at work. I first saw something about the bombs on Facebook when a friend posted "Praying for Boston" as her status. I then went to MSN to see what the headlines were. All it said was that there was an explosion at the finish line of the Boston marathon. I assumed it was just some pyrotechnics that were set up for the finish line that went off incorrectly or something. A terrorists attack did not cross my mind. Just like I did not think the planes were intentionally flown into the twin towers in 2001 - that is just not where my mind goes first, I am an optimist I guess. By the time I got home from work, Nathan had the news on and I saw the coverage and realized it was in fact an attack. Though it was smaller scale that the last one (9/11) it was no less scary and seemed unfinished (as it still does to me today - I don't think we have heard the last of this).

Once I learned this was an attack, my first thought was that it was not from another country. I don't know why but I kept telling Nathan that it seemed like a protest more than an attack - from an American. Our amazing police forces were able to identify who was at fault for this and put pictures out in a few days! This was crazy to me - we have one sophisticated government and investigators. The conspiracy theories started - which I fully stay away from after the Sandy Hook ones, I have enough to worry about thank you very much. So then the two suspects go on one last spree where they end up killing a police officer and stealing a car and throwing homemade bombs and grenades at the police. One of the suspects is killed and the other is on the run. So, the entire Boston area is put on a lock down - no one is allowed to go anywhere - until this man is found. By the next afternoon, this suspect was found hiding in a man's boat in his backyard. He is now alive and in custody.

Now, for my feelings on this. I am anxious to hear what their motives were. I cannot fathom any reason that anyone would want to do that. I don't know that any answer will satisfy me either. This left me feeling vulnerable, scared, and a little paranoid. I didn't know what to do, so I decided to do all I knew that could help and that was to pray. But, I didn't only pray for the victims. I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed and saw a picture of the suspect that the police were looking for and I prayed for him. It felt strange and a little wrong, but very right. He needed those prayers. He needs guidance and God is the only one I know that can give him what he needs. I have learned in church to pray for our enemies and decided to give it a try. It helped me feel better, like I was helping in some very small way.

Lastly, how this has changed me.  I told Nathan that I was glad I lived in a smaller town that no one would want to bomb, then remembered I live 30 minutes from Arkansas Nuclear One! Thankfully, I have been reassured (yes, I checked with someone) that there is always high security there and that it would take a certain kind of attack and a lot of it to make the nuclear plant release. I decided it wouldn't hurt to get an evacuation plan in place for me and the kids with the sitter (who is closer to the nuclear plant than we are). People are crazy and you just never know what can happen. I am the mom who doesn't let my kids out of my site and start panicking if I can't see them in public. Overprotective? Realistic. I follow Noah around at the park like a lost puppy dog and you can bet I know everything he is doing there and who he talked to. I remember on this last Black Friday I was standing in a very crowded store waiting to check out and thought to myself, someone could just get a gun out and kill hundreds of people very easily. I think the same thing anywhere I go where there are large crowds - I am jaded. Thank you 9/11, Sandy Hook, Columbine. My job is to protect my family and I would without question or hesitation die for them and sadly wonder, more often than I used to, if I will need to.

God Bless America. God Bless our victims. God Bless our government. 

God Bless our enemies. God Bless You. 

What a busy and blessed weekend!

Just when I wonder if I am doing this whole parenting thing right, Noah goes and amazes me! Noah had his first dentist appointment Friday and it was a BIG proud parent moment! He walked right back to the chair, hopped up, laid back, and opened his mouth! The dentist and his assistant were amazed! They said especially for a boy - apparently the boys are usually not very cooperative! (Must be all the practicing we did at home, we were constantly having him lay down and open his mouth for us) I LOVED this dentist office! They were very laid back and let Noah explore everything (like most toddlers like to do) and even went and found him special dinosaur stickers (the boy is obsessed with dinosaurs). I told him if he was good then he could get a new dinosaur at the store so we went to the store afterwards. He picked him one out and forgot about it before we got home - so he will now be getting it for his birthday :)

Saturday we went to visit Nathan's grandpa in the nursing home. It is something we meant to do sooner and often and decided to make the time now and stop letting other things get in the way. Noah was goodish :) He is 2 and it was a new place with lots to explore and I really didn't expect him to sit still and quiet the whole time and the residents loved watching him run and play - so it really wasn't that bad. He is far from shy though! Grandpa was having a better day and seemed to remember Nathan. It was his first time to see Ryan and it had been awhile since he saw Noah. It was a good visit and we hope to make it back there soon!

From there we went to the Spring Greening Festival in Clarksville. We had never been before so we wanted to check it out. It was interesting. Noah loved the "bounce park" - they had 2 free bounce houses set up and he was the smallest kid over there bouncing - it was pretty cute! We walked around through all the vendors and got Noah's face painted for the first time and got Ryan her first tye-dyed outfit and an owl to hang on her wall. We were all wore out at this point and went home where Ryan slept for 4 1/2 hours and Noah and I watched a movie and put puzzles together. That night I went to see my BFF Cortney (shout out Coot!) to get a lesson from her husband on a Mac computer she was selling to see if I was interested in buying it! I know I impressed her husband with my quick ability to catch on to the operating system :) I've heard that once you go Mac you never go back - I guess we will see won't we :)

Ryan Maelynn is 7 Months!

It's that time again! Here are this months highlights:

* She weighs around 17 pounds and is 27.5 inches long

*She is still nursing when she is with me. She has slowed down on her milk drinking a lot - so I am more than keeping up with her now! She drinks around 12 ounces a day and 1 jar of baby food at the sitters during the day, then I feed her 7 ounces of baby food and nurse her before bed at night. She still loves baby food and kicks her legs and throws her arms when she sees the spoon coming!

* I am so glad I have good sleepers! Ryan is now going to sleep at 9:00 and waking up at 8:00 (sometimes later on the weekends). On the weekends I will sleep until I hear her talking on the monitor and she will lay there content until I take a shower and get ready (Noah was the same way) - such good babies!

* She is still in size two diapers, for at least one case more.

* She is in 9-12 month clothes and size 2 shoes finally (her feet are small and skinny!).

* She loves to bounce - she is bouncing up and down when I hold her all the time! She still loves her bouncer and is getting into her play table a lot more now.

* She FINALLY rolled over this month. But, that doesn't help with tummy time - now she is rolled over in 5 seconds when I put her on her tummy! I am trying to get her ready to crawl - she has to train for the Peach Festival Diaper Derby in July ;)

* She has 3 1/2 teeth :) Both bottoms are in and 1 1/2 tops are in! She will be able to eat puffs soon!

Happy 7 Months sweet girl!

A few things...

(I just wanted to record a few things for me memories sake - aka: I can argue with Nathan when something happened or the facts later)

Noah is doing amazing with potty training now. As I sat scrubbing one of the 5 puddles of pee out of my floor a few months ago, I really never thought I would see this day. 25% of the time he is telling me when he has to go pee and we have gotten the whole #2 part down (unless he is asleep - for some reason the boy likes to go in his sleep - he must really be relaxing). I still try to take him every 30-45 minutes and I still put a pull-up on him if we are going out of the house for awhile in case I forget to take him. He has been in real underwear for 3 weeks now (not counting naps and bedtime) and had only a handful of accidents! You never really realize how expensive diapers are until you don't have to buy them anymore. Recently I was buying Ryan's diapers, Noah diapers, pull-ups, and night diapers and dropping $100 every two weeks at least on them. Ridiculous! Now I am down to just Ryan's diapers and occasionally a new small pack of pull-ups! I feel rich! :)

Noah had his first nightmare this week. I woke up to him screaming "Momma momma baby Ryan momma momma" on the monitor and I could see he was standing in his bed. I went to his room and through his sobs he told me "baby Ryan fell and I couldn't reach her" and "I reach baby Ryan I reach" - it was SO sad! I had to show him she was ok and still sleeping in her bed and then he said "put Noah back in bed" - yes Sir! Then I realized my alarm was going off in less than 10 minutes so I just stayed up. I love that he loves his sister so. I don't know if all kids do this or not - I do not remember EVER getting along with my siblings until we were a lot older. I know they will fight later, honestly it would be strange if they didn't. But, I am going to work my hardest to make sure they always take care of each other because Nathan and I won't be here forever and they will need support and someone to call family.

For the first time in 7 years I am not pregnant or trying to get pregnant and this seems so strange to me. We cannot decide if we want more children or not. I know Ryan is only 7 months old, but there is nothing wrong with figuring out what we want either. When we first got married we wanted 5 kids. Then life happened and it took 3 1/2 years to get pregnant with one and he gave me a new outlook on parenting and we bumped that number down to 3. Then I had a scary delivery with Ryan and a newborn with a toddler is harder. Also, I feel old - I just don't know if I have it in me to start over again. I have gotten so lucky with healthy, happy, sleeping kids and I am scared to chance it again. Some days I feel like my family is complete and I do not want another one. Then other days I feel like we should have another one. Right now my plan (I am sure God is laughing) is to wait until Ryan is 3 and either start trying or decide we are done. That way Noah will be in school (less daycare) and can help out more and Ryan will be old enough to understand why Momma can't pick her up for awhile (Noah was not happy and it broke my hormonal heart).

With all that being said, I have finally decided to start getting rid of some of the kids toys. This will be a slow process, because I want to put them in Rhea Lanas this fall  - but that gives me plenty of time to sort and organize. I kept all of Noah's stuff for baby #2 and now Ryan doesn't really "need" any kind of toy, but a lot of the hand-me-downs are boy toys. So, this will be a good way to make some money for their birthday presents and give other people a way to get Ryan something for her birthday too - and she won't only have hand-me-down toys, but some pretty girl toys too :) Then, if we are blessed with baby #3, we can just get a few things that we know we need. Noah goes in cycles with his toys, so I hate to get rid of anything. He just literally plays with everything over a months time - but something has to give!

Ryan has FINALLY decided to rollover! I know it is exciting when a baby rolls over for the first time - but in true Ryan fashion, she had to make it extra special. This child does things when she wants to in her own way. She wanted a special delivery, decided to have her umbilical cord attached to me in her own special place, decided to have choking episodes that resemble seizures and make her stop breathing for the first few months of her life (and scare us to death) - so why not be late on a few milestones out of spite :) I didn't think much about it until I realized she was twice as old as Noah was when he rolled over and I was worried maybe I wasn't spending enough one on one time with her to help her roll and I was the reason she was "behind" - but the doctor assured me that all her muscle development looked fine, she was just being lazy (or ornery is what I think). Once she rolled over once, she hasn't stopped - she just goes belly to back and then back to belly over and over again. She doesn't even struggle - she just looks like she is saying "oh, this is what you have been wanting me to do? No problem!" The little stinker! We made such a big deal about her rolling that Noah has to show us how he can roll too :) Now, on to crawling!

Here she is in action!

Our Easter

I am pretty sure it rains on Easter more than it has ever been nice weather - which never bothered me near as much as it does now with a little boy that wants to "hunt Easher edds". On Saturday our church was supposed to do an Easter egg drop where a helicopter dropped 10,000 eggs and the kids got to go get them. Well, it rained too much for the helicopter to fly and the ground was a sloppy mess. So, they did an Easter egg drive-thru instead. So, the kids got their eggs and I got their picture with the Easter bunny - Ryan didn't mind at all and Noah was only doing it if Momma held him. We managed to get all that done and then went home to meet my mom so she could bring over Easter baskets for the kids. Noah's had fake grass in it and he played with that more than anything else - we had to vacuum as soon as mom left. All I heard was "yay grass" over and over. The boy likes to play outside :) From there we went out to lunch at one of our favorite places - Dixie Cafe - and stopped by my dad's because he had Easter baskets for the kids too. We went home for naps (ha, ha - more like Noah lays down and thinks about all the cool things his grandparents just got him until I finally let him get up and play). So, Noah got up and played outside with his bubbles and picked Momma flowers (melts my heart every time). Then we went to church and took a family trip to Wal-Mart! This day was full of stuff but both kids were very good (especially with no naps) and it was nice that Nathan was off work and able to spend the whole day with us!

Sunday morning was another one of those times I love being part of the parent club! I got to help the Easter Bunny leave baskets for the kids. I got it all put together and told Nathan (who laid on the couch and "supervised") to please take note of how it is done so if I die he can properly take care of them :) Noah got up very excited to see his "Easher bucket from the Easher bunny"! Ryan just wanted to put it all in her mouth basically - per the usual with her. Nathan cooked breakfast burritos and we headed out to my grandmas for lunch and an egg hunt.  I love that my big (really, it is huge) family still all stops by grandmas house on the holidays. We had lunch and hunted eggs twice before Ryan decided she was ready to go and Noah soon joined her. So, we headed home to play and watch the new movies the Easter bunny brought them.

Play-doh! 

Ryan and her Easter basket :)

Ready to hunt some eggs!

Getting a wagon ride with Greyson

My little beauty :)

Getting a lift from Dada :)

I explained the real meaning of the holiday to Noah and his reply was "Noah love Jesus too, want to hunt Easter eggs". I will always make sure the real meaning of this holiday is told to him, but I am glad he had fun too!

This is a few shots from me trying to get a picture of them together -
frustrating at the time, but hilarious to look at afterwards!