Life At Our House

Life sure is busy with 2 kids, as you may have noticed with my less-frequent blogging (and all the people with 3 or 4 kids are probably laughing at me). I feel like it's not as much of a constant juggling act (most days) as it was at first. Kiera has gotten better behaved while I'm busy with Blake and often brings me books to read to her while I'm feeding him. One thing that was hard for me this week is that Kiera has not had an afternoon nap since Sunday. I think napping might be over for her. :( On the bright side, she goes to bed earlier now (8:00 as opposed to between 9:00 + 10:00) and she still sleeps in 'til between 10 and 11 a.m. She also plays nicely downstairs by herself in the afternoons for short periods of time. I leave the door open so I can hear her and check on her frequently and it allows me to have some quiet time by myself providing Blake naps during that time. My life is so not exciting these days, but I love it! Last week, I only left the house twice during the week and both times were to go grocery shopping. I think that's a bit pathetic. This week is much better in regards to activities outside of the house! I did make a wonderful discovery at the grocery store last week, though. I discovered that Dole makes pina colada juice! I got the Magic Bullet blender for my birthday from my mom, so I have been making virgin pina colada drinks with it! I found a recipe online and modified it and it tastes wonderful! Here it is:

1 cup pina colada juice
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp. white sugar
2 ice cubes

Blend and serve! That's for one drink. It's been a little taste of summer during the winter. Who needs to go to Mexico? Ok, so Mexico would still be very nice! :)

Yesterday, Kiera gave her pony about 10 time outs. She put it behind the curtains in the living room. Today, it's Winne the Pooh's turn to get time outs. I love how her imagination is growing! She's becoming quite entertaining! Considering we only have one t.v. channel that works, we watch Kiera instead. She's playing with a candle right now (an unlit one...don't freak out on me), so I better go!

Video Time

Blogger finally fixed their video issue (it wasn't my computer), so now I can show you the short clips I was trying to upload the other day. Here's Blake's little laugh

Here's Kiera singing the alphabet

Oh, and I made it 'til 2:30 p.m. on Friday before I had a piece of wonderful warm apple pie with yummy caramel ice cream! I waited until then because it was Kiera's nap time and then I didn't have to share it! :)

The Last Day

Our church has been doing 3 weeks of fasting and praying since January 1st. Today is the last day and man, I am SO happy about that! Jared + I both wanted to pick something that would be a challenge for us, so he fasted caffeinated beverages (which for him would be mostly coffee + Pepsi). I chose sweets. It was very hard, especially the last week, but we have made it by the grace of God. At first, we weren't sure what to pray for, so we asked God to put something on our hearts. Jared decided to pray for our family's health. He basically had a cold for almost 2 months straight since Blake was born and Kiera + I both got sick with colds right after New Year's and our colds lasted 2 weeks. I'm very happy to say that we are all healthy now, so praise the Lord for answered prayer! I had 3 of my relatives on my heart since Christmas, so I decided to pray that they would turn back to Jesus and live for Him. The fast may be over tomorrow, but I will continue to pray for however long it takes. We have apple pie sitting on our counter that we bought for when we had company earlier this week and there's caramel ice cream sitting in the freezer that has been calling my name! I ate Ritz crackers while Jared + our friends ate the pie and ice cream. I tried to convince myself that the crackers were just as good, but it didn't really work. Every time I wanted sweets, I would remind myself that my relatives' salvations would be totally worth not eating sweets and so then I would pray for them. God also reminded me that Jesus gave up his life for us, so me giving up sweets is so tiny in comparison. I'm kind of tempted to eat the pie for breakfast. We''ll see if I can make it 'til lunch!

Continuing Thankfulness

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!”

-Sharaya Crossan

I'm thankful for:

97. Being able to spend the night in a hotel with Jared + Blake this past Saturday night while my parents took Kiera for the night and Blake slept through the night, too!

98. For getting our breakfast 50% off the next morning at the hotel because the fire alarm went off in the middle of it and we had to go outside for 10 minutes while the firemen checked things out (we went and sat in the car with Blake)

99. For a relaxing and successful shopping trip yesterday and Blake fell asleep in the cart lying down on my jacket

100. Nap time

101. Mild winter weather

102. The wonderful buffet at Jared's work banquet this past week-end

103. Mini toilets

104. Finding a good baby book for Blake for $14.99 at Wal-Mart

105. God spoke to me in a dream on Friday night and He told me to memorize Psalm 63 and I’ve done the first 5 verses so far and it’s amazing!

106. Wigs

107. Blake’s laugh which we’ve been hearing more and more :)

108. My Mom taking care of the kids while I cleaned the house

109. Eating homemade pizza with friends yesterday

110. Sleeping in this morning: Blake slept ‘til 10:30 and Kiera slept ‘til 11:45!

Comparison

Kiera – 4 days old

Blake – 2 days old

Kiera – 2 months old

Blake – 2 months old

There’s definitely a resemblance, but I don’t think they look the same.  It will be interesting to see what Blake looks like when he’s older.

Life-Saving Skills

This past week-end I went to a Family First Aid training session at a friend's house. The instructor was an emergency nurse and first aid trainer who also has a seven-month-old. The training we received was GREAT and made me feel a lot more confidant to know what to do in an emergency situation. We got trained on CPR, choking, stitches (does it need stitches or not), asphyxiation (including how to use an epi pen), fever, and poison. It was 2 hours long and it was $20/person. Very much worth it! I'll fill you in on a couple of things that I learned.

Choking: They say you can use this method on a child up to the age of 1, but really you can use it on anybody you can flip over your leg and hold upside down. You flip them over your leg, hold them upside down under their chin, and hit them between the shoulder blades 5 times with the palm of your hand. If that doesn't work, which it usually does, you flip them onto their back and use 2 fingers to press 5 times between their nipples. Repeat if necessary. Heimlich maneuver (to be used on anybody over the age of 1): Make a fist, put your other hand on top, find the soft spot right above their belly button and press in and up. If the person is just having regular choking and still able to breathe, you are not supposed to touch them or pat them on the back. Hitting them on the back could force it further down the airway which leads to serious choking. You are supposed to let them work it out on their own. SO hard to do with my own child as my instinct is to pat them on the back, but I will try to remember that in the future.

CPR: I did not know this, but the purpose of CPR is to force oxygen up into the brain. Brain cells die after 10 minutes and never replace themselves. The heart, on the other hand, can survive 10 hours after a person stops breathing. The same amount of breaths and compressions are used on a child as an adult. For an infant, you plug their nose, breathe into their mouth, and then using 2 fingers, press between their nipples 30 times. You need to press about 1/2 an inch down in order for it to work properly. Repeat over and over until the ambulance arrives. It's the same for a child or an adult, except you use the palm of your hand instead of 2 fingers for chest compressions and you need to press about 2 inches down for it to work. We got to practice these things on baby and adult-sized dolls and it was actually quite tiring especially when practicing on an adult-sized doll.

I hope to never have to use any of the things I learned, but I'm glad I have this knowledge at the same time. My Mom came with me, so I'm glad that both of my main baby-sitters have had this training. Jared's step-mom has gotten this training in the past due to her previous job and she's my other main baby-sitter. If I forget, I have a fridge magnet that has a very abbreviated version of what I just told you. Well, I'm off to save the world....or take a shower.

2 Months Old

Blake, as of today, you’ve been with us on the outside for 2 months. So far, it has flown by and it’s already hard to imagine life without you. I love your smiles and your laugh! I love how you’re content most of the time and just very easy to love! You’ve already gained 5 lbs. and grown 1 1/2 inches. At Christmas, you discovered you like being in the swing and you started sleeping through the night on a more regular basis! :) Today, we switched you from the bassinet in the living room to the playpen in your bedroom (and eventually crib once Kiera is done using it). I love watching you grow and change little by little. I'm so thankful that God placed you in our family! You are such a blessing! Happy 2 months, my son!