The end of an era

After 7-1/2 years, I threw away my last nursing bra tonight. 

I'm relieved to be done nursing. It's nice to be done. But I think I'll also miss it a little. So I'm planning on lots of snuggling. 

Mr Mat & Livy

Mr. Mat has been Livy's swim teacher for a year or so. I posted this picture on Facebook last week with the caption "Livy calls Mr. Mat her little sweetie pie." She also calls him her "sweet angel," her "little honey muffin," and her "little love bug." These are all things I call her, and now she uses them for Mr. Mat. 

And now our favorite teacher is moving to Chicago, and maybe we're going to have to move too. 😉

I forgot how hard this is

So I haven't been doing very well at "being healthy." Well, I've lost six-eight lbs in the last three months. I was hoping that would be much higher, but I still have a hard time skipping the treats and only eating for one. :)

I've been going to the YMCA every day that Jamey has school. I do enjoy the Y a lot. However, our dear sweet Josey has picked up on Separation Anxiety early. She cries every time I walk out of the room. Screams like I'm torturing her. Leaving her in KidStuff has been pointless. I get paged to pick her up after 10-15 minutes.

And I've got to tell you, it's worse to get there and start a workout just to end it after 10 minutes than it is to just not go. Now that it's nicer, I think I'll pull out the jogger and do my running around the neighborhood with the kiddos.

But what should I do with Jamey? I can't keep up with him if he's on his bike. Maybe the scooter??

Controlling the Chaos??

Just a normal day of controlled chaos.


6:45 am - Josey and I woke up
7 - Livy woke up happy
7:15 - Ivy came in totally sleepy still

Get up. Jeremy was still home. Remember we were going to the zoo, so start getting everyone dressed.

7:45 - Jamey woke up happy

Jeremy left sometime, and then Ivy & Jamey got dressed.

8:30 - shower

8:50 - Ivy said something like "Why don't you go upstairs with Josey? We're going to make you something special. It's a secret." So I take Josey up to try to get her down for a nap. For the last month or so, she won't nap. She falls asleep, but the second I lay her down, she cries. And there's no fixing it. She'll only nap if I'm holding her. But today she fell asleep and let me out of the room!

9ish - Livy is covered in orange marker. The bathroom floor is orange. The scale is orange. There is poop on the bathroom rug. The living room carpet is orange. Ivy forgot to make my "special secret" and ate an entire huge row of brownies I made last night. Ivy & Jamey are fighting about who gets to play on the iPad. Livy is yelling maybe at no one or everyone. I have no idea what she's even saying. She doesn't seem mad at anything in particular. She's just yelling.

9:20 - Make breakfast for Jamey & Livy. Ivy's not hungry.

9:30 - Get Livy in the tub. Oh crap! Josey is crying. Hold her while I get everyone settled into something. Ivy is playing 2nd grade math games on the iPad. Jamey is playing Kids Wii Fit so "he can play all day because it's exercising."

9:45 - I did remember to turn off the tub before we had a waterfall. The pooped-on rug is in the wash. Josey is happily watching Jamey.

The kids are going to run laps around the school if it gets above freezing today. I might need to crack open Auntie Jenny's raspberry wine!

Ivy lost her first tooth

A few days ago, Ivy showed us that she had her first loose tooth. The excitement was uncontainable. She's been wiggling it and showing it off constantly.

Today at swimming lessons, she learned that her friend Maddie Jo got "8 quarters!!" for her tooth last week. Eight quarters!! Can you believe it??

At bedtime, the kids were all in brushing their teeth, and Ivy started FREAKING out. I mean, serious, full-on panic attack. Her tooth was bleeding, and she just can't take it. She lost it so bad. And then Jamey was screaming, "What's going on? What happened to Ivy? Can I see?"

So I sent Jamey to get his jammies on, pulled Ivy's hair back, and tried to jam a tissue in her mouth.

This all happened in the span of about two minutes.

Then I put the tissue in her mouth, and the tooth just fell out in my hand.

Ivy went from freaking out and crying to jumping up and down screaming "It came out! I lost a tooth! It's my first tooth!!" She was dancing and jumping and screaming; it was very exciting!

The tooth. I'm surprised at how tiny it is. 

The empty spot

She put the tooth in a cup waiting for the Tooth Fairy. 

There were lots of questions about how the Tooth Fairy would get in and what she would leave. I told the kids that the Tooth Fairy is tiny and magic like Tinkerbell. Jamey said he's going to keep one eye open all night so he can see her. Ivy really hopes she's sparkly. 

She's really so excited to show off to "the lady in the gym after school," and her friends Bella and Maddie Jo. And she wanted me to take a million pictures.

I know there are pregnancy hormones involved, but I almost cried. The milestones never stop, and she just keeps getting bigger. 

Big Brother/Big Sister Class

When I was pregnant with Livy, I signed Jamey & Ivy up for the New Sibling class. It seemed beneficial and fun, so we signed up again. It was last night at St. Francis.

They watched a short video about life with a new baby and then talked about how babies are born. We toured the birth center quickly and saw a brand new baby. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the water birth room, but they just had a birth. We'll maybe go up there another day.

Ivy and Jamey were very knowledgable about how babies are made and get out, thanks to "It's Not the Stork." 

Practicing diapers

Certificates :) 

Volleyball

We signed Ivy up to play volleyball with PLAY in Prior Lake. She's been once so far and had a great time!

The 1st/2nd grade team doesn't really play games or divide into teams. All 38 girls do drills and learn about the game. Ivy was excited that a girl from swimming lessons was there.

 All ready to go