Belated greetings

Life has become quite hectic and has sped by this year. I cannot believe it is already April. I haven't posted since 2009! Why? Taking three classes this semester may have had a bit to do with it. Work becoming overly busy the past few months may have not helped. Here's my first quarter, 2010, recap:

• Tristan was kicked out of daycare - it was a home daycare. Our provider told us she couldn't handle him and that he was showing signs of severe ADD.
• We put the kids in Tristan's old daycare, a commercial one, for a premium (over $300 a week)
• We take Tristan to the doctor's to get evaluated.
• Doctor says he's an active four year old that we don't have to worry too much about until he is closer to school age. In the meantime, praise him when he is quiet and following directions and offer him a fairly structured day.
• We're not sure, but we think it really wasn't our son that was the problem. We are still a bit upset about the ordeal.
• Scott now is a stay at home dad with the children. I work full time and go to school about 3/4 time (3 classes a semester is my goal).
• I'm happy that my children get to be at home with their father. Not many children have that privilege and I hope one day they will appreciate that.
• I'm jealous that it isn't me staying at home with them. Unfortunately, the job market is still pretty horrible and he wouldn't be able to make enough to let me stay at home.
• Tristan is now playing on a soccer team through the city's Park and Recreation program.
• Tristan isn't so enthusiastic about playing. He's more enthusiastic about watching his shadow.
• Melayna is more enthusiastic about soccer than her big brother is. Maybe we'll save the cleats and shin guards for her.
• I'm turning 27 this month. Not any major milestone or anything. Just another year that I can be thankful to be alive.

Honestly not much exciting stuff has been happening lately. A few personal things going on, but otherwise pretty darn good. I can be very thankful that we were able to manage living on one income without to many adjustments. I'd have to say the hardest would be the groceries. I've tried so hard to cut down on our spending, but I just can't seem to stay within budget. Perhaps my budget is unreasonable.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some of the few pictures (and I mean few - poor cameras have been neglected) I've taken over the past quarter.

Melayna sporting a pretty cool sweater from her Uncle Robert. It is a little big for her, but she'll grow into it.

Melayna testing out the balance beam at the YMCA downtown. They had a free Easter celebration and I went along with some good friends.

Tristan playing at the YMCA for Easter.

Melayna going through a crawling tube. She was having a blast!

Tristan having fun.

Renaissance

Yesterday was opening weekend at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. I used to go every summer. I even own garb. Since having Tristan, I've only gone once.

Well, we got a coupon for buy one, get one adult admission. That saves us $17.95! Plus, children under 5 are free. It was only good for opening weekend, though. So, we decided to go. Now, I really wanted us to go in costumes, but I had make something for the kids if that was going to happen. With no time and no money for the right kinds of materials meant no garb for the kids. So, I decided it wasn't fair for us to wear our costumes and the children none.

With or without costumes, the Renaissance Festival is always fun. At Colorado's Renaissance Festival, in the town of Larkspur, the walk can be quite a workout. It is filled with all sorts of hills. The last time we were there, Tristan's stroller broke. We had to carry him in the sling the rest of the time. Last year, before Melayna was born, we bought a wagon. It wasn't just any old wagon we bought. It was a Radio Flyer. No, it was the Cadillac of Radio Flyers.




Equipped with a canopy to block those harmful sun rays, multiple seating arrangement possibilities (two seats facing same direction, two seats facing each other, one seat with a table top, or flat bottom/no seats, storage space for stuff, and all terrain wheels, we were unstoppable. Well, maybe not unstoppable, but better equipped to handle the festival's terrain and two children.

What I love about the festival is the variety of things to see, do, eat, and try. What I love now is that my children can enjoy these things, especially Tristan.

There were so many things to see and enjoy.

At one shoppe, they had some birds of prey. Tristan loved looking at these guys and talking to them.

A beautiful owl:


A magnificent eagle:


These guys were talking with German accents saying all sorts of ridiculous stuff to people passing by. They saw that I was going to take their picture when they started to make funny poses for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get many because I didn't realize my timer was on. Here are a couple of good ones. I love the pretzels on their backs!





While I would still prefer Johnny Depp, this guy played the part well. Of course, he had to have his rum handy.




This lady was dressed up as a fairy, playing a wooden recorder of some sort. She would stop and give the children "magic stones" and sprinkle fairy dust on them.



We needed a nice break from walking around, so we spread out a blanket by the jousting arena. We relaxed a bit. Took turns heading out to check out a few things so we didn't have to pull the wagon around too much. Then we watched the jousting show.






I've got more pictures, but have to get back to taking care of the kiddos and getting the house cleaned up. I'll post more later - especially ones of the kids.

Brotherly Love

Melayna, I think, has grown quite fond of her big brother. She loves to watch him (she's been doing so for months now). She loves to laugh with him. She loves to laugh at him. And she loves to scream with him.....

Just chillin'

Last month, I had to come home early to watch the kids. My mother-in-law, who watches them on Thursdays, was sick and couldn't make it. I don't like calling in sick or leaving work. Especially when I'm not the one who is sick (or my kids aren't the ones either). Regardless, I got to spend a nice afternoon with them. In fact, it was so nice, that I decided to have an impromptu picnic. We have some nice grassy areas around our apartment complex with a little creek and trees about. So, I brought out a blanket, some munchies, and kids. I let Tristan run around and explore on his own, while I sat with the girlie on the blanket. Natural light is my favorite when taking the kids pictures. I can set a fast shutter speed to freeze their movement and not feel like I'm compromising the focus and lighting.

These were a few shots I managed to get of them while having fun outdoors.

More pictures

Big yawn!What're you looking at?

Mmmm...tasty hands.

Christmas Pics

Tristan and Grandpa enjoying the train table set

Tristan shortly after waking up to see his new train table

Grandma testing out her new Blue Tooth headset

Melayna on her tummy time mat

Siblings

Since Melayna is just a month old, I thought, I'd reminisce and see what Tristan looked like at one month. I took his picture every month for the first year in the same chair. So, I'll do the same for Melayna, but I'll be taking her picture with a teddy bear.

Anyway, when I compared the pictures, I was amazed by the similarities, as well as the differences. Check it out:

I am glad that Melayna isn't going bald. Tristan was born with hair, but it had diminished to almost nothing for his whole first year. Sorry that Tristan's picture isn't so clear. I had a crummy camera then (not that mine now is any better) and he was jaundiced past his first month so his complexion is still very yellow. I still have that Broncos outfit. Maybe I should get a picture of Melayna in it...oh, and I can use the same chair! Hmmm, I'll see if I can manage it sometime in the next few days. Despite Melayna appearing bigger, Tristan was much bigger than her at a month. He weighed over 10 lbs at 3 weeks, while she only weighed 8 lb 14oz at 3 weeks.


Since nursing isn't going according to plan, we've had to switch to bottle. Although, I'm still trying my best to nurse, I think it really isn't going to work out. But one of the benefits of feeding her a bottle, is that big brother can be a bit more helpful and feel more involved. I almost regret showing him how to feed her the bottle (he's not that good at it quite yet, which leads to a very frustrated baby). So, anyway, here's a picture of Tristan feeding Melayna.

And here's a collage of pictures of Melayna holding up her head. She's getting to be so much better at it - each day she holds it up just a little bit longer.
Well, it's late and I'm tired.

Muffin Tin Monday

So, this is my first go at Muffin Tin Monday. It's an idea I stumbled across a while back at a blog I follow, but I never tried until recently. I did it for Tristan's lunch last week and he's actually been eating most of his lunch because of it! Normally, we struggle to get him to eat anything then he snacks all day. I liked this so much, that I did two more muffin tin meals later in the week (including last night's dinner)! (Sorry the photo is a little blurry/hazy - Tristan got a hold of the camera and got his fingers on the lens).

If you'd like to participate in Muffin Tin Monday (or learn more about it) go to Her Cup Overfloweth (I have a link in the sidebar as well).

Starting upper left, going clockwise: strawberry yogurt, beef frank sliced, clementine slices, strawberries, strips of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, and cut up bread.


Next week's challenge is family heritage/traditions which is great because I made a whole bunch of my grandmother's chicken and dumpling soup. I'm thinking I can warm some of that up and pair it with some of my mom's recipes, too (fried rice, lumpia, or something like that). When we went to my grandmother's house to grab some of her stuff (I grabbed a whole bunch of her crochet work), I got her handwritten recipes. Maybe I can try one of those out, too. If I go the heritage route (instead of recipes passed down), some of my mom's will work since they are from the Philippines. My dad's family is German (but I don't know many German recipes). Scott's family is Scottish (go figure) and German. So, we'll see what I can come up with.


Anyway, here's a pic of Melayna holding her head up. Sorry it isn't a clear shot, but I just had to take a pic of her holding her head up like that. She's getting really good at it, too.I didn't want to leave Tristan out, so here's his latest venture. He's been getting a hold of my camera and taking pictures. Mostly of his finger, but he's starting to get the hang of things. Anyway, I found a group of pictures of just him - all blurry to some degree and off center. Grandma noticed that he loves taking pictures, so she's getting him a child-proof camera for Christmas. We'll see if he likes having his own. :)

It's a bird, it's a plane,

...no, it's Super Why!

I wrote a bit about Super Why! back in this post - if you would like to know a little more about the show.

First off, Happy Halloween to everyone!

So, for Halloween, coming up with a costume idea for the baby was easy. Buy a bumblebee bunting costume from Target for less than $15. Have the baby wear it long enough for others to go "ooh" and "aww" because baby can't wear it in her car seat. Then have the baby wear a cute "My 1st Halloween" sleeper for the remainder of the day.

For a very picky toddler, we have a completely different story. As you may already know, Tristan loves elephants. So, I was going to make him an elephant costume. First, I bought a full body mouse costume (couldn't find an elephant one). I was going to augment the ears, modify the tail, make an elephant trunk, and add tusks. When we tried having Tristan wear the costume (no modifications yet), he wouldn't have it. He threw a fit. So, I had three choices: a) go with the plan, he loves it, he wears it, success! b) go with the plan, he still doesn't want to wear it, disaster, or c) go with something else - something that looks more like, well, real clothes.

I went for option c. This is where Super Why! comes into action. Looking at the picture above, Super Why, the character of the show, is the kid in the green and blue. Honestly, it looked really simple. Blue cape, blue undershirt, green shirt with logo, green pants, blue underwear over pants, and mask. Tristan loves the show and he knows who Super Why is. So, after finding out that my sewing machine wasn't going to work for me, my mother-in-law and I put this outfit together by hand. It would have looked even nicer had the sewing machine been cooperative, but I think it turned out okay. I used Paint Shop Pro to edit the logo image for the front of his shirt. We then printed it on an iron-on transfer sheet.

Kate (my MIL) and I actually had fun with the costume. I couldn't find green pants anywhere. I basically gave up and said he was just going to wear jeans. But then Scott had a brilliant idea. The green shirt I bought to go over the blue one was long sleeve. When I mentioned to Scott my plan to cut the sleeves so that it is a short sleeve shirt, he said that the leftover arms might be usable as pant legs. Though the fit was a bit snug on his legs, it was actually almost the perfect length. So, Kate sewed the "legs" to the insides of blue shorts, while I worked on finishing up the edges of the arms. We then worked on the cape. Because I had to feed the baby, Kate sewed the cape to the inside of the shirt. The belt, I made out of yellow fabric, iron-on velcro, hot glue, and a play-doh lid (for the circle emblem on the front of the belt). I made Tristan a green mask, but he didn't want to wear it.

This morning, Tristan really didn't like the costume - at all. He didn't like the mask. He didn't like the cape. We kept telling him that we're going to get candy, but he had to wear his costume. We got out the house with some protest, but when we got to the senior home to meet up with the mommy groups (there were three mommy groups there, all with little one's all dressed up), Tristan forgot about his cape and costume. I think he likes to fit in - so, when he saw other kids dressed up, he felt right at home. He had a bunch of fun trick-or-treating at the senior home. Afterwords, we went to my work to visit. My boss had fun taking Tristan around the office to get some treats. Tristan loved every minute of it. Meanwhile, the baby got passed around the office giving the women their "baby-fix".

After lunchtime, we headed to the mall with our friends to do some trick-or-treating. We split up - mainly because Tristan wanted to do his own thing (he didn't want the candy, he wanted to play on the indoor playground). Even though, we really didn't get to hang out with our friends, it was still fun. Tristan got some candy, he played on the playground, and then we got him a turtle (see pictures below).

Overall, we had a busy Halloween. By the time, we got home, it was dinnertime already. After dinner, and feeding the baby, I fell asleep holding her. My little nap is giving me enough energy to get through this post, finish up a few things, before I completely crash for the night.

I hope your Halloween was a fun and safe one! Ours was definitely fun and safe. I can't wait until next year's Halloween. Melayna might be walking (Tristan was a late walker, so it is hard to tell how she'll be). Tristan might be more cooperative with getting dressed up. And we might make it to my work's children's Halloween party (this year's was really early - the weekend after Melayna was born).

Well, here's some pictures of the kids. I'll get some better ones of Melayna in her bumblebee costume later.

"My First Halloween..don't scare me" I think it is too late for that. :)

He looks guilty. I wonder what he's up to. By the way, when I said that the leftover arms were almost the perfect length, you can see why in this photo. If they were just a tad longer, you wouldn't be able to see his socks. But alas, we had to make do with what we had.

Here's a good front view of the emblem on the shirt. And here is his newest furry friend, Patch. We've been reading the same bedtime story for almost a month. It is called "Patch's Lucky Star". It is a short and simple tail, but Tristan loves it. So, instead of adding to his pachyderm collection, we convinced him to make a turtle (we were at Build-A-Bear). The store attendant asked Tristan what he wanted to name it, but he couldn't think of anything. That is when I suggested Patch.

She's so irresistable

Not much to say other than that my baby girl is absolutely adorable. Nursing isn't going well (she's refusing to nurse), so we've had to supplement. Right now, the outlook is that she'll be a bottle baby. While saddened by this, I'm trying to look at the bright side of things (like being able to sleep through a night feeding or two).

Anyway, on to the good stuff. I just wanted to post more pics of my beautiful baby. You can never have too many pictures. :P

A cute "summer" outfit that I received as a gift. I had to enjoy it at least once before fall's cool weather really kicks in.

Tristan was helping his sister by giving her a binky. Then he happen to notice those cute little feet.
Grandma and Tristan enjoy a moment with Melayna. Tristan adores her so much - maybe a little too much

Again, just having fun with the camera and taking as many pictures of my precious baby.

She's here!!!

I'll post more details later, but here are some pictures. Let's just say, we didn't make it to the induction.

Welcome
Melayna Kait Hooper
7lbs 6oz 20inches
October 1st, 2008

Big brother, little sister

Proud parents

an even prouder uncle

My baby bean...

...is due October 5th, 2008. From my previous posts and my widgets, you've probably gathered by now that I have a two year old son and that we're expecting our second child this fall. Tristan is an amazing child. I know that according to books on child development that he is, for the most part, right on track. Nothing spectacular about his learning or his speech, but I still think he's the smartest, the cutest, the brightest, and the best kid out there. Although, I think every mother thinks that about their own child. Now, since I ever first thought about having children I always wanted more than one - at some point I wanted a whole household of children (four to six). After having Tristan, I felt like how could I share my love with him and other children. Would I have enough love for all of them? Would my son, my precious baby, feel like he isn't getting loved enough when another child enters our lives? This thought frightened me and for a bit, I thought of just having him. But, then I thought, would his life be richer by sharing his love with his parents and his sibling(s)? Would he cherish being a big brother? Would he like a new companion to care for, look after, play with, and love? I believe Scott already knew we would have more than one child together and in my heart knew that this is what I wanted as well. We didn't want the two to be too far apart; but not too close together. We wanted Tristan to be at least two years old, no more than three years old, and potty trained (we're still working on that). We weren't actively trying to conceive, we kind of left it up to fate. Late in January, we found out that we were pregnant. We were very excited.

Today I am exactly 12 weeks pregnant. My little baby is continually growing inside me while I get to experience all wonderful first trimester symptoms. Extreme fatigue hit me early on and is slowly waning. I take naps when Tristan is down on my days off. Morning sickness should be called all-day sickness. Some days its okay and bearable. Other days I'm just downright miserable. Smell sensitivity has made it even worse. I can hardly ever enter our kitchen, which has left Scott kitchen detail (and he hates doing dishes). While it is nice for me to get a break from doing the dishes, it sometimes makes me feel useless. Oh, and I'm already wearing maternity clothes! I'm already a plus size woman (on the low end of plus size), but my waistline has thickened and I just feel downright fat. Oh well.

But the plus side of things is that the baby is growing and so far the baby is healthy. Here's proof it

This ultrasound was done to see how far along I was. We thought I was due September 25th, but the based on the baby's measurements, I am actually due October 5th. The circle is the yolk sac and to the right of it is the baby. Doesn't look like much. But it is evidence that there's a baby in there.

This one was done as part of some test where they take some measurements and draw some blood. Anyway, I went in Thursday morning with a full bladder (as required of me) to have them poke around my belly with the ultrasound tool to see the baby. However, they did this for forty minutes. My bladder felt like exploding. I was very relieved when they finished.

This picture shows how much the baby has grown in just one short month. There are actual noticeable part - like the head and the body. I scanned the photo and added labels for those that don't understand how to interpret an ultrasound.

Well, that's been my baby story so far. Seeing as how I have 28 weeks to go, I'm sure I'll have plenty to share. Or perhaps I can discuss my previous birth story. Who knows? Depends on what I'm in the mood for. In the meantime, I'll go entertain my animal loving son.

To be continued...