weekly update {38}

this week i was up to my eyeballs with enrichment

so i didn't really take many pictures of the kids

good thing i still text/e-mail pictures to momo and poppy

otherwise i don't think i would have taken one picture.

makai is doing so good.

i know a lot of people that hate the 'newborn' stage

i love it. it's pretty predictable and the change so quickly.

after nursing makai usually likes to look at the shadows

lasts a few minutes and then the grunting starts

 to let me know he needs a change of scenery.

he rarely cries, he usually grunts or "roars"

only time he cries is when he is starving or has water on his face.

like i said, i've been up to my eyeballs with enrichment

i was called to be the enrichment leader a few weeks before makai was born

they had "planned" to have a super saturday the 15th of sept., i was due the 7th

well being in nursery my entire pregnancy they didn't know when i was due

the date got moved back and forth a few times but finally decided on the 28th

i literally planned every single detail by myself

not cause i'm a control freak, which i could be

but because the committee is lame and don't do anything

i did have 2 people help me out but on majorly minor things

i often felt like i bit off more than i could chew.

the counselor decided the week before the activity she needed to be released

that the calling was too stressful, she was a high stress person

they then called someone else in a hurry, whom i love!

but was headed out to hawaii the next day, until the day before the activity

leaving me virtually with no help what so ever.

it was awesome, not!!

we had 38 women attend out of 52 women, so a huge turn out

and i am so happy everyone had a wonderful time.

a lot of people asked me how i did it, basically by myself and with a newborn

my house is a disaster, we might have to go naked if i don't get some laundry done

and sadly, the tv has been the babysitter when my mom wasn't around to help.

i am looking forward to spending some quality time with emi this coming week.

during the week i did a little retail therapy to feel human 

and less like a robot just functioning through life

i finally found some jeans that i love and emi loves

she is super picky when it comes to jeans for some reason.

she was so excited and had to model them in the disgustingly dirty mirror.

one night we had breakfast for dinner.

i decided to make it a little more fun and colored some pancake mix 

emi loved it! and almost ate that whole pancake, plus 3 slices of bacon

emi literally stayed in her jammies for two nights in a row.

she didn't care and neither did i.

one morning while m was asleep in the swing

we made it outside for some fresh air

emi loves the swing so much.

the grand kids came over this week and emi was like: they are on MY playground! 

little does she know the playground was bought for them :)

emi being silly in makai's car seat.

eddie was on the lookout for a new brown belt.

emi bit it many months ago and just recently

when eddie was walking into the bathroom i noticed this huge bit mark

i mentioned it to him, thinking he knew

because if you know eddie, he would just notice something like that

he is the guy that keeps his nicer shoes and hats way out of reach from emi = dirty hands

so we ventured to the mall, it was feeding time for m

so while i went back to the car, eddie and emi checked out the disney store

when i met back up with them she was inside.

we got so many weird looks, one people thinking we had twins

and then seeing this giant baby kid in there instead.

so emi and i were on our own one night eddie had a business dinner

i decided to try the cupcake pizzas i pinned on pinterest.

they were a little gross. emi just ate the top

the whole bottom of them was just bread, nothing like pizza

but emi had fun making them and that's all that mattered.

i can't figure out how to get the next two pictures side by side.

but this was right after his bath

i totally gave him a comb over, hoping to tame his hair.

this was less than an hour later.

however long it took me to get ready.

the hair is wild! but so cute and gets so many comments.

i love his chubby hands.

i am so glad i got a picture of this.

i swear emi has a hearing problem. she often asks:

what you did say??

while doing this with her ear.

it could be i have the radio on and she is watching sesame street

but she does it mostly in the car.

i'd love to get a pedicure, massage, facial, etc....shoot a whole day spa day this next week and lounge around all day.

unfortunately, we are busy with dr. appts and cleaning the house.

oh yeah and a huge mound of laundry.

i had to dry emi off tonight after her shower with a kitchen towel, ha!

since all the towels are in the washer and dryer.

one month

i know this picture is totally hanging over the "edge"

but i wanted to make it as big as i could.

 i'd have to say they look related, so that is good

but i wouldn't say they look a like.

now that makai has some chub on his cheeks

we think he looks a lot like emi, but looking at the pictures....i'm not so sure.

i can't believe it's been a whole month, by date

this month flew by, i want to blame my enrichment activity that kept me busy

but i am sure as the months go by it will still fly by.

 

(i'm retarded and can't figure out how to get rid of the extra bullet point)

• makai has his one month appt. on tuesday, so i will update his stats then, but as of tonight on our home kitchen scale....being measured in a large salad bowl he weighed 11 pounds 1 ounce!
• **Post edit** 11 pounds 8 ounces!! ~70-90%, 21 inches long~ 10% and 37cm for his head ~10%. 
•  
• i totally jinked myself last week when i "bragged" about how far apart his feedings were. at night he is still doing great but during the day he eats every 3 hours, basically to the minute.
•  
• his schedule starts between 2:30-4:30am, he goes right back to sleep until about 6-6:30am then comes and sleeps in our bed for an hour or so. he eats again between 7:30-8:30am, then again around 11:30-12:30pm. he stays awake for a little bit but not very long. he will eat again between 4-5pm, staying awake for a little bit longer than earlier. Then he eats again around 7-8:30pm then "goes to sleep for the night" and wakes up again to start the day over at 2:30am. that's a good day, on a bad day...we add one more feeding in, around 11:30-12:30pm and he will usually get up around 4:30am. 
•  
• i start to feel tired about 4pm. i guess i just run out of gas. i try to get as much done during the day while he is sleeping that i am exhausted by 4pm. i should take a nap and maybe i will now that my enrichment activity is over. 4pm is too late for emi to take a nap but maybe she will lay down with me earlier when he is sleeping.
•  makai goes from a little fussy to ferocious beast very quickly. and turns bright red!
•  
• makai is the most fidgety baby i've ever encountered. constantly moving and making grunting noises. that is why he has been in his own room and crib since he was 2 weeks old.
•  
• he loves bath time, but hates having water on his face. he wasn't a huge fan of the shower but it would have been because he was in the shower with eddie.
•  
• makai cries 8 out of 10 times when he is left alone with eddie. if i run a quick errand, eddie is calling me in distress! get home now!! or even when we met eddie for lunch, makai was fast asleep. i come out of the bathroom with emi and i can hear him screaming bloody murder. i think eddie is pinching him or something :)
•  
• we think emi looks/looked more like me, but with eddie's coloring. more olive skin and darker hair (even though her hair color is identical to mine) and mr. makai looks more like eddie but is more of my coloring with fair skin. in the sunlight his eyes are bright blue, so we will see if that changes and his hair is really light. his eye brows and eye lashes are basically toe-head blonde, no coloring to them. where as emi's unibrow eye brow has been dark from the get go. he also doesn't have the mongolian blue spot emi did nor is he super hairly like she was.                         (why is it so easy to compare your children when each child is an "individual"!?)
•  
• makai has huge feet and fills up the entire space for the foot. his legs are on the skinny side, while the rest of his body is chunking up. i believe i overheard eddie tell makai: friends don't let friends skip legs (meaning leg workouts) because his upper body seems bigger.
•  
• makai is starting to smile. it isn't consistent and it's usually just a half smile. but every once in a while he cracks a smile. gma says she got a "whole" smile, lucky! 
•  
• emi is adjusting well, or as well as she can. she came down with a head cold and cough this past week!! so annoyed with that. but so far so good, makai is ok. but emi isn't liking being told she can't touch or basically breath near him. she totally takes offense and usually gets mad. i think it has set in there are no returns or exchanges, and that he is sticking around.

and of course we feel so blessed to have him in our home.

it's definitely a little strange to go from 3 1/2 year old to newborn

but we love it and all it's challenges so far.

this couldn't wait

until my weekly update post.

the background story:

so there i am cutting 17 yards of burlap into 4 inch strips

emi is in my room watching sesame street

she comes out, says: mama i need your help

i turn around to this!!

 

first thing i did was laugh

while at the same time, i gasped.....and thought crap!!

that thing has wheels on the bottom.

then i said: hang on! let me take a picture.

not sure why she is so blank faced. but it's hilarious.

after i send eddie a text saying: emi might be getting bangs!

of course along with the picture above.

then i look at the damage. not to bad.

i have her lay down in the bed, and before we know it

i have it untangled, with maybe just a few broken hairs.

her hair is so crazy anyways, i'm sure if some broke off we won't be able to tell

oh man! i have laughed every time i have seen this picture.

and i couldn't leave out makai

 he tried out the bumbo today.

he could do it for awhile, then got a little lazy tired.

oh that hair!! not sure what else to do with it.

and if you've been following this blog, i'm to lazy to go find the post

but he does the pointer finger thing!! see his left hand.

tough mudder

on saturday the 22nd

eddie and a few buddies from work 

completed the tough mudder at northstar.

and what a wild ride it was.

eddie's start time was at 10:40

we made it to the parking lot to find out we had to be shuttled 

so we hopped on the bus, after standing in line for 45 minutes

 as we sat waiting for the bus to load

i watched at the bus driver oriented himself with the bus

as we made our way to northstar it was obvious he had never driven a bus before

some other participate had to figure out how to turn the a/c on

he pulled over, because his scarf flew out of the window

we all assumed it was the directions, since he had no clue where he was going

everyone was shouting out which way to go, as he prepared to turn the opposite way

it was quite comical, to me anyways

everyone else seemed pissed as they were late for their starts times.

we finally made it to the resort but not after having to hike up a huge mt.

luckily i actually wore shoes and not flip flops.

finally after meeting up with the rest of the group

they were all checked in and ready to go just before noon.

there was a $40 spectator fee to go out onto the course

i had originally planed to go out and take pictures

but after my initial hike i decided i didn't care that much

and that m and i would just hang out in the air conditioned lodge for free

i did spent $20 on a burger, fries and a drink

i was able to see the tail end of the course from the lodge

it was fun to watch people try to make it up the wall.

after scanning and scanning for eddie's group

i gave up! not only was i getting a headache but everyone starting looking the same

this is what $40 would have gotten me

into an overly crowded area, no thanks.

when they checked in they said the course took about 3 hours and 45 minutes

well, after 5 hours of scanning and waiting 

and refusing to buy more food. 

i went to the basement of the lodge 

and i stole two bananas from the next days stock of bananas.

i was starving!

and that's saying a lot because one i don't steal

and two i hate bananas, i seriously was starving.

just after i polished off the second eddie called me

wondering where i was, since i wasn't out on the patio...our meeting place

if only he knew...two separate men were asked if m was their baby

in which they were horrified, single men! saying no in disgust.

i parked myself in the shade of a table on the patio

and these innocent muddy men would come sit by me to drink their free beer in the shade

it was fun to eavesdrop on others conversations about the run.

i finally found eddie and his friend from work

the two others left in a hurry because their were rumors 

the shuttle buses were going to stop shuttling people back

like they could or would do that!

we did however wait another 45 minutes to get back onto the shuttle bus.

eddie and his friend were still standing, a good sign.

they even smiled.

his friend from work was funny,

i think i overheard him calling everyone in his contacts

to let them know he finished and made it!

at this point they just wanted to keep moving

they were muddy and wet and the sun was going down soon.

i had to get a picture of eddie's nasty dirty feet.

they suggest to duck tape your sock and shoe together so the mud doesn't seep through

well i saw lots of people with the duck tape 

and i am here to say, it didn't work

unless everyone maybe used the same cheap duck tape.

and the end of the race there is a huge pile of donated shoes

not sure what they do with the shoes

i tried getting a picture of eddie tossing his in

but this girl bent over right in front of eddie 

and all i got a picture of was her muddy butt!

so i moved and took a picture of the whole pile.

i think they completed it in a little over 5 hours.

much longer than anticipated.

in the end, i had no business being there with such a young baby

but i was happy i could be there to support eddie.

weekly update {37}

 momo was here for her birthday.

emi was so excited to help bake her cake

and she especially liked decorating the cake with candles

even if she put them right next to each other

eddie decided to spread them out.

i'm thinking they would have been easier to blow out clumped together

there were a few that kept re-lighting.

 

ugh, the second mother

this week has been a struggle with emi for me

i'm having trouble being nice to emi, to be honest.

emi is super helpful which is great, but not so great

is when she is constantly in my personal bubble

hugging, rubbing and kissing on her baby.

i have lost my cool a couple times for her to back up

i usually give a warning to back up, in which she gets offended

then i usually bark orders to go away, if that doesn't work

i have to physically peel remove her from him

i think what irritates me is she always seems to need to be there

and that she has one million things to keep her busy

yet she feels the need to be super involved.

and if she isn't in my personal space, she needs something

my personal favorite is when i am nursing m

and she needs to be wiped cause she pooped. 

then she gets mad because she has to wait.

mr. m is chunking up and i love it

his face is filling out and his clothes are starting to fit.

i didn't have this issue with emi, but i think he is sensitive to chocolate

or dairy, but i think it's the chocolate.

i'm not a huge chocolate fan, so it's not that big of a deal 

except for i have some chocolate peanut butter ice cream in the freezer calling my name.

but i have noticed that after i eat the ice cream he gets fussy/gassy/burpy

emi fell asleep before we dropped momo off at the airport

momo tried to convince her to come home with her

didn't work but we are excited to visit for thanksgiving.

i love that she has been holding her 'dolls' like a baby

she really does watch and pay attention and repeat everything we say to m

one night while emi was getting ready for bed

i put makai in her bed while i brushed her teeth

and she finished getting ready for bed.

every night since then she has requested he come in to her bed to snuggle

not sure how long this will last but she likes it.

emi spent the night over at gma and gpa's for two nights

she was ready to go, refusing to even get her jammies on

explaining she would get ready for bed at gma's

too bad she didn't go over until super late.

luckily she changed into her jammie's before she fell asleep on the couch.

she stayed awake until 10:30pm, which is a world record for her

since she didn't take a nap and got up early.

i plan to do a post of it's own. 

eddie and his buddies from work completed the tough mudder 

mr. makai and i hung out for 6 hours in the lodge.

he stayed in the ergo baby most of the and slept

but when i ate lunch he took a nap on the table bench.

emi all ready for church.

it's basically her first week back since m was born.

she was so excited to wear her 'easter' dress.

trying to make her wear her sleeveless dresses while it's still warm

makai loves to sleep on his side or on his tummy.

he sleeps the longest if he is on his side.

he slept last night for 8 hours! and he ate horrible before bed

dang chocolate peanut butter ice cream!

i was shocked...he goes 6 hours most nights, sometimes 4 hours

but 8...that was great. and i had the bed to myself since eddie is out of town

i'm hoping this next week will be a little better

as far as emi and i go...today hasn't been so good

the tv is babysitting, while i get "my" things done.

but sometimes i find i just need a break from it all and i need to do me first

since my whole life now feels like it's all about putting others first.

i'm the last to eat and sleep...and i'm ok with that. just trying to get use to it.

3 weeks and tummy time

how is he 3 weeks already? 

i seriously can not believe how much time is flying by

it's super weird when i'm holding and snuggling makai

and then i hold and snuggle emi

the size difference blows me away!

not to mention she feels like a giant compared to him.

i feel so lucky to have yet another good sleeper

hope i didn't just jinks myself :)

even though each day is different as to what time feeding time is

he goes anywhere from 3 hours to 6 hours.

generally throughout the day it is closer to 4 hours

at night it ranges from 3 hours to 6 hours

which i personally think is a huge gap

i love like last night that he went 6 hours

what i don't love is that emi peed the bed again!

second time in 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks....

i don't think it is the changes in her life

but to the fact that both times she didn't go to the bathroom before bed

and drank large amounts of apple juice.

ekk! which also means she didn't brush her teeth either!!

 

needless to say, i feel blessed with my sweet angel babies

this was taken this morning around 8am

i love that he just goes right back to sleep after his night feedings.

yesterday makai had his 3 week appt.

he is doing so good! he is up to 9 pounds 10 ounces.

makes the late nights and tired mornings feel worth it

hope we can chunk him up quick. 

he has a nasty case of baby chicken legs going on

well compared to emi anyways...they have rolls but nothing like emi's

poor child might have to have a mo-hawk or shaved head his whole life.

his head grew 5 cm...ha!

um and he grew an inch and a half?

when we went to his 3 day appt he shrunk to 19 inches from 20.5

but at his 3 week appt. he was back to 20.5...who knows.

i'm thinking the medical person on the 3 day appt didn't do it right.

and i am keeping my fingers crossed mr. makai has blue eyes

emi's were dark from the get go...

these bad boys, especially in the light look blue

my gma has blue eyes, momo has blue eyes and my "dad" has blue eyes

so we might have a chance!!

tummy time has been going so well

as today was his first day :)

maybe it's his personal cheerleader?!?

i asked her to "watch" him while i got his bath ready

when i walked back to get him, this is what i saw

well similar to this, so i ran and got the camera.

emi hated tummy time, and didn't lift her head like this for a while

cause she preferred screaming her head off, practically suffocating herself.

emi didn't know i was there taking pictures...

i think she was a little embarrassed i caught her "entertaining" him

 

love this picture!

 thank you emi for being such a good big sister!

he obviously adores you at only 3 weeks old :)

now that it's getting closer to noon.

both kids are bathed, dressed and fed, guess that means it's my turn now.

weekly update {36}

oh my goodness! this picture cracks me up.

eddie drew a picture of emi on the left

and emi copied it on the right.

not sure which one is worse :) kidding!

not everyone in this household is artistic. and i'm ok with that.

so before makai was born i swore i wouldn't take him out

until he was at least a month...

um, more like he was a week the first time we went out.

we had to get some groceries, since emi eats us out of house and home

she seriously will eat a coscto size thing of blueberries in 24 hours

tuesday morning we had to get up at the butt crack of dawn

to take tanner to his orthodontic appointment.

emi was loving the chalkboard!

she is learning the hard way it stinks to be left handed

when she writes on a chalkboard she drags her hand over her writing 

and it smears, and she doesn't understand why.

once evening before bedtime we decided to take walk/ride around the neighborhood.

i think this is also the same day we saw our first snake in the yard!

emi was so nervous...eddie being the snake expert

determined it was just a baby gardener/garter(?)  snake.

i love this sweet face.
we have had some good nights, 5-6 hour stretches at night
and one really bad night, when he had a bad case of the hiccups.
he was grunting and groaning and hiccuping every couple of seconds.
finally after an hour of listening to it, i couldn't take it anymore
so i went in and patting him and held him tight
and you know what happen!? his hiccups went away.
why did i wait a whole hour and make him suffer...sheesh!

ok, funny story about these socks.

so i loved trumpette socks for emi

but they can run a little steep, 6 pairs for $25

so when i found them brand new for $8 for 6 pairs i grabbed a box

well, now i know why they were so cheap

3 of the 6 pairs have mismatched socks, one stripe/one polka dot.

oh well. so now if you see him with mismatched socks

i'm not blind or crazy, just cheap :)

emi loves to watch the car wash.

this time she didn't run into any tall men the size of giraffes.

she did try to steal (accidentally) a stuff dog though.

telling me it needed a home! oh boy.

i've been looking all over for these puzzles

i was going to wait and order them for christmas

but when i saw them for super cheap at a local store i decided to get them

and let her work on them while i am busy with makai

they have kept her more busy than i thought.

oh emi. she is really into making silly faces.

i'm learning to be ok with her crazy silly ways.

miss emi loves chinese food by the way

especially soups, mushrooms and sesame chicken. she won't eat rice though.

makai is still sleeping a lot 

but is also starting to open his eyes and be more awake.

this was at the zoo. where is slept the entire time.

if he isn't swaddled he likes to sleep with his hand to his face

and or both hands above his head

we've had a nice visit with momo this week

we wish poppy would have been able to come visit too

but we will see him at thanksgiving :)