I may pay for it later...

I love that Callie is sleeping in her own crib all through the night.

I was worried that it may not happen since we were cosleeping and breastfeeding.

I kept hearing stories of kids who kept sleeping with the parents, or kept getting up all the time, and thought for sure that would be me.

I have to say though, since switching to formula, we have been able to get her on a much better schedule.

Before I was constantly nursing and she wouldn't nap long, wake up hungry and be tired, fall asleep while nursing, and then at night wake up at least 3-4 times at night.

Now she still doesn't nap quite as much in the day like Wilson did, she gets a good 1-2 hour nap around the same time Wilson goes down.

My body though has gotten so conditioned to waking up multiple times at night, is making me wake up to nothing.

I can't just put Callie right in her crib though, I've found out.

We will give her her last feeding for the night, let her play for a bit, then take her upstairs, if it's bath night she takes her bath, gets into her sleeper.

And then we cuddle for 5-15 minutes.
I wait for her to start calming down, then carry her into her room and lay her down, turn on her mobile and try to give her a pacifier.

She always spits it out and sucks on her thumb instead though.

She may fuss for a minute or two but so far it hasn't been all that long! (5 minutes seem so long when your little baby is crying.)

I stayed up entirely too late, I hope I sleep through the night, since my baby girl is finally doing it!

Too hot!

Seriously, it is really hot outside. Since we are limited to one car and husband is on the day shift, we are stuck inside a lot.
Even just trying to take the babies to the pool by myself is a challenge.
Wilson will play in the water for a little while and then want to run around and get into stuff. I have to go chase him, leaving Callie in the floaty in the water.
She doesn't go anywhere but it still is scary.

So, for the most part when husband works, we hang out inside. Wilson being a crazy 2 year old boy has LOTS of energy. He loves to run around and play and run and explore nonstop.

On husband's days off we have taken him to a lot of places to get out but still try to keep cool.
We go for walks (runs) around the mall, take him to the Playground at the Chick-fil-a, swimming (even though it's hot) We took him to another indoor jungle gym place but he was a little overwhelmed with it. We might try again and see if he does better but he had a hard time figuring out how to climb over the nets and ropes.

So for the most part my day is entertaining him and Callie. He has a new found love of popsicles which he makes a complete mess of and regularly points to the freezer and tries to wheedle me into giving him one.

His favorite game though is having me chase him all around the house. He reminds me of a cat with a laser pointer. Maybe I should invest in one? Normally he loves to run when it's diaper changing time. >.<

At some point I really want to take him to a petting zoo. I think there is one somewhere around here that has bouncy castles too. It's just so HOT out!!! 

His strap here worries me. Normally it doesn't look like this, I'm thinking I need to adjust the height on it. 

We like to jump and play on the bed just like a little monkey.

Callie likes to play too!

DIY- I did something!

After getting the babies all cleaned, bathed, and put one to bed, I made my own homemade laundry detergent.
Thanks to Pinterest and one of my friends, I was inspired to try it out.
I think I spent about 30.00 to get everything together. Next time I'll be on the look out for coupons to use.
So I got my rubber gloves and cheese grater and got to work on grating the soap.
It's a bit boring and tedious, it took me about 25 minutes to grate it all up.
 Then I started layering all the different ingredients and unfortunately, my Borax was all clumpy so I had to spend a lot of time trying beat it back down to the powder.

All in all I spent a little less than an hour putting it together and I have my first load with it in the washer right now. I have a HE washer so I'm nervous about it. I didn't add it to the detergent area like I normally would but added it right to the clothes.

I'll post an update after I use it a couple times! I'm so excited that I have laundry detergent for hopefully a year! Although I do a lot of laundry, so we will see how long it really lasts me.
 

Here are all the ingredients I used.

 The Fels Naptha Soap all grated up.

Layering the ingredients together in my storage tub.

Finished product. The Purex Crystals container is filled up and ready to be used!

I need to do this more.

I really need to use my DSLR a little more. I mean look at how adorable these two are!!! That's it. I'm taking a picture of them EVERYDAY on my camera!

Chipping away...

Go me for crossing off a couple more things of my 30 before 30 list. It's not much in fact it is very hard trying to work on the bigger ones but, I haven't even turned 29 yet so I still a lot of time to try to accomplish the rest!

 The new ones I've completed I wrote a little about underneath. Just a couple but still a great motivation to see things get crossed off here and there!



1. Become Debt Free! -this one may be the hardest to try to complete in 2 years but if I were able to it would be huge which is why it's my number 1!

2. Learn to sew, knit, crochet something!

3. Breastfeed for 6 months! (I made it 6 weeks, so I think 6 months would be amazing this time around!)
I was able to do it! Although I stopped after getting ANOTHER bout of mastitis right after she turned 6 months. I did it. I'm glad I was able to make it, but for us, a happy mommy and happy baby means she gets formula.

4. Have a monthly dinner party with friends.



5. Complete something off of Pinterest. 
Wow, I have completed a lot of little things off pinterest. Our dinners have become MUCH more fun and filled with more variety. I have found lots of little tips and tricks around the house, fun activities for the babies, and lots of great holiday and birthday ideas!

6. Have three months’ worth of expenses in our savings account.

7. Pay for a military family’s meal (a family I don’t know and without them knowing who I am) while out at a restaurant. *This we completed but I feel like not technically because it was at a Dairy Queen and we paid less than 3 dollars. So it is not getting crossed off.

8. Organize all my photos that are currently on my computer eating up space.

9. Learn to cook on a grill by myself.

10. Get both kids potty trained.

11. Take a photography class.

12. Buy all my produce from a farmers market or local farmer.

13. Bake a pie and cake all from complete scratch. (Not at the same time though)

14. Get to spend at least 2 days/2 nights completely kid free, with my husband.

15. Go to a winery and do some wine tasting. (even if I don't like it)

16. Walk more, at least 4 times a week.

17. Throw a great 30th birthday party for myself.

18. Get a pet! (Preferably a dog)

19. Get Andy another car so we have 2 cars instead of 1.


20. Get a pedicure for the first time. (yes I have never gotten a pedicure)


21. Add something unique to my Hello Kitty collection of stuff.

22. Be able to get another cute birth announcement for Baby Bean like I was able to with Wilson.

23. To have driven under 10,000 miles each year on my car. *1 year down and we did it amazingly considering we moved from Indiana to Mississipp to Louisiana!


24. To go grocery shopping by myself with 2 under 2. (this one I'm scared about)
This one can be a challenge but I was able to do it a couple times when Andy was working the Mids shift. It was a lot harder when I was breastfeeding Callie because she would get hungrier a lot faster and I would have to rush to try and get everything I needed before I could nurse her. Now that we have made the switch, I have a little more time before she starts getting hungry. But it works out pretty well. I put Callie in the Ergo and carry her and Wilson in the cart.

25. To be able to fit all my clothes again after baby #2. (hopefully this one will be super easy to do! EEP!)


26. To be able to cloth diaper both babies, which means I need to build up a stash of Cloth Diapers. (See how number 1. is going to be insanely hard to do?) 


27. Stop biting my nails. Again!

28. Be able to budget one going out dinner a month.

29. Get my in laws to come out and visit us for a little while!

30. Be able to visit Indiana at least twice!*
 1 visit out of 2 down!

Toddle Along Tuesdays

Today's TAT is Letters. I wrote a letter to Wilson over 2 years ago.

Come take a read here.

Happy Father's Day

To the father of my children, thank you.

Callie's 6 months

Callie is now 6 months and getting her first teeth in.
Her bottom right has broke through, and the left is still working it's way out.

We started her on squash and she is loving to eat. She eats the whole jar and looks around for more, even after she is done.

We have been trying to transition her to the crib, but we are having a rough time with it. With her teething, and I just got a bout of mastitis yesterday, she was pretty much in bed with me these past couple nights.

Her stats from the doctor is:
Head: 43.8 cm (80%)
Height: 26.7 inches (73%)
Weight 15 lbs. 9 oz. (34%)

My squeaks needs to eat more and gain more weight!

She is very long and slender. She is fitting all her 6 months clothing just fine and can fit some other things in 9 month. (Depends on the brand)

She LOVES watching her big brother run around. Gets mad when she can't see him, if he's not in her eye range. Is VERY interested in the TV. Which is weird. We would have the tv on all the time when Wilson was an infant and he NEVER watched it.

She rolls back and forth, tummy to back or back to tummy, but only when she wants to. She's not yet doing it all the time so I think she is still figuring it out.

Trying to work on her sitting up on her own but she is still not having it.
She is still really gassy, farts literally ALL the time!

I find that funny because I had been told by some of my breastfeeding friends "Oh you won't need to burp her." Uhhh.. I have to burp her constantly and we still don't even get rid of half the gas!

She LOVES her mommy. I think she and I are going to be best friends someday! =)

Toddle Along Tuesday

I am actually linking up an old blog post that I wrote here: expectations vs. reality

I wrote this as a first time mom almost a month after having Wilson.
There were a lot of things that I had expected I would do: have a natural childbirth and breastfeeding, that I ended up NOT doing.

I'm fully okay with the natural childbirth now, but I still experience some mommy guilt for the breast feeding, especially since I have been able to breastfeed Callie for over 6 months now. (I am starting to supplement more though, she gets about 1 or 2 bottles a day)

Anyhoo enjoy my old post!

I have set myself up.

No really I have, instead of working on trying to get Callie to sleep in her crib, I instead opt to do whatever is laziest/easiest.

When my husband was working Mids shift, this was so easy! Callie and I would get the bed all to ourselves.

I'd nurse her until she fell asleep and then roll over to Andy's side of the bed and sleep there.

Now, Andy's back on Days, and we have to share the bed again, and I CANNOT co-sleep with her that close to me. Heck, I'm trying to get used to having the share the bed again in general, let alone share it with my husband AND my baby.

We had been using the Fisher Price Rock N Play Sleeper, which I loved! But now at 6 months, my little one has a bit more movement and ends up looking uncomfortable as she sleeps.

I am at a dilemma though. I'm thinking she and I are going to have to move into her room and I'm going to have to start working on getting her to sleep in her crib somehow. I'm thinking, I nurse her until she falls asleep and then put her in her crib.

We have a guest bed in there so I can sleep there. Last night was a rough night, I made it to her room but didn't put her in her crib.

This is so different than with Wilson. Thanks to SwaddleMe we were sleeping through the night like 3 months ago. We figured out his routine easily. Just swaddle him,  rock him for about 5 minutes and then lay him in bed. I didn't start actually laying him in bed awake until closer to 1 year old.

Callie already though sleeps less than Wilson does. She takes after her dad for sure, who was not a good sleeper, and still isn't really. Wilson takes after me, and gets cranky if he doesn't get his sleep, or nap.

Oh man, I hope I can fix this somehow...

So last night...

Actually I should back this up a bit. We had a pretty good day. Life is getting easier, the adjustment from 1 to 2 is now no longer an adjustment, and just how life is. Callie is sleeping a good 6 hours in the night, followed by a nursing session, followed by another 4-5 hours of sleep.
Callie is now 6 months old! Wilson is already 2!

Look at these adorable faces!

and last night I tried to convince Andy for one more baby! HAHAHA

I am by no means trying to shoot for 3 under 3. I'm still traumatized from 2 under 2.
But with that said. I love being pregnant. I love my babies. The thought that I am actually DONE, makes me sad. I don't want to be done! I mean I don't want like 18 kids and counting like the Duggars or anything, but to think that this is it. It's very hard to accept.

Plus, I think I happen to make super adorable babies.

If we do actually have another, it is going to be a couple years longer. I have the implanon birth control which lasts up to 3 years.

Right now I say I want another. Tomorrow I'm sure, I'll be like "Nevermind!"

But seriously, look at those faces! How could I NOT want another baby!

Toddle Along Tuesday: My mom

What a great topic to talk about. Growing up Geeky and Army Wife Style, two of my favorite blogs to read, do a topic every Tuesday. I've done a couple already, this one is about mothers. Specifically my mom. Oh so many stories about my mom.

My mom and I. Korea 2003

Wilson was 6 weeks old here. I'm still huge! UGH.

Mainly though, my mom is Korean. I grew up living a totally different lifestyle compared to all my friends with American mothers.

I'm not kidding when I say rice was almost at every meal, even if I didn't want it. I remember as a kid getting so mad that my mom would mix rice in with my Chef Boyardee. I remember sometimes getting a korean breakfast instead of cereal or pancakes.

No syrup for this pancake!

Or better yet a korean pancake.
Yum.











As a child, I had a lot of frustration with having a Korean mother. My mother didn't get very far in school. I think she has said she quit school at a 5th grade level. I can't even imagine it, and yet my mother did not have the education most American mothers have had. I would get so mad, that she would ask me to read her things in English, because she couldn't learn. I couldn't ask for help with school work, because she didn't know how to do most of it herself.

She came from a poor, hard working family. She knows all about how to live frugal, and boy can she haggle!

Being Korean also meant that she doesn't really care to celebrate the major American holidays. My father always made a big deal of it, but my mom would've preferred probably to not even celebrate it. She also didn't really care to celebrate Korean holidays either though.

At 13, my parents got divorced, and we stayed with our Dad, it was a hard time for all of us.
 My mom was all around the place, had gotten remarried, and the phone calls were so awkward for us. 

I accept our relationship for what it is. No, I may not have a close relationship with my mom, where we talk everyday, but I love my mother, for being my mother.

We have plans to visit her in August and I hope that works out. Right now my mother is battling stage 4 of Chronic Kidney Disease.

It's a very scary thing to think that my young mother, (she's 47) has on average 6-7 years left unless she finds a kidney donation. Which even then will only extend her life to 15 years, if she is lucky.

I didn't mean to end this on such a down note. I feel like this is just the nature of our relationship, a bittersweet thing between us. Now that I am an adult, I want to be closer to my mother, to have my children know her and call her "Halmunee" and yet there is a scary possibility that is not to be.

Hopefully we have many more years, and hopefully visits to see my mother. I hope my children are able to know her and have memories of her. I hope they will be able to comprehend, that their grandmother, came from another country at the young age of 18, all by herself, with only my dad, to a new country, completely different from where she had been.

I hope they are proud to be  1/4th Korean, like I am proud to be 1/2 Korean.