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I've read many times how you should allow your kids to get out and play in the rain or in puddles.  I couldn't agree more.  Last week it finally rained, so we put on our boots, and out we went.  Margot had a great time "splashing and splishing".

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Shh, don't tell her it's not REALLY something bad for her.  Instead, it's organic, unsweetened applesauce.

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This is just frozen french vanilla yogurt.

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I like not feeling guilty about my kids rolling around in the grass.

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While holding Margot's hand while she fell asleep tonight, she came out of her sleepy stupor for just a second and with her sweet little voice said "I had fun planting flowers today".  It brought tears to my eyes.

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17.5 pounds and 27.5 inches long.  He's perfectly average, well except for his head, which is still really big...and beautiful!

He's been crawling for a month.  Goes any and everywhere he wants.  If you want to see him really go, just put the iPad down with someone on Facetime and he's off!  Starting to pull up on stuff.  

Doesn't sit up on his own yet.  He will eventually.  He prefers either standing or being on his stomach so not much time to practice that whole sitting thing.

Started eating solids about a week before his six month birthday.  So far he's had peas, sweet potatoes, acorn and butternut squash, broccoli, applesauce (will be waiting on that for a while as it caused him to be constipated), pears, blueberries, and then mixed vegetables (think veg-all, but not).

Still not sleeping through the night.   Or for more than maybe, MAYBE 3 hours, if we are lucky. Or in his crib all night (which admittedly, I like him in bed with me..if he sleeps...which he doesn't).  Generally naps about 30 minutes at a time in his crib, but sometimes we are lucky to get an hour.

Has terrible heat rash.  Working on getting that under control.  Might be switching to all new diapers. 

Still only has two teeth.

Loves, loves, LOVES Margot.  And Margot loves him!

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People, I am walking a thin line on the road to insanity when it comes to the foods I feed my family and the products we use.  Especially for the kids.  When I became pregnant with Margot something clicked in my head and I could not justify using what I viewed as unhealthy products on my new baby.  A baby that was pure, free of nasty chemicals.

I religiously checked out (and still check) the Environmental Working Group's website to see what products had/have top ratings. Same goes with sunscreens.  I am anxiously awaiting the release of their 2012 sunscreen guide before I buy our summer supply.  Out are the convenient sprays, because they aren't good for children's respritory systems.  Out are the cheap lotions that can be picked up anywhere because of all the crap that is in them.   Yeah, I do know that there are a lot of people that don't agree with the EWG's reviews.  There will always be people who agree and disagree.

Then there are antibacterial soaps, lotions and gels.  Those are banned in the house too.  Again with the nasty chemicals, but most importantly triclosan.  Here is a blog post that talks about the issues. We just use plain ol' soap here.  

Don't even get me started on food!  Damn, it's so emotionally stressful for me to grocrery shop.  It's definitely self-induced.  I try my best to only buy organic produce, at least the ones that are on the "Dirty Dozen" list.  This makes shopping difficult since we don't have a Whole Foods around here.  Or ath the least, grocery stores that have wide selections of these type of products.  The way it is now, I buy most of our stuff at Super Target because they have a wider selection of produce, and are actually cheaper.  Then there is Trader Joes which is good for fruit at reasonable prices.  I'm actually disappointed with their quality of food and lack of organic meat.  There have been multiple times when we have bought cheese, fruit or bread only to have them mold within days.  Ok, so then there is Earth Fare.  I like their meat selection.  While most of their meats aren't organic, they do claim to be antibiotic and hormone free as well as humanely treated.  I've got to believe this, or else, well, I don't know what!  

So if you stayed with me there, that's three different grocery stores that I frequent.  Gah!

And if to make matters worse, I got in the car to go get groceries yesterday and their was a segment on People's Pharmacy (which I had never heard of before) which was talking about how the wheat we eat now is more of a "frankenwheat" and it isn't as good as everyone thinks.  Really???  REALLY!!  Is this a joke people?  Come on! I'm already so obsessed with everything now I've got to worry about whether the bread I'm feeding my child is like feeding her tablespoons of sugar.  ARGHHHHHHHHHH!  I am seriously going to be institutionalized over all of this!

While I pride myself in feeding Margot a pretty healthy diet, I do drive myself crazy sometimes. 

I wouldn't change anything, I just wish the goverment would care as much about what they supply us as I do!

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Parties, dying of eggs, baskets from the Easter Bunny, fun with friends and family and lots and lots of egg hunts!  I think fun was had by all.

Neighborhood and playgroup egg hunt

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Too much fun!

Bunny Bash at the park

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First ink

Dying eggs

Checking out her basket

Continuous egg hunts all day.

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Why is it so hard to get your child's hair cut for the fist time.  I put it off forever, but decided it was finally time to bite the bullet.  Actually, I just had to mentally get prepared for it. I took her to the place where I get mine cut, (thinking back, that might have been a bad idea, because I do have to show my face in there again). When we walked in, she sat on the couch and huddled down saying "no, Mommy" and started crying.  I was wearing Nolan, because I had a feeling I was going to have to comfort her.  We went down to the last chair so that we weren't ruining the day of the lady sitting next to us.  

I sat down first, and then Margot climbed up too and hugged on to Nolan.  Georgia (the hair dresser) was patient and great.  We gave Margot a sucker, which she has never had before, and after coaxing her a little bit, she tried it out and, of course, loved it.  Geting her mind off of what was going on was all that was needed.  After that, she was great, and her hair looks really cute.  Of course I suck, and didn't get a good before and after shot, but got a couple of the during and one of her sucker face.

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Margot loves helping me out in the yard (even though this one picture doesn't look like it).  She likes to rake leaves, pull weeds and today she planted her first flowers.  I really hope that she becomes a green thumb like her Granny and Nana!  Not only is it a great stress reliever, it's just fun!

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For men and any women out there who have never breastfed a baby, you will never understand the emotional and physical toll it can take on someone.  From cracked, bleeding nipples, to the toe curling pain in the beginning, to clogged ducts, mastitis, milk blisters, and an infant biting, there is nothing easy, physically about breastfeeding.  Then of course, there is the emotional side which ranges from hormonal changes to stressing on a daily/weekly basis about supply issues (i.e. is the baby getting enough?  is the supply going down) and the feelings of sometimes being smothered because you (your boobs) are constantly in demand.  So when someone makes comments to you about giving your child formula to "fill them up" so they can sleep through the night it's like a huge slap in the face.  It feels as if people are saying that I am not doing my job and it really pisses me off.  Until you've walked in a breastfeeding women's shoes, you should think twice before you question, comment or make suggestions regarding feeding, unless it's solicited.

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I just want to go on the record to say that my kids are pretty shitty sleepers.  Nolan is even worse than Margot was, and that's hard to believe.  Look, I don't have issues with co-sleeping if the damn kid sleeps!  And yes, he is in our bed with us because he wakes up so often and won't soothe himself back to sleep (and don't throw out sleep training, that's not our thing---see next entry about not wanting to cause emotional distress on our kids.  He's only 4 months old, why would I let him just cry and cry, that's got to be scary for him, no matter what anyone says).

Seriously though, he generally does not sleep more than a two hour period before waking up.  If it happens to go longer, I'm listening for breathing because something must be wrong.  Add to that the fact that he isn't a good napper either.  SHOCKER, I KNOW!  Generally I can get at least one big, whopping, thirty minute nap out of him.  Ok, I take that back, if I wear him in the Ergo, he will sleep longer, but people, sometimes you just DON'T...WANT....ANYTHING....attached to you.  

So please forgive me if I don't have sympathy for you when you say your kid isn't sleeping well, yet you get at least one nap that lasts a couple of hours and you have stretches at night of at least four hours at the minimum, but generally longer (exception to this is if you have been doing this for over a year, then I'll agree that it really does suck).

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As a parent, the last thing you ever want to do to your child is hurt them physically or emotionally.  You never want their tears to be as a direct result of something you've done.  Unfortunately, there are times when this just can't be helped.  We reached one of those milestones this weekend with Margot.  

I am embarrassed to say, but yes, Margot still used a pacifier to fall asleep at night.  We never had issues with her wanting to use it all of the time or take it places with her, so we weren't too concerned about her using it for what seemed like a harmless act.  Well, last week she had a dentist appointment.  While her teeth look great, the dentist asked if there was something going on in her mouth such as a pacifier (or fizer as Margot calls it).  I said yes, but wanted to make sure he knew that it was only at night.  Apparently that doesn't matter because he said it is pushing her teeth out a little.  Well crap!  That's NOT what I want to hear.  While I don't think it's going to cause any lasting effects, it still sucks.  You can see where this is going, right?  So the appointment was on Wednesday, and Robbie and I decided that the "Fizer Fairy" was going to have to make a visit over the weekend.  We've talked to Margot about her before and said how in the not so distant future she was going to come and take her fizer since she was a big girl now, but we never actually had set a date to do it.  

On Saturday morning we started telling Margot that the time had come for the Fizer Fairy's visit.  She was going to take her fizer to stay with her and she would leave her a present in return.  We tried explaining to her that the fizer was hurting her teeth, but she didn't get it.  She just kept saying that if the fairy took her fizer she would take it back from her.  Bedtime came and she had her fizer one last time.  After she fell asleep I went in and took it.  All was fine until she woke up to use the bathroom around midnight and then the flood gates opened.  She is usually upset anyway when she wakes up to pee, because she doesn't want to be awake.  Now add to that the fact that her beloved fizer has now been taken by something called a fairy and she was not happy.  Robbie came in and got me shortly after because he thought she was going to hyperventilate since she was crying so hard.  We got her calmed down a bit and tried to get her to go back to bed.  Nope, that wasn't going to work.  So I acted all excited and gave her one of the presents the fairy had left.  It was a small monkey Pillow Pet (she has a big ladybug one and absolutely loves it).  She wanted nothing to do with that either.  

Ok, lets take her out of her room and see how that works.  Playroom, couch, our room, nope, still upset.  Robbie finally takes her back to her room to try to get her to lay down.  I felt bad for him so I went in there to relieve him so he could try to get a little sleep.  Finally, FINALLY about 3:30 I was able to get her to fall asleep in her bed.  Yes, that's right, 3.5 hours later and we were all able to get a little sleep.  Last night was better.  She woke up twice but it did not take nearly as long to get her back to sleep, maybe 45 minutes total.  Here's hoping tonight will be better.  We just have to remember that she is only two and a half and this is a big deal to her.  

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I finally had a chance tonight to go through some pictures I've taken recently, so be prepared to be bombarded!

Here is Margot trying on my boots.  I think they go quite well with her bug pjs. She's such a trendsetter.

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 Are you tired of the pictures and this long post yet?  Too bad, there are more to come!

It's Exersaucer time!  Man I LOVE when they get to the age where they like being in this thing! Not only does it help them to work on their dexterity and to strengthen their muscles it give us good ol' Moms a much needed break!  It's basically a 15-30 minute babysitter, or longer if you are lucky.  That's just enough time to go to the bathroom, get a drink, check your email and maybe if you are actually a productive Mom (which I have not been) then maybe stick some clothes in the washer.   

Look at the lips and cheeks on this kid.  I just want to bury my face in those big squishy, chubby cheeks.  If he weren't asleep on the couch (did I mention that he likes sleeping there, because yeah, it's been almost two hours that he's been there now) I'd be doing just that! 

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I saw this idea on Pinterest (which by the way, if you aren't on there, what are you waiting for?).  I originally was just going to take pictures of Nolan but Margot decided she wanted to be in on the action too, and why not, it makes the pictures that much cuter.  She really loves Nolan, and as you can tell, he really digs her too!

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Margot loves Nolan, and I couldn't be happier!  Her new thing is reading books to him.  Of course he doesn't know what is going on, but he loves watching/staring at her.  I hope that he will end up loving books as much as Margot does.

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Our good friends Jeremy and April were in town over the holidays.  While here, Jeremy took some pictures of Margot and with them he created this awesome little video.  It's so awesome!

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