Charity Raffle

Recently an internet friend of mine passed away after a battle with cancer. She left behind a husband and two children. There is a raffle at this site with some really great items and all the proceeds go to this wonderful mother's family. Please check it out. All raffles are only a $1.

T

new year

Anyway I'm feeling a little gittery today. Could it be because I've had so much sugar (pumpkin pie, birthday cake, 1/2 coke, power bar, 1/2 bagel)? I'm making a cup of herbal tea right now to try to counter the effects. I'm sure it isn't good for Clark either. I'm trying to get used to the fact that as a bfing mother everything I eat effects him.


This leads to my new years resolution. I've been thinking about it a lot. I have lots I want to accomplish but the big thing is my diet. Lately it's gone to pot. Definitely too much sugar but also too many processed foods and I shamfully skip meals and get so hungry I snack on junk all day. It is harder with an infant and a toddler but most of it is just laziness. So #1 goal is to slowly refine my diet and that of my family (I might be nuts on that one).


#2 is organization (I know it's cliche). I've been in a real declutter mode lately. These sugar jitters help with that at least, keeping me cleaning and organizing. Since December is a big gift month for us I went through the toy box yesterday and made three piles. There were the keepers, the trash, and the stuff to donate. Now when I add all the stuff that is still under the tree it won't be so bad. Still I plan to slowly get rid of more and more throughout the year. there is just no need for kids to have as much as we do and so much of it is noisy plastic junk. Curtis has more fun with acorns and play dough than most other things (yes the play dough stuff was the best gift this year for sure).


So now that I've laid it all out there, time to get to it. The cleaning and orgnaizing will be easy compared to the diet stuff. I'm just terrible with food self-control until now, but that will change slowly and gradually over the next year, I am confident!


Clark really smiles at me now. Every once and a while I decide to give him a little sponge bath. I put him on the bathroom counter on this spongy bath pad thing and wipe him down with clear water and shampoo him with special baby shampoo. Today when I did it he looked into the mirror and saw my reflection and smiled so big at me. I stood there smiling back at him for several minutes of heaven!


Wednesday in the Target a woman stopped me and said, Your boys are beautiful!" I was beaming. Life is so good. Both boys are napping now and I'm off to my tea to calm down some.


Tara

3rd b'day

2 weeks ago Curtis had a great b'day party at CEC.

Today we exchanged gifts with my DH's side of the family. I made most of the gifts yet forgot to take pics for the blog. Bummer. Just trust me there were some great handmade gifts and next year I'll try to document better since I won't be preg or with a newborn during the holiday.

T

Santa 2007

MIA

Just a tase of things this holiday for us. I've not been much into blogging lately but I'm sure I'll be back here regularly eventually.

Tara

What we've been up to

Clark enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

Curtis loves his baby brother.

Not much sleep lately so I haven't been posting here as I try to nap when I can. Clark is great and Curtis is doing fine too. We're excited about Curtis' 3rd b'day this friday!

Tara

Brothers

Clark Daniel

I didn't realize I had less than 12 hours to go when I asked Curt to take this pic.

Clark is less than a day old here.

Our family just hours after birth.

Tara

Clark Daniel

was born 11/11/07 at 3:13am

7lbs 4 oz after less than 4 hours of labor

he's super cute and looks like his big brother only he has dark hair

pictures coming soon

update

Halloween was great. Here are some pics to highlight our family fun.





No I'm not in labor yet. I am now 3 cm dialated and he is fully engaged. I've had some bloody show since yesterday but no contractions. It could be tomorrow or it could be in two weeks.

Tara

2 cm

At my MW appointment today I found out I'm 2 cm dialated already. We both know this doesn't mean much since you can stay this way for weeks but it does give me hope that I won't go over like I did with Curtis. At this point in that pregnancy I was still shut tight.

We need to get my car vacuumed and my infant seat installed this weekend. Also I'd like to get the sports stuff off the baby's room walls and find some more fish themed stuff to put up. Otherwise I feel pretty prepared. I have a box of newborn diapers, a bassinet next to my bed already, and two boobs ready to give milk. Maybe we'll think about packing the hospital bag this weekend too.

I still think I have a few weeks but better safe than sorry right? It's such an exciting and magical time!

Friends

We have visitors this weekend. Curt's best friend from college is down from NC visiting with his 4 year old daughter. Yesterday the four of them went to Seaworld and Curtis and Lauren had their faces painted. I stayed home since I'm big and uncomfortable and had a nice relaxing day watching my favorite cooking shows. Apparently Seaworld was doing a Halloween every weekend this month and the kids got to have their faces painted and got to go trick-or-treating at several stations throughout the park. Curtis had his face painted like a monster and had lots of fun growling at me when he got home.

T

Less than 4 weeks to go!

Traffic and such

Well, I've been a little mia here lately. No real reason just having trouble getting comfy at my computer desk. I can't wait until we get a laptop. That is supposed to be our Christmas gift to each other if all goes as planned. This computer is probably 7-8 years old and have very little storage and runs so SLOW.

I thought we had our first day of fall today since it was so cool this morning but it has definitely warmed up now. I think it's mid 80's now even though it was in the 60's this morning. Maybe it'll cool off faster this evening. We're having pot pies tonight for dinner which is kind of a fall dinner. It's Curt's favorite brand and they were 50% off. Lately I keep my eyes peeled for easy to make and clean up after dinners for obvious reasons. By dinner time I am a bunch of braxton hicks contractions and washing dishes is near impossible.

Curt and I are actually daydreaming about moving to a sleepy little town in the mts of NC. He's hating his job lately and I got stuck in two weird traffic situations today which got me thinking about how frustrating Central Florida traffic is. I think we'd be so much happier if he had a different job and we didn't live in such a trafficy (is that a word) area. His friend Ryan from NC is coming down next weekend and he has been discussing an opportunity with Curt for a job with him up there. I guess we'll see what he has to say...and of course we couldn't really move until the baby was a little older...but the daydreaming is nice.

They had all of sand lake road closed with cops and school buses everywhere when I went by today. That's the road the high school is on and I went by around the time school gets out and was diverted around a different way by a cop. I'm really hoping it's not anything bad. My neighbor, who has a son in the middle school, told me they have gangs there and some other stuff and these are also things that make me want to get out of this area. Orlando seems to be going down hill fast with gang and random crime.

Ok, well, enough negative stuff. I had the morning off since Curtis was in preschool and I cleaned all of our floors so now while he naps I can rest up.

Tara

Beading

I made this necklace a week or two ago as a gift for a friend. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. You can see the picture from my pattern-a-day calendar that was the inspiration. I found it funny that it was actually difficult to do a random pattern. I am so used to making everything into a pattern that I had to try hard to stay random and found it almost a struggle. It is funny how so much of our lives is patterned and how much of a refreshing struggle it can be to embrace true randomness.

I have reached a point of boredom lately due to the fact that I have some physical limitations, what with being all big and pregnant now. I go from feeling so magical and appreciative of my baby growing inside of me to feeling so frustrated with the limitations on my physicality right now. The wonderful thing is knowing that it is all temporary and I will be jumping and running again soon, but this also makes me a touch sad since that will mean that my time of pregnancy will be over and I will most likely never experience this again. Life is full of duality and I guess the key is to focus on the positive as much as you can. So in that light, I am very happy to be nuturing this baby inside of me and I feel very blessed to have had this magical experience twice now in my life.

Tara

September Vacation

Here I am, belly and all, in a bathing suit at the B&B. I'm the same size I was when I gave birth to Curtis yet I have 7 weeks to go!
Here we are on the dock on the back of the B&B. Dig my belly button! Can you believe we've been married 5 years now!?!?
This is our little sitting area outside the room.
This is the pool area right on the bay at the back of the B&B. We never swam in the pool but we did swim in the Gulf twice.

So there's a little recap in pics. We had lots of fun and got to see dolphins in the gulf right in front of us jumping and everything, and we also saw sting rays along the edge of the water a few times. We ate tons of seafood and stayed in bed until 9am when breakfast was served each morning. We found two cool gem stone shops and I had so much fun looking at all the gem stones and bought a couple to bring home for me and some for Curtis too. All in all it was fun but I don't think the hormones of a very preg woman are made to be separated from her son for long. I missed Curtis sooooo much.

September has been a rough month for us and it's going out with a bang. Curtis has Bronchiolitis. He was just getting sick the day we got home. He finally slept through last night and seems a touch improved today so I'm a little less on edge now. I'm really looking forward to October as a sort of new begining or fresh start. The weather here has changed a touch for Florida. We have cooler breezes and it's not killer hot...just plain regular hot. In the morning and in the evening it is down right pleasant outside. I'm daydreaming of pumpkin pie and crisp apples and cool evenings on the porch which require long sleeves.

Tara

Catching up

I have a lot to catch up on and I'll do a little now if I can. I had a great visit with my Mom and she's now safe back in her home so I can post about some things I didn't have time to post about before she came.


As promised here are the before and after pics of Curtis' big boy room. This used to be our guest/craft/office room. I've had some trouble finding places for all of the stuff we had in there and my closet is now filled with not only clothes but a filing cabinet and office supplies. You can see Fani the cat lounging in the before pic and Sebastian the dog with Curtis in the after pics. We've changed the curtain since this pics was taken since my Mom made one for the room but otherwise it's pretty much the same. The desk was made by Curtis' Paw Paw (Curt's step-Dad).


















Secondly, we went to Seaworld a few weekends ago. It was HOT! By the time we left I was having Braxton Hicks contractions and my feet hurt so much. Curt put Curtis on every kiddie ride and some seemed scary but Curtis loved them. He's already a thrill seeker. Must take after his dad.























Well, Curtis is up from nap so that's all I have time for now. More later.

Tara

First Day of Preschool

Here he is on his first official day of preschool. The preschool assigns each kid a special tote bag with a shape and color on it to match the cubby they get there. It wasn't really the first experience since it's a coop and I was the helper Mom on the first day. So Tomorrow will be his first day w/o me being there. I'm a little nervous but I know he'll have fun. The teacher is great and he seemed to really enjoy it there, and I think I'll enjoy having a little time two days a week to do errands or just rest.

Tara

Lists

I've been making lists today. I'm going to share here in case anyone wants to know. If not, then don't read them ;)

To buy:

• infant socks
• car seat
• baby book
• long sleeve shirts in 0-3 and 3-6
• pants in 0-3 and 3-6

To do:

• find bassinett in attic
• make more freezer meals
• make merge file of addresses for baby announcment
• pack hospital bag
• arrange for Curtis' b'day party at CEC
• find bouncy seat
• finish decorating nursery - stuff on walls, curtains, crib skirt
• finish all Christmas gifts - 1 toddler poncho, gift cards, stuff for Curtis

My Mom is coming to visit in 2 weeks. Maybe she'll be able to help me get motivated to tackle these last items. I'm feeling prepared but I guess nesting is starting a little because I just feel like more needs to be done...and NOW.

Tara

Last night

Wednesday was his last night in the crib....we took this pic to remember it by.

Before and after pics of the new big boy room to come.