Experts on Parenting

These past several weeks I've had a few parenting thoughts keep running through my head. I thought I'd share them with you.


There were a couple of weeks where I became The Woman that Cosby describes here. Sorry about the video quality.

Thank you, Bill, for allowing me to see myself as I really am sometimes. No joke.


Then there's this little insightful piece. Let us put ourselves in our kids' place. Then maybe we'll understand them.



The part that was inspirational to me starts at about 1:40  and goes to 2:50.

Knock that smile off your face. Act like an adult! LOVE this one. I think about this all the time.

Why are some things so funny? Because there is truth to them.

Lastly, here's a little parent rap I posted to my joke blog if you haven't seen it yet.

That's all.

(hand on tummy) The baby is coming!

Monday.

August 13 at 8:32pm.

8lb 9oz, 21½ inches long

Sabrina is born.

With Sophie, I was induced. So with Sabrina I anxiously awaited that moment when I knew that it's time. The baby is coming. Well, I got to experience that feeling.

My doctor (who is really awesome, by the way) had kept giving high hopes that Sabrina would be born BEFORE her due date but when that date came and went (Aug 10) I was still pregnant. I had an appointment with my doctor and he stripped my membranes in hopes to get labor going. He stripped them at roughly 2:30 and by 3 I was beginning to feel contractions. I called Dave and told him that it might be a good idea to come home. I'm so glad I did because had I waited to call him home later he would have been stuck in traffic right at the time I needed to be at the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 5pm and I had dilated to 7cm. Things were moving pretty quickly and I was getting terrified that I wasn't going to have time to get an epidural (side note: with Sophie it took an hour or so for the anesthesiologist to arrive in my room and hook me up with some), but there was time for it. However, my epidural didn't want to kick in fully for me so I was experiencing a lot of pain. All through this the nurse kept saying that I had perfect pain control. My doctor for Sophie had said something similar so apparently I have a high tolerance for pain.

Speaking of pain, here's my "secret" for controlling it. Don't let your husband touch or talk to you. All those things we learned in our birthing class ended up not being useful for us. I don't like people talking to me when I'm in pain. Leave me alone, and I'm fine.

When it came time to push, I only had to push for maybe 5-10 minutes. It went very quickly and I'm so grateful for that! After she was born and the nurses were cleaning her up I just kept thinking, "I'm not pregnant anymore!" Such a happy thought.

Sabrina is an easy baby who LOVES being swaddled and/or cuddled.She is very strong too. At her 1 month appointment her doctor said she was moving her head around like a 4 month old.

Sophie had to warm up to our newest member of the family. She now has accepted her and is anxious to help out--usually by sticking the pacifier into Sabrina's mouth.You can see how Sophie first felt about Sabrina here:

Sophie has been dealing with her life getting turned upside down fairly well. Though I think she is adjusting well, there was A LOT of fake crying right at first. Now she just has occasional melt downs when I say "No" to something-- even if I say it in the nicest way possible! So I'm trying to balance out giving her enough attention without encouraging her negative behavior. That's tough.

This picture makes me happy. Dave and the girls.

Here's one that Soph took:

Caption This... 

10 points for the best caption. :)

Itty Bitty

Hello. My name is Sabrina.

This is what I usually look like. Sleeping. I was born to sleep. My parents are really excited about that. To give you an idea of what I mean: Today I am four weeks old and I slept for 7-8 hours last night!

I would like to tell you more about my life, but there's not much more to tell. I'm very good at sleeping. The End.

My Mom will be back later to give you more details about my birth and stuff.

If you want an instant update

So, since this is officially LOCKED DOWN, it will no longer show up on your blogger feed.

If you want to get an email every time I update the blog, let me know and I'll put you on the list.

While I'm waiting....

...for this baby to come (hopefully tonight!), I thought I'd actually update the blog! So here it is....

History of Summer Events:

1. Girlfriend Reunion

Once again, the yearly reunion of us 5 girls was an amazing experience.

This was taken at Brityn's (girl in green) Dad's new Shave Ice Shop. DELICIOUS x infinity. 
I'm so proud of all these girls. They were awesome friends throughout school and they continue to be a huge influence on my life even though we all live in 4 different states. I look forward to our time together each year. A big thanks to my parents for watching Sophie and to Dave for allowing me some much needed girl time. I strongly believe that every woman needs some girl time. So take it!

2. California Trip
We had a blast at the Hancock Family Reunion at Knotts Berry Farm! 
Supposedly this was to be our last family reunion for a while since mis padres are planning on a mission next year.

Sophie at first was very wary of riding the rides, but after a while she warmed up to it. Dave accompanied her on all the kiddy rides while I got to take pictures. Being pregnant, I had the opportunity of riding a total of TWO rides!! Kiddie Land at Knotts Berry Farm was great, though, because there were virtually NO LINES! Compared to Disneyland where pretty much every line takes a half hour minimum to get through-- it was great!

 

Sophie was very excited to see some of those beach crabs.
Sophie's favorite part by far was the beach. Mine too.

3. Projects:
Project No 1: Find and Paint a console table
So, for a while I kept looking at one wall in my house and saying to Dave, "I wish I had a console table I could put right there." I kept scanning Craigslist for one I'd like at a price I would pay, but didn't see anything. Then one day while we were driving down the street to church, I saw the following little table in someone's carport. "Are they getting rid of that?" I wondered aloud. You know how people are always throwing freebies in their yard when they get sick of them. Well, long story short, the owner was giving it away so we took it. Now this is not the console table of my dreams, but Hey! It was free!!
 BEFORE
 
AFTER:

I read in some design magazine that to paint a piece of furniture black was like giving it a little black dress.
It disguises it at least.


Project No 2: Make a copy-cat of this CB2 Perspective Mirror.
CB2's:

Yes. I know it's cool. However, this costs something like $900. :(
I told Dave I wanted one and he came up with a wallet friendly solution.

OURS:

  Our less expensive solution was to take Ikea mirrors and have them cut by the Stained Glass place down the street. Then we just arranged them how we wanted. It did take us something like 2 months to actually complete it. 

We're not the fastest workers. 

Project No 3: Hot Air Balloon Mobile

 

I actually just did this today real quick. I got inspired by this beautiful mobile, and decided on a free and easy alternative. Sophie really enjoys it so I hope our new baby girl will too.

RANDOM STORY:

I am amazed with my little girl all the time. She will randomly start talking about something that I had completely forgotten about that had occurred last year!

Well, the other day Sophie and I were leaving the our community's splash pad and were passing the sand volleyball courts there. Sophie sees it and starts talking about hitting the ball back and forth. "Yep," I respond. Then she said, "Do you remember when Daddy missed?" I started laughing. Back in February Daddy attended a work volleyball tournament and Sophie and I went to cheer him on. Well, Sophie really remembers going to that and she especially remembers when Daddy missed the ball.

That's all.

Now we're just waiting....

"Our products are elegant and beautiful. which wile make you nobler."

Announcement!

The blog is going private.

If you would like to continue to be a reader, please get me your email address

(if you haven't already on fb).

I have made all the comments for the blog be private, so go ahead and put your email in as a comment and it'll go straight to me and not to the interwebs.

But before you do that, please read this.....

 This is a shoe label that Dave found while going through one of his piles of boxes. He got it in Russia.

Hee Hee.

Living with Dave

One night a couple of weeks ago I was trying to get myself back to the Land of Nod after waking up from a disturbing dream. I dreamt that Dave had an evil twin, and although now I cannot remember the details of the dream I know I was very disturbed because of it.

As I lay in bed, I had my hand curled up in a fist by my cheek (maybe that's how I slept while in my mother's womb--who knows?) and Dave was facing me sleeping soundly. I was getting very close to finally drifting off again, when very suddenly Dave grabs my fist and begins biting it as if my hand were an apple! In his sleep.

I was thoroughly freaked out at first, especially thinking about my Evil Twin dream that I had just dreamt. Dave woke up too when he found the foreign object in his mouth, and then we both laughed and laughed when we realized what had just happened. I asked Dave what he had just dreamt about. Dave told me he had to remove an Unknown Object from a map, and the most logical solution was to bite it off!

When I asked him the next day for more clarification on his dream, he had completely changed the story.

In other news....

Dave and I had a pseudo getaway (not to be confused with a ghettoway) last month. I got to tag along on Dave's work trip to San Antonio, Texas! I went shopping and sight seeing while Dave attended his BIMforum.

 

Here am I at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Very Awesome. That's a baby in the chub, fyi.

And here is Dave. We ate at a Mexican place off of the Riverwalk. San Antonio is a lovely city that reminds me of Europe (or what I imagine what Europe looks like). We arrived during a week called Fiesta Week, where, you guessed it, they partied for a whole week. They had mariachi bands playing in boats down the river and a bunch of festivals all around. I totally recommend San Antonio if you're looking for a getaway.    

Can I divulge a disappointment, though? One of the things I was excited about was having TV at the hotel (We don't watch TV. We have internet.) and watching HGTV. However, pretty much every time I tried to watch my beloved station the only thing that was on was Income Property--which is not my favorite! I guess we're not missing out with no TV reception.

The End. Have a nice day.

The past several months

Hello People. Well, A LOT has happened these past few months. Here's a quick hi-lite of the important events...

#1 We bought a house.

As you can see we are still working on making it more homey and not so cold and bare. This last picture is what our spare room looked like for the longest time. I am happy to say that it now looks better.

I hope to post more pictures as our house evolves into a very Josliny space. I have a million projects I want to get done before the baby comes. Oh, and speaking of baby....


#2 We got pregnant.
(in realty, this happened BEFORE we bought a house, but the house took precedence at the time).

I thought for sure it was going to be a boy this time, but when we had our ultrasound the doctor said he was 98%  sure that it's going to be a GIRL again. I can deal with girls.

We are due August 10 (the day before our anniversary....I guess we'll never be home for this kid's bday).

I was going to post a picture of this baby, but I think you've seen a ultrasound before, right?


#3 Sophie has turned THREE YEARS OLD!!

Our Soph is a BIG GIRL now. She is becoming more independent each day. She now insists on putting her clothes on by herself until she gets too frustrated when she can't find her arm hole. She is very good about taking her cereal bowl to the sink when she is done and washing her hands after dinner. The amount of tantrums we've had has lessened (thank goodness!) and she has learned to play by herself since we've moved to a place that has some good digging ground. She thinks the name of the baby in Mommy's tummy is Alex. She recognizes Adele's voice every time she hears one of her songs on the radio. She loves dancing herself to some Star Wars Disco Funk.

RECALL NOTICE

For Immediate Release
January, 2012


Lucasfilm is recalling certain episodes of its Star Wars Saga released between 1999 and the present, citing numerous safety and continuity issues identified by consumers. Major issues cited included:

Small children and Star Wars veterans may choke on loose plots and flimsy characters;
Overly flashy packaging and animations may cause epileptic seizures;
The brakes are known to not work, as it just keeps going and going and won't stop;
General inability to deliver on expectations or to perform per previously set standards;

Specific episodes in question are episodes #1, 2, and 3, and any current or future variations on these. Some recent revisions to episodes 4, 5, and 6, released in the late 1990s, are also in question. Consumers are strongly cautioned to stick with the original episodes (#4, 5, and 6, produced before 1997), and to avoid newer revisions and episodes if at all possible. Parents are strongly cautioned to limit or prevent their childrens' exposure to the questionable episodes as well.

Please send your copies of the Episodes in question to George Lucas, and include a copy of this notice with your request for a refund.

(By Dave)

Count Your Blessings!

just do it!