Painting Stripes Tutorial

So...now we finally talk about how to paint perfect stripes- without any bleed-through of paint.

I first want to start by telling you that it is true. Prep work is the most important part of painting and the details that you pay attention to during that time will make or break your finished product.

The first step is to paint your base color. Now, with Smiles' room here I did a light blue on top and dark blue on bottom, with red stripes in between. So, for my room, I painted (with the help of Handsome's mom) the top part light blue and bottom dark blue. No need to be perfect in this section, though you do want to make sure that your line is within the range of level. I chose to go around the room with a laser level and put up a strip of tape to show my line. This way I kept within my boundaries with no question.

Next, after the base color is done, you decide how thick you want your stripe/stripes to be and where you want them to be. I recommend using a laser level like this:


There is a pin that sticks into the wall, then you hang the level on it.


The laser has an auto level setting and it will bounce up and down until it finds "level", then you just take your tape and follow it's edge along the line of the laser. Easy as pie!


Make sure you let the paint dry well before putting tape up by the way. If it's not good and dry then you will have problems later.

First go around the room for the top of your stripe and then the bottom of your stripe. If you go with more than one stripe then you will need to do the top and bottom for both. I decided to have my section between stripes be the thickness of my roll of tape (because I am lazy), so that counted as the top of the bottom stripe and the bottom of the top stripe. See the middle strip of tape there? That's the one I am referring to. (Pay no attention to the "off" color there. That's just where my tape guide that didn't matter between light and dark blue was...)


Still with me?

Okay. So you get your tape up. Next comes the hard work, which is also VERY important work. I can't stress to you enough how important it is that you do this next part very thoroughly. It's the step that determines if you have any touch up to do or not...and with stripes, you do not want to have to do touch up. ICK.

Step 1: Go around the room and rub the parts of the tape that will be touching the stripe color firmly. You are trying to get all spaces out from between the tape and the wall so that paint can't get through. Handsome was my beautiful assistant for this part and he liked using an outlet cover. You know, those things that keep us from getting into the outlet when we want to...all in the name of protecting our children, when in reality Smiles has NO issue getting them out...yep those things. Handsome used the rounded edge part of the top. It didn't scratch the wall, but got good contact for wall and tape. Use whatcha got. Mothers are inventive people.

Step 2: Now is the interesting part. I'm sure you know step 1, but step two is GG's secret (from a painting book I think). GG is my mom's mom.

Go around the room again and fill ALL the stripe-touching parts of the tape with paint in the color that is under the tape. Does that make sense?

So...in this case, the very bottom strip was "filled" with dark blue, all other parts were filled with light blue.

I think an illustration is required here...

In the photo above, I have started brushing paint in an upward motion on the top and downward motion on the bottom strip of tape. Both are in light blue because both have light blue under the tape. Got it?

Now, let's elaborate on the detail part. You want to make sure you fill all the gaps in the tape with the base color of paint. Any gap that is left will fill with the stripe color of paint. We don't want this. (You can see an example of bleed-through on the odd colored stripe that was left from my tape between blues earlier in the photo above...not pretty.)

The good thing is, you can pretty easily see the gaps...at least, I think so. If you have vision that requires glasses then I am not sure. Here is what you are looking for:


Can you see it there? It helps to fill your brush often without too much paint because you don't want the paint to drip, but you do want it to fill the gaps. You will want to brush in the direction that you are wanting to fill. If you are filling the "down" part of the tape, then brush down. It fills better. (On a side note, filling the downward part is much easier than if you are doing the "up" or sides for vertical stripes.)

Finish this the entire way around the room and let it dry.

Step 3: If you are using a color that requires primer, as my red did here, then this is the time to prime your stripe zones. Paint the inside of the stripes with the primer. I have not captured this part in photos for you, but I do want to say that if primer is recommended- by all means, USE IT! Don't try to skimp when you need primer. You will be happy in the end if you do this bit of prep work.

If you don't know when to use primer, always ask the person in your paint department when you buy the paint. Tell them what color will be going over what and they can usually help you. Red almost always will need primer, but especially when you are going over a light color.

Step 4: Paint your stripe color in the stripe zone. That part between the tape = the stripe zone. Do as many coats as necessary to get an even coat. I also recommend buying one of the little rollers for this. It makes for much prettier stripes with no brush marks. Because who wants to see the brush strokes?!? Not me!

Step 5: Let the paint dry.

Step 6: Peel off the tape! Now you have your stripes. (The tape is the most fun part, don't you think? It's like revealing the new room. I love it!) You should be revealing perfect stripes if you have done all your prep work properly. See how smooth and crisp that line is?

This is where I did the work of my stars. If you want to do something like that then you have to figure it out mostly on your own. I taped my stars out on the wall, filled the tape like I would with stripes around the inside part of the stars. Then after letting it dry I used my primer, then painted my coats of red paint letting it dry between each. You can cheat on something so small as a star with a hair dryer if you want to hurry things. Don't get too close to the tape, as you don't want to heat it to the wall and make it impossible to get off. It will make your time between coats a little less long.

And yipee skipee, you now have stripes.


I also have large paper mache letters with Smiles' name in red that go above his crib, but they were drying when I took these photos...and I like to keep his name private from weirdos on the web anyway...but that's another idea for you if you like.

Just in Case You Miss Them...

These were taken on Friday. Right before we all started to get sick. The same day that our happy moods turned to...the DARK SIDE. The same day that...you know, lets just stop there. You don't need to know the whole terrible story, right?

The intention was to update the blog, which I have finally done. Gumby is the name of our newest member, named for her amazingly flexible self. Also, original Gumby and our Gumby are both pretty happy, from what I can remember of OG (original Gumby), so that fits too. Thank you for the suggestions on a name, even if I did go with something not suggested.

And because I think they are so cute, you get to see them in this post, AND up on the sidebar until I so decide to update again. (I do realize that Handsome and I need some new photos of ourselves, but it's not that easy when you are the one that takes the pictures. I'll work on something for you, but it might be a little while.)

Smiles

Curly

Gumby

And some sisterly love

Sorry for the silence, I was down sick all weekend. Thanks to Handsome, I got some rest and stayed in bed most of the weekend. Love you Mister!

Jedi Training Camp

While I work on my painting stripes post, which I have not forgotten, I'll share a bit of what life is like when Daddy is in charge. Photos all taken while Mom was not around...by Handsome. He is a Star Wars fan, so we have light sabers for all the kids. Don't go too far with your imagination though. While he likes the movies and books, he isn't the all out Star Wars crazy. He only has light sabers for the kids because he works at Target and has found them on sale. No costumes to the movies or anything like that =).

Daddy's Jedi Training Camp

The Big "Sis" fights a raging battle against Ana Won. Being her first battle, Ana Won fares well. She has spunk and determination, but the Sis is a feisty warrior that brings all she has got to battle. Will Ana Won defeat the Sis?

She is caught in a corner with no way to escape. Things are looking mighty grim for Ana Won!

She escapes with her maneuverability skills. Ana Won has rubber joints you know. (She does of course =)...I'm thinking about Gumby for a blog name as long as no one has issues with that.) From the look on the Sis' face, I do wonder if she let her go for the fun of chasing her...

Ana Won is tracking the Sis with Smiles at her side, ready to team up. Notice that Smiles has little faith in their team. He carries a doctor bag instead of his light saber. Don't loose hope yet Smiles! Ana Won has faith in you, and so does Mommy!

Ana Won has found signs of her, Smiles isn't sure. He might have little faith in their victory because he has seen THIS:

The Sis is ready for battle, waiting for them to step into her trap!

You can see where Smiles would be filled with fear! Run Ana Won, run!

Ana Won is up for the task of fighting the Sis. Fearlessness...or lack of experience? I cannot be sure.



But wait! It just so happens that Smiles has a secret. He is non other than...

Dun, Dun, Dun......


And Smiles sneaks in to save the day. Tune in next time as we watch the battle of Ana Won and Darth Smiles against The Sis. It's sure to be a great battle.

What About Those Doctor's Appointments?

I realized that I haven't given you much update on what we have found with all of the doctor's appointments that we have had with Miss Ana. And believe me, there have been PLENTY of them recently. I will give you a very condensed version.

All of the testing for international adoption came back great. No parasites, no other issues. They do quite the full route of testing there, so that's good to know.

(I promise that we DO dress our children in clothes other than pajamas...just not all the time.)

All of her DS testing has come back good too. We are still waiting on the results of her test to determine what type of Down Syndrome she has, so that we don't know yet. The genetics appointment wasn't all that big a deal for us, I suppose because of all the information we got through the process of adopting her. Most of the people involved in RR know plenty of information about DS since so many of them have children with DS, and they are not stingy with their information =).

Her neck scan/x-ray came back "good", meaning she has no issues with stability in her neck.

Heart issues- less than expected, even after our appt with our pediatrician. He thought from his listen that we would find an ASD and VSD, which are holes in her upper and lower chambers of the heart (and the cardiologist in Kyiv told us that this was the case as well). After her echo (I think I am remembering the name of that correctly...it's like an ultrasound type scan of her heart) with a pediatric cardiologist here, we found that she only has a small VSD that will most likely not need surgery. The upper part of her heart is slightly enlarged, but not enough to worry about at this point. She is old enough that he doesn't think her hole will close on it's own, but he doesn't think it will cause any issues for her. We are just going to watch her every six months for awhile to make sure.

As far as appointments with her OT (occupational therapist), she is doing amazingly well. The OT has been surprised at how well she focuses on the things we are working on and how quickly she responds. She learned a few things before even having her eval and seeing a therapist at home (learned to stack blocks, thread string through spools) very easily. When we have gone to our appointments there she learns very quickly and also works through the things that are not in her comfort zone quickly. I think of the shopping cart as a good example from home. Often she will act terrified of something and then by the time we try it next she acts as if it was never an issue. She just jumps right into it.

We have noticed that she speaks with her tongue a LOT. When I say this, I mean that while she may not express that something is causing her anxiety, you can see clearly by the way she reacts with her tongue that she is not comfortable. Especially with doctors appointments that are in unfamiliar offices, she will place her tongue all the way out, nearly going UNDER her chin. (She does have a looooong tongue.) The more anxious she is feeling about something, the more she will do it. Now, there are times that she will give us ques with sound or motions with her hands...like straight screaming or crying, or hitting something away...but those are not often and those are the times that we know she isn't ready to try something. (Hasn't happened at therapy yet, this has been in situations out in our daily life.) When we get the tongue action going on that usually says that "this is not familiar and I am not comfortable with it, but I trust you and I will give it a try". This little girl is such a persistent and focused child that she learns quite quickly. She is also very good at observing to learn (she will copy what she sees us do when it looks interesting to her, especially helpful with therapy), and she learns very quickly with instruction. Her OT told me today, after our second appointment, that she was very impressed with all that she has seen in this short time and sees her easily getting "on grade level" quickly.

We still have a long way to go with speech, which is expected with all of the things she is working with, including the fact that English is a new language for her. I think I would have a hard time with that too!

Some of her more difficult areas:

She does have a problem with "stuffing" food, which we were very prepared for. (I would prefer the stuffing to the option of not wanting to try the normal foods we eat and needing to coax her into eating.) Our OT has started us working on stimulating her mouth before eating to help with that. We just started that today, so I will let you know how it goes. They have an actual class with children that have sensory issues with eating specifically, so I am sure that her suggestions will help quite a bit. She had a lot to tell us about this issue and what some of the causes are.

We also have the speech issues. Ana will have a hearing evaluation and that should help us with a plan there. At this point we aren't sure what role hearing plays in her speaking development. Also, the mouth stimulation we are doing should help with this. It will make her more "aware" of things in her mouth and that is one of the reasons for both the "stuffing" and the word formation troubles we are seeing, according to our OT.

I think that's all the update I have on Miss Ana for right now. If there is anything you wondered about that I didn't cover, just ask in the comments and I will give an answer for you...even if it's that we haven't looked into it yet.

The Trunk

I wanted to post this when it happened, but got busy =). So...I will share now, a few days later.

We went as a family for a drive to Costco. We needed to get something for Mom. Something like...oh...let's say- Wilcox chocolate milk. (Which they DIDN'T even carry anymore, but we won't get into that.)

First off, Ana did really well. Last time we tried to go to the store with her, she screamed bloody murder at the cart when we tried to put her in, so I ended up staying in the car with her. This time, she just got in. No issues at all, just let us plop her right in. That was a wonderful thing for us.

So anyway, we were back in the car after finding out that they didn't have Wilcox chocolate milk anymore...and after eating lunch there. Curly and Ana sit in the third row seat of our Kia Rondo and Smiles sits in the middle row with the seat next to him folded down. That's how we get the other two into the back, we have to leave the second row just one seat. So...Curly is sitting back there with Ana and suddenly gets this look on her face. A look mixed with confusion, disgust, and shock at her parents.

"THIS IS the TRUNK!" These words were spoken as you only hear when someone has surprise revelation that changes their whole world. "I am IN the TRUNK!" She was appalled at this. How could her parents stoop to the level of placing her in the trunk of the car?!?

I couldn't stop laughing. I am not sure what suddenly brought her to the realization that she was "in the trunk" as far as she was concerned, but it was a light bulb moment for her and it was funny.

...I wish that you could hear the tones and inflections in her voice. That was the best part.

Some News

I have a couple of things to share tonight. Please let me also remind you to see the post below. Please be in prayer for a family to step forward for Dennis right away. His situation doesn't look great, but it is not too big for God.

First news, you all remember Tonya who lived with Ana in Ukraine. You remember how we were looking for a family for her and you all helped so much by donating to her fund. Well, you may also recall that she has a family now that is working on going to get her, hopefully this spring! I wanted to share with you that they have a blog now so that you can follow their journey to bring Tonya home and get to know them a little bit. I have had quite a bit of e-mail contact with Tonya's new Mommy and I'm so excited for both Tonya and her family. What a blessing it will be for all of them.

Click here to visit their blog.

Second news is about the little one that's still cookin'. We had our ultrasound appointment today and all seems to look good. Our results won't be back for us until tomorrow, but we didn't stop on any organs for an extended time period or anything, so hopefully that means we are good to go.

I thought it would be fun to wait until the moment of birth to find out whether or not would be adding to the girls or the boys, but Handsome wanted to know now...so we went with his vote because it's not something I care about all that much. I suppose that you might want to know what our family is going to look like...=D

We are having another.......















GIRL.

I was thinking that would probably be the case, since I felt from the start that God was telling us that we would were adding two little girls to our family. If it had been a boy my surprise wouldn't have been great of course, because I AM human and all, and I DO hear wrong sometimes. But the news of a girl was also no surprise to us and we are happy to add either to our family. God knows who we need and when we need them far better than we could, so we are pleased to sit back and watch Him work.

That's all the news for tonight. Soon I will try to get those stripes to you =).

Pray for Dennis to Find a Family

This post is copied from the Cornish family blog.

ORPHAN CRISIS! Dennis... Please Share!

All, regrettably, the family who was hoping to adopt Dennis and Anna will not be able to complete the adoption.

The most difficult part is that Dennis is literally WEEKS from transfer to the institution, one he can not be adopted out of. We are desperately seeking a paper-ready, USCIS ready family who would be willing to specifically request him so he can be saved. Other photos available, we have had several families adopt from this orphanage previously as well.

Dennis (9)

BOY, Born March 18, 2006

I LOST MY FAMILY!

Dennis has lost his family at the 11th hour, and is in crisis need of a paper-ready, USCIS approved family to save him from an institution he can't be adopted out of.

Dennis is a darling little boy with blonde hair and big blue eyes. He is not very active, and he struggles with pulmonary artery stenosis and rickets. He needs to get HOME, so he can have adequate medical care, sunshine, nutrition....so he really has a chance to achieve his true potential. He is an orphanage favorite, but he won't survive a transfer to the institution. Please consider rescuing this munchkin!!

Regrettably, this orphanage is one of the poorer ones, with very little outside aid and very little hope. All of the children are tiny and undernourished. These children are immediately transferred at 4, and have little chance of survival where they are sent. All of our waiting children need families, but these have a critical need. Please consider one of these children soon!!

Contact Andrea for more information
I have $3231 in my grant fund towards the cost of my adoption!

Further donations are helpful, but the crisis now is to find another family.

Dennis is in the same orphanage as ALEC, who is also still waiting and faces the same fate in June. If there is ANYONE out there who is ready for Eastern Europe, please contact me ASAP at bamaroberts@... Parents must be no more than 45 years in age difference from Dennis.

You can see all of the waiting children in orphanage 9 at www.reecesrainbow.org/eelittles.html and www.reecesrainbow.org/atriskwaiting.html

Thank you for your prayers tonight, for this little boy who has no idea what March 18 holds for him...for this family who must so very sad to not be able to save him...and for a new family to be ready in the wings and waiting to save Dennis.

Andrea Roberts, Executive Director
Reece's Rainbow Down Syndrome Adoption Ministry
www.reecesrainbow.org

Keeping Busy (Long Update Post)

You may be under the impression that I have been busy with three young children who now fill my house. That impression isn't really the truth of things in fact.

See, Handsome has some time off this month. We've been able to have him home since we left for Ukraine, so I can't say that I've been handling three small children on my own yet. Sounds like Monday I will be flying solo though, so then if you see a steady increase in empty Nutella jars in my garbage can...well, you will know to send in professional help.

This all being preparation for the change to becoming a family of six in a couple of months. We like to move quickly in our family.

So, we are doing quite well and that might have to do with being able to have Handsome home so that we have all of us under the same roof. Even if he is going nuts because he wasn't built to be an at home parent, though he very much enjoys our children.

The kids all love being with eachother and it truly and honestly feels like Ana has been part of our family forever. It feels nearly as it would if we added a new baby through birth. There are moments when things aren't perfect, but it's not that different than the issues that arise with any new child. They almost all have to do with sleep =). And do you get less sleep when a baby comes? You better bet you get less than I am getting right now!

Smiles and Ana (who needs a blog name even though you know her real name because it feels weird to have her be the only one with a real name)- they get along great. They are similar in their development level, though Ana is a bit beyond him. This makes for some great play and laughter caused by the same really random stuff. Don't ask me because they laugh at things all the time that I don't have any idea about. Smiles still plays a little more destructively than Ana would like, so he gets told to "get outa here" from time to time. That's nothing he doesn't hear from Curly all the time though, so he doesn't mind much.

These two also like to trade cups all the time. That part is annoying! No matter what cup I give either one of them they always want to trade. I suppose I should just get over it, but I don't really like to have shared cups. I get uptight about germ sharing, okay.

Ana seems to love her new home and family. She enjoys meeting the people that are part of our lives and is very unlike her big sister in the area of shyness. Curly is extremely shy with people. Ana is very much NOT. She likes to climb up in laps and give hugs. I have been told that this shouldn't be allowed for attachment, but it's hard to say no when these people are like part of our family. It seems clear that she still knows who is her family, so I'm not sure it's as big of an issue for her. Maybe I just don't know much. It's possible you know =). We are a family that spends a lot of time at home and we don't go out much at all. Because of this, we get lots of time for bonding at home too. She never has issues with coming up for hugs or kisses and will walk up and "ask" for them plenty often if Handsome or I am just sitting on the couch and she wants a hug.

She does have a little bit more need for time to play on her own during the day. She plays with the other kids, but also likes to have some time in a different area of the room playing alone. She doesn't need to be in a different room, just playing something simple by herself. The other two can be a bit overwhelming to her if it's constant. Although she needs her alone time, she also does enjoy play directed by her big sister. Curly is a good "director of play" (read- bossy) and it seems that Ana responds well to this mothering. I think it's funny because Ana is a bit on the "mothering" side herself. She tells Ben what to do plenty often, which he is used to. I often wish that I could understand what she is saying to him because it's so cute with her little finger pointed at him telling him what he needs to know.

I mentioned (I think) that sleep has been our only real issue. While our new little pumpkin is still not perfect in behavior, as in she does plenty of smile at mom and do what she just told me not to do even though I know very well what she said, it's all normal stuff. She listens most of the time and I am floored at how much she understands. It seems that anything I say to her or tell her to do is understood. She may not know how to speak to me in words, but we communicate just fine. Sleep...well, she tells me that she doesn't like it in her new bed. She slept in a crib all her life and we have her in a bunk bed on the bottom bunk. When she first got home she was in a play-pen because we kept her in our room (partially because she was so sick). Later she moved to the bunk, but only after we made (Chalupa actually) some railing for her so that she wouldn't fall out or feel like she was going to. She is a crazy sleeper.

Bottom bunk came with a lot of crying at first. She didn't like it. She stayed in the bed, but she would cry for a long while when we put her to bed at night. Nap was pretty rough too. The girl still needs a nap for sure because if we skip it then she is falling asleep in her afternoon snack, literally. And in case you didn't know people- my kids are 6 PM bedtime kids...so it's not like we were keeping her up late. (An hour nap does her well just like Curly and then the go to bed at 6.)

Later, the crying was quite less but it's still there. Unfortunately, she learned that she could climb out of bed. Then it was out every few minutes after we put her in bed for a little while. At first we would put her back in bed, but then we realized that she was getting out of bed to get time with mom and dad too. I am happy to give this attention during the day, but not when it's sleep time. So, we changed to open the door and have her get back in by herself. (Bossy Miss Curly is good at informing us of the getting out of bed.) This made the getting out of bed less and it would take us about 15 minutes of "Get back in your bed." until she would stay for the night.

One night when we were going through the rough stage of getting out of bed, we heard her wake EARLY in the morning...like when it's still called middle of the night. She got into bed with Smiles...in his crib. He was NOT happy. We had arranged things with a sleep room and a play room because it was a good fit for our family in our very small house. We have about 1350 sq. ft. of house with three bedrooms. It's tight and gonna be tighter for 4 kids, but you make do with what you got. This was not going to work though. We couldn't have her climb in his crib for his safety and also because it's not fair to mess with his sleep. He requires a lot of sleep. (And if you don't believe me ask his grandma who didn't necessarily agree with my sleep schedule and early bedtimes until she watched them for 4 weeks and saw how much it really effects them. She will tell you he needs it.)

SO- some rearranging was in order. The girls got moved back into the old girl room, Smiles got his own room back, and the living room switched from playroom to living room again. Now the office has to be inside of the master bedroom. Toys in rooms will do for now.

Busy? Well, yes I have been. But not with adjustment. What's one more kid really? Ask me after baby comes and we will see what I say, but for now it's not much trouble with Ana. (Daddy is still home too, so that helps I'm sure. I suppose I should say ask me when he goes back to work in February.) I have been busy with rearranging and cleaning every room in our house. Including painting Smiles a new room. Here are some pictures for you.



Stars and Stripes.



I think I have an issue with stripes. Like an obsessed issue. Curly was growing in my womb- we painted stripes on her wall. Far more challenging stripes than this. I will show you photos. Pink and green and white stripes that are vertical and go through the entire room. It took Handsome's mom and I days. Smiles was growing in my womb- we painted stripes in my room. Slightly less complicated, but still vertical and going through the entire room. It was only two colors and only took two or three days. Baby number four is growing in my womb (well, third in the womb because someone else grew Ana for me)- I paint stripes in Smiles' room. FAR less complex than the others. Horizontal stripes and there are only two. Still took two days with drying times and stars that complicated things a little, but it was much easier than the others.

I think I have stripes down =). This round turned out with zero bleed through! I was so happy. Because they worked so well, I am planning on giving you instructions on how to get the perfect stripes with no bleed through- NO touch up paint sisters! Perfect stripes the first time. I even have photos for you. Also, I will tell you how to get straight stripes that are level too. It's not as hard as it might look.

Now that you have fallen asleep six times because this post is too long, I will end for now.

Redeeming Time

Now that I have chilled a bit...

The kids like bath time. Just a little.


So, in an effort to share the joy I thought we could share some pictures. Unfortunately not too many, due to the fact that it is the bath and therefore we don't have too many options when it comes to keeping slight modesty.


Just don't tell them later that you saw these. I'm not asking you to lie, just omit the truth. And if that's too much for your conscience then let me know now and I can block you from any further contact with our family so that you have no control over whether or not you share it with them. Then you won't feel guilty because it was all by my own hand.

Unsolicited Rant and the Healing Powers of Nutella

There are many thoughts in my head, but not much time to blog and also I haven't been sure of which things I even want to share.

Do you ever feel guilty about how blessed you are? Do you ever wonder why the Lord is giving you such an easy time when others struggle a lot through the same things? Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair.

Do you ever feel like you don't want to share something because you don't want unsolicited advice? Like if you even mention a less than perfect moment that you are dealing with just fine that it will open up a string of advice being thrown at you that you didn't want or really need?

Like I said, there have been many thoughts in my head and I just am not sure what to share. Not because things are private, but because we have had a pretty easy time with our adjustment so far and are handling the difficult parts just fine and I get a little grumpy when I get too much advice that I don't feel like I need or want. And that sounds just terrible of me because it is good to be open to advice...and I am, but ...well...

If you have kids, do you remember what it feels like when you have a new baby and everyone throws information at you all the time about what you should be doing EVEN when you are not having any issues at all? And you get so much of that from random people that it builds up and something that wasn't intended as anything but helpful becomes overwhelming and you kind of want to fly off the handle at the next person to tell you something that has anything to do with a baby? And often it's even people who haven't had children at all or haven't had them in a LONG time? (Not that I don't think grandmas know what they are talking about...just sometimes things change and doctors tell you different information than they used to. Like that it's NOT a good idea to slip a little alcohol in the bottle to get 'em to sleep better...yep, like that =D.)

So, because I am pregnant and might be a little extra hormonal, lets agree to something. Okay?

I will share more about what life is like right now. I'll give you some of the updates on how things are going because that's the job of blog writer.

Your end? Well, I ask that if I share something and you have that urge to tell me a great way to deal with it, consider a couple things first.

-Did I ask for suggestions? Because I am not against suggestions if we are not sure what to do and have tried a few things that haven't worked. I very well may ask for input sometimes and I LIKE to get new ideas if I am having a tough time figuring something out. It's just that I DO have a little experience with children, even before having my own kids...so I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve and a Mama with lots of her own (after having a brood with yours truly bringing up the front).

-If I didn't ask for suggestions, have you been through this situation and come out with something that worked really well for you? Even if I don't ask, there are times that someone who has been through a situation before me will know a good answer because they have been there. Experience with the specific situation is okay to share =). It's more when there is no experience with what we are dealing with that gets annoying. I can come up with lots of the same ideas that someone else can when I haven't dealt with it (and possibly have). Now that I type that, that's my biggest issue with the whole thing. I get 30 suggestions (YES that's an exaggeration) to do things that I have already tried thankyouverymuch.

Okay. Well, now that I sound like a big grumpy guss, I do think that it's time for someone to get their growing belly up off the couch (or bed as the case may be) and take this big, kicking babay belluh over to the kitchen and have a straight shot of Nutella. And maybe, just maybe you will get a much happier post next time because I will be on the Nutella high that happened just after I realized what a stinker I was being. BUT we will also have prevented a lash out that could have happened at one of my poor unsuspecting friends, or readers that I don't even know, who just wanted to help me out.

Buh-bye now. I'll crawl out of my lair a little later. Don't judge the chocolate hazelnut smears on my face and the finger marks in my jar... You've been infromed that it's my personal jar and it's your problem if that makes you grossed out. On second thought, I just might add some banana...

What's Up Here?

Oh, you know, just Pajama time with some silliness on the side.



(3 kids are hard to get a good photo of right before bed.)

...and even silliness when we aren't getting ready for bed too.

Nobody ever claimed we were a normal family. (This is his "getting through the bars" face.)

Curly with dressed up with her light saber. It was special for her auntie.

...don't ask.

And Ana...well, she still just thinks we are all crazy =D.