March updates about everything.

I'm really busy lately, so much so that I'm really sad I'm not keeping this blog up to date. I feel bad that Iris won't have as good a history written out for her infancy. We are benefiting from the history though, and take glimpses back at what Clark was doing at this age. I was invited to write for our church's women's group's blog (English teachers, Do I need all of those apostrophies?). It is http://womenofstraphael.blogspot.com/ if you'd like to check it out. I don't have that much time to post there either, but I did get one in a few days ago.

I have been having a hard couple of weeks adjusting to having these two kids. It was hard to admit while it was hard. Now I feel better, and I almost can't stop talking about it. It makes me feel better to share, I guess. I've been focusing on eating well, getting sleep when I can, and on Clark when he is awake. He is a very independant boy, but he is at a critical developmental point right now and he needs lots of guidance. Every few months I realize my old parenting tricks won't work anymore. I need to develop a new skill set. I have probably needed to develop this new set for a while, but with the baby and the pregnancy, it has fallen by the wayside. I was being lazy, and everyone said it was ok, but now I need to step up and be the parent he needs me to be. Realizing this has helped me.

We have also been given the gift of a free night. Tom's best friend from high school, Mike Farmer, moved up here in September. We have been spending a lot of time with their family, wife Kathryn, and son Owen. The Farmers (Kathryn) have taken Clark for the night. I had a free afternoon. Tom will be home and we will have a free evening, a sleep in morning, and pick Clark up when we feel like it on Saturday. I am already so relaxed. Having two kids is way harder than one! Even though Iris is as easy as Clark was at this age (see paragraph above) Clark is a challenge for us right now. Plus, he is exhausting, and we aren't getting as much sleep. It is hard to see yourself less loving and patient then you know you COULD be if you just had a little more rest.

Another help for us has been a Mother's Helper. I sent an add out in our neighborhood list serv. I got an 11 year old girl to come over to our house and clean up. She picked up toys and socks and unloaded the dishwasher. It was amazing. Our house looks beautiful. She was just here for an hour, and I paid her $5. Now our house is tidy, and I didn't have to do it for once. She will be coming once or twice a week to help out. She will help tidy, and also play with Clark so I can get some Brio Birth work done, blog, or take a nap! She just came once and I love her already.

On the Iris front, she is fat and happy. She had her 2 month check up and she looks great. She is above the curve for height and weight, just over 14lbs already! She has a spitup/gagging/projectile vomiting problem, but it isn't affecting/effecting (English teachers?) her growth (14lbs!) so it isn't a big deal. I just feel bad for her when she is so visibly uncomfortable, and then I'm covered in spitup. Its a lifestyle issue, not a health issue. I have elminated gluten and dairy and caffiene from my diet (but not chocolate!!! They'll never take my chocolate!!!). and it helps A LOT, but she still has periodic issues.

Clark is happy, healthy, vibrant, energetic. He loves colors, counting, the ABCs, songs, books, trucks, cars, airplanes, helicopters, balls, etc. In some books and for some songs, if I leave out words he can now add them in. He is at a really fun, and also challenging age. Me and some friends are going to start a co-op preschool. We are going to start in a few weeks. We are just going to meet once a week - but we are excited about it. It is a fun experiment. We were thinking of putting him in a sports camp this spring/summer - but with everything else going on, we are busy enough. This fall he might play "magnet ball" (toddler soccer) with his friend Will Clark.

Tom is happy. He got an ipad (Thanks Ray!) and will be "facetime" chatting with family members soon. He is in Physical Therapy for his back, and it seems to be helping. He has had lots of back problems in the past 4 years due to a very tiny fender bender which totally messed his back up. He had been going to the chiropractor, but with our new insurance the PT was cheaper, and they do some adjusting too. He has another publication coming out sometime in the near future. It is the last paper he will be on from his heroin days. When it is published, maybe we can post a link here. He is flying RC helicopters frequently, mostly at the request of Clarkiekins.

I just started running again, and plan on getting a double jogging stroller in the next couple of weeks. It is Springtime, and that means running. It makes me feel so good, I'm excited to be out moving my body again. I will also start teaching my new Brio Birth classes soon. I have one couple due in May. I am doing a private class with them and I hope I can help them have a really good birth experience. It will also give me a chance to review the new curriculum. It is really, really good. Even more exciting, Iris and I are featured in the workbook. There are two pictures of us nursing in it. It is really exciting to be in the book, and to also have this incredible new curriculum that just blows what I had been teaching right out of the water. I have many pregnant friends right now, and I'm glad to be sharing it with them too. I hope I can start attending births as a doula whenever Iris is a little bit older.

My cousin Jordan was here last week. We did some fun stuff in the city and hung out around the house. As I mentioned last year, she is the best house guest. I have figured out why. She doesn't mind lounging around our house and being lazy (unlike our mothers who always have to be busy) and she is highly competent in childcare and she doesn't mind it when I boss her around. So if you would like to be a good house guest for us, please take my orders, play with Clark when I'm not bossing you around, and in the rest of your time sit around and do nothing and enjoy it! no, no, no. please be yourself, but these are the reasons we really love it when Jordan comes to visit! She's the best!

Our future looks bright. We have upcoming visits from Tom's bestie Ian, and his beautiful wife, Kelly. Then I am some one's sponsor for confirmation at the Easter Vigil. Then we are going to Ft. Lauderdale for a BEACH (conference) VACATION! We have a visit from the lovely Monica Janzen, and then Tom's parents will be here in mid-June for a conference and for Iris's (English teachers??) baptism June 19th. All are welcome to join us for the baptism!

Home Improvements

Wow! What a busy time we have been having lately.

On the weekend of July 11th, Andrea, Jake and Sophia moved back to San Diego. Now we have no family out here =( and have to fend for ourselves =( From what it sounds like, they are happy they are there and even went to the beach today! Here is a pic of Andrea and Clark the day they left.




Since they left, we've been pouring our energies into Clark's sleeping abilities (as written in the previous week) and working on our home.

Clark has amazing sleep powers now, and we are really proud of him. Because he can roll off of his back, it is now safe(r) to allow him to sleep on his stomach. So he is doing his sleeping on his tummy now.

We still go in and check on him quite a bit. He is happy to hang out in his crib and move around, playing with toys, his feet and sucking on his hands/arm. I am trying not to nurse him to sleep for naps, but he still misses the sucking and has been sucking on his arm quite a bit. We noticed some bruising on his sweet little arm and didn't know what it was. We now know that he is giving himself hickeys from all of the sucking. I honestly am not sure if I should be letting him do this or not. Will people think I am giving my baby an Indian burn? Any comments from other moms? It would be better maybe if he stuck to his hand/thumb.

This week Tom set up a rain barrel in the front yard!

yay!



This is the view from the kitchen window. He got a movable arm to bring the gutter over to the barrel. Then he prayed for rain. It poured last night and ......

We got water!!!!!!!! Here is a picture of the water coming out of the hose! yay!


After we took these pictures it poured, poured, poured and the 55 gallon barrel is almost full now! We will be going to the Pepsi distribution plant to get some more barrels and making our own. The one that you see in these pictures was purchased for bou coup bucks, but looks nice to have in the front yard. The other 3 barrels will be in the back yard. We get a $50 rebate per barrel from Montgomery County for having the barrels, plus we know that we are using less city water to water the plants in the garden and preventing the water from running off into the street and polluting Rock Creek Park!

Tom has also been working on his garden. We have a jungle of tomato plants in the backyard now, heavy with green tomatoes. I can't wait until they ripen! I know I posted a picture of Tom with his plants, but now at least two of those plants are taller than him, maybe even 6.5 or 7 feet tall!!! Here you can see the closest plant is almost as high as the roof eave.



Here is another plant, can you see the whole tomato plant? ITS ALL ONE PLANT!!!!



And here is its fruit!



I continue to contribute to the garden by composting all of our kitchen waste... and eating whatever Tom lets me eat! Thank you!!!

I have also been working on helping to make our house more energy efficient. I got these two books from the library and they have been my guide. For less than $25 at Home Depot, I have contributed the following:

A solar and thermal powered clothes dryer is now set up on our back porch.

Putting Sashes on the doors to keep the cold/warm air from leaking under them.


I insulated the hot water pipes under the house.


I turned the hot water heater down to 120 degrees.


My next DIY tasks are: figuring out what to do with these crawlspace vents that are under the house. Any suggestions? I heard that we should have them open in the summer and close them in the winter, but do we honestly need them at all? There are 3 under the house. They are icky. The crawlspace is also very cool and it would be great to insulate everything down there, but that's a future job.


My next big job is going to be putting up fiberglass insulation in the laundry/utility room and then putting drywall up over it. I'm not going to do it fancy and make it look good, I'm just going to do the insulation and then nail up the drywall, no drywall tape, no paint (at least I dont think so).





I also want to close off these portholes in the utility/laundry room that go into the house. The living room is on the other side and we lose heat/air conditioning through them into the utility room which is uninsulated! AHHH! The way they built this house is driving me nuts!


I have had contractors over this week giving us quotes for our heating/cooling issues of the upstairs. IT typically is 10 degrees hotter/cooler upstairs than downstairs. If it is 65 down in the winter, then it is 58 up. If it is 75 down in the summer, then it is in the 80s upstairs. IT looks like insulation will be over $15,000 and they will have to rip out our walls, the $15,000 does not include ripping out the walls, putting them back in, nor painting them. I dont think we are going that way. I've been meeting with A/C people and they have suggested putting in a few more returns and vents upstairs, this costs less than $1000. It looks like the way to go. I'm going to talk to a few more people and also look into getting a house fan that will suck the air out of the house and replace it with new air. This is a great idea, because the hot air keeps getting trapped upstairs when the downstairs is really nice and cool. I don't know how it will work in the winter, but we need more warm air upstairs so it sounds good for that as well.

Moved In

So, Tom here. We are pretty much moved into our new house. Veronica is doing well. Getting rest and eating food. We have our Ultrasound on October 3. I took pictures of each room of our house with Veronica in it to reprise what Veronica's mom did when she had taken pictures of their place and a young Veronica was in almost every picture her mom took. Momma Averill- give us a picture of young Veronica and we'll post it.

So here are the pictures:Here is our kitchen
bathroom

office

guest room
living room

baby room
master bedroom