So, it's been mentioned more than a few times that leaving 7 months in between blog posts isn't acceptable blog practice. Go figure! So, here goes the most compact version of my life over the past 7 months.
I have 2 kids now. Of course I did 7 months ago too, technically, but one was just kind of this bump that slept a lot. Now Hudson is crawling everywhere all of the time. Diaper changes are not a time for changing diapers but more a time for nakedness and wiggling away from me. Doesn't change at 21/2 either except there are less diapers and the ability to take clothes off unassisted. Solid foods have taken this little guy from "off the charts" in a bad, starving, ear infected, non-nursing way to "off the charts" in a gigantic big eating, constantly whining for food, stealing everybody's meal kind of way. Hudson is following in Ryter's footsteps. I'll have another 5year old running around here in no time (except he'll actually only be 2). Hudson has two front teeth now (all he wanted for Christmas), and two more on the way. He's shaping up to be a boy like most boys are. He's always got dirt under his finger nails, grass stains on his skin, and sand in his mouth!
Ryter started school a couple mornings a week. He needed something to help him get over the hump of having this new baby around and I needed some quiet time. I think it's the perfect amount of time away from home. The little things he's learned like sticking with the group, or me at the grocery store, and how to treat other kids have been invaluable. At this point with how difficult things were getting, that was much more important to me than whether he knew his ABCs (but he knows those too!). He's like the smartest kid you'll ever meet, said all moms everywhere. But for real, his vocabulary is amazing and his pronunciation is perfect. He's a really great kid, setting aside all moments of 21/2 year old break downs. He's now almost fully potty trained. Tiny boy undies are the freakin cutest thing. Good thing because they're mysteriously laying all over my house. I guess it starts young!
Vain is doing great. He's working on a big project at work that seems to be giving him the potential to move into a new area in his career. It's really exciting because he wasted so much time in his last job being stalled and not being given any responsibilities to help him grow and now he's finally seeing that. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here! We're so proud of him. Further more, he's switched his schedule just in time for summer. He gets home between 4:30 and 5:00 now instead of 6:30 so there's so much more daddy play time. He's headed on a big trip to the Boundary Waters at the end of June, but I'll let him tell you about that when he gets back.
For myself, I'm still selling Rodan + Fields constantly on a quest for a partner to work with. I need to build a team of people under me to sell the products to maximize my income potential, and it's hard to find someone to start. I don't get out much so I do envy those in this business that actually do currently have other jobs. It seems like a much easier way to come in contact with people that would be interested in the product. I love it and I know it works! You start with your friends, and then their friends, and their friends, and so on. I've got a couple of friends (you know who you are) who could totally rock this just simply because of the environment they live in. My little life in a tiny town makes it a lot more work than it probably needs to be. In 8 months I've paid back my $1000 investment twice already and my client base is small right now. That part was easy. I think the beauty of this business for those with other jobs is that your regular work day can be filled with moments of R+F in little conversations and there's no need for home parties or really much work outside of a work day. This is especially true of anyone in the salon or other image-type business because they see so many new people every day. I think the biggest thing for me was just the idea that the investment was so small that even if I completely failed I wasn't going to lose my money.
Otherwise, we've been working tirelessly on a kitchen renovation which I will save for another post. Let's just say Do It Yourself isn't always worth it when you have two little guys!
Monday, June 23, 2014
Thursday, October 17, 2013
6 Weeks
I just realized I never posted this. Hudson is 8 weeks now:
Hudson is 6 weeks old today. Time has gone by so fast having two kids, that I can't believe I totally forgot to take monthly pictures like I did with Ryter. Here is Hudson's first picture with his Monkey. If he's anything like Ryter he'll be bigger than this Monkey before we know it!
Things have been going well for the most part. If I could take each child and report on how they're doing as an individual I'd say Hudson is a baby so he doesn't do much but sleep. I get up once at 12 and once at 4 to feed him. I try to stay awake until 12 or at least crash while watching tv so that my 12:00 waking feels more like I'm still awake and not waking in the middle of the night. He's a great baby.
Ryter is dealing with it all in his own way. He's good in his new bed and rarely falls out, but without a side on the bed he's inclined to get out at the first eye opening so night time sleeping ends at 6 a.m. and naps are much shorter at somewhere between 45 min and 1.5 hours. He's started hitting quite a bit on kids at the playground, kids we know, and Hudson too. I guess we just wait this out and continue to repeat that hands are not for hitting. I've been told it's normal and he'll grow out of it so I'm just waiting for the day we all wake up (at 8 a.m.) and hitting is a thing of the past.
Having two kids is crazier than I ever imagined. The house is always a disaster, dishes are always piled on the dirty side of the sink, and half the time we have pizza for dinner. Ryter eats by himself a lot while I try to figure out a schedule for feeding Hudson that doesn't involve feeding him while I'm cooking dinner or sitting down at the dinner table. I seriously think it's impossible. My heart breaks when I look at the back of that little blonde head sitting all by himself at our gigantic 8 person dining table. He seems to eat when he's not bothered by anyone else around, so I guess I can look at it as letting him eat alone is better for his health. Makes me feel a little better.
*having trouble with YouTube here so click on "Spaghetti" below.
Spaghetti
Hudson is 6 weeks old today. Time has gone by so fast having two kids, that I can't believe I totally forgot to take monthly pictures like I did with Ryter. Here is Hudson's first picture with his Monkey. If he's anything like Ryter he'll be bigger than this Monkey before we know it!
Things have been going well for the most part. If I could take each child and report on how they're doing as an individual I'd say Hudson is a baby so he doesn't do much but sleep. I get up once at 12 and once at 4 to feed him. I try to stay awake until 12 or at least crash while watching tv so that my 12:00 waking feels more like I'm still awake and not waking in the middle of the night. He's a great baby.
Ryter is dealing with it all in his own way. He's good in his new bed and rarely falls out, but without a side on the bed he's inclined to get out at the first eye opening so night time sleeping ends at 6 a.m. and naps are much shorter at somewhere between 45 min and 1.5 hours. He's started hitting quite a bit on kids at the playground, kids we know, and Hudson too. I guess we just wait this out and continue to repeat that hands are not for hitting. I've been told it's normal and he'll grow out of it so I'm just waiting for the day we all wake up (at 8 a.m.) and hitting is a thing of the past.
Having two kids is crazier than I ever imagined. The house is always a disaster, dishes are always piled on the dirty side of the sink, and half the time we have pizza for dinner. Ryter eats by himself a lot while I try to figure out a schedule for feeding Hudson that doesn't involve feeding him while I'm cooking dinner or sitting down at the dinner table. I seriously think it's impossible. My heart breaks when I look at the back of that little blonde head sitting all by himself at our gigantic 8 person dining table. He seems to eat when he's not bothered by anyone else around, so I guess I can look at it as letting him eat alone is better for his health. Makes me feel a little better.
*having trouble with YouTube here so click on "Spaghetti" below.
Spaghetti
Rodan + Fields
So, I recently picked up a job. Yeah, not something I really thought about doing right after having a new baby, but it seemed like the right time. About a year ago my my aunt's husband's sister, otherwise known as my uncle's sister (lets just call her my aunt) brought up Rodan+Fields to me. She wanted me to know about the power of selling these products and I brushed her off. I wasn't interested at the time. We had just moved into our house, I was pregnant, sick, tired, and drowning in boxes and unpainted surfaces.
My first thought was, ugh tupperware-like parties, don't people hate those? I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to sell the product, I didn't want to talk about selling the product, I didn't want to humor anyone while they talked to me about buying or selling the product. I just didn't want anything to do with it. It was all based off the idea that people roll their eyes when a direct sales party is mentioned. Well, along about three months ago my mom started using the product and it turns out it freakin' really works...like really works to smooth away lines and wrinkles. Right then and there my eyes stopped rolling.
Sooooeeeewwwww, I decided to open my mind. Not necessarily about the product because who doesn't want to get rid of whatever wrinkle they've got whether it be a lot or not so much, but to the idea of selling it. I've got one kid at 2+ years old and he's having a super tough time in the terrible twos/new baby brother area and he needs an outlet as much as I do. Well, when I decided he needed that and the only way I could give it to him was to get my butt in gear and either sell some lame crafty thing at the next street fair or climb on board this Rodan+Fields train, I decided to climb on board.
My big blue box arrived yesterday full of all of the skin care regimens I need to make this business grow!
I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but I have my own kit to use on my skin and I'm really excited to start before and progress photos! I'll be posting them here.
My website is lnaslenas.myrandf.com. If anyone is interested in purchasing any of the products, wants to hear about the products, have a one-on-one, or an event let me know. You can also become an independent consultant yourself!
Here are a couple of photos of my peanuts!
My first thought was, ugh tupperware-like parties, don't people hate those? I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to sell the product, I didn't want to talk about selling the product, I didn't want to humor anyone while they talked to me about buying or selling the product. I just didn't want anything to do with it. It was all based off the idea that people roll their eyes when a direct sales party is mentioned. Well, along about three months ago my mom started using the product and it turns out it freakin' really works...like really works to smooth away lines and wrinkles. Right then and there my eyes stopped rolling.
Sooooeeeewwwww, I decided to open my mind. Not necessarily about the product because who doesn't want to get rid of whatever wrinkle they've got whether it be a lot or not so much, but to the idea of selling it. I've got one kid at 2+ years old and he's having a super tough time in the terrible twos/new baby brother area and he needs an outlet as much as I do. Well, when I decided he needed that and the only way I could give it to him was to get my butt in gear and either sell some lame crafty thing at the next street fair or climb on board this Rodan+Fields train, I decided to climb on board.
My big blue box arrived yesterday full of all of the skin care regimens I need to make this business grow!
I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but I have my own kit to use on my skin and I'm really excited to start before and progress photos! I'll be posting them here.
My website is lnaslenas.myrandf.com. If anyone is interested in purchasing any of the products, wants to hear about the products, have a one-on-one, or an event let me know. You can also become an independent consultant yourself!
Here are a couple of photos of my peanuts!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
A Big Bed for a Big Brother
We've graduated to Stage 2 with the crib. The side is now off of Ryter's bed and we're working day and night to get him to stay in his bed. He started climbing out of his crib last week in the morning and it just went from there. Pretty soon it was nap time that he was climbing out and also at night when it was time for bed. We decided to take the side off when he bumped his head on the wall or dresser or bed or something. He came down stairs with pink eyebrow and forehead so we went for it. I've been dreading this moment because I knew that everything would change and I couldn't imagine it would be for the better.
The first night we spent 2 hours putting him back to bed before he finally crashed around 10 p.m. The next night he was down by 9:30 and last night by 8:30. Vain discovered that leaving the room and hoping that he would stay in his bed wasn't working so he stayed in the room in the chair until Ryter fell asleep. That worked, so we've been doing that every night. It takes a bit for him to fall asleep, but he doesn't get out of bed so he actually has wind down time that he wasn't getting by constantly getting up and running down the hall.
Mornings are a different story. He got up at 5:30 yesterday which was so not cool! Lets just hope as the evenings get better, so do the mornings.
The first night we spent 2 hours putting him back to bed before he finally crashed around 10 p.m. The next night he was down by 9:30 and last night by 8:30. Vain discovered that leaving the room and hoping that he would stay in his bed wasn't working so he stayed in the room in the chair until Ryter fell asleep. That worked, so we've been doing that every night. It takes a bit for him to fall asleep, but he doesn't get out of bed so he actually has wind down time that he wasn't getting by constantly getting up and running down the hall.
Mornings are a different story. He got up at 5:30 yesterday which was so not cool! Lets just hope as the evenings get better, so do the mornings.
Hudson
Well, life is crazy to say the least. With Ryter I was writing a blog post in the hospital and this time it took me two weeks to get to it.
We welcomed Hudson Naslenas on August 20, 2013 at 4:59 a.m. He was 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20 inches long. A little heavier than Ryter, although not by much, and the same height.
This labor was truly a miracle compared to my first experience, although I never realized how tough the first one was until I had the second one. I spent Monday the 19th mostly in my bathroom caulking and installing tile on the wall because I knew the baby was coming soon...as in that day or the next. (Needless to say, a blog post on bathroom week part 2 is not going to be coming for quite a while.) I woke up feeling the same way I did when I went into labor with Ryter. I packed my bag when Vain got home from work that night and was awoken at 12:45 a.m. with a very painful contraction. 6 minutes later the next one came and they continued to get closer over the next hour. I called my mom at 1:30 to come stay with Ryter. We left for the hospital at 3 a.m., I got my epidural at 4 a.m. and we had a beautiful baby boy less than an hour later.
My recovery was really insane! I went to a party at my parents house the day I got home from the hospital, was driving right away, and went to a wedding on Saturday. I don't at all feel like I had a baby except for the jiggly belly left behind.
Hudson is a great baby. He sleeps like a dream. I only get up once in the middle of the night to feed him and he eats about every 3 hours during the day. If he's not eating, he's sleeping. He's also really cool with being put down so I can spend time with Ryter. Time I really was worried about not being able to have right away.
Vain has been home for two weeks and goes back to work tomorrow. We will miss him very much around here. He has been a great help, for Ryter especially. Our poor little guy has been really emotional over the past couple of weeks. The first few days were really rough, but he's coming around to Hudson now and gives lots of kisses and tells him how much he loves him.
I can't believe it's been two weeks already and pretty soon I'll be saying that I can't believe it's been 2 years!
We welcomed Hudson Naslenas on August 20, 2013 at 4:59 a.m. He was 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20 inches long. A little heavier than Ryter, although not by much, and the same height.
This labor was truly a miracle compared to my first experience, although I never realized how tough the first one was until I had the second one. I spent Monday the 19th mostly in my bathroom caulking and installing tile on the wall because I knew the baby was coming soon...as in that day or the next. (Needless to say, a blog post on bathroom week part 2 is not going to be coming for quite a while.) I woke up feeling the same way I did when I went into labor with Ryter. I packed my bag when Vain got home from work that night and was awoken at 12:45 a.m. with a very painful contraction. 6 minutes later the next one came and they continued to get closer over the next hour. I called my mom at 1:30 to come stay with Ryter. We left for the hospital at 3 a.m., I got my epidural at 4 a.m. and we had a beautiful baby boy less than an hour later.
My recovery was really insane! I went to a party at my parents house the day I got home from the hospital, was driving right away, and went to a wedding on Saturday. I don't at all feel like I had a baby except for the jiggly belly left behind.
Hudson is a great baby. He sleeps like a dream. I only get up once in the middle of the night to feed him and he eats about every 3 hours during the day. If he's not eating, he's sleeping. He's also really cool with being put down so I can spend time with Ryter. Time I really was worried about not being able to have right away.
Vain has been home for two weeks and goes back to work tomorrow. We will miss him very much around here. He has been a great help, for Ryter especially. Our poor little guy has been really emotional over the past couple of weeks. The first few days were really rough, but he's coming around to Hudson now and gives lots of kisses and tells him how much he loves him.
I can't believe it's been two weeks already and pretty soon I'll be saying that I can't believe it's been 2 years!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
New Bathroom Week-Part 1
Ryter was gone for two weeks so my plan was to redo the bathroom. It ended up being a bigger job than I expected, but it's mostly done. So far, we've replaced the swinging door with a sliding door to make a little more room in the bathroom. All of the wood trim associated with the swinging door was removed and filled with wood filler. Sanding is coming, but that doesn't affect the function of the bathroom so it's last on the list.
Vain took a look at moving the plumbing for the cold water so the vanity can contain all of the pipes behind the cabinet. He wasn't sure about the job, so I hired a plumber to come and take care of it. It was quick and painless for him, although I'm not sure I could say the same if Vain and I would have been involved :)
As part of the destruction that is happening in the bathroom, the weird closet/mirror/shutter door is now gone, as are the silly shelves that don't all go to the back of the closet. I checked for insulation in the walls inside the closet and it does not exist. Behind the closet wall is the siding. This is not good. It explains why our bathroom is so cold in the winter. We're basically bathing outside. As of right now, the plan is to insulate and install pre-made cabinets from Target.
The electrician came and moved the outlet away from the faucet and also added another outlet down low inside the vanity for Vain's shaver to charge so that doesn't have to sit out on the counter all of the time. I think in the end, that will end up being my most favorite part of the bathroom! As you can see, a new light fixture has been added and the bathroom has also been painted a very pale pink instead of the gross green we've been reflecting onto our skin for the past 9 months.
This project is taking a lot longer than expected and Ryter comes home today. The goal is just to get a working sink back in here by the end of the weekend. Part 2 of my post will include tiling, the worst project in the history of man! Lets just say, it's a little like child birth and I won't be doing it again until I only remember the experience as delightful!
 |
| trim on the silver track is still to come |
Vain took a look at moving the plumbing for the cold water so the vanity can contain all of the pipes behind the cabinet. He wasn't sure about the job, so I hired a plumber to come and take care of it. It was quick and painless for him, although I'm not sure I could say the same if Vain and I would have been involved :)
As part of the destruction that is happening in the bathroom, the weird closet/mirror/shutter door is now gone, as are the silly shelves that don't all go to the back of the closet. I checked for insulation in the walls inside the closet and it does not exist. Behind the closet wall is the siding. This is not good. It explains why our bathroom is so cold in the winter. We're basically bathing outside. As of right now, the plan is to insulate and install pre-made cabinets from Target.
The electrician came and moved the outlet away from the faucet and also added another outlet down low inside the vanity for Vain's shaver to charge so that doesn't have to sit out on the counter all of the time. I think in the end, that will end up being my most favorite part of the bathroom! As you can see, a new light fixture has been added and the bathroom has also been painted a very pale pink instead of the gross green we've been reflecting onto our skin for the past 9 months.
This project is taking a lot longer than expected and Ryter comes home today. The goal is just to get a working sink back in here by the end of the weekend. Part 2 of my post will include tiling, the worst project in the history of man! Lets just say, it's a little like child birth and I won't be doing it again until I only remember the experience as delightful!
Friday, August 16, 2013
The Last Week
Today marks the first day of the last week of my pregnancy. Unless this baby is late like Ryter, I should have some result by next Friday. I have one day left before Ryter gets home from Iowa and my only hope was that I'd keep this baby in until then. I want Ryter to be here and come to the hospital to see us and be here when we get home. Happily, that will happen.
I'm not nearly as large this time at this stage as I was last time, but baby is measuring right on schedule so it must just be hiding a little bit more. I'm having some irregular contractions at night and really have been for the last month. I think it's just because I move around all day and by night when I relax I start to notice them more.
Vain and I had dinner on Tuesday for my birthday and the waitress very matter-of-fact asked me "you're having a girl?". She asked it like she knew what she was talking about. I told her we actually didn't know what we were having and she just said "it's a girl", smiled, and walked away. Well, when I was pregnant with Ryter we had a lady in the Phoenix airport do the same thing except she said boy and she was right. We shall see this time.
I'm not nearly as large this time at this stage as I was last time, but baby is measuring right on schedule so it must just be hiding a little bit more. I'm having some irregular contractions at night and really have been for the last month. I think it's just because I move around all day and by night when I relax I start to notice them more.
Vain and I had dinner on Tuesday for my birthday and the waitress very matter-of-fact asked me "you're having a girl?". She asked it like she knew what she was talking about. I told her we actually didn't know what we were having and she just said "it's a girl", smiled, and walked away. Well, when I was pregnant with Ryter we had a lady in the Phoenix airport do the same thing except she said boy and she was right. We shall see this time.
 |
| new baby 2013 |
 |
| Ryter 2011 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)