19/04/2013 by Mama Kalila

7 Quick Takes Friday 4/19/13

Going to start with pictures this time around lol.

Counting down to ZJ’s birthday now… I’m really looking forward to it even if its going to be diff than we originally planned. We were going to do a party the weekend before, but decided to change it when we planned to go to my sister’s graduation. Started talking and realized a party was prob a bad idea over all… He won’t enjoy it… So we’re doing a bday breakfast just us the morning of.

Speaking of before mentioned sister’s graduation… *sigh* Yeah totally fell through I get why Baba couldn’t get the day off so I’m not mad… it makes sense. But not exactly happy either. We talked about it again and decided to find a weekend that works for everyone and go then instead. So far haven’t been able to get ahold of anyone involved though so we’ll see… Hopefully it won’t take too long because I really want to go :-/

Finally got my bday present A diaper sprayer… That isn’t installed yet because the shutoff valve in the bathroom doesn’t shut anything off. Lovely. Got a new diaper cover too… is an Arabian Nights print and I love it lol.

Keiran is starting to eat more and more. He helped himself to Kalila’s Dublin Coddle the other night. *sigh* He loved it though lol. There’s a pic up there from the day before when he had Shepherds Pie… He polished that off too… Didn’t lick the tray like he did with the DC though lol. Has also started clapping (a week ago now?) and just being a real cutie over all.

ZJ has started interacting with more kids at the school. He called one of the boys (funnily the one Kalila has a crush on, she says he’s beautiful) his brother and best friend and today was asking about some of the girls. They’ve been chasing him around the playground and apparently he’s started to like it lol. We took Kalila her lunch after getting groc today and he wanted to join the classes too. So happy to see this… and he’s speaking more too… granted a lot of it comes out all at once as soon as Kalila leaves lol.

Kalila… I think she’s grown again. Has Baba wrapped around her little finger… and I love hearing her tell me all about her day. This past week they made a volcano that erupted so that was a big thing, talked a lot about that… and the store they’re now doing in her class. She told me the story from circle this morning too… that’s a new one, she rarely tells me about them (I try asking but she says she doesn’t remember).

15/04/2013 by Mama Kalila

Menu planning, iff, bday…

Sorry, no mpm this week… I have a menu set, am looking forward to everything on it but posting it out is just not working for me this week lol.IFF was this weekend and we had a blast. I have pics of Baba cooking shish kabobs that I could add if I were on the comp, but I’m not… I’ll try to do a mini pic post from the day later on this week if I can. Anyways, lots of fun and a great first one for us. Gran and Papa Brian came too so that was great. Kalila was very excited I woke up yesterday to find out that I won one of the raffles… The Microsoft Surface Tablet. Def a good start to my bday lol. I’m actually on it right now and it’s taking some getting used too. I really like it though.

Gido and …. still haven’t asked what the kids should call Trish now lol… Anyways, they watched all 3 last night so that Baba and I could go out on a date. First time Keiran has been away from us… and yes I know its way longer than we normally wait. No major reason for it other than he’s pretty attached and hasn’t done well when I’ve tried going to work at the school without him. He did well though and we had a good time. Went for sushi..

I know I’ve missed a few 7 take Fridays…. not for lack of stuff going on, but I was sick last week plus busy getting ready for this weekend. I don’t remember what happened last Friday…. I think it was because of Baba’s weird schedule. He’s back on the normal one now though thankfully.

Ok I’m going to end this and unattach the fuzzy keyboard because oddly that’s what I’m having the hardest time with so far lol.

02/04/2013 by Mama Kalila

MPM 1 April – 7 April

Well we’re back to dinners for the next 2 weeks… Baba’s working nights.

Monday – Steak Salad

Tuesday – Teriyaki Chicken w/ veggie pasta

Wednesday – Bangers & Mash

Thursday – Pork Roast

Friday – Fish & Chips

Saturday – Dublin Coddle

Sunday – Pilau (beef instead of chicken)

31/03/2013 by Mama Kalila

Happy Easter!

Hey, hope everyone had a happy Easter…

Ours was pretty good. Still a bit sad we didn’t do the egg hunt here… And after weeks of complaining about how the plastic eggs she hunts with her cousins are so much better than the ones I dye, Kalila actually asked when we were going to do them and was unhappy that we weren’t. Go figure… But we had a good time w/ family.

Backing up a bit…

Kids got Easter clothes from Granny… ZJ LOVES his suit. He picked it out himself and couldn’t wait to put it on. Kalila likes her dress so much too, that she wanted me to wash it tonight so she could wear it tomorrow. Sorry hon I am not staying up that late lol.

I started making breakfast here, but kinda turned into lunch. Oops. Found a sausage the kids love. Blueberry maple. Sounded disgusting to us at first, but smells pretty good. Jas and I had part of an Irish breakfast… eggs, bacon and rashers. Was really good. Stuffed myself though lol.

ZJ fell asleep on the way to Baba’s aunts house and kinda put him in a mood… He walked in barely awake and saw a room full of people and about melted down, poor thing. He had a hard time most of the day, but was happy to see his Gido – that calmed him a lot. He refused to hunt eggs still though and then got upset when I went through Kalila’s. And then a half dozen other times that Baba left his sight.

Kalila did great though. She had fun playing with her cousins, hunting for eggs, all of that… We had a couple of little miss attitude moments, but she wouldn’t be Kalila if she didn’t No, she was very well behaved…

Keiran was Keiran… Went to everyone. At one point he lunged for his Godmother. It was adorable. After awhile he got tired, put him on my back and he went right to sleep.

The fun isn’t quite over yet, Kalila still gets to go pick out something tomorrow. Basically we’ve been talking about the “egg candy” for days now… There’s just too much of it, and usually half of it gets tossed out for being stuff she can’t eat and the other is still stuff she shouldn’t eat but goes after and I deal with the fallout until its gone. So we decided to trade it out.. I was hoping I could do it with something that wasn’t candy and came pretty close (still holding out hope?), but right before we left she was reminded and decided it had to be candy… So off we go tomorrow to find some she can eat. I don’t think it’ll be that hard.. but I need to prepare better next year lol. Oh well, tomorrow will be fun and she’s really looking forward to it.

And a few last pictures:

29/03/2013 by Mama Kalila

(not quite) 7 Quick Takes Friday 3/29/13

No link since apparently there’s not really a 7 takes Friday this week. I typed before going… Oops.

Seriously Friday can’t almost be over… So much to do this weekend and I haven’t even really started. I’m guessing we aren’t going to dye eggs or do our own hunt here… I’d planned on tomorrow, but no eggs (well I do have eggs but they’re the ones for the deviled eggs) and we have a ton of plans for the day already… And I haven’t tested out the recipes I was going to try for the dessert on Sunday so no clue what we’ll do there either. I really don’t want to buy them instead… arg. Can it just be Monday already? I think I’m done…

Keiran has his first tooth. It’s still pretty close to his gums, but definitely broken through, and the second one is coming in more too. Poor thing is having a rough night with it tonight too

Kalila graduated from RadKids yesterday. I made a point of not telling her I was going to try and be there (learned my lesson after the fashion show) and the look on her face when she saw me was great.

ZJ has decided that he really wants to learn counting. All the sudden he is counting everything he can and just very excited about it. I love it..

Managed to hurt my knee a few days ago. Long story short I was walking Charlie and she got scared of another dog and ran home… wouldn’t have been too bad but I tripped right in front of our drive and went down. Its getting better, but still hurts to go up or down stairs.

Decided to scratch the bday party idea for ZJ this year… combo of the trip that week and knowing he would be uncomfortable. Baba brought that last part up first, but thinking about it… is true. So instead we’re going to get up early that morning and have a big breakfast for him. And cake.. gotta make the cake

And of course the pictures…

28/03/2013 by Mama Kalila

Doula Week

This week has just been packed with issues… and I hadn’t planned to write about any of them on here until about 15 minutes ago. It hit me that I haven’t said much about what’s going on with getting my postpartum doula certification, or where my thoughts are on it at the moment.

Last year (good grief it’s almost been a year) when I started working on this I had a very set goal in mind. I was starting out on my journey, getting certified postpartum first because it seemed more flexible and easier to do with small kids. Once they’re older I’d go back and get certified for births and then when I could realistically leave them for the week necessary go on to get certified to teach HypnoBabies. In a sense that hasn’t changed a whole lot… I do still want to be certified for births at some point… and teaching HypnoBabies is my dream job. But after Keiran I’m in a whole other place on the “now” and it really hit in the middle of one of my assignments a few months back.

I joked before that I knew I should hire a postpartum doula. We didn’t for several reasons… mostly boiled down to I thought I’d be ok. Same could be said for birth doula, but two huge differences. I had the support one would have provided during the birth… Baba was there when he could be, my midwives were amazing and one of the student midwives stepped in and was there when I needed it. I had the help after we went home too (don’t get me wrong, the friends that stepped up were a huge help and forever grateful to/for them) but there was this period of time between having Keiran and finding out we’d need help and when it all came together that I will never forget.

The Birth Center has postpartum nurses now (which is awesome) and I blurrily (lol) remember them asking me about who I’d have to help me at home. Baba couldn’t really take anymore days off (he did end up taking one more) and we’d decided against having a doula like I mentioned before. I was given names for doulas getting certification and hurried to both talk to them and send a message out to anyone we could think of asking for help. One of the doula’s made plans to come but they fell apart for some reason that I can’t remember. I do remember she was really sweet on the phone. The other was a diff story. I’d just given birth earlier that day, still half out of it (was for days after) and trying to talk to her on the phone about coming to help. She asked what I needed and I told her what they’d told me I needed and said I didn’t really know beyond that at the moment. She seemed very short with me, asked if I even knew what a postpartum doula was for and that wasn’t something they do. That I remember word for word because my jaw dropped and I thought it was almost funny that I was asked that considering. Now I’m hoping there were circumstances around it, I know everyone has bad days.. but at the time it really got to me.

In the end it didn’t matter because of those friends (and Keiran’s Godmother, can’t forget her she drove us to his 2 day appointment lol), but that conversation stuck with me…

Adjusting to life with a new baby can be rough under normal circumstances. And not knocking friends/family help at all, they were a lifesaver here… but I have a whole new respect for the whole concept of a postpartum doula (even thought I thought it was an important role). And more importantly I know what kind I’d like to be…

As for the cert itself… I’m really enjoying the assignments. I love the place I’m going through. I’ve gotten to the parts that are taking more time. Book reports, breastfeeding classes, all that fun stuff… Is definitely challenging with a new(ish) baby, but I’m glad I’m doing it now too.

The More… The Mery-er