Baked Cotton Balls

I have been looking on a lot of other blogs looking for ideas to entertain Liam. He's at the age where I feel like he can start doing crafts and busy work to keep him occupied. I found this idea called "baked cotton balls" for some blog and it looked like it could entertain Liam for an hour so. Worng. Try five minutes but whatever. Here are some pictures.

In case you want the directions for this...here you go
Mix one cup of flour and one cup of water in medium size bowl. Once mixed, separate into individual bowls (depending on how many colors you want). Add food coloring and mix. Dip cotton balls completely in mixture and place on greased cookie sheet. Place in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Let cool and then let your kiddo try and retrieve the cotton ball using a toy hammer. Hopefully you kid will last longer than mine.

Gabe and Liam

Best buds already

Liam still wanting to go in the baby swing

Liam feel asleep on his chair

Mr Lion. Roar

Liam trying karate

I just want to start by saying I am exhausted....all the time. Its is getting easier but man I can't wait till Gabe starts sleeping through the night. Nothing too exciting over here. Just trying to stay a float and take a shower each day before Nick gets home. Anyway I have to go because Liam is trying to throw something in the toilet.

Oh the things we do for our children

Today Gabe had his one month check up. Has it been a month? Yes, apparently it has. I am happy to report that Gabe is doing awesome. He now weighs 10 lbs 1 ounce. He is in the 55% in everything (head circumference, weight, length). The pediatrician put him on his tummy and he rolled over (they're not supposed to do that for another three months). Gabe is amazing!
The only problem, well issue, is that Gabe may have an acid reflux problem. The pediatrician gave me some things to do to see if it helps before we need to put him on medication. Because I am breastfeeding, the pediatrician, wants me to go on a restricted diet to see if it helps. Um I am not to happy about this but I guess I have to for Gabe. Here is a list of the things I need to avoid:
1. Chocolate
2. Soda
3. Broccoli
4. Cauliflower
5. Onions
6. Radishes
7. Cabbage
8. Brussel Sprouts
9. Tomatoes/Tomato based foods
10. Nuts
11. Beans
12. Dairy Products
I eat everything on this list (except for number 6) regularly. No Chocolate? No Italian Food? No Pizza? No milk? No Ice Cream? I am going to die. I honestly have no idea what I am going to eat now. This better make me lose weight. I mean to give up ice cream? That is huge! My life is over. Just kidding but seriously this is going to suck. Any suggestions on what I should eat? I think I will be stuck eating salads for the next 11 months. I crave ice cream already. How am I going to survive without ice cream? Ug.

Fun fact about ice cream: The biggest ice cream sundae in history was made in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1988, and weighed in at over 24 tons.
I will be dreaming of those 24 tons...mmmmmmmmmm.........

Family Photos

A month before I had Gabe, Nick's family decided to have family pictures taken. Last time they decided to have family pictures taken I was 7 months pregnant with Liam. Apparently, his parents want everyone to think that I am always pregnant. Anyway we just got the new family pictures the other day so without further adieu... My friend, Kim took some pictures of Gabe for us when he was two weeks. She did an awesome job considering Gabe wanted to cry the whole time.

Introducing....(drum roll)....Gabriel Charles Fuller

Yesterday I got to come home from the hospital. I am so thankful that I worked out and ran up until two weeks ago. Generally after a cesarean they make you stay four to five days after the surgery. When I had Liam, I had to stay five days. I recovered so quickly I got to come home early :) Its not that the hospital was bad I just wanted to go home (mostly because Nick said Liam was having nightmares and wasn't sleeping, I missed my buddy). So now I am back home and doing good. Gabe is sleeping like a champ that I almost don't know what to do with myself. I am not saying he sleeps through the night but I generally get 6 hours of sleep (including naps) not bad. This birth obviously went much better than Liam's. I went in on Saturday at 7:30 am, they got me ready, and my 9:53 I had a new baby. My nurses were awesome. I love Mercy Gilbert (its a Catholic hospital). If we ever move, I will find a way to go there if I ever have to go to the hospital. My anesthesiologist asked if he could pray with us before they took me back to surgery. He is not LDS but it was very refreshing to have him do that. I felt better afterwards anyway. My day nurse loved the name we choose and told me all about the angel Gabriel and how amazing God is. My night nurse made Gabe (that's what we are calling him) I cute little name tag for his crib with a quote underneath. It is sad that more places aren't affiliated with any sort of religion. Especially hospitals. Isn't that where we need religion the most? Anyway, back to my surgery. I had a spinal block which was kinda scary because it goes right into the spinal cord and if it goes in just a hair in the wrong spot you can be paralyzed for the rest of your life. Luckily it went in right. I do have a pretty good size bruise on my back where it went in. As soon as the spinal block went in my feet and legs went numb. It took about a minute for my lower abdomen to go numb, still pretty fast. Nick came in and they started the surgery. He was able to see the whole thing this time. So gross. But if he can handle it why not. The only thing I could feel was the pressure of them pulling the baby out. The worse was smelling my flesh being burned by a laser, too bad they can't give you something for that. It almost made me wish that they would have completely knocked me unconscious. Nick cut the cord and him and Gabe went to the nursery to get cleaned up. I stayed for about 15 minutes while they closed me back up. They used this new product called dermabond instead of stitches and/or staples. It helps the cut heal faster and cleaner. The nurse told me its like super glue and in a few weeks it will just peel off. Weird. Anyway I was awake in the recovery room and got to be with Gabe really fast (with Liam I was so exhausted that I passed out after the surgery so I couldn't be with him for an hour). I feel blessed that everything went so well and that I have another cute little boy at home. Boys are the best.

Plus one and cars

I was going to take a nap, actually I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, when I looked at the empty bassinet next to my side of the bed. I guess it finally has hit me. If everything goes well tomorrow, I will have another baby. WTF? Pardon my language. Wow. Its so crazy to think that. I hate being pregnant. Hate it. I hate the heartburn. I only have heartburn when I am pregnant. And its not mild, its excruciating. Every time I get it I want to cry. There is not a lot of things that will make me cry. I hate the lower back pain. I hate trying to always find a comfortable position to sit in or stand or sleep. I miss being able to do things without being in pain. I hate hearing my knees creak every time I go up stairs. I seriously could go on and on about what I hate about being pregnant. Despite all of this, it scares me to think that this will all be over tomorrow at 9:30 am MST. I don't know what is worse: being pregnant or the thought of being responsible for one more human being. I am having another kid. So weird.

On another note, my current only child is obsessed with "car". Everything car. I have so many toy cars in my house it is amazing that none of us have slipped on one and killed ourselves. My new jogging stroller is now his new favorite "car". He likes to play in it and hide all his little toy cars in it. Its like car heaven for him. Sometimes I worry that he is paying too much attention to Mommy and Daddy driving. I totally can imagine him trying to take one of our cars out for a spin when he's ten and can reach the peddles. Ah little boys.

Life thru a child's eye

The other day Liam grabbed my camera and started pressing all the buttons on it. I figured "what the heck?" and taught him how to turn the camera on and take pictures. Here is what he captured on film.

Most of his shots were of his feet/leg. The last one is my favorite cause it looks like a butt :)