Here are some pics of EK and MK in their costumes.  The girls wore them to the fall festival at our church.

The other morning I was blessed when I opened the curtains in EK’s room and saw the beautiful sunrise.  I had a spiritual moment; reminding me of God’s goodness, grace, and creativity.  I thought I would share.

This is the day that the Lord hath made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalms 118:24

I started this post last week and am just now getting to publishing our adventure…

This weekend we headed up to Chattanooga, TN.  We drove up on Friday afternoon/evening.  That was an experience to say the least.  MK didn’t eat well or sleep well and was not fun to be around.  After hours of questioning every parenting inclination I have we finally made it to the hotel room to put her to bed.  Thankfully, she slept great that night.  Praise God!  EK, on the other hand came down with a cold that night and kept Hubby and I up a good portion of the night.  Next time we’ll reserve adjoining rooms.

The main purpose of our trip was to watch my sister in her rowing meet (If you didn’t know, she is on the rowing team at UT).  But we also were able to visit with my parents for the day and decided to make a weekend trip as a family of four by visiting the zoo and children’s museum.  As I mentioned above, Friday night EK started having cold symptoms: a running nose that would also be stopped up at times, a mild cough, and some sneezing.  Saturday EK was pleasant to be around despite having to wipe her nose 50 million times until nap time.  I should have been a responsible parent and taken her back to the hotel room and laid her down especially knowing she NEEDED her rest, but I didn’t.  I wanted to spend time with my parents, and I know they wanted to spend time with us even though they would have completely understood EK needing her sleep.  But no, I went against my gut feeling and let her hang out until she basically collapsed in my mom’s arms.  She woke about 45 minutes later and during her short slumber, morphed into the most ridiculous child-crying and very unsettled.  I felt horrible for causing this situation, but was also frustrated with EK’s erratic behavior.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel room which provided relief.  From the sound of this story, one may assume that we had a miserable time.  Not the case.  We had a nice weekend.  God blessed us with good weather, we got to spend time with my family, and we were able to see some animals at the zoo (We skipped the children’s museum due to EK’s illness.)  I don’t think we will be making another long distance trip any time soon, but I am glad we took a chance to adventure in Chattanooga.

It’s been a little bit since I have added a post, but really there is nothing of interest to report.  I am working through the newborn phase; still learning the ropes of breastfeeding, how to read MK, and getting all the gas/burps out.  No, MK is not sleeping through the night (I get this question alot.), but she does give me around 5 hour stretches which I am thankful for.  Her last feeding is at 10 pm and by 11 she’s in her bed, and wakes around 4 am.  EK has done exceptionally well adjusting to the addition to our family.  I am very proud of her.  Bow season for hunting deer has started, so Hubby gets up way too early some mornings and hits the woods.  Not my idea of fun, but hey, whatever floats his boat.  So, like I said, things are pretty low key right now, but here are some pics I have taken recently.

I can’t believe I haven’t told you guys about the “adventure” we had last Monday.  While nursing MK, EK was being very quiet.  Of course, those of you with children know this is usually not a good sign.  I called for EK and slowly she came to me.  As she approach my nursing station (a chair covered by a blanket in the living room) I noticed she was chewing on something.  I asked her what she was eating.  Her response was cereal.  Well, there was no cereal she had access to so I immediately started to investigate.  Turns out EK found a silica gel packet in the diaper bag, opened it and sampled the contents.  I called the pediatricians office; they told me to call poison control.  I called poison control and the nice lady on the other end of the line reassuredly told me that the beads are not toxic, but could be a potential choking hazard.  Craziness!  So if you don’t have the number to poison control, here it is:  1-800-222-1222.  Hopefully, you won’t need it.

On Saturday we ventured as a family to Madison.  Hubby and I were supposed to go for our anniversary in August, but with MK ridin’ low in the belly, the idea of walking around a bunch was not entertaining.  So we postponed our outing and made it a family fun day, and that it was.  We found a lot of stuff we wanted to buy, but only ended up with crayons, a coloring book, and a turtle change purse for EK.  Man, kids definitely change everything.

One of the pictures below is of the baby limo at lunch.  We had to sit at the back of the cafe because we took up so much room.  It took us an hour and 15 minutes to eat lunch.  Hubby said that is the longest lunch he had ever eaten.  The time frame included finding a parking spot for the limo, ordering our food, waiting for the food to arrive, actually eating, feeding MK, cleaning up, and a potty break.  Not too bad in my opinion.

We all had a wonderful day, but, as usual, we were pooped when we got home.

From the title, lactating and driving seem to be odd things to write about, but I can be a weirdo sometimes (please, no comments about me being a weirdo ), so I thought I would share a little moment of my day today.  In an effort to make it to church on time this morning I dashed out the door with MK, diaper bag (Hubby had already taken EK with him.), and breakfast in hand.  About 5 minutes from the house I realize that I had forgotten to insert my nursing pads.  For some ladies this would not be a big deal as they don’t leak, however, for this milk cow those plastic lined padded discs are a necessity.  I knew I had packed some extra pads in the diaper bag, so I began to rummage through to find them as I am eating my breakfast.  

NOTE:  I do not condone my behavior as it is deemed unsafe to operate heavy machinery without full attention and both hands securely fixed to the steering wheel at all times.  

NOTE #2:  Their wasn’t anyone else on the road as I was heading to church except for the couple of hunters heading home in the opposite direction from their early morning stake outs.  

Okay, back to the story…So as I am trying to snag the nursing pads, I feel it.  That tingling sensation of my milk starting to make its exit.  I quickly hold my chest in an attempt to subside any let down, now frantically grabbing the nursing pads with half of my breakfast hanging out of my mouth.  Who wants to show up to church, or anywhere, with two big wet circles on their shirt? With the nursing pads in hand, now I have to figure out how to take off the plastic wrap and insert these bad boys while driving before the flood gates let loose.  I quickly downed the rest of my breakfast, hiked my knee up to the base of the steering wheel to keep control of the car, pulled open my shirt and shoved a pad down one side at a time.  Not the picture safety or social etiquette, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Saturday was EK’s 2nd birthday.  We had her friends party the Saturday before at Gymboree.  It was a blast, but I was exhausted afterward and so was EK.

This past Saturday, EK official b-day, the family came over and celebrated.  Again, a wonderful day, just tiring.