12 Weeks

It seems crazy that 12 weeks have passed by since Austin joined our little family. Now I'm the mom of a 3 year old and a 12-week-old. Crazy!

So, Austin's new favorite things to do? Suck on his fists. This is an art he has recently mastered and he gets very pleased with himself when he gets one in his mouth. He also loves to pull blankets and burp cloths into his mouth. He's also gotten good at hitting a rattle hanging from his play gym - and boy does he get excited about that! And, of course, he's smiling lots now and cooing too. We love that. :)

Can I get a witness? (and a date?)

Ok, so I sometimes find myself "writing" a blog in my mind as I'm going about things during the day and thinking if I could only find a couple minutes to myself to actually WRITE it I'd have this updated far more often. As it is, when I DO find time to sit down and write I have completely forgotten what it was I was thinking to write about earlier in the day. So I figure "prego brain" must carry over for several months (or maybe years?)

Today was one of those days. Austin just wouldn't stay settled for any decent amount of time and Zack was testing the limits as often as possible. I thought I sounded a little like a drill sargeant this morning. Quite frightening, really. One of Zack's new favorite phrases when he's being naughty is "No, don't tell me that!" (when you tell him to stop doing something he's not supposed to be doing, etc.). Needless to say, that doesn't sit well with Mommy. So we had a few time-outs before we even hit lunch time. (exhausting!)

So about this time of day I'm thinking, "MAN, I need a DATE!" Other moms out there - you know what I mean, right? I need some time alone with my husband. I need time to be just a wife and not have to feed a child while simultaneously trying to feed myself or burp a two month old while trying to help a 3 year old go potty. Or any number of other multi-tasking duties we moms find ourselves trying to accomplish.

But here's the rub (at least right now) - Austin is eating like it's going out of style. At the risk of being too blunt - I feel like I'm being bled dry! I mean, for goodness sake, the child weighed in at 14 pounds at his 2-month checkup (No, I am NOT kidding). How much more could he possibly eat? Apparently a lot. At any rate, that means it's nearly impossible to leave him with someone else for any length of time. I only have a couple bags of frozen milk as I haven't been pumping much at all this time around. Plus, he's not crazy about bottles. Either way, even if we did go out, it could probably only be for a couple of hours, but really, I'd welcome even that much time.

So now to come up with something to do, and some way to be able to do it. At this point all I usually come up with is going out to dinner or a movie. Not too original, but dinner alone is nice because of the afore mentioned trying to feed myself while trying to feed a child. And a movie is nice because these days we never get to see them in the theaters (We haven't been to one since seeing The Dark Knight). So I'm open to suggestions if any of you other moms of little ones have some!

And with that, it's time to check on dinner. At the risk of sounding cliche.... a woman's work is never done. ;)

(And since I'm thinking about dates... a pic of Josh and I on our 4th anniversary. So hard to believe in a couple months it will be our 5th!)

Smile for the camera...

So today was the big "picture" day for the boys. It was Austin's first "professional" photos and the first Zack's had since last year. Austin actually did really well. Zack had some issues following directions... When the photographer asked him to lay on his side... he ended up on his stomach. When she asked him to cross his legs... he crossed his ankles. It was quite interesting! :) We ended up basically trying to pose him like a doll.

Austin on the other hand did really well, but wouldn't really smile for the photographer. We did get a few good ones of him though, and a couple good ones of them together (though Zack had a hard time holding on to Austin since he's 14 pounds already!)

So all-in-all it was a good experience, and I'm glad we got it done. And hopefully this post doesn't seem TOO disjointed... I'm a little sleepy and Austin is fussing, so I'm distracted! Hopefully I'll get a more "thoughtful" post up tomorrow. :)

Ah, the satisfaction...

So as you all know, I'm now a full-time stay-at-home mom. It's something I've wanted for quite some time, but I of course had my minor concerns when I began this new season of life.

For one, I was thinking I'd probably be bored now and then. As it turns out, I don't think I've been "bored" at all since becoming a mom. And now with two kiddos, it certainly isn't something I've experienced lately. Burnt out maybe - but not bored, exactly :) I'm busy from the moment I wake up to the moment I lay down at night.

But here's the thing I've come to realize in the last few days: I feel content. Satisfied. At peace.

Last night I was lying in bed praying and just had this realization that I felt completely satisfied with the day. The day itself wasn't a perfect day by any stretch of the imagination (multiple time-outs for Zack, Austin grumping from gas, etc), but I still felt satisfied with how it had all turned out. And I found myself thanking God for the life He has blessed me with and His incredibly perfect timing. I may have been wanting this for a long time, but He knew that THIS time was exactly when it needed to happen.

Ah, the satisfaction... :)

Captured! (and a look at Austin's journey)

Ah yes, we caught the elusive smile on film! Austin is nearly 11 weeks old now and smiling A LOT, but it's been tough to catch it on either the still camera or the video camera. He gets mesmerized by the cameras usually when you try to get pics or video of him and looks very serious. :)

Josh and I teamed up yesterday and got this one. Yes, I know I'm his mom, but isn't he cute?! :)

Austin's been fun and a challenge so far. As most our friends and family know, he was born with clubfoot. He was in casts for about 6 weeks and now is in his Mitchell brace. He's done so well, and we're just glad he won't remember all this when he's older. He's being treated by Dr. Dietz in Iowa City at Dr. Ponsetti's office. Ponsetti is the leading expert on clubfoot (he's in his 90s now) and Austin has been getting EXCELLENT care.

Here are Austin's feet right after he was born. You can see, he was born with bilateral clubfoot.

This is a picture of Austin at 2 weeks old in his first set of casts. (with decorations by Zacky)

And here he is at 7 weeks old in his final set of casts. (also decorated by Zack) He had 4 sets of casts in all, and you can see in this last one how much farther turned out his feet are.

Now he's footloose and fancy-free! :) Well, not quite. This pic was taken during one of his "breaks" he gets from the Mitchell brace. He's in the brace 23 hours a day right now. So he gets one hour out of the brace for bath time/play time. His feet start kicking just as soon as we get that brace off. I'll post a pic of the brace soon - can't seem to find one right now.

So, all this to say Austin has done SO well and we're so happy with his progress. He goes back to Iowa City in April, and hopefully will be able to go down to wearing the brace just during naps and bed time. We're looking forward to that. :)

To kick things off...

Well, this has been a long time coming. My blog. What probably took the longest was settling on a title. Thanks to my awesome husband, I finally have one - "Fried Kristy." Now, hopefully this doesn't make you think of fried foods and the Iowa State Fair (I admit, that's what it made me think of at first!) Instead, it refers more to my state-of-mind as of late -- Fried. ;) As the mom of two little boys it can sometimes seems like a constant state.

So, with that, here it comes - Fried Kristy. Hopefully I'll be updating often (as often as these boys will allow me!) And hopefully you enjoy my little blog.

Much love!