Becker Update!

I figured it was about time for an update of the goings on here.  

Chessidy

She is four months now, weighing in at 17 pounds and stretching to 25 inches long.  She eats rice cereal before bed and sometimes she loves it, and other times she hates it.  She enjoys her Johnny Jump up and her jumping saucer and her bumpo.  She likes to be UP.  But I would too after pretty much laying for 4 months.  She smiles, and makes all sorts of fun "talking" sounds.  She LOVES Ila, and smiles whenever she sees her.  She likes baths, showers and clean diapers.  You can almost always find her chewing on her hands.  Boy does she love those hands!  She is also figuring out that she has control over those hands of hers.  She pinches quite often (not on purpose) and dang does it hurt!  She is so cute though, that no one seems to mind!  She is overall a very content baby.  We are currently struggling with bed time, but we'll work thought it.  She wants to be held and nursed to sleep, and that's just not how we roll, so we're working through that together.  I'm tickled that her name fits what she is in this family so well; delight!

Ila

Ila will be 3 in 2 months!  That is crazy to me.  My little baby is growing up!  She in weighing in at 30 pounds.  Ila is speaking pretty clearly these days, and getting better and better at communicating.   She is sleeping in her big girl bed, and we've only had once accident so far!  She goes through spurts of wanting to nap and not wanting to nap.  Her latest thing that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside is that she likes to  "cuddle!"  She asks me to cuddle with her and I LOVE it!  She also asks if she can "hold me" which really means she wants me to hold her.  She is such a good big sister to Chessidy and a big help to me.  She can be super mischievous, especially when she is slightly bored, so I try to keep her busy, busy, busy!  She starts pre-school next week.  It's a toddler lab at CSI, and we are all looking forward to her 4 hours at school every week.  Ila daily asks us to go to church, and I think she'll be asking to go to school as well here in a few days!  Her current favorite foods are american cheese slices (trent brought some home from work one day and she was HOOKED!), shrimp and noodles, rice, fish, blueberries, strawberries and gummy bears.  She loves watering the trees with daddy, swinging, being chased and playing with her "aminals."  Her favorite book is Llama Llama Red Pajama, which has a picture of the author on the back.  She thinks the author looks like Aunt Tawna, so every time we read the book she hugs and kisses Aunt Tawna.  

Trent

Trent will we 33 in 3 months!  I'm not sure what he weighs these days, but I'm guessing about 165.  He is staying busy at work, but thankfully getting a bit more home time these days!  The spraying season is wrapping up and so are the 14ish hour days! When he is not at work you can find him relaxing inside, working outside and/or playing with the girls.  

Nicole

I will be 27.5 in 2 months!  I'm weighing less every time I weigh myself, which is nice.  I'm feeling SO MUCH BETTER since having my gall bladder out, and for that I'm super thankful.  I am almost all healed up, but when I stretch, I can feel those incision spots pulling apart (well, that's what it feels like) and that hurts, so I try to avoid doing that.  I am back in the swing of things with my house duties though, and it has felt good to put a home cooked meal (by me) on the table the last few nights.  I am hoping to start swimming again next monday and get my muscles back to feeling good (because your muscles feel good when you swim laps!).  Other than that, I can't think of much more to report on.

So there you have it.  We are one happy family here in the Becker house.  Here is a picture of us at Chessidy's baby dedication we had a few weeks ago:

Hey, what's that up your nose? #3

I'm pretty much at a loss for words. This all happened while I was changing a poopy diaper and putting Chessidy in her bassinet for a nap.

Do you know what that is?

I only took pictures of one hand....

have you figured out what is all over her hands yet?

those are my toes....which I painted last night, and then forgot to put the polish away.


"Ila, what are you doing?" I called out from the bedroom as I changed Chessidy's diaper.  "I'm painting, mommy!"  You'd think that would get me running out to see what she was painting, right?  Nope, not me.  I finished changing the diaper and put Chessidy in bed while I tried to figure out if Ila had said "painting" or "cleaning" and what she could be "painting" or "cleaning."  I found out.  I'll take most of the blame for this incident.  Who in their right mind would leave nail polish out with a toddler running around?  I guess I wasn't in my right mind...

Hey, what's that up your nose? #2

I've actually got three stories to write on "hey, what's that up your nose?"  For today I'll give you just one!

Yesterday, while I was nursing Chessidy,

        Look at the awesome smile!

 Ila went off to her room to play with toys.

yeah, you are super cute!

I love when she does this, and I sneak down the hallway to see her talking and playing with her animals like kids should. It is so sweet!  This, unfortunately, was not one of those times.

As Chessidy was coming close to finishing, I heard Ila laughing and talking about something getting clean.  At first I didn't think it was a big deal...but then I heard those four little words: He's getting a bath!" That shot me up out of my seat, I popped the little one down (she was close enough to done that she didn't object, thankfully!) and sprinted to the......

bathroom.

If you have had or do have toddlers, you know that this is THE LAST PLACE you want to find them playing alone.

There she was.  Standing on her stool at the sink, naked, and giving her one of her cars a bath.  Water was POURING over the sink on the floor and there was already about half and inch of standing water in the bathroom.  Our sink does not have an overflow drain, blurg.  The regular drain was clogged with mounds of toilet paper.

Thankfully the casualties were only 3 rolls for toilet paper.  I managed to save the other 4 that were out.  The amount of water I cleaned up completely soaked 2 very large bath towels and Ila's clothes that she decided to take off for bath time.

I sure love my sweet toddler, but she can sure be mischievous.

You know you can be mischievous!

That, I am CERTAIN, she gets from her father!

"What? Me?  No....never!"

Purposeful life.

This past weekend our Becker family had the privileged of watching our pastor's daughter get married.  It was a beautiful wedding and we were so glad to be a part of it!  It was strange too though, not the wedding, but what was going on in our little family before during and at the reception.  It was as though time fast forwarded and Ila was the one getting married!  Let me explain.

When we sat down for the wedding, we sat behind another family from church and they have a 3 year old son, Brogan.  Apparently Brogan and Ila have become friends and they were quite excited to see each other, and wanted to sit near each other.  As we waited for the wedding to begin, I snuck a look at my daughter and there she was, holding hands with Brogan!  They had been talking and sharing pine cones and then all of a sudden they were holding hands.  It was super sweet, but then I looked at Trent and asked, "do you ever think about our girls getting married?"  He responded yes, and my heart flipped a bit.  There our two year old girl was, holding hands with a handsome little guy and my mind fast forwarded 18 or so years and it was Ila's wedding we were all of a sudden at!

Fast forward to the reception and Ila was dancing with not one boy but TWO boys (I have to mention that she danced with the older girls too, and learned some new sweet moves!).  She was chasing and being chased all around the reception hall by one of the boys.  She was having a blast!  I looked at Trent and said "She's either going to be a heart breaker or a big flirt!"  To which he responded "or both."  It was so sweet watching Ila dance and have a good time, but it made me do some serious thinking about parenting.

I was reminded that we only have so much time to teach our kids how to be responsible, how to communicate through the good and bad, and how to treat and love others.  I want Ila to be a great wife and mom when the time comes, and that starts with ME being a great wife and mom.  Ila is getting to the age where we are creating memories and where the foundation is being laid for respect, responsibility and love.  What a great thing to be aware of!  I'm going to be much more purposeful in my life, so that my children will benefit!

Here are some things I see on the path of purposefulness (by no means is this the only/all of things, of course!):
1. The Lord.  Abiding in Him, and His word and teaching my kids that it's the most important relationship in our lives.
2. Focusing on my children!  Stopping housework, or computer things to read a book, play a game or build something.
3. Getting and staying healthy.  We eat well here, and I've been swimming laps in the mornings, but I could eat better and work harder!  I want to have little workouts with Ila when she wakes up from her nap.
4. Let my yes be yes and my no be no.  I'm not talking about in discipline (but it's super important there too!) but more in following through with what I say.  So often I'm in the middle of something (like cooking) and Ila asks me to read a book.  I usually say "when I'm done cooking, I will."  By then though, Ila has moved on to something else, so I just go ahead and move on to something else too.  I want to follow through though, and get her, and read her that book!
5. Serve Trent better.  Make him lunches without him asking, keep up on the laundry (because I know he hates digging through the clean pile to find his work clothes!) maybe even do some yard work (although that may put him into shock.....)!  The key to service though is the ATTITUDE behind it.  So I'll have to do this with a good attitude.
6. Fun.  Kids need to have fun in their individual play time and with their parents!
7. Education.  Not just learning letters, numbers and all that good stuff, but life lessons, healthy communication and relational education.
8. Manners, manners, manners. Everyone should have them.  We are always reminding Ila about manners and it's not time to stop!
9. Respect.  I need to remember that the amount of respect I show to someone is the most amount of respect that my kids will show them.  This includes self respect.
9. It all boils down to this really: LOVE.

What about you?  What would you add to the list?

Growing girls!

It's been two months since the Lord blessed us with Chessidy Light, and let me tell you what a delight she is! She currently weighs 13 pounds 3 ounces and is approximately 23 inches long.  She still eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but after her 9pm-ish meal she sleeps till about 4:30am.  Some days, like today, she sleeps until 6am! She is an easy baby too!  We always thought Ila was an easy baby, but comparatively, Chessidy wins!  She pretty much only cries if she is hungry and if she is awake and wants to be snuggled up in blanket with her pacifier to drift off to sleep.  She sleeps anywhere and everywhere and the more noise the better!  She is not a gassy baby, and we have not had a "cry for no reason" session with her yet!  She is not nearly as playful as Ila was though, which can throw Daddy for a loop sometimes.  She is not the biggest fan of "flying" or sudden loud noises.  She scares easily and likes to be held close.  Chessidy hates her car seat (I guess that's another reason she cries) and will scream until the car is moving.  Once we pull out of the driveway though she is usually a happy camper!  She loves being rocked and bounced.  She loves the bath and the shower.  She still dislikes getting her diaper changed but is learning to deal with it. As for milestones she had started smiling big, goofy smiles.  She coo's and just today she started leaning forward in her little seat, like she wanted to sit up. No giggles yet, but they will come soon I am sure!


Chessidy's big sister is stepping into the role quite nicely.  Ila is trying to teach Chessidy about being more quiet ("Chessidy, that's too loud!" I hear quite often when Chessidy is wailing.).  Ila also likes to help Chessidy retrieve her fallen pacifier and fetch mommy more spit up rags. Other than her big sister duties, you can often find Ila playing with her animals (pronounced aMinals), reading books, counting and running around outside (and inside!).  We're working on letter recognition and also on writing letters.  She still is napping every day (praise the Lord) but she likes to fight nap time (boooo!).  She loves brushing her hair, my hair, your hair, anyone's hair.  She is fully potty trained (with occasional accidents of course) and is sleeping through the night more and more.  She picks out her own pajamas and can put the bottom half on without help, and the top half on with at least some verbal help.  She is talking up a storm and catches me off guard daily with a new saying or with the hilarious way she puts sentences together.  Her newest thing she has finally learned is to say "no thank you" instead of just "no."  This has been good and bad since our non-requests are often answered with a "no thank you."  She'll learn soon enough to differentiate between questions and commands though!  My absolute favorite thing she says these days is in her greetings.  When Aunt Telcia comes over she says "Oh, hi Aunt Telcia!"  Everyone is greeted with "Oh, hi _________!"  It's pretty cute and everyone seems to love it as much as I do!  Ila calls every meal dinner and she loves having snacks.  Treats are of course awesome, as is lemon-aid, bubbles (sparkling cider) and apple juice.  If you put a drink in a fancy cup, you'll be her favorite person for at least five minutes.  Ila also has enough hair now to do some cute hair-dos!  She loves pony tails.

My girls are sure growing like crazy.  Chessidy's physical growth is more noticeable than Ila's and Ila's mental growth is more noticeable than Chessidy's.

Trent has been working like crazy these past few weeks.  That is good because he gets time and a half for over time and not good because we get to missing him.  His employers really appreciate him though, and he likes his job so it is all good!

I also just got a part time job!  I'm going to be working for Living Earth (Trent's employers) too.  They needed someone to do routing and public relations and some paper work, and Trent told them I would be great at it.  Since I can do it from home, I was super excited to take the job when they offered it to me.    After I learn the system I'll probably just have a few hours one day a week that I commit to being at the office, but the rest of the time I'll work from home.  I really like the sort of work they need done, and it will be nice to have extra income for sure.  I start tomorrow.  I get to bring Chessidy with me and Ila will go play with Aunt Telcia.  Next week I will have to spend a few hours at the office every day to get it all figured out, but then I'll be free to work from home.  I'm thinking it will be about 10 hours a week, which I will do in the morning before the girls are up and during nap time. That way once Trent gets home from work, we'll have family time.

So there is the latest and greatest from us!

Hey, What's That Up Your Nose?

When you nurse a baby every 2 hours for about 20 minutes your toddler has that much time to be mischievous.  I try entertaining Ila while I nurse Chessidy, but sometimes it just doesn't work.  I'm thankful that Ila often times entertains herself and stays out of trouble, but what toddler wouldn't pass up 20 minutes of less watchful parenting every once in awhile?

I've decided to keep a journal (in blog form of course) on mischievous-ish things Ila does.  Once Chessidy is old enough I'm sure she'll make the list as well.  So here we are with our first ever "Hey, What's That Up Your Nose?"

Let's start with how I got the name for the blog.  Last week, Ila, after going poo in the potty and requesting a lemon drop sat down to watch a movie while I nursed Chessidy.  Ten minutes into nursing Chessidy, Ila walked up to me saying something about her lemon drop and requesting to blow her nose.  I wasn't sure what she was getting at exactly but her face appeared to be quite sticky and she was asking again and again to blow her nose.  I didn't have anything for her to blow into, so I asked her to wait.  As she stood there, continuing to talk I realized that she had possibly stuck her half gone lemon drop up her nose.  So I did what any mom would do in that situation, I plugged the nostril she was not pointing to and told her to blow (I'll take this opportunity to thank my husband for teaching Ila to blow her nose!).  Sure enough, a lemon drop came shooting out of her nose.  She excitedly ran after it and picked it up, but I stopped her from putting it in her mouth because 1. eww gross and 2. (and more importantly) she needed to know that girls who stick lemon drops up their noses do NOT get rewarded!  I worried that this "put things up my nose" incident wouldn't be the last, but we went the rest of the week and weekend with clear noses.

Today I sat down to nurse Chessidy while Ila watched Monsters Inc.  She was enjoying a nice healthy snack of apple slices.  What happened next may seem like de' ja' vu, because it pretty much was.  Ila walked up to me and talked about her apple and wanted to blow her nose.  So I plugged the nostril and asked her to blow and out shot an apple chunk!  That one shot so fast we didn't see where it landed. I'm sure I'll find it when I clean the floors tomorrow, unless she found it and ate it without my knowledge.

I had a talk with Ila about how we should not put things in our nose, and so did Trent, so here's to hoping she gets the memo!

Mother's Day of greatness!

We've had Chessidy home for 3 weeks now and life seems pretty darn great.  God has sure blessed our family with 2 sweet and cute little girls.  3 weeks later my body is still feeling like it birthed a 9 pound baby.  I've had a pretty difficult postpartum time, especially compared to postpartum after Ila.  I've had a bladder infection, continued bleeding and few "episodes" of excruciating rib pain that I think turned out to be gas.  There is also internal pain where Chessidy's head sat for months (which is pretty much my cervix/uterus area).  Other then the physical aspect of things though postpartum has been good.  Not too emotional or hormonal, and I seemed to be able to catch my hormonal moments before they get too crazy!  Ila and I have had some rough nap time sessions but we're hoping to get them sorted out with some sort of reward system, yet to be determined.

We are getting ready to close on our house.  Tomorrow we do that last of the paper work before we close, and we should actually close on Friday or the following Monday.  We are going to paint the girls room and we are hoping to re-carpet if we can find any for a good price.  But other then those 2 cosmetic things, the house is move in ready and super awesome. I'm excited to show you pictures once we are in and settled.  Better yet, you should all come to our house warming party that the Realtor throws us!  

This Mother's Day was my best yet.  Let me give you the run down of festivities:

-Thursday night Trent came home from work with a yellow mini rose plant for me, 3 bottles of wine and some other yummy treats!

-Friday Night was Murecker (A fun filled night with Aunt Telcia and Uncle Jon, usually including dinner, playing time and a movie, and of course hilarious and/or deep meaningful conversation) night with delicious fish tacos and the movie Starsky & Hutch (to begin our "cop trilogy" set).

-Saturday was the drive-in movie with our awesomely behaved daughters (woot!) and Uncle Jon and Aunt Telcia. We saw The Avengers and it was AWESOME!

-Sunday we woke up with sick girls (they've been sick for a few days, but seemed pretty terrible this morning).  After feeding CHessidy, I fell back asleep and woke up to the sound of the dishes being done.  When I finally made it out of the bedroom I walked into a clean kitchen.  Thank you awesome husband of mine :)

-Then it was on to lunch with my dad, who was driving through Twin Falls with the U-Haul full of my grandparents stuff (my mom's parents are moving to Boise!)

-After lunch we went to Hands On, which is a ceramic painting place.  We picked 4 soup bowls and had a grand time painting them.  I'm excited to pick them up on Thursday and see how they turned out!

-Onto Starbucks for frappicino happy hour, where I was treated to a very large, decaf frap. of deliciousness.

-When we got home the girls went down for naps and I drove 3 minutes away to free internet and watched a show and then went home.

-Now we are at Marma and Poppy's celebrating Mother's Day with Marma.  

It sure is great being a mother.  Thank you Lord for bringing me two beautiful children and for a husband who made me feel super duper great on this Mother's Day!