Kids change pretty much everything about your life. It's inevitable, it's unavoidable, and it's wonderful. Having that first baby is magical.
But, along with that, is the fear in the back of your mind before the baby comes of, "How is this going to affect our marriage? Will everything be harder? How will we cope with the added stress?"
And then baby comes and somehow it works. You don't love your spouse any less - your love for him or her isn't diminished because there's another person in your family to love. If anything, it's enhanced because you get to watch him transform into a parent - and that's magical, too.
Despite having gone through that family transformation with Asher, my husband and I were still nervous about how things we would change when our second little baby came. Keep in mind that Asher was only about 9 months old when we found out I was pregnant. You can probably imagine how we were feeling: how was our little, little guy going to become a big brother in just a few short months? He'd only be 16 1/2 months old by that time!
So yes, we had our concerns. And part of me was wondering how we would split our love, time, and attention between two very little boys. Asher was always my little sweetheart - he was pretty attached to me from the very beginning. And, with me being a stay-at-home-mom, he had a lot of one-on-one mommy-time (poor guy!). He was definitely spoiled in that regard, and when Dusty and I went to the hospital for me to be induced with Aiden, that was the first time I had spent the night apart from him.
Then little Aiden was born, and all of those fears and concerns vanished. It was needless worry on our part. Again, we didn't love Asher any less than we had, but we loved Aiden just as much. As parents, you don't split your love between your kids, or between your kids and your spouse; that love simply increases. Just when you think you couldn't possibly love any more than you already do, you can. And it's simple.
It makes it so much easier to understand God's love for us, and how we are created in His image. It's no difficult matter as a parent to love each of your children more than you ever thought possible, just as God, our Father, loves each and every one of His children equally and unconditionally.
So, now that we have baby #3 on the way, I have no qualms about how we'll manage to "share the love." It starts before they're even born, and continues to grow, and grow, and grow . . .
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
A Roarin' Good Cake
When I asked our now 3-yr-old what kind of cake he wanted for his 3rd birthday, I was not expecting him to say, "A dragon!" As I tried to hide my dismay behind smiles of excitement (how on earth was I going to make a dragon of all things?!), my mind immediately went to the internet.
You can find anything on the internet these days, and sure enough I found this tutorial for how to construct a dragon cake! The design was so easy to follow as far as how to construct the dragon out of cake, and all you need are two round (8 or 9 inch) cakes.
The absolute best thing about this cake was how much Asher loved it. I mean he loved it! He kept going upstairs to look at it and would call down, saying, "Mommy, Daddy, come look at my dragon cake!" Talk about making a mom feel good. :)
I used my favorite doctored up white cake recipe, and added sprinkles to it because Asher loves sprinkles. I also used my go-to buttercream frosting and made 1 1/2 times a regular batch just to make sure I had enough.
The original tutorial used different kinds of candy than I did to make the spikes, talons, etc. and you can certainly use whatever you think will work best.
Supplies
2 8-or-9-inch cakes
3-4 cups buttercream frosting, tinted the colors you like (I did blue and green)
Starburst candy
Chewy Spree
1 large marshmallow
2 fruit roll-ups (I used the tie-dye kind)
4 chocolate chips
2 skewers
candles (I found those crazy squiggle ones at Hy-Vee)
a large cutting board, or some other flat surface to use as the cake base
1. Cut the dragon out using the tutorial link above.
2. Secure each piece to your cake base using a dollop of frosting, and also secure the cake pieces together using frosting (this helps the pieces from separating after you've finished frosting it).
3. To frost the cake you can either slather the frosting all over and then use some type of round bottle cap and make indentations for scales, or you can do what I did. Fill a plastic baggy with frosting and snip off the end. Pipe a line of dots (about 1/4-1/2 inch big) straight across the top of the body. Use a spoon and lightly press into one dot at a time and pull down gently. Pipe the next row of dots close enough to the first to not see cake in between (I alternated my blue and green colors). Continue doing this until the entire dragon is covered with frosting. *Don't be discouraged if it doesn't look perfect - some of those angles are tough, and some of those spaces are hard to get to with piping. The end result will still look good!
4. For the spikes along the spine, slightly flatten the Starburst and cut in half diagonally into triangles. Insert each triangle into the dragon spine and down the tail.
5. Use Sprees and insert them vertically into the dragon's feet.
6. Snip the marshmallow in half horizontally and press each half onto the face for eyes. You can either use black icing to make the pupils, or insert a chocolate chip into each so the round part is facing out.
7. Use 2 chocolate chips to form the nostrils.
8. Insert candles into the snout to look like fire.
9. Wrap fruit roll-ups around each skewer and stick it to itself. Then insert each skewer into the cake to make the wings - you may need to cut the skewers to fit (you can scallop the edges of the fruit roll-ups just by using a scissors).
Hugs and cookies,
You can find anything on the internet these days, and sure enough I found this tutorial for how to construct a dragon cake! The design was so easy to follow as far as how to construct the dragon out of cake, and all you need are two round (8 or 9 inch) cakes.
The absolute best thing about this cake was how much Asher loved it. I mean he loved it! He kept going upstairs to look at it and would call down, saying, "Mommy, Daddy, come look at my dragon cake!" Talk about making a mom feel good. :)
I used my favorite doctored up white cake recipe, and added sprinkles to it because Asher loves sprinkles. I also used my go-to buttercream frosting and made 1 1/2 times a regular batch just to make sure I had enough.
The original tutorial used different kinds of candy than I did to make the spikes, talons, etc. and you can certainly use whatever you think will work best.
Supplies2 8-or-9-inch cakes
3-4 cups buttercream frosting, tinted the colors you like (I did blue and green)
Starburst candy
Chewy Spree
1 large marshmallow
2 fruit roll-ups (I used the tie-dye kind)
4 chocolate chips
2 skewers
candles (I found those crazy squiggle ones at Hy-Vee)
a large cutting board, or some other flat surface to use as the cake base
1. Cut the dragon out using the tutorial link above.
2. Secure each piece to your cake base using a dollop of frosting, and also secure the cake pieces together using frosting (this helps the pieces from separating after you've finished frosting it).
3. To frost the cake you can either slather the frosting all over and then use some type of round bottle cap and make indentations for scales, or you can do what I did. Fill a plastic baggy with frosting and snip off the end. Pipe a line of dots (about 1/4-1/2 inch big) straight across the top of the body. Use a spoon and lightly press into one dot at a time and pull down gently. Pipe the next row of dots close enough to the first to not see cake in between (I alternated my blue and green colors). Continue doing this until the entire dragon is covered with frosting. *Don't be discouraged if it doesn't look perfect - some of those angles are tough, and some of those spaces are hard to get to with piping. The end result will still look good!
4. For the spikes along the spine, slightly flatten the Starburst and cut in half diagonally into triangles. Insert each triangle into the dragon spine and down the tail.
5. Use Sprees and insert them vertically into the dragon's feet.
6. Snip the marshmallow in half horizontally and press each half onto the face for eyes. You can either use black icing to make the pupils, or insert a chocolate chip into each so the round part is facing out.
7. Use 2 chocolate chips to form the nostrils.
8. Insert candles into the snout to look like fire.
9. Wrap fruit roll-ups around each skewer and stick it to itself. Then insert each skewer into the cake to make the wings - you may need to cut the skewers to fit (you can scallop the edges of the fruit roll-ups just by using a scissors).
 |
| Look out, he's breathing fire! |
 |
| It looked good, but does it taste good . . . |
 |
| The official verdict was a resounding, "YES!" :) |
Amanda
Monday, August 20, 2012
Toddler/Kid Art
Remember when I made this piece of crayon art? It was so fun and easy to do, but I bought the canvas in a 3-pack, so I've had 2 pieces sitting around staring me in the face for a long time now. I knew what I wanted to do with them, but hadn't gotten around to doing it . . . Partly because I was a little intimidated and nervous. It involves painting. With kids. Enough said.
I wanted to tape the boys' names on the canvas, then have them finger-paint all over it. Once it dried, I could remove the tape and their names would show up white against the colored finger-painting! Such a cute idea. And, I saw a recipe for homemade finger=paints on Pinterest which made the idea even more appealing.
I had the idea in my head that I would make four colors, and the boys would each get to use 2 colors: red/yellow or green/blue. Well, it didn't work quite as planned because Aiden's basically ended up orange, and Asher's is kind of teal-ish. Both cute, but I mistakenly thought there would be some separation of colors. Silly me. :) As my husband said, it just makes it look more like kids did it - which was the point, right? Right.
So when Dusty was at work this week I stripped the boys down to their diapers (actually Asher was naked because we're working on potty training hard core . . . more on that later) and let them have at it. Needless to say, it was a mess; but it was also really fun for all of us. Another great part was that even when some of the paint (inevitably) got on the table, it wiped up really easily. And the boys were plopped straight into the bathtub when they were done! Asher and Aiden (and Mommy!) were pretty excited to show Daddy what they did that day, and now we have some more fun art to put in their room or play area!
Supplies
canvas
tape
finger paints
1. Tape onto the canvas the word or name you'd like to use. Make sure to press out any bubbles and stick it on tight.
2. Finger paint all over canvas.
3. Allow to dry completely and delicately peel off tape.
4. Ta-da!
*You could also outline the letters with black marker before peeling them off, but I chose not to.
Homemade Finger Paints (original can be found here)
3 Tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cornstarch
2 c. cold water
food coloring of your choice
1. Place all ingredients except food coloring in a saucepan and warm over med.-low heat until mixture thickens. Whisk while you're doing this to avoid lumps. (Mine took 5-7 minutes.)
2. Allow to cool and color as desired. (I ended up using about 20 drops for each color, but next time I might use even more to make the colors more vibrant.)
I wanted to tape the boys' names on the canvas, then have them finger-paint all over it. Once it dried, I could remove the tape and their names would show up white against the colored finger-painting! Such a cute idea. And, I saw a recipe for homemade finger=paints on Pinterest which made the idea even more appealing.
I had the idea in my head that I would make four colors, and the boys would each get to use 2 colors: red/yellow or green/blue. Well, it didn't work quite as planned because Aiden's basically ended up orange, and Asher's is kind of teal-ish. Both cute, but I mistakenly thought there would be some separation of colors. Silly me. :) As my husband said, it just makes it look more like kids did it - which was the point, right? Right.
So when Dusty was at work this week I stripped the boys down to their diapers (actually Asher was naked because we're working on potty training hard core . . . more on that later) and let them have at it. Needless to say, it was a mess; but it was also really fun for all of us. Another great part was that even when some of the paint (inevitably) got on the table, it wiped up really easily. And the boys were plopped straight into the bathtub when they were done! Asher and Aiden (and Mommy!) were pretty excited to show Daddy what they did that day, and now we have some more fun art to put in their room or play area!
Supplies
canvas
tape
finger paints
1. Tape onto the canvas the word or name you'd like to use. Make sure to press out any bubbles and stick it on tight.
2. Finger paint all over canvas.
3. Allow to dry completely and delicately peel off tape.
4. Ta-da!
*You could also outline the letters with black marker before peeling them off, but I chose not to.
Homemade Finger Paints (original can be found here)
3 Tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cornstarch
2 c. cold water
food coloring of your choice
1. Place all ingredients except food coloring in a saucepan and warm over med.-low heat until mixture thickens. Whisk while you're doing this to avoid lumps. (Mine took 5-7 minutes.)
2. Allow to cool and color as desired. (I ended up using about 20 drops for each color, but next time I might use even more to make the colors more vibrant.)
 |
| Pausing for a pic - Aiden is all over that canvas! |
 | ||
Look at that concentration!
|
 |
| Me: "Okay, that's enough-time for baths!" |
 |
| Aiden's finished product |
 |
| Asher's finished product |
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
A Baby Story: Asher's Labor and Delivery
I was really annoyed. A couple weeks before my due date, my doctor told me I was 3 cm dilated and she'd be surprised if I made it to the due date . . . It came and went. No baby. Very frustrating.
I hadn't felt any false labor or anything - it literally felt like he would never come out because nothing was changing. Dusty and I headed into my appointment 4 days after my due date and my doctor said the "wonderful" words: "Let's get you set up to be induced tomorrow." But, I had already packed my bag and brought it with and we were ready, and I mean rea-dy to go so I asked if she could check if they might be able to do it that day. Drumroll . . . They could! She actually told us to head over there after we checked out from her office.
We were finally doing it! I didn't even feel very nervous - I was so excited and felt like I had waited long enough. I was ready. Dusty . . . well, he might not have been as ready or as calm as I was, but he hid it pretty well. :) I knew going in that he was pretty nervous about how much pain I would be in, and he hates seeing me in the hospital anyway.
They got me all prepped and broke my water (not as unpleasant as I thought it would be) and started me on Pitocin to get contractions started. My mom had warned me about Pitocin because I think she had it with one of her six labors and said it was absolutely awful. It really wasn't bad at first - the first 20 minutes or so were totally doable. But, then the Pitocin must have really kicked in because my contractions started coming hard and fast - as in a minute apart. That might not sound too bad, but when you consider going from basically 0 to 10 in that short amount of time . . . Well, it was painful.
And poor Dusty. All those helpful tips and techniques we learned in our labor class? Totally useless. Nothing he tried was working. I love that he tried, but I had to politely tell him not to touch me because it was just distracting. So he just had to stand there feeling relatively helpless. I think I lasted for about an hour and a half and we decided to get an epidural. I kind of felt like I was copping out, but once I had the epidural I really didn't care. It made a world of difference. So I got to relax . . .
But, shortly after that they noticed the baby's heart rate kept dropping during contractions. That's fairly normal, but usually it'll come back up between contractions. Mine were coming so hard and close together that his heart rate wasn't getting back up to where it should be. The doctor (not my usual one) and nurse were conversing and then all of a sudden said "We need to do a C-section. If this was your second baby we might let you go because you're 8 1/2 cm, but since it's your first it could still be a couple hours and we can't wait that long." WHAT?! A C-section? That was not part of my birth plan. Hadn't even considered it. And I remember feeling slightly annoyed with the doctor for not including us in her conversation with the nurse before dropping that bomb on us.
Dusty ran out to call our parents while I was being prepped, and probably 5 minutes later I was being wheeled into surgery. It was surreal. The room was full of people, but I felt alone. Dusty couldn't come in until they were ready to start surgery. Everyone was very polite, it was just extremely nerve-racking. I had the best anesthesiologist; he kept asking if I was okay - noticed immediately that I was really shaky and asked if I'd like something to calm my nerves. Yes, please!
Finally, Dusty was by my side, or head I guess since I was laying down, and . . .
SCREAMING BABY . . . BOY! We were a little bit shocked I think. First of all, I thought it would take longer to do the surgery, and secondly I had thought all along that it was probably a girl so it was an amazing feeling to be completely taken by surprise. And there he was - they held him up to my face for an oh-so-brief instant and then took him away to get cleaned off. I specifically remember some of the nurses laughing because he kept screaming. I, on the other hand, was actually a little nervous because he just wasn't stopping. I thought, "What if he just cries all the time? What are we going to do?" But, then they took him out with Dusty to the recovery room while I was being stitched up. He must've stopped crying during that time because by the time I got to recovery, he was calm - thank goodness!
We did it! We successfully had a beautiful baby boy, and once I got to the recovery room we decided to name him Asher, which means "blessed, happy," because that's exactly how we felt.
Thanks for reading this rather long post, and stay tuned for part 3 - the aftermath . . . bum-bum-BUM! (That's supposed to be like the music you hear in movies right before something crazy happens.)
I hadn't felt any false labor or anything - it literally felt like he would never come out because nothing was changing. Dusty and I headed into my appointment 4 days after my due date and my doctor said the "wonderful" words: "Let's get you set up to be induced tomorrow." But, I had already packed my bag and brought it with and we were ready, and I mean rea-dy to go so I asked if she could check if they might be able to do it that day. Drumroll . . . They could! She actually told us to head over there after we checked out from her office.
We were finally doing it! I didn't even feel very nervous - I was so excited and felt like I had waited long enough. I was ready. Dusty . . . well, he might not have been as ready or as calm as I was, but he hid it pretty well. :) I knew going in that he was pretty nervous about how much pain I would be in, and he hates seeing me in the hospital anyway.
They got me all prepped and broke my water (not as unpleasant as I thought it would be) and started me on Pitocin to get contractions started. My mom had warned me about Pitocin because I think she had it with one of her six labors and said it was absolutely awful. It really wasn't bad at first - the first 20 minutes or so were totally doable. But, then the Pitocin must have really kicked in because my contractions started coming hard and fast - as in a minute apart. That might not sound too bad, but when you consider going from basically 0 to 10 in that short amount of time . . . Well, it was painful.
And poor Dusty. All those helpful tips and techniques we learned in our labor class? Totally useless. Nothing he tried was working. I love that he tried, but I had to politely tell him not to touch me because it was just distracting. So he just had to stand there feeling relatively helpless. I think I lasted for about an hour and a half and we decided to get an epidural. I kind of felt like I was copping out, but once I had the epidural I really didn't care. It made a world of difference. So I got to relax . . .
But, shortly after that they noticed the baby's heart rate kept dropping during contractions. That's fairly normal, but usually it'll come back up between contractions. Mine were coming so hard and close together that his heart rate wasn't getting back up to where it should be. The doctor (not my usual one) and nurse were conversing and then all of a sudden said "We need to do a C-section. If this was your second baby we might let you go because you're 8 1/2 cm, but since it's your first it could still be a couple hours and we can't wait that long." WHAT?! A C-section? That was not part of my birth plan. Hadn't even considered it. And I remember feeling slightly annoyed with the doctor for not including us in her conversation with the nurse before dropping that bomb on us.
Dusty ran out to call our parents while I was being prepped, and probably 5 minutes later I was being wheeled into surgery. It was surreal. The room was full of people, but I felt alone. Dusty couldn't come in until they were ready to start surgery. Everyone was very polite, it was just extremely nerve-racking. I had the best anesthesiologist; he kept asking if I was okay - noticed immediately that I was really shaky and asked if I'd like something to calm my nerves. Yes, please!
Finally, Dusty was by my side, or head I guess since I was laying down, and . . .
SCREAMING BABY . . . BOY! We were a little bit shocked I think. First of all, I thought it would take longer to do the surgery, and secondly I had thought all along that it was probably a girl so it was an amazing feeling to be completely taken by surprise. And there he was - they held him up to my face for an oh-so-brief instant and then took him away to get cleaned off. I specifically remember some of the nurses laughing because he kept screaming. I, on the other hand, was actually a little nervous because he just wasn't stopping. I thought, "What if he just cries all the time? What are we going to do?" But, then they took him out with Dusty to the recovery room while I was being stitched up. He must've stopped crying during that time because by the time I got to recovery, he was calm - thank goodness!
We did it! We successfully had a beautiful baby boy, and once I got to the recovery room we decided to name him Asher, which means "blessed, happy," because that's exactly how we felt.
Our little peanut.
Happy, ecstatic, Mama
PROUD Papa - I still can't get over how tiny Asher looks here.
Asher Dustin Reese, born August 27, 2009 at 4:18 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz,
and was 21 3/4 inches long.
Thanks for reading this rather long post, and stay tuned for part 3 - the aftermath . . . bum-bum-BUM! (That's supposed to be like the music you hear in movies right before something crazy happens.)
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