The boys have started their Spring sports. Both are playing soccer and P is also playing baseball. So, that's two soccer practices per week, 1-2 baseball practices/games per week, and 2-4 soccer games per weekend. Busy, busy!
P turned 7 at the end of March, I can't even believe it! We had a family party on his actual birthday and then he invited a few friends to go see Mr. Peabody and Sherman at the movies. After the movie, we played air hockey and then went for pizza. It was quite fun and I actually preferred it to having an entire class birthday party.
B is all signed up for Kindergarten for the Fall. I can't believe he is going to kindergarten. It almost seems as though it would never come, and soon it will be here. We also moved him out of a 5pt harness and into a high back booster seat. He has finally reached 40lbs and he has grown a little taller. And possibly a little bit more mature. :)
Sissy is talking up a storm and we can understand more and more of what she is saying. We also moved her into a twin sized bed, since she decided one day that she didn't want to stay in her crib anymore. Its been quite the adjustment for us. She doesn't want to stay in her room and after finding her playing in the bathroom sink at 2am, I decided to put a baby gate at the doorway to her room. This way I know she is safe and not roaming the house at all hours. I still have the monitor in her room, so mostly she just calls out for us now. Sissy is also completely potty trained now, which has been amazing! She can totally go on her own now, although I do supervise her in the bathroom because sometimes she doesn't get far enough back on the potty or she will unroll the entire roll of toilet paper.
Mila turned 7 months old on the 1st. She is probably at least 15+ pounds now, size 3 diapers, and 6 months clothes. Although she does wear mostly 9 month sleepers for the length. She eats two 'solids' meals per day, usually breakfast and dinner. She takes about 6oz per feeding and we switched her to HiPP or Holle formula. You can only buy it from Europe, but their standards are much more strict than anything here in the States. Mila prefers the Holle brand and from what I have read, the standard is even better than organic. She has done amazing on it, her eczema is better, her spit up is completely gone, and it has turned her poop back to breast milk like poop. She has just done better on it all around. I found a place here in the States that I can order it from and they send it 2 day shipping instead of waiting 3-4+ weeks for it to ship from the UK. I order a months worth at a time to cut down on shipping costs.
Mila's sleeping has been an issue since about January. Basically, she will only sleep about 2-3 hours, then wake up and be up for 2 hours. Then another 2-3 hours of sleep and then up for the day around 4-5 am. This mama just can't handle it anymore, the lack of sleep is really wearing on me. I've never sleep trained any of my kids, but they never had sleeping issues like this. Mila is still in our room and I wonder if the noises from that are waking her or preventing her from going back to sleep. But the girls will have to share a room, so I'm not sure how that would even work until I can get Mila sleeping better. I've pretty much been doing our usual routine at bedtime, then laying her down, and walking out. She is pretty good at putting herself to sleep at bedtime, but not so much throughout the night. When she wakes at night, I've been feeding her and then laying her back down. Sometimes she will poop at night and then I will change her. But other than that, I let her fuss, talk, roll around in her bed. I feel like maybe I've been trying to 'help' her too much go back to sleep and in return she wasn't able to figure it out on her own. The first night wasn't any worse than she usually is, but she slept from 1145-430am, which was amazing. Last night was even better! She went to sleep around 8pm-11:00pm, ate and went back to sleep, woke again at 4:30am, ate and went back to sleep until 7am. I'm hoping to cut a feeding out one by one and then hopefully she will sleep through the night. I've also talked with the babysitter about getting her on a nap schedule. Some babies don't need a schedule and some do. Mila definitely does! Which can be extremely difficult with 3 other children that have activities and school, etc. But I feel like we will eventually get there.
As for me, I've really been trying to focus on my health lately. I joined a DietBet with a fellow blogger and so far I've done really well. As part of the plan, I have to lose 4% of my starting weight within 28 days to win. For me, that was just over 7lbs. So far, I am down 5.4lbs and at 72% towards my goal. I have now lost 23lbs since I gave birth to Mila in September. I've really been concentrating on my food intake and making sure it is healthy. I have been using Shaklee 180 smoothies since November, but I've really gotten serious about it. I do 1-2 smoothies per day and then healthy meals and exercise. I have to say, I love Shaklee. Not only do they have the meal plans, but they have vitamins, supplements, cleaning products, and children's health as well. I just can't even say enough good things about Shaklee! It's a company that has been around since the '50's and I can trust that what I am putting into my body is healthy. Currently we use the Shaklee 180 smoothies, Vitalizer for Women (vita-strip that includes a daily multi vitamin with Iron, B complex, Omega, and probiotic), Incredivites (children's vitamins), Alfalfa (great for allergies, eczema, etc), baby lotion (this has helped clear up their eczema and made their skin soft again), fabric softener (smells great and won't irritate eczema!), Basic H (cleaning concentrate), and Performance (a natural hydration drink, like Gatorade but without all the nasty stuff). These are the products that we use on a daily basis, but we have several more of their products as well.
Anyways, that's what has been happening around these parts lately. I am hoping to keep up better with the blog and make it a priority.
