Snippets

Often this week I've sat down to post to the blog only to get distracted and leave my thoughts unfinished. Now that I'm a mommy of two, I'm constantly surprised at how fast the days go by! So here are some snippets: bite-sized portions of blog-worthy news from our life this last week . . .

Sleep
Yup, Clive's sleeping for 5 hours at a shot was a total fluke. He's gone back to 3-4 hour chunks again. I'm not stressing about it anymore. I do pretty well energy-wise as long as I make myself go to bed when he does! I can usually get 6-7 hours of sleep that way and make it through the day without a nap. Afternoon naptime is precious time for me to get a few things done around the house and for my online job.

Pink-eye
The pink-eye thing was a false alarm. Turns out I had just been wearing my right contact for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Ooopsies! After going sans contacts for a few days the redness and swelling disappeared. Guess I have to be better about keeping track of how long I wear them.

Indoor activities
As the snow continues to fall on us in Ohio, we've been housebound almost all week. A few trips to the craft store and some searching online gave us fodder for fun indoor activities. Chloe's been coloring pictures using foamy stickers (much easier for her toddler hands to peel off their paper backing than regular stickers). She can spend 15-20 minutes using the stickers and her markers to make pictures. It's been great fun to watch her pour over a drawing with such intensity. And she tells a story while she's drawing and sticking on stickers. Too cute!

Another fun craft, though not taking up as much time, has been using pipe cleaners to make various shapes or animals. Chloe puts beads on the pipe cleaner and then I bend it up to make a fish or heart or what not.

One evening we had a bubble blowing party in the kitchen. That was way fun! In fact, I think I had just as much (if not more) fun than Chloe blowing our homemade bubbles through various bubble wands. We made wands out of pipe cleaners and then we used regular kitchen utensils to blow bubbles. Slotted spoons, strainers, and play-doh stencils worked especially well to blow bubbles through. The bonus was that when I wiped up the mess, my kitchen floor got a much-needed cleaning. Yay!

Outdoor activities
Chloe is a snow angel addict! It's so cute to see her plop down in the snow and go crazy with her arms and legs. Our front yard (and our neighbors') have been thoroughly snow-angeled by our little angel. :) While playing outside we also crafted a little snowman complete with scarf, hat, fly swatter arms, carrot nose and raisin eyes.

What have you been up to of late?

HE DID IT!

My baby boy finally slept through the night last night!!!!!!!! Halle-lu-jah, halle-lu-jah!

I was at my wit's end last night because though he was exhausted, he'd not slept well all day. And he was crabby because of his lack of sleep. What is with babies? I mean, when I'm tired I just go to sleep. Easy as that. No crying or whining about it. Just close your eyes and sleep.

After his last feeding he finally konked out at 11:30 p.m. And he slept right through until 4:45 a.m. Ahhhhhh. Five consecutive glorious hours of sleep for mommy.

Let's hope last night wasn't a fluke. I'm trying really hard to get this boy on a schedule. Seems much harder this time around. Anyone else find that with a second child?

So, officially I'll put down 8 weeks for the sleeping through the night milestone in the baby book. When did your kiddos sleep through the night?

It's rough being a baby brother

In general Chloe is fairly careful around her baby brother. She pats his back gingerly to help burp him and lovingly plants tender kisses on his head.

Actually, she usually just ignores him. He sleeps most of the day and doesn't do much that's exciting. What surprises me most is that his crying doesn't seem to bother her at all! Even when he's wailing for all he's worth in the middle of the night, she goes right on sleeping.

Today we had an interesting incident. Chloe was drinking from a water bottle she found in the study. She gave a drink to her teddy bear and then proceeded to bring the bottle to me for a drink. I was sitting on the floor feeding little Clive while Chloe gently put the bottle to my lips. In a matter of milli-seconds Chloe tried to give Clive a drink (my mommy reflexes must have been in slow motion) and she POURED the bottle on his face! Poor little guy! He of course was not happy about being showered unexpectedly with cold water.

I have a feeling this is only the beginning. What comical things have your older kids done inadvertently (or purposely) to their younger siblings?

Pink eye?

Has anyone out there ever had pink eye? The corner of my right eye began swelling yesterday and is red and a little sore today. No discharge though (I've heard that's a pink eye symptom).

What can be done to treat pink eye? I know it's super contagious so we're not venturing out to Bible study this morning. And I'm very bummed about that but I think it's wise not to bring my possibly-infectious self to a locale with 100 other ladies who could spread this thing to their kiddos.

So, today we're grounded. :( Thankfully Matt is home so he'll be able to get Chloe out of the house for a few errands. And today I'll have to put my indoor-creativity to the test! I made it to the craft store a few nights ago and I'm prepared with pipe cleaners, beads, and foamy stickers.

Sigh. When is spring again?

Winter megrims

With only one car for our entire family, we end up spending lots of time at home. Normally it's not a big deal since Chloe and I are big outdoor walkers - regardless of the temperature. But throw baby Clive into the mix and now we're usually homebound on the days when we're car-less.

We usually do ok hanging around the house but lately I've been getting restless. We can only do play-doh or bake so many times. Plus I'm fairly limited when Clive is awake as he wants to be held a lot. And we're instituting a movie-only-every-other-day rule so no chance plopping Chloe into a chair to zone out for an hour. (I'm curious, what are your toddler tv viewing limitations?)

The other day I got the bright idea to trace Chloe onto some paper bags I taped together. Chloe loved it! She colored herself and then we traced a few of her stuffed animal friends. All three drawings are now hanging proudly in our hallway.

Today we went "fishing" in a makeshift boat (i.e. rubbermaid storage tub) and then we brought out some old baby toys of Chloe's for Clive's future use. Of course Chloe was happy to break them in for him. It's always fun to get some new-again toys into playing circulation.

I'm sure you all are much more creative than I am . . . what do you do indoors to help the winter months fly by?

The best valentine's gift ever!

Matt really came through this year in celebration of Valentine's Day. He gave me what I desired most of all - a full night's rest! Wednesday night I went to bed at 9:30 and slept like a rock until 5:30 while Matt handled Clive's two feedings. Ahh. I felt like I could conquer the world yesterday! THANK YOU, Matt! I have the world's best husband. Aren't you jealous?

Matt also got me a lovely pot of pink tulips that we'll plant come spring as well as some funky salad plates. Chloe was ecstatic when she saw the Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal awaiting her on the breakfast table in honor of Valentine's Day. She did NOT let go of her new "friend" all day long! Even in her little lambs class (where she goes during my Bible study) she held on to Pooh tightly.

We feasted on some delish pumpkin pancakes which I attempted to make heart-shaped. We finished the evening cuddling together family style on the couch and enjoying a Winnie-the-Pooh movie.

Though these days are tiring, they're full of fun! I feel like we're making memories every day. In that vein, I must run. Chloe's invited me to play in her "house" (aka the staircase). A lovely weekend to you all!

Happy Vday to you!

It looks like we'll be celebrating a snowy blowy cold Valentine's Day again this year.

Vday will be busy for our family as I tote the two munchkins to Bible study and Matt has meetings at school. I haven't thought much about celebrating the love festival yet . . . maybe I'll make pumpkin heart pancakes for dinner. I have one gift idea for Matt but it's not very romantic. I remember what a big deal we made of our first Valentine's together. Lots of gifts and a special homemade candlelit dinner. How times have changed!

How do you plan to celebrate?

Faces only a mother could love

I'm afraid my kiddos have inherited my un-photogenetic-ness.

And I thought getting a good shot of one kid was hard!

Fun freebies

Once again Walgreen's is offering a free photo deal this time to celebrate Valentine's Day! Using their online photo center you can receive a free family photo pack (7 photos of varying sizes) for pick-up in their store. The offer is only good through tomorrow, February 9th. Hope some of you can take advantage of these valuable freebies!

Freebie number 2 involves PANCAKES. The classic pancake joint, IHOP, is offering free pancakes on Tuesday, February 12 in honor of National Pancake Day. Who knew there was such a holiday? I'll have to do some searching to find an IHOP in the area but I'm positive a free family dinner of pancakes will be worth the drive. Chloe and Matt are pancake monsters.

A happy weekend to you!

Whole wheat flour extravaganza

Are you bloggers ready for some whole-wheaty fun?

Today I made four loaves of the most delicious wheat bread ever. I've had quite the time finding a truly yummy-tasting wheat bread recipe. The all wheat flour bread recipes I've tried create a product that is either way too dense for my liking or tastes more like cardboard than bread.

Mixing up the bread dough today got me thinking about wheat flour. I love using it but I only have two reliable recipes I use; one is for the aforementioned bread and the other is a peanut butter waffle recipe. I want to add more to my wheaty cooking repertoire!

Jenny M. recently linked up a tasty looking cookie recipe using wheat flour instead of white. What wheat flour recipes do you use and recommend? Email me your recipes at aliciamhorn@gmail.com and next week I'll post a collaboration of all your wheaty contributions. (Can you tell I like using the adjective wheaty?)

Gotcha!

I finally tried (and succeeded!) to capture Clive's grin. Woo-hoo! He's such a good-natured baby. Thank you, Jesus.

He still doesn't smile regularly or often but this little milestone reminds me that he's growing up and getting ever nearer a blessed feeding/sleeping schedule. Ah.

In my exhausted delusion I envision that life will be utopic when I can better predict his eating and dozing habits. Just another reminder that I'm not in control of the affairs of life.

I've already come to grips with the cold hard truth that this boy's life will be significantly less photographed than Chloe's. :)

When did your tykes first smile?

Sleeping poll

I preface this post with a promise NOT to report you to the FDA or your local health department if you put your baby to sleep on his tummy. :) I'm filled with curiosity on the whole sleeping position issue and I know you all have oodles of baby experience out there that I must tap into!

Chloe was always a back sleeper and we had nary a problem. She ate and conked out easily in her newborn days. Clive on the other hand obviously prefers sleeping upright or on his tummy. He gets restless and wakes up quickly when I put him on his back. Not sure if I can tell this so early on in his young life but he seems to have nose problems; that might have to do with his tummy sleeping preference.

Which way do you (or have you in the past) lay down your babies to sleep? Back or tummy?

One month old!

Looking back, Clive's first month has gone by quickly! Don't get me wrong, it hasn't always seemed that way in the middle of the night when I've weeped with exhaustion from sleep deprivation. But as we hit the one month milestone today I'm optimistic that these newborn nights will soon come to an end.

Our cute little Clive Simeon has started smiling this past week! I know that seems early but I'm convinced that his grins haven't all been gas-induced. :)

For the most part Clive is doing well during the evenings. He usually eats and then falls asleep right away. We've switched exclusively to bottle-feeding now so the feeding process is much shorter than it used to be. [The story is that the pediatrician said I couldn't breastfeed in the hospital due to the infection in my uterus. So, Clive's had bottles ever since day 1. I attempted to get him off the bottles and would nurse for 30-40 minutes at each feeding but he always needed a bottle supplement afterwards. Now that I'm caring for two munchkins at home, I simply do not have the time to both nurse and bottle-feed him. I was initially very disappointed that I couldn't breastfeed but I'm ok with it now. Bottle-feeding sure is convenient and I love that I can leave Clive at home with Matt without nursing time constraints.]

We're using our cloth sling more with Clive and beginning to venture out with him a little. Sunday we all attended church together for the first time! Clive slept through the whole experience. :)

Happy 1 month birthday, little guy!

Grosser than gross

Before birthing children I thought baby drool was disgusting. Now that I've been hardened as a mom, not much phases me in the bodily fluid arena. I can handle potty accidents and vommit without much flinching these days.

But one thing that completely grosses me out is preparing a whole chicken. This afternoon I washed out and seasoned a chicken to roast this afternoon. I physically could NOT put my hand in the poor chicken's innards to get out the unidentified body parts. I closed my eyes and used a wooden spoon to remove said chickeny inside pieces.

Of course, I'll have no problem eating our succulent poultry friend for supper but when the carcass is all raw and naked I can't help picturing it as a live chicken fluttering around the farmyard.

Like, gag me with a wooden spoon. (That, by the way, was one of my favorite expressions in 7th grade.)

What's your ultimate gross-inducing activity?

One-handed wonder

As we survive these newborn days, I'm rediscovering my talents as a one-handed woman. As I carry Clive around to soothe him (walking calms him like nothing else), I try my best to accomplish tasks one-handed. Though it's a slow business at least I feel like I'm doing something helpful.

Here's a sampling of my many one-handed tasks.

• Made jello
• Peeled an orange
• Helped Chloe pull down her undies for potty time (don't worry, I washed my hands afterwards)
• Blogged
• Completed crossword puzzles (helps to keep my brain functioning in the wee morning feeding hours)
• Worked for my online job (one-handed typing is tortuously slow!)
  
• Applied makeup
• Loaded the dishwasher
• Addressed mail
• Put Chloe's toys away
• Brewed coffee

What's the weirdest thing you've done single-handedly?

Chloe-isms

Since I've posted a lot about our oh-so-adorable Clive lately, I thought a Chloe post was in order.

Chloe is becoming quite the silly jokester causing us to giggle often at her cute verbal moments. Here are a few of the latest exchanges that got us laughing. Hope they bring a smile to you as well!

Setting: After reading a Bible story from Chloe's toddler Bible about how God gave manna to the children of Israel.
Matt: What's something good God has given to you, Chloe?
Chloe: Peace . . .
[Matt and I exchange impressed and surprised glances.]
Chloe: (obviously not finished answering the question) . . . a piece of candy!

Setting: Chloe is playing in her kitchen while I sit on her bed feeding baby Clive.
Chloe: I making you some supper, mommy.
Me: What are you making?
Chloe: Blue cheese!
Me: Yum! Blue cheese is my favorite!
Chloe: (sprinkling imaginary cheese on my plate) Here some blue cheese and some white cheese and some purple cheese and some brown cheese . . .

Setting: Chloe is playing by herself in her room upstairs. After hearing many bumps and thuds I go up to investigate. I open her door to find every toy, puzzle and stuffed animal dumped out in a pile in the middle of her room.
Me: Chloe, what are you doing?
Chloe: (enthusiastically) I decorating!

Family photo adventure

Holy cats, it is vvvvvvvvvvvvery difficult to capture a presentable photo of our new family of four! Sunday my mom played photographer and attempted to snap a Horn family portrait for us. After 20+ takes, we came away with a few ok shots.

I actually like this one at left the best but Chloe looks like she's in pain. Believe it or not that's actually her "cheese" smile she uses when posing. What a kooky girl.

Here are some other pseudo-decent shots we got out of our photo session.

Packer let-down

Well, our family was in speechless shock and disappointment as the Giants winning 47 yard field goal sailed through the yellow uprights. Who would have thought the Giants' kicker would succeed after missing 2 field goals that were 10 yards shorter earlier in the game?!?

Even though the game was disastrous we certainly enjoyed our family Packer party. My mom was here to partake of the fun and festivities. Good thing she remembered to don her Favre jersey!

Chloe was pumped about her new yellow pom-pons (gotta love the Target dollar spot) and the special yellow and green jello I made for the occasion. Let's hope Favre sticks around for another banner year so we can see the Pack battle for the superbowl trophy. Wouldn't it have been great to see the Pack knock off the arrogant pretty-boy Patriots?!?


What's your prediction? Think Favre will be back for one more season?

Not allowed to leave

My dear mamacita is here for the weekend visiting and I wish there were a way to force her to stay! She's been so incredibly helpful. Not that she's doing a ton of work; she's just enjoying her grandson and taking every opportunity to hold him and to feed him. Which in itself is a huge help because it means I get to have two hands free! She's also given me extra naps (like this morning when I was an exhausted weeping zombie - after almost a week of decent nights Clive decided to be awake from 3-6 a.m. and then to wake up again at 7:15) and some alone time with my Chloe-pie.

Yesterday morning we had a productive girls day out. I had some birthday money I was ansy to spend and so we hit Kohl's and Target. Kohl's was having an astounding clearance sale!!! After literally hours of searching all the racks and trying things on (which is not that fun when you're only 3 weeks post-partum) I came away with 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 3 shirts, a decorative organizational bin, some cheap Christmas decor, and a pair of camouflage pants for Clive (I'm a sucker for camo on boys). It was an old-school Kohl's sale - $3 and $4 skirts and tops. My mom scored too and got some super cute clothes. Chloe was a doll for the shopping trip and was content to sing or to sit with her stuffed animal.

To thank her for her visit I let my mom beat me in Scrabble yesterday afternoon. :) Not really. I don't ever let any win anything. She beat me fair and square and played a huge-scoring vehement for 130 points. That sealed my Scrabble tomb.

Today we're lounging while we wait for Matt and Chloe to return from church. Then this afternoon will be all about the playoffs. We're holding a mini-packer party again. This time Chloe has festive pom-pons to wave to cheer our packers on to victory.

So, I've decided she's not allowed to leave. We're locking her in and I'm swallowing the keys.

Affection and regression

In answer to your questions, our Chloe has proven to be an affectionate big sis to her new baby brother. She LOVES kissing and hugging on him. I'm sure he'll grow to like it but right now he squirms up his face and usually cries when she plants a big wet kiss on his cheek.

The transition has been a hard one for Chloe. I'm afraid I didn't prep her mentally for all that was to take place with Clive's birth. Sure we read our big sister and make-way-for-baby books but other than that all she knew was that baby Clive would come out of my tummy at the hospital.

With Clive's homecoming, Chloe regressed mainly in the area of whining/crying and potty-training. I'm so thankful that little kids are so malleable! Already Chloe's acting more like herself as we settle into the new routines of a family of four. And potty-training is coming back slowly but surely. I just have to consistently remind her or she forgets and has an accident. And she continues to go #2 on the potty so I feel like we're striding forward!