Hair Donation

I am donating my hair again. I actually got it cut in January but haven't sent it in yet. I am getting it together today so Jake can take it to the post office tomorrow, along with a couple of other packages and even some letters since we are completely out of stamps. I am donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths instead of Locks of Love because they provide wigs for free to cancer patients (LoL relies on a sliding pay scale). I asked for 8" cut off, but in typical hair-donation fashion, they cut an extra 2.5" just for kicks. So this is the shortest my hair has been in awhile. I just took this picture tonight, so it has grown out a little bit, but I also got another 1/2" cut off last week when Adora & I went to get hair cuts (side note: I really miss Kids Hair Safari from Wichita Falls. There is no kids' hair cutting place here.)

Confession

I have a confession to make. I use my $72/month YMCA membership mostly to be able to take a shower. Yes, I pay $72/month (plus $4.50 childcare each time I go!) to be able to take a shower. I somehow haven't mastered the art of showering during the day with the kids home. When I shower at home, it is usually after they go to bed, which is scary because the shower backs up to their bedroom, and then I have wet hair all night, too. In order to justify the shower at the Y, though, I force myself to workout before. The class that I usually go to is from 9:15-10:30, but I always cut out at 10:15. I figure an hour of cardio is enough for a pregnant lady (I take a bathroom break mid-way through, too, haha), and I want to make sure I have enough time to get my shower in before I have to pick up the kids from the childcare (they can only be in there 2 hours), plus, if I stay the whole time, they get REALLY HUNGRY and whine for lunch when I pick them up. I have a feeling that as this pregnancy progresses, I might start using my membership mostly for the hot tub and the shower--maybe I will skip the working out part.

Another great thing about our super-expensive gym membership is that you get discounts on classes and camps for the kids. I say this is good, but I haven't ever used this benefit. I tried to sign up Adora for swim lessons, but although they supposedly have signups for 5 days or so, they apparently fill up within the first hour. I think there is only one more session before the summer (and I'm not sure they have swim classes in the summer--it's an indoor pool), and I don't know if we'll get her in. I feel kind of bad about it since Jake really wanted her to take swim lessons over the winter (oops) to keep up her swimming skills so she will really improve in the summer time. I don't know that she will really swim any more here in the summer than in the winter, though. There is no spray park like there is in Wichita Falls. The lake is ice cold (actually, she probably wouldn't care about that) and is like 30 or 45 minutes away. They also have an Itty Bitty Sports class that sounds pretty cute. It's for five weeks, and they do a different sport each time to introduce the kids to different sports. I have a friend whose kid is in it, and she said it's neat to see which sports her kid likes and which she doesn't. That sounds great, rather than committing to a sport for a season only to find out your kid hates it. Anyway, we are going to be gone for a week of the session, so I am debating on whether or not to put Adora in it. I will probably do it, though, since I don't know that she will get another chance to do it since she starts preschool (again) in the fall. The camps are a week long, and Adora wants to do the Summer Fun camp. It is in the last part of July and the first part of August. I know she will love it, but I bet she will also get exhausted since it goes until 2 p. m.

I am also planning on taking Adora to a figure skating show. I am really excited about it! Adora told me she is going to be really mad at the end when she doesn't get to go ice skate. She can have such an attitude! I told her that maybe I wouldn't take her then because I am afraid she is going to throw a fit. So we will have to see how this plays out. It helps her to talk in advance about what my expectations of her are and to pose scenarios to get her to plan her behavior. For example:

Me: Adora, I don't know if we will go to this ice skating show because I think you might throw a fit afterward.
Adora: I won't throw a fit!
Me: Even if you feel angry that you don't get to ice skate?
Adora: I will be very good even if I don't get to ice skate.

Then, I remind her of it when the event is about to occur, and she usually does a pretty good job of following through with my expection. This technique requires me to think through every situation and potential emotion in advance, though, which I don't always get to do. She has gotten much better with her behavior since she turned four, though. Her twos were not so terrible, but the threes were extremely challenging. I'm glad she's four now.

Pictures from Oct./Nov., our time at Barksdale & Baton Rouge

This is my Aunt Cheryl with Adora at a park.

My dad met Salem for the first time.

Adora playing in the rain. We'd gone so long without rain in Wichita Falls that she loved experiencing it in BR!

Happy with an umbrella.

We read 10 Apples Up on Top at the Logies's house, and Adora wanted to put some apples up on top :)

We went to the Sci Port in Shreveport, and Salem loved this car thing because there was a button you could push and it made a horn sound.

This house was also a favorite at the Sci Port. Salem loved going up the stairs, and Adora turned a lever to move building materials in and out.

Who doesn't like a water table?

At the BR Zoo with cousin Tyler.

Everytime we go to the BR Zoo, I get a pic of Adora with this globe thing. She loves it!

Trips planned!

Here are the kids playing at our house. I am doing Adora's hair, getting ready for church. I had picked out a black skirt to go with my top, but Adora decided that this gold skirt looked much nicer.

Here is Adora in her baking gear that she got for her birthday from the Steads!

I am so excited! I finally have two trips planned that have been stressing me out. Now, what will I do with my evenings? The first trip coming up is to Houston and Baton Rouge in just a month! The kids and I are actually flying into Houston to visit with the new, expanded Bennett family. I am really excited. It's good for us to fly into Houston because it saves us quite a drive there, from Baton Rouge. We will drive back to BR, but at least we only have to go one way. Then, we will go to BR to meet Liam, my sister's new baby! The kids will play, we will hit up the zoo (we bought a membership in hopes that the zoo here will open this summer--it is iffy since the flood devastated it, but the BR Zoo is a reciprocal zoo, so it's free for us to go there, too), and I will hopefully get in lots of baby-holding. Then, in three months, we are doing the long drive to Yellowstone! This is a huge Hostetler trip. All of Jake's bros & sisters except one are going to be able to make it out. Two of his siblings also have families, and we will all be with his mom and dad in a house that sleeps 18! Good thing since there will be 17 of us! I am really excited to see everyone AND to see Yellowstone. And on the way back, we will spend a night or two "camping" on Jake's sister's land in Montana. Hopefully, I will get to sleep on the bed in the camper since I will be, oh, 7 months pregnant.

Salem swinging

New swing in backyard

Here is our new swing in our backyard. We can easily take the kiddo swing down and hang our two-person "porch" swing, too. It's a lot of fun for everyone :)

Thankful

Ok, I was in a really bad mood that last post because Salem was waking up AGAIN and I am afraid to go to bed because Adora is in my room and I have to transfer her to her room, risking waking both of them up again. Jake is flying right now, so I have to do it by myself.

These are the things that I have to be thankful for, though:
My kids' health--despite minor illnesses, my kids are both healthy--I can't say the same for everyone I know
Our finances--I hate that our home in WF hasn't sold yet, but I am joyful that we are able to pay for both of our homes and even to fix the flood damage in this home and even still be able to consider things like trips to Baton Rouge, Houston, and Yellowstone, and even the super-expensive YMCA membership (did I mention how expensive it is? It is a non-profit! It is $72/month plus $4.50 each time I take the kids to the childcare!)
Our new baby on the way--I am so excited to get to know this new little person. Adora is so sweet and she wants to learn about the new baby each day. He or she is the size of an apple and weighs 2.5 oz right now.
The weather--I didn't realize how hard the winter was here until it warmed up this weekend and we could actually go outside! It was in the 60s today, and it was beautiful. We went for a walk in Oak Park, I pulled Salem in the wagon and Adora roller skated around our street, we went for a walk in our neighborhood, and I pushed the kids on the swings--all this afternoon! Plus, I got to cook dinner while the kids played together outside almost the whole time, 'til Salem started eating rocks. And I got to turn the heater off for the first time since we moved here! It was all glorious.
A newly-born nephew and two nieces on the way very soon!
People who love me

I need to go to bed, but I could go on if I wanted to. Good night!

No sleep

My children hate to sleep. 95% of the reason why I am so exhausted is that I haven't slept through the night in a very long time. The other 5% is that I am pregnant and breastfeeding. The number one thing I am nervous about with the new baby coming is my sleep.

Salem used to be a good sleeper. She seemed programmed to sleep a lot at night almost ever since she was born, and even better after she was a couple of months old. She wanted to sleep in until about 9 every morning. Unfortunately, Adora would wake up at about 7 and come into our room, and Salem would wake up. That wasn't that big of a deal in retrospect, at least compared to what we have gone through since then. The really big deal came when we moved. Being homeless for over three months, moving from place to place, sharing rooms with multiple people, etc. really killed her sleep habits. She started waking up several times at night and refusing to go back to sleep without being nursed. For the sake of the other people in the room, I had to give in and do that. Then, once we got to Minot, she just started waking up earlier and earlier. She now permanently shares a room with Salem. That's what living in an essentially 2-BR house will get you. It is impossible to sleep train her without waking up Adora. We have tried to put Adora in our room, but our walls are not insulated, we don't even have closet doors, and our room is RIGHT NEXT to Adora and Salem's. Salem now wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30 each morning and sometimes dozes for a little while before Adora wakes up around 6:30. Sometimes. We do keep wanting to try to sleep train again, putting Adora on the floor in our room for a week or so, but Salem has basically been sick and/or teething for the past 2 months, so we haven't even had a chance to do that.

Daylight savings time was a couple of days ago, right? I usually start prepping the kids about a week in advance to adjust to the time change. I will change their sleep times and mealtimes 10 minutes a day or so until they are more easily adjusted to the new time. It totally snuck up on me this time, though. I really thought it was the following weekend! So we had 0 days of prepping them to adjust to the new time. The silver lining in this was that we assumed that Salem would sleep 'til maybe 6:30 or so. She had been waking up at 5:30, so 6:30 seemed natural. Salem is apparently smarter than Daylight Savings, though. She had it all figured out. She woke up at 5:00 Sunday morning. That's right, 4:00 "real" time.

Thank goodness that I have a wonderful husband who, about 86% of the time, gets up with Salem when she wakes up in the morning, takes her to the couch to lay with her (because we have no other bed set up), and deals with her until Adora wakes up, sometimes even longer. Unfortunately, I still get woken up when she wakes up and sometimes can't go back to sleep because she is so noisy in the living room with him. Even when I can go back to sleep, I frequently wake up multiple times from her noises.

Tonight, she went to sleep at 7:10 and has woken up twice since then. It's 9:30. I had to put Adora to sleep in my bed because Salem was awake, and neither of them would've been able to go to sleep in the room together. Sometimes I feel like I am going to be one of those tortured people who dies from lack of sleep. What a horrible way to go.

5th tooth!

Salem got her 5th tooth today! Maybe that's why she woke up at 3:45 a. m. and didn't really want to go back to sleep. She has turned into such a poor sleeper. Sometimes, she will sleep through the night, but she will wake up very, very early. Think 4:15, for the day. She will be ready for a nap by 10:30, but I need a nap, too! So I have to put both girls down at the same time. So that is a struggle, since she will get very, very whiny.

I need to go wrap Adora's birthday presents!

Adora's names for the new baby

As I was putting Salem to bed tonight, Jake decided to type a list of Adora's name choices for the new baby. She sat and told him names and specified whether they were boy names, girl names, or neutral names. Here is her list:

BOY Names
Peanut
Shoop
Eich (this is pronounced "H", but she wouldn't allow it to be spelled that way)
Jay
Preston
Teeth
Towickio

Girl Names
Angel
Love Baby
Love Everyone
Olivia
Tastes like Chicken
Ice Cream
Peg
Sweet Baby

Neutral Names
Gabe
Epley
Twickly
Eeo