What a great Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday and the day after Martha's mysterious nightly fever fully ended so we needed to do something special! Martha wanted to go to the pool and I though that sounded great it was sunny and looked beautiful out! So I fiddled around for way too long in the morning looking for a pool to go to since the local one didn't open till 1 pm! Well it ended up we weren't ready to leave till oh 12:15 so I asked Martha before I took sleeping Ruth off my back if she was sure she wanted to ride in the car to the pool...she said no the stroller! So I altered what I packed (which was way too much junk! especially for such a small basket!) and packed the girls up...waking Ruth up...changed to my tennis and off we went!

I pushed them about 2 miles to the park where the pool is and it was not a bad walk at all...I wasn't even that hot! But we got there 10 min before the pool opened. Took a porta potty trip for Martha and then went to get in line...thankfully we got in front of the first set of day camp kids!

The big BOB Revolution Duallie just fit through all the crazy entry ways designed for privacy of those in the locker rooms! I partially dressed Ruth in the noisy locker room and then off we went to the kiddy pool! Martha was so excited but had to wait a few min for the life guard to say it was ok...so I finished dressing and sun screening Ruth while Martha got in and walked around...then all the big kids were everywhere splashing and getting water in her face and such and she got cold...so she came back to me and back to the water for a bit. Finally We were all off at the pool side. The water was FREEZING! Ruth however seems to be the only one that didn't really care...she probably has the most body fat...haha! We got in and out a few times and after while they had a safety check so I suggested we take out food and go eat in the snack area!

Both girls had a great time eating under the umbrella of the table. Finally we were about out of food...only apples left so we went back pool side. I threw on a little more sunscreen to be safe as it was about 2:15 PM! Martha went back to the water shortly later she deemed it too cold and wanted to go home. So we went back to all our junk and I dried off Martha and got her dressed...she wanted to eat so I put her in the stroller pulled the canopy and let her eat a cheese stick I found in the bottom of the lunch box (yeah I know dairy is on the no no list but oh that's another topic I don't even know quite how to deal with lately!). I got Ruth dressed and packed everything up in the stroller and off we went. BOB was an even tighter fit leaving and Martha didn't want to go...I told her we could go to the playground before coming home because I needed to feed Ruth but she was asleep so unhappily according to Martha we went on our walk home.

About 10-15 min in Martha was asleep too :) Oh the bliss...so I took my sweet time because I felt like my whole return walk was uphill! As I was walking down our street I though geeze this is great but I still need to pick up a few things up at the local grocery store...so I stopped in the driveway and unloaded the basket and junk in the stroller and off we went again. I rocked the stroller while I waited forever to check out...what the heck was everyone doing at the grocery store at 3:30 pm!!! Both girls stayed asleep and back home we went :)

Oh the peace but I was starving so I went inside went potty grabbed some food and a chair....as I was walking out the door Martha was waking up screaming! So I quickly grabbed her and started nursing her back to sleep...that worked but Ruth woke up especially with the noisy wind chimes in the front yard. Took Martha in to the couch...got Ruth. Took care of her and go to eat my food! I played with Ruth a while and then put her on my back for another nap...ordered 2 bras (oh yeah more on the bra hunt to come in the next 2 or so weeks). Next Martha woke up quite unhappy so I nursed her. When Dan arrived home I had Ruth sleeping on my back and Martha sleeping/ nursing in my lap! Martha had a great oh 3 hour (segmented) nap and I didn't have to fight with one kid for a nap! OH YEAH GREAT DAY!!!

I got some time to relax while Dan Ergo'ed Martha while cooking dinner...then I got called to "watch" the soup so he could go mow the yard. In I went and Ruth woke up so I had all sorts of things to do. We had a nice dinner...toward the end my parent's called to wish me happy birthday. (I got tons of Facebook birthday wishes.) And then Dan and Martha made me a cake while I got to take a shower ALONE!!! I got yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting yumm! Martha only got a little tiny bit because she was acting crazy after licking the icing while cooking.

I finished up the night by washing the girls quickly in the tub to eliminate sunscreen. Then everyone got in bed with sleeping daddy had some mommy milk and went down without much fuss :) Which is huge as lately I've been having to literally hold Ruth down till she was crying and finally ready to quit trying to sit, crawl, climb, stand and go to sleep!

Swim suit shopping

I've been trying to get Martha a swim suit that fits for months now. Found a great suit that looked like it would be perfect at a rummage sale for $1 and she HATES it! Got a suit from Target top was good bottoms way too revialing! So tried the next size down...bottoms still bad top almost too small. So I tried Lands End at Sears for her today! Pretty good fit and thank goodness they were on sale. This kid seems to only fit in expensive things! Their clothes fit her nicely also...too bad my budget and my kids shape don't match up! I do know that she will use the heck out of it as we swim year round...and I love the fact that the top will decrease the need for sunscreen and the little skirt on the bottom will cover up any gaps from her tiny tush!!

She got to pick the color/ pattern...though there were not many left to pick in size 4... the pattern she wanted was the one they had! I'll hold off on washing them as I check around but I doubt I'll have any luck finding anything else!

Got out and took a walk today too...ahh the bliss of getting a toddler oh wait I think she's a preschooler now, to sleep... then I had to take Ruth home to do a diaper change and Martha woke up...then Ruth was fussing so I had to check on her and some people out noticed the babies and though my stopping was an invitation to come peek in my stroller and stand in the sidewalk so I couldn't get by! They woke up Martha and didn't even seem to care after noticing and talked about how cute the girls were...EEERR AAHH seriously!

Baby Swimming

So a fellow mom posted about Tink-Tinks blog on swim diapers and I though I'd jump in being a big swimming family!

I researched tons before Martha was born and when she was little on swimming. Found a great school, Chicago Swim School, that was only 40 min away to take her for classes. It had the 90 degree pool recommended for little babies and swim class and I could go during the day...so we did for about 6 mos. It was great but the road construction killed my trip and I really didn't need a swim class just a warm pool. So we started going to the Gurnee Park Districts Family Open Swim at Laremont School as supplement and eventually for our full swim time during the school year. They have an awesome warm water therapy pool! Their swim classes didn't ghive with our lives so we just did the open swim even though it challenged our family. We have to get up and go to "early" 9 am service to make pool time worth it because it's from 11:30 for 1 pm and a 20 min dip in the pool is just not enough for Martha.

I love Imse Vimse Swim diapers! The Med size fit my first from 6 mos to potty trained at 28 mos...granted shes a tiny one! She wore it under a Splash about Happy Nappy (for her 2nd layer protection required by public pools) and then their baby wrap(wet suit) on top to keep my skinny mini from turning blue!

Size by age/ height on the IV's not just weight because if you don't have enough rise and need to use it's poo catching abilities. Thank you Happy Nappy for catching the stray breastfeed poo IV missed because the diaper needed more rise! As long as the waist is tight it's all good! The legs are tight no mater what!

This same IV diaper worked on my 2nd at 2 mos but is going to need to be uped in size before too long.

When I knew I was having another baby I knew I wanted the Baby Sung to keep the little one warm in the pool...you supposedly can use it w/out an additional swim diaper but I have always used the IV under it and in the beginning used a Small Happy Nappy too...I so don't want to be the mom to have the pool emptied!

Day 2 BOB Use

So it's Mother's day and it started off grand...haha...hubby telling me to get up or we were going to be late to church...me tired and not wanting to...the nursing sleepy children...then racing to get ready...only to be followed by a comment that we are too late to make it to first service...then being told to get in the car...the sitting in the road looking at the clock on the car...and returning to the house because we are indeed too late.

So fold some laundry and we end up a little late to second service...SAD isn't it! After church we "race" to the pool to get a little big of Martha's much loved swim time. Since there were only 30 min left of family swim the supervisor says we can go for free! YEAH! We have a great time get showered and come out to find Ruth and daddy "picnicing" on the grass! So Martha joined Dan and I head to the car to nurse Ruth.

Then BOB gets use #2 we load the girls and head to the nearst park...nice walk there interesting to push a big stroller and hit buttons to get walk lights to change but it's all good! Ruth fell asleep on the ride in so we park her for a nap while we all run around the playground and go down slide...ahh the freedom of the spiral slide as an adult...so fun :) We got Martha to go by herself again for the year and shorly afterward Ruth wakes up so I took her around the "jogging" trail for some exercise! We did 1 mile and it was great...except for going up hill into the wind! WHOA I'm out of shape with some aching shins! Dan pushed the girls home and got to check out the stroller.