Cambria is two!

Cambria,
You are finally two! I feel like you have been two for a long time (I have been saying you are almost two for a long time). But now it's legit :)

You are such a happy person. You love to be around people, you love to make them laugh and see them smile. You love to be active and you love to be played with.

You are a very sensitive person, when I am having a bad day, and show it in my body language, more often then not you will come over and look me in the eye and make sure I'm ok. If I'm crying, you get an obvious sense of concern on your face. You don't like to see Corbin cry either. You will give him toys, rock his swing or help put his binky in his mouth to help him stop crying. But on the flip side, you also don't like to be laughed at, or given firm instruction. If you sense you are being laughed at, you will get defensive and scream or start crying. We have to be careful how openly we show our approval of your cuteness (by laughing at what you do... sometimes you don't like us doing that).

You are often a good little helper. You don't mind taking things to the garbage when we ask you to. You like helping load the washer with dirty laundry, or move the hamper to the dryer (across the house to the garage). The few times we have let you help with the dishes, you have enjoyed unloading the dishwasher. It's pretty cute because after you help us if we don't give you immediate praise, you come up to us with a big smile on your face and say "cank-you!" (thank you), so that we remember to thank you for your help!

You love music, your current favorite songs are the "temple" song, "baptize" ("When I am baptized", and "Baptism") "Here we are together", "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem", "Sunbeam" and we can't forget "Let it Go" ;)

We love you so much, Cambria! You are such a joy, and we are so grateful that you are part of our family!!

Exploring some birthday gifts! She loves the food!!

Thanks for the letters! 

Adorable birthday dress

"A Puzzle!" She loves it!

I'm so glad when daddy comes home! Glad as I can be!!

Birthday play-dough fun!

As much baby Einstein as you want, just cuz it's your birthday :)

Breakfast in your pj's

Connecting with Corbin and daddy

 The rest of these pics aren't from your birthday, but are good examples of your personality.

You love to build "A towa" She did this one mostly on her own.

first puzzle!

Mommy loves having fun with your hair.

You are just starting to enjoy playing with not just along-side your friends!

Cheese!

You love dressing up!

The secret is out

I have stopped nursing Corbin. There. The secret is out. It took me a long time to be ok with saying that out loud.

I feel like the decision to stop nursing Corbin was a really hard one. And I feel like I need to explain myself every time I pull out the bottle in public. Why is it that feeding your baby is such a charged topic?

Since I feel like I need to explain, let me explain. Corbin has had reflux ever since he was born. On top of that he was cranky and seemed uncomfortable all the time. He spit up way more than Cambria did, who also had reflux, and his spit up stunk. He could rip a smelly one better than most adults, and man, did it stink! He also had eczema on his face that I couldn't get rid of. His crankyness got to a point that he was inconsolable after he ate at least once a day. I tried going off of milk for two weeks and literally on day 14, after not seeing any positive improvement I was convinced that it wasn't dairy, and moved on. 

It got to a point where I would get anxious when I fed him, and then when he would spit up and cry inconsolably and I just couldn't help but feel like I was causing him all this discomfort! It was a very emotional time, but for some reason not nursing Corbin wasn’t an option in my head. But like I said, the thought kept coming that I was causing my baby so much discomfort, and I couldn't live with that anymore. I talked to my mom about it when I was dreaming about stopping and she empowered me. She really gave me some good advice, and helped me realize that there is nothing wrong with trying formula. After all, all I was trying to do was to provide food that wasn't causing discomfort for my baby. I felt so selfish for not being willing to cut dairy out of my diet to see if that was what was causing the problem. She helped me realize that that wasn't selfish at all! 

Oh, and icing on top of this potentially-alergic-to-milk-cake. I was done nursing. Corbin was very easily distracted, but wouldn't eat under a blanket. Nursing at church was a joke. And I just felt done nursing him. I felt anxious every time he cried, worrying that I wasn't producing enough... I wanted to be able to wear normal clothes again, and not have to think about how I could wrangle what I was wearing to be able to have access to my milk supply (if you will). Aaaannndddd I realized that it had been almost 3 years since I wasn't pregnant or breastfeeding or both... I was a little burnt out. And I didn't want to be a lot burnt out for subsequent babies (not like I'm thinking about more babies right now... I'm very happy with my two babies).

I talked to a friend who has an 18 month old that she is still nursing (someone I was concerned about judging me... she obviously is very pro nursing). She gave me nothing but encouragement. She helped me see that feeding a baby is so much more than providing nourishment for your child. It's emotional, emotional for me as the mother, and him as the baby. If feeding my baby is causing me anxiety, that alone might be a good reason to consider other options. It felt so good hearing so much positive feedback!

When I prayed about stopping, I felt really good about it. The only thing holding me back was my worry about what everyone would think. Once I realized that, I decided to take the plunge and try formula feeding for a week. Oh the freedom! Oh, and by the way, Corbin did amazingly well on formula! I was worried that he was going to resist the bottle, or refuse the formula (because Cambria did... News flash! Corbin is a different person than Cambria, but that's a blog post in and of itself) but he was a champ. It seemed like his spit up issues dramatically decreased, his crazy smelly gas went away, and his eczema on the side of his face cleared up (not immediately, but eventually). 

So now, almost two months later. I feel very comfortable in my decision to stop breastfeeding. Thank you to those who may not share my view, for keeping your opinions to yourself ;) ... and thank you to those who support me in this decision in telling me that you do. It helps so much to hear from people I really admire and look up to, that they aren't judging me for not breastfeeding till my son was at least 12 months old.

Miracles Happen

** does anyone else read that title and have the song pop into their heads (the one that is on Princess Diary's?)**

So I wanted to document this amazing experience I had the other day. I was shopping at Walmart and I put my keys in the cart so that Cambria could play with them (she is getting to the stage where the cart is so much more interesting than the seat up top...). After several hours of shopping, I finally checked out, as I was doing that I noticed that my key fob was on the floor (Miracle #1). I thought oh, that's random, I'm glad I saw that fall off. That would be a bad thing to loose. I picked it up and didn't think to look at my keys to see why it fell off. Cambria was starting to get anxious to get home so I was hurrying out of the store. When we got all the groceries put in our van I grabbed my lanyard and looked at the key ring... this is what I saw:

My stomach immediately dropped. Where are my keys? Cambria saw my face and said "mommy?" (she is so in tune with my emotions... it's kind of crazy!) I said "Cambria, where are mommy's keys?" I looked at the cart, and they weren't in there. They could be anywhere! So I called Jonathan and he picked up (miracle #2) and I told him my situation and he said that he was on his way to drop off his key so we could get home (miracle #3, he was available to come up). I said a prayer and started tracing my steps. As I was looking around where I checked out the bagger asked if I needed anything. I told them my situation and she said that I should talk to customer service. I did that and nothing was turned in. I left my phone number and a description of my keys then kept tracing my steps. As I started doing this my fussy, tired baby (Corbin) fell asleep in the cart (miracle #4) and Cambria was happy to go throug the store again, even though she was just asking to go home (#5). I literally retraced every step I took (all the while Cambria was saying "Where keys? A-bye-bye", too cute) but I wasn't crazy anxious (#6) and I asked every worker I saw if they had seen my keys. After retracing every step Jonathan was with me and helping me load the kids in the car. When he handed me his key I got a phone call. It was customer service; they found my keys (#7)! And, I hadn't left yet, so I could still run in and grab them (#8) and Jonathan hadn't left yet, so he could stay with the kids while I ran in (#9). When I came to pick them up, this was the condition of my key ring:

Not a single key had fallen off, even though it would have been so easy for all of them to be off (#10).

Coincidence? I think not!

This was such a testimony builder that after everything we can do the Lord will make up the rest. I literally did all within my power to find them, and after I did that, my keys were found. 

And I was able to teach Cambria about prayer, and how much Heavenly Father is aware of our needs.

A Fly on the Wall

I learn by watching. I would so much rather (and I would learn better) by watching a Youtube video on how to unclog a bathtub drain then read about it. True story... it happened today.

I was spending time with a friend who I admire a lot. After she left, I wished I could be a fly on her wall so I could see how she parents her daughter and uses her time. Then I got thinking about all the people I wished I could observe how they parent and use their time. I think I would learn a lot, and and realize that I could push myself to be better.

Corbin 3 and 4 months

Dear Corbin,
now that you are almost 5 months, I figure I need to write you your letter for 3 and 4 months milestones.

Three months:
By the time you turned three months, your biggest accomplishment was smiling!! We love to see those adorable smiles. It seems like they start in your eyes. First you focus on our faces, recognize that we are people you like, then you get this twinkle in your eye, THEN the smile comes. It's pretty adorable!

You spent most of your 2-3 month growing period growing out of being a newborn. You are a joy when you aren't fussing :). You have pretty bad acid reflux, so you don't often feel well. It's understandable that you cry a lot, I would too if I felt crummy all the time.

You are an awesome sleeper at night though! Thanks for that! Mommy really appreciates that :)

Big sister wanted to join in on the fun of taking pictures :)

Four Months:

The day after your three month birthday you discovered your hands! They have been in your mouth ever since! You are getting more interactive every day! Mommy loves looking at you and just staring into your cute face. 

We have gotten a few toys out for you, but you still don't seem too interested. That's ok, your sister has enjoyed playing with the baby toys. Hopefully she'll share when you do start becoming interested :)

We sure love our Corbin Boy.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy!

"Some?"

Yesterday when I was getting ready for church, I was putting mousse in my hair. I bent over to get the bottom of my hair and to scrunch the ends. Cambria thought it was pretty awesome stuff. She kept saying "some? Some?" When I looked up, she was also bending over, waiting for me to put some mousse in her hair.
How can you resist such polite cuteness? I couldn't, so she went to church with slightly greasy looking hair from the mousse.

Journaling

As I was surfing Pinterest the other day I saw an idea to start a "Victory Journal". It's basically a way for you to record small victories daily. I thought it was a good idea, then I remembered the advice given in General Conference (by President Eyring) to have a gratitude journal.
I'm sad to say that the Pinterest idea made me want to start a journal and not the advice given by an apostle of the Lord. In my defense, I thought the advice given by President Eyring was great, and I wanted to try it out but I didn't feel like I was in a stage of life to do it at the time. Now that I have given up on trying to write in a Journal on my computer daily (it just doesn't happen... I want to add too much detail, so it takes too long to be sustainable); I have decided that I need a new approach. This is it (along with trying to blog a little more frequently, and in shorter, less overwhelming posts).
I have started making a bulleted list of blessings that happen throughout the day. It's quick, easy, and it helps me feel the Spirit more strongly. It also helps me be more grateful and think more positively before I say my night time prayers.