Life Lessons

I think my least favorite thing about being a parent is life lesson moments. Today was a new one for us. Stealing. I was so sad and disappointed at 1st, but then I realized that we do things as children because we don't know the difference between right and wrong. That these moments are my opportunity to teach him the why behind his decision making. I think that is what scares me the most. How do I make sure I teach him the why correctly, make sure he understands, make sure he holds this moment in his mind forever, and never steals again.

He didn't swipe anything from a store like I did when I was 6 and took a pack of double bubble from the local Piggly Wiggly. He took a toy from a friend’s house. I know he knew it was wrong, but I don't think he really understood how wrong it was. We spent the day playing with some friends and when we had to leave I gave K a little kiss when we got in the car because I was so proud of what a good listener he had been today. I let him know how happy I was and he said he had a good day to. I think that is what made the realization that he had stolen something 15 minutes later so hard.

When we arrived at Target to get a few things on the way home he had a little car I didn't recognize in his hands. At 1st I thought it was a little mico machine or something that he found on the ground. But the second I noticed it he tried to get it back in his pocket, needless to say he knew he shouldn't have it. Once he gave it to me I knew exactly what it was. It was a mini transformer. He has a mini Bumblebee transformer, and this was Megatron. He had wanted a Megatron, but he hasn't saved enough money yet to buy it. (I know it sounds harsh to make a 4 year old pay for their own toy, but he is a pretty blessed kid and I want him to learn how hard it is to earn those dollars that buy all the wonderful things he has. He has more than he needs, and most of his wants, so I don't see anything wrong teaching him to save his quarters for little toys, although I have been told that this is a terrible thing). Anyway, I asked him where he got it and he didn't want to tell me. After several minutes of back and forth he finally admitted he got it from his friend’s house. The two boys had been "giving" things to each other all day so at first I wondered if maybe his friend hadn't told him that he could have it. He instantly said yes. That of course made me wonder. I let him know that it didn't matter if he took it, or his friend gave it to him that either way he was in trouble because he didn't ask me. I told him he would be in better shape if he told me the truth now then if I found out later. I don't think he really understood what I was asking so I asked him, if we go back to your friends and I ask him if he told you that you could take this toy home is he going to say yes? A few minutes later he told me no. That he took the toy because he had wanted one and that he was sorry he made me so sad. That he was sad too now because he knew he had hurt his friend. He then asked me if he was still going to get the movie I told him we were picking up when we went to target. Needless to say the answer was no, and he was pretty upset. He cried quietly to himself the rest of the shopping trip and then all the way back to his friends. I made him give to toy back to his friend in front of his parents and tell him he was sorry and that he hoped he could still come and play again. Our friends are great and they totally would never not allow us to come over because K put a transformer in his pocket, but they knew I was trying to get a point across and my friend T (the mom) turned it into a great learning lesson for all three kids and talked about why we don't take things from others, and then told K how proud she was of him for telling the truth and K's friend and T gave K a big hug before we left.

I hope this is the only time we have to tackle the stealing lesson. I know when I stole the gum, I never swiped anything again. To this day when I realize people missed ringing something up I take it back inside to pay for it. I will never forget having to tell the manager of that store I was sorry and how embarrassing it was. I hope this made a lasting impression on K. It still is one of those things that scare me the most about parenting. These are the moments that it is all on us. That we have to make sure to get the lessons across, to make sure that we are raising responsible people. I think my mom said it best when she told me "you are not raising children, you are raising adults". As crazy as that sounds to some people it really is true, we are raising adults. I just hope we are doing it right....

K and I said a little prayer tonight and he told God he was sorry which I thought was cute. He told me at bedtime he was still sad he didn't get his movie and that he is never going to take anything that isn't his again.

I wonder what tomorrow's challenge will be?

Nakedness, Santa, and our Own Private Waterpark

Yep that title pretty much wraps up the day! Oh and my BF had a baby =)

With the forecast looking gloomy and me feeling and little exhausted by our seemingly living at the waterpark lately, I was moving a little slow this morning. But K talked me into going to the waterpark after the gym. While I was shaving my legs in the hall bathroom so I could keep an eye on the kids (you know multitasking is a mothers best trait!) Tessa starts to go completely ballistic! I figured someone was at the door, but oh well I didn't care I was busy. Well, I peek back out and low and behold K has opened up the door!!! There he is standing butt ass naked in all his little boy glory with the door wide open, me with shaving gel on one leg, half shaved other leg, in nothing but a pair of granny panties and a tank top carrying B while she screams. Yep pretty sure that guy got more then he bargained for when he rang our bell to see if we needed our grass cut!!!

A few hours later while working out at the gym I am about 45 minutes through killing the poor elliptical I am on when I see a man that looks just like Santa get on a treadmill across from me. A light bulb went off in my head almost immediately! I should totally point him out to K! Maybe it would remind him that he should always be good that he never knows who is checking on on him. Yes, yes I know you shouldn't trick your kids. But you know what I say to people who say that? Eitehr you don't have kids or your kids don't listen to you very well! (disagree if you wish). Needless to say K flipped out! He couldn't believe Santa was there checking on him! He is still talking about it and couldn't wait to tell his daddy when he got home from work! I am glad that gentleman was a good sport and hopefully he wasn't too offended by my asking.

So after seeing Santa we headed to the waterpark were we spend most of our time these days. We were apparently the only people who had that idea because this is what the waterpark looked like when we arrived!

Just to say it NEVER looks like this!

So what started as a crazy day, ended as a relaxing fun filled day I will remember for a long time.

~Till Later

It just makes me smile....

It just makes me smile ear to ear when I turn on my computer. A picture of my family from this 4th of July is the background and I just smile. It is so amazing to me still today after almost 6 years of marriage, Kercher 4 yrs old, and Braelyn Ann a little over a year that this is my life. I feel so blessed everyday to have a wonderful husband who loves me for who I am and is an amazing father and I know looking at my kids that somewhere along the way I did something right, because they are just perfect!

Just had to share =)

Braelyn Ann Ensley is 1!!!!

I can not believe my baby girl is a year old. It feels like she joined our family just days ago. I have been fortunate and she has stayed a baby. I think she knows that she may be the last one and that Mommy really didn't want her to grow up too fast like her big brother. She has done everything on an "average" pace which I just love! I still have to pinch myself sometimes and remind myself I really have a little girl. I always thought we would have all boys.

We had Braelyn Ann's birthday at the house. We cooked out hot dogs and set up a slip and slide for the little kids. It rained about 3 hours before the party, which I would have be upset about but it took the temp down from about 102 to around 88. So it was nice and cool (for the south anyway). We had a HUGE crowd! I can't imagine how packed our backyard and little rental house would have been if everyone we invited had been able to make it!

Ok, I am going to try to post some pictures for the 1st time =) lets see if I can figure this out!

A New Direction

It has been quite a while since I have written a blog. Between everything going on in this tiny house it is hard enough to keep up with the laundry let alone take some time to write a blog! However, I am setting a new goal with our new life that will be starting next week. Take a little time and blog, fingers crossed, once a week. I am going to change the direction of the blog, I think I am going to use it more as an online scrapbook (since I have ABSOLUTLY NO time for that anymore). That keeps track of the things we have going on and make it more for the kids to one day look back on. I think in this technical age it probably makes more since then me spending weeks of my time cutting out pictures and adding embellishments. Although I do plan to scrapbook again one day when there is somewhere to do it.

So quick update for those who are not in the loop =)

I quit my job. Last day is April 28th. I will be attending Grad School for a Masters in Elementary Education and I am pretty excited about it. Wes and I have only been talking about me going back to school for 6 years and some how we finally made the plunge. Kercher has been having a few medical mysteries lately but is in overall good health. He seems to be doing well with what is going on and we will share one day when we are more comfortable with the issues and have more answers. But there is no reason to worry =) Prayers are nice though. Braelyn Ann is growing up. She has been crawling for a few months now and claps and waves bye bye all the time. She is of course pulling up on everything and trying to show her big brother who's the boss. She is still a very clingy baby which is new to us but she seems to be adjusting better then she was a few months ago. Wes has been insane at work and spends a lot of hours at the boat. We still see him more here then we did before, but we are are looking forward to the quickly approaching Navy Exit date :)

Braelyn's Birth Story

It took me a little longer then I had anticipated to sit down and type this out, but I guess with 2 kiddos and a husband who is again MIA due to the Military I have a pretty good excuse.

As planned, Braelyn was induced. Not the dream come true of birth stories, but it was the only way to insure that my husband was present for her birth and I could never deny him that if there was a way for him to be there. The plan was to be induced on my husbands birthday, July 8th, however the hospital had different plans. On July 7th around 9:30 pm I received a call from the hospital telling me that they were too busy for any "scheduled" procedures on the 8th and I was pushed back to the 9th. Talk about disappointment! I had been doing so well. Time had not stood still, I had no anxiety about the pending induction, nada! Oh well!!

On July 9th at 4:30 am my hubby and I got up and ready to head to the hospital to have our baby girl. By 6:15 I was checking in, 7am in my labor room, and by 9am the pitocin was hooked up and things were rolling. I started out about 1.5 cent and 80% effaced so I was hopefully for a quick delivery. By noon the contractions were building but I was still chatting away with the nurses and enjoying a House marathon on USA with no problems. Around 2 I was checked again and had only progressed to about 2 cent and 90%, however my bag of water was sitting right on the cervix's and my nurse felt if my Dr would break my water I would have a baby within a few hours. She was right!

A little after 3pm my Dr (who I LOVE and was super wonderful) arrived and broke my water. By 4pm I was 5 cent and begging for an epidural thanks to a position the Dr had me laying in called the Midwife position. Due to the size of my daughter the Dr's at my practice were worried about shoulder displasia and I was listed as a "high risk" delivery as I refused a c-section. I personally believe that most woman do not grow babies they can not birth. Woman have been having large babies for millions of years without issue. I did not have gestational diabetes so there were no outside factores that could cause me to have a larger baby then I could handle. But to say she was big would be an understatement. My Dr was very supportive of my decision and felt I would be just fine, however she prepared my husband and I that morning for what could come later on during delivery.

Although I asked for the epidural at 4 I didn't receive it till around 6 and lets just say I might as well have skipped it. Although no one is 100% sure why, but my epidural didn't take. I mashed that damn button as many times as I could but it didn't matter. The only things that were numb was from my knee caps down, not exactly the blissful feeling I had when I had my last one. The nurses continued to roll me from side to side in the midwife position to open my pelvis as far as it would go as well as to thin out ever piece of my cervix there was(this position is laying on your side with your fare leg slung over the leg of the side you are laying on, quit painful I may add!). At 8pm I was ready to go. The Dr was on her way, the nurse's were prepping the room, and all I could think about was getting this baby out!

It was such a different experience from having my son. The room was quite. Instead of 20 people in there like there were for my son's birth, there were 2, plus my husband and myself. The room was dimmed and my Dr was seriously the most calm relaxing woman I have ever meet in my life. We discussed for the last time the "what if's" because of baby's size and at 9pm it was time to push. Although the pain was excruciating it was nice to be in control when the pushing started. My Dr told me to just go when I felt ready. I looked at my husband and said "dear God make this go fast" (I only pushed for 13 minutes with my son and my biggest fear with this one was that I was going to have to push for hours and I didn't know if I would have the strength or the stamina to do it). The Dr looked at me and said "now this is a bigger baby then your last one so it may take longer. Just be patient and we will get this little girl out the way you want".

The 1st round of pushing felt GREAT! The pain leaves your body when you are pushing against it! It is so strange! and what do you know 3rd push of the 1st round baby was right there. YES! I was screaming inside, 2nd set 2nd push crowning baby and dr yelling at me to stop!!! SO I did. Oh good lord the Ring of Fire is just what it sounds like. The burning was intense and insane. I kept asking if I could push and was being told no. The Dr didn't think I would get her out so fast so the ped's team needed to be paged, plus she was trying to keep me from tearing and wanted the baby to come slower. FINALLY! I was told I could push again. Dr. Cook said to push hard but to stay slow and controlled, I did as I was told and about 2 seconds later, 9 minutes into pushing, 6 pushes, and baby was out. Instant relief! Any pain I felt was gone that second and I had a big beautiful baby girl laying on my chest. It was amazing. A 12 hour induction was pretty quick, and probably could have been faster had I skipped the epi all together and had my bag broken a little earlier, but I will take it!

This time my birth plan was more specific. I didn't hold my little boy for almost an hour because they bathed him 1st and all kinds of other things. I specified that she was to come to me 1st! Then they could weigh her and all the other good stuff a little after, and her bath could wait!! I had family waiting to meet her and not having a bath in the 1st hour of life will not hurt her. She had her 1st feeding within 30 minutes of coming into the world and then she meet her grandparents. It was such an amazingly different and better experience then it was with my son that I couldn't be more grateful. With him it felt like everything went wrong (except I had an amazing epidural) this time everything else was perfect and the epi stunk...but I wouldn't take it any otehr way!

July 9th 2010 Braelyn Ann Ensley H...was born at 9:10 pm 10 lbs 12 oz 22 3/4 inches long and absolutely perfect! (and no I didn't tear, not sure why but that seems to be everyone's 1st question). She is doing wonderfully! Bog brother has adjusted well, and with the exception of the hubby having to leave when she was a week old all has been better then I could have imagined

So...

It has been a while, and life has been busy to say the least. Wes has been gone for over a month now, Kercher is in his last week of school, my baby sister graduated college and my brother graduated high school. Talk about feeling old!

A few weeks back we had another "scare" I guess you could say with the baby. I failed my 1 hr glucose test as well as had a dangerously low iron level. The OB was considering sending me in for a transfusion. Got both of those shockers at the same moment and it was a lot to take. Luckily I just went in for an iron injection so no transfusion. Took the 3 hr GD test and all was well. Had a 2nd Iron injection along with an INSANE amount of iron supplemen (ya me), but with the 2nd injection things seem to be just fine! They will continue to monitor my Iron. I have added a lot of greens to my diet as well as take the supplement I was prescribed everyday. Very relieved that both issues seem not to be a big deal as the OB was very concerned in the beginning.

Friday I had a growth ultrasound, and lets just say I am having another big baby. It kind of surprised me a little because I feel so much smaller this go round. I think a good deal of that is weight gain. With Kercher I gained around 60, after my apt yesterday I am only up by 17 so ya me. It has been a pain to stay down, but given I have extra weight to begin with it is a really good thing for me, so for that I pat myself on the back. Gaining weight when you are pregnant is a good thing, but when you have some you could shed from the get go it is better to not gain a lot, so I have really stayed on top of myself and made sure to not fall into the "I'm pregnant and fat anyway so I can eat whatever I want" like I did with Kercher. I also carried Kercher around like a tire, which is how most people carry girls, and am carrying this baby straight out front like an over inflated basketball which is how most people carry boys, but hey Old Wives tales are just that, tales. Anyway, Braelyn was weighing in at just shy of 6 lbs on Friday at 32w1d. I know growth u/s can be off by up to a pound, but I tend to believe she is right. Even if she is wrong and she is just shy of 5 lbs, the average baby at 32 weeks is 3.75 lbs. I had been measuring 14 days ahead, but have taken a huge jump and am now measuring 4 weeks ahead. However, from our 1st ultrasounds we know I am not any more pregnant then we thought and originally the OB was thinking I was less pregnant. Oh well =) So we are off the chart in size. As long as she has a small head like her brother I will be good with that.

Well, that is enough catching up for today. I will try to be better about posting.