Rylin's Blessing: April 19th, 2009

Travis gave our new baby girl, Rylin, a wonderful blessing a few Sunday's ago. She was one day shy of being 1 month old.

In our church, we give our baby's blessings and then when we are 8 years old, we are able to make the decision whether or not we want to be baptized.

It was great to have my brother, Quinn, out for Rylin's blessing.

(In this picture: Travis, me, Rylin, my Dad, Sydney, my Mom, Addyson & my brother Quinn)

This blessing dress is very special to me. My mom, Nancy, had 3 blessing dresses made out of her wedding dress, and gave each one of us kids a dress to have our babies' blessed in. All three of my sweet girls have worn this dress, and Rylin will be the last to wear it! I'll have it preserved, and maybe one day give it to my girls.

Easter

I'm a week behind, but....here's my Easter post finally!

We had a fabulous Easter. Sydney had an Easter egg hunt at her school and Addyson had one at our church playgroup. Our neighborhood had a little Easter egg hunt the week before Easter. Then, my mom's neighborhood had a FAB Easter egg where the girls got tons of eggs, hit pinatas, pictures with the Easter bunny, cookies and got to play on the playground. It was so fun. They also dyed eggs earlier that week with the Busse's. It's tradition to do that with them. The Easter bunny came to our house AND to my mom's house for them, so I think Easter might just be one of their favorite holidays now. :)

Sydney helped me pick out the girls' Easter dresses. They HAD to be blue. She was bummed that I couldn't find one in Rylin's size, but it's hard to find "newborn" dresses to match a 2 year old and a 5 year old. Especially when Rylin doesn't even fit into the 0-3 month clothes yet.

Easter Egg hunt in our Neighborhood.

Sydney got her face painted like a dog. Addyson got hers painted like a cat.
Dying Easter eggs with the Busse's

At Annie's house before the big Easter egg hunt.

Annie hid eggs for them in the backyard so they could practice.

The Big Hunt! :)

Trying to break the pinata.

Easter Morning....Trying to find eggs and baskets.

Modeling their Easter dresses right before we left for church.

Modeling after Church.....what a pretty day!

Rylin's first Easter

G's and Pops came to visit.

And it was Memama's (my grandma) 90th birthday.

The "F" Word

I have been VERY careful not to use the "F" word in our house around the kids....the word is "FAT". I just don't say that word. If I have to say it around the girls, I always spell it out. You might think this is a bit odd, but I'm paranoid that they'll grow up with a skewed body image like I did. I vow never to call myself the F-word in front of my girls. Even if I feel that way, I know I'm not really fat, so why make them believe that I am and give them a skewed view of what is fat and what isn't?

So, that said,....I was SHOCKED when yesterday, my little Sydney...who is almost 5, said

"Your legs are fat Mommy", then proceded to say..."well, it's not really your legs that are fat, it's your bum that is fat and it's on part of your leg."

NICE

I told her that when you just have a baby, your body is bigger than usual, but that eventually it will get smaller, but that Mommy isn't fat at all, I'm just bigger than I was before I got pregnant.

So, she asked me that since my boobs were so big, if they would shrink too. I'm thinking..."unfortunately, yes, they will shrink so much it will look like I don' t have any", but I didn't say that...I just said "Yes".

So, tonight, while I was nursing, she saw my back and said...

"Mommy, your back isn't right....it's got like bumps in it, it's not right".

So, we had to have the talk again about my body "shrinking", but I added this time, that it will shrink after I start exercising.

Just so everyone knows...I do still need to lose 20 pounds to get to my pre-preg weight, so she really is concerned about mommy looking different!

So, where did she start hearing about this "fat" stuff anyway???? I'm assuming the kids at school. I don't know! but, I'm not happy about it.

I do have to add one funny thing Addyson said too, since we're talking about my body here. I was leaning over picking something off the floor, and Addyson put her hand up to my cleavage (Yes, I have cleavage when I'm pregnant and nursing)...."Mommy's Bum?"

I just busted out laughing.

Hey, at least I have cleavage for one more time in my life!!

My "Big Girls"

I wanted to share some great pictures of my "big girls" that my friend, Stacey J., took in the fall. They LOVE "new baby Rylin", and are trying to be good helpers. They are my angels and I just love them so much. After I started to create this post, I feel down my last step on my stairs and sprained my ankle pretty bad. Sydney was so great. I really couldn't move because it hurt so bad, and Sydney got me ice packs and kept the pacifier in Rylin's mouth until Travis could get home. She was awesome!!!!! My 4 year old was taking care of me and her baby sister. She got scared at first when mommy fell and couldn't get up, but she kept her cool and only let me know she was scared after Travis got home.

Addyson was napping at the time, thank goodness! I'm just so grateful for my girls. Wish me luck being on crutches for at least a week!! I'm so glad that it's spring break next week and Travis will be home to help me!!! I'm so frustrated with myself.....seriously....who does that? At least I know I have Sydney to help too!

The best ones were of Addyson...the ones below. She is such a cutie...a handful, but a cutie-pie. She is having a hard time adjusting to Mommy having been gone so long in the hospital having the baby, and the new changes in the house with Rylin. She loves Rylin, though, and isn't upset at he....she's upset at me, but she doesn't know why. It's so confusing for a 2 year old. She's clingy to me, but also mad at me, so it's difficult for me because I have to discipline her for acting out, but I also want her to know that she is still my baby and still very special to me. I try to spend some one on one time with her, but it's hard right now!! Any tips from some veteran moms who have dealt with this same situation? Sydney wasn't like this, so this is new to me!