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I love to ride my bicycle…I love to ride my bike

I’ve rediscovered a lost love…bike riding. Oh how I love riding my bike. It makes me feel like a kid again. It’s so calming, cool air rushing by as I peddle faster and faster. I haven’t gotten on a bike since the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. I used to ride daily; using a bike to get back and forth to work; then I got hit by a car. That ended my love of riding until just recently when Evan suggested we start riding and get a trailer for the kids. I was so nervous, thinking maybe I’d forgotten how to ride and then there was the pretty enormous fear of cars. I got going the wind in my hair and it came rushing back. Oh I love it. I took the boys out in the trailer for the first time tonight, it was awesome. They weren’t hard to pull at all. We’re hoping when the girls are big enough they’ll ride in the trailer and boys will ride they’re own bikes. I am so looking forward to family bike rides. Everyone has fun, and it’s a wonderful release for me. Speaking of release I’ve started the Shape magazine bikini body count down.

I have no hopes of wearing a bikini at the end of the 5 month program but I am hoping to tighten up, maybe even shed the rest of this baby weight. I’ve done two days of exercises, they’re hard and my body is feeling the burn. I am so out of shape. I so need to stick with it. I’m tired of being fat. So tired I even bought some of those 100 calorie snacks in hopes it will fill my need for sweets. I have one every night after the boys go to bed, my treat. I look forward to it all day. Eating has become a way I deal with stress. Things get hairy (daily) around here I run for the panty. Not really helpful with the whole tired of being fat thing. Maybe all the exercising and many bike rides will help with my stress level and that will help me to stop stress eating on top of stopping my body from stress storing. Lower stress=happy kids that sleep well (wishful)=sleep for me (wishful)=weight loss=happy mama! Eh we’ll see.

Oh and I’ve started walking again too. I love walking almost as much as bike riding. I throw one of the ladies in the Ergo and everyone else in the triple jogger and off we go for an hour. We usually end up at the playground. Things are starting to look up. Exercising makes me feel normal, I need it.

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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

Hope all you mamas out there have an awesome day! Sit down, put your feet up and take a look around at what you’ve created!

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Teethy tooth

Cora cut her first tooth…front bottom right. She’s going to look so cute all snaggletoothed. It’s both exciting and scary, because I still have to put some very sensitive areas of my body in her mouth. We’re still working on sleep and it’s still going not well. I think their tummies just aren’t big enough to sleep as long as their brains are mature enough to. Our time will come.

The Eckards are going green. We’ve ramped up our efforts to recycle, I mean we pay for it whether we do it or not. It’s also pretty nice not over filling the trash bin and getting fun notes from the trash man about how he hates us and thinks we suck eggs. Ecological and thrifty. We are also slowly eliminating plastic products from the kitchen. They’re just not good us. Plastic =Cancer and all kinds of bad stuff. It’s insane how many plastic things we use. All the kids dishware and cups and utensils, all food storage, cutting boards, ect. It’s going to take a while to replace all these things so we started with the things that come in contact with food and heat and things that food or beverages would sit in for longer periods of time. dinner In the place of our plastic water bottles and sippy cups we now use SIGG Bottles. Swiss made aluminum water bottles. They have 0% leaching-so absolutely no migration of either the liner or the container into the beverage. They’re light weight and not bad to look at. Ecological and non-cancer causing, win/win.

Here are the girls…aren’t they precious!
girls
The plastic toys are next on the list to go…

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Aid babies baby gear Bub Cora courtney Cuba mom mooshoo mother photography pictures the kiddos twins

A day in my life…

Going to the play ground
the kiddos

Most days it happens like this. I feed the girls then hurry to shower while they’re content. Then I dress the boys, this particular morning Aidan decided to fall asleep like 3 hours before his normal nap time. I stand for a minute wondering if I should wake him or skip the playground. the girls Then the girls start to fuss and I think waking Aidan is worth getting out of the house. Having made the decision I go about dressing him and guess what he never wakes up. By this point the girls have really lost their patience and are screaming. I put them in their seats and realize they need socks. While searching for socks Aidan wakes up unhappy-joy. I find socks, pack every thing up, and start to head for the door when I smell that horrendous yet familiar odor. the kiddosAidan’s battle with the potty continues. So I put everything down and change Aidan from head to toe. Everyone’s crying and losing their minds but I solider on. Get every one in the car then out again. The moment feet hit the sand it’s a brand new shiny world. It’s amazing what a difference sunshine and fresh air makes.
the kiddos

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Breaking down and moving on

If you’ve been reading any of my post lately I’m sure I come across a bit ehh I don’t know…frustrated, sad, overwhelmed and lately I have been all of those things. Months of inconsistent sleep and burning my candle at both ends have helped me slip into a bad place. I’ve been trying , since the girls were born, to do it all-by myself. Life has let me know in no uncertain terms that this is not possible. I need help and lots of it. The people around me think I have it all under control and I have to let them know, I don’t. Well I should say I don’t every day. I have good days when I feel like I’ve got things all tied up, but mostly it’s a spiraling out of control mess (or at least that’s the way in looks from here). A lot of things outside my small world are also going wrong. You know that saying God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle, well lately I’ve been wondering if maybe God got me confused with someone else. That really sums it up. I don’t like being here. I want to be positive and enjoy my family and life. That’s why I’m writing about it here. I seem to be able to work things out when I write, so I’m going to write. Write and write until I feel better.

I also realized I never wrote a 6 month post about the girls. They’ve just discovered each other. It makes my heart swell when they look at each other and smile. They make each other laugh and give kisses. It’s amazing how gentle they are, reaching out to touch a cheek or grab a hand. Not to say they don’t accidently pop each other pretty often. They’re getting so strong and are so close to sitting up. Cora rolls all over and often sleeps on her tummy (which freaks us out). Cuba’s babbling is starting to sound like mama and baba (which I think is her way of saying Bub-who she loves). They’re eating solids about twice a day, we’re working towards a third. Rice cereal is just about the only thing they don’t like (and formula). I’m still feeding them at the same time and they’ve gotten much more patient with me and taking turns. They are still growing slow but steady. This is why I’m working towards the third solid meal of the day because I don’t want to cut back too much on nursing just yet. I’m not going to talk much about their growth, while I have been assured over and over that they are two very healthy girls, I’m still working through my doubts. They spend much less time being carried around these days. I sit them in their bumbo seats with a bin of toys between them and can usually take a shower (bringing them in the bathroom) or get dinner started while they play. We’re still working on sleeping, both naps and night time change from day to day. No teeth yet, got no problem with that. The longer they’re toothless the better for my boobies! I get asked often if they are identical or fraternal, we think fraternal. Really it doesn’t matter much to us , it doesn’t change anything either way. But for being fraternal they are so similar in their development. A small difference in their weight and height, but every thing else has been the same. Rolling over within minutes of each other, babbling the same day, although they do babble in different ways. I don’t plan on putting much emphasis on them being twins as they grow. They’re sisters that met each other before we met them, which is special for them, but has nothing to do with them as individuals. One of my favorite things to do with them right now is holding them right after nursing. Their cheeks and noses are pink and they’re a little milk drunk. They ‘re so happy, holding my face with both hands giving baby open mouth kisses , in between me covering their little faces with kisses. That’s what I love best right now, kissing their pink checks.

This is the hardest but most rewarding time in my life.