Tag Archives: babies

Christmas Tree Joy: A Photo Post

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Haley | 1 Comment

It’s been quiet at Carrots this week, friends. I got hit by another bout of serious morning sickness and have been out of commission for a couple of days. Thank heavens for my mom and my in-laws who took care of the kids almost all day yesterday so that I could rest and recover from some fun pregnancy vomiting. I spent the whole day in bed with ginger ale and Harry Potter audiobooks.

Anyhow, instead of a This Week’s Miscellany, I thought I’d share some photos from our trip to a local Christmas Tree farm last weekend with Daniel’s family. It is such a fun tradition for Benjamin. Who am I kidding? I love it just as much as he does! And this year, Miss Lucy got to really participate in the fun (last year she was a wee little thing.)

Please just pause and examine the adorableness of this toothy little grin. Also: is not one of the great joys of motherhood dressing your children up in amazing/embarrassing holiday sweaters? Oh. My. Love it.

Look at that precious face of joy and his ridiculously long hair! Don’t fear, I gave him a haircut after this pic was taken. He had put up a valiant resistance to haircuts due to how “itchy” the experience is, but I wore him down in the end. Doesn’t he look huge? I keep thinking of last year when he looked like this:

Cuteness! And prepare yourselves for the sweetness of an almost-two-year-old at Christmas:

Christmas Tree farm 2010! Excuse me while I have a little “Where has my baby boy gone?!” moment….ahem. *Not Teary-eyed!*

And now for more pictures of my Lucy Baby than you could possibly be interested in seeing…I just can’t help myself. Blame it on pregnancy hormones?

Baby girl was more interested in playing with leaves and sticks and dried grass than picking out trees.

I look at her a million times a day and can never get over how beautiful she is.

Where’s Lucy?

Peekaboo!

Lashes!

Hobbit child?

Lucy and her beautiful grandmother.

Precious loves.

We went last Saturday so that we could have the lights up on the tree by Gaudete Sunday (we’re waiting til Christmas Eve to decorate with ornaments.)

At 18 weeks!

In the plans today: some last minute Christmas errands (we exchange gifts with our kids on St. Nicholas Day but exchange gifts with Daniel’s family on Christmas Day.) And coming up soon: our 12 Days of Christmas plans!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend and beautiful and peaceful final days of Advent!

Love,

Haley

p.s. I’ll be linking up this post on Monday for our Little HolyDays link-up and I’ll be “curating” the posts from last week so check back on Monday when I feature my very favorite posts of yours! There were some good ‘uns last week that I can’t wait to share

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Posted in Advent, Christmas

Tagged babies, Christmas, christmas tree, cuteness, photos

Today’s Attitude Shift

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Haley | 14 Comments

I’ll spare you all the details, but it’s been over 6 weeks since all four members of our family were well at the same time. We’ve passed around a terrible cough, Benjamin’s asthma has been bad, and now Lucy has the cough/fever. And here’s the thing, having sick children completely exhausts me. Sure, the bajillion night wakings due to illness wear me out (I think last night’s count was 4 wakings for Benjamin and 6 for Lucy) but I also find caring for my sick babies emotionally exhausting. I keep second guessing myself. Do they need to see the pediatrician? Is this just a little bug that will pass or something more serious? Will the Dr. try to give them antibiotics they don’t need? Is that a cough from congestion or a wheezy asthma cough? I worry about my sick babies and I get exhausted from dealing with the constant crankiness a sick 3-year-old exudes after several days of being cooped up and sick.

When Daniel was leaving this morning at 7am, I told him, “I don’t know if I can do this again today. I don’t know if I can make it til bedtime.”

It was one of those mornings that you’re so tired that it just hurts to be awake. Maybe part of the reason I felt grumpy was that I was woken up in the middle of a weird dream that I was being chased by centaurs and giants (that’s what I get for falling asleep to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on audiobook, amirite?!).

I poured myself a cup of coffee and saw that we had leftover heavy whipping cream from last night’s pasta recipe and went for it. (Mmmm) I was generally bemoaning how hard my task as a mother has been for the past couple of weeks. Then it hit me: I get to stay home and care for my sick babies. I don’t have to leave them with anyone else and worry about how they’re faring, whether Lucy’s fever is higher or whether Benjamin’s breathing is more labored. I get to be here. I don’t have to scramble to make arrangements because they’re too sick to go to daycare. I don’t have to find a sub or do remote work from home to make up for not being at the office. I just get to take care of my sick babies. And that shift changed everthing.

I lit a candle and put on the Cheiftains because Lucy loves to dance to their music. And the sweet girl danced even though she has a fever of 101.5. We snuggled down with blankets and read picture books. Lucy nursed back to sleep and Benjamin and I made a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast while she napped.

I decided to say “no” to feeling sorry for myself and saying yes to the following today:

“Will you snuggle with me?”
“Will you sing me a song?”
“Can you read to us?”
“Can I watch a movie?”

Sweet girl is a little more clingy and a little more sleepy from whatever bug/virus has been running rampant in our house. But still the world’s sweetest baby despite feeling icky.

And I’m going to remember that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but right here. Right now. And also that the day will be a success if everyone survives until Daddy gets home.

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Posted in Children, Motherhood

Tagged babies, children, illness, Motherhood, staying home

AFP: Awesome Family Planning

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Haley | 67 Comments

On the outside chance that you haven’t already decided that we’re completely nuts, this post will probably convince you. You may previously have figured out that we’re Catholic converts leaning toward the traditional, but now you’re going to think that we’re bordering on total lunacy. Who knows? Maybe you’re right. And this topic is going to be a hot button for controversy, but I’m gonna post it anyway with this proviso: this is what WE’VE chosen to do and why. It is not meant to be a preachy judgment on those who have made different choices or believe different things about sex, marriage, fertility, contraception, etc. Ok? Ok.

As I mentioned the other day, we’ve been trying to decide what kind of NFP to use now that my fertility has returned post-Baby Lucy. Our journey toward Catholicism (which I keep meaning to write about) led us away from artificial birth control.

Luckily, we’ve discovered the perfect method of birth control for us! It’s called Awesome Family Planning. Here’s why it’s great: you can have sex whenever you want, you don’t have to use condoms, you don’t have to put carcinogenic hormones in your body, you don’t have to chart, you don’t have to take your temperature every day, you don’t have to even think about cervical fluid. Sounds perfect, amirite?!

But I should warn you that there is a possible side-effect: babies! Yes, you’ve figured it out. We’ve decided that for us right now, the most appealing kind of family planning is not our plan at all. Instead we want to completely turn our fertility over to God and let his timing be the right timing. (The one con to AFP is that everyone you know will think you’re completely insane. So you might have to make new friends that are also weird Catholics…which, now that I think about it sounds more like a pro.)

I’m not saying that NFP isn’t perfectly permissible in order to space children. The Church allows it. And, if there is an insurmountable financial problem or a serious medical reason to postpone pregnancy, we may resort to NFP at some point in the future. But right now, we can afford to feed our family. By making some sacrifices we are able to live frugally on one modest income. We have one car, we grow our own veggies, we cook at home, we don’t make unnecessary purchases. You get the idea. And I am perfectly healthy so there is no medical reason that would make another pregnancy dangerous for me or for a future baby.

So, we’ll see. I could be pregnant right now. Or maybe we’ll never conceive again (although I pray that’s not the case). Either way, it’s out of our hands. And not worrying about it anymore is such freedom. We’ve learned again and again that our plans fail and God’s plan is best. So we’re turning it over to Him.

When Baby 3 arrives someday (hopefully), we’ll need a new vehicle because three car seats won’t fit in the back seat of our Camry. But if we believe that God became man and dwelt among us, died for us and was resurrected, surely we can trust that he can get us a van…

This post was NOT written to make you feel guilty for using NFP. There’s nothing morally wrong with NFP, (check out Simcha’s recent post on the topic here) but for us at this time, we think that neither avoiding pregnancy or trying to achieve pregnancy is the most compatible method (or lack thereof) for our family’s view of faith and sex. And it wasn’t written to convince you to quit birth control, either, or make you feel judged. It’s just an explanation of why we’re living our life in this crazy, wonderful way.

You may be wondering: “But, what’s the point of this insanity?! You’re going to end up like the Duggars! What’s wrong with birth control?”

More on that in the next post (I didn’t want this post to get so long that it looked like a dissertation, so I broke it into two parts)…

I humbly request that in the comments you are respectful of our decision and the stance of the Catholic Church regarding contraception, although you are welcome to express disagreement in a kind and charitable manner!

p.s. just a reminder that the blog has moved to www.carrotsformichaelmas.com so if you want to keep up with my loony musings, please update your reader with my blog’s new URL or subscribe via email in the upper right hand corner.