Happy 4 Months Abby!

Dear Abby,

You have been around for four months now, and it's so funny to think about what you do now as compared to then. You are reaching for and grabbing everything, including spices off the counter while sitting in your bumbaloo seat. The other thing you are frequently clawing at is my face! It hurts, but you are so absolutely gleeful when you do it that it's hard to get mad at you.

You still don't sleep. I am so jealous of the people who have babies that sleep the night. You rarely sleep three hours, and yup, I am tired. You run so hot and cold though, and I can't help but admire it. You either love or hate what you are doing, there is absolutely no in between. You go from giggling and laughing to screaming your head off.

You also do the cutest thing that Daddy has dubbed "partying". If you like something, you kind of jerk your whole body back and forth. You do this when you see someone you like, when you see something you want, or even when you smell something good.

Speaking of food, you LOVE to eat. Solids are a big favorite of yours, but only when you are in the mood, of course. Avocados are pretty much always a go, and you love sweet potatos.

You only ever want to stand, you hate to sit or lay down. We have to have you supported standing in our laps pretty much all the time to keep you happy. We think you might just be frustrated because you can't move, and probably just won't be happy until you can.

Zoe taught you how to high five today, while we were at the motorcycle shop waiting for Daddy to pick up his new bike. You were so proud of yourself when you got it down.

We love you Abby. I can't wait to see all the things that you will be doing before I sit down to write your five month letter.

(Her previous updates are at hallkidsnews.blogspot.com)

Love,

Mommy

How I Became THAT Mom..

So even when I say that I cloth diaper, I sometimes just want to roll my eyes. I didn't do it with my first child, and I just didn't understand how people could. It seemed so difficult and so, well, extreme. It's not that I had a bad opinion of those who did it, I just didn't think that it applied to real life somehow.

And then I battled eczema. I learned so many things by having a problem-ridden child like Zoe. She has had continuous skin issues her entire life. We only use very sensitive laundry detergent, we can't use dryer sheets, we have to only use aveeno everything. Even runoff from a regular shampoo will start her itching.

I assumed that I would be facing all the same issues with this baby, so I decided that I was going to get ahead of the problems. Unfortunately, I just couldn't ignore the possibility that cloth diapering might solve a lot of these issues. So I began to do some research and figured out that it might not be all the scary.

First of all, I use a diaper service and this saves a lot of the yuck factor. Washing the wraps regularly makes me honestly consider getting rid of the service anyway, because I think I have got the stomach and time for it. We shall see. I use Seattle Diaper Service, and they have been a wonderful resource. I put out a bag of gross diapers every Tuesday, and a fresh one appears. They provided me with a hamper and a lot of deodorizing disks. Honestly, I rarely smell the diapers and have gotten to the point where when I use a disposable diaper (rarely), I actually find the smell of it much worse.

I had a lot of challenges at first trying to figure out the correct ways to wrap the baby, how to put the wrap on, and even which wraps were best. I consulted a friend of my Aunt Suzy's, who helped a lot by pointing me in the direction of  Birth & Beyond, a baby store here in Seattle.

There have been a lot of unexpected advantages to cloth diapering, such as how absolutely adorable the baby looks in the prints on some of the wraps. I started out with just plain white and totally the wrong brand, but after a lot of experimentation I have fallen in love with Bummis Super Whisper Wraps. These come in some of the cutest patterns, including frogs and zoo and Abigail looks absolutely adorable in them.

And then, there is the obvious benefit of not adding to the pile of nondisinegrating disposable diapers already accumulating in landfills everywhere. I am sure that there is a great deal of carbon emission involved in having the diapers delivered and the laundering, but to be honest, this wasn't really my primary objective, it's just a very nice added benefit.

Abby is four months old tomorrow. Diaper rashes or rashes of any kind? ZERO! Score one for mommy.

Sympathy

I hate to write a blog post that comes before Melissa's beautiful post below, but I felt the need to check in. Things are mostly the same here, just worrying about my husband, Melissa and his mother.

Looking forward to spending time with the kids in the morning and Dominic after school tomorrow. I am thinking that being around children is the best mood lifter I know, well aside from eight hours in a spa. Not that I have ever done that, but a girl can dream, right?

Chris and I have been playing Scrabble on the ipad and he has been giving me quite the run for my money lately! We are currently watching Boondock Saints 2, and I wish I could give it a decent review, but it's not looking good.

Update on the Happiness Project is that I am mostly sticking to my daily reminders and I have got some great pictures of organizing I have been doing. Until tomorrow.

Please keep Melissa and her family in your prayers.

Melissa 2


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:S 248th St,Kent,United States

The days are long, the years are short

This weekend I was given news that reminded me of this fact of life. I was told that my grandfather was very ill and in the hospital. Then today we got an update that was not good, it seems that he will not recover and will be gone soon. I cannot express the amount of anger and grief this news gave me. Anger because after thinking about the last time I saw him, I realized it was 7 years ago, almost to the day, unfortunately this is so easy to figure out because my grandmother passed on a few days after Dominic was born, and he turns seven on Wednesday.
It seemed so easy to say I will visit next year, because now is not the right time, or I don't have enough time or any other excuses, and now it seems it is too late. The hardest part of thinking about my grandfather is that he had lost most of his memory, it is hard to think about visiting a person who doesn't know who you are, but it's always worth a try. A chance that I will not get now, I will never know if he would remember me. I will never know what he became, because I was always too busy. I love my Grandfather very much and have a lot of fond memories with him, like when he taught me how to play poker, or took us to the shooting range, or showed us how to fashion a bullet. I know these are odd things for a kid to learn, but it is what he knew how to do, and passed that knowledge on to his grand kids.
The grief has not even fully set in yet, and I don't look forward to it, but I know I have seven stages to get through.
SHOCK & DENIAL
PAIN & GUILT
ANGER & BARGAINING
"DEPRESSION", REFLECTION, LONELINESS
THE UPWARD TURN
RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH
ACCEPTANCE & HOPE
Though I am the first to admit I do not handle emotions like a 'normal person' I also have to say there is something to going through all seven stages to properly grieve a loss. I also happen to think I don't go through the stages in order, I wouldn't be me if I did things in order.
My grandfather is an amazing person and I will always remember how he accepted me as I was, I never felt as if wanted more from me, or expected me to be anyone other than myself. I will always love my grandfather and keep him with me at all times. I hope that his journey is fast and painless, and when he gets to the other side I hope he knows how much I love him and my grandmother.

With a heavy heart
Melissa #1

Being More Courteous

In effort to start changing my bad behavior I started today with being more courteous. What better place to practice this than at the grocery store. It is so easy to rush through the store and ignore everyone around. So today I took a deep breath, and thought about all the things I find rude in the store. So while going down an isle and zooming past the person that was price checking, I politely excused myself, and as a reward got a smile and a no problem, he even moved his cart so I didn't have to squeeze by. On another isle that was packed with carts I decided to go around instead of pushing my way through with a sigh, considering the only thing I needed was at the end of the isle, and those folks were there first I figured this way would be better, I probably got what I needed sooner. The last thing that happened has very hypocritical of me, I was talking on my phone! I hate when other people talk and shop because they are never paying attention to where they are going. However I had to take a very important call that couldn't wait, and what do you know, I almost ran my cart into another shoppers, instead of ignoring that I did this, I mouthed 'Sorry' and gave a very guilty look. This got quite a chuckle from the shopper instead of a dirty look and an annoyance to her. I felt really good about my progress at the store today, it also made getting my shopping done less bothersome! I will continue to pursue changing my bad habits since it brings such a joy to not only me, but those around me.

Courteously
Melissa #1

Dominic's birthday cake

Made by his mommy with love! It is a chocolate cake with boysenberry filling! Yummy!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:S 248th St,Kent,United States

Airing some seriously dirty laundry.

So I had an uber productive day today, mostly thanks to Chris. We were finally able to go through our entire storage unit, get everything sorted out and mostly put away (okay, I have one giant box of Zoe toys left but we are close, dangit). He did a ridiculous amount of work for me, all because he knows how I feel about having clear spaces in my living area. He is a wonderful husband, I am still thankful everyday that someone loves me despite my idiosyncracies.

So I completed several loads of laundry, did some (mostly) healthy grocery shopping with Zoe, played with her, took care of the baby, made dinner for us and had Melissa and Dominic over to watch Avatar. I feel good about my accomplishments today, and feel back on track. My attitude really does affect everyone in my family, so I am trying to be so cognizant of that lately and things have been really great.

But now, on to the confessional part of the blog post. I promise that I am about to admit to some really bad things, that will have good parents everywhere shaking their heads. Trust me, I know that I am doing some things so wrong, I just don't know how we got here.

Confession #1 - Abby doesn't drink from a bottle. At all. Ever. I mean, she has like twice but not consistently and not from anyone but me. Zoe took both from day one and I just never had an issue, but Abby is four months old now and I can't leave her for more than an hour or so at a time. This is becoming pretty stressful for me, because I am worried that I am only making her more "mommy centric", which brings me to...

Confession #2 - Abby has long periods throughout the day where she won't be held by anyone but me. She loves her daddy, and there are times when they are bestest buds, but there are times during the day when she steadfastly refuses to be near anyone except mommy. She is four months old, but she will yell "mum" over and over again. Sometimes she will sit with someone else when she can see me, but if I leave a room she will scream. And this doesn't just last a few minutes, it will go on for hours. 

Confesstion # 3 - I know, this is just getting ridiculous. But she won't let me put her down EVER. We have a swing, a walker, an exersaucer, a bouncer, a playpen, a tummy mat. We have tried every room, when she is awake, tired, happy, sad. We have one of these contraptions that at least allow me to have two hands, but it's all making me crazy!

So yeah, I am not necessarily looking for advice here, but I just know that it's all got to be fixed, and I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of tears (both hers and mine) involved.

Well, off to get some sleep, hopefully with the baby in her crib for the most part tonight! (I guess that whole battle really should have been Confession #4)

Melissa #2

A Taxing Day

After contemplating what to write about tonight I couldn't get off my mind the lack of patience I showed today. Not only at work, but even more so at home. I guess it's easier to lose patience at home because it seems easier to forgive bad behavior at home. However no matter where I am, showing bad behavior makes me feel bad afterward (which is rather counter productive to my happiness project). So I decided tonight to make my number one resolution, stop bad behavior. This will include, but is not limited to, having more patience, using better manners, stop nagging, stop complaining, and lastly, no more gossiping. I know these seem like trivial things to stop doing, but I think they will make a huge difference in my personal happiness. It will be a challenge, but that is what this project is for, to challenge me to be a happier person. I will continue to update on how this resolution is going, with any luck it will be far easier than I think.

With Patience,
Melissa #1

P.S. My thoughts are with my Grandpa Leonard tonight. Get well soon, my love is with you.

Dinner picture

-- Post From My iPhone

Dinner

One of my goals is to make new recipes at least twice a month so here is tonight's dinner. I wanted a recipe with Yukon gold poatoes because the other Melissa was coming to dinner and they are yet favorite.



It is basically chicken breasts, with Yukon gold potatoes, tomatoes, fresh basil, parsley, garlic and Parmesan cheese. Yum!



-- Post From My iPhone

Yum

Canadian coke, made with real sugar!




-- Post From My iPhone

Washington State Capitol

KI need a hobby so I don't annoy everyone in my life when I am bored!

A long time ago, I read the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (you may know it as the book they are trying to make into a movie in Adaptation). A passage that stood out for me was the author finding herself jealous of the compulsive orchid people, because they always know what they will do with their time, what they will spend their money on, and what to bring back from vacation. I was really moved by this passage because of the knowledge that I didn't have that "thing". Also, I was a little irritated with the author, because come on, she was writing fiction for The New Yorker and working on a novel. So, I remembered this passage and this feeling the other day when I was reading the other Melissa's beautiful blog post about pursuing her passion, photography. I don't think that I have a hobby, much less a passion. I am increasinly thinking that my life would be more pleasurable if I had one of these.
So I am going to set out to find some thing that will be all mine, apart from the things I do on a daily basis for my family. Obviously, I have my kids, but where will that leave me in eighteen years? Or even in 8 when they are closing their doors and listening to their ipods? In  the Project Happiness book, Gretchen sets out to figure out how best to "be Gretchen", and she begins by remembering what she liked to do as a child and how she would spend a free day left to her own devices. As a child, I liked to read and my downtime now is spent cleaning. I am looking for something a little more exciting than cleaning, and perhaps a little more social or active than reading.

I plan to try out some newthings, and see how they make me feel. The challenge is going to be carving out the time, and also figuring out things that I can explore on a limited budget. I plan to post some ideas in the coming weeks.

On an entirely different note, we are back from an amazing trip to Great Wolf Lodge (thanks to the other Melissa!). As she mentioned, we were there celebrating my very awesome nephew's birthday. The kids had a great time, Chris loved guiding the kids through a giant hotel wandering game, and Melissa and I were thanking our lucky stars that someone had the brilliant idea of putting a Starbucks in the lobby. It was NONSTOP fun (and by nonstop, I would like to mention here that to play the Magiquest game, you run up and down five flights of stairs repeatedly for several hours).

Chris also surprised me with a spontaneous trip to Olympia, the state capitol, on the way there. It was beautiful and amazing, and we walked down to the riverfront and around the capitol building. Melissa took some really lovely photographs that I am sure she will be sharing here soon. It makes me feel so loved when he plans surprises like that.

I need to get dinner all situated and go read to my kids, so I can report some sort of success here with my weekly resolution update.

Melissa #2

Great Wolf Lodge

We are back from Dominic's Birthday trip to the great wolf lodge! It was a wonderful trip (though a bit pricey) totally worth it for how much fun we all had. The indoor water park (a wonderful thing to have in Washington state) is kept at 84 degrees, has a big wave pool, a swimming pool with basket ball hoops, a kids fort with water slide, a 1 foot deep pool with slides and various other fun things for the littler crowd, and four huge slides to ride on with inter tubes. The inter tube slides were a big hit with all of us, they had one that four of us could go on at the same time. Dominic could not get enough of that one. The smaller pool was great for Dom and Zoe, because they could play in it without us adults (who were too tired to play the second day).
The other super cool part of the lodge was the 'Magic Quest' game. Melissa got both of the kids wands which "magically" active things all through the lodge (literally, from the 1st floor to the 5th floor) and the kids had to get hints and find different items hidden throughout the lodge. It was a ton of fun giving them hints and seeing how well they remembered where everything was. They were able to complete all the quests and adventures before we left today.
Overall I have to say it was a wonderful trip, and I'd definitely go back again!

Pursue a Passion

Today I read Gretchen's chapter on pursing your passion in life. I was inspired. There is one thing in my life that I love doing more than everything else. Taking pictures. Last week Melissa challenged me to spend at least one hour a week with my camera because she said "while taking pictures I am so happily me". She is right, I have so much fun with it, yet once the pictures are taken, they forever sit on my hard drive and slowly get forgotten about. Half of the fun of pictures is showing them off. So I decided today that I would Make Time to do something with my photo's. Whether it's a scrapbook, photo album, frame, or even submitting my photos to contests. The thought of perfect strangers seeing my photos is thrilling. This would also be a good way for me to get over my fear of being judged. So far in my life I have never submitted a print anywhere for fear of it not being liked by all who see it. However this is irrational, I can't expect everyone to like my work, I can just hope to bring inspiration to at least one person.
My goals with my photography will be:
1. Spend one hour a week taking pictures
2. Print photos and start scrapbooking again
3. Put together a photo album
4. Frame at least four of my favorite photo's and hang them in my house
(for this one I may even learn how to make frames!)
5. Submit at least one picture to a contest (or a fair)
I hope by pursing my passion I can become more confident in my skills, and maybe even make my passion a bigger part of my life.

Keep your passions alive
Melissa #1

Gratitude

My focus today has been on all the things I am grateful for. It is so easy to be grateful for the normal things, such as health, family, and jobs. I want to be more grateful for the everyday stuff. Today I had a lot to be grateful for.

First being my wonderful son, this morning he got up quietly, turned on some cartoons and let me sleep peacefully until I was ready to get up. He is such a thoughtful little boy.

Second is my brother and father for helping me out of a tough situation. I had a flat tire today. They both helped me get the tire off my car, assess the damage and get the tire to Costco to get it fixed. It was a big inconvenience but with their help it got taken care of and my car is drivable again. I am also super excited to say I finally got to drive my brothers super awesome truck, which was a ton of fun.

Third is my neighbor, or sort of neighbor, he lives in the condo building next to mine. Today he dropped off two tomato plants one for me and one for Dominic. I guess he planted more than he needed and offered plants to a lot of the neighbors. This act boosted my sense of community and made me very happy.

Fourth, I am grateful for the box of chocolates I bought myself yesterday while out with Melissa. It was a wonderful treat to splurge on, every girl needs See's candy every once in a while.

I am happy to report that all these little things and a lot more not mentioned (because the post is long enough) helped my day to be a great day. I will continue to be grateful for the little things through the days to have more wonderful days.

With gratitude
Melissa #1

Whereas Melissa resolves to make resolutions!

I must admit that last night I was a bit overtired and very overly excited about the blog and so it is just absolutely full of typos and grammatical errors. I will try to do a little better tonight!

As previously mentioned, I am starting to undertake the Happiness Project, or my own Happiness Project at any rate. I have been motivated and am working hard to finish the book and organize my thoughts around how I want to approach it.

Melissa and I have discussed how starting the book makes you want to dive in and do everything all at once. That is a surefire way to fail or become discouraged, in my opinion. The areas that I am most looking to improve are, well, generally the things that make me feel guiltiest at the end of the day. I want to lay down to go to sleep at night and not be worrying that I am not doing enough, forgot to do something, or did something completely wrong and just then realized it. (I also think I need to work on confusing sentence structure, hah!)

I want to work on being a better mother. My girls are my life, and I want to be the kind of woman that I want them to become. That's so important to me and I hate when I act in ways that are anything less than that. Yes, I am realistic about it being impossible to be perfect, but I also know that I should be devoting as much time to learning to be a better parent as I would anything else. So this will  be a major focus, and something I will probably tie a lot of my resolutions into. Mostly, my desire to be happier is because I want them to grow up feeling love and happiness all of the time.

Gretchen Rubin has a saying which is, "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good". And that could be applied here, as to not starting the project until I have it all organized and laid out and a plan, and all that happening could take me another month, so here are the few resolutions I am starting right now, and how they are working out so far.

#1 Get outside for at least 30 minutes every single day.
This is an important one for me, because we recently moved to Washington state, and habits formed right away will become habits for a long time. It's also an adjustment to be away from all the constant sunshine of Tampa, FL. I have done very well with this one, and as an added bonus, I have been outside playing with Zoe everyday. We are doing a lot of catch and batting to get her ready for T Ball, so Melissa and Dominic have been over several times this week and we have all played. This has been as enjoyable for us adults as it is for the kids I think. I truly forgot how much I love to play catch.

#2 Read to my kids everyday.
This one is not going as well, though I think it's because of all the time we have been spending outside. When we finally come in, it's dinner time, and right after dinner, life becomes a whirlwind of feeding babies, baths, cleaning up, getting ready for bed, etc. I think I am going to try moving the reading to first thing in the morning as a better way for us all to wake up.

#3 Alone time with Chris
I have read everywhere that marriages still need time alone, without kids. I just have no idea how to accomplish this with a nursing baby. We seem to have worked something out that also helps with #1 and it's become one of the highlights of my day. Simply enough, we walk. Alone at night, after Zoe is in bed, we hand the grandparents the baby monitor, leash up our adorable dog (Bella) and go for a walk. This gives us an uninterrupted time to talk, gets us both fresh air, and gets me a little bit of exercise. Tonight we went a mile and a half, and a hilly mile and a half at that. It was really amazing.

#4 Do my hair and put on make up (at least once in a while)
Too often I throw my hair up in a ponytail, throw on jeans and a shirt and run out. I have noticed a definite correlation between how I feel about myself and my mood, so I am trying to put a little extra effort in this area. So far, I have done my hair twice, and both times I really did have energetic days. Definitely a booster.

#5 Send someone mail everyday
This one I just decided today, but the truth is I have a ton of family and friends back in Florida that I miss. I text them, talk to them on Facebook, and call them,but nothing feels better than holding real mail. And making other people happy makes me happy, so I am going to start this resolution tomorrow. I am especially homesick for my mom, so I am thinking she is going to benefit from this one immensely.

#6 Do a little everyday
I have definitely been taking this to heart. We kind of have a mess here, having uprooted everthing and moving from one corner of the country to the other. There is a lot to organize, and we are also going through an entire storage unit worth of stuff to decide what to get rid of, keep and use now. I have gotten 3/4 way through the storage unit and made our room and office/living area look much better in the past few days. I organized the baby clothes, and labeled the drawer to keep everything straight. This has really helped. Next stop, Zoe's room!

Well, this has turned into quite the blog post. If I had any idea how to do one of those cuts, I would!

Today I am grateful for beautiful weather. It makes such a difference in a place like this. I am also grateful that Chris took the girls upstairs this morning, so I could sleep until 9:30 and I woke up to breakfast already made! I am spoiled!

Good night,.
Melissa #2

A little background

To start off, I'd like to give a quick background of 'The Happiness Project'. This book is not about being unhappy, if fact quite the opposite. The author Gretchen Rubin is a pretty happy person to start with, she wrote the book to help happy people become happier and to find ways to deal with those fleeting unhappy moments. We all have annoyances in our lives and it is how we deal with them that makes us who we are. Gretchen has done a ton of research on how to help manage difficult situations, and how to stay happy through them. I am finding in reading her book that I have become more aware of the little things in life that make a huge difference. The main one I have discovered is having an organized life helps the day run smoother (example: if you aren't caught up in looking for a matching pair of socks in the morning, it leaves a lot more time to do the rest of the morning routine). The other tip she gave is that if it takes less than a minute, do it now. I have been loving this tip, because the one glass that turns into four in the sink, now get put straight into the dish washer, and the junk mail that piled up on the table now goes right into the trash. The one minute I spent today saved me ten minutes tomorrow. When you are as busy as I am, ten extra minutes a day is a real treat!
Following Melissa #2 I'd like to included what I am thankful for today, as I think it's a wonderful way to end the day. I am thankful for the end of bowling season, it was a great season and both Dominic and Zoe (Melissa's oldest) had a lot of great games and good memories made. However now it is time for T-ball season and I can't wait to watch the kids grow and learn even more. I am a big believer in teaching kids as many sports as possible, because they can learn new skills and become more confident with each new skill set.
Melissa #1

Our brood.

We are two moms, with the same name, Melissa Hall. To make matters more confusing, I live in a house where she once lived, so pharmacists, magazine subscriptions and the Washington Drivers License Bureau all have a heck of a time figuring us out.

We decided to start this blog because we are jointly undertaking The Happiness Project (a book by Gretchen Rubin) at the asme time. More information can be found here: http://www.happiness-project.com/.

Needless to say, we are very excited and wanted a way to document our journey and hold ourselves accountable and VOILA, you get our blog. Our lives are very different so we have a lot of experiences to share that should apply to all different situations. We are also looking for help and encouragement!

I plan to start tomorrow by posting a few of my resolutions that I have started this month along with how they are going. My first is to update this daily, and to mention something I am grateful for. Today my husband, daughter, Melissa's son (Dominic) and their Nana and Poppa went to the Mariners game. Melissa and I got to go to dinner with Abby (the baby), and after that she went to a work function and I had some alone time to do some much needed cleaning and organizing of our living space. So today I am grateful for alone time, and for having a family that I miss VERY much during that alone time.

Until tomorrow!

Melissa #2