My LIFE CHANGNING trip!!

I guess you could say that my life was changed when I had my beautiful kids. No doubt about that, right? Well, for me that experience has gone to a new level.

In April of 2009 Brad and I took birth classes. Not just any old “Lamaze” classes, specifically The Bradley Method. It was a long, fun 12 weeks for us to become educated about childbirth. I am proud to say (as many of you know) that the training equipped us with the knowledge to bring Elijah into this world completely unmedicated and as God intended.

Fast forward a few years later, beyond the unmedicated birth of Athena nearly one year ago, and I have a new INSANE driven and passion for unmedicated childbirth.

I had the privilege of flying out to Washington D.C. to attend the Bradley Method instructor training. I was surrounded by incredibly strong, motivated women that share my passion for childbirth as it was intended – without “professional” intervention.

Now…before you go and start calling me names and giving excuses why you chose to have your babies in whatever way you did, I just want to say that I don’t think there is a wrong way to have a child enter the world. It is a miracle every time. And some circumstances do require medical intervention. I do however feel that there is a best way to give birth, and the Bradley Method teaches that.

I have always been a bit of a chemical-phobe. I’ve worked around a lot of horrible chemicals in my pre-motherhood days in the environmental industry. So the Bradley Method was right up my ally.

The trip was 4 days long (long isn’t an understatement either) and I learned SO many things that it would be criminal for me to not share it. So I am extremely excited to start my journey as a childbirth educator. I have a few academic things I must complete first, so I am hoping in January to start changing people’s lives. Check out the website if you’re interested in the details. The Bradley Method

Through my blog I can’t wait to update experiences, information and tools to help couples have a natural childbirth. So stay tuned for that in the coming months!!! I appreciate your support and prayers, as I also find there can be no better way to praise God than through His indefinable miracle of life.

Halloween Fun!

 

How fun is Halloween when you have kids?! I personally despise the idea of the evilness and spooky related ideas that go along with it. But I decided we can make out of it what we want. I’m glad we didn’t boycott anything, because we’ve had so much fun in the last few weeks!

The above pictures were taken at a Daniel’s Pumpkin Patch in St. Charles. It was so much fun, it made me wish I was a kid again!

We never go to the Bass Pro shop, but stopped by because they had trick-or-treating in the store. Even more awesome is that there was a costume contest and our little pilot won 2nd place!

The night before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat at a nearby church with Brad’s family. How sweet is Logan as Scooby Do?! And probably my favorite is Athena using her charm on Grandpa to get more candy! And by the end of the night, I think our family picture says it all. They were TIRED!

The next photos are of Halloween evening in our neighborhood and New Town. They had a blast!!

Those two would not smile together to save my life!

My precious butterfly kept her hood on all night! SOOO sweet!

Elijah wasn’t so interested in getting candy in the beginning, he just wanted to run around. One time he tripped and fell (he was okay) and people were teasing of an airplane crash!

I love this picture of them together. Brad is an awesome dad.

She was working about 20 minutes to get the wrapper off of this candy….

I’m sure you guessed she finally did. AND threw her first temper tantrum when Brad tried to take it away. She is a feisty little thing!

(in the end she won, as you can see)  :)

What a blast we’ve had the last few days. I am SO thankful for all the blessing in my life!

Fun in the Fall

Sometimes I wished we lived somewhere warm year round, but then we’d miss out on pumpkin patches, apple picking, leaves, etc. Over the weekend we went to the Zoo and then had a leaf party at Becky’s house.

The Zoo was so nice. It was the perfect weather. We didn’t get too see much, but Elijah saw what he wanted to – bugs and ride the train. Um, it’s unreal what they have there, so if you have the chance to see the insects as the Zoo, you should go if you can. As for Athena, she nearly slept the whole time in the backpack carrier.

 

What might have been better than the Zoo was just lounging around Art Hill while the kids played in the grass and dirt. I ALWAYS have a bulldozer in my purse for such occasions to occupy Elijah. He could play for hours this way.

Athena on the other hand, I don’t need to bring anything for her except a pacifier just to keep her from putting EVERYTHING in her mouth.

It was such a nice day. To top off the evening, we got to play in the leaves!

Since we don’t have leaves anywhere near our house (and probably won’t for the next 15 years) it was so fun for my sweet kids to jump in Becky’s!

They got the best baths of their lives when we got home, especially when the kids had the bright idea of throwing the pile on our heads. I’m sure Jon back there had something to do with it!!

oh my goodness, can you tell that they are related!?

Aside from all the good times during the day…at night has been a struggle…..Struggle, with a capital “S”. Athena is going through something, not sure what. But she will wake up around midnight to 2 am and wont go back to sleep sometimes until 6 am. I changed her formula thinking her belly hurt her. But I am beginning to think she has separation issues. I can’t even make dinner without her wanting to be held, even if she is at my feet!  I hope she gets over it soon because while she’s snoozing until 9:30 Elijah is ready for pancakes at 7:00.

Luckily tomorrow is my “day off”. They both go to a local church for a mother’s day out program on Thursdays (Elijah goes Tuesdays and Thursdays). So I am relieved to have some precious me time from 9-12.

I’m off to sleep before Athena wakes up for her weird nightly snuggle/play time. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t happen tonight!

Can you believe it’s October

Already!!

Geez I have been horrible about blogging. You know I’m gonna tell you how busy I’ve been, and that’s why I haven’t written. Well, it’s true! Sort of. :)

I don’t even know where to begin. I guess let me tell you about my stinkin’ awesome kids.

Elijah is a little boy. Can you believe it!? I hardly see anymore “babyness” in him. He talks all the time, even tries to debate and argue from time to time. He is in love with Bob the Builder, airplanes, chocolate, bulldozers, Thomas the Tank Engine, motorcycles and bugs. (Maybe in that order too).

Athena…where do I start with my little ham. She is the happiest, most laid-back baby ever. She is crawling around everywhere (she just recently turned 10 months) and eats everything in site. This girl eats so much, it should be in the record books. No kidding. She loves sleeping (hooray for me!), food, pinching people (not so good), crawling around in the grass, her pipilas, bathtime and her daddy like crazy. I wish everyone could get to know her, because she is so great. She is certainly stubborn, but so adventurous. She can explode through a diaper up to her neck, and swirms around like a worm when you try to change her. She is hilarious!

I have to admit I am enjoying them both together. Elijah always asks to play with “Nina” when he wakes up in the morning…which is like 7:00 because he does not love sleep. He is usually very sharing and sweet with her. Tells her “Careful Nina” when he thinks her adventurous side is getting to wild. When shes crying, he will be the older brother and say (with a sigh and attitude), “Nina STOP cwying!”

She is there for him to snatch his trains, steal his juice drinks, pull his hair, pinch his neck and lay her head on his lap when they are watching Bob the Builder. Everything a little sister should be doing. – I know, I am a little sister to an older brother :)

Bla Bla Bla right… :) Take a look and how big they have gotten!

How sweet is that…giving his sister a flower!!!

Other than keeping up with the kids, I am getting ready to become a birth instructor! Can you believe it! I am going for training later this month and will teach couples how to give birth med-free (via the Bradley Method). I am WAY excited. Hopefully it will be a way to earn extra money, but more so than that, hopefully I will be able make a difference in people’s lives. I am also going to begin training early next year to become a doula. I just loved my experience and I hope I will be able to encourage mothers and couples that their experience can be everything they’ve hoped. Thank you Holly for our chat and your encouragement! Anyway, I will definitely keep you updated how things are coming along.

Hooray for my slow netbook!

I can finally type like a normal person. Its been hard in general to find time to blog, but trying to blog on the ipad, with no photos (how boring, I know) is not fun. Speaking of ipad...dum, dum, dum...

I ruined it.

Yep. I ruined it. Ok, well just imagine having a 16 pound baby in one arm, and toddler running around like a mad man and trying to close up a ginormous double stroller in 100 degree heat. Is it so irresponsible in my frustration that I forgot the ipad in the storage compartment of the stroller? Yes, I would agree it is, especially when the stupid thing wouldnt close and I just persisted to jump on it to make it latch rather than do the smart thing and figure out why it wasn't latching. The problem was the ipad, now it is bent like crazy and there are bad spots on the screen. I dreaded telling Brad, I made my dad do it.

Speaking of Brad, he is here! You can't imagine how awesome it is. I love having my family together again. It has also been a big relief to me now that Elijah just wants daddy to do everything.

Here are some pictures, in random order, of how things are going.

We had some big waves yesterday, the girls had a blast...until they got bumped and bruised a little too much.

Here I am with my awesome babies during my favorite Loutraki sunset.

The 14th was Becky's birthday, so we got her a funny headband to wear at dinner...at Moustakas (a pizza place) that Becky looooves!

And of course a day later the 15th, was Elijah's  birthday! Can you believe he is two already? What...you can't stop looking at how crappy the cake looks? Let me just say we were pressed for time, Greek cakes are nasty as can be, and Brad also came in that morning...so when Elijah turns 3, you better believe he is getting an awesome cake!

My party baby! She loved the crappy-looking-cheese-cake-birthday-cake :)

Happy Birthday Elijah (Elias!)

  

Here is some family! Tasis (my dad's brother) and his wife, Aphroditi, and their kids George and Eleni. Actually, Tasis is my godfather, so he will also be baptizing Elijah! How awesome is that? George and Becky will be godparents to Athena.

So there is a little update. As of now, Becky and Jon will be back from their 'honeymoon' (nearly 4 years later) tonight, and then this week we go outside f Loutraki so Brad can see more of the countryside and ancient stuff. After that, George will be here...then my mom, then the baptism...and then Rome!! Hooray!

Athena's first tooth!

It finally popped through today!

We've been struggling with it a bit the last few days. She actually got fussy - very unusual for her. She fell alseep before I could get a good look at it (and a photo).

Right now life is pretty good. I am sitting on the 5th floor of our summer home with a calm sea to my left and the noisy sounds of vespas and teenagers on the streets below. The kids are sound asleep, and I am relaxed! - too bad it's 1 am....

Life is so different and relaxed here. The kids normally fall asleep around 11:00 at night, heck, we had dinner at 10:30 and it was crowded as can be. I think I am going to have a hard time getting us back on a St. Louis routine, with an 8:00 bed time....I'll think about that later.

I am on my dad's laptop, so I can upload some pictures easier now. I hope these photos somehow capture the moments for you to enjoy too. ----- scratch that....sorry, but I have been sitting here too long and the pictures aren't uploading fast enough. I promise I will soon....if you can't wait look at my facebook page, I put a few there.

Night everyone!

It's been too long!

But I have an app for the iPad so I can now blog! Although, I have been keeping a journal and writing down each day what has been happening. It's kind of more personal, and I guess romantic that way. I have a vision of the kids reading through it when they're older, appreciating my late night efforts to keep the memory of this trip.
I gotta be honest, it is sooooo different being here. I didn't realize the last summer I was here was for the 2004 Olympics. I've been back a few winters in between, but there is no comparison. Greece is awesome in the winter, but the summertime, it may just be the best place on earth. So 7 years have passed. I didn't know it had been that long. So it's been a bit of reality shock being here with two small babies when my last summer memories were of friends, boys, late nights, drinks and awesome beach clubs. But believe it or not, I am enjoying every minute here. I wouldn't go back to those party days - even when I want to pull my hair out with these "terrible two's" reaching an all new kind of terrible. I only wish Brad was here. He will be here soon, less than 10 days. But man, let me tell you, I miss him. Not just him though, but him being the missing piece to our family. I can't wait to be the family of 4, together again, like we've been so blessed to become.

Seriously, we are one stinking cute family and we need our missing piece! :)

Elijah is something else. He is so athletic, poised and confident. He runs and kicks a ball like he's a pro. He has one incredible pitching arm too. Athena has been on the receiving end a few times, with the pitching and kicking of the balls. And he is also talking so much. He isn't afraid to try and say any word, English or Greek. My favorite story concerning his dialect is this: whenever I hold him close, or held him in the past I would whisper in his ear, " Momma loves her guy". Especially when he was tired. Well he will request "Momma, guy!" when he wants to be held and cuddled. I love it...so sweet. It's normally in the water when he doesn't want to swim, which is always. (he's too cold)

Athena, now that's another story. This chick loves to eat. She will try to attack someone from across the room to get a crumb of bread. We struggled a lot with her in the beginning trying to get her to take a bottle. Now that she does (with formula - I'm still breastfeeding her though, we needed to teach her to take a back up method while we are in Rome) she love it. She even holds it on her own. No luck with a formula bottle helping her sleep through the night though...errr....
She also talks non-stop. It is so cute, but she talks loud too, so sometimes I have to move away to have a conversation with Becky. The last few days she has been a little irritable, which is unusual for her ( seriously, this baby I'll go without crying for days and days - and it don't take much to keep her happy). She has been teething pretty bad. Sometimes I think both of those little teeth will pop out at the same time, my poor baby.

Everyone here loves the kids. Even the horribly grumpy, older Greek people. They just love the kids, I hate to say it, but especially Athena. Probably because she will smile at anyone and Elijah will run away. And probably because she is the cutest thing God ever created. :)

That's a quick update, I will post a slide show of pictures soon because we've been here nearly a month and I can't possibly write out the awesome memories we've made so far, so I will just show you.

We leave in 5 days?!

Whooaaaa. Time is flying by. I really planned to be so much more productive and social but now I see it’s June 2nd, and our plane tickets say June 8th! – yes I can do math. Today is over, so I don’t count today.

I am planning to blog while I’m over there. I hope anyway. We will have a laptop and the ipad so I shouldn’t have any excuses.

It’s nerve wrecking to try and get everything prepared for the trip. Would you believe I have 500 diapers sitting on my dining table right now? Yep, 500.  - I decided to bring my own, partly because I’m really particular and partly because diapers run about $1 a piece in Greece!.

So Brad and I had our 3rd wedding anniversary last week! 3 years already. Only 5 since we met! In going with tradition we took a photo infront of the Jewel Box where we were married. Here’s a look back too!

5-25-2008

5-25-2009 (pregnant with Elijah)

5-25-2010 (pregnant with Athena)

5-27-2011 (definitely not pregnant)

Man, I love my family!!!

Over the long holiday my mom’s family came in town. It is so nice to see them. We visited a winery, toured Grant’s Farm, Athena had her first swim…oh, and her first baseball game the other night.

Athena getting snuggled by her Aunt “Pee-pee” after her swim!

Elijah is my shivering fish. It doesn’t matter how cold he is, he doesn’t want to get out the pool!

 

She loved trying to get ahold of EVERYTHING within reach.

While Athena was having some “wine” Elijah stayed with Grandpa and Grandma.

Brad explaining to Elijah why it’s not nice to stomp on bug ( like he saw an older boy doing)…so sweet :)

the elephants were so far away :(

 

Me and my tinkenie toes. – yep, that’s her nick name :)

fun with the water hose with Athena and Eric!

Holding the two crabbiest Cardinal fans

A souvenir from her first game. Just her size (and color)!

 

 

We’re trying to cram the family time together since it will be more than a month before we see Brad again. I’ll admit that I am so, so very sad about leaving him. I’m worried about him being lonely, sad and bored (after the first week of course…after he’s had more sleep than he’s had in years!). It helps when I talk to Becky though…she gets me pumped up and excited about the trip. I hope it’s going to be awesome.

That’s it for now. Time to finish up some laundry and figure out how to pack 500 diapers :)