Time Out

Time Out

From the ripe old age of one (maybe before) we started giving Ruthie time outs for disobedience. 

Lately, her timeouts have been related mostly to throwing her toys

So....

Today, Easter Sunday, April 24th 2011

We were all hanging out in the living room having a grand old time. Ruthie crawled up on the couch next to her daddy to cuddle up. Her shoe fell off...

Jon tossed the shoe on the floor 

Ruthie immediately said, "daddy we don't throw shoes" "time out daddy"

"go sit on the steps"

Jon gently explained to Ruthie that Ruthie doesn't give timeouts.

Ruthie followed with "say your sorry" 

Daddy said "I'm sorry"

Ruthie said "sorry for what daddy?"

Daddy said "Daddy is sorry for throwing your shoe"

We LOVE you Ruthie!! 

You are soooo cute!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Easter Egg Hunts, Coloring Eggs, Easter Baskets

Oh My!

What a fun Easter season! 

This is Jon's favorite holiday and for great reason.

Christ our Lord has Risen!! He is alive!

It is our prayer that Ruthie and Brayden come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior at a very young age. 

So here we are- excited to celebrate our Risen Lord. 

We have been reading a great book about Easter (thank you Gaga and Opa Stube) to Ruthie. 

I've been trying to teach her that we celebrate Easter because Jesus lives. Every once in a while she'll point to her book and say Jesus lives mommy!! 

It's such a huge responsibility being a mommy. Ultimately it is her decision that we pray she will make to follow Jesus but I as her mother and Jon as her father (Brayden too) have to be living examples. HUGE!

Ava and Ruthie had a special indoor Easter Egg Hunt. It was so much fun to watch the girls "hunt" for eggs... well, more like find an egg, open it up and try to eat the special treat inside. 

This year, I decided to buy some eggs for Ruthie to color. I thought it would be a fun activity to do together and boy was I right! Ruthie had a wonderful time dropping the eggs into the special colored buckets! We only had one casualty! One! Ruthie's grandparents, Gaga and Grandpa Marshall came up to watch as Ruthie literally dropped the eggs into the special colors. It was over quickly- A dozen and a half eggs goes by quickly but we all had a great time. Originally I was going to hide these eggs the following morning, but ... well... I think we will wait another year :) - so I hid the plastic eggs again.

To begin our Easter morning together as a family, Ruthie slept in!! I had to wake her at 9:00 so that I could quickly give her a bath and get her ready for church!! It was wonderful, but not how I planned out my morning. We got everyone ready, minus Brayden. We figured we'd wait until the last moment to get him ready... just in case! After getting ready, Ruthie went down the steps to "find" her Easter Basket. She then ate breakfast (daddy fed her) and then as mommy was nursing Brayden and getting him ready, Ruthie went around and started finding her eggs and eating all the special treats inside as she went along! Oh well! 

Happy Easter Everyone

Love, The Stubes

Jonathan, Erin, Ruthie, and Brayden 

Sister & Brotherly LOVE

Sister & Brotherly

LOVE

It is so wonderful seeing how much Ruthie is starting to enjoy Brayden more and more. She has started kissing him on a VERY regular basis and even on occasion has asked to hold him and followed through with her request! 

No Dairy- 9 & 10 Weeks

NO DAIRY

A week after Brayden's 2 month doctors appointment I decided to take my little man in to the doctors to check his weight since he wasn't eating well.  My poor sweet boy started screaming in between feedings and was fussy while I nursed. 

I took my sweet guy in and as I expected, he dropped two ounces. 

7 lbs 5 oz

I am happy to report after a week without dairy- 100% dairy free Mr. Mr. gained two ounces and is doing much better. The poor guy is on a lot of medication right now as we're trying to eliminate all acid in his belly and also take away the gas pains he's been suffering with until we can completely get the dairy out of my breast milk. ( Interesting fact- it takes 6 weeks to get dairy out of your system). Hopefully by June he'll be able to go off the zantac and I'm expecting within a week or two he won't need the gas drops. 

So yes, we are dairy free until Brayden is six months old. At that time, we'll start reintroducing dairy and see how the little fella does. Hopefully this is one of those allergies he'll outgrow. 

"I Burped On My Bed"

"I Burped On My Bed"

 (Ruthie wearing Daddy's t-shirt after a night with the flu)

"I burped my bed" those are the precious words my sweet two year old said to me as I entered her room mid-nap after I heard her screaming 1/2 hour after I laid her down. 

What a nightmare as I try to clean up my daughter and her bed only to realize that this "burping" was not a one time explosion and done". She was a mess. Crying, wanting me to hold her, and throwing up over and over. I felt so helpless as I carried her to the bath and held her as she continued to get sick. Thankfully, Brayden was napping and so I could take care of her and get her cleaned up before he woke up to nurse again.

Also, thankfully, I have the greatest friend who walked me through the nightmare of a sick babe. I laid towels on the floor and rocked Ruthie and read her a few books before she said she started to cry and I quickly realized she was going to get sick again. I held her as she gave in and let herself throw up on the towels. It was so sad and right then I wished I could switch places with her. I cleaned her up and then we went downstairs to watch some Barney. I quickly fed Brayden and then the three of us snuggled on the chair. It wasn't until I thought I was going to go crazy (oh yeah... we switched to a dvd of the Wiggles) from the silly dvd that I realized my children were both asleep in my arms.

(Mommy is watching the Wiggles)

Thankfully Daddy got home along with Gaga (bringing Ruthie some Pedisure) soon after the kids woke up again. Ruthie kept begging for water and food- and I hated having to tell her no. An hour or so later I let her try some applesauce. She kept going to the towel but was able to keep it down. Around 8:30 we decided to try and let her go to bed. Jon made her bed and we read her some books and put her down. As Jon was putting her down and tucking her in, she immediately "burped" and we had to start the whole process over again. :(

"I burped my bed again" she said in the sweetest, saddest voice. We cleaned her up and she finally asked to go to sleep. Jon and I prepared for the worst. We decided I would take the first shift and then switch and the Jon would take a turn. To our greatest surprise, Ruthie slept through the night and woke up (early) and is feeling so much better!

She took an earlier nap- but has kept her toast, bananas, and juice down. 

Waiting for her to wake up from her nap to see how she's doing- but thankfully, she is feeling much better.

"I burped my bed"

Brayden- 2 Months

2 Month Blues

(Smiles)

10 lbs 7.9 0z (26%)

22.75 inches (50%)

Brayden- I can't believe two months have gone by so quickly. You're such a sweet boy. I just love staring at you. You are so different yet so similar to Ruthie. I look forward to getting to know you better and better with each passing day. You're amazing and I love you!

Okay- so now for the not so great stuff... so these last few days Brayden's demeanor changed. Brayden has been such pleasant, easy going kiddo. A few days ago he really started to crank. I could tell he seemed uncomfortable but after a few days of screaming, I felt like I was going to lose my mind. As I continued to nurse my little guy, he would pull himself off and cry. I thought I'd go mad. After a few days and continuing to cry, I decided to take him in to see the doctor. Good thing I did- my poor guy has been in a lot of pain. He lost 2 ounces since last week. His acid reflux is really really bad and causing him not to want to eat because of the pain he's in. The doctor gave us a prescription to take away the acid in his tummy so hopefully he'll start feeling much better in 48 hours. Already, we've noticed improvement.  Also- doctor confirmed that he most likely has a dairy allergy and so I am now on a dairy free diet. YUCK! I spent some time crying and then pulled myself together and started doing some research online. Gathered a grocery list and went shopping. I'm not sure how this is going to go, but I have hope. I'll do anything for my little man. He's worth it!! 

Even though Brayden has lost weight- he's growing. He loves to follow Ruthie around the room and she loves the attention. She gently pushes him in the swing and will pet his arm and smile at him. They are my joys and I love them so much.

Saying Goodbye to Po Po

 

Ruthie Mackenzie Stube- after 2 years and 3 months of sucking on a pacifier (your Po) we finally said, goodbye. It was Wednesday night and mommy and daddy had read you books and sang you your night night songs. We kissed you good night and shut the door behind us. Approximately fifteen minutes later we heard you exit your room. I asked you from downstairs to head back to bed. Of course, you cried. After a few minutes, you finally obeyed and went back to bed. Mommy waited until you weren't fussing anymore and then went up to check on you. You were lying in bed. When I entered, you told me that you "wanted another one" Another what? was my question. Like so many other times, I thought you wanted another sound on your sound machine to play, but you then asked me for another po. As I searched for the "missing" po and telling you that you couldn't have another one, I found your po on the floor. I quickly found out why you were sad and wanted "another one"... you chewed your po po. Three holes punctured your precious po. It was then that I decided to make the jump with you. No more po po. That night, I told you that you broke your po po and that now I had to throw it away. We said "goodbye" to po po and kissed it. You didn't cry. You seemed to understand or made the call with me that you were ready for po po to go away. Anyway, shortly after I said goodnight, you fell fast asleep.
The next day, when you woke up and the day got started, I sat you down and talked to you about how you were a big girl now and that Po Po was all gone. You didn't shed a tear and I wondered if you really understood what that meant. At nap time, you asked for po once and I said po po was all gone and you turned over and went to bed. And that was that! You asked for you po here and there and then before anyone could answer you, you said po po was all gone. You are such a big girl! Mommy is so proud of you precious girl.