Breakfast, snacks, complaining & gossiping

Soo... what do you and your family eat for breakfast?? I am so tired of cereal, especially since it only fills me up for an hour. I do love grapenuts, but they get old pretty quickly. I'd eat bacon and homefries every day if it were healthy and cheap, but it's not. I can't eat anything with milk in it, but I can substitute butter and milk with the fake stuff. So tell me, what do you eat that's filling and healthy-ish?

And what about snacks?? I'm on a nut cluster, grapes, and Ritz crackers with pepperoni kick.. but I want new "healthy" snacks. I eat very often, and I eat a lot, so I need to be making healthier choices :)

 Even though this blog isn't about them, I have to post pictures!! :)

 Sometimes her hair is red!! Sometimes blonde.. sometimes brown!

 Seriously delicious tamales. Colten kept asking for "moy" and dug the husk out of the trashcan while I was nursing Clara. Sweet boy is talking so much lately!

Clara sporting her Vera shoes and onesie from great grandma temple! LOVE.

Ok, so now onto complaining. How do you break the habit?! I don't walk around complaining to anyone I see, but I do complain a lot to Andrew and those I talk to daily. I complain that I'm tired, the babies won't sleep, we're poor, I'm hungry & there's nothing to eat, and that Andrew works too much. Dumb stuff. I need to stop. I am so, so blessed. My 24 hours with no complaining went really well.. maybe I should just try that every single day? What helps you look at your life more positively?

Gossiping. It's a tricky topic. Sometimes people need to vent. Sometimes friends confide in one another. Sometimes people drive us insane and we want to tell someone why. Sometimes we talk badly about others to make ourselves feel better. Sometimes people talk about those you know and you might actually agree with the negative points they are making. Sometimes you might totally disagree. Sometimes you try to say something positive about the person that is being targeted, but it doesn't help the situation. Sometimes you just "listen" and aren't sucked in. Sometimes you are sucked in. Sometimes I wonder what people say about me when I leave the room after I hear what some say about others. Sometimes I need to be more bold. Sometimes  I need to stand up for people. Sometimes I need to walk away. I need to be better always. How do you avoid the trap of gossiping? I'm not talking about sharing situations in confidence with good friends or  casual conversations about friends' lives. I'm talking about nasty, nothing-but-mean, gossiping. I am not remotely close to being perfect in this area..It's something I REALLY want to work on, so help me :)

Searching for #3..

For about 6 weeks the strangest thing has been happening to me many, many times each day. While I'm holding/nursing Clara and reading/talking to Colten, I find myself listening and looking for "the baby". If I hear a little noise, I perk up my ears to see if "the baby" is crying upstairs. Then I look down and see that my 2 children are right in front of me. I peek over at the swing to check on "the baby" while I'm smiling at Clara and listening to Colten play in the corner. Each time I do it I think to myself "you only have two kids & they're both right here, are you going crazy?!". I think it happens mostly on "good" days where I like AND love both babies and can't believe having 2 kids is so easy... and not so much on "bad" days, where I might not like one or either of them :) We know we are going to have more children, so I don't think it's a sign that one is missing from our family. It's just weird how often I find myself doing it!

 (Arty brought the tractor over to help my dad and Colten got to ride in it on daddy's lap!!!)

 

2 months :)

 This is the best sibling picture I have of them, haha!

 Happy, scrumptious baby girl <3

 Andrew says Clara likes being on his shoulders :)

 (Colten was introduced to Sesame Street 2 weeks ago, and he LOVES it)

Speaking of "bad" days, there have been many more of those recently. I was sick last week, which made things hard. I knew that I needed to sleep to get better, but Clara didn't want to sleep when Colten napped. It was hard. Colten has been pretty moody and clingy, too, when we're at home. He can be the happiest baby in the world, then instantly a terror who tries to do everything he knows he's not supposed to all at once. He'll run up and bang the tv, run to the fish tank and take out things he shouldn't, go under the sink and get out the chemicals, and take Clara's binky all the matter of minutes. Stinker. Overall, he's still a super wonderful little boy. He looooves being outside & is very brave at the park now. He thinks he's big enough for all of the equipment. He also loves to smell flowers and he loves finding the spider and "cricket" in the Mercer Mayer book my parents have.

  

 This is one of my favorite pictures of Colten ever, because it captures his every day, in the moment look. We tried to recreate the picture with Clara, and it was harder than we expected. This will do though :) They are the exact same age in these pictures- 2 and a half months. Look how different they look from each other!! It's crazy.

 

Clara is still very easy. She has her rough days/moments, but usually she is relaxed, happy, and a great sleeper. A few weeks ago she started waking up a lot at night and I thought I was going to die, but she's back to 1-2 times a night over a 10-12 hour period.  I am ready to have her in her own room! Hopefully in a couple weeks we'll be in our new home and I can make that happen! I'll have to blog about the house soon, but it's time for me to take a nap. Today is a good day, thank goodness :)