Stuffy Noses

Both of the girls currently have stuffy noses. It's pitifully sad. One is also sneezing and doesn't yet understand or heed the advice of "cover your mouth". The other is too young to understand that she has the ability of breathing through her nose. So when we lay her down to sleep and the congestion gets at its worst, she begins coughing and gagging. I fear I will be spending the night "sleeping" in the recliner, holding her in an upright position so she will get some rest. In hopes of preventing this, I have a nice tent/fort around her bassinet with the warm humidifier going strong. And words cannot express how much she dislikes the nasal aspirator. But her screaming sure can. I'm not sure if her hoarse-sounding cries are from screaming so much as I've been sucking the snot out of her nose or just part of this cold. Combine this with the issues she's having with dairy/reflux/nausea/heartburn/indigestion/whatever else I'm not really sure, and you can imagine the fun we're having.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me!

To "SableHairAngel" who left the following comment to my previous post...

I don't exactly think Mickey Mouse is the problem, just bad parenting.

Really, she's a kid. They have idols. That's why there is Barney, Mickey Mouse, etc.

Would you like it better if she obsessed over Paris Hilton?


Are you even serious?! You may find it appropriate to have your child walk all over you to get whatever he or she wants, but in our house and home, it is not acceptable. To give a screaming child whatever she is screaming for is only going to reinforce that behavior. While I find her infatuation with Mickey cute, when it gets to the point of her screaming bloody murder because she is being made to lay down for her nap instead of watching his show, I am going to restrict her access to him.

Idolatry is not something that is acceptable in this home. We are teaching her to love the Lord and have no other gods before Him. Other people doing something is not a reason for us to raise our children in the same manner.

You don't know anything about me, my child, or my family other than what you have read in one blog post, so do not tell me how to raise my children.

Good Times

A backpack, two purses, and sunglasses...I have a feeling she's going to like playing dress up

This past Saturday morning we went to the park to let her run around and play

It was quite windy at the park so we had Naomi bundled up in blankets. Jared said she looked like an old British judge.

My Mom had MLK, Jr. Day off so she came up and spent the day with us. As a grandmother, she's willing to pay the arm and a leg price to ride the "choo choo" in the mall with Charlotte. Now that Charlotte has ridden it, we probably won't be able to convince her that those are just hired actors in the train and we're not allowed to ride it. Thanks, Mom... ;)


It's hard to believe how fast our girls are growing up. Naomi turned 7 weeks old yesterday and is already over 14 pounds! At Charlotte's 2 month appointment she weighed only 10 pounds, so Naomi is our little chunk :) Along with her dairy issues, I think she also has some reflux, which has made some feedings loads of fun. There are times when she will nurse on one side, then just start fussing and pulling away, even though she acts like she wants to eat more. It's quite frustrating for the both of us. I had her on a nice 4-hour feeding schedule and by day 3 or 4 of that she even slept through the night (Hallelujah!), but then the reflux came rearing its ugly head and I thought it might be better to have smaller feedings more often. She usually has at least one fussy period each day, most often at night. Thankfully they don't last too long and are usually subsided by a tight swaddle and holding her on her side. She fusses for the first 30 seconds or so after she's swaddled, but then gives in to the comfort and snugness (snugness... it's a word) of the swaddle. And I have to "give props" (give props... I am so hip and with it!) to Jared, who is the official swaddler of the Rollins home. His swaddles last much longer and keep her much happier than mine. I'm swaddle deficient :/

Charlotte is at such a fun stage right now! She is talking up a storm. The words she says and how she says them keep us constantly laughing. She saw a box of bells I bought on clearance so I put one on a string for her to play with. She calls it a "jimmy bell". She's started calling us by our first names, which is amusing but something we're working to stop. Oh, and her obsession with Mickey Mouse is getting comical. After church on Sunday, we asked her what she did at church. Her response was, "Play wif fiends Roman, Hannah... Mickey Mouse!" Roman was there, Hannah was not, and Mickey, well, I didn't see him walking around, but who knows! Along with her talking keeping us laughing are her giggles. She has the most infectious laugh. Someone even came over to our table in a restaurant to tell us that they couldn't see her or what she was laughing at, but they were laughing just from hearing her laugh.

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I typed up everything above the dotted line this morning before we left for lunch with Jared. When we returned home I let her watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I fed Naomi before nap time. I was hoping to coordinate her nap with Naomi's so that I could get in a good nap as well. No such luck. She started crying as soon as I put her down, which she has done for the past three days, but is very unusual for her before now. But she fought the nap with a vengeance. I'm talking blood-curdling screaming like someone was trying to chop her leg off. I blame Mickey Mouse. She was screaming and crying, asking for Mickey. She received a few spankings through the ordeal (probably deserved a few more than she actually got) because she wouldn't lay down when I told her to, was screaming ridiculously and needlessly, and just being an all-around brat. At one point I walked into her room just in time to catch her throwing her cross and blanket overboard as she was trying to climb over herself (she climbed over Sunday afternoon too...). I told her that was not acceptable, but a few minutes later I was in my and Jared's room wrapping up Naomi for her nap (which we all now know was a pretty lame swaddling job) and in walks Charlotte, like nothing is out of the ordinary. I was at my wit's end by that point so after putting Naomi to bed, I made Charlotte pick up all of her toys in the living room and put them in her room. I let her grab her crayons and one coloring book to bring out to the living room and told her that was the only thing she would be allowed to play with for the rest of the day and there would be no Mickey Mouse either. Over the next five minutes she asked to go into her room twice and for Mickey once. But it didn't take long for her to look like this...



So after that outburst about Mickey, I no longer find her obsession with him comical. His show is banned from our house for an undetermined number of days. She may not understand the correlation between no Mickey for the rest of the week and her bad behavior today, but it's not a bad idea to limit how much she sees of him anyway. Geez, I didn't think we'd have to worry about her obsessing over boys for at least ten more years! So now the question is do we convert the crib to a toddler bed, keep her in the crib (with the paranoid mother in me worrying about her breaking her neck on one of her dives overboard), or buy a crib tent (with that same paranoid mother worried about the fire hazard of having her zipped up in anything)?

I'm going to a ladies' Bible study tonight on James. Tonight's verses are James 1:2-4...
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing."

Appropriate timing, no?

I'm Kind of a Big Deal!

Yesterday evening I realized my cell phone was in my purse in my closet so I checked it just to make sure I didn't have any missed calls or texts. I saw that I had 5 missed calls and 3 voicemails and started to get worried. I rarely get called on my cell but when I do it's usually my mom (Hi, Mom!) and she'll call our home line if I don't answer the cell. So I hurriedly check the voicemails and they were all about the same thing...

My senior year high school weightlifting team was voted Gainesville Sun's Girls' Weightlifting Team of the Decade!

2004 Keystone Heights High School: In the inaugural season of the sport, the Indians finished as the FHSAA state runners-up. They are the only area team to finish second at the state finals and Keystone Heights' 22 points is the highest point total by a state runner up in the six-year existence of the sport. Brittany Meng won an individual state championship at the 119-pound weight class. She bench pressed a then-state record of 135 pounds and added a state-finals record of 165 pounds in the clean (which was was discontinued after that season in favor for the clean and jerk) for a 300-pound total. Jaime Grogan (270-pound total) was the state runner up to Meng, while Erica Seypura (340) was the state runner up in the 183-pound class. Kayla Couey (345) placed third in the 139-pound class, with Kasey Fagan sixth (345) in the unlimited class, Meagan Greer seventh (225) at 101 pounds and Kristina Ford seventh (320) at 199 pounds. Other Keystone Heights lifters that qualified for the state meet included Renee Dowell (250) in the 129-pound class, Brenda Ward (275) in the 139-pound class, Ashlee Grant (285) in the 154-pound class and Liza Wheeler (315) in the 199-pound class.

“I think that season was a season of a lifetime. To have that many athletes working towards a common purpose with an awesome work ethic, that's a coach's dream. They were an awesome group of kids, they had the heart of a lion and they were a lot of fun to coach.”— Terri Parrish, coach

The article is a bit deceptive saying that the sport has only been in existence for six years. It has only been sanctioned, recognized by the FHSAA as a sport, for six years. Before that, north and south Florida each had a "State Competition". I lifted on the team from my 8th grade to senior year and in those five years, I only lost one regular season meet. It was to a fellow teammate, Jaime Grogan, who took second place to me every meet, so although I was disappointed to not take first, I was really excited to lose to her. I probably would have cried if I lost to anyone else, but I could be happy for her so it took the sting away :) Enough bragging on myself...

Something else that the article doesn't mention is that our team was undeafeated in the regular season. But not just for the 2004 season. Keystone hadn't lost a meet in the (at the time) 8 years of its existence. I'm not sure if they're still undefeated, but I know they were for at least several years afterwards. Keystone breeds some strong chicks!

I love being able to say that I was a state champion weightlifter. It's something that I realize has no eternal significance, but it always makes me smile to see the look on people's faces when they hear that a 5'1" non-body-builder-type competed in weightlifting and actually won a state championsihp. Have you ever played the game "Two Truths and a Lie" as an ice breaker? Me winning State is always one of my truths. My lie is usually that my mom is an ex-nun :)

Why My House Is A Mess

Because my free time is spent taking pictures like this instead of cleaning :)





But when you have little girls with smiles like these, how could you want to do anything else?

Our BIG Little Girl

Charlotte at 2.5 months
Photo by Pam Saxon

Naomi, in the same outfit, at one month and four days, and she fills it out completely! I can't believe how much bigger Naomi is than Charlotte was!

Our Girls

Here are some pictures of our girls from the past few weeks. I'll eventually get around to posting about all of our Christmas adventures, but it might be a couple more days. I have a list that is miles long of things that I need to get done around the house. If any of the mommas out there have any advice for how to keep the kiddos alive and well and a clean home with at least one home-cooked meal a day, please pass your wisdom on!

Making pancakes
I think we'll have another thumb-sucker on our hands


"I ♥ Daddy"
Adorable bow by BOWquet. Viviane is a friend of mine from church and she makes the cutest bows you've ever seen! Lots of the cute boutique style bows without the uppity boutique price :)

Building towers just to knock over

Charlotte's first taste of Nutella... Have you had that stuff before? It's a hazlenut chocolate spread and straight from Heaven. SO good!

After Naomi's first bath. She cried a little bit during her first bath, gave one protest cry during her second, but has since seemed to enjoy bathtime. It's quite the change from Charlotte who cried during bathtime for probably her first year.

I love this face!

She fell asleep with her arm propped up like that

Charlotte fell asleep watching some morning cartoons :)

Charlotte insisted that Naomi wanted to hold her drink

One of Naomi's sweet smiles! Still not sure that they're intentional, but how precious is this! We have an almost identical picture of Charlotte and Jared (with more of his face showing:)

Charlotte's bedhead a few mornings ago. Bad hairday, much?

Sisterly love!

Charlotte rarely smiles for pictures when asked to, so of course when she finally is smiling, Naomi has a scowl on her face

We went for sushi last night and Charlotte had a blast playing with the chop sticks

She decided to take her nap early again today... I don't know why she won't just tell me she's tired!


And a quick story... This morning Charlotte was being just a little too quiet so I went in her room to check on her. She was standing on the back of her rocking horse, about a height of 2 feet off the ground, so that she could reach the light switch. The turtle stool her Auntie Arin and Uncle Dusty gave her for Christmas was out in the garage so she had to make due with what she had available. I suppose the rocking horse was the next best thing.

Naomi's First Month

It has been forever and a day since I last posted, but I'm just going to play the "new baby card". How long can I get away with that? ;) I'll try to do a post to catch up on all the goings-on of Christmas, but today's post must be about our sweet second born. It's hard to believe that Naomi is one month old today! I have loved how shortly after Jared and I were married and then when Charlotte and Naomi were born, it didn't take long to not remember what it was like before each of those life-changing events. Did that make any sense?

Naomi, as sweet as can be, has lost her status as the perfect child :) She's not been too bad, but has started to show her fussy side. I think most of her fussing, though, can be attributed to gassiness. For some reason she doesn't latch well on the left side so she ends up taking in a lot of air. I think I'll see a lactation consultant pretty soon to try to get it figured out. She has also started to show her preference for being held. While I do love to cuddle with and hold her, there are times when I have to get myself ready or change Charlotte's diaper or cook dinner (though in all honesty, I haven't been doing much cooking lately!) and I just can't hold her. She's much better about being put down for a little while than Charlotte was, but still causes some frustration, though I'm sure all babies do.

She has given us some of the cutest smiles in the world, but I'm not positive any of them were deliberate yet. I don't care, though, I'm enjoying them whenever they come. :) Jared and I have spent lots of time on the couch just staring at and laughing at the faces she makes.

Charlotte is still being as sweet as can be with Naomi. If I get Charlotte out of her crib in the mornings and don't have Naomi in my arms, she asks, "Where's Sisser?" (We've yet to convince her that "Sisser" is actually named "Naomi"). She hates to hear Naomi cry and is sometimes too helpful in trying to calm her down by bouncing the bouncy seat or swinging the swing a little too much. A few days ago I was walking Naomi around the living room to calm her down and noticed my little Mini Me with her baby doll copying my every move. When I swayed, she swayed. When I shushed, she shushed. She gives Naomi kisses all the time and has even started sharing her cross. For those who know how attached Charlotte is to her "Comfort Cross", you know that's a big deal!

This first month as a mother of two has been a lot of fun, but it is quite exhausting, as expected. There just aren't enough hours in the day for feedings, burpings, laundry, cleaning, cooking, and that long lost thing called sleeping. The feedings and burpings can't be neglected, but the latter items definitely have been. I'm blessed with a wonderfully patient and understanding husband who has picked up the slack and taken care of a lot of it for me. Unfortunately, he's at the beginning of his two busiest weeks at work so we'll both be exhausted come mid-January.

Well, I tried to get this posted on her one month birthday, but I just looked at the clock and saw that it's 12:01. I'm gonna whip out that "new baby card" again :) But because it's so late, I'll save the picture posting for tomorrow. Well, most likely not tomorrow, but hopefully it won't be another two weeks before I get around to blogging again!