Rollin', rollin', rollin'....

He rolled!! He doesn't get very much tummy time at all, so this was a big surprise. Aiden always hated tummy time (didn't roll over until 5-6 months), so I've never been in the habit of doing it. I had JUST put him on his tummy and I looked away for a second. I looked back just in time to see him going onto his back! I was so shocked! He did it like he's been doing it forever. If I'd only gotten the video camera out sooner. We put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again, but instead he just attempted to crawl. I guess he thinks he's mastered rolling, so why not move on to the next thing? I'll try harder to get a picture of it from now on.

My strange little children

Yesterday was my 3rd Mother's Day and my children reminded me that I am very lucky to have such.....unique offspring. Take a look (click on any photo to enlarge):

We awoke to find Aiden asleep on his floor amongst his typical destruction.

Nathan spent some time on Grandpa's lap making weird little faces while he watched everyone talk.

Any time Nathan is in my bed, he will grab my pillow and pull it over his face. He sometimes does this with blankets in his swing and has done it since he was about 2 weeks old. I guess he likes it. And yes, I do have a Johnny Depp pillow (thanks Laura!!).

We spent Mother's Day at the in-laws with lots of family. We had lots of very yummy food (the burgers were fantastic!) and fun conversation. Aiden had spent about an hour the day before making Mother's Day cards for all the mommies and grandmas, so those were fun to give to everyone. We gave grandma a picture frame of a few photos of the kids. Later in the day, we went to Baskin Robbins to get me a Mother's Day ice cream cake (oreo!) and I bought myself another ringtone for my cell phone (I have a hard time justifying spending $3 on one ringtone, so it was good to make it a small gift since John pays for it anyway). I also received a pair of gorgeous Coach shoes from Laura! Very 1940s - I love it!

I hope all the other mommies had a great Mother's Day!

Aiden's way of decorating

When I went into Aiden's room this morning to get him up, this is what I found. And yes, his dresser IS tipped over. I was wondering whether or not we needed to get stabilizing hooks for his furniture. I guess he's given me my answer. To those of you who haven't yet had the joy of being a parent to a 2 1/2 year old, you're certainly in for a treat.

Can't I just get a new one?

Ever since I was about halfway through the pregnancy with Nathan, my back has been a source of daily pain. After he was born, it was really bad. I figured it was from going through such an intense birth, not to mention that it was all back labor anyway. But even after my 6 week post-partum visit, during which I was told that everything was A-OK, my back still hurt. Over the past few weeks, it's gotten to the point where I'm in tears at the end of the day. I figured I was just in need of a good professional massage. But at the beginning of last week, it hit the point where I couldn't even have John rub my back without being unable to move afterwards. My spine was sensitive to touch. I tried to get my back to pop and when it did, I blacked out. Only for a few seconds, but that still can't be normal.

I finally got the nerve up to call a doctor and make an appointment. For some reason, I felt like not knowing was better than possibly finding out that I needed surgery or something drastic like that. But my kids need me in good shape, so I went.
I told her everything and she felt of my spine and had me do some movements for her. It turns out that I do have some muscle damage in my back, mainly from the pregnancy. It's not permanent - yet. However, if I'm not proactive in treating it, the damage will continue further and further up my back and then it will be permanent and I'll need specialized treatment. Basically, I'm just injuring my back more and more each day by, well, doing mom stuff.
She said that typically, she'd give me heavy painkillers and tell me to take a week off to lay in bed and let the muscle begin to heal. But I have two small children at home and I'm nursing, so that plan won't work. That means I'm going to have to do a little more work in order to fix my back. Here's the at-home treatment plan I was given:

Take ibuprofen with every meal for two weeks, use a heating pad (or thermacare heatpads that stick to the body) during the day as much as possible, and practice the nine pages (!!) of back exercises created for sports injury/trauma. At the end of two weeks, the pain should be easing up. At that time, I am to do yoga three times weekly to begin to build the muscles up in my back. After I've been doing that for two weeks, I am to incorporate aerobic core exercises to build up my abdominal muscles. She said that if I follow this plan, I should be able to basically reverse the muscle damage and get rid of most, if not all, of the pain.

A lot of work, but I think I can do it. Although, I'm thinking that narcotics and a week in bed sounds really good right about now!