Kids for Rent!

This week has been one of those weeks that if gypsies were roaming through the area I would have happily sold my kids to them...for a week at least.  Bryon had an out of town golf outing from Friday until Monday night and if I haven't mentioned it before, Kayla is a major daddy's girl.  So by the second night we were having meltdowns for daddy and terrible sleeping.  Top this off with a grouchy Abby and it made for a long weekend.  We tried to fill it with art projects and walks to the park as much as we could.  But never the less there was a lot of crying and temper tantrums (and me rocking in the corner!).  However, we survived and daddy eventually came home. 

Abby has gotten to start the adventure of eating solids, which has moved our bath time up about an hour every night.  I am trying to do more of the baby led weaning style rather than make a bunch of purees. I've started off by steaming most of the veggies she has tried and just mashing them up with a fork then letting her feed herself.  Because of her swallowing coordination issues her GI doctor thinks the thicker substances should be easier for her to eat.  So far it is going slow and she seems to have some issues with textures, but I am hopeful that as she keeps eating this will get better!  But as you can see letting her feed herself equals a much bigger mess.  However, the peas were a hit!  

In between the rain we have had this week we took some walks to collect leaves for an art project.  This project quickly turned into a pinterest fail for me. It started out as we were going to make leaf people, this quickly turned into let's make it of our family and include our dog and cat!  This tends to happen to me I can't leave a little idea alone, I make it way too big!  Needless to say that between a screaming baby and temper tantrum throwing toddler this project was not completed at all!

One of our rainy day projects is a train.  Kayla has a ride on car that we bought for $5 at Once Upon A Child when she was a baby.  We use rings and connect empty diaper boxes.  Normally she puts her animals, dolls, and other toys into the boxes; however since little sister Abby can sit up now she has become the newest passenger on the train.  To add a twist to it this week we decided it was a crazy hat train and got all of Kayla's crazy hats out and put them on while riding the train around.  I get the fun job of being the caboose so I can make sure Abby doesn't suffer from whiplash with Kayla's constant starting and stopping. 

You know how a good haircut can put you in the best mood, let me tell you, a bad haircut can ruin a day!  I had the idea of getting bangs added to my hair because I have been growing it out for 3 years.  Well the lady who cut my hair had a different idea of a trim and add bangs...SHE CHOPPED MY HAIR!  And not only chopped it, but chopped it all uneven!  Needless to say I was not mentally prepared for my long hair to just be gone so it put me in a terrible mood. All day Kayla kept asking me what happened to the lady.  She even kissed my hair to make it feel better.  And of course daddy taught her to say "I like your mullet mommy" because that is what my current style looks like!  However, by the end of the day I found a really cute short haircut style and will be going to a friend to cut it for me (who actually knows how to cut hair the right way!).  So by Sunday I can stop hiding this terrible cut in a ponytail.  The one positive, I do like the bangs :)

The end of our week started to look up though as I woke up Thursday and decided on a cold day like this what better to do then spend the afternoon with my best friend, Melissa (originally supposed to head to the Cider Mill but Abby woke up with puffy eyes and stuffed up nose)!  Everyone needs a friend like Melissa.  We have talked about how our friendship, while we work hard to make sure we spend time together, is "easy".  We don't hold grudges or keep score of who did what favor for each other, we just enjoy our time together and can be honest with each other.  She is so easy to talk to and I know she plays a HUGE part in my kids lives.  Kayla adores her and can often be seen riding her bike to Melissa's house (which I need to add is way too far from me!).  I am very very thankful for Melissa being in my life.  So we spent a fun Thursday afternoon together eating lunch and hanging out.  And of course a trip to Costco so I can eat every sample they offer.  Just spending a lazy afternoon with her helped to kick me out of my funk of wanting to sell my kids.

Friday we took a drive to St. John, MI to Uncle John's Cider Mill.  When you live in Michigan you have to go to the Cider Mill in the Fall.  Unfortunately Michigan weather decided it should be winter, so it was freezing.  For some reason toddlers have no understanding of how cold they are so when we met up with my friend who has a two year old son, him and Kayla of course wanted to be outside the whole time.  We got to stay warm at the beginning for a little bit by enticing them with donuts and cider.  My friend Alexis is a photographer so we got some great pictures.  Of course poor Alexis was probably freezing bc she was laying on the wet grass getting most of them.  We did end up letting them play outside for a little bit but when their hands were purple it was time to pack up the cars and head back home.  Luckily there are so many cider mills around us I know we will take more trips. 

Fall Means Outdoor Art Time!

Ahhh I didn't think this was going to be so hard to keep up on, but I blame Fall TV for being back!  Well that and me and the girls have been busy busy busy with our arts and crafts! Our first project was the butterfly painting you can see here.  I wanted to do this project because poor Abs has bare white walls in her room (as if the second child needs another reason to say she is less loved when she gets older, I never finished her room!).  Obviously I highly recommend doing this project outdoors.  Kayla loved doing this project and while I had these grand ideas of how great this would turn out...you can see it isn't a professional painting :)  However, we did add a green background to make this looks a little better.  I enjoyed doing this project because it was one that we got Abby involved in.  So on the bright side Abby now has this beautiful hand made art hanging in her room along with the her name that the hospital made for her in the ICU.  So slowly her room is becoming more decorated.

After finishing this project Kayla was begging to paint some more so I decided to let her have free reign on one of the canvas we bought.  Below is the finished project.  I absolutely love this painting.  It was so great to get to see her just let loose and paint whatever she wants.  I tend to try to control art projects because of the idea of how they should look that i create in my head.  But this painting was amazing and if she wouldn't have added the purple in I was going to hang it in our living room.  It is proudly hanging on Kayla's art wall and she loves to point it out to me and show everyone that comes over. (fun tip I love using old egg cartons for painting!)

We have also been working on Halloween decorations and they are still in the making.  But so far we have made hand print ghost and hand print spiders.  I'm' working on cutting them out and then we plan on stringing them up with some twine to make Halloween garland!  This is another project I recommend working on outside.  I also recommend either an art smock or just letting the kids get as close to naked as possible (naked art a fun toddler activity!).  And the last hand print art we worked on was a surprise for daddy who got to enjoy a weekend golf with the guys (or as Kayla referred to them the girls).  We painted yellow hand prints into a flower shape and then we used the seeds from our sunflowers and we glued them into the middle to create our own sunflowers!  Daddy loved them when he got home. 

Well that is what us Zielonka gals have been working on this past couple of weeks.  Outside of our art projects we also have spent most of our afternoons taking walks around the neighborhood.  Kayla loves to push her baby doll stroller while I push Abby in her stroller.  We have been collecting leaves, twigs, pine cones, and acorns on our walks so we can use them for future art projects. 

While I have been enjoying doing our Fall arts and crafts with Kayla, I have also been struggling with Abby.  We had our follow up appt with her GI dr and unfortunately Miss Abs is still not gaining weight.  At this point it is a mystery to everyone what is causing this.  I was exclusively nursing her for the month before surgery and she was gaining weight beautifully and even for about a month after surgery, however in the past two months she has dropped from the 54th% in weight down to the 14th%.  And like I said it seems to be a mystery as to what is causing her issues.  We have made some feeding changes and Abs is def not happy with some of them.  BUT we are getting to start the fun stage of solid foods!  She is shocking me and refuses bananas and apples but loved her peas tonight.  As you can see most of them ended up on her face, or in her eyes, ears and hair.  Hopefully through the few changes we have made we can get my little peanut to start gaining some weight!  It would be great to make it longer than a week between doctor appointments.  :)

Well you can see the past couple weeks have been filled with dirty clothes from art projects and eating.  Hoping now on I can keep up with this blog a little more often!  Hope everyone else is enjoying this beautiful fall weather as much as we have been!

Everyday is an adventure around here!

Where to start??? Well as some of you know I am married to my husband Bryon and we have two amazingly awesome girls. Kayla is our spunky 2 1/2yr old who keeps us on our toes and constantly in motion. Abby is our 6 month old that keeps us on our toes for many other reasons, as I will explain below. Here is a little background on this thing I call my family.

Abby was born with a lung defect (congenital lobar emphysema) and at one month old underwent surgery to remove the middle lobe of her right lung. The recovery was slow and long but today at 6 months old other than a few swallowing issues along with a paralyzed right diaphragm you wouldn't know she underwent an 8 1/2hr surgery 5 months ago. She is an amazing baby and I know she will grow up to fight for what she wants. On top of her medical issues she has a severe case of acid reflux that we are still battling with. Here she is 2 days post surgery. And below that is where we are now at 6 months....quite a change :)



I never imagined two babies could be more different. I thought for sure that just like with Kayla, we would have Abby on a nice 2 nap schedule with a good feeding routine and sleeping through the night by 4 months. However, Abby forgot to inform me she has her own plans...some of which include rarely napping, eating at random times through out the day and only sleeping through the night on the rare occasion. She is lucky she is so darn cute so it makes the sleep deprivation a little easier to handle. She has her moments of happiness through out all that she has been through and I know someday I will look back and all the screams and crying will be a distant memory. (at least I hope) I know in the long run these two amazing girls will grow up to be great friends, although I am pretty sure every time Abby cries in her life Kayla will tell her "there is no crying in baseball!" (thank you Melissa!).



Saving the craziest for last we have wild Kayla. Don't blink or she will be gone! The girl never sits still...seriously never! I can remember when she was 1 she would carry her toys around playing because she didn't want to sit and play with them. She has the biggest and best imagination I have ever seen (I like to think she gets that from me) though and she is always good for a laugh just when I need it. However, with the wildness comes the fun terrible twos...all I can say is I am in for it when she becomes a teenager!



Anyways, you are probably wondering what's the point of all this. Well if you can imagine going through all of this with Abby has been a tough battle for me. When you have a high maintenance baby you can't help but be challenged with feeling, stressed, exhausted and running low on patience. These are all issues I have been struggling with since bring Abby home from the hospital. There is nothing worse than having a baby who cries for hours sometimes and you literally can do nothing to soothe her. Add to that an antsy toddler who thinks mommy is a human jungle gym and our days can get interesting. But through all of this, I am attempting to change my way of thinking. That's where this idea of "furiously happy" comes into play. I came across a blog that had a video of said blog (have to try to find this blog again to get the link) speaking at some conference. She talks about this theory of being furiously happy and doing silly random things that will put a smile on your face. Who cares if everyone else thinks you are crazy.

From that I realized that is how I want my girls to grow up. I want them to go out and randomly have a dance party in the pouring rain or wear there rain boots on the sunniest day of summer if they feel the urge. I want them to feel like it is ok to be who they are and encourage that imagination.

So why this blog? This blog is just my outlet to share our trials and tribulations and remember some of these fun moments we have together. I want to be able to share some of the fun ideas I have either come up with spur of the moment or have found on blogs or pintrest (the best thing ever!), and through friends. I also want this to be a place where I can get out that frustration and anxiety I have felt with everything that has gone on in Abby's short life thus far. So if you have made it this far, congratulations you have survived my first blog entry!!! More to come in the future :)