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 :)