Caring for the sprouts and the spouse

Tonight I gave my husband an Anniversary gift of a photo slideshow on DVD. They were all pics of the two of us together. I didn't put in any pictures of us with the baby and I really liked that. We've been married 5 years and I was thrilled with the amount of pictures I was able to put in of just the two of us throughout our relationship. The pics filled up a four minute song. That being said, I had TWO, count them ONE-TWO, pictures of us alone since our baby was born last September. And these two pictures happened to be at the same place on the same day and I purposefully had someone take them because I knew I was going to be doing this gift for our Anniversary. It made me think two things:

1) I need to take more pictures of my husband and I.

2) I was thinking about an Oprah show I saw a year or so ago. An author of a book about marriage and parenting was on the show. She said it was most important to love your spouse, and your children second. Women in the audience were up in arms about it. I saw the author's point. I mean of course you would do anything for your children and you put so much time and effort into caring for them. I definitely spend more time with my child in the day than my husband. BUT, I do see keeping our marriages strong as being so very vital. A happy marriage can definitely affect our parenting and our children. I think marriage can affect all aspects of our health too. As a fairly new parent, I sometimes see seasoned families and wonder what the parents do to keep their marriages thriving or what they don't do that makes their marriage suffer.

I don't know if I really have a point, but just wondered if anyone had thoughts on the subject.

Number 2

My son is just five months old and since we moved to AZ 2 months ago he has been having irregular bowel movements. I know, too much information, but I haven't yet found a pediatrician to go to ask about this sordid topic. When he does have them, the output is fairly normal. No dry, seedy, pellet-like, etc. stuff. The problem is that he only has them about once a week, if that. The first time it happened I gave him a suppository after 8 days. I was starting to freak out. Eight days is a long time to go. Since then (the end of June) if he hasn't had a BM by day 8 then I give him a suppository to help things along. I keep thinking I need to let him do it on his own, but then think I am a bad mom for not doing anything. Today (day 6 since his last one) he grunted, made "I'm hard at work" faces, whined, and kept stiffening his body all afternoon. No luck, nothing in his diaper. Before this started happening he would have a BM about every 3-4 days.

Basically, I don't know what to do. I am breastfeeding him. I introduced solids about 2 weeks ago and then stopped one week ago until his BM is a little more regular. I don't want to add to any possible constipation. I worry about the heat here in AZ so I have been trying to supplement nursing with water. He has plenty of wet diapers so at this point I am not worried about hydration.

Anyone have insight or experience?

New blog

Hey everyone, just thought that I would let everyone know that I have started a family blog. http://hickstexasadventures.blogspot.com

Come and enjoy the fun :)

Bedtime

What time is bedtime for your kids?

Wednesday Weekly

If you could pick a new first name for yourself, what would it be?

Post-Potter Depression

I found this blog surfing and wanted to share. I have felt so sad that Harry is done and there won't be any more books so I'm excited to discover some new series that I'll hopefully enjoy as well! Happy Reading!

File Folder Activities

I don't know if any of you are in the same situation as us but I thought I would share what I found just in case. Sacrament meeting can get very long with my almost 2-year old so I've been looking for things she can do that are quiet and will keep her entertained. Yesterday I had a couple of file folder activities for her and they worked great, but they weren't very churchy (they were working on letters and numbers). Anyway, I found this site http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp that has church activities as well. It's way easy to do - basically just print (or print then color if you don't have a color printer) then get them laminated so they last. I found the Office Max offers free lamination on Thursdays until Sept 13 (I thought at first that it was only for teachers but I just asked when I got there and they let me do it for free). I am really excited to have some new activities for my daughter and these are so within my budget!!