a place for my thoughts

dragon

2012-01-30T21:03:00.002-05:00

The dragon's name is, "Cat" Naturally.

She loves that book - just like I did when I was little.

I like this picture because I think it captures Abby well.

My three year old...bruised, pant-less, surrounded by toys with her nose in a book.

saturday morning

2012-01-29T07:35:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a good morning - a little lazy, a little productive, a little fun.

The girls and I got up and played downstairs while daddy slept in a little bit. We decided to make a fun breakfast, so we pulled together our resources and had fun with it. Abby was a pretty good little help in the kitchen.

Our Squirrel breakfast. I wish I'd taken a better picture, but the phone was all that was handy.

Abby was quite pleased with it....although I think her favorite part was "raining syrup" on the little critters.

After breakfast, we woke up daddy and I decided to play. I haven't picked up my camera this whole month. I'm not sure why - but it's probably a combo of being sick, being busy, the days being dark and short and just feeling uninspired. But yesterday, I decided I would try to take some snapshots to get the juices flowing again. And we had a fun time.

I let the girls play around on my stripped-down bed and I just snapped. Most of the pictures weren't as technically spot-on as I like - but it doesn't really matter. The blur and the grain, the blown out spots and the missed focus - it all captures that morning pretty well.

And that is something I need to remember. I sometimes feel like if I can't produce an image that is technically sound AND beautiful, then I shouldn't show it or share it or keep it. But I need to remember that sometimes, it doesn't matter if my ISO was too high or if my processing is ambiguous - it's more important that I have captured the memory of my girls playing together.

That being said, a few of my favorites from our Saturday morning shoot.

After our shoot, it was more play time, more laundry time, lunch time, nap time, and then we all went and ran errands. It was a good day, as Saturdays should be.

sisters sweet

2012-01-29T07:18:00.001-05:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

dear girls

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

There are about a ba-jillion things I want to teach you. Some are more important than others. For instance, if you ever have a stained coffee pot - you should know that swirling ice, salt, and a lemon wedge inside will clean it, but that's probably not as important as knowing something like - don't hold grudges. Because grudges? They're useless and only hurt you. But - that's a discussion for another day. Today, I want to tell you a few things about politics.

Yes, politics.

You won't care about politics for a long time. My first political memory was when I was in 4th grade and my teacher took a poll of who we each wanted to win the presidential race. Bill Clinton, being from Arkansas, easily won our little class election, but I remember my teacher asking us why we voted for who we chose. Most, if not all of us, answered "because that's who my parents are voting for" And, you know what? When you're 9 -that's probably ok. But, my teacher's point was that we should never base our opinions just on what the people around us do - we need to learn to think for ourselves, and to think critically.

She was a great teacher.

Your Grandpa is a moderator - he is very good at navigating the waters of strong opinions and simultaneously not offending anyone and not compromising his points of view. It's a skill, an art, perhaps, that not everyone has. I remember when I was in middle school, he taught me that the best way to win an argument was to completely understand the other person's position. You have to know the arguments against your point of view in order to effectively defend them. This is how I convinced them to let me have my first kitten. I wrote a long letter of all the arguments they had against my pet-ownership and provided counterpoints to those arguments. In the end, they were left speechless and I got a kitten.

(ok, maybe they wren't speechless, maybe they were stifling their laughter at my seriousness and dedication and desperate plea for a feline companion. But, I got one in the end, so it matters not.)

I'm getting off track.

Here's what I want you to know.

When you grow up - don't accept what other people say without thinking about it. Especially in the realm of politics. If you like a candidate, know why you like them. Also? and maybe more importantly? Know why other people don't. Research things. And just in case this is still an issue a decade from now - "research" is not the same as "google"

Be informed. Be smart about your opinions.

And when you can do that? When you know not only what you believe, but why? You can stand your ground with confidence.

That being said, don't be afraid to listen to new information, or to change your mind. Always be openminded and respectful of different points of view. If you are informed, you won't be threatened by people who think differently than you. And you will always be surrounded by people who think differently than you. It is what makes this country so great. It's ok to disagree with someone, as long as you know why you disagree with them and that you do so respectfully.

I will try to teach you these things. Both of you. Because they're important. A person who can think critically will do well in life. So, file this away, and know that your daddy and I will do our best to raise you so that this comes naturally to you.

I'm sure it will. You girls are pretty awesome.

Love,
mom

problem solving skills

2012-01-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, a man ran in front of our car after the light at the intersection had turned green. I slammed on my breaks to avoid running him over and he braced his hand on the hood of our car and gave me this look like "sorry about that!" and walked off. I was pretty annoyed. Y'know, I tend to dislike running over people. Abby then asked, "Mommy? Why did that man almost hit us?"

The rest of the conversation when like this:

Me: "I don't know, but he wasn't being very safe"
Abs: "Yeah, he shouldn't go in front of cars. That's dangerous."
Me: "yes, it is. You are absolutely correct"
Abs: (thinking)..."maybe we just need a cage."
Me: "A cage?"
Abs: (still thinking it through)..."Yeah...a cage! Yeah. We'll just get a BIG cage, and put it at the end of the sidewalk. Theeeeeen, all the people will walk into the cage and get trapped."
Me: (laughing) "Well, ok, but how will they get to the other side of the street?"
Abs: "They can't. They're in the cage. But they wouldn't go in the street"
Me: "Ok, sounds like a good idea to me"
Abs: "Yeah! We just need to find a cage. A big one. Maybe at Target or somewhere."

People of Boston, you've been warned. We're looking for a cage.

a compromise

2012-01-25T12:12:00.003-05:00

Tuesdays are playgroup day. Abby loves playgroup. I came home and was surprised that she was still sleeping when it was time for us to get ready to go. I went upstairs to wake Abby and get her dressed, and I found her like this. So sweet.

She fell asleep reading her new books. Since it was time to get ready for playgroup, I decided I would go get Elizabeth ready first and let Abs catch a few more winks, because I just could not disturb such a sweet picture.

But then, I found Elizabeth was also out for the count. With two sleeping beauties, I found that I did not have it in me to wake either of them. Especially after such a traumatic morning of the dr. visits, blood draw, and shots. They needed sleep. But, Abby was going to be so sad about missing playgroup. What to do?

Elizabeth woke up first. We played together while Abby continued to rest. And I tried to figure out how I was going to explain to her why I did not wake her up for playgroup when I know that 1) she looks forward to it so much and 2) the only reason she even took a nap was because she knew she had to sleep in order to go play with her friends afterwards.

Abby eventually woke up, and was, as predicted, devastated that she had missed the chance to go see and play and run and romp with her friends this week. Her bottom lip pouted out, her head hung limp, and her eyes were watering. She said, "but I took a nap! I did, I promise!"

I did what any stellar mother would do and told her that I was sorry, that we would go next week, and that we could go get ice cream.

Because ice cream fixes everything, and I figure that's a healthy message to engrain early.

my hipster in training here....getting ready to go

It was bedtime when we LEFT to go get ice cream. We got caught up in chores, and cooking, and dinner, and talking with my parents, and getting everyone dressed etc. A promise is a promise though. I'm sure nobody thought poorly of me bringing in my 3 year old and baby at 7:30pm and feeding them yogurt and sugar (ok, E just had fruit). Mother of the year right here!

But, y'know what?

It was fun. And that yogurt was amazing. And she wasn't sad anymore.

So, win.

Elizabeth 9 months

2012-01-24T14:02:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth,

Happy 9 months to you! 9 months is a great age. On one hand, you seem so little still - definitely still a baby. Yet. On the other hand, you are getting bigger and stronger and more interactive every day. Your personality is shining through now and it makes you seem older. Then, when I remember that 9 months is only 12 weeks away from you turning 1...I always recount it in my head -Wait, that can't be right - 12 weeks? 3 months? and she's one? Let me count again.

But it's true.

So here are your stats at this juncture in your little life. At 9 months, you are 18 lbs and 29.25 inches long. You wear size 3 diapers and mostly 9-12 month clothing. You have enough hair to spike up and tousle, but not enough to put in a bow or anything. You have two teeth - front and center, on the bottom. Your eyes are still a little hard to describe, but they are a kind of brown and green combo. They look grey in some lights and have flecks of blue in other lights. It's odd, and neat.

You started crawling at 8 months, and 1 month later you are very quick. You can climb stairs, pull up, and cruise furniture. On occasion, you pull-up and let go and stand your ground for several seconds unassisted, until, like a cartoon who has run off a cliff, you fall once you realize that you're no longer holding on. You love to follow your big sister around, it's adorably cliche of you. Abby will crawl on all fours to be on your level, and you will happily follow her lead, grinning with your eyes closed and laughing all the while.

You really are pretty happy. When you smile, your whole face squints. Your eyes close, your nose wrinkles, your smile spans your entire face. It is utterly heart melting. In church on Sunday, daddy was holding you and you were watching people go by for communion. You were content and just watching the world around you. I was walking toward you, surrounded by other people, and you didn't see me right away. Then, you did see me, but you didn't immediately notice it was me, but after about 2 seconds you did and you broke out into this huge smile. Just because you were happy to see me. Keep that up kid, and you may just get spoiled.

You like to play. You have learned to clap, and are very proud of that. At night, when I put you in your crib to slip your sleep-sack on before feeding you a bottle, you clap. I lay you down and you look up at me and say "aaaaaaay" and clap. Because you're excited about the bottle. It's pretty cute. When you laugh, you first smile, and then you smile bigger, and then you smile with your whole face, and your whole body, and when you can not physically contain the smile any more, it slips out in a stifled laugh - but once that happens, you lose it and you just laugh and laugh and giggle. I tickle you a lot.

You love to knock over blocks. You love to knock over anything. You like to undo puzzles that your sister had worked so hard on and destroy train tracks that she has meticulously put together. I see this being the theme in your relationship. Abby takes it in stride. She usually complains about your recent destruction, but then we all laugh and say "she's just playing Destructo!" And Abby thinks playing destructo is pretty fun, so then she will encourage you to continue to destroy things while she calls you "destructo-E" Of course, at that point, you usually just want to go find a penny to chew on or something. It's fun seeing you explore your world.

Of course, you already know that mom and dad's iphones are the cool toys and will take any chance you can get to douse one in slobber. Gotta watch you there.

You babble now. Most of the time, you say "da-da-da" but you also use that appropriately when your daddy is around. You will climb into his lap and say "da-da!" You only say mama when you're crying - but it's at least consistent! If I hold you close to my face and say "E, say 'ma-ma' " You will look at me and whisper "da-da-da" and then you sqint-smile and laugh to yourself. Abby has been trying to teach you how to say her name, she's hoping that you will call her "bab-bab" or "Babby" She thinks the B will be easier than the A sound, and she's probably right. You are starting to catch on to some signs. We've taught you "up" "all-done" and "please" You seem to recognize them, but you are not mimicking them yet. Well, you are kind of mimicking "all-done" You are not yet waving yet, but you haven't had very much modeling for that either, so we'll work on it. :)

Food. You have not met a food you don't like yet. Your sister used to clamp her lips shut and turn her head and sit there if she didn't like something. You've yet to do that. There are things you like more than others - but you've eaten everything we've offered to you. You've had: oatmeal, yogurt, sweet potatoes, squash, edamame, broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach, carrots, pears, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pasta, ravioli, olives, chicken curry, rice, beans, fish, tuna, crackers, cheerios, ....and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting. You love anything mixed with yogurt. You like trying to feed yourself, and you're getting better at it with small finger foods. You really like berries. Chicken curry was your newest adventure and you liked it a lot. You're starting to get the hang of your sippy cup, but you also just like to shake it...and drop it.

Your sleep is pretty good. 90% of the time. You nap well. You take 2 naps a day and they range from 1-2 hours usually. You go to bed around 7, sometimes earlier. You wake up between 5 and 6 most days. Now, I don't really mind, because I'm usually up then anyway and I like seeing you before I go to work. But, I'm not going to tell you that because I think you should learn to sleep until 6 or later. Emphasis on later. Think about it, ok? You might like it if you try it.

We call you "E" 95% of the time. We still call you E-train as well. On occasion, we call you Elizabeth, but a lot of the time you're just getting a random word out of the nickname generator. Some of our common ones are E-biscuit, E-trade, Munchkinette, Little miss mae, E-mae, E-monkey, Liza-mae, Lizzy-mae. Abby calls you "chicka" all the time...usually in the context of "Hey miss chicka chicka, what do you think you're doing?" It will be interesting to see how your name, the most nicknameable of names, evolves as you grow.

You, my dear, are a joy. It brings me joy to watch you grow and learn and explore and love. Your sister loves you more than anything and I'm so happy that you love her back. Your daddy and I feel like you were always meant to be part of our family and these last 9 months have just felt "right" in a lot of ways. We love you, so much. As your sister would say, we love you "more than pickles and more than biscuits" And that's her way of saying - there is nothing bigger than that kind of love.

life

2012-01-24T11:03:00.001-05:00

All day Saturday, I was making a mental list of the things I wanted to blog about and composing those posts in my head. And then I blinked and it was Monday. That's the way things go.

Life moves quickly, huh?

So, this past week was a pretty normal week for us. Abby, however, got pinkeye from...who knows where. The poor thing just had goopy red eyes for a while, but they didn't seem to bother her too much. Just in the mornings, when I would help her clean off all the crusties that had formed overnight. On Saturday night, she told us that her throat hurt. Actually, she didn't tell us that. She just refused to eat dinner, only wanted to read half a book before bed, and then said "I don't think I can say my pwayers tonight. My mouth hurts." And then she pointed to her throat. She woke up Sunday with a rash of some sort all over her. Poor thing. We put some cortisone on her and went to church, but she was so so uncomfortable. We got her to nap, but it was worse after her nap and she was freaking out about it. Long story short - it's almost gone now and Abby's convinced that lotion is God's gift to little girls. We're not 100% sure what caused it. She had a bubble bath with a new soap, so it could be that, or maybe it's part of the pinkeye stuff, or maybe she's allergic to something else. No way to know for sure. We're just gonna skip the bubble bath for a while and hope it all goes away.

My sore throat is back, or, more likely, never really went a way. Kinda not fun, but whatever, I can totally deal with a sore throat.

E had her 9 month appointment this morning. She's 18lbs, which is about what Abby weighed at 1year...which explains why E is wearing some of Abby's old 12month clothes now. She got a blood draw that didn't go very smoothly, but we all survived, and shots on top of that. Poor kid had a rough morning. I'll write more about Elizabeth in a little bit - I want to attempt an actual 9-month post for her.

What else?

Abby has developed a strong(er) desire to help with things...and more specifically, to help with things all by herself. The difference is that, now, she's actually pretty good at stuff. This week she helped me put away her laundry by hanging the shirts on hangers - I was impressed that she did it right - and she was pleased as punch. She only got a little miffed when we had no more clothes, but one more hanger. She went around searching for something to hang. She ended up taking off her pants and using those. :)

She's also helped me make dinner every night. No matter what we're having, she wants to help in some way or another. She's great at the simple things like pouring liquids, stirring, putting things into the pot or pan. She just loves it. We can't put anything into the microwave without her running over "I Want to push the Buttons!!! Me! Let me!" and if you even think about cracking an egg, you'd better be prepared for assistance. She's also very good at washing. She loves to wash strawberries, and she's very good at it. Very thorough. A few nights ago, she made her own supper. Strawberries, crackers, and a few wedges of laughing cow cheese (which Abs calls butter). It wasn't a bad supper actually. I mean, I was initially a little concerned when she said "I made my supper, stwabewwies and butter" But the pride she has when she helps prepare something is so awesome. Also? She'll eat more if she helped make it. She's never been a very picky eater, but she enjoys eating what she's "cooked" for us even more.

It snowed this weekend. Finally. We got around 4-6 inches probably, which is like the perfect amount. Abby LOVES the snow. She likes winter more than summer. I don't know where she came from or how that happened, but she gets SO excited about the snow. So, after it had stopped coming down, we got the girls dressed and we all went outside for a bit. Abby went outside and flopped down on the snow - belly down- and said "look! I'm swimming in the snow!" And she was. Then she buried her face in the snow and came up saying "look! I have a moose-stash!" And she did. And did it bother her that there was now snow going down her coat? on her neck? in her nose? Not a bit. She flipped over and started making snow angels. She did laps in the backyard. Kyle shoveled a big pile of snow at the bottom of her slide and Abby slid down again and again into the pile - burying herself each time. It made me cringe to watch, but Abby? She's a winter baby. The only thing she requires is hot chocolate when she comes in - and that I can do.

K, I gotta get back to work, but I'll update about Elizabeth next. Have a fab Tuesday.

life is good

2012-01-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how good I've got it sometimes. Let's hope I never take that for granted.

Poster

2012-01-16T11:14:00.001-05:00

My aunt, Y, sent us an awesome box of post-Christmas excitement. Among the gifts were several veggie tales books & a movie.

Well, abs has been obsessed with the movie, of course. This increased her excitement when she discovered a poster inside one of the coloring books.

She asked if we could put it on her wall. How she even knows that's what you do with posters is beyond me. But, we did.

Her 1st poster. Next up, she'll be yelling at me for denying her a teen magazine and playing her music too loud.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

on the up

2012-01-11T13:30:00.002-05:00

The antibiotics have helped me a good bit, and I'm mostly human again now. I still have a cough and residual sniffles and the occasional sore throat - but those things are minor and I'm feeling a lot better now.

I've even tiptoed back to trying to be minimally productive at home. I took out the trash and took down the christmas tree yesterday. Major movement, there. It won't be long before I'm going to have to admit that all of our suitcases are still waiting to be unpacked and put away. Next thing you know, I'm going to be cooking dinner again and everything.

Being sick is rough.

My feeling better has been casually correlated with my getting my computer back as well (the crowd cheers). Lucky for me, the problem was that my adapter had blown a fuse and my magsafe board needed to be replaced as well. Easy Peasy and we're back in business. I'm happy that I didn't lose all my pictures and files liked I'd feared. Maybe now would be a good time to look into backing up my computer on occasion. Maybe.

The girls are good. Abby is happy to be back in her routines again. She will occasionally ask me, "Am I still in Boston?" Just to check, y'know? Over vacation, she became obsessed with the Lion King. She's now memorized most of the song "I just can't wait to be king" and she sings it all the time. It's really very funny to watch her. On the plane home, she crushed up a yogurt bite, smeared it across Kyle's forehead and said, "Look! Just like simba!" Fun stuff.

Elizabeth is faster everyday, and stronger. We lowered her crib down finally. She can get where she'd like to go. She's pulling up to her knees and feet when we let her. If I hold her hands, sometimes she'll take a few assisted steps, but I don't think she'll walk outright for a good while. Last night she started clapping. It was the cutest thing ever - and she's SO proud of herself too. I have a video of it, but if I posted it, you would all die of cuteness, so I may just keep it to myself. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to upload it. Either way, trust me, adorable.

My other favorite thing E does is let us chase her. She'll start crawling, and the whole time she's laughing and gasping and nearly hyperventilating from excitement because she's anticipating being chased. She'll slow down long enough to take a quick glance behind her and when she sees me on all fours crawling fast toward her - she screams and does a little cartoon-like jump and tries to crawl faster and faster. It's completely addicting to see her so excited and happy and playing.

Abby has entered the "why?" stage. It's crazy. It's like, she turned 3, and BAM - "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHHHYYYYYYY?" And I always thought I'd be good at this game. Like, ok, kids ask why all the time because they're curious! They're trying to figure out the world, what's the big deal? Just answer their questions and be patient.

But, you see, it's not like that. I mean, sometimes it is. Sometimes Abby just wants to know WHY something is because she doesn't know and she's figuring it out. But, most of the time, "WHY" is just a word that she automatically says. Such as:

Abby: "Can I have a banana?"
Me: "Ok"
Abby: "WHYYYY???"

Me: "Good morning, did you have a good sleep?"
Abby: "WHY?"

Me: "Abby, would you like milk or water?"
Abby: "WHY? Oh. Milk, please"

And when she's on a why-spiral of questioning me, it takes about 7 turns before I'm out of answers.

Me: We're going to the grocery store
Abby: Why?
Me: Because we need milk
Abby: Why?
Me: Because you like milk and we ran out.
Abby: Why?
Me: Well, you like milk because it taste good and we ran out because you drank it all.
Abby: Why?
Me: You drank it all because there's no more left.
Abby: Why?
Me: Because there was only 1 gallon.
Abby: Why?
Me: Because I only bought 1 gallon. Because I can only afford so much milk at a time. Because my job only pays so much per month and because we can only finish so much milk before it expires because you can only drink so much milk in a day and we can't always have milk at the ready, because sometimes, SOMETIMES, we just need to go to the store.

ad nauseam.

So, I've developed a strategy for breaking these cycles. When I run out of answers, I just ask, "WHY are you Abby?" It makes her laugh. And she has always given me the exact same answer every time. I do not know why she answered it this way, but the first time I asked, she says "Because I'm Abby and I'm a helper and I can wash things!" That's her answer. Every time.

*shrug* It breaks the cycle, so whatevs.

My point is, things are fun around here. :)

I'm hopefully going to work on getting my pics uploaded from our trip and I'll finish documenting all of that fun-ness soon. Till then, have a good wednesday.

still here

2012-01-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Well, 2012 blogging isn't off to a great start, huh?

Actually, 2012 itself hasn't started off all that well for me.

I've been sick for a week. Today, I woke up with the slightest of appetites and my headache is less. I think those are both good signs that the antibiotics I started a few days ago are working.

I'll be back soon to finish our christmas stories and to get back into the swing of things.

Did I mention my computer died as well? My laptop that I use 99.999% of the time? Hopefully I'll get it back this week too. And between having a computer again and not being pitafully ill, I bet I write more.

just wanted to say hi.

hi.

holiday recap, part 1

2012-01-02T21:27:00.005-05:00

How to recap the past 10 days? From the beginning, I suppose.

The girls and I flew down to AR last week, Kyle came a few days later. The trip down was mostly uneventful - Abby and E did great on the flights - especially considering that one of them was over 4 hours long (whew) I was glad to have Brittany's help for sure.

We got to Little Rock and had a nice lunch with both families - I spent the night with mom and dad and the next morning, mom, the girls and I drove up to Ft. Smith to spend the day with my sister. Jennifer had a whole day of train stuff planned for Abby's amusement. It was a lot of fun. We had lunch in an old train car turned diner, we played on and in the trains at the Trolly Museum, we rode the old trolly and then played at the park until it got dark and then we rode the Christmas Train through the park of lights. The whole day was awesome, and Abby was thoroughly thrilled with it all. Also, she was exhausted. We drove back that night

The next few days were filled with Christmas prep. Kyle got in late Friday night. The girls got all dressed up for Christmas mass, and we had a nice time there. Kyle and his siblings were given the task of carrying the "gifts" up to the alter before communion. I was holding a bowl and Abby said she wanted one. I hesitated, but we decided she could do it. She carried a little bowl of wafers all the way down the aisle by herself. I was sure she was going to spill them everywhere, but she didn't. :) She did throw a fit after that because she wanted to go play in the (near) life size manger they have set up. This led to her screaming for the whole church to hear "But I Wanna go see baby Jesus NOW!" #winning

We drove to my parents house and waited for Santa to come. We put out cookies, and we sprinkled the reindeer food in the yard, and we waited. Abby came in the next morning and was speechless at all the presents under the tree. Santa brought her all the things she asked for - a toy dog, kitty, doll, and playdoh. Aaaaaand, about a suitcase worth of other stuff. There were so many presents that Abby asked to take a break mid morning. She said, "I think I just need to go wash dishes for a while" And she did. After she'd done some washing, she came back and opened the remainder of her gifts.

After Christmas 1, we drove to Conway where we had Christmas with Kyle's family. After a fun morning of even MORE spoiling for all of us - we had a nice lunch with the whole family. We let the girls take a little nap before hitting the road again for the evening. After they woke up, we drove down to Grandma's house for the extended Armstrong festivities. Abby was wired of course - it was a lot for a 3 year old to handle. She basically just ate cookies all evening.

It was nice to see my side of the fam and introduce them to Elizabeth. E is crawling now - I can't remember if I've mentioned that or not, but she's quite mobile and getting faster everyday. This trip was also Elizabeth's first time to meet her name-sake - my grandma. I think the two of them hit it off pretty well. :)

As the excitement began to wrap up, we drove the girls back to Conway for the evening. It was a lovely day. Busy, as always, but still good. We filled every second of it with family, and that's about perfect.

next up - baptism, visits, and the crud.

new years eve

2011-12-31T22:40:00.003-05:00

Hi blog.

I'm sorry I haven't written lately, but you see, the reason I write is so that people who live far from us can know what we're doing everyday. That means, when I'm actually home with all those people - I find that it is difficult to carve out the time to write...I'm too busy soaking them up.

I only have a moment now.

But I wanted to say, thanks for a great year. It's been pretty ~~crazy~~ good. I'm beyond blessed in more ways than one, and I'm excited to see what new and wonderful things 2012 brings.

I'll write soon about all of our christmas and travel excitement. We have so many stories to tell. Until then, Happy New Year - everyone.

My 3-year old

2011-12-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I need to write about my newly minted 3 year old.

Let's start with the stats.

Abs went to the doctor yesterday and weighed in at 34lbs and 37 inches tall. I haven't charted that yet, but I'm fairly certain that's pretty average for her age. The doctor asked me how many words she says and I laughed. She's always been a verbal child, and that hasn't slowed down at all.

This whole 3-year old thing. I think my friend Kathy put it best when she said that 3 just fits. I couldn't believe she was a year old. I couldn't imagine her being 2. But, 3? Yeah - she is totally 3. She doesn't seem like a baby, she doesn't seem older. It's just where she's supposed to be.

Let's see. What about Abby now? She asks more questions now than ever. She has shifted from taking in the world around her to exploring the world around her. If she hears me talking and doesn't know a word, she'll stop me and ask "Mommy, what does 'treadmill' mean?" She's just as much of a little sponge than ever.

For example. Yesterday morning, I prepped the cupcakes for baking. I noticed the oven was taking a long time to preheat and when I opened it, it was cold. Abby saw me tinkering with it and came over and asked in her sing-songy bouncy voice "whatcha doin' mommy?" So I told her that the oven was broken. She says "Oh. Maybe we can call Mr. Richard to come an fix it" Richard is our landlord. I told her that I thought that was a good idea and I called him. When I got off the phone, Abby asked me if he was going to come fix the stove, I told her yes and she says, "ok, mom, I'll start cweaning up. We need to cwean before Mr. Wichard gets here." Ha. I mean, she's obviously, NEVER heard me say that before.

They did fix the stove, but not in time for me to make cupcakes, so a store bought cake it was for Abby's party. Which was fine.

Moving on. Abby has more elaborate pretend play now. She's so funny. She's animated and exaggerated. Her facial expressions are often one click more expressive than they need to be. Kyle and I got Abby a little train track set. Her response upon opening it was appropriate and extremely gratifying. She was so excited about it. We let her stay up an hour past bedtime to play with her trains. The whole time, she was making up stories and plots and building characters and relationships with her new trains. We all just sat there and listened to her chatter on and on, "Oh, what? You already picked up the freight? But I thought *I* was going to get that freight. Oh, ok, you can take it to the stationmaster then. Why, thank you. Have you seen my brother car? He's over there. Beep Beep! Hi trains, it's me, car! How are you doing today? Well, we're fine thank you. Thomas is taking the freight to the stationmaster. I think I need a new coupling, I'm going to go get checked..." on and on and on.

It's one of my favorite things ever. To just sit and listen to her ongoing imagination.

This picture pretty much sums up Abby

Okay. Other Abby things.

She eats well. I really can't think of much food she doesn't like. She's still not big on chicken, but she'll eat it more than she used to. I'm not sure I can pinpoint her favorite foods, but some of her most common choices are: hummus on a tortilla, hot dogs, green beans, bananas, apples, applesauce, pasta (with sprinkle cheese, of course). She still loves olives and tomatoes - those might be favorites, actually. She drinks milk with meals and water in between. She's had juice a few times on special occasions, but 99.9% of the time, she's still on milk or water.

We can jump from food to potty training, right?

We started training on Thanksgiving. She had 3 or 4 accidents in the days that followed, and hasn't had any since then. I am in disbelief how quickly she's adapted. She still wears diapers for nap times and bed times. But, if she's awake and wearing underwear - she has a 100% accuracy rate going right now, or has since about day 3 of training. She is not ready to be sleep trained yet, and that may be a while off. But, I'm super proud of her. She's super proud of herself, too.

She's still taking naps, and still needs them. She doesn't usually fight us about them. Sometimes she likes to stall bedtime, but she's usually not too bad.

At this age, she loves projects, she loves coloring and crafts and baking and absolutely anything where she can help. She still loves cleaning and organizing and is always rearranging things or packing things up into new places. She loves to dance. She loves to be chased and tickled and hugged.

She's a little ball of energy.

I'm out of time, but this will do for now.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Abigail. We all love you so very much.

3

2011-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

I'm too tired now to write much - but here are a slew of pictures of Abby's party today. In short - we had fun, she had a blast, she's spoiled rotten, and we're all feeling pretty happy about things. Well, happy and tired.

We did a pink/grey train theme. It was 100% perfect for her.

first tooth

2011-12-09T13:43:00.001-05:00

A day or two ago, E woke up glued to her sheets thanks to a very runny and goopy nose.

I just assumed it was the natural consequence of chewing on the cart handles at Target. And I know "they" say that teeth do not cause colds. But, while the jury may still be out on causation, you can't deny the correlation after a while.

E's cold was just gross more than anything, she was still in pretty good spirits. She was/is soaking her onsies within an hour or two with all the drool she's producing. It dawned on me last night to check for teeth.

Sure enough. Her bottom front tooth - on the left has broken through and is here to stay.

So, now all of these looks made more sense.

The poor girl just didn't feel good! I've been giving her things to chew on. She's a big fan of mum-mums, as well as anything that's made of wood...and she has a frozen teether she likes. Coins too - although, I'm trying to prevent those going in her mouth ~~anymore~~ ever.

Congrats little miss mae, one down, 19 to go.

Dear Santa

2011-12-09T08:24:00.001-05:00

Two nights ago, I was putting Abby to bed and I decided to talk to her about Santa. She's picked up bits and pieces about him, but I don't think we'd ever really talked about the whole thing. So, I explained to her where Santa lived and how he had elves that made toys and that, if you were good, he would bring you a toy on Christmas.

She was mostly concerned that Santa was cold in the North Pole. I assured her that he had a nice warm coat.

Then I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said "I don't want anyfing" I asked her why and she said "because I alweady have so many toys"

sweet girl.

But, I could tell that she was a little sad about that. You could see that she WANTED to get new toys for Christmas, but for whatever reason, wasn't going to let herself think about it because she'd decided she had too many toys already. She was torn.

*tangent*

It reminded me of the time when I was in 1st or 2nd grade and my parents surprised me with tickets to go see Disney on Ice (at least, I think they had the tickets already - that's how I remember it). Disney was my favorite thing and I can only speculate that they were as excited to offer me this treat as I was going to be to take it. But, I told my mom I couldn't go. Why? Because I had too much homework. I remember feeling so sad, and yet, so adamant. To this day, I don't know why I didn't forget the homework and go to the show. I remember mom and dad trying to convince me to go, and I just wouldn't. I guess I was convincing. I remember crying while filling out a worksheet due the next day because, I really did WANT to go.

So, that memory came back when I saw Abby so sad about not wanting Christmas presents. She's still young enough that I can fix it.

I asked her why she didn't want to ask Santa for anything and she said, again, because she had so many toys already. I suggested that maybe we could make room for some new toys - would she like that? She whispered "yes"

Then, we were good. I asked her again, "Once we make room for your new toys, what kind of new toys do you want Santa to bring?"

She thought about it and said "trains" But then she said, laughing, "no, I already have so many trains"

...too bad kid. You're getting more next week. ;)

She thought about it some more and finally decided on "a doll" Then she added "and a dog and kitty cat" She went ahead and clarified that she meant a Toy dog and kitty cat.

I asked her if she wanted anything else and she said "nope"

what a great age this is.

Yesterday afternoon, I told her we would write Santa a letter, and she told me the same three things from the day before.

I'll mail off the letter today, but I texted him too - in case the mail is slow. :)

I love the magic that Christmas brings, and I'm excited to watch Abby get caught up in it all.

not to be outdone...

phone pics

2011-12-06T10:04:00.001-05:00

Time for me to dump out a bunch of phone pics I've been storing.

baking with my little chef

my brother and I used to always put baby Jesus on top of the manger - we thought it was hilarious. So I, obviously, thought it was funny when Abby knew that was the best place for him as well.

This is the lunch Abby made me for work.

In addition to about 8 apples and a banana, there is also some wooden food and a bouncy ball.

I can't stop her from cleaning. This picture is her cleaning the church on Sunday. Yesterday she cleaned the post office while we waited in line. She looks down at the floor and says "(huff) my my, I need to clean up this mess!"

She saw these hair ties on the floor and said "Look! It's like eyes" And she went to get a nose and a mouth. She then said "I found a dog mouth, so now it looks like a doggy"

The nap monkey makes sure she doesn't get up, I guess...

So close...

Elizabeth is *not* about to give up her starbucks cup.

little chef making ornaments.

happy kid.

gets it

2011-11-30T10:30:00.001-05:00

I often drive around composing blog posts in my head. I've had this one stuck up there for a week or so and there is this one sentence that I keep wanting to write.

I'm so thankful to have a husband who "gets it"

I didn't write a long Thanksgiving post about all the blessings in my life. There are many. So many. Too many for me to count or even think about all the time. But there is one thing that has stuck out to me over the past week. And that is how lucky Abby and Elizabeth are to have Kyle as a dad. He's a great dad.

Maybe it's because I work with a population that doesn't always have the luxury of involved parents, or maybe it's because I've had several cases lately where the kids didn't have parents at all. For whatever the reason, it's been on my mind that I should publicly acknowledge Kyle's efforts.

He gets that when he comes home from work, I need him to help me, even though he's tired.

He gets that things work better when we both share the chores - he always helps me clean up or cook or take out the trash - I never have to ask him, he's always the one asking me what he can do to help.

He gets that chasing and tickling Abby or letting Elizabeth lay on his chest and chew his nose are more important activities than checking his email.

He gets that consistency is important. He's always consistent with our discipline rules. He doesn't lose his temper with the girls like I do sometimes.

He gets that it is important for me (and him, too) to have the chance to be alone sometimes and to do things we enjoy (be it running, taking pictures, or flying around the country just for fun ;)

He gets that being a dad means early mornings. He doesn't complain when Abby jumps on our bed at 5:45am asking if we've seen her Princess wand - is it in the dishwasher? Or maybe Elizabeth took it? Can you look for it daddy?

He gets me. He knows the difference between when I'm tired and when I'm really hanging on by a thread. And he knows how to navigate both of those minefields effectively.

He gets that the girls need his attention and presence and he gives it to them even when he'd rather be watching football.

Overall, he just gets it. And I'm starting to get just how lucky we are to have such a dedicated and selfless and loving husband and daddy to call our own.

Thank you Kyle for being great. Love you.

Thanksgiving, etc

2011-11-29T12:17:00.000-05:00

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. It was so wonderful to have the break from work - especially since Kyle also had a break. It is rare that our vacations line up the same, so it was just really nice to have several days in a row to all spend together.

In years past, we've always joined other families for Thanksgiving, but this year - since we have Brittany and the girls, we thought we'd just do it ourselves. To make matters more fun, Karen and a friend of hers came over as well. It was, I suppose, the first time we've hosted a Thanksgiving meal. I was excited about trying my hand at cooking the turkey all by meself (as Abby would say).

Everything went well. I spent the morning cleaning the house and cooking and watching the Macy's parade with Kyle and Abby. The Macy's parade always makes me tear up because it is so nostalgic of my childhood - waking up on Thanksgiving morning and watching it with my siblings is a fond memory. This year, I sat in front of our TV with Abby in my lap telling her "look Abby! Santa is coming next, here he comes, do you see him?" And I (of course) had to hold back my own happy tears as I watched her face Light Up and excitedly say "Yes! I DO see him! Hi Santa!"

I love this age.

So, the rest of the day was great. The bird came out well, the food was all tasty, and Karen came over dressed as a giant turkey - which added a unique dynamic to the dinner table. :)

my 1st turkey

Karen, portraying an emotional moment.

We all enjoyed the meal and the company. It was a nice time.

Because we thought it would be fun, we decided to also start potty training Abby on Thanksgiving. She has resisted training for so long, and we've tried not to be pushy, but to be positive; to offer incentives, but not punishments, etc. But, as she approaches 3, Kyle and I both felt she needed a little push. This was the first chance we've had to be home for more than 2 days in a row, so we decided it was time to try it and see how it went.

Abby was telling us all the time "I can't go potty, we still have diapers" So, Kyle and I hid all the diapers. We then told her "Sorry! We're all out." She was Not happy about that. She threw a little fit. Then, she begged me to "pwease mommy, PWEASE can you go to the store and buy some more diapers? Pwease?" So, 2 accidents later, she finally successfully went on the potty. This was the first real time ever, so we made a BIG deal about it. She got skittles, a prize from her treasure chest, stickers, lots of cheering and hugs and kisses. She stayed dry the rest of the day. It was a much easier day than I thought it would be, all things considered.

The next day, she threw another fit about putting on panties, but she got over it quickly. Only 1 accident that day (during nap time)

Every day since has been better and better. She still puts up a small protest about putting on panties in the morning, but it's just a token whine, really. I'm so proud of her. We're no where near being "potty trained" But, considering a week ago she had never really gone on her own, and this week she's had very few accidents and seeks out the potty when she needs it? We're headed in the right direction. It's a great start, if nothing else.

I'm out of time for now, thanks for reading. Talk to y'all soon. :)

Here, have a cute picture of E

PS: I've noticed that sometimes my pictures get crazy on here. My apologies - they always look normal when I post, but sometimes when I go back and look, they are really big or misplaced. So, if that happens, feel free to tell me - and I'll fix it. Thanks.

We Thank Thee

2011-11-24T07:30:00.002-05:00

We Thank Thee
By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

For flowers that bloom about our feet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For the song of bird and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,
Father, we thank Thee.
For pleasant shade of branches high,
Father, we thank Thee.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,
Father, we thank Thee.
For rest and shelter of the night,
Father, we thank Thee
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

29.

2011-11-21T12:06:00.001-05:00

Another trip around the sun has come and gone - just like that. I turned 29 on Saturday. I feel like I should feel old, but I don't. Maybe next year. ;)

I had a great day. It was busy and exhausting, but great. Saturday morning, the girls woke up at 6am like always. Abby greeted me with a "Happy Birthday JoJo!" and I had to remind her that JoJo's birthday was a few days prior. It's all very confusing for a 2 year old. I tried convincing her that it was MY birthday, but she was quite distraught that I didn't have any cake. She's 110% sure that you can't have a birthday without cake.

E woke me up with a little present - a teething necklace that I can wear, and she can chew. It's grey - which is currently the color of her eyes. E and I both liked it very much.

We all got up and got dressed and eventually made our way out of the house. We walked down to Dunkies and had a birthday breakfast of coffee and treats. We hopped on the train and headed into town.

We took the girls to the Children's museum, and Abby had the best time. She was beaming the whole time we were there and it was so fun to watch her so excited about everything. Even E could enjoy some of the things now. We stayed for several hours before heading out for lunch.

There's a place right next to the museum called the Barking Crab that we've tried to go to several times before, but the waiting list is always 3 or 4 days long. But, we thought we'd have better luck for lunch. So we tried and it didn't take too long before we actually got a table. The food was great and the girls held it together - despite it being past naptime now.

We decided it would be best to head home after that and give the girls some down time. We got home around 3. E slept on the train, but Abby was awake the whole time. We relaxed for a little bit and decided to go grocery shopping....we were really low on, everything. Grocery shopping is always a big ordeal, so it was nice to have Kyle and Brit join us - the more hands, the better. While we were at the store, Abby reminded me that I needed a birthday cake (y'know, so that it could *officially* be my birthday) I let her pick out some mini cupcakes and she was quite pleased with those.

And home we went again. Poor Abby - she was exhausted and hungry and just worn out. I asked her what she wanted for supper, and she said she wanted a cupcake. I told her she could have a cupcake later - and she lost it. It's not her fault. It was *almost* comical, and most certainly predictable. I went and got a cupcake out to put on her plate with her supper (hey, choose your battles) She said, between sobs, that I needed a candle. I looked for one, but could only find the one we used for Abby's birthday last year. Eh - it was a 2, so it at least half worked. I plopped the giant 2 on top of the mini cupcake and took it to Abby so she could help me blow it out. She just screamed and cried the whole time. The poor thing just couldn't pull it together. She was SPENT.

Somehow, things calmed down and we got the girls fed and put to bed. Whew.

But wait, there's more.

Kyle wanted to take me to dinner. I wasn't super hungry, so we just walked down the street for a drink and some appetizers. It was nice. After that, we walked down to the new yogurt shop where I think I had more toppings than yogurt.

By the time we got home, we were both ready to put our feet up. We watched a little TV, and at midnight - we deemed the birthday over and declared it a day well spent.

I had several phone pics I wanted to add - I'll have to do it later, they're being too slow. Here are a few from the museum.

another thursday

2011-11-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

There have been several times in the last few days that I've thought about blogging. But, either I can't think of what to say or I fall asleep before I can say it. Either way, I've given myself the bare minimum of once a week. I hate that. I hate that it's been a week since I've documented these girls and their antics...and how our life has been. I mean, it's not that anything amazing happened or anything...in fact, It's exactly because nothing amazing happened that I want to write about it. I'll forget these days too easily otherwise. And, these days? These days are good. So good. I know I'll miss them someday.

Anyway. I just want you to know (blog? girls? world?) that I miss it - and I'm trying.

That said, let's move on.

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. It's exciting. I did three shoots last weekend and have 2 inquiries in the scheduling process for the next week or two. I know some friends of mine are going to let me do christmas pics in December, so that will be fun. I've got 2 weddings already booked for next year. Insane, I tell you. And, while I'm over the moon excited about it all - It's also just unbelieveable that people WANT me to take their pictures. I've learned so much this past year and grown a lot - I can't wait to see how much I can learn and grow in the next 12 months. Anyway, I just really love it. Sometimes, I'll search pinterest for photo inspiration, and I'll come across a photo that just inspires me to the point that I get chills and I get anxious for the chance to try it. It makes me feel like a little kid again - that unbridled excitement.

In other "me" news - work has been busy, but good. My testing caseload has been manageable, which has allowed me to spend more time on other projects and serve on other committees that are dealing with more district wide and systems changes. I find it all very exciting to be a part of. A decade down the road, maybe I can say I played some small roll in how things operate. I very much enjoy being a part of the process.

The girls are great. E is more fun every day. Abby is increasingly awesome. They rock. E has continued to sleep through the night, so that's been nice.

I have two confessions. The first is that I downloaded a song from Glee. That, somehow, seems like it needs to be confessed. Like, I need to acknowledge that I understand the music is largely robo-toned and stuff. That's fine. But the Rumor has it / Someone like you mashup? I kinda love it. The second confession I have is that I ordered a McRib sandwich today because I was curious. It was awful. AWFUL. If you like those things? Please, explain it to me. Pickles and BBQ sauce with fake pork? Ugh. What was I thinking? I dunno. I'm glad I survived to warn others though.

This month is flying by - I can't seem to get a grip on it.

Ok, munchkinette needs me. Have a great Thursday.

little miss mae

2011-11-10T13:21:00.001-05:00

I have a few seconds, so, allow me to ramble. Let's update the world on E, shall we? We call her E most of the time. We call her Elizabeth a lot of the time. We call her E-train quite frequently. Little Miss Mae is one that Abby uses a lot - it's super cute and so southern.

So, here are a few updates on our little miss mae.

first swing the other day - LOVED it!

Abigail was the perfect sleeping baby when she was born. It was awesome. Elizabeth has not been a bad sleeper by any stretch of the imagination, but a few months ago - when she was underweight - we decided to resume night feedings. We had previously stopped feeding her overnight, but, she wasn't sleeping through and she was crying for hours and, well, we figured maybe she was just hungry after all. So - we started them again. Sure enough - she started sleeping so much better. But, she has been waking up once a night for that bottle ever since. Well, two nights ago, she woke up, fussed for a few minutes, and quieted down. No bottle. Now, she woke up close to 5:30 - but I'm going to blame that on the time change. I can't blame her for that...I was awake at 4:30 thinking "when is the baby gonna wake up?" and "it feels like morning."

Anyway. She didn't need the bottle. She's back on track with her weight. Her 6 month appointment was the other day and she weighs 16.4 lbs and is 26.5 inches long. 50%. So, those two things combined made me decide that we're not going back to the bottle. I was ready for a night of crying it out last night as I had to wait for her to realize she wasn't going to get any food.

But? She didn't. She fussed for a few minutes around midnight, and made some noises around 1 - but she didn't cry. She woke up around 5:40 (well, that's when I woke up and heard her...) But she was making happy noises. Kyle got her out of bed at 6.

On one hand - yay! She slept through the night without a bottle and didn't even cry for hours on end! On the other hand? I feel like it's 1) a fluke and 2) I wish she wouldn't think 5:30 was morning time. I mean, I don't *really* care - I'm up then everyday anyway. Just on principle. It would be nice if my girls would sleep in...even if I can't.

Elizabeth is growing into a little person now. She's at the fun stage. She can sit on her own (with about 85% stability), so she can play with toys and interact and - it's just fun. Of course, it is also the start of sibling tuffs. We haven't really had any yet - but I can SEE them coming. The other day, Abby took a toy away from Elizabeth and said "E's all done with this one" Meanwhile, E is stretching her arms towards Abby and the toy saying "Eh! eh! duhduhduhduhdeeebabababa!" It was comical - E wanitng the toy SO much and Abby very calmly stating that she was done playing with it. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that Abs wanted to play with it. Of course not. None.

Anyway, this will get fun - I'm looking forward to it.

What else?

Food? Yes. E likes food. Like, kinda a lot. Her first food was oatmeal, then sweet potatoes. She's had green beans, broccoli, winter squash, pears, prunes, applesauce, banana, and avacado. I'm not sure she has a favorite yet...I mixed pears and avacado the other day and she ate it up pretty fast, but she tends to eat all of whatever we give her at this point.

Yesterday was a fun first of both girls having the same breakfast. Applesauce and a banana and milk(/formula). Abby thinks it's hilarious when E eats the same food she's eating.

first time sitting in the cart!

I don't think I should probably even admit this on my blog - but for the sake of documentation, I'll put it right here in the middle of this long rambly post and maybe nobody will notice. The other day - I turned my back on E for, I dunno, maybe 5 seconds? 8 seconds? You get the idea. I went to put one of Abby's shoes on the shelf and I heard a *THUD* Three thoughts happened at the exact same moment. 1) "What did E throw off the kitchen island this time?" 2) "There was nothing on the kitchen island because I moved everything out of her reach" and 3) "That was Elizabeth"

I spun around and my stomach sank as I saw E on the floor - still in her bumbo. She had pushed herself right off the edge of the kitchen island. She was screaming (a good sign). I whisked her away and checked her over. No blood, no obviously broken things. Huge bruise on her head. I was shaking because how was I supposed to know if she was ok? I held her and calmed her and kissed her and apologized a billion times. I made her a bottle - she had 2 sips and fell asleep in my arms. She was exhausted. I was too scared to put her down, so I held her while she slept - all the while texting several friends for advice. Big thanks to my nurse friend Kathy who calmed me down and my friends Billie Jo and Ricky who made me laugh by saying things like "We need to check for concussions - ask her a question and see if she answers correctly"

In short - she's fine. She woke up 20 mins later from her nap happy as a clam. Her bruise is almost gone, and I've decided to continue parenting despite that particular epic fail. PSA: bumbos move.

see? she was fiiiiiiiiine.

Ok. I'm out of time. I'm off to start my long weekend! Yay! Thanks Veterans!

little eagle

2011-11-05T07:28:00.002-04:00

class of 2026, perhaps.

just to remember

2011-11-02T16:32:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, the most mundane of moments burns an impression on my brain and I know I'll remember that moment forever. But, just in case, I want to write it down too.

Last Sunday, we were at church. As we settled in and the service started, I pulled out Abby's coloring book and a small ziplock of crayons. She happily stood and used the pew as a table to color on.

There is nothing particularly special about this moment, but I looked down at her and her hair was falling softly out of her ponytail and across her face. She was concentrating hard trying to color just the numbers on this particular page. Everything about her, in that moment, made me so proud to be her mom. Again, not for any special reason - it just washed over me.

As if on cue, she looked up at me and just smiled. I smiled back and kissed the top of her head while she flipped pages to find one with Mickey on it. I just watched her color for a moment longer - my little lefty with her head slightly tilted to the side and her tongue peeking out while she worked her hardest to color Mickey's nose purple - and it all just made me happy.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is snuggled in her carseat on my other side. She's staring, unblinking, at the church ceiling, taking in the ornate decorations and colors, the shapes, the music - all of it. Wide eyed and learning. When she was done exploring the top of the church, she started looking around for something else to entertain her. I locked eyes with her serious little face and we stared at each other for about 4 seconds until she broke out into this huge gummy grin and I laughed (quietly) and tickled her foot.

So, I don't know why, but that small chain of events just stuck with me. I felt so content and happy and proud to have my girls on either side of me. It was a good feeling. I'm pretty fond of them both and how lucky am I to get to see them every day? Pa-reety lucky me thinks.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T10:06:00.001-04:00

Another Halloween come and gone. Ours went well.

I convinced Abby - with the promise of an enormous lollipop - to put on her costume. We kept things low key this year and used "costumes" that we had already. Abby was a chef and Elizabeth, of course, was her cupcake.

We did order Elizabeth's cupcake hat of Etsy. I kinda love it.

I can't remember now if I mentioned it - but Abby gouged her eyebrow the other night. It was our first significant cut to my memory. She probably could have gotten a stitch or two in it, but we opted for a butterfly strip because the other seemed 1) maybe not totally necessary and 2) traumatic. All that to say - her war wound makes these pictures all that more memorable.

look at my baby sitting up so well!

I'm not above bribery

We went and got Kyle from work and Abby didn't want to take OFF her chef outfit anymore - so she wore it the rest of the night. Once we all got home and changed, we all went trick-or-treating. Well, Elizabeth slept in the Ergo on daddy's chest - but Abby collected candy.

She has more inhibitions this year, and she only said "trick or treat!" once - while burying her face in her arm. But, she did usually say thank you, and the second we stepped off the person's porch - she was all a-chatter about what candy she had scored. We did our part to clean the neighborhood of suckers...her candy of choice.

We were out for about an hour. We went down the street and back up and saw lots of other cute kids. People loved Abby's costume and she enjoyed seeing the other people dressed up as well. After seeing captain hook walk by, she declared that she wanted THAT costume next time. We'll see...

We came home around 7 and dumped our her loot. She unwrapped and tasted about 6 suckers at once and helped herself to about 5 pieces of various chocolates. Hey, it's ok to overdo it one night a year. Right? :)

I will say, she was a BEAR to put down...but it's not like that was a surprise. We were fully aware that would happen. Nevertheless, I think it's safe to say she had a pretty great night.

More memories made - check.

Oh, and I can't not add these precious pictures I snapped of Elizabeth after her naptime. She's a much more willing subject at this age than Abby. :) My sugar sweet baby.

I hope everyone else had a great night too - may your Reeses PB cups have been plentiful and your orange and black candies few.

halloween treats

2011-10-31T15:23:00.003-04:00

I love me a holiday - or any excuse to come up with fun food. Sometimes I think holidays are the reason I had kids. I mean, it's so much fun!

I'm short on time right now, but here are a few pics of some of the fun treats we had this weekend. :)

We tried to keep things balanced with some healthy options. Here are our hummus pumpkins.

hummus, dyed orange on whole wheat flat bread - toppings of choice!

Next up - deviled spider eggs. Eww, right? :)

Monster mouths!

Not everything needs to be healthy. Next we made a rice krispie pumpkin patch.

Mummy-dogs!

And then these little fellas were the biggest hit.

How cute are they?

(abby's is the one with the hillbilly teeth in the corner...)

And last but not least - our pumpkins for this year. Abby got to stay up WAY past her bedtime, but we had to get in pumpkin carving.

Also, something to remember - Abby had some pumpkins and paint to play with while I worked on one of the bigger ones. My little neat freak painted the pumpkin, got wipes, cleaned all of the paint off the pumpkin, off her plate, and off her hands -then asked to paint again. She repeated this cycle 3 times before I convinced her to let the paint dry. Silly goose. :)

Hope everyone has a happy halloween!

best daddy

2011-10-28T11:59:00.000-04:00

Two for one post Friday! ;)

Abby routinely plays on my phone in the car. Yesterday, I was talking to Kyle and I said "Hey, Abby really wants to color on my phone, so if you need me, call Brit - as Abby will probably not answer"

A few minutes later I hear Abby in the back seat laughing.

at this...

Apple Picking 2011

2011-10-28T11:03:00.004-04:00

Really? I haven't blogged about Apple Picking yet? *shakes head*

Well, last weekend, we squeezed it in. Typically, Apple Picking is over by mid October. Last year, it was over by Columbus Day. We had a weekend picked out - but it was raining, so we decided to take a risk and go later in the month. I called the farm and they said because it had been a very rainy season, that they expected to be open for several more weeks. Yay!

Karen came with us, so we waited for her to get off work and we went in the late afternoon. I was excited because that's the best light for pictures. Of course, once the time rolled around - there was nothing but grey rain clouds everywhere. Everything was wet and it sprinkled on us on the drive up.

By the time we got there, we had about an hour and a half before the farm closed - so no time to waste. I got to clickin' and Karen and Brit got to pickin' ;)

I love this tradition. Probably more for the pics and the setting - but it's also just so much fun. And I love watching Abby get so excited. It made me want to live on a farm - watching her run and run and run and laugh and run. She was so happy! E slept most of the time - but that was awesome too.

Anyway, we took pics. It was much darker than I wanted it to be and I had to play with my camera settings a lot to get them to turn out. But still, we had a lot of fun. I mostly followed Abby around and just clicked and clicked and clicked. She's such a little love.

Right before we left, the sun peeked through the clouds and we got some nice warm sunset light. I grabbed that as much as I could, and it made me happy.

Mostly - I'm just happy to have had the trip with my family. It's the one time a year that I can usually get a family picture of us. I love it. I love them!

...Oh, and the 25lbs of apples we brought home were good too.

I took something like 500 pics. Ha. I narrowed it down to about 60. Here are among my favorite few.

first food

2011-10-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

Our little E will turn 6 months old tomorrow, but we threw all caution to the wind and let her have her first food this weekend.

In short, she loved it.

It's fun to see her so excited about food. She's probably been "ready" to eat for at least a few weeks now. She's been watching us, reaching for our spoons, trying to grab things off plates. But, we wanted to wait until closer to the 6 month mark. But also? It took us about a week to find a time when Kyle and I were both home when E was awake to do it.

We're skipping rice cereal, just like we did with Abs. I don't see the point of rice cereal really...at least not when they're this old. We start with oatmeal, and tonight we're going to start with a real food - probably sweet potatoes again.

E loves it. She's about to get so chunky. It'll be awesome.

I gave her oatmeal for breakfast this morning - after her morning bottle and before her 1st nap bottle. She could. not. get. enough. It's pretty entertaining to watch. I don't know how much she'd eat if I let her, but I'm cutting her off after a 1/2 cup for now.

Anyway - I can't believe Elizabeth is this old already. And then? I kinda can. I dunno, the whole mom gig is played out in a time warp.

phone pics etc.

2011-10-21T11:13:00.002-04:00

Today is the first day this week that I'm actually sitting at my desk for more than 3 minutes. So, I'm going to take these next few minutes to do a quick catch up. I thought using some of the random pics in my phone would make this a) more interesting and b) quicker :)

Last weekend, I went to Maine to shoot a wedding for a friend of mine. I can't really tell you how much fun I have taking pictures - I *love* it. I mean, it was a lot of work. I basically carried around 20-30lbs of equipment and did squats and arm weights for 13 hours. I was sore the next day for sure. But...I really love capturing moments like this. I'm still working through all the pictures I took, but hopefully I'll have them ready for the bride (and world) soon-ish.

Anyway - so I went to Maine. My first time up there and I went alone. It was my first time away from E overnight. Kyle was also away that weekend, so Brittany was left to parent the two girls for a good 24 hours.

I was pretty excited. I wasn't worried about the girls at all - I knew they were in great hands. I was much more worried about Brittany...because, let's face it, kids are exhausting and I don't want to scare her away! But still, a whole night just to myself? I mean...c'mon..it's the stuff of which dreams are made. ;)

Aaaaaaaand, the route I had to take just happened to run right by the only Sonic in the state. It's about an hour away from where we live...so, yes, I stopped. And yes, it was worth every calorie.

I got to the resort, got settled, and took pictures for the rest of the day. The hotel was cute...it was bed and breakfast like, but on a larger scale. I'm a nerd, so I took a picture of the bathroom decor with my phone...

This is one of the "real" pics of the bridal room - but it gives you an idea of the place. It was nice. :)

The next morning...after my first full night of sleep in 6 months... I helped myself to the complimentary breakfast. They had more food than I could sample. It was awesome. French toast, bacon, scalloped potatoes, peach pancakes, fruit, eggs? I didn't even get to try the omelet bar, homemade granola, yogurts, or any of the other dozen dishes they had. It was quite yummy - and again, a quiet breakfast, just me, overlooking a pretty little river, sipping coffee, alone? Glorious.

(note: I really love my kids and family more than life, I hope I'm not giving the wrong impression...it's just, y'know, sometimes it's nice to not have to drink your coffee with a baby on your hip and the Chuggington theme song on full blast)

After breakfast, I went out on my own and just shot pics of the Maine coastline and the town. Again - I don't know if there is anything more relaxing and fun for me. No real time constraints, nobody was looking for me, I just walked around and tried to capture the landscape. Maine is very pretty.

Abby and E had a great time while I was gone. Brittany sent me proof. :)

This is actually from a few days later - but more proof of how fun NeeNee is.

Ok! So that was last weekend. :)

A few more tidbits.

The other day, Abby pulls up E's baby seat and sits it right in front of Brittany (who was sitting in the recliner) and says "Let's talk" Brittany laughs and says, "Ok, what do you want to talk about?"

Abby props her feet up on the chair in front of her, folds her arms behind her head and says "I'd like to talk about rice" I mean, where does she get this? Brittany says "Ok, rice is white and sometimes brown and yummy" Abby gives an exaggerated "Hmmmmmm. Yes, I think that's right" then she announced she was going to go play. It was so random and spontaneous and had us all laughing.

Here's little miss sass.

(I know I need to put some E pictures up, but I have shockingly few on my phone. The only ones I have are in her halloween costume, so I obviously can't show those yet ;)

We actually went to the library yesterday. For the first time since E was born. I KNOW. Shameful! Hopefully we'll be able to incorporate it back into our weekly routine now that I'm getting better at juggling. Relatedly, I just want to reiterate something I've said a million times. I think being a stay at home mom is the most mentally exhausting job ever. My hat goes off to all of you. Working full time actually gives me moments to myself - something you don't get at home. But - I think that being a working mommy has been more physically exhausting on me. A good 7 hours of my day are spoken for and it isn't always easy to squeeze errands and family time and things like cleaning or eating into the mix. So, you prioritize and do the best you can.

I know, nothing everybody didn't already know there. But one day, when Abby or E are reading this, I want them to know that there was a reason why we were always out of milk and why they didn't get a bath every night of the week and that the reason the laundry was never folded was because we decided that playing at the park was more important. Sigh. I'm definitely getting better at juggling - but I could still use a few more hands. ;-)

Anyway.

In other news - I love my new phone. It not only does lots of nifty new tech things - it also validates my feelings.

Well isn't this fancy

2011-10-19T12:19:00.001-04:00

So, here I am. Driving. In Boston. And blogging at the same time.

Sounds dangerous right? I guess it would be, but I'm using my new phone – so I'm just talking and my phone is blogging for me.

Fancy, right?

I think so. In fact, maybe I'll blog a lot more if all I have to do is talk on the phone while I do other things. Other than looking a little crazy talking to myself, this could be really useful.

We got our new phones on Friday. Poor Kyle had to stand out in the rain for three hours to get our package FedEx, after we missed the delivery. But, all's well that ends well.

The new phone is quite the upgrade from my old which was the 3G. I'm liking it very much! And the voice activation is pretty awesome. Siri and I are BFFs.

Hopefully I'll get a real blog up later today. I have a lot I want to talk about, of course. But, right now I have to go to this meeting. And I'm here now – so I'll talk to y'all later. Bye-bye.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

friday

2011-10-14T19:54:00.002-04:00

E has a little cough and cold and she hasn't been feeling 100% the last few days. This means a few things. One of which is that she is in a high-maintanace mode. All babies are pretty high-maintanace, but sick ones take the cake.

She didn't sleep long this afternoon for her nap, she's not been sleeping like she usually does. She was only down for about 30 mins-ish. SO, because I value sanity, I decided she would definitely be getting a late afternoon nap. I put her down around 4 and it took a good 20 mins before I got her to sleep. At first she tried to pull that stunt where I put her in the crib, and she laughs and pulls her swaddle all around and kicks and grins.

No, m'am. Not today. So, she eventually went to sleep.

I didn't want to wake her. I know she's so tired. But now it's been over 3 hours and she's still down. Her bedtime was an hour ago. And now I don't know what to expect. Maybe she'll sleep all night. Maybe she'll wake up in a few minutes. I don't know.

And I wish she was feeling better and acting more consistently because I'm leaving tomorrow and I"ll be gone for 24 hours. It will be my first night completely away from E. I'm not worried about her in the sense that I know Brit will do a great job (Kyle will also not be around) - but I just wish she were feeling better. What if she needs me? I know. She won't. But still...what if?

Where am I going, you ask? I'm taking pictures for a friend's wedding. I'm looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun. I'll get to spend the night - and so the positive side to leaving is that I may actually get a full night of sleep for the first time in...at least 6 months. We'll see.

Work is getting busy. Next week is crazy. Things are just all happening at once now and several other things happened on top of those and it makes for quite the haystack of deadlines and to-dos.

Abby. Abby is something else. She has bloomed a new layer yet again in the last few weeks. She's always been a talker, but it's like she just turned up her talk button a good 10 notches lately. It's nonstop and her vocabulary is good. I'm always shaking my in disbelief/amusement at the things she says. And they're hard to explain because sometimes it's not the words that she says so much as it is how she says those words...which is difficult to translate across the interwebs.

She's very much into dancing lately. She's come to like her ballerina tutu and slippers and puts them on to twirl and dance in. She's not too bad. ;)

Last night I was invited to take pictures at the Ma School Psych Association Gala. They were celebrating 50 years. I enjoyed taking pics of course, and it was a good experience for me. I learned a lot and had a nice time out too.

Kyle? Kyle's ok. He had a very very busy week. The kind of week that means he had to stay up for multiple days in a row to get everything done. It will get easier, but these things seem to come in waves. A busy cycle followed by a less busy one. We're in one of those phases right now where we are just ships passing in the night again. We don't get a lot of time to see each other or talk about anything more than "Abby's doc appointment is on Tuesday, we're out of milk, will you bring the trash in later? Kloveyoubye"

Sigh. It'll pass.

What else? Kyle and Brit just took Abs to go pick up our new phones. We're both in pretty dire need of an upgrade...so this is pretty exciting. Apparently the guy tried to deliver them today, but we never heard the bell. So we're gonna try to meet up with the truck and hopefully they'll have them for us. Yay.

Alrighty. I think that's enough random boring information for the moment. I hope everyone's Friday night rocks.

a plan complete

2011-10-11T11:26:00.003-04:00

first day Billie Jo found out she was pregnant, me - 3 months pregnant

now

Steve

2011-10-07T15:03:00.001-04:00

I was so tired Wednesday night. I was a little bit sick and just worn out. After we put Abby to bed, I went into our room and thought "nothing sounds better than sleep" I didn't want supper or tv or anything. So, I got into bed at 8pm. I was a little sad that I was not spending time with Kyle...I was forfeiting our usual "how was your day" time in favor of sleep. But Kyle understood.

I slept until 2am - when I woke up out of habit. Elizabeth was still sleeping, so I took the time to check my phone (it's instinct, I check it every time I wake up). I saw that I had 2 text messages. One from a friend and one from Kyle. I read my friend's message first and it said "I'm sorry for your loss"

Well, that certainly confused me. I read Kyle's message next where he told me the sad news that Steve Jobs had passed away.

I was surprised by how sad that made me. In fact, I was a little annoyed with myself. I didn't know this man. He certainly didn't know me. We all knew he'd been sick and had stepped down recently...we knew this was coming. But why was it making me so sad? Why was I tearing up at 2am over a computer guy?

A few reasons.

Firstly, because, for reasons I can't explain, Jobs was a kind of...I can't say friend, and I think hero is too strong a word, but...um...an inspiration? in our house. While we didn't have a relationship with Jobs, he was somehow a part of our relationship. I know, I KNOW. That sounds ridiculous. But the first reason I was sad was because Kyle had to hear that news without me there...and I was somehow upset that I wasn't there to watch the coverage with him.

Let's back up a few years.

I wasn't dating Kyle when he got his first mac, but I remember the day. It was a 17 inch silver beauty and he was so excited about it. He was especially excited about the accessibility features that would allow him to access material with much more ease than on his PC.

Time went on and we started dating. We took a weekend trip with our friends Billie Jo and Ricky to Atlanta. It was the weekend that Ricky proposed to Billie Jo at a Braves game. :) Before we came home, we stopped by my first apple store. I was just looking around and I noticed the cutest little laptop - a little bitty 12 inch thing. I played with it. Kyle came up and said "Whatcha lookin' at?" and I said, "I named him Pico" Kyle laughed (because it is SO like me to name an inanimate object) and said "Well, if you named it, you gotta keep it"

I couldn't afford it of course. So, Kyle bought it for me. We kept that pretty hush hush because we'd only been dating a few months...if that. I paid him back with my RA paycheck every month for about a year. But, it was thanks to Kyle that I got my first mac. Of course neither of us have ever looked back.

Kyle's love of all things Apple is infectious...and a friend of mine who also has an Apple-loving husband brought up that it is also endearing. I believe Kyle has converted most, if not all, of our family into mac users.

Anyway. We've been Apple fans for a while. We go to the stores for fun. We stood in line to see the Boston store on opening day. We watch the keynotes (or Stevenotes as they're known) and consider it a date night. Some of my favorite date nights with kyle were watching Steve unveil his newest contraption while we ate apple themed foods in our jeans and black shirts and talked about the ins and outs of whatever was being shown. I remember watching the iPhone be revealed. I remember our excitement and I remember telling my family about this awesome new phone that I could only ever dream of owning. It's kinda funny now.

So, my point is this. Steve Jobs has been part of our relationship in this way - we bonded over it. So, when I heard that he had died, I think that's why I was sadder than I had anticipated I would be.

Abby and Elizabeth will never ever know a world without mac products. They were born into an iPhone, iPad culture. Abby can use my phone just as well as I can. It's unreal. It is difficult to wrap my mind around it - around how much Steve has changed our world through technology. I'm not going to go through a biography of the man. It suffices to say he was an interesting individual, a genius in his field, and an inspiration to so many.

To my girls - This guy that I've been talking about will have no real meaning in your life. But he was a smart guy and he said some smart things that I want you to hear.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

It's good advice, really.

I'm also a fan of

"Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate?"

I like it because it's whimsical...not practical. ;)

Anyway, I just thought I should mention this event because I felt like it was worth noting and I wanted the girls to know it happened and to have some understanding of it. I don't really know if I accomplished that or not, but that's fine too.

Rest in peace, Steve. Thanks for being a part of our lives.

This was one of my favorite tributes.

Thanks.

tun-der

2011-10-04T09:23:00.002-04:00

One of my earliest memories was from when we lived in Hot Springs. I was probably around 2, maybe a little younger? I can't remember if Michael was around yet or not. But I remember standing in my crib, holding on to the side rails and crying. It was dark. I remember seeing a light illuminate the outline of my door, and then the door opened and my mom came in. Before she could make it across the small room, it happened again - a big loud crash of thunder filled my ears and I started screaming all over again. I vaguely remember my mom hush-hush-hushing me and picking me up. Then somebody put the lens cap on my memory-camera.

But I remember being scared. I remember not knowing what was making that noise. I was scared of thunder for a long time. Even after I'd outgrown my tears, I would often lay in bed, wide awake, clutching my covers waiting for the storm to pass. As an adult, I kind of like storms - but those big thunder crashes still make me jump sometimes.

We don't get thunder very often up here, but the past few times that we have - it has made Abby nervous. The first time she ever heard thunder, I tried pretty hard to make it not-scary for her, to lighten the mood and associate it with happy thoughts...but, thunder - and especially thunder at night - is just unsettling to wee ones.

So, when some lightning woke me up last night, I knew she was going to wake up too. She woke up the first time around 2am. She stayed in bed, but cried. I went in and she said she wanted to be tucked in. She was unaware that the still far away storm is what woke her up, and she went back to sleep easily. Elizabeth then woke up for her night bottle, and she too, went back to sleep easily. I got back in bed and listened to the storm get closer. The soft rumbling distant thunder turned into harsher claps. The rain went from gently falling on the house to pelting the windows. I was just waiting for Abby and I was thinking about my first thunder memory.

And then a very loud flash and clap happened right over us. Abby ran out of her room - the poor thing must have been laying in her bed awake too - and started crying. She ran into my room, where I met her at the door. I played dumb and asked her what was wrong as I picked her up. She put her head on my shoulder and said "I just want to wock"

I felt bad for her. I remember exactly what it felt like to be so scared of something so abstract and big and unknown. So, I asked her an unprecedented question, "do you want to come sleep in mommy's bed?" She had said yes before I'd even finished the question. Kyle had fallen asleep downstairs, so there was plenty of room for the two of us.

I never let her sleep in our bed, but I dunno, maybe deep down I wanted the company too. We got snuggled in and tried to sleep. After a flash of lightning, Abby grabbed my hand and pulled it up to her ear, "mommy, will you cover my ears, pwease?" So, I did.

A minute or so later, Kyle came upstairs - the thunder had woken him up too. Things got a little cramped with the three of us, so I ended up taking Abby to her room and laying in her bed with her. It took her a while to fall asleep, and she kept one hand in my hair so that she would know if I tried to leave. I told her I could only stay for a little while. It took her about an hour to fall into a deep sleep. About the time she did, E woke up. Of course.

I ended up just getting E up for the day around 5:30 - I had to get up anyway. I was so tired. Kinda still am. ;)

Anyway, just wanted to say that I was happy that I could be a source of comfort for Abby last night. Just like my mom was for me. I mean, I know, that's what mom's DO. That's our primary superpower - to comfort when nothing else can. But I still like knowing that it works.

a story

2011-10-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned previously that I'm taking a photography course. The whole point of the course is to learn all the ins and outs of a good pictures so that you can take a good picture straight out of the camera and not have to spend a lot of time and energy in post processing. So, I was working on my homework and decided to use E as my subject. She can be a little tricky sometimes...with the moving and the flailing and the mood swings... But, the other day we had a nice time outside.

After looking through my pictures, these made me laugh. I thought they told a story, so here they are to share.

"La De Da, here I am, enjoying some time outside with mommy, being outside is awes..."

"...omG! Is that a bottle I see?"

*whistling*

"Don't mind me...I'm just sitting on my tummy, looking at the house. I am not at all reaching for that..."

"BOTTLE!"

"sooooo yuummmmmy"

"sneak attack."

"What? It's Empty?!"

"Just kidding. I knew that."

sister sweet

2011-09-30T12:32:00.001-04:00

I love my kids, and my kids love me. But, I play second fiddle when they are around each other.

Abby is, hands down, E's favorite person on earth....and Abby is pa-reety fond of E too. It's awesome.

Kyle and I were talking about this yesterday. About how lucky we've been that Abby adjusted to sisterhood so well. Did she show signs of regression? Sure, but mild ones. She wanted to be swaddled, she wanted a paci, she wanted to be rocked...that kind of thing. I can honestly say that she has not shown one second of aggression or anger towards E since day one.

She has been annoyed with her before - we occasionally get a, "Mommy, E-train is too loud!" when she's crying in the car or something. But 99% of the time, Abby steps up to help. When we're driving somewhere, and E starts to fuss, Abby will hold her hand and say in her high pitched baby-voice "It's ok Ewizabeff, don't cry, we're almost home, it's ok, you want a song? Ok. I'll sing one for you" Abby recites her lullabies or makes funny faces or weird noises to help distract E. Sometimes she tries to bounce/shake the car seat to soothe her, she gives her toys, strokes her head, sings songs...she sings lots of songs.

Abby is very protective of E too. If she's sleeping, Abby will be the first to tell you "We have to be quiet! Don't wake up E! She's sleeping. Shhhhh!" But - the second we hear that she's awake? Abby jumps up, stops whatever she's doing and said "E-train's awake! Can I go see her??" Then she runs upstairs, into her room, and peers between the crib slats at her and usually says something like an exaggerated "Gooood Mooooooorning E! Did you have a good sleep? Huh? Didya?" And of course, E just stares at her and grins the biggest grin she can manage.

They love each other, and I'm so thankful for that. This age is so sweet.

Anytime we hold E up so that she's eye-level with Abby - she laughs. Like big belly laughs. Her favorite is when I'm holding her going down the stairs and Abby is coming down behind us. It allows them to be nearly eye level. Abby makes faces at her and empty threats like, "I'm gonna eat you! I'm gonna catch you! Here I come!" And E just laughs and laughs and laughs.

And on a related note, Abby is a super helper. Like seriously. I love that I can ask her, "Abby, can you go downstairs and look for E's paci - I don't know where it is, but it might be by the couch" Abby will say "ok!" and come back with it. She loooooves to help hold E's bottle and to get us diapers or burp cloths or things. She likes to "share" toys with E by putting them on her chest or next to her.

Oh, and another favorite thing of Abby's is dancing for E. She loves to play music and dance to make E laugh. E loves it too. And so do I.

There is just something so perfect about watching them together. Abby was born to be a sister, it's so obvious. And I know things will change. E will eventually start toppling Abby's perfectly built towers or rearranging her most recent organization project and Abby will flip and yell and cry and probably hit and kick. I know. And one day E will come running to me with big tears running down her face because Abby wouldn't let her play with her. And that's all well and good too. It's the way things have been since time began I imagine.

But for now? They show nothing but sweetness, and it never ceases to amaze me just how much they really truly love each other.

the 25th

2011-09-27T12:58:00.002-04:00

So this past Sunday was a fun day for us. It was Brittany's birthday, and she shared it with E turning 5 months old. It's only normal that Brittany would share her day. It was, of course, her twin sister's birthday and her dad's as well. The 25th is a big day in this family. ;)

We started the day with a mini breakfast party for Brit. We went with a rock star theme, because we think she...rocks. We had banana nut muffins and coffee, opened presents and sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl. It was fun...and, well, I love any excuse to decorate and celebrate. Matching napkins and plates? I'm in.

After our breakfast party, we all got ready and went to church. E was fussy the whole time (she was battling the runny nose thing) and I spent a lot of the service just walking with her downstairs. After church, we made a quick trip to whole foods to grab some stuff to share at the annual church picnic. How nice of them to have a party just for Brit and E! ;)

The picnic was nice. It was unseasonably warm and humid, but we survived. We all ate some yummy food and then ate some more food. Abby danced her heart out and attempted to play "Jolly-ball" with some girls who set up a net. They were sweet and let her play for a bit. I taught Abby how to roll down a grass hill - and that was fun.

Abs was a dirty, sweaty mess by the end of it. We kept waiting around to see if they were going to do pony rides again this year, but we gave up and left. On the way to the car, we found they'd brought a fire truck for the kids to explore. Abby was equal parts interested and intimidated. She was happy to touch it and she even wore the big heavy fireman's hat, but she refused to explore the inside, stating "No no no! This one is too big! We just need a small firetruck for me!"

We got in the car and as we were leaving the church - we saw that the ponies HAD come. Well, Abby saw them and she said in her sweetest honey-dripped voice "Daddy! Please can I ride the pony, Pleeeeeaaaase????" So, yeah.

We waited in line forever and a day. They were the same two ponies they had last year. A big one and a small one. Well, Abby declared she only wanted to ride the big one (just like every other little girl in line). So, we waited and waited. Eventually, the little pony had no more takers - so we let E jump up there.

here's Abs on the same horse last year :)

funny, no?

Shortly after, it was Abby's turn, and she was just SO pleased.

She was really sad to leave. She kept asking if we could do it again, and we really could have let her - but we'd been there for an hour or so AFTER we'd decided to leave and it was well past naptime. Plus, it was hot. Well, she just cried and begged and cried, "Pwease, I want to wide the pony again! Pwease!" Sigh.

The rest of the day was just us relaxing and working around the house on stuff. It was a good day, and I was happy that we got to celebrate Brit's birthday with her in person.

The vineyard

2011-09-25T20:48:00.001-04:00

Sooo, it's a week late. Sorry 'bout that.

Last weekend, Brittany and I took the girls down to the cape and to Martha's Vineyard. I'd bought a groupon thing for ferry tickets and it was the last weekend we were going to be able to go. So, off we went.

We left the house around 7am and drove the nearly 2 hours to get to the cape. The girls did great in the car and it was an easy drive. We got there, parked, and got on the Ferry - which was kinda cool. Abby was excited about the boat. She knew we were going on a boat to go ride a carousel, and that's all she really cared about. The boat ride was about 90 mins and the girls did well on it as well. The only mishap was when we failed to hear the announcement about covering the children's ears when the blew the boat horn....and we were sitting right under the horn. So, that went over like a (screaming) lead balloon.

We got to the vineyard and started to walk around. They were having a festival that day, so it was nice that all the shops pretty much had their booths set up outside. We walked around, browsed, and went to ride the carousel.

The Flying Horse Carousel is the oldest platform carousel in the country. It was pretty cool. They have these little wooden arms full of metal rings that you try to grab as you pass. If you grab a brass ring, you get a free ride. Abby and I just had fun grabbing rings. At first Abby didn't want to ride it, and then she ended up having fun (of course) But at the end, she said she was done.

So, we went on our way. We ate lunch and found live music and Abby danced all day long. We found this pink whale mascot for the Vineyard Vines store. Great store, cute clothes, iconic island feel....but at $38 for a toddler's T-shirt? We didn't stay too long. Nevertheless, their Mascot rocked, and Abby was enthalled. She just kept hugging him and kissing him and holding his fin. It was cute.

Eventually the whale took a break and we were able to pull Abby away. She danced some more, we shopped some, and then we all took a few more carousel rides. Even E got to ride it! Her first one! But, I didn't get any pictures of that. :-/

Right before we got on the carousel for the last time, we ran and got ice cream and played in an arcade, where we introduced Abby to the concept of tokens and tickets. She was happy with that idea. She ended up winning enough tickets for a Hacky Sack and a Tootsie-pop.

We got back on the boat with only a few minutes to spare before it's departure. Abby was exhausted. Tired. And More Exhausted. And then she remembered the scary boat horn. Thus, this:

But as soon as it was over? She all but begged to be put to bed. I love this picture, mostly because she's still holding her sucker. She slept that way for over an hour.

Here's a picture of E, because she got a bit neglected on the camera front.

We got back to land, picked up some fast food and drove home. The girls did Great on the way home too. We were all worn out, but it was a really great trip and now I can mark that off of my list of "things to do in New England"

bullet points

2011-09-23T20:48:00.002-04:00

Yeah - same song over here I'm afraid. Busy busy, no time, blah blah blah. So - a bullet list is the best I can put together at the moment. Let's go!

* Elizabeth is on formula now. I'm still nursing her once or twice a day, but all of her real meals now come from a can. This was really kinda hard on me. I'd worked pretty darn hard to turn us around from pumping all the time in the beginning to nursing all the time. But, once I went back to work - I just didn't have it in me to work as hard as I would have had to work to keep it up. I am happy that we are still able to nurse at least once a day for the time being. When I went to go buy our first can of formula - I stood in the aisle for too long trying not to cry. I wish I could end nursing on my terms instead of struggling with supply issues and underweight kiddos, but alas. Cognitively, I know it's for the better - but emotionally? It's hard to admit to yourself that you're just not enough anymore.

* Related. Elizabeth is no longer a little underweight string bean. Well, I mean, she's still really long - but as soon as we started, she rounded right out. Her cheeks are round now and her little belly sticks out so that it's not quite as easy for her to chew on her toes as it used to be. Our doctor told us we could bring her in for a weight check anytime we wanted - but it is so obvious that she's a little chunk now - that I'm not at all worried. Shocker - you feed your kid more food and they get bigger.

* Elizabeth is doing well. I feel like I don't blog about her very often. Mostly because she still doesn't *DO* a ton yet - but she's getting more fun. Her head control is pretty good now, she can grab things and put them to her mouth, she can roll from tummy to back - although she prefers to roll 1/2 over and just stay on her side. She laughs and giggles and GRINS. Oh, she's got such a grin. It is her single best defense. No matter how little sleep I got, no matter how bitter I am about it - when she looks at me and does that sparkly-eye grin. I can't help but smile back and pretend to eat her. Gah.

* Sleep. Really, E is doing fine. She generally wakes up once a night. Sometimes twice. The problem is when the timing is such that she wakes up close to 5 and wants to be up for the day. E is not sleeping as well as Abby did at this age by a LONG shot. But, you know what? I feel like her sleep is directly proportional to the amount of effort that WE put into it. With Abby? Kyle and I had a very strict bedtime routine. She was down by 7sharp - and she did great. With E? She goes down at 6, or 6:30, or 7, or 7:15, or 8:20ish.... It just depends. So, I mean, how can I expect her to be consistent when we're not? We're working on it, but....well...news flash - two kids are different than one.

* Work. Work is cool. Going back was not hard and I think that me being a working mom is good for my mental well being and general mood. I think being a stay at home mom is way harder than me working at the high school. But, with one caveat. When I was staying home - I managed to do the mom thing and the house thing most of the time. I mean, I had time to sweep periodically, fold lanudry, that kind of thing. I didn't always DO it - but that's just because I'm laaaaaaazy, not because I didn't have time. But now?? I am constantly amazed that I run out of minutes at the end of everyday. I need a rollover plan for life.

I mean, I get up ~~at 4am~~ at some point and go to work, then I come home and play with the kids and take Kyle to school and (sometimes) cook dinner, and (occasionally) run errands, and I try to at least tidy things every night before it's time to put the kids to bed and then I either veg out or go to the gym....both of those are followed shortly by me passing out. I mean, when am I supposed to clean the tub? It took me 2 days to do a load of laundry, another 3 days to get it folded, a day to get the folded stuff upstairs and then, like, I dunno, 2 weeks to put it away? I have not yet figured out how to juggle mom + work + errands + house.

Maybe it doesn't even matter.

* Neenee. This is what Abby calls Brittany. It's cute, and I've found myself calling her that pretty often. The girls looooooove her. I feel very blessed that she's taken on the job of watching them while I'm off at the day job. I know I don't have to worry about them and Abby always has such good days with her. And Neenee has handled it all so well and so gracefully. It's not the easiest transition to make - young and childless to instant-mother-of-two. Just add coffee! Anyway, it's been great having her around to take care of my wee loves. Not to mention, it's fun having family around too! Yay :)

* Yesterday was our 5 year engagement anniversary.

* I like that song 1000 ships that's out now.

* The other day I put some shorts on Abby and she said "These are my shorts, they are Soooooo Stylish." Funny girl. None of us know where she picked that up. She also got a hold of some eye shadow and came up to me with brown streaks all over her face and said "Look mommy! My eyes are just so beautiful"

* We had a fantastic trip to Martha's Vineyard last weekend. I really do have pictures. No, really, I do! Promise. I'll put them up here soon....soonish? Sometime soon? Maybe? ....we'll see.

* Happy Fall!

All right - I hope that will catch me up a tiny bit. I can already tell that this chapter of my life will be titled "the blur" It's more important than ever that I take the time to document and remember the details of our days....but sometimes I just get so caught up in living them :)

pointless

2011-09-19T22:07:00.000-04:00

So, E fussed around 4:20am. Which woke me up. I went and put her paci back in and hoped for the best. She fussed a little longer, but eventually settled. Then it was about 5am.

So, I decided to try to sleep for the next 30 mins before I had to get up for the day. But - my mind was awake and thinking about everything from what I had just dreamed about to photography assignments to what to wear for the day to trying to remember if I set the coffee timer or not. I finally started to drift to sleep - and then my alarm went off.

Of course it did.

So, I got up. Got dressed. Took care of the girls for a bit before heading out to work. I did the work thing all day and came home. Did the mom thing for a bit. I also managed to do a photography assignment for that class I'm taking and vacuum. Yep. Vacuuming is now blog-worthy. Welcome to my world.

I started dinner, picked up Kyle, finished cooking dinner. We ate, we cleaned, we played with the girls, and we put them to bed.

Sit down.

...to put my shoes on. And I went to the gym. I know I will, eventually, enjoy going. Crave it, even. But now? It's just ok. But still, I know I need to get there. So, I went. Did the gym thing, and came home.

NOW, I can sit down - catch up on facebook and photo stuff until my eyes are drooping. Then I remember that I haven't blogged yet this year and feel guilty.

And this is what you get. A recap of a bunch of unimportant stuff . I have pictures from the weekend. I'll try my darndest to get those up here tomorrow. --> that's what we call mediocre accountability.

g'night y'all.

cold cake

2011-09-15T10:15:00.003-04:00

So we went to a birthday party for a kid in our playgroup and I was talking to Abby about how her friend, had just turned 3. And how another friend from playgroup had turned 3 over the summer. So I asked her how old she was and she said "Ummm. I'm two." So I told her, "That's right, but when you have your birthday, you'll be 3 too!"

Abby: "Yeah! Abby will be 3 too! Yay!"
Me: "Yes, you will. But first we have to wait for your birthday. Your birthday is far away still"
Abby: "Yeah. When my birthday come mom?"
Me: "Well, your birthday is a little bit far away. We have to wait until after it gets really cold"
Abby: "And I will have cake and I will blow out the candle?"
Me: "Yes, we will have cake and candles, and maybe balloons too"
Abby: "I love balloons. Where is Santa anyway?"
Me: (laughing) "Well, Santa is at Santa's house getting the toys ready for Christmas"
Abby: "Yeah. So, he will have to come and bring toys, but he will bring the reindeer to fly first and the reindeer like to eat carrots, but I will have cake for my birthday and the reindeer don't eat my cake"
Me: "Right, Santa has reindeer that fly and he will bring presents at Christmas. But your birthday is before Christmas"
Abby: "After it gets cold?"
Me: "yes."

So we go home and play and I'm getting dinner ready.

Abby: "mommy? Whatcha making?"
Me: "Well, I'm cooking supper. What are you doing?"
Abby: "Um, I'm just playing and making birthday cakes for my birthday"
(birthday cakes are play-doh patties with crayons stuck in them)
Me: "Oh, that's cool. But your birthday is a little bit far away still"
Abby: "Yeah, I know. After my cake gets cold. It will be my birthday when my cake gets cold."

So, I explained to her that we had to wait for her birthday after the weather got really cold. Poor kid. I love that she's old enough to start thinking about it though...and I think she's going to have so much fun having a party this year. It's still 3 months away, but it's already on our minds. When did she get this old?

I dunno. But, I think once she decides to potty train (which will be never), I'm going to stop time.

photography

2011-09-12T13:38:00.000-04:00

No secret that I like taking pictures, right?

I wish I would have realized this earlier in life...like in high school where I could have taken courses on it that prepped me for college courses in it that would have set me up for actually knowing what I'm doing now.

But, I didn't. And that's fine. I've discovered it now and I very much enjoy it.

Photography is, I believe, the creative medium that is best for me. I do have an artistic side and I'm happiest when I'm able to use it. Sometimes, if I haven't been creative in a while, I get really down and gloomy. Then, I realize that what I want to do is build 400 hand made origami giraffs or something ridiculous, and it's time consuming, but then I feel better. I like being creative...but, I can't sing and I can't sew and I can't really draw (although I can rock a doodle). I've dabbled in scrapbooking and clay and poetry and quilling (I'd still like to do more quilling - one day when I have endless hours to do nothing with but twirl paper. ha. hahahaha.)

But, while I enjoy all of those things - they were just mini projects. Photography, on the other hand - appeals to me on a much deeper level. It's like the lightbulb went off somewhere deep inside and suddenly I could see that this was me. I could be good at this - and I could love it.

I think part of it has to do with the fact that photography is both art and technical. There is a freedom and an art to it. You can take pictures of whatever you'd like and however you'd like. But, there is also structure. You have to learn the technical stuff. You have to know how your camera works and how light works and how the two work together. For as much freedom as there is, there are rules, too. And I think this is what appeals to me. I need some structure, but I need creative license as well.

When people would ask me what I would do if I could have any job in the world - I'd always say that being a world photographer was high on my list. To travel the world and capture culture and beauty - could there be anything more rewarding? Well, it's not in the cards now. Not while I have a family and a career that I enjoy. But maybe it will be my retirement plan.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

What I want to get at is this feeling that I have. It's a frustrating feeling. Spurred by the fact that I am a novice in photography - and yet - I can see that I could be good at this. I want to be good at this. I can feel it...but I have to be patient and study and learn and practice and make mistakes first. And all of that takes time. And I want to be good Right Now.

I've been self teaching myself since I bought my real camera this year. And I've learned tons. TONS. But, there's so much still to learn. So. What to do about it? Well, I saved my pennies for a while and I built up the guts to spend them all on a photography course. A four week program that comes highly reviewed. It's an online thing - do at your own pace, but people love it. So, I'm optimistic. I have to be, it was expensive. ;)

It starts today and I'm so thirsty for learning that I just can't read fast enough. I'm excited to try the assignments and absorb all the information I can. It feels good to have invested in this - when this is nothing more than a hobby, a dream, a past time. I could have spent that money on a hundred different things that we really truly need. But instead, I'm spending it on recreational education. But still, it feels good....I think I could use the word nourishing.

Anyway, that's all for now. I just wanted to document this. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

golden

2011-09-10T09:39:00.003-04:00

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles await you when you rise;
Sleep, pretty baby,
Do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.

Care you know not, therefore sleep;
While I o'er you watch do keep;
Sleep, pretty baby,
Do not cry,
And I will sing, I will sing,
I will sing a lullaby

bathageddon

2011-09-08T10:15:00.000-04:00

I just want to remember this.

Last night Kyle had his first class of the semester, so I had the girls. I cooked dinner, fed them, and whisked them away upstairs for bath. Abby was excited about the bath - I didn't know if Elizabeth would go for it or not as she'd been awake for 4 hours, which is double her normal limit. I decided to risk it because they both really needed one.

I get the water going, I get them undressed, I get E in the tub and then Abby. All is well. Then - THEN I had the audacity to put WATER on Abby's hair. Oh my sweet terrors - she freaked. Just screamed. I probably could have chopped off an arm and had the same reaction. Of course, the instant Abby starts crying, Elizabeth is all red faced and tear-ridden as well.

I asked Abby what was wrong and she kinda mumbled something about she didn't want a bath. Well, sorry sweetie, we're here. I washed her hair anyway. She screamed the whole time. Screamed isn't strong enough a word - shrieked, perhaps. She tried clawing her way out of the tub. I was simutaneously keeping Abby in the tub, washing her hair, scrubbing her with soap, washing E and listening to my ear drums ring to near bursting point with the high pitched shrieks and screams and cries around me (which, of course, all echo in the bathroom 10fold)

It washed both kids in about 4 minutes. I yanked Abby out of the tub, and sat her on her potty because she was dripping wet and I needed to deal with E for a second before I could dry her off. Of course, This sent Abby into a whole new stratosphere of screaming.....which then sent E into a new tizzy. I dried and diapered and dressed E, then put Abby's robe on and told her to go to her room. Which she did - wailing the whole time.

The *second* Abby left to her room - Elizabeth looked up at me and grinned the biggest grin. As if to say "Good grief, what was HER problem?"

I took my time swaddling and feeding Elizabeth for bed because I was still pretty upset with Abby and I figured the cool down time would be good for both of us. She cried in her room for about 20 minutes until I was done and E was asleep.

I walked in and Abby just looked at me - unsure of what the next move would be. I told her to lie down so I could get her a diaper and PJ's. She did. Then I brushed her hair for about 5 minutes and neither of us said anything. It was just quiet. It took me until then to not be mad at her any more. When we were both calm, I picked her up and put her in my lap. She took this as a sign that it was safe to talk again and said "Mommy not happy. Abby cry in bath and mommy not happy"

We talked about why I wasn't happy and why Abby wasn't happy. We talked about what caused it and what a better course of action would have been. When we were done talking through it - we talked about it again, and then one more time. I apologized for getting upset with her and I asked her if she was happy now because mommy was happy now too. Abs says "No, I'm still sad" So I asked her why and she says "Abby's sad because I scared wizzabeff and make her cry too" As she told me that part, she started to tear up again and her chin started quivering. So. We talked some more until she felt better.

Then, we read books. She had a stack of new books and we read all of them - we read for about 45 minutes. She was very happy to be reading so long. Usually bedtime consists of 2-3 books, but last night, we read closer to 10.

There was one book about fractions and decimals and percents (not age appropriate, obviously, but she liked the pictures and numbers). She was looking at a page that said "8%" and she says "Look! It's an eight, circle, line, circle" So - I explained that it was a percent sign and that it said "eight percent" After that, she had a lot of fun finding all the percent signs. Although, she says it like "PERcent" It was still cute to hear her "read" all the numbers and signs.

So. Anyway.

It was a chaotic crazy bath time. Worst to date in fact. And because of that - and because it morphed from terrible and traumatic to calm and loving - I wanted to remember it.

You Capture

2011-09-08T09:54:00.001-04:00

Hi You Capture friends. :)

Somewhere between the end of summer (and the end of my maternity leave) and the beginning of school and work - I missed a YC. I was totally ready to share something about peace - maybe that was last week? Who knows, time escapes me.

So - here are my captures, maybe stretched juuuuuuust a hair.

We're not in school yet - but she was so proud of some of her first "in the lines" coloring

I like these water drops - I took this picture DURING a summer sunset.

Yep - also taken during that golden hour. ;)

Ok. I'll do better next week. Go see everyone else's shares at Beth's

About 5 minutes

2011-09-06T21:49:00.000-04:00

5 minutes. That's about how long I have until my eyes shut. I joke with Kyle that I'm completely solar powered. Well, it was rainy all day and the sun has been down for hours now - my energy is running near empty.

But, I have a few minutes left. I'm going to attempt to write as much as I can.

Firstly, today was my first day back at work. It was an easy day in that it was just a staffing where we go over the procedures and new announcements and such for the year. It's nice to get together with the rest of the department and catch up with everyone's summer. I'm lucky to work in a great district, but I'm super lucky to have such a close knit and capable group of co-workers around me. Anyway, it was good to see them.

Abby and Elizabeth did great with Brittany today. Abby didn't bat an eye about us going back to work. She didn't give Brittany a hard time about taking a nap, ate all her lunch and was sweet with E. I knew they were in good hands and didn't worry about them at all. It was as smooth a transition as we could have hoped for. The real challenge will come as we try to perfect a morning routine that allows me to get to work on time. But, day one back? Done and done.

Abby discovered her throat yesterday. After staring in the mirror at her wide open mouth for a while, she excitedly exclaimed "I have two tunnels in my mouth! Come see! I have two tunnels!" I think her throat looked like 2 because of that little uvula thing. She chattered on to say "I put my vitamin in my mouth, and it went in the tunnel and then it went dooooown my throat and into my tummy!" I think it's one of her first real science/biology-like discoveries. She's been intrigued since. She asks to see our "tunnels" now.

Elizabeth has the most infectious smile EVER.

Abby has been cleaning up more than usual today. Yesterday? She actually really did clean. Like, her play area was a mess, and she was playing for about 10 minutes and came to get me and said "mommy, I cleaned up my kitchen, come see" And - she HAD. Like, she had done a really good job. Tonight, before bed we told her to pick a book to read and she said "Um, ok, but first I need to clean up my room" And she went around and picked up her clothes and put toys where they go and straightened things and cleared surfaces. Kyle and I just watched a little baffled and amused and impressed and proud. Earlier today, I left Abby washing cut zucchini ends (she loves to wash) while I put E down for a nap. When I came downstairs, Abby was holding a stack of cups in front of a mostly empty dishwasher. She immediately said, "Look Mommy! I was a big helper and put aaaall the dishes away! I cleaned them up for you. The knife was really sharp but I was really careful and the cups are all stacked up but I can't reach that up there" She was so so so proud of herself. Just beaming. I didn't have the heart to admonish her for putting all of the DIRTY dishes back in the drawers and cabinets. I just tried to find what I could. I don't know what's spurring her clean-streak, but I like it.

My brother had back surgery today to fix him. I don't know all the details - but I know he did very well and I hope that this surgery helps him feel more normal (back wise) soon. Thanks for the positive thoughts from everyone.

Kyle had a really long day today too - the beginning of school is hard for all of us. He got to work early and stayed late and is currently passed out at his desk. I kinda feel that way too.

My 5 minutes is up and my eyes are closi....

not tonight

2011-09-05T20:22:00.000-04:00

I have 3 or 4 blogs in my head, ready to type...but not tonight.

I go back to work tomorrow after 5 months off and I have lots of thoughts to share on that subject...but not tonight.

I want to tell you how sweet little E is and how funny Abby is...but not tonight,

I want to write about my new ventures in photography...but, not tonight,

I'd like to document our Labor Day...but not tonight.

I'll have more time to write at work, ironically. My lunch break usually involves a blog update...but not tonight.

I'm too tired. Talk to y'all on the flip side. G'night.

artist in training

2011-09-03T22:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Abby wanted to color. She's been asking to color increasingly often lately. I'd bought her a little colorable folder with butterflies on the front...so, we dove into that.

She had fun with that....but she was more intrigued with the blank inside of the folder. She asked for me to draw a star. So, I did. Then she, very carefully colored it in. She really took her time and concentrated really hard. I just sat there and watched her.

When she was done - she was so proud of herself. She asked me to draw a circle, then a triangle, and a heart - then "mommy, please draw me a rhombus please?" Cracked me up. But, of course I did. And she colored each one so carefully.

This is where I decide my child does not have ADHD - at all. She sat at that table probably close to 40 mins just coloring.

lefty

side laugh

so proud of her work

Abby insisted that her marker caps be turned upside down, on their end, on the table while she wasn't using them.

After her shapes, she asked for a coloring book. She spent a good little while coloring Boots here. Her favorite colors yesterday were red and orange. I can't really translate how proud she was of herself. It was awesome.

I'm back (again)

2011-08-31T10:03:00.000-04:00

Ok. Now I have a few more seconds to type out something.

The girls.

Elizabeth is doing well. She's 4 months old - crazy. I like Elizabeth. I like babies. I even like newborns. But? I love it when they get a little older. People say that these early days/weeks/months just fly by. And, they're right. They really do. And I do my best to soak up the things that I'll miss about this age. But I do look forward to her being able to sit up on her own and play and explore. I don't mourn her getting older yet - I'm happy for it. Now, when she gets to be about 6-8 months old - I'll probably wish for time to stop again. But for now, Im happy to see her grow.

She's rolled over from back to tummy a few times. She grabs things well. She smiles all the time - she giggles and laughs and it's just infectious. She's getting better about her head control and can sit in her bumbo for extended periods of time now. She only cries when she's tired/hungry.

We're working on her sleep. About a week ago, we started letting her "cry it out" at night and I stopped nursing her overnight. We started giving her a bottle instead of nursing before she goes to bed just so I KNOW she had enough. The first night, she cried for a little over two hours. The next night, it was 40 mins. The next 2-3 nights, it was about an hour off and on. I don't really know because I got a cold and was kinda out of it. Yesterday she slept from 8pm-6am. Last night she woke up around midnight but then slept the rest of the night....so, we're getting there.

She's small, well skinny. We took her for her 4 month check up on Monday. At 2 months old, she weighed 11 lbs. At 4 months old, she weight 11.14. This puts her in the 3% for weight, but she's tall. She's in the 94% for height. Or, as Kyle put it - she's like the Heidi Klum of babies!

Abby had the same issue, being underweight - but otherwise happy and healthy. We'll take E back in a few weeks for a weight check to see how she's doing. I *think* she's done better lately and I feel like she may be gaining more / getting more/ eating more the past couple of weeks. But, we'll get her checked again and see what her progress is. I'd like to keep nursing as long as I can, but of course, if I can't produce what E needs - then we'll deal with it. With me going back to work next week...I'm not super optomistic about my supply improving. I'm hoping to hold steady, but would not be surprised if it dropped....like it did with Abs. My unspoken goal was to make it 6 months breastfeeding. We'll see.

E spends her days sleeping, eating, smiling, and loving her big sister. She's a really good baby. Oh, and one more tidbit to document - she always has her skinny little ankles crossed. It's the funniest thing. Such a little lady.

As for Abby? She's crazy. She's so much fun. She's constantly talking - and I know that's old news, but she's really upped her vocab and sentence structure and phrases again in the past few weeks. Her imagination is awesome. She makes up stories and songs and asks really good questions and makes really good observations about things all the time. I'll write more later about specific stuff and phrases - nothing comes to mind at this exact second.

I can't believe she's almost 3. And then again? I can.

She's so smart. I mean, I'm her mom - so yeah - she's a genius and all that. But, really just objectively, she's done so well learning her numbers and letters and such. Her newest skill is lowercase letters. She gets nearly all of them right...sometimes she gets b and d mixed up as well as l and i But for the most part, she does very well with them. Our next goal will be counting past 20. And, I'm not, like, pushing her with this stuff. I don't really care if she can count to 30 or spell her name by kindergarten or whatever - but she loves learning, so I figure I might as well work on stuff here and there. A few days ago she told me she made a K and an A and an L and an O on her magna-doodle. And, she had. I'm 90% sure they were happy accidents that she then recognized as letters - but still. Well, except the O...circles are pretty easy.

Ok. There's an update on the wee ones. I'm off to go play with them now. :)

I'm back!

2011-08-31T09:23:00.000-04:00

Anybody out there?

Sorry I've been gone so long. There were a few days that I was just simply too busy/tired/distracted to blog. But then we got some of the wind and rain from Irene and we lost our cable and internet. And blogging is a little difficult without access to the interwebs, y'know.

Anyway. I'm back. I have a lot to blog about - but not really sure where to start or how long I have to write before somebody (elizabeth) needs me for something.

Let's work backwards.

Yesterday Kyle's younger sister moved in with us! Yay! She packed her bags and hopped a plane to Boston. She'll be watching the girls for us while I go back to work (next week! Eek!). We're super excited to have her around and I'm hoping she'll not only have a lot of fun with the girls, but that she'll really enjoy this new city and have a great overall experience. Plus, the selfish side of me is happy to have a little family around. Although - I know those in AR already miss her too. ;)

....well, that didn't last long. E is fussing. I'll be back.

yellow

2011-08-20T22:40:00.001-04:00

The other night, Abby wanted to read a little color book before bed. On every page, she would tell me what the color was and what the picture (usually an animal) was. So, she would say "it's a purple zebra" or "it's an orange cat" etc etc. She likes to tell me the letters in the words too. So, she'll say "It's a red dog, I see a R E and D" You get the idea.

We were trying to set the mood for bedtime, so the lights were low.

We get to the last page, which is a yellow something or another, I don't remember. But, because the yellow is a lighter shade, it was a little hard to read in the low lights.

Abby immediately sat up straight and started talking

"Oh no! It's too dark! We can't see it. I know! I just need to get my flashlight. I need to get my flashlight so I can see the page because the lights are dark and we just can't see it and I just need to read the color so I just need to get my flashlight. I will get my flashlight, it's in the bed, I just need to get it right now. I just need to get it so I can read the page in the book and see the color because I can't see the colors right now because the lights are a little bit dark so I just need to get my flashlight and so I can just see the page now with my flashlight. Yeah. I can get my flashlight mom! Then I can just get it, and I can see the color. We can't read it yet, we have to get the flashlight so we can see it better and we can read it when I get my flashlight, ok mom? ok? ok mom? mom? mama? ok mama? MOM? I need to get my flashlight so I can see the color, I just need to read the last page but the lights are dark and I just need to get my flashli-."

...and that's where I interrupted her. I'd just been staring at her - listening to her explain her actions over and over. I was mesmerized. When did she start explaining everything like that? She seriously rambled and repeated herself for a good two minutes or so before I snapped out of my trance and helped her find her flashlight. At which point, she cheerfully said "Oh goody! Now I can see it! Yep. It's yellow. Y-e-i-i-o-w, yellow"

lil' chef

2011-08-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

So, I've been studying. About photography. There's a LOT to learn, but I can honestly say I've learned more this past week than ever before. That *may* be because I'm actually, like I said, studying.

Anyway. I was working on some technical stuff this afternoon...or, trying to. I thought it would be more fun with a baby. I mean, that *is* why we have kids, right? For photo shoots?

So here are a few from the batch I liked. ;)

This last one, I think, is exactly what E is going to look like as a 90 year old lady - yelling at some young hooligans to get out of her kitchen!

just us

2011-08-18T12:08:00.000-04:00

The girls and I spent some time playing with the computer camera this morning. Lots of silliness, lots of giggles, lots and lots of blurry pictures.

But, I think these pictures sum up this point of our summer (life?) nicely. And when I look back on them in x many years - I'll remember what it was like.

Abby in a t-shirt and diaper, hair unbrushed, empty oatmeal bowl left at her desk.

Elizabeth - wide eyed and along for the ride - wearing Kyle's favorite Nike onsies.

Me - hair back, no makeup, in a shirt I've probably worn for more than 1 day in a row

all of us happy.

more time

2011-08-17T13:28:00.000-04:00

I could use some. If you have free minutes to spare, feel free to put them into my account.

I have a lot to recap. I don't particularly like writing re-cap posts. I'd much rather blog about things as they happen. That allows me to be more detailed and talk about things other than "this happened then this and this" I like blogging about my thoughts, ideas, emotions, in addition to the day to day things. But, I'm still juggling things and trying to find a routine (just when school is about to start). I want to blog every day. At least every other day. I'm happiest when I can do that. But lately, if I get one post a week, that's good. And that doesn't make me happy.

But then, at night, when I have time to sit down for the first time all day and actually type things out? I don't. I find myself unwinding by reading other blogs, catching up on facebook and my boards...if, that is, I don't immediately crash. By the time I've caught up on those things, my eyes are drooping and the last thing I want to do is blog. Which isn't a good excuse, but I'm just tired at the end of the day.

I actually think going back to work in a few weeks will allow me to be more productive in a lot of areas. Blogging on my lunch break was a good routine last year, so maybe I can keep that up. We'll see.

Anyway.

So, my parents came to visit. It was really good to see them and to let them meet Elizabeth and bask in the little person Abby has become. We kept things pretty low key. We went into the city once to take Abs to the Children's Museum. But, mostly, we hung out at or close to home. It was nice. Abby enjoyed the extra attention of course and it was nice to be able to run a few errands without the girls in tow. I love living where we do, but I miss my family a lot too. It was really great that they were able to make the trip.

Thanks mom and dad for that.

Elizabeth is still doing the baby thing. She's almost rolling over, but not quite there yet. Like, 96% there. She drools a lot, chews on her fingers a lot, and smiles a lot. She's not sleeping through the night yet, but she's getting better. Some nights she still wakes up twice, but more often she's only waking once. She goes down around 6:30 and, on a good night, will sleep until 3 or 4. She often wakes up again around 5 because it starts getting light, but she'll go back to sleep.

I'm 400% confident that she would be sleeping through the night if I could get her on a regular nap schedule. She naps well, and she naps several times a day, but the times differ. It is clear that she sleeps better at night when I am able to keep her on a 9am, 1pm, 4pm nap schedule.

She's not very big yet. I mean, I think she's growing some - I just bought size 2 diapers, so that has to say something. But she's not one of these squishy chunky fat babies. She's very lean. Abby was too, but Abby was underweight. We have a doc appointment at the end of the month, so we'll get an official weigh in then. I mean, other than being kinda lean, she's very happy and otherwise seemingly healthy, so I'm not worried about her. I just want to make sure she's growing some.

In other news. I did my first wedding photography last week. It was a low key, backyard wedding. Perfect for my first gig. I had a really great time and I think I even managed to get a few shots I liked. I also did a baptism shoot for a family I've worked with before, and that was fun. Now - I just need time to process and sort through all these photos. I should be doing that now probably...but I'm blogging. Which is fine.

I'm so happy that I'm getting opportunities to take pictures. It's crazy to me that it's taken me this long to realize how much I love this. Over the weekend, I took my dad to the camera store I go to and I ended up getting a new lens, which I'm happy to have. Photography is an expensive hobby for sure, but if I'm able to make a little money on the side to support it? I think that's a win.

Yesterday I joined an online group of photographers. From amateurs to professionals. It's a great resource and there is just SO much good information. I spent a lot of time last night looking at pictures taken by others last night. When I see a picture I like, I get all these emotions at once. Somtimes I look a t a picture and think "I could do that" And sometimes I get completely inspired and my heart starts beating faster with all the ideas I want to try, and sometimes I get discouraged because I'm just starting on this path and the amount of stuff to learn is so overwhelming. But, then I just remind myself that I'm not doing this for anyone else, really. I'm doing it because I like it. And, as long as I like it, it doesn't matter if I'm as good as so-and-so. Or if I ever do this professionally or not. At the minimum, I imagine I'll always have pictures of my kids. Ok. end ramble.

My house is a mess. I clean it every day. It's still a mess.

I've had things I want to take to the post office for weeks and months. Why is it SO hard for me to mail things?

On Monday, Abby hugged me and said "you're my best friend ever, mom!" It was sweet.

I've had to wake Abby up from naps the past two days. The first day, I got in bed with her, and when she opened her eyes she instantly said "Oh! Mommy's here! I'll watch it with mommy now!" when I asked "watch what?" she said "my dream" she then told me she was dreaming about an Octopus. Yesterday when I woke her up she said she was dreaming about tractors. I love that she can tell me.

I've been brainstorming ideas for her birthday party. Yeah, I know. It's almost 4 months away. But, I love me a themed party. Her's, if it goes off like it I hope it will, is gonna be cute.

aaaaaaand, with that, the baby is awake. I'll post pictures from mom and dad's visit soon.

the sweet life

2011-08-13T23:37:00.000-04:00

We're here, but we've been busy. Busy filling our days with things wonderful and sweet...

like meeting your granddaughter for the first time

family meals outside

Granny hugs

playing with daddy

spending time with your sister (want to or not..)

and spending as much time barefoot and in the dirt as possible.

We're having a great time with my parents in town. It's their 40th anniversary in a few minutes. Wow. 40. That's pretty awesome. *love*

We spent the day in the city and I'm beyond exhausted.

I've got a busy day tomorrow, too- I'm taking pictures at my first baptism and my first wedding (exciting!). Time to get some shut eye...wish me luck!

southern

2011-08-11T16:29:00.000-04:00

I don't really know how or why, but Abby has developed a southern twang. I guess you'd have to blame me, 'cause Kyle prides himself on not having much of an accent. Still. There's no reason Abby's accent should be SO strong. I have to think that part of it is from me, but that part of it is just her being a little lazy in her speech sometimes.

The hardest for her right now is the "O" sound. Instead of saying "Down" she says "Dow-un"

The other night at dinner, Abby says: "May I get dow-un pwease?"

I giggled and Kyle shot me this look and said "don't encourage her"

But, of course, I had. I can't help it. I think it's cute.
The rest of the conversation went like this:

Kyle: "Abby, say dOWn"
Abby: "Dow-un"
Kyle: "dOWn"
Abby: "Dow-un?"
Kyle: "Say OW"
Abby: ""OW"
Kyle: "Good, now say dOWn"
Abby: "dow-Un"
Kyle: (sigh) "Ok. Abby. What animal says "Mooo?"
Abby: "A Cow-uh"

we died laughing. Me and Abby. Kyle just put his head on the table and gave up.

later y'all.

night mind

2011-08-08T07:19:00.000-04:00

These are things I think about at night as I ~~fail~~ try to fall asleep.

- I never expected Abby's tomato plants to actually survive. What do I do with them now? Aren't they supposed to have a stake to climb? Or String? I don't have a stake to put in there, but I could put a chopstick by it - would that work? Or do I just let the plant grow until it gets heavy and falls over? I don't really care if they make tomatoes, but I'd like them to get big enough for me to smell them because tomato vine smell is like my catnip.
- I can't find my phone, how can I not find it? I had it in the car, and then I came inside. It should be in one of those places. I hope it's not on the ground outside. I looked, but I didn't see it. If it is - then it's done because it rained pretty hard last night. What did we do before cell phones? I don't particularly want to revisit that era. Maybe Abby will know where it is.
-I can't believe how lucky I am to be taking pictures. I got some good ones I think at today's shoot. I wonder how many I'll end up keeping. There's that one I really like - I need to crop it, but I think it'll come out really well. I hope she likes them. Sometimes I'm too critical of the pictures and I have to muzzle myself to keep from apologizing to clients about how I wish xy or z had come out differently. I love taking pictures. I need to decide what lens I want next. I kinda want to go macro, but a nice zoom might be more practical. I'm going to join the local camera club next month, I think that will help me learn more.
- I need to take more pictures of E. I'm going to do that...as soon as I get the house organized.
- I need to rebox all of the old/future baby clothes, clean out our closets and storage spaces and repack them with newly organized bins. Then, we'll have more space for Brittany when she comes. I'm so glad we got rid of so much stuff at the yard sale. I can't believe how much stuff we had, but we hadn't really purged since we moved to Boston. Feels good.
- I need to get ready for Brittany to move in. We're so lucky she's going to nanny for us. It'll be a lot of fun I think. I hope we don't drive her crazy.
- My parents are visiting this week. That'll be crazy fun. But, I need to clean. Or at least, tidy. I hate having white carpets. hate. I really hate having white carpets with a two year old. Maybe I should just buy a steam cleaner instead of constantly renting a Rug Doctor. ....Or is the Rug Doctor better? Maybe cleaning with it twice a year is better than a monthly run with a small one? I don't know. I just know I hate our living room carpet right now.
- I have some good photo prop ideas - but they involve project-type time. I don't have that.
- I still need to paint Abby's doll house. I got it over a month ago and I've only painted one wall. It's just sitting in the kitchen and I need to take care of it so I can move it upstairs to her room, and then move her kitchen stuff to her play nook, and then I'll put the stuff in the play nook....somewhere.
- I wonder if we'll ever buy a home up here. It's hard to find one that we like and can afford. To find a place we like in the area we like, we really need half a million bucks. Which is crazy, and we don't have that. So, I wonder what we'll compromise on - location? space? Or maybe we'll just rent for the next few years while Kyle finishes school. We'll see.
- I'm glad Abby seemed to understand that she couldn't get out of bed until there was a 6 on her clock. But, I should have been more specific in that it needed to be the first number...not the later two.
- E is growing - she's long and lean. She's not chubby like a lot of babies and I hope that means she's gaining weight ok still. I don't worry about her because Abby was teeny tiny (yet healthy) for the longest time...but still. Everyone tells me she's long. I don't really know. I just want her to be healthy.
- Abby sings the phonic songs from her Leap Frog ABC magnets. She started making up her own words today...which I think, pretty much means she's a genius. She started singing "C says 'cah', C says 'cah', every letter makes a sound, C says 'cah' " and then she added "and cup!" Her next verse was "birds say 'tweet'" and then "E says 'e-train'" and "A says Abby" She's so smart. I'm really proud of her. And I always will be, I imagine.
- I need to put that thing in the mail in the morning.

...and, that occupies my mind for about 2 minutes. If I were to type everything that ran through my brain for the next 45 - we'd be here all week. Luckily, sleep came, and the baby only woke once (or twice?) Either way, alls well that ends well. Have wonderful mondays.

You Capture - White

2011-08-04T10:16:00.004-04:00

I took a lot of photos this week. Like, tons. Mostly because I had 3 (!) different photo shoots booked. That's crazy. Crazy because people are actually asking me to take pictures now - people I know and people I don't know. And you know what? I'm loving it, and I'm having so much fun, and I'm learning Oh so much. I think I've learned more this past week about taking photos than all year combined. They say the best way to learn is to just keep taking pictures, and well, that I can do. :)

So, this week's theme was white. I have a few pics that will work for that....and some that I may bend just a bit. ;)

I love this little 2 month old pretty in her pretty white dress

This puppy had some very white teeth ;)

Here's my littlest pretty.

I think the white in this picture is a little more obvious than I'd like...but whatcha gonna do? :)

This sunshower, or "Monkey's Wedding" as my south african mother in law taught me to say, made for an interesting picture with whites in the light and water.

One of Abby's little friends.

Um, let's see...her teeth are white! Ok, I just like this one. Sue me.

ok, last one.

Now go over to Beth's site and see what everyone else is posting today!

PS: this is a shameless plug. I've decided to start a second blog dedicated to just photography. It's a work in progress (as am I!) but here it is should any of you be kind enough to pay me a visit. Thanks!

toddler life

2011-08-02T08:20:00.000-04:00

I've got to pick up magic erasers today.

Abby colored all over our dining room wall. Then, we found that she had also colored on the other dining room wall, the kitchen wall, the kitchen island, the floor, and some plates. I know what you're thinking - where were we during all this? Well, I was upstairs putting the baby to bed... I'll let you deduce the rest. ;)

In Kyle's defense, Abby is pretty stealthy, and he has a gimp foot and has been icing it when he can, making him less mobile. But...yeah.

Yesterday she made a bunch of "sandwiches" out of different colored playdohs. Then, she put them in sandwich bags and put them all the fridge. When Kyle got home, she ran to the fridge and got them out for us saying, very proudly, that she had made daddy sandwiches for supper.

While I was putting E down for nap, Abby cleaned several of her books with her magic-spray. I know that her fears are reducing when she's decided that the magic spray is really a cleaning spray. I came out of the nursery and she says "mommy, I cleaned all my books, come look!" She proudly showed me all the pages in several books that were "nice and clean" and "oh so smooth!"

I pulled about 8 stickers out of her hair last weekend.

At lunch, I gave her some ranch to dip her veggies in. She didn't want to dip her veggies, or crackers, or turkey in it. She wanted to dip her raisins in it. She insisted it was "so yummy!" I remain unconvinced.

We watched a cartoon about Aspergers Syndrome and when it was done, she asked for an "Apple Burger" too.

I sometimes sit in her room while she falls asleep at night, or nap time. It just cuts down on the number of times I have to put her back in bed. The other night, she sang lullabies and bedtime poems to herself for about 20 mins. It was sweet.

Abby laid on E's feet the other day and started whining that "E-train is kicking me, mom!" --> this is me rolling my eyes.

....just a few memories I wanted to jot down before we start this day. Life with a toddler is good.

e

2011-08-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

my sweet baby

outtake?

today in pictures

2011-07-29T21:42:00.000-04:00

I'm tired. Just am. So, today's blog update will be mostly in picture form.

We went to Target where we got all the supplies for Abby's new Treasure Chest. To be used as rewards for sitting on the Potty. I get it, she's not ready to train yet - and I'm not going to force it on her (no good ever came of that for anyone). But, I am going to up the incentives and encouragement.

Abby was pretty excited about her treasure chest. She sat on the potty twice today - which, I think, doubles her yearly total.

We saw this packaging paper at Home Depot. It's free. So we took a bunch home for art projects. We spent some time just coloring on it - then decided to do tracings. Again, Abby was pretty impressed.

E was not so excited.

We changed her face to match and Abby added a beard...I dunno why.

After nap, Abby ran out with this around her head and said "Rawr! I'm a Lion!"

while putting E to bed, got a text from Kyle that says "what gets crayon off walls?"

This is after her time out.

(and no, clorox doesn't get it off - but it was the principal of having her help clean. Will be getting more magic erasers tomorrow)

Abby chilling with her two treasure chest prizes - a bouncy ball and a sucker.

She was really proud of these.

And finally - reading with daddy. She's been insisting on wearing her mickey (minnie?) ears lately during story time.

And thanks to everyone who has asked how Abs is doing. She's doing better. She's still afraid of things, but we've made small gains everyday. Last night, she stayed in bed all night for the first time since her big freak out. She still woke up crying twice (three times?), but stayed in bed. She still refuses to get under the covers, but we've occasionally convinced her to use a blanket on top of the covers.

Tonight, she asked for her magic spray again and she went around the room and sprayed everything before getting into bed. We (um, she) lost her flashlight, but she's not asked for it either. We did nightlight for a few nights, but we haven't used it for two days or so now.

So - small gains, and she'll be fine. This is just a phase and it'll pass. Eventually.

I hope you all had wonderful days. Enjoy the weekend. :)

3 months

2011-07-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

Can you believe she's 3 months old already?

Let's see. At 3 months old, Elizabeth is, I think, a pretty typical baby.

Let's start with sleep. Her sleep is still regulating. She goes to bed between 6:30-7:30 most nights. I try to get her down closer to 6:30 or 7, but sometimes it's later. She'll typically sleep from then until around 1am. Sometimes midnight, sometimes 2. And then she usually wakes up once more before morning - usually around 3 or 4...or 5. It really just depends. It's not nearly as consistent as Abby was at this age, but when Abby was this age, I had nothing to do other than work on her sleep. Now? We can't just stay home all day, so E's naps are here and there too - which directly impacts night sleep.

As far as naps go, she takes about 3-4 naps a day. The times, again, are inconsistent, but most days she takes one around 9ish and then again around 1 when Abby naps, and sometimes one or two more in the afternoons. Just depends.

She loves being swaddled for the most part. She tries to get her hands out sometimes, but I'm pretty good with wrapping her up so that she keeps them in.

Last night, I let her cry for the first time (happy 3 months, sweetheart). I was sick and rather exhausted from being up with Abby for the past two nights. I tried for nearly an hour to get her to settle back to sleep and she just wouldn't. So, I tucked her in and closed the door. She cried for an hour and then slept till 6:30. That was awesome. I mean - I don't *like* hearing her cry, but in this instance, it didn't bother me either. I knew she was fine, and I knew I wasn't doing her any good. It's better to let her cry than for me to get too frustrated with her. We'll see how tonight goes I suppose.

Stats? I don't know how much she weighs. I'll probably find out at her next doc appointment, which might should have been this week. I have no idea. I need to call and find out. She's not small though, and I'd imagine she's well within the average range, or maybe just above it. She's still in size 1 diapers (for at least the rest of this pack) and she's starting to fit into her 3 month clothes pretty well. Newborn clothes are still wearable, but snug.

Temperment. She's a happy baby. She really is, and her smiles are so great. She cries when she's hungry or tired or, just recently, when she'd rather be sitting up than on her back. She smiles most for Abby. And Abby just loves on her, constantly, all day. We were driving somewhere the other day and E was crying. She cries in the car a lot because if she's tired or hungry, there's just nothing to do. Abby is used to it and it doesn't really bother us. We got home and I opened the back door to get the carseat out and I see Abby has been letting Elizabeth hold her finger while she cried. Abby said "I just trying to make her happy" I'd never stop typing if I tried to document all the sweet things Abby does to and for her little sister.

Nicknames. Obviously, "E" is the most common just for simplicity's sake. E-train is still a big favorite. Abby likes that one a lot. Kyle calls her E-biscuit, which always makes me laugh. Little Miss Mae and Mae fly get used as well. Lizzie and Lizzie Mae are being used more too. We've got tons of them.

Nursing. We've had quite the journey. To recap - we started nursing, and then I got really injured from it and I turned to exclusively pumping. I pumped for weeks with no nursing at all. Eventually, I got brave enough to try again and we started trying to nurse once a day. It was probably more like once every few days...but it was something. Sloooowly, we added more nursings. As I started to exercise more and eat healthier to lose some weight, my supply plummeted. That was annoying. I started taking Fenugreek to help up my supply.

Right before we left for vacation, my supply was at it's lowest point. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep nursing. I was also very worried about traveling and vacationing and not having our fall back frozen stash to pull from (which we had been doing at home) if I couldn't produce enough. Well, we planned to bring a few frozen bags with us for peace of mind and we left them at home.

During that vacation week, I went from my lowest supply to going home with 3 extra bags of milk. Since then, we've been exclusively nursing. I pump less, but I still try to do it once or twice a day.

I'm pretty proud of our turn-around. I didn't know if we'd make it here or not. I have no goals for how long I want to try to nurse, I'm just taking it one day at a time. My next big challenge will be when I return to work...but let's not think about that now.

Tricks. At 3 months, E's tricks are limited. She is able to roll from back to side, but hasn't really made it all the way over yet. She can sit for short amounts of time in the bumbo seat and is getting better controlling her head. She is starting to grab things more. It's a simple life. :)

Ok, I guess that's all for now. I feel like this was pretty scattered, sorry if it was. Just wanted to try to document a few moments about E before these things fall out of my head.

scaries

2011-07-24T23:18:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to start. I think I'll start with two nights ago.

Abby woke up screaming. This has happened before, and usually she's having a bad dream and doesn't even wake up all the way while we tuck her back into bed. Kyle intercepted her in the hallway and tucked her back into bed. As usual, she wouldn't say what was wrong.

The screaming woke up E, so I got her calmed down and went bed.

At 3am, E started stirring again so I went in. As I was putting her back in her crib, I hear Abby screaming again. Really screaming. The kind of screaming that makes all your mommy sensors stand on end. I put E down and ran into her room. I crashed into Kyle in the hallway. Abby ran into my arms as soon as I opened the door and sobbed into my neck. I sat in her chair and calmed her down. When she could breathe again, I asked her what was wrong.

"there's a mouse in my bed"

Well, so here's the thing. I was 90% sure she was dreaming. But, we have had mice before. Never upstairs, never in a bedroom, but...I couldn't 100% rule out the possibility that she really did see one. Besides, she was SO freaked out. It wasn't normal. So. I took her to our bed. First time, ever? And that's where things really disintegrated.

She was calm for about 3 seconds. Then she screamed "ow!" and jumped as if something had bitten her. She kept saying there was a mouse under the covers. There was not. She clung to me like a white-knuckled monkey. I could barely even lie down. Every time she'd calm down, she's think something was on her foot or under the covers and scream and cry and yell "ow ow ow ow owie ow ow!" in a really high pitched, terrified voice.

I tried everything. Holding her, not holding her, talking to her, reasoning with her, everything I could think of. At one point, I took all the covers off the bed - stripped it down to the fitted sheet, turned on the lights and said "See? There's NO mouse here" Abby pointed right to the middle of the bed and screamed "It's there! There's the mouse!" She was screaming - I was already holding her, but it wasn't enough - she was trying to climb and sit on top of my head.

It was probably then that I knew something was really off. This wasn't just a nightmare. This continued with her telling me she was afraid of the mouse, and the buzzes, and at one point, the bunnies. I eventually got her settled watching youtube videos. That gave us about 45 mins of relative down time. Then she freaked again. At that point, it was 5 or 6 am and I told Kyle to take her downstairs and let her watch cartoons. E woke up shortly after.

OK. So, I take Abby to run errands while E is napping later that morning so that Kyle can get some rest. She fell asleep in the car pretty quick... I mean, she'd been up all night. About 15 mins later, she woke up crying. She threw off her rain boots and kept crying and screaming that there were "somethings" in her boots. She was freaked. I was driving. I told her that we would go to Target and buy magic spray. Spray to make all the scaries go away. She liked that idea. *whew*

passed out in the car.

after she woke up screaming, took off her coat and boots because she was scared of them.

she was trying to climb out of her seat :((

When we got home, she sprayed the whole house with ~~febreeze~~ magic-no-more-scaries-spray. I also bought her a flashlight. We braced for naptime. Much to my relief, naptime went well. I started in the bed with her, then moved to the chair when she was asleep. I stayed the whole 2.5 hours. I wanted to be there when she woke up. And when she did - she was so happy. On the way downstairs, she said "I just love you so much mom" No mention of anything scary. On occasion, through the evening, she'd say "Hey, there's no mouse!" or she'd comment on the magic spray.

spraying her magic-spray

We got ready for bed - Kyle and I were bracing ourselves. He got her ready and I put E down. Kyle asked as he was brushing Abs' teeth if I thought the Benadryl was causing her to be weird. I didn't know she was still getting any - we bought her some in FL when she got a cold to help her sleep and dry up. Kyle had been continuing to give her a little bit before bed for her runny nose. As he usually gets her ready, I thought she'd stopped taking it a week ago. But, I didn't think it would mess with her. I said "well, maybe it'll help her sleep"

I started the night in Abby's bed again and as I waited for her to fall asleep, I googled Benadryl side effects.

*faceplant*

Anxiety. Paranoia. Hallucinations. ...bingo.

Then it all started making sense. About the time she started taking it in FL, she developed all these fears. Fears of "buzzes" (a generic term for any bug that flies), she was afraid of the ocean of course, but also floor fans. We chalked it up to changing locations to a new condo and being overtirred and over stimulated, and being two, etc etc. But - it totally coincides with the medicine. Since we've been home, she's been skiddish around noises. Especially "buzzes" Sometimes, her sippy cup will make a squeaky sound when it traps air and she'll scream that there are "buzzes in my ear!"

It is so sad to see her so scared. Anyway - last night. She did fine. She woke up once and wanted to know where I was. Kyle told her I went downstairs (where I was) and she went back to sleep. She woke up this morning fine. We didn't have nap time today because we were out and about. She freaked out again this evening, but wouldn't say what was wrong. She kept her hands covering her ears and screamed/cried any time she took them off. I think she was afraid of buzzes getting in her ear. :(

Bedtime was a battle. We sprayed magic spray - twice (maybe thrice?), she had her flashlight, I put on a CD of music, I plugged in a night light, I got in bed with her (she will NOT get under the covers) I waited until she was asleep and crept out. I feel bad about leaving, but I cannot have her depending on me sleeping with her all night.

pre-bed time spraying

We're hoping that the Benadryl will be completely out of her system by tomorrow. Then, we'll just have to deal with the residual fears caused by drug-induced ones. This ain't easy.

There's a fine line between comforting and enabling. I don't want her sleeping in our bed, I don't want her afraid to sleep in her bed. We're taking it one day at a time. I really do think most of this was caused by the medicine. But, also, some of it is her being 2.

Wish us luck. It breaks my heart to hear her so scared. Truly terrified. I told her tonight that I wanted her to be a big girl. She hung her head and whispered "I don't want to be a big girl right now, I just want mommy" She also told me, despite spray and lights and my reassurances that "there is a mouse. there is a mouse on abby's floor and in her bed. there is" She was barely audible, but it just shows that she really does believe it.

advice appreciated.

You Capture - plants & babies

2011-07-21T11:52:00.001-04:00

Whoo-hoo! You Capture two weeks in a row. Gotta start back somewhere.

So, this week's theme is beautiful plants, babies and trees. I got flowers pics for the most part. Several times a week, we all take a walk after supper. The light was sooooo perfect the other evening...so perfect that I just basked in how perfect it was and didn't take a single picture. Sigh. So, I took flower pictures last night instead - there wasn't the same perfect light, but I still like them.

gettin' my depth of field on.

hydrangeas = *love*

purple star flowers? yes please.

And, y'know? You'd think with having my own baby and all that I would have taken more baby pictures - but not so much. It's hard to find time, honestly. I'm really going to work on that. She totally needs more pictures! But, I did snap this shot of her with her Ouma on our last day of vacation.

I like how both their eyes are smiling

AND - even more excitingly - my best friend gave birth to her first child, a little girl, last night. And, all of you get to look at her, aren't you lucky! There's nothing like a newborn...and this one isn't even a day old yet. *melts*

Now head over to Beth's site to see some other really great photos!

Dear Joie

2011-07-20T22:58:00.000-04:00

Dear Joie Elise,

Happy Birthday and Welcome!

You were born today. All 8 wonderful pounds and 9 oz of you.

My name is Laura, and my husband and I are your godparents. Your mom and I have been the best of friends for a long time and I have been eagerly awaiting your arrival for, well, years, but especially these last 9 months. I've watched your mom and dad get ready for you and I think they've done a fabulous job.

Being just hours old, you have no way of knowing how lucky you already are. But, that's what I'm here to tell you. Your mom is one of the most amazing people I know. She is organized and she works hard at everything she does. She never quits and she knows how to balance work and play. She is subtle and classy. She's really smart and she will teach you so much. She is kind. She will love you unconditionally, in fact, I'm sure she already does. You are going to have so much fun with your mom. There will be lots of girl time, lots of books, lots of being silly, and lots of giggles. I'm sure of it.

And, as if that weren't enough, your dad is one of the best guys I know. He is fun and adventurous. He will teach you how to go fishing and how to cook (your mom makes great rice krispie treats, but your dad is the king of the kitchen). Your dad knows how to have fun and has a million hobbies that he can teach you about. He's a great photographer, which is good news for me, because I'm going to need lots of pictures of you until I can see you in person. But one of the best things about your dad is that he takes such good care of your mom and will do the same for you. I'm sure you already have him wrapped around your tiny tiny fingers.

I can't wait to hold you.

Until you decide otherwise, I'm planning on you going to college with my little girl. She is just three months older than you, her name is Elizabeth. You can room together and talk about how crazy your moms are.

Joie, you are surrounded by people who love you so much already. And, as you grow older, you'll realize that not everyone is born that lucky. But you are. We are so eager to get to know you and to watch you grow up (but take your time doing that, ok?). I can't wait to see your personality develop and bloom.

You're in for a really fun time.

And while you are already surrounded by family and will never want for attention - I want you to know, from day one, that I'm always here for you too. Always always always.

Welcome to the world sweet baby girl,
We love you so much!

Laura (& Kyle)

this is the first picture I saw of you. you're perfect.

ouma & e

2011-07-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

spoiled rotten

2011-07-19T14:56:00.000-04:00

This morning, the girls and I headed to Target. It's been a few weeks since we'd made our weekly trip. It was nice to be back into the routine of things again actually. We had two goals: to return an item and to get laundry detergent. I know, I know. But, that is all I had planned on getting. I mean, other than drinks of course- tradition is tradition, after all.

I mean, just look how happy she is.

Well, we returned our item and we got laundry detergent, and (in my defense) there's a LOT in that store I didn't buy. :) But, we may have gotten a little side tracked by some sale items. A little home decor and kitchen ware never hurt anybody. But, our favorite find of the morning was this clearance hat. I spotted it, the last one, and picked it up to check the price. Abs took it from me, put it on her head and said "am I cute now mommy?"

...so in the basket it went.

She's loved these hats ever since her uncle Michael came to visit and let her wear his fedora.

We got back in the car to head home and Abby was chattering on about her new hat and how much she looooved her new hat. I started thinking about taking some pictures of her in it, but wanted to look for a matching outfit. I'm thrifty (usually), so we headed to the thrift store.

I normally wouldn't go with both girls, but E had just fallen asleep and I have the double stroller to help - and it really did make all the difference. We browsed around looking for an outfit to match Abs' new hat. I didn't really find anything. I'm thrifty, but I'm also picky. So, before we left, I told Abs we would browse through the toy section.

Some days at the thrift store are winners, and some aren't. Today, was a win. I walked into the toy section and was surprised to see a big doll house. One that looked pretty nice. I went to inspect it closer - it had some water stains, and some shingles are missing, and it could use some new paint all around, but still - it was big and wooden and seemingly well constructed. A doll house has been in my mind for Abs' birthday/Christmas, but they're pricey and they'd been off my radar for a few months.

So, by this point of course Abs is in the stroller saying "I like that house mommy!" I braced myself for the price tag - sometimes I'm too cheap for even thrift store prices. Much to my surprise, it was listed for $12.99.

Sold!

I'll buy some paint and we'll fix it up nice- but Abs and I are both pretty excited about the new addition. I emailed Kyle a pic before I bought it and asked what he thought. His response was "Sure, why not? I mean, with two girls - it's inevitable" ha.

But wait, there's more! I did a quick scan in the rest of the toy department for doll house furniture or something, but there wasn't anything. And that's fine, Abs is perfectly happy playing with trains and baseballs inside for now. But, we did pick up one new addition...

don't you think Jesus should be the first official resident? We did.

I was pretty set then, but on the way out we saw just one more thing.

Abs has outgrown a lot of her puzzles, so I'm about to put many of them away and save them for E. So, I thought this little set would make a great replacement. Abby is very much into patterns and organization, so what better than a pattern board? We love Melissa & Doug toys anyway, and this one was seemingly brand new. It came with a magnetic board, 12 designs, and over 100 magnetic shapes. We played with it before nap for a while and Abby really loved it. She's pretty good at it too. I thought it was a good purchase for $3. Besides, the school psych in me loves it too.

concentrating

So, it was an exciting morning for us. Almost like Christmas. :) I'm looking forward to giving the doll house a makeover, but, that will have to wait a few days. We've got the farmer's market planned for this afternoon and playdates tomorrow. I love summer. And deals. And spoiling my kids. ;)

Vacation recap

2011-07-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

Ok, so here we go. A two week vacation summary. :)

First things first. The day before we flew out, we still hadn't decided what stroller(s) to bring with us. We kinda needed one (especially for the airports) but didn't want to bring two. Long story short, we decided to bite the bullet and buy a double stroller. We got one that will last us a long time. It came with 2 seats and we got a car seat adapter as well. So, for now, E rides up top and Abs in the front, but once E gets a little older, we'll be able to use the two seats in a myriad of combinations. It's pretty awesome. As far as double strollers go - it was important for us to have a compact one for maneuvering around on trains and through the city - and this one is about as compact as they come. So, while I may have to sell a kidney to eventually recoup the cost, it has been very nice to be able to stroll both girls around with ease.

At the airport, ready to go with our new ride.

...also, the last time we saw that snack tray as it didn't make it out of the plane. :(

Once we got to FL, Kyle and I split ways for a bit. Kyle spent the first week at the annual National Federation for the Blind convention and the girls and I hung out with Kyle's parents at a little condo in Orlando. Our week was low key and laid back. It included shopping, trips to the pool and playground, chick-fil-A, and a good bit of down time. No complaints here.

For the 4th of July, we drove to Cocoa Beach to celebrate with some family friends. Abs made a little friend about her age and they had a nice time together.

Papa, Ouma, and E on her first 4th of July

we had lots of accessories

Abs and her friend - we're in love with our patriotic sequin cowboy hat. ;)

bffs...for a day.

Later in the week, we all packed up and took a trip to the mall. The trip was two fold. Our first mission was to find me something to wear to Kyle's fancy NFB banquet later in the week. The second was to take Abs to the M&M (her favorite candy) store.

Well, I found a dress and Abs found some candy. She had a blast in that store - she was bouncing here and there and everywhere trying to see everything and take it all end. It *is* a pretty colorful store. She got a few souvenirs (and we all got some candy, of course). It was fun!

M&M World

Friday night came and I got to join Kyle for the NFB banquet. The whole affair was really nice and I had a great time. The convention hosts around 3000 attendees, so there were at least that many in attendance at the banquet I'd guess. It was really neat to see so many blind people in one setting - all perfectly capable of, well, everything.

Kyle went to convention as one of 30 scholarship finalists. All week, the finalists meet with various committee members, and at the end of the week, the committee votes on who wins what. So, you're basically trying to convince everyone that you deserve the big scholarship all week.

When it came time for them to announce the winners at the banquet, all 30 finalists stood on stage as they read off the names, starting with the lowest amounts. Well, when there were only 5 scholarships left to be given and Kyle's name hadn't been called yet, my heart started pounding - much to my surprise.

4 left. 3 left. 2 left. *holding my breath* and then they announced the grand prize winner - Kyle Shachmut. I was so proud. It was a bigger deal than I had imagined. Everyone cheered, lots of people stood up, and Kyle got to give a speech to the whole convention. He did an Awesome job. I was so happy for him.

After the banquet, we hopped around from group to group as Kyle was a semi-celebrity for the night. Everyone wanted to congratulate him and I think maybe everyone did. We had a great time. It was fun to get dressed up and to have a kid-free night. And of course, prizes and scholarships never hurt either.

(sorry, no banquet pics, I only had a tiny purse ;)

The next day, Kyle's sister and her boyfriend had joined us as well and the whole lot of us moved from Orlando down to Cocoa Beach for the remainder of our trip. Staying in Cocoa was nice - the resort was nice and Abby loved both the beach and the pool. Well, she loved the sand. She was down right terrified of the ocean. More on that later.

We enjoyed the low key days and managed to get out, kid-free, more than a few times as well.

Awww. Hanging out with Kyra & Blake at the Pier

twins

We bought Abby a seashell. I know, I know - bought? But there were NO shells on the beach this year. That's always my favorite part - hunting shells. Abs would have loved it too, but no go this time. So, we bought her this one. We taught her how to listen to the ocean, and she loved it. The next morning, she ran to the sliding doors that looked out onto the beach and said "I see the ocean! But, I can't hear it." Then she went and found her shell, came back, looked out the doors with the shell on her ear and said "there we go, that's better"

It made us laugh.

Elizabeth made it out the beach a few times as well. It's so much work to get the kids ready for the beach - especially with E. The amount of prep time vs. the amount of time she can be outside was a little disproportionate. But, we did take her out, and she liked it.

E's first beach nap

awake and happy

Abby went down more often, and she could make sand castles and dig all. day. long. The girl was so so so sandy all the time. She loved it. But the ocean? No thank you. She flipped out. I mean, I get it. It's big and loud and endless and, well, scary. One of the last days we were there, Kyle and I worked and worked and eventually we did get her in the ocean. We discovered that she was not afraid of the water, but the waves - specifically. It took some time and lots of coaxing, but she came around and she and Kyle had an especially fun time jumping over waves and playing in the water.

...and we dug holes.

The 13th was our 4th anniversary. Whoo-hoo! I think Kyle and I both agree that it seems like it's been longer that 4 years - but not in a bad way. It's just that, well, we have 2 kids. Once again, we were told to go out without the kids and have a real date. And we did! We had a nice dinner and then decided to go play putt-putt and drive go-carts. Kyle beat me by just a hair at putt-putt, and we both really had fun with the go-carts too...I'd never tried that before. Mario Kart makes so much more sense now. We wrapped up the evening with ice cream and headed back. It was nice. Happy 4 years to us. :)

The next morning I took Abs and my camera out to watch the sunrise. Abby liked the sunrise, but was extremely upset about being taken so close to the water (this was before our wave break through). She cried the whole time. That made for poor pictures.

she's actually crying her eyes out in this picture. ha!

good morning sun!

Despite her fears and tears, we stayed anyway and she enjoyed seeing "the sun wake up" Eventually, I gave up on getting any good pictures of her and we headed back. Once she had some distance between herself and the ocean, Abby was happy again. She found some flowers and insisted on picking one for everyone in the family. So, that allowed me to get some pictures after all.

my wonderful little girl

Eventually, everyone headed back to the airport one by one, and then it was our turn. It was a great vacation and I was so happy that Kyle's parents and sister were able to spend some time with Abby and Elizabeth.

That's the "short" version of the past 2 weeks. We all got home on Saturday. Kyle and Abs were sharing a cold that E has picked up on as well. I'm holding out as the healthy one in the house for now. Wish me luck. It's back to the daily routine now and hopefully a bit more blogging as well. :)

You Capture- Summertime

2011-07-14T11:05:00.000-04:00

One of the only real downsides about vacations - is that I get behind on blogging. And when that happens? I get overwhelmed with all that we've done and I don't know how to start documenting everything.

Add to that, the fact I've missed You Capture for like 5 years or something (slight exaggeration).

So, I'm just going to jump into this week's theme of Summertime. I mean, that's easy. :)

summer sunrise

(I've been trying to upload other pics, but our internet out here is wicked slow. I'll update more later perhaps. ha!)

Go check out the other posts at I should be folding laundry!

Happy 4th

2011-07-04T18:24:00.001-04:00

Elizabeth would like to wish everyone a happy fourth of July!

You, too, may celebrate by chewing a hat.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vaca

2011-07-03T16:42:00.001-04:00

Well, we made it to Orlando yesterday. We'll be here for a week, and then we'll set up on the beach for a week after.

My Internet access is limited to my phone, so blogging will be short, but I'll try to keep up. :)

Travels went well. E flew like a very sleepy champ, and Kyle gave me his upgraded 1st class tickets on both flights - so that was a treat (husband points).

The girls (I love that I can say "the girls") have done so well so far with being off schedule and overstimulated etc etc. We're rollin' with the flow of things, and I'm glad they're transitioning well.

We're looking forward to a fun few weeks! I'll be around. Talk atcha later. :)

First flight. Holding on and snoozing

My other sleeping beauty. She crashed at 10:30pm - mid sentence. Just toppled right over. Funniest thing ever.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

all by myself, mom

2011-07-01T10:39:00.000-04:00

Abby wants to do *EVERYTHING* all by herself. And, honestly? Most of the time she can do it. She wants to get in her carseat alone, buckle into her stroller by herself, wash dishes, sweep, get dressed, brush her teeth...everything all by herself.

But today? She impressed me with a new one.

"Mom, I change my diaper, all by myself"

Abby, you'll hate me one day for these pictures, but it's ok. I'll still love you.

unfastened, wipe at the ready.

all clean, rolling up the wet diaper

see?

clean diaper all ready

putting it on

ta-da!

So, to answer your question -no, we're not potty training right now.

nursery

2011-06-28T10:50:00.002-04:00

It dawned on me that I haven't posted many pictures of E's nursery. This is probably because 1) it's still not finished and 2) It's largely the same as Abby's was, as we're using all the same furniture. And yes, I realize that #2, makes #1 kinda sad. But, anyway - I snapped a few pics yesterday. Because I can't find my other camera lens - I only had my close up one...which makes it hard to get full room shots. But, nevertheless, you'll get the idea.

E's room, from the door.

changing table

we made this for over the changing table. I had hoped to add more to it in regard of the decorations, but, alas, no time.

look, details.

Oh, and of course, the baby. :)

When we moved the changing table out of Abby's room and into E's room, I needed something to replace it. So, a trip to the fabric store, a glue gun, and an hour or two later - we had a stage curtain for Abby. She loves it. She likes to hide behind it, to read, to just jump out and say "suh-pwise!" We're going to add to it, and to the space, but for now -she's happy with it.

Eating "oatmeal" with her chopstick...out of a green bowler hat.

reading to bunny

K, gotta run now. I missed E's 2-month appointment yesterday, and had it rescheduled for 30 mins from now. I'd best not miss it again. :)

Eve

2011-06-27T20:54:00.000-04:00

A co-worker and friend of mine had her first child, a little girl, two weeks ago. She graciously let me come take pictures so that I could get some experience with a newborn. I had a lot of fun. Little Eve didn't want to miss any action and stayed awake the whole time I was there (she nodded off the second I packed everything up). So, we didn't get some of the cute sleeping-baby-posed shots that I had imagined, but we got a few that I like. Here are just a few.

It was definitely a learning experience - but a great one. I certainly walked away feeling more confident as well as with several "ok, I won't try that again" notes in my head. :) I could ~~shoot~~ take pictures of kids and babies all day.

a quick note

2011-06-24T16:18:00.000-04:00

I don't have the time or energy to get into specifics, but I was made aware of three different stories today - all unrelated - where a family lost a loved one. In two of the stories, a little baby-the same age as E, was lost. In the third, the mother was lost.

And, I know this is no newsflash to anyone, but when you have a baby - and you hear of someone else losing their baby - the empathy/fear/sadness that you feel is so thick. Because you can't imagine.

Say a prayer for these families if you will. And hug your babies.

E-xclusive

2011-06-21T22:20:00.000-04:00

Well, I think it's about time for a little post on Elizabeth - don't you? I've been meaning to write one since, ohidunno, she was BORN.

I actually really have been trying to write an E-post for a few weeks now, kinda sad. In my defense, newborns don't do a whole lot. It reality, 2 month olds don't really do much either actually - but she is changing.

Overall, we've been very lucky. Elizabeth has, so far, been an easy baby. She is laid back about life in general. Let's talk sleep first, since that makes up most of her day. She sleeps a lot. I know enough moms now to know that having a baby who sleeps vs. having a baby who won't sleep has not so much to do with anything the moms are or aren't doing, and more to do with that baby's nature. Now, we've been following "the rules" best we can too of course and helping E develop good sleep habits and all of that, but really? I think we just lucked out.

We've had a few nights where E has slept 10 hours straight, which is pretty awesome. Most of the time, however, we put her down for bed around 7:30 or 8, she wakes around 2, and around 5, then up for the day around 7. Sometimes she only wakes once. I can't complain. In addition to her night sleep - she is sleeping a lot during the day...which I very much believe is directly correlated to her good night sleep (and vice versa). She can tolerate being awake for about 2-hours at a time, well, 2 hours is her max - a lot of the time she can only stay awake for an hour before she needs to nap again. Her nap lengths vary because, unlike with Abby, I can't just stay home all day and work on her sleep. Nope. E gets to tag along to playgroups, errands, parks and the like. In general though, she sleeps while we're out running errands. She goes down for an afternoon nap when we get home and will sleep 3-4 hours. She wakes up for a little bit and then naps an hour or two until dinner. Then she's up while we eat, and down right after. I think she's probably awake for 6 hours a day? maybe?

So. Given that. My repertoire of E stories are limited. :)

But - she is smiley. Oh so smiley. She started smiling around 4 weeks old. She started cooing around 6 weeks - and on Father's Day, we got our first attempts at giggling. I'm not sure there is anything better than baby coos and giggles with those big gummy smiles. Melts me. E is totally ticklish. Her hips and collarbone make her squint and wiggle and laugh.

Sleeping & smiling...that's pretty much it.

Oh, well, sure -she cries too. But she only cries when she needs to. I know her cries now - her hungry cry, her bored cry, her hey-you-I've-been-awake-too-long-and-I-need-a-swaddle-STAT cry...

The swaddle. We loooooove the swaddle. So does E. Seriously - she can be in the middle of a scream fest and as soon as I strap that first arm down - silence. We always feed her after we swaddle her, so I'm positive that she now associates the two. She knows that getting wrapped up = food. This is good. We're still double swaddling her - meaning, we swaddle her nice and tight in a lightweight cloth, and then we wrap her up in a baby blanket (used to be mine) over the other. She can't really move, but she likes it that way.

She is sleeping in her crib full time now. Moving her out of our room was a fabulous decision. I can now sleep a little easier without worrying that I'm going to wake her up every time I roll over or flip my pillow. E took the transition fine, which was a relief. We moved her out of our room when she was 6 or 7 weeks old, but we really could have done it before then.

What else? Nursing? It's going. We got off to such a rough start, but things are getting better. I'm still mostly pumping, but over the past week or two, I've been able to nurse E at least once a day, sometimes twice. It's a work in progress, but it is improving. E doesn't seem to care where she gets her food, just as long as she gets some.

Nicknames. Most of the time, we call her "E" (as you can tell by my typing I'm sure) When we don't call her E, she is usually Elizabeth or "baby wizzabeff" On occasion, I'll throw out Lizzie Mae, which I'm sure will catch on as she grows. Our other nickname that just "happened" is E-train. It sort of grew out of a library book we got for Abs....I'm too tired to go into the whole story, but it suffices to say that the nickname comes with a little chant (like in the book). We always change the words, but usually we chant a few lines about what E-train is doing at that moment.

Hey Misses E-Train
Red, White, and Green Train
Hey Misses E-Train
What are you doing?

I'm going "wha-wha-wha"
all the day day day
cause my milk milk milk
is too far away.

....something like that. This is one of those things that is impossible to convey properly through the blog, but maybe I'll read this years from now and remember it.

So - there's an update. She'll have her 2- month appointment soon (there's a chance it was today and I missed it...) and I'll have number stats as well.

Until then- know that things are good and we are enjoying both of these little girls.

my dad

2011-06-19T14:49:00.000-04:00

My earliest memories are of my dad. The first was when I was about two and dad spilled a glass of milk at the dinner table. I couldn't believe he, a grown up, spilled milk. I was sure that was something that only 2-year old girls did. I laughed and laughed. The second memory, from around the same time frame was of dad blowing bubbles inside the house. I remember wanting a turn (and if I was anything like Abby - I was probably not so good at actually blowing bubbles) and dad telling me that only grown-ups blew bubbles inside. Those two memories, with a few others, predate all other memories in my brain.

me and dad- around bubble memory time.

I remember being 5 and dad teaching me how to gut a fish...and being fascinated, not disgusted. I also remember him teaching me how to pronounce "napkin" He said "It's "nap" like when you take a nap, and "Kin" like....your Ken doll" It's funny the things you remember isn't it?

I remember my dad working a lot. That never bothered me, but I also remember when I was in Jr. High and he came up behind me while I was downloading music off Napster and said that he was going to be around more often because he wanted to spend more time with me and my brother. And he did. It's almost cliche how well I remember that shift. I'm not 100% sure what made him make that conscious decision to spend more time at home, less time at the office...but I'm glad he did.

I remember, in high school, when dad came home with a half a dozen wal-mart sacks of red velvet, needles, and thread and said "Laura, we need to make a Santa suit tonight" He and I stayed up all night long sewing (and I did not know how to sew) and we somehow put a suit together that he used in those early Santa days.

And then there are the things dad has taught me that aren't attached to a specific memory. One time he told me that, "If it won't matter to you on your death bed, it's probably not worth worrying about" That one really stuck with me. He also taught me how to be diplomatic - and that it was just as important to know the opposing side's point of view as it was your own.

And of course, there are the things - so many things- that I learned by watching...as children are wont to do. How to be polite and civil when people say things you don't agree with. How to be generous when you don't have any money. How to, as previously mentioned, balance work and home. How to cook pot roast. How to be kind and empathetic without being cliche when people are grieving. How to appreciate music - and how to tell stories. I learned how to be a good person by watching my dad (and Mom of course! :)

Is he perfect? No, of course not. That would be annoying. Is he the best dad I could ask for? Absolutely, without question, yes.

I'm very proud of him.

Dad,
I love you lots. And times like these, when I've missed so many important events (retirement, your birthday, moving day, fathers day...) in such a short time frame, I really wish I were closer...so I could help, so I could treat you to dinner, so I could give you a real hug. But, for now, I'm sending you bear hugs and back scratches through the interwebs here. Mostly though, I'm sending you the knowledge that you mean a lot to me.

Happy Father's Day,
#2

Rocks

2011-06-18T17:17:00.001-04:00

She's gathered a handful of rocks this afternoon and is caring for them all with great care.

They all got a bath in this driveway puddle with rhetoric like "are you all done now? I think that's enough soap for you. Any longer and you're gonna get all wrinkly. Let's go dry off now little buddy. C'mon, here we go, that's the way, now we're niiiice and clean..."

Then she took them all,one by one, to their mommy, who is an imaginary red bird that lives under the steps.

Love her.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone