Our Family Four

Seven Months and Sitting

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

Seven sweet months, my dear.

Sweetie, you still aren't sleeping. I remember at 3 months when I was like, "You are still waking once a night for a night time feeding, we've got to get you sleeping through the night!"

Once a night!! (Insert me laughing, deliriously.)

Since October, you are usually up 3 or more times a night. First it was teething, then a road trip "that messed up your schedule"-or so we tell ourselves, then a sinus infection, then teething, then another trip, then another infection, then teething, then a horrid diaper rash, then a sinus infection, etc, etc. In between these things, I know that you have forgotten how to get yourself back to sleep in the middle of the night, and have come to rely on us to help you. We are trying to break you of it. But despite my typical toughness, I just can't make you cry yourself to sleep in the middle of the night. Your brother just kind of figured it out, and I'm still really hoping you will too.

However your naps have improved. We've stretched them to two 1 1/2 hours (or more) naps, plus a little cat nap in the early evening. I'm so proud of you, and of me, for whatever hand in it I might have played. Which very well might have been been no hand at all.

I also have found a little system that allows me to put you and your brother down for your afternoon naps at the same time, and that I do have a hand in. It allows your mama to be a little more sane in the afternoon which is good for everyone.

The big news for 7 months is sitting. You started sitting pretty well the week of Christmas, and by the end of the week you had it, no tipping at all! You look like such a big girl sitting up, even though you have such a tiny little body. It is adorable.

You had your first road trip to Akron and your first Christmas Eve party, which was a success. You were pretty overwhelmed, but still the sweetest little thing, and I think eventually everyone in the room held you.

We set up a little meet and greet for you and your cousins Timmy and Tyler. Timmy and Jayce are about 5 weeks apart in age, and you and Tyler are about 6 weeks apart. (Right Sarah? Roughly.)

We did our best to get you all looking in the same direction, but you babies just kept looking at each other, and periodically grabbing hands and trying to touch each other's faces.

Your dad tried to make everyone smile, but it made you cry. Come on, dad.

But your older brothers played well together. Including playing Angry Birds side by side.

(This picture makes me laugh. A lot.)

You got your first tooth the day after you turned 7 months old. This is 3 months sooner than your brother's first tooth.

You are still chewing on everything but oddly don't really drool, which is one of the only ways that you and your brother have been alike. I pulled out Jayce's old bibs last month, including the drool bibs, and I laughed because they have mostly never been used. I like this trait. It doesn't matter, but I like it none the less.

You still have absolutely no interest in baby food, or formula, whatsoever. You will eat bananas or strawberry yogurt, but everything else is pure baby torture. I mix a little formula with each of these because I'm trying to get you used to the taste of it. I've tried to mix rice cereal with these foods, but I have to keep the ratio of bananas to cereal just right or you will punish me. Half bananas and half cereal (or more) in one spoonful means complete shutdown of mealtime-you won't open your mouth for anything after that point. Stinker!! Also, you easily drank water from your sippy cup, but ever since I put some pear juice in it that one time, and formula that other time, you have been refusing it.

I think to myself, "It's been a few weeks, I should give this another try."

And you say, "What are you thinking? I thought I'd been pretty clear about this. I'll have to teach you a lesson."

So we're still mostly just nursing around here, and that is okay, and it doesn't mean I'm a bad mom. I'm just throwing that last part out there.

I remind myself that you will eventually "get it." I don't know of any 6 year olds who are still exclusively nursing.

Really, it just bothers me because it makes me question myself, one of the hardest parts about parenting. Is it because of something I did or didn't do? What should I have done differently/do differently now? And it is a bit wasteful. Wasteful of (not cheap) baby food and formula. Wasteful of clean cheeks, clothes, bibs and baby dishes. Wasteful (sometimes) of my patience and time. But still, it's okay. We will get there my dear, we will get there.

In the meantime your happy disposition is one of the highlights of my day. You have started "buh buh buh"-ing, and I love it! Particularly when you just burst out with it, it just sounds so funny!

On most days, you wake up from your nap a bit earlier than Jayce and we have some time to play alone together, which I love.

You currently make this "cccccckkkkk" sound in the back of your throat, which obviously entices us to do the same, and it always results in huge smiles from you and lots of excited arm waving, feet kicking, and bouncing in place. We love it. We love you. Happy 7 months.

Christmas Evening

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

After our leisurely morning of opening gifts, we showered and headed to John and Michelle's for dinner.

The food was delicious. Afterwards, everyone traded off playing "big game hunt" or something like that. Basically a deer hunting game for the Wii. Mom was also playing a card game with Chloe at the time, hence the Mickey ears.

Chelsea and I took an obligatory arms length shot, reviewed it, both declared, "Eww," but kept it anyway.

We got home, gave Hannah a bath and headed to bed. Why is opening presents and visiting so tiring? Oh yeah, because Jayce never took a nap that week or that day. Oh well, it's only Christmas one day (ish) a year.

Christmas Morning Catch Up

2012-01-24T13:20:00.001-06:00

I do realize that it has been nearly a month since Christmas. But we have had a surge of craziness around here. Sick kids, sick husband, second Christmas, traveling out of town, traveling out of country, Chelsea coming in town, birthdays and overall busyness. As of this week, life will settle back down for a little bit and I'll be catching up on here.

I know I say that a lot, but really, I will.

These photos are from our Christmas morning at mom's house, and don't really require a lot of narration because they pretty much speak for themselves. We had a wonderful lazy morning of unwrapping gifts, which probably took about 2 hours since our little elf wanted to deliver and assist in unwrapping most of the gifts. So we stopped periodically to refill our coffee, throw away paper, I stopped to feed Hannah, and we enjoyed opening gifts with no rush. Since Chelsea had Hannah, I got to take pictures at my leisure as well.

On Jayce: Adnoids, Boots and Canariums

2012-01-17T10:08:00.001-06:00

A Jayce update is long overdue. I'm continuing to play catch up with the old blog, thinking that someday I will get there! This is still my plan. In the meantime, here is a bit of Jayce.

A few weeks before Christmas, he had his adenoids removed. I had to stay home with Hannah, so Chris got this (sad) picture of him before he went back. This was apparently after he had taken his "silly juice," the pre-gas, pre-iv medicine that made him loopy and silly. The surgery went well and luckily was pretty easy on him. It seems to be huge a success since it's been a month now and he hasn't been sick yet! I'm hopeful that we won't have a replay of the constant sickness of last spring.

We were surprised and relieved that he never seemed to be in pain after the surgery. We kept him on the tylenol with codeine the day of and the day after the surgery, then switched to tylenol for a day, then nothing since he never complained of being in pain. He was home from the surgery by mid-day, and a few hours after started asking for food, then more food, and was playing by the end of the night, reading with Chris under a tent that they made over Hannah's play gym.

Actually the next morning he was racing all over the place with his toys, playing busily at 7:00 or so in the morning, which was a real shock since he's normally not a morning person at all. They had told us to let him rest or play as much as he wanted, to let him be the judge of what he was up to. But he was so uncharacteristically busy that I asked the nurse about it when she called that day to check on him. Apparently the tylenol with codeine can be a bit of an "upper" for some kids and make them hyper, as opposed to other kids who it can make sleepy and sluggish. Jayce was one of the hyper ones. You would never have known that he'd had surgery, he just kind of went on as normal after that first day.

And other than that, it has been life as usual for our little fireman.

Some of our favorite "Jayce things" right now are:

1.) His instant replays.

When he is playing basketball/soccer/baseball/wrestling with Chris, if he falls down he'll stop and declare, "Let's have another look at that!" or "Let's have a look at what just happened." Then re-does his fall in slow motion. Also, if I am watching him play something he will instruct me to periodically say, "Whoa, look at him go!" as he runs, kicks, shoots, or dances.

2.) His adult-like ways of conveying his thoughts.

I used to always list out the funny things that he was saying that weren't quite right, but now the things that make us laugh the most are his rather grown up little quips. For example.

When Chris got home from a run the other day, Jayce walked over and said. "That's a cool watch ya got there, Dad."

It all sounds so funny with that squeaky little 3 year old voice.

3.) He is opinionated.

Mom, did you make those boots for Hannah? They're pretty! You should make some with sparkly things and glitter. That would be pretty too. And then he walked off.

4.) His tangents.

Jayce will often start into long stories, where the words and sentences all kind of run together, and refuses to repeat himself if we miss a part of it, which we often do. The other night before bed he started telling me something about Fireman Sam, and I was waiting for him to pause for a breath so that I could try to figure out what he was talking about. Suddenly I realized that he was telling me about one of the Fireman Sam movies, which has 5 episodes, and was telling me about each episode in order. "And in number 3, Fireman Saves the Day, there's the dog and gets his head stuck, and Sam gets the water, and gets the hose, and he runs to him, and then they go to the place, and the lady gets a cake for him..." On and on he goes.

I always try to listen extra hard when he starts into one of these tangents, especially if I know what he's talking about, because I love hearing which details stand out in his mind as the most important parts of the story.

5.) His canarium.

Otherwise known as an aquarium. Grandma got him this for Christmas, and though I cringed at first at the thought of having to take care of fish, I quickly realized that it is just a fake aquarium nightlight thing. Jayce loves it and will just sit and stare at it. He calls it his canarium. Chris and I have talked about it, and decided that we will never correct him. We just might call it the canarium as well, so that he never changes the way he pronounces it. Not really, but it's so tempting.

Christmas Eve: Hanging Out

2012-01-13T11:15:00.001-06:00

Towards the end of the Christmas party I decided to take Hannah upstairs to chill out for a bit. It was getting really warm downstairs with the dancing and then tearing into Christmas presents, and Hannah was being passed from person to person, and was getting pretty warm. I had already taken off her tights and shoes, so I took her upstairs, took her sweater off and let her enjoy some time with some of her favorite things, her toes.

This also gave me a chance to get a few pictures of my little sweetie in her Christmas dress, though this first picture looks unsettlingly like a Sears Portrait picture, with her in front of a tree backdrop, don't you think?

But then a dog and some furniture entered the picture, which alleviated the Sears-ness of the series.

The red head in the photos below is Chelsea, if you don't recognize her with her new do. She instructed me, "Take pictures of me and Hannah, so I can use them for my screensaver." So I did.

She then took charge of the camera, attempting to get a decent shot of Hannah and I.

As we sat upstairs chilling out, the party downstairs started to break up and more people joined us in the living room, where we all sat and chatted for a while.

Jayce hugged his cousins good bye,

and then moved in to shoot uncle Justin Matrix-style. I'm not really sure why.

Then he started going a little bit crazy, since he hadn't had a nap, had tons of excitement, and was a few hours past his normal bedtime. So we let him partake in one of his favorite "keep him in one place" activities-play Angry Birds on someone's phone. This time it was Aunt Chelsea's phone.

We headed out just after 10 to attempt some rest in preparation for the next morning's present extravaganza. We managed a little bit at least.

Christmas Eve Party

2012-01-11T14:09:00.001-06:00

I was delighted to be able to make it to the Christmas Eve party this year. It's been 2 years and it's always so fun.

Chris likes to say that it's like the family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It's not, but I like that comparison. Though on this night, it looks a little bit like that.

The collection of uncles usually do something ridiculous to the "new guys," fiances, new boyfriends, new husbands, etc. (I can't remember what Chris had to do, but it wasn't too bad.) This year, they made the guys participate in a polka dance-off. There were 2 new guys (and 1 non-new guy) who were paired up with a few of the aunts, and the aunts had to teach the new guys how to polka, which is basically just a skip around the room. After a little performance for the crowd, they were judged by a panel of a few of the senior family members So You Think You Can Dance-style, and the winning pair won a free polka cd so that they could practice at home. They made the aunts wear these little old lady costumes as well. :)

(I feel like I should say that this is all lighthearted and in really good fun. There is kind of a "what are they up to this year" sort of mentality to it, but they're very mild. It sounds a little crazy as I'm typing it up, and I promise it's not. Or at least not that crazy.)

This was the first year that Chelsea's boyfriend attended, so he and mom had to polka together. They did a pretty good job.

The older kids sat on the stairs to watch the action.

I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted to, or of everyone at the party because I kept having to duck out with Hannah, who was overwhelmed to say the least. We had just come from a Christmas Eve service at church where we were swarmed with people who wanted to see us and her, and the same thing happened at the party. It was just a lot more commotion and excitement than she is used to and she kept bursting into tears. Poor little thing.

Jayce, however, had no problems. He found his cousins, and though they hadn't seen each other in over a year, he jumped right in to playing with them and their stuff. Despite how much he doesn't like Santa, when posed with the option of sitting on his lap or not getting his present, he went over and hugged Santa. The boy has his priorities.

Hannah was pretty mellow with Santa. She checked him out and was fine with him. It was a better response than she had given a few of her uncles.

The party went too quickly, each of us going up to get our presents, pose for photos, open presents, pose in groups, etc. It was a busy night with a lot of visiting, noise, and holiday cheer crammed into just a few hours.

Overall it was a great Christmas Eve, as always.

Favorite

2012-01-10T13:22:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted anything on I Heart Faces for a while, but I saw that their theme for the week is the best face photo, and this one immediately popped into my mind.

This was our first day home with Hannah from the hospital, she was three days old.

This was not a staged picture. I was sitting in the glider, bawling because Hannah wouldn't wake up to eat despite all of my best efforts, so I had called Chris in to try to wake her up. He brought her over by the window hoping that the brightness might bring her out of her snooze, but no such luck. Despite my tears I couldn't get over how beautiful the soft light was and the expression on his face. I grabbed my camera, took only a few pictures, and was in love with this one.

It looks like someone else was in love too.

Christmas Time, Not Christmas Day

2012-01-09T15:09:00.001-06:00

This title is in reference to a conversation that Chris had with Jayce over the holiday season, trying to explain to him that, though it was Christmas time, he couldn't open gifts yet because it wasn't Christmas day. It was really amusing.

We travelled to Akron this year for Christmas, so we celebrated our little family Christmas the week before.

We opted to open gifts post-naptime on a Saturday. This was not ideal, I'm a first-thing-in-the-morning type of gal, even on mock Christmas days. But the boys had a few last minute things to pick up, so I opted for first-thing-when-you-wake-up-from-your-nap thing.

All of our presents were wrapped under the tree when Jayce woke up, and labeled with the first letter of our names (with M for Mom and D for Dad in lieu of our names),so that Jayce could be the elf and pass out gifts. Almost as much fun as opening them himself.

It was great. But, when isn't Christmas great? Jayce is at such a fun age now, he gets so excited about everything.

At one point after we had finished with gifts Chris asked Jayce what his favorite present was, and he surveyed the ottoman where he was playing and said, "Mmm my fireman...mmm my ipad...my Thomas coloring book," and then went back to coloring. Really, his coloring book was his favorite thing?

Regarding what he calls "his ipad," we did get him an Innotab, which he loves. I was really torn about this, thinking that it is ridiculous to get my 3 year old something that is a kids equivalent to an ipad (kind of), and also recognizing that it is undeniably useful to have. Particularly on 9 hour car drives to Akron. But I was adamant that we get something that is predominantly educational and that he can grow in to and this fit the bill. He loves it.

Hannah was a tired little sweetie for our Christmas. She had been awake for a staggering 4 hours for some reason, but I didn't want to put her to bed when we were opening gifts so I did immediately after.

She was so sleepy that she kept starting to chew on her duck but ended up just laying her head down to quietly snuggle it. It was precious.

We got her a soft little baby doll and her own plush angry bird. Now she could chew on it's beak and Jayce had nothing to say about it.

Chris and I didn't really open gifts, since mine was my camera, which I received in October, and his was shipped to Akron so that we wouldn't miss it. We both had a few small things though, Chris got books from the kids for them to read together, like he gets for every holiday. I got some yummy gourmet treats, with lots of chocolate involved.

We kind of look like we just woke up in these pictures though. Me with my air-dried hair and Chris with his rebellious beard. (Rebelling against me asking him to shave it, that is.)

We topped off the day with our annual trip to Peoria for the Festival of Lights, dinner out, and Christmas-y drinks for the ride home. We didn't end up seeing the lights even though we waited for an incredibly long time to do so. The line was just too long and barely moving, and eventually even Jayce wanted to go home instead of wait any longer. But still, the effort was there. And it was nothing that a little Angry Birds on the car ride home could't cure.

It was a very good mock Christmas.

Preschool Christmas Program

2012-01-07T19:39:00.003-06:00

Jayce had his preschool Christmas program just before we left town for Akron.

It was pretty standard as far as 3 and 4 year old programs go. Only 4 songs, (or was it 5?) It was over in 15 minutes.

Jayce was in the front row, third from the right. He stood next to his two best buddies in his class, Beren and Eli. We kept laughing at these three, they looked very ornery together.

The kids were all a little shy and unsure looking when they first came out. It was in the gym at their school, and the whole school (K-8) came in for the performance, in addition to the parents and family members, so I'm sure they were a little intimidated. Luckily we were all in the front row, so Jayce saw us, gave a little wave, and yelled "Hi Mom!!"

They did a great job. I love when little kids sing and it sounds more like they're all just shouting together, not singing. It cracks me up.

Jayce wouldn't tell us much about the program ahead of time, or sing us the songs, but periodically while he was playing he would start singing "up on the rooftop reindeer pause..." so I figured that would make it into the mix. It did.

Luckily the program was filled with plenty of dancing and motions, which was what I was hoping for.

I got some video with Chris' phone of the performance when I wasn't scooting around the gym trying to get a better angle for my pictures, much to Chris' embarrassment. The video is dreadful, but it's a little clip of the performance. Enjoy.

2011 Highlights

2012-01-03T14:18:00.004-06:00

Now that we have addressed the things I'll be doing in the new year, I think a 2011 year in review is in order as well.

Here are a few of my highlights, in chronological(ish) order.

1.) The Potty Training Miracle.

A year ago I dove headfirst into a fabulous potty training plan. A week later I retreated, broken in defeat. 5 months later, in the midst of bed rest craziness, Jayce decided to train himself, and did just that. Then he backslid, (except for #2, which thankfully is still in the potty every time). Almost a year later, we are back and forth on a weekly basis, some "dry all day" days, and some "didn't even try" days.

But this has been a good exercise for us in just letting some things go. We can't control everything, we can't make him do it right, despite trying seemingly everything. We've gone from the days and weeks of being stressed and concerned about it, to just being patient and remembering that at some point it will click and he'll get it. But I'm still grateful for that miraculous week where Jayce decided he was done with diapers, and that he kept that up for the first few months of Hannah's life.

2.) It's a Girl.

I had been convinced that Hannah was going to be a boy and was so excited about it. I love my little boy and wanted another. But finding out that it was a girl brought a fresh excitement to a pregnancy that thus far had been difficult for me. I started dreaming about her, bonding with her in a way I hadn't before, thinking about her nursery, and smiling about shopping on the other side of the kids department.

3.)The Allergist.

Poor Jayce was so sick for months and those weeks were absolutely horrible. It is such a helpless feeling to leave the doctor's office a few times a week, armed with new medications that "hopefully" will work, only to watch him start to get better for a day or so, then quickly go back in the other direction. It turned out that he didn't have allergies, but the course of medications that the doctor put him on (an inhaler and a nose spray) helped him to get better and stay better. I've never been so relieved.

4.) Bed rest.

Bed rest seems like a nice peaceful relaxing thing, but it's not. It leaves you feeling very helpless, and if you like to do things yourself, constantly having to rely on others is stressful.

That said, I was so relieved when the doctor told me that I needed to be on bed rest, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to make myself take it easy. I tried, but caring all day for a 3 year old demands a certain amount of energy, in addition to the fact that I rarely choose to rest over choosing to accomplish something. (I still can't just sit down with a book or watch tv when the kids sleep.) Pregnancy also has that strange way of masking how you feel until it's too late. As in, I didn't have a sense when I was doing something that I was pushing myself too hard, until later on when I was feeling horrible and it took a few days to recover. I'm so glad that the rest allowed me to avoid any premature labor or major complications with my pregnancy.

5.) Coming Home.

My week in the hospital at 35 weeks was so hard. I hated being away from Jayce, I hated having to leave him with a sitter for Chris to stay overnight with me, I hated constantly being woken up by the nurses in addition to my bladder, I hated the bed/food/tv, etc. I was glad that it allowed the doctor to keep an eye on Hannah and make sure that she was okay, but I watched the clock constantly, waiting for the doctor to come around and hopefully tell me that I'd be able to go home that day.

The day I came home was bliss. The house was trashed and I didn't care. Jayce sat and watched cartoons and I sat and stared at him with a silly grin on my face. I napped on my own couch and slept at night in my own bed, next to my husband, with my boy upstairs in his room. Happiness.

6.) Etsy.

I started Etsy in May of 2010 thinking I just wanted to try it out. I could only handle a certain amount of extra work, since I was home with Jayce, pregnant, and Lemon Tree demanded so much time each week. But in the back of my mind I thought it would be cool to sell something every week.

I was pretty close to my goal when I got put on bed rest. I got an order and it required a bit of extra fuss on Chris who was already doing everything for all of us, so I offered to close it until after Hannah was born. He told me not to worry and to keep it open. I got a few requests for custom items, (one of them rather large that would have been good for me financially,) but I turned them down because I didn't want any extra things to do while on bed rest. I told myself that if I didn't make it, I could say "Well, I would have had enough sales, but I turned several down..."

But by my 1 year Etsy anniversary, I had 53 sales. 53 sales in 52 weeks.

I also had items from my shop on the front page 5 times, and was in the Storque Spotlight. This may not have been a lot for some people, but for me, I was thrilled.

7.) Sweet Hannah Arrives.

There is nothing like giving birth, nothing like those first few days of getting to know your tiny baby, nothing l like skin to skin naps, nothing like those tiny fragile yawns, nothing like making your "only" a brother. There is nothing like my sweet girl.

8.) Florida.

After a year with a lot of stress, a lot of worry, a lot of stress, a lot of sickness, a lot of stress, and 9 months of not leaving town, I couldn't have needed Florida more.

The first day we were there Jayce and I headed over to the beach to make sandcastles. It was perfect: warm, not hot, with a gentle breeze, white sand, warm water, not crowded. We parked ourselves on the edge of the water and started digging, both quietly working at our task. I looked down at one point and realized that I was just grabbing sand and letting it run through my fingers, and with every fistful of sand I could feel my stress slowly draining away. We're all ok. Jayce is healthy. My pregnancy was safe. Hannah is healthy and growing. Chris is okay. I'm not on bed rest. Hannah doesn't have colic. I breathed in the salty air and relaxed into a vacation that I have never needed more.

9.) Chris Excels.

We found out in one month that Chris had won 2 different research awards. Then in the fall, within 2 weeks of one another, 2 of his books were released. This is all before he is 32, and in addition to his work, since he is not a writer but a professor. His textbook has been aggressively promoted by the publisher and he periodically updates me on how it is selling on Amazon. Proud isn't a strong enough word.

10.) Christmas in Akron.

We travelled to Akron for Christmas, and though it was a long drive, and sometimes a stressful trip, I just loved it. We got to take part in our extended family Christmas Eve party, a tradition that has been running for decades. There is nothing like bringing your children into a tradition that you were a part of as a child, and that your mom was a part of as a child. I haven't seen most of those people in 2 years, and I loved introducing them to Hannah, watching Jayce play with his cousins, watching mom proudly tote Hannah around, watching Chris laugh at the new "hazing" that the uncles were putting the new boyfriends or fiances through. It was perfect.

Linking to E Tells Tales, Capturing Motherhood, What I Like Wednesdays, & the Wiegands.

New Year Miscellany

2012-01-02T06:00:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year!!

I love the start of January. I love the clean slate nature of it, it almost seems like a fresh To-Do list. Not in a bad way, like "these are the things you need to do and are bogging you down," but like "here is a fresh start for whatever you want." Fun, right? Here are a few miscellaneous "new year" things that are on my mind right now.

1.) Jayce received this fun marble racing game for Christmas, a toy that he has been thanking God for long before he owned it. (Seriously, each night when we ask if there is anything he'd like to thank God for he says "the marble racing game at Lauren's house." ) I know that these next few months the play dates and errand running will slow down drastically as he and his friends all fight off cold season, so it is a goal of mine to set up a fun and interactive playing area to use instead, and this will be a part of it.

2.) I have monthly pictures of Hannah that I haven't really showed off because I need to finish editing them. Some months are done and some aren't. It is my goal to have them all finished before her first birthday, so I have 6 months to catch up and stay caught up, since I obviously add new ones each month.

3.) As of this week, Lemon Tree Creations is on a bit of a break. I'm not sure how long of a break at this point, or if we will resume it at all in the same form. I announced it to our readers this morning on this post. I can't lie, I'm sad about it. But it was time. I'll have to go more into that in another post. :)

4.) Little Hannah is still resisting solid foods in every form, in addition to bottles and formula. Sigh. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

I had forgotten how quickly you go through bibs once you begin attempting baby food a few times per day, so I took a cue from Tiffany and decided to make up a few bibs for Hannah. Tiffany was right, they are totally addictive!! I grabbed a piece of fabric that I love, a white towel that I never use and a bib for a template, and 10 minutes later I had the cutest bib I've ever seen. So I made another, and another and cut material for another. I'm thinking that these will cheer me up just a little as Hannah continues to buck away from and spit out any food that makes its way into her mouth.

5.) I have been going through my pictures from Christmas and have been surprised by how poor of a job I did of getting those "the picture" moments. You know, Grandma with both grandkids, all of the siblings together, pictures of myself in any form, etc. However, there is no way that I was missing a picture of Hannah taking a bath in the sink! What is it that is so darn cute about a naked baby splashing in the sink?! I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm loving it.

I'm linking to Miscellaneous Monday and Life Made Lovely.

Morning

2011-12-29T12:49:00.001-06:00

This is what our mornings looked like pretty much every day of December before we left town.

Kids in pjs.

My fireman in his fireman pjs, playing with his firemen, watching Fireman Sam.

My little "swimmer" up on her belly, grabbing at toys, chewing on toys, yelling at toys, rolling onto toys. Staying still long enough for me to take her picture.

Then there is nap time. But first, there is pre-nap time reading. Jayce and I in the chair, and Hannah listens from a blanket on the floor.

But the other morning, Jayce decided that he wanted to read to Hannah. He grabbed his book, laid down on the floor, and started pointing out the pictures to her and telling her the story.

I snuck out and tried to be as invisible as possible. But how sweet is this? Playing together is just around the corner.

Baby's First Christmas Comparing

2011-12-19T21:07:00.002-06:00

I was so pleased when I washed Jayce's Baby's First Christmas onesie and discovered that it will fit Hannah. He was 7 months old and she is only 6, but it works just fine for a little Christmas photo comparing.

These pictures make me laugh. This was the last straw with our old camera, when my harassing Chris for a new camera reached new heights. The pictures with the flash were dreadful (below), and without the flash were super blurry (above). I remember thinking how much I would have loved the above picture of Jayce if only it were clear. Sigh.

Aside from that, I just love my two little Santa babies, with their round eyes and chubby cheeks. Jayce was almost sitting at this point, which is why he is surrounded by pillows. Hannah isn't so steady yet, which is why she is in the Bumbo seat.

I had to laugh when I looked through my pictures and discovered that both children gave me a flailing arms, punking me out picture. But I guess it is the age for that.

I also can't help but look around the rest of the room at what is different. When we took Jayce's picture, we had only been living here for four months. So other than the tree, Santa hat and baby onesie, everything else is different. New coffee table, tv, tv stand, curtains, wall color, even the tree skirt is different. And those two babies couldn't be more different.

So different but both so sweet.

Six Months of Sass

2011-12-15T10:20:00.001-06:00

Hannah, you're 6 months old, and are you ever your own little person.

You are SUCH a daddy's girl. You have a special way that you act when he is around: You give him a sly little smile, stick your tongue out a little, make soft little cooing sounds, and then flip your head (and body) around so that he has to come around on the other side of me to see you, and then you do it all over again. It's like you're saying, "Now come over here and get me Dad!" It's your own form of hide-and-seek just for him.

You have gotten very strong, and easily flip yourself over and over on the floor. You also flip yourself onto your stomach in your crib and fall asleep that way. It stresses me out. We spent a day going in and flipping you back over, until one time you fell fast asleep that way, so now I just leave you be.

You use that same method, when I'm holding you, to turn your whole upper body from one direction to the other and often clobber me in the process. Seriously, the other day you punched me right in the nose and I was surprised that my eyes filled with tears. The week before you flipped from one direction to the other and in the process flipped my glasses about 5 feet away from me without even touching my face.

It was a little bit like in Anchorman, when Ron Burgandy is talking to his dog. You ate a whole wheel of cheese? Heck, I'm not even mad. I'm impressed.

I was like, "Han-nah!...Wow, you didn't even touch my face, just threw my glasses all the way over there..."

You are still "hugging" me, and Ooooooh, I love it! I know that it's just because you want to chew on something, or you're hungry, but you when you wrap your arms around my neck and pull me towards you it feels like a tiny little hug!

You've had your first antibiotic for a respiratory infection, and the 10 day course of treatment handled it gradually, so your "schedule" is way off now. But let's be honest, you've never really taken to the schedule.

I looked at your 2 month post, where you were sleeping 6 to 7 hours at night and thought, I want that! For the past 6 weeks or so you've been waking up multiple times a night. At first it was teething, then it was this infection. I get it, you're uncomfortable, it was hard to eat when you were so congested so you ate less and more frequently. But 3-6-8 times per night is really wearing on me!! You've downgraded to 40 minute naps as well. Now that you're finally off of them I think a call to Jan is in order to get this all back on track.

You had your first visit with Santa. It was relatively uneventful although Jayce wanted nothing to do with him!

Your stranger anxiety has kicked in, but last week you had a successful stay in the nursery and stayed the whole time. Chris just had to go in there with you a minute until you smiled at everyone and then was able to sneak away. This was so helpful since I was teaching in the classroom next door and was sure that I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if I could hear you crying. Luckily it's the 5 year old class, so I'm sure I could have easily found a way for them to make enough noise to drown you out, but luckily I didn't have to resort to that.

Your activity of choice now is on your belly, swimming. No pushing up onto those knees yet, and I'm so glad. I might have to come over and knock you off of them if you did. (Not really, but please don't start crawling yet.)

You are now in the bouncy seat and exersaucer every day, in addition to your blanket time. You're far too busy of a roller for the play gym. I was sad to see it go.

I waited to start you on solids until closer to 6 months, and you HATE them. Really, it's ridiculous. After 5 days of the most watered down possible rice cereal, you still cry, buck, turn your head, spit it out, and fling your body around in every direction in your Bumbo seat to try to escape. I'm going to give it a little break and then resume again in a few weeks. You have not won the battle, I'm simply waiting for my next attack.

You had your well visit and I was surprised to discover that despite everyone telling me how big you are, that you're actually small.

Height, 26 inches, 55th percentile. Weight, 15 lbs 6 oz, 38th percentile. The doctor said he isn't worried about the weight, if you had eaten right before you came to the appointment you would be in the 40th, so it was fine. But I worry!

It appears that you think you are the boss of us around here. You eat what you want, sleep when you want, wake when you want. But you do it all with the sweetest and happiest disposition of any baby that I've ever seen.

You, my dear, are a sweet little handful. Happy 6 months.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-14T15:41:00.001-06:00

Yes, I realize how close it is to Christmas at this point, but our week after Thanksgiving had 3 doctor's visits, 2 kids with 2 infections and 1 pre-op appointment, in addition to the whole "no car and no purse" thing. It was a crazy 7 days, and we felt like we lost a week out of our lives, but everything else piled up in the meantime: work, laundry, clutter, pictures, etc. But now that things are normal I can catch up a bit. :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Louisville this year, and were so glad to get to see everyone all together for a little bit. Obviously it was Hannah's first Thanksgiving and there was a fair amount of snuggling and rocking for this little lady.

We made a valiant attempt to get a picture of the grandkids with the grandparents, and it just wasn't happening. It's a good thing that the "attempt" pictures are fun too, but I think it will be several years before we have a picture where all the kids are looking in the same direction and no one is trying to escape.

It was a busy few days, full of playing, eating and napping. Chris and I even managed to nap while Jayce and Hannah did, and it was fabulous.

We took the kids over to see JC & Louise as well, Jayce played happily and Hannah snuggled whomever was holding her. Which is about the best compliment you can get from a 6 month old.

We had a great time, but it so busy and chaotic that I barely had my camera out and these are my only pictures from the weekend.

Sounds like a good reason for another trip. Soon. :)

Grandma

2011-12-13T09:58:00.001-06:00

See you soon, Grandma!

Things Christmas, Kids, and Otherwise

2011-12-09T07:00:00.002-06:00

1.) I have been dying to make Jayce an Advent Calendar and have been pinning ideas for one since October. I started it a few weeks ago and finally finished it on November 30, nothing like the last minute, right? I sewed little goodies or activities inside, and each day he opens one and we talk about it a little bit. Ever since I finished it I've seen a million other ideas that I would have liked to have done instead. I think we might have a house full of Advent Calendars next year.

2.) Jayce had his adenoids removed yesterday. It was sad, but he is okay, and we all are at the moment. More on that later.

I wanted to do something special the day before his surgery, so I rigged his Advent Calendar so that he opened the "make ornaments" activity that day. He loves to help me make sugar cookies, and this was a good way to get in all of the stuff he likes to do (ingredient adding, mixing, dough rolling, cookie cutter cutting,) on a MUCH smaller scale. We used this recipe, but instead of using 2 bottles of cinnamon we used 1, and I filled it back up with flour to sprinkle on the "dough" and keep it from sticking to everything. They smell amazing. There are only 10, still sitting in the kitchen, but the whole house smells lightly like cinnamon.

3.) I love the little sewn stars on Jayce's Advent Calendar, but a part of me is sad every time that Jayce rips one open, even though that is the point. So I made something similar for myself that wouldn't be completely destroyed by December 25th. And I made some for a friend. And I made some more and put them in my Etsy shop. Sewing pretty little stars is becoming an addiction.

4.) Hannah got this insanely adorable hat last week, courtesy of the super talented Amanda at OED&Me. (I've bragged on Amanda's goodies before, she is the one who made me all of those beautiful baby photo props that I showed off here when Hannah was born.)

The hat was so amazing that it almost, ALMOST prompted her to do that thing I am just dying for her to do because it is so darn cute, pull her feet back and put them in her mouth. Am I crazy for thinking that this is equal parts hilarious and adorable? I couldn't believe my luck, having my camera out at just the right time, and her wearing that insanely cute hat. But in the end it was all just a tease.

5.) Last week I went to a Wildtree freezer bag workshop. If you ever have the chance to do something like this, you have to do it!

Basically you bring 10 bags full of prepped meat and some chopped veggies, pay a lump sum for the Wildtree product, and when you arrived the host leads you through recipes which include the ingredients that you have just bought. Then you zip your bag shut, shake everything up until it is well-mixed and stick it in your cooler. We were given labels for each bag with the name of the dish and cooking instructions. On Sunday I pulled 3 bags out of the freezer and have been gradually working through them this week. As someone who hates to cook, and HATES food prep, I have to say that it is amazing. I feel very domestic with a fridge and freezer full of marinating meat, and it is nice to smell something cooking in our home that isn't 1 of the 5 things we make and eat every single week.

That said, the 2 hours I spent cutting chicken on Friday night was my own form of hell. Endless food prep, no cooking, no eating, just me and chicken, with me freaking out about touching it and freaking out even more about chicken juice getting all over the kitchen. But totally worth it in the end.

6.) Remember how I was trying to play catch up with the old blog? I caught up a little bit this week. In October when we were hitting up the pumpkin patch I started reminiscing about the previous year's pumpkin patch trip, when I was newly pregnant and seriously sick.

I started writing up my "beginning of pregnancy" stories, you know, the "this is how we found out and this is how we told people" stuff that often gets lost by the time that you are officially announcing, and I published them this week. If you're curious, you can read my early pregnancy stories for Jayce, Hannah, and the baby we lost at these links.

7.) I'm linking up with Elizabeth over at E Tells Tales, who's starting a new link party today. Elizabeth is a blog friend (sounds lame, I know), whose little guy was due just days before my little lady, so we kept up with each other a bit since we were basically at the same stage pregnancy-wise, and our babies are doing similarly ornery baby things. She's an amazing sewer, (check out her cute new baby Etsy shop), and sent me the prettiest burp cloth when Hannah was born. Seriously too pretty to use, although I do use it. She just guest posted at Lemon Tree yesterday too. Stop by and tell her hi!

Linking also to the always enjoyable Miscellaneous Monday, and Life Made Lovely parties. Stop by if you can!

Medicine

2011-12-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Last Tuesday night Chris and I were wiped out.

Both kids were sick. I'd been on the phone back and forth with the doctor all day over Hannah's rapidly progressing respiratory infection, and ended up taking her to the ER. Since Chris had hit a deer with my car the previous week, we've been sharing his truck while my car is in the shop. So that day it was...leave work early, work unfinished, bring me the truck, trip to the ER, trip back out the the pharmacy, late dinner, and lots of rushing around. This was following a night of very little sleep and days full of sick and grumpy kids. Hannah had been fussy all day, understandably, but still, and Jayce kept jumping around in his seat and not really eating .As we ate dinner we were quieter than usual, a bit glassy eyed and grumpy ourselves.

In an attempt to stall eating for just a few more seconds, Jayce started making silly noises. Hannah laughed at him. He did it again, she laughed again, and we all smiled.

Next he "scared" her.

"Boo!" he said. She laughed, he started laughing, and we all laughed.

He did it over and over, and Hannah, who almost never laughs at the same thing more than twice, laughed over and over.

It was just what we needed. Being parents to these two is the best medicine.

On Wednesday evening, after I wrote this post about how crazy busy we had been, I came downstairs to discover that both kids were asleep.

Chris crept out of Jayce's room and exclaimed, "He's asleep, and it's only 8:30! What should we do?!" We were so excited. We debated about watching a movie, but decided not to push our luck and caught up on a few episodes of The Office and went to bed a bit early instead. As we got ready for bed, we talked about the kids. About how sweet Hannah is and how she's such a daddy's girl. About how big Jayce is and we laughed over his little antics.

Then we had a conversation that we often have, about how soon this stage will be over and how sad we'll be. About how we'll be well-rested, well-versed in the newest movies and caught up on our favorite shows, and maybe have picked up a new hobby or two. And we'll say "Those were the best days. Those exhausting and stressful joy-filled days." And when we reminisce, the evenings of short tempers and time outs will be largely overshadowed by the evenings of side-by-side pancake making, pillow jumping, and dance-party basketball shooting.

Pregnant #3

2011-12-07T07:00:00.002-06:00

When I found out that I was pregnant with Hannah we had just gotten home from a trip to Cincinnati.

Chris was doing some lectures at CCU, and Jayce and I tagged along and took the opportunity to catch up with a few friends. Jayce and I went to a friend's house and hung out all morning until around lunchtime, and then went back to the place we were staying for a nap. We both fell quickly asleep, he longer than I, and when we woke up, went over to another friends' house to hang out and have dinner. We didn't stay incredibly long after dinner and I was in bed by 10:30 that night. We decided to just get up whenever Jayce did the next morning, and not push for an early start for our trip back home. Jayce slept in that day, waking up after 8:00 am when he normally is up around 6:30 or 7.

I remember waking up that morning and thinking, "I can't get out of bed, I'm completely exhausted." My body felt the way that it does when you've pulled an all-nighter, or maybe just had 3 or 4 hours of sleep, which was baffling since I'd had almost 10 hours plus a nap the day before. I knew something wasn't right.

I didn't say anything to Chris, and I didn't really think about it on the way back home from Cincinnati.

After we got home, we unloaded the car and all went outside into the backyard to let Jayce run around a bit. We decided to head out for dinner and I ran inside to use the bathroom before we took off. I quickly grabbed a test and took it, and pretty soon there was a faint little line.

I would like to say that I was completely shocked, but even though I didn't really have a lot of symptoms or anything yet, I just kind of knew that I was pregnant.

I called Chris into the house and told him that there was something I wanted him to look at. I had set the test on my dresser, stood in front of it until he walked over, and then moved out of the way. It seemed to take him a minute to realize what he was seeing, but then he was pleased. He laughed, hugged me, and then we went out to eat.

It's such a strange experience that first day after you discover that you're pregnant, because your whole world has just changed, but for a little while you just carry on as though everything is the same.

We kept this news a secret from our families for a while, a little longer than we'd have liked. We knew that we'd see Chris' family when I was about 9 weeks along when they were in town for a basketball game, and we'd be seeing my family at Thanksgiving when I was about 10 weeks, so we decided to wait until then to share our news.

It was difficult to wait this long, mostly because I felt like I was lying to people. I wrote about it a bit here. I started feeling very sick and very tired almost immediately and it was difficult to pretend like everything was fine.

I also started to show almost right away. When Mom picked me up at the airport, she said she knew as soon as she saw me. When Chelsea came in that night, she also said she knew as soon as she saw me, because, "you weren't fat like that the last time that I saw you." Seriously Chelsea? :)

Everyone else found out through Facebook and our Christmas card, which held this picture among others. I still love it. It took forever to get just the right one, but it was the perfect way of announcing the newest addition to our family.

My due date was June 14, 2011.

After threatening to come early for weeks, Hannah was born June 8, 2011.

Read about my first "beginning of pregnancy story" here, and my second here.

Pregnant #2

2011-12-06T07:00:00.004-06:00

On June 7th 2010, Chris and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. And we discovered that I was pregnant.

It was a pretty low key day at first. Mom and Chelsea were in town to visit and Chris had to work. After he got home we went out of town for dinner and dessert. We weren't going to exchange gifts because we had just bought a new computer and new truck in May, but at the last minute he snuck a present in on me. As we drove to the restaurant Chris pulled out a Walmart bag with a single pregnancy test in it.

He'd been telling me that week that I was acting more annoyed than usual, and I assured him that he was just being more annoying than usual. But he was sure that I was pregnant.

His idea was for me to take the test at the restaurant. The restaurant!!! He said that he thought it would lead to an interesting dinner conversation. I did not think this was the greatest idea, for a variety of reasons, (I mean, seriously! We were at a nice Italian restaurant!), but agreed that I would take it first thing the next morning to appease him.

He tried to have the conversation that we would have had if I had cooperated, taken the test and found a positive result. Such as, "If you're pregnant than the baby will be due at this time...so maybe we can do this for Christmas...and I'll have to cancel this trip..." But I wasn't very cooperative, so while Chris was playing the "If you are, then..." game, I was playing the "But if I'm not..." game.

When we got home, I had to run to the bathroom anyway, so I just went ahead and took the test. I washed my hands, left the room, changed clothes, and then went back in to take a glance, and was stunned to see that it was positive. I was honestly shocked.

I immediately felt all wobbly and stumbled out to the living room where Chris was sitting. We had already decided that if we found out that we were pregnant while Mom and Chelsea were in town, that we wouldn't tell them right away because we wanted to keep it between us for a few days. I tried to put on my game face but I'm pretty sure that Chris knew the minute he saw me.

I rambled something to him about going for a walk with me over to our neighbor's house, and as soon as we closed the front door behind us I burst out "I'm pregnant!" and fell into his shoulder where we laughed, and then eventually did venture out for a walk to do a bit of processing.

We had decided a while ago that we would start trying for another baby once Jayce turned 2, which was on May 21, and we found out we were pregnant on June 7. It was just so fast that I was completely shocked.

We told Mom and Chelsea a few days later, as we drove to dinner one night. I just burst out with it, and they didn't believe me at first, but after we kept saying that we were serious, eventually they did.

That weekend Mom, Chelsea and I drove to Cincinnati for an Ellery concert. As we had breakfast with Justin and Tasha Saturday morning, Justin asked me,

"So, what have you been making lately? Is there anything that you're working on that you're really excited about?"

To which I replied, "Yes, a baby! "

It was an excellent set up.

A few weeks later I started having some complications. The following week the doctor confirmed that I had lost the baby.

Some people might argue that it isn't worth remembering a pregnancy that didn't result in a baby in our home. But this tiny little life was a piece of me and a product of my marriage. It was a life, worthy of celebration at the start, mourning at the end, and remembrance afterwards. I am grateful to have been able to create and carry that life even if it was for far too short of a time, and I remember this baby when our anniversary rolls around, when the due date arrives, and periodically throughout the year.

When I'm feeling sad about the loss of this little one, I find comfort in Mindy Smith's beautiful Come to Jesus, a song I frequently sang to the baby and myself in the midst of and after the complications.

Oh my baby when you're dying, believe the healing of his hands. Here in Heaven we will wait for your arrival. Here in Heaven you will finally understand. Worry not my daughters, worry not my sons. Child, when life don't seem worth living, come to Jesus, and let him hold you in his arms.

Little baby, joyfully discovered June 7, 2010. Sadly departed, June 23, 2010.

Linking to Picture Me Imperfectly and What I Love Wednesday.

Pregnant #1

2011-12-05T07:00:00.001-06:00

Not today, but October of last year. (Gotcha Mom!)

Last month I discovered the pregnancy test that I used with Hannah, still showing positive, and decided to give Chris a little scare.

I thought it was funnier than he did. I got him pretty good.

Don't get me wrong, I love my babies more than anything. But we have had a really stressful year, only partially related to pregnancy or baby stuff, and a "surprise" baby would really throw us for a loop right now. As I'm sure most surprise babies do. But now I'm rambling.

Anyway, I always enjoy listening to people's stories about how they discovered that they were pregnant, how they told their spouses, their families, etc.

I also love when people announce it on Facebook. Whether it is in a straightforward manner, or slightly vague or creative, there is fun in the bombardment of congratulations and well wishes that come after such an announcement.

The "story" of the beginning is sometimes lost in the excitement of the baby stuff, particularly when people wait about 3 months to tell people about it, as we did, so I thought I'd share my stories. I also want to get them down for myself while they're still relatively fresh in my mind.

When I found out that I was pregnant with Jayce we were still living in Scotland.

I suspected that I was pregnant, but we had guests staying with us for about 5 days in that "take the test now" period, so I wanted to wait until they left. We were friends with them, but not close friends, and we didn't want to share that potentially joyous discovery with semi-random house guests.

It was a Wednesday and I'd been feeling really sick all day at work. Our guests had left that morning, so I stopped by the store on the way home to pick up a test. When I got home, I walked in the door, dropped my bags and went straight for the bathroom. Chris was in the kitchen cooking, and when he heard me come in and figured out what I was doing, he rushed out to the hallway and said, "Erin...you're not...wait...!" I think he felt like we should take a minute to prepare ourselves or there should be a bit more prominence or something. But I just wanted to get the "are we or aren't we" part over with.

The results showed up immediately. I started to giggle.

I opened the door with a smile on my face. "I am." I said.

But...you need to wait 5 minutes!

It doesn't matter. It's already done. It's not going to change back.

Chris came over to examine the test himself, and let out a whoop. We laughed and hugged. I cried. We took a picture. We took pictures.

Then we went and ate dinner. I remember thinking about how strange it was that we should just carry on like normal and do normal things even though our lives had just changed. But for the moment we did carry on as normal.

We didn't tell anyone right away. We wanted to let the news sink in a little bit and be just ours, silly as that may sound. That weekend we called our parents and our siblings.

8 weeks

We went to dinner at the home of some good friends that weekend and told them as well. We hadn't planned to.

The last time we'd had dinner at their house, I had turned down wine with my dinner, and the husband loudly asked, like it was a joke, "No wine? What are you, PREGNANT?"

"No." I said quietly, and Chris and I looked down, probably communicating that this wouldn't be such bad news. Our friend was quiet under his wife's glare.

We later found out that he'd gotten into a lot of trouble with her over that after we left.

This time when I turned down the wine at dinner the room was silent. We waited for him to say something like last time, but his lips were sealed, so we announced the news without any prompting. 3 weeks later they discovered that they were pregnant as well, (surprise!). So we got to go through all of the 1st pregnancy stuff at the same time as our good friends, which was a nice bonus.

We told everyone else about the pregnancy when I reached the 2nd trimester, had my sonogram photos and due date.

When we put our news on Facebook it was back in the days when Facebook prompted you with is for your status. So we went simple.

Erin is going to be a mom.

Chris is going to be a dad.

It certainly was a very efficient way to spread the news.

My due date was May 20, 2008.

Jayce arrived May 21, 2008.

Anyone else care to share their "beginning of pregnancy" story? I'd love to hear it!

Busy

2011-11-30T20:39:00.003-06:00

Well, my month of every day weekday blogging is over. And now that it's over what did I think of it?

Eh.

I don't know that I actually made a lot of progress like I hoped I would. I still have a dozen unfinished blog posts sitting in my drafts. I had hoped to get time to just sit down and power through them, but the truth is that I don't have lots of time to sit down and power through anything these days. I keep thinking I'm going to sit down and power through one of the things I'd like finish, projects, decorating the house, cleaning the house, cleaning out Hannah's already too small clothes, photo editing (have I mentioned that I have a few variations of monthly photos of Hannah that haven't really seen the light of day?). There are a few things like that.

I think that the once-a-day blogging didn't really save me a lot of time, because if I didn't feel the push to get something out in one day, then I would have collaborated the mini posts into longer posts. Like, instead of having 4 mini posts to catch up on our time with mom, I would have 2 longer posts. I always like the idea of NaBloPoMo, but the reality is that it is always the worst month to attempt it: just coming out of Halloween, 3 family birthdays including mine, Chris out of town for 5 days for the SBL, traveling to and from somewhere to celebrate Thanksgiving, and starting into the Christmas season, it's all just a bit much for 23 days of blogging as well.

The truth is that we are in a season of craziness right now. The first season was when Hannah was a newborn and we were getting our feet under us, and the other is now. It is taking Jayce until 9 or 9:30 some nights to get to sleep, and the same for Hannah, which means that once they are FINALLY in bed, we are exhausted. And we still need to clean up dinner, the house, maybe get some work done or attempt to relax, and the last usually doesn't happen. We have stopped watching all of our shows because the kids are always awake and we don't have DVR, though we still catch up on a few of them that are free On Demand. Chris and I haven't been on a date since Valentines Day, and we are in that tricky stage where I am still exclusively nursing Hannah so I can't leave her for too long, (AKA, enough time to go out of town and be back), and we aren't comfortable leaving the 2 kids together with a babysitter. This week the kids have been sick, and it's just added to the overall tiredness of this stage.

It's still great, and I wouldn't trade my life, even the crazy parts, for anything else. But it is crazy.

So, of NaBloPoMo, I think, it made me tired at a time when I'm already tired. So I probably won't be doing it again. Another month maybe, but not this month again.

December, you've never looked sweeter!

Chocolate Frosting

2011-11-29T21:50:00.001-06:00

We made birthday cupcakes while mom was in town. I realized that I never had a birthday dessert, with candles and whatnot, so it was a perfect excuse for Jayce to help with a little baking as he loves to do. They were yellow with chocolate frosting.

When we weren't paying attention, Jayce helped himself to a second, which he ate from the top down, as opposed to from the side. This is his response to his reflection in the mirror.

The little stinker. He was so proud.

Hannah and Grandma

2011-11-28T11:17:00.001-06:00

Mom came to visit last week while Chris was in California. She hadn't been to see us since June, AKA she hadn't seen Hannah since she was 1 week old. She couldn't get enough.

Come back any time Grandma, we missed you the minute you left!

Linking to Miscellaneous Monday and Life Made Lovely.

Booties

2011-11-25T20:36:00.001-06:00

Now that November is almost over, as is my every-weekday blogging, it's about time for me to make a little something for these,

along the lines of these.

Someday I will learn to do something more leisurely with my leisure time. Until then, I will be deciding on colors.