Wednesday, May 28, 2014

this and that.

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...  between charlie traveling so much and visitors coming i feel like the past few weeks have been crazy busy.  we decided just to take some time this weekend and relax and spend time as a family.  it was really, really nice.  we actually spent a lot of it out and about but it seems that if we stay at home we're inevitably juggling the kids back and forth so we can get things done.  on saturday we decided to check out the denver museum of nature and science and i was actually pretty surprised at how big it was.  growing up right outside of dc completely spoiled me for comparing museums but this one was pretty good.  we actually got a family pass for $90, which means that this will be our go-to day trip when the weather isn't nice.  i like that it's big enough that we can make every visit different.  we were going to renew our aquarium pass but i wanted something different and i like that this will entertain us for longer than 20 minutes.  avery really does love her fish though so i wonder if she'll miss her monthly aquarium (and tiger) visits.  while we were there we also saw a show in the planetarium.  it was short (25 minutes) and about the planets in the solar system.  avery loved it and kept loudly whispering the whole time, 'i'm watching a movie'.  

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...  on sunday avery and i planted some flowers while charlie and ellie played.  avery loved it and was actually really helpful this year compared to last year when she just tried to eat the dirt.  she got totally filthy, even licking her dirty hand at one point, and looked so cute with dirt smeared all over her face and in her hair.  after we finished planting she insisted on carrying the new pots to their appropriate locations and then we immediately took a shower.  now i just hope that we don't have any terrible hail storms that come through and kill the flowers like they did last year.  i would like a new roof though.  
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...  ellie sits!  one of my favorite milestones and such a game changer in the world of entertaining babies and getting things done around the house.  

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...  we had a really nice memorial day weekend.  we didn't do a whole lot but we spent some time as a family, went to a barbecue, hiked, and cleaned the house.  productive and fun, which is my favorite combination.  it was actually pretty chilly so we didn't even attempt the pool and that last picture of avery cracks me up.  we were outside playing ladder ball and she said she was cold so i got her a blanket.  then she said she needed a hat so i got her a hat and THEN she said her neck was cold so i got her a scarf.  and it really wasn't that cold.  the rest of us were hanging out in shorts and tshirts.

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...  sometimes avery will play with ellie for short periods of time and it is the sweetest.

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...  and sometimes ellie will hang out with charlie and that's pretty sweet, too.

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...  and lastly, avery and i made a card for my mom and i cannot get over her 'concentration' face.  she was so into the drawing until she all of a sudden declared that she was done and wouldn't color and more.  we don't draw nearly as much as we used to and i miss it.  it's one of my favorite activities to do with her, although lately she's really into sidewalk chalk.  i'm hoping that she'll get into coloring more again but usually, unless there's a purpose, she's not just into coloring for fun again.      

ellie: 6 months

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woah, six months.  my favorite age and half a year since you've been in our lives.  

...  you're sitting!! i love, love, love this milestone.  you figured this out about 2 weeks ago and have gotten better and better at it since.  you love to sit and play with toys and books especially if your sister and i are still right next to you to provide entertainment.  
...  you're eating solid foods!  i wasn't planning on starting this one until after you hit the 6 month mark but you just seemed ready for it.  unlike your sister, who took a while to figure out the food on a spoon thing, you got this right away.  so far you've had pears, sweet potatoes, some banana chunks, a bite or two of avocado (which you hated), a strawberry!, and some of your sister's pouches.  i actually think you would love to go the baby led weaning route because you go nuts over grabbing chunks of food and shoving them into your mouth but you still make me pretty nervous with that right now so we're doing just a little bit of that but mostly purees right now.
...  you weigh 14 pounds 9.5 ounces and are 25 inches long.  you're a little thing.  but that's not a huge surprise. :)
...  you love your sister, the cats, and the dogs.  you've started to smile at the animals when they walk in the room and you love to grab their fur.
...  you successfully road in a stroller for the first time without losing your mind.  you hung out in it for a bit when we were at the nature and science museum and took a long walk with avery and i the other day.  
...  you met your cousins for the first time and it was so cool to see you and your cousin lauren together since you're so close in age.
...  you still are sleeping in our bed.  you're the ultimate cosleeper and prefer that i never leave your side or sight 24/7.
... and on that note i've started to see a bit of separation anxiety develop this month.  nothing huge yet, but you will sometimes cry if i leave the room even if it's just to throw a load of laundry in and you definitely want me to be the one holding you.  i'm sure this will get much worse over the next few months.  
...  you nap twice a day, once in the morning and when your sister takes her nap, usually around 1 pm.  one of the nice things that has happened this month is that you've started napping in the car.  this has been huge for our days since you've pushed that morning nap back and if we had to wait around for you to take it we would never get out of the house.  
...  you actually do really well on the go.  you're usually happy to hang out in the ergo as long as i'm moving (no sitting or standing around!) and can nurse in there too, which makes things really easy for me.  you also hate your carseat slightly less than you used to although you don't love it.
... free/into the mystic by zac brown band is your jam.  that song is seriously like the baby whisperer to you.  if you're completely losing it you will stop crying immediately once you hear that song.  i've been using it's magical powers with you since you were really little and it still amazes me how much you love it.  sometimes we listen to it over and over.  i can't complain since it's my favorite song, too. hopefully you'll be a country fan just like your mama.
...  you grab anything and everything and immediately put it into your mouth although you're drooling much less than you were before.  we no longer have to put a bib on you unless you're eating.
...  you're wearing mostly 6-9 month clothing although a few 3-6 months still fit, too.

i think things keep getting easier and more fun by the day.  this past month has brought a lot of changes and i know you're not going to slow down any time soon.  we love you, e. 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

staying at home.

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there are so many thoughts i have swirling around in my head about staying at home with my kiddos so i'm sure this will be a jumbled mess but i wanted to at least attempt to get this all down in one place.  i've actually talked a bit about making the choice to stay at home before both here and here, but my story is that when avery was born i transitioned into a work-at-home mom when daycare didn't work out for us.  i worked part time, 4 days a week and it was amazing and crazy and rewarding and hard.  when she was a baby it was really, really easy.  and then as she got older things got harder.  i had 3+ hour conference calls at times, deadlines, and i felt the need to be available all the time even when i wasn't working.  getting work done was hard enough with a crazy toddler but talking on the phone was nearly impossible.  she would scream and cry and it was impossible to have a productive phone call, not to mention really unprofessional, so i started giving her the iPad when i knew i had a long call to make.  and then she started associating my phone ringing with her getting the iPad.  basically, to sum up, things were going to have to change.  i was either going to need to send her to daycare or quit my job.  when i got pregnant with ellie it was sort of assumed between charlie and i that i would quit because my salary wouldn't have covered two kids in daycare while i was working part-time and i couldn't really do my job at a full-time capacity and raise kids at the same time.  i would have had to be traveling at least once a month which would have been impossible to work out with charlie's schedule.  so based on everything i made the decision to quit once ellie was born and stay home for a while.  and honestly, i was really excited about it.  

when ellie was born the first month was a blur of christmas time, newborn sleepy snuggles, and crafting and coloring with avery in front of a christmas tree.  basically, it was awesome and amazing. we had family visit. charlie wasn't traveling for work that month and we had a ton of family time.  and then after christmas is when things started to get hard.  ellie was moving out of that sleep-all-day-and-night stage and starting to scream a lot, charlie was back to traveling, it was january and cold, and if i'm being honest i probably had a smidge of the baby blues, although i didn't really figure this out until later.  taking care of these two beings was a lot of work.  a lot.  before ellie was born i sort of figured that adding an extra baby would be the same amout of 'work' that my job was.  that was a joke.  babies are not jobs.  babies don't let you clock out at the end of the day, bosses doesn't scream constantly for unknown reasons (well, none that i've had), and work just isn't a 24/7 thing.  so adding ellie was hard during months 2 and 3.  she cried a lot.  she only slept in the moby wrap.  oh and we were all sick, like all winter long.  i felt like a shit parent to avery, i was tired, charlie was gone a lot, and i could not for the life of me figure out how to make dinner, bathe two kids, and shower without ellie losing her mind.  we ate a lot of annie's pot pies.  but then sometime in mid march we sort of hit our stride.  charlie was gone for a long trip but all of a sudden it was just fine.  we ate halfway homemade meals, ellie didn't cry as much, and i felt like i was actually interacting with my toddler in a positive way.  win!

since then things have really just gotten better and better.  i still grossly underestimated the amount of time that i would spend taking care of the kids.  i had this picture in my mind that the house would be clean, the grocery shopping would be done, the kids would be happy, we would do some homeschooling stuff, and i would start a garden this year.  and in reality, the house is pretty clean because both charlie and i do a lot on the weekends, the grocery shopping is done, the kids are pretty darn happy, we haven't done any homeschooling stuff, and we planted two tomato plants in pots.  BUT i am really happy.  i am exactly where i want to be and doing what i want to be doing.  i am forever grateful that it's been me holding that crying baby for months and not someone else.  i love being at home with my kids and i think just how lucky i am each and every day that i've been given this opportunity.  i love our family and i know that if i was working i would be spending all of my time at work wishing i was with my kids.  i love this current gig of mine.  i love that i get to watch avery go up and down the stairs for half an hour because she just figured out how to do it and is so darn proud of herself.  i love putting them down for their naps and running errands with them.  i am so thankful that i get to be the one to scoop ellie up when she's crying.  it isn't always happy or pretty, but it is always where i want to be.  

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

this and that (again).

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...  we had visitors again!  i love when people come and visit and it's seemed like having a baby definitely is reason for people to come.  charlie's mom and sister came out to visit along with avery's cousins.  one is about 9 months older than avery and the other is a month older than ellie.  it was the first time that the two oldest were really old enough to play with each other and it was really cool to see them interact.  and it was awesome to meet our new niece and see her with ellie.  avery was in love with her newest cousin and insisted on holding her in pictures, even casting ellie aside.  we went to the zoo on the only nice day that we had and then hung around the house for the next two days.  we had requests for pictures of all of the kids and these were the best that we got even though we took about a hundred and were practically standing on our heads to get them all to look at the same time. 

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...  avery's going through an interesting stage right now.  it's like she's discovering that she's a person independent of charlie and i and therefore has control over herself.  for example, the words "no" and "i do it" have been coming out a lot.  she's also started this thing where if i ask her to do something and she doesn't want to she'll say "no, i'm being bad".  it's made things a little frustrating to say the least because suddenly everything has become a battle:  brushing her teeth, changing her diaper, eating anything other than ice cream.  i consider myself a fairly patient person. but man, she has really put that to the test lately.  there have been several times i've had to just leave whatever room she's in because if i don't i'll end up screaming at her.  i'm really hoping that this is a short lived phase. 

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...  ellie is sitting!  she's sort of getting into the stage that i loved with avery where she could sit and play happily by herself.  she's still not that stable.  she can sit for awhile but if she overreaches for something she'll topple over.  she's had a few head bonks so far and i'm sure they're not over yet but she's much happier being up than laying down.

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...  the weather has been awful here. i promise not to complain about it but snow and below freezing temps in mid may is not cool.

...  this weekend we're planning on having some fun, just our family, and i'm excited.  things have been so crazy, busy as of late, which is good.  it's life. but i'm looking forward to just hanging out with my favorite people. 

Monday, May 5, 2014

this and that.

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...  the weather has been amazing the past few days.  upper 70s and lower 80s and i actually forgot just how hot that actually is.  all last week was cold and crazy windy so the warm weather has been especially nice.  i forget how much my attitude is tied with the weather.  i definitely need to look at taking some vitamin d supplements next winter because man, months of cold gets depressing.  avery loves getting outside and is just generally happier if se can get a trip to the playground and be in and out of the house all day instead of just trapped inside.  i always feel like our house is twice the size in the summer since we hang out on the front porch and the back deck and yard.  i hope the warm weather is here to stay because i am sick of the cold!

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...  avery's back to gymnastics.  we took a long break because we kept getting sick this winter and i refuse to be the mom who brings her sick kid to infect the other kids.  so we hadn't been since mid january.  avery was so, so excited to see her teacher.  she ran over to her and demanded that she be picked up and then didn't let go for a long, long time.  she had a great first class back.  she participated in everything, was the volunteer for a few activities, and ran around like a crazy kid.  it was so nice to see.  a lot of times she's the independent kid who's refusing to participate and i hope she keeps this up.  we signed her back up for the summer and i'm sure we'll continue through in the fall, too.  she turns three in december and will then be old enough for the classes without a parent.  i'd actually really like to switch her to one of those at that time because i think it would be good for her to actually do an activity without me.  but for now we'll just keep doing our regular class on friday mornings and let ellie tag along and see what this is all about. 

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...  ellie is changing so quickly it's crazy.  i always remembered with avery that around 5 months was when things got really good and this is proving true with ellie, too.  avery started sitting right after she turned 5 months and while ellie can't sit on her own yet for very long (usually a few seconds before she topples over) she's much happier on her own.  she'll play in the jumperoo for a while and really likes it, she'll roll around on the floor and try and inch herself towards all the toys that avery's left out.  she's even happier in the evenings (usually) and i can now hold her on my hip, which makes things so much easier when i'm toting her around all day.  

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...  i (finally) moved ellie out of the rock 'n play and into her crib in the evenings.  i seriously waited this long out of sheer laziness (why change something that was working?) but it was time.  she's really too big for the rock 'n play and she needs her own space to move around in and it is so, so nice to not have a baby sleeping in our room when we go to bed.  i love being able to brush my teeth and change without worrying about waking her.  she hasn't really done that well with the move but i'm expecting that it'll take a bit.  she's been waking up really early (like when we go to bed) and i mentally need a few hours of sleep without a sweaty, nursing baby next to me all night long.  last night was especially bad when i was trying to get her to sleep.  she flipped onto her belly (fine) but then moved around so much that she got her leg stuck between the crib slats and did this twice.  i finally got her to sleep at 9:30 after the third time she cried and she slept until 2 am.  so i'm hopeful that as she gets used to sleeping in a crib things will get better.

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...  charlie and i spent all weekend passing the kids back and forth and trying to get things done around the house.  i painted the cabinets in the kids bathroom so we finally have no more honey oak in the house (yes!), we got a new island for our kitchen so we can now have stools at the island, which avery is very excited about, and we attempted to clean and organize like we do every weekend.  charlie's been traveling so much that it feels like he's never home and he joked that he's the guy who only lives here on the weekends.  BUT on sunday we enjoyed some time outside together in the evening after dinner.  we recently got a new 'ladder game' and avery's ocd side came out because she will freak out if the balls are on a different color rung.  it makes playing the game a little tricky. 

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...  avery's growing up so fast it's crazy.  all of a sudden we're having to think about preschools and actually teaching her real concepts and socializing her enough.  sometimes i look at her and she just seems so darn old.  and the way she talks doesn't help when she uses words like "actually" and calls charlie "charlie" like she's his peer or something.  so crazy how fast the time flies.