The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In my head over the last week or so I had been working up a post about all the things that have changed in our lives over the last 3 (4?) years.  I can't do it.  I just can't.  It would take me forever, and inevitably I would forget something.  I've got too much going on in my life to keep up with it.  Right now there's back to school, working on a weighted blanket for Quinn, laundry, getting set up for Wee-Cycle, scanning in a million (probably underexaggerating) pieces of work from my kids from LAST school year, because I made a stupid promise to keep all their stuff, and this allows me to not keep an entire dead rainforest's worth of papers in my house, getting ready for doctors appointments, surgery, dog training, trying to keep a clean house, and my sanity, along with a slew of other things I know I'm forgetting.  (Didn't I tell you this would happen?)  And that's all in the next 2 weeks.

So the condensed version is this:

We moved (bought a house, actually.)

We gained a new family member! :)  (Jasper)

We lost a few family members.  :(  (Dakota, and Landon)

We got 2 puppies! :/ (Gus and Ludo.  Happy we have them, sad that it was due to Landon's death.)

Had a few vehicle swaps, and accident, health problems, drama, school and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff.  But that's the gist of it.

Buckle up, it's going to be an adventure!

Changes are coming.

My fairy-blog-mother came to me the other day and said that I need to get this thing up and running again.  A lot of things have changed since my last post... a LOT of things, so as I try to get reacquainted with this whole blog thing, please bear with me.  Updates coming soon!  :)

Eleven Months... One year... A Year and A Half... and Two Years.

Dear Harper,

I know I skipped your 11-month blog, and I feel bad about that.  I also skipped your 1-year blog, as well as your year and a half blog, which I feel even worse about.  In all honesty, though, it is not my fault.  You see, you are a tiny little terror dressed in a cute, chubby cheeked, smiley faced, giggling ball of adorable costume.  To those on the outside, you look like a sweet little girl, but to me, I can't turn my back on your or shut my eyes for even one second, because there you are getting into trouble, you are a whirlwind of energy, and awesome... but also mischief.  Lots and lots of mischief.

So, here is your 2nd year of life blog (with some additions from the previous ones that I should have written.)

By the time you were eleven months old you had successfully started walking.  I would love to say that you are an old pro at it now, but you’re not.  You can walk, but you definitely got the klutzy gene from every side of this family possible.  We’ve joked about renaming you Grace a few times because you are covered in bruises.  You can just be walking along, and fall out of nowhere.  You always pick yourself back up, and rarely cry though, so I have to give you credit for that I just can’t believe how 75% of your time you are walking and 25% of the time you’re falling or tripping, or some other mishap.  You poor thing.  You had bowed legs until you were about a year and a half old.  I was starting to get concerned but was told repeatedly that you would probably grow out of it, so I had to hold off on taking you to a specialist as long as I could, and then, magically, one day, they seemed to be gone.

We enrolled you in swim school, which was at Daddy’s work, and it was a 4-week class right before you turned one.  I was actually rather shocked by your reaction to the class.  You love taking baths and playing in the water, so I thought, naturally, you would love swimming too.  You didn’t hate it, but you didn’t really seem to enjoy it.  You just kind of tolerated it.  Maybe it was because your parents had to come with you, and you couldn’t just be set free (to be fair, the water was about 4 feet deep, we kind of needed to be there) but you didn’t like all the silly games, or songs that they made us do with you.  (That’s ok; we didn’t really like them either.)  Outside of swimming classes, we got to swim in a pool one other time that summer, and you really just wanted to ride around on people’s backs as they swam.  This year though, we’ve taken you to the splash pad, and we have a little pool set up for you and your sister, and you really enjoy those, so maybe it is time to give the big pool another try, because we didn’t do swimming lessons this year.

For your first birthday, we chose the appropriate theme of monsters.  You really liked it.  It had many colors, and the monsters were super cute.  You had a pretty messy smash cake, and the frosting that didn’t make it onto the floors, walls, or your mouth, was all over your face.  The majority of the frosting was a lilac color, but there was a smidge of black for the eyes and mouth, and some green for the trim; once it was all smashed together, and you got to work your magic on it, it looked like you were a lumberjack, with a full facial beard in a lovely shade of brownish greenish black.  You really dug in though.  You were eating cake like it was some pretty serious business.  I finished your blanket just in time for your birthday so you got that, along with a few other gifts.  We took you to the aquarium in Jenks, Oklahoma, since you really seemed to be interested in our fish tank at home.  You love just sitting in front of it, and one of your first few words was “fish.”  I think it was too crowded and possibly a little overwhelming for you because you seem to enjoy our fish tank at home a lot more.

About a week after your birthday, your dad had to go to Texas for some work stuff for about a week.  I freaked out a LOT because this would be my first time alone with both of you for a REALLY long period of time with no breaks.  So, for a week, we moved in with Granddad and Nana so that I made sure we all survived!  I tried to get some pictures of you and your sister, and while you were really good, and cheesing it up for the camera, Quinn was not.  She was throwing a fit for almost 3 hours while the poor photographer, Nana, and I tried feverishly to get not only a good few pictures of her, but a few good pictures of you two together.  It didn’t work.  This time was also the birth of your beloved Taggie.  You see, for your first Christmas, we got you a Taggie with a lion’s head on it.  Quinn had her own Taggie when she was a few months old, and you occasionally showed some interest in it, but not really, so we were just grasping at strings when we bought the lion for you.  The lion Taggie was a source of comfort a few times a week when it came to getting you to sleep, so we had it on our little adventure to Granddad and Nana’s house while Daddy was in Texas.  Well, Granddad and Nana also had a new puppy in the house, and she chewed off the ears of your lion.  While it wasn’t a huge deal Nana insisted that we buy you a replacement one, even though the lion was ok and just had nubs for ears.  I searched high and low for Taggies in general, and all the places that I had seen them they no longer carried them.  When I finally did find a store that still had Taggies I was upset that I couldn’t find the same exact one you had so that we could actually fully replace it.  Instead, I found a special edition owl one that you fell in love with immediately.  You take it everywhere.  You cannot fall asleep without it, so I guess it was a blessing that the dog ate the other one.  Even a year later, you still take it with you.  No other will do.  Trust me, we’ve tried.  Once we realized just how attached you were to this one, we tried to get another one just like it in case another accident happened somewhere down the road.  Special edition means that you will NEVER find it every again.  Needless to say, we have a few more Taggies in our collection now, that all get ignored, and shoved away when we can’t find your owl one.  Panic hits about once a day when you’ve misplaced it (or hidden it so well, even you can’t find it) because sometimes that’s the only thing that will calm you down.  It is really your best friend.  You still mumble and groan when you’re nodding off to sleep, but now, you’ve added in the Taggie to your routine which you rub all over your face, and you put your fingers in the little tag loops so you can hold it tight.  Sweet moments to watch.

The rest of the time between then and now has pretty much been a blur.  You are quite the escape artist, and there is not much holding you down.  Our living room looks like a tiny prison, yet you still manage to break free of the walls.  You either climb them, move toys to jump over them, lift up the actual pen itself and crawl under, or you just simply push until it is meeting the ground and walk right on over.  It makes me incredibly nervous because baby proofing the house has seemed absolutely pointless.  You can get those plug protectors out better than we can, and you’ve almost mastered the doorknob thing too.  Most of the time on your escape route, you stop and hide under my desk.  That is your favorite place to hide.  Sometimes you go into the spare bedroom (which is filled with boxes, and plenty of places to hide) and hide in the elevator (the closet.)  One day though, I could not find you anywhere…  I was home alone, and panic had started to set in even though all the doors were closed and locked, I had no idea where you had gone.  Well, I found you in the refrigerator, with the door only open about an inch or two.  Barely noticeable.  That has been your new go to place for a while, and it really pisses me off.  You claim every time you’re in there, that it’s too hot.  The truth is, it’s cold.  You’re generally naked.  See where I’m going here?  If you manage to make it all the way in there (I’m not doubting you can) one day, I’m afraid it may be a while before I can find you.  Luckily, you usually do this when I go to the bathroom, or go to change your sister.  What if I was taking a shower?  Who knows how long you would be in there?  Ugh.  You’re going to be the death of me.  That’s for sure.  

In December we travelled, by car, because we’re insane, to Arizona to visit Grandma Lynn for Christmas.  I’m not sure how, but we survived.  The trip there was pretty smooth.  Both of you were exceptionally well behaved, even though you were trapped in a car for two (very long) days.  I would like to thank the manufacturers of portable DVD players for that one.  There weren’t too many meltdowns, and you either watched movies (a lot!) or slept so that was somewhat nice.  Your sister was sick half of the trip on the way there, so your cooperation and good behavior was much appreciated.  Once we got there, we got to see a lot of family and friends that you had never met.  It was a pretty good time; it even snowed on New Year’s, which is pretty crazy for Arizona!  The trip back was miserable.  Everyone was sick.  Only you and your sister were diagnosed (ear infections) so momma and daddy had to drag the trip out an extra day (so three days total, ugh) before we got home.  We were also pulling a trailer, which had a ton of stuff for you guys from Christmas, and all the toys that Grandma Lynn had stashed away.  Once we finally got everything unpacked and thought everything was “back to normal”; wouldn’t you know it, we all got the flu.  It was the first time you have ever been sick (like, really sick) so it was nerve wracking for me, because I didn’t know what to expect from you.  You ended up at the ER one night because the flu medicine made you sick (kind of silly that’s a side effect) so we made sure you were hydrated, and they gave you something to help keep it all down.  Again, we all survived, and sometimes I’m not sure how.

We’ve recently discovered the joys of indoor play areas and the splash pad.  The indoor play areas are nice because… well, they’re indoors and it keeps you focused on the play area and not everywhere around it.  You mostly like them, but you are still timid when it comes to them getting crowded, and prefer to stay where you can see us, which is ok, you will get adventurous outside of the house someday.  We already know how adventurous you are inside of the home.  The splash pad I think has been one of your favorite water experiences.  Water shooting everywhere and you can run around like the crazy little thing that you are.

As for food, you have always been a good eater.  You are willing to try most things, and you and usually pretty good about eating what’s in front of you or at least putting in a good effort.  A few months ago, you decided that you really like “fry fries” which are French fries.  You also really like chicken nuggets and mac and cheese (you say it “mach an cheese!” with excitement, but you will eat mostly anything, especially if someone else is eating it and they let you steal it off their plate.  You are a VERY messy eater though.  You like it dirty.  The messier the better.  For instance, if you’re eating a peanut butter sandwich (butters sandwich, as you and your sister like to call it) more of it ends up on your face, your body, your hands, and your hair, than in your mouth.  Same deal with spaghetti or mac and cheese… pretty much anything that can be smeared, you get it anywhere, and everywhere you can.  It’s ok though, I’m starting to get used to it, and my ability to clean you up is getting quicker by the day (unless it’s one of those REALLY bad situations where we just throw up our hands in defeat and try to get you into the bathroom without letting you touch us, the walls, the dogs, or pretty much anything in your path.)

Your second birthday was held at the YMCA because they have a birthday room, and we could rent out the indoor play area, so it was dedicated playtime for just you and Quinn.  It was a small party, it was just Quinn, Daddy, Nana, Grandad, Grandma, Pappy, and I, but you seemed to really enjoy it this year.  You were running around and giggling almost the entire time.  Your theme was minions because you absolutely LOVE minions.  You are minion crazy.  We can be in a crowded store, and you could spot a tiny little minion sticker from across the room, and shout and get super excited until you get close enough to see it.  The day before your birthday, we took you to your second movie theater experience to see The Minion Movie.  Your first was earlier that year when we took you to see Home.  The first experience was miserable.  You didn’t know how to hold still, you didn’t want to hold still, and you just wanted to crawl and play on the movie theater floor.  Yuck.  Lucky for us we were pretty much the only ones in there besides one other couple.  The Minion Movie was a little better, but it was a LOT more crowded.  You almost made it to the end before you started getting antsy, and you were definitely captivated by it a LOT more.  I am telling you… you only have eyes for minions!

Most of your adorable chub has been exercised off.  You never stop moving.  You still have some delicate chubby cheeks though, which are super kissable.  Your hair is starting to grow long, and you no longer have a crazy little Mohawk.  For a while, you had a mullet (sorry!) but we got through it-- your hair has always kind of grown in a weird way.  You are starting to show your sparkling little personality, and it is great.  You have such a sense of humor, and are so kind most of the time.  You love kisses and hugs (receiving and giving) and are always willing to make someone smile.  You still haven’t gotten rid of the Scofield Scowl, but it makes an appearance much less than it used to.  You also still have your little heart between your eyebrows.  It has started to fade a little bit, so I hope that for your sake it continues so you don’t have to deal with anyone making fun of you.  It does seem to stand out when you are upset about something, but other than that, it’s not something that is easily noticeable anymore.

I can’t believe how much you have changed our lives (for the better!)  I can’t believe how much you have changed, and are still changing before my eyes.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you, but at the same time, I wish time would just slow down already.

Love you little squidget.

Love,

Momma

Ten Months.

Spring has finally spring, and I feel like you have as well.  You are all over the place.  It is never a dull moment.  You can’t even walk yet, but it doesn’t matter to you because you climb on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.  I don’t understand how you can be coordinated enough to climb, but not walk yet.  You blow my mind every day.  We never really had to baby-proof for Quinn, but you are a completely different story.  You are a tiny terror.  We have a tiny pink sofa chair that you just love to climb into, stand on, and clap your hands excitedly.  You make me so nervous because you lose your balance easily, but now that you’ve fallen a million times, and most of the time you seem ok, I try to just wait and see what your reaction is, which is SO hard.  I want to bubble wrap you up so you can’t get hurt.

You’ve started to stand while you dance now.  You still just way from side to side (usually you’re standing on that pink chair, making me nervous) while you dance, but you’ve also added in clapping.  Speaking of clapping, that is something new for you.  I love the joy you get on your face when your two little palms come together.  Sometimes I have no clue what you’re clapping for, and sometimes you’re just happy when someone claps at you.  You are still happy most of the time.  While you have eight teeth now, I still think you’re teething because you are chewing on everything, and can sometimes get pretty cranky, usually later in the day.  You poor thing.  I feel like you’ve been teething forever, and I bet you do too.

You have made a miracle discovery this month: Tags.  Out of nowhere, you started to find tags on things, and rub them on your face.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a paper tag, a satin tag, or a Tyvek type material, if it is attached to something, you will be rubbing it on your face.  It’s a little weird, but Daddy used to do something similar when he was little, so just know, it runs in the family.  For whatever reason, it seems to comfort you, so I’m ok with it.  You rubbing tags on your face, and moaning and grumbling a lot are a sure sign that you’re tired, so it’s always a welcome sign of a break for me, because I won’t have to chase you around, or pull you down off of furniture, or out of harm’s way, because you always seem to find it!

Last month, we visited the Easter Bunny at the mall, this month was actually Easter.  You didn’t really seem to get it, which is understandable at your age.  You didn’t care about finding the eggs, but once you found them, into your mouth they went.  You really tried to cram some in there, you were determined.  You also had little interest in the goodies we got you (books, candy, and a small stuffed bunny) but you really wanted to eat that Easter grass, along with the plastic wrap that came around the Peeps.  You didn’t mind when I put the bunny ear headband on your either, which was great because you were so cute!

I feel like this is extra short this month.  Things are starting to become a blur, chasing you around on top of chasing your sister around is more exhausting than I could have ever imagined.  I guess I was naive to think that you two would just place nicely together, and not play nicely AND plot against me together.  I love you anyway.

Love you so much baby girl.

Love,

Momma

Nine Months.

Well, it’s official.  Out as long as you were in!  Where is the time going?  I felt like I was pregnant forever, probably because I was constantly uncomfortable, and it seems like you just got here yesterday.  Excuse me while I have a sobbing momma moment since my baby is growing up so quickly.

There were LOTS of things going on with you this month.  The biggest of them all was probably the fact that you figured out how to stand up.  You first did it in your playpen, then your crib, and then the couch.  Peeking over edges everywhere.  You love to see what kinds of new things are going on that you never got to see before.  You still mainly stick to crawling though.  You are pretty speedy with that.  It’s amazing to me because Quinn never really crawled, not like you do anyway.  The way you do it makes me laugh from time to time.  You point your little hands in, and when you smile, you look like a little bulldog.  It is so stinking cute!  I love it.

You’ve recently discovered the joys of dancing.  Quinn does it all the time, music playing or not.  As we were getting ready for her birthday party, we had some music going.  You sat up, and started swaying back and forth side to side with the rhythm of the music.  Both of my daughters have some sort of movement skill!  It’s amazing, because neither daddy nor I are skilled in anyway.

You have made changing your diaper one of the most difficult tasks on the planet earth.  The second you get on the table, you do what I lovingly refer to as the alligator death roll.  Once I finally manage to get the diaper off, it gets even worse.  Trying to get you to hold still and not flip all over the place is sometimes an impossible feat, and if someone else is around, I have to drag them in to help me.  You don’t hate having your diaper changed, you just want to go, go, go!  The most frustrating time was when we were out somewhere.  There was a line in the bathroom (there is always a line!) and of course, the changing table was in the direct path of the line.  I pushed my way through to use it, and of course, you were impossible to even get on there, much less get undressed.  Once I got your diaper off (it was poopy, so I had to clean it up ASAP so you didn’t roll in it) you had already flipped over, and had tried to take off the table.  Here I am poopy diaper in hand, poopy-butted child trying to run away, and not many options.  I had to quickly wipe your butt, pick you up, hope you didn’t pee on me, and take care of things until I could get your back down.  No, I will probably never let you live that down.  Maybe if you’re lucky, I’ll forget.

You were pretty grumpy this month.  You got four teeth at once, over a few week period, and you were not happy about it.  Lots of grumpy days, and sleepless nights.  I wasn’t angry at you though, just felt really bad, not a lot of things seemed to soothe your pain, and you must have been in a lot of it, because the majority of the time you are a pretty calm and relaxed baby.  We even tried feeding you some baby food to maybe help cool off your mouth a bit, but you just make a horrible face, once you take that first bite, and refuse to let anymore in.  Harper: 1, pears: 0. You have also been grinding your teeth a bunch.  It drives Daddy nuts, but I am all for it, it helps get your sharp little teeth a little more rounded.  When you bite me (which you seem to do a lot), it hurts a lot less with teeth that have been ground down than when they first broke through.  You are a chompy little baby.

We happened to be at a mall in Tulsa one weekend, and the Easter Bunny was there.  We went to get a picture of him with you and Quinn, but it didn’t work out so well.  Once it was our turn, Quinn got scared, and didn’t want to go.  Once we plopped you on his lap, you didn’t seem bothered, but you weren’t smiling either.  I made daddy sing the song that he made up for you, and you had the biggest, cutest smile ever.  It was a really great picture.

On an endnote, we got you a new car seat.  It makes things a little more difficult when you’ve fallen asleep, because we can’t just carry you in it, but it gives you much more room, and you seem happier with it.  You are still the most awesome child I have ever seen in a car.  You never seem bothered by car rides, and while they often don’t put you to sleep, you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.  I hope you stay that way.  Both Daddy and I love to travel, and it would be nice to have at least one kid not screaming everywhere we go!

Love you my squishy little baby.

Love,

Momma

Two Years.

I can’t believe you are already two years old.

It’s hard to even wrap my mind around the fact that two years and a day ago I wasn’t a parent.  I wasn’t who I am today.  So many changes have happened in our lives in what seems like such a short amount of time.  Recently I found this snippet, and while it doesn’t all apply to ‘us’, most of it does, and it always warms my heart to read it:

I felt you. You were a pea. Then a lemon. Then an eggplant. I followed advice. I read twelve books. I quit coffee. Could you tell I was scared? I talked to you, sang to you... I wasn't ready. But then you were here. Ten toes. Eight pounds. Love. Big fat love. I held you. I fed you. I realized that I would spend my life doing things to make you happy -- and that that would make me happy. And then there are the times I want to give up. You've made me rethink my sanity. You've made me want to fall on my mother's feet and tell her that I get it. But then you smile and you say my name -- and you grab my hand with those little fingers. We're growing together. We are seeing the world like it's new. I will open my heart and love will rain down all over you. You'll giggle, and I'll do it all over again. And we will walk hand in hand. Until you let go. I made you, but you made me a mother."

- Unknown

I feel like you have grown up so much since the last time I wrote.  Some things are still the same.  You still love your sister with all your heart.  Even when she has your toys, she is your favorite person in the entire world.  You two share these magical giggles that is almost like your own secret little language.  No one can make either of you laugh as hard, or genuinely as each other.  I love it.  You love taking care of your sister too.  If she has fallen asleep on the floor, you will put a blanket, or anything close to resembling one, over her.  If you find her binky, regardless if she needs it or not, you will bring it to her, and try to give it to her.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  If she is crying, and you can see that I am stressing over it, you will try to comfort her.  Throughout the day, you give her more hugs and kisses than your father and I get on any given day in the week.

Size wise, you don’t seem much different to me, but according to your doctor, you have grown, so I guess I have to believe them.  You are still very petite and slender.  You and your sister are about the same weight.  You have dirty blonde hair that is getting longer—another thing I don’t notice really, until I look at pictures of you a year, or a month ago, and wonder when it all grew to be so long.  The ends have started to curl up, and leave you with precious little ringlets.  I love them.  I fear that they won’t last much longer than your “baby” stage in life, but I can hope.  Your hair, much like you, is a force to be reckoned with.  You hate it being brushed, and you hate it being put up into any sort of pony tail, but you also hate it being in your eyes, and you are always brushing it away.  Your hands are always in your hair, and your hair is always a mess.  There isn’t much I can do about it, so I just let it go for now.  Your eyes are still big and beautiful, but they are changing.  They are no longer blue.  There are starting to be little flecks of some other color.  I can’t quite tell if it is green or brown, and only time will tell.

You have (mostly) graduated from your highchair when we go out to eat.  For a few short months, you allowed us to use a booster seat with you, but now you refuse.  You don’t care if sitting in a regular chair means that your nose can barely rest on the table top, you want to be a big girl!  Most the time you stay seated, and are pretty well behaved.  You’re still trying to master eating with silverware, so it’s still a mess, but even a highchair couldn’t fix that.

The places that we frequent for dinner often always remember you.  When we go to Chili’s we have a waitress that we request every time.  She has literally watched you grow up.  She is one of the reasons that you started to finally chill out at night when you were a few months old because she suggested a remedy that seemed to work.  You sometimes get toted around the restaurant, and sometimes taken near the kitchen, so you can be shown off.  You love the attention.  Another place we go, Daddy always takes you to the counter to pay.  You stand on his knee, and hand them the bill and credit card.  Once the receipt is printed, Daddy fills it out, and then you sign it, and hand it back to them.  When we leave, you say (scream) goodbye to everyone and wave.  We didn’t know that they even remembered you until we were getting ready to leave, and overheard one of them say, “Watch this, this little girl pays the bill every time, it’s so cute!” Everyone loves you. 

You are tough as nails.  You fall down, you get back up and brush it off, if you can even be bothered to do that much, and just keep on going.  You only really cry when you don’t get something you want, or you get in trouble.  Usually a lot of high-pitched screaming is also involved.  No one likes that.  Unfortunately, you seem to have inhabited your parent’s klutziness.  I’m hoping that a lot of it is still you getting to know your body.  You love to run, and dance, and jump.  Well, kind of jump.  It’s more of a hop if you’re on your own, or you really nail it when you get to hold on to something.  You love to be thrown around, and rough house with us.  You love to go to the park, and climb on all the equipment, but you seem very hesitant to go down the slides.  You love the swings though.  When you see them all we hear is shrill screams of joy, “Wings!  Wings!”

Your vocabulary has expanded a lot.  You can now form sentences, and sing songs.  I could go on for hours with all the cute things you say now.  It seems like writing them out, loses a lot of the cute though because I just can’t get the same effect of when the words actually come out of your mouth.  You have turned out to be amazingly polite and giving.  You know ‘thank you’, and ‘you’re welcome’, and sometimes you even say ‘please’.  We’re still working on ‘you’re welcome’ a little bit because sometimes you say it before you say ‘thank you’, when you’re not the person that is supposed to be saying it, or you say, ‘I ‘melcome.’  If someone sneezes (or coughs, or makes any noise, really) you always say ‘bless you!’  Sometimes you will even check to see if they are ok.  Such a sweet girl.

We recently started taking you to baby story time at the library.  You love it.  It is only half an hour, but a few stories are read, and songs are sung.  Afterwards, you get to color and play with sensory items.  You aren’t super social yet, but you really seem to enjoy it, even if we don’t know any of the songs, or the people there.

Today we had your birthday party.  It wasn’t anything big, just a few friends, and a few family members.  You wanted Tinker Bell, so that was the theme.  I worked for a few days to make you Tinker Bell, and you loved it.  I made you a little green dress, and very glittery tutu that you strutted around in.  There was glitter everywhere.  You were the most perfect little birthday princess.  I think really enjoyed yourself this year.  You were so sweet when opening your presents.  Most were in gift bags, so you would take out the tissue paper, and hand a piece to everyone around, telling them “thank you” every time you did.  It took you forever to open your presents, because every time you took one thing out of the bag, that was it, you wanted to play with that thing right then, but there were more presents, so we had to keep taking things away from you, and show you that there were more!  We did cupcakes this year, instead of a cake for you.  I think that was better.  It was a lot less messy, but you still ended up in the bathtub after.  We had been practicing singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for a week or two before your birthday, but you seemed unfazed when it was sang to you.  When we went to dinner, a while later, we had them sing to you then, too, and you didn’t seem to enjoy it then either… but you still love singing the song.

I love you my messy-haired little girl.  I can’t wait to see where the next year brings us.

Love,

Momma

Eight Months.

Eight months.  Wow.  (Here is where I will skip all the stuff I write every month about how I can’t believe how fast you’re growing up on me!)

You are a force to be reckoned with.  That is for sure.  You are incredibly mobile, and all over the place.  Your favorite place to scope out is the DVD shelf.  That is probably the biggest no-no in this house.  Daddy takes a LOT of pride in his DVDs (cases and organization included) and you just looooove to take them off the shelf and chew on them.  He pretty much freaks out if anything is wrong with them, so you are moved often, but you always go back.  You don’t like to be moved either.  You realize your hard work and you get super angry when we move you away from whatever it is you are doing.  You also love to chew on wires, and pretty much anything you can, so you are moved a lot.  Lucky for us, we can usually distract you with cuddles and love, and you calm down pretty quickly.

Every morning I put you in your playpen in front of the fish.  You love to watch them swim around.  This allows me to get Quinn changed, get her situated, get myself situated, and get you taken care of in that half of the house.  It’s nice.  I hope you continue to love fish when you get older.  They are so relaxing to look at.  We have a few baby fish in there, Quinn likes to point them for you, and tell you how cute they are.

Recently, you have started babbling and making a lot more noise than you used to.  Most of it is just coos and caas, but there are some mommas, dadas, and nanas in there.

You have had a few milestones this month.  You finally figure out how to sit up on your own, and you can now sit up, and stay up unassisted.  Because of this, we finally ditched your baby bath tub, and you could not be happier.  You love to splash and slide around the full-sized bathtub.  Sometimes I wonder who is more wet when the bath is over, you, who has been sitting in the water, or daddy, who was bathing you, but in the direct path of your constant splashing.  I can’t wait to get you into a pool, I think you will love swimming.  The way you sit yourself up is hilarious sometimes.  You put yourself into the full splits, and push up from the middle.  Maybe you will be a little gymnast someday, because I’ve even caught you sleeping in the splits.  We have also tried giving you food, because you seem really interested in whatever we are eating.  Since your digestive system still isn’t in full form yet, we can’t quite just hand you what’s on our plates, but every time we’ve tried to give you food, you’re not a fan.  We’ve tried avocados and bananas, and you will take one bite, crinkle your nose, and not let any more in your mouth.  Your sister, however, has tried to feed you her food several times, and you’ve had a taste of a French fry or two, and while you seem to enjoy them in your mouth, your stomach doesn’t appreciate all the grease, and you end up sick.

When things make you happy, you tense up, get a big silly grin, put your arms out, and shake.  I don’t know why.  It scared me the first few times, but it’s funny now.  A lot of things make you excited and happy, so you’ve been doing this a lot lately.  You seem to just love life in general, and not much can make you upset, you even (still) laugh in your sleep.

Love you smiley girl.

Love,

Momma

Seven Months.

Where do I even begin?  I feel like so much has happened in the last month.  (Don’t I say this every month?)

It’s official.  You were teething.  You have teeth.  Not just one tooth, but two absolutely adorable teeth.  Now that they have broken through, we have less of the miserable version of you, but you still seem to wake up often through the night.  Daddy says that thanks to the lack of sleep, I’m starting to hallucinate, and I’m pretty sure he’s starting to think I’m crazy.  Give me a little break, ok?  You are also biting with your little teeth, and it HURTS!  You bite so often that every time I go to feed you, and Quinn is around, she feels the need to remind you, “No bite!”  I appreciate her effort, but it doesn’t seem to phase you.  I hope you grow out of it soon.  I really don’t want to have to stop nursing you.  I’m trying to learn your “clues” but you’ve thrown me a curve ball this week, and have tricked me into thinking you’re hungry, so I go to feed you, just to have you chomp down.  Ouch!

You are well on your way to crawling.  You get up on your hands and knees a lot of the time.  Sometimes you even get up on your toes and hold it there, kind of like pushups.  You are a strong little one, that’s for sure.  You can stay in that position a lot longer than I can.  You are also sitting up for longer periods of time.  You no longer have to be propped up constantly, and you can usually last about a minute on your own before you slouch to the side, or ease back.  You are starting to try and catch your self as well.  When you roll over, you often try to prop yourself up, but you aren’t quite there yet.  You’re persistent though, so I have no doubts that by next month you will have it down.

You are finally big enough for the bouncer, and now that we have officially retied the swing, and you are too big and too wiggly for the bouncy chair, it has been a semi-relief.  You only tolerate it for short amounts of time, but it gets you less mobile.  I think that’s why you can only tolerate for so long, you start having fun with all the gadgets, and then you realize, “hey, I can’t get out of this thing!”  It at least gives me a little break.

You have clearly said “momma” and “dada” now.  Mostly it’s just babbles, but when you are upset, you always manage to cry out “momma” and not “dada” so that’s a relief to me!  At least someone says “momma” on a regular basis in this house!

You are growing like a weed!  At your 6-month check up (that was closer to you being 7 months) you were 19 pounds!  That’s only 3 pounds lighter than your sister is.  You are wearing mostly 9 to 12 month old clothes, so you are going through what I have stored quickly.  I have some really cute outfits for spring and summer, but this year the weather is super strange, so I hope they will still fit when the season is right.

You still aren’t the most awesome sleeper when it comes to the nighttime hours.  You are usually up every 2 hours.  Luckily, you are very easy to get back to sleep, I just wish I got more of it at a time.  You are definitely a morning baby.  Usually when 8 o’clock rolls around, you are up and at ‘em.  Cheery, and ready to play for the day.  Again, lucky for me, you at least take naps during the day to make up for what you’re not getting at night, so most days I get a few moments where I can take a deep breath.

You are still so full of smiles, and not many things can wreck your mood.  You still don’t like poopy diapers, and trust me; I don’t like your poopy diapers either.  I want to cry, right along with you, especially when you leak all over.  I thought I was doing a lot of laundry before, but it seems like I am doing laundry every day.  You just love to make messes.  Nothing gives you more joy than your sister.  I love walking into the room hearing you both squeal and squee with joy.  Nothing could ever make a momma happier.   Sometimes in the mornings when Quinn has come into our bedroom, both of you will be in the bed with us (sometimes with daddy, and sometimes he’s gone off to work.)  I love watching you two cuddle together.  Sometimes, even if I am super exhausted, I just sit and stare at the both of you.  You make me so proud.  Sometimes I have to fight the urge to scoop you up, hold you tightly in my arms, and tell you how much I love you.  You will probably never know how much I love you.  Even I’m amazed at how much I can love both you and your sister.

Love,

Momma

Six Months.

Half a year, already?  Stop growing up!

You are such a sweet girl, and still (even despite recent occurrences) the calmest baby I have ever known.  Everybody just loves you, and you have started smiling back at most people instead of scowling at them, as you will forever be known for.  (It’s ok to be cautious.)  Everyone loves your little chunky everything, and finally someone other than family noticed your little heart mark between your eyes.  I love it.  It some ways, I hope you keep it because it is a unique mark, which makes you stand out.  On the other hand, it’s a unique mark that makes you stand out, and people will pick on you for that, which I hate; there is nothing wrong with being different.

Your awesome little mohawk has finally made its last appearance.  Your hair is starting to be too long (or too heavy, I’m not sure) but now you just have normal baby hair.  We did get a few good pictures of it while you had it though.  You rocked it like a star!

You are so happy all the time.  When you were younger, you used to scowl at everyone all the time, even me.  Now you laugh and giggle all the time.  Most of the time, we (momma and daddy) can make you laugh, but no one can get your going like Quinn.  You laugh at each other and get into giggle fits every day.  I love watching you two so much.  You definitely love to laugh, you even laugh in your sleep sometimes, which is hilarious (even though it’s two or three in the morning.)  There are certainly worse sounds to wake up to.  If someone is holding you, and you get excited, you kick your feet like crazy.  Sometimes it is so difficult to hold on to you, you just want to joyfully squirm out of our arms!  Happy, happy girl.

You haven’t been sleeping so great lately.  Not really sure why, you used to at least give me 5 or 6 hours where I had a chance to sleep solid, but now it’s every few hours, if that, and its killing me.  Sometimes feeding you will satisfy you, but lately, it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what you want.  We’ve even resorted to giving you Tylenol when nothing else will work, and 90% of the time, that will work.  You are probably teething, but you’ve been “teething” (drooling and chewing on everything) for months, with no real progress on teeth.  Quinn was the same way though, and she didn’t actually get teeth until she was 10 ½ months old, but she never acted as miserable as you are.  We go to the doctor in two weeks for your checkup.  I doubt they will tell me anything is wrong, and they will probably just brush it off as teething, but I will mention it anyway.

You had your first Christmas last month.  We didn’t really know what to expect.  When Quinn had her first Christmas, she was almost a year old, and she barely enjoyed it.  You did ok.  You didn’t unwrap anything, but you seemed to enjoy the toys that you got.  Some, ok most, of your toys you are sharing with your sister, and she seems to love them just as much as you do.  At this point, it’s really hard to separate toys for one child or the other, I promise, it won’t always be that way.

You have finally outgrown the beloved swing.  This may or may not be the cause for your continued upset at night.  You don’t nap half as much as you used to, and sometimes you cry and cry, and cry for your swing, but at this point, it’s just an expensive chair.  They don’t make the weight limit on those things near where they should be.  It’s been a hard transition for all of us.  Trust me.  ALL OF US.  You have a bouncy seat, which is ok, by your standards, and I’ve been letting you play around on the floor a lot more, which is occasionally ok, but neither of those places is suitable for you to fall asleep at.  Usually I have to rock you for a long time, and transfer you to the bouncy seat, or risk walking through the house and getting you to your crib.  Both of those adventures have a 75% failure rate, and you usually wake up, but at least if I make it to your crib, you will stare at your mobile for a bit and pretend you are sleeping long enough for me to take a shower, or deal with the dishes or laundry.  You’re a good sport.  Thanks for that.

Love,

Momma

Five Months.

Time is flying by way too fast for me.  You are almost half a year old, and it seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant with you.  Life is flying by too fast now that I think about it.  I feel like this month you’ve reached more milestones than I’d like to admit.

You are sleeping so much better.  Now, you usually go to bed around 9:30 or 10, and don’t wake up until 5:30 or 6.  One morning, you didn’t wake up until 7, I thought for a moment that maybe I had died, and gone to heaven!  I still really can’t complain.  I am just so glad that you are over that whole waking up every hour thing you had going on for a little bit.  You are usually super easy to get to sleep too.  If you don’t fall asleep eating, I can usually place you in your crib, turn your mobile on, and you will just lie there peacefully until you doze off.  On the mornings where you wake up a little bit before my body is ready to be awake with you (ok, every morning) I now just drag you into bed with me.  You’ve really outgrown your bassinet with your weight, and all your tossing, and kicking.  It may support you, but I don’t fully trust it.  You are a much better co-sleeper than your sister is.  She flips around, is restless all night, and usually ends up kicking us off our own bed.  Not you though.  You usually lay right where we put you, or cuddled up next to one of us, and stay there.  No feet in our faces, or elbows to the ribs in the middle of the night from you.  You are a little cuddler.

You have started “talking” a lot more than you had been.  I have so many videos of you trying to say things, they are so cute.  You are trying so hard.  I love it.  You said “momma” first, which, of course, made me super happy.  No other words yet, but you babble a ton.  When you aren’t happily babbling away, you still like to scream back and forth with your sister.  It’s not a bad scream; it is full of happiness and joy.  It’s actually funny to watch you two communicate.  It is never quiet around here!

Last weekend we took you to your very first photo-shoot!  We’ve been a little behind, and sadly, these are your first professional photos at almost 5 months old.  Unfortunately, there has been lack of time or funds, or both, and it never seemed to work out before now, and it’s only because Grandma Lynn gave me pictures for a Christmas present.  I wish we were loaded so we could have new pictures of you every month, but the eleven million pictures I take with my phone and camera will just have to do, for the most part.  The pictures didn’t go as well as planned.  Originally, we had planned to do an afternoon shoot, because none of us is morning people, but we were snowed out.  Our retake time was at 10 am on a Sunday.  Since it was in Tulsa, that means that we not only had to leave an hour before that, but everyone had to get ready, super early just to be out the door on time.  Again, none of us are morning people… and we had to get up super early.  Before the photos were even done: I had changed you at least six times, fed you three, both you and Quinn had thrown up all over yourselves, and us, and we were all exhausted.  In fact, you passed out before we were even done, so you ended up being in charge.  I have only seen some of the pictures so far; I just hope that even if we have no pictures where we are all smiling there is at least one with you and your gummy smile.  Your dad keeps teasing me that you’re getting teeth, and if nothing else was captured that day, I just hope it was that, because that is my favorite thing you do right now, and looking back at Quinn, teeth are cute, but the smile just isn’t the same.

So far, you haven’t been sick.  Which is a pretty huge feat for this family.  We’ve run you to the doctor a few times for things that concerned us, but so far, it has never actually been anything to worry about.  You have definitely had some weird stuff going on that always freaks me out, but never turns into anything.  This time you burst a blood vessel in your eye.  It started out on a Sunday night as about the size of a pinhead, and by Monday morning, it had quadrupled in size.  We took you to the doctor; they dropped some yellow stuff in your eye, put a black light on it, and said that you hadn’t scratched anything, and that it was like a bruise for your eyeball, so it would just heal with time.  It didn’t seem to bother you too much, but it looked so painful.  When you were born, you had something similar, so I hope it’s not just your eyes being super sensitive, and that it won’t continue to be an ongoing issue later in life.

After the doctor, we took you to see Santa.  You weren’t too sure of the big guy, but you tolerated him enough to get two pictures.  Quinn was scared of him this year, so we didn’t get one of you two together, but maybe next year.  Because of you two girls, I love Christmas more than I ever could have imagined.  Shopping for gifts for you guys to open Christmas morning is addicting as drugs.  Seriously, we’ve had a really hard time stopping.  We found a whole bunch of things that we thought you’d like, gave them all to the grandparents as suggestions, and were a little bummed that we didn’t save anything for us to get you.  It wasn’t a problem long, and we had a hard time not buying everything in sight.  This is probably one of the best Christmases that you will have, it’s a shame neither one of you will probably remember it.  We will take pictures though.

I know I talk about your hair a lot, it is just so awesome!  While we were at the doctor, the second time in two weeks, people remembered you because of your hair.  You are staring to be known as “that cute baby with the super cool hair that I love” by many of the nurses, nurses that don’t even work for your doctor.  Oh, by the way, you gained a pound in a little under a two-week span.  When we took you in to get your eye examined, you weighed 17 pounds!  Your sister only weighs 21 or 22 pounds, you are catching up with her, and I’m starting to wonder that even though you’re not Irish twins, if people are going to think, you are.  Right now, you two are pretty close, as close as a 5-month and a 20-month old can be, I guess.  You make each other laugh, and you both love to spend time together.  Sometimes in the morning, I put you both in bed with me, and we just have one big cuddle-fest.  Quinn loves to take care of you, and you love her paying attention to you.  Sometimes you two leave me out, but I love watching you all the same.

Love you my little Squidget.

Love,

Momma

Four Months.

You are a little chunker, and I LOVE IT.  You have little rosy cheeks, and chubby little thighs, and I love everything about them.  You are going to be a big flirt, I can already tell.  You are constantly batting your big blue eyes, and flashing smiles at anyone who talks to you, or looks your way.

You love to laugh.  Your laughter is magical since it is so rare at this point in your life, and we usually have to work to get it.  We’ve discovered that saying “moo” usually works, but we have to say it in a funny voice, and not the way a cow actually would.  Sneezing also does the trick.  You just love sneezing in general.  Even when you sneeze, you laugh.  Silly girl.

This month is your first Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful to have you in our lives.  You have been a joy and a blessing for sure.  You are probably one of the happiest babies I have ever met.  You really don’t cry that often, and when you do, it is usually an easy fix.  Only recently have you been even near “difficult.”  I think you may be teething because you have been drooling a ton, and teething tablets usually fix the problem right away.  I really don’t want you to get teeth yet, I love that goofy gummy smile you have.

You have started to attempt to roll over, and you can usually get to your side, but that’s as far as you make it.  Only once have you made it all the way over.  You are a pro at lifting your head up when you’re doing tummy time though, but you pretty much have been since birth.  You are a strong little one.  We have moved you to your room every night, and you only sleep in the bassinet now after your first feeding because I am lazy, and I don’t want you to wake your sister up.  If you guys weren’t so cute, I’d think you were trying to kill me by depriving me of sleep.  I love you anyway.

You still have your crazy hair, and everyone still loves it.  I love it.  You also still have your little heart “stork bite” on your forehead.  I’m not sure if it will go away or not, but it is so cute to me because it is in the shape of a little heart, right between your eyes.

I still can’t get over how calm you are, and how most times you just like to observe the situation with a cautious eye.  You may look like your daddy, but I think you may end up with my personality, or at least parts of it.  I love to see how each of us is part of you.

Love you little girl.

Love,

Momma

Nineteen Months.

Wow.  So much has changed in the last seven months.  SO MUCH.

You are my little ray of sunshine.  Most mornings (at least the ones where you end up in our bed at some point during the night), you wake up and pleasantly say, “HI!” to anyone in the room.  Sometimes if we are super sleepy, and you are not, you will crawl out of the bed, ever so quietly, and then start playing with the cabinets very loudly; to make sure we are awake right along with you.  You eat breakfast, usually on your own, and I am convinced it is your favorite meal of the day.  Rarely do you throw any of your breakfast to the ground, and usually you eat every bite, which is uncommon for other meals.  The rest of your day usually consists of singing, dancing, and taking care of all of your babies.  You are such a good momma to them.  You are always so excited when Daddy gets home; I’m not sure who is more thrilled to see who, you or him.  Your days are always filled with hugs, kisses, and laughter.

In July, your little sister, Harper, was born.  You are so in love with her, and are such a great big sister.  You always want to hold her, and love on her.  You make sure you kiss her goodnight, every night, even if the rest of us don’t get any love from you.  You were excited when I was pregnant with her, but I was really nervous about when she was actually here, but you do great.  Your reaction when you first met her was priceless; your face has never been so filled with happiness.  You always want to know what’s going on with her, and even in your young age, you can’t quite “defend” her yet, but you keep a watchful eye if someone other than momma or daddy is holding her.  You love to cuddle with her on the floor, try to rock her in the swing, try to share your food with her, and give her her binky.  Even if she already has a binky, you will take hers away, just to give it back to her.  I hope this continues in your life.  Since she is now smiling and gurgling back at you, it’s easy to see how much joy you bring each other.  You really haven’t shown many signs of jealousy.  Impatience, yes, but not jealousy.  I expect you to be impatient at your age.

You definitely march to the beat of your own drum.  If there isn’t music on that you’re dancing to, sometimes you will just bust out in your own little dance routine.  I honestly don’t know where you picked that up from, because you are a much better dancer than your parents, combined.  You also love to sing.  Your current favorite song is, “I Love!” by, none other than you.  You just belt out “I love” repeatedly, but it more sounds like, “I lub” and it’s pretty adorable.  I hear it several times a day.  Sometimes it’s to me, sometimes it’s for your babies, and sometimes it’s just to whoever is within earshot.  You also love “Skidamarinky dinkydink.”  I’m not sure if you enjoy that one because Daddy has a funny dance and hand gestures that goes along with it, or if you just like the song because it’s a little silly.  You will often do some of the gestures along with us, and sometimes you will just sing your favorite part (I lub boo!)

Your vocabulary has grown.  A lot.  Some for the better, some for the worse.  You were playing with a balloon a few weeks back, and it popped.  I was a little scared because, hey, I am a little freaked when a balloon pops, and you were holding it.  It didn’t faze you, but you did say, “Oh, shit!”  Whoops!  On a different occasion, I dropped something on the kitchen floor that would stain the carpet (carpet in the kitchen?  I know!), and said shit, and then I heard my little echo in the other room say it about 20 more times.  We really need to start watching ourselves.  You love to say your sister’s name (Parper, or Harpah), please (cheese), Bubba (the nickname for the dog), and when we took you to the zoo, you repeated a LOT of the names of the animals back to us.  The most exciting words that you are learning right now are pee pee and poo poo.  You are starting to get the concept of what they are, which means potty training is on the way!  Yay!  Just this morning, you had a dirty diaper, and I changed it, and put you in your crib so that I could clean up, and you semi-squatted, and pointed to your diaper, and said, “Poo!  Poo!”  I asked you if you poo poo’ed again, and you kept doing it, and pointing, so I checked you out, but you hadn’t done anything…  I really do think you’re starting to understand it though.  You still won’t say it before we check you though… even that would be a big help.  Oh well, progress is progress.

Last week we took you to your first pumpkin patch.  You didn’t sleep well the night before, so we were ALL a little cranky that day.  They had some horses that could be ridden (both real and fake) and you didn’t like either one of them.  We took you inside a “museum” that they had set up, which was full of bugs on display, and some corn and pumpkin information too.  You didn’t really enjoy that either, until we got to the kiddie pool full of dried corn.  You loved that, and were a little mad once we took you out of it, and it stuck the rest of the day.  Finally, we took you to the pumpkin patch.  A real pumpkin patch where they grow pumpkins, and not just a dirt field, where they place pumpkins for you to pick out, don’t let anyone fool you on that.  Once we got off the hay wagon, there was a small pile of pumpkins that we set you on to take a picture, one of our friends was there, and handed you a small, completely not ripe, bright green pumpkin to hold.  That was your pumpkin.  We could not get you to set it down the entire time, you were in such awe of your pumpkin, and I was so glad that we got to take you there.  Your reaction to picking out your own, even though it wasn’t even ready to be picked, gave me such joy, especially when I saw your happy and amazed little smile that went with it every time you looked at it.  That evening we took you to the kiddie park for their Spook-a-rama.  We dressed you up as a little witch (the cutest witch ever by the way) but they were so crowded, and we were all so tired, so we walked around, rode the train around the park, which is the only ride you like, and headed home.

We also took you to the zoo that weekend.  It was your third time, and by far our best trip yet.  We went on a semi-cold, semi-rainy, Monday.  Let me tell you, that is the BEST day to go.  The place was not crowded at all, it stopped raining (minus a few sprinkles), and although it was cold at the start, we were all bundled up nicely, and it warmed up throughout the day.  You were so bright, and I could tell that you were absorbing everything we saw.  You repeated back a LOT of the animals we told you about, and many animals reacted to you.  The first thing we went to see was the gorillas.  They were acting goofy; like they have every other time we’ve been there, but this time you were standing at the window, watching when one came up, and gave you a kiss.  It kind of freaked you out, and you were a little upset, but at the end of the day, we had you next to the glass at the grizzly bear encounter, and he swatted at the glass, muddy paw and all, you didn’t seem bothered.  We will have to teach you a little bit better on that one.  During our lunch, we had a few bright visitors come by.  At first, you didn’t notice the peacocks hop into the pavilion, but then they went after food that someone else had left behind, and they started making noise, and you were tickled.  They hung around for about 30 minutes since daddy kept throwing them pieces of bread and cheese, and you loved every minute of it, they were anywhere from 1 foot to 5 feet away at all times.  Once they started clucking (or whatever noises they make that isn’t their loud call) you were even more thrilled.  That may have been the best part of the zoo for you.  We took you to the children’s zoo within the main zoo because last time we missed the petting zoo by about 3 minutes, so I wanted to make sure that we got in this time.  I thought you would really enjoy it, but you weren’t too impressed.  You pet a sheep, and that was that, you just kind of stood in the middle of the place, like, “What now?”  You enjoyed some other sheep, which you couldn’t pet, that we passed by because they were talking to you, and every time they would bleat, you would clap and giggle.  It was a good day.

Your mouth is full of little teeth.  Six on top, five on bottom (almost six though!)  You can feed yourself for the most part, although we are working on making it a little less messy.  Sometimes you get carried away with your fork, and I think you imagine it to be a magic wand with how you fling it around.  For some reason, every time you have a cup, you think it needs to be turned completely upside down, so we’re still trying to master the whole drinking on our own thing.  If the cup is a sippy cup, we are good, if it’s anything else, even with a lid and a straw, it’s a disaster.  You are good at brushing your teeth.  Daddy is trying to teach you how to spit, but so far, it hasn’t been successful.  You are trying though, so I have to give you credit.

I am so excited to see what the latter half of your year brings, but I am saddened because you are growing up so much already.  We rarely have our morning cuddles anymore, and you are little Miss. Independent with most things.  While I do look forward to doing things with you like little projects, crafts, and making things, I miss my baby, who needed me for everything.  Even the fact that you can now pull up your own pants, makes me a little sad, it’s just one less thing you need me for.  We have started to have wonderful moments together, like sharing Necco wafers, which I wouldn’t trade for the world.  I just wish I could have the best of both sides of the spectrum.  I love you, and as always, I am excited to see you grow!

Love,

Momma

Three Months

A whole bunch has changed, since I last wrote you.  You are 3 months now, and time is flying by too fast.  It seems like it is going by even faster than it did with Quinn, which makes me a little sad.

Today we were supposed to take you to your first Halloween celebration, but it was cold, and rainy, so it was cancelled.  We will try again tomorrow.  You are going as a cute little pumpkin!  Tomorrow we are also taking you to your first pumpkin patch.  It’s supposed to be cold tomorrow too, so I’m really debating what you will be wearing, we want to keep you snug and warm, and not let you get sick. 

You are still the happiest baby ever, and I am still convinced that sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night just to smile at me.  It’s such a sweet little smile.  Recently, you have been starting to giggle too.  It’s a quick little chuckle, and we usually can’t get you to repeat it, but it’s there, and we’ve heard it, and it’s absolutely delightful.

We finally got out of our bad living situation, and I am so grateful that you will never remember living in that house.  We are now in a (technically) smaller house, but it’s so much better laid out, and once you start exploring, you will have so much more room to do so.

It amazes me how different you and your sister are.  You are growing so much faster than she did, and we’re betting that by a year, you will probably outweigh her.  She is very petite, and always has been, and at your last doctor’s visit, a few weeks ago, you were already 12 pounds, she didn’t weigh that until she was almost 4 months old.  It’s ok though, it’s reassuring me that you are healthy, and growing along just fine.  It seems like you are always hungry, but again, you are a growing girl!

I got your crib built the other weekend, but you have only slept in it a handful of times.  Since you wake up a few times a night to eat, and you are sharing a room with your sister, I get lazy, and paranoid that you are going to wake her up, and then everyone will be awake in the middle of the night.  However, you have long outgrown your bassinet that is in our room, so we need to get something worked out for everyone.  You kick up a storm sometimes, and can seem really restless and wiggly, so you being in the bassinet wreaks havoc on my nerves sometimes.

You are a pro at tummy time, and actually prefer to be on your tummy for parts of the day.  You hold your head up really well.  You also enjoy time in your bouncy chair, and being in the swing, but it doesn’t seem like you have a favorite.  You seem to like variety.  You also love to sit and watch the fish swim around their tank, even though we don’t have many.

Landon, our dog, is very protective of you.  He was protective of Quinn too, when she was itty-bitty.  If you are on the floor, he is right there next to you, and if you are in either one of your seats, he is close by.  I would love to trust him more, because I know, he just wants a job to do, but after your sister was bit by our other dog, he makes me nervous—all dogs do.

Daddy enjoys giving you your baths as much as you enjoy getting them.  You love to splash around, and just have fun in general.  I’m sure when the summer comes back around, you will love swimming, and we may not be able to get you out of the water.

You still have your crazy hair, and everyone still loves it.  Small parts are starting to go down though, so it probably won’t last much longer.  Since colder weather is coming, I've tested out some hats on your little head, and you don’t seem to mind them.  I also bought some bows, and you let me put those in your hair too!  This makes me a little excited because Quinn never, and still won’t, let me put anything in her hair, so it’s nice I get to dress you up a little bit, even if it’s only for a little while.

Love,

Momma

Two Months.

Ok.  So, here we go.

Two months old... already?

Let’s start at the beginning.  During the late, late hours of July 17, 2013, I started to have some discomfort.  Around 3 am on the 18^th, I deduced this must be labor, and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, and about a minute and a half long.  Not a lot of time for recovery.  I had taken a shower the previous day, but I still felt dirty.  We had run errands, and gone to a doctor’s appointment, I needed another shower.  When I got out of the shower, I sent your dad a text.  He’s a pretty smart guy.  He had rigged up a program that when I text “babybaby” that no matter the ringtone volume, or time of day, an alarm would go off.  So imagine his surprise when the alarm goes off, he rolls over in bed, and I am not there.  I was downstairs, on the floor writhing in pain.  We managed to get everything together in a relatively sane fashion (me, anyway, I’m sure he was losing his mind, after all, it was about 4 am at this point), and on the road we went.

You’re already quite the troublemaker.  No sooner do we pull on to the highway to get to the hospital, but we fly (and I mean fly) past a cop car.  So here I am, in a lot of pain.  We have dad and me in the front seat, your sister, and the dog in the backseat, and a 45-minute drive ahead of us.  Not really my idea of a good time.  The last thing we need is to be pulled over and make this an even longer excursion.  So we call 9-1-1.  Explain the situation as calmly as possible.  Neither one of us can complete this process alone, so we help each other out.  The operator asks questions, when Dad can’t respond fast enough, I jump in.  They tell us to turn on the hazards, and be safe.  Will do.  Car fades away in the distance.  Seems like they got the message.  Don’t try this at home, kid. 

Get to the hospital.  My biggest fear, with it being so far, is that, despite the fact that I am now 40 weeks, and 1 day pregnant, this isn’t real labor, and they are going to send me home.  After I get into the maternity triage, they do an exam, and tell me that I’m at a 7, I nervously ask if that means that I have to go home, and they chuckle, and tell me no, that I’m staying there for a while.  Get to my room.  I have no concept of time at this point, but it hasn’t been very long.  Grandpa and Nana Tracey aren’t there yet to take Quinn, so she was hanging out with us for a while, not really sure what was going on.  They came shortly thereafter.

I wanted an epidural, stat, but I had to wait at least an hour, make it through an entire bag of fluids, and wait for the anesthesiologist to show up.  It was agonizing.  I think it actually took a lot longer than an hour, because of traffic, and the fact that they poked me at least 9 times because they couldn’t find a good place for the IV, and so I couldn’t even start the fluids for a while.  The anesthesiologist finally (he probably wasn’t that late, it just felt like it) shows up, sends Dad out of the room, and gets to work.  Once that was in, we were good for a while.  Until the pushing started.  About the time they went to call the doctor to come by (it was about 9ish at this point) I started freaking out.  I was not ready for you at all, I was actually crying pretty hard, and a lot of them dismissed it as emotions, but I was petrified of having another child; being a mother of two.  I NEEDED more time.  You didn’t give it to me.  At 9:52 am, there you were.  They put you on my chest, and you were a wiggly, screaming little being.  I cut your cord, and there you were child number two.  Seven pounds, six ounces, 21 inches long.

Dad didn’t want to “watch” you being born, but he later told me that once you were out, the cord was wrapped around your neck and that when you made your big debut into the world, you were purple, and he wasn’t even sure you were alive.  I’m glad that I was so focused on not screaming anymore and the most painful part over that I didn’t notice him, or you in that brief moment.  It was probably no big deal, because you were never rushed away, and no one ever said anything about it, but if I had seen the panic on his face, or I had seen you like that, I probably would have lost it.  We ended up staying at the hospital for two full days, and being discharged on the third because you were a little jaundiced, and they wanted to make sure you were good to go when we left.

Our first night home was challenging.  I wasn’t allowed to do anything but lift you, and we were all exhausted.  There was a lot of screaming, and many tears from everyone but we survived that first night alone, and that’s all that matters.  The next week was full of challenges as I didn’t feel like I could feed you, and we had a whirl of doctors’ appointments and consultant appointments on how to fix the issues we were having.  It took a lot of work, but by week two, we were back on track, and good to go.

Grandma Lynn came to visit when you were two weeks old for almost a month.  She was a big help because between you and your sister, I was exhausted, constantly.  You two are a force to be reckoned with, that’s for sure.

Not much has gone on in your first two months of life.  You were under your birth weight for a little while, then you shot up 2 pounds in a week, and you keep packing them on.  You have a good appetite, and in general, are a happy baby.  You do have a bit of reflux, which makes you not so happy at times, but we have medicine that we have to give you twice a day, and while it’s a big ordeal to give it to you, because it tastes horrible (yep, I taste tested it for you, but trust me, it could taste a lot worse) it makes you feel better in general, so I make you suffer through it.  You smile a lot, and gurgle a lot.  We love it.  Your sister constantly wants to play with you, and hold you, but she is a little too small at this point.  She is content sitting next to you, looking at you, rubbing your hair, and she will even help us burp you.  I hope you two will be this close later on in life.  The other day she was saying hi to you, you smiled at her, and she just beamed with happiness and pride.  I don’t know if you knew what she said, or knew who she was, but it made her entire day.

Nothing really bothers you, except dirty diapers.  The second your diaper is wet, we had better be on it, or you’re going to make us pay for it.  Most of the time, as soon as the diaper is off, and a fresh one is on, or on its way, you actually smile at us, as if to say “thanks!”  I love it.  You love to sit in the swing.  You generally don’t care if it actually swings or not, as long as the mobile goes around and around.  You sleep pretty well through the night.  You generally wake up twice a night, and I’m ok with that, I can usually get 6 hours of sleep a night.  I appreciate that.  A lot.  Oh, your hair.  Your hair is out of control!  No matter what we do, it sticks straight up.  It is always a hit though, I have yet to hear of anyone not liking it.  Hope that it doesn't last forever for you.

Thanks for joining our family kid.  As always, a rough start for everyone, but we worked through it.  Welcome to the madhouse.

Love,

Momma

Coming (Back) Soon

I go to run the dishwasher.  Its a portable one, because the bajillion year old house we live in doesn't have a normal one.  Doesn't have room for one, probably couldn't even support one, and there would probably be something wrong with it anyway.  So I go to plug it in, drop the plug in a cup of water.  Get so distracted wondering if I've dried it off enough or if I’m going to be electrocuted upon plugging it in, that I forget to hook up the water hose, and go about my way.  No big deal you say?  Oh no, it is a big deal, not only will it run without water, but it will drain without being hooked up... all over the floor… with the water that’s been sitting in the hoses from the last load of dishes.  Ugh.

This is my life.

We are in the midst of moving.  I’m hoping being on a single level house, although smaller, but better laid out, will improve my life so greatly, I will not only blog when my children hit important milestones in their life, but I will blog regularly, like I used to.  It was therapeutic.  I need therapy.  I will be back.  Soon!

One Year.

One whole year.  Where to even begin?  I don’t even know where the time went.  You are still my tiny little baby every time I look at you, yet, when I look back on pictures, you are not the same baby you were a year ago.  I am not the same person I was a year ago.  Sure, I’m sleep deprived, I don’t really have time for hobbies, or myself most of the time, and everything is messy, but I couldn't  and wouldn't trade it for the world, my world, you.

It seems like so much has happened, it’s hard to reflect on the last year.  Two weeks ago I quit my job.  Everyone was sick so often that it literally made no sense for me to work anymore because daycare was getting more money than I was being paid.  I can’t really say that it hurt me at all.  I get to spend my days with you now, and I don’t have to feel like I am letting daycare see all your firsts.  I also don’t have to sit and wonder who is taking care of you, and are they really doing the best job possible?  Not that I had any reason to doubt them, it’s just a thing a mother wonders… constantly, with everyone.  I only worked 6 ½ months, but it seemed like an eternity not being with you all the time.  I am so glad that we get these last few months together before the new baby comes, and life will be shared. 

I really don’t think you will mind the new baby.  You seem to love everyone (for the most part).  I can undoubtedly say that you love all children and babies.  Even when one is crying on TV, you try to hand them a pacifier to comfort them.  You are such a sweet girl.  Your last day at daycare was hard on everyone.  The daycare staff cried, they all said you were one of their favorites.  I’m sure they tell all parents that, but I somehow believe that it’s actually true.  You rarely cry, you are a joy to be around, you are so easy to please, and the only things you make remotely difficult are changing you, because you want to wiggle all around, and putting you in your car seat.  It was hard on me because they made you a goodbye card, and I’m emotional enough as it is being pregnant, so I just started bawling.  I worry that this is the wrong decision for only one reason: your friends.  You truly did have friends at daycare, and I worry, especially since you love children of all ages, that you will be lonely, and get bored with just me being around.  I have looked, and have yet to find any sort of mothers group around here, so I may need to expand my horizons to further away to see if there are any groups out there, so that we can still keep your social calendar full.  We left our phone number with your best friend’s, Lily, mother, since she had been out sick all week, so hopefully we can still keep in contact with her, and you two can remain friends.

Since daycare was closed on Good Friday, we took the opportunity to take you back to the Zoo, since Momma and Dada were off too!  Dada really wanted to take you back since you slept through your first trip, and half the exhibits were closed.  You really enjoyed it this time.  You stayed awake the entire time we were there, and we thought you may pass out on us around 2, but I think you just needed a little break from seeing so many things, because once we rested you were rearing to go again.  That was almost a full seven straight hours of action for you, and you didn't cry or get fussy once.  Maybe we were finally on top of our game with feeding and changing you, but I doubt it.  You were super good,  I was very proud.  I barely lasted that long, and I’m pretty sure I insisted on more breaks than anyone combined.  You loved seeing all the animals, but they were all pretty much just “dogs” to you.  Every time we’d see a new one, you’d point and say, “DOG!” very excitedly.  Once we got to the birds, some of them were ducks, but some were dogs too.  You will learn.  Some of the animals were crazy for you.  I think you liked the painted dogs, and the monkeys the best.  The monkeys always seem to put on a show for us when we are there, and they held true to that this time as well.  Afterwards we were all pretty beat.  We headed to Wal-Mart to find the perfect outfit for your birthday (Dada went a little crazy on this, and found what he wanted, but not in the right size, and we were on the hunt until we found it) ate some dinner (which you slept through) and headed home to crash.

Then we had Saturday, the 30^th.  Your first birthday.  Wow.  You came into this world at 10:34 am, screaming, and full of attitude, at 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 21 ½ inches long.  At your 1-year checkup, you weighed in at 20 pounds, 1 ounce, and 29 inches long.  My, how you've grown.  We had a lot to do that morning, since we had a few things to pick up for your birthday party, so it was a pretty crazy start to the day.  We were a little worried all morning because your birthday party was supposed to be outside, and at 6am, it started hailing.  At about 7am it was back to raining, and by 11am it was a cloudless sky.  The weather is bizarre.  I was also concerned because we had reserved a Ramada at the park from 11am to 4pm, and a week later the fire department had reserved the park for the same day from 9am to 11am for an Easter Egg hunt.  I was scared, especially with the weather, that they would not be out of our area on time, and we wouldn't have the time to decorate for your party.  We got to the park around 11:30am, and the place was cleared out, so I don’t know if they cancelled their event, or they really had their stuff together, and got out of there on time.  We started decorating, and before we knew it, we were almost out of time!  Eep!  Overall, we had a great time with family and a few friends.  We even invited your favorite teacher from daycare, who came, and loved getting to spend time with you.  Since they had moved you from her classroom 4 months ago, she has really missed you.  You didn't really care for the BBQ part of your party, probably because you didn't eat anything, but you loved playing with balloons and looking at all the decorations hanging around.  You had fun smashing your birthday cake, but you needed a little coaching, and you loved it when everyone would clap and cheer for you, and of course, you loved opening your presents.  (Who doesn't?)  Another tiring day on the books, but well worth it to see the look of happiness on your face.  

I feel like this is shorter than it needs to be.  I feel like I am missing so much, but at the same time it’s hard to write down every detail without going into the “boring” everyday things, like how many diapers you had that day, and what you ate.  You are a lovable child; I have yet to meet someone who doesn't want to be around you, I actually have people ask me to babysit you, instead of me having to go look for a babysitter, but I don’t take many people up on the offer.  You love to do so many things.  You love being outside in general, you love baths (and even showers), you love bubbles, you are starting to enjoy different foods, but yogurt hands down is your all-time favorite food, which is surprising since you haven’t been eating it that long, but If you even see a yogurt cup (meant for you or not) you go bonkers.  You are finally starting to eat some solids, but you are a little iffy on things that you have to chew, and don’t just eventually melt in your mouth.  It’s been challenging to say the least, but for the most part, you are a trooper.

Not that you are old enough to remember it, but I really hope that you have enjoyed your first year of life, as much as we've enjoyed having you as a huge part of ours.  Neither one of us knew we would be able to be so utterly and completely in love with someone so amazing.

Love you more than you will ever know.

Love,

Momma