Sunday, December 15, 2013

December Photo Dump (part 1)

Beignets from Bayou Bakery

C1 decorates her gingerbread house

C2 shows off her candy decorations

Needs more frosting

Time to eat

Snow day!

Charlotte's happy place

About to bake 5 dozen cookies.  Lotsah buttah.

Charlotte has her "Performance day" at Dance and Cailin joined in

Ballet eh?

The best part of ballet - costumes!

Reunited with an old friend at our housewarming

Our family of 4...for now!

Before the Christmas performance at church

Charlotte is a supahstah!

Checking out the national tree.  And the trains

Cheese!  Brrrrr!

Love these babes

This is how we go see Santa.  From afar.

Thanksgiving Day



Having celebrated Thanksgiving early with Matt's family, we had a non-traditional Thanksgiving including a Turkey Trot (for Matt and the girls), a Charlie Brown meal, and a trip to National Harbor for the ICE display, train rides, and light show.













Cailin Hope is 2!!

Birthday morning!
Happy birthday Cailin!

In the weeks leading up to your birthday, you realized if you held up both pointer fingers, it showed "2".  Every time someone mentioned your upcoming birthday, you'd proudly tell them you were going to be "TWOOO" and show them with both hands.

-You are such an active little girl.  We always talk about how you have an "On" (Read: Awake) and "Off" (Read: Asleep).  Nothing in between.  In alignment with this, you are either silent or very loud.  You do not whisper.  Ever.  You are enrolled in a toddler gym class which is your favorite activity of the week.  You sing along to every song and participate in every challenge.  You have one session left and next semester, you'll be in gymnastics.  I hope you love that as much as Tumbles Gym.

-You have this sweet, though sometimes scruffy, little voice that you use to talk about everything.  All day long.  You make mature facial expressions and already gesture with your hands while speaking.  You and Charlotte have in depth conversations about everything and it's so sweet to hear you two together.

-You are still so very independent.  Instead of "By myself" you yell "By by-self!" when it's time to put on your jacket, buckle your car seat, set the table, get dressed, climb up/down the stairs, make/eat meals, etc etc etc.  Anything Charlotte can do, you can do.  You refuse to be left behind.

-Your stranger anxiety has improved greatly.  Thanks to Daniel Tiger, you now sing "Grown ups come back" when we mention the babysitter's name.  You go readily into your church class with a smile.  You frequently check to confirm Mommy or Daddy will accompany you into new places, but the verbal confirmation is enough to allow you to relax.

-You love food.  You eat everything.  And, being the house cook, it's greatly appreciated.  You love milk, though you're still off of cow's milk.  You can eat cheese and all other dairy, but we stick to almond/soy milk in your cup.

-The prior statements are surely related to the fact that you're at the 90th percentile for your height, weight, and head circumference.  At least you're balanced.  People frequently ask if you and Charlotte are twins since she's at the 20th percentile for her height and you guys look so similar.

-Your favorite pretend activity is playing Stroller Strides.  You push your baby's stroller around, then lay out a "yoga mat" and strengthen your abs.  As of this week, you're even correctly counting 1-5 while doing your jumping jacks.

-You and your sister are buddies.  Any time you wake up before Charlotte, and we try to sneak you out of your room, you begin to yell and cry that Charlotte's been left behind.  Inevitably, this wakes Charlotte up so we've stopped freeing you early.  When we pick up Charlotte from school, you almost always sneak past the teacher to find Charlotte and she excitedly hugs you before collecting her backpack.

You have grown into quite the little girl and it's been a wonderful 2 years (and one month).  We love you little monkey!

-Mama

Good morning birthday girl!

Add sprinkles and candles and voila- birthday breakfast!

And birthday snack with a buddy

Manicures!

Everyone shows off their fancy nails

More birthday treats

And finally, cupcake time!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

3rd time around...ain't so charming

You know all of those people who "just love pregnancy".  Yea, I'm not one of them.

While pregnant with Charlotte, I was so sick I had to go to the ER and I survived purely from Zofran and Tums.  Yet somehow, I look back on that pregnancy so fondly.  It was the first time for everything and everything was fabulous.  I remember being fascinated every time Charlotte had the hiccups.  And watching my little baby alien wiggle my belly around was just so cool.  I also look back at pictures where I've written captions implying how "big" I was and realize how big I truly wasn't.

With Cailin, I expected the changes and I was generally able to keep up with my toddler despite the weight gain and discomfort.  Heartburn was bad again but the Tums got me through.  I gained more weight earlier on which challenged my vanity.  Gaining 40 pounds is pretty fun while you're eating cheesecake but not as uplifting when you're being forced on the scale once a week.

Finding out I was pregnant the 3rd time around was awesome.  We were in Iguazu Falls, Argentina and I took a test purchased from an airport in Buenos Aires.  The instructions were in Spanish but there's really only one way to pee on a stick.  I knew even before seeing the plus sign on the test.  Having obsessed over getting pregnant with the first two, I knew all of the signs.  But getting the official Yes was exciting.  About 2 weeks later, my pants were tight and I felt nauseous.  I was able to keep running until about 20-25 weeks and then I really started to slow down (literally and figuratively).  Having a bowling ball under my shirt made it hard to keep up with my prior habits.  I feel selfish writing this.  I also have 2 little people now to keep up with.  And maybe it's related to aging.  But, man, pregnancy is rough.  The heartburn is so, so much worse this time.  The contractions started so much earlier and have come on so much stronger.  There's the insomnia.  And oh my, the weight gain.  Not that I didn't just enjoy my McDonalds dinner, but hearing my midwife ask if I had "big babies before" wasn't encouraging.

But, alas, the end is in sight.  There's 4 weeks til my due date (and only 2 weeks til the time Charlotte arrived).  Going to the hospital in extreme pain with only Matt is the start of the most amazingly wonderful part of pregnancy.  We arrive a couple.  And we leave a trio.  In a day, our entire world changes.  Forever.   It's magical.  There's just no other word to describe it.  Every last pregnant day is worth it when our little family grows to include a new little person.  And this time it'll be a boy.  I can.  Not.  Wait.  And it's not just because I'm ready to not be pregnant.  It's more that I'm ready to hold this little guy who's been growing inside me for the better part of this year.
18 weeks

28 weeks
29 weeks

31 weeks

35 weeks
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Monday, November 25, 2013

Ice Skating (for about ten minutes)

they're the same size
We tried ice skating this weekend.  I decided to hang back (being 8 months pregnant and all), but Auntie and Matt took the girls out on the ice.  Charlotte made it one lap around, which is a lot farther than last time we tried this.  There were no tears but she made clear she wasn't going back out there.  Upon returning home, Vovo asked "How was it!?"  She replied "I did NOT like it."  Cailin didn't protest and probably would've enjoyed it slightly more if the skates weren't 2 sizes too big.  Fun times.  I don't think we'll try that again for at least another year.