Author: Amy

Three

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday was Miss’s third birthday.  She’s three.  I can hardly believe it.  It seems like it couldn’t have been that long ago that she came into my world and made me a Mama.

I wonder if I will have this incredulous feeling every year, as time flies by and my girls get older.  Holy cow, Miss is six! How is that possible?  and OMG, I just can’t believe my little Lass is 10, and so on.  I suspect I will.  I suspect I will continue to cherish every new stage my girls reach, while simultaneously feeling just a little bit shocked, maybe a teeny bit sad, that they are growing up.  Each time one of my girls has a birthday, I think back on the day that she was born and I savor my memories of those first moments of seeing her, holding her, and marveling at every tiny detail of her.  I look at how much she has grown and I am amazed.  These girls amaze me in their new developments all the time.  I suspect they always will.

We were out of town visiting family this weekend, and unfortunately both of my girls had bad colds.  Miss woke from her nap shortly before her birthday party started, and it took her a little while to warm up.  She had been feeling yucky for a few days, and was resistant to the idea of even having a birthday party.  She did get into playing with her sister and cousins eventually.

We had a Care Bears themed party and I had been so excited for her to enjoy it, but she just wasn’t feeling it.  When it came time to sing “Happy Birthday” and blow out her candles, she was not having any part of it. 

Poor thing refused to blow out her candles, so we had to ask one of her cousins to help.

I hated that she was feeling so badly.  She even said, at first, that she didn’t want any cake or ice cream. After I got some and offered to share a bite with her, she changed her mind though.  She ate most of “my” piece of cake and almost all of my ice cream.

Notice her poor upper lip and under her nose.  She has been refusing to let me put anything on it but chapstick, and she wipes or licks that off almost right after I put it on. 

My birthday girl perked up a bit more when she started opening her gifts.

A few months ago, after she first saw the movie “Snow White” and we read books like “The Little Mermaid” and “Sleeping Beauty” a few times, she said that she wanted “A Snow White, a Sleeping Beauty, Ariel without her tail, a prince, a queen and a castle” for her birthday.  So that’s what she got.

But the biggest gift hit?  The Yo Gabba Gabba beanie babies I had ordered for her for Christmas.  They were back ordered and didn’t arrive until late January.  She is currently sleeping with all five of them.

Lass had a pretty good time at the party as well.

Overall the party was a success, I think, though I wish my girls had been feeling better.  I’m hoping they will be back to their energetic, happy selves very soon.

Speaking of very soon, in only about five weeks or so, we will expand again to a little family of five.

I’m so eager to meet little Sis.  Tonight I’m thinking about the Birth Day of my eldest, while happily anticipating the rapidly approaching Birth Day of our newest little one.

What is Valentine’s Day?

Posted on by Amy
When I was much, much younger, I thought Valentine’s Day was a sweet, romantic day for flowers and gifts and professions of undying love.  Then I grew up a little bit, and I decided that Valentine’s Day was kind of a silly, overly-commercialized “holiday” that was nothing more than a way for card companies and jewelers to make lots of money, and that one should really try to show love every day, not just on Valentine’s.  Then I grew up a little bit more, and I revised my opinion of this holiday a bit.  I now think of Valentine’s Day as a nice enough day.  There’s nothing wrong with a day that encourages people to show their love for one another.  I don’t think it’s necessary to show that love through expensive gifts, but showing love?  That’s cool.  I still think it’s much more important to show how much the special people in your life mean to you every day.  An “I love you” and a kiss before leaving for work, or the store, or the basement.  A kiss before bed every night.  “I love you” and holding hands or giving a kiss for no reason at all but to remind someone they are essential to your world.  That’s the good stuff.
Now that I have kids, Valentines Day has become something even more.  It has become yet another way to have some fun with my girls.

I like home made gifts for days like Valentine’s Day.  I make stuff with my girls for this holiday.  To me it’s a great way to have fun together and it helps to neutralize the messages out there that your man must buy you big diamonds or a trip to Aruba to show that he really loves you on Valentine’s Day.  Not that my girls see or hear these messages now, but someday I’m sure they will. So we’re starting early to make a point of showing love through special gestures and thoughtful, simple gifts, rather than flashy stuff.

We made little heart-shaped crayons for Miss to give to her friends at school, like the ones shown on my friend’s blog here, but smaller.  They were inexpensive and pretty easy to do.  The hardest part was getting the paper off the crayons (even soaking them in warm water didn’t work for many of them).  The girls loved breaking the crayons up and putting them into the molds.  Miss specially chose which crayon each of her friends would receive and she was very excited to go to school yesterday and give these special gifts to the other kids.  Mission accomplished.

Miss had a great time at her school party, as did I.

She made another craft at her party, a potpourri ball.  She also gave me another school-made gift that is made with paper hearts, her thumb prints, glitter, and her attempt to write her name, all laminated into one big beautiful work of art that currently hangs in a place of honor on our sliding glass door.  She was so proud and excited to give these gifts to me that she had made.

When we got home, she and Lass had fun going through her box of Valentines from the other kids in her class.

Then we made special Valentines to give to Daddy, which they excitedly ran to give him when he got home from work last night.  And as we do every day, we gave lots of hugs and kisses and “I love yous” and “You’re my wonderful girls,” etc.  Just because that’s what we do.  I always want my girls to know that, on Valentine’s or any other day, showing your love for someone, and thus the genuineness of their expressions of love for you, is always about what you do, day to day, not how much you spend or how grand your gestures on one day of the year.  A happy life is made up of lots of small moments, not just the few big ones that tend to get lots of attention.

And speaking of showing your love through the things you do, last night I attempted to make paleo-friendly brownies for Miss to take to school today.  Since her birthday is on Saturday and she won’t be back to school before then, I wanted to send her with a special birthday treat to share with her friends at school today.  She requested brownies.  I wanted to make them myself and make them relatively healthy, though still a “treat.”  I had the best of intentions.  Unfortunately, last night I had a bit of a mom failure, because the brownies just didn’t taste that good.  They turned out how I think they’re supposed to.  They’re edible, and not horrible.  But they don’t taste like brownies.  And if I’m going to send my child to school with a treat to share with her friends for her birthday, I’m going to make sure it’s yummy, for pete’s sake.  So, I made a run to the grocery store last night, when I otherwise would have been composing this Valentine’s Day blog post, and grabbed some grocery-store-bakery-made mini cupcakes.  They’re good, and I think they were a hit with the kids.  So even though I totally flopped in my Mother-of-the-Year-all-natural-gluten-free-super-delicious-brownie attempt, the late night trip to the grocery store saved the day.  I feel like a dolt and it sucked to make a run to the grocery store at 9pm, but that’s okay.  And that’s why my Valentine’s Day post is a day late.  Hope you had a Happy Valentine’s Day.  We did.

Weekend Fun

Posted on by Amy
This weekend has been quiet.  It’s very cold here, and my husband had to work this weekend, so the girls and I mostly just stayed home and did lots of fun stay-home stuff.  We had more tea parties, this time with little sister joining in.

 

We played with baby dolls and did some gymnastics in the basement.  We made a little gift to give the other kids at Miss’s school for Valentine’s Day.  Miss and I even completed her first homework assignment from school this afternoon when she didn’t take a nap.  She was given a poster board heart at school and instructed to decorate it with the things she loves for Valentine’s Day.  So today we talked about what she loves.  We taped photos of Lass, Daddy, Mom (I’m now “Mom,” not Mama or Mommy), an ultrasound picture of Sis, and our dog Jonah to the heart.  Then she added photos of herself reading, doing gymnastics, eating ice cream at the pool, and picking a worm out of a carton while fishing with her Daddy.  She added a ballerina sticker, a picture of watermelon, which she said is her favorite food, and interestingly, a picture of her Papa’s tractor.  She was quite decisive about what she wanted and didn’t want, though I had to prompt her a bit by showing pictures and asking her if she wanted certain things.  I loved hearing the things she wanted to add, and was surprised by some things she didn’t care to include, like a picture of her Oopsie Bear Care Bear.  It makes me smile when she surprises me with things like that.

Also this weekend we did some work getting things ready for baby Sis.  I did some crafting during nap time, which I’ll post about when I have some finished projects to show.  Miss helped me fold clothes for Sis, which we transferred from the back of Miss’s closet into Sis’s.

She was so excited to help, and kept singing a little made-up song about the clothes and how her baby sister was going to love them.  She said, “Baby Sissy will be so happy that I helped fold her laundry.  She will love me so much and will give me a big hug.”  I can’t wait to see how wonderful these girls are going to be when their new sister arrives.  Miss was great with Lass, but she’s so much older now, it will be fun to watch how much more she can understand and help with her newest sister.  And I’m happy for Lass to have to chance to make the transition from Baby Sister to Big Sister.

And seriously, there is just something about the relationship these girls have that makes me smile every time I see them playing together and anticipate so happily the addition of another sister.  I love to watch them.  I’ll turn around and randomly see them snuggling together or playing a sweet little private game.

Lass’s language is really exploding, so they can talk to each other much more now, and I love to hear their little conversations.  Miss has a sweet little special voice that she uses for Lass when Lass is upset and Miss is trying to console her.

Usually, though certainly not always, they share pretty well too.  I bought a two-sided easel (which hasn’t been put together yet) so they could both use it at the same time more easily than the easel on their Learning Tower.

But when I witness moments like this one, I wonder why.

This weekend the sisters, as always, played lots of dress up.

Miss wanted to try to take a picture of her sister with my camera, and she did a pretty good job!

Miss also got her fingernails and toenails polished.  She has been very excited about this, and wanted to paint her Daddy’s fingernails when he got home from work today.  He was going to let her do it, until I told him that the only polish remover we have is the super non-toxic stuff that doesn’t really work very well.  He decided to go for a pedicure instead.  Both girls got a chance to paint his toenails.

Miss tried to finish up after Lass polished almost every part of his toes but his nails.

The finished product on the foot that Miss did by herself.

I’m sure this is the first of many nail polishings for this Daddy.  I love that he’s such a good sport about it.

This weekend wasn’t terribly productive.  I only crossed one thing off my extensive to-do list.  The stuff above about getting Sis’s clothes folded and moved into her room is misleading.  I started the project, but since I don’t have her dresser in her room yet or enough hangers for her clothes, I actually got very little done.  I hung some jammies, folded a few swaddle blankets, and moved two boxes, one with newborn cloth diapers and the other with newborn and size 3-month clothes, into Sis’s room.  I got a little bit done on some growth charts I’m making for Lass’s and Sis’s rooms, like the one I made for Miss a while ago.  And that’s about it.  Really though, I don’t care that I didn’t get much done.  When my husband is working the weekend and we are pretty much house-bound, I just do my best to have as much fun as possible and avoid meltdowns, either from my girls or myself.  This weekend, we did a pretty good job.

“Do You Have a Baby in Your Butt?”

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday I volunteered to help at Miss’s school because one of her teachers had to be out for a funeral.  It was a really fun experience.  I loved getting to watch her in her space and get to know some of the kids she goes to school with.  I was quite a novelty to many of the kids, who got a kick out of my big belly and kept asking about the baby, poking my belly, etc.  One little girl was especially sweet.  She sat next to me every time the class sat down to listen to a story, sing songs, or do other learning activities all together (weather, calendar, etc.).  She hugged me.  She said she loved me.  She was that super sweet and lovey little girl that every preschool class probably has at least one of.  Then it happened.  After looking at and asking me several questions about my belly, she asked a different question.  “Do you have a baby in your butt?”  Um.  No.  But thanks so much Sweet Little Girl.  Thanks a million times for asking me that.  Man.  Kids say the darnedest things.  

I really wanted to take some photos of Miss at school, but I was afraid my big camera would be disruptive and wasn’t really even sure about sneaking some with my phone.  I was supposed to be helping after all.  So, these photos aren’t from school, but I still love them.  It amazes me how quickly my big girl’s (and my little girl’s, for that matter) skills are increasing.  Miss is getting very good at coloring in the lines and can draw a wicked smiley face now.

It was wonderful to have a special day with her at her school yesterday.

Some Random Thoughts and a Tea Party

Posted on by Amy
Sleep has been somewhat elusive the past few nights.  I think I’m starting to get a little bit freaked out about how close the arrival of little Sis is.  Example – Two nights ago, I woke up at 12:53 to go to the bathroom.  Then I realized I was hungry, so I came downstairs to get a snack.  I decided to check my email and look around online a bit while I ate my snack.  I wasn’t down here for more than 10 minutes, but when I went back to bed I was wide awake and sleep was nowhere to be found.  I tossed and turned, but I just could not quiet my mind.  My thoughts bounced back and forth between worrying about the fact that Sis is still breech, just like her big sister Lass was at this point in my pregnancy with her, and stressing out about all the things I have to do before Sis arrives.
I am already trying everything I can to get Sis to flip.  Most of it is the same as what I tried with Lass, I’m just starting earlier.  My idea was that maybe Lass didn’t flip until the last minute because she was so big, so I started earlier while Sis is hopefully small enough that something – contortions, music, moxibustion, chiropractor, whatever – will work before I get to the point of needing to try to have my doctor turn her, like she did Lass.   My crazy, middle-of-the-night thoughts consisted of lots and lots of worrying that it would be pretty hard to be so lucky as to have a version work twice.  There’s no real scientific basis for this fear, I guess, but there it is.  And it was magnified almost to the point of insanity at 2am.  Everyone seems so amazed that the version worked so well with Lass, since it’s not really a high percentage procedure (so maybe there is some basis for my fear…), that I can’t help but worry that I won’t have the same luck a second time, if it comes to that point.  Obviously it doesn’t help to worry about it, but I do anyway.
And then there’s the fact that I have a nursery for Sis that is emptied of guest room furniture and freshly painted, and that’s it.  So after ruminating about my fears of having another c-section for a while, I started thinking, “Crap, I have so much to do to get Sis’s furniture out of Miss’s room and put Miss’s new stuff in her room and get all the new decor done in all three girls’ rooms.  And oh geez, I still need to sew Sis’s crib sheets, but I can’t get to my sewing machine because the old guest room mattress is leaning against it, since we couldn’t fit the box spring down the stairs, and what the heck are we going to do with a queen sized mattress and box spring that won’t fit into our guest room, which now has to be in the basement because we have nowhere else to have it?”  And so on and so on, for a half hour or so, then back to the breech-c-section issue, repeat.  The last time I looked at my clock (after getting up again for a second snack at around 3:00) it was about 3:30.  I suspect I finally fell back to sleep at around 4.
Anyway…  I know there’s not much I can do about Sis being breech (other than what I’m already doing obsessively), so I am trying not to worry about that for now.  I’m not very successful in these attempts to not worry, but I’m trying nonetheless.  And to address my other source of stress, well I just need to get off my rear and start getting some things done.  I have started working on some craft projects I have for all the girls’ rooms (I’ll do some posts soon to show what I’m doing).  I’ve made a good list for myself of things to get done and a Honey-do list for my hubby.  He actually requested this after learning that I’m am losing sleep because of stressing out about this stuff.  He’s awesome.  And he has a week off coming up, during which we will not be traveling.  So, we’ll get it done.  That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.
And never fear.  In between all the worrying, the contorting, and the crafting, we’re having lots of fun.  We went to a birthday party this past weekend at Monkey Joe’s.  Miss was scared of the big bouncy things, but she had fun running around and playing with Lass in this small one.  

It was so great to have my hubby along to help.  On the way home I thanked him for coming to the party with us, and he said, “What, you mean that was optional?”

After a bit Miss got a bit braver and was willing to try some of the slightly bigger slides.

And Lass is just fearless.

They loved these glasses they got in their goody bags.

It was a fun party, but I have to say I’m not a fan of Monkey Joe’s.  Not because there’s anything wrong with that place in particular, I just don’t enjoy trying to keep track of my girls at their current ages in a place where line of sight is so limited.  I much prefer taking them to someplace like the YMCA or open gym at the Gymnastics Center where they both take classes to let them run around and burn some energy.  Speaking of gymnastics, I love that I can now take Lass with me when Miss goes to her gymnastics class and don’t have to get a sitter for her anymore.  She loves watching her “Sissy” too.

And finally, I came down from putting Lass to bed last night to find Miss having a tea party with her Daddy.  She was so excited to have her tea set out and to serve us tea, including adding cream and sugar according to our requests.  It was so cute.

 

Time with my girls is the best possible cure for my stress about the above issues.  But I still really want Sis to flip ASAP.

A Getaway

Posted on by Amy
As I mentioned in my last post, we spent last week at my parents’ house.  The girls were amazing during the 10-hour drive, both on the way down and on the way home.  I do love the portable DVD player for a long road trip!

We had a great time visiting with my parents.  As usual, the girls were mesmerized by my mom.  She’s the Baby/Toddler/Preschooler whisperer, I swear.  Lass didn’t even need any warm-up time this visit, which made it even more fun.  We made a few trips to the library where my mom works.  The first trip was so I could get on the internet for a bit to check out some restaurants and hotels in nearby Nashville (more on this below).

How cute is this little one typing??

The second trip to the library was for story time.  The theme for the week was the letter “P,” so my mom read “The Princess and the Dragon,” we did puzzles, ate popsicles and pretzels,

and played with puppets.  There was even a Puppet Parade, which really made an impression on Lass, as she continued to grab my mom’s puppets and say, “Mach, mach, mach,” repeating the parade over and over at my parents’ house for the rest of our visit.

The girls had a blast with these ancient laundry baskets.  The things Grandma comes up with…

And I captured a few photos of their attempts at making pouty faces.

The weather was beautiful and warm, so we got to play outside.  The girls loved picking up rocks, examining moss on the ground and playing in the leaves and dirt.  Lass may have even eaten a little bit of dirt.  But just a little.

She was very interested in the birds.   She kept saying, “Buhdie!  Buhdie, ah doo? (Birdie, where are you?)” and looking in vain for some birds to fly by.

Miss found this rock and named it her “Little Cutie.”  She insisted we bring it into the house and then that we bring it home.

It has been carried around with other important friends like Oopsie Bear, Toodie, and Twinkers.

Very special indeed.

One of the best things about our trip was that my husband and I actually left the girls overnight with my parents one night and went to Nashville for an overnight date (hence the internet search mentioned above).  We got a nice hotel room in Downtown Nashville, went out to dinner, sort of slept in (only until 7:15, but my mom said Lass was up at 6 that morning), lounged around and got an awesome room service breakfast, and then went to visit my brother and his family for a bit, including my brand new nephew who is just 4 weeks old.  It was such a relaxing little getaway.  I have never left the girls overnight before, except Miss when I was in the hospital having Lass.  It was kind of weird, but also kind of awesome.  My husband and I both agreed that the next time we are ready to do it again (in another 18 months or so!), we should go for two nights.  I agreed, though by the time we were getting ready to go back to my mom and dad’s, I was really anxious to see the girls.  I missed them a lot.  So we’ll see about two nights.  But the one night we got was fantastic (thanks again mom and dad!).  And apparently, my girls barely even noticed we were gone.  What a great practice run for when I am gone to the hospital to have Sis.

It was, again, as always, a wonderful time with my mom and dad.

Quickie

Posted on by Amy
Just returned tonight from another week in the blogging black hole (my parents’ house).  We had a great visit, and I’ll post about that soon.  But tonight I’m tired from a long day in the car and little sleep last night, so here’s a quickie with a few photos from last week.
Miss has gotten into wearing dresses to school.  This is because she likes to wear tights, not because she really cares about dresses.  I don’t have a ton of dresses for her, since she’s never really been into them before, and I tend to think they’re a bit impractical for an active girl.  I didn’t want to spend a ton on new dresses for her, but I found this amazing online consignment store, where I got her three dresses for under $25.  Cute, name brand dresses in great condition.  I love a great deal (have I mentioned that before?).

And somebody got her very own ballet shoes to be like big sister.

Now they dance together.

No words needed for these next three photos.  I’ll just say I love them.

And in closing, Miss’s new thing (besides dresses) is to inspect her feet for toe jam.  It makes me chuckle just to type that.  She almost never finds any.  I do wash regularly between her toes.  But she likes to look for it.  Whatever floats her boat, right?

There.  A quickie.  Night.

Simple

Posted on by Amy
I have a drawer in my kitchen that contains lids for various plastic containers (many of which are no longer anywhere to be found), some swirly straws, and some popsicle molds.  This drawer is located right next to the girls’ Learning Tower, and the other day they discovered it.  Since then it has provided endless entertainment both for them, and for me.  Oh how my girls crack me up.

Miss calls the things in this drawer the stuff for her party.  She alternates between having the items in the drawer be for a dance party and for a tea party. But it’s always a party.

She turns some of the lids into pretend cakes and sings Happy Birthday to each member of the family in sequence.  She pretends to feed various items to Lass, who returns the favor happily.

Sometimes they just marvel at “Mama, everything’s blue!” (or green, or purple, depending on the lid) and then they crack up.

I love the simplicity and innocence of what they find entertaining.  Hilarious even.  They feed off each other and it’s so fun to watch.  You just can’t beat these moments of motherhood.

All By Herself

Posted on by Amy
Miss graduated to the next level of preschool gymnastics class.  She is now in the class where she goes in by herself, without me.  I was a little bit nervous how she would do with this, considering how hard it was for her to adjust to going to school by herself.  But she just waltzed right into the gym with her teacher like she owned the place.

She rocked it, and I was so proud.

She looks so big and grown up.  I just loved watching her do her thing.

And I must admit, I was quite relieved to not have to do the class with her anymore.  Running and jumping are not my favorite activities at this point, and I was getting pretty nervous I’d end up peeing my pants in one of her classes.

After her class she came out and was so excited.  She went on and on about how much fun she had.  She seemed pretty proud of herself too.  That was my favorite part.  Though watching her holding the beanbag on her head while she walked the beam was pretty fun too.

I Guess I’ll Just Teach Myself

Posted on by Amy
I have been wanting to take a photography class ever since I got my DSLR camera, about 2 years ago.  It’s a wonderful camera, and my photos improved dramatically just by switching to it from my point and shoot.  But I have pretty much been using it on the Auto setting for two years.  I’ve learned a few tips here and there, and purchased some lens upgrades, but I really have wanted to take the next step to using the many settings my camera has to offer.
I grabbed a course book for the local community college a few weeks ago, determined to find a class to take before the baby arrives.  I found one that looked really interesting, but the meeting times weren’t very good.  I found another with a doable meeting time, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for.  So, I have decided to try harder to teach myself.  I have a camera manual, a good book my husband bought me for my birthday (almost two years ago), and lots of helpful online resources.  No excuse not to gain some new knowledge and skills.  
One thing I’ve been wanting to do is learn how to use the settings of the camera so I can get more light into my photos without using my pop-up flash, which I have tended to use a lot even though it gives a weird look to the photos.  Unfortunately, around here this time of year it isn’t uncommon to have a serious lack of good natural light.  Luckily, this morning I did have lots of light to get some good photos of the girls without using the flash. 

But tonight I wanted to experiment a little bit in the relative dark of our family room.  The overhead lights were turned off, so the only light in the room came from one floor lamp next to my chair and the light from surrounding rooms.  My wonderful hubby was tolerant as I snapped his photo over and over.  I had read a tip that, to let more light into a photo, I should set the aperture to the lowest (or highest? biggest? smallest?  I don’t get the lingo yet, but whatever) setting.  I put my camera on the aperture setting and turned it down (the number got smaller) and got this.

Then I went to the lowest number I could with the lens I was using (1.8) and got this.

I couldn’t believe how bright the photos were!

Of course, to get this much light in the photos, the shutter speed was slowed down quite a bit.  To give a little bit of perspective, I then switched to the fully manual setting, kept the aperture on 1.8, and then sped the shutter speed way up.  I got this.

A little slower shutter speed and I got this.

A little slower.

Then I slowed it waaayy down, and couldn’t get it in focus.  Just the slight shake of my hand while the shutter was open for so long made it blurry.
A little faster.

Perfect.

Isn’t he handsome??

I think I’ll do more practicing with the camera on the aperture mode.  I think this will be the easiest way to experiment and still get some good photos of my girls.  That’s really why I take photos anyway.