February 2010

I read a couple of blogs where the women are frequently "setting up photo shoots" for their children. Most days I am lucky if I remember to put on deodorant not to mention get my camera out. But I fell to the pressure and had a "photo shoot" with my girlies today. The new masthead is proof of that. More photos to come as this 'holiday' approaches.

Those using a reader click here.

These girls crack me up. I can't help but think of this.

mg

Already?

It's Saturday already? Kevin had the last three days off. It has been glorious, busy, relaxing, jam packed and productive. How can three days be all of those things? Well, with a 2 year old, a 3 month old, a crazy cat and two tired adults anything can happen.

Groceries were purchased, errands were run, three trips to the hardware store were made, beans were played with and our dinning room was painted. (That should be its own post don't you think?) It was a great three days. I only wish (and I KNOW Kevin does) that we had three more.

Oh and I have to tell you about my house husband. :) Friday morning Kevin took both girls down stairs in the morning so I slept for AN EXTRA HOUR!!!! For the FIRST TIME IN THREE MONTHS!!!! And while I slept, he fed them breakfast, cleaned the living room, dining room, play room and kitchen, AND made banana bread... from scratch. I think I may have won the husband jackpot. I don't even get that much stuff done in an entire day at home. I think he should have three days off in a row more often. (As long as he keeps churning out that banana bread...)

Off to bed!

mg

Tonight, I plucked my eye brows.

And I feel really good about it.

Anyone else have a rogue hair? I have a black wiry one that grows out of the very bottom of my chin. It has been there since I was about 13. For my 21st or 22nd birthday my mother gave me a years worth of laser hair removal treatments*. She figured it was her genes I was battling, so she owed it to me. Those treatments worked beautifully. Thankyouverymuch! With the exception of that ONE STUPID HAIR!!!

Every once in a while I scratch my chin and there it is. Inevitably I am in my car, standing in line at the grocery store or at a fancy wedding and can't end its life at that exact moment. But today I won the stupid hair on my chin jackpot!

I was AT HOME.

And SO WAS KEVIN.

And I could GET UP THAT EXACT MOMENT.

And it was AWESOME!

So awesome in fact that I got a little carried away.

I took a whole 15 minutes TO MYSELF and plucked my eye brows too. Did I mention that it was AWESOME! My laser hair removal didn't include my eyebrows. Which is a shame considering the wild eye brow genes I inherited from my father and his side of the family. (I'm thinking maybe HE owes me some laser treatments too... oh daddy......) I hadn't touched my eyebrows in at least three months. Which is exactly how old this little thing is...


So in 15 minutes I tweased my brow into submission. Now I have not one but TWO eyebrows. TWO!!!!!! And those wild woolly Franken-brow things I had going on at the inside top of my brows, GONE!!!

Did I mention I spent 15 whole minutes, BY MYSELF!!!!

Did I mention how AWESOME it was?!?!?!

At this point in my life it truly is the little things. (or in the case of my eye brows, the not so little things...)
__________
*Am I bordering on TMI, because I am being totally honest and exposing secrets that, up until now only a few of my girlfriends knew about? Hello entire Interweb! Don't. you. judge. me.

mg

Wishes

Having two children is harder than I expected it would be. That being said, I didn't really think about what it would be like. Instead I focused on the fact that we were parents already. We had already ushered one little person into this world, through infancy, past toddler-hood and into the preschool years with some success. I didn't focus on the fact that I would be doing that all over again, but this time with a 2 1/2 year old hanging on me (both figuratively and literally at times).

Thankfully Madeline finally seems to be adjusting to life as a big sister. Her negative attention getting behaviors seem to be on the decline and she is a total riot. She makes a laugh a million times a day.

The challenges we face now revolve mostly around Lydia's sleep schedule. I hate to complain. She sleeps, just not on the schedule I want. I know there are parents, some of my very close friends included, that would love to have a baby who sleeps for four hour stretches at night. I only wish she started her night about two hours earlier. A lucky complaint to have I guess.

Which leads me to the reason I started this post in the first place.

I find myself wishing for things that I know I will miss once they are gone. Tonight, as I was rocking Lydia to sleep, I thought to myself, 'I wish she would just go to bed.' I am tired. I am stressed from a long day week three months. Sleep is a rare commodity around here. I do just want to go to bed. But if Lydia could just put herself to bed do you know what that would mean?

That would mean I would miss her smell as I rocked her at night and kissed the crown of her head. I would miss the feeling of her body weight completely relaxed, warm against my chest. I would miss the sound of her breath and the coos she makes as she is falling asleep. I would miss these moments with her as a baby.

It is hard to see the positive when she is fighting sleep and crying at the top of her lungs. Tonight as I rocked her in my arms, it hit me. I can't wish these moments away. If I do, I will regret it when my children are all grown up and I no longer have a baby to rock to sleep.

I do know how lucky I am to have my daughters. So very, very lucky.



All that being said, I have spent the last two and a half hours trying to get Lydia to sleep. Just before I lay her down in her crib I take a deep breath. The worry that she would wake the moment I lay her down makes my heart race, almost like a panic. I hold my breath as I lay her down, slowly remove my hands, quietly walk out of her room and down the hall. It isn't until I cross the threshold of our bedroom down the hall that I exhale. Then I wait, listening for what's next. If I'm lucky, really lucky, I get to go to sleep myself. It is going to take a lot of will not to keep wishing these days away.

I will keep trying. I know they are worth my effort.

mg

What's in a name?

October 20, 2009

When we were expecting Madeline the name Lydia wasn't discussed. Actually none of the names we considered for Madeline were recycled for our second baby.

Both Kevin and I like family names. Madeline's middle name is Opal after my paternal grandma so we once again turned to our family tree for inspiration.

Meet our Lydias.

October 20, 2009

Kevin's paternal grandmother turns 99 today. In honor of her birthday this is the story of her name.*

Grandma was born Elsa Lydia although she has never gone by that name. Her parents, Elsa and William, didn't agree. Her mother said that if she was named after her she would call her Baby her entire life. That is when Elsa's sister, Lydia, suggested the name Willette. She had been reading a book with a character by that name and as Grandma once told me, "the character was kind and the name was agreeable."

So Grandma's birth certificate reads Elsa Lydia, but she has always been called Willette.

After Lydia was born Grandma asked me if we knew that Lydia was her middle name. When we told her that we did and that Lydia was chosen BECAUSE it was her name I am not sure she believed me... at first. We simply feel lucky to have such a wonderful woman as part of our family, a strong role model for our girls and hope that she thinks of it as an honor.

G.G. and Lydia Thanksgiving 2009

So happy birthday Grandma. We hope our Lydia can carry your name for at least another 99 years.

**********

*Let me be clear that this is my telling of the story as I understand it to be true.

mg

Lydia is 3 months old

Can you believe it?


Look at how grown up she looks! I took this photo with my phone this morning so it isn't the best quality, but I L.O.V.E. it! She is looking awfully cute in her overalls isn't she.

So Lydia is overall a great little bits. She sleeps a good amount at night, 9 or 10p to 3am to nurse then down again until about 8am. Nothing like Madeline did at her age (Madeline spoiled us rotten by sleeping through the night, 7pm to 7am, at 8 weeks and never looked back). Our biggest struggle right now is that she is tired at 7:30p or 8p but she just won't go to sleep. She cries and fusses and acts like she is going to go down, but wakes up the moment she is placed in bed. It is frustrating to say the least. I have a couple of books on the subject, but it is hard to put any of their advice into action because I still have so many questions. That and it is painful to hear her cry for any length of time at her age. I just want to be able to get stuff done at night without having to hold her for hours on end. It will come right?

When she is awake she is a happy little girl and loves to smile and coo. Today she grabbed a toy off the tray of the bumbo and put it in her mouth. That is a first and I was extremely happy about it, but not as thrilled as she was of course!

We are still trying to figure out being a family of four. I haven't had a shower without another adult in the house yet, but we'll get there right? I am sure the learning curve is along one with a second baby added to a family. (at least that is what I am going to keep telling myself...) And Madeline loves her sister a little too much some times. I have to be very aware of Madeline loving on Lydia because she just doesn't understand that Lydia might not want kisses all over her face ALL THE TIME!!!! I am sure she will learn... eventually. There is an upside to her affection however. At dinner tonight Kevin was talking about taking Lydia with him to a meeting and Madeline got sad and said, "don't take my sister away from me. I will miss her." I mean really? How cute is that?!?

There is not dr visit at three months but I have no doubt that Lydia is growing strong. She is still nursing like a champ, growing multiple chins and has gotten too tall for all of her newborn and 0-3 month sleepers. We go back to in February so there will be an official check then.

I am trying to blog more often, but you know how that goes. Maybe a few random bullet posts are due in the future. What little free time I have goes to short bursts of reading and the occasional shower. Yep. I said it. I don't shower that much. But if you haven't left the house not to mention gotten out of your pajamas in like three days then who needs a shower every day? Don't you judge me! I heard a hair expert on Oprah say that you shouldn't wash your hair daily anyway because it causes it to dry out and become damaged. So I just took that to the extreme and applied that to my showering in general. Every other (or sometimes third day) isn't THAT bad is it? Don't answer that.

Anywho I am rambling. My baby is 3 months old and I can hardly believe it. And isn't she cute?

mg

Thank you for De-Lurking

As a thank you to all that de-lurked (and if you haven't yet, please feel free to do so... I know there are more of you out there...) It was good to see so many of my friends read along with my life. It was great to hear from some of you who haven't commented in a while and it was awesome to see some new readers (that's you Jenny!) comment too!

Because you were all so nice to leave me some comment LOVE, I will post one of my *NEW* favorite photos of Madeline of all time... ever...


Two weeks ago my sister in laws sister, Lori, was in town and we took the girls to the Magic House. Never before had Madeline had this reaction to the mirror room and boy was I happy Lori caught it! Pure joy!

Happy Monday to all.

mg