Friday, July 29, 2011

The fastest first year of them all

A year ago today, we welcomed our beautiful Lorelai into the world.

Lorelai's birth day

Lorelai on the day she was born

And then apparently we stepped into time machine that promptly transported us to today.
Lorelai

Seriously, out of all of the first years I've had, I think Lorelai's went by the quickest. Even in the throes of the sleepless newborn period when you typically feel like days drag on for weeks, I felt time passing way too fast.

Maybe it's because she was an easy baby who slept pretty well (for the most part), maybe it's because I was more laid back, or maybe (probably, most likely) it's because she's my last baby and I was truly enjoying and savoring every moment because of it. And you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun.

Lorelai

It probably also flies when you're crazy busy going in three different directions for three different kids, but do I dare say that was part of the fun?

Logan, Aidan and Lorelai at the beach

I'm not weepy in the same way I was on Aidan's birthday, but I'm very nostalgic about her birth and all the excitement and anticipation that surrounded it. All day yesterday I kept thinking to myself what I was doing at this exact moment this time last year: eating lunch with Adam and starting to feel contractions, walking in the neighborhood to get them going, the moment when I knew for sure that this was it and we headed to L&D (I stayed up way too late last night for me to recall that moment!), laying there in the hospital laboring (it was a restless night sleep for some reason, I kept waking up and looking at the clock). I even found myself awake at 5:41 this morning with a nasty headache, and realized that one year ago at that moment, I was pushing to get her out. I stayed awake and watched the clock turn 6:03, the moment she was born (read her birth story, part 1, part 2 and part 3). I smiled and tried to wrap my brain around the fact that I my baby is a year old. (Then I took some Tylenol and tried to get some more rest!)

The boys and I went in to sing happy birthday to Lorelai and she was all smiles. I got some morning snuggles (they're the best!) although Daddy missed out on them since he had to go out of town at the last minute and didn't get home until after she had fallen asleep. BIG HUGE sad face.

We had an impromptu morning photo shoot before we had to leave for the bus stop, which she was having none of. The birthday girl was way too focused on climbing the stairs to pose for a picture.

Lorelai

Speaking of climbing, she LOVES it now. Stairs, slides, anything she can get her feet on, she tries to climb it. Our cute little monkey. She's cruising everywhere and has mastered the push walking toy thingy, but has yet to take off on her own. She's kind of stubborn about it, too. When Adam and I want to try to get her to walk, she'll immediately pull up her legs (oh to have that kind of ab strength, lol!) and refuse to put them down. Silly girl.

Lorelai

I don't want to talk too much about the sleeping situation because I don't want to jinx it, but let's just say that June (and some of July) was a rough time for sleep in this house and I hope it was just a fluke. She's normally such a good sleeper. Unfortunately, there were a few times she just wouldn't sleep in her bed and ended up on the couch with Daddy. No bueno, but major props to Adam for letting me sleep (although he wasn't complaing too much because who could argue about getting more snuggle time with that sweet girl?!).

Lorelai and Daddy on the couch

At her checkup yesterday, she weighed in at 23lb 14oz and 30in (80/85 percentile for both) and 100% perfectly healthy. Although decidedly not happy, due to the three shots and finger prick...OUCH, poor baby. But she handled them pretty well and stopped crying quickly.

Eight teeth are in, and she's working on at least two molars, with the other two not far behind. She definitely putting her teeth to good use with all the table food she's eating. Pretty much the only things she hasn't had are peanut butter and shellfish. No more bottles for her either! She only drinks out of sippy cups now, thank goodness, cause those Dr. Browns bottles were a PITA to clean. She's still 100% on breast milk, but we're down to only nursing in the morning and at night. We'll need to start mixing in some whole milk to start the transition for when my freezer stash of breast milk runs out and she starts drinking the milk at school. Crossing my fingers for no opposition there!

Lorelai

She still loves her brothers and if she hears them in the morning, she'll literally quit nursing and try to jump off the bed to go find them and play. They love entertaining her, and she easily entertained by them. A win-win for all of us!

We are just so beyond lucky to have such a wonderful, sweet, silly girl. Happy 1st birthday, baby girl!

Lorelai

Lorelai

PS: She's got her party tomorrow so I'll have more birthday pics later. (Hopefully before her 2nd birthday. But maybe after the beach and Aidan's birthday pics? I'm so behind!)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Happy 7th Birthday to Aidan!

I say it every time another birthday rolls around, but I just can't believe how fast they grow up! Happy 7th birthday to my big man!

Aidan's 7th birthday

It feels simultaneously like a lifetime and an instant ago that my world was forever changed when at 2:06pm on July 24, 2004 Aidan was born. (Yes, I'm getting teary as I'm typing this.) I don't know where this quote is from, but it's perfect: "Nothing compares to the moment you were placed in my arms and I kissed your sweet baby face for the first time. Complete love and indescribable joy filled my heart from that day on."

July 24, 2004

My dear, sweet Aidan, you have always been absolutely wonderful, never ceasing to amaze me with your humor, intelligence, compassion and love. You set the bar really high for your brother and sister, and you make me so proud of the role model you are to them. You are an amazing big brother. You're so helpful to me and daddy, and it just makes me realize that you're growing up so fast.

It's hard to articulate my feelings for Aidan without diminishing how I feel about Logan and Lorelai. It should go without saying that I love all of my children unconditionally, wholly, completely. But I think the emotions I have tied to Aidan are different. He's my first. He made me a mom. The majority of my parenting firsts were with him. So every year when I think back on his birth, I get so emotional, remembering how I felt the moment I held him for the first time, which was like no emotion I'd ever felt--being consumed, overwhelmed with love, feeling my heart beat outside my body for the first time. That feeling was the same with Logan and Lorelai, but since it wasn't the first time I'd felt it, the impact was different, if that makes any sense.

I cried last night when I told Aidan about the night I went into labor with him, and the day of his birth. He didn't understand why I was crying (happy tears of course), but he looked at me with comforting eyes and gave me a great big hug and said, "It's ok Mommy, I love you." That's my big man, growing up right before my eyes.

And since this is my first birthday post for Aidan, indulge me while I pull up some old photos of Aidan and birthdays past...

baby Aidan
Sweet baby Aidan.



Aidan's 2nd birthday
Aidan's 2nd birthday




For Aidan's 3rd birthday, the only thing he asked for was bananas. Seriously.
For Aidan's 3rd birthday, the only thing he asked for was bananas. Seriously.

4th birthday, another pool party
4th birthday, another pool party.

5th birthday, with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Houston
5th birthday, with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Houston

6th birthday, with Grandma Ellie.
6th birthday, with Grandma Ellie.

I'll have more photos of his 7th birthday in another post. We actually spent his birthday weekend at the beach, so we've been busy getting settled in back home. I've got a ton of photos to go through and with any luck, I'll have them up before his 8th birthday :)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Stop! Hammer time!

Logan was singing a song yesterday that his class sings when they play hot potato (or something like that). He kept mumbling the words until he got to "now stop!" and every time he did that, I added "Hammer time!" to the end. Obviously the boys have no idea what that means, but eventually they started doing it too. 

I may or may not have even busted out some smooth dance moves and the boys may or may not have looked at me like I'd totally lost my mind. I'm 2 legit 2 quit, yo.

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Mom, please. You're crazy.


I wonder if Logan will do that in school and what his teacher will think. I'm kind of cracking up just thinking about it. Hey, at least I'm not teaching them "Baby Got Back" ("Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt.
It is so big. *scoff* She looks like, one of those rap guys' girlfriends...I like big butts and I can not lie")!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wise Words Wednesday: so little time

"So much time, and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it." ~ Willy Wonka 

I'm a big ball of stress right now and I'm kind of freaking out. Aidan's birthday is this weekend, Lorelai's birthday is next weekend, and I'm so not ready for either one! As usual, I try to do too much and end up stressing myself out.

How do I think I have enough time in the day to work full time, cook dinner, work out, take care of the kids, read my book, watch tv, and party plan/make decorations? Geez, I'm not superwoman, what am I thinking?! And how's this for priorities? I'm currently watching So You Think You Can Dance (and blogging, obvs) instead of making my tissue paper flower pom-poms.

Speaking of time, I finally took the time to edit and upload some pictures from Father's Day and July 4th (oh my, there are still a ton more to get through before all the birthday festivities, yikes!).

Father's Day 2011
Father's Day 2011


Lorelai and Raina
Cousin Raina was helping to entertain Lorelai...


Lorelai and Mommy
...but she got tired of sitting around and wanted to get in on the cornhole action.
My aim was significantly off from having to balance a baby on my hip, but Adam and I still won :)


cousins playing cornhole
The cousins playing cornhole (L to R: Aidan, Shaun, Isaiah, Logan)


Lorelai watching Daddy play cornhole
Lorelai watching Daddy play cornhole

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 I swear Lorelai wasn't so serious and grumpy all day, see?! That's sort of a smile...


Now I've got to get back to SYTYCD (did Sasha and Twitch kick butt, or what?!?) and then finish my book (The Girl Who Played with Fire, due back to the library on Friday). Happy Hump Day!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Back to school

After five weeks that went by in the blink of an eye, Aidan's summer break is officially over.

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He started second grade yesterday so we're in the process of settling back into our regular routine. Bus, homework, packing lunches, less pool time. Boo, no fun. Just don't tell Aidan I said that! As far he's concerned, second grade is awesome, school is cool, and I love homework, so he should too.

waiting for the bus
Bye bye summer, hello school

Clearly one of the biggest drawbacks to year-round schools is such a short summer break, but that's also one of its advantages—less time to forget everything you learned and easier time re-adjusting to school life. I'm hoping the adjustment will be an easy one for him and we won't have any issues like we had in first grade. (You know I'm crossing my fingers and toes and eyes that nothing that that EVER happens to him again!)

We met his teacher last week, and she seems really nice. Bonus points that one of her teaching philosophies is that no student should ever be made fun of or humiliated for the work they do. Yes, she actually spelled that out on her list of teaching philosophies. Is it a teacher/student match made in heaven? Let's hope so!

The last thing we need is for Aidan to have any reason to hate school, especially considering there's an impressionable younger brother who will be starting Kindergarten next summer!

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Second grade, bring it on!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wise Words Wednesday: brotherly love


Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.  ~Marc Brown


superhero brothers
Halloween 2010


This weekend, Grandma and Grandpa took Aidan birthday shopping. They won't get to see him on his birthday so they wanted to have some special birthday time with him in lieu of a party. Logan was disappointed that he had to stay home, because he idolizes his brother and wants to do everything that Aidan does. Lucky for us, he didn't throw a fit or pout too much. Instead, he used that time to hang out with his sister, one-on-one.



I swear, my heart just swells with pride when I see how sweet my boys are to their sister. Logan was amazing with her while Aidan was gone, and he was so grateful that she was there to play with him. They had a blast chasing each other around the kitchen. Lorelai would crawl as fast as she could and Logan would chase after her. Then Lorelai would turn around and giggle like crazy when he caught her. I tried to catch Lorelai's giggle fits on the Flip, but of course she quit doing them once I hit record.



I love that all three of them love each other so much. I know better than to assume it'll be like this forever, so I'm going to cherish these moments when they do happen (and be sure to get photo or video proof that they really did get along, once upon a time...just in case!). 



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September 2010
 



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Lorelai, 2 days old
  
PS: I'm stealing a page from my blog friend Ariel's book with this post. Sure, wordless Wednesday posts are probably easier, but I like the idea of finding a good quote to illustrate a photo or tie in to a cherished moment in our lives.