Wagon and Chairs

March 16, 2015 Laura

I'm thirty-two now. The last time I blogged I was only 31. That means...I've had a birthday! And, if I'm being perfectly honest, it was not a particularly good birthday at all. We're coming off a weekend full of sick kids and a super sick husband and doctor/ER visits and lots of medicines and me playing nurse, but as of today, I think we've turned a corner and everyone is feeling better! I may have to demand a do-over for my birthday next weekend. :)

For my birthday, God gave me a glorious 70 degree sun-shiney day! I was stuck indoors for most of it but I did get the kids out for about an hour in the evening so that it wasn't a complete waste. We ventured over to my parents' house so that their Daddy could keep resting, and Mom and I dusted off the wagon to take them for a ride.

"Are you ready?" "I'm ready!" "Let's go!"

This was Thomas's first wagon ride to sit in by himself! (He rode a couple times last year in his car seat.) And actually, he didn't sit for the ride at all; he stood the entire time! It didn't matter how many times I put him down on his bottom, he popped right back up. He's supposed to wait until he's older to give me heart attacks! I'm gonna have to invest in helmets just for wagon rides now.

"Everybody HOLD ON!" Katie Wynn was obsessed with his pants on the ride (??) until she eventually pulled them all the way off him.

Then she worked on trying to get her pink shoes on his feet. He wouldn't keep his feet still enough for her. :)

I think the first ride of the year was a big hit! Can't wait until we can do it more often. See how much rain water is still standing in Mom's yard? And we're supposed to get a lot more of it this week. Ugh, go away winter and rain! This brief tease of a day has us ready for spring.

When we got home, Katie Wynn pulled out her pink chair to sit in so I pulled out Thomas's too. Just like the wagon, this was his first time to be able to sit up in it. I think he liked it...and all of a sudden Katie Wynn looked enormous to me. (Two-year-olds don't care about what feet their shoes go on...)

I really don't think of Thomas as looking much like Katie Wynn anymore, but their expressions in this picture are so similar that I can still see the resemblance!

"I hope she shares that ball with me."

These are the last two I was able to snap before Katie Wynn spotted our neighbor dogs coming for a walk. We had to rush to get them treats to feed them as they passed by our house. :)

I hope this is the beginning of the end of winter. Seeing the kids outside together yesterday just gave me a taste of all the fun we're going to have this summer...especially when Thomas starts walking on his own!

Snow Day!

March 8, 2015 Laura

Thursday we had a for real SNOW day! Not a fake snow day where it's really just frozen ice everywhere, but a real, fluffy white, powdery snow day! It was exciting to see for once. The weathermen predicted a significant amount of snow and, though I was doubtful, they were right!

View of our front porch and front steps.  If you look closely, you can see the snowman from my front door buried down there. — View of our front porch and front steps. If you look closely, you can see the snowman from my front door buried down there.

Our back porch - I loved the way the snow settled on our herringbone bricks!

After thirty minutes of rounding up coats and gloves and boots and hats, we managed to all get outside. Please don't mistake my excitement over the snow day to mean anyone was excited about playing in the snow. Thomas obviously was too little to care and Katie Wynn was too terrified to be put down in it. I was just excited for us all to spend the day together!

The kids were so bundled up I'm not sure that they could actually move.

We stood at the edge of the garage and used our new selfie stick to take pictures with all of us in it. What would we have done without the selfie stick?? (Please note the bow on T's gloves...he had to borrow some from Sister.)

Lolli was not so sure about all the snow. She hesitated before following us out into it.

We walked out into the yard but like I said earlier, Katie Wynn had no desire to touch the snow.

More selfie stick photos!

And that was it for this family and the snow! We rushed inside to get warm.

I had watched this video a while ago and since we were stuck at home with nowhere to go, I decided to give those curls a try! Here are before, during, and after photos of my 'do. And I am horrible at selfies. Overall I suppose it worked...I definitely had curls! Some pieces did better than others though...maybe it would look better after more practice.

Katie Wynn turned her gloves into socks.

I took these pictures while she was talking to Lala and Poppa on facetime. I love her little profile!

I made a batch of sugar cookie dough while Katie Wynn napped, so when she woke up it was ready to be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters. She loved it and was a great little helper!

It is so hard for little people to understand that cookies have to be cooked and then cool before we can decorate them!

When it was finally time, I spread the icing ("glue") and then she did the colored sugar ("glitter"). It was all worth the crunchy, sugary mess I had to clean up!

We made a full batch of colorful hearts, stars, airplanes, and of course, snowmen!

After dinner (and dessert!) we all sat by the fire before bath time. We tried out the selfie stick one more time!

Little Miss "I Do It!" begged to use the selfie stick herself and it didn't take her long to figure it out. She's way too young for this, right?

Now that we've had our one real snow day, it's A-ok for spring to come. I think we're all sick of this cold weather!

Christmas in Indiana

January 4, 2015 Laura

Our first Christmas celebration was the weekend before Christmas when we traveled to Indiana to visit Matt's parents and family. We rented a van to travel in since as a full family of six, we don't fit in either of our cars. The 8-ish hour drive went as smoothly as could be expected; each big kid was in charge of a little kid and they were huge helps! The boys rode in the way back and the girls rode in the captain's chairs in the middle. We really only had one meltdown from Thomas when he started getting hungry. Since we took breaks when we stopped to feed him, we didn't arrive in Indiana til well past dinner time. And when we did, we were quick to put jammies on the littles so we could hang out for just a few minutes before they went to bed.

Lala and Poppa had their tree up and lit and it was FULL of wrapped packages! There was an unwrapped gift - an ELMO! - that was just waiting to be found. It did not take Katie Wynn very long at all to spot him and she, of course, wanted to have him right away. Luckily for her, her Lala said she could go ahead and have him. Grandmothers were made for spoiling, after all. (I resized these pictures too small. Oopsie!)

Like the two babies, Anna also had one-piece pajamas to wear! I can't imagine why Wyatt didn't want to get in on that, too.

Matt and I put the kids to bed before leaving for the night. When we arrived back later the next morning, I was shown these pictures of my innocent little girl drinking out of a fancy little wine glass!

It reminded me of a very similar picture of her from last year when she just played with the glass. This year, Lala let her actually drink her apple juice out of it. Anything goes at Lala and Poppa's house!

I think Lala and Poppa may have each gotten some quality time with my babies that morning before the big kids woke up. I'm afraid they might've been up and ready to go pretty bright and early!

After baths and getting everyone dressed, we hung around and waited for Matt's sister, Jill, and her family to arrive. Wyatt and Anna were determined to get Thomas mobile!

While waiting for Katie Wynn's hair to dry, I pulled it back to see if it was long enough for a ponytail again. Pretty close! What do you think - let it grow back out or bob it off again? I can't decide.

Jill was excited to get her hands on Thomas as soon as she arrived. This was their first time getting to meet our newest addition. They all seemed to love him and he loved them back!

The kids were all eager to open presents, so everyone gathered in the living room so we could get after them. The boys played Santa and passed out the gifts and then it was a free for all on opening them up. We made quick work of trashing Lala's living room! (Special thanks to her for taking pictures; I stole most of these from her.)

I opened the coolest gift ever from Jill. It may have to have a post of its own one day...

Katie Wynn was much more into opening gifts this year. Every gift that she opened, though, had to be completely opened so that she could play with it immediately. I had to constantly remind her that there were more gifts to open.

Do you think I'll ever get a decent picture with both of my kids at the same time? Before they're young adults?

Before going to bed, Katie Wynn modeled her new house shoes for us. They're kitty cat boiled wool boot slippers from Garnet Hill and are oh, so cute! She had the little piggies last year but outgrew them. Thomas got a pair of the fox ones! They love wearing them around the house with their pjs.

The next day we had plans that we were really excited about...getting to visit with Granddaddy! Granddaddy is Matt's maternal grandfather and, at 92.5 years old, is a new reader to the blog. (Hi, Granddaddy!!!) I was excited to visit with him since I hadn't seen him since last Christmas, plus this was his first time to get to meet Thomas. He also hadn't seen Katie Wynn since last year and she has changed a whole lot since then!

Pat and her sister, Cindy, had reserved a parlor room at his retirement community for the afternoon so that we would have plenty of space for all of us. The rest of the family had plans to get together back at the retirement community on Christmas day, so we were super grateful that they also got together the weekend before so we could see as many family members as possible. When we arrived, Katie Wynn was sound asleep in the car so I stayed back with her to let her get a few extra minutes of rest. Matt took Thomas and the big kids on in and, from the looks of the pictures, Thomas and Granddaddy seemed to hit it right off!

It took Katie Wynn a few minutes to warm up to everyone after she woke up. The thing that got her going was her Elmo book of stickers. She passed them out to everyone there, but the real winner was Granddaddy - he got probably 12 - 15 stickers himself! Even Elmo ones, and those are her favorite.

We grouped together the great grandchildren that were present (two were missing) for a picture with the Christmas tree and Granddaddy.

After the pictures, Katie Wynn ran and got her Elmo coloring book and gave it to Granddaddy so they could color together. She was enamored with him! Aren't these pictures the sweetest thing ever?

Miss Sassypants also did a little bit of posing on one of the couches before we had to leave.

We beat Lala and Poppa back to their house that afternoon and, in a spur of the moment idea, asked the kids if they'd all sit together for a quick picture. I knew I was pushing my luck as they grumbled into place so I promised I'd be really quick. Ad that's when Matt and I witnessed a true Christmas miracle...four smiles from four kids all at the same time!

That was out last night in Indiana but Lala still had one more surprise for Katie Wynn...she knitted her some socks! Katie Wynn was appropriately excited and immediately put them on. They are so cute!

When you have brand new socks, the best way to really test them out is to put your shoes on too.

And then a good little girl takes off her shoes and asks for a Bible to read. Yes, a Bible. I'm not kidding. I wish I could take credit for her wanting to read the Bible becaues we read stories out of it every night, but the truth is that I don't even know how she knows what a Bible is...

So that was our Christmas celebration in Indiana. It started with my daughter drinking out of a wine glass and ended with her reading the Bible. :)

We had a great time; I just hate that it was such a quick trip! It was the perfect kickoff for all our Christmas events. Now we just have to figure out when we're gonna get to see Lala and Poppa again!

December Fun

January 2, 2015 Laura

Before we get into all of our actual Christmas festivities, I want to document some of the other fun things we did during the month so I don't forget. As hard as I tried to shop and wrap gifts early so that we could sit back and just enjoy the season, it still got really busy and crazy! We had so much to do that there was little time for rest...maybe that's what we'll do in 2015.

My aunt and cousin came to visit one Friday night so we joined them for dinner at my parents' house. I didn't really take any pictures of us there, but earlier that day Katie Wynn and I went to the bakery to pick up some cupcakes and I snapped these of her in the car. She requests "her" (my) sunglasses every time she's in her car seat so she can "see better."

That night was a big one for Thomas as it was the first time he got to sit in the real high chair! This chair is the same one my brothers and I all used and Thomas makes grandchild number seven to sit in it. We had to tie him in so he wouldn't slide down but he loved sitting at the table like a big boy.

We had friends over for dinner one night and Katie Wynn absolutely loved having friends over to play with her. We brought out the big box of balls for them to play in which is always a big hit with our visitors.

What's more fun that three kiddos in the tub? Three kiddos in the tub with GLOWSTICKS!

At one point in the night they got really quiet, so I went back to check on them. I found all three kids in our master bedroom pulling out toys together. And, the evening wasn't over without one more climb into the box of balls.

The only encounter we had with Santa Claus this year was at church. There was a pizza lunch for the kids following the service one Sunday and Santa made a surprise appearance. As we waited in line to have our picture taken, I really talked it up to Katie Wynn about getting to sit in his lap and tell him what kind of presents she wanted him to bring. I also told her she'd have to be really brave so that Thomas wouldn't be scared. She was all about it. Until our turn finally came, that is... Thomas went first and just laughed and laughed at Mr. Claus.

I had to peel a screaming Katie Wynn off of me to get her to sit in his lap. Even with Thomas still laughing and having a good time, she cried and begged to be picked up. We took a family picture to show her that Santa wasn't someone to be scared of. (When KW recounted this experience in the car on the way home, she told us that she loved Santa Claus and that Thomas cried but that she did not. If you say so, sister.)

Some friends invited us to join them on a trip to the zoo to see their Christmas lights. Since it was cold out, we dropped Thomas off with my parents and just took Katie Wynn. We took our wagon for the girls to ride in and they loved it. It was perfect for the zoo!

The picture below on the right is of lights hanging over the area of the zoo where we were married. Had I known they could put lights up on these wires, I totally would've requested some twinkle lights up there on our big day! Shucks!

After a ton of fun seeing the Zoo Lights, we went out for pizza. The girls had fun admiring this little Christmas tree that was next to our table.

Katie Wynn had a Christmas party at daycare so we put together some gifts for all of her teachers. I wanted to do something stress-free (no baking! no crafting!) and I think what we came up with was both easy and super cute. We took Sonic cups, filled them with red tissue paper, added a Sonic gift card and some Christmas candy, topped them with a lid and straw, and added a cute tag that read, "Have a BLAST this holiday season!"

For her classmates, I just added a quick tag to a bag of Teddy Grahams that said, "Have a BEARY Merry Christmas!" Gotta love easy. We also made a little happy for our neighbors' mailboxes. They were a bag of Hershey's kisses and a chapstick with a notes that read, "Merry KISS-mas and CHAPPY New Year!" We added dog bones too to the neighbors that we knew had dogs.

You know, now that I think about it, I didn't hear from anyone that received any of these gifts. I hope that doesn't mean they didn't like them!

For a few days in a row, Katie Wynn got on a kick of stealing Thomas's socks off his little feet and putting them on her hands. She told her Daddy that they were keeping her hands "nice and cold." She keeps us laughing!

I posted this picture on Instagram but it's worth re-sharing. Thomas is officially crawling now but at the time this was taken, he was just scooting backwards. He was busy scooting himself around the room when he scooted himself right into a little bit of a pickle...stuck under the bed!

On the 23rd of December, we joined the Earls and Cooks for dinner. My sweet Thomas is always a good poser for pictures.

Things usually start to get a little hairy though when I add his sister in for the pics. Is there some understood sibling rule about never smiling at the same time?

Baby Henry joined them on the couch for some pictures too!

And, you know, the photoshoot was going just fine until Katie Wynn tackled her little brother.

Everett wasn't feeling up for pictures since he'd just opened up some fun new toys. It didn't take KW long to join him down on the floor. Toys are way more fun than pictures, I guess.

Here are a couple more random shots of Katie Wynn playing her version of dress up. In one picture she's dressed as Santa Claus and the other she's dressed as Thomas...turns out putting his pj pants on instead of her own is kinda hard!

On the second to last day of December, I was lucky enough to get to sleep in with both my babies. (No really, I'm not being sarcastic...they both slept til almost 8!) We had fun lazing around in bed taking pictures. By the time these were taken, Daddy had already gotten up, given Thomas a quick bottle and gotten him back asleep, gone for a run, and taken a shower! (Showoff.) My mom and I always joke about how KW looks like she's wearing a wig when her hair isn't pulled back with a bow. I can't help but be jealous of her hair.

And on the very last day of December, my little munchkin pulled up to a standing position in his bed!! This mama was not ready for this at all! Especially when, while sitting on the floor taking pictures, I realized he was leaning over to see me and was about to fall out. Woo - that would've been a major mom fail! Doesn't he just look so proud of himself in these pictures? He was able to pull up on his bumper because I sat him up in his crib. Thankfully he can't get into a sitting up position from laying down yet, so we have a few more days before we really have to lower his crib for night time.

Ok, I know I just made it through the whole month of December, but next I'll be back with four separate posts for each of our Christmas celebrations!

Stats

December 18, 2014 Laura

I thought it would be fun to do a little update on every topic imaginable for my babies. At the time of writing, Katie Wynn is 2 years, 2.5 months old and Thomas is 6.5 months old.

Weight:

Katie Wynn is holding strong at around 25 pounds. I know she's growing because we're moving up in clothing size, but I think that big belly of hers may be slimming down.
As of yesterday's doctor's appointment, Thomas weighs 17.7 pounds. He is 27" long, which puts him in the 50-75 percentiles for both height and weight.

Clothing Size:

Katie Wynn is wearing a size 2T, but I have to roll up the sleeves on almost all of her shirts. Thank goodness for a Mimi who sews and can make tops and pants that are the right length! She wears a size 6 shoe and her diapers are a size 4.
Thomas is currently wearing mostly 6 month clothes. The couple pairs of crib shoes that he has are also 6 months and we just moved him up to size 3 diapers.

Teeth:

Katie Wynn has 16 teeth but I have a feeling her two-year-old molars will be appearing soon. She's had a few unexplained fevers that I've decided to blame them for.
Still no teeth yet for Mr. Thomas but with the amount of drool he's producing, you'd think there'd be at least a little bud in there!

Favorite Foods:

Like her mama, Katie Wynn likes sweets! If she had it her way, she'd have donuts and chaw-kit milk for breakfast everyday, "cannie" (candy - specifically, hershey kisses) for lunch, and pizza for dinner. And then she'd want ice cream and a kooky for dessert! Pizza is probably her most consistently liked food. She also still loves to eat baby food vegetables. I can give her a container of pretty much any vegetable and she'll eat it like it's pudding!
Thomas loves apples and bananas! We've have begun introducing more solid foods and for the most part, he's happy with anything we put in his mouth.

Least Favorite Foods:

Katie Wynn is pretty good at trying most things we give her. She still is not crazy about some meat or real vegetables but will occasionally eat them on a good day. I have a hard time getting her to drink her milk; she'd rather have juice or water.
T-Man does NOT like green peas. Thank goodness because those things stink!! (I'll probably still make him eat them though...)

Speech:

Katie Wynn is a total parrot and will repeat just about anything you say! I'm constantly laughing at the extra syllables in her words or the ones she picks out from a phrase. This post shows what she's been talking about lately!
No real words from Thomas just yet, but he babbles on and on all day long. And he's LOUD. If you don't know him, you'd probably think he was fussing, but he's really just yelling and screaming in his own little language. I have a feeling I'm going to be telling him to use his "inside voice" a lot over the years.

Nicknames:

Katie Wynn still gets called Katie Bug a lot. I've noticed that a couple of the daycare teachers call her that too; I'm not sure if they heard us say it or call her that on her own. In text, I always refer to her by her initials (KW), but when I read that in my head I don't say kay-double-you, I say kay-dub.
Thomas goes by just T or T-man or T-bone. I didn't realize how often I also call him Buddy until I heard Katie Wynn call him that. I've heard her say it several times now!

Sleep:

Katie Wynn is still a pretty good sleeper. We have been paci-free for over a month now and so she occasionally has problems soothing herself to sleep. Once she's asleep, though, she's still out for the night. Her normal schedule is to go to bed around 7:30 (falls asleep by 8:30) and wake in the morning around 6:30. Obviously that's not every day but those are the most regular times. She also still takes one afternoon nap for 2-ish hours (on the weekends it sometimes lasts 3 or 4 hours!). She is still sleeping in her crib and has not tried to climb out. But she has started climbing just a tad on her bumpers so the time could be coming. We have already purchased a big girl bed so that we'll be ready when the time comes!
Thomas goes to bed at night by 7:30 and is sleeping in a zipadee-zip sleep sack like his big sister did. We usually have to pop his paci back in a couple times before we hit the sack, but then he's out for a while. He has begun rolling over so he occasionally wakes himself up by hitting the rails or getting squished up in the corner of the bed. We just recently added three sides of his bumper so we can have fewer middle of the night injuries. He still does lots of catnapping throughout the day but usually has at least 2 good naps that last over an hour.

Milestones:

Is KW too old for milestones now? If I had to pick one for her, I'd say that it's singing. She can join in on several songs if you sing along with her. Every now and then I'll catch her singing, "let it go, let it go, let it go" by herself.
Thomas is rollin', rollin', rollin' all over the place! He is definitely mobile. He can roll both ways and uses it to get him to anything in the room he wants. He can also scoot backwards and I've caught him up on all fours twice. He'll be crawling soon! He can also sit up but is still wobbly enough that I won't leave him sitting by himself. He's also found his toes and thinks they're pretty cool.

Favorite Activity:

Katie Wynn loves to work puzzles at her Mimi's house. Lately, she has been obsessed with pulling off Thomas's socks and wearing them as gloves. She loves to jump! She can often be found jumping in circles in the middle of the floor and if she sees you looking at her, she'll yell, "I jumpin'!!"
Thomas's favorite activity is probably to stick things in his mouth. He is holding toys and small objects well now and they all immediately go into his mouth. He also likes to pull hair, especially his mama's and sister's!

Are there any big stats that I left off? Let me know in the comments and I'll add them!