Trick or Treating on Sorority Row

This past Tuesday we took our little Lion and Ladybug to Trick or Treat on Sorority Row. It was freezing, but a lot of fun! This week is also Homecoming at the Capstone so the lawn decorations were going up everywhere! Anderson still isn't "getting" the whole trick or treat process. Everytime they would give him candy in his bucket he would want to stop right there to eat it all before moving on. I kept saying...but look if we keep going we get even more candy...he just looked at me like- Is this a trick?? We saw several friends, but everything was so crowded we barely got to speak to anyone. We did manage to get a pic with "Giuli Donna" and "Ms. Jenifwer". Lydia was very warm in her fleece ladybug PJs and stayed all snuggled up in her stroller. I am not sure she even opened her eyes while we were there.

Check out Anderson's cutie patootie Halloween bucket! I bought these for $10.00 from a craft tent at the Pumpkin patch last weekend. Isn't it adorable...Lydia got one too!
And this side note...I struggled with whether or not to put this on here, but couldn't resist...While on the row we saw 2 10ish year old boys (way too old to be trick or treating in my opinion) dressed as...wait for it....are you sure you are ready to hear this...Chippendale STRIPPERS!! Black pants, bow ties, cumber buns and NO SHIRTS! I was in shock that a mother somewhere out there let that happen...I mean seriously?? I don't even think 10 year olds know who Chippendales are it was so long ago. All the sorority girls were like...ummmm....OK??? Awkward pause...well here's some candy.....Happy Halloween. Anyway...check out the pic lest you think I am kidding!!

Pumpkin Patch

I love the series of photos above...he was picking up the pumpkin and so proud of himself, until he dropped it backwards which is why the look on his face in the third picture is priceless...oops...slippery little suckers!

Last Sunday we headed to Old Baker Farm with the kids and had a great time. It is a bit of a drive all the way to Harpersville, but it is worth it with all of the activities and crafts and food that they have there! I was away Friday and Saturday at Recreate...the 2008 Women's Conference for our church (which was amazing!). I was really not OK with leaving Lydia overnight yet, even if it was with Jeff. I talked myself into doing it anyway though and then after a full blown panic attack (no kidding) I called Jeff that night at about 1:30 am thinking that if he could just assure me everything was fine that I could sleep and be fine. Well, Jeff didn't have a cordless phone in the bedroom that night and never heard the phone ring. After about 30 minutes of calling I became convinced something was wrong and was fully dressed and at 2:30 am I drove from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa. CRAZY!! I just couldn't calm down after not being able to reach him and I knew I would not sleep until I knew everything was alright. So then I get home and realize that I don't have a door key b/c I always go in through the garage. Well that night Jeff happened to lock that door. So then I kept calling and banging on the door and ringing the doorbell. No joke- it took 15 minutes for him to hear it and get to the door. I was about 5 seconds from calling 911 because I just knew he had had a heart attack or something.


I finally went to sleep at about 4:00 am after seeing with my own eyes two sleeping babies. The next morning I slept until a little after 8:00 am and headed back to Birmingham to finish the conference. To say I was pumping myself full of caffeine is an understatement!! So Sunday I was still a little tired but off to the Punkin (as Anderson says) Patch we went. And as you can see from the pics...a great time was had by all!

Look at my little daredevil climbing the haystacks...I thought he would go up to the first level...except he kept going and going and going all the way to the top nearly giving mommy heart attack!!

See how tall it is!!

3 Months

I feel like I should still be talking about Lydia's life in terms of days or maybe at the most weeks, but to say she is months...as in plural, multiple months old is amazing to me. I feel like she just got here!! However, the calendar doesn't lie and baby sister is now 3 months old. So here are a few things for memories sake...

1. She is still a completely happy and content baby. She has only had one melt down in her sweet little life and we still aren't sure what caused it. I kind of think she is teething, but we have yet to see one pop through yet. I want to feel around in there for a tooth, but I am a little paranoid about putting my hands in her mouth now that it is cold and flu season. I know I can wash my hands, but I am still not curious enough to risk it...yet.

2. She is starting (or I should say "I") am starting to produce a stricter schedule. She generally is going through the eat, wake time, sleep cycle that we learned from Babywise. It worked wonderfully for Anderson and it is working well for her too.

We went through a rough spell about a week and a half ago that I thought was a growth spurt. She would eat and then about 1 hour or so later would start fussing and I would think...you have got to be kidding. I JUST fed you. I was really getting discouraged and physically nursing her every hour or two was wearing me out!! I was even considering giving up nursing thinking that maybe I just didn't have enough supply anymore. Luckily, I took a step back and took a deep breath and suddenly realized that she wasn't hungry- she was fussing because she was tired. Before then she just wasn't quite as aware of her surroundings and could go to sleep wherever, whenever. Now she needed a little help decompressing and getting to sleep. So I reread most of Babywise and we started a schedule hard core the next day. I fed her every three hours and she played for 45 min to 1 hour after each feeding and then I either swaddled her or rocked her for a bit to help her settle in for a nap. It worked like a charm. She stopped fussing and I stopped stressing about nursing...it was a Win Win!

Now we are stretching the feedings to about 4 hours. I also put her down at 10:00 and she is sleeping until about 8:30 most mornings, which is great because it gives me time to get up and eat as well as get Anderson settled with breakfast and some sort of activity. She is my angel baby...I seriously can't believe my luck in getting such and easy little one that sleeps so well!!

3. She is a bit of a ham when you give her lots of attention. She loves to smile and coo. Her favorite position is to be held upright and look over you shoulder. She HATES being cradled like a baby. Anderson was the same way. Once he could hold his head up he wanted to look around at his little world.


4. She still won't take a passy, but has become a big fan of thumbsucking. It is so funny to watch her root around for it. Often when she finally gets her thumb in her mouth she will give a couple of good suck and then she will sort of let out this little sigh and a smile. I am sure I will battle with how to get her to stop sucking it at some point, but for now I am going to let her do it especially since it is so adorable to watch and helps her be content.


5. She is still rolling over and challenging herself physically. She gets very vocal during tummy time and loves holding her head up and facing out if she is sitting on your lap. She also loves to lock her little knees out and "stand". She thinks she is a big girl when doing that and just gets so tickled with herself!

Lions and Ladybugs

I am blogging from a mostly quiet house after a very NON-Quiet night! We headed over to CHOM (Children's Hands On Museum) for their Halloween festival. Let me just say...NEVER again! They have two floors but for whatever reason they only opened up one and it was crazy packed. They had little carnival games set up at stations, but it was so crowded that you couldn't even see where the lines were, not to mention that 2 year olds don't really understand the concept of "Wait your turn"...Ha! Add that to an already crummy mood and Anderson was over it in about 20 minutes and we were happy to honor his request to go home...live and learn! But on a happy note, how sweet are my little pumpkins in their costumes. I LOVE fall!!!

Seriously- Look at the crowds!!

My Little Monkeys

As those of you who know us well know...we are a little obsessed with Monkeys at this house! So when I saw these matching smocked monkey outfits I just HAD to have them. The kids wore these to church Sunday and they looked so adorable!! I sort of ended up matching them with my outfit on accident! Jeff said he refused to wear brown that day so that he wouldn't "complete" the look of the gooberish matchy matchy family! HA!

Anderson also scored a new Curious George hoodie. It is his FAVORITE show, so the $9.00 that it cost me at Wal-Mart was well worth it! This was before school this morning. How big is my baby boy getting these days???

And here is one that has nothing to do with a monkey...but I had to share. How stinking cute are those tights??

Tacky Day!

Last Friday was "Tacky Day" at Anderson's school. The room was full of crazy hair, mismatched outfits and even some u-g-l-y shoes, but our son wore the ultimate statement of tackiness...

Roll Tide!!

Rolling Over!

I got quite the surprise this afternoon. I was playing with Lydia a little on her playmat, which sadly enough we really hadn't done too much with until yesterday. Then she decided to roll over!

A couple of weeks ago I noticed her trying to turn to her left while in her bouncy seat. I told Jeff she was so strong and determined that I thought she would roll over soon. He thought that sounded way early and then I kind of forgot about it. Well today she was on her playmat and Anderson woke up from his nap, so I left her on it and went upstairs to get him. When I came back down she was on her tummy. I did a double take and thought...wait a minute...when I left you were on your back! I still wasn't sure so I put her back on her back to see if she would do it again...sure enough over she went. She proceeded to do it again about 6 times just to prove to her doubtful momma that she did indeed do it!

Anderson did that on Nov. 8th 2006 ( I know the exact date because we caught it on video as well). He was 4 1/2 months old. Lydia is only 10 weeks!! Crazy! I looked it up and everything I could find said the average is between 4 and 6 months.

Lydia is really stumping me on her little personality. She is so easy going, yet kind of a ham when I try to get her to smile. You can just see that she has this sort of mischievious little gleam in her eye when she gives a big gummy grin! However usually little "hams" can tend to be sort of high drama even as babies, but Lydia is really very laid back -which was Anderson's personality at that age as well. Another paradox- she is so dainty in her features and demeanor, yet she is ridiculously strong! She was holding her head up the day she was born. It wasn't even wobbly- it was as if she was saying- "Yeah, I can do this...so?" After this rolling over incident I am also seeing a streak of determination. I can hardly wait to see what else about her personality she will reveal to us in the coming weeks and months!

Lil Sis + Big Brother = LOVE!

Lil Sis

+

Big Brother

=

LOVE

My good friend Jennifer Cousins gave me this matching T and onesie set a while back and Lydia finally grew into it, so I took some pics of them together.

2 Months

Ok, this post is a little late- but for the sake of having this actually written somewhere here we go!

Lydia's 2 Month Stats:

11 pounds 12 ounces

22 1/4 inches long

For the sake of recording it all...

She is smiling and cooing up a storm now. In fact, today I actually watched her laugh and smile at Anderson for the first time. She was watching him laugh at me and she just looked over at him and squealed and smiled the biggest smile. It was adorable!

She is a very easy baby. We can't believe our luck having had two super easy babies now. She is totally content to be taken around town on errands or sit at home while I try my best to entertain her brother. I went to the bakery the other day to pick up Jeff's birthday cake and I wish I had brought my camera. All 4 of the Publix bakery workers were out from behind the counter oohing and ahhing over her. She was just eating it up smiling and cooing at them all. To say that we think she is a beautiful baby on the inside and out is the understatement of the century!

She loves being in the swing or in the Baby Bjorn. The play mat isn't a big hit yet and we have yet to bring out the Bumbo seat...maybe this weekend. She began sleeping through the night regularly at the eighth week and that has made us both feel human again! She is sleeping in her room, but I am still terrified of SIDS and for whatever irrational reason I feel like she is less prone to it sitting up in her swing. So that is where she sleeps on most nights, but I am slowly getting more comfortable with her sleeping in her crib since she has been napping in there for a while now.

She had been on prilosec for reflux, but I have slowly been weaning her off that to see if she still has reflux or has grown out of it. She seems to be doing fine with only one dose right now a day, so maybe next week we will try to eliminate it completely. I am still nursing almost exclusively. Sometimes a whole week goes by without her getting any formula. This is a time I adore spending with here. I am so grateful to be doing it longer this time around.

Anderson continues to love on his "baby sister". He often says "I wike her momma...she's ca-ute" or "she's Swwweeeeetttt". Every word has about 10 syllables with his thick southern accent. He almost always asks to see her right when he wakes up and usually wants to giver a kiss before he goes down for a nap or bedtime at night. One night we were riding in the car and I think he was a little scared because we were on a backroad and it was super dark. He kept saying..."Baby sister, it's Ok don't be scared. It's just dark. There's nothing scary out there." It was so cute. I think he was trying to convince himself more than anything, but it was sweet that he was being protective of her.

I am still adjusting to having two kids and for the most part it hasn't been too bad, but every now and again I look up and think I haven't showered yet and it's 4:00 or I will be sitting down to eat lunch at 2:00..then it hits me. This is a hard time and a lot of work. It is certainly worthwhile work, but tough nonetheless. I am just trying to remember that they will only be this young for a short time and not let it pass me by in the busy-ness that is life most of the time.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

My sweet husband - and baby daddy- celebrated his 42nd birthday today! I know some of you are shocked to learn his age. He really has a bit of a baby face and certainly doesn't look 40 something to me!

I planned a surprise dinner for him with some of his guy friends at Mugshots, a fantastic burger joint downtown. I picked him up from work with a yummy chocolate and cream cheese birthday cake and dropped him off there. He kept saying "But aren't you coming too?" I said nope...tonight is a time for you to enjoy being a guy without the wifey and the kids...he looked at me like I was crazy, but I think he really did have fun catching up with friends that he doesn't get to spend all that much time with between family and work responsibilities.

Then today- his actual birthday- We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him and gave him his handmade card from the kids. Lydia and I picked him up and took him to lunch at Dreamland...another "guy" place! He got a snazzy Alabama pullover and I bought us tickets to attend Dave Ramsey Live this Saturday in Birmingham. I even arranged for childcare. We have been wanting to get on this program for a while, but now with two kids and me staying home, not to mention this crappy economy- we really need a plan! I knew he would love the idea of Me asking to be put on a budget! HA!

We popped over to Niles and Pat Graham's home after our lunch since they hadn't seen Lydia yet. They are like Jeff's second parents. He lived next door to them back in our old house in Northport and they just LOVE him! I remember when I first met them after Jeff and I had gone out like three times...she pulled me aside and said "Honey, you better hold on to him with all you got- they don't make em like that anymore". I believed her then and I still do. I'm glad I took her advice! :-)

Happy Birthday Jeff! I LOVE you so much and so do our kids!