Introducing My Daughter, the Klepto

First, let me start by stating my strong dislike for the shopping carts with the cars attached to the front.  I find them SO hard to maneuver, and if I'm trying to weed my way through a clothing aisle at Target with one, I'm definitely on the verge of knocking things over.

The first time I ever used one was at the grocery store, and when I was pushing it back out to the car, I could not for the life of me get it to go over the speed bump in the parking lot.  Plus, Noelle doesn't always last the whole shopping trip sitting in it, and without the car weighted down a little bit, it makes it even harder to navigate.  Turning the cart around in an aisle at the grocery store doesn't work without doing a 10-point turn, so if I have to backtrack, I just walk backwards.

I could go on, but enough of my complaining about the cart Noelle insists we get whenever she sees one (why must they place them right out front for all to see?!).

 she's also sick, so excuse her looking out of it

Today I discovered a new problem.  We ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things, checked out, and headed out to the car.  I got everything unloaded and then pushed the cart back to the front of the store.  As I was pulling Noelle out of the car (since she insists she can't get out by herself), I noticed a newly opened pack of Mentos.

Awesome, my child just helped herself to some candy in the check-out aisle.

With her minimal speaking, or maybe it's a lack of understanding, I couldn't figure out for sure if she grabbed them, or if they had already been sitting in the car when we got there.  Either way, I explained to her that we can't just take things, but that we have to pay for them, and in the future to make sure she asks mommy if she wants something.

and she's already eaten most of them

I'm not sure how much a 2 year old understands, but at least it's a lesson for me to check her and the cart when we get to the store and when we leave.

The 15 Minute Saga of Yesterday

It was actually a pretty good day yesterday.  Jonah slept until about 9:30 (giving an almost 3 1/2 hour stretch, which is longer than most stretches he gives at night), allowing me to make and eat breakfast, take a shower, and get Noelle ready for the day.

He woke up happy, and both kids cooperated while we picked up a few things from the grocery store. Since they were still in a good mood while we were out, I decided to finally check out the local boutique that sells used baby clothes.  I ended up buying Jonah some things, including an adorable sweater vest!

waking up a happy Jonah

We got home, I nursed Jonah down for his nap, and then got Noelle and myself some lunch.  Then she and I got to spend some quality time together:  I painted our fingernails, we ran back and forth across the front yard over and over again, and read some books together before Jonah woke up.

The three of us played around the house for a bit, and then headed out for a stroller walk.  We were blessed with another beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine.  Noelle took a short nap in the stroller as I expected, and Jonah was content for most of the ride.  When we got home, Noelle played with our neighbor for a little while, and I tried to put Jonah down for another nap.  He fussed for a bit, but eventually went down.

at least someone has finally learned to not entirely hate the stroller

Luke got home a little after 6:00, and said we would need to go drop his car off to get his brakes replaced, and then suggested we grab some dinner while we were out.  (I think he just didn't want the spaghetti squash I had cooked up.)  He said he would head out ahead of me, so that the kids and I didn't have to sit around at the car place waiting too long.

So now the saga.

Once Luke left, I focused on getting the kids ready to head out.  Jonah was in a mood where being held was the only option to avoid a complete meltdown, which meant I needed to get them both ready one-handed.  I put a little jacket on him, and was trying to figure out what to put on Noelle.  She had just eaten black beans by the handful and had them smeared all over her face and shirt.

She hates having her face wiped, but we got that out of the way with minimal crying.  I wanted to put a little jacket on her, but didn't want to put it over the black bean covered shirt, and for some reason suggesting the Hello Kitty jacket in her closet set her off towards meltdown.  My solution was to take off said dirty shirt, and put a long sleeve shirt on.  Which she also hates having anything go over her head, and me doing it one handed took too long and freaked her out.  I got it on her on the second try by sitting in the chair in her room and squeezing her between my knees to keep her still.

not from yesterday, but black bean love right there

I started to head downstairs, but she started fussing and pointing to her closet.  With no nap, she doesn't try as hard to use words, but mostly grunts and points so I had no idea what she wanted. Eventually I figured out she wanted one of her sweaters on over her long sleeve shirt, so I managed to wrangle that on her one-handed.

We head downstairs (her crying "uppie, uppie", so I carry them both), and I get Jonah buckled into his carseat.  He immediately starts crying.  Noelle starts saying some word I can't understand and pointing upstairs (granted, she does have a cold, so it's harder to understand her already hard to understand words), and she takes off back up the stairs.

I follow her up, and realize she'd been saying "Simmy", her way of saying Sammy, which is the stuffed animal dog I loved well during my childhood and hangs out in my closet.  I tell her, sure, we can bring "Simmy".  As we're heading back down the stairs (again, "uppie, uppie"), she peers in the bathroom, and asks "Daddy?".  I tell her we're going to pick him up. "Daddy?  Daddy?"  All the way out to the car.

                                                            also not from yesterday, but boy do we love Daddy

And finally we head out, no shoes for Noelle.

The Little Stage

It hit me today.  As I was nursing Jonah to sleep for an afternoon nap. (I know, not supposed to nurse babies to sleep, but it's the only way!)

He's so little and so perfect.  He's my little baby and this time of littleness is flying by.  I find myself wishing it away all too often because he's been so difficult.  Telling myself it's just a stage that he needs to get through, and then hoping that he grows up and out of it soon.

I take for granted that he's so little, thinking to myself that we'll have a third someday who will hopefully be more easy going, and I can enjoy the baby stage more.  But I've already been blessed abundantly by two precious little ones, and that may be all the Lord chooses to bless us with.  And two is even more than I deserve!

I stare at his eye lashes and his arm draped across my chest.  His little nose and cheeks.  And his tiny
baby hands are just too cute!  And I start to feel sad about how fast it's going.  He'll be 5 months soon, and he's already changed so much.  I love them little and I don't want to wish it away.

Days and nights with Jonah are hard, but are so worth it.  This little one is so a part of me and fills my heart with so much love.  I want to hang on to these days and enjoy them as much as possible.  I know it will be fun to watch him grow and change, as it's been fun seeing Noelle grow so much, but I also want to hold on to how he is now, in this little stage.

It's like the classic line from Robert Munsch's book goes:
"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
as long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be."

This Past Week

This past week was a special one for us!  My grandma and aunt and uncles from Seattle came to visit Maryland, and Jonah got to meet them all for the first time.  It had been about two years since they had last seen Noelle, so she was about 2 months old the last time they were here.  While we haven't been able to hang out with them a lot because of needing to put Jonah down for naps at home (high maintenance kid!), it's been fun watching them interact with both of the littles.

Jonah being held by his great-grandma (aka GG)

My dad grew up in Seattle and is the only one that moved to the East Coast so it's a rare treat to see our West Coast family.  I keep telling Luke we need to go out and visit since Luke has never been west of Texas. My one aunt couldn't make the trip this time and I know she would love to see the littles!

four generations- and as usual Noelle is too busy eating

We also had another speech therapy appointment this week.  At this point when I tell Noelle that her therapist is coming she gets excited, and this week she stood waiting at the window to watch for her.  This week they played with play-dough and read Good Night Moon, working on 2 syllable words and putting two words together.  We scheduled her 6 month assessment for October, and I'm definitely nervous about it. Some days I don't think about her speech much, but other times I realize how far behind she is and I worry so much about what the future holds for her.  It's definitely a continual lesson in learning to trust the Lord with the lives of my children.

waiting at the window

We had an absolutely beautiful beginning-of-fall day yesterday with clear blue skies, low humidity, and sunshine galore.  Jonah's been extra fussy the last few days (teething??), and I needed to get them out of the house.  So I strapped them in the stroller and we took off for a nice long walk.  Since I haven't run in almost 4 weeks, it was quite the workout pushing 50+ pounds around for over an hour.

Jonah crying and Noelle napping

And Luke and I finished off the work week with a quick date to Chipotle while Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Lydia watched their favorite children!

Bedtime Routines

Our every day routine is always different and shifting as the kids grow, and especially as Jonah's feeding and sleeping habits change.

When we first brought Jonah home from the hospital, he slept in a bassinet in our room next to me.  And since I always knew I was going to get very little sleep, I always went to bed when he did.  Even if that meant an 8:00 bedtime.

Noelle in her Christmas pjs on Christmas morning

Since it always wound up being around the time of Noelle's bedtime, we ended up just letting her fall asleep in bed with me, and then Luke would move her to the crib when he came up to bed. Letting her fall asleep with me was partially for convenience, but I was also more emotional than I thought I would be about splitting my time between two kids, and most nights I liked having her as my snuggle buddy.

Once we came home from vacation in August, we decided it was time to transition her to her big girl room and into her big girl bed.  Well, let's just say one of us is still falling asleep with her every night.  And now it's in a twin size bed.  We've tried to leave her multiple times, but she just screams and screams, often to the point of puking on herself and her bed sheets.

Jonah's monkey pjs

At first it was me who would lay down with her.  I would feed Jonah and put him to bed (now in the crib in his own room), and then come lay down with her.  Often I would actually fall asleep and either wake up when Jonah cried to be fed, or just wake up on my own and make my way to my bed.  Jonah, however, is all over the place with his feedings in the evening now, and it will sometimes take nursing him on and off for an hour and a half before he falls asleep.  So now Luke either sits with her or lays down until she falls asleep, which since she's not napping anymore, is usually (but not always!) pretty quick.

Some evenings we're pretty blessed to get them down at a decent time and we actually get to spend some kid-less time together.  But for the most part, I'm still going to bed around 9 since Jonah has decided that multiple wake ups a night must continue.  Sometimes I really miss the days of watching endless Netflix and eating ice cream together!

love my littles in pjs!

When Daddy's Away

I'm in Starbucks enjoying a Passion tea.  All. by. myself.

Luke has been out of town for the past 3 and a half days, and it started with a super rough day from the kids. Jonah just would not take a good nap but was clearly tired, and Noelle of course never naps.  I was exhausted, and when Jonah fell asleep around 5, I made Noelle lay down with me.  Of course that meant both were up and ready to party until 10.  BUT Thursday night and Friday night Jonah did not get up until 3-3:30 for a feeding!  It felt amazing!

littles partying at 10 p.m.

Let's just say we spent a few hours at my mom's on Friday and I think that helped all of us.  Noelle got a lot of one-on-one attention and I got to have some adult interaction!

Nana taking care of her grand-babies

Noelle hasn't figured out how to say Nana yet and calls her Nanny.  It's adorable!  And we managed to capture a picture of Jonah smiling while sitting in Noelle's Barney chair.

smiles!

Today we were invited by a new neighborhood friend to come out to the ribbon cutting ceremony for a brand new playground in Sykesville.  Of course it was by far one of the hottest days we've had this summer, and they had a lot of people get up to speak delaying the kids from playing.  But finally they had all the kids come stand up behind the ribbon and do the ceremonial cutting!  Noelle had no idea what was going on, but was certainly ready to play!

she's too scared to actually go down by herself, so she just sat at the bottom

I tried to keep Jonah blocked from the sun as much as possible, but it was hard chasing Noelle around.  He did so well though- no fussing the entire time we were there.

sweating our faces off

And then Luke got home and sent me away!  Such a great husband- I love that he could tell that's what I needed without even asking.  We're all definitely happy he's home.

August in Pictures

 Eating some breakfast in our PJs.

 Grandma, the baby whisperer.  And she has a very similar picture hanging in her house of her holding Luke around this age and I need to compare them!

 Vacation with the Wiedemans in Nashville.  Hanging out at the Parthenon and giving Uncle Max a high five.

 Jonah mastered rolling back to tummy and tummy to back all in the same week.  This kid is all over the place and will definitely be more of a handful than Noelle was as a baby!

 Noelle gave up naps.  Boo.  When we came home from Tennessee, we cold turkey started putting her in her big girl bed for bedtime and naps.  Well she still won't fall asleep on her own.  When we tried to leave her, she would scream to the extent of making herself throw up.  So one of us falls asleep with her at night.  During the day, the only way that would work is if Jonah was napping as well, which of course in mom world never happens.

 Jonah and mama took a selfie.

 Noelle looked so stinkin cute in her elephant overalls that Aunt Heather and Uncle Jason bought for her in Thailand.

 We went to the Maryland State Fair and managed to keep the kids happy for about 3 hours.  But there were fun animals and yummy food!

 Jonah turned 4 months old!  And Noelle also perfected her cheese face.

 We visited daddy at work for the first time ever!  It was a day that needed an activity that got us out of the house and this was it.  Jonah was all smiles, fooling everyone into thinking he is a happy little bugger.  As soon as we got in the car to leave, it was all crying.

 The sunflowers Nana planted in our garden finally bloomed!

Aunt Heather and Uncle Jason took Noelle out for ice cream at Jimmie Cone.  Clearly, she is one deprived child.  Thanks for the picture, Heather!

 We took some mommy-daughter pictures together after church to capture Noelle's adorable cuteness!

Aside from going on vacation, it was a pretty quiet month.  I'm still very hesitant to leave the house since Jonah is so unpredictable and I don't want to miss the opportunity to put him down for a good nap.    

God continues to be so good to me and teach me of my need for Him on a daily basis!  There were some distraught tears this month over Jonah and my broken toe, but HE is all I need and He will sustain me.