when life gives you mud

make mudpies.

Today was a very soggy, rainy day.

We had a fun outing planned with a friend.  We arrived in the (unpaved) parking lot of the little boutique we'd planned to visit, and I stepped out of my car ankle deep in slop. I sloshed back to get Maddi out of her carseat, to find she had sneaked a sucker from her Halloween bucket and had spent the drive getting very sticky, and very very purple.  I was standing in the rain scrubbing blue raspberry from everything within Maddi's reach, when Graysen threw up all over the place and completely drenched his clothes and carseat. 

Then I decided to get back in the car and just drive home (barefoot, because my shoes were so muddy). Then my friend's car died.  

Lesson learned: rainy days are for staying home and watching movies in your pajamas. 

But. Since we were soaked and dirty anyway, when we got home Madison and I played in the rain.  Correction. I played in the rain.  She played in the mud.  Making mud soup, she said.  

Nothing like a little mud to brighten a drizzly day!

We're Off.

To see the Wizard, that is.

I decided to be themey for Halloween this year.  I'm not usually one to dress up, but when I was able to borrow an entire Dorothy costume just my size, I couldn't resist talking Maddi into being Glinda.
I had her at pink and poofy.  
(The wand and crown sealed the deal.)

Micah, being the supportive husband that he is, let me stuff him with straw and paint his face for our church Trunk or Treat activity the weekend before Halloween (but sadly- we didn't get any pictures that night).

Graysen wasn't quite as cooperative.  He didn't love his lion hat so much.  He'd scream and shake his head back and forth until the hat slipped down over his eyes, and then scream louder.  No pictures there, either. 

Oh well, even minus the Scarecrow and Lion, Madison and I sure had fun getting all dolled up and trick-or-treating.  

Maddi was such a sweetheart. At every house, she'd run to the door, say "trick-or-treat," then look up right into the face of whoever gave her candy and say "thank you!" in a tiny little voice.  I kind of can't wait until we can do this again next year!

Three Months.

 

This post is overdue.  (Graysen is four months, four days old today.)  Better late than never.

At three months, Graysen likes to smile at everything. Especially his bear mobile and his big sister.

He giggles when I suck out his nose with a bulb syringe.

He coos and gurgles when we talk to him.

He cries when he's lonely.  And during tummy time. And when the bear mobile music stops.

He loves attention from anybody, and being sung to.  We love when he's cuddly, his sweet smiles and his happy sounds. We also love that his reflux is not so bad any more and that he's sleeping for 6-7 hours at night (Yay!).

He's growing so fast!

Here's Your Host...

This is Madison pretending to be Cat Deely.

(I watch a lot of Hulu while I'm feeding the baby.)

She cocks her head and says, "Ladies and gentlemens, so you think a dance!" and then tells me, "Mom, you say 'yay.'"

Please note the best post-nap hair ever.  And yes, that is a plastic eggplant microphone.  Cat Deely's got nothing on that.

Sundays

 

Sundays kind of wear us out. 

  

Because of our church schedule, Madison doesn't get her afternoon nap, and we don't get home until nearly 5:00pm.  Every week the kids fall asleep on the way home.  We transfer them to the living room and let them keep on sleeping.

And then Micah and I eat dinner alone. 
With no interruptions.
And we love it.

It's like date night.  It's quickly becoming my favorite part of the week.  Tonight we made ourselves chocolate chip waffles and blueberry italian sodas.  Being the parents is AWESOME.

sleep ?

Last night, Graysen put in a full six hours of sleep.

Madison was up screaming at 4am with an earache.

Oh the irony. 

Hoping for more sleep soon. It's so hard to wake up tired every morning. 
Lucky for me I have a Mr. who let's me sleep in on Saturdays!

Growing.

Today

Graysen is 2 months old

Eight pounds, 8 ounces

20 inches long

(And grumpy, because he had to get shots.)

 His eyes are getting lighter, his eyelashes are getting darker, and he's getting chubbier all over. His cry is getting louder, although it still sounds like a squeak toy and still makes us laugh.  He's sleeping a lot less during the day and a little more at night.  When he's awake he's so alert and  focuses on our faces and follows our voices, and makes a sweet little open mouthed "O" face.  We haven't gotten any smiles out of him yet, but we try real hard.  I'm willing to bet the first person he smiles at is Maddi.

He loves the binkie. He loves to be swaddled. He doesn't love tummy time.  He'll push up on his arms so hard that he rolls onto his side or back.  He's the strongest little thing. When I put him up on my chest, he pushes off and leans away from me, holding up his head and looking around.  Except when he's asleep, then he kind of burrows into my chest and I press my cheek against his little peach fuzz and smell his baby smell and wish he could stay this little forever. 

Unfortunately, he's also started having issues with acid reflux, which makes us all pretty miserable sometimes.  He spits up and gags and sputters all day long, and lately it's started to cause him a lot of pain, which means not so much sleep for anyone.  At least we know somewhat how to deal with it, since Madison had the same problems with reflux, and we're hoping he grows out of this stage sooner than later.  No fun to see our baby hurting so much.

So far my some of my favorite things about Graysen are the way he turns toward my voice when I talk, and gets really quiet when Micah sings.  I love how he just stares at his sister, and when he pokes his little tongue out.  I especially love the way his fuzzy hair sticks straight out in little tufts after he's been sleeping, and how he grabs onto my finger and hangs on so tight.  He's such a sweet boy, and we love him like crazy!

Five Years

 Friday was our five year anniversary.  

We celebrated with a weekend trip to the coast.  We took the kiddos, because we're cool parents like that (and arranging babysitting would have been complicated...), and rented a house a few minutes from the beach.  It was just the relaxing and fun get-away we've been needing (except for the part where Maddi threw up twice in the car on the way there- we think it was motion sickness- but other than that it was wonderful.).

*I love Graysen's little tongue in this photo.*

It took Madison a little time to warm up to the idea of the ocean. She practically ran back up the beach when Micah tried to take her to the water, and refused to get anywhere close to the waves. She was perfectly content to dig in the sand most of the morning.  

With a whole lot of coaxing from both of us, she finally decided it wasn't so bad.

She got a kick out of filling her bucket with mud. She told me she was making "dirt soup."

 

Graysen slept like a baby the whole time.

 

Besides spending time at the beach, we had a lot of fun just being at the house.  Madison especially loved playing in the pool (she got in every time we walked outside, usually fully clothed).  And we attempted making homemade ice cream- the put it in a ziplock bag with rock salt and ice and shake it really hard kind- which was kind of a flop, but a great way to cool down nonetheless.

The best part was that after putting the kids to bed each night were able to watch movies, swim, sit out on the patio, eat treats and relax like we never do at home (there are always projects and chores to be done there).  We had an awesome anniversary dinner of Chinese Take-out and sparkling cider out by the pool, and stayed up late watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.  In the mornings we took turns sleeping in, and made big breakfasts. It was the. perfect. weekend.

Happy Anniversary Lover Face!

Life lately.

Funny how I can be completely exasperated with my children (it's been a loooong day), but then as soon as bedtime rolls around I feel all kinds of love for them.  I just look at their beautiful little sleeping faces and I almost want to wake them both up to snuggle and kiss them.  Almost.  Except for the fact that I just spent the last half of the day counting down to this very moment when there is finally quiet and peace and time to myself.

I'm getting used to this whole two kids thing.  It's hard sometimes, and I miss being able to focus on one thing at a time like a normal sane person-- lately I feel like I start a million things, but never finish a single one of them because somebody always needs to be fed, or changed, or use the potty, or be disciplined, or take a nap, or have an owie kissed better, or a toy fixed, or a binkie replaced, or a onesie changed...  It literally took me two full days to make a peach pie.  Now that's just crazy.  And oh, what I wouldn't give for two or three hours uninterrupted to clean my house!

But as hard as it is sometimes, I wouldn't give this up for the world.  I love these little munchkins so much I can't stand it.  Mostly, I can't believe how fast time is going.  Graysen will be eight weeks on Sunday.  Eight weeks!

And just today I looked at Maddi and thought, when did you stop being my baby girl?  She's huge. And acting so grown up.  It blows my mind.

So it's days like today-- when things are a little rough,and I'm beyond exhausted, and my patience is wearing really thin-- that I have to remind myself just how quickly this time will go by, and how grateful I am for these kiddos.  Because I have absolutely no idea where I'd be without them.