Glorious Sun

With the forecast calling for 2-5 inches of snow starting tomorrow, I need to focus my energy on remembering how GORGEOUS it was this past weekend.

And lucky for us we were gathered in Viroqua with the whole fam to enjoy it.

My dad capitalized on the extra manpower and put us all to work doing some yard-work, and I don't think anyone actually even cared because the sun was shining for the first time in what seems like 6 months, and the kids were ecstatic to be outside.

These three were happy as could be running around, going down the slide and spending lots of time (per Tillie's insistence) on the seesaw.

Which she only enjoyed a little bit....

 I LOVE seeing the three of them together, playing. Tillie is absolutely without a doubt obsessed with Leo, and I think has been dreaming about him every night since we left because she wakes up saying "LEO!"

Bea even got some quality outdoors time with Grandma!

All I know is that this family is desperate for good weather and warm temps to be here for good for a while. Not just because Ms. Matilda sleeps like a log after running around all day in the fresh air.....

#SecondTimeMom

I love it when I see a piece of advertising that so clearly hits the nail on the head for me. Most recently, this has been the Luv's diapers "Second Time Mom" campaign. If you haven't seen the commercial here it is:



I have been having my own handful of second time mom moments that make me equal parts proud and cringe at the same time.

Most recently, I had a quick visit to the doctor that I brought Bea with for. She was a little fussy and had intermittent crying/fussing. The nurse offered to take her so I could get undressed and have my appointment.

I politely declined and said we should be fine.

While this conversation was going on, she was taking my blood pressure. By the time that activity was over, and she offered a second time to take Bea, I briefly paused.

And then I said, yup. Go ahead and take her. Baby was dry, and fed.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little anxious by the time my appointment finally starting. Mostly feeling very guilty that these nurses now had an additional job on top of the job they were trying to do.

And then a little of me thought...holy hell. Here I am in the doctor's office having a very rare child-free moment.

And then I had a small moment with myself about how so much has changed and is different because it would have been a cold day in hell the day I turned Tillie over to a nurse. Not because I didn't trust them but because of my mom guilt, fear of her melting down, and embarrassment over my inability to get her to calm down.

But, Bea? Send her out. And she did great.

Go me and my second time mom-ness.

38 Minutes

38 Minutes.

That is approximately the amount of time I have each night between the last child going to bed and me putting myself to bed.

If I learned anything from the first time around it is that sleep is precious and you need to get it while you can, so I do not dawdle to bed ANY night these days. In fact, I am dangerously close to my bedtime right this very second.

But the prioritization of sleep and an early 'go down' for myself puts a lot of pressure on these 38 minutes. This is what typically happens:

1) Clean the kitchen

2) Turn on TV (more for background noise, less entertainment these days given the time restrictions)

3) Feel brain turning to mush

4) Consider blogging, paying bills, checking something off of to-do list

5) Ignore #4 and go to bed

But tonight, I blog. And I am taking the cheap way out. By posting some pictures of Baby Beatrice. And hoping you will all forgive me as I now go to bed. :)

to commemorate the fact that there was a snowstorm on her two-week birthday.....in APRIL!

Spelling Bee

I don't think Nate and I were prepared for how quickly we would need to brush up on our spelling skills in order to outsmart our toddler. But we have been spelling for a solid 3 months or so.

 I have to say that while I LOVED the spelling bee as a child (I'm sure you are so surprised), I am glad we aren't having to spell any long words day in and day out right now. Because I'm not sure my accuracy would be up to snuff under the current sleep conditions.


Here are the top 5 words that we pretty much spell every day:


1) P-A-R-K
Matilda LOVES the park, and will shout "YAYAYAY!" if we even mention it not in context of playing (as in "park the car") and she goes wild. Wants the slide, the swing, and the whole kit and caboodle. With the weather we have been having the last two weeks (seriously, now can it even just be in the FORTIES consistently?) we aren't really all the excited about hanging at the park. And so we spell.

2) O-U-T
Similar to the park, Matilda loves to just go outside. And once the weather shapes up, that is exactly where we will be. Matilda will often hang at the door or window, grab her coat and say "outside". It is really only problematic when it is raining, snowing, 5:30AM, or freezing cold.

3) S-N-A-C-K
Pretty much any act of eating is considered a snack in Matilda's book. So even if it is dinner she will  call it a "nack". And the 'request' to eat usually comes in the form of this statement: "I need nack". So when we discuss if Tillie will get a little post-daycare snack, we have to spell it. And I would be lying if her pronunciation of it without the 's' isn't tripping me up in the spelling bee every now and then.

4) C-H-E-E-S-E
Matilda loves cheese. End of story.

5) B-A-T-H
This is a recent addition since Matilda is now starting to not want to get into the bathtub. We have always done a bath every night because she loves it and it is part of the bedtime routine. For whatever reason, Matilda acts like we are marching her to her death bed when we try to put her in the bath now, but once she is in she is fine. It is weird. And so we spell bath on the nights we know we aren't giving her a choice so as to delay the freak-out.

I'll be curious to see what we are spelling in a few years from now, or rather when Matilda will look at us and say "i know you just spelled some cheese, now give me my snack..." because my guess is those moments will come sooner than we are ready for too!

Big Sister Tillie

The most popular question I have been asked the last two weeks is: How is Matilda doing with Bea?

And truthfully, she has far exceeded my expectations.

In the hospital, she was more intrigued by the gifts, gadgets and Grandma and Grandpa then she was with Beatrice.

The second day, her curiousity was peaked, and there were some 'pokes' given. Pokes in the mouth. The nose. The eyes. (sorry, Bea).

And then, once we were home Matilda took to 'rocking' Beatrice in our Baby Taco.

It gets to be a wild ride every once in a while.

We are still working on gentle.

And Matilda doesn't seem to care when we say: "Why don't we just let Bea sleep"

But, the most endearing thing that has happened in the past few days is that Matilda has given Bea the ultimate seal of approval.....

Yes. Bea's ears are good enough to Matilda. There aren't many people's ears that fit this bill, so it really is an honor. One I am hoping Bea will understand, and not have it spiral into a weird complex where Bea needs someone to rub her ear to calm her down when she is 27.

Matilda comes running when Bea wakes up in the morning.

She likes to 'direct' (i.e. boss) where she thinks Beatrice should go...pointing the various baby device she wants her set in next.

And when she cries, Matilda points to the chair I typically nurse in, and says "Bea eat".

While it has exceeded expectations it hasn't been without a few hiccups. I am bearing the brunt of the jealousy since I have to spend the most time dedicated to Beatrice--given I am her sole food source of the moment. So Nate and Tillie get lots of special moments, and Tillie makes sure that I know that she is not happy to be missing out on her Mama time.

Goodbye Hockey Hair

Yesterday was the last day that anyone in our house sports a hockey haircut, since Nate and I are firm on only one thing in terms of our children's activities: they won't be playing hockey. They can do whatever their hearts desire, but play hockey. But I digress...

Tillie has had an interesting hairstyle as she has some wicked crazy cowlicks in her hair courtesy of her father, and half of her hair has grown down, and the other part (the top part) just grows forward.

Its....interesting.....

So with Grandma in the house to help out, we went off to Kids Hair to get the first haircut. Tillie wasn't so sure about it at first, so we decided to skip the gown that catches the hair, and I whipped out her treat--string cheese.

And then all was right in the world...

But THEN, they put on SESAME STREET. A TV show we have convinced Matilda only exists on Grandma and Grandpa's TV....and she was VERY excited.

She only needed three cushions to raise her booty up, and she did a great job sitting still, pausing every once in a while to say "I'm stuck" and "All Done".

The girl that cut her hair made quick work out of it and we were all very appreciative.

And so, given how crazy Tillie's hair is growing out we now have some very light wispy bangs. 

And we have another moment where our baby transitions to a big girl right before our eyes.

Adventures as a Family of Four

Last Saturday, we decided to attempt to make our first trip out of the house with both girls (man, that sounds so weird) and just do a quick walk/play session at a park in our neighborhood. We loaded both of them up, and headed on our way. Matilda decided at the last minute that she wanted her owl hat since Bea was wearing an owl hat. And so it begins....

Here we are before leaving...

This adventure promptly ended about 3 minutes after it started. We literally got to the end of our block (PS--we live basically at the end of our block) and Bea started freaking out.

My pulse started racing, and I broke into a sweat. This is it. Totally when colic sets in. But in reality, she was hungry. She is kind of a snacker...so Bea and I turned around, and Nate and Tillie continued on to the park to play and have fun. It was a sad moment for me as I saw our potential to have fun as the four of us dwindle (at least in the short term)...

So on Sunday, when Tillie was melting down due to a less that appropriate nap length, Nate and I both needed to get out of the house. So of course we do what any sane, rational, just-had-a-baby-five-days-ago family would do.

We headed to the Mall of America. And we walked into the amusement park. We had done this before with Matilda showing very little interest in the rides.

But as I sat on a bench to take a break, Matilda locked eyes with the carousel. And the rest is history. It was non-stop: Horsie! Please! Come! We both had a weak moment in parenting--it was EASTER. We didn't do anything special. Matilda is adjusting to a new sister. This is something special for her.

                                                

And it was special for her. Every single time she rode that damn thing. And that proceeded onto other rides (because Nate couldn't get single tickets and had to buy $20 worth and you better believe I wasn't letting that money go to waste.)

We moved from the carousel, to the Dora Bus and then to the Blues Clues puppies. With each ride Madtilda got more excited. But what I LOVE is her 'look' of excitement. Complete dead-pan seriousness. Like you weren't sure if she was going to bust into tears out of fear or wanted off.

But I am here to tell you she did NOT want off. In fact, when the ride would come to an end she would immediately start bawling and say 'MORE".

And she still talks about it every morning.

And so we had our first successful outing as the four of us.

Bea was very compliant to Tillie's desire to ride many rides.....and hopefully will continue to be as Nate and I are dreaming up all sorts of fun we will have in the future.

Not Your Average Easter

This year, Easter for us did not include any of the typical adornments. There was no big family get together. No Easter Eggs hidden (on Easter morning). No Church service. No fancy Easter dresses. It felt a little odd. We did manage to hide an Easter basket for Matilda to find, thanks to some good pre-delivery prep.

I do feel like a gigantic hypocrite since I am literally the candy queen, and cannot eat enough candy in a day...but Tillie's basket featured no candy. Let's be honest, I would have just eaten it all anyway. She was the biggest fan of her new bunny sippy cup.

Growing up I was always used to getting together for a big extended family day of fun, and I think Nate and I are realizing that this is just not going to be the way it will be for our kids and the sizes of families, distances, etc.

But we did have some of our 'Minneapolis family' over for a playdate. Matilda and Eila are old friends from the GMI Red Room, and if you doubt that a less than 2 year old can have preferences for people and friends, let this video prove you wrong.

Matilda ADORES Eila. We can't even say her name in our house. We have to say 'Lady E' if we want to talk about her at all. And we adore Lady E's parents so it is a win win all around. Kids get to play. Adults get to play. The girls had SO much fun reading and playing ring around the rosy. More videos of cuteness below...

All of the excitment from the morning must have gotten to Matilda because she only took an hour nap, and by 4PM we knew we needed to get out of the house and get out of the house fast. So like all sane people who gave birth 5 days prior, we decided to go to Mall of America.

 But more on that in the next post.

We came home to a gigantic bag of Easter dinner food from my friend Summer, which literally brought a tear to Nate's eye because he couldn't imagine not having ham and that bag of food definitely had ham in it.

And so, even though we didn't do any of the 'traditions' that either of us were really used to or envisioning, the day was filled with laughter, fun and we definitely created some great memories.

Since this was our first weekend at home with Matilda and Beatrice, we made sure that Matilda got some special one on one time....which I am not sure who enjoyed more. Us or her.