Two hats are better than one

Happy Wednesday from two kids who love hats!

In case you forgot...

Just in case you forgot... I have the most awesome little boy ever created. Number one, he loves "shoo-shee." Number two, he eats it with chopsticks. Number three, when I tell him something he doesn't like, he says, "Mommy, that is not an appropriate answer." (and then lands himself in the corner while I try not to laugh). Yep. He's amazing.

Hand-me-downs

 

You know what's great about being one of the last in the family to have kids? Hand-me-downs... I say that being a second child who longed to crack open the boxes of all the awesome clothes that Jen had worn six years before. Somehow the fact that she had worn them and was the coolest person on the planet trumped the fact that they weren't quite as in style by the time I got to them. Chloe and Lilia both wore this jumper when they were small, and now they're both gorgeous, long-haired divas. Lucy knows what's good for her (and knows how many hand-me-downs she's getting from all over the place) and looked pretty delighted that it was her turn to wear it.

 

Back on the craft train

Wow. Remember when I used to craft all the time? Pregnancy really took it out of me, and I haven't created a lot since the little things I made for Lucy's nursery. Anyway, Mom got me a sock loom for my birthday, and I finally finished a pair of socks on it! No, it didn't take me that long to actually use the loom... Just took me that long to get motivated. And Lily's 6th birthday was good motivation since she requested a pair of handcrafted socks for her birthday. The finished product was not bad for my first pair!

Hopefully I can keep this craft train rolling for a while. I'm always more content when I have a project going!

Naptimes and Spankings

Milo's naptime. Oh, Milo's naptime. It seems like we're always in the midst of some sort of phase with it, and I've never found one thing that consistently works. We've tempted him with incentives and threatened him with consequences. What is effective one day loses its magic the next day. All this to say, Nate has a standing consequence with Milo that if he doesn't nap, he gets a spanking when Nate gets home for disobeying me.

Nate walked in after work yesterday to a frazzled Kate and a Milo who hadn't napped, so he told him to wait in his room for a spanking. A few minutes later, while I was changing Lucy's diaper in her room, I heard Nate walk in. They sat down in Milo's chair and talked for a few minutes about what Milo had done wrong, and then Milo managed to talk his way out of a spanking with the funniest thing I've ever heard a child say. "Be careful with my bottom, Daddy. It's fragile." Game over. We all laughed. The spanking was off.

Milo was watching a movie on Sabbath and was literally sitting in this angelic pose.

Lucy is smiling all the time these days. I can't get enough of it.

Again... Literally sitting like this.

Milo loves when I put him in Lucy's bed to help wake her up.

Beautiful girl.

Friday Sunshine

Sunshine. Pure sunshine.

Planes

Milo has been in love with the movie Cars for a while now. And while I find it to be by far the most tolerable children's movie, we've needed a change. Let's just be honest. We watched it a lot while I was newly pregnant with Lucy and puking non-stop, so now I feel nauseated by association every time it comes on...

All this to say, we took Milo to his very first movie at the theater on Sunday, and we chose Planes since it's along the same lines. We met Chad and Tree at the theater, and even Lucy came (and slept through the entire thing - what a good girl). Milo loved the whole experience, sat through the entire movie like a big boy, and ate popcorn to his heart's content. Oh, and by the way, the movie was adorable. Don't listen to the critics (most of them are crazy), and take your kids to see it.

Yes, that's me breastfeeding Lucy in the background. Don't judge. It was dark.

A Little Birth Story

 

Want to hear a birth story? I've been meaning to tell it for a while, and I finally got around to it today...

My contractions started around 1 a.m. on Saturday, June 22. They were really pretty chill for a long time, and I was able to just relax and breathe through them. I was feeling pretty excited about the whole process since I was just letting it happen naturally (last time I took meds to "ripen my cervix" - ew). And once my cervix was ripe last time, I went from no contractions to non-stop awful contractions and then Milo just kind of tore out with his big round head... But I digress...

My mom came over around 6 a.m. to stay with Milo, but I wasn't ready to go to the hospital. So we just hung out and chatted, walked around the neighborhood, etc. I think we headed to the hospital around 10 a.m. when my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. By the time we were all checked in and everything, they checked me and I was at a 3. The doctor broke my water, and I went to a 5 within an hour. Contractions were still completely manageable, and I was thinking the whole thing was going to be comfortable and delightful.

And then I got stuck at a 6. For literally 4 hours. The weird thing was that my contractions kind of leveled out, and I ended up napping for a while (which was great, considering I hadn't slept at all the night before). Nate said he was watching them on the monitor and they would peak and then immediately come back down. It was weird and awesome... Until I was still at a 6 four hours later and the contractions started really picking up. And Lucy was staying put (although, funny thing, I could always tell when a contraction was coming because Lucy would start moving around and throwing elbows and whatnot like she was really irritated). After hours, I was finally at a 7, but I didn't think I was going to make it. My nurse was amazing, though. She kept telling me that I was the most calm person she had ever seen, and that if anyone could do it without drugs it was I. I felt so encouraged all the time. Until the last time she checked and I was still at a 7.

I seriously started praying, "Well, Lord. I might die before I have this baby. I do not think I can do this anymore. PLEASE help me." And that's when I felt like I had been pushed out of the bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. Now, up until this point, I hadn't been able to get up and around because my contractions weren't breaking at all. I literally couldn't make myself get up. Well, by the time I crossed the few feet to the bathroom (with poor Nate trying to untangle me from all the monitors and cords and whatnot), I told Nate, "Well, I either have to poo or I have to push. I don't know which one!" (Not sure if I told you, but because I had an epidural for about 20 minutes of bliss with Milo, I never knew what it felt like to "have the urge to push." I remember the doctor asked me, "Do you feel the urge to push?" and I said, "Well I don't know. Should I?" To which he replied, "Turn that epidural off!")

Well, bless Nate's heart, we went to a new level in our marriage, because when I told him I had to poo or push he said, "Okay, I'll check!" lol. He poked his head back there as I sat on the toilet, and told me, "It's not poop. GET BACK IN THAT BED!" He hustled me on over, ran to get the nurse, and the two of them came back. Sure enough, I had gone from stuck at a 7 to a 10 in the 30 seconds it took me to get out of bed and to the bathroom. It was time!

Then they had to call the doctor... And I had to wait for him to get up there... And boy did I feel the urge to push, and the nurses kept saying, "Absolutely NOT. Do not push! Pant through it!" EXCUSE ME???? As soon as my doctor walked in the room I was ready, and Lucy came with just 2 pushes (and actually, she probably would have come out with just 1, but the doctor made me stop so he could reposition her). And then I literally said, like a big fat trucker, "Ohhhhhh, that felt so good!" So embarrassing, but I'm just reporting the facts here.

So, beautiful Lucy Jane was born at 5:35 p.m. that Saturday, looking so much like Milo, and I prayed, "Please, dear Lord, let me never have to do that again." But I survived! And here are a few of her newborn photos to prove it.





Oh, this girl loves her Daddy.

Milo and Lucy already love each other. He looks out for her, and she turns her head whenever she hears his voice.

The happy family of four

Story Time

We're going to need to get another Boppy pillow... When we have story time, Milo lines the pillows up. One for himself, one for Lucy, and then there's a sad little empty spot in the middle. Normally Milo fills it with one of the couch pillows for me. Here's a little taste of what it looks like when the three of us have story time. Except that I had to take the picture. And I have to read the story. Some people have to do all the work. But I'm sure you get the idea.

In other news, look at these two cuties cuddling. It reminds me of when Milo was little and couldn't get enough of sitting with Nate in his cuddly robe.

And my funny child Milo has been telling me amazing things like, "Mommy, I a penguin and I waddle in the snow," and "My poo-poo smells like chicken." If only I had a cameraman at my disposal to follow Milo everywhere he went. I'm telling you, we'd be making the big bucks.