Life with a toddler and a baby

Mark and I both work from home. The good thing is we are both always around, the bad thing is that we are both always around. But it does mean that Daddy can take a few minutes of his lunch break to snuggle with Lincoln and make faces with him. Lincoln was trying to copy his daddy.

Lincoln loves when he gets snuggles from his daddy. I know that Mark loves being able to take a five minute break to make his son giggle in the middle of the afternoon.

At the end of a day of working, snuggling and getting stuff done its time for bed. This used to be a time that we would dread. Fiona used to fight us at bedtime (now apparently she saves those battles for bath time), screaming, crying (from all of us), and demanding that we stay and hold her hand. And then once she fell asleep she would get up half a dozen times through the night. With the aid of a sleep trainer we were all finally able to get some sleep. Now she doesn’t fight us. For the most part she is even happy to go to bed…mostly because now her play tent is in her room. We read stories in there and play with flashlights. Many nights I peek into this:

Fiona passed out in her tent with a book and a flashlight. Happy reading sweet one.

Lincoln meet your grandparents; Grandparents, meet Lincoln

Lincoln got to meet his grandparents for the first time in December.  Fiona calls my parents Grandma and Poppa. At first Lincoln and his Poppa weren’t too sure about each other.

But after awhile Lincoln thought his Poppa was pretty cool, and would sit on his lap hearing all about his Poppa’s crazy Halloween exploits. I left Lincoln with his Poppa while I went to pick Fiona up from school one afternoon, and when we got back they were watching video’s of my parents house at Halloween. I love the look on Lincoln’s face, kinda of a “wow, you made that skeleton talk Poppa”, followed by “mmm, this hand is pretty tasty”.

His grandma loved to snuggle him, and make a tired Lincoln feel better.

But Grandma’s favorite thing? Making Lincoln smile. When Lincoln flashes one of his smiles you cant help but smile back and think that all is right in the world.

The kids had alot of fun visiting with their grandparents, maybe this summer we will head to Hawaii to see them (and cool off from the Austin heat!).

The many faces of Lincoln

The other day Fiona took a nice long nap, and Lincoln did not. Its a wonderful, magical moment when both children are asleep at the same time in the afternoon. Since Lincoln was awake we got some one on one playtime in. He sat on my lap and chatted and cooed. He can be pretty chatty when he is in the mood.

And he often cracks himself up. In the mornings he will sit in the pram in the kitchen while we eat breakfast or get Fiona’s lunch together and he will talk and giggle at himself.

Then there is the serious, thinking expression. I love how expressive his lips are (both kids have my lips, one of the few traits I passed on).

There is also his quiet observing of the world look, which also shows off his double chin rather well. Ahhh, sweet, chubby baby cheeks.

All that playtime made for a hungry Lincoln and he nibbled on his fingers until it was time to eat. Sometimes he likes to see just how many fingers he can get in his mouth at once.

Little guy is growing and changing so fast. Sometimes I want to hit pause so we can enjoy this stage for a little longer, but I know the next stage will be just as fun and tiring.

Life with a toddler and a baby

Its hard to believe that Lincoln is 4 months old. He is growing so fast. He is developing a personality and has lost alot of his newborn qualities. For the most part he is a mellow baby. He hangs out, spends his time cracking himself up or chewing on his hands. He no longer hates tummy time and will happily play with his toys (and by play I mean poke at them). He can push himself up with his arms, and when he gets frustrated during tummy time he will push and kick and spin himself in a circle.

He is sleeping better, and occasionally sleeps through the night. Which I know it will all end as soon as he starts teething, but for now Im getting my sleep when I can! He loves bath time, and will probably be a fish like his big sister. Another way he is like his sister is that he is a big talker. When he gets going he will have quite the conversation. Although at the moment its a whole lot of “agoo’s” and “coo’s”.

Speaking of his big sister… she just turned 2 1/2 (the same day Lincoln turned 4 months. Yes they were born the same day of different months. Not done on purpose but it makes it easy to remember!). She is quite the force to reckon with these days. She puts the “terrible” in terrible two’s. One moment she is a pleasant kid the next  she is throwing a tantrum that drives you to want to drink.

She is wicked smart, and learns new things everyday. She still loves to sing songs, and still makes up her own words (took us forever to figure out she was singing the bumble bee song “I caught a baby bumble bee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me” because in her version she tickled it and it flew away).  She will count anything and everything. One of her other favorite things is playing pretend. She spends hours playing with her farm (the swans often get them selves stuck places, and the wonder pets are called into rescue them. Maybe we should watch less tv…), her doll house, and cooking in her kitchen. She also likes to play dr, and gives all her dolls check ups. Her tastes changes daily but right now she hates to eat meals, everything must be a snack. And she wants to stay in her pj’s all day. When ever we tell her that it is time to get dressed she asks “Where I going?”, if we say we aren’t going anywhere then she doesn’t want to get dressed. And when she does get dressed she has a very strong opinion on what she wears; vintage country dress paired with leggings, a puffy vest and her hiking shoes is a typical outfit. Most of the time its just easier to let her pick then to fight her to wear clothes that match. But when she is grown up and wonders what on earth we put her in, I will tell her that it wasn’t our fault! We tried to get her to wear normal outfits, but that she felt ladybug wings were a fabulous accessory to any outfit.

Both of them are growing so fast! I just bought Fiona size 4 shirts, which if your wondering means I have to shop in the big girl section. It made me a little sad. We just got back from their well baby appointments, here are their stats:

Fiona: 90th percentile for both height and weight (37.5 inches tall! and 32lbs)

Lincoln: 80th percentile for both height and weight (Which is a whopping 17 lbs and 2 oz! Oi no wonder my back hurts. And is 26 inches long)

Birth Announcement

Even though Lincoln has been on my blog many times, here is the official announcement that he was born.

The photo was taken just after he turned 2 months old (you may recognize the photo from a few blog posts ago). I used Shutterfly for the design and printing ( hey, they were 20% off!). I had a hard time deciding what photos to go with; cute, fun, bright photo, or a triptych from the day he was born. So instead I went with both. Here is the back of the announcement.

Its hard to believe that he is now almost 4 months old and has already changed so much. He is big boy, and is over 16lbs. I get excited at Well Baby appointments because we get to see how much he has grown and find out his stats (deep down I’m a marketing girl, and I love numbers and charts), his next appointment is next week, I wonder what he will weigh now? At the time of this photo he weighed 13 lbs 14 oz, and was in the 90th percentile for weight and 50th for height.

Grandparents visit and build gingerbread houses

My parents came out to Austin for the first time last month, They got to meet Lincoln and spend time with Fiona. They came out before Christmas, and a few days before they arrived  I had bought a gingerbread house for Fiona and I to build, and instead she got to build it with her grandma and I got to take pictures and help. I was the official icer. My job was to apply icing where Fiona pointed so that she could then stick candy all over the gingerbread house.

Gingerbread house decorating took lots of concentration.

She took her job of decorating very seriously. Each candy was inspected. Those deemed not good enough for the house went into her mouth.

She took her time and very carefully attached each gum drop and hershy kiss to the house.

She was very proud of her creation and talked about it for weeks! This will definitely be added to the tradition list.

Ta da! Perfection!

Christmas Madness

On the eve of Christmas Eve we headed over to Molly’s so that the kids could exchange gifts. The ran around and played for awhile and when they showed signs of slowing down we handed the girls presents. Paper was ripped off and flung aside. Fiona got a doctors jacket (which she wore for the rest of the day and gave everyone checkups). Fiona gave Molly a couple games which I’m sure will provide hours of entertainment in the future for the girls.

I was excited to start traditions with the kids this year. Mark and I have our traditions that we will continue to do; we drive around listening to Christmas music and check out lights and decorations on the way to get dessert. We did that this year and got dessert at TGIF’s (not our first choice but its close and it is open on Christmas Eve). Fiona was really excited to head out in her pj’s and eat ice cream.

When we got home we hung a special key outside our door for Santa. Since we don’t have a chimney, Santa uses his magic on the  key to unlock our door to deliver presents. I gave her the special Santa’s key about a week before Christmas, she was so excited she slept with it every night. But when I told her it was time to hang it on the door she ran and got it. After hanging the key we scattered reindeer feed on the driveway, left out cookies (Fiona taste tested one for Santa) and milk,  and headed up to bed.

Christmas morning started out with a grumpy toddler. So instead of getting a photo with both kids smiling in front of the tree, I settled for Lincoln chilling in front of the tree while Fiona threw a tantrum behind us.

After breakfast we opened up our stockings. Santa hooked the kids up and they got all kinds of goodies in their stockings.

Daddy helped Lincoln open up his stocking. He got a tag toy that was a big hit.

He also got a hat. Roar! He is a dinosaur.

It took Fiona awhile to wake up and be ready to open presents. So while we waited we watched christmas movies and she ate the candy cane from her stocking.

The rest of the morning was a blur of opening presents, putting toys together, and playing. Fiona’s big present from us was an eco friendly doll house, which I forgot to put together before I wrapped it. Oops! She also got a camera from Santa, which she loves! She immediately started taking pictures. I love the tongue out in concentration.

Here is Fiona’s view of Christmas; her new favorite book, mommy with my camera, daddy, our friend Jack that is staying with us, and her and Lincoln’s new toys.

Now that the holidays are over we are settling back into our normal routine. Fiona does better with routine and it was pretty rough with having her schedule off.  But this week we started one of my new year’s resolutions (activities with the kids one on one), and we started swim lessons. Fiona is a little fish in the water! Next week we are going to a cooking class!

I am still working through a back log of photos, so more posts next week!

Holiday packaging

I love to bake, especially around the holidays. I also love to make candy, and I am known for my peppermint bark, its fabulously minty and delicious. People start asking for it once December rolls around. I also make my own marshmallows (yes, you can make them. No, Im not crazy). Home made marshmallows are what store bought ones dream of being. My neighbor sent me a text after her delivery of the homemade fluffy goodness; “I will eat store bought marshmallows again, but I wont enjoy them!” This year I added home made graham crackers to the mix. So it was kind of a play on smores. And of course my favorite thing about baking is packaging up all the goodies. I have been wanting to do a play on our last name for a few years, so this year I finally made boxes that I deemed “Heaps of Sweets”, it had all three goodies in one box.

I also made a few boxes that were just peppermint bark (similar label to the Heaps of Sweets) and some that were graham crackers and marshmallows. Home made graham crackers are seriously tasty and paired with the home made marshmallows they were down right addicting.

Since Fiona is 2 and starting to really get in to the holidays I wanted to start establishing traditions with her. I mixed up a batch of reindeer feed (cereal, dried strawberrys and yogurt covered raisins) for her to sprinkle in the driveway for the reindeer to snack on while Santa delivered the presents (we also left out a special key just for Santa so that he could come inside, but that is for another post). Of course I couldn’t just leave the reindeer feed in a bowl, so I designed a label for it. I made a couple jars to give to a few of Fiona’s friends.

I will post a few holiday photos soon. Meanwhile I hope everyone had a good holiday!

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Years! That time of year when we attempt to organize our life and think ahead to what we want to do this year. I’m no different and the last few days have been a flurry of painting, building and organizing. Fiona has wanted to help with the projects, so I let her paint the bookshelf that will go in the playroom/my office.

She even helped put together the bookshelf! Thanks to my hubby for taking the picture of the two of us working.

I have several New Years Resolutions, and I believe putting them down will help me stick to them.

1) Finish my website. Turning my website into a blog was only suppose to be temporary, I will keep my blog but I need to finish the rest of the site.

2) Update my blog at least once a week. Sometimes life just gets really busy, but I would like to update at least once a week.

3) Continue to grow my business and hopefully pick up a couple small fun design projects (like invitations, postcards, mailers, etc.)

and a few personal ones…

4) Continue to organize and decorate our house. I hope to finish a few rooms this year; downstairs bathroom, Lincoln’s room, our closet (yes its big enough to count as a room), and the playroom. I will post photos as I finish the rooms. I’ve been busy in the downstairs bathroom, but it needs a few more things to be complete.

5) Start running again, and run a 10k. I miss working out, and I miss the quite time that running gives me. There are a lot of country roads around me that are just begging me to run them.

6) Find activities to do with the kids individually. I want to be able to give both kids some one on one special time with me. I’m signing Fiona and I up for swim lessons this month and a once a month cooking class.