Happy Two Months

You are still a pretty content little girl, you share lots of smiles with us, have started to coo quite a bit and have laughed a couple times.

Your brother is convinced that you smell like coconuts (I think this is from watching to much Jake and the Pirates) and that you need to be pat on your belly belly as he calls it all day long.

You love your swing and ergo still as well as your pacifier.

You HATE the car, which Reece and I have learned to ignore because we love to go on outings. 

You are sleeping through the night pretty consistently, you close your eyes at 8:00PM and usually wake up at 5:30AM! We are thankful that so far you are a good sleeper, knock on wood. You are particular about your sleep set up but we have it figured out for now. 

You require your Sleepmate 

and the swaddle combination of your Aden + Anais Swaddle

and your Summer Infant Swaddlepod

Sweet dreams little sis and happy two month birthday. 

Magical dishwasher

I have a special song I sing when I find little messes around the house. It goes a little something like this.

Magical dishwasher, I leave my dishes on the counter or in the sink and they magically get cleaned and put away. It's magic!

You can really insert any item in place of dishwasher: clothes, toilet paper roll, garbage, wet towel - you get the idea.

However my song doesn't seem to work? I think I need these little post it's.

Baby Makeup?

I was putting on makeup this morning for the first time in a while... I noticed the back of my foundation label. (see below) Weird right? I laughed pretty hard thinking about who would actually read that and think bummer I have to wait X more months before I can use it on my baby.

Love all 10.5 lbs of her

Weighed her tonight for fun, our little peanut is 10.5lbs now and seven weeks old!

Feel like a new women today she slept from 10:00 to 4:30 then 5:00 to 9:00 and Reece decided to sleep in till 9:00 for the first time ever.

Lets hope for a repeat tonight, fingers crossed.

Update: last night the party girl and early riser were back, lucky me.

Closer To Fine - Momastery

Closer To Fine

Momastery once again made me laugh and relate. Love her honesty and humor.

Thoughts from Snowmageden 2012

I will start this by stating I have been housebound with one exception since Sunday. I think I am the only person whose husband actually went to work this week. In the ten years I have been with Craig he has never taken a sick day and only stayed home 2x because of weather, annoying but admirable at the same time. Needless to say many thoughts went through my head this week.

How many times a day can a 6 week old baby poop? 10
How many times a day do I change Reece's diaper? 6
16 diaper changes a day (not including night or the ones Craig changes) if your counting...

I finally read girl with the dragon tattoo, it has been on my iPad for months. I am sure 99% of you have already read it, if not it is totally worth all the hype.

You may be asking yourself when is she finding time to read? Well it seems our little angle Celine has taken to waking up at 2 for a feeding then decided that she wants to stay up till about 5. I have spent all week up from 2-5 hanging with the little party animal reading. Once I crawl back into bed at 5 the alarm proceeds to go off at 5:45 and Craig is out the door by 6:15. As soon as the front door shuts Reece yells "mommy come get me". Again if you are counting this means that I am getting 4.5 hours of sleep a day on average.

I haven't worn anything but house clothes since Sunday. I washed and curled my hair yesterday because I couldn't take another day of the snowed in look.

Reece will now only wear PJ's, anything else he says hurts and is not comfy and cozy.

Craig and I started a no carb, no dairy eating plan last Saturday. We are trying to eat clean a majority of our meals and snacks, so far I love it and it has been fairly easy but we have run out of food that meets the plan. Last night we went out to dinner and had a beer and pizza, it has never tasted so good. Once I get to the store I am starting again though.

Reece actually turned the TV off himself this week, great there went my respite from my toddler. Diapers came from Diapers.com for both kids that same day fortunately in a huge box. We have colored the entire box, turned it into a rocket, rowboat, bed and fort. Yesterday Craig almost threw it out, I screamed "no" he didn't understand that box had become my vise that allowed me a break during the day.

We made snowflakes out of post it's and hung them all over our windows. Reece insisted every window upstairs have some, we have 17 windows upstairs... I should state this activity started because when I was drying my hair Reece grabbed both the scissors and post it's on his own, Celine was sleeping in her swing. I looked out of the bathroom and saw him holding the scissors, my heart stopped. Thankfully he hadn't yet thought to use them on his baby sisters hair.

Sophia (our dog) won't walk in the snow, I get to carry her out there and set her down let her do her business and carry her back inside, fun.

I think I have cleaned our house 1000 times this week, it currenly again is a complete mess as I type this. On our couch alone there are about 20 toys, a blanket on the floor from our morning picnic, snow clothes heaped over a chair and dishes to be done. Never ending job...

I love staying home with my kids because when I worked fulltime I missed Reece so much. I felt like I never saw him, my heart ached and I didn't want to be social because when I wasn't working at the office I wanted to spend every waking second with him. But staying home full time is hard too, kudos to you who do it. I learned this week working part time for me is the perfect balance.

Everyone has a unique situation, I have full time office friends, full time stay at home friends and part time office/stay at home friends; the common piece is we are all just trying to do our best. Including the five month leave I fortunately receive I have done all three. I hate the pressure, judgement and sterotypes that are put on all scenarios. All of them for me have had challenges and rewards and if I let them each allowed the grass on the other side to look greener. I am here to tell you it's not, just a different shade. I just try to remember that and remain thankful I currently have small problems in the scheme of things. Today the people I love are healthy.

Who's ready for the snow to melt and the weekend to start? I am opening a bottle of wine at three today to cheers Snowmageden 2012, thanks for the memories, clarity and realizations you brought me. Now please go away so we can leave our house. I am ready to chase a screaming toddler in public while breastfeeding once again (true story).

Skincare - moisturizer help needed

I've got weird sensitive dry skin. I can drink gallons of water and it is still super flaky if I deviate from from my expensive face cream. I have been a slave to La Mer for about eight years, I try to cheat on it a couple times a year and end up paying. For the four people who read this, help what do you suggest? I am ready to cheat again...

Happy One Month

Happy One Month to our sweet little girl Celine Claire.

The last month has flown by but yet you feel like you have always been a part of our lives. So far you have made this transition to four as easy as can be. You are very predictable and seldom cry unless you are hungry, need a diaper change or need help relaxing for sleep.

You are eating perfectly and this time around I am doing much less clock watching. With your brother I would plan our outings around when he needed to eat next, with you I will just feed you a little early which is making life much easier.

You can lift your head while lying on your tummy, however I haven't quite gotten you to love tummy time yet. Your brother loves to do tummy time with you, encouraging you while you are doing it with a couple swift pats to the back while you are laying there. You can hold your head at a 45 degree angle and your neck is getting stronger everyday. You are starting to follow stuff with your eyes as well, sometimes when following things they go completely crossed. I had to Bing it to make sure it was normal and not something to be worried about.

Recently you added little coos to your regular grunting sounds. You rarely cry instead usually give us a couple diva grunts to tell us you are not happy. When you do cry though boy do you have a voice, the pitch of your cry makes me very thankful we rarely hear it.

You love - warmth, white noise, swaddles, to be held, your pacifier, your swing, background noise, sleeping in between your mom and dad and your big brother.

Week Four

Little tidbits I want to remember about week four as a family of four.

• Auntie and her family were still here visiting so we spent more time with them! Celine made her first trip to the Aquarium and I experienced taking two kids by myself out in public.
• I took Reece and Celine to Toys R Us/Babies R Us a store a rarely visit but we had a gift card for. I told Reece he could pick out one toy, he picked a $300 drum set, we went home with a Barney DVD and a tantrum.
• The freedom of being able to drive again is wonderful, we got out of the house every day.
• We celebrated New Years as a family of four, none of us made it till midnight.
• Celine's belly button finally fell off, hence she got her first real bath which she didn't like to much.
• Celine is starting to be awake more during the day, loving tummy time. Whenever she does tummy time her big brother always lays next to her and does his own with her.
• Hourly Celine poops are still going strong...hoping these will subside soon.
• Celine's temperament is still pretty wonderful, she is a very happy baby so far and rarely cries. She does however love to grunt and does this often.
• Reece is loving being a big brother, he always want to hold her and often pats her back. Once this week while holding Celine with his shirt off, he told us he was feeding her pulling her head into his chest.

Week Three

Little tidbits I want to remember about week three as a family of four.

• Auntie Andrea and family came to town Celine's first day in week three. They all cuddled on her and she loved watching her cousins play with her big brother.
• Celine also got to meet Katie one of my oldest friends and mother of three, three and under. She was right at home with Reece and didn't bat an eye at his toddler antics.
• I finally broke out of the house and drove a couple days before I was supposed to but just to the store. I spent my first half hour alone in over a month grocery shopping for Christmas Eve. Got myself a coffee, headed to Met Market and spent my sweet time going up and down every aisle.
• We had three days of Christmas celebrating, both kids were troopers through the nonexistent naps, late bedtimes and constant "up" time.
• We spent Christmas Eve at home hosting most of my side of the family, my Mom and Brother and Sister with their families. We had seven cousins under eight, five of which were boys under eight. I think most of the night the boys were running around having pillow fights and tackle matches. Little boys are crazy...
• We spent Christmas Day at Craig's families. The kids are the only grandchildren on Craig's side so they both spent the night at the centers of attention and loved every second of it.
• We spent Boxing Day at my Dads, with my Brother and his family. Again this was boy madness, Reece loves to play with his cousins.
• We had a great holiday and Celine did amazing through all the noise. She was the little angle on our tree this year, best gift ever.
• Celine slept for a couple five hour stretches at night!