You know you're a stay at home mom when...

...the highlight of your day is a successful trip to Walmart with your kiddos.

Addie got to walk for a little bit (before she lost the privilege by forging ahead into forbidden territory). But overall, her walking or running beside the cart was a success. Emma was happy the whole time. No one cried or had to go to the bathroom. I didn't wait in the line (a miracle in and of itself) and the cashier didn't scoff at my price matching. BAM. Winning.

Aside from our sunshiny trip to Walmart, the rest of Monday was H-A-R-D. It was the first day back to normal life after a weekend getaway with Ben. The girls had a nice weekend with their grandparents and uncles (who are middle school-aged and super duper fun for our girls) but Monday, it was back to life with mean mommy. Jk. But seriously.

Both were up early & grumpy.
Addie had 3 meltdowns over nothing before 7:30.
Her stomach hurt because she resists pooping in the toilet and holds it in until she's constipated.
Both are teething and had short naps.
Not to mention - unpacking, laundry, and a disaster of a house. Which isn't a big deal, but a large of actual chaos and clutter doesn't help the high state of emotions either. And then, short naps.
Sleep deprived + high emotions + house of girls = not a good combo.

Funny how once you start being grumpy, it's pretty easy to get grumpier and grumpier! And I'm talking about me, not my 2 year old. Haha. Ben asked me the highlight of my day once the girls were in bed and I couldn't think of one. Then I realized - it was the Walmart trip. Walmart with 2 littles the highlight of my day? That's a first.

But then, my in-laws invited us to join them for dinner. No cooking? Grace.
And then, at the end of the day, I remembered, we had 20 minutes of bliss outside post-Walmart before nap time. More grace. My kids love to be outside.

Exhausted and ready for a new day I said to Ben, some days are really hard and I'm tempted by the idea of someone else doing all the hard stuff... but then I'd miss out on the good days too. 

As I write this, I'm reminded - His mercies are new every morning.
There's always tomorrow.

And guess what? Tuesday was great.
There were sweet moments and giggles galore.
There were more smiles than tears (which isn't always the case with a toddler).

A glimpse - playing together in Addie's room is a new morning tradition.

What's your favorite part? I love when Emma randomly starts shaking her head halfway through. She loves to show off her tricks. Also I like when Addie steals the egg and tries to put it in the pile of toys (she inherits some OCD-ness from her mother) and then Emma immediately looks for it and gets it back (she's very persistent).

I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Emma at 10 Months

At 10 months, Emma is an absolute doll. (Albeit, an increasingly feisty and opinionated doll...)
I think I'm enjoying my second child more than I did my first.
With the first, I had to think more about everything - what and when to feed, how to wean the bottle, how to introduce milk, when to have naps, when to transition down to two naps or down to one nap, whether a drippy nose was teething or a cold, whether her discomfort warranted ibuprofen, when to introduce a sippy cup, what toys she will want, why she might be having a short nap, and on and on and on.
It's not that I never think about those things, or don't care at all about Emma's sleep, it's just that all the little things come more naturally the second time around. And you know how fast they go by. So you enjoy it more.
Or at least I am.
I'm soaking up all her cuteness.

I notice her new expressions...

new discoveries

new gestures (she loves to show off the things she knows. "sooo big")

I stress less if she wakes up early from a nap, or early in the morning (although I still don't prefer it).

This month, she tried pizza for the first time and loved it. 

She also tried a swing.

Caught this goofy angle, and giant snot bubble. This photo made me laugh!

She likes to "Crawl" like this. Addie says "Emma is crawling silly. no emma, that's not crawling." She wants to walk but can't figure it out, so she resorts to crawling on her feet. But then it's not as fast, so she goes back to regular crawling. 

She is a girl on the go. Can't lay down to drink my bottle mom, i got places to go. 

We walked to the park on Easter. I put Emma on the slide to play. Before I knew it, she was halfway up. 

I thought I should go stand by her and support her. She seriously got all the way up by herself, though! Crazy!

Other 'firsts' and fun things this month... 

She hasn't totally figured out a sippy cup, but when she accidentally gets it right she likes it. 

Very interested in the toilet - Addie is potty training so we spend a lot of time on the potty. Whenever Emma gets the chance, she likes to dip her hands in. Gross. Amazingly, we haven't had any hands in poop or broken fingers from Addie "gently closing" the toilet seat. 

She loves her baths with Addie and plays by herself in a pack n play with a basket of toys for about 10-15 minutes most mornings. 

She just started opening and closing board books. 

She likes playing with a small ball, especially if it makes noise. 

She crawls with her head down if she wants to go really fast. 

She figured out going up stairs. 

She likes moving a door on its hinges and cries when it closes all the way and she can't get it back open. 

She is very proud of herself for clapping. 

Clapping also signals "more please." (The hand sign for 'more' is close to a clap.) 

She has a knack for finding the tiniest object on the floor and putting in her mouth. Off the top of my head, I have recently fished the following things out of her mouth/ throat : pom pom craft balls, penny, Addie's tiny pony tails, piece of 3 day old hotdog, paper. I think I need to vacuum more. 

Favorite foods: cheese, scrambled eggs, black beans, grapes (cut), blueberries (cut)

She started standing up solo this month, first letting go of whatever she pulled herself up on, and now sometimes she'll just stand. 

She likes to keep things in her mouth. If it falls out while she's crawling, she'll stop and put it back in and then keep going.

Though she doesn't seem to mind playing by herself and doing her own thing, she does seem to like her people. :) 

These cousins born 2 days apart are good buds :)

We love our Emma Catherine at 10 months. Hard to believe she'll be 1 soon.

9 Months!

9 months!!! Remember that time I posted about her being 2 months, and then I blinked and 7 more months went by? 

One of the most fun things about babies is the age, sometime around 8 months, when their personalities really start to come out. You can't really pin point them yet, but they start to come into their own. Emma is so different from how Addie was at 8 months, and yet both are/were generally sweet and happy. 

We love watching their personalities develop and wondering what characteristics will stick! 

Emma seems spunky. Funny. Already likes to make people laugh. Not the normal I-do-whatever-you-react-to-over-and-over. It's like she goes out of her way to think of how to be funny. She has the goofiest faces and expressions and sounds. This is her current version of a scrunchy face. Which she's been rocking for a couple months now, and it isn't getting any less adorable. 

Persistent. She seems to be a fighter. She crawled every single morning (for many many mornings) into the bathroom where there is a space heater to play with the cords. Firm no, move away. Repeat. If I am helping Addie get dressed, Emma will zoom over to pull herself up on me. She'll attempt to climb all over me. I'll keep gently placing her away and telling her to be patient while I help Addie. The girl doesn't quit. She will pull on my clothes and claw at my face until I'm done. When she is ready to get up in the morning, she doesn't cry so much as shout/ demand from her crib. This has been true basically since she could sit up.

And she is happy. She can be breaking a tooth, dripping with green snot, and have goopy pink-eye eyes (all those things at once, true story) and be so so happy.

We love our Emma.

2 months already????

Since Emma is 2 months old {where did the time go?!}, it seemed fitting to write her birth story. Finally. If there can be opposites when it comes to birth, Addie and Emma's births were opposite. 
Agonizing (Addie's birth) and bliss (Emma's birth) are the two words that come to mind.

Once upon a time, I scheduled an induction for June 4, two days before Emma's due date. The reasons for picking June 4 were half logistical and half get-this-baby-outta-me. To keep it "PG," I'll just say my body was "ready" by about 37 weeks. Addie came on her own 10 days early, so I had false hope Emma would come early too. But by 39 she still wasn't here. We picked June 4 because my doctor was going out of town June 5 and my parents were arriving June 7. I was a little nervous to do an induction, but the doctor was pretty sure it wouldn't take much to get labor going. 

It is a very weird feeling to wake up one morning and know you're going to meet your baby that day. We were supposed to be at the hospital at 7. Ben got up super early to run with David. I woke up at 5:45, had a bite to eat, journaled and prayed a little, showered, and packed a couple last minute things. We went to the hospital at 7 am, answered what seemed like a million questions until 8:00. 

whew. glad i'm not carrying her around like that anymore!!! 

note to first-time preggo mommas: this is not what it looks like when you spontaneously go into labor. been there, done that, no photos. but when you wake up & go to the hospital for an induction, you are more likely to be beaming when you arrive :) 

At 8:45, our doctor arrived and broke my water. Ben and I walked around for an hour to see if breaking the water would kick start labor, but it didn't. 
They started the pitocin at 9:45. The doctor's process is to increase the amount by 2mL every 30 minutes until I'm in "active labor" (contracting regularly on my own, at 7 cm). The nurse explained that at any point, I can choose not to "up" the pitocin and just let my body do the rest if I want to proceed naturally. 
We started at 2 mL. Walked around a lot.  
Up to 4. Walked more. I could feel my body getting more amped up, and it felt exciting. We were going to meet Emma today. I debated progressing naturally (without more pitocin) the rest of the way. But we figured, go big or go home. Why not speed it up. So...
Up to 6. 
I was pretty sure I wanted an epidural with this one. I had labored too long with Addie without one. Plus it's supposed to be even harder (if that's possible) on pitocin. Knowing it would be about an hour from the time I requested it to when I got it, I requested the epidural once the pitocin was at 6, even though the pain was still manageable. The contractions were getting closer and stronger, so we stopped adding pitocin because I didn't want to be in agony for the next hour before the epidural. I jumped in the tub while waiting for the rest of the IV fluid to drip (necessary before epidural) & then waiting on the anesthesiologist. The contractions got HARD. 
The epidural went in around 11 or 12. I think.
It took well, and I was about 8 cm. They stopped the pitocin all together. 
Even with the epidural, I could feel immense pressure with every contraction. This was really different from Addie, because Addie wasn't in the right position until the last second. 
After about 30 minutes, the pressure went from only-with-contractions to constant. I couldn't not push. 
20 minutes later, she was out. 

Honestly, it was amazing in a lot of ways. It was a totally different experience from Addie's birth {which I am just realizing I never blogged about... maybe another day.} 
One thing I didn't like was  - it was a weird anticipation once they started the pitocin, but not knowing when things were going to pick up. Just walking around, with an IV in (yuck), waiting for contractions to start. Waiting for the 'real thing.' But at the end of it all, sweet Emma was born, and we were again, in love.  

at one month... 

6 weeks - first smiles 

7 weeks 

8 weeks 

and today. 

at 2 months old, she's smiley, relaxed, and pretty quiet. She cries to go to sleep, but doesn't make much noise throughout the day. Maybe she'll be introverted?? She loves being talked to and sung to though. And she seems to like her big sister. 

i'm so glad this little peanut was born 2 months ago.

Works for me wednesday no.4 - $2.50 furniture. kinda.

Haven't done WFMW in a while... but what's been working for me on wednesdays lately is surviving. (aka: everyone is fed and clothed.)

Anyway, Bought this at a garage sale for $37.50.

Put the bottom half in my living room for toy storage & entryway type stuff.
Sold the top half on craigslist for $35.
So, basically, I paid $2.50. That's a good deal in my book.
Granted, it'll cost more once you factor in the cost of new knobs, because the current ones definitely will go! Is it just me or does anthropologie have the prettiest hardware?

I like these.

and these.

and these

and these

and everything on their site! 

I'm going with as much color as possible in my house since all the walls and floors are BEIGE. so.much.beige. with medium-brown wood trim. mainly yellow, grey, coral, green, and blue. (is that even a color scheme? or a rainbow? i don't know.)

Anyway, which are your favorites? I can't decide. Well, we have some time to decide since those are each 8 bucks a pop! Gotta save up my cash-o-la. I suppose it's only fair to add in the cost of the knobs to the piece overall - 6 knobs = +$48.

New living room storage + knobs= $50.50 (if I order anthropologie knobs, that is...)

Fifty-fifty. That's fun. Anyway, it still works for me!

You can read more of my thoughts on buying from craigslist here.
Selling on craigslist tips - coming soon :)

Happy Wednesday!
What's working for you today?

and for some bonus cuteness on your wednesday...

can't get enough of her :)



click icon below for the original "works-for-me-wednesday" post

the beginning of a friendship

Addie came to meet Emma in the hospital, and those moments were sweet. A couple hours after delivery, Ben's mom brought Addie to the hospital. Ben went to meet them in the waiting room and bring Addie back to me. I heard Addie say "hi" to all the nurses in the hallway, so I set Emma down on the corner of the bed figuring it'd be better if I wasn't holding Emma. I'd read that my toddler wouldn't care much about the baby and would be excited to see me since I'd been gone, so I wasn't expecting much. The plan was for Ben to scoop Emma up and go put her in her little basket so that we could have some Addie-time. Addie walked in and the first thing she said was "baby-eeeeeee!" She was so excited. I acknowledged the baby but then tried to have Addie give me a hug and kiss and give her some attention. All she wanted was to see the baby. She gave her kisses and snuggles, and just kept saying "baby, baby." We told her that was Emma (we'd been talking about baby Emma in mommy's tummy). Who knows how much she understood, but she seemed more excited that it was baby Emma than just any old baby. 

Those first moments as our family of 4 were so sweet and unexpected. For once, I didn't even want a photo of it (so, there are none.) I just wanted to soak it all in. What joy! 

When Ben and I brought Emma home, Addie was again excited to see Emma. And this time, I did take a few pictures :) 

These photos are by no means a work of art, but they freeze these sweet moments in time. The beginning of their life-long friendship. So thankful for these girls and the wonderful relationship God is going to give them! 

She is never quite sure why Emma won't take the toys she tries to share...