9 month baby boy

Age: 9 months

Weight & Height: 25 lbs.  - 31 inches. 99th percentiles 

Things I enjoy: Crawling and pulling myself up to a standing position. 

Skills I've mastered: I am really good at eating baby food and sitting up on my own!!!

Looking forward to:  Saying a word or two and walking :)

Tough Times: I'm still not sleeping through the night every night.  It's tough because Emma was sucking her thumb and self soothing at this point and I just can't figure out my thumb and sometimes Mr. Binks falls out and I can't find him. I do love mommy's cuddles too so I like to ask her for some in the middle of the night. 

Exciting Events: I got to spend the night at Aunt Brookie's without Emma which was so fun because I got all the attention.  I also love pulling myself up on everything!

Looking forward to: The BEACH! 1 month and I'll finally see what everyone keeps yapping about!!!

EMMA'S 9 month update

Age: 9 months and 3 weeks (A little late!)

Weight & Height: 19 lbs. 12 oz.  - 29.5 inches. She's still in the 90 something percentile for height.  

Things I enjoy: Crawling and pulling myself up to a standing position. 

Skills I've mastered: I can crawl so fast my mommy calls it a run crawl. I can also babble with the best of them.

Looking forward to:  Saying a word or two and walking :)

Tough Times: We definitely had a tough time recently with all my sicknesses.  I had RSV and two ear infections and then the antibiotics gave me stomach issues which led to more issues. I still have 2 ear infections, but the new antibiotic is going down much better and hopefully I'll be 100% soon!

Exciting Events: I have been doing lots of exciting things these days.  Mommy and Daddy lug me everywhere and I just got to watch my cousin Connor play his first basketball game.

Looking forward to: The spring and summer coming and being able to play outside!

What I Ate Wednesday (or Monday) haha

Above is how my day started :)


So I'm trying to work on my eating habits.  Trying is the key word here people.

ENEMY #1 SHOWN BELOW

I love to bake, i LOVE LOVE LOVE to bake. and you don't bake bran muffins and diet bread. You bake delicious decadent food.  To be honest my above peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate covered pretzel crumble weren't my best.  They were a little dry. But, they were my first time making those and I know the mistakes I made.  Next time - PERFECTION!

Yesterday was Day #476 #1!  If at first you don't succeed, try try again right?

So, I'm trying to take more ownership of my eating habits and trying to really focus on making small changes.

So Breakfast I ate

Two Eggs fried with just a little bit of salt and pepper and a sliced tomato.


and the obvious staple - COFFEE!!! Cream and a tsp of sugar


20 minutes later:



Lunch:

Dole Summer Salad Kit (half) I did is sans croutons and cheese and half a bowl of penne vegetable soup. And water :)



20 minutes later:



Then I needed a snack

So I had a bowl of cherries.  I had forgotten to take pics after lunch so I'll just have to describe.

CHERRIES (they were pitted dark cherries and actually delicious)

Dinner:

I had 3 oz. of Salmon baked with lemon slices on top and a tiny drop of olive oil.

Uncle Ben's Minute 90 Second Rice

Harvard Beets!!!! I love beets! If you've never had Harvard Beets, do yourself a favor, TRY THEM!

Then the rest of the day was play time!!!!

Emma is turning into a pro on her John Deere.

And a beautiful pic from this weekend.

A little bit of nothing

What to say What to say

Life is so crazy right now :) 

Work is extremely busy,  having a two year old and an eight month old makes my life extremely busy, spending time with family is busy and above all that we have weddings and baby showers and birthday parties galore.

What a horrible problem to have, a successful job and a loving family and people who want to spend time with us!

I love writing in my blog. I wish I did it more.  To be honest I wish I even did the daily vlogs.  I do think I take a lot of pictures of my children but when I look back at old videos of Emma it just makes my heart melt every time.  I don't have many videos of Matthew.  It's quite an interesting tug of war within myself because when we are having wonderful times I purposely don't get the camera so I can be present and involved and not worried about the video but more worried about being a part of the moments.

I see these other mothers and it seems like they have their lives so together.  They do their hair and put on a full face of makeup EVERYDAY!  How is this possible?  I have a house that is a complete mess, I'm pretty sure we just ran out of wipes and getting a shower is pretty much the only thing I have time for prep wise.  What am I missing here?  LET ALONE THE GYM! WTF?  hahaha

I guess I could get up at 3am, go workout, then shower and get myself together before the kids wakeup around 5:45 but would I be happier then?  Maybe, or maybe I'd just be so freaking tired I'd be stupid happy :) Then I could start messing up at work, get fired and have lots of spare time. 

I took the kids to the strawberry festival this weekend with my brother and sister.  It was 1000 degrees and my kids hadn't napped or eaten properly that day BUT I think it was a success. Emma loved getting on the rides and she always loves hanging out with her cousins.

We also went to our lake house for memorial day.  It was our first time staying in our new house that is four seasons and actually has doors.  LOVED IT!  It was so nice to put Emma in her own room and have a bathtub and a working kitchen area.  I think there will be many memories to come. 

Emma is talking up a storm these days.  Her favorite thing to say is "what's that?" hahaha.  There isn't much silence anymore which I love.  (most of the time) Monday i was driving home from picking them up and Matthew was crying in the back.  I did my usual "it's ok Matthew" but then all the sudden Emma started singing a song and he stopped.  LOVE HER SO MUCH!  It was one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed in my life.

I'm not really sure what to title this post or the point of it.  I'm not quite sure who I'm writing these for. I'll say just for me because just like old videos, I look back on old posts and it makes me so happy to remember things that I had already forgotten.

In the end, life is good and I am extremely blessed.  The grass is always greener but I'm pretty good at irrigation :)

I'm on a boat - you know the rest

Soooooooooo just got back from an AMAZING trip with some amazing ladies!

If you can spend 5 days in as tight as quarters as we did and not kill each other, you know you've found friends for life :)

I went down to Baltimore so we could all fly together down to Ft. Lauderdale. 

Meeting Elisa on the BOAT!!!!!

Bye Bye America!

 Oh hello Mexico!

We ate and drank and ate and drank and slept and sun bathed and sugar and spice and everything nice :)

I had never been away from the kiddos for more than a day.  I admit it was tough and I missed them like crazy, but I am happy to say I was able to enjoy the moments and sleep in and just take advantage of no responsibilities. 

We had laughs and learned stories about each other and appreciated each other's company and I couldn't have asked for more. We broke rules and went out of our comfort zones (including me, which is crazy) and it gave me so many memories that I will cherish forever.

I started this trip saying i better enjoy it because I will probably never do it again, now I'm thinking it wouldn't be so crazy to do again some time in the future!

Until next time............

Blog Funk

I'm in a blog funk....

Life is so crazy right now.  I have too much going on and not enough time in the days. I definitely don't have time to blog...maybe I'll find time on my CRUISE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes ladies and gentlemen you read correctly, I am heading out on a cruise.

To be honest, I never really wanted to go on a cruise because they freak me out. Between the online viruses and not being able to see land, it's kind of scary. However the opportunity presented itself to go with my girlfriends and after some thought I said HECK YES PLEASE!

So tomorrow morning, I set sail on the deep blue to Cozumel Mexico with 4 wonderful girlfriends.

Yes, I'm nervous for many reasons and yes I will miss my children and husband desperately. I do think this will be great as well. Everybody could use a restart button and fortunately I get to push mine. Hopefully I will come home refreshed and rejuvenated ready to take on the days of mothering a toddler and a baby again.  Not that I'm sick of it, but any one who's done it knows it is exhausting (as 3 other ladies are mothers on this trip as well). hahaha.

I plan to take full advantage and relax as much as possible. I may even read a book for pleasure again. hahaha.

I will be sure to take tons of pictures and post them when I get back.

On another note, we got our family pictures at Longwood Gardens  done by a very sweet woman (http://skrsphotography.zenfolio.com/blog) and they turned out so cute! here are some of my favs......

I may be biased, but goodness I make some good looking children!

Until Next time..........

Dear Emma Jean..........

Dear Emma Jean,

I can't ask for anything more in life than to be able to see you and your brother grow each day.  You are still the light of my life and you amaze me every day. I love you more than I knew possible and it's hard to put into words how the smile on your face makes me feel.

It is still very vivid to me how scared I was when I brought you home from the hospital.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle being a mother.  Although at times you test my limits, you have made it more joyful than I ever thought it could be. 

You are so smart and funny.  Just this morning you held your brother's hand and rubbed his head saying "you're fine you're fine" as he got changed for the day. You are the world's best big sister.  You always make sure Matthew has a binky in his mouth and a smile on his face.  You have also been making sure he doesn't grow up too soft as you give him an extra smack or take away his toys if he's getting too comfortable.  Always looking out for him ;) haha

You are talking up a storm and sometimes too much.  You love to repeat what we say and make up words that don't exist at the same time.  You melt my heart when you say "I love you Momma" and daddy is just a lost cause when it comes to your cuteness.  You are his little girl forever and he would move the world for you if he had to.

You test your limits with the best of them and although we are still trying to figure out exactly how to reel you in, I know we'll get there someday. 

You LOVE to be the entertainment in the room and it seems as though nothing makes you happier than a laughing audience.  It makes your momma proud.  You've taken to your older cousins with undeniable obsession and whatever Savannah does must be copied by you.

It's so funny to see how things change as bathtime was a struggle a year ago, now it's a struggle to get you out of the tub.  Having Matthew start to be able to be in there with you is a treat you love as well. 

You could eat spaghetti and waffles for days and treats light up your face in a way that makes it way too easy to give you more. 

You've given me the feeling of knowing of contributed at least one thing great into this world and I thank you for that.

I hope nothing but happiness and giggles for you and as I said before.  It may be unattainable but I'm going to do my absolute best to get you as close to it as I can.

I love you with every particle of my being.

- Your Momma