Dee and Doot

Matt's mom and grandma (Dee Dee and Mama Doot) came to visit us a few weeks ago. Mama Doot had never been to Wisconsin before, so we were so excited to show her our little neck of the woods. Unfortunately, the trip started out with Mama Doot taking a little tumble in our driveway. It was actually more than just 'a little tumble', but after a quick trip to the ER, a clear CT, and four staples to the head, we still mananged to show her a good time. I think Mama Doot's favorite part of the trip might have been reading books to Hollin.

These pictures were taken at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, one of our favorite places. The weather was perfect. The kiddos were pretty good, too.

I had to crop this next picture of Zane and enlarge it because the face he's making just cracks me up!

Sweet brother and sister sitting on the elephant together for the first time. "Baby" had to go on the trip with us. She even got to sit on the elephant.

Thanks for coming, ya'll! We had so much fun! Having a little bit of Arkansas coming to see us sure makes the homesickness go away for a little bit.

 

eleven months.

She's eleven months old. And beautiful and sweet and funny and smart. The best baby girl I could ever ask for. I love to hear her giggle when she plays peek-a-boo. I love her blue eyes. I love that she's started giving open mouthed kisses. I love her fuzzy strawberry blonde hair. I love her.

At eleven months:

*Hollin eats everything! Pretzel sticks are her favorite snack. She likes crackers, bananas, peaches, yogurt, grilled chicken strips...basically every fruit and veggie we've given her, she's eaten. She was weird with mashed potatoes, which is funny because Zane hates mashed potatoes. This past week she has been refusing most bottles and completely stopped nursing last week. She's definitely getting enough calories, though, because she is loving real food!

*She has four top teeth and two bottom teeth.

*She started officially crawling the 'normal' way a few weeks ago. She is pulling up on everything and has learned to crawl up the stairs. I'm having to keep a much closer eye on her these days.

*She goes to sleep around 7 or 7:30pm. Sometimes she wakes up in the night, but usually just fusses a little and goes back to sleep. She wakes up around 6:30 or 7. Still loves her yellow blankie. We also started putting her in a sleep sack again because the nights have gotten cooler and she doesn't stay covered up. We think she was waking up more at night because she was cold. Most days she takes a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.

*I found a baby doll in her room the other day and she LOVES it. "Baby" rarely leaves her side now. I realized that all the toys she plays with are Zane's, so Buzz Lightyear is probably the closest thing she's had to a baby doll. She's such girlie girl. When she see's "Baby" she squeals with delight. She loves on her and tries to feed her. She can point to Baby's eyes, nose, and mouth when asked.

*Words: dada, byebye, mama (rarely), hi (and it sounds very southern! Maybe we won't tell her she was born in Wisconsin), and bottle. 'Bottle' really makes us laugh because she actually says 'bottle' in low, kind of mumbly voice and she says it over and over. She says it when she sees a bottle, but I think she also uses it to mean any kind of food. She loves to play patty cake and peek-a-boo. When we sing the ABCs, she 'sings' along and it even sounds like she has the tune.

*She's wearing 9 to 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She never wears shoes. I have ordered her some shoes and boots for the winter. I'm sure she'll be walking soon and her little feet will be cold....however, I have not had any luck getting her to keep them on yet. I put some boots on her the other day and she kicked and screamed until she got them off.

*When I leave her with childcare at the gym she usually cries. I don't think it lasts long. They told me the other day that once I give her to one of the girls there, she won't go to anyone else. It's like she's thinking, "My mama trusted you with me, so you're stuck with me!"

She looks so big in this picture!

My camera was on the wrong setting, so every pic I took in her brown chair is blurry. I have to put one anyway, just for their comparison pictures.

I really can't believe that she'll be ONE next month! I need her to stay a baby!

time.

Today is one of those days where I look at the clock and think, "How is it already four o'clock?" and at the exact same time think, "How is it only four o'clock?!" I look around the house and feel like I have accomplished nothing.

Question: WHAT DID I DO BEFORE I HAD KIDS? Seriously, I think about the 2.5 years between the end of pharmacy school and when Zane was born and wonder....how did i not have a spotless house at all times? Why was there not a hot, homecooked meal on the table every night that I wasn't working? Why didn't I exercise more? Probably because I slept late, took naps, and watched trashy tv.

Anyway, today is one of those days that kind of drags on and I'm ready for some adult conversation. It may look like I haven't done a darn thing around here, but I have to remind myself that I've fed two kids breakfast and lunch and cleaned that up. I have dinner in the crock pot. I have clothes in the washer, in the dryer, a load folded....and a load or two piled on the guest bed waiting to be folded. We played outside. We heard the ice cream truck and Zane and I raced inside to find his 'ice cream money' that Mama Doot had sent him. He got a Spiderman popsicle. Of course. And then he had a bath. And now both kids are napping. Rare. I have to get my ipad time in now. Zane loves to play games or watch shows on the ipad and Hollin likes to go through facebook and "like" lots of statuses. :) Today I used my alone time to order Hollin's birthday outfit and a couple of birthday presents for friends.

I'm not complaining. Or bragging. Just documenting life. Sometimes the days drag on. But the years fly by. These two are living proof of that.

 

growing pains, hunger pains

Zane woke up last night around 10:30. He was crying. He kept saying his knees hurt. Poor little guy. He really was in pain. Matt and I can both remember having 'growing pains' as kids, but I guess I didn't realize that it happens so young. I got in bed with him and held him for a long time. Matt brought him a warm bag of peas to put on his knees. I got up to leave when he started snoring. He sat straight up and said, "I'm just gonna sit up now." He was so tired that he couldn't hold his eyes open and fell over. So I asked him if he wanted back on his pillow and rearranged him. Then he said, "Boom goes the pillow....." to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel". I asked him to repeat himself and he sang it again. "Boom goes the pillow...." He's so funny.

And this little monkey has been having some serious hunger pains. She's eating whole bananas, entire cartons of yogurt, and as much nectarine as I'll put in her mouth. She'll reach over and take gold fish right out of Brother's hand. This morning she slept later than ever. Well, she woke up at 6:09am, ate, but then went back to sleep until about 8:45am! Wow! I think she appreciates sleep (and food) just like me.

My biggest pain today has been trying to take a picture of these two together.

And my favorite

Oh, well....

 

ten months

Happy ten months, sweet girl!

Hollin turned ten months old today and went for her nine month check up. I just read Zane's ten month post and, randomly, he also went to his nine month check up on his ten month birthday! What a strange coincidence.

10 month stats:

*Length: 27.95 inches

*Weight: 19lb 4oz

*Head circumference: 47cm

Her height and weight were right around the 50th percentile. The nurse logged her measurements and then said, "Let me just measure her head again." I told her not to be surprised if it was big....runs in the family. She said, "Well, let me just make sure I didn't mess up.....No, I didn't! You're really 47cm!" That's like the 99th percentile or something. What can I say? My babies have lots of brains, like their daddy.

Zane's head was also 47cm at 10 months. He was one pound heavier and a few inches longer.

I can't say enough what a great big brother he is. During her exam he said, "Mama, Baby Hollin is SO cute!" and told her, "You be ok, sweet girl!" He also told me that she was 'adordable'.

The kiss was totally unprompted.

Yes, she's (almost) always this happy.

At ten months:

*Hollin has decided that she's hungry! She is finally eating solids, two to three times a day. I think she is having a big growth spurt because she has been eating a lot the past two weeks. She loves yogurt and bananas. She likes for me to peel the banana and hold it for her and then she takes big bites of it. Tonight she had blueberry yogurt, spinach, pear, and mango puree, and a french fry or two.

*I think this growth spurt is also causing her to wake up around 4:45am to eat. She goes back to sleep until about 7 or 7:30am. (I'm hoping it's a growth spurt because that would mean it's temporary and that she'll start sleeping all night again)

*She has two more top teeth coming in.

*She's still not officially crawling. She worms and rolls herself wherever she wants to go and gets there quickly. She's not trying to pull up yet. Maybe it's because I keep kicking her back down. Kidding. Sort of.

*She claps and waves. Says 'bye bye' and 'dada'. She'll say 'mama' if she's mad enough. I swear she said 'budder' (brother) today. She's very loud in the mornings right after she wakes up. Babbles and talks. LOUDLY.

*She loves when I dance with her to music. She gets tickled when we 'patty cake' and sing "If you're happy and you know it". Her favorite is playing peek-a-boo. She does this all the time.

She's smiley, happy, and giggly all day, for the most part. But she really likes to throw a fit every night while getting her diaper changed and pj's on.

*She goes to bed between 7:30 & 8:30pm. Bedtime routine consists of bath (usually every other night, because she has eczema), pj's, yellow blankie, nursing, bed. She takes a morning nap around 9 and an afternoon nap right after lunch.

*She's wearing size 3 diapers and 6-12 month clothes.

Love, love, love this baby doll and couldn't imagine life without her! She is so sweet and truly a blessing to our family.

Ten month comparison pics of Z & H:

 

Friends.

How is it August already? How is it the middle of August already and I haven't posted all month? I guess we've just been busy? I know that I was definitely busy the first week of August, as my partner in crime spent the week in Boston. I missed the extra set of hands, tag teaming bath time, adult conversation. I missed my husband and the kiddos missed their daddy!

The Schneiders came to see us in Wisconsin. It was SO nice having friends from Arkansas visit us. We ordered the perfect weather for them. I think the high all weekend was 75, lows in the 50s. I didn't get any pictures of us together, but we had fun. We went to the Union on Friday evening and got ice cream. Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market on the square and had brunch at The Old Fashioned. Sunday afternoon we took the kids to the zoo. I enjoyed the outings, but also loved just hanging out at the house, watching the Olympics, playing with babies, and just enjoying each others' company. And I just discoved Instagram, so I'm experimenting with the pics.

This was our first zoo trip as a family of four.

When I asked Zane what the camel was called, he said, "A hump...backed.......whale." And then looked at me like, 'duh, mom'. I liked his answer better than the right answer, so I just rolled with it. I could see where it came from. He told the other kids that the polar bear was "Captain Barnacles" (a character from Octonauts). And he was obsessed with the cutouts that you stick your face in. I think he went to every single one of them....but this is the only picture I ended up with and he's not even looking at the camera. I think I just pretended to take his picture in most of them. Does that make me terrible?

This was obviously not at the zoo, but I wanted to share. It looks like Paisley is trying to teach Hollin how to crawl. They're just talking it over. Ya know, like girlfriends.

 

Cubs vs. Mets

This year I actually got Matt a Father's Day gift that was a surprise. It's really hard for me to get him a gift that the doesn't know about because I usually need his help picking them out. I would have no idea what kind of hunting or fishing equipment he needed, so it's safer (though not as much fun) for him to do the shopping.

It was SO hard for me to keep the secret when our tickets to the Cubs vs Mets game at Wrigley field came in the mail! I even made sure that we were both off of work (since the game was on a Wednesday) and that our sitter could keep the kids late.

It really worked out perfectly! We dropped the kids off that morning and drove down to Chicago. We decided to park at O'Hare and take the train into town to avoid traffic. Remind me next time to just stay in my own car. I don't think it saved us any time and we had to share cramped, warm spaces with strangers. Ick. I'm from the country and public transportation just ain't my thang, y'all. Other than that...the weather was perfect, our seats were great, the game was fun (we even ran into Matt's cousin), we had a great dinner at Goose Island, and we enjoyed each other's company. In fact, we couldn't remember the last time just the two of us had been somewhere without the kids! Helloooo adult conversation! Funny how most of our conversations were about two tiny little humans that we're pretty fond of....

At first glance you might assume that we have on our Cubbies gear....

 

Oh, no. We were brave and wore our Mets shirts! Matt has been a Mets fan since he was a kid and has never been to a game. That's what made this trip such a surprise. And guess what? Mets won 17-1!

I told Matt to make a goofy face.

Matt did not make a goofy face. Only me. So I just look crazy.

Matt,

You are the best daddy to Zane and Hollin! I couldn't ask for better. Even when you are exhausted from working 24 hours straight, you walk in the house excited to see me and the kids. Often times you even bring home breakfast and cook it for us! You go above and beyond. You are fun, silly, patient, and kind. We are so blessed to have you!

We love you Dad-O Bear.

Bear Mummins, Bear-y, and Bearice