Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas 2013



Last year Wee Boy, then Wee Babe, slept through most of Christmas and was disinterested in the rest. This year that honor went to Cheeks. Wee Boy turned in a completely adorable performance as he made a B-line for his grocery cart and cash register and smiled beautifully for the camera as his grandmother helped him unwrap his Christmas candy and play with his new matchbox cars. He even willingly let himself be changed into his new Christmas outfit.

The rest of the day was spent lounging, cooking and playing games with my parents and Matthew's sister, Megan, and her fiancĂ© Colin. So good job Boy Howdy and good job Christmas for just being great.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

My Independent Stinker


 
I have been trying to keep Wee Boy snack free in the late afternoons to help promote eating at his actual dinner time. It is not always super successful. See above pictures. After getting a "no food, it's almost dinner time" response to his plea for eating, Wee Boy disappeared. When I finally got around to checking on him, this is what I found. Stinker Pop had taken matters into his own hands by getting a clementine of his own and tearing into it. It really was so close to dinner time, but I had to admire his independence. It was that admiration, and the fact that it was an orange and not a starburst that was his only saving grace in being allowed to continue with his subversion of my direction.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Wee Boy in the Snow



We got a few inches of snow and while I didn't want to take my little 3-month old baby out in the snow, I thought Wee Boy should have the opportunity to play in what is effectively his first snow. Our fenced in deck, seemed to be the perfect safe environment, but while he was perfectly happy to be outside, being outside by himself didn't seem all that entertaining. Hence the face pressed up against the glass, the knocking, and the adorable smile that says, "either come out and play with me, or let me back in."
As is my life these days, I always rescue my children, but not without first taking gratuitous pictures that only immediate family will enjoy. If you aren't one of those five people, my apologies.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Christmas decorating


Oh my darling "helpful" son. Bless his little heart. We got home from Thanksgiving too late to get a tree that same weekend so we put up some decorations the first Sunday of December, after babies went to bed, and then got a tree the following Saturday. I was a little curious to see if Wee Boy would even know what was going on - if he'd even notice the house was changing.
The Monday morning after we'd put up most of our decorations, sans tree, Wee Boy came downstairs and just stood in awe of it all. He kept turning around pointing to all the decorations, most especially the paper star snowflakes I have hanging from our ceiling. It was beyond adorable and definitely put to rest any misgivings I had on Christmas being lost on very small children. (It's true what "they" say, Christmas is definitely better when celebrated with children.)
The next Saturday when we got our tree, Wee Boy was all over helping get that sucker up and in place. We didn't let him help decorate. Again, decorating was done after he and Cheeks were snugly in their beds for the night. But he was super eager to come downstairs the next morning, peeking through the stair railings at the first opportunity to check out the tree all lit up. From then on, it was his personal mission to make sure our Christmas tree was on anytime he was in the room. I have to say Matthew and I are pleasantly surprised he has seemed to mostly understand the concept of being "gentle" with the ornaments and that he only tries to put a few lights into his mouth. Hopefully Cheeks will be just as cooperative next year.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sleeping Baby (for kicks)



Matthew urged me to rescue our poor daughter slumped over asleep in her seat, but I COULD NOT resist taking a few pictures first.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Our New Family

It is about time we represent our daughter in our family picture on our wall. But for the sake of those who don't visit the bedroom floor of our house, here is a version for everyone else's viewing pleasure.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Wee Boy is Nursery Age


Can you tell my son has a new way of smiling? Before it was all cheese all the time, and now it's wide open, as if he's mid "hooray!" I still love it though. At a year and a half, this boy has exactly one word he is proficient at saying, "hi." He's starting to get down a few key animal sounds, but otherwise all we get out of this one is a good, solid "hi." Ah speech. Someday you will be our child's constant companion. In the meantime, we love his surge into mute independence, complete with moving the chairs around the kitchen to get into anything and everything. Mostly he just wants to "help." Help with cooking, help with cleaning, help with Cheeks. But sometimes that "help" means a lot of me saying "if you touch that again, I'm banishing you." His most defining characteristic is curiosity. If he's left to his own devices he is most likely exploring some new, now available to him, territory. Thankfully for this little one, his moments of absolute adorableness outnumber his moments that make me want to punt him. He is my kisser, my helper, and my explorer and I can't get enough of his sweet personality.

Monday, November 25, 2013

My New Favorite Photo

How can you not love babies in footie pjs? Mornings are still my favorite time of day with my babes. And this morning, with them in their pink and blue pjs that make them look like adorbale little sausages, I couldn't help but have a little photo shoot. My Wee Boy, for the most part just looks at me with a blank expression when I invite him to speak, but ask him to say "hi" to his sister and he is all over it. LOVE it.

Cheeks is 3 Months

 
I may be wrong when I say this, but it is virtually impossible not to fall in love with that face. At two months, Cheeks and I were on speaking terms. I'll be honest, the first two months of my babies' lives are rough on this mommy. But at three months I am head over heels in LOVE. This little one remains so patient and calm, still her defining characteristic, but she is also so very smiley. And not just your polite smile, but whole face, opens her mouth as wide as possible so you know she loves you, smile. I can get a giggle out of her a couple of times a day but the smiles are on-demand. She is also quite the vocalist. Wee Boy was a squawker but Cheeks is a talker. Hopefully she gives us more vocal love than her elder brother.
 
Thanks for indulging me.
 
Oh, and just for good measure, here are a few other pictures from her photoshoot.





Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Twinners

I made Matthew and Wee Boy matching PJs. I think they look adorable, but you can tell just how "eager" they are to be in front of my lens.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Recent Crafting

I have been on a super sewing kick these days. Any day with at least a little bit of time at the machine is a happy one. And no, I'm not all that great at keeping the house super clean while I am on a sewing binge, but Matthew is not squawking too loudly about it either so I continue to plug away.

Here are my most recent projects. Thank you Pinterest for the inspirations.

I saw something about how to meld grocery bags together and it seemed like a good way to use up some of the bags collecting on the side of my refrigerator. It's actually held up pretty well with the limited use it's gotten so far. If you like it, you just might get one.
 
Some letters, numbers, and handy storage bag I made using my seemingly endless supply of fabric scraps. Somehow fabric scraps and grocery bags are found in copious quantities around here. Wee Boy is still a bit too young to be learning his letters and I fear that having both uppercase and lowercase letters together might confuse him, but for now I am too lazy to separate them.
 
I've always wanted a Christmas Tree Skirt but was too cheap to buy one, so the couple of years we've actually had a Christmas tree I've just draped a sheet around the tree stand. Not anymore thanks to yet more fabric scraps I had just laying around. This is my favorite craft of the bunch. I even came up with the pattern for it all by my onesies. Ooh la la. So fancy.

Also sewn, but not pictured is a new pair of pajama pants I made for Matthew since the last pair I made him years ago were pretty trashed. If I ever get around to making Wee Boy a matching pair I will post a picture - because the cuteness factor of father and his wee son matching is too high to not be photographed.

Thanks for indulging me. LOVE.

The Running of the Bum

My new favorite time of day with Wee Boy is when he gets to be a bath time baby. This child, like most, loves his bath time. And he knows when we start to undress him what's coming. As soon as the clothes are off, and the bum is patted, he is off down the hall like the most adorable horse in the Kentucky Derby. Watching that tushie run to the bathroom is just about the cutest thing to date. It is so cute that if Matthew is somewhere else in the house he will come just to watch.

So that's all. Wee Boy's naked bum is now documented for posterity. Heaven help this boy when he gets older.

Sacrifice

I love my children, honestly and truly. But toting around two babes along with planning around different nap schedules and friends' preschool/elementary school drop off and pickup times, makes it virtually impossible to be social during the day. These kids are collectively cramping our syles. It's kind of a Catch 22. How do I love my children but sometimes wish their little lives fit better into my ideal schedule at the same time? I guess this is what parenthood is all about. Taking one for the team because your children/family are #1. All I can say is it's a good thing they are so c-ute.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Cheeks and I and Matthew and Wee Boy have made it 2 Months

Yep, Cheeks' survival to date has definitely been a family achievement. She is turning into a much calmer child and sleep is most certainly better now than it was a few weeks ago, and life with two babes is finally easing just a smidge. As of this week, it no longer takes two hours with shift changes to get the girl babe to bed. And once she's asleep she can do 8 hours beautifully. After a really rocky start, I didn't think 8 hours by 8 weeks was going to be possible, but as if by magic, she has opted for self preservation and slept longer much sooner and with less parental effort than her male counterpart. During the day, sleep is still a bit dodgy. She's actually great at falling asleep on her own without tears, it's the sleeping longer than 30 minutes than can be tricksters. But we're working on it. 

Okay, enough about sleeping. I really am falling in love with my daughter. She is so patient with her brother when he's kissing her, shaking hands, getting really close to say hello, or climbing on her to get somewhere else. And really, except for her bouts with crankiness she is patient with us all. I know I've heard it all before from other veteran parents but each child really does need to be parented to their own personality. I had heard it but I wasn't expecting to have to start as young as a month old. So between juggling two small children and learning how to give her what she needs, I'm thankful that she has been as patient with me as she has been. Every week life gets a little easier. Thank you darling Cheeks for being a beautiful daughter and I take full responsibility for all the strife we've gone through over the last two months. Here's to becoming better friends in the next two to 600 months.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Early Halloween - Obligatory Photos

We aren't taking Wee Boy and Cheeks trick-er-treating this year, mainly because I am a firm believer that a child should beg for his/her own candy without parental intervention. And since neither one is talking neither one gets the reward. Not that the boy child doesn't get all sorts of treats from his parents so don't worry that he is being deprived somehow.

But since we aren't trick-er-treating and since our ward doesn't have a trunk-er-treat and since no one we know is having a Halloween party I decided there was no reason to buy/make Halloween outfits for my children. When I mentioned this to some friends they loudly protested saying that my children might be just fine with not having Halloween photos dating to their birth but I wouldn't be. The cuteness factor, they claimed, was just too high to be ignored.

I wasn't convinced by their impassioned cajoling, but my mother aided their cause by buying costumes for them. Five minutes after trying them on the babes I was sold. After that, it was just a matter of making it to my friend's house so she could take photos with her fancy dance camera.

Without further adieu, I bring you the cheerful monster and the disgruntled ladybug. Thank you Ms. Brinton and thank you Mamacita.


Monday, October 14, 2013

We Blessed an Adelae

Our darling daughter turned 7 weeks old on Sunday, high time she be given a name and a blessing by her father. Both sets of parents, Matthew's sister Megan and fiancĂ© Collin and some friends of ours (the Scattergoods) from State College descended on Macungie for the event.
My parents
 
Matthew's family
 
 The blessing entourage: Stephen Scattergood, my father, Matthew & Cheeks, Matt's father and fiancĂ© Collin.
 
It was a perfectly lovely weekend with everyone getting along well, great food, and wonderful family loving on my babies. Matthew pronounced a beautiful blessing on Cheeks and absolutely melted my heart with his obvious love for her.
 
We got a ton of photos of baby girl with every conceivable combination of adoring fans, but none of her in her blessing gown (first worn by her mother multiple decades ago). So on Monday, I redressed her and we took some more photos.
 



I know I should feel bad that I subjected Cheeks to tummy time for the sake of pictures when she so obviously didn't like it, but I can't help but smile at her unraveling caught on camera. I promise I really do love my daughter.

And finally a picture of Wee Boy coming to his sister's aid with some love. She gets a lot of the kisses he is doling out these days. Color me a bit jealous yet touched for her sake if not for mine.


Saturday, October 12, 2013

Pumpkin Patches - everyone's doing it

I think everyone I know descended on pumpkin patches this weekend, at least that's what facebook is leading me to believe. Well that's okay because so did we. With family in town and my dear MIL being somewhat of a photo op-aholic, I thought a pumpkin patch would be a good outing. No cute pictures of Wee Boy perfectly posed against the picturesque fall backdrop, but who doesn't love a good picture of a child trying to pick up a way too heavy pumpkin .
 
And for good measure I'll throw in a gratuitous picture of the boy child smiling ever so sweetly for the camera.

I should say that the little girl was also present for the weekend's activities, but she was so content to sleep in any willing arms that she was less photographable than her older brother.