Cake Vultures

I was determined to blog more and and I still missed a few posts. 


Here's what's been going on:


We went to the library last week. I planned to do a big post on children's books and the library, sort of an update on this one, but I obviously did not get around to it. Anyway, we try to go about every week if we can. Our library is small enough that I can peruse the new fiction while they play in the children's area and it is not an issue. This is good.

Soph hitting the books.

  
Last weekend we celebrated Teddy (my Dad) and Papa's (my grandpa) birthdays with the customary family dinner at Nana and Papa's house. R and S were thrilled. Birthday cake and Ava in the same day, the perfect recipe for hyperactivity.

The birthday boys

Three cake vultures ready to swoop in for the kill. 

On Tuesday Rylie started her very first gymnastics class at Dorsey's. She was so excited she literally bounced in place for a full ten minutes. We got there early to fill out paperwork and she could not contain herself. I assumed she was right behind me (rookie mistake) and then I heard, "Sweetie, these big girls could fall on you and hurt you. You are going to have to go back in there with your mommy." 

She had walked her little leotard clad butt right out of the office area and into the gym with the teenagers, where I suspect she believes she belongs. She was standing in the middle of the balance beam section, clearly in the way. 

Oopsy. 

But it was neat to see those older gymnasts and think that some day she might be one of them, if she wants to be.

At home in her leotard, which is really more for dance. Where do you get cute gym leotards?

Look at those dimples :)

As soon as the camera comes out, she starts putting her pose on. This is her "sassy" pose.

She is in a class of 3-5 year olds and was the only one who had not had gym before. Most of them at least took the Mommy and Me class last year. 

We didn't. 

I was worried she might fall behind, but she caught on. She was a little afraid of the balance beam height and then trampoline, but she got over that after a few minutes. 

And watching those little girls learn to tumble is the cutest thing EVER.


Yesterday, we had our first MOPS meeting for Steering Team. Tomorrow, R and S are getting their first hair cuts (you shall surely see more on this). And next week, we start Mother's Day Out. 

Looking forward to a busy fall. 


And now a few Instagrams, just because I heart them. 

Good morning, Mommy...

 Do you need a band-aid? 

This is what I woke up to Friday morning. 

The girls raided the medicine drawer and pulled out a couple of band-aid boxes.

These pictured do not do them justice. There were band-aids all over the house.

Those are hundreds of band aid wrappers.

Everywhere.

Poor Eeyore must have had some very serious injuries.

Moo Cow was obviously suffering.

 Yes, I know it is very worrisome that they got into the medicine drawer. Rest assured, the medicine drawer contents will be moved somewhere out of reach.

And I am proud to report that they picked up each wrapper by themselves without complaint.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

It has been a delightfully rainy summer day.

In spite of the fact that R and S woke up to booming thunder at 5am this morning and did not, I repeat, did NOT go back to sleep. Instead they giggled, played with flashlights, issued shrill screams each time the thunder rolled, and asked for breakfast.

There was much grumbling and complaining from the parental units.

Somewhere around coffee cup number five, I found myself wanting to curl up with a cozy afghan to contemplate new soup recipes or go through our fall/winter wardrobes, as though it was not still 90 degrees outside.

I didn't do any of that but we did have a little outdoor playtime in between rain showers. My girls love any excuse to wear their wellies so went on a puddle search. 

(I love to say wellies instead of rain boots but I probably shouldn't.)

(Because I'm not British.)

Puddle Jumper

My sleepy girl at bedtime tonight.

This week has been wonderfully uneventful. Maybe the easiest week we've had all summer. We've been pretty content just staying home. Which is fine since our new fall schedule begins next week and we are going to be busy ladies.

On Monday we ventured an easy trip to Target for groceries and decided to make it a shopping/lunch date with Greg. He was good enough to help me with the girls and follow us around the store instead of actually sitting down to eat somewhere.

When I go back to work I am really going to miss our lunch dates.

Monday's Pics:

 

I asked Rylie to give me a sweet face and this is what she came up with.  Poser.

I didn't have to stage this one. They did it on their own.

 It has come to this...we now use The Big Mama Shopping Cart when we go to the store. 

Yes. I am that mom who crowds the entire aisle with the cart that deserves it's own power steering. Seriously, this rig is hard to maneuver.

 I miss the petite little shopping carts of old, but perching a two year old atop towering piles of food is not so efficient. Big Mama makes corralling the kiddos much easier. And so far, even Sophie cannot wriggle out of those straps.

Yes, those are fruit snacks and juice boxes. Judge not. They really help mommy to have a more pleasant shopping experience.

So that was a whole lot of post about a little bit of nothing. I sense a pattern emerging...

Hope you are enjoying your week :)

Public Potty Adventures

When out and about with my children we inevitably make at least one trip to the restroom. It never fails that the experience leaves me craving a shower and a pitcher of margaritas.

For my Sophie is a very tactile child.

She climbs the potty to sit on it. She rubs the potty while sitting on it. She will caress the walls around the potty. She will occasionally plop herself down upon the floor. She will then sweetly stroke my cheeks while I help pull her pants up. It is all I can do to not recoil when her chubby little fingers touch my skin.

Have you ever tried to explain the concept of germs to a 2 year old? She doesn't get it. And she doesn't care.

Thank goodness for those private family restrooms. I so depend upon them. A public restroom stall is saved only for the days I am feeling adventurous. Or just desperate.

Because in a stall, in addition to the rubbing of toilets and walls, I have to monitor sudden games of peek a boo with the unlucky person next door.

There is also the ever entertaining toddler/preschooler potty time conversation. Which in my house, goes something like this:

"Mommy...it's about to come out. The pee pee is coming out now Mommy! There it is, Mommy!"

Or...

"Is that your tee tee, Mommy? Look Rylie, it's Mommy's tee tee! And there's your booty, Mommy."

And then...

"Mommy, do you smell poo poo? Someone in here is stinky. I think it's the lady beside us."

With two children and one adult, the space is quite cramped in one stall. But I have no other options, as they aren't old enough to go it alone. I sometimes wonder why I never overhear other mothers in the stalls with their young children. Surely I am not the only one who is forced to bear these humiliating conditions?

Am I?

I remember one unfortunate incident in the Dillard's restroom last Christmas. It was that small restroom in the menswear department, which only has two or three stalls. My girls were in their side-by-side double stroller, which was (of course) too wide to fit into the restroom stall with me. I really had to pee, but they were one and two years old and I felt that I couldn't just leave them outside the stall alone, so I wedged the stroller in the open doorway as far as I could. We were alone in the restroom at that time, and I just proceeded to do my business. Suddenly, the doors flung open and in walked an entire group of Japanese tourists. Remember, it was a small restroom, so as they were standing there waiting in line for an open stall, I was clearly visible over the top of the stroller. I can't be sure, but I believe I was the topic of their discussion.

It wasn't the last time I had to muster up the last remaining remnants of my dignity before exiting the stall.

What about you? Any challenging potty stories?

Or are you brave enough to share? ;)

Blog Resolve

I am really going to TRY to make more of an effort to record daily life with my girls, starting today. Our life is not terribly exciting so I apologize if I bore you, but I have had a blogging epiphany. Here it is...

I am not blogging for readers, or even for myself. I am blogging for my girls.

EUREKA!

It's nice to have some clarity on this issue.

If you should happen to enjoy this blog, I am flattered. But I really just want my kids to have a tangible record of their early childhood, specifically the time I am able to stay at home with them. I expect to go back to work in a matter of months, so the time I have left at home feels sacred and precious. I want us to remember it. More than anything I regret all the days I did not appreciate the amazing blessing I had in staying home with my girls.

And I wish I had blogged more.

Now, about our daily life...

Our triple digit heat wave was finally interrupted this afternoon. Thank you, Jesus! There was a short thunderstorm followed by lovely, cool temps. So we played until it was too dark to stay out.



I am going to have to be more intentional about picture taking. I didn't get many good ones today. How do you capture two giggling, jumping and whirling little targets? With a blurry camera phone?

(When I start working I hope we can invest in a GOOD camera. Ahem, Greg.)



I got an iPhone this week! My favorite app is Instagram. Expect to see a lot more of these. I may have a small obsession.


One last thing:

Sophie has been potty training but she wears pull ups when we leave the house. This morning she apparently took off her pull up and put on a pair of panties sometime before we left for church. Her Noni discovered this while holding her on the pew. This makes her second sneaky pre-church wardrobe change. Last week she slipped a blue, satin Cinderella skirt under her dress. We didn't make that discovery until after church was over, though I did notice that her dress looked a little poufy.

Silly girls.

Summer Catch Up

Hi there, blog friends. It's been a while. I took a little break to consider how to best approach my blog's identity crisis. More on that later.

We've been pretty busy the last few months. I didn't realize how busy until I started pulling these pics. Between play dates, beach days, and VBS we have scarcely had a day at home. I think this is the new normal of life with two preschoolers. I like it but I do miss those lazy days of staying home with little babies.

Without further ado, here is our summer in pictures...

We went to Gulf Shores with my parents and had a GREAT time.
I hope we can go every year. This was taken on our condo's patio.

My fair skinned kids turned out to be total beach babies. Who knew!?

Playing in the sand with Noni and Teddy.

We spent mornings on the beach but most of our afternoons in the pools. They were a little timid at the beginning of the summer but they came home great swimmers. So proud of them!

I just love this picture.

My niece Ava spent a week with my parents to attend VBS with us.

We had her over to play one day.

They kept telling each other they "needed their space." Such drama queens.

Making messes- er, memories.

The biggest drama queen of them all...

Dress up is still their favorite activity.

The playroom at the end of the day, henceforth known as the Playroom of Doom.


Mom and I took them to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie one day.

They were pretty good but a little restless. I don't think it was exciting enough for them. (Allow me a moment while I mourn the fact that they have outgrown Pooh.)

Sophie and Whitney at VBS. They got to tag along with the big kids.


Do not let this fool you. They fought the entire week.


They occasionally tolerated one another long enough to smile for the camera.


VBS music time. While all the other kids did the appropriate motions,
Rylie and Ava turned on the ghetto. *sigh*


Sophie was just happy to be there.

Lessons Sophie Taught Me

Warning: Extremely long post ahead. Apparently I had a lot to get off my chest.

Sophie Rose is two! A few Sophie stats...

She weighs 29 lbs and is 34 1/2 inches tall. She wears a size 5 diaper although I don't think she'll be in them too much longer, as she asks to sit on the potty multiple times a day. She is usually a size 24 months - 2t in clothes, but because she has so many of Rylie's hand me downs I find that she can wear a very wide range of sizes. I love having two girls. I get to see Rylie's cutest clothes reborn in Sophie's wardrobe.


Most people think Sophie is very quiet. I suppose she is, but only because Rylie is such a talker. Sophie is a good, observant listener and prefers to scope a place out rather than shoot the breeze with idle chit chat. She is not a bit shy, but doesn't speak much in public. When she does decide to talk she is pretty concise and her conversation skills are more sophisticated, all benefits of having an older sibling. She asks a lot of questions right now that I don't recall Rylie asking at this age.


While Rylie excels in language arts, Sophie will corner the market in math and science. Her fine motor skills are amazing. She is able to screw the knobs off of our cabinet doors AND screw them back on. Months ago, she discovered the trick to opening the cabinet doors with child safety locks in place. Rylie is still clueless. Sophie studies the mechanics of an object and is determined to figure it out, especially if it means tearing it up to do so. She is insatiably curious about machines and electronics. Her Noni bought her a toddler work bench with plastic tools and screws and nails for her birthday. Hopefully she will give my cabinets a break.


We have noticed that she has an ear for music. She retains the melody and lyrics of a song more easily than her older sister does. The two of us have a special bedtime routine that includes singing a wide range of songs, all of which she knows by heart. She will not pander to an audience, but sometimes she sings by herself and her pitch is nearly perfect. I pray that she will develop this gift and not be shy to share it with the world.

Sophie knows her shapes and colors. She can sing her ABCs and count to 10. Goodnight Moon is one of her favorite books, as well as My Pretty Pink Purse and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? She is not one for cartoons, but has just started to pay attention to Dora and Thomas the Train. She likes to play dress up, preferring exceptionally gaudy necklaces. She is a great lover of cuddly, soft things. She now has three different "lovies" (we call them her babies) and one increasingly ragged blanket, all of which serve to soothe and comfort her. She has one of these with her at all times. Soph is still attached to her paci, but this is one of those small things I don't sweat. I will begin the process of weaning her from daytime use soon in hopes that she will be off of it by Christmas, but I make no promises.

My little Soph has always been a good sleeper, and I am so thankful for this, as Rylie quit taking naps at age two. I know that God knew I could not handle two sleep resistant babies at one time, so he made Soph extra sleepy. She still takes a good nap in the afternoon and sleeps pretty well at night. We have struggled with nights since putting both girls in twin beds in one room, but that is on the mend. She usually crawls into bed with us at some point in the night.

God can be funny. He likes to surprise us, and He did just that when I found at I was pregnant again eight months after Rylie's birth. We were unprepared for another child so soon. But I think we just didn't know that we needed her until she was here. When I held her the first time I remember thinking, "Oh, there you are. We have been waiting for you." As though I already knew her. It was more like a reunion than an introduction. It seems like we were never without her.

Sophie teaches me to relax. I think she may be capable of imparting this wisdom to everyone she meets, as she is a very laid back little chick. She rolls with the punches...provided her baby and paci are within sight.

I am continually amazed by how different she is from her big sister, and how differently I parent them. I firmly believe that having two babies so close together is the cure for over anxious parenting. It is trial by fire for mothers. I obsessed over Rylie's every move and every milestone until Sophie was born. It would have been impossible to continue that intense mothering of both of them at the same time. I am a pretty mellowed out mother at this point in the game. I prefer it and heartily endorse it. Sometimes I think I was a better mother before, certainly I was less stressed and harried. But I also focused so much on silly, inconsequential things that I believed were important. Like how long to breastfeed and when to transition to sippy cup. It turns out that having two kids is the best way to take the pressure off being the perfect mother. Who knew?

Sophie came with this wonderful blessing called perspective. I think it is a special characteristic of second time mothers and like love, it multiplies with each additional child. It is knowing which phase will pass quickly and which will stay awhile. It is defining that subtle difference between strong willed and stubborn. It is the realization that many of the hopes and dreams you heaped upon your firstborn were actually ridiculously trivial and demanding, if not selfish. It is the heartbreak of knowing exactly how brief is the cuddly, pre-mobile stage. And it's the immeasurable relief of understanding that love covers a multitude of parental faults. Perspective is the ability to be lenient with our second child because we now know that we were too tough on our first.

Sometimes I hear first time moms agonize over the daily minutia of life with baby; whether or not he is breast or bottle fed, when he slept through the night, when he adapted to a sippy cup, or potty trained, etc. I remember being consumed with these issues, too. Feeling either the guilt or the victory of each decision. I want so badly to tell them what I now know. That babyhood is brief and transient and that what you think is important now is ultimately so very futile when you look backward. That parenting really is not a competition and sometimes waiting just a week or two longer to make a transition can mean such a difference. That babies reach toddler-hood with or without your constant monitoring, hovering and prodding, so let them be babies as long as they can be babies, I want to say. But I keep silent, as I was once a first timer too, struggling to be the perfect Mommy, to have the perfect baby. To do everything the right way. They will learn, as I did, that there is no one right way. And that there is much to be gained in imperfection.

Sophie taught me that.