4th of July matching

When I noticed that they both happened to own matching nautical outfits, we had to take a picture. A few minutes later Emma spit up all over hers. Then, I went to change her diaper and she peed on it. I swear Emma loves matching her big sister.

We didn't do much for the 4th. I had to work but snuck out a little early. Olivia and put popsicles in our cocktails (champagne and apple juice, I'll let you decide who had which). Poor girl was distraught when she saw that she only had a stick left in her drink. "Where'd the popsicort go?" It melted. I felt so bad I had to buy her a new popsicle. 

Fireworks didn't wake the girls up, but I, of course, spent the night worried that they would wake up, OR the dog (who refused to go out) would pee on the floor.

I no like your face, mama

I'm two weeks in to being back at work: simultaneously loving it and missing my sweet girls and sleeping in past 5. Emma started taking the bottle - so we are super pumped about that. The doctors are no longer worried about her weight. Says she is just "a peanut" in the 4th percent - but she's staying there and not dropping further. So crazy that at almost 5 months, she weighs what Olivia weighed at 2 months.

Found a post I wrote about Olivia when she was a baby, and all these little things that I had forgotten came back. I say it all the time, but I want to post the mundane because I know I will love reading these memories again.  (All pictures courtesy of my mama).

So a few small stories from awhile ago:

• Olivia found a generic hospital blanket and she goes "Emma, that's from the day you were born!" My heart melted. I can't believe she remembers that.
• Olivia told me she wanted to go to Target. I asked what she wanted to get. "More baby dolls" (shocking..) "and new ceiling fans." You don't like our ceiling fans? "No."
• I got her up from her nap and she said "Mama, I shouldn't break the window." That's true. "And I shouldn't put pacis in my diaper." Also true.
• When Olivia hurt her arm and we had to to go urgent care - after all she went through I said "you can have anything you want!" and she looked up at me with bright excited eyes and said, "I want to go to Target!"
• She was crazy hyper one day and I said "Olivia, you are driving me nuts!" and she said "ohhh yummy, I want nuts mommy."

And more recently: 

• Olivia said "I want to watch one of your shows mommy." We never have any of 'our shows' or anything on the TV when she's around. So I turned on the Bachelorette. She watched for a few minutes "Oh mommy, I like this one. This is now MY show!" ABC hooks them young.
• We have a dog who sheds, so we would tell Olivia, "don't eat that, it has doggie hair on it!" Koda was chewing on an itch and Olivia goes "oh no Koda! Don't eat your doggie hairs!" Clearly confused by the term, later she told me "mommy, your brush has your doggie hairs in it!"
• Olivia came up to me and said "I wove you my whole life!"
• We tell Olivia she can have something if she behaves. She looks back at us "I 'havin'!" I can't get her to say 'havin' on camera, but it makes us laugh.
• She had just eaten a cake pop about an hour earlier when her stomach growled. She goes "Oh mama, my stomach made a noise. It just said 'where'd that cake pop go?'" Where does she come up with this stuff?

• When we were on our way back from the beach and Olivia was sad about leaving I kept saying "we can go back to Charlotte where your friends are." When we got home she started running around the house like it was a surprise party: "my friends here? where my friends hiding?" They take everything literally.
• We have a whole host of power cords by this one table in our family room. I told Olivia we couldn't do something because we needed to charge it. She said "set it on that table right there mama and it'll charge." Wireless charging will probably be a thing of her generation.
• She actually took a nap the other day. Napped so hard when she woke up she asked for breakfast. She had eggs and sausage for dinner because she insisted it was breakfast time. 
• Olivia used to kick the window in her room and we'd talk over the monitor telling her to stop. We were in Emma's room and she looked up at the monitor and said "mama, you use that camera to make sure Emma doesn't kick the window, don't you?" Caught us.
• Olivia, how old is daddy? "Wendelborn" 

• My friend sells Mary Kay and we had a Mary Kay party at my house. Olivia was being so sweet I let her stay up late. At one point I said "Olivia do we look pretty?" She replied "no." Didn't leave it there, then said "I no like your face." 
• I had a headache the other day and told Olivia. She looked at me really concerned and held her popsicle against my head and said "here mommy, does that cold make it feel better?"
• Olivia, why is your nose running? "Because I had a bless you."
• "I got blonde hairs. They came from daddy."
• Dan and his friend were staying the night at a casino for his birthday, Olivia goes "Daddy can't stay the night! There are no beds out there!" pointing outside. True.
• Lastly a few sweet things: "I missed you so much!" after my first week at work. "Thank you for my flamingos mommy" when I got a new shower curtain for her bathroom. And the other night, "Good night Emma. I'll see you in the morning. I can't wait until morning. I'll play with you then Emma. Bye Emma."

Our Schedule

Maternity leave was fun, but we're now back to the real world. Thought I would share our schedule these days since people are always asking about school, working from home, etc.

Insert irrelevant picture here. My mom took this!

4:30am - Emma is up to eat. I secretly like it. I get to snuggle her before work.
5:00am - My alarm goes off, but I'm usually already up. I brush my teeth while having fantasies of sleeping in in a dark hotel room. 
6:00am - In the car headed to work. I eat my breakfast and drink my coffee in the car. Usually listen to a book on tape.
7:00am - At work. Super boring IT things.
8:00am - Dan gets both girls up and fed. And gets himself ready for work. I can only imagine what kind of disaster this is.
9:00am - Girls are dropped off at school and Dan heads to work.
12:00pm - I leave to pick up the girls. 99% of the time I forget a lunch and think about how starving I am. Sometimes I eat Olivia's fruit snacks.
1:00pm - Pick up the girls, ask Olivia 'what are you wearing?,' negotiate with terrorists, feed the dictator a snackbubblewatermilkgoldfishpretzelsgummiesrightnowrightnowrightnow, put a TV show on so we can all calm down, feed Emma and put both the girls down for their naps.
2:00pm - Start working again. Super boring IT things again.
5:00pm - If one of them didn't wake up 8 minutes into their nap, I wake them up at 5. They are pretty good at trading off who sleeps when. Heaven forbid they both nap. Then, I usually try to maintain sanity for all parties while getting dinner ready. 
6:00pm - Daddy is home and dinner is served. We eat and then usually play outside until bed.
6:45pm - Baths
7:30pm - We hoped to have everyone down, but it ends up being 8/830. More negotiations with terrorists.
8:30pm - Clean up the tornado that went through our house, empty dishes, clean the kitchen, fold and do any laundry that is in the laundry room, make lunches and bottles and backpacks for school the next day. Finish work that I couldn't if the girls didn't nap well.
10:00pm - TV! We are currently watching prison break which is addicting. I'm usually falling asleep during the episodes, and Dan's getting annoyed because I don't remember something that happened 8 minutes ago. 
11:30pm - Head to bed. 
1:00am - Emma is up (optional - happening too often lately though)
4:30am - Repeat

I definitely miss sleep. But I really like the fact that I get to see the girls more, and I don't have to spend hours in the evening driving home. Some things that make this schedule work:

• We prep everything the night before. Breakfasts, lunches, Emma's bottles, the coffee maker, work bags, etc.
• I meal plan on Sundays, order my groceries for pick up on Mondays, and actually do most of the cooking after the girls go to bed. Then I just reheat or cook vegetables right before dinner. 
• Dry shampoo.
• Committing to the cleaning and prep time before ever sitting down. 

What's something that you do to make your life easier? I'm all about making things more efficient these days.

Destin 2016

We just got back from an impulsive 3 days at the beach. Olivia didn't have school this past week and my parents didn't have any renters in their condo. We rented a mini van, packed up the girls and the dog and met Gaga and Papa for the beach. 

Olivia was great in the car. She was so excited that she wouldn't even get out at rest stops to use the restroom. "No mama. I yust went. I want to go to the beach!" I had wrapped all these fruit snacks and little toys for Olivia as "presents" to keep her entertained in the car. She didn't need any of them. She just wanted a direct shot to the beach. 

Emma was a little bit of a mess, but we all survived. 

Olivia kept telling me, "I love the beach! Last time I went I was a baby!" (She was almost two). She spent most of the time at the pool, and despite having an absolute blast building sandcastles and playing in the waves with Dan and my dad - she said "me no like the waves, me no like the sand."

By the last day she was "swimming" underwater and I couldn't be more proud. I have to put swimming in quotes because Dan said, "you mean drowning?" Well .. technically yes. But she wouldn't even get her face wet earlier - and here she was going under and kicking her feet until you pulled her up. 

She kept calling her googles 'bubbles,' and telling all the kids she met, "My mama got me these bubbles for my eyes so no water gets in them." I just love how she thinks it's so cool that her mom bought her something. I said on Instagram that soon she won't think it's cool, she'll be 7 and be all "I just ubered to Target and picked up these sweet shades myself."

Olivia saw someone order a strawberry daiquiri at the bar. She HAD to have one. Creeping by the bar asking other people to buy one for her. When I finally caved, she chugged it. We will have big problems when she's a teenager. 

Emma hated the sun and heat. We had a tent for her with a baby bath tub for kicking her feet. A little fan blowing on her. This whole set up! After 20 minutes of crying I called it quits and went up with her. We go back in August so hopefully she'll like it then.

On the way back both girls did great in the car. Olivia found my favorite movie from when I was little. Cinderella. She watched it 3 times and then asked if she could get back in the car (after an 8 hour drive) to watch it again. Sweet thing keeps saying 'bitty bitty boo' (bippity boppity boo). 

And we stopped at a Dwarf House Chick Fil A and Olivia loved the "ah-yivia sized doort!" 

The beach with little ones is definitely different. No more laying out from 10-2 (prime tanning hours). But its so much fun to live all the magic through their eyes. 

Emma vs Olivia - Four Months

Starting to look a little more different.

Emma - Four Months

Height: 24.25 inches
Weight: 12 pounds

Sleep: I actually have good news to report! The Zantac diminished the night wakings for sure! She started to trust that eating wouldn't hurt her. Started eating more. And then started sleeping longer stretches at night, and is pretty much down to waking once per night. Olivia did the 4am feed until she was 8 months. I'm cool with that. Especially because work starts soon and I leave without seeing the girls in the morning. I kinda like an excuse to snuggle her before getting ready for work.

Eating: Still doesn't take the bottle. Work starts back this week, so hopefully daycare and our nanny will be able to get her to. I've heard that some kids will refuse to eat and then make up for it at night. Please Emma - keep sleeping!

Best Moment of the Month: The first time she laughed out loud. I had been rushing around, helping our dictator, getting snacks, the TV turned on, lugging Emma around through all of this. I set Emma down, changed her diaper while telling Olivia 'almost nap time.' I stopped for a second to look at Emma and smile. It was like she was just waiting for me. Her eyes lit up and she got this big smile and then burst out laughing. She couldn't contain her excitement that I was paying attention to her! She's going to be a little ham.

Parent of the Month: Let me take this time to tell you how Emma gets scared. When she was in my stomach if I patted my stomach or touched it, she would jump so hard I could feel her. She is still the little scaredy cat! If I laugh or speak after a slight period of silence, she jumps and screams with her bottom lip out like I was so mean to have scared her so horribly. When our dog barks, when I take her into Whole Foods and that breeze blows that keeps the bugs out, when we go into a store and there is a large climate change, when we enter an elevator, if I pick her up too quickly - scared, sad, screaming. Worst mom ever. She won't be riding the rollercoasters with Olivia!

Milestones: Emma is laughing out loud, 'standing' all the time, and really interactive. She can tell when we walk in the room. She lights up when she sees us. She loves holding her toys, bringing them to her mouth and chewing on them. Loves chewing her fists and drooling like crazy. She's also mastered the 'raspberries.' I just love how interactive she is at this age, but still such a baby. So much fun! Don't get any bigger!

Clothes / Diapers: Still in size 2 diapers but she's in 3-6 or 6-9 clothes. She's able to wear some of Olivia's spring stuff from when she was 9 months - which I love. Olivia's summer clothes are my favorite so I'm thrilled to reuse them.

Favorites: Emma is loving Sophie the giraffe. Olivia never loved it much - but Emma just loves to hold Sophie and chew. This is a great age for her play mat and hanging toys that she can bat and chew on. We've also been using the baby bjorn since Emma likes to look out so much - the wrap days are over.

How to Take Pictures of Toddlers

Since I'm an expert, I thought I would share my advice.

1. Bribe them with anything that will work. Candy in our house. I offer something and our little negotiator will say "FIVE!" and then I say "deal." Usually only a deal if I'm sending her to school for the teachers to deal with her sugar high. 

2. Do it first thing in the morning after getting dressed. If they have a few minutes, they will likely spill stuff all over themselves, rip out their bow, and lose their shoes. Just like your drunk friend at a wedding, post midnight when the band plays a Bon Jovi cover. Except its 7am and you haven't finished your microwaved 3x coffee. 

Make sure to do the above two steps, and you too will end up with beautiful pictures.