Sweet Summertime

We started off the weekend with a date for 4 at Dean and Deluca wine bar on the patio. Everything everyone ordered, I could eat! How crazy is that? This might be a regular thing. 

Then I went to bed at 8, like a G. 

We headed to my parents lake house on Saturday for one last summer weekend. 

Where Emma had way too much to drink.

After a quick swim for Olivia Sunday morning, we headed back to Charlotte for Festival in the Park. Olivia wanted to ride all of the crazy fast rides, but was too short for most of them. She and Dan rode the teacups and she kept yelling 'spin faster!'

The attendant on the scrambler said she could go (even a foot or so too short) if Dan went with her. This is like the teacups, but it then swings far out, while you spin fast. I was a little nervous, but Olivia LOVED it. She was so dizzy, she couldn't walk getting off. Even Dan said his stomach was in knots. She's certifiably crazy.

Emma took a quick power nap. About 15 minutes. So she'd be ready for the rest of the day.

Emma is just so good. She's always down for whatever nonsense we are doing. She's always down to skip all naps. She just wants to watch the big kids and be part of the action. She never fussed once all day. Such a good sport. And this happy little nugget has my heart. 

Olivia and I rode the ferris wheel. She kept trying to stand up. 

Olivia did the bounce house and the little train, and we grabbed some cotton candy before calling it a great day at the festival. We came home to find the neighbors outside and let Olivia play until she had a logical meltdown over a chair (aka exhausted). 

Another super fun weekend in the books. Remind me again why weekends are only two days?

Sitting Up

When Emma could sit up, I grabbed the camera to document the moment. Then I forgot to put it on the blog.

And the usual sister shot. 

Third Week of School

#Trainwreck

"I'm sorry, what does that say?"

"Third WEEK?"

 Unamused.

Last Pool Weekend

First, do you ever spray tan and then sleepily sit in the glider in your infant's room and feed her in the middle of the night? And then realize the next day that the glider is orange and you are an idiot? And then use an entire bottle of oxy clean cleaning it? ME TOO! So now that I know this happens to everyone, I'm not ashamed to admit that cleaning it took a chunk of my weekend.

They extended the pool one more weekend because the weather has been so nice. We had an absolute blast! 

Olivia is finally a good enough swimmer to go down the big slide, swim to the side, and climb out. I'm so proud of her! She went down it around 100 times this weekend. 

I went to take a selfie of me and Olivia, and she ran away right as took the picture.

We had a really nice lifeguard who let her go off the diving board. No floaty. I would go first, then she would go, and I would help her to the side. There's a video on Instagram. 

On Sunday, one of her sweet friends Lorelei came to play at the pool with her. They did the slide, swam a lot, and ended the summer with an orange dreamsicle. 

After the pool we walked to dinner and ice cream with our neighbors. Caught her holding Emma's foot the whole ride. All of the heart eyes. 

On the way back she wanted to ride on dad's shoulders. 

I'm so sad. Summer is my favorite, and I'm not ready for it to be over. I'll take these long 90 degree days all year!

Dan got the new shutters up on the house, and I only had a mild panic attack, worrying he would fall off of our roof. 

We are about 75% finished with painting the built-ins. A longer project than expected. But will be nice to have the storage! House projects take a million times longer with two kids. 

Emma vs Olivia - Seven Months

Love these side by sides. But they keep looking more and more different.

Emma - Seven Months

Height: 26 inches
Weight: 14 pounds

Sleep: Still sleeping 7-630 with one night wake up. This is the month Olivia stopped waking in the middle of the night. Fingers crossed! Naps are hard.

Eating: She's been loving solids. So far her favorite food is green beans. What? She's not a huge fan of fruit, but mostly she hates purees. She gags a lot. She gets whole pieces of food to gum and loves it. We were eating stuffed sweet potatoes with chili powder - a little spicy. I was feeding Emma plain sweet potato and she kept reaching for mine and gagging on hers. Finally, I let her have a bite thinking she would hate it - she loved it! She ended up eating a few helpings of spicy sweet potatoes. 

Milestones: This girl is mobile! She's rolling and scooting wherever she wants to go. She can only crawl backwards. And her sweet self gets so frustrated when she gets farther and farther from her target. She's able to get where she wants to go, and she's loving it. But she still wants to run around with the big kids. She loves the water and its so funny how she kicks and paddles like she's ready to swim. She started sitting up by herself last month and loves being able to sit and play with toys. 

Clothes / Diapers:  Still size 3 and 9 month - she's evening out to be true with her age. 

Best Moment of the Month: When Emma started babbling. The doctor said "by 9 months she'll start saying consonants - 'ba ba ba' 'da da da'" I thought it was funny because Olivia never did. Since she had those ear and hearing issues, she didn't really follow normal language development. But sure enough in the past week or two Emma has been saying her consonants. She'll act really mad and yell "DA DA!" It makes me laugh thinking she's calling for Dan or mad at him.

Parent of the Month: Definitely the sand face plant. I was behind the camera, not paying attention. Dan was too far away to catch her in time. We both failed. 

Favorites: Can this entire month be my favorite? She's just so happy and so laid back. She loves to hang with the big kids and squeals with delight when she sees them. She's along for the ride - whatever that may be. She doesn't need to nap, ever really, so we can plug along until someone needs to eat. I am loving this age and just trying to soak it up. Before long she'll be big and telling me "I no like your face."

We've put most of the baby products in the attic. Still love those sleepsacks, our moccs, and the exersaucer. Now that she's old enough to use sunscreen, this is our absolute favorite for the whole family. 

One more picture:

Weekending

We have had the most fun weekends this summer, and I never post about them! Figured I'd mention the last two.

Have you seen these water balloons? It fills up 30 at a time and then you pull the hose up and the rubber bands slide on the balloon sealing them. Our children will never know the agony of filling and tying 5 water balloons. And saving them because they took so long. We played water balloons with the neighbors.

Then I commissioned some art for the play room. Once I spend the 92 hours I have left caulking the built ins, and paint, I'll post some pictures.

Olivia and I also played with chalk paint. I got this set and it was so much fun! I'm not convinced that it'll ever come off of the driveway. 

We then went to friends to grill out. The girls stayed up until 930 before Emma melted down. Pretty solid. 

Dan chopped off our cute shoes - but Livi and I were wearing cute shoes!

Monday evening Olivia had a pool party for one of her friends. There was a water slide and this girl was in heaven. Friday she had a birthday party for the boy next door and they had a blast. She can't stop talking about her Cinder-yella party when she turns free in Octover. 

My parents bought a lake house so this weekend we went to check it out. These girls love  the water! Olivia only got out of the lake to eat dinner and got right back in. She woke up ready to run to the water! 

Olivia dressed herself. PJs and Halloween bows.

Emma didn't want to stop eating to play. She can multitask already. Also, thats her wine.

We came back from the lake with enough time to change swim suits and head to the pool for one of the last days of summer.  Emma loves to be splashed, kick in the water, have you help her do 'strokes' with her hands, she just squeals with delight and tries to make her way to the water. I really think I birthed two of the same human: one with blonde hair and one with red.

First Week of School

Olivia had a pretty rough drop off after her first day. The teacher peeled her off Dan and he texted me "she officially hates me." When she got home she told me how she cried and she didn't like school and the teacher made her eat her cheese before she could have the raisins in her lunch (no idea why they said that!).

She asked if her friend, Lorelei, who is in another classroom, cried too. I decided it was best to lie. "She did cry, Olivia." Why mommy? "Because the classroom was new. And new things can seem scary. And doing scary things is hard. But we can do hard things. You can ride your bike - thats hard! You can draw the letter O, and thats hard! And by the end of the week, it wont be new anymore. And it wont be scary." 

We're all just winging this mom thing, right? No one else knows what they are doing, right?

Each day seemed to get better, but we didn't talk about it too much.

On Friday, when I picked her up, she came running toward me: "Mommy, today I didn't cry!! It wasn't scary any more!!" 

We made a cake to celebrate her first week of school. My big girl is growing up.