August 26, 2017 by Stephanie

George Turns Three

To the boy that made me a momma,

I have loved watching you grow this year., and I can’t believe how much you have changed in just 365 days. I feel like I am taking this birthday harder than I have the last two. It seems as though this time you really have outgrown being my baby. Maybe it is how you talk and play. Maybe it is because we have another baby in the house. Maybe it’s just what happens.

I have loved seeing your personality really develop this year into a sweet charismatic little boy. You are so fun, and you make me laugh every day.

You are so passionate and determined when you play. Your obsession with trucks and trains has only grown over the year. And you want to rescue every animal in sight, which lets me know how caring your heart is.

I see bits of both your dad and I in you.

You are so cautious when you meet new people, but once you get to know them-hold on. You love so hard and are very attached to your people.

Your eyes light up when you are able to work on a project with your daddy. You are very hands on and see the world in a way to build it up again.

You have no time for nonsense, and you want to make the most out of every ounce of the day. You are non-stop from the moment you wake up until the moment you go back to bed.

This is the year you have learned to pray, and I look forward to hearing what your are thankful for every day. (My favorite is that you still say thanks for Henry (Honey) and Arlo even though you haven’t seen these friends in months.) Talking about faith and prayer with you has not only grown me closer to you, but also to God.

While you still have your moments of Mr. Indepedence (aka Defiance), you are getting so much better at helping and being a good listener.

We have seen you learn new things like becoming a puzzle master and heard your vocabulary grow everyday. You are so very smart, and I know big things are in store for you.

You remind me each day to pay attention to the little things and soak up the moments where you ask me to “hold you” or for just one more kiss. I love seeing you get excited when you see train tracks or the fire house to wave to the firemen and say goodnight to the trucks when they aren’t out. I love how you have made a walk to the mailbox as exhilarating as a trip to the moon.

I know some days I am not the most patient with you, but you have taught me more about forgiveness and enduring love when you still want to snuggle even though we may have spent the afternoon both in tantrums.

One of my greatest joys however was watching you become a big brother this year. You are so sweet to your sister, and I can already tell that you are going to have a great bond. I have been so proud of you and how easy you have taken on this new role.

Over the last three years, I have watched you become you. It’s bittersweet for sure. I have watched you go from being a NICU baby to now being taller than every kid your age. It was exciting to see you take your first steps, but now it’s heartbreaking at times to see you run to play on your own. I remember the excitement hearing you gurgle for the first time, now we get to have actual conversations with each other and at times I am so overwhelmed by emotions I almost burst into tears from hearing your little sentences. I miss how little you were, but I am thrilled to see you continue to grow. I know that ultimately my job is to send you out into the world to make it a better place.

I have wanted to be a mommy my whole life, and God knew what he was doing when He gave me you first so we could go on this journey together. You have taught me how to be a mommy, and I am so thankful for every second of playing trains and reading a million books with you.

I pray for your future and I pray for God to give me the strength I need to let you go and grow.

I am so happy to be your mommy, and I have cherished these last three years with you so much. And even thought it’s not just us anymore and we have said goodbye to you being a baby, you will always be my first born and the one who stole my heart as a mommy. So no matter what changes or how crazy this world gets, my favorite thing is watching you become you.

To the one who made me a mommy,

I have been enamored by you since the day you came into this world three years ago. And my love grows bigger right along with you.

Happy Birthday Georgie Man.

Love,

Mommy

August 18, 2017 by Stephanie

Daphne-3 Months

It’s going too fast. How do I have a three month old?

Weight: She is 12 lbs of sweet cheeks.

Health: For the most part she is doing really well. The probiatic drops have been helping her not be so gassy and fussy in the afternoons, which is great! She was diagnosed with torticollis. Basically this means that she has a head tilt to one side, so she will mostly look or lay to that side. In her case, she prefers to rotate and tilt to the right side. I noticed that she was getting a flat spot on the back of her head and the beginnings of a misshapen head. I brought it up to our pediatrician, and she referred us to a physical therapist. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but whatever the reason when they tilt predominately to one side it causes the muscles to only get stronger on one side so it exacerbates the issue. So we have been working on environmental changes like changing the direction that we change her diaper and how she lays in the crib so she will start looking to the left more. We also have some stretches that we do every day again to get those muscles more evenly developed. Both our doctor and physical therapist seem confident that we can remedy it this way and hopefully avoid a helmet later on. She still prefers the right side, but I can see a difference over the past month after being more diligent with the environmental changes and what not.

Diet: She is still breastmilk only. She is doing much better on taking bottles, and so far I haven’t noticed an issue when she nurses with the transition. She isn’t comfort feeding as much now, which is a relief. You can tell by her cheeks she is doing just fine getting what she needs. I also have to brag on myself, because I have been much more easy going about our breastfeeding experience this time around. I have fed her in public on several occasions which is something I never did with George. I think a lot of it has to do with the thought of normalizing breastfeeding and not wanting to stop living our lives due to her feeding schedule. But I also have the best nursing cover that is so easy to use and makes me feel comfortable and covered in public. My goal is always to just make it to the next month, so here is to month 4!

Clothes: She is fitting perfectly into 0-3 month clothes. Most 3 month things are still way too roomy for her. She is in a size 1 diaper. I was able to put on her first pair of shoes last week! Get ready girl.

Sleeping: Those probiatic drops have helped so much with her sleep during the day. She takes several hearty naps, usually at least three a day. Then we put her to bed at 7:30 pm and she does not wake up until 6:30 am. PRAISE! I don’t know how we got so lucky with two really good sleepers. So good, and I will ride this out as long as we can!

Likes: Eating. Riding in the car. Kick and Play. Mornings-She has the biggest smiles for me when I sing to wake her up. I love singing “Good Morning” from Singing in the Rain, and she loves it too. She also likes her head to be rubbed, and she has the best peach fuzz to do so.

Dislikes: She does not like a dirty diaper. She hates the hours between 5-7pm. Dinner is always interesting, and I spend a lot of time eating standing up because she knows when you are sitting while holding her. She is not a big fan of her swing.

Milestones: Started rolling from tummy to back. Being away from me for more than 4 hours. She went to her first baseball game! We may have lost but I think she still enjoyed herself.

Nicknames: Sister Friend, Doodlebug, Sweet Cheeks, DC, Daphie, Daph, and Daphne June. Most of the time it is Sister.

Quirks: She is very empathetic already. She can read people’s emotions well, and she plays off that. She is ridiculously strong. She is trying to sit up already. She has the best pouty lip.

We parents are: doing alright. We are on opposite shifts, which is always hard because Tom misses out on a lot with the kids. We also are still trying to get some things done around the house, so our days off are filled to the brim. If you aren’t following me on Instagram-we knocked out several walls in our living room this week. I went back to work this month, so that has been a transition for everyone. The house is a little less clean and I’m a little more tired, but all in all it’s been a smooth move back into work.

George is: a great big brother. For the most part he had been ignoring her, but we have seen a dramatic change in his demeanor towards her once she started going to the sitter’s with him. We were really worried because Brenda’s is his place so I wasn’t sure how he would react. He had been telling me that Sister needed to stay in the car when I would talk about her coming with him. But the last two weeks he has been so wonderful about the transition. He is overly protective of her, and won’t let other kids near her saying, “She’s my sister.” He lets adults know when Sister is crying, and is persistent about the information until you deal with it. He tries to console her now too which is so sweet. Sometimes he is sweet and says, “It’s ok Sister.” Other times he sings to her. Other times he likes to shake her play yard toys over her head (kind of aggressively) and says, “You calm down now.” When he is fed up with me, he uses Sister as an excuse to get rid of me-“You need to go feed Sister.” He does not know how to say her actual name; he thinks we are saying Daddy. So her name is Sister.

The dogs are: doing their thing. Grace stalks Daphne when she is on the floor to lick up spit up. Crosby does seem to protect her and will lay at my feet when I am feeding her.

Here is George at 3 months.

This girl looks like a perfect little doll here. We make pretty Gerber babies.

August 6, 2017 by Stephanie

Werk, Werk, Werk, Werk, Werk…

I am at the end of this maternity leave. I feel so fortunate that I have had the opportunity of having the last 11 weeks off work, and even more so to have the next two weeks part time to ease myself back into the swing of things.

While it is hard to transition away from my time with Daphne and my family, I do want to look at the positives of returning back work.

image via

I am ready to be back in the real world. I have been living in this perfect bubble of baby cheeks and boxes of raisins. I have no idea what is really happening outside of my house, so that will be nice to engage in reality again.
I can eat lunch at a normal time instead of between cries and feeding other people. I can eat something that is hot and without having to hold a baby and worry about spilling on her. That one meal a day is going to be like a vacation.
Routine. We have no routine right now. On one hand it is nice, and I have enjoyed the flexibility. But having no routine means that I have to have a billion alarms on my phone to remember things like paying the bills and taking my vitamins every day. Having a routine is good.
I can wear my hair down for more than one day a week and dress like a real human being. I like my wardrobe, and I want to use it. I love Daphne but she likes to pull my hair and barf on me, so I have been living in grungy gym clothes all summer.
I don’t have to worry about other people’s bodily functions or help them doing them for at least 8 hours a day. Bless them.
On that note, I can go to the bathroom by myself.

Lastly, I really enjoy my job and August is such a fun time in Higher Ed. There is excitement to a new academic year, and all the hoopla that happens in the fall is just wonderful. I can’t wait to meet my class for my freshmen seminar and also the individual students that I will be coaching this fall. I know I am going to miss my babies, but coming back to this high energy time is going to be perfect to help me to get back into my professional mojo. It is the perfect time to be rejuvenated back to working mom life.

Tomorrow feels like the first day of school. I have all the bags packed and our clothes picked out. (I have tried on a million outfits like I am presenting myself to the world again.) I am excited to see all my friends and colleagues again. I have the jitters about leaving my family, and I’m slightly nervous that I have forgotten everything over the last few months.

I feel like I should be arming myself with a Lisa Frank Trapper keeper.

It’s going to be great…

I will get up in time…

Both kids will get to the sitter fed and clothed…

Pray for us.

image via

August 4, 2017 by Stephanie

A Beautiful Summer

Having a May baby was just the best.

It gave us the opportunity to have a great summer with our family complete.

0702170958

Having maternity leave these last few months was wonderful. It was really the best time for me to heal and bond with our family.

Working in higher education means that I do not get the summers off from my job, even though most of my students believe that I do. This was a once in a lifetime gift that I was able to be home during these summer months.

Obviously, this was time meant to figure out Daphne and how she fit into our family unit and bond now as a family of four, But, my goal was to also use this time with my family to do things we don’t normally get to do due to my work schedule.

We were able to enjoy the weather more fully because there was flexibility. By getting out of the house and enjoying nature every day, I really felt more like myself much faster than I did with George. I didn’t feel confined to the house, which I think made everyone happier. I also realized that taking a newborn out is so much easier than when they get older, so I was getting her out as much as I could. Daphne and I explored almost every trail in the Columbia area. This was such a beautiful thing for my healing process as well. It gave me an outlet to just be and take my time enjoying the outdoors with my little girl. It’s not very often that we get to slow down and just take things in. It was my goal to go for a walk every day that the weather was nice. This time was so special for me. The exercise was an added bonus. We have played outside almost every day after dinner which is something we don’t always do because I am trying to keep up on the schedule of lights out by 8. Like I said, everyone was a little happier with all the outside time.

We were able to go to events in town that I would otherwise say no to because I cherish our down time at home or I didn’t want to rush from work to get some place. I also didn’t feel guilty going to things on Saturdays because we had other days in the week to relax and get house stuff done.

We did little things like going to a magic show at the library down the road from our house. We also went to a butterfly exhibit at the nature center. These are often during work hours, so I have never been able to go to programming like this with the kids.

Tom and I had day dates and spent more time together and with family than we have in years. It was great for us to connect this way so we can continue to try to be the best team for these kids and each other.

0731171828

We took George to see his first movie (Cars 3 obviously) in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

I didn’t feel so harried about a trip to the St. Louis Zoo or Sea Life Kansas City because I knew I had time to recoup from these day trips.

0802171214a

I was able to read a lot of books. I got out my big camera more. I slept in until 8 some days.

I was able to get in a lot of doctor’s appointments in without worrying about juggling other meetings or trying to figure out the commute. I could schedule it at whatever time without any guilt. You may not understand how freeing this is, but this is one of my favorite parts of this summer.

0717170843a

It may sound silly, but recouping from this pregnancy has been the most relaxing thing I have done in a long time. And I attribute a lot of it to being summer. I love this time of year, so it was great to be at home for it to focus on family memories.

I didn’t feel rushed or felt myself counting down minutes. Being on maternity leave during the summer let me just live in the moment and enjoy it so much more.

0704171907

George is at such a fun age, so being able to see more of his world was so wonderful. And having this intentional time to focus on my kids and their development was what made this summer a dream. Watching them grow is magical.

While we didn’t plan this pregnancy timing, having Daphne in the early summer was spot on what I needed. It’s a more calm time of the year for my job responsibilities, so I didn’t feel worried about work at all. And here I am going back 3 weeks before classes begin, which is just perfect. If Daphne would have come on her due date, I would have started back at work the first day of classes. Yikes.

It is going to be hard to say goodbye to this summer and my time home with my family. (While I have been really relaxed for the most part, I did have an anxiety attack yesterday wondering how I am going to manage going back to work and keeping up with stuff at home.)

I am going to cherish these moments we had. What a beautiful summer.

0709171045a-ANIMATION

PS. My sink was still always full of dirty dishes so it wasn’t completely perfect. But I will take the outings and mostly relaxed afternoons over a clean sink any day.

August 1, 2017 by Stephanie

Just a Day in July

Every once in a while I like to do a post of what a day looks like for us. Since my maternity leave is coming to a close, I figured documenting what this time has looked for us was a must.

Here is a day from this past month.

0728170608

Daphne is sleeping through the night, so I have been waking up when the kids get up around 6am. (The past two weeks I have been getting up to pump at 5am.)

Generally, George is up before Daphne. He often is awake for awhile before I actually hear him. I don’t know what it is, but he will not leave his room before we come and get him. Sometimes I find him just playing or reading in his bed; other days he is just playing quietly on the floor. Then there are some days he is still sleeping at 7am. This is a big reason why we moved to pull-ups because he won’t come and get us and would pee in his room.

We watch some cartoons before heading out for the day.

0728170736

Tom has been on midnights, so he gets home before I take George to the sitter. I love watching these moments between these two.

I then wake Daphne up and feed her while Tom and George watch some Paw Patrol.

George likes to eat his breakfast bar in the car, and we always say a prayer before we head out. We are working on George contributing to prayers so we always asking him what he is thankful for. Sometimes we have some interesting conversations with Jesus.

0728170837a

After I drop George off at the sitter, Daphne and I have been going for walks. I will have to say that continuing to take George to the sitter was one of the best decisions of this maternity leave. It has allowed us time to really bond with Daphne, but also a little more freedom to do errands and get stuff done around the house. Doing stuff with a newborn is so much easier than doing the same stuff with a toddler.

0728171053a

0728171230

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a to-do list every day. I haven’t been trying to exert myself, but I usually have one big thing I want to get done that day. This can be anything from washing dishes to organizing our storage. I also try to plan all my errands for the week to get done in one day.

0728171449

Otherwise, we have spent a lot of time catching up on shows. I have been really into Criminal Minds lately. I can only watch it during the daylight, and I can’t watch more than two episodes at any given time. It starts messing with my head.

Daphne supervised me doing laundry this day.

Then we pick up George and play a little before dinner.

0728171817

We have been doing pretty good about making a real dinner every night, and we have been trying new recipes in hopes to find easy stuff for once I go back to work. Also roasted veggies are the best!

0728171835

After dinner, Tom gives George a bath and I walk with Daphne. George loves getting clean in our bathroom. He loves our tub for the bubbles, and he is obsessed with our big shower.

Tom gets some bedtime snuggles with George before he starts to get ready for work.

0728171931

After feeding her for the last time of the day, I read a story to Daphne before putting her to bed a little before 8.

0728171955

Once Daphne is down, I start getting George ready for bed. All the while, Tom is getting his uniform on. Some days George does well with brushing his teeth, other days I have to physically hold him down to get the job done. We have to switch tactics every few weeks to make sure those teeth get clean. This was a good day.

0728172008

Lately, we have started to do puzzles before bed in addition to reading books. It’s a good time to work on his vocabulary and how to match. He is obsessed with puzzles and is really good at them!

And of course we go to the bathroom one more time before bed.

Usually Tom leaves the house amidst the bed time chaos, so we have to stop for our goodbye ritual. George LOVES to wave in the windows and sprints from window to window to catch as much Daddy time as he can. This night he wanted to assess his driving more than actually waving…I think he forgets that Tom cannot hear him.

Then we go back to reading our stories. He has his favorites like this one where there are train figurines that go along with each page.

0728172023

I loved that I happened to be recording this particular day because this prayer was everything. Normally, George is thankful for his sitter (Brenda) and the boys there, but rarely do Tom and I get mentioned. So it was extra sweet to catch this moment.

Around 8:30/8:45 both kids are finally in bed. The nice thing about midnight schedule, is that I get some much needed introvert time. Typically, I watch an hour or two of TV and play around on the computer. This day I happened to be working on the blog.

0728172045_HDR

George is scared of the dark so we leave his bedside table lamp on so he can fall asleep in the light. Oddly enough he does fall asleep pretty quickly. He may get up to get toys to sleep with, but I always find him asleep before I go to bed.