More Wordless Wednesday

Trip to Daddy's Work

Yesterday Michael, Katie and I took a trip to Todd's work to visit him. It was one of the first outings with me and the kids solo. We went to church on Sunday morning but Todd was home to help me out and Michael went to the church nursery. Everything went well in preparing to go to visit Todd, except that it took me almost 2 hours to get ready to go there.

Michael was so excited to go see Daddy at work. He knows where it's at and always looks for Daddy's truck when we get there. Katie was asleep in her carseat when we got there but she quickly woke up. She was taking everything in around her. She looked wide eyed at Todd's co-workers and soon wanted to get out of the carseat.

We brought our lunch to eat with Todd in his lunchroom. We had visits from several of his co-workers and it was nice to see him during the day. We spent about an hour there and it seemed to go by way too fast. We headed home after that and both kids fell asleep in the car....guess they got tired out!

Where did spring go?

The weather here is so crazy. Last week I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, jacket and long pants. Today I am wearing a tank top, sandals and shorts. I wonder where spring went. It seems like it was winter and then, all of a sudden, summer is here. The same thing happened last fall. We went on a week's vacation to south Florida. When we left, we had the air conditioning on. When we got back, it was time to turn the heat on. There was no middle ground or time to just the enjoy the weather as it was.

I am beginning to think that this is going to become the norm, rather than the exception. I could understand if we lived in some place further South but we are in the middle of South Carolina. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade this for New Jersey weather ever! I don't miss bitterly cold winters with wind chills below zero and summer nights that are breezy and you need a jacket for most of them.

I just wonder when we changed from four seasons to two?

Wordless Wednesday

One Month Old Already!

I can't believe that Katie is one month old today! The time has flown right by. I was looking at Katie this morning when she woke up to nurse and thought how we were getting ready to go to the hospital exactly one month ago.

Katie has been an pretty easy baby so far. This is good because she is our second child and Michael gives you more than enough to handle on his own. He is so energetic and curious. He had a lot of awake times as a baby...I guess we should have known what was in store for us then.

Katie is much more low maintenance than Michael. As long as she is being held, eating or sleeping, she is happy! You can put her down almost anywhere and she will sleep there. We have already tried the swing, the bassinet, the pack and play and the baby papasan. They are all winners. She does like the sound of running water and listening to nature sounds as background noise. Of course, she can also sleep with her brother's screaming and chattering in the background too.

One of my favorite things that she does is her little grunt. When she is sleeping, she lets out this little grunt from time to time. And the grunting is usually what she does when she is stretching and waking up. It's pretty funny to me. I can't wait to see her smile. She does this half smile while sleeping and the glimpses that I get of it make me anxious to see her smile when she is awake!

Here are a few pictures of her today:

Mom of the Year Award

Carrie from Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird nominated me for the following award. Check out her blog when you get a chance.....thanks Carrie!

Rules for Mom of the Year Award:

Admit one thing you feel awful about involving being a mom. Get it off your shoulders. Once you've written it down, you are No Longer allowed to feel bad. It's over with, it's in the past. Remember, you're a good mom!

I feel guilty whenever I spend time away from my children. I am on maternity leave now but will return to work full time for the rest of the year next month. I know that as a mom, you need some time to yourself but I just want to spend all the free time I have with my family! Especially when I am already working 5 days a week. After I do spend some time away, I am happy that I did it but am always excited to see Michael and Todd (and now Katie).

Remind yourself you are a good mom, list seven things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you. These are the things to remind yourself everyday that you Rock!

1. I love when Michael asks me to "holdge" him. It's so sweet!

2. I love how Katie does her little grunts when she is waking up from sleeping

3. I love how well Michael has taken to Katie and when he gives her little kisses

4. I love to take a nap with Michael and/or Katie

5. I love watching Michael learn new things and to see how excited he gets

6. I love the bond that I have formed with both of my kids as a result of nursing them

7. I love that I get to experience being a mom to both a boy and a girl!

Send this to five other Moms of the year that deserve credit for being great moms and remind them that they are the best moms they can be!! Remember to send them a note to let them know you've selected them, and add a link to the person who nominated you. This was a really difficult list to make because so many of my bloggy friends are awesome mommies!

Susan at DuBose Family

Alexa at Bigwarfe's Babble

Joanna at Sidewalk Chalk and Sippy Cups

Amanda at Zoey's Mommy

Staci at Rustic Roots

Easter Weekend

We took Katie on her first road trip this weekend for the Easter holiday.

Our first stop was to meet her Uncle Johnny, Aunt Angela and two cousins, Sydney & Rick. They were all really excited to meet her and everyone got their time to hold her. She adjusted fairly well to sleeping away from home and her schedule wasn't thrown off that much at all. We stayed Thursday night there with them and spent the day on Friday together. Aunt Angela cooked for us, the cousins played together and we all had a great time!

Our second stop was my parents for the rest of the weekend. My sister and her husband were there so Katie got to meet another uncle for the first time. My cousin and his girlfriend were also there. We spent most of the weekend relaxing. The weather was very nice so we were able to take advantage of that and spend some time outside. Michael was having a ball too, playing with my sister's 2 dogs. He was a little bit scared of my cousin's little dog.

Saturday there was some outlet shopping and we played card games that night. Sunday we ate breakfast and then went to church (Michael and Todd stayed at home as Michael doesn't really like to be confined in one place). After church, we ate our Easter lunch/dinner. We had an Easter egg hunt for Michael after he opened his Easter basket, which was filled with lots of goodies from the Easter Bunny.

We headed home after the Easter egg hunt. It was nice to spend time with family and have everyone meet Katie! She was quite cooperative and let everyone spend a little time holding her warm little body.

3 weeks old

Katie is 3 weeks old today. I am amazed at how fast the time is flying by with her. I don't remember it going so quickly with Michael but I guess that it did because he is already almost 3.

She still does quite a bit of sleeping. If she isn't sleeping, it seems like she is either getting her diaper changed or eating. She likes to "fuel up" early in the evening and then sleep for a 4 or 5 hour stretch before waking up to eat. She will then normally sleep for another 3 or 4 hours after that. We have been working on getting her to sleep by herself in her bassinet or baby papasan. It's been going pretty well. I do love the feeling of having a baby sleep in my arms.

She is fitting into our lives so easily and it's hard to imagine what it was like before she got here. Michael is adjusting better than we had expected to his role as big brother. He loves to go up to Katie and give her a kiss on the top of her head. Then he says "Oh, Katie". I guess that's from hearing everyone else say that to her.

We are so thankful for our little girl!

First Solo Day with Both Kids!

Since Katie has been born and we have gotten home from the hospital, I have had either Todd or my mom at home to help me with Katie and Michael. Today was my first full day with both kids as my mom went home yesterday afternoon and Todd had to work today. It went surprisingly well.

We had a fairly uneventful morning. Katie slept for most of the morning and Michael & I got to play blocks and color a bit. We ate lunch together and then I fed Katie. After that, she went down for a nap and I took Michael up to his room to take a nap. Both kids actually napped at the same time! This was a major accomplishment as far as I was concerned. When Michael woke up from his nap, we decided to make cookies for Todd when he got home from work. Michael helped me to stir the batter and put the cookies on the baking sheets.

I was happy to be able to spend the day with both kids together and I am not nearly as nervous to be here by myself with both of them. The next step in adjusting to two kids will be taking both of them out by myself....of course, I have to be able to lift things and drive again first!

Katie's 2 week appointment

Katie's 2 week appointment was today. She is 2 weeks, 2 days old. Here are her stats:

Weight: 7 lbs 12oz

Height: 21 inches

She weighed 7 lbs 8.8oz at birth so she is above her birth weight, which is what her doctor looks for at the 2 week checkup. She is eating well so I am not surprised she has exceeded her birth weight. She doesn't really have a specific nighttime sleep pattern yet but every couple of nights, she will sleep for 5 hours in one stretch. That makes for a very happy mom the next day!


She is already starting to lift her head to get a look at the world around her. Her cord still hasn't fallen off yet so she doesn't get too much tummy time. She just uses the time on your shoulder as tummy time to lift her head and work her neck muscles.


Here are some pictures of Katie for your viewing pleasure!