message from the boy

in lieu of a real post (of which i have several started in draft form, but not completed or posted!!), here's a message from my boy:

where does the time go?

this blog has been a little neglected and i have no excuse other than to say having two under two (although i officially can no longer say that!) is NO cake walk! oh, don't get me wrong, we are having fun...but blogging is the last thing on my mind. we are busy it seems EVERY waking minute. as kellen would say, "GO, GO, GO!".

so much has been going on - our boy's 2nd birthday (happy to you as he would say!), maya's short little life (poor girl, i've yet to write a word in her baby book and i'm not doing such a great job here either!), hanukkah and christmas (this holiday season is SO much fun with a toddler who's into it!).

let's see what i can cover in the short time that my kids are both sleeping (including maya who is NOT in my arms for once!).

the stats:
maya 1 month - height: 21.5 in (64th percentile), weight: 9 lbs even (40th percentile)
kellen 2 year - height: 34 in (45th percentile), weight: 24 lbs 6 ounces (11th percentile)
maya 2 month - height: 23 in (75th percentile - although i question the accuracy of this measurement!!), weight: 10 lbs, 10.5 ounces, 45th percentile

maya update:
this girl is a much harder baby than our boy was - although we knew when kellen was a baby that we had it pretty good! the toughest thing is that she does not like to sleep anywhere but in my arms. last night we turned a small corner (maybe, crossing my fingers!), as she slept in her pack and play for 4 hours straight - 10pm - 2am. i couldn't get her back down after i fed her at 2, but it was a start. and she's currently napping on the couch, so maybe we are getting there! she's a great eater, although sometimes a little too great. she has a problem with gorging herself and then it all comes back up. in fact, she's pretty much a puker. there are some days where we both change our clothes 2-3 times. it's sure a good thing she's cute! oh and i'm having so much fun with all the cute girl clothes - man, i might get myself in trouble! must restrain myself and back away from the computer. online shopping is so much fun and way too easy! poor baby girl had baby acne and then a rash on her face for the last 3-4 weeks. it's finally starting to go away! and the smiles - oh the smiles. i forgot how much it makes your heart sing to see your baby smile back at you for the first time. she started smiling around 6 weeks and it's really coming on strong now! along with the cooing and "talking"! this girl is finally starting to give us a little something back and we're eating up every bit of it!!!

kellen update:
he turned two! i can hardly believe it. he's turning into a very sweet big brother, asking for baby maya when he gets up, giving her hugs and kisses, making sure she has her blanket and teddy, etc. super cute to see him being so considerate and sweet. not to say he doesn't have his moments - we've had a bit of an issue with him hitting her every now and then, all while giving us quite the evil smile. not easy to deal with! he was very into his birthday and all the great gifts he received this year. loved blowing out the candles - in fact, we had to do it multiple times! now when he sees a candle he says "happy to you!", which was somewhat confusing with hanukkah being so close to his birthday. he wanted to blow the candles out, but he quickly learned that we "dont' blow" the hanukkah candles and he also quickly learned that after we light candles there is most likely a present coming! why don't they learn not to hit or how to listen as quickly?! he has a very strong will and very clear opinions about things, especially what he's going to wear. we have to learn which battles to fight, but sometimes (like for pictures or holidays) i'd like him to wear something specific and it never goes over well and he usually ends up winning! for christmas, it was a skeleton shirt (although we managed a different, slighly better shirt, on top for a while, but not the outfit we had in mind!) that he insisted on wearing.

ok...i'd hoped to get pictures attached, but no such luck. i'll be back, hopefully soon to post some pics!

smiles warm my heart!

One of our first captured smiles...sort of!

our boy is two!!!

the 1st of four times singing and blowing out candles!!!

happy birthday sweet boy...you are the light of our lives.

we can't believe it's been two years!!!

you are so kind, thoughtful, sweet, funny and incredibly lovable...pretty darn cute, too!

you bring us so much joy, laughter, love and occassional frustration

(you are two afterall and have been testing your independence for some time now!)

can't wait to experience this next year with you and see all that it brings.

we love you.

xoxo, mama, dada and maya

fun at grandma and papa's

i'm thankful that aa's parents have been spending some extra days with kellen the last couple of weeks. these days give great bonding time for k and the grandparents and extra sleeping time for m and mama - today we (maya and I) rolled out of bed around 10:30 (after being up from 1-3:45am with m and then about 4:30-5:30am with k and then 6-6:45am with m). these pics showed up in my inbox today - k was having fun with grandma raking leaves. look at the size of those leaves!

everyday is a marathon!

wow...it's crazy how much 1 - 6 lb 13 oz little thang can turn your world upside down. especially when she essentially eats, poops and sleeps in that order every few hours. to say we are exhausted would be an understatement. in so many ways this second baby is SO much easier than the first - mentally and physically i feel so much better, so much more confident, stable and relaxed. in other ways, it's much harder...and much of that can be attributed to a certain ~23 lb-er! not only is our boy having to adjust to this new baby girl and sharing the love and attention of his mama and dada...he's about to turn two and really starting the push the limits of toddlerhood! favorite words are no, mine and my turn. actually, he's becoming a very polite, but stubborn toddler, instead of just no...about half the time he'll say no, thank you...in the cutest, sweetest little voice! we have to be careful about asking him questions when there really isn't a choice. for instance...

us: kellen, are you ready for bed?

kellen: no, thank you!

us: kellen, should we change your diaper (stink radiating from his butt)?

kellen: no, thank you!

so cute, but can be oh so frustrating over and over and over!

anyway...while we've had a few bumpy and frustrating moments, overall we couldn't be more thrilled with how things are going. when kellen wakes up in the morning and the first word out of this mouth is baby or when he decides she must be cold and will bring her a blanket or when she cries and he has a pained look on his face and says, "baby sad!"...these are the moments that i relish in and hold onto when things feel a little out of control! ...and boy, the laundry, dishes, contstant clean up of toys, changing of diapers, clothes, etc ...it is truly a marathon everyday!

here are some pics of my beautiful babes:

playing catch up - - -> pumpkin patch!!

well...since baby girl came along a little (let's say at least a week) earlier than i had expected, i never got a chance to post our pumpkin patch pictures. seems a little backwards to post pumpkin patch pics in november after the halloween picture posts, but that's how we roll.

other things that i still need to do:

• update our family photo at the top. believe it or not (you probably believe it!) we have not taken a SINGLE picture of the four of us together. next time any of you who reads this blog is with the four of us...will you please take a picture of the four of us?!
  
• figure out what to do for k's 2nd birthday - uh...it's in 3.5 weeks and we don't have a solid plan. what i do know is that we'll be keeping it simple!


• figure out m's birth announcements. luckily i timed my kids right so their announcements can act as our new year's card for the year!!!


• figure out what we're doing with's m's corner in the office - yes, that is right...she is not getting a full nursery. we just aren't sure how long we'll be in this house and not willing to give up our whole office, so she gets a corner. the second child is already getting the short stick! if anyone has ideas...let me know. the office is a martini olive green color and i really don't want to paint, so while it's not the ideal color to coordinate with, it's not horrible. oh, she's not getting a crib yet either...so pack and play for her. poor girl! :)

ok, that list could go on and on, but that was not the intention of this post. pumpkin patch pics from this fall - so weird to look at these pictures and see how far we are from that family of three already in just a few short weeks!

our final picture as a family of three!!!

mama & k trudging thru the mud (3 days before giving birth!) & k looking for the perfect pumpkin

dada & k in the field and then on the hay ride back to the farm w/ the pumpkin making a perfect foot rest!

k's favorite part of the whole day - "driving" the tractor & obligatory pile o'pumpkin pic!

carving the pumpkins up with dada!