kaelyn: 24 months

Posted on July 12, 2016 by tara

I can’t believe this is her last monthly update… my baby is all grown up!

Height: 32.5 inches (18%)
Weight: 19 pounds 13 ounces (0.11%)
Head Circumference: 18.25 inches
Clothing size: 24-month and 2T items. Size 5 shoes.
Eyecolor: Blue.
Teeth: 19 (as far as I can tell- I wasn’t about to get my fingers chomped on/make her upset)! It looks like she’s just missing her top left canine tooth! 🙂
Eating: She is an excellent eater, and because of that, her doctor is not worried that she’s so petite. She eats more breakfast than any of the rest of us on a regular basis. She loves PB&J (but not the crust), pizza, yogurt, and salad.

We’ve cut out her morning nursing session, but we still do it for nap and bedtime. I am hopefully going to cut out those two feedings very soon and get a break before her baby sister arrives. Nursing has turned into a bit of a hair-grabbing, sticking-her-foot-up-my-shirt-sleeve, not-so-gentle circus… and all that craziness makes me feel ready to just be done.
New words: She’s saying a few new words every day, but no sentences yet. My favorite recent word is “oops!”
Favorite things: Stuffed animals are her main squeeze… literally! Favorites include Piggy, Blue Kitty, Baby Margaret (from Daniel Tiger), and her lab, Sandy. She loves playing with blocks and pretending to go on “walks” or shopping with Kaya. Being outside and taking off her shoes is pretty awesome to her, too.
Dislikes: Diaper changes, the doctor’s office, and being helped with any task she thinks she can do herself.
Sleep: Bedtime is around 8:30 pm, and she sleeps until about 6:30 or 7 am most days. Nap is at 1 or 1:30 pm and lasts about 3 hours.
Nicknames: Baba, Baba Grace.
Milestones, etc.: -She is great at imaginative play. She loves to cook in her kitchen and bring me “food” to eat. She also pretends to nurse her stuffed animals in the rocking chair, and will even say “switch” when she wants them to nurse on the opposite side. Haha.

-She has excellent fine motor skills- she holds and controls a marker well, and can even use kid-safe scissors to cut paper.

-It seems like she’s finally understanding “if/then” statements, which makes it so much easier to reason with her!

-She’s already interested in letters and numbers and loves to point them out to me, and although she can’t accurately pronounce them yet, she sure tries to.

-Anytime she’s upset, she almost instantly calms down when we hold her and rub her back in a circular motion. She loves to snuggle, especially when she’s tired.

This month’s letter to Kaelyn can be found here.

july 2016 goals

Posted on July 10, 2016 by tara

We’re a third of the way through the month… but I just have to update on how things are going around here! 🙂

Here was June:

~~Choose a paint color for the family room.~~ DONE… and it’s already painted! My awesome brother-in-law Jeff painted the majority of it himself when he was here for Kaelyn’s birthday party. Michael helped out too, of course, but I’m grateful Jeff got it started!

~~Sell the retro dining table and chairs the previous homeowners left in the basement.~~ SOLD for $480! I’m just thrilled to have it out of my house once the buyer picks it up! For your entertainment, here’s what it looks like:

~~Do school with Kaya three days per week.~~ We had one week that we fell short, but we’ve done extra days on other weeks, so I’m happy with how much we’ve been getting done.

Finish reading one book. Oops, this didn’t happen.

~~Take the kids to the library every week to choose new books.~~ It hasn’t quite been every week, but we’ve been to the library three times in the past month! I didn’t see a need to keep a strict schedule with this goal since my girls always want to check out a lot of books at a time and don’t seem to tire of them for awhile.

~~Plan/host Kaelyn’s birthday party.~~

~~Finish backing u~~p my computer. Well, this is about halfway done. I finished ALL of 2014! It’s taking so painstakingly long because I’ve been going over every single photo again, being sure that there are no further edits I want to make before I export them all as .JPGs and delete the RAWs forever.

Now on to July!Get the girls’ room painted. This means I need to choose a color, too. I really want to get moving on this so that I can make all the changes I want to (moving furniture, transitioning Kaelyn to a bed, etc.) well before Baby #3 arrives so that they can adjust ahead of time. I also just feel like I can’t get started on the nursery until I at least have their room painted first.

Prime the basement walls. See that bright red in that picture of the table up there? Yeah… hopefully that doesn’t take too much convincing to go away!

Finish backing up 2015 photos. I’d love to just be done with 2016 photos too, but we’ll see how it goes.

Finish reading one book.

Keep up with preschool three days per week.

Deep clean the car. It’s not super disgusting or anything… but it could use some vacuuming, straightening up, and wiping down on the inside.

See you in August!

baby #3: 25 weeks

Posted on July 9, 2016 by tara

Heyyyy big belly! I’m definitely seeing (and feeling) a difference in size this week!Baby’s size: About 13.5 inches long and 1.5 pounds.
Maternity clothes?: Yes yes yes… and the only non-maternity tops I’m wearing are things that used to be long and tunic-like on me before!
Gender: Girl!
Symptoms: Just some ligament soreness on the right side of my belly. I’m looking into hopefully getting a support band, mostly just for when I run.
Sleep: I am napping almost every day… it actually feels strange if I stay awake in the afternoon now. Even Kaya is perplexed if I tell her I wasn’t sleeping while she was! Usually exhaustion hits me hard in the third trimester, so hopefully I don’t get much more fatigued than this.

Pregnancy also gives me some pretty realistic-feeling dreams- this week I truly thought I was riding a horse, and another day, I was a real princess in a forsaken castle. Crazy and fun! Last week, I was dreaming something that made me actually punch Michael in the arm. Luckily, he said it was a soft punch, but in my half-asleep state, I thought I hit as hard as I could!
Movement: Moving moving moving ALL DAY LONG! She kicks my front, my side, my backside, up high, down low… you name it. She is all over the place. I’ve really noticed her getting stronger this week, and can distinctly feel her pushing her feet into my side.
Cravings: Double chocolate muffins and pizza.
What I miss: Nothing really!
Anything making you queasy or sick?: I’ve mostly been feeling great, but I had a day this week where I just felt nauseous all day long. I also have started noticing that I often feel shaky/weak by lunchtime, but after I eat, I’m fine.
Belly Button in or out?: Getting flatter, but I’d be surprised if it actually pokes out.
Exercising?: Ran 26.3 miles; walked 3.2 miles. My longest run was 7.53 miles. Fitbit total steps: 96,640.
Mood: Good, just not sure I feel ready to actually give birth again. I still have some time to prepare, so I should probably start doing that…
Best moment this week: Celebrating the Fourth of July with my family!
Looking forward to: Ben and Brittany visiting from Texas!
Big sisters: Kaya always kisses the baby goodnight! So sweet.
Comparison: 25 weeks with Kaya; 25 weeks with Kaelyn.

five on friday (07/08)

Posted on July 8, 2016 by tara

A couple of these things are from last week, but they’re too cute to just leave off the blog! Some weeks, it seems like I have way more than just five things to share on Friday, and others, it seems like nothing too interesting happened all week. So, I’m just balancing it all out today! 🙂

ONE. This little girl has fallen head over heels for her Daddy. She’ll cuddle him, with her whole body wrapped around his arm and her head on his shoulder, when she first wakes up in the morning, when he gets home from work, and just before going to bed again. I love how sweet and tender she is.

TWO. Over the past month, I’ve gotten some good deals using Amazon’s “subscribe and save” option. Well, all those things didn’t ship until a much later date than I bought them, and then I also happened to order guinea pig food and bedding around the same time, so one day, we came home to a HUGE stack of boxes at our door! I was pretty impressed that the mail-lady could stack them so high. Too bad it was mostly boring toilet paper and other things that we actually needed. 😉

THREE. I let these crazy girls have ice cream after dinner one night this week, and you’d think it was the best day of their lives. They aren’t strangers to sweets, but they don’t get dessert often (on less than a weekly basis), so this really was a thrilling treat for them. They say that your kids will like eating whatever you ate during your pregnancy… so this really should be no surprise to anyone! 😉FOUR. We found this awesome Melissa and Doug puzzle at the thrift store this week for 99 cents! I think I get some kind of adrenaline rush from scoring a good deal, but the girls were equally excited about this find. Needless to say, we’ve heard a whole lot of elephants, penguins, and zebras in our house this week.FIVE. We’ve had a TON of rain this week, so there hasn’t been a whole lot of playing outside for us, but this video is from all our fun last week. I love summertime and evenings outside with my family.

Happy weekend!

Linking up here!

happy 2nd birthday, kaelyn!

Posted on July 6, 2016 by tara

Dear Kaelyn,

It feels like yesterday that I was holding you in my arms for the first time. Now, you’re already a little lady, with your own ideas and interests.

If I had to choose one word to describe your personality these days, it’d be “determined”. Whenever you have an idea, you follow through with it. You try your very hardest to complete tasks that are sometimes beyond your years, and never want to give up.

Sometimes, this personality trait can make it difficult to persuade you to listen to us and be obedient, but I know that being so very tenacious can be a great help to you as you grow older and meet life’s challenges. I hope that being strong-willed will one day help you to stand up for your values and live the gospel of Jesus Christ to the very best of your ability, despite whatever obstacles come your way.

You are independent. You always want to try and do things on your own, and will try for a long time before allowing us to help you. You’re always so excited to show me something that you’ve seen or discovered, and will softly shout “Mummy!” to get my attention. I love that you enjoy sharing your enthusiasm with me.

You are creative, and love to make art, whether it’s with crayons, markers, paint, or even stickers. You love to “do school” and regularly join your big sister for our preschool lessons. You’ve already started pointing out letters and numbers and trying to name them, although it is hard to understand what exactly you are saying. You’re obsessed with glue and often insist that I hang your creations on the refrigerator.You are strong. You can climb the tallest ladder at the playground! You love to explore and be outside, and if we pass by a park without stopping, you will oftentimes burst into tears. You always want to go on the swings before you play on any other part of the playground, and you giggle your hardest when I make you go fast. You love to try and “kick” me while you’re swinging, and apparently, it’s the funniest thing.

You are tender-hearted. You have a love for all animals, both real and plush. You are gentle and kind, and love to take care of your little stuffed buddies, whether it’s cuddling them, “nursing” them, feeding them a bottle, or tucking them in for a nap. You love to snuggle with Daddy or me when you’re feeling especially sleepy, or when you want to read a book.

You are a comedian. You do the silliest things to make us laugh, whether it’s putting bits of muffin up your nose, hiding in the curtains, or dancing the way you do- doing squats with your legs and bobbing your head from side to side. You’ve started humming songs while you’re nursing and will often look up at me and giggle. I think you know that you’re absolutely hilarious to us.

You love to pick out your own clothes, and if it’s in your drawer, your favorite outfit is your Myrtle Beach shirt with your hot pink star leggings. You’re probably wearing one or both of those items in nearly every picture I have of you, even though you have plenty of fashionable options. You also love to mix different patterns, and if an article of clothing has a heart-print pattern on it, you’re likely to choose it.

You are a big little helper. You will do anything I ask you to, whether it’s sweeping, putting away your clean laundry, throwing dirty laundry in the hamper, carrying groceries, or unloading the dishwasher. You absolutely love to be of assistance, and I really hope that never changes. 🙂

One of my favorite moments of the day is when I get home from running, and you’ve just woken up. You usually have your head on Daddy’s shoulder, and say, “Mummy!” softly, but excitedly. I just love how sweet and special you are to our family.

I love you Kaelyn Grace. I can’t wait to see who you become in this next year.

Love, Mommy

baby #3: 24 weeks

Posted on July 2, 2016 by tara

Baby’s size: She’s about a foot long and 1.33 pounds, which is the equivalent of an eggplant or a G.I. Joe action figure. I love these random comparisons! Haha.

My fundal height measured perfectly at my appointment this week, which makes me extra happy, since I was already measuring small with Kaelyn at this point (obviously, she turned out healthy, but it prompted a lot of extra concern and several more ultrasounds. I’d rather not do that again this time)!
Maternity clothes?: Yes to shorts, but still mixing both maternity and non-maternity tops throughout the week.
Gender: Girl!
Symptoms: I’ve had a couple of nights where my belly just feels uncomfortable… isn’t it too soon for that? I also highly suspect that I have some sensitivity to dairy, so I should probably cut back on milk and ice cream. I experienced this with my other pregnancies, but I definitely seem to have it worse this time around.
Sleep: I had a couple of good naps this week, but even when I plan to stay awake during the girls’ nap time, I end up dozing off. Oops.
Movement: This girl is going to be a kickboxer… she’s always beating me up! I’m a little afraid of how it’s going to feel when she’s even bigger! She likes to stay up late and wake up early, too. 🙂
Cravings: Double chocolate muffins and chocolate malt ice cream.
What I miss: Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful for this baby girl and the blessing it is to grow her… but I am kind of missing my old body. I know I’m still strong, but I miss running fast and having a waistline sometimes lately.
Anything making you queasy or sick?: I’m still nauseous at times, but I really think that getting outside and moving my body helps tremendously.
Belly Button in or out?: It’s starting to look a little weird… I’m hoping that doesn’t mean my abdominal muscles are separating again like they did with Kaelyn.
Exercising?: Ran 20.8 miles; walked 4.9 miles. Fitbit total steps: 83,466. My mileage was a little lower this week since Michael was out of town for business (read: less running), but I did have a great 7.5-mile run with Lelia that somewhat made up for it. 🙂
Mood: Feeling motivated to work on house projects, and sometimes wishing it was already October so that I can hold this princess in my arms and see who she looks like!
Best moment this week: Spending time with my babies outside, running in our yard with them, and going swimming.
Looking forward to: Fourth of July and spending time with family!
Big sisters: Kaya loves to pray for our baby. She asks that she will “get here safely”, and frequently tells me that the baby loves her. I love how she already seems to know and have a bond with her baby sister. Kaelyn is still completely clueless!
Comparison: 24 weeks with Kaya; 24 weeks with Kaelyn. I am feeling so huge this time around… but looking at the pictures, my belly doesn’t seem to be any bigger than with my other girls. I’m currently weighing a couple of pounds less this time, so I don’t know why I feel so big.

five on friday (07/01)

Posted on July 1, 2016 by tara

ONE. We’ve had gorgeous weather and a whole lot of outside playtime this week! Kaya has asked to ride her bike nearly every afternoon.

Sadly, her old tricycle was broken when we moved, and we haven’t had any luck finding the replacement part we need. Grandpa Peter just sent her a “new” tricycle, similar to the old one, and she has been loving it. This is one happy girl! TWO. When big sister is out with Daddy, Mommy and little sister will make cookie dough! Kaya is always my helper in the kitchen, so while she was gone, I eagerly gave Kaelyn the opportunity to pour, stir, and even hold the mixer. She was so excited about everything (especially licking the dough off the beaters)! THREE. I picked up these dry-erase pockets for $1 at Target last week, and we’ve used them every day that we’ve done preschool this week. The girls love them, and I love that I don’t have to laminate everything that I want them to practice doing multiple times. Totally worth $1!

FOUR. You know you hit the jackpot as far as husbands go when he brings you your favorite bakery brownie after you go to the dentist… Mmmm.

FIVE. This sweet girl… I can’t get enough of her. I managed to get in a couple of good naps for myself this week (all I want to do lately is sleep), and after Kaya woke up and used the bathroom one afternoon, she said “I don’t want to go back in my bed, I just want to cuddle with you. You want some cuddles from me?”

My heart melted… I will always want cuddles from you, Kaya. She tucked me in with her favorite cat blanket and even scratched my back. She’s going to make a fabulous mommy herself, someday.