4 Months

Geez louise is time flying...



Happy 4 months, babycakes!





I see you've found your fingers. nom nom nom.



According to Teagan's 4 month appointment she's 14lbs 6oz (75th percentile) and 25 1/4 inches (90th percentile).  Same exact length that Parker was at 4 months. Due to a slight cold we had to push her vaccines back.  We're on a delayed schedule anyways but it's currently a bit more delayed than orignally planned.  Big thanks to the array of germs that are everywhere this time of year.



Teagan's new thing this month is rolling.  Girlfriend is always rolling from back to side and even made it belly to back a couple times.  Scooting in circles is also still loads of fun for her.  I lay her down on the activity mat in one spot a minute later she's in a different spot.



Teagan's hand-eye coordination is awesome and everything ends up in her mouth.  Baby drool is all over the place which leads us to believe she's teething.  Already?!



Smiling and laughing are still Teagan's thing.  Everything brings this babe joy.  Singing, toys that light up and play music, when you talk to her and act silly...seriously everything.  Being with her makes you take a step back and find happiness in the little things right along with her.



The exersaucer was busted out this month! Still a  tiny peanut in it but it's fun to see this cool gear getting used again.



Full on nighttime snuggles started this month.  One of my favorite parts of the day is cuddling Teagan at the end of a long day.  I mean, come on...how can I resist this beaut.



Teagan takes about four 30 minute naps (longer if we're wearing her or cuddling up) and sleeps about 11 hours a night.  She still wakes up a few times each night to nurse, though I think the wet diapers are more to blame than her hunger many times.  We're still on the cloth diaper bandwagon but I've tried disposables at night too.  Much to my dismay, it didn't help the situation.



Let's see what fun next month brings!

Come on, weekend!

We're approaching the weekend, folks.  During maternity leave my days were all jumbled together.  Monday? Friday? Wednesday? Don't know, don't care.  But now I have my sacred weekends back.  Time to refuel after a busy week and have loads of fun with the babes.  On the agenda this weekend is:

1: Valentine's Day prep. Starting with the oh so popular melted crayon craft and ending with a little v-day photo shoot.  Will my subjects cooperate? You never can tell.



Get this toddler off me.

  


Personal space. Ever hear of it? Anyone??

 


But I love you so much!

 


See!


2. Taking advantage of our Amazon Prime membership and watching a free movie.  It never occurred to us to check out their movie selection until the Kindle came into our lives.  One click and a USB cord to the TV and we'll be well on our way to soaking up some Angelina Ballerina or things of the like.

3.  Movies aren't complete without a little tasty indulgence.  Bananas make me want to vom but the mister and miss P might appreciate some Nutella Banana "ice cream."



4.  Weather permitting, we may stroll on over to our downtown for the Fire and Ice festival.  Who can pass up fireworks in the middle of winter? Add in ice skating, ice sculptures, crafts, and hot chocolate to the mix and you have an awesome night.



Fun little weekend planned if I do say so myself :)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go

I knew this day would come. 



The day when our daycare costs would exceed our mortgage payment. Ouch.



But after a fabulous 16 week, fully paid maternity leave slash vacation it was time to jump back into cute work clothes and smother those babies with hugs and kisses before we started our days.

I'm only two days in so take it with a grain of salt but I'm loving finally being back in the swing of things. Don't get me wrong...soaking up my days with my loves was a blessing but I thrive on this new balance of life. Teagan's easy go with the flow personality doesn't hurt things either nor does the fact that I love her daycare teachers.  Walking into school with Teagan when she was two weeks old and being greeted with hugs and squeels of excitement over when her first day would be was heartwarming to say the least.



So yeah, life is good.

It's sort of weird being back to a hectic life again. Up too late, up too early, but thanks to a little invention called coffee I'm doing just fine.

Finally I'm getting to reap the benefits of my freezer meals. I doubled and tripled recipes like woah prior to T's arrival to eat up during mat leave. But easy baby = ample time to cook so we didn't touch a single frozen meal. Time is precious now though so we'll be working our way through tasty meals for some time. Love does not describe the feeling I have when I walk through the door and I don't have to hurry and whip up a meal. Cooking and baking have a special place in my heart but that place is not around at 5pm on a weeknight.



Getting home at the end of the day to a toddler running full steam ahead towards me with the biggest grin on her face while exclaiming "mommy!"just makes my days. As does a snuggly little infant who smiles as soon as she sees my face. What in the world did I ever do to be so lucky?

Things I'm Loving

1. 60 degree days in January. In Michigan. Helloooo, global warming.  Why don't you stay a while, k? We like getting bang for our buck out of our zoo pass.

Am I the only one who is flashbacking to Chris Rock in What to Expect? Just missing the hydraulics.

 2. Sophie the Giraffe. Parker's Sophie jumped ship one fateful day on a jog so it was necessary to get Teagan one of her very own. Pretty glad we did.  I'm not the only one who feels this way.

3. Same photoshoot, different babies. 

4. Sophia the First.  Thank you Disney Junior for televising a program that my child with actually watch. Up until this week no show passed Parker's standards unless it was "Sessy Street." Big Bird's voice is enough for me to want to stick forks in my eyes repeatedly so I appreciate the change of scenery. It was quite odd though. I went straight from SATC during nap time to Sophia when Parker woke up.  And honestly? I liked Sophia a wee bit more...

5. Energy bites.  Nutrigrain bars remade. I could go on forever. I burn calories like made when I nurse so yeah, food has been my friend.

6. Soaking up these lovelies before it's back to the grind on Monday.

2013 is gearing up to be not that shabby of a year.

Handy Hubs

Many moons ago I innocently sifted through the Pottery Barn catalog.  Same old striped rugs and muted tones gracing the pages. So over this.  That was, until I saw this beaut:

Samantha shelf and bench. My heart and soul were stolen. Our foyer was due for a facelift and this piece fit the bill.  Until I glanced at the price.  $279 for the shelf, $399 for the bench. In true PB fashion they know how exactly how to make you spit your water across the room when you see some of their prices. Practically $700 for some wood is not my style so I pushed my entryway dreams to the back of my mind.

Then Pinterest evolved.  I may or may not have fist pumped when Ana White's pin graced my main page one day.  Ha, Pottery Barn, ha! I will do this myself.

So I made my list and with the help of Kris picked out the wood from Lowes. Kris wanted no part in this.  He was in the middle of revamping our master bath and wanted to stay focused on the task at hand. So I swore up and down to Kris that I would do this.  All by myself, no help from him.  Pinterest mentality right here.  If other girls on the internet can do it well I'll be damned if I can't do the same.

But I was 20ish weeks pregnant by this point and have a clumsy streak in me.  Kris didn't think it was in my best interest to use a nail gun for the first time at this time in my life so he took the wheel.  He cut the wood, put it together...basically he did the entire thing.  I did measure, paint, and polycrilic but that's where my part ended.  

$100 and a super happy Stacie later and our foyer is complete.

I asked Kris if he ever though for a second that I could pull this project off myself.  He told me no.  Even though he knew I couldn't do it, and he certainly didn't want to do it, he went through the motions because he knew how badly I wanted it.

He's a keeper.

December Recap

Jam packed sums up this months. Works for me since I love staying busy.

We saw the lighting of the Village of Rochester Hills (our outdoor mall), visited Santa at Somerset, tried out Detroit Kid City and the Hands on Museum, had dates with Parker, celebrated Christmas with family, experienced our first snowfall of the season, Parker wrapped up her first session of gymnastics, and we rang in the new year.

The biggest news this month is that Parker is finally potty trained (knock on wood). The day after Christmas we gave it a whirl.  M&M's and Skittles are like potty training crack. She pees, she gets to pick one out to eat.  One. I eat like ten in one bite and still need more but apparently one suffices for Parker. Two accidents the first day and only a couple more since then so we're doing awesome.

Parker is getting along SO well with Teagan. She's borderline obsessed with her.  Constantly Parker plays with her, gives her hugs and kisses. and makes sure the paci is in her mouth if she starts to cry.  Every time Parker wakes from her nap she asks where Teagan is.  I couldn't be happier with the transition she's made to big sister.

Also in the life of Parker...she understands opposites (big/small, up/down, etc), sings non-stop, knows her colors (depending on the day lol), likes dipping food in milk (no boundaries with what type of food), and is really into pretending.  While driving through the Village to see the Christmas lights Parker exclaimed over and over, "look! I made those lights!" I figured we had a few more years until she started sneaking out in the middle of the night to do things like decorate the town.

Asking "what's that" is a thing of the past.  Now she's onto "what do you mean."
P: What's for dinner?
Me: Chicken
P: What do you mean, chicken?? 
haha

As I've mentioned thousands of times we partied at Lindsey's wedding. Don't let our smiles deceive you. We were freezing. 

Posing: Jes' sisters, me, Lindz, our cousins

Parker had her first flower girl appearance. Mere minutes before it was time to walk down the aisle Parker decided to have some "fun" with her flowers. Boinked it down once and a couple flowers fell off.  Boinked it down again and more fell off.  Violent boinkboinkboinkboink and every single flower fell to the ground.

Frantic flower sticking and we made it work again.

Look at these lovelies! Jes' nieces on the ends, Parker and her cousin Maura.  Parker is in love with Maura and I'm quite sure the feeling is mutual.

Still shocked that I thew together a Christmas card while dead sick.  I didn't make it into the card since I didn't want to scare anyone with my pale skin and sunken eyes.  Kris was in France. Sydney was supposed to be pulling the wagon like Santa's sleigh but she wouldn't cooperate. So my girly pearls it was.

We made lots of cookies.

It's against the law to not taste test them.

Ergo lovin. And reindeer ear loving.  Purchased for Sydney for our xmas card photo shoot but it was Parker who would not take those things off.

Parker is still a huge daddy's girl.

We're really into YouTube videos.  Santa singing Jingle Bells, animals singing Jingle Bells...basically anything that sings jingle bells is golden in Parker's book.

We FINALLY had our first snowfall. I finally got in a winter workout from pulling Parker in her sled.

Parker's Christmas gifts that she made for us at school :)

And the bag that Parker decorated.

Our new ride! BOB Duallie--can't wait to hit the pavement with this bad boy.

Until then, we'll hit the wood floors.

And a major phone dump:

Mall date.

Nomming on some Subway.

My sick babies.

Mommy-Parker date.  Kris and I make sure to get one on one time with Parker every couple of weeks. This outing was to Mejier to check out the fish. 

We also swung through the Christmas department.

Lowes offers lots of fun too.

Detroit Kid City where Kris and Parker made ice cream cones and pizza.

Hands on Museum

HOM block room.

Seriously would not take those ears off.

In an attempt to get Parker to fall asleep on her own we've started "quiet time" where she is to put herself to sleep. In true Parker fashion she refuses until she can't take it anymore.  Passed on the bean bag doesn't compare to when she fell asleep standing up with her feet on the floor and her head on the end of the bed.

We don't do quiet time anymore. 

Another date at BRU.  Lalaloopsy or whatever it's called toured the store with us in this borrowed stroller. 

Happy 2013 all!