Summer Happenings

I have loved being home with my girls so far this summer!  I love being able to see them meet milestones and learn and grow.  After my first week off, I found myself getting into some bad habits though.  I found that I was glued to my phone and I noticed that I started letting Adelyn watch more tv than I would like because I was tired or needed a break.  I wasn't being as hands-on as I wanted to be.

To change that, I searched Pinterest to find things that I could do with her.  They are just very small basic things, but it is our time together.  A lot of times we wait to do things while Lila is napping so it is special mommy-Adelyn time.  I bought 5 bins (one for each weekday) and in each bin I included a book and related activity, an art or craft, a quiet time activity and a fun activity.  Adelyn has LOVED having these bins and gets excited when I pull them out to play with.  It helps me having something already prepared so I don't just plop her down on the couch.

We have never gotten to all the activities in one day and some days we don't do any because of other things going on.  I love that I can take Adelyn to playgroup now.  It has been pretty nice outside so we have also gone to the park and splash pad and had play dates with friends!  We get to go to story time at the library and much much more!  I love summer and all the fun things going on!

Here are some random pictures from the past 2 weeks!  Most of them are from off my phone so the quality isn't the best, but the moments are! Warning: there are tons of pictures of my babies!

We had playgroup at the park and did a Father's day craft.  Our neighbors from our last home came with their granddaughter!  She loved all the kids and helped Adelyn on the playground equipment! 

 

I love this little girl of mine!! She struck this pose when I told her to look at me!

 

We read "Clara the Cookie Fairy" and then made cookies one day!

She begs to play with these sail boats Grandma B gave her pretty much every day!

 This little lady smiles all the time!!  When she smiles, her whole face lights up!  It makes me so happy!

 

This is another activity she begs to do everyday!  She runs over and grabs this book and asks to make monsters! 

 

Playgroup at the park!  This is one of her best friends!  (Adelyn is sitting beside me right now and when she looked over and saw the picture she gasped and said "Cora!!") 

 

National Donut day and trip to the taco truck!  The picture on the left is probably my favorite picture of my two girls! 

 

Another one of Adelyn's best friend's (Cora's mom!) ran a half marathon on Saturday that went right by our house.  We made a sign to cheer her on.  We also saw her nursery teacher with her husband and my friend Mary!

 

It is outdoor BBQ season!!!  We love all the parties!  Adelyn loved this Tricycle and watching Travis play corn hole and CanJam with the guys! 

 

Summertime means lots of bath times!  It is twice as much fun with 2 girls! Adelyn loves putting washcloths on Lila and dumping water on her.  

 

Travis finally got to see Lila in a great mood!  Evenings are her fussy time and that's the only time he is home.  I was happy that they were able to bond a little bit!

 

Look at this chunky monkey!  She is now starting to move on to 6 month clothes and she just barely turned 2 months old!!   

 

More adorable smiles!! 

 

We have had lots of cuddle time while watching some of my favorite childhood movies! 

 

We have been working on getting Lila's room done.  We finally got it painted and the beadboard put up!  Now we just need to find wall art! 

 

Travis went on a campout and set up his tent to air it out and clean it when he got home.  Adelyn loved playing in it!

 

I am excited for more summertime adventures, vacations and family visits!

Lila 2 Months (a couple weeks late)

My lovely, little Lila is 2 months old.  Like the age ole saying goes, "time flies when you are having fun!"  Two months doesn't seem like a long time, but I feel like she has been a part of our family forever!  It is kind of a contradictory feeling. 

I don't think I did a one month update on her because I was still feeling so overwhelmed.  I feel like I have a routine down now!  Lila's first month was pretty rough.  She cried and cried and cried.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  I ended up nursing her all the time because that seemed to be the only thing that calmed her down.  Turns out that that was what was making her sad.

One day I finally decided that her frequent, super stinky toots weren't normal.  Being lactose intolerant for much of my life, I figured out she was sensitive to dairy in my diet.  Once I cut out dairy she became much happier and I felt a little more sane.  Now I just keep dairy to a minimum.  Cheese doesn't seem to bother her but milk, ice cream, yogurt and sour cream seem to be the big ones I have to avoid.  It is totally worth it to me to keep her happy!

Like I said, we are in a routine now and everyone is happy!  Adelyn has been amazing through the whole transition.  She never got jealous when I spent all my time feeding Lila or trying to console her crying.  She would just come over and rub Lila's head and say, "it's ok baby."  She still loves rubbing Lila's head when she cries!

Maybe I just don't remember, but I feel like Lila is super strong for her age!  She holds up her head so well!  Even our doctor was impressed at her head control at her appointment.  I say that she has to have a strong head so that she can keep a lookout for Adelyn!  Adelyn loves to "hug" Lila but ends up squishing her most of the time.  When you hold her on your shoulder, she pops her little head up and looks around.  She loves facing out to see what is going on. 

Lila is such a good, happy baby now!  She loves laying on her playmat and looking at herself in the mirror.  She will often have conversations with herself.  She is starting to coo more and more and she smiles all the time!  It is one of my favorite things in the world when she smiles at me!

A couple weeks ago she rolled over for the first time.  I put her down in her crib while I put some clothes away.  I wasn't looking for less than a minute and she had gone from being on her tummy to being on her back.  She has done it several times since with both me and Travis watching!

I bonded to Lila a lot faster than I did with Adelyn.  My theory is that we bonded so much faster because I felt like she needed me more with all her tummy troubles.  I am still her favorite person, but she loves everyone!  She looks towards me when she hears my voice and she loves watching Adelyn play!

Oh, I almost forgot her stats!  She weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces (78 percentile) and she is 22.5 inches tall (51 percentile).  She is chunky, adorable and we love kissing her!!

Grandma Barlow

With both pregnancies and deliveries, I have been lucky enough to have help at home from either my mom or Travis' mom.  This time, Grandma Barlow was able to come here to help while I returned to work.  She was seriously soooo much help!  I had a REALLY REALLY bad migraine and she pretty much took care of all 4 of us for several days.  I don't know what I would have done without her!

We only see Grandma Barlow once or twice a year so I was really glad that Adelyn got to spend the extra time with her!  Adelyn loved having a constant playmate and someone to pay attention to her!  I loved hearing Adelyn say "Grandma" whenever she wanted attention. Grandma Barlow brought fun activities to do with Adelyn each day and I tried to take her out to show her the area a little bit.

Adelyn loves being outside and exploring nature so one day I thought it would be fun to go see Charleston Falls.  We had a fun little walk and the weather was perfect but the falls were almost dried up. 

You can see the trickle of water just off to the left of Adelyn's head.  I was disappointed that it wasn't bigger.  It was so cool frozen over last winter!

 Adelyn loved collecting sticks along the way.  She was gathering as many little sticks that she could fit in her tiny hands.

Grandma even taught her how to ride a stick horse!

 

It was such a beautiful day to explore!  I do love all the green nature that Ohio offers! 

 

 One of the activities that Grandma brought to do was planting "seeds" and helping them grow into beautiful flowers! She had fake dirt, peanuts for seeds and artificial flowers.  Adelyn just loved digging in the dirt with the princess shovel!

 Showing off her hard work!

 On another day, we went to Carriage Hill Farm.  It is just a couple miles down the road but I don't take advantage of it enough!  It really was a working farm and all of the old buildings, barns and house are still there.  On certain days they have workers that do demonstrations of daily chores.

On the day that we went, a new little foal was out in the pasture for the first time.  She was only 4 days old!  Seeing that baby was the highlight of my trip!  I love horses and it was so fun to see one so young.  I loved watching the unstable motions and watching her stick by her mommy!

I would say it was Adelyn's favorite part but she loved all of the animals!!  She is really into pointing out animals whether they are real, on the tv or in books.  She always says the animal and then makes their sound.  We have learned not to take her animal book to church because she will neigh and moo the whole time!

Like I said, Adelyn loves anything with animals so she was super excited to get this puzzle!

Before she left I wanted to get some pictures of Grandma Barlow with the girls.  The next time we see her, Lila will probably be walking! Adelyn was being such a little skunk!  She either doesn't want her picture taken or she has a huge "cheese" smile!  This was the best I could get!

I LOVE this picture of Lila and Grandma!  I think they both look so pretty!

 

Thank you so much for coming out! 

Memorial Day

I have always had an appreciation for members of the military, but it has greatly increased since I moved to Ohio.  Pretty much all of our close friends are in the Air Force.  I have seen first hand the sacrifices that these men and their families make to protect our freedom.  I am so grateful for their service!

I saw a rant on facebook about the purpose of Memorial Day vs. Veteran's day.  They were saying that Memorial Day is supposed to be for people that lost their life during battle and not for just all military men and women.  While I understand that, I think it is the perfect time to thank everyone for their sacrifices.  I call my Papaw every Memorial Day and Veteran's Day to thank him.  This was the first holiday that I haven't been able to do that so my day felt a little incomplete.  I found this picture after his funeral and it may be my favorite picture of him!

Since we are in such a military based location, holidays here are done right!  Our church put on a picnic in the park for everyone.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and it was moved inside.  Part of me is glad because it was easier to keep Adelyn contained!  We ate a delicious brunch and they had some games set up.  I mostly just chatted with my friends though!

I love holidays and having an excuse to dress for the occasion.  I especially love red, white and blue outfits!  It is even more fun now that there are more of us to dress!  Travis is a good sport and plays along most of the time!

I tried to get a good photo of Adelyn, but this is what I got!  She is such a little goofball!  These pictures are totally her! I am pretty sure she was dancing and copying Travis' moves!

 

Lila is starting to smile on cue and it makes me so happy!  Her smiles make me forget about all her fussy times! 
 

Navy blue is one of my favorite color on my babies!  Maybe it's because it matches their eyes.  

 My sweet girls!

The rain stopped later in the day and Adelyn begged to go outside, per usual!  She loves playing with balls, drawing with side walk chalk, riding on her car or even just sitting on the porch.  I think we are going to live outside this summer!

 I just love this little girl of mine!!

First Bath

I knew that blogging would be much harder with 2 kids, but I didn't realize it would be this hard!  I am almost 6 weeks behind already!  Lila is not even 7 weeks old yet!

Almost exactly a week after she was born, Lila lost her umbilical cord stump and got her first bath.  It is so fun to look and compare pictures from Adelyn's first bath. Giving Lila a bath was much different!  First of all, we were a lot less scared about what to do!  This time we also had an extra helper!  Adelyn loved having Lila in the bath with her and 'helping' us wash her! 

Lila loved the bath at first!  She just sat there and watched Adelyn play for a while.  She was even chill as Adelyn piled washcloths and toys on her!

 Then Travis started washing her and she cried until she was swaddled in a towel in my arms!  She didn't scream bloody murder like Adelyn did though!

 It is much easier bathing a baby with no hair!  I also can't believe how big she is compared to when Adelyn was this age!  She has already chunked up quite a bit from when these were taken too!

 Poor, neglected second baby doesn't have any after shots with her all wrapped up like we did for Adelyn!  Things are so much different this time around!  If you look back at Adelyn's first bath, you can really see how different they look!