It turns out I spend more awake hours in the day with my coworkers than I typically do with my family.
I’m over on Liberating Working Moms today sharing a few tips on how to give thanks to your work buddies.
Join me there?
Month: July 2013
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Lucy: Fourteen Months
It seems like I was just writing the wild girl’s 13 month post {& re-reading it, so much still rings true for Lucy girl}! With vacation & post-vacation bad ear infection, these past few weeks have flown by.
Lucy is quite the hilarious little girl these days. While she’s our baby, she’s looking more & more like a mini-kiddo with her long curly hair. I was right guessing a couple of weeks ago that Lucy was over 22 pounds; our recently doctor’s appointments for her ears {another round of antibiotics start today but no tubes yet} have confirmed she’s over that mark.
Lucy’s currently wearing 12 month clothes {including the sweet little Carter’s dress above}, but I’ve been stocking up on 18 month ones for late summer & fall. She still fits in her size 3 shoes as well as size 3 disposables for overnights.
Lucy continues to be a great eater {especially with fruit} & *loves* her time nursing with me.
We’re on a run of sleeping through the night in her crib which we are all big fans of. I’m afraid I might be jinxing myself just typing that out! Lucy does love her sleep when her ears &/or new teeth {I think she’s in the process of getting molars soon too} aren’t the cause for late nights or {very} early wake ups. Luckily, she will typically nurse back to sleep well & we can all get a little rest & cuddles in our king bed.
Lucy’s favorite toy is which ever one Zach currently is playing with. Seriously. Daycare says she keeps tabs on him & while he’s content to check out stuff on his own, she quickly is by his side. So cute but also the cause for some hair/clothes pulling & slapping. I’m really looking forward to the day they hug more than hit! {fellow multi-mommas, when is that?!}
Lucy is doing a lot of knee walking these days, but she’s not walking on her own yet. She laughs while holding our fingers & guiding us around the house. But when we try to take our hands away, she plops right back onto her knees to cruise or crawl. That’s okay with us. She’ll walk on her own time.
I think this next month could be a big one for Lucy too. She’s learned to high five & we’re working on her pointing to her belly button. I think with her ears on the mend, her balance might get better & she’ll be more confident to try steps on her own. She’s been quieter recently too. I’m looking forward to hearing new words from our happy girl!
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Zach: Fourteen Months
Zach is pretty awesome right now.
He walks all the time. He can push the popcorn popper, step over the gate ledge, over & around toys, you name it. He has wonderful balance & strength. He’s much more comfortable showing off all his moves at home & at daycare. I tried to have him walk to a friend then me at the mall & he was like WTH!? {Not a bad thing that he didn’t want to run off IMO!}
Zach *loves* books. He has & knows his favorites. And recently he’s choosing J to read them over me. Which is fine with me. It’s so cute to watch him grab the book he wants, walk over to Jason, give it to him & then crawl up in his lap. I just swoon!
Zachy was way more into reading the owl book in his hands in the chair than posing for me. Hence the rarely seen ‘serious Zach’ looks.
Zach currently wears 9 or 9-12 month clothes. In his 14 mo photos, he’s wearing a Carter’s romper {is that the boy & girl term?}. I think he’s long-waisted enough that he’ll be growing out of it pretty soon. He’s transitioning to some 12 mo pjs for that same reason. He’s in size 3 disposable diapers when not in cloth. As of the 24th, I put him in size 4 shoes!
While we’ve been at the doctor for Lucy, we were able to throw gently place Zach on the scale too. Monday week ago, he was 19lbs 2 oz. Yep, up 3 lbs since their 12 month appointment! Finally getting some bulk! 😛
Eating is a fun but messy experience with Zach. He likes to feed himself more so than letting me do it. Perfect for while I’m trying to eat too if he’s eating fruit bites, goldfish, cut up meats, pizza, veggies, potato etc. Not so laundry convienent if were having spaghetti or a casserole. Which is why those meals quickly have also been scheduled on bath nights!
Zach has fun in the bath {speaking of}. He loves to play & splash. I’ve been bathing them together some in a red tub, but I think he likes having the duck tub to himself {& we both like the one-on-one time}.
Zach has a sippy cup after daycare around 530, dinner between 6-630 & another 5oz sippy before bed around 8. See why he’s packing on the pounds?! His night time sippys are now a 5 oz mix of breast milk, formula & whole milk/carnation instant breakfast. So far, the most whole milk mix we’ve done is 2oz but I’m slowly increasing that amount.
Zach’s been cutting molars this month. While we were at the ped 7/9, our Dr felt a top & bottom tooth bud. He was fussy a couple of nights but has since settled back into a normal routine of mixing it up between sleeping through the night & waking once to nurse back to sleep {yes I still do that for convenience & extra calories}. He’s not a fan of opening his mouth wide enough for me to feel, so I’m not sure if any molars have cut through but I’m guessing so based on his temperament.
Can’t wait to see what this next month has in store for us! New words {right now we hear BA a lot but unsure if that’s ball, bottle or book}? New teeth? New moves?
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Weekend Loves
I took Zach & Lucy’s 14 month photos on my cell today. While organizing them for their posts this week, I ran across these photos from this weekend. {Yep, you read that right, thanks to a dead DSLR battery, this months’ will have timely pics!}
I took this nursing selfie Fri evening. I’m still successfully breastfeeding two babies toddlers. If nursing tandem, 99% of the times it’s football hold on our much beloved twin mybrest friend pillow {we’ve gotten every bit of its $60 worth}. And yes, nursing toddlers has it’s own set of challenges- mostly in the form of keeping Zach focused on nursing {instead of running}, keeping them from poking each others eyes/lips/nose/hair & trying to dissuade them from playing with my mouth/necklace/hair. It’s hilarious too when nursing one-on-one the positions they get themselves in while managing to stay attached! I might have future yogis!
Saturday night, I attempted to take a ‘happy almost 14 month day’ group shot of the three of us.
This was the best I could do! Just a glimpse of life with two busy littles at the moment. They’re all up in each others business all the time. Pushing, slapping, & as of Friday {Zach!} biting each other! We say ‘be sweet’, ‘be gentle’, ‘gentle touches’, ‘don’t hit your brother/sister’ only about a 1000 times/day.
You can see how they do & yet don’t play well together in my attempt at a good 14 month group shot Sunday morning before we met my friend Kelly at church. On the chair together, there were a few smiles, but in typical Zach fashion, he was trying to get out if her way & back to reading!
Lastly, once Dada got home Sunday evening, he was reading Jake’s Perfect Day for at least the third time. They’re fairly obsessed with it & a few others {anyone want me to recite Little Blue Truck or Goodnight Owl?!}. The moment was too sweet to not capture. So please excuse the poor lighting & reflect instead on two sweet kiddos nicely sharing a lap for a cuddle-filled book with their Dad.
Hope you had a great weekend too!
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Summer Beach Reads
As I was working on our beach trip pack list, I went online & reserved some summer beach reads for myself. Yes, I was maybe a bit over confident that I’d have time to myself to read. But between car rides, marathon nursing sessions, & sneaking away time without babies on the beach, I managed to finish four books in the last two weeks. I shared my thoughts One Thousand White Women Monday.
Mary Kay Andrew’s Spring Fever was first. Spring Fever reminded me immediately of the other Mary Kay Andrews’ books I’ve loved. Her writing voice is exclusively her own. I was half way through when I realized the title doesn’t fit the book IMO. I’m not sure what I would’ve called it, but Spring Fever doesn’t exactly match.
The characters in this novel are southern charmers & I’m not saying this because they’re set in a {fictional I believe} NC town not far from where I live. The soda referenced so frequently throughout Spring Fever {Quixie} does remind me so much of Cheerwine which fellow NC’ers will know as a delicious cherry soda you probably grew up drinking.
Spring Fever tells the story of two friends & the brother/ex-husband they have in common. It weaves together friendship, family, employment & the history & love they all share with lots of laughs, drama & a lil romance thrown in for fun.
I’ve been excited about reading The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner since I discovered & finished Swim {her short story prequel about the same characters}.
I really enjoyed this novel. The characters were fun & funny. I wanted to be friends with the main character, a struggling writer-turned TV show runner in LA, & her fabulous grandma.
Like other books by Jennifer, this was a great, light read. While it might be ‘chick lit’ & doesn’t have a super heavy subject, it was still good & kept me engaged until the very end. Actually after the end too as I was left hoping we’d get more of the story!
In full disclosure, I read Emily Giffin’s Where We Belong exclusively once we were back from the beach. But I’m including it here because I group Emily with the other authors as perfect beach read novelists.
I laughed when I realized Where We Belong also featured a main character, Marian, who was a NYC based TV writer. That took a bit to keep Marian’s character straight from my last read.
But pretty quickly, I became engrossed with this story. The author chooses the write in two voices Marian & Kirby, the now 18 year old who Marian gave up for adoption at birth. I loved that we got both the adult & teenaged perspectives of all the action. I was cheering & wishing well for them both.
I loved the emphasis placed on fathers in Where We Belong. And I admit I was a bit swoony over Conrad.
While I told my mom I might not recommend these for a weighty book club discussion, they are perfect for deliciously light, fun summer reading. Anytime I’m looking for something I know I’ll enjoy without my brain exploding, these authors {& yes, these books} are good picks!