The BIG Birthday Gift

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Candy

This is Zoey’s big birthday gift from Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy & Daddy! It’s a swingset that has this little “play house” area with a slide. It’s small enough that Zoey can play on it now but big enough that it should last until at least 6 years old.

Gene and I slaved 4 (FOUR!) hours putting this thing together. When we did the big “reveal” to her? She didn’t want anything to do with it and seemingly didn’t even NOTICE this huge monstrosity in our back yard. Kids! So she has been scared to death of it and would never go farther than the first step on the ladder.

As you can tell by the picture above, only almost two weeks after we’ve had it, she FINALLY got the courage to go up herself and she was hooked!

After she would climb up, she would sit at the top of the slide with a look of PURE joy on her face. I mean, you can’t even put words into this kind of innocent happiness.

Wheeeeeeeee!

I sat in the chair on the patio and watched her go down the slide and then go back up the ladder, only to go back down the slide again… about 30 times in a row. She would sit down at the top of the slide and wait for me to count to three… “1…. 2….. THREEEEE!” and she would laugh hysterically and push herself down the slide. At the bottom she would hop up on her feet and run as fast as she could towards me and collapse in my arms only to turn around and run back to the structure and do it all over again. THIRTY TIMES. AT LEAST.

To be a kid again! To have all of that excessive energy and find absolutely happiness and joy out of such a simple task. We could all learn a thing or two from these little kids.

Pig Tails

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Candy

Last week I took Zoey out in the back yard to play on one of the warmest days yet, it was 80°. I put her in an adorable 1980s-esque outfit that Grandma gave her for Valentine’s Day. Adorable neon-colored leggings and a ruffly purple shirt. I LOVED the purple shirt. It made me think of my Grandma, whose favorite color was purple.

She wouldn’t put her “Nacks!” down. She carried them everywhere. Girlfriend loves her snacks. Today she had oyster crackers in her snack trap, which she absolutely loves!

We’re both looking forward to many summer time lunches on her little picnic table this year.

Girlfriend can rock the 1980s leggings and pigtails.

She kept bringing me Emma’s dog toy so I would throw it. And then she would laugh HYSTERICALLY when Emma would run after it and bring it back. It’s the small things in life. But isn’t it always with kids? I love how easily amused they are at very mundane every-day things that we adults sometimes take for granted.

Mommy may not be very good at making them straight or creating a perfect part in her hair, but she sure can make it look cute!

What an absolutely amazing and beautiful little person. I love her so much and I look forward to a fun summer together!

Kiera Claire, 2 Months

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Candy

Can you believe this?

Because I can’t. At all. Wasn’t she JUST a month old? Like, YESTERDAY?

Everyone warned me that having baby number two would make time start speeding along at an infinite rate. I shrugged them off but hey what do you know? It’s actually true and they were being serious.

Kiera is amazing. Sometimes fussy, sometimes finicky, always beautiful and always my love.

How can you NOT fall in love with this beautiful face and those chubby arms?

Kiera Claire, 8 weeks

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Candy

Well, we survive the first 8 weeks of babyhood. More importantly, Kiera survived us taking care of her, albeit bleary eyed and zombified, during her first 8 weeks of life! We’re learning more and more about her personality as the days pass and it’s a lot of fun. We are so lucky to be her parents!

One of the main things we are learning about this little potsticker is her temperament. She gets pretty upset if you hold her the wrong way, don’t lay her down gently enough, bend her arm in a weird way while putting clothes on her, etc. She definitely isn’t the laid back baby that her big sister was, which in all honesty, I love. I love that I am already noticing some major differences in the two of them.. It just means that they will have two very different personalities!

I’ve found myself walking on egg shells around her in the last few weeks. Scared to make her erupt. Her cry is SO loud and startling. I had a realization a few days ago that I just needed to stop worrying about it so much and if she cries, she cries. It’s not going to kill her! So, today I had to let her cry while I helped Zoey with something and you know what, NEITHER ONE OF US DIED. She was fed, she was in a clean diaper and she safely strapped into her bouncy seat. Oh the fun of juggling a 23 month old and an 8 week old! Thankfully, Zoey isn’t a demanding child and has patience most of the time and will wait for me to deal with Kiera before I tend to her.

She’s eating about 5oz at a feeding these days. Sometimes she finishes the entire 5oz, other times not so much. She is sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night, which helps. I have to be honest, I much prefer the 4 hour stretches over the 3 hour ones. I’ve been able to get both girls down for naps around the same time this week and accomplishing that alone makes me feel like Mother of the Year.

I still have a hard time believing that I am so lucky to be the Mommy to these two amazing people. Yeah, I get a little frustrated when I’m changing diapers for a solid 30 minutes (thanks to a baby who likes to poop in a clean diaper and then pee all over herself during diaper changes) or when, although rare, my toddler is melting down at the EXACT same time that the baby is inconsolable. At the end of the day, none of these things matter and all I can think about is how absolutely perfect and amazing these little girls are and how I am the luckiest person on this earth to be their Mama!

Kiera, I love you so much. You are an amazing little person. Your eyes are stunning and I love staring into them. I know I make funny faces and I know I say the most absurb things in a stupid baby voice but I do this because I LOVE YOU and I so badly want to see what your smile is going to look like. I love to cuddle you and I love to smell your head. Thank you for being my baby, thank you for expanding my heart in a way I never knew possible. You are amazing!

Bradford Pears

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Candy

Every year right around the start of spring, usually when the weather has sustained warm-ish temperatures (50-70) for a week, the Bradford Pears start blooming. It is around this time that you can almost hear the entire city sniffling and sneezing if you listen close enough. What are these trees that I speak of? Here is one of the THREE that are in my back yard.

The white blooms on these trees are absolutely beautiful. When you drive around town, you can see them everywhere and they are stunning.

The blooms are short lived. It’s so windy in Oklahoma that as soon as a strong spring wind storm or thunderstorm blows through, you’ll find the ground covered in white flowers. The trees eventually sprout very beautiful, big green leaves.

Can you believe such beauty can really cause such misery? I just LOVE these trees. The white blooms, the vibrant green leaves in the summer time and most of all, the absolutely beautiful, almost perfect pear shape they maintain. I’ll keep my allergy & asthma medication and tissues close by and admire these beautiful trees while they still have white blooms on them because these things do not last long at all.

Zoey absolutely LOVES her “owww-errrs” (Flowers) :-)

Our weekend in pictures

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Candy

We had a busy but great weekend. Friday was my sister’s 20th birthday so we took the girls to see Tangled. Kiera slept through the whole thing and Zoey made it through most of the movie but melted down with 15 minutes to go. Gene took her out. To be fair, it was dinner time and she was refusing the snacks we brought so I know she was just hungry. Saturday night we took our friend Malinda out for a birthday dinner (her birthday was also on Friday!) and watched The IT Crowd Season 3 (hilarious!). Today was a day of laundry and hanging out around the house. We had $10 for Kohl’s that expired today so we went and grabbed a few things.

Here are some photos from our weekend:

My family. Love these guys!!

My beautiful little potsticker. Oh she is just precious!

Zoey helped me do dishes (aka play in the BUBBLES!) this afternoon. I taught her how to make Bubble Beards and she thought that was pretty hilarious.

The gift that keeps on giving

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Candy

My Mom is the best when it comes to holiday gifts and goodie bags. We’ve always received little goodie bags for Valentine’s Day and Halloween and our Easter baskets are always full of fun little tidbits. She really knows how to make each holiday a little extra special!

Now that she has Grandchildren, she can have even more fun doing this. So, for Valentine’s Day this year, Zoey got a little basket with goodies in it and one of the items in the basket was this plastic heart shaped container of M&Ms. This was the very first time Zoey had ever tried an M&M and needless to say, she loves them!

Now, there is no way I was going to let her have the entire bag of M&Ms. So, Gene has started putting two M&Ms in the heart container and then hiding it somewhere in the living room amongst her toys every evening after she has gone to bed. So when she is playing the next day and stumbles across it, it is a HUGE surprise!

This morning it was sitting on top of her play kitchen and it didn’t take her long to find it. “Oooooh!!” she exlcaimed as she found it. She grabbed it and ran to me, “Peeeeeasee!” meaning that she wanted me to open it for her. I told her she knew how to open it herself and so she climbed up on to the sofa with me.

She opened it up, knowing what was going to be in it but still surprised nonetheless. Oh, to be a kid again!

She has this bad habit of holding the two M&Ms in her hands for a long time, so we’ve banned the blue ones. Blue M&Ms melting in a toddler’s hand means blue mess EVERYWHERE. Dear M&Ms, YES THEY DO MELT IN YOUR HAND. STOP LYING.

Needless to say, Zoey was so happy to get her little surprise this morning. I said “Is there a surprise in there?” and she said “Piiiiiies?” So cute! Honestly, I am jealous that she can be so excited over two tiny M&Ms. If it was me, I’d be wondering where the rest of the bag was!