Snow #2

I say every year that I would love to see a snow, and this year we got two. Last week's was kind of crummy but we still went and played in it.

The boys made a crappy snowman but Miller was distracted and Ben was trying to rush off and put a few hours in at work since the roads were melted.

I whipped up some whipped cream for hot chocolate and let Miller help. He sat in the floor with the Ipad to lick the whisk.

 

 I had no idea what to dress Scarlett in. She still had on PJs, with leg warmers, a jacket and hat plus I wore her with a blanket over her.

 

So everyone knows that I hate my birthday. It just gets lost in the shuffle of the holidays. This year  I really had no expectations but I was still disappointed. Ben promised me (for the second year in a row) that we would do something when we got home and we never did. On our snow day, Ben got Miller up and let Scarlett and I sleep in. The boys baked me a belated birthday cake. Miller was so excited for Mommy's cake.

Miller was helping me blow out the candles. Ben decided to use the "2" candle from Miller's birthday.

Of course now it is 70 degrees and spring like. It is only February so we will see if it sticks around.

Scarlett's Newborn Pictures

So I realized that I forgot to blog about Scarlett's newborn pictures. Ooops!! I decided that rather than be sane and hire someone to take them, I could just do it. I do them of other people so why not my own family. I am actually pretty happy with how they turned out, except Scarlett would not sleep during pictures so I never got those cute sleepy pictures that I really wanted. In a normal situation, I would have kept trying but once we finally got out of the hospital, we were only home for 5 days before we went to TN for Christmas. There was so much to do in those 5 days, including getting our Christmas cards printed and since I was sending those out, I wanted to get her announcements out too. It was just all a massively complicated ordeal that pretty much boiled down to I had a baby born at the busiest time of the year.

I was already stressed out and there was so much pressure to get a picture for our Christmas card. In most of the pictures, Ben and I looked stressed out (which we were trying to get Miller to cooperate and all of us looking at the camera) but in this one we finally relaxed and laughed at his cuteness. 

Okay so I got these shots of her asleep. These were for her announcement.

I have the same picture of Miller with his birth date.

I have one of Miller with pumpkins so I needed a seasonal picture with Scarlett. 

You can definitely see her jaundice here. I tried correcting that out and then reminded myself that I am trying to capture her at this stage and that yellow tinge was part of her.

This is pretty much what he does most of the day. 

This one is my favorite. 

Taking her annual ruler picture and a protective big brother making sure she is happy. 

They are not what I set out to do but with photography it never is. I always go in wanting certain shots and leave without them. Then when I get to editing, I realize that what I got is different but just as good or better.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Two

Weight: 11lbs 14oz (+3lbs 3oz) (Miller was 12lbs 12oz)


Height: 23.25in (+1.75in) (Miller was the exact same)

Head: 15.5in (+1.75in) (Miller was 17in so basically the weight was in his head)

Sleep: 60 percent of  the time, she goes to bed within an hour of Miller and then sleeps 7-9 hours. Then she wakes up, I feed her and she goes back to sleep for another 4-5 hours. 40 percent of time she is up every 4 hours, does not get settled between feedings so she ends up in bed with me. It might be segmented sleep but most nights we get a full nights sleep. During the day, she naps in the morning about an hour after she wakes up. She might take another cat nap but then she takes her long nap in the afternoon when Miller does (heaven!!!), and one, occasionally two, cat naps in the evenings.

Eating: She eats every 2-3 hours during the day. Sometimes she goes 4 hours when she takes a long nap. With Miller I worried about him snacking in between feedings and I was trying to get him on a routine. With this girl, she is not much of a snacker but I still just feed her when she wants. Sometimes in the evening it is every hour and a half or two hours but if she just took a long nap, or is getting ready to sleep 7-9 hours, I figure she is just making up those feedings.

Best Moment: I apparently said the same thing with Miller looking back, but she is so smiley. I love just sitting with her and she coos and smiles at me. We were facetiming with my mom, and as soon as she heard moms voice she lit up.

Milestones: I have been horrible about doing tummy time with her but she already has great neck control.

Monthly Wisdom: There are so many things that at this point with Miller I was worried and stressed about and this time around, I am just not concerned. I mean, sure I wish she was doing certain things already but one lesson that Miller taught me is that I can do all I want in trying to teach him something but as long as I gently encourage it, he will do it in his own time.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: She has been sleeping in the Rock and Play in our room at night which I am fine with but I would like to start trying her in her bed. The problem is, with Miller we would put him in his bed and if he woke up, we would let him fuss some before we went to comfort him and start all over again. With Scarlett, I just do not have time for that. At naps I do not have the time to go up and down the stairs to deal with her while Miller is up running around downstairs and at night, I do not want her waking Miller up. She is a little more predictable at night time so I think we are going to start her in her bed then.

And because I am obsessed with these two little people and how fascinating their similarities and differences are, here is a side by side comparison of my babies.  They definitely look alike in some ways but not identical.

Happy Valentine's Day 2014!!!

Happy Valentine's from us and our two loves! 

She was so over taking pictures. 

Miller was puckering up for a kiss. 

My Cuties

I know that everyone thinks that their kids are the cutest ones in the whole wide world, and I am no exception. I am constantly looking at them in disbelief that they are actually mine. I always dreamed of being a mommy but it was hard to picture the little people that would make me one. Now that these two are here, I find it amazing that God would bless me so much. Every time Miller calls me "Mommy", I still feel honored that I would be so special to someone so amazing. I feel the same way when Scarlett smiles at me, or calms down as soon as she hears my voice, even though I know that she probably just considers me her food source.

Ben and I wonder what we did before we had kids. Sure we had more free time and less worries but that was about it. We are so much happier and fulfilled as mommy and daddy and can not imagine our life any other way.  Look at these faces!!!

A photographer that I follow has a series that she participates in called "Kids Were Here" where you capture the scenes that children leave behind. Every naptime or bedtime, I rush around cleaning up the mess that Miller has made but I know that one day when the kids are gone (sniff sniff) I will miss all of that. My boy loves to arrange his cars in lines and rows. All of the moms in playgroup know that this is Miller's thing as soon as we get to the host's house. It is his parking lot.

Every morning I get Miller from his bed, bring him in our room, and the three of us cuddle. This seriously makes my heart want to explode from happiness.

Miller's new "trick" is pushing something over to a counter or table to get what he wants. He keeps pushing a chair to the high chair, which is located by my kitchen gadget drawer. Thankfully he skips over the knives and scissor and just wants the juicer. He always shows it to Scarlett.

 

She is such a smiley thing. I mean when she wants something, she is fiesty, but the rest of the time she is smiley and content. By the way, she is wearing pajamas that were mine. They are vintage Jordache baby jammies.

We were getting them dressed so we laid Scarlett in the crib and Miller jumped in with her. It looks like they are wrestling but I thought both of them in their cloth diapers were just adorable.

Snowpocalypse

As everyone has undoubtedly heard about the epic 2 inches of snow we got here in Atlanta. I want to defend my fellow Atlantans. Sure, most of us do not know how to drive in the snow but that is because we do not have much chance to practice since we rarely get it, but this was snow and ice. Our cities do not have the equipment to deal with snow and really can not do much for ice. But the main problem was not the road conditions but the circumstances of the whole ordeal. We are a heavy traffic city anyways, where most people commute out to the suburbs, so when you call schools off at the same time that businesses close, the roads are going to get congested. Combine that with worsening road conditions, things are going to get crazy. If schools had been called off for the the day because we could see that we were getting snow that day, all of this could have been avoided. I felt terrible for all of the parents out there. The ones stranded in their cars with their kids, and the ones separated from their kids and could not get to them.

Thankfully, I was at home with the kids. At the first sign of snow, Ben left work. His normal 10 minute commute took 2 hours but that was nothing compared to what most people dealt with.

Scarlett took the opportunity to take part of her afternoon nap on daddy. 

After the kid's nap, we got all bundled up (which I am so glad we do not live up North because that alone took 20 minutes) and headed out into the snow.

Miller did not really understand what it was, but he liked it.

I look terrible here but the point was that we were out in the snow having fun and trying to stay warm.

I thought Ben and Miller's footprints were so cute in the snow. We ran into some other people walking around and they said they took a picture of his cute little footprints  too.

Those freakishly long eyelashes (which I am so stinking jealous of) were great for catching snowflakes.

We had to bribe him with making cookies to get him to come home, and not want to go to the playground in our neighborhood. Halfway home he wanted me to carry him (because my camera and  the baby were not enough already).

Daddy showed Miller how to make snowballs. Within a few minutes he was crying from being cold and had a little bit of a freakout until he got warm inside. I think it scared him. Good thing we did not go to the playground.

This is the view out my kitchen door. The streelight is lined up perfectly behind this tree and I get the prettiest views because of it. I have a really pretty picture from the fall with the colored leaves barely hanging on to the tree at dusk.

 I am so thankful that we were warm and snuggled in our house for most of this event. One of our friends who works with Ben, only made it as far as our neighborhood in 6 hours so she ended up staying the night with us. We heard so many stories of generosity and kindness that made me believe again that people can be good, and especially those that live around us.