Let’s Be Butterflies.

Some days there is nothing more frustrating than an almost three year old. Some days she doesn’t stop talking. Some days she doesn’t stop needing. Some days she doesn’t stop whining. Some days she doesn’t even pretend to listen. Some days she must do everything for herself. Some days she runs the complete gamut of emotions in 20 minutes leaving us both drained.

But then some days she straps on her little, pink wings and innocently asks, “you wanna be a butterfwy with me, mommy?”

And I melt. And run around the basement/yard/house flapping my arms in the air chasing the most giggly butterfwy God ever created.

Aside from everything else, the innocence of this age is magic. The imagination is something to behold. And no matter how the day before unfolded, I am always excited to see what Leah has in store for me each day. She is something special, my bug. And I don’t talk about her enough. I really should shout from the rooftops every day how grateful I am for everything that she is – but the neighbors might call the cops. But sometimes I want to anyways. Her three-year-oldness can wear me down like nothing else, and the lows with her can be really low. But the highs… the highs are enough to want 12 of her.

I feel bad because I take a million pictures of Quinn (just like I did Leah at this age), and I rarely have a new picture of Leah. But then I don’t feel so bad, because I politely ask if she will smile for me so I can take a picture, and she does this:

🙂

There was a time when she was easy. And it wasn’t too long ago. But at the same time, I admire her fighting spirit. I want her to have it, I’ve told you that. I want her to know what she wants and what she doesn’t – and I want her to know that she can voice those things. And boy, does she. What a booger.

She can say no, but for now I’m still smarter – so I can trick her 🙂

We have made it through the depths of winter. And now Leah is living for the days we can be outside all day. Thank goodness there have been some – and here’s to many more! She loves to be outside, to be active, and to just run. I’ve never seen anything like it. Kyle and I ask ourselves often, “do other parents have to run laps around their house with their kids every night after dinner?” Because we do. I kid you not. I get a 10 minute run every single day – and I’m the one that stops at 10 minutes – she could go for days. She most certainly did not get that from me. She is a born athlete. And because of that we have re-enrolled in gymnastics and added outdoor soccer. I run out of ideas (and energy) trying to think of how to keep her moving. There was a time I would have judged a parent who had their kid in a million activities, but not anymore. Now I understand that some kids just have to move… all the time. Leah is one of them, God love her.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum – we are now forcing her to watch movies. Does that make us bad parents? You see, we are going to Disney World later this year, and in order for the ridiculous amount of $$$ to be worth it – she needs to know someone other than Winnie the Pooh. So her Nana has gotten her quite the collection of Disney’s finest started – and we have added regular family movie nights to our routine. Monsters Inc, Little Mermaid, and Frozen are so far the favorites. Cinderella and Toy Story were a bit of a bust. She is so excited for this Disney trip, though, and to see all of these characters up close. Having breakfast with Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet might just kill us both. A lot of the time I don’t know who’s more excited between the two of us. (Please feel free to message me if you’d like to know where to make donations). 🙂

In LeahLand, Daddy is the name of the game. Anything he does, she does. Anything he says, she says. Anywhere he goes, she goes. She wants to play hockey, baseball, and golf because of him. GOLF. That’s when you know it’s bad.

He is her gold. On weekdays, the first thing out of her mouth in the morning is, “where’s daddy.” Then I say, “daddy went to work.” Then she says, “daddy be back soon.” As if to reassure herself that he won’t be gone long. My favorite (or maybe it should be least favorite) thing about their relationship, however, is the daddy drinks. You know, beer. I will say now, Kyle is not an alcoholic. But he and Leah have a tradition of going to the grocery store on Thursday nights (when beer is on sale) and getting daddy drinks. Let the record show, this is about the only time he goes to the grocery store. Last night we happened to be there as a family and we started with first things first – the free cookies. After Leah got her cookie, she declares to the rest of the store, “alright, let’s go get daddy’s beer!” I whipped my head around to glare at him for starting this little tradition of cookies and beer only to find him cracking up. She had the routine memorized. God bless. You can imagine my shame. Don’t worry, he also does non-alcohol related activities with her.

I will end with my favorite of her Leah-isms these days.

6 o’clock. She loves to play doctor, and everytime we take a temperature – it’s 6 o’clock. I don’t know if your fever has ever reached 6 o’clock – but it requires immediate attention.

ABCs. This child is obsessed with letters, and now that she knows the song – that’s all she sings. Only last week she added a new dimension. To sing it woud. Every time we’re in the car, we’re singing the ABCs. And now she says, “wanna sing it woud, mommy?!” “Wanna sing it wouder?!” So we belt the ABCs as we drive down the road. Quinn doesn’t know what’s happening.

A couple years. She has 0 concept of time. For instance, we are going to Disney World tomorrow. My favorite, though, is when she says, “in a couple years.” “Leah, you ready to go to the store?” “Not yet, mommy, in a couple years.” She also loves, a couple minutes, a couple weeks, and a couple days.

Jesus. Yesterday, when asking her what she did at church, she non-nonchalantly says, “we learned about Jesus again.” Ha. No kidding, kid.

What everybody. Before I tell you, can you guess what that might mean if you’re three? What everybody. WHO! As in, what body – who. I think it’s rather clever, and it goes something like this, “what everybody made that mess?”

I love you, Quinn. This one isn’t funny, but it makes me melt. This morning she was holding Quinn on the couch and I was walking by and I hear in the softest voice, I love you, Quinn, followed by a kiss. I went a little weak in the knees. She loves her little sister so much.

She’s a lot of kid, this Leah of ours. But she is everything good. And I’m her biggest fan.

Even on the bad days.

The Big 2-0.

And it happened.

Just like that.

20 weeks.

20 stinking weeks have gone by since it was Halloween night. Kyle was celebrating finishing his last exam. I was trying to figure out how I was going to sleep. The car was loaded with two car seats. There was a crazy baby bouncing in my belly. My mom was in town. The camera was charged. I was running over our packing lists again and again. A Quinn was to be born in the morning – 20 weeks ago! And here she is:

The chubby, rosy cheeks. The one dimple. The big blue eyes. It’s all too much for me. What a happy, plump, scrumptious baby.

I’ll start with the statistics, straight from the doctor. Well, she’s perfect. But beyond that… she weighs 17.5lbs – 88% – and what Leah weighed at 6 months. She is 27.5in – 100% – and what Leah was at 6 months. And her head is 17in – 95% – hey, it’s shrinking! Yay! 🙂 Basically, we’ve got ourselves a big Quinn. Everyone comments on her length. Apparently, she’s tall. Can’t wait to see her on the basketball court some day. She is wearing 9 month clothes, and even some of those are getting iffy. But the doctor says she is healthy as a horse and as strong as an ox, so I’ll take it! I’m so grateful my biggest concern with Quinn is finding clothes to fit her. Obviously, my milk has magical growing powers. 🙂

She has two, beautiful bottom teeth. I would like to say, she just woke up with them, but she didn’t not. You have to sleep to wake up. And a teething Quinn is a not sleeping Quinn. God bless, I want to gouge my eyeballs out some days. Most of the past two weeks I have felt like I have a hangover. I “wake up” after a rough night of sleep with Quinn and then there’s Leah… fully rested… and raring to go. She just seems so loud at 7:30am. And the lights are so bright. Just shhhhhh. And give me an eye mask. And someone, please let me sleeeeep. But I have resolved to the fact that I won’t for some time. I suppose I just need to get over it. I remember the teething days with Leah – and they are the days that made me swear I would never have another child – and we see how that worked out for me. But, I’m proud of Quinn and her beautiful teeth. And wiping drool all day long keeps me occupied – otherwise, I would be so bored. Blah.

Happier times? Okay.

She is now eating food! I have mixed emotions on it. With Leah, I was so excited to start solids. It was a new adventure. She was the first, so I was excited to experience all of the firsts with her. With Quinn, I realize that this is the beginning of the end. The beginning of weaning. The beginning of her not needing me exclusively. The beginning of big-kid-ness. And that makes my heart sink. Granted, we still have lots (and lots) of nursing nights in our future – but this is slowly, but surely, the beginning of the end. Wait – I said happier times – sorry. She loves food! Of course she does. She’s a beast. So far we’ve just done the grains – brown rice cereal and oatmeal. But today I bought her her very first sweet potato! I have to go dig out the Baby Bullet! I love making baby food, and I really love that one sweet potato can last a week or more. As sad as it makes me that this is a step out of babyhood – it’s still exciting to share this time with her. It is fun to try new foods. And Lord knows, she’s enjoying herself.

Quinn loves to be upright at 20 weeks old. Just like her sister did. These kids are movers and shakers – they waste no time. She loves to stand, and we just discovered she can stand on her own (holding on to furniture, etc). She’s a nut. I can’t blame her, though, the alternative is lying on her back all day. That would get old. She loves to be outside! Thank you, Springtime! Please keep up the nice weather. Gosh, its nice to go outside. Most often, she falls asleep in her swing outside, but when she doesn’t, she gives me big smiles. She also loves to watch Leah and Duncan run around the backyard like a couple of crazy people. This time next year she’ll be right there with them (eeek!). She loves to be sung to, and musical toys. That is one thing Leah never cared for. She smiles so big when we sing her a song, any song. She also is a raspberry-blowing fool! She constantly blows raspberries and makes a mess all over herself and her clothes. Squealing is her conversation of choice, but recently she has added the ga-ga-ga sound. She loves when we read books to her, and just like her sister, Brown Bear is her favorite. She is really starting to take an interest in her brother, and vise versa:

I’m pretty excited to watch that develop.

But I’m really excited to go to bed, goodness knows, I’ll be up again soon. So, goodnight. It will probably look something like this:

God love him.

Milk with a Foon.

Man, life is just going by. How does that constantly happen?

But life is good. Lots of things are going on around here that are very exciting. For instance, Quinn can now be thrown in her bed awake and will fall asleep within minutes. Hallelujah. This is about the point where I start thinking, “hey, babies aren’t so bad!” Please, no one let me forget the previous three months. Life just runs so much more smoothly when things are predictable. Where before I didn’t know how long a nap would last, I can now count on at least an hour of time to do whatever I need to (for instance, blog). I don’t have to leave Leah and Duncan and a box of Milkbones by themselves for more than 30 seconds to rock a baby to sleep. I get to hear squeals and baby chatter through the monitor. But mainly, my brain gets a second (or an hour) to relax… and that makes all the difference in the world!

We (and by “we” I mean I. Let’s face it, Kyle misses out on all of the fun around here) have also re-sleep-trained Leah. That kid. We all remember how before every nap she likes to change her clothes, dance around, jump on the bed, put tights on her head… and then she would fall asleep. I never cared, because she always fell asleep. Until the day that her crazy shenanigans woke her baby sister. Sleeping babies can be hard to come by, so when you get one asleep and they get woken up… makes for a not happy mama. So I worked with Leah for several days on “stay in your bed,” and after a lot of battles – she is now staying in her bed, and then falling asleep like a normal human. It’s kind of sad though, she didn’t understand why all of a sudden she couldn’t do what she had always done. But the candy I bribe her with fixes that. (I’m not at all above bribing; works wonders). So when she mastered staying in her bed, I decided to throw her another curve ball. Come out of your room on your own. Would you believe this child still waits for me to come and get her when she wakes up from a nap or in the morning?! We cannot get her to open her door for anything! As many times as I run up and down the stairs in a day, it would just be really fun if she would come to me once in a while. So once I enforced, “stay in your bed,” I have also added, “but leave your room.” Ha – how confusing to a poor kid, right? She still won’t come out completely on her own, but when I start to hear her wake up, I got up and crack her door (as a reminder) and then run back downstairs and tell Duncan to, “go get Leah.” He walks up the stairs and a few minutes later they both walk down together. Ha. And then I get out the candy and do a big, “you came out of your room all by yourself AND you stayed in your bed” dance. It’s a regular circus. I know that she’s still concerned she will get in trouble for getting out of her bed to leave her room – so I’m working on trying to fix that. Basically, she gets a lot of candy. 🙂

Did you get the part about me sending Duncan to get her? What a good dog, I love that he has that skill. Reminds me of Lassie and Timmy. I can say where’s Leah or go get Leah and he knows exactly who I’m talking about and what to do. He’s an idiot… but I suppose he’s smart, too. And Leah is his number one girl. Sometimes I wonder if he has room in his heart left for Quinn. The two of them had a regular old love fest yesterday…

I was able to sneak one of these without them knowing (if we’re friends on facebook you saw that one). Then he saw me. Love the look on his face, “it’s okay, mom, I’ve got her.” Then she saw me and this happened:

Man she loves her dog. And he loves her.

But then again, they’ve always had a thing for one another. 🙂

Okay, enough on those two before I cry.

Leah dream came true yesterday. She has wanted to feed her sister since the beginning of time. She asks me all the time if Quinn wants a “foon.” So yesterday I decided to let her feed Quinn some milk. With a foon. (Spoon).

She was so happy! She loves helping in any way, and this was a big one for her. She kept saying, “do ya wike it Kin, do ya wike it.” “I fink she does, mommy, I fink she wikes it!” So funny. And so very sweet. She’s such a little mother.

Poor Quinn, at the mercy of her sister comin’ at her with a foon.

I think we will try some cereal in a couple weeks, but this will at least get her used to a spoon. And satisfy Leah’s desire to help. And keep everyone occupied for a really long time. Hooray!

Can we talk about Quinn for a minute.

This Quinn.

We had to make a trip to Target today (I’m getting much better at leaving with both of them!), so I ran up to get her some clothes to change into. I quickly changed her, and…

Are we serious with the growing Quinn?! Nevermind this 9 month outfit on my kid that turned 4 months 6 days ago! GAAAAH. STOP. There are no clothes for this kid! I couldn’t even button the snaps by her diaper.

(The exposed diaper).

But did I change her again for our trip? Heck no. I threw some socks and a blanket on her and prayed she wouldn’t need to come out of her car seat for any reason. Don’t tell on us, please. It’s hard having a gigantic child.

See, you can’t tell at all that her clothes don’t fit, can you? Poor kid doesn’t even fit in the car seat. She’s a beast of a baby, you guys. But I love her.

And that’s where I’ll leave you because she’s awake. And ready to eat. Of course.