2013: A Year in Review

My, my, my, we've come a long way.

I begrudgingly went back to work in February 2013. I was miserable for many reasons, not least that I missed being with my babies. A new job closer to home in October 2013 has helped tremendously, and I'm entering 2014 a much happier and more optimistic person. My freelance work has also taken off like a rocket, and I hope to keep increasing that business as well. On the mom front, I continue to love it. It's frustrating and exhausting and inspiring and fulfilling in ways I never knew existed. Watching these two little people grow into full-fledged personalities is just incredible.

Blue has continued to kick butt at his job and has shown himself to be an amazing father to Periwinkle and Indigo. I hear horror stories from other moms about their useless husbands and count my lucky stars I married someone who believes parenting is a partnership. He's home with the kids today. Did I detect a slight look of desperation as I left him with one baby toddler crying and the other climbing the stairs? Perhaps. But I know he pulled it together. I hope he still has the energy to give me a kiss at midnight.

Indigo has gone from a watchful, cautious, worrying baby with a powerful set of lungs to an active, hilarious, somewhat less cautious boy with a powerful set of lungs. He figured out how to climb the stairs first and has taken a few shaky steps all on his own in the past few days. His laugh is one of my favorite sounds in the world. It is so full-bodied and joyous. Everyone should laugh like that. He is, thankfully, still my snuggle bear. I just wish he'd get over wanting mama snuggles at 2am.

Periwinkle is sassy and knows what she wants. She is vocal and her vocabulary seems to increase every day, and she is starting to use the sign language as well. She is determined and strong-willed. She saw her brother climbing the stairs and within a day was doing the same. She wants to walk everywhere holding my hand. She is exhausting. And she is still my mini-me, right down to the curls at the nape of her neck. She is always looking around and taking it in, as she has since the hour she was born. Seeing her discover new things is one of the true delights of being a mother.

On the horizon for 2014: selling our house (I'll be a wreck) and buying a new one (exciting but daunting) and continuing to raise two of the most amazing kiddos anywhere. And yes, I am biased.

Happy New Year, all!

January 4, 2013

December 30, 2013

Father's Day

I realize this is a week late, but I just wanted to share with the world how lucky my kids are to have Blue as their dad. He was the first to feed them after they were born (I was loopy on a magnesium drip), and he was the first to visit Periwinkle in the NICU (again, loopy over here). He was my rock during those first few crazy weeks and has been ever since. The babies light up when they see him and have so much fun playing with him on the floor. He's just an awesome daddy to them. And an awesome hubby to me.

Indigo vs. the Nebulizer

Little man got a little cold, and then started coughing a rather lot, and wheezing a bit. Fearing the dreaded croup, I brought him to the doctor last week. Apparently it's bronchiolitis, aka a cold gone bad. He was prescribed nebulizer treatments, which seem to be helping. Unfortunately, he's not a big fan. While he fell asleep in my arms during the first treatment at the doctor, ever since he tends to whine and try to look away from it. Or eat it.

As a result, he hasn't been as into the baby-led weaning lately. He'll eat applesauce or yogurt off a spoon, but he's not as enthusiastic about holding his own food. Although last night he did quite well with the banana I gave him. He also enjoyed a pancake over the weekend.

He has also rolled over from back to front twice! He's trying to keep up with Periwinkle, who will roll across the floor, or her brother, if you let her. We find her sleeping on her tummy nightly now.

We had a lovely Mother's Day at the in-laws. The kids got me some flowers and a sweet card, and Blue got me chocolate and a card. Stupid me had thought he'd forget, but of course he didn't!

Periwinkle also has decided lately that she loves to stand. Here she is showing off:

Progress

So last night I decided to try an earlier bedtime. Not too much earlier, just a half hour. But they were both asleep within ten minutes. A miracle!!

I guess they really like waking up after 9 hours though, because they were up at 4:30, chatting away, then crying. We got Indigo to fall back asleep by 5am (I gave him a burp cloth to hold on to and that seemed to work. He likes little blankets, but it wasn't so big or thick that I felt it posed any hazard).

Periwinkle, however, just seemed to get more annoyed. We fed her a 2oz bottle, but that wasn't enough. So Blue made her a 5oz bottle to go along with the little premade one. That did the trick, and she was asleep by 5:40. Phew. I squeezed in another 20 minutes of sleep then got up for the day. I can't be entirely sure, but one of them might have been awake when I left at 6:30.

If waking at 4:30am turns out to be a new thing, assuming the earlier bedtime keeps working, then we might try dreamfeeding them before we go to bed to get them sleeping straight through again. They lose sleep when they wake up and cry and eat, so it's for their own good. And ours.

And now, a photo of them with all of their Easter bunnies!

"What the hell, Mom?"

Irish Lad

It's kind of crazy, but sometimes Indigo's hair looks reddish. This is particularly visible when I use the Lo-Fi filter in Instagram, which really ups the saturation. Check this out:

Day 86

Also, I hope you all had a happy Easter. These two were rather moody, which goes along with Indigo's recent difficulties falling asleep at night (he's fine for naps but at night, watch out!). We think at least he is teething, perhaps her as well.

Although, Indigo was having a great time with Zio Pippo (Blue's brother. That is what the first niece called him and the name has stuck. "Zio" means "uncle" in Italian and "Pippo" is her version of his name). Indigo was actually laughing! I have to check the video I shot to see if it caught the laugh. It was hilarious.

One of Periwinkle's few calm moments. Happy Easter! Day 87.

Little Things Thursdays: Week 4

Okay, so it's Friday. And I missed a few weeks of these posts while we started up at daycare and got me sent off packing to work again. But I'm back.

#1. Fun Nailpolish. It just makes me happy.

It's from Essie. It might be a bit more pricey than your average Wet N Wild brand polish, but it lasts forever and comes in great colors. I'm usually pretty much a tomboy, so it's nice to get all girled up from time to time.

#2. Haircut and highlights. See above about feeling like a girl sometimes. Yay for getting a good deal via Groupon!

#3. New moccasins. I wore my old ones into the ground, so it was time.

minnetonka

#4. Coffee. It's what gets me through my day at work. Or the mornings, at least. I bought a fun new mug for going back to work.

#5. My Valentines. First off, I came home to the table set for a candlelight dinner, cooked by Blue. And homemade chocolate chip cookies. Good stuff. I also got to snuggle with these two for a while.

Doesn't get much better than that.

Farewell, 2012

What a year! First off, congrats on all of us surviving the Mayan Apocalypse!

Hard to believe that at this point last year I wasn't even pregnant. Talk about big changes! Feeling incredibly lucky to have had such a problem-free pregnancy (up until that last week), and incredibly lucky to have two babies that are starting to sleep in six-hour chunks at night. They really are great kids.

2012 also brought some losses in the family, so we're looking forward to a 2013 with hopefully less of that. Also on our radar:

1. Selling our house
2. Buying a new house
3. Increasing my freelance workload
4. Low-key summer vacation
5. Only one wedding to attend, instead of the nine we've had each of the past two years
6. Enjoying watching our babies grow into little people

I also want to lose the baby weight (haven't even tried yet) plus about twenty pounds. We'll see how that goes...

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year! We headed up to my parents' house for a few days, which is always great because Grandma and Grandpa love getting up in the middle of the night to feed them and let us get more than three hours of consecutive sleep. Feeling somewhat well rested now, thanks to them!

The babies made out like bandits, and we are so grateful for all the adorable clothes and toys they got, as well as the Ergo carrier that makes Periwinkle conk out in .5 seconds. I've yet to put Indigo in it, but his turn is coming soon. We also got a single Snap N Go stroller for when we want to get individual time with a baby, and a humidifier for the nursery that will hopefully help with dry skin and congestion. I'll let you know how that goes!

The babies also got spoiled rotten, as I don't think they were put down for more than two minutes during the course of the three days. Someone was always holding them and loving on them, especially my grandmother, who has decided to go by GiGi. My grandfather has been dubbed More GiGi, which is a nod to the fact that my younger cousin, as a baby, called me Red and my brother More Red. I felt so popular.

Here are some pictures from our holiday!

Christmas Day Finery

Christmas Eve Eve PJs

Aunt Fuschia and Indigo in his Christmas Eve PJs

Peaceful Periwinkle in her Christmas Eve PJs

Me, and Periwinkle in the Ergo

They had their two-month pediatrician appointment today. How they are nine weeks old already is beyond me. Periwinkle is now 9lbs6oz!! And Indigo is still exactly a pound heavier, at 10lbs6oz. They've pretty much doubled their birth weights, and are both into size 1 diapers. Indigo now weighs about what I weighed when I was born. My poor mother....

Baby girl is 21 inches long to Indigo's 22. She has a head circumference of 36cm, and his is a whopping 39cm, which got a reaction of, "Oh, wow" from the doctor. But both are looking great, as, in the doctor's words, "I can't find a thing wrong with them." So that's good to hear!! Indigo is still a bit congested, but we're hoping the humidifier helps with that.

I am hoping to finally get a post up with official "after" shots of the nursery in the next week, once I organize their new clothes and get the newborn stuff out of there. So crazy to think they've outgrown it all already... thank goodness for Christmas gifts!

Happy Month-Day!

Hard to believe it's been a month already, and at the same time it's hard to believe only a month has passed. Our little babies are growing up! They are even wearing snazzy outfits!

Indigo is puzzled by the lack of sleep n play

Periwinkle is comfy in her new clothes.

It's crazy how quickly they are growing and changing. Indigo is losing his hair and now looks like he has male-patterned baldness. I can't remember if it had started up already when they had their newborn photo shoot last Tuesday (cannot wait to see those photos!) but he's adorable with or without hair. They are both eating 3.5oz fairly consistently, every 3.5 hours. A far cry from when we had to coax one ounce into Periwinkle in the NICU. So grateful for how well they are doing! Their one-month checkup is Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing how much they weigh. Indigo is out of Preemie diapers and I think Periwinkle is soon to follow. I feel like I'm going to blink and they'll be a year old. For now, I'm just enjoying them, crying jags and all.

And a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We are still swimming in leftovers... and I'm psyched to decorate for Christmas!

Fourth of July

I hope everyone stayed cool on the Fourth! We lucked out in that it wasn't oppressively hot, but we still went in the pool a few times. It was exciting to have the first non-us people in our pool (only took two years). One guest, drink in hand while in the pool, said he felt like he was on vacation. I love summer for just that reason! We also played a little wiffleball (wish I could play a real game of softball but that's probably not a good idea right now) and frisbee. We won't discuss my *awesome* frisbee skills...

I had a little too much fun preparing and decorating. I used beach buckets for chips and mason jars for vases that held daisies from our garden. A little ribbon, some flags, and a few pinwheels completed the festive Fourth vibe.

Blue grilled up burgers, hot dogs, hot sausage, and chicken that I marinated in a Bourbon marinade (gotta get my booze on somehow). Everything was delicious. We also had salad, but people mainly went for the meat. That's what a BBQ is all about, right?

I also made some sangria that we have a bunch leftover of. How long is sangria good? Hoping my mom can help us drink some of it when she's down next weekend to help on the nursery again. I had a sip and it was so good, I wish I could drink it all myself!

Then we had a pretty amazing sunset before the entire neighborhood started setting off fireworks (which lasted until midnight...joy).

All in all a great day, and I'm glad we got to have friends over for a BBQ. Hoping to get another one in before summer is over, but we have a busy few weeks ahead so we'll see!