We have to go back

In what can only be deemed "inconceivable", I will actually see 3 movies this week. In the theater. I know, hold onto your hat. Since I'd been averaging one per year since Miles was born, this is truly an amazing event. What makes the list? But of course the Sex and the City premier Friday evening, a birthday "bash" for Raven's 30th. And while in Nashville, Elizabeth and I took in Made of Honor, which was very cute & in line with the chick flick genre. And finally for Wayne's birthday we're heading out to see Indy 4.

But tonight we're planted at home, on the edge for the finale of Lost. Dig that crazy show! I made us a new favorite dinner, Chicken with broccoli and garlic sauce, and Miles crawled in bed on his own at 6:50 and hasn't made a peep since. We'll see how it goes...

[Friday morning update] Lost was fantastic, lots of answers, more questions, and 8 months until we get more. Argh! Miles slept until 6:45, he must have been exhausted! The days at YaYa & B's and the 1st day back to school wore him out. He's going three days a week this summer, hope it won't be too much for him. The class changed, with some friends moving on to the 3 year old room, and some younger kids moving into the 2 year old room. He still has the same teacher, but change can be tricky.

Kind of like the change required to share your toys with your baby sister. I've been pulling out old toys and he's glommed onto each one. He even thinks he gets to sit in the Bebe pod. Um, no, you'll get stuck. Crazy kid.

Double trouble

I uploaded these photos over the weekend, but obviously haven't gotten around to posting for a while. We had a sort of rough week last week, bad sleeping from both kiddos. Audrey's back on track, but Miles seems to have decided that it's his duty to wake the rooster, so he starts crowing at 5:30 a.m., with no chance of resting quietly until a decent hour. Several days of that can take a toll on a mama, so I brought them to YaYa & B's for some distraction. Unfortunately for YaYa & B, he's rising at 5 a.m. in central time zone! So we all take naps during the day to recharge.

I'm not sure how this purchase will turn out, but we're a double stroller family now. We like our evening walks, and I like to stroll the mall on rainy days during the week, so it seemed like the best way to keep them both in check. Miles was very excited to sit next to his sister, but hopefully the novelty will wear off and he'll stop reaching over to pet her soon. Probably not.

Front Yard Fridays

Before I get to Friday evening, I have to talk about today. Today we learned that bribery does pay. Sort of. We achieved poopy on the potty!! [The rest of this paragraph will be about poopy, so if you're not inducted into the parenting world and don't understand the necessity of discussing poopy, you have permission to skip forward.] I feel as if I live in the bathroom now, spending literally hours at a time sitting there with Miles. During the week we'd sit for 15-20 minutes, put on a pull-up and he'd go poop in the next 15 minutes somewhere else. So today I decided he couldn't leave the potty until we had poopy. So I {bad mommy alert} held him on the seat when he started getting nervous and tried to leave. Which led to much screaming and crying. But after a looooooooong time, it worked! And then throughout the afternoon he told us a few more times that he had to go, and he did! Yay us! Before we go getting all high and mighty he ran off from his tooth brushing and got us back for a day of great pooping on the potty. Back in the diaper. Oh well. He got his chainsaw earlier and I don't think it would be productive to take it back - yet - so we'll just start fresh tomorrow.

Back to Friday... our great neighbors Beth & Dan started what we hope will be a fun summer tradition: Front Yard Fridays. Basically they invited our entire street and many other families in the neighborhood for an evening social in the front yard. Despite a chilly evening there was a great turn-out and lots of food, drink and fun for all. We met 2 sets of brand new neighbors, one family that had twin girls born just before Audrey. Miles had a big time with all the kids, and chasing another neighbor's cat. Beth got everyone's info and the plan is to rotate homes and have this every 2-3 weeks through the summer.

The most amusing sight of the evening was all the dads sporting their kids around in Baby Bjorns. I think we had three at one time and another dad holding one of the twins. There is a baby boom in our hood - there have been 7 babies born since October within a quarter-mile of our house, and one more is due next month. I'm sure that makes the future babysitters I met happy too - business should be hot. I'm glad there are several babysitters to choose from as well! We'll have to start trying them out, maybe for some good movies coming out soon.

shadrach

Sad news this week... "my" cat Shadrach had to be put to sleep after an onset of cancer. I say "my" cat because although I adopted him in 1995, my mom and Don have been his gracious and loving parents for the last -whew- 10 years!! I think we attempted one time to bring him back to Knoxville and he hid and wasn't seen for their entire visit. He had definitely become accustomed to the new good life! And Wayne's allergies are horrible enough without adding cat dander to the mix.

Shadrach was a sweet cat, very friendly and vocal. We could always hear him when we called home. He did almost get us evicted from the apartment I shared with Erin & Kim in college, but I think he always missed his pal Darby, who Jen adopted at the same time. Miles is now his biggest fan, reminding me at nighttime prayers "we forgot Shadrach!" I think we'll just let it go until we return to visit and see how much explaining is needed then.

The sound of silence

No, you're not crazy. When I sent you to the new blog to hear Miles's favorite Dolly Parton song, you didn't hear it. That's because (as the Nester commented) she'd just taken the music off her site!! Since I know you're dying to know what Miles was jamming to, it was 9-5.

Instead we listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack and Pandora all day yesterday. His favorite was So Long, Farewell (the "cuckoo song"). He enjoyed it so much that he was trying to imitate my goofy choreography - especially the bird flapping to the "I fleet, I float, I fleetly flee I fly" line. So before bed I queued up the movie and we watched the Von Trapp kids say Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu. I wasn't sure how he would feel about puppets, but he enjoyed The Lonely Goatherd too. So now both the kiddos are TSOM fans! Daddy's so excited!

{By the way, if you haven't heard of Pandora, it's fantastic! You name an artist or song that you like and it plays music of similar style. I found some great new artists yesterday just letting it go.}

Was it my singing?

Check out the paws on this kid! If kids are like puppies and grow into their big paws, Miles is gonna be a big boy!! He's on his way to "big boyhood", he earned his first potty-poopy-power tool on Friday. It was sorta a freebie from me since I caught him in the act and rushed him to the potty. He'd pretty much done his business but something did end up in the potty so I figured I'd jump start the process. He was sooooo proud and selected the nail gun from the big pack of tools. Now I've had 24+ hours of ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK as he nails everything in the house. He's already identified the screwdrivers as the next goal, so we'll keep trying. I'm glad it will be a quiet tool!

Wait it's bedtime & he's screaming from be for more water....

Okay, I'm back. No water given, but I did sing some Twinkle Twinkle. He doesn't mind me singing his lullabies, in fact he will request one after the other at nap and bed times. But I know it's not because he loves my voice. While driving around if I start singing along to the music he pipes up "No, mama, don't sing!"
But he does let me play air guitar when we're home. I stumbled upon a new blog with a fun playlist, and we air drummed and guitared to Dolly Parton (the 2nd song on the playlist) for a long time.

But Audrey gets a silly grin when I sing to her, so she must find the comedy in my voice already. While she enjoys the usual Mother Goose fare, she has gotten really excited when I sing Edelweiss and Do-Re-Mi. Gotta love the Von Trapps! So I'm off to download the soundtrack, then go catch another classic that's playing on TV tonight. Must be ready for the latest Adventure in a couple of weeks!

2 months

Our little girl is 2 months old! (and a full 9 weeks today... need to try another shot in the chair). We had her checkup this morning and she's up to 12 pounds and 23 1/4" - 75%ile for both height and weight. She got her vaccinations BAM! BAM! BAM! in the thighs and wasn't very happy about it.

It's so easy to write about the goofy things Miles does, but seems to get repetitive with Audrey's activities: stared into blue eyes; exchanged coos; fed, burped, rocked her; changed poopy diaper. Mix. Repeat. But there are highlights in the routine. She has discovered... her hair. Oh yes, she loves her hair. Always wants to have both hands up there, twisting through the curls. We swaddle her for sleep with both arms tucked in and it's high drama when we have to pull those hands away from the locks. But we will swaddle and keep those arms tucked in tight. I'm convinced that's why she's been sleeping so well. We didn't do it with Miles and by this point we were zombies, still getting up 2-3 times each night. But not our dear Audrey. She's been going 5-7 hours at night. Of course tonight we'll be woken up 4 times because I just wrote that, but we'll survive!!

Miles is coming up with the cutest things lately. The best is how he plays daddy/mommy to his bear. He carries brown bear around and says "This is my baby." And he likes to feed brown bear too, and pulls up his t-shirt to feed him just like mommy feeds Audrey!

Also his wishlist is growing. Every time we pass a lawnmower or piece of heavy machinery he says "I want THAT lawnmower trailer and THAT weedeater and THAT blower and THAT lawnmower." We've told him to save his pennies and maybe one day it can all be his. At least we know what his summer job will probably be in 15 years.

We screamed

For ice cream!! I bravely took both kiddos for free cone day at Ben & Jerry's yesterday and we had a great time. I was already out, so picked Miles up early from school, hoping to beat the crowd from the high school around the corner. We got there and there was a pretty good line, but manageable. I'd talked with Miles very seriously about staying with me since there would be a lot of people. But after only a minute or so someone handed me a "Go to the head of the line" pass! Seriously! I was not only going to get yummy deliciousness for free, but I got to skip about 40 people and get it NOW. Sweet!

We got the same flavors as the weekend (didn't want to be rude when skipping line and linger over the flavor selection). Miles really likes the Mango Mango sorbet. We sat inside and Audrey snoozed while we tasted each other's flavors and decided that they were both yummy. I'm so glad we got there when we did, as the line stretched out the door when we got to the table and stayed that way until we left. One thing I did learn is there's no limit to the number of cones. You can go back through the line as much as you want. Note to self for next year... start running now so I can handle several flavors not to mention handling two kiddos with ice cream.

the snoozer

If I didn't blog about anything else, I need to share that April 29 (Tuesday!) is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's. Wayne has already wondered aloud if he could go at lunch, then change his shirt and go back with us after Miles gets out of school. We went Saturday when YaYa and B came for a visit. Miles picked Mango Mango Sorbet and ate the entire thing with much flair. I tried Imagine Whirled Peace, which was quite yummy, although not on the post-natal diet plan.

I love this picture of Audrey... it's not that great of a photo, but it captures her right now. She's actually a pretty good sleeper! (I know, sorry Wayne, I just jinxed us for the next week). I've held off saying anything because I thought it was too good to be true, but we're getting some good nights - at least 5 hours then 3 more most nights, and she's thrown in a couple of 7 hour stretches once in a while. Now we're working on some structured daytime sleep... we're getting a little morning nap routine down, but the rest of the day is just haphazard. Here she was playing on an activity mat and just fell asleep. Love that little belly b! I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child with Miles and think it really helped, so we'll be working on that with her soon. Thankfully we may get to skip the nighttime "cry it out" steps sine she goes down fairly well now. That could change when I stop the feeding-to-sleep routine!

And we did celebrate Earth Day last week, though a little late. I got some reusable bags and took them for a spin at Kroger on Friday. We fit what would have been 10-12 plastic bags very easily in 4 of mine, and they were so easy to carry! I guess I'll just leave them in the car and hopefully remember them every time. [Don't we look eco-friendly with our bags on the cork floor!] Too bad the bags are filled with processed food - that's Quik, there are eggos and even hot dogs in there. But one was filled with produce!!

We really have to work on Miles eating better. He has zero appetite anymore and all he wants to eat is nuggets - but not at home! He'll only eat McD's, Chick-fil-a or Wendy's. Seriously. At home it's PB&J and fruit of all kinds. We've just set forth a verbal "no nuggets out until you start eating what we have at home" rule. We'll see how long that sticks. Our other problem with how he eats is that he'll ask for something, we'll make it, then he'll refuse to eat it. Argh!! I'm wondering when this turns into the stage when he's eating us out of house and home. That can't be too far off, right?

7 weeks

It's hard to catch on "film" but we're getting lots of great smiles from Audrey these days. We'll have a little flirt-fest with each other and I don't want to ruin the fun by flashy-thinging her. She's 7 weeks old and is a real sweetheart. She absolutely lights up when she sees Miles, so I can't wait until they can play together a little better. He adores her too, the first thing out of his mouth in the morning is "Where's Audrey?" I'm sure that's out of concern for her, and not just to see if he gets all the extra space in our bed for a while. Back to her... she's starting to swat at her little mobile over her bouncy seat, but hates tummy time. She can hold her head up well when we hold her in our arms, but gets really frustrated trying to lift her head from flat on her belly. I remembered the mirror I used to hold for Miles and I think that is giving her a little more reason to look up - who is that cute baby over there? And check out that thick mane! It's really coming in and I affectionately refer to it as Kramer hair. Especially when freshly washed, it curls on top and sticks up until she sleeps on it.

Poor Miles has been running a fever today. It started before bed last night and continued all day today. But despite being sick, we had one of the best days together in a long time. It was close to a zero-fussy day, and he didn't try to swindle treats and TV time out of me, even though we were home all day. I started pulling the Disney books off the shelf to read, a big step because the stories can be really long. We started with the Three Little Pigs, which I don't think is in the book club anymore. We also tried Pinocchio and 101 Dalmations. I hope I can find Mickey and the Beanstalk at McKay, because one of his favorite Little Einstein episodes right now is about the giant up the beanstalk.

More fun stuff from Miles - he's totally into his tools. He insists on wearing jeans so he can wear all of his tools around the house. He especially loves these carpenter jeans because of the loop on the side. He refers to them as his "hooker" jeans. When we had the guys here working on the kitchen he would ask them if they had hookers. That got some good reactions! I've gotten him to call a belt-loop by the proper name, but that loop on the side remains a hooker until I can come up with a better name for it.

We're using tools for a higher purpose now too - bribery. We got him the jackhammer he earned by wearing the cute suit and shoes for Uncle Kyle's wedding. Now we have a chainsaw up on the shelf just waiting for a poop on the potty. We also got a big set of tools to dole out for more achievements like staying dry all day, telling me when he has to go, etc. The incentives haven't worked yet, but I need to start making him try to go hourly. I guess it can be my Earth-Day resolution - get the oldest out of diapers!!

A wedding weekend

I could just take the easy way out and tell you to read Tiffany's blog, but I won't (you should read it anyway!). I'll try to recap as briefly as can be, mostly since Audrey is stirring and we'll have to run and pick up Miles soon.

Thursday: We're lucky to have family in Nashville which lets us break up a looong drive, although it does add days to the trip. Miles loves playing with YaYa & B and we also got to visit his cousins and see their fantastic new home. We made it to Memphis Thursday afternoon, just beating some torrential rain coming.

Mom hosted a BBQ dinner for the family, so everyone got to see Miles and meet Audrey in a somewhat relaxed environment. Kyle and his buddies were heading out for the bachelor party, so brave Megan spent an entire evening alone with the future in-laws!! Extended-family in-laws at that!! Wayne joined Kyle for the bachelor festivities, which included a Barbecue Crawl. Much like the better known pub crawl, their BBQ crawl had them hopping around Memphis, trying out some of the best ribs around.

Friday: Since all the family would already be in town, we took the opportunity to have Audrey baptized just before the wedding rehearsal. It was a really special event - both of my grandmothers were able to attend (they're 92 & 91); both of my godparents were there; and all 14 family members from 3 generations who have worn the baptismal gown were there! I just realized that, we should have taken a picture to mark the occasion. Miles wondered why there weren't ducks in the baptismal font.

The rehearsal was next followed by an excellent dinner at Currents at the River Inn. As Tiffany described, all the cousins were again seated at the "kids" table, and I think Kyle wished he and Megan could've joined us back there for the usual antics. No, Miles & Audrey weren't subjected to our craziness. YaYa & B graciously came over to keep the kids in the hotel while we were all occupied with wedding festivities.

Saturday: In the morning, Miles introduced Ellie to big-kid toys like Rocket. Later in the evening we had to promise Miles more big-kid toys, specifically a jackhammer(!), to wrangle him into the evening's finery. (We haven't delivered yet, but possibly will tonight if we can manage family dinner out.)

Okay, this is getting long....

The wedding was beautiful. Miles told me Megan was dressed as a princess several times, and got his shy-smile going whenever he was with the bridesmaids. But he was NOT shy with Tatum, the flower girl! She was a feisty one, and they were chasing each other all around in the dressing hall of the church. I was afraid of what could happen going down the aisle. But as they turned the corner to the narthex, they were suddenly subdued. The organ music, singing and the crowd must have overwhelmed them into calmness. I'm not sure about Tatum, but Miles remained in the church for the entire ceremony & photos after.

The evening was getting late so even though the reception hall was in the same block as the hotel, we dropped the kiddos off and headed back out. We missed their first dance, but it was to Al Green's Love & Happiness. We were there for the arrival of the getaway vehicle. A little background here: Kyle called a couple of weeks ago and said he had a problem. He was supposed to arrange for the car, perhaps a nice Town Car or Bentley, but had let the task slide. Now it is prom season and all that was available was a stretch Hummer. I told him if she would be expecting a Bentley and a Hummer pulled up, she might be a tad peeved and he should fess up. He did, thank goodness, because it would have taken much more explaining to overcome the fact that it was a banana yellow stretch hummer. Oh yes. At least by this point they could laugh together as husband and wife. And climb onto the yellow seats and ride off into the night.

Congrats Kyle and Megan!!! We love you!!

UPDATE: Okay, I was just showing Miles the photos on this post and he said "That's Megan, she's a princess." Sweet. Then he said, "Where are her boobies?" Oh man, we've got some social graces to work on.

Mr. and Mrs.

Over the weekend we traveled to Memphis to celebrate the marriage of my brother, Kyle, and Megan. It was a fantastic weekend, everyone had so much fun and Audrey got to meet all of her family at one time! I think most of my blog readers were there and it was so nice to meet many of you in person. I'm still sorting through the pictures (and we're pretty tired from the drive) so I'll blog in more detail later. But here's our handsome boy getting ready for his ring bearer duties.

Miles's Wish List

Miles is taking after his daddy. Wayne used to sit and dream with the Sears catalog (didn't we all?), making out a big wish list. Miles loves perusing the Thomas the Train catalog. Check out his picks...

Happy One Month Birthday!!

Today is Audrey's one month birthday. She gave us the best gift... she slept for a 5 hour then a 4 hour stretch last night! I almost feel fully rested. Ha! Of course Miles was awake for 3 of the last 4 hours, so not as rested as I could be.

The poor thing spent her birthday unceremoniously strapped in the carseat running errands. We went back down to Wayne's office so I could do a little more filing and she met several friends who work in the building. Then we all had lunch before going to my dress fitting for Kyle and Megan's wedding next weekend. I had to get measured while pregnant, so it was pretty off in sizing. The lady I went to was so great and said it would be ready in plenty of time. Then it was off to Kroger before swooping in to pick up Miles just before the skies opened up. Whew!



Miles has been a fantastic big brother. He's so loving with her, but we are seeing some tantrums that I'm sure are related to the new baby. It's also the age, his teachers say all the kids are asserting their independence. We hear a lot of, "No, I do it!" Like yesterday at the park when he wanted to push Audrey in the stroller. The whole way. He did a pretty good job with only minimal steering adjustments from me. And then he was a real sweetheart and gave me this beautiful flower!!

Audrey has changed a lot just in this week. She outgrew one of the padding liners around her head in the car seat. After the big sleep last night she stayed awake for almost 2 hours, looking around and playing. She's becoming more vocal! Lots of coos and squeals. And Wayne and I both think we've seen smiles that are maybe not just gas. Our little girl is growing up. She's already telling her friends "Call me!".. check it out!

the negotiator

How much do you love my boy's stylin' jammies selection last night? Hand-me-down Madagascar shirt, Rocket jammie bottoms, and fighter plane galoshes, but on the wrong feet. Love him! He definitely knows what he wants (clothes, food, activity du jour) and may possibly throw a small fit if he doesn't get it. Okay, that mostly happens at bed and meal time when fatigue and hunger have set in. But since our day consists of 3 meals and 2 "bed" times, it can happen more than we'd like! When said fit starts to happen (say at the dinner table when he flips over his plate full of food - oh yes!) we've given up on a time-out chair. No, we go with full banishment to his bedroom. I don't even care if he's playing while in there, he knows he stays in there until he's in the mood to be nice. I'm sure this tactic won't work much longer (as I learn from those going before me). But I need to clarify, he's normally a fantastic kid and very susceptible to our reverse psychology efforts. But he's gaining on us!

Right now he's back in the bathroom negotiating with Wayne about potty time. Miles' Aunt Elizabeth told me that the promise of power tools convinced Evan to become potty trained, so we set forth that when Miles poopies on the potty, he will earn some new power tools for his tool kit. He knows when he needs to go, because he races back to his room and slams the door for some "private time". So we figure we'll just follow him and remind him of the deal for power tools. He's back there now discussing with Wayne the idea that just a pee-pee gets power tools too. Sorry, smarty, we already know you can pee on the potty! In milestone tracking, he woke up with a dry diaper for the first time ever today. Huge! Guess I need to get off my duff and get that boy trained. This "new baby" excuse can only get me so far, right?

Ah, the wee one. She's turning a month old this week! She had a big week, meeting Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Shay and cousins Evan & Kate. Kate was just dying to hold her over and over, which made Miles want to as well - he hadn't yet, if you can believe it! She's been taking it pretty easy on us most of the time, although last night she threw us a curve ball, staying basically awake until almost 2, ouch. For us cool kids who were already on the 9 p.m. bedtime schedule, that one really hurt. But when she does finally sleep at night, we've been getting a good 4 hour stretch, sometimes twice in a row, so can't complain too much. And we're just loving how much more awake and alert she is during the day. We're getting some good time staring into those big blue eyes. But hopefully tonight they will close for the night at around 11. Pretty please, sugar pie?

Ol' Blue Eyes

I may have to give up the weekly shot of sweet Audrey, at least for a few weeks. Besides being a couple of days late taking it, she is not a huge fan of the pose. Could have something to do with the lack of neck strength causing her to slump onto the bear every time. Then she just gets mad, "mommy, what in the world are you trying to make me do?" So this week's photo looked a lot like last week's: mad face and punching fists. I did lay her down on her belly, which she didn't mind too much. So I'll try to get the shot next week, but may just wait until she has a little more head control. But check out those blue eyes! And her hair has gotten redder as it grows.

Speaking of hair, she had her first salon visit today. She (take a wild guess...) slept in the carrier while I got a much overdue cut. But she was the attraction of the day there. Seems that 5 employees are pregnant, and the rest must have the baby bug because she was never without an audience cooing, watching her REM-cycle eye flutters.

And the last little tidbit.. we had her 3 week check-up yesterday. Sweet little Audrey weighs 10 lbs. 2 oz.!! She's already outgrowing some sleepers and onesies. Time to break out the new spring wardrobe!

Oh, and Raven (the one who took this gorgeous photo of Audrey) has entered a blog banner design contest on TypePad, so please go vote for her cute little owl!

A wild goose chase

Some of the time lately has felt like a wild goose chase. Like when trying to get two kiddos ready to go somewhere and Miles refuses to go potty, change diaper, get dressed, eat his snack, eat the snack that he asked for 2 seconds earlier, take the orange cup (not the green cup), leave the huge toy behind. Then he finally gets ready and it's Audrey's turn to have a blowout diaper (they usually sound worse than they look), spit up on her shirt, need to sit down to eat, then take 15 minutes to burp. So I've been learning that if we want to meet daddy for lunch at 11, we need to be awake and going by, oh, 6:45 a.m. :)

But Miles did go on an actual wild goose chase this weekend! We were partying with Mary Kate for her 3rd birthday a the cutest little zoo I'd never heard of before. They had donkey rides (Miles rode Cocoa, who had to poop while Miles was riding him), emus, camels, sheep, goats, even a kangaroo and a couple of zonkeys. No, not a typo, zonkeys. Miles LOVED it. He ran, skipped and bounded all over the place, but never once did I see him just plain walking. He was way too excited for a boring walk around the zoo.

Little missy was in attendance at the party, but she slept through all the excitement. She did have a big day Tuesday when she went to work with daddy. Well, actually she went to work with mommy too. I had to do a little end of 2007 clean up in the files (yes, I know 2007 has been over for a while) so we spent a couple of hours hanging out with Wayne. He was so excited to give her first lesson in the merits of excess cash flow and high returns on capital employed. Yes, she slept through most of this visit too.

Oh yes, happy Easter to all! Audrey made her debut at the 9 a.m. mass, sleeping in the Baby Bjorn the entire time (are you sensing a theme?). Miles and Audrey had a visit from the Easter Bunny too! He left eggs scattered all around our yard. They also had another visit, YaYa and B came in town and joined us for Easter services. Then following a quick stop for some hot fresh Krispy Kremes, they headed back home with Miles in tow. It is his spring break so he's spending a few nights with them and visiting his cousins. And mommy and daddy are planning on relaxing and enjoying some down time. Oh wait, we have a 3 week old baby. Never mind. At least I will be able to follow the "sleep when they sleep" advice for a day or so. At least I'll try too, it will be pretty tempting to "be productive" in that downtime. Maybe I'll be able to blog a little more? Or start scrap booking her baby album! Yes!!

quick update...

Two weeks! Definitely some change from last week's photo. While she was still slumpy onto the bear, she was much more, um, reactive, to being posed there. She had some good strong kicks and punches going. Thankfully Raven got some gorgeous shots of her on Sunday, so we have this time documented in a much better way.

We're all hanging in there! Our first day of mommy, Miles and Audrey went pretty well. I did have to whip out the Little Einsteins on Demand at the end of the day, and Wayne came home for lunch, but overall we did well and I survived. We had painters here that day or it probably would have been easier. Convincing Miles to stay put in the room with me while I fed Audrey took some creative thinking, but now that it's just us and we can be anywhere in the house it's better. The hard part today was keeping Miles from coughing all over her. Yes, the men of the house both have head colds and so far the ladies have steered clear. I've tried telling Miles that his big boy germs are just too strong for the baby, so he has to stay away from her. Not the easiest to sell when he just wants to be a sweet big brother and give her the pacifier!

Oh and the picture may give away the rest of Erin's story (read about her crazy week!!!) but we did make it to Cracker Barrel with the kids this weekend. Audrey slept through the whole thing but Miles and Eileen hammed it up for each other. Both of them were covered in anything sticky from the table: jam, syrup, mac n' cheese

On to some kitchen updates! We're done but for a few cosmetics: back splash, knobs on cabinets, and the breakfast area (table, cushion & lighting). It's fantastic and we love it!!! Here are the before & afters: