WHAT.A.DAY…

Warning: This post is full of a whole lot of venting.  No cute stories about the girls or funny quotes from Taylor. Strictly letting out my frustrations.

…and it’s only 11:32 a.m.  I can only hope that the day gets better.  It was a long night with neither Caroline nor Taylor sleeping good, along with Taylor coming into our room too early this morning.  She’s been coming into our room alot lately, in the middle of the night or early in the morning.  Not fun.  I rushed to get myself and the girls ready for the early service this morning, with the plan of keeping both the girls in the cry room with me since they both have a cold and a bad cough. Taylor was AWFUL. She would not sit still, kept asking for a million tissues, wouldn’t obey, kept talking, etc. You get the point. There were a few minutes that she sat and colored, and stayed in the lines really well, I must say. But other than those few minutes she was not good. It was absolutely pointless for me to go to church this morning. There is a tv in the cry room, so I thought I could at least listen to the sermon. FALSE. Pretty much didn’t hear any of it. I was soooo mad and had had enough so we left.  Nick was playing on the music team so not only did he have to get there early he had to stay for the second service as well (I know there are plenty of other moms who are solo on Sunday mornings while their husbands serve in different capacities…bless you); but he did come back to sit with us in the cry room so he took Taylor outside after she pitched a huge fit while I got Caroline settled into her carseat.  It was loads of fun.  Then once we got home it wasn’t much better. Without going into all the details it took a good bit of effort to get them both to go to sleep.  Taylor doesn’t normally take a morning nap, but she deparately needed it today. Caroline was overly tired, so it took her forever and alot of crying to get herself to sleep. I even set up the pack and play in my room, so she and Taylor wouldn’t disturb each other.  I tried to listen to my ipod to drown out the crying, but it was dead.  I also tried to work on my Bible Study lesson, but was so worked up that I couldn’t even focus.  So then I unpacked the rest of my Willow House Starter Kit and then decided I should blog.  I’m pretty sure they’re both sleeping now, praise the Lord!  I hope your Sunday was better than mine!

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3 Months Old

Caroline turned 3 months old on January 4th. Yep, 3 months already. I told Nick just the other day that on one hand it seems like she was just born but on the other hand it seems like she’s been with us for longer than 3 months. Either way, we love her…alot…and she is so cute and happy! I mean, really, she smiles all the time. She’s like Buddy the Elf…smiling’s her favorite! We think her eyes are going to stay blue, but we’ll see.  Caroline also loves her hands…mostly for chewing on but she also loves to look at them. She appears to be interested in trying to roll from her back to her tummy because she’s been trying to roll onto her side. But she does not love tummy time eventhough she started out sleeping on her tummy. Since she’s a back sleeper now she has a serious bald spot. I mean, serious. I know this is very common for babies, but hers is super noticeable because of her thick, dark hair. I jokingly say I’m going to some of that Just for Men spray to cover it.  As far as sleeping goes, she continues to sleep well at night usually waking up once or not at all! Some days she doesn’t nap well, while other days she’s a perfect sleeper. One of her favorite places to be is on her play mat where she can smile/talk to/hit/grab the little toys that hang down. She is quite the “talker” and loves to make all sorts of cooing and baby talk, and loves to have little conversations with you.  Though I don’t have her on an exact schedule every day, I’m working on it. Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to be some crazy mom who must stick to her schedule, but rather let it guide me and help me plan my days. I have a love/hate relationship with schedules, but I know they’re important and Mama needs some predictability to her days in order to be somewhat productive. It’s also important in helping me know what her fusses mean in terms of hunger, tiredness, etc. Sleep is critical for babies’ health and development. I started yesterday to try to get her on more of a routine and she started out great. It’s the afternoons that are sometimes challenging. She eats every 3-4 hours at this stage in the game and proves to be growing well and adding some cute little rolls to her thighs.  She won’t go back to the Dr. until next month for her 4 month check-up, so I can’t give you her exact stats, but based on my measurements she’s about 12 pounds or a little less, and about 24 inches long. Taylor still loves her little sister and wants to see her and love on her all the time. She’s a great big sister and I love to watch them together.  Sometimes it’s hard to capture the way a baby really looks, but this is her for sure. Don’t you just love this face?!

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Arkansas trip part 3

It was a cold Sunday morning in Little Rock.  My phone said it was 24 degrees when I checked at church that morning.  That’s cold.  We really enjoyed their church and getting to meet some of their friends.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day back at their house.  The kids got a little (very little) rest but mostly just had fun playing together.  The cousins love each other so much and make the most of their time together.  There were some rough spots but there’s a lot more good than bad.

I’m jealous of people who get a lot of good natural light in their house and yard because we get pretty much none because of all the trees in our yard.  The trees are great but make taking pictures a challenge.  Late in the afternoon I went on a little black and white photo shoot.

Yeah, I’m pretty jealous but glad that I was able to get a few good shots.

Of course Caroline isn’t old enough to get involved in all the fun but she did get some lovin’ from Aunt Sissy.

On Monday we went to downtown Little Rock before heading out.  We’d considered trying to drive the whole way home on Monday but after lunch and playing at a park we didn’t leave until 2:30.  We stayed at the same hotel in Vicksburg and the girls did great again.  Caroline slept the entire way and Taylor was happy to watch Cinderella and a few other things.  On the way home we saw an amazing sunset and I had to pull over.

Wow.

The next morning we had caught in the middle breakfast then hit the road.  The girls did great until about the last 20 minutes of the trip.  By that time they’d had enough and both kinda lost it.  But considering that we spent about 16 hours in the car and only the last 20 minutes were rough, we’re not complaining.

We had a great time seeing the Crooms and loved their house.  It was also good to get away from our normal routine for a few days.

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Arkansas trip part 2

Saturday was a fun day.  Caroline was the last one to wake up and the rest of the cousins were super excited to go see her.

We stayed around the house until the late afternoon at which point we went to horse farm that the Crooms had been to before.  I thought that we’d just look at them through the fence but the lady who owns the horses was working  and she let us in to see them.

This big guy walked right up to us when we got out there.

I don’t know much about horses but he was a Belgian.  As far as I’m concerned, Belgians are the most intimidating of all the horse species.

It was really pretty out there.  I think there were 9 horses.  A lady bought them a few years ago and loves to show them off.  She was great to take us through the land where she keeps them.

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Arkansas trip part 1

Earlier today we got home from a road trip to Arkansas to visit the Crooms.  We hadn’t been up there since the moved up there earlier this year and were excited to see their new house.  At the same time though we were a little scared because we didn’t know how the girls, especially Caroline, would do on such a long trip.  Taylor has never been a great road tripper and we had no idea how Caroline would do.

We decided to break up the trip and stay in a hotel Thursday since I had to work that day.  I was able to leave work a little early so we got on the road around 4:45.  Our plan was to stop for dinner in Hattiesburg, MS and then stay at a hotel in Vicksburg, MS.  Caroline had a full belly when we left so she fell asleep within 10-15 minutes after we left.  Taylor started to watch a DVD a little while after that.  We made it to dinner (about 90 minutes) without a problem.  We ate fast food and Caroline hardly woke up at all.  We thought she’d be hungry but hardly ate at all.  We got back in the car to leave and Caroline fell asleep right away.  When we got to the hotel we were very pleased that the girls did so great.

We got there pretty late and Tay Tay was so hyped up (as she says) to be at the hotel.  She had been calling it “the camp-out.”  She had a pretty rough night and didn’t fall asleep until probably midnight.  She was just too excited and couldn’t calm down to quit squirming in the bed.

I love a good continenal breakfast so I’d been getting Tay excited about it too.  Except she calls it “caught in the middle breakfast.”  Whatever you want to call it, it was very good and we were back on the road by 8:45 ish.

The drive from Vicksburg, MS to Bryant, AR took about 4 hours and was mostly on highways, not interstate.  I wasn’t looking forward to this since we wouldn’t make that great of time but it was such a pretty drive, especially for the first hour or two.  It was mostly through wide-open farmland that we just don’t get to see much here.  One of the highlights, or possibly lowlights, of the trip took place at a gas station in Arkansas.  We stopped so that Robyn could feed Caroline and while we were parked in the back of the gas station a truck came within about a half inch of backing into us.  Robyn noticed the guy and started screaming so I laid on the horn.  I stormed out of the car and was glad to see that he didn’t hit us.  The other dude was happier than I was.  All the commotion freaked out the girls but they calmed down soon.

The rest of the ride was great.  We couldn’t believe how good they did.  Once we got there the kids got right to playing.  The Crooms kids got a trampoline for Christmas and a lot of jumping took place on it over the weekend.  The cousins all love each other so much and have a lot of fun together.

Sorry for any typos but I don’t feel like spelling-checking all that!

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