Category Archives: baby

Morning Routines

I used to be a morning person… even during the week I’d get up early so I had at least half an hour or so to read a book while I slowly drank my coffee and ate some breakfast and enjoyed the morning quiet all by myself. Weekends were even better because I could just read until whenever… heck, I could just read all day if I wanted to and it was magical. Magical, I tell you!

Oh, how things change. Now I get up as late as I can, which isn’t very late… 5:00am is a horrible time of day. I shower, feed the cats and then proceed to get the kiddo’s stuff ready (bottles, breakfast, lunch) and hope that no one gets up early otherwise everything is thrown off kilter.

Granted, in the past couple of weeks since I took these photos, Phoebe is no longer on formula, and only takes one bottle of milk to day care, which saves me a few minutes in the morning. Hey, every second counts.

Mornings3

On a great morning the kids sleep until 6:15-6:30 and hopefully Josh is out of the shower by that time so I can start blow-drying my hair and then feed Phoebe her morning bottle because baby girl is like me and needs food in her tummy fairly quick.

Due to lack of time, my own breakfast usually waits until I get to work. Enzo will wake up and depending on his mood be happy and joyful and want to watch an episode of one of his favorite shows, or will tell us all to go away and stay in bed as long as possible before wandering out and demanding a snack. He’ll either accept breakfast as an alternative or fuss for a bit if we tell him he can have breakfast, but not snacks.

At some point I’ll find time to get myself ready. Thankfully, I don’t really take that long unless I have no idea what to wear and then the morning ends with me rushing around trying to finish while helping Josh dress the kiddos and keep them amused.

Somehow we always end up somewhat rushed the last 10-15 minutes, especially now that cars need to be warmed up and the kids need to be bundled up to brace the cold. Generally the kiddos will amuse themselves fairly well, but lately Phoebe has been a tad clingy in the morning, which can make rushing around difficult.

On the mornings when they wake up early, we are sometimes able to get out the door on time, but the morning is more stressful because we have tired, whiny munchkins to trip over, so I’d almost rather trade being late for happier kids. One of these days I’ll hopefully work closer to the kids’ day care, which would be ideal. My office move really threw things off and added driving time. Oh well, in the meantime we do our best to manage the chaos and as long as everyone is smiling by the time we get to day care, I call it a fairly good morning. 😉

1 Year

It’s hard to believe that our little Phoebe (or Squish as we often call her) is a year old today. We’ve been through it before, but it never ceases to amaze me how much a baby can grow and change in just one year. Without a doubt this little lady is going to be a bit of a handful, but with her winning personality she’s practically irresistible.

Mornings can be a struggle considering she would rather not wear clothes at all and gets a bit sassy when it’s time to get dressed. Who can blame her, though? Clothes are so confining and this girl has places to go and things to do. Her curiosity is endless and she has a stubborn independent streak. In so many ways she’s very much like her brother at this age – into everything with a naughty giggle.

When she’s not reading books (her favorite is ‘Moo, Baa, La-La-La’) she can often be found playing with hot wheels, trains, or more often than not the toy workbench where she can hammer away or just throw the tools down the stairs. Though she’s not walking yet, she’s getting close and can go up the stairs with no problems at all. She’s almost going down the stairs by herself (the 3 steps that separate kitchen from play room) – she still needs a little guidance getting turned around on that top step, but not for long.

One of her biggest “accomplishments” recently is finally getting some teeth! She’s got two on the bottom and one on the top, with the other slowly following. She reminds me a little of Ellie from ‘Up’ with the one big tooth up front, but also the hair and how much I can completely see Phoebe being an outspoken, rowdy tomboy.

See the resemblance? (Just imagine the teeth, she never shows me her teeth for pictures). 😉

We’re in that stage where Phoebe still wants to be held a lot, and gets some separation anxiety from time to time. She really wants to be independent, but it’s clear she hasn’t outgrown us yet. While not always convenient, it’s nice to be needed and it’s busy mornings and evenings where I’m so grateful that she doesn’t mind being worn. I’m thinking we may need to end up getting a larger carrier so I can continue to wear her as she gets even older (or a fun carrier that Josh doesn’t mind wearing). 😉

Miss, Phoebe, you are and always will be our shining light.

Daylight Savings

I’m sure most parents of young children can understand just what a pain in the neck daylight savings is. It can turn normally happy and cheerful kids into whiny, irritable messes.

The kids were up a little later on Friday night and were doing pretty good Saturday. We figured they would be going to bed a little later that night because Josh and I were headed out for the evening, leaving them with their grandparents. We hoped that they might sleep in late Sunday morning because they did get to bed a little later than usual, but no so luck. At some point Enzo ended up in bed with us – we were both so tired we’re not even sure why we broke our “rule”, so I definitely didn’t sleep well after getting kicked and pummeled and then Phoebe woke up right at 6:00 am. In her mind it was actually 7:00 am, which is perfectly normal for her.

We tried to keep naps on schedule, but the kiddos were just off the whole day. Enzo fought his nap only briefly before giving in to the exhaustion, but Phoebe was not keen on napping much at all despite being kind of fussy and clearly needing to sleep. By the time the evening rolled around they were both super fussy, so we decided to get bedtime rolling earlier, hoping to get them to sleep half an hour earlier (which would still be half an hour later they’re used to). It seemed to work okay…

Until this morning when Phoebe woke bright and early at 5:30, followed shortly by her brother. I guess we’ll see what day care/preschool says about their moods. From the sound of things, though (Josh had drop off and pick up today), it sounds like a few kids may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and it could be a long day. I know they’ll adjust, but it could be a long couple of days in the meantime.

Sleep, or lack therof

I’m beginning to wonder when kids hit that magical age where you can just put them to bed and then not worry about them until a reasonable hour in the morning. Someone please tell me it’s sooner rather than later. We had a brief stretch where both the kids were doing great, and then things changed. Enzo stopped easily going to bed and now we’ve had to put a gate up to keep him in his room. I can’t remember when it started, but I remember finishing up in the kitchen and turning around to suddenly see Enzo just quietly standing there looking like a creepy child of the corn.

These pictures only sort of have to do with this post. :p

We haven’t a decent bedtime and routine for the kiddos, which can be difficult because we get home a little after 5:00 and then need to get dinner made and if it’s bath night, baths need to be started by 6:45. Phoebe goes down first around 7:30 and is usually out pretty fast. We try to be out of Enzo’s room by 7:45, which used to be fine, but lately he’s been having trouble falling asleep and will open the door several times usually saying that his tummy hurts (it doesn’t) or that he needs a hug or a kiss or a high five or he wants mommy to sleep with him. Lately he hasn’t been falling asleep until after 8:00pm and usually closer to 8:30. He’s been then waking up at around 5:30-6:30 every morning (weekends included), which doesn’t seem like enough sleep, especially since he does seem to get cranky and on the weekend will take 3 hour long naps.

You’d also think that when the kids do wake up earlier than usual we’d get out of the house sooner, but no. Instead, there is often chaos and some mornings I sit them both on the bed with one of Enzo’s shows so that I can get ready. Granted, now that Phoebe is more mobile the bed thing doesn’t happen often anymore. Instead one distraction after another must be found all while trying to keep the stinker away from her brother’s breakfast.

Can I just tell you how much I’m looking forward to one day sleeping in on the weekends and waking up to find that the children have gotten up and gotten their own cereal and are quietly amusing themselves? I may or may not be a tad sleep deprived lately. There just always seems to be so much to do and rather than going to sleep, we find ourselves staying up and watching one of our shows or reading because it’s the only time to really unwind. There must be time hiding somewhere, I just have yet to find it.

Visitors from Colorado

Without a fail, the weather will never cooperate when you have family visiting from out of town, so my dad and stepmom got to experience some blustery fall Minnesota weather while they were here at the beginning of the month. The kids could have cared less about the weather, though. They were simply happy to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting.

We stayed pretty close to home for their visit, which was fine for all of us. They braved the wind one afternoon and went for a walk, while the rest of us stayed in jammies… which is kind of just what we do when we aren’t planning on going anywhere – guests or no guests. Ha ha.

There’s nothing quite like having grandparents around that makes kids get extra silly for some reason whether it be in person or on a phone call. Both of the kiddos were eating up the extra attention and Enzo would wake up in the morning and immediately want to know where Grandpa and Grandma were… alas, he did that for a few days after they left as well.

We did get at least one nice day out of the weekend, though, and decided to go to the zoo so we could walk around and get some fresh air. It could not have been a more perfect day. The animals were loving the cooler temperatures and were being more active than I’ve ever seen them before. I also didn’t get the camera out once… it seemed like so much work as we had once again schlepped way too much stuff with us and I didn’t want to dig it out from under coats and who knows what else. Anyhoo.

The animals were all in a playful mood and it also wasn’t super crowded, which was even better and meant we could linger at a few of the enclosures just a bit longer than usual. I mostly wore Phoebe so we could pile stuff up in the stroller, but the stroller was nice when it got chilly looking at outside animals and then I could put her in her puffy coat. She loved watching the fish, as did her brother, so we are probably due for another aquarium visit soon. Maybe that will be her first real walking adventure too!

One of these days we’ll hopefully end up closer to Colorado and in a more central location to all of the family on both sides. It’s always been the plan, the puzzle pieces just haven’t matched up yet. I’d love for my kiddos to be able to get to know my side of the family a little better, though, before they get too much older. On an unrelated note… kids are so uncooperative and hard to photograph. I don’t think I have a career in child photography ahead of me. Ha ha.

And…. Surprise – everyone look surprised!

Ha ha. Outtakes are so much more fun, right?

Miss you guys already!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures