A Ladybug, a Skunk... and Miss Viola Swamp

In case anyone out there is wondering, the magic age where kids decide to voice a strong preference about Halloween costumes is four. After being wishy washy for a week, Nathan eventually latched on to the idea of dressing as a witch.  And wouldn't let go. Not a warlock, not a wizard, a witch. With a black dress and tall hat and green hair and green fingernails.

Oh Nathan. Always a big bucket of quirky.

And it turns out he had a very specific witch in mind. A certain Miss Viola Swamp. Apparently she's a character in a children's book (which everyone on the planet has heard of except me) -- a mean substitute teacher who we're supposed to understand is actually the real teacher in disguise. Oh and she looks like a man.

So basically Nathan was asking to be a cross-dressing witch for Halloween. SUPER.

Oh!  Except, I'm not sure she's even actually a witch.  Whatevs. Details.

So we found a witch's hat, green hairspray, and I took a green highlighter to his nails.  I talked him into a cape instead of a dress. He took one look in the mirror, decided he didn't look like Miss Swamp (duh sweetie, because you insisted on being dressed like a witch, and is she even a witch?) and proclaimed that he was just a regular witch pretending to be Miss Swamp.

Clear as mud, yes?

So. I sent him to school like this:

He was nervous right at the last minute, but when he got to school and all the other kids were also wearing costumes, he felt better. Oh and his teacher was also dressed as Miss Viola Swamp, and had also opted for a regular witch's hat and a cape (really, universe? really?) which was either extremely validating for Nathan or extremely weird. One of those.

We also dressed up the girls (in two hand-me-down costumes, you might remember Nathan as a skunk too) (side note: wow Nathan and Anneliese look alike when they're dressed as skunks!) and took everyone trick-or-treating. 

baby's first halloween! *scaryface*

It was rainy and cold, and only Anneliese didn't seem to mind the weather, which she proved by stomping in every puddle and sloshing happily through every gutter and was soaked to her knees by the time we got home.

Which was about six houses after we started.

And our little girl skunk garnered far more comments than our little boy witch.  I have to say, I'm kind of proud of our neighborhood for that. No one batted an eye.  Yay America.  For what it's worth, Anneliese does make a ridiculously cute little skunk.

As for me, I dressed up as a mommy of three who loves trick-or-treating in the rain. Who just survived her son's first drag halloween. Awesome.

Happy Halloween!

Lost in a Good Book

Anneliese loves to read.  And, as we have well established, she loves puppies.

Your daily Anneliese: lost in a good book

Yeah. Basically she just peed herself a little.

Nathan Brings It On

So apparently my mom took Nathan and Anneliese to a Davidson basketball scrimmage last weekend when they were visiting.  Nathan wasn't a huge fan of the basketball (word on the street is the buzzers were far too loud and startling and and after some time he was basically crumpled in his seat with his hands over his ears) but... he did like the cheerleaders.

Um, people dancing around and spelling things?  That's basically Nathan's happy place.

He's recently convinced himself that Charlotte's squirms and wiggles are dancing.  Oh and that he taught her to do it.  With his pom-poms.

Your daily Nathan: bringing it on

Somewhere out there, my uncle and aunt (former Wildcat cheerleaders) are doing a happy dance themselves.

New 'Do

I have spent a lot of the last three months feeling like a hot mess.  And a lot of the last three weeks trying desperately to get it together.

When  Ashley was here she convinced me that a new haircut and color would give me a mood and confidence lift, or if nothing else buy me a couple hours out of the house where I could be alone except for the person washing my hair (um, heavenly).

So I did it.

It's now a lot shorter, a lot darker, and Charlotte told me she likes it too.

The Third Thumb

I have spent no small amount of time lamenting the fact that both Nathan and Anneliese turned out to be thumb addicts when I would have preferred them to take a pacifier. You know, so I'd have a prayer of keeping it clean (well, cleanish), and also so *I* could be the one to determine when the addiction ended.  I'm sure there are moms of paci addicts who say they would choose thumbs instead.  Maybe it's one of those grass-is-greener things.

But no more.

Charlotte has found her thumb.  And let the record show, I am fully on board.  I am now a shameless lover of this addiction.  Shameless pimper of the thumb.  Shameless reveler in the extra sleep her thumb habit has bought us.

Y'all.  The crying in the last week since she got thumb-consistent has been reduced by at least 50%.  She fusses, finds her thumb, and gets it together.  It even happens in the middle of the night. 

I don't think the awesomeness of that can be overstated:

She fusses in her crib.  She finds her thumb within minutes.  And she goes back to sleep.  All while I stay warm and cozy and drowsy in my bed.

SERIOUSLY.

Her up-once-a-night pattern has changed to a full 10-12 hours of sleep almost every night in the last week or so. So basically I have learned to equate thumb sucking with sleeping through the night.  And quiet naptimes during the day.  I might pay for it later in thousands of dollars of orthodontics bills, but let me tell you what: the lack of tears now will be worth every penny later.

It took three babies and three thumbs to get me on board, but I'm here now.  My name is Erin, and I am a babythumbaholic.

Two Little Tigers

I'm not sure if you people got the memo (or caught a whiff of Mark's borderline-obnoxious excited chatter about it), but Clemson's football team is having the best season they've had in, like... thirty years? Or something.  I didn't fact-check that, I'm just guessing they haven't played this well since their golden age in the early eighties.

(Aside: wasn't the early eighties kind of a golden age for everyone? I mean really.)

(Another aside: good grief the early eighties was thirty years ago.  I'm old.)

Anyway, Clemson.  Playing well.  Happy Mark.  Posing happy kids on staircase to take happy pictures.

Your daily Nathan AND Anneliese!

Yay Tigers and stuff. 

N-A-T-H-A-N

So we have survived the era of what's that, broken through to the other side of what's your favorite color and thought we were contentedly still thriving in the season of why, but it turns out Nathan has a new favorite question:

How do you spell.... {insert random word here} {repeat ad nauseum all day every day}

Oh and he does it with numbers too. God bless our souls when we eat in a restaurant that calls numbers out when food is ready.

How do you spell french toast?  What does purple start with?  What's a C for? What sound does a G make? What makes sixty-two?  What does that stop sign spell?  What does a nine and five for Lightning McQueen make? What does c-h-a-r-l-o-t-t-e spell?*

Awesomesauce.

He's doing great -- he knows all his numbers and letters and can even sound them out. And he's getting pretty dang good at it. But seriously?  ENOUGH.  Especially with asking questions you very well know the answer to.

What's that letter, Mommy?

It's an N, buddy.  What's N for?

Nathan. And what else?

You tell me, what else?

Another Nathan.

:::sigh:::

We're trying to channel his energies into writing instead.  True story: it's much quieter.  Spelling his own name is his favorite, but there are others too (Uncle John pretty much has celebrity status in these parts).

still working on those J's though

And when he draws a picture for me and then asks how to spell mommy, even if it is for the sixteen thousandth time....

Okay okay, I guess this stage is cute or whatever.

*Many many thanks, dear sister, for the large stack of burp cloths bearing the baby's name. We had no idea just how conversation-worthy those would end up being.

Mommy and Me Time

Mark took the big kids on a road trip for the weekend.  He went to Clemson for the football game, and Nathan and Anneliese visited the grandparents in Huntersville.  For those of you doing the math at home, that leaves just Charlotte and me back at home.

Which means my weekend looked a lot like this:

And this:

And, because I've decided that I care not one lick about internet-offending anyone who thinks that a baby smiling while nursing is anything less than precious, this:

... In a word, glorious.

There's a part of me that feels guilty for saying that.  I mean, I love Nathan and Anneliese and Mark.  Obviously I do.  But dang if I don't also want and need quiet easy bonding time with Charlotte. 

So, I shamelessly revel.

We ignored the clock and did whatever we wanted. We snuggled.  We went outlet shopping. We took a nap on the floor.  We caught up on the dvr.  We went out to dinner, twice. We went and looked at new houses with a friend. We spent both nights co-sleeping with no crying.

And if there's a better way to feel mommy-lovedrunk first thing in the morning than waking up to this sweet sight, I don't know what it is.

So basically, pretending Charlotte and I were the only two people alive for a couple of days was good for my soul. Yeah.

Happy Girl, Revisited

I am very high on Anneliese these days, can you tell?  She's always been our happy girl, but in the past month or so, she has taken it up a notch, and she basically just oozes joy. 

(And pasta sauce, apparently.)

Your daily Anneliese: the smile that melts a thousand hearts

That smile.  Oh, that smile. How can you not smile back? Gets me every time.

What I learned at the State Fair

We hit the state fair this year with four adults and four babies. Me and Mark, Ashley and John, Nathan, Anneliese, and the two newborns Charlotte and Liam. And before you raise your eyebrows too high, you should know that we handled it just fine.  Mostly. 

Here's what I learned:

1.) It's totally possible to pee on a portapotty while wearing a baby in a bjorn.  Ashley and Mark both proved it.

2.) If you send one adult and two kids to the top of a giant slide, one of the kids will inevitably get panicky and you will have to send another adult to the rescue. That same panicky child will, within the next two hours, be begging to ride everything he sees, including rides designed for grownups.

3.) My son is a woo girl on amusement park rides.  (So is his Uncle John.)

4.) And apparently the two of them got together and converted Mark as well.

Hands off, ladies. He's all mine.

5.) It's possible to eat an egg roll for breakfast, a pineapple slushy for a snack, and a fried snickers bar for lunch, and still not feel nutritionally satisfied.  Who knew.

6.) My sister can shove her face full of funnel cake, get powedered sugar everywhere, includingon the maternity pants she's still rockin', and still be absolutely beautiful.

7.) Cows are prettier when they've had their hair vacuumed.  Oh yes.  They did that.

8.) If you go on a reeeeally high swing ride, and get kind of scared, your husband won't hold your hand and make you feel better.  Oh no.  He will make a video of you panicking.  {footage not for public internet consumption. sorry.}

9.) It is indeed possible for me to contain four babies at a carnival, by myself, even when one of them is on the boob (you can't see Liam but he's in the stroller and I am in control, I promise).  Supermom what.

10.) One thing I did not learn: What is a dead animal petting zoo, exactly?  No really.  Not a rhetorical question.  I need to know.

For more pictures of our Goettsch/Grice trip to the state fair, click here for the photobucket album.

Uncle Mark

My sister Ashley and her husband John came in town to visit (and for the state fair), and Mark finally got to meet baby Liam! 

We took care of him for a few hours so Ashley and John could have a date night and a bit of evening quiet.  Uncle Mark did a bangup job.

Just kidding, he did great.  Of course he did.  And he and Liam are super chummy now.

Good times.

Jolene

One of the presents Mark brought back from Florida a few weeks ago was a little stuffed turtle for Charlotte.  So the turtle's name is Jolene. This is according to the tag she came with, not any bizarre toy-naming tendencies from either child (not that those don't exist -- we also have a baby doll named Baggie, which is a story for another day). 

Jolene is super soft and small enough for Charlotte to grasp.  Bowden too, it turns out.  They had a brief run-in when Jolene first came home from Florida, and the end result is that Bowden has firmly established her territory in this house, and Jolene is down an eye.

Anyway. 

She's still sweet and cuddly and she's become the go-to toy for sticking in Charlotte's car seat, or for big brother and big sister to bring over when she's upset and needs a toy.

...Or, in Anneliese's case, for throwing at her when she's upset and needs a toy.

*sigh*

Try not to notice how out-of-control exhausted I look, mmmkay?

And that's the story of how our baby's first toy is a one-eyed turtle named Jolene.

Happy Birthday, Anneliese!

Our baby girl is officially TWO!

The girls and I spent Anneliese's birthday morning shopping while Nathan was at preschool. First we hit a toy store where we played with a ton of stuff, then I let Anneliese pick out one present to take home.  She wavered between a pink Little People airplane and some colored bubbles for the bath, before deciding on the latter (I might have given her a gentle nudge towards the bubbles, being the more silent option). Then we went and picked out helium balloons (she chose a shiny star... purple of course) and had a birthday lunch at Zaxby's.

Nathan and I made Anneliese a purple puppy cake, per her request, and we had a few friends and family over to celebrate.  We had so much fun watching her open presents and be the center of attention (although Nathan did give her a run for her money as far as that's concerned, and there was even one gift she opened which made him say that looks like a good present we can share! um, no).

It was an easy fun day celebrating our sweet and joyful little lady.

What, *you* don't eat birthday cake shirtless? Your purple mess then.

See Nathan? She totally knows how to open presents herself.

Little mama? Makes me smile.

Happy birthday to our sweet funny wonderful beautiful Anneliese!

{Yes, I know these pics are a week two weeks late in posting. Though shalt not launch bloggity complaints at the new(ish) mommy.}

For more pics of Anneliese's birthday, click here for the photobucket album.

Anneliese's Second Year

Baby Anneliese has had a crazy eventful second year!  In the last twelve months she's learned to crawl, walk, run, and talk.  She lived through renovation and moving, and now sleeps in a big girl bed.  She went from mostly bald to wild and curly and mulleted. She turned from being our baby to being a big sister. And she did all of that with a heart-melting smile at the ready (and Hattie in tow).

Seeing her grow up is in turns both sad and beautiful.  Mostly beautiful.

Some of our favorite Anneliese memories from the last year:


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on YouTube.)

She's turning into an amazing little girl.  We love you, Anneliese.

A Legofest

Confession: I didn't know that legos were, like... a thing, until the last year or two.  It turns out that they have almost a kidcult following, and people love them.  The lego love is apparently prevalent enough to warrant stores and licensed merchandise and even amusement parts.  Who knew?\

Well.  Mark and Another Nathan, for starters. Both lego-obsessed kids grown into lego-obsessed adults.  And they were both a teensy bit excited laughably grown-man beside themselves when we found out that there was a lego festival coming to Raleigh.  A fest! With legos! Whoa dang.

So we went. Obvs.

And Y'ALL.  I have never seen so many legos IN. MY. LIFE. There had to have been trillions of legos in that convention center.  (Oh yes, it was in a convention center.)  It was a special kind of lego awesome.

Our happy lego-lovin boy

Daddy and Anneliese built a tower together.

Charlotte's take on the fest?   ...Meh.

Nathan and Another Nathan built a... train? A roller coaster? A train station?
(They were concentrating very hard on their work. I did not ask for specifics.)

A lego made of legos! Meta.

What's better than a sweet toddler wearing a lego crown and lanyard?
NOTHING.

A map of the USA, built by fest attendees.

The Nathans each built houses to put on the map.
(n Texas and Iowa, in case you were curious) 

My personal contribution was the row of flowers in front of Nathan's house. Yes, that's totally a house. And yes those do too look like flowers!

Have you ever seen a grown man this excited about legos?
NO YOU HAVE NOT.

Anneliese found the one lego puppy* in that huge mountain of duplos.
(*It was a bear. Whatevs.)

Nathan built a lego car and raced it down the track.
Two of his favorite things!

Look! Lego Harry Potter! He's hott.

Wait what's this can it be I'm not sure oh yes it totally is A FRIEND CAR MADE OF LEGOS. Oh, sweet lego-ey Lightning McQueen. I can now die happy. *swoons*

(Okay.  I might have been a little excited about the legofest too.)

Charlotte at Two Months

Well if it's blowing my mind that Anneliese is going to be two this week, it might be freaking me out even more that Charlotte is already two months old! Um, what?

On some level I feel like we're still in those fresh newborn days, when really we're... not.  Not even a little.  Maybe because the fussy sleep-deprived fog hasn't quite lifted, it's hard to believe it's already been two months.  But it has.  The calendar says so.

The past month has been... hard. I won't lie. Charlotte is still colicky and spends a lot of her waking time frustrated. She spits up a lot, which sometimes makes me worry her tummy is upset.  Her doctor says she has molars (!) bulging in her back gums, which at this age is unusual but not unheard of, and is likely causing some pain too.  Basically we're all exhausted.  We hear her crying even when she's not crying anymore.  It just sort of stays ringing in our ears. We call her Baby Screamsalot so that we laugh instead of cry.  It works, sometimes.

But there are some good things happening as well:

- She is less fussy now than she was even just a week ago, especially during the day.  If we're on the decline, I'll take it.  Even if it's slow.

- She is going to bed by 8 or 9 most nights, and then only getting up for one feed before daybreak. Our nights are much more manageable, overall.

- She has a couple of periods of sweet quiet and smileyness every day.

- She is a joy to cuddle with in the wee-morning hours when she comes to bed with me.  I love waking up next to her. Those few minutes a day are doing wonders for our bonding, which otherwise has been frustratingly slow.

- She does great on the go. I can haul her to the grocery store, for preschool dropoffs, shoe shopping, and even on road trips, and she handles it like a champ. She loves the car seat and seems to like being out and about, where there are new things to see and hear.

- She can stay with a sitter.  This is a really important breakthrough.  When your baby screams for hours every evening, there's really not many people you trust to leave her with.  Now that she's a little more manageable before bedtime, we can actually leave her for a few hours and actually be able to relax enough to enjoy some adult time.  It sounds small, but this has done wonders for our sanity.

- She's huge! She's growing really well, just shy of 12 lbs and just over 24 inches.  That's about the 75th percentile for weight, and off-the-charts tall (99th) for height like her sister.

- She's a great eater.  Once we got her tongue-tie sorted out, she has been my easiest nurser of all three.  She eats well, she eats regularly (about every hour or two during the day), and she doesn't seem to have any aversions to what I eat (except caffeine). She and my milk seem to be in a good rhythm of supply and demand, including enough to pump a bit for the freezer most days if I want to.

- Nathan and Anneliese still adore her. I keep waiting for some sibling rivalry or jealousy, but so far it's been really smooth sailing.  Yay.

So the past month has been a bag of mixed blessings.

We hate that she's not happier, but we're grateful she's healthy and thriving.  It's hard to adjust to meeting her difficult needs, but at this point our family wouldn't feel right without her. 

Someone told me recently that a new baby is a hundred days of hell, and then it's awesome.  And since the hell days are decreasing while the awesome days are increasing, I'm daring to hope we're right on the brink of that.

It's been two hard months, Charlotte, but we know you're worth the ride! We love you, Squeak.

Annelieseisms at Almost Two

I can't believe Anneliese is almost two.  Two.  Where did the last year go?

A year ago today, she was still a baby.  (Look at this picture if you don't believe me.)  And two years ago today, she was still gestating (another picture). Whoa.

And now...

Well now she is a walking talking bundle of joyful energy.  Our easygoing friendly (yet also messy and destructive) sweet toddler.  She's loud and affectionate and opinionated and wonderful.

A few of our favorite Annelieseisms will give you a glimpse of what life is like with her these days....

Haaaah Mom! (Hi, Mom!) Said at the top of her lungs anytime she enters a room and needs to greet someone. Even if it's only been four minutes since she saw us last.

Hankoo Daddy. (Thank you, Daddy.) She is sweet and appreciative of anything anyone does for her.  Hand her those legos? Thank you.  Fix her shoes? Thank you. Wipe her butt? Thank you.  Yes, seriously. 

Gee-go. (Here you go.) Said when she hands us anything.  Something we asked for, or, you know... whatever trash or dirt she picks up off the ground.  Whatevs.

Poh-puw. (Purple.) Her answer to any question about what color something is.  Subsequent guesses frequently include boo, geen, wed, wonj, ey-oh, and boun. That's clear, yes?

WON-uh! (Run!) Shouted before she races across a room. (She's at that age where she has to narrate everything she does, as she does it.) These races are best when they end in a huge hug.

Happo-uh book. (Hippo book). Which she asks to have in bed with her at every naptime and bedtime. She also asks for her pig book, and one of about four puppy books. Or all of them. Girl loves her some animal reading.

Puppy hurt. (Puppy shirt.)  Her favorite thing to wear these days, except for some boo dess she keeps asking about.  (We own no such blue dress.) (?)

Nay-nay gihn. (Nathan again.) Asked on repeated loop all morning, every morning, when he is at school and she is missing him.

Poo pees. (Pool please.)  She asks to swim every day after nap. (Even though we haven't been swimming in a good month.) Not to be confused with poopeee pees which means she has to poop. Sometimes they sound alike.  On those days, we miss the potty and change diapers. *sigh*

Baby hyatt. (Baby Charlotte.)  This pronunciation is much better than the first attempts, which sounded like a bad four-letter word. Use your imagination.

Baby ky-een. (Baby crying.)  Proclaimed with authority whenever Charlotte fusses.  You can imagine she gets a lot of mileage out of this one. Alternate version: mommy ky-een. She gets more mileage out of that one than I'd like too, unfortunately.

Moh moke pees. (More milk please.) She loves eats almost anything we put in front of her, and usually asks for seconds. (When it comes to food, she is everything Nathan isn't.) She's especially keen on her big girl cup.  With a friend car on it. And no lid!

Hattie biss. (Hattie kiss.) She is quite affectionate with her animals, especially Hattie.  And the new purple clownfish Daddy brought back from Florida is a big hit too. Poh-puw fiss!

Bee kuck. (Big truck.) If we hear this in the monitor from her room, we know she's climbed into her recliner and is peering over the back out the window because she heard a truck.  (Frequent, because the construction on our street still will not end.)

Way it. (Wear it.) Demanded when she brings us whatever wardrobe choices she's pulled that day from her dresser.  Or her hamper.  Or our dirty clothes pile.  (Stay classy, Anneliese.)

Ees, ees! (Anneliese! Anneliese!) Shouted when one of us is about to do something for her that she wants to try on her own.  This is her 2-year old way of saying bug off, I can do it myself!!

Okah mom. (Okay mom.) Her sometimes dejected response whenever I she has to do something she's not thrilled about, and tell her say okay, mommy.

Pie now. (Play now.) This is Anneliese's equivalent of "all done."  We hear it when she's over whatever else is going on.

Hoo-uh, docks, ants. (Shoes, socks, pants.) Her other words for her clothes. She's learning to be as picky as Nathan is about what she wears. And she's no longer always taking cues from her big brother stylist either.

Dis! Dis! (This! This!) What she resorts to yelling when she's trying to tell us something but doesn't know the word.  Helpful, no?

I know it will only be a matter of months before she's speaking more clearly, and people besides Mark and me will be able to understand her.  But for now, this is so so cute.  She's still my tiny toddler for just a little longer.  Trying not to think about her turning two in less than a week.

Someone out there knows how to stop time, right?  Say, okay mommy.

Lovedrunk on Smiley Charlotte

Here I have proof that Charlotte is definitely not mad all the time...

We're actually having a great day, very sweet and smiley. And she slept almost all night, and then followed that by a few hours of snuggling and clusterfeeding and dozing with me in my bed.  Not gonna lie, when I woke up after that I was a little love-drunk on Miss Charlotte. 

Her smiley moods make me so happy.

Someone remind me of this the next time we have a miserable fussy screamy day.  Because what's better than baby smiles?  I mean really.