3-31-10

Terrible iphone photos, but it HAD to be documented, and nothing on earth could have forced me out of bed for my camera.

The infamous DOUBLE nap. Lily on one side, snoozing on Daves pillow

Charlie on the other side, swaddled in his little cosleeper bed.

And there in the middle, I slept for 1 glorious uninterrupted hour. It was heaven.

3-30-10

Today we ignored housework and played outside instead.

Charlie played in the grass for the first time.

Tami and Lily ran all over the park with Patrick (tami's boyfriend) and Margot (tami's dog).

Charlie wiggled his toes in soft grass.

And squished it around with his hands (and miraculously did not eat it!)

Sidenote: I also groomed three dogs today, and it kinda bothered me that their names all started with S's. Sadie, Susie and Scout. WEIRD.

I dont want to jinx anything, but I got Charlie to "sleep" in his cosleeper again last night. I use the word "sleep" loosely since he spent a lot of the night wiggling and forcing me to sit there with one hand gently on him, or holding his hand, or gently "shhhh"ing or nursing/swaddling/rocking/repeat but still, during the brief spurts where he was actually asleep in his own little space, I got to sleep without a baby attached to me, just all sprawled out of and worry free. Ahhhhh. 20 minutes spurts of real sleep!

3-29-10

Seriously. I have two camera batteries and I never have the spare charged! So silly! So, stinky iPhone pictures today.

Thanks for the new shirt auntie anne! We LOVE it! We'll take a picture of the cute one for little Charlie soon too!

I showed her the shirt and she flipped out "Bird on my shirt, just like my wall!!!" and ran upstairs to her room. You can tell by the blurring how frantic she was.






As we all know, my dad has instilled his children a firm belief that margaritas are primarily medicinal and can fix all things. Especially sore throats. I tried out The Margarita Theory on Sunday night with three extremely strong margaritas at pasquals and it paid off! The first positive outcome was that I relaxed, which I haven't done in a long, long time. Secondly-and this was unexpected- Charlie slept in his bed. I was feeling mostly soberish when I went to bed but then remembered reading something about not cosleeping if you were drunk, or was it if you had been drinking? So I played it safe and stayed up most of the night, soothing Charlie back to sleep in his bed. With the option of cosleeping off the table, he did actually sleep a little bit in his own seperate cosleeper bed. Sitting up at 3am, slightly drunk, doing the "watch each breath and try to decide if he's asleep enough that I should try to sleep", it felt like my dads magic remedy was helping me in the biggest way ever. My little monster baby was almost kind of sleeping on his own. Almost. :)

3-28-10

sunday-pancakes and coffee and juice and watching snow white in pajamas. Later we went to the zoo and met Parry and Veronica for dinner at pasquals, and I had the exact right amount of margaritas. Its been a long and hard 5 months, and it was nice to let some delicious margaritas help me to let go and allow dave to take over the parenting for the evening.

Charlie!

Liliana! (thanks coral, we love our cliposaurus clips!)

3-27-10

boo! im sad this is the only picture i've got of lily in this dress, i'll get a better one next time she's in it. anyway, its a vintage dress that lily has decided is her new daily uniform.

This dress is, according to lily, the best dress ever. Here's why:

-it is Yellow, which is the ONLY good color.

-it is "princessy"

and i was just thinking, what would life be like if that's how we all shopped and dressed ourselves. how fun! not having to worry much about fit, or whether it was appropriate for the place we'd be wearing it. what if the criteria was something like 1) its my favorite color! and 2) it has ruffles!

i seriously want to be 3 years old. luckily i have two kids helping me live that way more and more every day.

time to go snuggle my littles.

3-26-10

Little executive, hard at work.

Way too busy to look at the camera.

Seriously, he did not want to participate. He was working hard filing TPS reports.

3-25-10

I'm already nostalgic about the pictures from charlies first days/weeks/months! He's still a baby, but I can feel him growing up.

I love you my sweet baby.

3-24-10

Easter eggs, jello style.



P.S. These are somehow even more fun to jiggle/bounce/roll than regular jello!

3-23-10

Didn't take any pics today, so here's one of my favorites.
I have no idea when this was taken, maybe mid November? Charlie loves books!
I usually take him to lily's room when I get her ready for nap and he sits in her bed and listens SO intently while I read her a story. Cute!

3-22-10

It was gorgeous today! Im loving this beautiful weather!

blowing bubbles at the park

bubbly bubbles!

baby boy is sick, it's just a cough/cold thing that lily was sick with last week. he spent most of the time at the park rubbing his slobbery face all over me. oh, the glamourous life i lead.

eventually he gave up for a nap, and i utilized the sleeping hood on the ergo for the first time. it kept the sun and breezy gusts from bothering him so i could hang out with lily. yay!

3-21-10

today i decided to pretend yesterday didn't happen. goodbye migraine, stress, tears.

hello sunday!

we stayed in bed cuddling, nursing, taking turns showering, etc until almost 10, it was nice to be so leisurely.

later, impromptu diy mani-pedi's. mine wont last past today because, well, i'm a mom of two and a dog groomer, and have a sink full of dishes. so its a little futile, but i was so inspired by my coffee cup this morning. (note: yes my nails are really short. i accidentally scraped the top of charlie's head a week ago and felt so bad i chopped them all super short. i may have over reacted :)

lily chose a very light pink, which is unusual for her. she usually chooses to have each nail a different color!

lots more lounging around, enjoying our sunroom, cuddling, books and then we headed over to the zoo.

daddy and lily love the Koi pond under the bridge

lily is making a really unattractive face in this picture, my guess is she realized how cold a giant metal turtle is when there is still snow on the ground.

happy. sunday.

3-20-10

Today was one of those days where I wished I didn't work from home. So this post is therapy. Read it at your own risk. It's whiny and pathetic.

SO- here are the things I had going against me:

-I had more than three dogs. For some reason this is a magic number in allowing me to work, parent, and not flip the heck out.

-Several of the dogs were in worse shape than I expected, so everything was taking longer than I wanted it to.

-My equipment was having issues. Because I'm home, alone, and have very limited backup options, I stress beyond belief when things like dryers and clippers are having problems.

-Dave wasn't here. He had a staff meeting today so whatever needed to get done with kids and dogs was all on me. Boo.

-MIGRAINE. FROM. HELL. I don't think I've ever actually vomited from the disorientation and pain of a migraine before today. Not cool. My mom gets really terrible migraines and it was her birthday today. Maybe my body was "celebrating" her birthday.

So- here's the good part. I survived. I profited. And I parented.

Working from home stresses me out, but the alternative is working outside the home, and even at my worst moment I parent with more love and respect for my children than any other childcare provider ever would, because they are mine!

Even on days like this, I get to laugh (and die a little inside for how gross it is) when Lily decides its SUPER FUN to use hair clipped from a fluffy dog to have a "snowball fight" with our cat.

When I take a break, I get to nurse my baby and have a chat with my three year old, instead of sitting by myself pumping.

And at the end of the day, I'm the one who gets to wipe his drool, and seriously, I'm thrilled about that.

Tomorrow is a new (better) day!

3-19-10

Happy Birthday, Mom and Dad!

Dad (aka John, Grandpa John)'s birthday was yesterday, and Mom (grammy, Betty)'s was today. How cute is that!

We love you, and miss you both!

and we love how you love our kids!

Vilas Zoo

Treating us to a trip to the San Diego Zoo

Getting sillier every year!

Beautiful ladies

The infamous O.M.H. (or Old Man Hat)

Being silly with grandpa at Disneyland is pretty much the best ever

1-2-3 Swiiiiiingggg.

Happy Birthday Mommy

Happy Birthday Daddy

3-18-10

Love!


Caught mid excited-shake-bodyflail


How many people does it take to put away a collapsible table? The variable is really just how many toddlers are around and think helping looks fun!

3-17-10

Spring cleaning has begun. I love this time of year, because I get to reopen the playroom! We have a gorgeous 3 season porch that is the perfect playroom, but we lose it all winter because its just way too cold.

This year reopening the playroom coincides with the fact that Charlie can now roll (!!!! so exciting!) and he has several times found itsy bitsy pieces from Lily's big kid toys which are so dangerous for a baby who just HAS to put everything in his mouth.

So, I gathered every toy I could find and started sorting. organizing. packing away. sending up to lilys room. putting in a pile for donating.

Piles of toys in a huge mess!

All safe!

Beautiful girl.