Motherhood

It's late and I'm awake (I'll regret it in the morning).  I somehow found myself scrolling through all my Facebook photos (there's a lot) and I thought to myself, "oh gol, what happened to me?!"  

My hair was blonde. And blow-dried and straightened.

My eyebrows were plucked and like perfectly shaped.

There was makeup on my face.

I was wearing cute clothes that fit without too much of a muffin top.

Heels?! I wore heels.

There were these cute things I carried around my shoulder that held my lipgloss (God forbid I go without some gloss) and wallet.

I traveled to places....other than Target.

I was carefree and so, so happy.

Meanwhile, tonight, before looking through all the photos, I was feeling pretty good about myself because at least I brushed my teeth.  Don't even ask if I washed my face...(the answer would be no). And it hit me: I am living a completely different life than I was 2 years ago.  Because two years ago life was about me.  I had no one else to worry about but myself, and what I'd be doing on the weekends, and what I'd wear, and what color eyeshadow I'd put on. And can't forget the gloss!

Now I worry I'll even get to take a shower (people, that takes way too much strategic planning with 2 kids). Now I worry if my kids have clean clothes, and not super saggy diaps, and where I put the desitin and did I pay that bill, and what is that scratch on Jude's leg and why is he so quiet and should Lucy be turning away from food like that and where's the bottle with the nipple she likes and can I make a sandwich and feed a bottle at the same time and did I put away the milk from this morning and are the doors locked and who's that person outside that looks suspicious and might kill us all and did I call the dr and make that appt and will Chris ever come home?

Just like that, you guys, Just. Like. That. That is my brain constantly. It just goes. And Goes. And if you paid any attention, you would notice that I made no mention of outfits. Or makeup. Or cute purses. I wish I had time to worry about that stuff. Because don't get me wrong, I love that stuff! There's just bigger fish to fry. And other 'accessories' to worry about. 

And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but these accessories are even cuter than any outfits or purses I own. 

So I'm gonna enjoy this time of constantly pretending that dry shampoo is just as good as a real shower, and throwing on dirty stretchy pants because they were conveniently ready for me on the floor from the day before.  One day I might have to look socially acceptable again. Until then, I'm just gonna go ahead and say these two stole all the cuteness.

Nighty night! Off to get some beauty sleep if you know what I mean...

Ps. Jude woke up twice in the making of this post. No wonder I have no energy for eyeshadow...

Judebug Appleseed

Was it gorgeous where you were today?  Cause it was gorgeous in St. Louis.  We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and headed outside.... to pick some apples.

We met up with some of my favorite girls, my sorority sisters from college, who I am SO incredibly lucky to have here in St. Louis.  These are the kind of people who scoop up your children and hold them as if they were their own.  Just the best girls to have around.

So needless to say, we had the greatest day.  Jude's highlight: the 'choo choo' aka the tractor ride.  I think he could have stayed on that thing all day.  But since he couldn't, here's what we did:

I'd like to draw your attention to the two little ones in the following 4 pics...

How's that for some sibling love?

This was supposed to be a girls pic. Nice photobomb Jude!

Once again, supposed to be a girls pic

Girls pic with Ollie!

On the tractor....this kid was mesmerized the entire time

The view on our drive home!

This whole day cost us $8 for the apples.  My type of day!  And now that I have $8 worth of apples, you can only guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.  Homemade applesauce anyone? Hope you guys had a great weekend, too!

Pool

I can't decide if I'm the best or dumbest mom right now. I just blew up this entire pool so Jude could 'swim' one last time. It's definitely popped somewhere because it deflates overnight, and is deflating as we speak. But when your son says, 'Tigey pool...fic it momma, fic it' you do whatever you can to fix it.

Either way, 2 things are for sure: he's loving it, and I'm light-headed.

I hope you're enjoying these last few days of warm weather, too!

Mic check, one, two

Hello? Is this thing on?  Because I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Hey guys!  Sorry I left you hangin' there for a bit.  I know your lives haven't been the same since I posted, and I'm really sorry about that.  It's just that I have 2 kids now and they want to be fed.....and changed....and played with....and then changed again. But I never gave up hope that one day I'd be back at it, and here I am!  I'm ready to spill every little detail of our lives.  I hope you're ready to hear it!

So Lucy is all of a sudden 6 months old.  I know, right?  Like literally, she will be 6 months old tomorrow.  And I have no idea how that happened.  But I'm not mad about it, because 6 months is a pretty cute stage of life.  Here's what she's been up to lately:

*Getting her 2 bottom teeth in
*Scooching on her tummy like a beached whale to get where she wants to go. (and somehow she always finds a way to get what she wants....that's my girl)
*Drinking only bottles of formula now....we made it to about 6 months of nursing and that was enough for me (even though she was a very easy nurser, unlike her brother)
*Starting solid foods, but totally not into them.  She's had sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, and zucchini so far with almost the same disinterest (except peas had the worst reaction)
*Obsessed with anything Jude says or does.  She just sits and laughs at him.
*Talks all the time (like her daddy....ha. ha. ha)
*Loves stroller walks and going to the park
*Loves attention and being held.  And if she's not getting either of the two, her screams are unlike any other.  I seriously think that sometimes the neighbors can hear her.
*Shares a room with her brother and it's working out amazingly. (And this momma loves that I only have one stop to make when I check them both a million times in the middle of the night....yes, even though I have the camera monitor)
*Is a great sleeper.  She gets up around 7 each morning, eats and then goes right back down for a morning nap.  Wakes again, eats, then sleeps again. Does the same thing one more time and then has a longer stretch of being awake in the afternoon.  She's usually ready for bed at 7 or 7:30 and will sleep through the night.
*Has to snuggle up with blankets when she sleeps
*Eats her toes (Jude calls them her piggies since Nana calls Jude's toes piggies so we often hear, "Lucy eating piggies, Lucy eating piggies!"
*Loves to hear her name

She's such a little bundle of joy.  On any given day we both just want to smooch the living daylights outta her.  She's so happy and loving, I don't know how we got so lucky!

But let's not forget our little Judebug.  You guys, he's hilarious.  And huge. He grew up in the blink of an eye. He's so grown up that when we go to the park he makes friends and plays with them.  The other day he and his friends were cooking acorns in an oven.  Of course I was watching the whole thing but he runs up to me all excited and says, "Momma, friend says no touch acorns too hot.  Cook in oven" He was so proud and then ran off to collect more acorns off the ground.  Then this other time, he found a friend who had a Lightning McQueen car at the park and we all know that if you're a 2 year old boy you immediately become friends with the boy who has the McQueen car, so naturally that's what he did.  Conveniently the friend had ANOTHER McQueen car so he spent the whole time driving it back and forth along the wall with his new bestie.  I just can't get enough of it!

What I could do without, though, are his little tantrums.  He's getting good at them, and knows exactly how to push our buttons.  He's a sneaky little thing and so we've been working very hard to try and stay on top of the discipline.  So far we've found what works best for us is when we say 'good choice and bad choice'.  He gets time outs when he makes a bad choice, so he's starting to pick up a tad on that.  But only a tad.  And sometimes I literally want to beat my head against the wall because he will take it as he can before he knows he's in for it (a time out, that is, and a really, really unhappy mommy).  I'll be curious to see if he listens to his teachers next year when he starts preschool, or if he'll be the teacher's son that doesn't listen.  Oh dear God, I hope he listens!  I'll be sure to let you know!

As a side note, Jude has this thing where he adds 'ias' to everything he says.  For example, I'm 'mammias' and then there's 'daddias' and 'lucias' and 'girlias'.  It's to die for cute because he totally made it up himself.

Alrighty, my loves, I better wrap it up for now.  Because it's late at night, and I'm sitting in bed on my laptop while everyone else in the house snoozes. And I'm slightly jealous about it.  But I promise you this.....I'll be back soon!  Until then, here are some random pics of my lovies!

To remember

You guys, the sweetest thing happened today. 

It all started when Jude started 'making' lunch in his oven.  To my surprise, this was our lunch:

You're right, he gave me only an ice cream cone that was perfectly cooked in the oven.

But what happened right after this just broke my heart {in a good way}.  He looked at me and said, "payers momma" which translates to 'prayers momma.'  Ahhh I died.

Again I am reminded that they totally pick up on everything you're doing.  Lesson: Do good things!