weekly picture post

We ate dinner with at my parent's house Sunday night, and after we finished eating Will requested feeding the birds. "Feeding the birds" entails: (1) taking a piece of bread (2) standing on the walkway and  (3) tearing the bread into pieces that he (4) alternates between throwing in the grass and (5) eating himself. By the way, this is a post-church outfit he chose himself. He's so fashion forward mixing prints like that.

Monday we had a musical FHE. We all have our respective rolls when we do anything "musical" together (I use the term musical very loosely). Will plays the recorder or drums. Lauren plays or chews on the cymbols. TJ plays the piano and sings. I lead the music and also sing, per Will's request.

This photo was taken at the beginning of a very long and trying walk. Will decided that he was going to push the stroller. At first I was optimistic because usually he gets distracted by sticks, rocks, pinecones, etc. when we go walking. Unfortunately the old umbrella stroller isn't all-terrain and he kept veering of the sidewalk, and either overcorrecting or getting stuck. This wouldn't have been such a big deal except he didn't want my help getting back on track, so not only did it take forever, but every time I tried to help he would get frustrated with me which made things take even longer. It was really humid outside too and after about 5 minutes I just wanted to go home. I have found that when I am hot it is a lot harder for me to be patient.

The same kid that still doesn't like to go down slides at the park is now climbing up the narrow part of our stairs. The first few times I noticed it he only went up two or three stairs. Now he is routinely going up about five, and I have seen him go as high as seven!

For some reason my computer won't let me suspend the holds I have at the library. I usually try to space them out a bit. Thursday afternoon when we went to the library I was surprised to see that half my holds list had arrived at the library. With the new fall shows starting, I'm not very optimistic that I will be able to finish all of these in the next 3 weeks, but I'll do my best.

Friday evening we spent some time together as a family at the park. Both Anthony and I got on the swing for a bit, but neither of us lasted very long. Will and Lauren can swing for what feels like hours and I remember loving to swing when I was a kid, but these days I get lightheaded and dizzy if I'm on for long.

Saturday was a full, fun day. We started the day off by taking in the parade at the Overland Park Fall Festival. I was looking forward to this for quite awhile because of Will's love for marching bands, and this parade had four (plus some strolling strings!). Unfortunately, there were also a few large mascots. Apparently the disdain and fear he has for mascots really put a damper on his enthusiasm. He enjoyed the most of the parade, but did spend several minutes in my arms when the offending floats passed by. On a side note, Lauren had her first lollypop courtesy of a local girl scout troop. Instead of throwing candy, they handed pieces of candy directly to the kids. One of the girls gave Lauren a dum-dum, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to let her hold it. While I was comforting Will I kind of forgot about it, and the next thing I know Lauren has chewed through the wrapper and was working on the candy. I concluded it wasn't worth fighting over, not to mention I was intimidated by her death grip, so she got to eat the whole thing.

lauren :: eleven months

My emotions have been very mixed this past week as Lauren hit her eleven month birthday. My baby isn't a little baby anymore! She's becoming more "little girl" every day. Of course I am excited to see her develop and transform into the sweet and friendly person she is going to be, but it scares me how fast the time has passed. It's probably because I am a procrastinator by nature, I tend to put stuff off until the last second. But my kids are teaching me that I can't do that; they aren't going to stop growing up because I want to be lazy for a week day or two.

 

Weight: 16 lbs., 2 oz.

Height: 26 inches

At her check-up last week the doctor's were much more optimistic about her "issues." They lowered the dose of her thyroid medication and believe her pituitary is normal. Thyroid function and pituitary concerns were the main reasons (other than weight loss) she was admitted to the hospital in July.  The only new "concern" is that she is officially anemic, but judging by our kids diets, if she is anemic, then Will is too. She continues to gain weight and have a healthy appetite, so we don't have to be as hyper-vigilant with her diet either.

She loves playing with Will when he is happy. She is learning that he is less predictable than her parents and that the toys he hoards are the most fun.

She loves being outside. Her eyes look so blue on bright, sunny days. She's not very discriminating about what she puts in her mouth, so we have to watch her carefully. She chews on everything these days--I'm pretty sure she's getting ready for another round of teething. She currently has 4 on top and 3 on bottom, which are quite useful when it comes to eating.

She's always on the move. I've almost stepped on her so many times when she has snuck up behind me, especially in the kitchen. She's quiet and fast. She's also started to pull herself up, but Will's doing the best he can to keep the good woman down. He's been on the receiving end of many time-outs after he's knocked her over or pried her fingers off the side of the coffee table.

She loves music and she loves her dad. She loves to be held and she loves peek-a-boo. She's our sunshine and we can't get enough of her.

weekly picture post

I recently noticed a bunch of toys that Will played with when he was Lauren's age in the corner of his room. We brought them out for Lauren to enjoy and it has been fun to see her use them. She is also learning that crawling in a dress is a bit more complicated than crawling in onesies or leggings.

This picture sums up a lot of their interactions these days. Anyone have any good tips on teaching your kids how to share?

Tuesday evening one of Will's friends had a birthday gathering at the park. Both kids were fussy and uncooperative as I got us ready to go, and then they cried for the first five minutes in the car. Then things got quiet, and when we pulled up to the park they were both asleep. The catnaps helped--both kids enjoyed the party at the park.

On Wednesday Lauren got to hang out with one of her foreordained BFFs, Gwen. Gwen's mom and I have been friends since we were twelve, so it is a given they will be friends too.  It was such a gorgeous day, the girls enjoyed lounging on the blanket while their big brothers got into mischief in the sandbox and their mom's commiserated about the exhausting side of motherhood.

 

Our special helper. Will insists on helping us do many things. Unfortunately his skills don't always match up with his enthusiasm.

Lauren is always on the move. I thought my house was fairly baby proofed, but she is showing me the error of my assumptions. We moved into this house when Will was 20 months old and walking, so our house is more kid-proofed than baby-proofed if that makes sense.

It's that weird time of year when it is impossible to dress for the entire day. You can either dress for the morning and be too hot in the afternoon, or dress for the afternoon and be too cold all morning. We tried to mix it up with long sleeves and shorts, but ended up a little chilly when we went to the park Saturday morning. #fallproblems

we miss laura

A few weeks ago we said goodbye to my sister Laura as she headed out to Utah for school. It is going to be an adjustment for us because she has been a big part of our lives since we moved to the OP almost 3 years ago.

There are many reasons Laura is awesome, but I won't dive into all of them right now. What I do want to talk about is what a great aunt she is to my kids and the genuine help she has been with them.

Will loves Laura. She was one of the first people he really "liked," if that makes sense. The fact that we look a little bit alike may have helped things along in the beginning, but now what he likes best is that she is different than me (and by that I mean much more nice and fun).

Laura has been so helpful with my kids. In the past year we have flown 8 times between here and Utah (4 trips). Five of those times Laura was on the same flight with us. She generously let us use her laptop to occupy Will, played with him in the airport to give us a rest, and let him sit next to her and entertained him so we could have a break. She was very supportive of me on our flight home from Utah in January when we were the last people to board the plane with both kids crying and only the very back row was available and then Lauren cried almost the entire flight.

When we have dinner with my parents Laura often takes Will aside and plays with him. She's built tons of towers, identified every animal magnet several times over, and read many, many "big books."

She's met me at the pool and helped out with the kids.

Our ward has a dance last February and Will only wanted to dance with Laura. In addition to winning the limbo contest, she also got him to dance. (He refused me. More than once. Not that I'm bitter. TJ says it's good he didn't want to dance with his mom.)

Even though we don't get to see Laura as often as we'd like, we're glad she's moving ahead in life.

Don't forget about us!

**Also worth mentioning, Laura was my running partner for the two months I have most consistently worked out this year.

the many faces of will

Will is a pretty expressive kid. He's catching on to this, and has started giving us his "unimpressed" face when he doesn't want us to know how he really feels.

 Will = having fun, but not going to give me the satisfaction of knowing he's having fun, so he's trying not to smile.

Here are some of his other faces:

My personal fave:

Especially when compared to Lauren:

Here are their faces in context:

 

It's not like we are torturing him. We're at a baseball game. In the part of the stadium that caters to kids!

I guess I can take comfort in knowing that when he does smile, they're. . .genuine?

weekly picture post

Sunday was a very long day. We got up before seven to drive TJ to the airport. Then we went to church where Will's diaper soaked through his pants and I didn't have a spare outfit. And then the afternoon just felt really long. Even on afternoons when Tony is busy with one thing or another I always have his homecoming to anticipate. After we ate an extremely early dinner we headed outside for a bit to kill time. Turns out it was a gorgeous evening and we finished the day on a happy note. We are really enjoying this cooler weather.

On Monday we made plans with friends in Olathe, and on the drive home Will got grump-y. I took this picture at a stoplight. Lauren got fussy, most likely because she was tired, which prompted Will to yell at her to stop crying, which made Lauren start to cry, which made Will really mad and so he started yelling louder and crying, which made Lauren cry even louder. It was a real cycle of joy.

Anthony improves the quality of my life in many ways. One of the ways he does this is by encouraging me to get in bed at a decent time. Since he was out of town I ended up staying up pretty late cleaning our fridge and pantry. It's hard to say if the feeling of accomplishment I felt after I finished was enough to balance out the feelings of exhaustion I felt the next afternoon, but I am still feeling pleased just by looking at this picture, so I think I made the right choice.
 

This little lady is getting so big. Really, she is. She's gained a pound and a half since her stint in the hospital. I think about the word thriving all the time now, and I'm so pleased to see Lauren really "thriving."

Will and I made some jello playdough on Thursday afternoon. It felt very cozy to be in the kitchen working on a project while the rain came down outside. Will was a great (albeit impatient) helper. He took his jobs very seriously.

 Oh hi, just hanging out on a blanket in the front yard, enjoying a beautiful late summer afternoon.

 

On Saturday evening we walked to the park with some friends. We've switched off babysitting the past two weekends, and it's been pretty sweet. The kids have had someone to play with both weekends, and we got to go on a date and save on the childcare. Win-win.

weekly picture post

Sunday after church Will helped me make cookies, which is always a treat. Will is a little negotiator. "Just one last bite of dough." "This is the last bite." "No more bites after this." It is a bit tiring, but I enjoy spending time with him when he is (for the most part) happy. As a side note, while the mixer does make the cookie making process go faster, one of its valuable hidden features is the fact that Will is scared to put his fingers in the bowl when it is on. You could say that the cookies we've been making lately have been very well mixed.

We had a pretty busy Labor Day, but TJ let me take a few hours for myself in between activities and hit the pool one last time before it closed for the season.

On Tuesday evening we had dinner at our friends, the Bowers. On the way to their home Will fell asleep. We tried to wake him up, but he was zonked out. We laid him on the couch, and their sweet dog guarded him until he woke up.

On Wednesday morning we visited Anthony's work. Anthony had to pick up a few things before he flew to DC, so we stopped by on our way to the airport. Will is very proud of the huge building Tony works in.

This week playgroup met at a park I had never before visited. Will was a fan of the merry-go-round, though he didn't want to admit it. This is the face he's been giving me lately when he is enjoying himself, but doesn't want to seem too excited. I guess you could say it is his poker face, but I don't think he is fooling anyone.

Even though she barely makes the frame, I quite enjoy Lauren in this picture. She really enjoys swinging these days, and I feel like you can see the excitement in her face. I love it when she kicks her chunky legs in delight. She seems to have a very adventurous spirit.

Lauren loves to be a part of whatever Will is doing. Will goes back and forth as to how he feels about things, but he seems to like it when she copies what he does. She can never do it with the same skill and precision he can, but she does her best. They both like to throw things over our stairs. Will likes to make Lauren jump at the noise he can make when he throws something over.