october roads

something about october

sends ronnie and i into the woods.

we loved going on walks.

and since a frost is in the forecast,

we don't have to worry about any bugs for very much longer.

 

we went back to the trails we went to last year on

the day we found out we were pregnant.

its so weird

because now she's here

and going along for the ride.

we strapped on our little girl

and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
there is a huge field where we park and
the dogs run around like crazy animals.
they love it.

brette loved it

and she loves the bjorn.

next october, she'll be the one running around and leading the way.

life changes so fast.

 

its nice to remember to enjoy the simple days.

a sunday walk with my family.

(selfie)

(tater staying closed to his mamma)

(ronnie and leia running like crazy)

(ronnie staring at his jeep/b staring at me.)

(family shot)

 

 

and then i spent the rest of my day watching football.  go chiefs!

there and back

brette and i hit the road again.

after a week home after nashville,

we headed back down the highway to st. louis.

marge was on her fall break at school and she had

a week off, so we went for a quick visit.

the girls scheduled a play date since i was coming in.

i finally got to meet and play with all my sorority sister's babies.

it was crazy adorable and just crazy.

ten kids, six adults and one big dog.

 

 

loved it.

 

and i got to spend two uninterrupted days with cohen and crosby,

margie's two wild boys that keep brette entertained for hours.

 

 

i can literally lay her on the floor and she's good just watching them.

and marge has everything i could ever need so that made packing

super easy and light.

and i got to try b out in some big kid toys.

who knew she was ready for the play saucer?

such a big girl!

 

 

we also decided that we should walk around the mall

and stroll through h&m.

big mistake.

you can't go into h&m without ending up with an armful of clothes.

and they have a kids section.

if i hadn't just gotten a ton of clothes from madeline

i would have gotten brette a lot of new stuff.

so basically i just added to my stay-at-home-mom wardrobe.

i guess i wanted to be stylin' when i go to the post office and hy-vee.

when i got home,

ronnie was helping unload the car

and of course, that's the bag he brought in.

busted.

dang.

 

(you know you're in st. louis when the babies and the dog

 are watching the cardinal's game.) 

 

 

ps- this trip must have worn B out.

it's 10:30 and she's still asleep.

run forest, run

 

 oh hey.

no big deal.

just trying to start running again.
only took me four months after having brette.
my original plan was to be back in shape by my 30th bday.
i thought it would be somewhat easy.
i mean, hello, i'm burning an extra 500 calories a day
just by breastfeeding
and i go on stroller walks.
these pounds should be falling off me.
but no.
of course not.
so now i've resorted to the old fashion method.
running.

first time i went,

things were flying everywhere.

very jiggly all over.

i'm pretty sure my boobs might need three or four sports bras

instead of my normal two.

gross.

 

its hard when you haven't ran in over a year.

 i run out of breath super fast.

and you know what's shameful?

the first time i ran,

i ran a half mile.

whaaaa?
and i was sore after.

how embarrassing.

remember when i was trying for the half marathon

and ran seven miles?

yeah, me neither.
 

 

the second and third time i went running, i ran a mile,

so at least that's a little better.

and that's it.

i've only been three times,

but you got to start somewhere.

 

and i need to find a walking path

or start going on my treadmill,

because i took brette with me in the jogger

and she was rattling all over the place.

those sidewalks are junk.

 

this is where i should insert a bunch of

encouraging words and cheering,
but realistically i need more than one week of running before i can
call myself a runner.
hopefully i can be back in shape by christmas.

just in time to eat all the holiday food and gain it all back.

 

sweet plan.

 

 

brette: 4 months

growth:

i'm not sure what her height and weight are.

we have her doctor appointment next week,

so stay tuned for a percentile update.

but her cheeks and legs are chunky monkey
... in the cutest way possible.

 

she's still in size one diapers.
we are on our last bag,
so she'll be in two's within the next couple weeks.

she is wearing both 0-3 and 3-6 month clothing.
the 0-3 stuff fits her great but
a lot of what we had was summer attire so
we had to pack those away and bust out
her long sleeves and leggings.
(ps- if you follow madeline and eden's blog, you'll
see a lot of repeat clothes.  sanku, jaime & brian!)

her hair is still dark,
but she's losing some of it.
her eyes are still blue
and her head/neck control is awesome,
but not sitting up on her own yet.
she does roll over on her side but hasn't
mastered getting completely over.
we're working on it.

 

sleeps:

nights are a non-issue.
she sleeps 10 hours,
then gets up for a little breakfast break
and goes right back down.
we still start our day around 9:00.
naps are still not good,
but i am trying my best to be consistent with our routine.
i put her in the swing everyday around 1:00
and she falls asleep without crying.
she'll sleep anywhere from 30 mins to an hour.
then she sleeps the next hour on me.
i'm still trying to figure out how to put
her back to sleep and keep her in the swing for that second hour.
suggestions welcome.
 

eats:

we've lengthened out our eating times,
but not by a lot.
we get past 2 hours now,
but only to about 2.5 to 3 hours.
every once in awhile, if we're out
and she's constantly entertained we
can go four hours.
i honestly think i'll always need to feed her more often during the day,
just because she goes so long at night.
but all in all, nursing has become second nature
and we're both still hanging with it.
 

 

plays:

we play all the time.
and we even get some giggles now.
my sil, jaime, got her laughing for the first time on our way to nashville,
and now its ronnie and i's goal everyday.
i love hearing it.
it's pretty deep,
which is surprising because her squeals are so shrill.
which ps - she is getting louder and louder by the day.

she also puts everything in her mouth.
i'm trying my best to keep things clean,
but who knows what all she gets past me during the day.

her favorite toys are the ones that have
lights and play music.
she also has love for her sleep sheep and her pacifier,
but we might have a finger sucker on our hands
because that's her go-to when the pacifier is not around.
or her feet. she loves her feet.
she also loves books.
i read to her and she stares at the pictures and
smiles at all my voices.
and she loves to be sang to.
even by me.

 

firsts:

she went to her first sporting event - a football game.
she laughed! (its adorable)
she had her first out of state vacation.
she went on her first run. (more on that later)
and she went to the zoo.
i feel like i'm forgetting some,
but its hard to remember a whole month of firsts.

so we're still doing really well over here in coxville - -
loving on b and watching her grow.

 

 

still hating those tummy shots.

wah wah.

and i'm now able to sit her in the middle of the chair because

she doesn't need the arm to rest on.

love it.

 

 

wanna see brette grow?
month one
month two
month three

 

look in the mirror

the day after i got back from nashville,

ronnie and i were sitting around talking

and he said that he thought moms were really

hot when they were all put together.

 

at the time i was sitting there

nursing brette in his old shirt.

i had on my bass pro hat

and no make-up.

 

cool, ronnie.

thanks.

i get the hint.

 

 

in my defense, i left my luggage with my parents

to give us more space in our car,

so i didn't have anything to even get ready.

 

so there.

bitch.

happy feet

an update on brette is coming soon.

i can't believe she'll be four months this saturday.

she has been growing - - in an extra chunky kind of way.

and she found her feet.

they are her new favorite thing

and it makes diaper changing extra hilarious/challenging.

 

(my little leg mcmuffin)

 

speaking of feet,

brette is finally able to wear shoes.

at four months, she fits into her newborn sizes.

its adorable.

let the shoe obsession begin!

 

behind the scenes

behind all the pretty pictures from yesterday's posts

are a few tricks, a few stories and a few tips.

 

originally, we were scheduled to go on our annual trip

to estes park, colorado.

apparently, that vacation was doomed.

the town flooded and then our government shut down,

so we wouldn't have been able to get in the national park to go hiking anyway.

can you imagine how mad we would have been if we had traveled to colorado

just to get there in time to not go hiking?

 

so we decided on nashville and quickly booked a couple of hotel rooms.

first mistake.

we really should have considered the three little ones more.

lots of naps needed.

plus nursing time.

travel time.

eating out.

packing all their crap every time we left.

and bedtimes.

it was a lot.

so we spent more time in our hotel than we normally would have.

most mornings, so brette and eden could get in their naps.

and then every night because all the girls were in bed by 8 or 9.

there was a lot of tip-toeing

and watching tv in the dark.

we've already decided that our next trip

must include a house.

somewhere we we can make our own food

and have a living room for the adults once the kiddos go to bed.

if it would have been available, we would have liked to have stayed

at the opryland resort.

it is around 15-20 acres and has lots to do.

but since this was last minute we had to take what we could get.

my tip?

when going to nashville either stay downtown (if you're going out)

stay at the opryland resort (if you want a lot to do without getting out much)

or stay in franklin. (if you want to be near nashville,

but have a family friendly downtown and lots of history).

those were my three favorite things we did

and it would have been nice to have been close to one the whole time.

 

 

also, when traveling with three little girls

we packed lots of snacks, games, toys, dvds, and slings.

getting to nashville and back was what i dreaded most.

a three month old in a car for 8-9 hrs?

could be heinous.

on our way there we split up the trip into two days

and drove into st. louis the first night.

this means i got to see my good friend, marge, and her second born, cohen.

he is almost exactly three months older than brette.

 

(here they are when b was born and again in our hotel room)

 

on our way back we left the grandparents and drove the girls through the night.

it was honestly the best thing we could have done.

the girls slept (most of the time)

and we got to drive without 14 stops along the way.

in fact, we only made one stop to refill on gas.

and that's my second tip.

if you can drive while the little ones sleep. do it.

so much easier.

but we drove around lots once we were in nashville too.

everything was at least a 20 minute drive.

so the girls got lots of car time.

and in most cases, either jaime or i were sandwiched in between

brette and eden,

bottle in one hand, pacifier in the other,

trying to sing and shush at the same time.

whew. but we made it.

and it worked out great since ronaldo

didn't go, we could all fit in brian's pilot so that made

getting around easier instead of having to take two cars everywhere.

but is nashville known for traffic?

because i've never seen anything like it.

unless you're in new york, la, chicago, but nashville?

who knew.

 

even though we had to plan around naps

we still got out and saw most of the town.

we toured the grand ol opry,

which took an hour.

it was kind of overkill,

but at least i can say i've seen it.

 

we walked around music row.

there were so many amazing country bars

and live music in every one.

i would love to go back for a long weekend

with just adults.  its totally my scene.

but my family is not into country and

obviously not the right place for little ones.

 

franklin was adorable.

i heard tim and faith live there.

i can see why.

too bad i didn't see them.

where's a country music star when you need them?

 

it was a good trip.

good times with the family.

and i got to go somewhere i'd never been before.

we learned what not to do

and what works.

oh and my last mandatory new rule:

ronnie must go on all family vacations, no matter what.

 

it just wasn't the same without him.