so about last week

i have lots of excuses for not blogging last week.

i really was super busy.

but i still probably had time to write a post or two.

the truth is, i started reading a book series and

i spent all my free time trying to get through the next chapter.

i even talked brette into reading to herself for story-time

so we could both read.

worked like a charm.

if you like divergent or the hunger games,

you'll probably like these too.

the first book is called Red Queen and the second

is Glass Sword, but unfortunately book three and four

don't come out for another YEAR.

so now i hate life and i'm stuck waiting,

which means i'm back to blogging.

let's recap last week.

 

saturday ronnie and i took the girls to the

st. patty's day parade in lee's summit and then

i stayed back for the pub crawl.

ronnie took one for the team and spent the rest of the

day with the girls, while i was out with all my

friends from the bank.

so. much. fun.

too. much. beer.

there are a lot of pictures like this:

 

 

 

sunday was a recovery day.

ronnie was out shopping for fishing crap and took brette with him.

i stayed back with reid and debated how cheeseburgers i should eat.

cale sent me a pic of ronnie and b while they were out shopping.

i guess this place had a ferris wheel inside.

um, cool!

and brette loved the fishing poles.

she's her daddy's girl.

 

 

monday i worked and then we had our weekly family dinner.

tuesday my college roomie, marge, came into town so

i invited dana, kass and shannon to hang out with us for the day.

the kids played.

the mom's took care of the babies.

and we tried not to eat too much chinese food.

shan, marge and i had to get a roomie picture with our new girls.

we've all had baby girls this year.

so crazy. 

 

 

 

marge spent the night so wednesday we got

up and spent the morning with shannon.

after marge left wednesday afternoon

i finally got around to doing laundry and cleaning.

hanging out with friends is so much better.

 

 

thursday i spent my whole day running errands.

literally hauled both girls to six different places.

it sucked but it needed to be done.

here is brette at target "nursing" my wallet.

it was so weird i had to take a picture.

 

 

thursday night we had a small sprinkle for baby wilders on the plaza.

dana is adding a third little chick to her crew.

i can't wait to meet this little boy.

if he's anything like her other two

he'll have plenty of hair and be completely adorable.

 

 

friday i worked and ronnie left for his annual trout fishing trip

so the girls in my family decided to get together for a little dinner.

my mom, my aunt, my cousin and her daughter all came over.

we ordered in food and played some games after i put my girls to bed.

it was a nice way to spend the evening instead of hanging out by myself.

 

saturday i worked so my mom watched the girls for part of the morning and

then kassie came over and watched them the other

half since her husband was gone with ronnie on the fishing trip.

she hung out all day while the boys sent us pictures from their trip.

they took a selfie stick with them, so

i thought the pictures were hilarious.

three men and their selfie stick.

(and no, ronnie had no clue what that was)

 

 

 

and now here it is - - sunday.

we just did a lot of lounging and hanging on ronnie.

it was nice to have him back.

he brought brette a little fishing rod home so

i think a few afternoons at the lake are in my future.

 

 

and we managed to make it out of the house to run up the road

to buy a new sofa sleeper for our front room...

coming this april.

i'm excited to move my old college couch back down to the basement.

 

that's it.

my whole busy week.

can you believe i managed to read two books too?!

so now you know why i had no time for this ol' blog.

 

have a great week!

beer me

i'm always listening to music.

in the kitchen.

in the playroom.

on my phone.

i have to have on background noise.

recently i heard a new song and

i loved it immediately.

it reminds me so much of me and ronnie.

our first "date" was a concert a week after i turned 21.

ronnie bought me my first beer on a date.

and let's be honest, almost everything we did

while dating started with a beer.

we went out a lot - with beer.

we stayed in a lot - with beer.

we would drive around - with beer.

it's crazy how all that led to this.

 here we are married, living in the suburbs, raising two kids.

and it all started with a beer.

 

i knew all those beers i drank were a good thing.

my parents didn't believe me,

but i knew.

i think i'm going to go buy us a six-pack.

after all, it is tradition AND leinenkugel season.

 

cheers, ronaldo.

 

 

 

 

 

the war on sleep

brette first.

she has stopped napping.

my worst nightmare.

she'll sing or play or whine to get up,

but there is rarely a day she actually falls asleep.

i still make her hang out in her crib for an hour or two

to "rest" but that's not the same.

last week, she napped for my parents on monday

and then again on SUNDAY.

basically a WHOLE FREAKING WEEK without a nap.

she fell asleep in the car a few times for 30 minutes or so,

but to actually lay down in her crib a sleep for a couple hours?

not. happening.

and it makes for such a grouchy two year old.

she's not herself.

she cries all the time and fights me and i know why...

she's so tired.

everyday i think, "oh man, she's going to pass out today."

and then she doesn't.

i think if i rocked her, i could put her to sleep everyday,

but that's such a pain.

and i really don't have time for that

because i normally put brette down first so

i can nurse reid and have her down too.

i KNOW my child can put herself to sleep.

she's been doing it since she was 10 months old.

and i KNOW two years old it too young to give up naps,

so its back to the drawing board.

i have got to find a way to keep her napping.

it's my new goal in life.

send your prayers... or suggestions.

 

 

 

now reid.

she's actually sitting in my lap right now.

she's been up since 5:30am and that's after a night like this:

down at 8:00. (later than normal because monday nights are crazy.)

up at 11:00 and stayed awake until 12:15.

up at 2:30 and i nursed her.

up (i guess for the day?) at 5:30.

she actually sleeps worse now than she ever has.

i long for the months that i put her down at 7:00,

up at 4:00 and back down until 7:00.

i can't believe i complained about that.

and what about all those night she slept all the way through?

i know she can do this.

i keep saying that maybe it's her teeth, but two months later and

none have popped through.

i'm not sure what to do about it either because i never dealt with this before.

i put brette down and i would see the next morning.

i told ronnie what's going on because he is literally clueless.

she could be screaming in his ear and he wouldn't wake up.

sometimes it makes me want to shake him just so he's awake

when i am, but i know he's got to work the next day so i silently curse him

and take care of it myself.

what i would like to try is to let her try to figure this out for a bit on her own

before i go in there, but i'm so nervous she's going to wake up brette

that i normally try to intervene as soon as i hear her.

i think i'm going to roll the dice and give it a shot and

just pray that brette can sleep through some of this.

dear god please.

or else i really am going to have to wake up ronnie if both girls are up.

house party at 3am.  not cool.

 

 

 

ok, wish me luck.

wish me sleep.

and hope that i find an amazing sleep trick on the internet.


***update***
reid slept though the night last night and
brette took a 2.5 hour nap.
i think they read my blog.

little bits

we have had a few smaller things on our list

to get done around the house.

some of them i've knocked out myself

and i'm hoping that the ones i need ronnie's help with

we can finish up over the weekend.

we have no plans.  knock on wood.

 

first, the things i've done:

i white washed some of the downstairs fireplace.

i didn't want to do the whole thing like i did in our bedroom,

but some of the bricks were way too orange and i hate that.

 

i also ran into target one day to grab diapers,

(target had an amazing diaper sale)

and i saw this side table on clearance.

i got it for $20, originally $70.

yes, i'll take it.

but please imagine...

reid and brette are in the cart and there is

no where to put this table, so i am holding it and

trying to steer the cart full of kids.

i looked crazy.

 

originally i wanted a stump table,

but honestly i'm tired of waiting for it to get done.

this is a perfect second option. 

 a little wood and a little gold.

exactly what reid's room needed.

 

 

and speaking of new furniture,

we also picked up this new chair for our front room.

a friend of my brother's sold it to me.

i didn't tell ronnie and when he saw it he

hated it because he said it didn't "go with this house."

i proved him wrong and once again told him

to do the heavy lifting and i'll take care of the rest.

(wink)

and now he really likes it.

 

 

 

there are two projects i would like done this weekend.

one, is hanging some hooks by the front door.

we still have our coat rack out,

which i still totally love, but

it's not safe for kiddos.

brette has literally knocked it down three times.

luckily, its never landed on her, but i'm over worrying about it. 

 

i bought these from home goods but i need ronnie's help,

because the way i need them latched to the wall will take some rigging.

i need it to be more sturdy than what they are, so we

can use them for our coats and for company.

 

i plan on hanging four of them across this half wall,

right by the front door.

 

the second thing i need ronnie to do is put in one or two

electrical outlets in the floor in our front room.

if you look at this picture again, you'll see i have lamps on

either side of our couch but nowhere to plug them into.

i'd like to hide an outlet in our floor under the couch

so i can actually USE these lamps.

i swear, the electrical jobs are always the last to get done.

 

 

and that should do it!

not a hard list at all.

 

the big jobs are still lurking though...

baseboards in our family room,

then priming and painting.

but i think it looks so good with the wood planking.

i can't wait to see this done.

 

 

 

i love all the small finishes.

it really makes our house a home.

 

hopefully shit gets done and i'll have another update soon.

fingers crossed.

 

 

 

the weekend

holy mother.

i needed this weekend.

i started off friday night leaving straight from

work and heading downtown.

a friend of mine and i had tickets to see Newsies, live.

um... so. freaking. good.

i was singing along to every song and

amazed by their dance numbers.

it took me right back to all our grade school sleepovers.

and personally, i think this is christian bale at his best.

who need batman when you have jack kelley?

 

saturday was beautiful.

the weather was in the 60s and 70s

and that just makes everything better, right?

we pushed brette's naptime so we could have an extra

couples hours out in the sun.

we went furniture shopping and actually

found something we really like:

a new sofa sleeper.

we didn't buy it, but i wouldn't be

surprised if we went back sometime to pick it up. 

then, it was so nice, we took brette to the park.

we might have pushed our luck a little too long because

she was a hot mess for the rest of the day.

way. too. tired.

 

sunday morning we took our time getting around.

once we actually made it out of the house, it was lunchtime,

so we stopped in at mcallister's.

reid ate dill pickles. whaaaa?

she loved them just like brette.

we ran a few errands and then i went back out

to finish up our list while the girls took a nap.
it was nice going into a store solo.
people, you don't realize how good you have it until
your lugging a car seat and a two year old everywhere you go.
enjoy the moment.

by the time i got home, everyone was already up, so

we took brette outside to try her hand at riding a trike.

she sucks.

ronnie and i didn't realize it would take such practice.
but i'm hoping she'll be a pro by this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

it was a nice weekend with just the four of us.

no working on the house,

no plans or parties or events.

just relaxing and enjoying our time together.

loved it.

 

girls and pizza

it was another fun pizza night with friends.

this time, at our house.

even better.

no traveling involved.

i ordered a few pizzas and

made some cookies.

i was ready.
and BONUS,
it turned into a fun little

gender reveal party for my bff, kassie.

she wanted to make it a surprise, but nothing big.

her and chris brought over a cheesecake.

strawberry toppings meant girl and

blueberry toppings meant boy.
kassie asked everyone to wear either pink or blue

as a guess to what we thought it was.

we gave ronnie the results and everyone else

went to the front room to wait.

 

STRAWBERRIES!

another little lady on her way.

which means another little best friend for

reid to grow up with.

 

this is such an exciting year.

next month we will welcome another two

little girls into our ever-growing group.

the poor boys are completely outnumbered.

 

i also told them that we are no longer having get

togethers in the winter.

especially after all these new babies are born.

after this summer our pizza nights will have grown to

11 adults and 10 children.

holy mother.

i decided that with that number of people we needed

to be able to throw some of them outside.

just waiting on spring...

 

 

BLUE TEAM

 

PINK TEAM

and yes, that's ronnie's attempt at pink.

 

 

 strawberries!

 

so excited for a girl!

(they're skyping with chris's family in Michigan)

 

it was another real fun night.

i love these people.

 



 

 

reid: seven months

 

you guys, it's the 22nd already.

time is flying.

literally. flying.

and our little miss reid is

s e v e n   m o n t h s  o l d.

summer seems right around the corner

and just like that i'll have a one year old

and a three year old.

i'm looking forward to it.

 

 

now more about reid...

 

growth:

we're actually going to the doctor tomorrow

because she has to get her second round of the flu shot,

but the last time we went she weighed 17 lbs.

i'm interested to see how much she's grown in a month because

ronnie was just saying that he thought she seemed heavier.

i can never tell.

she's right on track for clothing,

wearing a size 6 month or 6-9 month things. 

she's also in a size three diaper.

i have no clue about shoes because i

never put them on her.

shoes at this age are pointless and a pain.

her hair is red and growing exactly opposite of brette's.

B had long hair in the back, like a mullet.

reid had long hair up top and hardly any length around her neck.

it'll be interesting to see if it grows in as

great as brette's did.

her eyes are still a gorgeous blue, thank goodness.

both my babies carry their weight in their

cheeks and thighs.

and yes, reid has an abundance in both those areas.

she's a cute little squishy baby.

 

 

sleeps:

oh geez.

the dang sleeping issues.

she was doing so well.

literally after i wrote last month that i was tired of her getting

up once a night, she stopped.

just like that, she started sleeping through the night.

it was glorious!

it was refreshing!

it. was. short. lived.

she did it for about two weeks.

and then back to the once a night thing again.

and then this week, its even worse.

4 out of the last 5 nights,

she's been up every 2 hours.

i don't nurse her or anything.

i just go in their,

roll her over and pop her pacifier back in and

she'll drift right back off.

but it sucks for me because i'm up

four times a night and i want to kill myself.

actually, i want to kill ronnie who sleeps through the whole thing.

i'm hoping some teeth pop through soon and i

have something concrete to blame this on.

as for naps,

they've gotten so much better.

she is taking at least one 2 hour nap a day

and sometimes she'll even take two.

there are those days where i can't get her to stay asleep,

but most often she stays down.

unfortunately, it almost always her morning nap,

which means i get no break.

i'm with brette while reid sleeps and then

i'm with reid while brette sleeps.

i'm looking forward to having them both down together again.

i live for those few moments every afternoon where

i can just chill for a minute.

 

 

 eats:

i am not as restrictive as i was with brette.

brette's introduction to food was very planned.

she would only have one or two foods a week so

i would know if there were any allergic reactions.

with reid? not so much.

she's had jello, yogurt, carrots, applesauce, bananas,

mashed potatoes, peas, pudding, spinach packet,

zucchini, oranges, green beans.

basically, if we have something soft,

i'll let her try it.

she doesn't seem to be loving much of anything though.

she'll take 4 or 5 great bites and then she's pretty much over it.

i'm assuming her appetite will increase once she's older and

she gets teeth and can actually eat more things.

i'm dying for her to get teeth.

i think it makes things much easier.

she's still exclusively on breastmilk, which is a difference from brette.

brette always had formula at least once a day.

reid is never hungry like brette was and

she would always pass out before i could give her a bottle so

she's never had it.

i'm trying to pump enough to keep up with the demand while

i'm at work, but my stash is getting pretty slim.

we might have to introduce formula before she turns a year

if i can't keep up.

hopefully she likes it okay or we might have a problem.

 

 

plays:

she hates laying down now.

she always wants to be sitting so i've concocted

a few different ways to keep her sitting up without me holding her.

 it frees me up and makes playtime more fun for brette.

she still loves lights and sounds or

anything that crinkles.

and everything goes in her mouth.

everything.

and it drives brette crazy, so i try to

always have something of her own that she can chew on.

brette's not a big fan of slobbery toys.

reid is also a yeller.

she is constantly talking in the loudest voice ever.

its just one long yell over and over.

and yes, brette mimicks her, so that's fun.

i've tried working on her crawling but

she seems to be a long way away from that.

right now she also spends time each day in her

exersaucer and jumper.

she loves that she's not laying down and i love

that i have use of both my arms.

she's also a pacifier girl.

she seems more dependent on it then brette ever did.

i'm worried we might have a harder time breaking her of it

so i've thought of taking it away in the next few months.

i always heard, the younger the better.

she never uses it during the day, but always when she's sleeping.

in fact, she can now find it in her crib and put it

back in her own mouth.

hopefully she outgrows it on her own like brette.

 

 

firsts:

she had her first valentine.

she ate her first foods.

she had her first sleepover without mommy.
 

 

 

 

start from the beginning:

born 

one month

two month

three month

four month

five month

six month