the kids in their happy shirts

Nothing says summer in Oregon like a tie-dyed t-shirt. We picked up Thomas' shirt last year during his first trip to the Saturday Market downtown. Last weekend we did the same for Meredith. Thomas calls it his "happy shirt". Meredith's onesie has a large heart on the front and one on the back. Strangers can't help but smile when they see Thomas in his. It's the perfect shirt for his always-smiling little face!

first favorite book

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

swing

I loathe baby equipment. They are always too large and take up too much valuable floor space. And I always want to limit the time spent in one of these contraptions so I'm reluctant to have them around in the first place. For as much room as they take up, it just doesn't seem worth it when you don't use it very often.
.
However, we simply cannot hold Meredith 24/7 so we've pulled the swing out of the basement and now have it in the living room. She doesn't love it, but it has allowed us brief breaks here and there. I worried that Thomas would want to use the swing, but he clearly sees it as "baby's swing" and not something he wants to sit in. He does enjoy swinging her in it though. High. And he enjoys turning on the music. So much so that the tunes are ringing in my head even now hours after he's gone to bed and the swing has been turned off.

"back time"

Thomas loves to participate in "tummy time" with Meredith. Usually it entails not only himself spending time on his tummy, but also his favorite stuffed animal and Matchbox car, too (did you know a Matchbox car could do tummy time??). I've also spent considerable time on my tummy as has his dad and grandma. He'll often request that we have tummy time completely out of the blue. He's so silly, but I love how his two year old mind works. When Meredith is enjoying some floor time on her back, Thomas calls it "back time". Makes sense to me!

.

related?

Left: Thomas at 10 weeks

Right: Meredith at 12 weeks

three months

Meredith's favorite things at 3 months:

1. Thomas

2. All night chats with her parents

3. Time on her tummy

the party favor

We went to a very fun birthday party for Thomas' friend, Santiago, yesterday. Good live music, several birthday cakes, face painting (Thomas opted for a very cool spider on the back of his hand while Meredith passed), a pinata full of goodies and many friends added up to a fun time. Among other things, Thomas brought home this blower party favor which he entertained Meredith with this afternoon.

Meredith loves the party blower. In this photo I can almost hear her saying... "Props to you, big brother. You sure can rock the blower party favor! Nice work."

cousins

around and around

Is this the biggest grin you've ever seen or what?


Meredith watches her brother run around, jump and chatter up a storm. I'm sure she's taking it all in so she can do the same very soon.

[Note: She's a 10! Today she weighed in at 10lbs., 1 ounce. And last night she gave us one 3 hour and 45 minute stretch of sleep. Oh joy!]

future architect?

I'm always looking for hints as to what Thomas may become years from now. Look at this structure he constructed using his lunch - maybe a future architect like his mama? [I can see his dad shaking his head at that one.] One thing is for sure, he has some mad organizational skills like his mama.

Oregon Coast

.

The best thing about living where we do is how easily accessible the mountains and the ocean are. I woke up this morning, saw that our day was wide open and totally decided on a whim to take the kids to the beach. It's been triple-digit-warm here the last few days and a cool day at the beach sounded like a great respite from the heat. Less than an hour later, we were packed up and on the road.

Gearhart is this wonderful, quiet little beach town just two miles north of the busy and loud Seaside, Oregon. We love Gearhart for many reasons, one of which being that you can drive onto the beach which made it very easy for me to manage the two kids on my own today. I'm sure we were quite the sight as I loaded up the wagon with Thomas and carried Meredith in the sling. It was easy to find ourselves a quiet little area to eat our lunch and play in the sand. Very relaxing and enjoyable for this mama!

Afterwards we stopped in crazy Seaside for a minute and Thomas caught sight of the carrousel. He said he wanted to ride it but when it came right down to it (and fortunately just minutes before it started to move), he passed. Maybe we'll do that on our next visit.

two decades ago

I had to laugh when I saw our own little Meredith "walking like an Egyptian". Do you remember The Bangles' hit song in 1987? That was 20 years ago! You know you can't resist singing the song either when you look at this photo so sing with me now...

All the school kids so sick of books

They like the punk and the metal band

When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh)

They're walking like an Egyptian

We're having a baby? Let's remodel!

Because having a new baby just isn't enough, we also recently updated our kitchen. Finally! This was one of the items on our TO DO list 8 years ago when we bought our home, but the thought of actually doing it did not appeal to either of us. No kitchen for a period of time, the neverending accumulation of dust throughout the house, the noise, the general disruption of it all...? We put it off for as long as we could, but earlier this year we decided it needed to be done and it needed to be done now.

.

The schedule was tight, but we had hoped to have it all done before Meredith arrived. As you know, she came earlier than expected and it sort of threw our plans out the window. We brought our new baby home to a house without a kitchen. We have the good fortune of being surrounded by good friends and family who all pitched in to help us during those first few weeks home with baby, sans a working kitchen. The contractor has long finished the work we hired him to do and yet there are still some things that need to be done. There's no rush, but we're hoping to have it completely wrapped up by the end of summer.

.

An updated kitchen means, among other things, new cabinets! And new cabinets mean a new organization in our kitchen as far as where things are stored. Thomas loves that the canned food items are now within his reach. He can sort, count and stack them to his heart's content. It keeps things interesting for us both but really, aren't those early math skills anyway?

.

before (gross) & after (ooohhhh!)

napping

When Meredith is napping on the floor like this, Thomas enjoys cuddling up next to her. So sweet!

Count with Me!

Thomas has recently started counting to ten. After we praise him, he starts skipping around and asks to "do it again". Of course, we oblige because it's so darn cute and he loves to count. So tonight in the bathtub we counted from one to ten while filling up a bucket with water from a cup. After several rounds of counting one to ten, I asked him if he'd like to do it in Spanish. I've just started counting one to six with him in Spanish so I started us out "Uno, dos, tres... Thomas, what comes next?" And his reply? "...paltro, cinco..." I was floored. It has been a few days and although he didn't quite get four correct (it's cuatro), how close was he?? This kid never ceases to amaze me. Seriously.

first baby vs. second baby

Thomas couldn't resist joining in on the fun! He asked me to photograph him just like I was photographing Meredith.

.

Okay. So Meredith is now 10 weeks old and I still have not sent out a birth announcement. I have to wonder if there's some etiquette concerning when these get mailed? Is it too late at this point? A quick internet search says it's best to do it right away, but all sites agree that up to 3 months after a birth is socially acceptable. Whew! It looks like I'll be getting these out there just in time...

.

Prior to Meredith's arrival, I remember thinking that I would document her every move and be totally on top of photos and things like birth announcements just as I was with Thomas. There was no question in my mind that everything I did for Thomas would also be done for his sister. And then the reality of having a toddler and a newborn set in.

.

Her first year calendar isn't nearly as full of information as his, Thank You cards have fallen by the wayside (much to my dismay, but I seriously cannot remember who gave us what) and I'm just now getting around to birth announcements. Someday she'll ask me when she first smiled and my answer will be "...ummm, around 2 months, I think..." because I honestly don't know. And then I'll explain that I was too busy loving her and her brother every second of every day to write down each and every little detail...

Happy Independence Day!

Nothing says Fourth of July quite like a simple, family-oriented parade. There wasn't a single band, clown or horse. Instead there were dogs in bandanas and hats, hundreds of children on their decorated bicycles, toddlers dressed for the occasion riding in wagons, some very old cars, many balloons and a couple of boy and girl scout troops. And all of this was led by a fire engine and followed by a police car. Both our kids seemed to really enjoy the flurry of activity and all the fun things to look at. Thomas' favorite was the fire engine. Of course.

adventures in sleep deprivation

Not quite the finished product, but close! Thomas loved having his bed in this new position with his train dresser nearby and the new-to-him "bedside table" for his books.

.

When I'm tired and am lacking sleep, I find it best to just keep moving. All. Day. Long. Oh, I nap with the baby when Thomas takes his nap, but I only nap for about 40 minutes most days and then I'm up and moving again. Slowing down, taking it easy, "resting"... all of that will just make me sleepy. It's best to keep moving.
.
So, what to do? Today it was tackle the nursery. It feels funny to call it the "nursery" when Thomas isn't much of a baby anymore, but Meredith will be joining him in here at some point so "nursery" it remains. Thomas moved into this room at 9 weeks and she'd be here now, too, but I'm still debating which is worse - a mama who hasn't slept well or a two year old who hasn't slept well? Either way, it isn't pretty so she remains in our room until she can sleep for a longer period at night. [Note: Last night was the longest stretch yet - 3.5 hours. Yippee!]
.
The nursery is an odd-shaped, small room that is easily divided into two areas which is great when setting up one side for Thomas and the other for Meredith. [Yes, kids, we are looking for another house where each child can have their own room and we can still all be on the same floor. Unfortunately, this will take some time due to our region's crazy housing market and our long list of "wants".] Anyway, Thomas and I spent some time after his nap moving things around in his room and getting rid of things we no longer need. He had a great time finding new homes for some of his things and he loved the new location of his bed. Several times he told me to "turn on his cars and go downstairs so he could rest" (translation: turn on the mobile and leave so he could nap). This was after a 3 hour nap! The kid is silly.
.
We also made room in the nursery for this beautiful dresser. We picked it up this morning for Meredith's things. Isn't it pretty? At $45, it was a steal. Maybe someday I'll refinish it or simply paint it a different color, but it's in great shape for our use now. I love craigslist.

** Curious how our photo session went this morning with the two kids?? Thomas did a fantastic job! He posed, held his sister and followed the photographer's direction to a tee. Meredith, well, you know... She's 10 weeks. She never cried or fussed, but she's smiling in only one photo and it's the one photo where Thomas isn't smiling or laughing. Oh well. What can you do?

say cheese!

Tomorrow we are taking the kids in for photos (!!). My hope is to get one good shot of the two of them together. I have a feeling I'm asking too much of a two year old and a ten week old, but we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck!