the rest of april and a roly poly.

we are starting to formulate a routine, slowly .  it's easiest on days when i can work from home.  i wake up first, shower, start the motions.  prep the bottles, unload the dishwasher, feed the pets, let the dogs out, start breakfast, stuff the diapers, start a load of laundry.  all the things.  most days i feel like i see my children in a blur through the morning.  hollis usually wakes up late - a ball of chub and warmth in my spot in the bed.  some mornings i wake him just in time to change his diaper and clothes, give him his heart meds, and get him into his carseat.  we have to wake emme up earlier than that since she has so many opinions these days - about what she will wear to school, what and how she will eat breakfast, when she will conduct the rest of her morning chores.  but i still try to wait until the last possible minute, balancing that seesaw of the importance of sleep and my intense desire to spend time with her.  it's harder when i have to get myself ready too - find relatively clean clothes, avoid getting spit up on, throw on a layer of mascara and some work-appropriate shoes.  but most days we make it out the door with few, if any, tears, full bellies, and warm coffee in my mug.
the evenings are still the witching hours - you never know what you're going to get.  some days emme is exuberant, rambunctious, wanting to help or at least willing to play independently.  some days she is overly tired, cranky, the poster-child of two and a half year old moodiness.  sometimes, hollis can plow through until his favorite time of day: bath time.  but some days he is fussy and tired, hungry and discontented.  some days i am successful in getting him down for a mini-nap before the bedtime routine begins, but i question how good that extra sleep is for a child that is adamantly refusing to go more than a few hours between night wakings.  despite this, i still manage to get a somewhat functional dinner on the table so that we can eat as a family when justin gets home from work.  meal planning (when we manage to do it) is a life saver.  after dinner, it's haul everyone to the bath, lotion, clean jammies, cuddles.  emme has created an intermission in our normal progression from bath to jammies to books to bed.  now, she demands "a little bit of dancing" in the living room, usually while i'm putting hollis down.  she is turning in to quite the little dancer - twirling and jumping and shaking, getting out the last energy from the day.  once hollis is asleep, justin and i read books to ek in her bed and talk about her day.  i love the things she mentions from her day - the caterpillar she saw under a leaf, the tomatoes growing in her garden, the work she did with her buddies at school.  she always lists every item that was in her lunch that day.  we end the day with jb turning out the lights and she and i snuggle for prayers and a closed-eye recitation of goodnight moon.
hollis started rolling from tummy to back last week.  he also started laughing and it's a joyful little sound.  for the cranky dude he was for most of his first three months, he is really turning in to quite the happy little chublet.  he and i are completely in love - i can't get enough of all his rolls, his soft baby skin, his big gummy smile.  he is not a good night sleeper, but i'm trying to let him have his own journey.  a good night is one where i get three uninterrupted hours, and i haven't had many of those.  but in the grand scheme of my life, these nights awake with my baby are so few and short.  he doesn't love taking a bottle, so he's not eating enough during the day, hence the compensation of nursing half the night.  there are worse things and i know i will miss these nights when they are gone.  that being said, it is hard to be on my a-game, both at work and emotionally, when i haven't slept more than three hours in a row in nearly four months.
anyway.  i'm trying really hard to slow it down a little and focus on all the magical little things about this time, rather than concentrate on all the things i'm not doing - like exercising, sweeping the floor daily, crafting, organizing, running the dogs, etc etc etc.  it really is an amazing thing to be in this life with these little people who are so interesting and learning so much every day.

easter weekend.

easter this year fell on my last day of maternity leave, so it was bittersweet.  my mom, dad, and brother drove in on good friday and dad and joe left after brunch on easter.  we had a really nice weekend - an easter egg hunt with lots of friends at the tajchman's house on friday evening (ek mostly wanted to play in the sand box); park time on saturday for ek; mom's friend margaret and her friend carmen and son collins over for dinner on saturday night; and mass followed by brunch at z tejas sunday morning.

i kind of love that the pace of everything really slows down when two small people are in tow.  there are naps in the middle of the day to factor in, so it's really nice for everyone to have a break from an agenda.

anyway.  i didn't capture as many pictures as i wanted, but there are still a gazillion here.  these do include my super dorky pics of my kids in twin outfits.  someone gave hollis the polo romper (it's for a 9 month old and fits him pretty well already.  sigh.) and ek had a matching dress, so i had to get some pictures.  don't judge me!

rodeo.

weeks ago, we took ek to the rodeo here in austin.  it's a much smaller rodeo than what i've heard of the dallas and houston ones, but it was still plenty of entertainment for us!  we had planned to go the weekend before it ended, but that was the weekend after plague week, so we postponed and ended up going on the very last day.  it was so much fun.  we had a random cold front that day, so it was in the 40s with lots of wind and we did not dress for the occasion.  fortunately, like the good mom that i am in random moments, i had extra clothes and blankets for both kidlets in the car.  unfortunately, the same did not apply for justin and me.  jb was in short sleeves and i was in flip flops and a flimsy yoga sweater.  not to be deterred, we braved it and ended up having a great time despite the frigid temps.  it was also kind of awesome because there were hardly any other people there.  

the highlight was the petting zoo - deer, goats, baby goats, alpaca, and sheep were all milling about for us to pet and hang out with.  i love how much ek loves animals...she is so much like me in some things.  anyway...the deer and goats were pretty aggressive.  they knew people had treats and they were not happy when we ran out of treats, so they attempted to eat our clothes.  it was hilarious.  emme was trying to boss them around - hands on hips saying "no, goat!".  

we also got to see a cow get milked and learned a whole lot about the dairy/milk industry.  fascinating (really, it was.  that is not sarcasm).  we walked around all the show animals and they were all so pretty.  i'm excited to go back next year on a warmer day (or at least more prepared).  

since all the animals and emme moved non-stop, pretty much every single picture is blurry.  but, i had to document something!

three months old.

my little boy turned three months old last thursday.  wheesh.  it was my first week back to work and kk was in town helping, so of course i am not documenting it until today, but we did take the pictures last week...

so.  this has easily been the fastest three month period of my entire life.  and one of the more difficult, in many ways.  lots of adjusting.  very little sleep.  busy-ness and emotions.  did i mention sleep deprivation?  but honestly, we are really happy most days and figuring out this whole family of four thing little by little.

for my monthly posts, i'm going to shamelessly steal some categories from another blog i read and update on them.  i'm hoping this helps keep me focused when writing since my brain isn't operating at full capacity these days.

physical: our dude is still pretty big.  his gigantic-ness is tapering a bit...i'm thinking he will not be in the 90% for weight at his four month appointment, but he is still hefty.  my estimate on our scale holding him and subtracting my weight has him at 15.5 pounds.  he's definitely getting longer, too, so some of his rolls are stretching out.  i try not to let this be a source of constant panic about how much milk he is consuming.  i thought i would be less neurotic the second time around, but apparently that is not the case.

likes: hb is starting to dig on his big sister more and more.  i think she moved to fast for him previously, but as his vision/focus improve, he loves to watch her and give big grins.  i am still his favorite person and he loves to be held upright, nuzzled in my neck.  he also likes being outside and we try to hang on the front porch and wait for daddy in the evenings, or head to the back and watch emme mess in her garden.  his favorite thing in the world right now, probably, is bath time in his pod.  that thing is amazing and he would love to just hang out in there for hours.

dislikes: waiting too long to be put down to sleep is the biggest issue in hollis's life these days.  he also gets persnickety if he's on the floor/in his bouncy seat for too long.  he abhors tummy time.

biggest achievement of the month: starting school.  i think this is a pretty big deal.  he was not crazy about the transition at first, but he's doing better every single day and i am so proud!

biggest challenge of the month: getting rid of the pacifier.  even though he was reluctant to take it in the first days/weeks, hollis fell in love with his beanie.  and we took it away.  his school won't mess with them, and i think consistency between home/school is in the best interests of everyone, so we got rid of it (they weren't going to change their policy just for us, so....).  it was a rough few days.  really rough.  but he got through it and is finding his hands and i think we'll be much better off in the long run.

nicknames: hb, hollissey, bittles, babbins, bits, smalls, bg, chublet

sleep: ahh, the mecca that is sleep.  we are doing ok in this department, if i'm honest with myself.  my standards were set unreasonably high by ek and her 8 hour stretches at 8 weeks old.  i flipped hollis to his tummy for sleep about two weeks ago, and this has been the best decision ever.  he was getting too big/strong for his swaddle, and with no pacifier, he needed to be more comfortable than he has ever been on his back.  i know it's somewhat controversial, but this has worked incredibly well for us and hollis is getting stronger neck/back muscles as a result as well (added bonus for my kid who hates tummy time).  so, now he is doing longer stretches and his sleep is becoming more predictable, which is great.  he does 3-4 naps during the day, usually 1 long one (2.5 hours is pretty typical) and multiple 45-minute ones.  at night, he's down around 7 and usually has his longest stretch at this time - anywhere from 3-6 hours (the 6 hours has only happened once, but i'm optimistic we will see it again someday).  depending on what time that is, i either nurse him and put him back down in his crib, or bring him to bed with me and co-sleep the rest of the night.  i know that's controversial too, but i have to do what i have to do right now so i can make it to work/function in any capacity.

temperament/personality: if i had written this post 3 weeks ago, i would have said that hollis is intense and has a temper.  while those two things are still somewhat true today, i think my little monkey has begun to turn a corner.  h smiles SO easily and his smile takes over his whole face - that big, toothless grin is incredible.  he is very stubborn (yep, another one.  lucky me.), but i think it is a quality that will serve him well in his life.  he's pretty needy, but then he is also three months old, so i'll let it slide.  ha.  all in all, i think he's heading in the direction of being a sweet, laid back little boy, even if we're not quite there yet...

eating: obviously, breast milk is all he receives right now.  he doesn't mind bottles, but hasn't really gotten consistent about when/how much he will eat, which makes pumping and packing for daycare super interesting.  i weaned him off the prilosec after a few weeks because it wasn't really helping and he's actually doing just great without it.  still spitting up, but not too bad (nothing like emme), and he doesn't seem to be in pain/rejecting food at all.

superficial: this dude still has blue eyes!  he also still has barely any hair, but new blonde hair is growing in.  it's so soft and i love to rub my cheek on his head while rocking him.  i'm obsessed with his rolls and chubs.  his belly is a perfect forum for raspberries.

motor development: hollis is taking his sweet time on doing things like lifting his head and rolling over.  his neck muscles get stronger by the day (especially since i started putting him to sleep on his tummy), but it's going to take a lot of muscles to haul that big dome around.  he's grabbing and batting really well - the other day he managed to pull a toy off of his bouncy and bring it to his mouth and it surprised him so much.  adorable.

favorite things: bath time.  mommy.  nursing in the middle of the night.

and now, the photo barrage (a few of these are blurry but too cute not to post).