Side by Side

When Elise was first born I didn't think she looked too much like Charlotte as a newborn, but I quickly changed my mind. After a few days it became pretty obvious that the two of them are sisters. Just for fun, I went through some of Charlotte's newborn pictures from her first week of life to compare and I was pretty surprised just how much they look alike (in each of these, Charlotte is on the left and Elise on the right):

I think the one that strikes me most is the one with my Grandma holding them (and that was a total accident that I ended up taking pretty much the same photo four years apart). In that photo I think they look identical. Also my grandma doesn't age, ever.

And from today, another adorable side by side:

:) They're my best.

~Stacy

Introducing...

This little beauty came into the world earlier this week and we could not be more in love! I ended up getting induced early Monday morning and, overall, had a very smooth and quick delivery (let's not discuss the seven failed attempts at finding a vein to start the process, which thankfully proved to be the worst part of the entire birthing experience).

I'd like to give a special shout out to my epidural and the anesthesiologist who administered it. That thing was the medication of dreams and there should be a song written about it. Seriously.

Sweet baby Elise came into the world guns blazing, majorly ticked off that she was rudely taken from her dark, warm home and thrust into a cold, bright room. She remained ticked off for about an hour, but honestly, that's the most we've heard in cry so far. This baby is so laid back and content--a good eater (eventually, that took a few days) and a great sleeper. I'm crossing everything I can in hopes that these traits last :)

I am totally and completely in love with her. I'm obsessed (and so is her Daddy and big sister). Charlotte is head over heels but unfortunately she also brought a cold home with her from the hospital (not to be left out...) so she hasn't been allowed to hold the baby for a couple days. It's killing her; she is so sweet and gentle with her baby sister and loves to sing her songs, read her books, and bring her toys to "play" with. It hasn't all been roses--there's definitely been a great deal of adjusting going on, and has been for over a month now. It's taken a lot of patience, and many times of lost patience, but I know we will all get there eventually...

We came home on Wednesday and had a couple days of just the four of us until we had any visitors over, so today was the first day that anyone has come to the house. It was nice having that break, especially since a lot of the aches and pains that come with having a baby can hit like a ton of bricks a few days after, once the major high of everything starts to come down. I'm over the hump now, and feeling good.

I remember wondering at various points of the "should we have another child?" discussions whether I could ever love another one the way I love Charlotte. I don't really have anything wise to say about this, other than once Elise was here I just did. There was no question, no comparing, no "I grew another heart" business; I just loved her as intensely as I love Charlotte without any effort. So now I get what people meant when they answered that question with "I don't know, I can't explain it, you just do."

My pregnancy with Elise oftentimes felt much longer than mine with Charlotte. Looking back, I feel like it went by very quickly, but then again everything feels like it went by quickly when you reflect. I heard a lot of people remark that they were so much more laid back about their second pregnancies because they'd been through the drill before so they didn't worry as much about everything. For me this was oftentimes the opposite.

When I was pregnant with Charlotte I had my fair share of worries--but I also had the benefit of ignorance. Ignorance over the whole thing; aches, pains, what was normal and what wasn't. But mostly, I had the ignorance of not knowing the stakes--of knowing that the baby that comes at the end of that pregnancy would become the most special thing in this world to me. This time around, I knew the stakes. And also, this time felt too good to be true because it was so easy. I tend to associate the whole process of having a baby with difficulty since having Charlotte was difficult. It was two years of trying, and failing, and not knowing why. After she was here, it took me a long time to even think about possibly going through that again to have a second child. A huge part of us wondered if the right decision was to just be thankful and leave well enough alone--and for a long time that was how we left it. I didn't want to think about trying again because I didn't think I had it in me to walk down the same road as I did with Charlotte to try for another. Once we finally decided that we did want to have one more, I took a deep breath and said that I'd e-mail my doctor that Monday to see if any testing could be done to rule out roadblocks sooner rather than later. I found out I was pregnant the day before I sent that e-mail; I still can't really explain that one.

In an instant, I became the person I couldn't stand when I was trying to have Charlotte. The one who blinked and ended up pregnant. It was all too easy and for the first trimester I kept expecting the rug to be pulled out from under me--I know that sounds morbid, but that's what constant sickness and crazy hormones will do to a person. Even once I was feeling good and it was clear that the baby was healthy, I worried more about things like how much the baby was kicking, moving, etc. than I did the first time. I would get nervous before ultrasounds, which I didn't with Charlotte, always leaving them so relieved that everything was okay. I definitely cared less about cute baby clothes and room decor this time around and lived by the "as long as the baby is healthy" mantra.

And she is. She's healthy, she's beautiful, and she's here. And we couldn't be happier.

~Stacy

Campers For Life

This weekend Chad and Charlotte are going camping for the first time in 2015. They have big plans for the rest of the year--and the years to come--in terms of camping.

Chad found a cool looking map of Ohio that he had blown up to 16X20. He framed it and then spent a ton of time locating every single state and national park in the state and marking them on the map with a black dot.

Then he marked with star stickers the places they've already camped. The goal is to mark every black dot with a star by the time she is eighteen (or until our youngest is eighteen, since she still be part of this project in a few years, too).

They went out this weekend and bought all of their camping food and snacks, and then set up the tent to celebrate (this weekend they'll be cabin camping but tents are still fun).

Almost as fun as new "big girl" swings.

Happy Camping.

~Stacy

Easter

I hope you had a nice Easter! We did--Charlotte was SO excited for it this year and talked about it almost nonstop for the past few weeks. She really wanted to do an Easter egg hunt, but apparently you have to plan three months ahead for those things since every one we looked into required pre-registration and was already full. No matter, Chad made his own egg hunt for her in the backyard on Friday and she was thrilled with it.

After she found all her eggs and was heading back inside she exclaimed "That was the greatest Easter egg hunt I ever had!" Easily pleased, she is :)

On Sunday she woke up to see what the Easter bunny had left her. He left a trail of eggs through the living room to her goodies--which included an extra special surprise this year: a Disney princess suitcase for her to take on our Disney World trip in a few weeks.

We spent the afternoon at my parents' house for a small Easter get together. I didn't make Charlotte's Easter dress this year--my mom did, 28 years ago! The dress she wore was mine in 1987 and she discovered it a few weeks ago when my mom was watching her. She insisted on wearing it over the next few days and it ended up fitting her perfectly. Add to that her "Elsa braid" and she looked like a sweet Easter princess :)

It was beautiful outside so we got to spend time out there for good part of the day. Charlotte had a blast chasing (and "catching") bubbles.

And we managed to get a good family photo taken--there aren't tons of these since I'm usually the one taking the pictures! And because I tend not to take any below the neck photos of myself while pregnant. I take one every other month for Chad's mom since she lives in Maine and doesn't get to see her grandbaby-to-be being born--but that's about it. I think I have about ten pictures of me pregnant with Charlotte and probably eight of them were taken at our baby shower. With this baby, I have maybe three. So here were are, in our last Easter photo as a family of three:

~Stacy

Where I've Been

Well, I didn't intend to take over a month long break from my little blog. Things just sort of ended up that way, after a series of surprises (some lovely, some not) interrupted my regularly scheduled life and now, here we are--Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is over (two heavily blogged about topics in past years) and we're just a few days away from a new year.

So a brief list of what's been happening since my last post on November 17th:

• Charlotte has brought home no less than 403 colds since she started preschool, many of which occurred in late November thru now. And some of which she has kindly shared.
• My work life took on a new level of insane, with the acquisition of part of another agency that added 95 employees and 51 clients to our existing organization in the span of about three weeks. We grew from a 300 employee agency to a staff of almost 400 hundred just about overnight. It's been...interesting, to say the least. And busy.
• Typical holiday preparations, coupled with an unusually late start on my part led to a far more hectic than usual holiday season. I was wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, something I have never done before. 

I think that's about it. 

Oh wait. One more thing.

• We're having another baby.

!!!!!!!!

Yes, you read that right. I'm pregnant with Baby #2, due in July. It was the best kind of surprise we could have asked for, but also one that has left me feeling like garbage for the past seven weeks (and counting). I'm at the tail end of this lovely first trimester (it will be over the week of my birthday, which is the best gift I can imagine) and I'm crossing my fingers and toes that the all day nausea, headaches and tiredness disappears. This is similar to my pregnancy with Charlotte, and the feeling crappy part wore off by the end of the first trimester, so I'm hopeful this is the same. Babies. Troublemakers, even when they're the size of a prune :)

So that about sums up my life. I haven't had the energy to do much of anything (seriously. The other night I cooked a real dinner that actually included a vegetable and almost cried from both the effort and sight of something on our plates that wasn't crackers, bagels, or some other sort of beige). 

I'll post more soon, but in the meantime I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and I wish you a Happy New Year!

~Stacy

Marblehead

The many great things about Chad not being in school anymore include unplanned trips to cool places, like today when we were drinking coffee in the morning and he said "let's go to Marblehead."

So we did. And he didn't have to do homework in the car while I drove, and he didn't have to suffer the consequences of taking the day off by writing papers all night. It's finally sinking in that he's done, and I'll definitely take more days like these to prove it.

My puddle jumper:

And my favorite:

I hope you had a lovely weekend :)

~Stacy

Vacation Part I: South Haven & St. Joseph

We recently returned from our beach vacation to Michigan--and it was fantastic! Last year we went, sight unseen, to South Haven on a whim and stayed just about 24 hours total. We had a wonderful time and knew we wanted to come back again when we could spend more time here, as well as visit other beach towns nearby. So this year we planned a five day trip the week between Memorial Day and Charlotte's birthday. It's an excellent time to go, since it's the very last week in this area that's still considered "low season." From what we've heard, once "high season" hits it can get pretty crazy.

It's about a 4.5 hour drive from our house and we made it in 5--just two quick stops! Unbelievable. Last year that drive took close to 9 hours since we had to stop so much to let Charlotte out to blow off steam. A year made a world of difference in how tolerant and patient she is with road trips.

We stayed at a little old cottage two blocks from the beach in South Haven. The place was really cute and clean--and old. It stands out since so many of the older homes in the area have been renovated or knocked down with new homes rebuilt. Charlotte had her own little room with bunk beds, plus there was a large eat-in kitchen so we didn't have to eat every single meal out. That did not stop us from getting donuts at The Golden Brown Bakery every single morning, however.

South Haven is a really charming town that is completely walkable. The beach is in easy walking distance to the downtown area, which is large enough to have plenty of shops and restaurants but still small enough to get around the whole place by foot without a problem. The beach is large, super clean, and (since we went in low season) mostly empty.

Just south of South Haven (about 10 miles?) is a town called St. Joseph. They have a gorgeous beach called Silver Beach, which is home to a carousel, giant splash pad, and a children's museum. We skipped the museum but spent time at the beach and splash pad, both of which got an A+ rating in Charlotte's book.

The joy coming from that little girl when the fountains came on was just about the best thing to witness. She was so excited, until she got so cold (it was kind of a chilly day) that she finally gave up and came over to me, shivering, asking if I'd "hold me like a tiny baby in my towel, please mama?"

And since there are about 3,000 photos in this post alone, I'll be back with Part II soon...

~Stacy