Official Photos

Last week and the week before Elise had her first "real" photo shoot, taken by my very talented friend Rachael of Blue Teapot Photography. All photos are by her--check out her website at www.blueteapotphotography.com. If you need photos done and you live in the area, this is the person to choose. She has the patience of a saint and her photos are all beautiful and as simple and natural as possible.

I'm in love with all of these photos! They turned out perfectly--and Elise is sleeping in 99% of them. If they'd been taken this week she'd be sleeping in maybe 10% of them ;)

I can't choose a favorite...I love them all. But if I had to pick, I'd pick the one of her sleeping in a basket in the woods. And the one of Charlotte giving her a kiss. But let's be honest, the real showstopper here is the very last photo in the bunch. An instant classic if I ever saw one, and the result of what a real photo shoot looks like with two kids at the end of a long session after one has recently tripped and skinned both knees and hands and the other has decided she needs to drink a bottle RIGHT NOW OR SHE WILL DIE.

And now for the best...

~Stacy

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

The Fourth

Happy belated Fourth of July! I hope your holiday weekend was as beautiful as ours--the weather was absolutely perfect. This was even more appreciated after the terrible weather month that was June.

We both had Friday off, so we took Charlotte to the carnival down the street. Unfortunately, due to the 10" of rain we'd gotten in the previous two weeks, they couldn't set the rides up in the grassy park area where they usually do and instead had to take over the entire parking lot. Normally this would be fine, since we'd be riding bikes up there. This year it was a little tricky given my inability to ride a bike at this point (Chad offered to let me ride in the bike cart with Charlotte but I declined). It's not a super far walk--just about a mile or so--but I didn't want to walk all the way there and then end up being too tired to walk all the way back. So we compromised, parked at the beach about 1/4 of a mile away, and walked from there. Win win.

The highlight of the carnival was seeing the princesses:

I thought that was a cute idea and the girls who dressed up were so nice. They stopped and took time to talk to and take pictures with every kid who wanted to see them.

The next day Charlotte got to go to a different carnival with my parents, and that evening we had a small cookout. We let her stay up to watch fireworks, so around 9:45 we walked up to the lake to see what we could see. We ended up walking all the way up to the beach (after my insistence that we not do that since it was too far, but then we just sort of ended up there. Which I suppose is for the best, since maybe all this walking will get this baby out). She made it through almost all of the show, until the finale when she announced it was time to go home.

It was one of those weekends we didn't want to end--it was quiet, we didn't have a bunch of places to go, and we were able to be outside almost the whole time. And pie. We had lots of really good pie.

Each weekend spent as a family of three at this point could easily be our last, so that makes it even more special that we were able to enjoy this one as much as we did. We are all very much ready to be a family of four--Charlotte asks multiple times a day where her baby sister is and why she's still hanging out in Mommy's belly. Good question my dear, I often find myself wondering the same thing. Patience...

~Stacy

Lately

Thus far the month of June has been a weird combination of hot and grossly humid, with more than our fair share of rainy and cool thrown in. It has also gone by at a snail's pace yet at the same time I can't believe it's almost July. The plus side of the garbage weather? It has meant we've stayed in more than usual during a summer month which, given my current state of being 9 months pregnant and constantly uncomfortable, has actually been okay. This is the only time in my life I will say that about June.

We've celebrated a few things this month: Charlotte's birthday, Father's Day and our 10th anniversary! First up was her 4th birthday. I hope her wish comes true :)

For our anniversary we spent the day together and bought an ice cream cake. When we got married and for a few years after, we had these grand visions of taking some sort of fantastic vacation on our 10th anniversary. It was easy to imagine this ten years ago when our only responsibilities were to ourselves and we could not have even imagined what our lives would be like now. Alas, with a four year old and a second baby coming any week now taking an exotic vacation is definitely not in the plan but as it happens, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Though we were able to go out on a dinner date, which was a highlight. This little place is in walking distance from our house and we were able to sit outside and watch the sunset while we ate (since we didn't go out until 8:15, a dinner time that is shockingly late at this stage in our lives).

Other than celebrating, there's been park visits:

Picking "flowers" for our hair:

Cute dresses:

My hydrangeas in bloom:

And an almost missed camping trip this weekend due to a crazy amount of rain, but that thankfully still happened. They camped at Findley State Park and had their first tent camp of the season--and last camping trip until after the baby comes. I'm so glad they were able to go; they had such a great time.

While they camped, I cooked. I am in full blown nesting mode over here! My constant state, even non-pregnant, is sort of like nesting--I like to clean and do it often (I know, it's weird, but I live in a small old house and keeping it clean makes it feel bigger. And it gets dusty just by looking at it. Also I get really stressed really fast in messy surroundings). But my pregnant state takes nesting to an all new level and right now it's for real. In the past week I've completely reorganized the linen closet, bathroom cupboards, pantry, and refrigerator. I've gotten the baby's room finished, gone through just about every room and closet and pulled out piles of stuff to donate, and vacuumed my car. Why? Because I HAD to. Nesting is like that, at least for me. If I get a wave of energy and along with that wave comes the urge to clean all the grout in the kitchen with a toothbrush and Magic Eraser, I have to do it. It's like breathing. 

So this weekend I cooked. I wanted to get plenty of dinners made and put in the freezer before the baby comes so that when she's here, I don't have to think about much cooking (or shopping, or menu planning) for at least a little while. I did a smaller version of this when I had Charlotte, but I learned a few things from that. Like, if you're having a summer baby and will be eating the meals in June or July, you may want to avoid making super heavy cream based casseroles--like Pierogi Casserole or Tater Tot Casserole. I made both of those, probably due to really strong carb cravings at the time, but they were both foods better served to someone trying to survive in an Arctic winter than to someone in the middle of an Ohio summer who is trying to at least pretend to lose baby weight.

And in the past four years, I've gotten much better at cooking. And we eat much more of a variety of foods, and rarely buy anything prepackaged or canned. (If you ever want to be horrified, read the ingredient label on a can of cream of mushroom, or cream of chicken, or any cream-of soup). 

That made finding a good list of freezer meal recipes a little more challenging. There are TONS of sites and pins out there with recipes, many of them claiming you can make 30 meals in four hours and under $100--or something to that effect. The problem is that 28 of those meals probably have cream of something, or a bunch of packaged stuff in them. Which is precisely why you can make 28 meals in such a short amount of time--because there isn't really any cooking involved. It's just opening a bunch of packages and cans and dumping it all into a dish and covering it. I took a slightly longer route and picked out recipes that I knew we'd want to eat in the summer, that were healthy enough to be good post-baby choices but still tasty enough that I looked forward to eating them (because let's face it, it's hard to get jazzed about a kale smoothie or spinach salad). 

The biggest exception was the double batch of strawberry muffins. BUT I made them from scratch and they do have a lot of fresh strawberries inside so that counts for something.

I'll be back soon.

~Stacy

Sewing for Baby--Even Pretend Ones.

Over the past few weeks I've finished several sewing projects for the new baby. As I did with Charlotte's room, I wanted to make a few things for the baby's room to go with the colors I picked--gray, white, coral and mint.

I ended up making curtains, a changing pad cover, a pillow and a toy/book bin--which will probably complete the handmade items for her room (and also free up my sewing time to make cute baby clothes, which is way more fun than sewing curtains).

And a peek at part of the room:

Aside from items for her room, I also made bibs. Lots and lots of bibs. I made eight to start with and then quickly realized that bibs are always in the laundry pile, split up between diaper bags, or in use so it would be wise to have more in stock. So I doubled my inventory:

All flannel, all from Joann's, all purchased when flannel was $2.49/yd. AND with an extra 20% off coupon. I can easily get four bibs per yard, so total investment was $8. Pattern was free--I drew it myself off an old bib of Charlotte's, but you can easily find free printable patterns anywhere.

I also did some sewing for a different kind of baby--a Bitty Baby. Charlotte got one of these for her birthday and I made a few things for it using this pattern:

It's one of the few commercial patterns you can find for dolls smaller than 18" (this one has pattern sets for 11-13" and 14-16" dolls. Bitty Baby is 15").

I made three little dresses and one diaper--and that was about all I had the patience for. The instructions are not the best and the first dress I made took longer than many of the dresses I've made for Charlotte. Thankfully the other two went much better once I ignored the instructions and just did it on my own.

Happy Sewing!

~Stacy

Four.

My baby girl is 4 today! It's hard to believe she's already four years old, yet at the same time it feels like she's been a part of our family forever.

The year from three to four went by quickly. Every year goes by quickly, but this one seemed to go by extra fast. I feel partly guilty about that, because I spent a good portion of this year wishing it would hurry along--pretty much November thru March for an assortment of reasons (awful morning sickness, an even more awful winter, and nonstop viruses showing up at our door, to name a few). Then I blinked and here we are, June 2nd.

She finished her first year of preschool a week ago. She loved it, like I knew she would. She keeps saying that "after the baby comes I get to go back to school!". I'm glad she has that perspective and it's not something we have to fight over every day.

The weather today has been almost exactly the same as the day she was born. She came into this world on a beautiful day, almost 12 hours to the minute that the induction process was started to kick her out (stubborn girl...some things never change :)).

I asked her the other day what job she wanted to have when she grows up. She said "a doctor. A doctor for children." I have no doubt in my mind that she will achieve that goal if that's what she truly ends up wanting to do. I know this girl can achieve anything--she is a wicked combination of fierce independence, incredible brightness, and oodles of charm.

Those qualities will serve her well as she grows up and I hope she keeps them. But I'm not too worried about what job she will have when she's grown. I'm more focused on her maintaining the parts of her personality that, already at just four years old, make her such an awesome person. She's kind to people and to her, people are just that: people. She doesn't notice differences in people's skin colors, size, abilities or any of the other ways adults tend to notice and use to measure another person's worth. To her, everyone is fair game for being her friend. That part of her personality will get her farther and make me prouder than any job she could ever have. The world will do it's best to stamp that trait down, but my little firecracker--all 32 pounds of her--has already shown me that she's ready for the challenge.

Bring it on world: Charlotte's coming. And she's laughing at you :)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, bright, best girl!

~Stacy