3 Months Old

Lincoln is 3 months old today ... I can't even believe how fast the time has gone ... that means it is just a few more days until I go back to work ...

With Schuyler, because she came a month early I wound up getting to be with her until she was 4 months old ... because I kept the same return to work date ... I so wish I could do that again ...

He is getting into a groove of what he does and it is going to get disrupted once I am not here all day ... and let's face it ... my job sucks in comparison to being with my kids all day ... if there was any way ... any way at all to do it ... I would be all over quitting my job and staying home ... it is the darn insurance ... there is just no way to replace the benefits our family gets from my job ...

OK so I digress ... back to my adorable little boy ... he smiles ALL the time ... he loves when I lay him down on the ottoman ... just lights up looking at me ... and we put his crib up and he just loves being in the crib ... I love it because it is so much easier to reach him and comfort him ... he also just adores the mobile in the crib ... giggles and smiles and reaches for it while it is going ...

He also just absolutely adores Schuyler ... when she starts talking he smiles ... it is like watching all the things my mom described about my brother and I when we were little ... and Skye loves him so much ... they are just so very lucky to have each other ...

He is also pretty good when we go out ... especially if I take him out of the infant carrier ... he hates that thing ... and he is always all sweaty after getting out of it ... soon he will be too big for it and I'll miss having it when getting everyone ready to leave the house ...

He is just such a great baby just like she was ... I wish we could have 10 more ...

The Last Week

In 11 minutes it will officially be the first day of my last week of maternity leave ... I am just so sad that I have to go back to work ... I truly love being with my children all day long ... and I would relish being a stay-at-home mom ... I was so lucky to have one and I wish my children could too ...

3 months went so quickly I can't believe it ... I made the most of my time with my kids ... Skye and I have made countless trips to the library ... we painted pottery ... went to the mall ... did mani/pedis ... been to Target a gazillion times (her favorite place to go lately) ... done a ton of art projects ... set up a new bed room ... said, "I love you" to each other every 10 minutes and have had countless hugs, kisses and cuddles ... and I have seriously treasured every single minute of it ...

Once I go back to work I'll get maybe 3 or 4 hours a day with them ... it just isn't enough ... I want more ... before I know it they will be grown ... this time is precious ... and I just hate that I have to miss so much of it ...

3 Month Appointment

Today was Lincoln's 3 month appointment ... and he did great ... he is up to 15.5 pounds and 24.5 inches long ... the doctor said everything looked great and that he may benefit from having a bit of oatmeal ... I can't believe it is already time to start giving him some solid food ... although I may hold off for a bit ... at least till I dig out the high chair and give it a good cleaning :)

He had to get one shot but like his sister has a burst cry right after and is then all smiles and fine ... and Schuyler was such a supportive big sister ... holding his hand and telling him it would be alright ... it was just adorable ... she is just so good to him and already he really appreciates her ... he cranes his neck to see her and she makes sure he can ... they are so lucky to have each other ...

Oh and Schuyler knew if she was good she would get a sticker and she could have Lincoln's because he is too little for stickers ... so she had that going for her ...

The Bad Tour

It was some idle Tuesday ... November 8, 1988 to be exact ... Michael Jackson was close to the end of his solo tour at Irvine Meadows, California ... my dad and I were sitting around with nothing to do so we decided to head over and see if we could get tickets from scalpers ...

We scored 2 tickets in about the 10th row of the Orchestra Pit ... really really great tickets for about $50 a pop ... we waited till just about show time and talked a guy down ... but still a bit high for 1988 ...

It was the first and only time my dad and I went to a concert without a gaggle of my friends ... growing up my dad took us to all the concerts ... Duran Duran ... U2 ... Spandeau Ballet ... The Go-go's ... Cyndi Lauper ... you name an 80's band and my dad was there with all of us ...

It was a good concert ... we were seeing a living legand ... there were a few times we looked at each other like, "what the hell" ... he kept stopping mid-song and fake crying ... and then would go back to singing ... it was a bit weird but it was an awesome concert and I am so glad we decided to just get up and go that night ...

The memories of that night were my first thought today when I heard Michael Jackson had died ... that I was so glad 20 years ago my dad and I went and saw him ... that we got to experience the phenomenon known as Michael Jackson and we got to do it together ...

Does This Look Like Play-Dough?

So it was somewhat of a hectic day ... mostly because it was too hot out for Lincoln to really hang outside and it was too boring for Schuyler to really stay inside ... so what is a mommy to do? ... Well she asks her husband ... these wonderful children's daddy to take Skye to the store to get some play-dough ... she had only one little can of it and it was not in good shape ... I even went on to the website to point out a couple of the bigger play-dough toys that she would enjoy ... so she had something really fun to do in the house during the times I couldn't give her all the attention she deserved ...

An hour later they walk in with a huge box ... with a tricycle in it ... and the loudest bike horn EVER ...

I looked at David with a "what-the-hell-is-this" while Skye is screaming, "I got a bike mommy a bike, can you put it together? I wanna go outside and ride my bike ... can we go outside ... I wanna ride my bike mommy ... look at my horn ... I want to put it on my bike mommy ... you're going to put it together right ... I wanna go outside ... I wanna ride my bike outside mommy ... come on lets go outside ... " ... David looked at me and said, "She didn't have any interest in the play-dough she said she wanted a bike." ... ohhhhhhhh well if she said she wanted a bike by all means ... I mean she is 3 ... she would know best ...

Are you kidding me????

Did he think she wasn't asking to go outside enough before they left the house that maybe she needed inspiration to go outside ...

So what does mommy do?

I'll tell you a smart mommy would have taken it back and gotten the play-dough they had set out to get ... I am obviously not a smart mommy ... I sat down on the floor and put that bike together ...

And the second we went outside she was beyond happy to have her very own bike ... but secretly I would have still rather them gotten the play-dough ...

New Page Added

I've added a new page to the site ... link is to the right ... Skye's Camera ... she got a camera when she became a big sister and it has been wonderful seeing the world through her eyes and at her perspective ... it is a fantastic gift for a kid ...

Happy Double Father's Day

Today was David's first Father's Day with 2 kids ... and I would say it turned out to be a pretty good day ... nothing exciting but we did have a nice relaxing day at home ... we both got a lot of work done this morning ... ate some great leftovers from last night ... David and the kids took a nap ... and we just hung out together ... it was nice ...

Plus I got a couple of great photos of David being a proud papa ...

Domino's House Party

Tonight we threw our first House Party and had a blast ... it was a Domino's Pizza American Legends party ... their new pizzas that represent different areas around the country ... I was pretty excited to get picked for a house party and looked forward to having people over ...

David was awesome and grilled a bunch of chicken, sausage and steak before everyone got here ... also some veggie platters and fruit platters ... some salads ... drinks ... it was a nice spread ... I called Domino's early to place our order for delivery later ...

I cleaned the house like nobodies business ... it felt great having all the areas of the house where people would be spic-n-span ... beyond clean ... de-cluttered too ... granted the other rooms need LOTS of work but it is getting there ... but I digress ...

Skye had a blast showing off for everyone ... she was the true social butterfly ... and everyone hung out and talked and ate and tried new pizzas ... it was such an enjoyable evening ... we really need to start having people over more often and doing more things at our house ... maybe as I work on this place and get it better and better we will do things more often ...

Anyway the House Party party was a big success and I hope I get to do another one soon ...

Posting From My Pre

I am writing this post from my new Palm Pre while listening to my Pandora station on the phone and Skye is playing in the tub ... A M A Z I N G ...that is the best way to describe it ... Besides making me beyond happy it has changed my life ... It syncs with google calendar so now scheduling jobs for david is so easy ... Anything I put in the calendar from my phone or the internet goes to both our phones without us having to do anything ... Talk about making it easy to keep up with everything everyone in the family is doing ... think of the future when there are all sorts of kids stuff to schedule ...

It also connects to any available wifi network ... how slick is that ... when i am out and about it connects ... otherwise it uses the phone and it is super fast ...

the camera is amazing too ... it has a flash ... on my cell phone ... and it takes pictures so fast ... like 2 seconds between them and it might be that slow because i have to hit the button again ... and when i say slow i am being sarcastic ... i actually have taken action shots of skye going down the slide and can get 3 snapped off ...

it is super small ... super light ... and has a full keyboard ... making it easy to type this post ... internet is lightening fast ... the whole thing just absolutely rocks my world ... and every day there are more and more apps for it ... i've played with the iPhone ... this phone blows that out of the water ... it is seriously a mini computer ...

Thank goodness I woke up at the crack of dawn and got in line for these phones ... it was so so so worth it ...

Agent Cookout

Every year our Real Estate Agent throws a party ... we went to one right after Schuyler was born but haven't gone to another one until this year ... it was a cookout at a park called Candy Cane Lane ...

We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed for the park ... for 2 straight hours Skye ran and jumped and took photos and made friends and went on slides and swings and had an amazing time ... it was all I could do to get her to stop long enough to take this photo ...

I think if Skye was allowed to live at the park she would ... today she told us we could go ahead and go home and she would see us later ...

Guppy Gala Pal

We went to the Guppy Gala at the National Zoo again this year ... last year we worked at the event at the Washington Parent booth and Skye had such a blast that we decided to buy tickets this year so we could both enjoy the fun with her ...

It is a fund raising event for the zoo and the place is filled with booths that have posters and local restaurants ... camp information ... even the zoo vet does check-ups on stuffed animals ...

Skye couldn't wait to see Gomer ... a big blue creature for the local sports camp ... she danced with him for hours last time because their booth was right across from ours ... so when we got there it was the first thing she needed to do ... see Gomer ...

After that we had kitty checked out by the vet ... tried some delicious food ... got a poster for the upcoming Ice Age movie ... and wandered around the zoo ... it was so so so hot but still a great time ... Lincoln spent the entire evening curled up in his daddy's arms ...

On the way home she asked if we were going to go again next year ...

Dry All Day

I haven't blogged in a while ... the spare computer I was using couldn't log into the site and I've been diligently working on resetting up this computer while purging our house of tons of stuff trying to get everyone moved into their rooms and make our room available to redo the bathroom ...and I have a post I've been working on with all the stuff I have missed blogging about but I don't have a program to upload my graphics yet ...

... but ...

I wanted to say how very very proud I am of Skye ... for 3 days now she has been wearing big girl underwear and has made it to the bathroom every time ... even last night her pull-up was dry ... and today I put a pull up on her when we went out and when we got home she said she needed to use the potty and her pull-up was still dry ... so impressed with her ... it just clicked and it was all her decision to start wearing the big girl underwear ...

We still haven't crossed the poop hurdle ... Sunday she waited till I put on the night pull-up ... yesterday she did just go in her underwear ... and today she still hasn't gone ... I am guessing it is the night time pull-up again for her ... but it will happen ...

I'm just so so so very proud of her ... it is a twinge sad seeing her grow up ... I just adore the stage she is at ... constantly saying "I love you" and asking if she can have hugs and kisses ... but I get teary when I think about how proud I am of her ...

Ladybug Love

Skye has a new fascination with cute bugs like caterpillars and ladybugs ... I took this photo with my phone while we were out playing ... the ladybug was crawling up and down her arm and she couldn't stop giggling about it ...

Gummy Smile

Man my heart just melts when I see this smile ...

The Death of a Disk

So I've been gone for a while ... unfortunately my computer died ... I mean really really died ... all gone ... kapoot ...

I had an old laptop to use while I waited for a new disk and to see if we could recover anything from mine ... but unfortunately I couldn't get to wordpress on it ... just didn't load right ...

I have been working for several days now to set up my computer again ... sure does take forever ... I guess when it is a brand new computer it is exciting to set up and you just don't notice how long the process is ...

I still don't have all my programs on here ... can't do web editing yet ... so it is difficult to post photos ... so I am going to do a catch-up post with some images and work on getting the rest of the computer finished up ...

So since I last posted here is an update on what is going on:

Skye has become very interested in dressing herself ... which I just love ... mind you she wore this outfit most of the day ... going out for errands and playing in the yard and it was almost 90 degrees ...

Birth Announcement

I finally created Lincoln's birth announcement ... now if I could just get them mailed out ...

Snuggle Love

UP

Schuyler and I went to her first movie in the theater today and we had an excellent time ... we went and saw the movie UP which we both loved ... in fact when it was over Skye asked if we could stay and watch it again ...

We got there late for the movie we wanted to see so we bought tickets for the next movie and went and had lunch ... then we hung around the theater for a while where we had some fun in the photo book ... she could have done this all afternoon but at 3 dollars a pop I figured two strips of photos was enough ...

When it was about time for the movie to start we got our popcorn and headed into the theater ... Skye was oohing and aahing the entire walk to our seats ... we picked a pair in the front of a section and settled in ... for the entire movie she sat curled up next to me mesmerized at everything ... she was cheering for the characters ... loved the balloons ... and dogs ... and funny birds ... it was the perfect first movie to go and see ... and I enjoyed every minute of it ... right along with her ... I'm so glad we picked UP as her first theater movie ... I can't wait until it comes out on video so we can relive the experience in our own home ...

I will say it was absolutely sweet ... she asked over and over again where Lincoln was and why didn't he come ... she let me know that next time he needed to come with us because she wants him to go everywhere with her ...

Amazing Entry

Well David has finished the landscaping of our front yard and it is amazing ... so beautiful to walk up to ... he just did such an amazing job ... it was a ton of work but he feels it was well worth it to have such a beautiful area to walk through on our way into our home ... I just adore it ... now to make some stepping stones for the front of the walk with the kid's hand prints in them ...