Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Three

We have been back from vacation for more than a week now and most of our days are spent fairly similar from the one before and the one before that. I wake each morning in the routine of nursing Sullivan, walking downstairs to the coffee pot, and sitting in my chair in the living room, waiting and searching through the quite moments before the rest of the house awakens. 

Marin usually stirs anywhere between 6am and 630am. I try to keep her in her room as long as possible, constantly urging her to play with her ponies or turn on her little light and read a few more books before I have to leave my wonderful chair and start the day. I usually don't hold out for long. After she wakes, she helps me wake up Daddy and go get Sullivan out of his crib. Most of the time after I nurse him early in the morning, he falls back asleep, if only for a little while. 

Then we all have breakfast at the table in the kitchen. This is usually one of the only meals during our chaotic weeks where we are all sitting down at the table and eating at the same time, even if it's only for fifteen minutes  Dinner usually consists of me feeding the kiddos before Ryan gets home from work and then Ryan and I eat dinner after the kids are in bed. Someday, in a perfect world, I long to have family dinners on a weekly basis. I want to gather together and hear how everyones day was and actually all eat the same exact thing. Right now I feel like a short order chef that makes two to three different meal options on any given night. I also want more times spent with friends over meals. We had some friends over for pizza last weekend and it was so refreshing. The kiddos also enjoyed playing together. 

Depending on the day and if I am working, I either hop up stairs to finish getting ready or hop in the shower. Then we get the kiddos dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed. The next thing that occurs on the non-working days is that I do a quick clean of the house and then we begin our day. Cleaning is followed by Sullivan's morning nap....then lunch....then quiet time/naptime...then getting ready for dinner....eating dinner...tubby time....bedtime routine...

Lather...Rinse...And Repeat. 

Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoy the predictability of our days for the most part. In between meal times and nap times, we are working on trying to help Sullivan crawl. We spend a lot of time on the floor with toys scattered all over the place. Marin loves to color, do puzzles, watch some TV. Both kids would be outside all day if it was an option. I know I need to get them out much more than I do and I want to make that my goal on the days when I am home with them. Marin loves to ride her scooter and is learning how to pedal her bike a lot better now that she can confidently reach and push the pedals. Sullivan is perfectly content on a blanket out in the lawn surrounded by things he can throw around and chew on. They both enjoy stroller rides in the double stroller. 

Another consistent thing I usually enjoy for the most part is bath time. We only bathe the kiddos every few days unless they've really made a mess of themselves. Sometimes that happens and I am all for the need to wash dirty kiddos. That just means that they were living life to the fullest. Last week we had a first time parenting moment...Sullivan pooped in the tub. Luckily he was still in his little bath tub inside of the bathtub where Marin was. Had he pooped in her water...that would have been an entirely other situation. But, there's a first time for everything! I don't believe Marin ever did that. It was comical to say the least. 

Here's Marin at Week Forty Three. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Eighteen

It's a winter wonderland outside and both kiddos are in their rooms taking a nap or having their quite time. Marin is pretty worn out from playing in the snow at preschool and I'm just hoping she crawls into bed and sleeps for a while. Usually on preschool days, I get lucky and she naps for even just a bit. The time change has kind of thrown all of us a bit off this week but we seem to be getting back into the nap groove again. Granted, I want to go to bed at 8pm every night the past few nights. I really dislike how dark it is so early nowadays and I just want to stay inside all of the time and drink my coffee under some blankets. 

Sullivan had his 4 month well check yesterday and he is a growing boy! His weight clocked in at 18 lbs, 11.8 oz. I cannot believe how big he already is. He's wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes right now and still is in size 3 diapers. He's also pretty tall but is in the 80-90th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference. We got the clear to start introducing some cereal and baby food in the next month or so. With Marin, we hardly did any rice cereal because of the lack of nutritional benefit and we will probably do the same with little dude. It's pretty crazy to me that we are already almost to the point of digging out the high chair from the basement. 

We've been doing lots of tummy time and Sullivan grows stronger every day. He has not rolled over quite yet though but seems so close. I think part of it is that he is so dang big that getting himself to roll over is quite the task. We will keep working on it though and I'm sure he will surprise us one day and just roll on over. 

Rocking his "My Mom Rocks" outfit at the church nursery. 

He's been sleeping really well lately and I'm thanking Jesus for that. We moved his bedtime up to 7pm and it seems to be working really well. On good days, we get him down for consistent nap times and that helps him so much. He's such a chill, awesome little dude to begin with but when he's getting good sleep, he's in such a good place. 

We escaped to a toddler free lunch on Monday. 

This snow makes me want to put on some Christmas music and get out the decorations...I'll wait a little while longer...maybe. Last year, everything was up before Thanksgiving. I love this time of year and having the decorations up for as long as possible is always a favorite part of this time of year. I'm almost done with Christmas shopping as well....just need to pick up a few more things. I love this time of year. Having children makes this season even more special. I love seeing it all through the eyes of a child. I want to soak it all in. 

Here is Marin at eighteen weeks! 

Baby Sullivan | Week Fourteen

Our baby is 3 months old now and I can't hardly believe it. He's growing like a weed. I've already had to go through his clothes and put away everything he can no longer fit in. I don't plan on keeping it all this time around because I believe our family is feeling pretty complete at two kids. It will be weird to not keep around the swing or bouncer once he outgrows it. All of his little clothes too will no longer just sit in a box but I'll donate them so some other little guy can use them. I am excited to get the insane amount of all things baby out of my house someday soon. He needs to slow down a bit though. He's 3 months old and weighs 16 pounds!!!! He's wearing mostly 3-6 month clothing and we almost have him in size 3 diapers already. 

His new favorite thing is a little elephant that we received as a gift. He likes the gnaw on its little nose and have it close to him. He didn't really have a little stuffed animal yet that he liked, not like Marin and Bernie the Bunny. That bunny still goes almost everywhere with us. He now is in a pink sparkly dress with pink sparkly shoes. Marin would wear a similar outfit everyday if I let her. 

Marin took a bit of a tumble last night while I was cooking dinner. She was going downstairs to grab her little water bottle for bedtime. Daddy has just read her a few books and she came down the steps. As soon as she hit our wood floor, she slipped in her socks and I heard a BOOM! That noise was followed by a pause and then a wail. Poor kiddo fell and slammed her mouth into the floor. Her gums were bleeding and punctured her lip a bit. Mouth wounds always have lots of blood. She has a bit of a puffy lip right now, poor kid. But, we are keeping an eye on the teeth and I'm sure she will survive. 

Sully is also using his voice a lot lately. I captured this video of him the other night with Daddy. 

Marin is still going strong with "Quiet Time" instead of our daily afternoon naps. She does a pretty good job of entertaining herself in her room for a while. It helps keep us sane and gives her some time to learn and explore. She has put herself to bed a few times in the past week or so. I'm glad she recognizes when she's tired. 

Week Fourteen. 

Here's Marin at 14 weeks. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Eight

In a few days, we will have ourselves an adorable, chunky, pretty darn awesome two month old. The days pass by so quickly every single week. This week, I finally managed to capture a smile in a photograph! (Thanks Grammy!) 

We also had our first epic diaper blowout. He waited to poop for almost 5 days. I knew it was going to be epic. We ruined his cute outfit and the whole time Marin was by my side talking about how stinky it was. It was stinky. All the way up his backside stinky. Yuck. 

Geoff will never admit it, but he loves babies. 

He has mostly slept through the night lately. We've had a few earlier wake up times to nurse around 3:30am but then we go back to sleep. Lately, when he waits until 4:30am or 5:00am to wake up, I just get up after I nurse him. That's the time I actually get to sit down in my chair, cup of coffee in hand, and have some time to myself. It's glorious. Half of the time it doesn't work out that way...Sullivan doesn't go back to sleep. Marin wakes up early because she's figured out how to set her little alarm clock for 7am. Most of my time in the morning is spent with two children in very close proximity to me. I read my Bible on my phone most days because I have a cuddly baby in my lap and a toddler close by as well. 

I am officially back at work full time on September 10th. I've been working a lot from home the past few weeks but I'm ready to jump in completely. Sunday mornings will definitely be interesting with two kiddos since I am at work by 6:15am. I let Sullivan hang out with the awesome nursery ladies for a while on Sunday and he was a little stud. Total ladies man. He won't be the tough one. Marin still has a hard time right at first whenever she gets to her class. We are working on that one Sunday at a time. We took a break from church for the first chunk of my maternity leave and now I feel like we are back to day one with her strolling right in to her classroom with no tears in sight. 

Marin starts preschool this week. We have a trial run class on Thursday morning but parents are allowed to be there for that class. I cannot believe the school year is already here. We are in a preschool co-op and we get to find out which committee we are on. It's a lot of work but I think it will be worth it in the long run. 

Week Eight. 

It's the Weekend | Number Fourteen

I've been pretty good lately about waking up earlier than everyone else in my house. I'm trying to savor these quiet mornings because we will soon be adding a newborn baby to our normal chaos and I'm sure I will sleep a lot less and everything will be a lot louder. I also have to get up to use the restroom a few times each night and usually one of those times is early in the morning. I lay in bed contemplating whether or not I should get up. My bladder always wins but then I find myself in our quiet living room, coffee cup in hand, and my Bible. I've been working through the Bible In a Year via the YouVersion app. I love it. It's simple. Straight forward. I've been reading a lot of the Old Testament lately which is always interesting, especially when there's chapter after chapter about how things should be built and sacrificed. I'm in Leviticus currently and it can get a little dull, but I'm pushing through.

This week has been a good one. We had air conditioning installed in our home on Monday and I feel like my life is forever changed. This overheated, very pregnant gal is super thankful for that update. Yesterday was the hottest day we've seen yet this year and I was, for once, comfortable in the rooms in our upstairs tri-level. Best money we've ever spent. We are done with home improvements for this year though. It's only June and we've replaced our roof, kitchen appliances, furnace, and air conditioner this year. No more spending money for a while. But, I love our little home. Sure, there's things I would change about but as of today actually, we have lived here for 7 years. Our first home. We've made a lot of changes and I am very happy with all of them. 

Anyways, here's some link love for this lovely Saturday. 

Money Savers for Boy Moms. I will need this. 

5 ways to survive entertaining as an introvert. I would like to think I'm not an introvert, but I really am. I'm not the life of a party but I do like when people I love gather together. 

It's pretty much summer time. Here are some fun, budget friendly ideas to keep kids busy this summer. 

A $2 lunch idea from Trader Joes? Sign me up. 

Money is a touchy subject. Sometimes we have things we want to say about money but we never do. 

How to create when you just don't feel like it. 

As a millennial, do I have an obsession with self-care? Interesting read. 

Have a great weekend!