Dear Vivienne,
Ohhhh, you are TROUBLE. I love you more than anything, of course, but you’re trouble.
New this month is crawling. Well, sort of. You get up on your hands and knees all of the time, but you haven’t figured out how to coordinate all of the moving parts to get from Point A to Point B. Instead, you lunge forward onto your belly and then continue on with an Army crawl. We can’t get you to stay in the same place anymore. As soon as you’re on the floor, boom, you’re gone. And you have this evil little laugh that escapes your wide-open mouth as you scurry away from us. You do the exact same thing when I’m trying to change your diaper and you use all of your strength to try to roll over and get away from me. Flustered, I’ll say, “Vivi! Vivi, get back here!” and you laugh that mischievous laugh like you know exactly what you’re doing. You little stinker.
Speaking of the sounds you make… you are certainly good at making it known when you are not happy. You don’t cry very much, but you make these loud, long grunting noises until you get what you want. We’ve taken to calling you “pterodactyl baby” because I imagine that’s what a pterodactyl sounded like. You also kind of remind me of those loud crows that I sometimes hear outside of our bedroom window in the mornings. It’s charming, really. :) But hey, you know what you want, and you’re trying to communicate with us to get it. I can’t really fault you for that!
You’re still eating purees like a champ. Any puree we present to you, you’ll eat, usually gobbling it down faster than we can spoon it into your mouth. By this time with Nora, we had started yogurt, but I’ve been taking my time starting any kind of dairy with you, given your previous challenges with it through my milk. Within the last week or two, you’ve also taken to puffs and Mum-Mums. You do great feeding yourself the Mum-Mums—holding them and breaking off bites with your teeth (still just two of them on the bottom!) and gums. While you’re happy to eat the puffs, you still make us feed them to you, because try as you might, you can’t seem to get them into your mouth. They stick to your hands and you get frustrated easily. But that’s coming, I know it is. When we were on vacation last week, I also gave you a few tiny pieces of bread while we were out at dinner one night, and you’ve also had a few peas—you handled those well. So now we have to start really introducing other “real” foods—I want to try soft fruits and other veggies.
On the breastfeeding front, we’re still doing fine. But nursing you is an event lately, because we’re at the height of distraction on your part. You latch, unlatch, latch, unlatch a million times at your feedings during the day. The only ones during which I can really get you to concentrate are the first one in the morning—when you’re starving—and at bedtime, when you’re exhausted. Fun times.
You love your toys, particularly anything that makes music or noise. But now that you’re on the move, you’re loving everything you shouldn’t even more. Car keys? Amazing. Dog bowls? Awesome. Electrical cords? Best.thing.ever. Nora calls you “grabby girl” and for good reason. Heck, you even ripped your 9-month sticker on your shirt when we took your pics today (evidence in photo above)! There is going to be a different level of babyproofing going on with you, since we also have all of Nora’s little pieces to worry about. A lot of the small toys are going to go up to her room. And Daddy and I, well, we’re just going to have to get used to keeping a very close eye on you for a while! Honestly, Nora never really bothered anything she shouldn’t have, but you seem to be much more of an explorer. We’ll adjust our approach accordingly!
You have a nine month checkup on May 12th and we shall see how you measure up in the weight and length departments. It seems like FOREVER since we have been to the pediatrician, which is a very good thing, actually. It’s so different than with your sister, whom we had to take to the doctor all of the time because of her ear infections. You are a very healthy girl, and I pray you always stay that way.
Nora continues to love you so, so much. And you her. One of the greatest things about my life right now is being able to watch the two of you strengthen your bond and grow up together. I know there are challenges ahead—she’s already getting frustrated at time when you are wrecking her toys as she’s trying to play with them, which will only get worse as you’re more and more mobile!—but she’s more patient than I’d expect her to be. She gently scolds you, “No, Vivienne!”(Well, Biddienne, according to Nora.) Or she’ll quietly ask me, as she did tonight, “Mommy, can you please hold her in your lap? She’s ruining my train track.” But through it all: Sisters. I love it so much.
We took our first road trip with you last weekend, to visit Pa in Virginia. Well, actually, it was your second road trip, but your first was to the Poconos when you were only five or six weeks old—needless to say, that was a different animal. Anyway, you did pretty darn good, despite not sleeping very much on the rides. You slept at most for about 50 minutes a stretch. It must be the busy body personality in you, not wanting to miss anything even though we’re all just bored to tears. It should be interesting to see how you do on our trip to the Outer Banks in a few months! You did, however, sleep in the pack ‘n’ play without any problems whatsoever, both at naptime and bedtime. That’s my girl!
Speaking of the car, though, we made the transition from your infant car seat to the convertible one. We were tired of lugging you around in the infant seat (so heavy and awkward!) so as soon as the weather started turning, we made the switch. We’re seemingly casting a lot of baby gear aside lately. You no longer need your play mat on the floor (Lord knows you’re not staying on it!). You don’t need a bath seat anymore, either.
It’s so fun to watch you grow and do new things, but man, I can’t believe how fast it’s going. Nine months ago already. It’s crazy to think that you’ve now been outside longer than you were inside. It’s such a privilege to get to know you as your personality continues to blossom.
I hope you always know how much we love you.
With hundreds of kisses,
Mommy
We took a quick trip down to visit my dad in Virginia last weekend. It was much too short, particularly when you consider the 8.5-hour drives to and from… with two kids.
Truth be told, the girls did great. But we drove down on Friday and came back on Monday, which gave us only two full days between the drives. And only two days with my dad. It just wasn’t enough. From now on, I think we’ll do a minimum of three full days whenever we make the trip down there.
Anyhow, it was our typical trip down there in that we didn’t really have anything planned. In fact, we didn’t do anything special. We went out to breakfast at IHOP. We went to Wal-Mart to get my dad a new land-line phone. We took the girls to the playground (both Saturday and Sunday). We went out to dinner (all three days!). We watched movies after the girls were in bed.
The best part was definitely the weather—70s and sunny both days we were there. It was gorgeous and warm. The leaves have started to fill in on the trees down there, and you wouldn’t believe how therapeutic it was to drive around and see GREEN. I can’t stress it enough: Spring is seriously good for my soul.
Nora is in love with the playground this year. We’ve been contemplating getting a playset for our backyard, and seeing how much she enjoyed the swings and climbing and all of that? It definitely supported the argument for one. I’ve started looking, but there are challenges: 1) Even though I am sure we are capable, and I actually typically LIKE putting things together, I have absolutely ZERO interest in assembling one of those things. ZERO. 2) We like the idea of the “no maintenance” sets, which are constructed of vinyl-encased wood.
The only places I’ve seen these types of sets are at BJ’s and at a local place that is a dealer for Swing Kingdom sets. We could purchase at BJ’s, but we don’t have anyone to assemble it (I’ve asked BJ’s if they have subcontractors to recommend, and they don’t. And I’ve searched Craigslist for someone who advertises that they do this, and have come up empty). Or, we could get a Swing Kingdom set from the local place with assembly included, but OHMYGOD talk about sticker shock. They’re pretty much asking for our firstborn. So, in lieu of handing over Nora to them… it’s a predicament. The resale value on the high quality sets is apparently pretty good, but it’s a way bigger purchase than we ever anticipated, so we’re thinking on it.
We went to see my grandparents. It was nice to sit and visit with them for a while, and have them meet Vivienne and see Nora. We sat out on their porch and enjoyed the weather. Nora picked wildflowers for me, and she and Michael explored my grandparents’ land.
On Saturday night, it was so nice outside that we sat out on my dad’s large screened in porch after the girls went to bed. We had a couple of beers together and just talked. It was nice to spend that time together.
Nora liked the porch swing at my grandparents’ house! :)
It was also nice to get a little extra quality time with our girls in the form of the four-day weekend. Little sweethearts, even if Vivienne is going through a screeching/clingy/whiny phase. Holy moly, sometimes her little “voice” is like nails on a chalkboard! We took to calling her “pterodactyl baby” all weekend.
Nora, who can typically be very shy and stand-offish with anyone outside of our little immediate family and daycare—this includes our parents and siblings many times!—did great with my dad during this trip. She warmed up to him VERY quickly, and really had fun with him. It was fun to watch them play together and bond.
Tessa ate up the bonding, too. :)
When Monday morning arrived, we hit the road early—before 7 a.m.—and made the trip home. On the way out, the Virginia countryside was beautiful.
As I’ve written about before, visiting Virginia always takes me right back to the summers I spent there as a child.
Since Nora was born, every time we’ve taken a trip down there, it’s been November. Now, after this trip? I think April is my new favorite time to go. We’ll be back in Virginia for a couple of super short stops on our way to and from the Outer Banks this summer, and my dad will be up to visit for Vivienne and Sadie’s birthdays in August and October. As usual, it can’t come soon enough. <3
You know how sometimes, you have such a great weekend that you actually come into work on Monday SMILING? Feeling refreshed and happy? It’s like the high from the weekend hasn’t worn off yet. I think it’s kind of rare, because I know that a lot of times, the Monday morning workday blues actually begin setting in on Sunday night even!
But yeah. Happy. Breezy. Rested. That’s how I felt on Monday, after having such a wonderful Easter weekend. As always, it helped that the weather was FABULOUS.
Backing up… I had off from work on Friday, so I kicked off the three-day weekend at home with my girls (Michael had to work, boo). While they played, I turned over Nora and Vivienne’s closets—removing winter clothes and replacing with spring/summer—which was a huge undertaking. Last minute, I got in touch with my brother that morning and he brought Bryce over for a play date and lunch. Nora and Bryce were so cute playing together, running back and forth in our family room and laughing at each other.
After they left, I put the girls down for a nap and got a few things done around the house, but also had some time to relax. By the time they got up, the weather had warmed up enough to go OUTSIDE! We went for a walk, Michael came home, and we took some time to play in the driveway. Now that Vivienne is sitting up so well, she got her first experience with grass… which she was fascinated with! So serious!
It was so nice to be out, even if it was still a little chilly. Michael and I enjoyed beers and we threw a frozen pizza in the oven while we played and watched the girls. It was just the first of many, many evenings we will be spending out there, I’m sure!
On Saturday morning, we dyed eggs with Nora. She had a lot of fun picking the colors and telling me to write all of our names on the eggs. We managed to keep the mess at a minimum, too… just some dyed fingertips! :)
Afterward, Nora and I headed out for a play date with our neighbors at our children’s museum. Michael and Vivienne stayed home—it was just the moms and 3 year olds!
On Saturday night, we had Michael’s mom and sister come over to babysit and Michael and I headed out for date night! Dinner and beers at a local brewery. Delicious food, good beer, nice to be out and have adult conversation. And then we made a solo trip to Target on the way home (living wildly, haha!) because the Easter Bunny needed to get basket goodies. Nothing like waiting until the last possible minute.
Nora has been funny about her bedtime routine lately. She NEEDS to follow the bedtime routine. She went to bed without too much issue, allowing Grandma to read her the bedtime story… but she would NOT go to sleep until we got home and kissed her goodnight! She told my mother-in-law that she was waiting for us. What a stinker.
As with Christmas, Nora was really excited about the Easter Bunny this year. We didn’t even attempt a visit or pictures with the bunny at the mall, as past attempts indicated that we would not be successful. That theory was backed up by Nora’s reactions whenever we’ve seen random Easter Bunnies out and about. She really doesn’t want anything to do with them, and I don’t blame her. It was funny, though… Nora knew that the Easter Bunny would be coming to her house while she slept, and that he’d bring presents, but I didn’t want her to think he was on the same level as Santa Claus, so I had prepared her about this. On Saturday, as we were leaving for our date night, I heard her tell my mother-in-law, “The Easter Bunny doesn’t bring big presents like Santa. Just little things.” She had also previously asked me questions about how the Easter Bunny was going to get into our house (and was satisfied with “he’s magic”).
Easter morning, Nora was excited to go downstairs to see what the Bunny had brought them.
Nora got a board game, a sundress, headbands, and a puzzle. And literally just a tiny handful of chocolate eggs. Vivienne got Mum-Mums and some baby food pouches. She kind of got the shaft. WHATEVER, she’s too young to know the difference, LOL. I was actually a little surprised that Nora didn’t notice, but hey, she was taken care of and I’m guessing that was #1 in her book of worries. :)
We hurried through breakfast and getting ready so we could make it to Easter Mass at 8:30. We squeaked in right on time, but didn’t have seats in the pews… we were in the “overflow” room, watching Mass on closed-circuit TV! Oh well, better than nothing.
After Mass, a nasty lady in the parking lot decided to call me out for where we parked while I was strapping Nora into her car seat. It’s a long story, but we were definitely not in the wrong—we had simply followed the direction of the parking attendant when we arrived. But she was set on being a total bitch and continued to roll down her window to yell at me repeatedly. It took every ounce of self control I had not to call her a lot of inappropriate things, but instead I kept sarcastically wishing her a Happy Easter. At one point, I told her (also dripping with sarcasm), “And thank you for being such a good Christian.” I was so worked up about it that my hands were shaking as I was buckling Nora into her car seat. I couldn’t believe that this woman had gone inside, sat at Easter Mass for an hour, and then immediately came out and felt it OK to verbally attack a young mother with her husband and children (Michael was on the opposite side of the car buckling in Vivienne, so was mostly shielded from her ranting). It was one of those moments when you wonder what the hell is wrong with humanity, which was certainly not something I wanted to do when I was trying to celebrate Easter with my family, and even less while in the parking lot AT CHURCH. This lady was obviously out to ruin someone’s day, and I’ll admit it took me a few hours to really shake her off. Ugh.
At home, we got into comfier clothes and relaxed and played together for a while until it was time for Vivienne to take a nap. We let Nora skip a nap—a huge treat for her, apparently, because she couldn’t stop talking about it!—since we were going to my in-laws’ for a very early dinner and would’ve had to wake her up less than an hour into the nap anyway. Instead, we let her play outside while Michael raked some more lingering leaves and I cleaned out the van. It was so nice to be out in the sunshine!
We all got dressed up again and before heading to my in-laws’, took some Easter pics outside. My precious girls:
And our little family:
Dinner was great, we all had a lot of sugar, and overall, just enjoyed the time together. Nora got a big kick out of the bunny cake my mother-in-law and sister-in-law made:
Because we’d had dinner so early, we got home with time to spare before bedtime. So we did what anyone around here is going to do when it’s 70 degrees out in April… we went back outside!
Love these pics with my babies:
It was a happy, happy weekend. (With the exception of that miserable witch in the church parking lot. But even she couldn’t bring me down for long!) I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter as much as we did.
As a blogger, I’ve been feeling pretty uninspired lately.
I want to write. But I don’t have anything I want to write about. It’s quite a predicament.
I’ve been at this for almost seven years now. SEVEN YEARS! I remember when it used to feel effortless to get posts up 4, 5, 6 days per week. What the WHAT? How? It feels like a past life; I guess in a lot of ways, it was.
Maybe I need to jump on NaBloPoMo again next month to get the wheels turning again. Last time, I didn’t even follow the prompts all of the time, but having them there just helped for some reason.
Anyway, there’s this thing that I’ve seen bloggers do sometimes to help get out of a rut. They turn it on their readers.
So, readers: Since I haven’t been posting as much, I’ve been hearing from you less. But what do YOU want to hear about when you come here? Why do you keep coming back?
Not only that, but if you’re so inclined, go ahead—ask me questions. I can’t guarantee that I’ll answer them all, but maybe some of your comments and questions will be the inspiration I need.
Spring is here. Finally.
Unfortunately for us, spring in this area still means many cold days, but there are sunny and/or warmer ones sprinkled in for good measure. It’s good the soul, and gives me hope that no, we are not cursed with an eternal winter thanks to all of the littles around the world (including my own) belting out “Let It Go” on repeat since late November. It’s nice to walk out the door in the mornings or at the end of the workday and take a big, deep breath of SPRING.
We had the opportunity to take our new double stroller for an inaugural spin around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoon. It was only in the mid-50s temperature wise, but the sun was shining and it felt wonderful. Tomorrow? It’s supposed to be 70. SEVENTY!! It is the warmest I can remember it being for at least five months, if not longer. I cannot wait to bask in it. I’m planning to work remotely tomorrow just so I can be sitting somewhere the sun is shining and I can fully enjoy it, even if I’m busy banging out emails to clients and doing some writing. Maybe I will even open up the windows in our house and let actual AIR inside. Can you imagine?
Speaking of work, it’s been a few weeks at my new job now and I’m settling in. Things are starting to feel more routine, but I’m still learning the ropes. It’s the perfect time of year for this sort of thing. Spring—new life, fresh air. It lends itself well to fresh starts and new beginnings in a professional sense.
There is an impact at home, too. In our house, I’m currently focused on getting rid of ALL.THE.THINGS. I’ve upcycled old bookshelves that were just sitting in our basement for use in my new office. And baby stuff… if the girls have both outgrown it? It’s going. And we officially decided to stop cloth diapering completely—I am both crying and rejoicing inside, haha—so I am busy getting rid of all of that, too. I have been utilizing local “mom swap” Facebook groups and a lot of stuff has been moving out, and we’re gaining some extra cash in exchange. Good stuff.
I wish I could take a solid two days and just deep clean EVERYTHING in our house. Better yet, I wish I could hire someone to do it, haha. Scrub all of the bathrooms, the floors, the baseboards, the windows, all of the surfaces… everything. It’s tough to do so around work and weekend plans. But man, if I get a free sunny day with nothing going on? Watch out.
Spring is good for my psyche. It makes such a huge difference in my mood and my overall sense of happiness. I’m so looking forward to the next several months and all that they will bring.
Who else is being uplifted by the change of seasons? How are you “celebrating”?
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
