Real life with two kids

No happy smiley photo for today.  It's real life.  

Real life with a bad mommy.  Since I took a picture instead of cleaning her face.  For the record I already had my phone in hand when I went into her room.  I didn't stop to search around for a camera.
Poor Sophie.  I'm not sure if it is all of this spit up or the terrible diaper rash she has, but she sure has been a cranky pants.  Well, like I mentioned the other day, she's cranky when we are at home.  If we are home and she's awake, she is crying.  Seriously.  And there isn't much sleeping happening during the day.  Which means there's a whole lot of crying.  Usually she stops crying if you hold her.  Of course that means nothing else is getting done during the day.  So today I broke down and ordered a fancy smancy baby carrier.  So if you see me out in public wearing Miss Sophie, I haven't gone all crunchy granola, I'm just trying not to go crazy over here.  And do dishes, or cook, or ....the list goes on.
Let's all hope and pray it's just the diaper rash.  That's curable.  ;)

Correction

Apparently either my name isn't Stella or I don't like to play with my kid.  Ack!  Thanks, Judy, for the correction.  My sleep deprived brain can't count.  ;)  Plus Kinley clarified, beans aren't just any beans, they are jelly beans.  Still not quite my favorite food, but it makes more sense.  I'm pretty sure it was her daddy who ate a whole bag though not me.

Check Ups

Somebody's one month old already!

Hard to believe.  At her check up, (which Kinley says we go to all the time.  Apparently 4 times in a month equals all the time for little miss.  Actually typing that does make it sound like all the time.) Sophie weighed 9lbs 10oz and was 21inches long.  She finally has lost most of the yellow and the swelling on her head from delivery has gone down.  She does have a miserable diaper rash.  Apparently she has even more sensitive skin than Kinley.  Like I can't even use baby wipes on her sensitive skin.  Hopefully once it heals we can try using normal stuff on her again.
Other things about Sophie at one month old.  She loves her bath most of all but hates having her clothes changed.  It's going to be a rough life for her with this mommy!  She still eats every three hours.  Sometimes at night she goes closer to four hours.  Which is heavenly.  We only thought Kinley was a "go-baby".  This kiddo prefers to be on the go.  The days we stick around the house are her fussy days.  You take her out in public, not a peep.  In fact once you strap her into the car seat she seems to calm down.  We may have to start doing laps around the neighborhood.  It'll be cheaper than trips to Target.

Miss Kin had her 3 year check up at the same time.

 I thought the miniature blood pressure cuff was too cute to resist taking a photo of.  And then she had to change into a paper gown.  Again too cute.

Kinley is inching her way closer to 30lbs.  I swear there was a time I thought she'd be in Kindergarten before she hit 30 lbs, but she was 29lbs this time and 39.5 inches tall.  At the bottom of the charts in weight and the top for height.  No surprise there.
Dr. Williams asked Kinley lots of questions this time.  Like her colors, numbers and letters.  She had Kinley show her how she can dress herself.  She also talked to her about the potty issues we've been having.  I had high hopes that someone else telling her she should do her business on the potty at school would help, but not so much.  We've had accidents at home this weekend too.  Sigh.  I am at my wits end with the regression in that area.  Nothing makes me angrier faster.  I'm pretty sure that is why the behavior continues.  I suppose we both have some work to do.  Once Kinley showed the doctor she could get dressed like a big girl, she got to pick out her sticker.  Leave it to my kid to dig through the box and find the one sticker that wasn't just one sticker but a sheet of 6 or 7.
The best part of this check up for both girlies:  NO SHOTS!!!

Mother's Tea

This was my placemat at Kinley's school's Mother's Tea this morning.

Dang, I look good for 39.  ;)  Good thing Kinley wasn't being graded on accuracy.  I believe there is only one true statement on this sheet.  Can you find it?

PARTY!!!

She wanted a "Tinkerbell and her friends" party.  It's a little tough to pull off a Tinkerbell theme when 90% of your friends are boys.  Sorry boys!

Birthday girl and Mommy.

Kinley's in a new phase of either really cheesy face photos or her mouth is wide open.  See?

  Erin kindly took charge of photos for us.  You can head over to her picasa to see the rest.  All 113 of them to be exact.  Thanks Aunt Erin!

Kinley loved every minute of her party.  A big thanks to everyone who came and shared in her special day with us.  We all had a blast.  All that running and playing worked up quite an appetite.  She asked for more pizza as soon as we got in the car.  After she finished it, she promptly passed out.  Which was good because by that point we all needed a nap.

One more photo before I end the birthday special edition of the blog.

The aftermath:

Andy might have been heard mumbling, "Our house is never going to be clean again."  ;) 

I must say that I love the fact that my little one has a personality that allows for one gift from the same person to include a princess and a monster truck.  She is the perfect mix.  

Kinley's Special day was brought to you by the letter B and the number 3

I've already shown you Balloons, and Breakfast, but we then headed outside.  Kinley decided to wear her boots and play with bubbles.

Bailey in a Birthday hat.

 (She got Macy too, but she doesn't start with a B.)

They tolerated it for a little bit.

Then Macy retired to the shade in shame, and Bailey ate his. 

 Next up: a Bicycle!

 These photos are misleading.  She much preferred for daddy and Aunt Gin to push her around on the bike rather than actually trying to pedal.

 And lastly, some new Books.

 I am glad I made an effort to make the actual day special because she was a little confused.  She kept asking when she was going to have her cake and her party.  She didn't quite get why they were on separate days.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't mind the Birthday Week celebrations though.  She laid down on the play mat with Sophie after breakfast and made up a song.  It was a mixture of Happy Birthday to me and thank you everybody.  Too sweet.  (No photos of that one.  I was busy cleaning up the aftermath of the pancakes.)

Birthday Breakfast

Since the zoo got moved up a day, I wanted to make sure Kinley's actual birthday was still special for her.  However in my exhaustion on Friday I completely forgot to go by the store and get supplies for my grand idea until after everything close to us was closed for the day.  When I told Andy I planned to get up with Sophie and go to Publix right when they opened in the morning before Kinley woke up, I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy.  I'm also pretty sure I'm not crazy, but I might still be suffering from some residual guilt from missing her actual birthday last year while we were in Vegas.  We came home on that day, but we weren't there for when she woke up.  I know, I know she doesn't even remember it, but hey.
Anyway, to Publix I went and returned home loaded with balloons, party hats, streamers, and flowers.

 She does not do well with being woken up.  If she wakes herself up, she's 100% immediately.  If you wake her up, it takes a minute.  The first thing out of her mouth was, "Is it my birthday?"  Yes Kinley it is!  "Where are my friends?"  Apparently that's what birthdays mean to Kinley.  You have all your friends with you.  Mommy couldn't pull that one off at 7 in the morning.  There's always next year.  ;)

She had streamers down the hall from her room leading her to the table.  I had all intentions of buying frozen pancakes and having them on the table with candles in them when we got her up.  However me and 7:00am with almost no sleep does not equal a functioning brain at the grocery store.

 She really does love balloons.  She was asking if she could take them to her room.

Kinley loves to help bake and cook, so she was glad I left the frozen ones at the store.  Can you see the pancake mix all over the dang counter and floor?

 Here's a better shot:

 She only got away with it because it was her birthday.  It's hard to get mad at that face on her birthday.

 And again, I forgot the candles.  She loves having Happy Birthday sang to her, so I thought we'd slip in an opportunity for that with her pancakes.  Oh well.  My smiley face doesn't look as good as IHOP's, but you can't be choosy with a 3 year old helper.

And again, she didn't mind.

A New Treat

I'm pretty sure we haven't eaten at a Japanese steak house since we left Raleigh.  So Friday after Kinley's nap, we decided that would be an excellent way to finish off our fun day at the zoo.  We thought surely she'd love it.  After all, they play with eggs, and we all know how she feels about eggs.

On a side note, I hope you aren't afraid of Kinley's cooties if you come out to eat with us.  She has decided it is her job to open everyone's straws and blow the paper at you.  She's gotten pretty good at it.

 At first she wasn't so sure about this guy making all this noise and trying to talk to her.

 The ginormous fire he made didn't help matters.  My picture didn't come out of that part, but she was close to tears.  He thought squirting her with water would cheer her up.  Not so much.  Here she is when he decided to squirt himself.

 And again.  What Sophie thought of the whole thing.  She was content to suck on her puppy dog ear.

 By the end, Kinley was having a very good time.  We sang Happy Birthday, and they brought her an ice cream.  She actually ate so much of her dinner though that she only ate the cherry off the top.

Let the party begin!

Well, I guess it technically started yesterday at school.  In this family we claim entire birthday weeks, so I guess Miss Kin will have several more days left.
We decided to start a family tradition and take Kinley to the zoo on her actual birthday.  Then we realized going on Friday would be a better idea because of crowds and the admission for kids under 3 is free.  Then we found out about this program, so we all were free no matter what day we went.  We stuck with going today instead of tomorrow anyway.  Again with the birthday week celebrations and all.  ;)
You can check out photos of our day over on picasa, but here are a few cuties of our cuties.

Here we are at the beginning of our day.

 Sophie spent the whole day like this.

 Kinley picked out a few goodies from the gift shop after seeing all the animals.

 Made a souvenir penny.

And immediately crashed in the car.  At which point, Sophie decided to wake up.  And start screaming.  For most of the ride home.  Good times, good times.  At least Kinley was tired enough to sleep through it.

It felt like an act of congress to get prepared for a day at the zoo with these two.  I spent an hour getting everything packed and ready last night.  We had a stash of extra clothes, diapers, food, and carriers hidden in the stroller basket.  We didn't end up needing any of it except a pair of shorts at the very end.  Funny how that works out right?  At least we were prepared.

And how about this shorts weather?  Crazy right.  I swear you really never know what March weather will be like here in Georgia.  I swear it snowed the week of Kinley's first birthday and today it topped 80 degrees.  I'll take the warm weather any day over the snow.  It'll make for much better birthday week celebrations.  :)  Let the party continue.

Little Leprechauns

Complete with green nail polish and shamrock tattoos.

I'm pretty sure green is Sophie's color.  Doesn't she look pretty? (I know, I know.  I'm biased.)

Sunshine and Rainbows

My eldest child is obsessed.  We've moved on from sharing farm animals with Sophie, to Sophie "sharing" every single one of her toys with Kinley.  The best by far is this activity mat we inherited from Erin's sister-in-law.  You know, because they can both actually fit instead of Kinley just hogging it.  ;)  Seriously, I managed to get almost a solid hour of time out of this for making goody bags.

Kinley prefers the sunshine side.  Which is okay with Sophie.  She likes the bear.

 What?  You mean nearly 3 year olds aren't supposed to play with baby gyms?

 I decided to make rainbow cupcakes (which I shamelessly stole the idea from Erica) for Kinley's school birthday celebration since it fell on St. Patrick's Day.  I spent all afternoon driving around trying to find rainbow candy for the top of the cupcakes.  Finally gave up at about 7:30 last night and then found these twizzlers while picking out jelly beans for Andy.  Go figure.  The Rolo is supposed to be a pot of gold, and the insides of the cupcakes are rainbow colored like here.  (Ignore the bowl still left on the table from breakfast at 11:45pm.  There wasn't a clean inch of counter space except the bar in my entire kitchen.)

 Martha I am not, but I think they turned out well enough to satisfy 2 and 3 year olds.  

Kinley loved them when she woke up and saw them, and that's all that matters.

Other randomness, Sophie had gained a whopping 18oz in 8 days at her weight check up this week.  Let's hope she doesn't keep this pace up.  

We are going to the zoo for Kinley's birthday.  The best part?  We're going for free!!!  Check it out.  The dvd is a hot item, and the library can't place a hold on it for you.  Unless of course your super cute kid tells them she wants to go for her birthday, in which case they quietly scribble your name and phone number down and sneak you a copy as soon as it comes back in.  

Well, both of my girls have been sleeping at about this time everyday which means mommy gets a nap too, so I'm getting off the darn computer.  I just figured you guys would like an update.  I'll be back on a little later to post photos of my little leprechauns in their green.

Sharing

Because farm animals are what every newborn needs.  Didn't you know?

Soaking up the Sun