My Little Dude

C.orben,

Where do I start? I feel like you have grown so much lately, physically and developmentally. You are such a little boy now and continue to amaze me. 

I love how in the mornings I get woken up to the sound of you singing songs over the monitor. Dancing and singing is your favorite thing to do right now and daddy and I are so amazed at how accurate you are at copying dances and songs. However, these days you don't think it's so cool when we try to dance with you. You yell, "No no mommy! Bye mommy!". 

You continue to be head over heels in love with your sister. I feel like I've been too lucky in this regard and keep waiting for you to get jealous or resentful. You love to hug and kiss her. You try to feed her your food and like to help me burp her after she eats. You get so excited when she smiles or laughs at you and when she grabs on to your face. 

You are completely potty trained and get so excited to tell us when you've gone potty. Sometimes you still get anxious about pooping in the potty and will pace around until we direct you to the bathroom. I know you'll get completely comfortable soon. Going potty is such a big step and can be a little intimidating. 

You are talking more and more. I get just as excited each time you say a new word as I did when you said your first word. Last night we started working on the sentence "Thank you God for this day". Your pronunciation isn't 100% perfect, but I love that. I'm going to miss it when you don't talk like a little kid anymore. I'm really enjoying this stage that you're in. 

You love to pray and it warms mine and daddy's heart so much. I hope that your passion for God grows and grows. 

You love your room at our new house. You are still doing great in your toddler bed and we're going to get you a twin bed in a few weeks. I already bought your bedding and I can't wait to see everything together. I just know you're going to be so excited and so proud to have an official big boy room.

I love you so much baby boy (you'll always be my baby) and I'm so proud of your loving personality. You're such a good boy and I'm so excited about watching you grow and to see all you do in life.


Love,

Mommy

 

Quinn- 4 Months Old

Quinn,

At 4 months old you are so much fun! You are this solid, chubby baby that loves to smile and is just so content. 

You've been rolling over sporadically from front to back since 6 weeks old, but now you consistently roll over both directions. For awhile there you thought it was cute to holler in the middle of the night several times for me to come and roll you back over even though you could do it yourself. Now you think it's fun to shout for me to come put your paci back in at 2:30 every morning. Please feel free to move on from that my sweet girl. Mommy reallllly loves uninterrupted sleep.

You have really got into playing with the toys on your playmats and the mobile on your swing. It's really cute and occupies you for quite a long time. 

You are madly in love with your brother, as he is with you, and you break out in a huge smile everytime you see him and let out loud laughs when he does funny things to entertain you. You are so tolerant when he loves on you a little too roughly or when he accidentally whacks you (he never sits still does he, baby girl). 

Mine and Daddy's favorite thing is when we're holding you and you do whatever you can to be able to arch back and look up at us with those big doe eyes of yours. Heart melting!

You love to eat and when I can't get to you right away you get so mad. That's one time when I definitely realize that you do have a temper. Sometimes I have to get you calmed down so you'll actually eat. You've gotten so efficient at nursing and it makes feeding on the go so much easier. You've gone from taking 20 minutes to eat to 6-8 minutes! Luckily though you'll also take a bottle of pumped milk, which is good when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and because your daddy like to feed you too.

We moved into our new house this month and now you have your own room. I'm having so much fun making plans for it and how to decorate. There's so much space for you to play and I'm excited to watch you grow and thrive here.

Above all else I really want you to know how loved you are. You are such a perfect addition to our family. You really are... I couldn't come up with another characteristic that I wish you had or something that I would change. I'm so blessed and so grateful that you're my daughter.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Love,

Mommy

I love your chubbernubber thighs

 

I'm still here!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have blogged! I hate that I have been slacking on my little virtual baby book. I missed posting on my boy turning TWO and now my little girl is three months old!! 

I can't pinpoint the exact day, but at some point overnight Corb.en suddenly went from a squishy little baby to a little boy. He is so freaking cute too! He says and does the funniest things and I have to stop myself from hugging and kissing him every 2 seconds. Yesterday he kept jumping around saying "wee! wee!" He was so happy and such a little kid. I just wanted to be able to freeze that memory fresh and clear into my brain. He loves to play cars and even makes the little vroom sound when he plays with them and has started insisting on sleeping with his favorite car and truck. When he calls me mommy it sounds like he's saying "Mimmy" and I'm going to be so sad when he says it right. I love when he says "Oh Mimmy". He can sing parts of the songs to Sesame Street and Fresh Beat Band (that show is SO annoying and he loves it so much). He has developed a love for cake and even though he hasn't had any since his birthday he still asks for it frequently. Today as soon as he woke up from his nap he asked for a snack. I asked him what he wanted and he said "cake". I told him we didn't have any and he asked "(where did the) cake go?". Haha! He loves to read the book Hungry Caterpillar and on the page with all of the yummy food he pretends to eat the cupcake, icecream, and cake. I think he's going to have his daddy's sweet tooth. He is still fiercely in love with his sister and is always loving on her. 

To sum up 2 year old C.orben so far I would say that he is generally such a sweet, loving, active, and fun little boy. He is also sensitive and gets his feelings hurt easily, but is also quick to anger as well. He has started throwing things and slamming his bedroom door when he's mad (umm hello teenage attitude already). I have no idea where he might have gotten that from ;). 

For the stats: He's 32 lbs and I need to get his height. Daddy was with him during that point of his 2 year visit and forgot what the nurse said. He's potty training and while he's been ready for a big boy bed we're waiting on that until we move at the end of this month. 


Oh my sweet baby girl! She is exactly that... sweet! She's my cuddler and loves to be snuggled and loved on. I just can't kiss her enough and her smile melts our heart. So far (knock, knock, knock) she's still a really easy baby and a great sleeper like her brother was. She's been sleeping through the night since a little past 2 months old. She's a cooer (did I make that word up?) and will coo for hours at a time. I love it! She's started with a little giggle and I am so looking forward to those belly laughs. She's not the biggest fan of the car seat, but it could be so much worse. 

She's 13lbs and 23 inches. She has rolled over from front to back about 7 times now.
She LOVES to eat and her 3 month growth spurt about made me lose my mind. Luckily I have a freezer stash built up and was able to give her a bottle of pumped milk for the times when constant breast feeding didn't satisfy her. 

Seriously though those few days were really tough. I was so stressed out trying to balance my time between my two kids. I felt so guilty not being able to take care of both of them at the same time and Quinn was being so fussy and needy and it seemed like nothing made her happy. She was so not herself. I can't describe how stressful that time was. At one point I had to leave the kids with my husband while I just drove around and cried. Being a Mom during the bad times, shoot even during the good times, is so hard and I always feel guilty. Although those smiles from Quinn and breathing in her sweet baby scent and those heart melting hugs and kisses from Corb.en make me feel so much better and remind me of what's important. The things that I think need to get done right away really don't. The problem is that I'm a perfectionist and I hate feeling like a failure. I need to learn that a good mom does not mean a perfect mom. There is no such thing as perfect. I think that Mom's are in such competition with each other and feel the need to maintain a certain image that they don't want to admit when things are hard or when they don't handle things perfectly. I don't want to be like that or feel that way. 

Adorableness {BIG photo dump}

I love my babies!

His "cheese" face

He loves to read his sister stories.

He insisted on wearing his hat to breakfast.

I love her smiles.

Happy girl!

I love these two so much.

 

She Rolled Over!

My 6 week old just rolled over from back to front. My mind is absolutely blown right now. Slow down baby girl, slow down!


 

Becoming a Big Boy

C.orben is growing and changing everyday. I love watching him learn new things and sometimes he just shocks me with the things he has figured out. 

Yesterday he wanted some graham crackers, so I got him the box out of the pantry and he took an entire package of graham crackers out. I put the box back on the counter. After awhile when he was done eating he came in the kitchen and put the package of crackers back in the box. I was distracted at the time and later when I went to put the box of graham crackers back in the pantry they were missing. I looked all over and couldn't find them. I didn't worry about it, figuring I would see them around soon and went about my business. An hour later I still hadn't found them and so I finally thought to just ask Corbe.n where the crackers were. He toddled in the kitchen, opened the fridge and handed me the box of crackers!

I'm amazed for several reasons: that he knew to put the package back in the box when he was done eating, that he thought to put the box of crackers away (okay maybe the fridge isn't the right spot, but that doesn't matter), and that an hour later he still remembered where he put them! This is amazing to me!

Earlier that day we were getting ready to leave the house and C.orben asked if we were going "bye bye". I told him we were, but I had to get ready first. He brought me my clothes and tried dressing me himself. Haha! I can't believe he understood what I told him! He's so cool!

Oh and for record purposes... Quinn started making the sweetest cooing noises. It completely melts my heart. She's also wearing 3 month clothes now. Slow down sweet girl.


 

{Quinn} 1 Month Old

My precious baby girl is 1 month old today! I'm so proud of myself for actually posting on time. Life with two kids is busy and tiring. I could be getting a lot more done than I am, but I'm tired and it's hard to get motivated. Plus I've been struggling with lupus symptoms, so that adds another hurdle to jump. But hey, this post is not about me. On to my precious Quinnster.

Quinn is (so far) such a sweet and content little girl. She's mellow and as long as she's fed and dry she's as happy as can be. Occasionally she'll squawk to let us know it's time for some cuddles, which I'm oh so happy to oblige. 

She still sleeps a lot with her largest awake times being for an hour or so at 11am and 11pm. That works out well since I usually don't go to bed until midnight anyways. She does tend to get fussy and just wants to be held around the time that I'm getting C.orben ready and down for bed. This has been a bit of a challenge and is by far the most stressful time of the day (the husband is still at work during this time), but I'm learning to work with it and hopefully we'll get a routine down soon that works for all of us. At night she sleeps really well, just waking up to eat every 3-4 hours (every now and again we get a 5 hour stretch... I love those!).... unless she's hitting a growth spurt and then she wants to eat every hour or two. That's pretty dang tough. 

I'm not sure how much she weighs right now, but she's outgrown her newborn clothes, but the 3 month clothes are pretty baggy on her. Is there a scientific formula that will tell you her weight from that information, haha!

Corbe.n is still absolutely head over heels in love with Quinn. It's the greatest feeling in the world to see my two babies together and to watch C.orben's face light up when he's loving on his sister. 

Here are a few pictures. I'll post some more once I'm done uploading and editing. I have some pretty cute pictures of both kids. We also had an awesome trip to a wildlife safari in our area that was awesome and I can't wait to post about it.