elsie - twenty four months

And she's two!  Time just won't stop flying.  But the good news is I think it's because we're having fun.  :o)  As trying as this age can be, it truly is a blast, and watching Elsie's little personality emerge and come to life is pretty exciting.

two shirt | heart leggings

When Elsie was born she was somewhere between the 6th and 9th percentile for length and weight.  I was astonished when she jumped to the 40th ish percentiles by her first birthday.  And now as she turns two, she is 28 pounds 2 ounces (70th percentile) and 35 inches (81st percentile).  Say what?!?!  It's obvious that she is on the bigger (but proportional!) side.  She is at least an inch taller than Collins, who is just under 3 months older than her.  It's just crazy to me.  I finally brought up all of the 2T clothes because ALL of the 18-24 month stuff was just too small.  Yeah, there is quite a bit of summer stuff that I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of before she ever gets to wear it.  I put a pair of pajamas on her that I pulled out of the bin and her belly button is hanging out.  Back in the bin they go!  She is still fitting in to her size six shoes, but I bet if I brought up the 7's she'd be able to wear several of those.  Also still in a size five diaper.  And her hair is still SUPER curly (we can't go anywhere without at least one person commenting on it) and I'm starting to think maybe, just maybe, it might stay curly.

Sleep has been much better this month.  For the most part the times are still the same, but sleep isn't a battle.  She goes to bed right around 8pm, and usually sleeps until somewhere between 6:45am and 7:15am.  She'll randomly wake up around 4:30am upset about something.  One time it was because she couldn't find her owl.  She was laying on it, naturally.  But other than that she is a great night sleeper.  Elsie usually naps about 2 hours, going down sometime between 1:15-1:45.  We're still holding strong in the crib, and she seems less inclined to climb out (she never has, just throws her leg over the top to tick me off on occasion).  Still, I'm just not sure how long it will last.  If we can make it until we move that would be awesome, to not have to deal with that transition.  However I'm not sure if moving, and kicking her out of the crib, and her new baby stealing it within a month or so would be too much.

Elsie girl continues to be a pretty great eater (as evidenced by the high percentiles on the growth charts!).  Meat and vegetables are the hardest to convince her to eat, but other than broccoli she'll try almost anything, especially if she has a dipping sauce.  Her favorites include bananas, blueberries, raspberries, Panera Mac 'n Cheese, pizza, avocado, and of course sweets.  Girlfriend loves sweets.  She is also still a huge fan of soup.  Every now and then we order sushi and I get a bowl of egg drop soup.  Elsie always wants to eat it, but she is so bad at it.  :o)  She is much better with a heartier soup.  Either way though, I'm glad someone else shares my love of soup and will eat many different kinds with me!

Though it hasn't been as much of an issue in the last week, this month Elsie has been quite the little turd about getting in her car seat.  She finds herself quite hilarious as she goes completely stiff and refuses to allow me to buckle her in.  We ended up turning her seat around about two weeks before she turned two, in the hope that if she couldn't push up against the seat it would be easier.  Yeah, not so much.  She still just goes completely stiff and rolls around making it nearly impossible for me to buckle her.  It makes me so livid and irrational.  And I often avoid going places because I can't handle the thought of fighting with her.  It's so sad.  I'm hoping she just grows out of it, because no amount of yelling or pleading or praising her when she makes good choice, or anything else you can think of seems to help.  Gah.  She also has a tendency to take off her shoes and socks and rip out her hair clip EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we get in the car.  So dang annoying.  She is definitely testing her two year old limits!!

Elsie continues to pick up so many funny little phrases.  She talks non stop and the sentences she puts together certainly surprise me.  She regularly asks us, "What doing Daddy?" "What doing Mommy?" E has picked up from Ryann (and probably myself) when she is doing something and I ask her to stop, "Just one more second!"  When Ryann goes in her room because she needs a little space, Elsie will sit outside and bang on her door, "Sissy!  Sis-SY! Sis! SIS! Wet me in! Open door, RIGHT NOW!  SISSSSSSSY!"  It's kinda funny, even though I'm sure it drives Ryann crazy.  And speaking of 'right now', she'll tack that on to almost anything.  I truly can't figure out where she picked that one up, and a lot of times it pisses me off, but it is a little bit funny.  "Want a 'nack, RIGHT NOW!" "Wet's play legos, RIGHT NOW!" "I want down RIGHT NOW!"

Miss E loves loves LOVES to drive Ryann crazy.  She takes her toys and runs off.  She pokes her.  Pulls her hair.  Sits on her.  Etc. etc. etc.  But Elsie can really be the absolute sweetest thing too.  She regularly runs up to Ryann and gives her a big hug, saying "Mmmm, love you so much!"  And man does she have a thing for Grammy.  When my mom is around Elsie can't contain her hugs and snuggles.  She pretty much just has to be on top of her at all times.  She is also really starting to care about her friends, wanting to give them hugs before we leave, telling me things like "Tollins (Collins) my friend, I wike her." "I see Kaya today! We friends.  We hold hands!"  I mean it doesn't get much cuter than that.

Elsie is still absolutely OBSESSED with her belly button.  She has to have access to it at all times.  She regularly flashes it to anyone and everyone who happens to make eye contact with her.  And possibly even funnier than when she said Merry Christmas to her belly button... The morning of her birthday party I brought her out to see the decorations we had put up.  The first thing she saw was the polka dot back drop.  She gasped, then slowly pulled up her shirt, "belly button see it too!"  I mean honestly, is anyone else's child THAT obsessed with their belly button?  It is discolored because she messes with it so much.  Chris had a specific name for the discoloration, but basically the girl won't leave the dang thing alone.  Eventually she'll grow out of that too, right?

trying really hard to put up only two fingers

E has become more and more interested in letters.  I know she has added some to the ones she can pick out by sight, but I can't think of any other than Q right now.  She loves the letter E, and in her world E is ONLY for Elsie.  Any E she sees she screams out "E for Elsie!"  And also thinks anything with the letter E in it must say Elsie.  "It have E, it say my name!"  She still does pretty good with shapes and colors, and counting too.  A lot of times she'll scream out "2 3 6!" but if you ask her to 'count for real' she'll start with 2 and go to 10.  Getting her to start with one is still a bit of a challenge.

She has taken an interest in some of the longer books we have.  I'm sure she would have liked many of them before, but most of the bigger books are in Ryann's room or the family room, and we just have a lot of board books in her room.  Still some favorites this month have been Cats Night Out, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (which she calls Chicka ABCD), Max the Minow, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and Put Me in the Zoo.  Some other favorite things are Hello Kitty, playing Legos (or so she says), the color red, playing outside, the iPad, helping with laundry and the dishwasher and having an excessive number of stuffed animals in her crib.

Happy second birthday Elsie.  I can't believe you're two.  We all love you to pieces!

more to love

As if this year wasn't going to be crazy enough as it is, we decided throwing another baby in to the mix was a fantastic idea. ;o)  We're happy to announce that Baby J 3.0 will make their debut in August!

My official due date is August 14th, so I'm banking on a baby around the beginning of the month.  Unless gestational hypertension isn't an issue this time around.  Which would be cool.  :o)  Ryann is very excited for me to have another baby, and Elsie is as thrilled to be a big sister as any two year old can be.  Which means she keeps trying to look in my belly button for the baby.  We didn't tell the girls I was pregnant until Elsie's birthday party, because I knew there was no way Ryann could keep the secret to herself.

And yes, we will be finding out what we're having.  Actually, we already know.  !!!!!  But that deserves a post all of it's own.  ;o)

fourteen weeks

I kept hoping I'd get in the habit of taking my picture in the black dress like I did with Elsie, but it always seemed like way too much work, then I lost the dang dress for like a month, so mirror selfies plus the occasional fancy weekly pic is just how it's going to be.  Oh well!

14 weeks 4 days

how far along:  14 weeks (compare to 14 weeks with Ryann, 14 weeks with Elsie)

size of baby:  according to the bump a lemon, about 3.4 inches long and weighing 1.5 ounces.  Baby is growing lanugo and his or her kidneys are making urine.  Yay.  :o)

weight gain:  3.5 pounds.  Somebody hide the dang cookie and chips in my house please oh please!!  Chips are so good right now.  Not so good for the weight gain.

maternity clothes:  I've been wearing some tops here and there but really just because they're longer.  My pants don't really feel tight at all for the most part, so that's good I guess.

symptoms: I generally have a gross taste in my mouth, and I've had a ton of headaches this week.  But I'm attributing that to lack of sleep and too much sugar rather than being pregnant.

exercise:  This week was for sure better than my zero last week!  Still not wonderful but whatever.  I ran about 10 miles and walked another mile.  Running is getting so much harder though.  I feel like I am so slow, and I get tired quickly.  And I'm just annoyed that it is cold.  Where the heck is spring?  I mean I know it is only February but I am so over cold temps.

cravings/aversions:  Fruit and chips.

movement:  nope

sleep:  It hasn't been too bad, I've just stayed up too late doing things so I'm not sleeping enough.  Although one night I did sleep almost 10 hours straight and I was still ridiculously tired.

gender:  It's a girl!

looking forward to:  Decorating our new house (although that is a wee bit stressful) and going to Georgia.  BRING IT ON.

worries:  That my house will never ever ever EVER be clean when we have three children.  I have a hard enough time as it is keeping things picked up.  But I suppose there are worse things in life so I'll get over it.

what's different this time:  Knowing what we're having so early!

best moment this week:  Sharing the news with the girls, and the rest of the world.  I'm hoping the pregnancy will start to feel a little more real.  Also Ryann has hugged and kissed my belly more than once now, and it is just the sweetest.  It is so fun that she is older and can understand.  She is excited and can't wait for my belly to get big and to feel the baby move.  I love it.

elsie's school bus second birthday party

Eventually I'll get Elsie's 24 month post up, but I edited these photos first so here you go...

Originally when I started 'planning' Elsie's second birthday, I settled on a carousel horse themed party.  She sits on anything she can and says 'giddy up! I ridin' a horsey!', and loves carousels.  So great plan right?  Until Sarah asked her what kind of birthday she was going to have and she responded with 'school bus party'.  And her answered stayed the same for over a week, so I changed my plans.

I wasn't thrilled with the idea of using just black, white and yellow, so we took some liberty with the school bus theme and tossed in some pink, blue and purple too.  It's my (Elsie's) party and I'll do what I want.  Right?  I started searching pinterest for black and white parties and came across this one.  I LOVED the dessert table backdrop so I pretty much copied it.  It was seriously the easiest decoration I've ever made.  Circle punch + card stock + hot glue + twin sized sheet.  You can do it, I promise.  I just spray painted a large E, blasted it with some Krylon Glitter spray, and used push pins to hang everything up.  I made the tassels for the balloons myself, and ordered the giant yellow ones off amazon (FYI, those suckers cost at least $8 per to fill up at Party City.  Ouch!).

We had the party at 11am, and once all the guests had arrived we hopped on a real live school bus and went for a ride.  I swear the people thought I was crazy when I first called to see if I could rent a bus for a two-year-olds birthday party, and that I didn't have a plan of where to go, I just wanted to go.  But the driver who was assigned the party was awesome, and ended up driving us to the bus barn, where roughly 300 school buses of all sizes were parked.  Elsie was pretty dang impressed.  I think all the other kids had a good time on the bus as well.

By the time we got back from our ride it was time to eat.  I had looked for recipes for crock pot mac n' cheese, since that is Elsie's absolute favorite food, but then I got smart and we ordered Panera mac 'n cheese (Elsie's absolute absolute for sure favorite food EVER) and stuck that in our crock pot.  #winning  We also had these honey garlic lil' smokies, pizza roll ups, fresh fruit and veggies.  For dessert my mom made chocolate chip M&M cookies, and we got cake balls and a lemon cake from my friend Jenny.  Jenny is awesome and the cake was so cute.  Plus her cake balls/pops are AMAZING.  They taste so good.  She also is an amazing cookie decorator so if you're in the KC area and need some cookies, I think you should bug her.  :o)

The goal for this party was to make it look cute, have a lot of fun, and not stress too much.  I think we did a pretty darn good job.  I forgot to take pictures of a few of the details, naturally, but hey.  You get the idea.  Elsie's adorable little top was from Swallow's Return, and her crown is from Little Blue Olive.  Oh and the kids picnic tables I found on Wayfair, they're call a Kidnic table.  Such a good investment.  They wipe down so easily, fold up so easily, and are pretty darn sturdy when they are set up.  I don't think kids much over the age of 5 would be comfortable at them, but they definitely work WONDERFULLY for the 2-4 range.

Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate with us!  It was so fun to celebrate our Elsie girl, and we appreciate you showing her so much love.

thirteen weeks

My sister keeps texting me asking if I'm showing yet.  I sent her this and said '13 weeks + Chipolte, I'm showing.  You're welcome.'  Haha, it is totally true though.  If I eat a solid meal I look WAY more pregnant than I actually am.

Well, Baby J 3.0 is a SHE!  We're having another baby girl.  I was surprised by a call from my doctor's office on Monday saying they had our genetic testing results.  The great news is everything looked normal.  And she said I could pick up our gender envelope.

So I quickly did just that!  After picking up the envelope I headed over to Carter's and picked out both a boy and a girl outfit.  Then the ladies who were working took the outfits and my envelope in the back and packaged up the appropriate outfit.  Monday night after the girls were in bed, Chris and I opened the box.  And there was the little girl outfit.  I won't lie, it was a little anti climactic.  We were both expecting a boy.  But we're thrilled to know there is a healthy little girl in there.  And the next day, as I did Ry and Elsie's hair in matching pig tails, I giggled imaging three adorable girls.

how far along:  13 weeks (compare to 13 weeks with Ryann, 13 weeks with Elsie)

size of baby:  according to the bump a peach, about 2.9 inches long and weighing .81 ounces.  Baby is growing vocal cords and teeth, and he or she even has finger prints!  Also, the intestines are moving from the umbilical cord into the baby's belly.

weight gain:  Errrr, I've been eating like crap.  And I'm now up two pounds.  Not surprised in the least bit.

maternity clothes:  I've worn a couple of maternity tops, but mostly because they are longer.  If I could find some longer regular tops I think I'd be fine right now.

symptoms: Headaches and occasional nausea.  And horrible bloating if I eat things like Chipolte.  But I love Chipolte.

exercise:  I'm embarrassed to say that I get a big old zero in this department for the week.  With some cold weather and getting stuff ready for Elsie's birthday party and one day where I couldn't bear the thought of fighting with Elsie to get in the car so we didn't go to the gym, it just didn't happen.  Hoping to be better this week!

cravings/aversions:  Fruit and chips.

movement:  Nothing yet.

sleep:  I keep waking up right around 5 needing to pee and just can't get back to sleep.  So frustrating.

gender:  I'm 3/3 on being wrong, we're having a girl!

looking forward to:  Announcing the pregnancy on social media this weekend and being able to start pinning all things baby.  :o)  Also going to Georgia soon.  We've enjoyed a few nice days and I don't want them to stop!

worries:  I'm stressing about the home renovation right now.  We need to get a lot of things picked out and I don't want to make the wrong decision.  And finding the time to get places to pick everything out is tough too.

what's different this time:  I'm too lazy to come up with something for this right now.  Ha.

best moment this week:  Finding out that we're going to have another baby girl, and that all of our blood work was normal.

elsie says

The more Elsie talks, the funnier she gets.  So I think it is about time to start writing down her cute and ridiculous phrases!

Elsie asks for a banana almost everyday for breakfast.  We cut them up and she eats them with a fork.  One morning I cut them just a little too thin...
"Get on my fork!  Right now!  Listen nana!"

Elsie:  touching her nipples "I got more belly buttons."
Me:  "Those aren't belly buttons.  They're called nipples."
Elsie:  "Belly buttons!"
Me:  "No, they are called nipples."
Elsie:  "No way!  I see your nittles?"
Me:  Dead.

She also regularly says "leave alone me!" and "my do it!"  Not my favorite phrases to come out of her mouth, but ones I don't want to forget.

And to cap off this post, Elsie's first pigtails.  Ryann wanted them to have matching hair, so I pulled E's back for the first time.  It absolutely won't happen often, because it takes more time and Elsie doesn't really love having it pulled back.  But it was super cute.  And her sass.  It's too much.

our weekend

It's 5:40am and I can't sleep.  My brain is too busy.  I'd go for a run but it is at most 23 degrees, there is snow and ice on the ground, and I don't wanna.  So I suppose I might as well write a blog post!  It's been long enough.  Truthfully I've got a lot on my plate right now, and while I have had some free time, I just want to tune completely out come 8pm.  But home renovations are underway so soon enough I'll at least have all that to talk about!

Speaking of renovations, this weekend we went home to meet with a cabinet guy about designing our kitchen.  The kitchen has quickly escalated from just painting the cabinets white, to getting all new cabinets and appliances.  Funny how that happens.  In the long run I truly think it will be the best choice.  The house is going to feel almost brand new by the time we're done with it, and we will still be all in at less than we would have to build.  At least that what it seems like right now anyway.

They have ripped out all the carpet in the house, started taking out drawers and doors in the kitchen, and have almost completely gutted the master bathroom.  I have yet to completely come up with what I want the master bathroom to look like, or how I want it to be laid out.  Just one of the things keeping me up at night!  Unfortunately while we were at the house we noticed water leaking out of the dishwasher.  We tried to clean it up, couldn't figure out why the water was coming out, but scooped some out and thought we were good to go.  But the dang thing kept filling back up.  My dad and Chris came up with a solution, somehow shutting something off and turning on faucets in the basement.  But not before some of our hardwoods were definitely ruined.  We're getting them refinished so it shouldn't be an issue, but it was certainly frustrating.

After we finished meeting with the cabinet guy, Chris won all the dad points by driving Ryann back to Kansas City for an hour long event at her school.  It was Daddy Dino Day, where the kids and the dads could go have fun doing dinosaur activities.  I really didn't think he would take her, nearly three hours in the car, for an hour event, all while the KU basketball game was on (ROCK CHALK!).  But Christopher loves his girls, and Ry desparately wanted to go.  Ryann said they had dino snacks and did an obstacle course, dug for fossils and some other various things.  She had a blast and I'm so thankful she has a loving daddy who will do those things with her.

Also, she picked out her headband and bracelet that day.  Accessories are key!  :o)

If Christopher won all the daddy points, my parents definitely took the win on grandparent points for the weekend.  It was a cold gloomy weekend, so they opted to do something a little different.  The bounce house inside for a change!  I'm not sure why we've never tried it, but it definitely kept the girls busy while we were in town.  We regularly had to tell Elsie that the bounce house had to take a nap so that the thing wasn't running all day long.  Sorry about that electric bill Papa!

The rest of the weekend was spent pouring over pinterest for kitchen and bath ideas, eating big breakfasts and yummy dinners and making decorations for Elsie's birthday party.  As of Saturday the only thing I had accomplished was buying supplies and spray painting a giant E.  By Sunday night I had made 75 tissue tassels.  Whew!  My mom definitely played a role in it by cutting most of the tassels, while I did all the twisting and gluing.  The color scheme is starting to look a little 80's to me or something, but whatever.  I didn't want to use just black and yellow, so I threw in some other stuff.  Maybe a little more pastel would have been better, but nonetheless I think it will be fun!

daddy ran them outside to catch snowflakes on their tongue

It started snowing Sunday, and by the afternoon the roads were seeming a little icier than expected.  We decided to stay at my parents and had planned a run to the grocery store for supplies to make some super bowl snacks.  I was all pumped for the food, and then Chris remembered he needed to get the portable ultrasound machine back to work.  Wah waaah.  Goodbye yummy snacks.  Thankfully the highway turned out to be much better than we anticipated, so the drive home wasn't too rough.  On the way I ordered some pizza for dinner and we ate while watching the game.  I was pulling for the Seahawks, so sad.  The girls really enjoyed the halftime show, and I was just stoked to see Missy Elliot.

All in all, a pretty good weekend.