The Family Bed

We never envisioned that we'd have two little girls sharing our bed with us for part of the each night. In fact when I was pregnant with Paisley I swore up and down that I would not get her used to sleeping with me. And yet here we are almost 7 months later and she's cuddled up next to me in bed while I write this. I expect Harper will join us in a few short hours.

Some nights when Paisley really isn't in to sleeping in her crib I cuddle her up with Harper until I come to bed and she's totally content. It buys me a little time to watch a show or take a shower. I'd be surprised if they don't choose to sleep together often as they grow up.

I'll take these snuggles as long as I can get them!

Lucky Lady

It's not  unusual for our friends to ask now and then if they can stop by the fire station with us when Will's working. All of Harper's friends know her daddy's a fireman. Andrew talks about it when he reads firetruck books with his mom and Jackson says firemen are brave, heros, who are very tall. (That one made Will's day.)

Our girl....she says...what's the big deal guys...I see firetrucks so often...they let me WASH them! Lucky lady!

Budding Talent

Spending most of the winter indoors or exploring mountains of ice cold snow makes us especially anxious to get back to the playgrounds. We watched for daily signs of snow melting. One park actually had piles of plowed snow directly in front of it teasing us even as the weather started breaking 50 degrees.

But now it's all clear and we're back to the park routine. Every night we ask Harper what she wants to do tomorrow and she almost always answers "go to the park" her full answer is usually "go to the park with papa" but I digress.

The best thing about getting back to the park is testing our skills. Feeling out the slides again and sharpening our dormant park skills. It's also a chance for us to see if the inch or so we've grown since the last park trip helped us conquer a new skill. This year Harper is able to climb up to the platform to the big slide with ease. At the end of the last park season she was doing it but it was hard and after a while she couldn't muster the strength to pull herself up and she needed a boost. This year, she's up without difficulty and doesn't even hesitate before sliding down the slide. She's getting so brave!

But the big accomplishment came with the "Lilly pads." The are a series of yellow plastic stepping stones that you can walk across. They take balance and confidence. Harper has always enjoyed them but always asked for a hand. With a little coaxing our girl gave it a go solo. And boy did she do good. She felt good too. That smile across her face was priceless. The kind that warms our heart from the inside out. Nothing like the pride of accomplishing a new skill.

First trike peddling and now this. I think this is going to be a summer to remember!

Sisters

I'm an only child. I grew up dreaming about having a sister or brother but it was never in the cards. When I was pregnat with Paisley a little part of me hoped that maybe, just maybe this baby would be a girl and I could give Harper a sister. Such a gift.

It hasn't been until recently that I've realized the magnitude of this gift.

They laugh together and take comfort in being together. People can say that someday they'll fight and bicker but I don't care. Because today they look like this and I'm engraving these smiles into my memory forever.

6 Months & First Food!

Our baby is 6 months old. She can sit up, she gurgles and coos all day long. She chews on her toys especially her sophie and she grabs for EVERYTHING! She smiles and laughs and loves it when  you blow raspberries on her neck. She's totally enamoured with her sister and refuses to be out of eyesight of her mama and now....she eats rice cereal.

This girls has been begging for food for months now. She eyeballs each bite you put in your mouth and tracks your hand to mouth movements. I was so sure she's love eating. I guess rice cereal with breastmilk wasn't exaclty what she had in mind. But she's a trooper and she's keeping an open mind. I keep telling her...just wait little lady...the best is yet to come!

The Big Thaw

March is that time of year here in New England where the mountains of snow rapidly shrink until they're gone and all that remains is sloppy muddy earth that just begs to be stomped in.

So we did the stomping and the puddle jumping and soaked in the warm temperatures (I'm talking 40 degress here people!) And we FINALLY spent more than 20 minutes outside. We recharged on some of our vitamin d and got excited for the warm weather to come.

We broke out our tree swing and gave Paisley her first push. She loved it!

In true New Englander (I wanted to say Vermonter there but realized although I may still be Haper is definitely not) style we improvised a way to get out and start riding bikes before the snow had totally melted. We hit up the local tennis courts before the nets went up. Perfect soft ground with a fenced in safety zone. It was awesome and so was Harper she really took to peddling this year in no time. And I have to say, the tennis court was soooo much better then peddling back and forth in our garage, girl's got some get up and go! You can see more about this day here.

It's also that time of year where you spend one day playing outside for hours and sunning yourself on the front steps and the next day the temperature doesn't get above 30 degrees and you have a freak snow storm that cancels schools and calls snow plows back out. For those days we had a back up plan.

Finger paints, puzzles, paper dolls, playdates and trips to the library. Our last ditch effort to get through the end of winter and get us closer to walks to the park and picnic lunches.

 

 We filled the rest of March with a trip to Maine to say goodbye to Leah, Ryan, Theo & Ana's first home together. I got a little sentimental that this was the house we brought Bella to the very first day we got her. I can only imagine how Leah felt bringing her two babies home there. But they are on to new and exciting things. New house, new town, very exciting. In the meantime we'll have to change up our visit routine but I'm hoping it won't slow us down.

I helped plan a "surprise" shower for Dana and baby #3 this month. Despite her dislike of crowds, especially those that are focusing all of their attention on her, Dana enjoyed herself and baby M got lots of goodies. Now we get to wait and see if we're having a new baby boy or baby girl to add to our clan.

Pat and Steph also brought exciting news this month. They found out the baby they're expecting is going to be a BOY! Hurray for babies and for boys. We all all excited for this new little man to join us. Harper is especially anxious...I think the next 5 months will be long for her!

Harper and Paisley are both getting so big. Paisley has been sitting up for about a month now and she's good. Totally steady and confident. She's even showing signs of crawling. She gets up on all fours and does the rocking thing. I remember it so fondly with Harper but surely thought it wouldn't happen this fast. Time flies and if P is on track with her sister she should be crawling in about 2 weeks. I'll be surprised if she's not. Unbelievable.

Paisley turned 6 months on April 1st. We took her to the pediatrician and she doing great. Still recovering from an ear infection but it's not slowing her down. She weighs 15 lbs 6 oz and is 27" long (that's the 60th percentile folks...I might just have a future super model on my hands here.) She truely is the happiest baby I've ever known. It's astonishing how good tempered she is. She sleeps well and loves to cuddle and she's totally smitten with her big sister.

Harper is getting more and more confident every day. Her language is constantly improving and she comes out with some big words. We've been renting movies at the library to take the place of the TV we no longer have and it's been interesting to watch her come up with games to play inspired from what she's watched. Such as Olivia or a Little Einsteins movie she enjoys. We play a game where she buckles all our seat belts and we say "blast off".

She still loves puzzles and has totally mastered all the ones we own.

Sometimes at school on Friday's when we sing the song where you sit on your mom's lap like you're riding a horse Harper will go sit on the teacher's lap instead of mine. Harper 1 year ago wouldn't have dreamed of doing this. And the other day at the park she asked me if she could go play with some bigger girls. I said sure and she went up to them and just stood there. They were probably 7 or 8 and totally uninterested in my tiny lady but she was brave and when she came back and said they were playing with grass and didn't want to play with her. So, we decided we'd play with grass together. She was totally satisfied pulling up grass with Paisley and I and P really enjoyed her first experience with grass. Wait till it turns green and soft girl...you're in for a treat!

I'm changing things up with the blog. Trying to post a little more often than once a month. Check in now and then and I'll still send out a monthly email when I remember.

A Birthday Project For Papa

Buying gifts for your parents is always hard. What can they possibly need? Well once you have kids you have the opportunity to combine a gift with a craft project. It's a win win.
Everyone knows my parents have a pretty awesome garden and what better for your garden then a stepping stone with your granddaughter's hand prints in it.
We got Harper totally amped about the project and she skillfully chose the stones she would use to decorate "Papa's rock"

I should preface this by saying this entire project is made up with a bag of colorful stones, a small bag of cement, trowel. plastic dish and some rubber gloves. If I ever try it again I'll be getting these supplies from the hardware store intead of Red Envelope but I digress.

We may have let the cement sit a little too long before we did the handprints because they aren't super deep but you can tell there's one big and one tiny. And Harper strategically placed each stone exactly where she wanted it. Overall it was quite a success. It's going to look lovely in "Papa's garden."