may.

want to see what the month of may looked like in our lives, via the cellular?

alright then...

on memorial day weekend we visited grandpa's grave, had a family bbq, went to breakfast, lunch & dinner (a few times, actually), did cartwheels, somersaults, handstands & lifts in the backyard and ate a lot of popcorn.

we went on lots of dates. this particular one was to setebello for pizza.

evie met jane kinyon! this is also known as the night ev had a major meltdown (her first) that we couldn't make better. it was kind of funny. i laughed. whoops.

holls & i enjoyed some park time, some kitchen time and a few walks with our babies. this afternoon we decided to throw our babies in a large pile & take pictures. we're really good mothers, i promise.

we went to the zoo! i feel the urge to always say the "zoo-z-zoo" when referring to this place.
do you feel that urge? where does it come from?!

we visited the burbanks and ev met beau burbank for the first time!
she has these brothers to choose from when it comes time to marry. choose wisely, ev.

we spent hours in the bumbo, on the playmat and examining the toys.
and this is what my life looks like every day at 5pm; me and evie in her bedroom keeping ourselves occupied & counting down the minutes until g gets home. what does your life look like at 5pm?

we went to the tulip festival and ev met marley chunat! that girl has a lot of friends these days.

we spent lots of time with the bride & groom to be. 

dinner at citrus grill, helping with their wedding prep & just hanging out.

meg and i also caught a late-night movie. we love them.

dinner at citrus grill.

and the girls went for a mother's day pedicure and lunch.

there you have it...bits & pieces of may. despite the crazy weather, we managed to have fun.
here's to summer, the stroller, the pool & sunshine. happy june!

month four: a baby and her teddy.

this is a classic "evie face"

some pictures of our big four month old taken with something other than a cell phone!

month four.

Can I just say that I LOVE the baby stage. I know some people aren't so fond of this stage (they can't talk, they need to be carried, they sleep a lot, they have blow-outs, you know...) But I absolutely love it. I love having a tiny person on my hip all day long. I love that she can't crawl away and get into trouble when I set her down. I love her gummy smiles and little laughs. I love that her and I are attached at the boob hip all day long and after having a baby in my home, I honestly can't imagine ever not having a baby in my home (and wow, that might cause some problems, huh?)....
Moving on.

We went to Ev's 4 month checkup the other day and little girl is still a teeny tiny little girl. She is only in the 7th percentile for weight, but has climbed up to the 67th percentile for height! Tall and skinny. I told her that there are worse things to be, am I right, ladies?! Despite the fact that she is small, she loves to eat & looks nice and chubby to me.

Of course a checkup also meant the dreaded shots that are supposed to be no big deal, but in this house they are a very big deal, because they mean tears and pain all night long. We went to see Nana after the appointment and Ev seemed to be okay for a while, but after an hour or so, she was more hysterical than I've ever seen her. It broke my heart, but luckily she had two of us there to comfort and hold her and she is feeling much better now.

Here are some snapshots from her big day. I've realized I honestly take at least 5 pictures of her every single day on my phone, but I haven't really photographed her in a while, so we will try to get that done soon.

waiting for the doctor. we waited for a long time & amused ourselves with the crinkly paper!

finally asleep. those cheeks are edible! they taste like Swedish fish!

her first night sleeping without the swaddle (the doc told us to stop). she did fine until 2am when she woke me up crying, at which point i deliriously stumbled into her room thinking to myself "what time is it!?" because i haven't been up with her in the night for something like 8 weeks now & i forgot how to function at that hour. anyways, i didn't even think twice- just went in and swaddled her little waddle so tight and we both went right back to bed & never regretted it for a second. whatever.

poor little nakey baby time with band-aids on her thighs!

Happy 4 months my sweetest girl!

food festival downtown!

last weekend was officially my favorite weekend in a longgg time. for the first time in a while, the sun was shining, people were happy and there was actually something to do! outside! imagine that!

first ev & i went to a shower for aunty meg, whose wedding to brother jon is just around the corner! her cutest grandma threw the best stinking party (that i'm sure sarah will blog about soon, right sarah?) and we had a great time (despite the fact that evie was like "get me home & put me down for a nap, NOW!" the entire time)

later that evening, g and i went to the living traditions festival & little brother k tagged along. lots of yummy food (tried so many new things), amazing people watching and some cool (and not-so-cool) on stage performances.

here's to hoping summer is on it's way and there will be more fun to be had. well done, slc!

in which my baby's blow-outs make me think. and how strange is that?!

 Pictures from my time in the hospital.

Tonight, after tacos and cold diet cokes, G & I sat on our living room couch and bounced our baby. We had her on the edge of my knees, sitting up stiffly, bouncing up and down and back and forth as she laughed and screamed in delight. And we watched her with permanent smiles on our faces.

After we finished, she sat on her Dad's lap and then suddenly, began to fuss. After giving her her bink, rocking her for a bit and trying all of his Daddliest tricks, G lifted her slightly and discovered the problem. She'd had a blow-out. A massive one. And now his shirt, his shorts and her little outfit were all covered in baby pee.

He tried to solicit my help. "It's a blow-out!" he yelled. "I need back-up". So I came and watched, but didn't help. After all, I change blow-outs all the time. And really, he's got it.

He returned her to me after using most of the wipes in the warmer and proclaimed it to be the wettest, soggiest diaper he had ever seen (isn't this just a lovely post!?). And I had this thought, instantly, come into my head:"This from the baby who didn't pee enough in her Mom's tummy".

And even as I said it, I surprised myself with how meaningful a little statement like that really was. How miraculous it was, really. Because now, that baby...she pees.

And she's that same baby. My baby. My baby that baffled doctors, that left them confused and uncertain. My baby that lived inside my stomach for months with little-to-no amniotic fluid (which is really just made up of baby urine, did you know?). My baby that so many Doctor's told me might be sick, might have problems, might not be well. My baby that landed me in the hospital on bed-rest for 6 weeks. My baby whose little heart we had to listen to every 3 hours. Whose NST's were scheduled twice per day.

And all because we needed to make sure there hadn't been a kink in her umbilical cord. Because she didn't have enough amniotic fluid to move. Because we needed to make sure she was still alive.

Because, my Doctor finally proclaimed in confusion, she simply didn't pee enough.

But oh, that baby, she pees now.
All the time, really.
And she laughs, she cries, she screams in delight. She grows, she changes, she learns.

And she's fine.

Sometimes I look at her and feel overwhelmed with the knowledge that God loves us. That even when we think there isn't a reason to hope, there is. That situations change. That nothing is permanent. That bad times get better. That life goes on. And sometimes, people surprise us.

We have the blow-outs to prove it.

oh, mr. sun.

This past weekend, the sun decided to come out and say hello. And suddenly, all the world was pleasant again and I was super stoked about the possibility of summer (do you really think it will come? No, really...do you?!?!).

Suddenly I had the greatest ideas like, "Hey Ev, let's put on our swimming suits!" and "Let's picnic at the park!" and "Who wants to lay outside in the sunshine for 2 hours?" (I do!). And we made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries! I bought Creamies! Ev wore sunscreen! Hell, we went to the ZOO!

Do you know what happened today, friends? Do you know what happened after that weekend of glorious sunshine? Do you know what happened after I finally got some color on my skin and introduced Ev to the season that will inevitably be her life-long favorite (after all, girls who look that good in bathing suits love summer).

After all that, It snowed.

That's right.
Snow.

And now, we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves. I mean, we were sort of getting used to the idea of being summer babies and now this?! In our boredom, we've made cookies and homemade pizza (homemade dough, even!). I've watched too much television (Oprah is leaving and I'm not handling it well). Ev has taken a few too many naps. We've snuggled in bed & become well-acquainted with Baby Einstein. We've taken baths. We've practiced rolling over. We've gazed longingly out the window at our awaiting stroller.

And we've had photo shoots.

You guys, we're bored.

swaddle me.

Tonight is one of those nights where I am so exhausted I have no idea why I am sitting here at the computer when I could be swimming in my silky soft sheets and enjoying my ice-cold pillow instead. I don't know. Sometimes I make bad decisions.

Except I'm here because I'm tired. And I feel like talking about that. Because, well, how do the rest of you Mothers do it? And I mean, seriously. You know you Mothers whose babies continue to wake up in the middle of the night well into their first year of life. Yes, you Mothers! You Mothers are amazing! Also, you Mothers who have more than one child! And how do you do that, really!? Do you down a few bottles of 5 hour energy each morning? Do you eat nothing but caffeinated foods all day long (dark chocolate and diet coke, perhaps? I think that's wise). I mean what in the world wide web do I have to be complaining about, anyway.

Except, being a Mother is exhausting. Especially when I consider that I'm responsible for teaching her to talk, to walk, to roll over, to sit, to stand, to sing, to read, to chew, to swallow, to say her prayers, to say thank you, to not feed her cheerios to the dogs, to know how to throw a decent punch (because I do!), to like tomatoes and to never ever talk to strangers. I also plan on teaching her how to forge signatures and memorize song lyrics, but maybe that's just me.

And then there's the tummy time. Darn that tummy time! I never remember the tummy time. I think today's session was only Ev's 3rd in her life and needless to say, girlfriend doesn't perform as expected on the tummy. Usually I just watch her try to suckle and nurse the blanket her face is shoved up against for a few minutes and then call it good (but don't you fret, because her head is round and she can totally hold it up all by herself, the rockstar). Anyways, somewhere in between the diapers, the baths, nursing, more nursing and the tummy time, boy am I wiped out.

Also, have we discussed the weather!? Today we went for a walk in the crisp May air (you know, the crisp MAY AIR, no big deal) and Evie wore her full-body snow suit in order to stay warm. And I thought to myself, "Self, why is my baby wearing a full-body fleece snow suit in MAY!?" Something about that just makes me question everything I once believed about the world. Because May is for the ice cream man and swing-sets. Full-body snow suits should be burned as a celebratory act on March 1st and should never re-surface until December. I mean, AM I RIGHT?!

I feel better now that we've talked about these things. Tomorrow I'm going to follow the token advice everyone gives when one has a baby and "sleep when my baby sleeps". I plan on 3 (maybe 2?! I don't know, we're still figuring that out) afternoon naps and a morning snooze session while watching Baby Einstein. Oh and then I'll be dozing off for 30 minute power naps at least 3 times tomorrow night before I'm swaddled and in my footy pajams by 9pm.

It's going to be a good day.

*If you made it to the end of this ramble, I have a prize for you, because guess what!? It just occurred to me that I have been swaddled before in my life (post diapers) and you can find a picture of that here. You're welcome.

you & me on mother's day.

 our first mother's day together!

and i also give you: when husband's take pictures. part 2