I have two daughters, blog!

 photos first.  I know why you're here.

playroom.  my daughters aren't exhibitionists... it was just hot outside and shirts seemed ridiculous:

we decided a swim was in order.

bathtime!  ruby's umbilical cord took a loooong time to fall off, so we were sponge-bathing for what seemed like forever...

before bed one night.  maggie thought everyone needed headbands.

maggie also thought she needed to wear a baby bib.  two, in fact.  this girl has coped pretty well with a new baby in the house, but there has been some regressive behavior... we think it's harmless, so we try to play along and reassure her of her place in the world:

I don't think I've posted how the room came out.  I've still got some things I'd like to do, but here's where we are today:

and here's my one month old with her own raggedy ann doll:

 

yes.  she's the spitting image of her sister.

random tidbits and trivia:

I'm not sleeping fantastically, but it's mostly been okay.  

we buy good coffee.

at night, ruby wakes up and wants to eat every 2.5-3 hrs, generally.  but she gobbles for only about 10 minutes and then falls right back to sleep, so that's nice of her.

ruby was a pound bigger than maggie when she was born, and it's wild to have a baby that's growing so fast.  maggie has always been small, and her clothes seemed to last forever!  I have to put ruby in things and take a quick picture....

she's in size 1 diapers already and she spits up more than maggie did.  she has pretty blue eyes and definitely more hair than her sister at this age. 

she's a good eater so far - I'm not sure if it's just her noshing prowess or my improved confidence this time around (likely both...), but breastfeeding has been easier.  she also takes a bottle well (so others can feed her when I'm not around)... I'm so thankful this has worked out for both of my babies, as it definitely makes things easier with me working.

work has mostly been just fine - the last two weeks I took one workday completely off each week and I've been limiting the length of my sessions, so I can get home within a timeframe I'm comfortable with.

I'm mostly narrating e-learning courses and reading audiobooks right now.

I forgot how much laundry one does with a newborn.  

I forgot about the aerodynamic poop up the back.

maggie is mostly really great with ruby, but we try not to force her to interact.  

magz is into:  seeds class at church, swimming, looking at photos of herself, playing, babies (dolls), her sandbox (I wish it wasn't so hot!), jumping/dancing, sesame street, yo gabba gabba, books, the ipad, showing visitors her big girl bed, storytelling (about the beach, a ride she went on with Michael at Schlitterbahn, Finding Nemo... "Nemo, Nemo, back!  Dada say... Nemo touch boat, no no!")...

her language skills are exploding and I love it.

we still generally cuddle on the couch most mornings, ruby's just thrown into the mix.

I'm bouncing back faster this time, which is a blessing.  it feels good to be physically active and pain-free after the limitations of the last couple of pregnant months.  

basically, we expected everything to be super hard with a 2 year old and a newborn, and that's not been our experience.  not that everything's been easy, but it's been more doable than I anticipated.  

I do feel guilty sometimes about magz... like, I worry she watches too much tv.  but then I think, 'I need to rest and Sesame Street (or Yo Gabba Gabba, or Olivia, or Classical Baby) gives me an hour (or 30 minutes) to close my eyes on the couch.  it doesn't define us, it just helps today.'  

and I just have to be okay with it.

oh, and while I say things haven't been as hard as I thought they'd be I still don't feel there's enough of me to go around.  I don't do all that I wish I could, and I can't seem to show up for people in ways I'd like.  There are limits to me and my capabilities, and I've decided to be okay with that, too, and just do my best from day to day.  I'm thankful for all of the help I've received, especially with maggie.

we took the girls to the Galleria one day to let magz play... I wore ruby in the moby, and by the time we'd been there two hours I felt like I'd been hit by a mac truck.  At one point, while Michael was in line at Starbucks, I was in Victoria's Secret looking to replace some undies, sweatily trying to make my selections, keep a somewhat strung out magz from making it rain panties all around us, and shift ruby around to relieve my increasingly angry lower back.  it was absolutely exhausting.  mama hasn't worked out in awhile, y'all.

speaking of being tired, it's so time for bed.  it was parent's night out at Willow Meadow's Baptist down the street, so while magz had dinner and played there husband and I and the baby went out for spicy Indian food.  I'm still full, plus I have a heavenly butter chicken curry in the 'fridge just waiting for me to dig into tomorrow.  yay!

night-night.

-m.y.

favorite children's books in our house! so far...

so sarah bessey has been doing a book week and my friend CS has been posting her faves.  in the spirit of yesterday's category of children's books, I thought it would be fun to post some of our favorites.  now, there are some books that I know are classics, and they're just great - I can't wait to get my hands on some of the books I've read about on these ladies' blogs, they sound just precious!  my list today, while containing a classic or two, is more of a compilation of Maggie's actual favorite books to date that we've read over and over whether M and I like them or not... in fact, we think some of the things she loves are silly, cheap little nothing books that don't have much to say or teach, but for some reason my newly 2 year old child likes them and far be it from me to diss a book.  like this one:

I'm pretty sure Grammy picked up My Speedy Turtle for her while they were at the fabric store.  our daughter still loves this... in fact, we read it this morning, and she just saw it here and said 'tuh-tuh!!'

we love Elmo and Sesame Street around here.  M and I watched the documentary 'Being Elmo' last night and it made me love them even more, frankly.  Maggie has some pretty dinky little SS books that really aren't well-conceived, but whatever - she loves them all.  The Look and Find above, which I picked up at Ross, was all she wanted for months...

another series totally found at Marshall's/Ross.  Leslie Patricelli's board books are fun, provided a lot of interaction and learning concepts with Magz early on, and we like them all... Quiet Loud, Big Little, Yes No...

this is STILL a favorite, and we read it just about every night.  we know it well enough that I just sit back and storytell and she interacts by pointing things out and saying 'hussshhhh!'.  she also likes The Runaway Bunny.

in the category of books I know by heart so well that now all I do is try to switch up my accents and voices, I give you The Rainbow Fish, a bath book.  I'm pretty sure this book recently made some list of weirdest/sadistic books for little ones - the rainbow fish does choose to share his shining scales with others to make friends, which I guess technically could be construed as self-mutilation - and M and I have joked that the overriding theme could make some cry 'socialist agenda!'  Magz doesn't care about any of this, and I love hearing her finish/act out some of the sentences/words.  'What does the Rainbow Fish say to the little blue fish, Maggie?  "Never!!" (with an emphatic shake of her head)'

both of these are still in regular rotation.  go Eric Carle!

and now we mention Mo Willems.

in the category of books that are fun for adults to read, too, I give you Mr. Willems.  we got these books when Magz was probably considered too young for such ones, but she's always liked them.  our first Knuffle Bunny book is tattered and taped together, and is still the fave (though book two gets more and more viewings... we've not purchased book three yet).  the elephant and piggie books are super fun, and again, fun to read if you're the one doing a lot of reading (piggie is a girl, btw.  so, you know, give her the girl voice).  There Is a Bird on Your Head!  and We are in a Book!  are our favorites, though Maggie also likes Can I Play, Too?...

Along with other long books that you sort of sigh about having to read over and over again (like the Elmo Look and Find!), we have a couple of these First Words books and Magz never tires of them.  She always likes things that involve being quizzed about what or where things are and likes that kind of interaction while reading no matter what kind of book it is, and now that she's starting to count and identify letters/colors/etc I know I need to stop rolling my eyes and rushing through educational opportunities... 

we were given The Jesus Storybook bible recently (by CS, coincidentally - thank you!!!) and I think it's by far the greatest children's bible ever.  however, this Beginner's Bible was given to Magz at her baby dedication at church and it's what we've had, so this is the one she currently prefers at night and when she wants to read to her baby.  I think it's an easier version for her to 'get' right now, as the stories are short and simple.  

I see no end to reading this book.

another that would probably be considered waaaay beyond her comprehension, we were given Grace For President by some friends - Maggie took to it when she was tiny and continues to pluck it from the bookshelf.  Especially when she was little, we had to skip over bits that bogged the main plot down (like how electoral votes break down... that's a little hard for a one-year old to follow), but it's been fun to watch her want to hear more and more.  I think it's a pretty fun and educational 'girls can do it, too!' book that has a positive message about working hard for what you want.

I would be seriously remiss if I didn't include this 'book' - Another Monster at the End of This Book, courtesy of the app store.  it's on our phones and on the ipad, and it has been very, very beloved for a long time.  if we had a nickel for every time she's 'read' this book, I'd be driving my blue Nissan Murano already.

there are so many honorable mention books to list, and books that seem to be becoming new favorites, like the Olivia books, which I also enjoy reading.  E McD gifted Magz her first one, and after sitting on the shelf a few months Magz suddenly discovered it and started pulling it out like clockwork, so we've since also purchased Olivia Saves the Circus (we actually just set the DVR to record the show later today, to see what that's like).  I'm glad Magz loves books of all stripes, and I look forward to introducing her to more and more.  

and I'm still pregnant over here happy fourth of july.

-m.y.

update and training success!

so I haven't had a baby yet.  but I will.  oh yes, I will.  and if you're not into babies or toddlers this post will be bor-ing.

the short, dramatic baby story went like this:  a couple of weeks ago we got to get a 36 week ultrasound.  which we were really looking forward to, as we hadn't seen little bit since the one around 20 weeks when they measure everything and tell you what your genetic testing odds reveal.  anyhoo, the u/s technician got a huge reading - she said our baby was in the 93-95th percentile, and was essentially going to be gigantic.  which was a little startling, and prompted our doc to send us back to our specialist for another high-level u/s and a second opinion.  the specialist, dr. A, didn't see anything to get excited about and said she got a reading of 61st percentile.  that's quite a disparity.  she did, however, note that I had low/normal amniotic fluid, the beast I battled with Maggie (except there was no 'normal' attached to it, it was just low and we had to monitor it pretty extensively the last 2 months).  back to our regular doc, who said let's check again next week.  next week he'd forgotten he ordered another u/s, but I requested it anyway in the nicest way possible, proceeded to dump all of the above story on another u/s tech, and asked her to please, please check everything and tell me why everyone was getting such different numbers.  turns out the first tech simply made a mistake - our babe is totally average (yay average!) and on par pretty much with what Mags was size-wise.  it took an unnecessary chunk of change to sleuth that out, really, but in the end I was so glad to get a good, normal report I didn't care.

my fluid levels are holding fairly steady, but are still on the low end of 'normal' (and will only go down as she grows, not up) so at my last appointment my doctor decided to induce on the 9th (a week from tomorrow) if baby girl doesn't debut this week.  that's only 3 days before my due date - Magz was induced 5 days before, and I'd already started contracting, so I figure I have a fighting chance of my body doing it's thing without pitocin.  not that I'm hung up on a birth plan - I'm at peace with whatever needs to happen - but having done it one way I'd like to experience the difference if I could.  like my nurse said last time, pitocin is a mean drug and that's no joke.

I've had more fake labor this time around.  it's not pleasant, but I hope it's preparing my body to do great things.  I skipped church today because I was up for a couple of hrs last night trying to convince my belly muscles to relax, and it left me bleary and with a hip aflame this morning.  my babies do something crazy to my left hip, and this time around it's worse in the sense that I don't have to be standing up for it to start killing me... just laying weird, or the baby knocking against something, will cause something white hot and awful to bloom in there.  complain complain!  really, I'm just chronicling for the heck of it, since I'm Infrequent Blogger these days.  I'm in the home stretch, and it's really all good.  I've gotten to spend some sweet time with Maggie lately, and I think I'm ready to meet this new person.  I'm fairly caught up with life - all of my billing is done, I've settled up with some regular clients, taxes are done and just need us to approve and sign off on the return, I've restructured my business/tax savings set-up, the house is more organized than ever, and I got Magz on a waiting list for an early pre-school program at a church near us.

so what else.

M has been on a 2-week gig of loooong days away.  It's been less than 100% fun to single-parent with a belly this big, and especially when I thought I was growing a gigantic baby I had a little stress thinking that she'd make her appearance early and mgb would be on a set in West Houston.  which could have happened anyway without her being huge, but didn't.  my mother-in-law has been a huge help, allowing me to get out for sessions/appointments/runs to the grocery store, but the things most challenging for me are piddly, like getting a slippery 2 year old out of the bathtub at night, corralling her in her room, and getting her lotioned/dressed/deposited into bed.  it leaves me physically wiped out.  today was his last official shoot day, and after he packs up and ships off the gear tomorrow all that's left is for us focus on having a good week ahead.

I would, however, like to share a recent parenting triumph, Super Nanny-style.

to start, when she was still in her crib I had a pretty easy time putting Maggie down to sleep at night, and she was good about sleeping through the night.  we moved her into a big-girl bed - a toddler, daybed-style one - in mid-May, thinking we wanted her to have a chance to get really comfortable with the idea before the new baby came.  she did okay with it, and almost immediately picked up on the fact that she could get out of this new bed.  so we've had our fair share of sending her back to bed both at the beginning and during the night, and especially since our trip to Surfside she'd been making a habit of coming into our room at some point - sometimes more than once - to ask for milk and to climb in bed with us.  I thought it was probably some sort of natural regression - there's been so much development verbally/emotionally lately, I didn't make too big a deal of it.  I'd sometimes take her back to her own bed after giving her a sippy, sometimes I'd fall asleep and we'd sleep family-style (though I don't rest really well if she's in bed with me).  anyway, I didn't mean for it to become a regular thing, which is what was happening.  we're about to introduce newborn baby-nightime crazy to the house, and I don't want her stuck on coming into our room.  so this week, I committed to train her to stay in her bed, or at least get used to us saying no or giving her a boundary.  the first night, she got up 35 times.  she didn't come into our room that many times - after walking her back twice, silently and without giving her milk, I sat on the floor in her room quietly and without looking at her for awhile and let her work on me, plead with me, try anything she could.  then I went out, leaned up against the wall outside her door, and waited - when she came to the door and saw me there in the hallway, she wailed and went back to dramatically throw herself in bed.  this went on for about 30-45 minutes.  finally all was quiet, and I trudged to bed.

the next night, it took only 3 times.

and the next, one, with barely a squawk.

last night, nothing.  she even slept through my walking around and taking a nocturnal bath to try and relax ye olde Braxton Hicks contractions.

other things I think are helping:  not letting her nap for more than 2 hrs (and not past 4p), trying to stick with the general routine of eating dinner between 6-6:30 / bath 7ish / play-run around-get out the crazies / milk-downtime-books / bed-a few more books-singing-prayer-night-night by 8:15-30.  I sometimes let parts of this routine slip due to my own weariness, but I've stuck to it like clockwork the past 3 nights and she's gone right to sleep with no fuss, getting out of bed, or angling for more milk.  I'm not a hardcore schedule kind of person and because of the nature of our work we've actively tried to cultivate a flexibility in Magz in hopes that she'll be best able to roll with the kind of lives we lead - like, being able to sleep anywhere, be comfortable being fed/cared for by others and staying nights away from us, that sort of thing - but that certainly doesn't mean I can't see the value of a general schedule and the benefit of structuring the day to best play to her energy level/needs.

I'm sure it'll all be turned topsy-turvy when the new baby's here, but right now I'm feeling pretty accomplished and hope to enjoy as much rest as possible this week before I'm up nursing through the night.

I think this is the most mommy-bloggery blog I've ever posted.  sorry - I've been going back to remind myself of what to expect based on what I wrote when Magz was first born, and it occurred to me that I might find this info helpful in a couple of years when memory fails.  or you could just look at this post as a pretty benign alternative to anything political I could have written (aren't we all on overload from this week's happenings?).

kisskiss,

m.y.

vacation... and stuff.

We took a much-appreciated vacation to Surfside beach a couple of weeks ago with family.  I heartily recommend doing this, people.  It's so close, was way more cost-effective than Galveston, and is a great getaway if you're not looking for a lot of scheduled activity-sightseeing (though Galveston and all is just up the coast about 30 minutes).

I think most of these photos need little captioning... it was tough to choose just these.  Enjoy.  :)

I rather enjoyed the look of this one blown out... we call it 'Grammy in a bucket':

day 3 - Schlitterbahn.  also highly recommended.

decompressing at the end of the day:

for kicks, some of you may recall a photo Melanie B. took of me at Galveston when we were sending off the Browns... she made it look all kinds of cool and old-fashioned.  we thought it would be fun to have a pregnant one (and if you need to know where to get this super-cute maternity swimsuit, here it is):

and lookie what craftiness I'm capable of!  you might remember that I made this mobile for Maggie... well, we had this birdcage hanging in the corner of Magz' room and in the new configuration it's now over the baby bed.  I decided to keep it and just turn it into a mobile for the new little one.  it's not quite done yet (if you look close you can see the pins) but it looks really cute in there and I wanted to share this burst of creativity, even if it was somewhat blurrily caught by my iphone.  :)

So, what else.  I'll be 35 weeks pregnant on Thursday.  I feel mostly okay - bending and picking things up is a royal pain in the hoo-ha and if I'm on my feet for longer than about an hour my left hip starts protesting, but Michael is letting me keep the thermostat down - even though it's freezing him out, I think, and may cause a minor shock when we receive the electric bill - and overall things are just fine.  We get to see the baby on sonogram later next week, and I'm really looking forward to that.  So much went on with Maggie - it seems like we saw her all the time, what with the specialist and my regular doc, but this go-'round has been different.  I'm starting to get excited about turning my attention to actually having a baby, as things slowly but surely get marked off my to-do list.  tiny clothes washed - check.  girls' closet (mostly) done - check.  laundry/play room (mostly) done - check.  Magz in her toddler bed - check.  the house (mostly) reorganized - check.  sci-fi trilogy audiobook recording - principal narration of book 3 completed this week, corrections completed by Tuesday of next.  VBS kickoff fish fry tomorrow night... I'm helping in the kitchen and with food, but likely phasing out after tomorrow until after baby is born, as my hip hates having to stand up that long and those are becoming rough nights for me.  Magz' birthday party a week from Saturday.  We're supposed to host dinner group this month, need to send that email after I hit publish...

I find myself prioritizing easily... things that can wait, will.  Things that aren't important, fall by the wayside.  It feels like a gift.

hubz home, so I should go. he's making dinner.  I'm blessed in most every way, really.... you have my permission to remind me of that when I don't act like it.

-m.y.