Helping Hands and Haircuts

I've been incredibly blessed by all the people in my life who have given us meals, spoken words of encouragement, and lent extra pairs of hands while I've been working on figuring out how to be a mother of 2 under 2. I certainly have a lot to learn and am so thankful for help! Here are a couple more pictures from our time at my parents house.

Ruby and Clara got to hang out with their cousin Lydia a bunch. Ruby and Lydia are so funny together - they love each other.

Just hanging out under a pile of my daughters.

Ruby loves her Papa. She always asks him "Want me to hold you?" and he teaches her about the animals at his house. During this trip she saw a mama Robin feeding her 3 babies, turkeys, worms, deer, a cat, a dog, raccoons and a lot of birds.

This is Ruby's hair most mornings... I know Uncle Aaron really appreciates the crazy hair pics.

And finally, here is a quick video of Angela giving Ruby her 1st haircut.

Friends, friends and more friends!

I had the opportunity to spend the last 2 days visiting my parents and hanging out with my sister and some dear friends. Angela and Lydia get to hang out with Brooke and Jada pretty often, so it was a blast when Ruby, Clara and I could hang out too! I love you Angela, and I love you Brookie!

Ruby, Lydia enjoyed some time eating snacks on the porch... this picture must have been taken before the snacks arrived.

Later on, my oldest friend (we've been friends since 1985 when we were both in kindergarten) Katie came over to meet Clara Dawn. I love that Katie is in my life after all of these years. She is incredible. I love you Katie.

Then, my friend Sandy, who had her first baby just one week before Clara was born, came over for a visit. Clara and Jesse hung out, they had a great time.

There is something really special about going through multiple life stages with the same friends. Sandy and I lived together in college and pretty much immediately realized we were destined to be life-long friends. Seeing her as a mom is so cool. I love you Sandy!

18 Crazy Nights

Clara Dawn has so many expressions. The lip pucker, the eyebrows raised, and even a little grin sometimes.

And now, a post about how things are going:

• First of all, I totally forgot how much newborns sleep (20 hours a day), poo (as soon as I put a new diaper on her), and cry. Basically, I forgot repressed everything about newborns.
• Secondly, I love blogging - I blog for you, my readers, my family, my friends... but I never considered "helping myself stay sane" as one of my reasons for blogging. In the last few days I have learned so much from going into my blog archives and reading my own thoughts from June 2009 when Ruby was born. I totally forgot that she used to cry from 9pm-2am most nights when she was first born. This realization has helped me cope with Clara's newborn tendencies.
• Last night around 1am after we had been dealing with Clara screaming her little lungs out since 10:30pm, Ryan and I disassembled the bassinet in our room, carried it down the hall and reassembled it in the living room. Yes friends, we let Clara "cry it out" last night for a LOOOOOOOONG time (37 minutes to be exact). I did check on her after 22 minutes to make sure she was okay. She was okay, just absolutely furious about the fact that we weren't holding her. It is amazing how much fury a tiny infant can create. I kept thinking she was on the verge of death from the fury within her little self. Luckily, she eventually puttered out and slept for a good 5 hours after that. Crying is good exercise for babies.
• They say that motherhood is when most women start losing their hearing - I could not agree more. I'm pretty sure I am more deaf today than I was yesterday. This morning I experienced survived a dual-meltdown. Clara was crying because she was fighting sleep - Ruby was crying because her blanket was in the washing machine. It was intense. I almost went outside and sat on the porch by myself...

And now for the good news!

• Late at night when I'm awake and feeding Clara, it helps me to think about my dear friends who are awake and feeding their babies too. Sandy, Molly, Bekah, Emily, Allison and really soon Jess, Bree, Sarah, and Brooke I love you all and love that you're with me in all of this!
• Babywise works. It worked with Ruby and it is going to work on Clara too. I feed her every 3 hours all day, then after her 10pm feeding she goes to sleep and I don't feed her again until she wakes up. So far, I've been able to sleep 4-5 hour stretches almost every night since we got home from the hospital. I am more rested than I would be if not for Babywise and I am thankful... don't get me wrong - I'm ridiculously exhausted, I am one of those people who typically would sleep 9-10 hours a night. I'm excited for the 8-week mark (July 1) when I can drop the nighttime feeding and switch from a 3 to a 4-hour feeding schedule. I remember feeling like a whole new woman at the 8-week mark with Ruby.

And now for some more good news!

• I got $182 worth of Pottery Barn Kids Pink Gingham curtains, twin bed skirt, and sparkly ornamental window hardware for $20 thanks to Craigs List. SAYIN'!! I'm so excited to put it all in Ruby's room when we get to Columbus.
• Also,I took both girls to Kohl's this morning and successfully got them both out of their car seats, into the stroller, into and out of the store, then back into their car seats all by myself. haha. a huge logistical success. I'm pumped.
• If you are still reading this, I applaud you.
• I was reading a really funny blog today about decisions on having more children... and I am actually excited about continuing to grow our little family. In spite of the somewhat sleepless shenanigans of the last 18 days, I love being a mom. 

I know these days go by so fast and suddenly there is an almost 2-year old thanking Jesus for her nose and for her paci during her prayers at night. On that note, I'm hoping to get the video camera going when Ryan puts Ruby to bed tonight because her prayers are seriously the best thing I've ever heard.

Here's to more crazy nights! Woohoo!

Bryan, Michelle and Elliot

Tonight our dear friends came from Chicago for one last visit before we move. Here are Ryan, Bryan and Elliot in the classic "Grill Out" picture.

The ladies...

and Elliot with the ladies. He is such a cutie buttons.

We walked to the sunday shop for some ice cream after it stopped raining... a fun adventure for Ruby and Elliot who couldn't figure out why they were still allowed to be awake.

Thanks for coming to visit! We love you guys!

Granny and Papaw meet Clara

My incredibly wonderful Granny and Papaw drove all the way up from Southern Indiana to meet their Great Granddaughter this morning. Clara and Ruby are so blessed by all of their Grand Parents and Great Grand Parents.

Grammy with her girls.

And of course, Papaw took Ruby for a walk to the park in the wagon.

Sisters

 Ruby loves holding her baby sister. These pics are from the last few nights. Precious.

The Pledge of Allegiance

Posted this video a few days ago, but for some reason it disappeared... so here it is again.

Ryan couldn't think of a song to sing with Ruby before bed, so he taught her the Pledge of Allegiance.

Tulip Time 2011

We've made it a bit of a tradition to attend the Tulip Time Festival in Holland each May. It's fun to look back at our Tulip pictures from 2008, 2009 when I was pregnant with Ruby, and last year when Ruby was not quite one year old.

My parents were in town on Thursday and the rain held off, so we took the girls to see the flowers. I'm pretty sure Ruby smelled every flower in Centennial Park. My dad got a lot of fun pictures.

We had lunch at Crane's in the City - which was amazingly delicious, then watched the Dutch Dancers perform in their wooden shoes.

Dad got his picture taken with the Dutch Dancers. Hilarious.

Clara is 6 days old already!

Clara's first day home from the hospital was craziness...  Ruby was crazy, Clara was crazy and Ryan and I were concerned that we were going to go crazy too.

On her 2nd day home, the absolute mayhem subsided and Clara has truly been a dream baby ever since. She is sleeping in 5-hour stretches at night and eating every 3 hours all day long. Feeding an infant pretty much is a full time job - but she is doing so great and seems to be adapting well to the Baby Wise schedule that we have her on. We did Baby Wise with Ruby too. Have I mentioned that Baby Wise has revolutionized my life? I could not recommend it more highly.

My incredible Mom has been here since Monday helping to entertain Ruby and hold Clara while I figure out how to spend quality time with both of my girls

Ruby loves Clara. She has been so sweet and gentle with her. The first thing she says each morning is "Want to go see baby Clara?" I can't blame her - Clara is such a tiny squishy cutie button.

Ruby might have a green thumb...

Ruby LOVES to be outside. No matter what she is doing, if you say to her, "Ruby, do you want to go outside?" she drops everything, starts laughing with excitement and runs to the door. Yesterday she was showing a lot of interest in the tulips growing in our yard. Maybe she will be a green thumb like her Grammy.