He's No Spring Chicken

Every spring this weird thing happens where the kids come out of hibernation and they've grown about 5 feet taller.  Matthew is no exception.  He climbs ladders, goes down the slide by himself, yells NO to everything we ask of him (unless the question is "do you want a cookie, Matthew?" and then the answer is Yuh Peeze!), and generally listens when we ask him to do something.

It happens every year, and it always takes me by surprise.  Everybody is growing up!

Happy IndependenceDayLaborDayHalloweenThanksgivingChristmasNewYear!

It's been a while since I've written anything other than emails to coworkers, reports for clients, and checks for school lunch tickets.  But I'm thinking it might be time to start writing for me again.  I stopped writing because I worried about people judging my personal life.  But why should I care about that? A blog is meant to be a story, and this story is about M. about E. about E. about S. and about Matthew. 

And so it begins.

Again.

Hi. My name is Erin.

In case you forgot what I look like, here is a picture of me at my finest.  My parents must be so proud.

This is Mark (and most of me).

And these are our kids.

They're perfect angels all the time.

On Tuesdays.

During Leap Year.

Sydney had a ballet recital last weekend, and it was one of the cutest and funniest things I have ever seen.  Little girls running all over the stage, doing these jumping things that look more like stomping than dainty ballet moves. But they had tutus on, so what more can a mother really ask for?

The last time we went to a ballet recital, Elisabeth was about Sydney's age.  Mark was in the hospital recovering from his heart attack. None of us were in a good place, and Syd's recital brought back a flood of memories.  I remember picking up Elisabeth after the recital and taking a picture of her and her classmates.  Elisabeth's face was so puffy and red.  She was miserably upset about her daddy being in the hospital.  It was scary, and emotions were high for all of us.  What a big girl she was, going through the entire recital while she was so worried about Mark.  She's grown so much over the past few years.  She's outgrown her potty "issues" (A word that makes me cringe based on how it was once used to label my child. And yet I just used it. Go figure.) and while she's still strong-willed, it's not as difficult to communicate and reason with Elisabeth. Phew!

She is a huge help around the house (who knew?!) and takes good care of her brother.  Actually both girls take care of Matthew (when they're not smothering him).  They even play tea party, Barbies, and dress-up with him.

Matthew loves every minute of it.

How could you not, when kitty ears are involved?!  Matthew will certainly be in touch with his feminine side throughout his life, that's for sure.

That's it for now.  Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.  I miss this!

xoxo
-erin

Happy Easter!

The crabapple trees are in full bloom, the sun is shining, and Jesus has risen!

It's a good day.

Happy Easter! 

We hope your family has been as blessed

as ours has.

How babies are made: courtesy of Sydney Taylor

This morning's evolving conversation with Sydney:

"Mama, when did we buy this house?"

"When Elisabeth was one year old, sweetie. You weren't even born yet. In fact, you weren't even in my belly yet."  Sydney has a hard time conceptualizing life before being in my belly. Understandable. It's hard to envision what life was like before you entered it.  So I kind of expected the conversation to either a) stop at this point or b) enter into a battery of questions for which I wasn't totally prepared to answer.

So you can understand when Mark and I were confused when she continued the conversation with this statement:

"So I was still in the food."

Chirp chirp went the crickets.  Dead silence.  The food thing threw us off, big time.

Until she moved on and started talking about how food goes straight into your toes and then into your belly. And then into your nose.  That's when it clicked, that in the eyes of a four year old babies grow in our bellies because of special food that mommies eat.  I'm not sure how the nose thing fits in, but I am thankful that we don't actually grow babies in our noses. Imagine the stretch marks, ladies.

I love the way kids think.  Honestly, I think it makes total sense.  And that's what we're going to let her believe for today.

Mittens

Matthew is 5 months old already! He has discovered his toes, he loves baby food, he sleeps through the night, he gives kisses, and we love him.

He's wearing some pretty special mittens in this picture.  They have been worn by Sydney, Elisabeth, our niece and our nephew.  But even more special than that? They were worn by my dad when he was a baby.  These mittens have seen a lot of love! This generation may be done with them, but I'll bet this isn't the last set of wee little hands that will wear them.  I'm looking forward to seeing my dad's great-grandbabies' hands in them 30 years from now.

Happy Halloween!

Elisabeth lost two teeth this week!

To honor this occasion, we are celebrating Halloween a little early with our own personal Jack-O-Lantern.

2 months

I'm going to let you in on a secret: It's really August 31st today. I'm backdating this post, because let's face it: I am a procrastinator (except this time I have an excuse! Woot!).  But the picture really was taken at 2 months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Matthew,

You are two months old today! You have been smiling since about 5 weeks old, and you now love to have conversations with us. We could "coo" and "goo" and "ahh" all day with you, and I think you feel the same. Except for when you are napping, which you also love. As long as it's in 15 minute increments. I'll be honest with you, I don't love that. But I do love that you sleep for long stretches at night! You have been a good sleeper since day 3, when you would go 4 hours before waking up at night, and now you are up to about 6 hours! Thank you for that!

You are a big boy, much like your sister Elisabeth was at this age. You weigh 14.5 pounds and are 24 inches long now. That puts you in the 90th percentile! I'm not really that surprised, since you like to nurse about every two hours. You sure do keep me busy!

Your sisters also love you very much, and are constantly talking to you and petting you and kissing you. And you just soak it in. I hope it continues for a very long time.

Love,
Mommy

matthew james

Meet Matthew. He's now eight weeks old and of course has changed so much since this picture was taken at the ripe age of two days old.  He's such a doll and we love him to pieces.

Sheldon, Party of Five

This is it.  It's our last night as a family of four.

Tomorrow we'll welcome our first baby boy.  We've been calling him Sheldon for the past 7 months or so, but tomorrow we'll find out who's really been hiding behind this belly.

Love this kid

Any day now

38 weeks.  This baby is getting ready.  He's head down and much like the school of fish that get caught in the net in Finding Nemo, he appears to be swimming down in an effort to escape.  Actually, more like burrowing.  Swimming down is a little "softer" sounding than how it feels to have a head shoved in your pelvis.

I think I'm officially ready to be done being pregnant.  I might be getting ready to meet this baby, too.  Though the thought of having three children in the house is s.c.a.r.y.  and I'm not sure I'm ready for us to be outnumbered!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this pregnancy.  I've had very little to complain about until recently (and only now because I feel huge when I try to move) and have tried hard to savor every moment knowing it's most likely the last time I'll be lucky enough to carry a child.  It's truly a blessing - and quite a miracle.  All women should be able to feel this at least once in a lifetime.  I have loved feeling every kick and hiccup and hearing that little heartbeat at every appointment.  I know I will miss it.  The good news is there's a souvenir at the end of all of this, and we can't wait to meet him!

Getting closer

37 Weeks.  Just to document.  I'm still waiting for "any day now".  Though I kind of thought today might be it, after having weird pains waving in every 5 minutes for a few hours.  They went away, but it did make me realize that I should probably think about packing a bag one of these days.

Reason number 56: Why I should own stock in Kleenex

Mark's oldest brother got remarried Mother's Day weekend to a really great lady.  I have never been to a wedding for someone older than 35, and this might have been my favorite wedding yet.  They're such a sweet couple, and watching how happy they were at the wedding was so neat.  My brother-in-law was giddy.  He gave his wife-to-be the sweetest hug when she met him at the altar.  Once they embraced, it was over for me. I didn't stop pulling tissues from the box until the ceremony was 100% certainly no doubt about it done.  I'm a sucker for weddings, but this one really touched me.

Courtesy of local photographer

Sigh.  Just look at them! That's what I call love. 

Excuse me while I go grab another tissue now. Sniff.

The girls absolutely love their new Auntie.  She is so sweet. No wonder my brother-in-law is so in love with her.  I'm kind of in love with her too.

Courtesy of local photographer

Courtesy of me

Courtesy of me

Courtesy of me

Never mind all of the stuff above.  This post is really just to prove that sometimes we really do clean up.

Courtesy of local photographer

Just kidding. (Sort of.)  Congratulations guys! We're so happy for you!

Courtesy of local photographer

36 weeks

Last week as I was walking into a store a random stranger -- a man, mind you -- passed by and yelled "Any day now, eh?"  Uh, no, I technically still have 5 weeks left, but thanks for pointing out how huge I must look.

I don't look THAT big, do I? I mean, if this minus one week is what "any day now" looks like, what does 39 weeks look like?

I guess we'll find out soon enough!

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Taken on a recent weekend getaway in Galena, IL

34 weeks

Elisabeth, who just announced that she'd like to be a professional photographer when she grows up, took this picture for us yesterday.   Our crabapple tree is in full bloom so this was a perfect way to preserve the beauty of my favorite tree.  We're getting rain this weekend which means these blooms will last us about 24 hours. Unless we look at this photo!

We're also trying to preserve this pregnancy. I'm uncomfortable. I can't sleep, I'm swelling like a balloon, I'm sore, blah blah blah, but I'm savoring every moment of this knowing it's probably the last for us.  I'm sure I'm going to miss this.  But in less than 5 weeks we will have a beautiful little baby in this house, and we're excited!

I have some other great pregnancy photos that Elisabeth took. I might backtrack and add them in here so we can go back and remember what this baby boy looked like.  Looking forward to meeting you little boy!

Apparently we had hail?

And apparently when you get hail, it can dent aluminum siding.   Which ultimately leads to many strange people knocking on your door offering to fix your siding for free.  They look even more strange when they stick their faces right up to the siding to look for what to me can only be invisible dents. 

They've always been a bit sketchy to me and eventually I stopped answering the door and just hid in my office until I was sure they had moved onto the next house.

But one guy came to our door wearing an Indiana Jones hat and was the nicest guy I have ever met.  His name was Guy.  And he didn't stick his nose up to my walls like the other guys did.  Well maybe he did, but I didn't see it happen, fortunately. 

Anyway, we really did have some hail damage!  Which amazingly, insurance companies are willing to pay for.

And that is how the journey started.

Being pregnant, I can't make a decision to save my life. 

And that is how the even longer journey of deciding on a house color started.

It was agony.

For everyone involved. 

Which was a lot of people.  Polls on facebook. Going over and over color choices with  my dear friends and trying to figure out how the trim color would impact it.

Looking at a bazillion houses that had been done by this company.  Realizing that after the 10th house, they all look the same. 

It's like when you're trying to decide on a new scent at Bath and Body Works and they all start to run together so the lady tells you to sniff your sleeve to clear out your senses. And then you start wondering when was the last time you washed your jacket. 

I wonder if I had sniffed my sleeve in between houses I would have had an easier time deciding on a color?

Anyway, here are some pictures of our house! They started precisely at 7am and I didn't have time to go out and get a true "before" shot.  This is the best I can do:

After about an hour, it looked like a tornado had ripped through the area.  Siding was everywhere! Seeing it on the ground was the first realization that yes, it was okay to let go of the blue color that I hated but somehow pregnancy hormones made me cry when I realized my house wouldn't be blue anymore.

I don't recommend pregnancy hormones to anyone. 

They make you do and think crazy things.

And then the new color started to go up! And I secretly watched them.  And dreaded that the color was going to be very very light which was the opposite of what I wanted.

I kept thinking "what have I done?"

But then I stepped outside and realized that it's not nearly as light as I thought. 

And that I actually (gasp) liked it!

So, here is the finished product:

Complete with red star on the front door to get me thinking about painting it red. 

At the rate we went with the siding, I figure it should only take us about 3 years to decide on a door color.

All work was completed by Cornerstone Exteriors.  I highly recommend them! And if you're pregnant, go with Guy.  Very patient man. With a super cool hat.

The end.

Work it

Elisabeth and I went on a short mother-daughter date last weekend.  Really, all we did was exchange a pair of shoes and then explore an old mall, but we had so much fun together.  While she was busy exploring the old brick building I was busy snapping pictures and all of a sudden she started modeling for me.  I was cracking up!  She sure knows how to strike a pose.

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Onomatopoeia

I just like saying that word. Sydney does too.  All while Elisabeth teaches us what the heck it means.

Apparently I've been out of school for too long.