My big boy is two!

Two years has flown by. I know it is such a cliche... but it never ceases to be true! Steven has grown into such a fun, chill toddler. I love watching him grow, developing a personality and constantly doing new things. I think every day he learns a new word or does something new. He loves to be tickled, play outside, and go places in the car. Seriously, he always asks to "Go? Go?....Car??" He's pretty much obsessed with all things transportation. He's such a boy. He's adorable.

Amongst his favorite activities these days is movies, especially Pixar films. Toy Story and Cars are the top two faves in our house right now. It was a toss up as to which one we would theme his birthday party off of, but the winner was Cars. This turned out to be a super fun party to plan! I got a few ideas off of Pinterest, and the rest followed.

His face as we sang to him was priceless. I love that he enjoyed it so much this year!

For his actual birthday, ironically Labor Day, we had a little party with just us at the house. We made him a special "2" cake and he opened some small presents. He loved the Lightning McQueen slippers the best. Then we watched Madagascar with him, another one of his presents, which was an instant fave ("Mamimals" as he calls it).

Our big party the next weekend ended being an awesome celebration with lots of our family and friends. Steven had a great time at his party, especially getting presents that he could ride on! I said over and over that I wasn't going to go all out this year on his party. Honestly, I have come to the conclusion that I really don't know how to do "low key" anything. I'm not sure why...guess it's something to work on. Anyways, his party was smaller than last year. There was no pinata. Ha!

"Helping" mommy make his cake

The play cars on the cake were his
favorite. They were missing off the
cake most of the day, and when they
were on, he was running them around
the track at the base of the cake.
 



Backside view of the cake.

His cake turned out great! Now, the perfectionist in me thinks I could have done it better, but he loved this cake and that's the whole point of it, right? He had a very hard time keeping his hands off of that cake (as seen to the left).

The rest of the food was themed for transportation (must give a shout out to my friend Beth here for the idea!). We had racecar jigglers, wheel pretzels, wagon wheel pasta salad, and the fruit was all car-themed (see pics below). Everything was a hit!

 It was slightly exhausting... but it was so worth it seeing him enjoy himself so much. I felt like he definitely got it. At least, he knew we were celebrating him. Side note here, I swear we are not doing a huge party next year.

Another new "normal" has begun!

Our first photo as a family of four!

 

A whole year has passed since the last post, and wow has life changed for our small family. Once again, we have reached another "new normal" in our lives! Steven has grown (quickly!) from an infant into a toddler which makes for an interesting life! However, our biggest change this year was the newest addition to our family, Emilia Claire. Wow. She is amazing. More on her later!


The morning of the csection

As a brief overview of the second pregnancy, it was overall healthy and doubly hard the second time around. Taking care of a toddler and working and growing a human all at once is a lot of work. I will need serious convincing to go that path again. Two heathly kids is such a blessing and a joy, it's time to just enjoy them while they are still little!

Emilia (Emmy as we call her) Claire was born via scheduled csection. So much better the second time! I think mostly it was nice to not have to labor for 24 hours and then have a csection. With it scheduled, we had everything arranged, and I wasn't the same caliber of exhausted afterwards. The pain was the same, but at least I knew what to expect this time around. Recovery was a little different with already having another one at home to take care of, that's for sure. My husband was home for the whole first three weeks of her life, though, which was a huge blessing!

First picture of mother and daughter

Emmy has added so much to our lives! From the first moment this child made sure that she was going to be different from her brother, but not in a bad way. I love that she's different and cannot wait to see what her personality turns out to be like. She is such a happy baby, and now at 11 weeks old she loves to smile. I LOVE that she just lights up when you talk to her. She has become a good little sleeper, sleeping through most of the night, waking up once to eat. She loves being in her swing the best, just like her brother. Her only other thing that she really does is eat...ha! She's good at that too. She is such a precious little girl I cannot even stand it!

One of the first times meeting his new sister

One of my most favorite things now about being a mother of two is seeing the kids together. I love it when Steven talks to Emmy--his voice goes up about 3 octaves and he is so sweet talking to her. Nobody understands what he says, but gosh it's sweet! He has welcomed her into our family pretty graciously, which is a huge relief to all of us! Every morning one of the first things he says after waking up is "Emmy??," to which he then runs straight into her room to make sure she's there. If she's awake he'll say "Hi!" which is adorable. She loves him too!

Ha! I love this picture. Emmy's first bath at home, we thought
Steven would want to help. He couldn't have been less interested.
Honestly.

Having two kids is definitely a change in lifestyle from just one. Seriously, I waste more time now thinking about what the HECK did I do with all my free time before two kids, let alone one! I used to think I was busy then. Sheesh. How precious time is to me now. If I can get both kids to have naps at the same time I feel like I have seriously accomplished the impossible. It then takes me most of their nap just to figure out what to do with myself. It's not for lack of things to do, just where to start.

This is about as photogenic as he gets...

  Soon life is about to take another turn. I go back to work next week after being off the last three months. I feel good about it, especially since work has always been something for me that I enjoy. It feels selfish, but I like having something that is just for me in my life. As a mom you sacrifice and give so much to your kids, it's nice to have something that you don't share with them. It will be hard at first being gone essentially for the whole weekend every weekend, but I have the whole week to catch up with the kids. By Friday I am usually ready for the work weekend, as Steven has usually driven me through Crazytown and beyond.

Love, love, love.

I thought life would feel super crazy with two kids under two (well, not technically anymore since Steven's birthday last week), but it has been surprisingly calm and relaxed. I feel soooo much better now not being pregnant anymore, words cannot describe. Even the sleep deprivation as a brand new mother does not touch the physical strain I felt in the last three weeks carrying that little baby. Now that she is here I feel like life has begun. I finally feel "normal" again!