We’ve had a busy week! Here are a few fun things we’ve had going on:
Olympics day at preschool
First visit to the Austin Children’s Museum
Aunt Kristen will be happy for Hannah’s attempts in STEM
Tired but happy kids on the “baby train” back to the car after the museum
Helicopter show at Camp Mabry, special outing with Daddy and random tank guy
Sister shenanigans
Sweet potatoes all over the face
With our long Easter weekend last year, I scored a good online deal and we got a rustic cabin in the hill country for several days. We decided to try a shorter outing for one night this year and got a hotel suite just up the road in Round Rock. We picked a suite that has an actual separated bedroom so we could put the girls to bed then hang out a while.
Hannah was most excited about swimming. Unfortunately, the pool was outdoors and not heated. I only put my feet in and lost feeling quickly and got out. Violet cried when I dipped her legs in. Brett was a trooper and stood on the top step while a goosebump-covered Hannah played for about 20 minutes. So that didn’t go as we hoped. But Violet was super cute in her swimsuit.
The hotel had fruit in the lobby, so on our way back from the pool, Hannah picked a giant green apple to tackle.
Then we had dinner. Since we had a small kitchen in our suite, I decided to be frugal and fun by making ramen noodles for supper. These were a big hit with Hannah.
After dinner, we put Violet down and made popcorn while watching “Tangled.” We tried putting Hannah down, but she would not stay on her cot. We tried various things with no success and decided to just let her stay up. About this time, we all got really hungry. My attempt at a frugal and fun dinner just didn’t cut it. So Brett went out to get take-out from Chili’s.
The food made everyone feel better but then the Jayhawks lost, so we were sad. We also realized the only way Hannah was going to go to sleep was if we all went to bed together. So we settled in the king bed like a cute co-sleeping Ikea commercial and big girl and daddy were asleep in minutes. Violet woke up during this time, and when I was done feeding her, she didn’t feel like going back to sleep. She figured out that the raised bed of the pack and play had a little wiggle to it, so if she whipped her legs up and down really fast then it would start swinging. This was apparently hilarious because I got to lay there for quite a while listening to her giggle while shaking her legs around.
This morning we headed home after a tasty breakfast. A highlight of Hannah’s trip was using her very own suitcase.
Of course, since she had shorted herself three hours of sleep by staying up late and waking up early (ugh), she wasn’t in a great mood the rest of the day. This was the car ride to church for the 5pm service:
Both girls fast asleep.
So that was our “staycation.” To sum up: pool=fail, dinner=fail, bedtime=fail, Jayhawks=lost. But Hannah thought it was fantastic. And even though it didn’t go quite like I hoped, I thought it was fun and would do it again with some tweaks.
Happy Easter!
My eyes popped out of my head when I saw this. The usual art product around here is a page of wild scribbles, which is fine and developmentally normal. But today, Hannah drew this and announced it was a beaver. I’m impressed what she can do when she slows down a little bit!
And good thing I took a picture because a few seconds later she had scribbled all over it and told me she was giving him hair.
The Texas Alliance for Life has an annual fundraising walk. We have supported our Austin cousins as they participated in the past because we often seem to be out of town for the event. This year we’re in!
Pro-life and adoption organizations are important to us because our family would look very different without adoption. Yes, I understand this event involves actual physical activity, something I usually try to avoid. But that’s how much I care about this. ;)
Check out our personal fundraising page and support Team Wiard! Our goal is $200.
It’s a good thing three-year-olds are funny. It helps balance the careless breaking, tantrums, sassy pants, etc. There are certainly some fun sides to three, and at our house they involve Hannah’s love to talk and her love of clothes.
I let her dress herself pretty much every day except Sunday. I try to only step in when there is a weather or modesty-related issue. Like “It’s 40 degrees, you can’t wear shorts outside.” or “Tights are different from pants, you can’t wear them by themselves.” But I don’t think it’s a big deal what matches or doesn’t, or restrict rainboot wearing to actual rainy days (that would be almost never here).
Her wardrobe options are fairly easy to put together, so usually it’s not necessarily noticeable that she picked out her own clothes. But sometimes it’s clearly Hannah style.
Here are a couple memorable outfits:
Do I feel a little twinge when the little girl in the cart next to us at the grocery store has cute shoes, coordinated jeans, shirt and cardigan with a matching headband? Yep. But my kid is clean and creative, and today that’s good enough for me.
A few random updates:
– Violet measured at 15.5 lbs and 24.5 inches at her 4m appointment. She’s been having a little diaper trouble, so….
– I’m off dairy. Cow milk protein sensitivity is not uncommon in babies, so this isn’t anything concerning or necessarily permanent. I’m thankful I have a large recipe repertoire, so eliminating cheesy dishes won’t be too stressful from a cooking perspective. I’m really going to miss cheese and ice cream, but a healthy baby is worth it! But, wow, there is dairy hidden in a lot of products, so I will be doing a lot of label-reading for a while.
– We’ve had a string of breakages. The rice cooker, mixer, printer and garage door have all busted in the last two weeks. We are currently down to one car because my van is trapped in the garage. Hopefully, a guy can come fix it tomorrow.
– Funny Hannah moments:
*Today at Whole Foods she told me, “That guy has decorated arms!” Tattoos.
*We were talking about places we’d like to visit and mentioned the Grand Canyon. We told Hannah it was very far away. “Why?” Because God put it there. “Then he should move it closer.” We told her to take that up with the Big Guy during bedtime prayers. Faith like a mustard seed can move canyons?
– At the moment, we’re settling down for the Downton Abbey season finale. We’ve got tea, English muffins and red wine. Bring it on!
Before Violet was born, we asked Hannah what important things she would teach her baby sister. She answered, “How to use the iPad and how to play the piano.” She’s starting early.
Another blogger I follow has started doing “snapshot” posts – just a photo of daily life with a sentence or two. She has a baby the same age as Violet (plus ten more kids), so I understand the desire to post but the limited time to put something together. So I figured I might do a few snapshot posts myself.
To start:
We got our CSA box today, and Hannah was very proud that she carried it in from the car and put everything away all by herself.
This is very belated, but I wanted to share some pics from a super-cute birthday party we went to in November. It was a robot theme, and my friend Casey had so many awesome things I didn’t even get pictures of, but I’ll share my favorites. The party was at a fun place with many activities and even live music for the kids. A few highlights:
There was a rolly ladybug like our rolly bee. We decided to put Violet on it (4 wks old at the time). Not a fan.
Adorable girly robot costume!
Robot snacks could not be more cute. Totally under-appreciated by Hannah, of course, she just wanted to eat it.
This one needs a caption contest, ready GO!
Last week, we were bundled up.
This week, we got to hike on the greenbelt.
Also, I’ve been doing more posts via the iPad WordPress app. This is very convenient, but I’ve noticed the trade-off is photo appearance. So I’ll keep experimenting, but if you’ve noticed things looking a little different, that’s why.
And apparently the email subscriber notifications have not been sent lately, so if you’re reading this – yay! You might just check the site directly for new posts.
Happy January!
We were unexpectedly blessed with some last-minute tickets to the KU/Texas basketball game today. The easiest option seemed to be to find some friends to go with Brett. But some friends already had tickets and another friend was still doped up on pain meds from minor surgery. Even after posting on Facebook, we didn’t have any takers for the extra seats.
So we decided to make it a family outing. Taking a 3-month-old who will only breastfeed and 3-year-old with a penchant for bolting to a 16,500 person arena requires some planning. We gave ourselves plenty of time and were able to park in a garage with a very short walk. Then we got a lunch of exciting concession food: hot dogs, nachos, Coke (which we even let Hannah drink) and cotton candy.
(this is Hannah’s current smile at the camera face)
Unlike Allen Fieldhouse, the Erwin Center has comfy padded seats. But they are the kind that springs up which scared Hannah a little since she is not quite heavy enough to keep them down. So she spent the game either standing in front of her chair or sitting on Brett’s lap.
Violet snuggled in the Ergo carrier for most of the time and woke up for some action partway through the first half. Both she and Hannah thought it was pretty loud, though Hannah enjoyed the permission to yell whenever she wanted. She was a little confused because she thought that she was going to get to play basketball, and she apparently didn’t find it very entertaining to watch other people play. She did make a game of “Where’s Bevo” and was always looking for the Texas mascot.
Turns out there are a lot of KU fans in Austin! Hannah said, “There are a lot of Rock Chalkers!” We left at halftime per our plan since big girl was getting fidgety and baby was getting hungry. But the Jayhawks pulled off the win in a close game, and we had a lot of fun being part of it!
grit & grace 