karaspeak

I realize the time has probably passed to the extent where all my updates would be pointless. Regardless, I am going to try and catch myself up even if it doesn't get read. It's been far too long since I've written and now so much has happened, I need to document it...if for nothing else that I don't lose my mind and not capture the little things. That said, I'll back-post a few items from our summer after this post.  Or before...however you say it.

My update for this week is short and sweet. We have a new nanny...finally. For the skinny on the deal with that, you'll have to go back and read about 4th of July...once I post it, of course. :) That said, Taylor started with us this week and has so far been super. If nothing else, she helps me tremendously in that she cares for my kids. And they love her. Two things which matter immensely. After rounds and rounds of interviews, we were really excited to have Taylor join our family. Aiden has shown off his masterful skills with Bieber concerts and basketball. They're learning all kinds of things and Teagan warmed right up to her. Plus, she loves to be clean! Praise the Lord!! :) So...mission accomplished.

Aiden is very much two, well as of this week, he's now 25 months. But for his age, he is talking a mile a minute, and learning something new that suprises us daily. He's so much fun. He loves to sing, dance, play basketball, color, swim, and just be a boy outside exploring. He can count to 20 with only a few skips or misses. ;) He loves Bieber. Justin Bieber. If you don't know him, within a few minutes of hanging out with Aiden, you'll swear you're looking at a mini-Biebs. We have been doing music class and he LOVES that...and it's been a blast to see his personality really explode. I can't wait for him to experience this year. So fun.

Teagan is growing like a weed. She will be five months next week...what?! I can't believe how fast it goes. Last year at this time, I was sitting here probably typing, and I had a little 8 week old bean in my belly. Now she's here and in living color. She's coming right into her own with a sparkling personality. In the last week or two, she's begun talking like crazy. Not talking like Aiden, of course, but baby talking - coos and squeals and fun noises babies make to let you know they're figuring out there's talking going on! We started rice after her 4 month check up and have already started eating bananas and sweet potatoes. The verdict on both is a YES! My great little eater.

Nathan is crazy busy with work. I am crazy busy with work. The best part is that we have help now, so we can not feel so worn down by the end of the day. That is a beautiful thing. I Love Love Love my kiddos, but trying to work a 50+ hour a week job, take care of them (which is 1st in my book even with a crazy work schedule), manage the house, be an amazing wife, and actually get anything done...well, it's a challenge to say the least. I am grateful for a hubby that makes every effort to tell me he knows how hard it is and helped me every step of the way. Always has and hopefully always will. Even with help!

So there's the latest from the homefront. Know it's broad, but for those of you who are far away and don't see us so often, hopefully it'll at least give you a short update till I can get back on my blogging feet. Look for some posts in the next few days to update you on our summer! It was a fun one for sure!

Nathan and I at Aiden's birthday party last month

My sweet baby girl. Bright blue eyes.

Aiden loves holding his baby sister! All the time.

The FAM!

Mr. "I'm Two!"

I just love his face on this...he LOVES his baby sister.

I realize this note is far overdue...but my blog is getting spammed. My postings keep getting deleted and a spammer keeps commenting on my posts. In fact, this posting title I'm writing under now I wrote over three weeks ago and was completely deleted somehow over the past week and now I'm not sure if I'm going to have to change my blog site altogether. Ugh! All that to say I'm sorry for the lack of communication and pictures. I'm frustrated as with the lack of time I already have I don't have time to figure out who cares enough to spam my blog. Boo for that. Trying to update and fix shortly.

My boys have been sick the past few days. Aiden with a double ear infection and nasty cough, and Nathan with a cough and severe congestion. No fun for anyone when the boys are sick. They are my fun, smiling guys. Luckily they are on the up and up. Not so luckily, my baby girl seems to have contracted the cough just as they are getting rid of it. It's the saddest little cough you've ever heard. But thankfully she's resting it off and I can only hope the "rest when you're not feeling great" theme continues as she gets older. Aiden never really got that concept down very well...so he goes at a mere 99% when he's not feeling great instead of the usual 110%. Makes for some long days, I will say that much!

May is flying by and I can hardly believe it's nearly half over. Hmmm..what has happened?
We survived the FLOOD of 2010. It was drama. Mom was stranded here with us. It rained for 48 hours straight. Nashville got rocked. Luckily, we only suffered slight damage. Whew, glad that's over.
Taylor and Rachel got married. Stinky for us, we missed the wedding because of the sillly flood - we were literally land locked in our neighborhood and couldn't get out. It was the biggest bummer of the season. I love weddings. We looked so cute all dressed up. I hated it for Nathan, it really tore him up. At least we were able to go to the Rehearsal Dinner and celebrate with everyone. That was really special.

Work started back up. Whew. I am tired thinking about it. Grateful to have a job. Not so grateful it wears me out and I miss my kids, but at least I'm home with them all day.

Aiden is two months away from TWO YEARS OLD. Not sure how that milestone happened, but here we are, two months away. Woooow (as he would say). He is talking up a storm. Gains new words every day. Now he puts them together and is starting to make sentences. It's amazing. He knows all his colors and some numbers, though his favorite number is two. Everything is two. Everything. Even one. One is two. The kid is hilarious. Some other favorites are: daddy, mommy, baby, "ba-cici" (our neighbors across the street), nana (equals both panera and banana), ball, truck, tractor, mower, up - down, mimi, pa, "B" (equals bed and Bud - my brother), airplane, and all his colors...he is pure and uninhibited joy and brings life to my aging bones. Love the mess out of him. That will never stop, but only get better with time.

Mother's Day came and went. Mom and Dad (and Bud) came to visit and celebrate. We had pie. I love pie. I got some really special gifts - from the heart. My brother drew me this phenomenal piece of hand-drawn art. It's a picture of my baby girl with mine and Nathan's hands draped on her back. Amazing. I can't wait to get it framed and post pictures of it. One of the truly remarkable things about this day was that picture. Something I will cherish forever. Mom gave me a necklace with both of my kids' names and I love that I can show it to everyone I meet. The kids (and Daddy) got me some jewelry and a pair of shorts. I have great kids. I have a great husband. I have a great mom (and dad). I am so blessed and this year it's two times over! Hard to believe...but oh so joyous.

Pictures of our days are here.

I realize it's been a while since I've been able to sit down at the computer for anything other than work the past two weeks and regret the fact I haven't been able to write. So many things happen in my days that I make every effort to remember, jot down, or just mentally capture for later reminiscing. Why does time sometimes go so fast when we want it to go slow and why does it seem to go slow in the moments we want it to go fast? Sigh. These are the times I wish I could put life on pause for certain moments, instances, really, so I could memorialize them and never forget the joy (or pain) realized in that second. Alas, I cannot, and am stuck trying to remember enough so when I finally have a breath to sit and write it down I hope I haven't forgotten it all.

So the time has come and one month has passed. While I knew it would get here, I just never realize how fast it's going to approach. And it's already come and gone like a blink. My how time flies...even more so when you have two. The fun part about this week was the day Teagan turned 4 weeks, Aiden was 21 months, so it was a special milestone of sorts for both my kiddos. Hard to believe in a few more weeks, my "baby Aiden" will already be two! That is scary.

The past month has had it's fair share of ups and downs, but for the most part has been so fun. We've taken road trips, seen family, had friends over, and explored the great wide world or running errands with our two babies. I have truly enjoyed being at home with them and watching Aiden coo over his baby sister, giving her kiss after kiss all day long. It is so special for me to be able to watch as a Mom, but also as just an observer...to see his sweet spirit and joy over life. How I pray that will never go away.

Baby Teagan is doing great and growing like a champ. We still have some minor "BM" issues, but we're working through those and helping little Miss get her groove on with the poo. She had grown to 6 lbs. 10 oz. at her second doctor's visit, so she's slowly creeping out of her preemie clothes, which is great news.

No one can truly ever prepare you for being a parent of two little ones. While it's plenty scary in theory (which I experienced a lot while pregnant!), reality is a whole different animal. Not sure if it's sleep deprivation or sheer parental stress, but it's both the most work and the most joy one can experience simultaneously...of this I am quite convinced. It is a tiring adventure of wills and strength, but one I am grateful to be living. Amidst all of this new stuff in our world, we have had some earth shattering news break through our sunshine of happiness and bring in some potentially gloomy clouds. However grim it may seem, we are hoping with eternal optimism that God's provision will continue and we will find hope in the face of doubt.

If there is one thing I am sure, it is that I am so in love...with my Aiden, with my Teagan, with my Nathan, and with my God more now than I ever have been before. His amazing love and compassion is evident more and more every day in the faces and in the lives of these people he has put with me along side to be my family for life. I am blessed more than words.

So here it is...after two weeks of newborn bliss, filled with date nights(which most people don't get sometimes even the whole first year their baby is alive!) and six extra sets of hands, which I am so grateful for, my parents have left to go back home, Nathan is set to return to work after having two weeks off, and I am faced with the prospect of managing this new life alone.  Did I already say it would be six - yes, SIX, hands short of what I've had the past two weeks. That means the only hands are my two seemingly incapable hands for an entire week. Aiden doesn't have school this week due to Spring Break, so that means five full days of two tots under two and it's up to me to figure out what to do with them. This prospect is frighteningly scary and makes me utterly sick to my stomach.

So, my brilliant hubby thought of an amazing plan. Since I'm not working, he suggested I just go and spend the week at my parents' house and have at least part time help (since they get off work much earlier than he does and would be available in the morning, too). It would allow him to not have to feel pressured to come home early, and would give me a week in training...it was a training wheels kind of week. Although I was unsure about how it would all work out, I headed out first thing Monday morning with my little chicka in tow to see what this week would hold.

While there were moments of craziness, the week went altogether quite smoothly considering the circumstances. We got to go to the park at least three days and I was able to run - even some on my own! We had some great dinners at Panera with good conversation and lots of laughs. I managed to handle even some terribly stressful situations - teagan was crying, aiden set off the carbon monoxide detector, which proceeded to scream loudly at all of us and didn't stop when unplugged, causing Aiden to cry...so here I am with two kids crying, alarm going off, on the phone with my mom trying to get a breath to figure out how to get it all to stop...and it was in that moment I wondered how many moments would be just like this in the months and years to come. And, of course, I just had to laugh and think about how this would look to me not only five days from now, but five years from now...and how far I would have come in those five years.  (Or at least I hope so!)

The family brainstormed about a way to get Nathan to their house and drive back with me so I didn't have to ride home with both kiddos. We managed to find a way (thanks, Bud!) and made it back home safe and sound.

All in all, the week was successful and showed me that I have what it takes (or at least think I do!) to manage this life with two kids. It's such a different world from doing work and one kid, it's such a different world than just having one, but it's a world I am so incredibly grateful for and one I look forward to watching unfold with anxious anticipation. How will the next few months be with the two kids? How close will they be as they grow up? How will Aiden protect his baby sister as she grows up? It will be such an interesting (and fun) journey to watch unfold. Though I am scared out of my mind about how it's going to work (I'm still not sure I can do it...), I am so excited.