snow!

I was home for 12 full weeks in the dead of winter.  When I found out I was pregnant with Addy and that my due date was in November, I was thrilled to be able to be off and at home, cozy in front of my fire not having to stress about making it into work in the middle of a snow storm [see here and here].  The weeks ticked by, and nary a flake did we see.  Until the day I went back to work.  Literally.  The exact day.  Thankfully, the snow held off until my drive home, but I chugged along saying "I think I can, I think I can" all the way down I40 in the freezing rain and sleet.  I was off the next day (Tuesday) and we woke up to a considerable amount of ice.  It was enough for the boys to sled down the street and me and Addy to cozy up and watch out the window, and enough of a mess on the roads for me to say thank you Jesus that I'm off today.

the boys...ice sledding!

The next week, it happened again.  I worked on Monday, and Monday night we got a little bit of snow.  I was off of work Tuesday, and went back to work on Wednesday.  Wednesday, I headed to work again and sure enough, Wednesday night it snowed again!  Big snow this time. We woke up Thursday morning to a winter wonderland, 8ish inches of wet wet snow, and again, thankfully, I was off of work.  I didn't have to return to work until Saturday, so to say that the schedule of our winter weather was perfect would be an under statement.  I think the Big Man upstairs knew that last year I paid my dues sleeping at the hospital, this year I needed to be home with my babies.

We played outside in the snow and over the course of that week two of Lucas's winter dreams this year came true.  All he wanted to do the first time was make a snow angel.  The previous week when it just iced, the poor boy couldn't understand why he couldn't get his snow angel to work when he layed down in the sleet pellets.  Try explaining ice vs. snow when a snow angel is on the line to a toddler.  It's tough.  So thankfully, the next week we got some real snow and he made his snow angel!  When the big snow came, he wanted to build a snowman.  And we did just that!  At first we rigged our accessories with legos.  Lucas was very concerned that we didn't have a "corn pipe" (a corn cob pipe like from the Frosty song). That afternoon, a sweet neighbor gave us a snowman kit (with all kinds of pieces like a Mr. Potatohead kit) to Lucas because her son was grown.  It was so sweet! So we gave our snowman a makeover.  We also took a walk around the neighborhood and found some sledding hills.  I don't think there is much that's cuter than kids in their little snow suits with rosy cheeks and runny noses.  We played hard.  Lucas will tell you that his favorite part of the snow was not the snowman or the snow angel or sledding...it was eating the snow.  Bless his heart.

Lucas wanted Addy to make a snow angel.  You can see she was less than thrilled.

Eating snow!  Poor kid almost got frost bite around his mouth from all of the snow he ate.  And not to mention the number of times he needed to go to the bathroom. That's one way to stay hydrated!

    

We had a great time in the snow and I'm SO thankful I didn't have to go to work in it!  Now that we got our big snow out of the way, let's do spring time, okay?  

addy: 3 months

How are we here?  3 months already?  Addy is growing and changing so quickly!

*We didn't have to go to the pediatrician this month so I'm not sure how much she weighs, but looking at her she is still tall and skinny.  Her skinny little legs look especially hilarious in her leggings.  Gotta do it.

*She is very vocal, cooing and squealing and making all sorts of funny noises.  She has the best laugh, and the only thing that can consistently make her laugh is her big brother.  Lucas has a way with her, he will talk to her and start laughing at her which makes her crack up laughing.  She watches him constantly, her pretty little hazel eyes following him all around the room.  She puts up with a lot too, being handed toys and "playing" with all sorts of things.

*We had a tease of a time of good sleep...but it was short lived.  For about 2 weeks, she was only waking up once at night to eat around 4:30.  And it was glorious!  Then she completely regressed and is now up usually 3 times a night.  So if you see me in a daze wandering around town with my two children, just give me coffee and smile.
*Her hair is still strawberry blonde and there's not much of it.  I ordered some cute little headbands though, and Lucas loves complimenting Addy on her bows.  It's really fun dressing her, even though some of her clothes (especially the boots!) look so silly on her!

*She is still nursing every 3 hours during the day and of course during our late night parties.  She has done especially well with the bottle since I am going back to work.  Thankfully we have a decent stock pile of milk in the freezer and pumping at work has been going okay.

*She still loves to snuggle.  She loves napping on me and being in the Moby wrap.

*She still loves bath time and has recently found that it's very fun to put stuffed animals in her mouth.

I worried about the 3 month mark with Addy because I really struggled when I hit that mark with Lucas.  3 months is when my maternity leave is over and it's time to go back to work.  When Lucas was a baby, I had a hard time going back.  This time, it's different.  I feel ready to go back but I worry about leaving Addy.  She seems younger to me than Lucas was at this stage, I think because she's smaller.  Thankfully though, we have a good childcare situation worked out and a friend from church is going to be coming to our house twice a week to watch both kids while I work.  This makes me feel more comfortable than sending both of them somewhere.  I feel like my maternity leave this time around was so different.  Addy was born right before Thanksgiving, then soon after came Christmas, then the New Year, and all of a sudden here we are 3 months out.  The time absolutely flew by.  On the other hand, the 12 weeks at home were exhausting because of a different dynamic of having a newborn and a very active toddler.  We didn't ever get into a good routine or have a good structure of our days, so part of me feels like we just survived.  I guess you can't ask for much more than survival those first few weeks, but it was frustrating for me because looking back on my time at home I feel like we could have done it better.  But going back to work, my coworkers were so supportive and gracious as I came back and showed pictures to anyone who would give me the time of day.  My coworkers even made welcome back signs for the unit!

Anyway, I think returning to work is going to get us in a good routine and I am confident that our childcare situation is the best it could be right now.