Crawling!!

Dear Vivs:
You started crawling last weekend! Last Thursday I went to get my hair done and daddy said you would start crawling that night while I was off getting my hair done. He sent me a video of you trying to go, but you didn't quite make it. You would try but then fall on your face.
Saturday we went to daddy's TEN year reunion (I know, we're old) and you stayed with nana and poppy and they thought for sure you'd go, but you didn't. Once we got back though, you went like one little crawl. On Sunday you were wearing a dress and tried going but your knees would get caught in your dress, but you made it! And you didn't fall, you just went! You were soo proud of yourself for getting from one place to the next! 

Then at daycare you were pulling up to a standing position. At home we don't really have anything for your to pull up to a standing, but you get up on your knees and try to pull up to toy bins and what not. I just can't believe how big you're getting. 

I love you baby! 

Love,

Mommy

"That Mom"

Dear Teagan & Vivian:
So I think about this all the time...being "that mom." The one that never forgets to pack something, the one that has it all in the bag, thinks of everything all the time, has plenty of time to do all sorts of nifty things with her kids, has an immaculate house, etc. etc.
But do such moms really exist?
On Pinterest they do, that's for sure.

My mom was and still is awesome. She was pretty much "that mom." When I look back on my life, this is what I remember about my mom and my home like growing up....
Mom never forgot anything....ever. Whether it was something she had to lay out for dinner or the birthday party 2 months from now. She had it together.
We always did fun things.
She was ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS one step ahead of your aunts and I...well at least me anyway. She always knew what I was up to and could stop me before I fully thought out my plan.
She knew when purple shirt day was and made sure my purple shirt was clean, always had our sports uniforms cleaned and ready to go whenever we needed them, she always had food in the house to feed all of our friends if they came over spur of the moment.

I can never remember my mom going out on weekends and doing one big grocery shopping trip. She must have gotten it all done during the week on her lunch breaks.

Our house was always super clean. Cleaner than you guys will probably ever see it. Grandma used to be so crazy about how the house looked. I remember one time being in the twirly chair in the front living room and the walls were white...always white or an offwhite for the walls there, and I put my feet on the wall to push off of and she yelled at me and told me not to put my feet on the wall because they'd get it dirty. She was that nuts about cleanliness.
Something about all of her cleaning though...I don't remember her playing with us a lot. I mean maybe she did when we were really little and I just don't remember, and then when I got older I didn't need or want her to play with us.

I just always feel like my housework can wait. Everything will still be there...everything except your youth. I want all of my free time to be spend playing with you guys...taking it all in....treasuring every single moment of you being this age...after all, tomorrow you'll be one day older! Yes you might drive me crazy and I wish you could or would just give me an hour to clean real quick, but it's because if I just had an hour to do things without interruptions that would leave the entire rest of the day to do the fun stuff!

Okay, well now that I got that out of the way, I should get back to work so I can be "that mom" that can bring home the "bacon!" Ha!

I love you to the moon and back babies.
Love,
Mommy

8 Months Old

Dear Vivian:
You are 8 months old now!! We went for your 8 month check up last week and you weighed 15 lbs, 15oz and were 26.75" long! You're still pretty small, but perfect! We couldn't see Dr Hogan like usual so we saw my favorite, Mr. Kilcer instead. You didn't have to get any shots. He did ask if you were saying mama or dada or anything and it made me worry a little since you aren't talking at all. He also asked if you were pulling up, crawling or creeping...again, you are not. They checked your iron and it was great. He asked if you were eating cereal, fruits and veggies and I said "cereal as in Cheerios, yes." He didn't seem too impressed with that and went on to say you need baby cereal for iron since it usually drops off around 6 months. So ha, my Cheerios must have enough. He also said no meat til 10 months, no strawberries, peanut butter or eggs until 15 months. Whoops...I give you meat and strawberries all the time. I think he's just kind of old school. I left a little concerned, but not really. All babies develop at different rates. You do a lot of yelling, laughing and screeching, and you're so close to crawling. YOu can get on all fours and back to your butt. You also rock pretty good and you try to go but end up falling on your face most of the time.
Whenever you're just sitting on the floor and a song comes on you start bopping around. You love to dance! It's sooo cute.
You're eating all sorts of stuff now. Pretty much anything I can break into smaller pieces for you. You just love food!
We've gone camping twice now and it's been great! You love sitting in the water just splashing and letting the waves hit you. The only thing is, you want to eat the sand and pebbles. And when you sit on the grass you want to eat the grass. You're a crazy girl.
You're back to not sleeping good again. Well actually once you're asleep you sleep fine, it's just getting you to sleep. It's sooo hard. You fight it so bad and just scream and cry and there is no stopping you. It's almost like you need to do it to get it all about before you can fall asleep and it just drives me crazy and makes me sad to leave you to scream and cry and carry on like that. :-(
Hopefully you'll get better at falling asleep and some day will be able to self soothe.

Today is daddy's birthday!! He's 28!! We're getting old! We aren't doing anything special today, I just made some pulled pork for sandwiches at his request and we'll go over and have cake at nana's. He didn't want anything big, he just wanted the evening to relax. Which is a-ok with me, as I like relaxing too! :-)

Well, time to wrap it up and get out of here!
I love you to the moon and back baby girl.
Love,
Mommy

Camping

Dear Teagan:
We went camping over Fourth of July for 4 nights at Long Point. We went down Wednesday night and stay until Sunday morning. You had a blast. We borrowed Nana's little pop up camper and you slept at one end, mommy & daddy at the other and we removed the table part of it and put Vivian's pack n play where the table goes and we were good to go. It was so nice not having to deal with a tent and everyone slept great.
You love being able to walk from campsite to campsite. Aunt Erin & Uncle Todd were right next to us and Grandma & Grandpa were kind of diaganol one way and then the Dupees & Diane & Pat were the other way. You loved playing with Reegan and his trains. I'd let you go play at Diane's or the Dupee campsite and have grandpa "keep and eye on you" and then wonder where you went because grandpa would forget he was watching you. But you were just in the Dupee camper playing with Reegan. He brought all this trains and you were obsessed.
Daddy and Uncle Todd had to get up early on Friday to go to work and Uncle Todd was working in Potsdam so he stopped at our house on the way home and got your bin of trains to bring down. You said you didn't want to bring them but once you saw Reegan's you wanted yours.
You loved playing in the sand too. You had all your monster trucks over there and dug a hole and filled it with water to drive them through.
There was also a parade for all the kids and we did that. Sammy pulled you and Vivian in the wagon.
Sammy brought his jet ski down and you loved that. You went out with him on it any chance you could.
I also brought you on the tube with me behind grandpa's boat. I love tubing and couldn't go last year since I was pregnant.
That was tons of fun! You wanted to stop so you got in the boat and I stayed in tubing and you screamed the whole time because you wanted to go with me.
The first night we were there you stayed up until like midnight. You didn't want to sleep without us. But after being so busy and not napping while we were there, you were telling us between 9 and 10 that you were tired and wanted to go to the camper.
Since I'm still pumping, I'd go in with you and we'd chat while I pumped and when I was done I'd leave to go dump and clean my stuff and come back to you sound asleep.

Today grandma met me at Jenn's after Vivian's drs appt today and you she took you to Wellesley Island with her. You're staying the night there with grandma & grandpa and my aunts & uncles and mommy, daddy & Vivian will be down tomorrow night for the weekend.

Last week Jenn closed her daycare, so you kind of went all over the place. Monday to Nana's, Tuesday & Friday to Aunt Erins, Wednesday Aunt Linny had off and then Thursday to grandpas. You were cranky and just not right last week. I think you were still tired out from camping and just totally off schedule from not going to Jenns. You were not sleeping at night, you wanted to be up all night and just wanted to argue about everything. Wednesday morning you wanted an Oreo at like 7am while I was getting ready and I was irritated with you and kept telling you no and finally took it from you and told you not to talk about it anymore and you just kept on carrying on about it so I threw it in the trash which lead to a huge meltdown. But you learned that no meant no and I wasn't going to take your whining and persistance anymore.
And then Thursday morning you woke up at like 3am and wanted a drink and daddy got it for you but then you decided you wanted juice and he wouldn't get it so you threw a fit in the kitchen and daddy came back to bed. I finally got up and brought you back to your bed and then you threw a fit because you wanted to sleep in my bed with us and I said no. You were crying so loud and I didn't want you to wake Vivian up so I was mad and tired out. I just went to bed and told you to stay quiet if you didn't want to sleep. Well you finally crawled up on the couch and passed out until it was time to leave for the day. Then you were mad that it was time to leave and you didn't have time to bring all your trains. I had to basically drag you out the door and you stood on the porch throwing a fit while I put Vivian in the car. I told you to walk to the car and stand by your door and you wouldn't, so I did what any good mom would do...got in the car and started driving out of the driveway with you screaming on the porch. Well that shaped you right up. Ever since, I haven't had one bit of a problem getting you out the door when I say it's time to go. I told you you need to start sleeping all night so you're not too tired in the morning to get your stuff together and get out the door so I don't leave you. You've been doing much better with the sleeping. You still get up a few times when we first put you in your room, but not as many as you were.

I'm starting to plan your birthday party. Of course you want it Thomas themed and I've found a lot of great ideas. I can't wait!

Okay, back to work for mommy.
I love you to the moon and back buddy.
Love Always,
Mommy

Teefers!!

Dear Vivian:
Two weeks ago (June 17) we felt the first tooth poking through!! Right at 7 months old. When I picked you up Jenn asked if I felt them and I stuck my finger and sure enough, I felt it. Then when we got home I had daddy feel and he felt the start of another one poking through. Ever since those 2 little bottom front teeth popped through you've been sleeping all night, no problem. It sure is heavenly. It worried me the first week, but now I'm so used to it I'm worried if you do happen to wake up and cry!
Every day you seem to get closer and closer to crawling. You sit on your butt and try to scoot and rock on your bottom, it's so cute. You'll get the crawling thing eventually!!
Last Friday you were with Aunt Erin and she called to say you were really sleepy and you projectile vomited all over the place and wouldn't stop. I didn't have any Tylenol or ibuprofen in your bag and she said you were burning up. By the time I got done work and got you home your temp was 101.8. I gave you some Ibuprofen because I couldn't find the Tylenol. That got you good to go and you were in a much better mood. Your temp never got high again...only to like 99.8. But without the ibuprofen you were miserable. Screaming, crying, didn't want to be put down, you weren't nursing very well. It was horrible. So yesterday I made you an appointment with the pediatrician. I thought maybe you had an ear infection. Turns out you just had a virus and maybe getting more teeth or those teeth you did get are just really coming on through good. Last night you seemed to be back to my happy baby! It seems as though you have another bottom tooth trying to come through as well that could be making you a bit upset.
Tomorrow we leave for camping and I'm so so excited!!
It'll be your first camping trip! Aunt Erin and Grandma tie dyed you a onesie and I bought you a cute 4th of July outfit. I can't wait to see you in it!
I'm really looking forward to all the extra hands we'll have while we're camping and the fact that I won't have to do anything really. No worrying about cleaning the house or figuring out meals or anything for 4 days! Woohoo!
Well , I got to get back to work so I can get all this stuff done here before tomorrow if I want to have Friday off!
I love you to the moon and back baby girl.
Love,
Mommy