Q's first day of preschool.

Today was the day.
From the moment she woke up she had a huge smile on her face and an extra giggle in her laugh.
She was so excited to go to school and meet "Miss Julie" her teacher.
We made it as special as it could possibly be.
It is her very first day of school of many more to come.
It is such a special day.

When did this girl get so big?
She does not look like a little 3 year old.

I mean didn't we just have this little bitty girl like yesterday?

Quinn and her teacher, Miss Julie.

Today was a shorter day to sort of ease their way into school.
She did fantastic!
Two things I realized...
all of Quinn's life when I envisioned her going to school on her very first day
1. I never thought she would walk in willingly and have no tears. (not the child that was attached to my hip for sooooooo long)
2. I never thought that I would actually be ready for her to go.  (but I know she is so ready and it is going to be a great experience for her - and let's be honest 3 1/2 hit hard and that brought on a little sassiness too ;) ha!)

But this is my baby and yes this day is 100% all about our little Quinn.
Quinn one day you too will realize that this very first day of school well it is a big day for a mommy like me to let a girl like you go.  We have been together everyday since the day you were born - you and me.

We decided it was a good idea to take our first selfie.
Well, ha, with my camera,
here is our first attempt... (with a little too much zoom)

and our second attempt (but Quinn's face is priceless)

finally another mother saw our pathetic attempts and grabbed my camera to save us :)

Letting you go and dropping you off wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do.
But I am SO excited about all of the amazing things ahead of you.
All I can hope for is that you show kindness and respect and that you see it in others, make good friends who make you happy and love you for all the beauty in you, have fun and be silly and start to grow a love for learning.

I also hope that when you go potty you don't go back into the classroom completely naked.  Because I'm kind of thinking there is a high possibility of that happening.  Lots of dresses for a while probably! :)  At least until you regularly get onto and off of the potty without completely taking your pants off.

Quinn's first day:
   No tears!  Walked right in to give Miss Julie a big hug.  Looked around at her new classroom and walked right over to sit for a table time activity.  She was good to go and Andie and I reluctantly left the classroom just waiting for a moment of if she was going to miss us. :)  In the hallway, I heard her little voice say "Where's mommy?" to which the teacher said "She will be back very soon to see you!" and she seemed just fine with that as the answer - and Andie and I were on our way.
  When we picked her up she was full force running into mommy's arms, but she was a very happy girl.  We could tell she had a great time.  The best feeling in the world.  She talked all about the playground and how they would be able to go next time.  She talked about playing with circles, triangles and squares.  Told us about how she saw all the pottys.  But her biggest tale of all was how she lost her shoe while she was on the rug. :)  Oh goodness.  She met friends named Jack and Anna.  And saw a train to play with.  Oh it was a good day.

twas the night before preschool...

Twas the night before preschool
and all through our house
were signs of a toddler
getting ready to head out.

Her backpack was hung in the mudroom with care.

The teachers snuck by to say hi with a sign, with hopes of seeing big smiles come school time.

Little gifts were made with love, hoping they will be a yummy treat.

A routine has been set that we hope to meet.

 An outfit selected and ready for show.

Her backpack all packed and ready to go.

(Grandma made this little bag when Quinn was a baby- do you think then she knew one day she would have an owl backpack to go with? :))  This is perfect to put in Quinn's bag each day.

Well this little one is on her way!

Stay tuned for a first day of preschool report.

two little annas.

Two little cousins who love their Frozen princesses.
Anna braids for both today.
Little Brynnie found these shirts and wanted to buy matching ones for her and her cousin Quinn. :)

andie ~ 2 months.

I know, seriously...cutest little squeezable baby ever right!? ;)

Our little Andie is such a sweet little juicy baby.  She is getting juicy for sure.  We love her chunky thighs!!  Sweet girl - you get comments regularly from strangers left and right about what a truly "beautiful" baby you are.
You have just the sweetest little round face, oh I could eat you up every single day!  And I do with all my snuggles and kisses.
You are SO smiley and it just melts my heart, especially the morning greetings.  You also just recently have started a good little night sleeping routine AND you also are much more chill about being put down for a little while.  Mommy loves you for that. :)  You are usually in my arms but your sister sure appreciates this break so she can get some full mommy play time too.  And our house appreciates it too. :)
Such a joyful, happy, calm little girl you are.

Andie at 2 months:

Weight: 12 1/2 pounds (80th%)
Height: 22 3/4 inches (50th%)
Head:  39 cm (50th%)
You were running proportionate up till now, but you little chubbiness is taking over and we love it!
New: In the last two weeks you found your hands and now you like to suck on them all the time.      
   Also, you raise your left little eyebrow a lot when someone is talking to you.  You make the best
   facial expressions
Sleep:  Bedtime - 7:30/8pm You go to bed awake and happy!  You sleep about 6 1/2-8 hour stretch,
        then you go back down for about 3-4 hours.  Then usually one more time for just a little quick
        morning nap. (That's where you are right now.)  You also moved into your crib in your room at
        8 weeks.  You slept in the Rock N' Play in our room up until that point.
Eat:  You are 100% breastfed.  You are not good at taking a bottle at all, and we haven't been giving
     you one for a long while because it was just so much harder.  But we are going to have Daddy
     start giving you a bottle a couple times a week.  During the day it's starting to stretch a bit, but still      usually about 2-3 hours between feedings.  And sometimes just on demand depending on how  
     much you ate previously.  Breastfeeding with you has been so easy and mommy loves this time.
    At some point, about a month ago probably, breastfeeding became much easier than what the bottle     feeding process would be for me.  However,  you pretty much have to be with mommy all the time.
     I left you for the first time this week for just 2 hours and you didn't eat your bottle, good thing             mommy was back quickly.  Also, at night when you wake you only eat for about 5 minutes, so I
     can tell you will be stretching those sleep stretches even further soon.
Clothes:  You have been wearing 3 month, but they are starting to get snug and too little!
Diapers:  Size 1 - probably switching to 2's soon!
Likes:  To be snuggled, cuddled, and held.  A good little butt pat when rocking her. :) To be around you, and talked to and sung to.  To just lay out on a blanket and stretch out.  Is starting to enjoy the swing and bouncer a little bit.  Being positioned sitting up.  Getting hair washed.
Dislikes:  Bottles.  When not around people.  (many of her dislikes have gone away recently, as she is much more chill. :)

Andie, you are a sweet sweet baby.  We often get the question now "How did you get two easy going sweet babies, good sleepers?"  We are very lucky!  For a little while though you did require a little more attention wanting to be held ALL the time - good thing we don't mind snuggling you!  And once in our arms you were always happy.  But you seem to be growing out of that stage as you are officially an infant now and no longer a newborn - oh it goes so fast!
You are a little chunker and we just love you to pieces!

andie's birth story (and video).

On June 18th, 2014 at 9:39 a.m. our sweet little Andie Ainsley was born.

A video made by mommy from Andie's "Birth"day:

My pregnancy with Andie was pretty simple and peaceful.  It started rough with a lot of nausea, sickness and running fast to get sick many times a day.  It lasted exactly 17 weeks.  By 18 weeks, this mama was feeling pretty good.  The start of this pregnancy was just like our first, but otherwise it was quite different.  From how I carried little miss Andie, to the smooth sailing pregnancy we had. Other than being congested everyday of my pregnancy with this little peanut - all was well and we were so glad. :)

We were pretty sure another little girl was on the way for us, but the day we found out - we were so thrilled!

Another sweet girl, a little sister for Quinn - everything we had imagined for our little family.

I had some intuition that this little girl in my belly was very reliable, determined, calm and strong.

We were so excited to meet you!

The week before Andie was born, my blood pressure started to rise a bit.  It wasn't anything scary at all, but they liked to monitor me a lot because of my first pregnancy with Quinn.  That meant about 5 visits to the hospital in one week just to keep a close watch on things.  No pre-eclampsia, no other signs of any complications.  All was well, but since we were approaching our due date anyway the doctors decided to move up our scheduled delivery date just to make sure my raised blood pressure didn't turn into anything else.  Todd and I chose the 18th of June (kind of strange to pick a birthday :) - but Todd liked the idea of his three girls having birthdays on the 17th, 18th, and 19th (of different months though)).

So, Wednesday the 18th of June was set.  Grandma and Grandpa made their way up from Florida to be here to stay with big sister Quinn.  Of course the day before, big contractions kicked in and we made another trip to the hospital (my babies like to be in breech position so any sign of labor meant we needed to head into the hospital right away) - contractions were getting stronger and were consistently 4-5 minutes apart so we headed in.  The 17th was not her day. :)  After hours of regular contractions things slowed down and I wasn't showing progress so Doc decided to keep steady until tomorrow (the 18th -our scheduled day).

The morning of Wednesday, June 18th we were up early, got ourselves ready and headed to the hospital knowing in just a few short hours we would be holding our little baby girl.  It was such a surreal feeling to have it all scheduled and know that today was her birthday.  We got checked in about 7am, headed into our labor and delivery room and there got prepped for my 2nd c-section.  It was calm and fun and so enjoyable.  There were no nerves, just excitement.  We had fun just talking to our nurses and staff that were helping us.

                                          

Time flew by and next thing we knew it was baby time!  Everything about this experience was so different from Quinn's birth.  I walked down to the surgical room now knowing in minutes we would meet our little Andie, hopped on the table, immediately got a spinal block (hallelujah for this - because with Quinn I had an epidural) and within seconds I was completely numb and ready to deliver baby.  I didn't even know the procedure had begun and before I knew it there was a "here she comes!"  I couldn't believe we were already there and she was almost here.  I watched as Todd stood up to see and watched the big sweet smile come on his face.  In the next minute I heard loud sweet baby cries and excited and different voices all exclaiming "She's here!", "She is so cute!", "Look how big she is!", "She is absolutely gorgeous!", "Oh those cheeks!", "Lots of hair!", "7lbs 8oz!", and then she was in my arms, her baby cries immediately calmed and this mama's tears took over.  She was all of those things and so much more.  She was ours and she was absolutely perfect.  We couldn't believe how much she looked like her big sister.  It was unbelievable.  Andie's sweet little round face and chubby cheeks just melted us and we were over the moon with joy that she was healthy and so stunning.  

Life is amazing and miraculous and these moments are beyond words.

The delivery went beautifully and so much better than I could ever have expected.  In short, I realized that what I felt during my first c-section with Quinn was not normal (I felt a lot of everything during that surgery and was incredibly uncomfortable.)  The birth of both of our daughters was incredibly beautiful, but little miss Andie's was just easy.

I was fully awake the entire time and was quickly rolled into recovery (where we would spend the next hour just being and enjoying and relaxing and taking it all in).  We also got this little champ of a breastfeeder started.  And we just stared at her. :) 

After recovery we rolled into our post-pardum room where we would stay for several days.  Here she met her big sister.  The sweetest moment you can imagine.  Moments of curiosity, pride, and love. Quinn immediately took to her (she wasn't so sure of mommy in a hospital bed, but little sis was all good :).  Grandpa and Grandma D. and Auntie Amy also met little Andie on this day. 

Our new little family of four.

So much love for our new addition - our beautiful little Andie Ainsley.

being a big sister.

Quinn is SO proud of her little baby sister.  She talks about her all the time.  Tells strangers at the store all about her.  She worries about her.  She wants to see and kiss her all the time.  And she definitely tells us every time her "baby Andie is still crying" :).
For such a big change to her little world, Quinn has really handled the transition more beautifully than we had thought.  She loves her little sister so much and that brings so much joy to our hearts.

What has been the one change for this little girl during this transition? SLEEP.  And for the most part it is the going to sleep part that has changed, dramatically.  That's right our little sleeper with a perfect little record decided to make us finally start "parenting".  We have had it so easy up to this point!  Naps are turning to be a little rare, but she really still needs them. Any act of going to bed is met with dozens of appearances coming out of her bedroom door.  We have tried so many things.  It can be very frustrating, mostly because we are also caring for a little newborn too, but we remind ourselves of what a huge change this girl has been through and how she wants to make sure she isn't missing out on anything.
Update on this at 6 weeks post Andie entering into our lives - it is getting better and appearances out of her door we can count on one hand.  Last night was the first night she didn't come out at all!!  It was also this mama's first night getting both girls fed and in bed by herself so it was great timing.

We pick our battles sometimes...

This is where I found her during naptime one day (in her sister's room).

One of the biggest things we have done this summer was to make sure this little girl always felt special and loved.  This meant lots of special little outings, activities and little projects.  It also was a great summer for Quinn with her daddy.  They had so much time together, it has definitely been a cherished summer for all of us.

Quinn has also decided to start acting three.  That's right, a little bit of sass and wanting to tell mommy and daddy what to do.  Way to take advantage of our sleep-deprived state little chickee!  We see what you are trying to do. :)  You are still sweet as pie 99% of the time, but that little 1% that is trying to make decisions for us is giving us a run for our money.

One more month and this girl will be starting preschool!!