1 night, 2 scenes

Scene 1: I'm holding Violet on my lap and we're playing and having fun. My leg feels a little wet, but I think she probably drooled on me and I don't even worry about it. After a few minutes, I pull her up to standing and realize she has had a little leakage, you know, of the poop variety. Nate takes her to take care of her mess and I change my pants. A couple of hours later, we're getting ready to do bath time and I ask for a kiss. He says "I still love you and I will still kiss you, even though you have poop on your shirt."

Scene 2: I'm running the water for bath time and Nate brings out a naked baby. All of a sudden, I see something dripping on the floor. Then he says, ever so nonchalantly, "Aaaaaand she's peeing on me." He changes his shirt. Later on, he gives me a smooch and I tell him "I still love you and I will still kiss you, even though you have pee on your jeans."

And...scene.

happy wakeup

Now that she's a little older, when baby Violet wakes up she's pretty happy and she can wait a little bit before she eats. I'll just hear her talking to herself in her crib and rolling around. My favorite time of day is when I go in to get her in the morning. I wake up to happy baby sounds, have time to take care of myself for a few minutes, then I go in and say "Good morning, sunshine" in the happiest voice you could ever imagine. She gives me a huge smile, then starts kicking and wiggling because she is so happy to see me. She rolls her face into the sheet like she can hardly contain her excitement. Pure joy, pure sunshine.

Botanical Gardens

Today we went to the Botanical Gardens with Amanda and her 3 boys. It was kind of an impromptu trip (my favorite kind) and we had lots of fun. It was a beautiful morning and right in the middle of our walk I got a little teary thinking about how great this life is and how thankful I am for everything. To be walking on a gorgeous day in the middle of the week with a good friend and our healthy babies - it was almost too much to handle!

My advice for today is to STOP. Look around. Take stock and count your blessings.

Pout

Vi has the cutest pouty face. I mean it is so cute and sad it will just make your heart frown (what?!?). I was trying to take a picture of it and inadvertently caught my own pouty face. So here are two girls being super pouty.




If you think this is sad, you haven't seen anything! Her actual saddest pouty face has yet to be captured.

scooting

She is on the move!

related

I think you can see some resemblance here



The rolling is out of control so this is how you'll catch her

new toy

Yep, I'm a pretty big girl in this exersaucer

Fun with hats

Ben is coming!

Over the weekend Violet and I took a trip to Illinois. We made a quick stop in Tremont to see her Grammy, Grampy, Auntie, and Uncle. Then we headed to Bloomington for the next couple of days to hang out with Natalie while the Grabers welcomed baby Ben. It was a fun and tiring trip, but it was so amazing to get to meet another miracle and to watch Natalie meet him for the first time.

The Grabers before heading off to the hospital - still beautiful and smiling at 38 weeks pregnant!


On Monday and half of Tuesday I got to party with these rock stars


Super cute! I even got some practice making ponies :-)


My friend Jen came for a little visit


I asked Jen to take a couple pictures of me and the girls and it was a little on the crazy side


Crazy but fun! I have a whole new respect for moms of 2, 3, 4, and more.



On Monday night we found out the Ben was born and that he and mom were doing great! I was so excited but both of the girls were already sleeping so I just had to dance around the house by myself. Pregnancy and childbirth are the most miraculous events - I cannot get over it.

On Tuesday morning I got Natalie dressed in her special big sister outfit. So cute! She was really excited to go to the hospital to meet her baby brother.


Such a special moment!


Vi had fun hanging out with Joni in the hospital - Violet and Joni's son Jordan were born 2 hours apart!! We were both due on the same day, then went 4 days overdue, and were in labor at the same time. If someone would have told us that 15 years ago when we met, we never would have believed it. So amazing!



The reason for the trip and all of the joy: baby Benjamin Walker! So precious and handsome.




This can make your heart explode with joy - I'm so thankful I got to share this experience with such a wonderful family.

Afro baby

5 minutes apart

6:30: Having fun standing with daddy




6:35: Do you think she's tired?