an evening at home

how big is dylan?! it's funny that i see this girl all day, every day, but yet in these pictures, she looks so grown up! i snapped these last night after dinner. the way ben had her propped on his lap throughout dinner, just cracked me up! she looked so cute and content, and ben just LOVES his little girl. enjoy.

part two: days in the sun, at home

we have had absolutely gorgeous weather - and it's not even june! most days have been in the 60s, sometimes reaching well into the 70s. my jackie is such an alaskan; he gets so hot, so easily! red faced and asking for "juice," we usually have to head inside to cool off. if you're wondering where dylan is in all these pictures, she is safe inside, snoozing away. jack and i sneak outside during her morning nap time so i can run around and play with him, rather than sticking to the blanket in the grass. little man needs some quality mom time too!

days in the sun

we have had many play dates and fun outside with niessink family. bobbie anne is my one of my only stay-at-home mom friends so we end up together a few days during the week. the kiddos play so well together and we use the time as therapy sessions for each other! hahaha

here are some of our outings together...

lake lucille park







3-mile walk on farm loop road






and just yesterday, during our 77 degree day in the valley, we choose to break out the pool.







fun times had by us :)

jb vs. dilly

i just realized something that is likely never going to happen in my life. something that i had always envisioned, dreamed of. well before dylan was born or rather, before she was even conceived, i had this image of ben with a little girl on his shoulders, her chubby fingers wrapped around his neck and maybe a smidge of chocolate somewhere on her freckled face. in my mind, this girl had long, messy pigtails, brown messy pigtails. it's hard to imagine dylan ever being older than she is now (it's hard to imagine jack being any other way too), but it just struck me this evening that the little girl propped up on ben's shoulders will now have reddish orange ponies!

it's funny, before she came out, i had expected her to look just like jack; full head of dark brown hair, round face, long fingers, etc. looking back at his pictures and comparing the two of them, they DO look like brother and sister, despite the hair color. see?




super cute babes.

dylan is still having her sad times during the evenings, but they are less than they were before. in fact, she skipped two nights in a row and then the next evening she cried, it was only for 15 minutes. see, that's the thing about these babies... you think you get them all figured out and then they flip the script on you! she has also started sleeping in longer stretches again. she also did this back during week 3. just this week, two nights in a row, she has slept for 7 hours. dylan is spending more time on her belly and loving it. she's also learning to love her swing, usually taking her morning nap in it. her eyes are still that mousey-gray color and yes, her hair is still red.

jack is the same. we have great days outside in the sun, but we come inside and he loses his head. it's incredibly frustrating. i just want my sweet, little boy back. actually, i want bed time jack to be all day. he is so sweet at bed time. he wants to snuggle and read book after book. we've even got into the pattern of me crawling into his bed with him, snuggling and smooching, praying and laughing before i sneak out. ben does bed time most evenings, and he talks about the sweet moments they share too despite not being able to get into his bed. jack can be sweet, so very sweet with one little person in particular. here's a few of those moments:

ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on...

you know how your mother always said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? well, that's where i'm at. i haven't blogged in a while and that's because i guess i don't have much of an update to share.

jack is still testing me to my limits. i recently purchased a book called the happiest toddler on the block and a dvd to go with it. i am hoping it has some helpful tips, like the first version the happiest baby on the block did for me. someone recently shared with me that boys start out hard and get easier and girls start out easy and get harder. hmmm. i'm just hoping that at some point both my kids like me and that i don't feel like such a failure every day. this is common, right? i know i'm not failing, but when you can't seem to say anything to your toddler without him throwing himself to the ground and whining, you feel like where did i go wrong, right??? anyway...

it's so hard. have i said that before? it is! no one told me it was going to be this hard! there are so many people out there with multiple children and they look sane, but man, i feel like a crazy lady. i feel like i can't make anyone happy these days, someone's always crying about something, and i'm always hungry, tired and smelling like rancid milk. ok, enough. the pity party will end now.

dylan had her 6 week check up today, just a few days early. she is now 10.12 pounds. goodness! (she was 7.3 at birth.) she is getting cuter by the day, i swear. chubby cheeks and a double chin, i know i said it before, but gosh she's just delicious!

how about some pictures? let's end this on a happy note.






and let's not forget dear jackie...

un.be.lieve.able.

i had to take dylan into the public health center this morning for her hearing test. the midwifery doesn't perform hearing exams so this had to be done between 2 and 4 weeks. so. feeling pretty confident about getting out with two kiddos, i saw no reason why jack would be a problem. huh. i must have lost my mind momentarily this morning. we walked into the building and immediately, he turns into a class a terrorist. here is the rundown of the damage:

~ a child-size set of wooden table and chairs, tosses a chair over his shoulder, bangs into the other chairs
~ books stacked on the table, clears them off completely, falling all over the floor
~ toy box in the corner, lifts it up and empties all the toys out

all this is happening while i'm filling out paperwork. trying to fill out paperwork. dylan wakes up in the midst of this all; she's hungry, likely needing a diaper change and sweaty-hot in her outfit. i get her out of the car seat to find that not only does she need a diaper change, she also needs a clothing change. damn (but thank you me for packing an extra outfit!) i change her in record time, get her latched on, all while throwing jack the look and pleading with him to "be nice" and "please sit down next to me!"

i'm finally called back to the room where they inform me that dylan needs to be asleep for the test and that there should be absolute quiet. ummmmm, yeah...

~ jack was pushing a metal chair around the room on the linoleum floor causing a horrific screeching sound
~ pulled open a metal filing cabinet and launched several files onto the floor, sending the lady scrambling
~ ripped off 7 magnets from the front of the filing cabinet, adding those to the pile on the floor
~ another box of toys, emptied
~ sat down on the chair next to me, only to swivel around, stand up and attempt to rip the poster off the wall
and last,
~ he began marching in a circle

how dylan eventually fell asleep and completed the test is beyond me. i was seriously surprised that she didn't have hearing loss because how on earth could anyone fall asleep through all that ruckus?! once the test was over, i was able to put dylan back in her seat and begin the clean up of the room. about this point, jack opened the door and took off down the hallway which was probably a good 30-40 feet. i catch up to him just before he enters a room full of 4 people seated around a table. good God. hi, don't mind me or this crazy child. i'm trying to find his mother right now. of course, i didn't say that. i gather him up, go back to grab dylan and leave the building with my head hung low. real low. why. why oh why oh why.

don't you think it would have been nice to know ahead of time that the infant would need to be asleep? i'll say it again, thank goodness jack is so cute and so forgivable. he almost became property of the public health building.

that didn't take long.

dylan's already had her first visit to the doctor for an attempted concussion. i feel like i could not be any safer with her. i never leave her alone within jack's reach. she rarely gets time on the floor, unless it's in our bedroom at night. and so many of jack's toys have gone bye-bye because he's so unpredictable with them. well, this morning while i was feeding dylan, sitting on the sofa, she spit up on herself. i placed her on the cushion next to me so i could get her onesie off. and just as soon as i did, jack reached up with his tonka truck and slammed it on her head. (he had been playing at my feet.) i screamed, dylan was about to scream but doing that hold-your-breath cry and then jack started crying. immediately, dylan's eyebrow bone was swollen and ever so slightly bloody. jack ran to his room, and i followed him and shut the door. i really could not even bear to look at him. i placed a cold washcloth on her eye/forehead area which just pissed her off even more. called ben, called doctor n. 40 minutes later, dylan gets a clean bill of health and mommy gets two stories of toddlers causing chaos to their younger siblings. i guess it can always be worse. it's sad and frustrating when you can't protect your babies. it fills me with guilt that i was RIGHT there and couldn't react fast enough; i didn't even see it coming! i was instructed to have her sleep in either a swing or her carseat to keep her upright so the swelling stays down. doctor n also said she may get a black eye from it. i'm not leaving the house if that happens! poor, poor dilly!

so after the abuse and the doctor visit, i met my other partner in crime and her two offsprings at a fun fun park in palmer. dylan slept in the baby bjorn and jack blew off some of his stored up energy. another beautiful day in the valley. blue skies, big old puffy clouds and airplanes spotted throughout. as always, i had my camera...