Tender Heart

Have I mentioned how awesome my parents are? We are so lucky to live SUPER close to my family, so close that my parents can relieve us of one or both of the kiddos any time and close enough that they play a major role in help me manage the kiddos every single morning (evenings too).

Little Man and Pop have this morning ritual of snuggling in Pop's big easy chair, drinking "co-co" milk and watching Johnny and the Sprites. Pop told me that the other morning he and Little Man were watching an episode about how worms were eating Johnny's garden and Johnny and the Sprites had to gather up the worms into jars and get rid of them. Pop looked over at Little Man and he was wiping his eyes with his "Lovey". Pop asked him what was wrong and Little Man said, "This show is making my eyes cry." Ha.

I love his sweet little tender heart.

Oddly enough, worms in a jar make him cry but we watch BAMBI and NADA. What's up with that?

The Look

The past week has been R-O-U-G-H for this mommy. I've been running on anywhere from 1-3 hours of sleep a night thanks to a very fussy night time baby.

Two nights ago when I was several hours past exhaustion, Trav was at the fire station, Little Man was crying in his room for me to come get him and June Bug was inconsolable I thought I was going to lose my mind. I got my act together, put Little Man back in bed, snuggled up June Bug and just as I was about to let the tears flow, I looked down at the baby lying on my chest and saw this look.

It is amazing what a little eye contact can do to soothe a tired momma.

Can you say creepy?

It is weird but my family loves to be creeped out and THIS (click on the word, dad) is one of the creepiest things I have seen in a long time. Be sure to scroll down.

Like mother, like daughter

I am not a great sleeper and I'm kind of a pillow snob because of it. I understand wanting to put babies in beds without blankets and fluffy items that can cause suffocation but knowing how hard it is for me to sleep through the night I really feel sorry for my little June Bug. She tosses and turns at night, groaning and stretching over and over again just like I do when I am on an uncomfortable bed sooooo when I am awake, I let her sleep ON my beloved pillow. I think she likes it!!!

Happy Father's Day!

My little prince

This morning Little Man walked in just as I was putting on one of my favorite headbands on June Bug's head. LM took one look at her and exclaimed, "Oh wow mommy! [June Bug] a beautiful princess!" He then ran over to the dresser, grabbed another headband and put it on. Knowing that his daddy would have a fit, we came up with a compromise....a bowtie fit for a prince :)

Oh and this is now the face I get from LM anytime I pull out the camera. I guess he isn't really enjoying being in front of the camera!

Maternity Leave

I am so very, very blessed to work where I do. Working for my church enables me to work with wonderfully godly men and women in a healthy, happy environment that not only cares about the individual but the individual's family. When Little Man was born nearly two months early, the church worked with me to arrange a schedule that would allow me to give my son my undivided attention while he was in the NICU and then after 6 weeks of maternity leave allowed me to work from home for many months while my little one grew and grew. This time around, with June Bug, I wasn't sure whether or not we would have an experience similar to Little Man's or one that was more typical. The church was flexible and more than willing to work with me and support me through bed rest, multiple trips to L&D and even an early delivery. Now that JB has made her arrival they allowed me to modify "maternity leave" so that I could work from home for the summer and only come into the office for meetings and emergencies. It allows me to give my sweet children my attention when they need it and arrange my work load to accommodate their needs. It also allows me to participate in the staff prayer meetings, minister meetings and luncheons that I so desire to attend. It really is the best of both worlds. While not a permanent solution, I will go back to full-time work in September, it is such a tremendous blessing for this new mommy and one of the many reasons I love my job.

I do get some weird, sometimes skeptical looks, when I tell people that I work from home but honestly....can you imagine a better working situation?

Working from home with Little Man

Working from home with June Bug

In the zone

I think we are finally getting into the groove of things now that Trav is back at work. I love these first few weeks when everything is so new and fuzzy because you are so sleep deprived yet happy. Nothing fancy, photo wise, just some snappies and here are the highlights....


We've been taking little June Bug in to the doctor about every 5 days because she hasn't been meeting her weight gain goals. We adjusted our feeding schedule a bit, fortified some bottles of milk and were very happy when she exceeded her weight gain goal by 5 oz! Doesn't sound like much but since babies are supposed to gain an ounce a day and she was gaining an ounce every 3 days, we were so happy when she gained 9 ounces in 4 days. Did you follow that? Oh and she finally has enough "meat" to wear a newborn diaper! Oh and in case you are wondering, we've been looking at all of our baby photos and she could be my twin. :) I'll try to scan one later to show the similarities.


We have been wondering when she was going to lose her cord, since big brother lost his at 10 days, and when I asked the Dr. about she said that she had up to TWO MONTHS to lose it? Can you imagine? Fortunately, she lost it at 2.5 weeks....I love baby belly buttons.


Little Man has finally given PB&J a try after numerous failures and it has been a huge hit. He is not, however, a fan of the stickiness.

Little Man has been struggling with bed time lately and we've had to repeatedly put him to bed every night for about two weeks because he would get up and drag every toy in his room to bed. The other night my dad peeked in on him after we had put him to bed and he was playing in bed and whispered, "Pop, you have to whisper, mommy can hear us." It starts early, doesn't it? We finally changed our approach and told him he could play with a couple of toys until he fell asleep. He is a bit literal and this is how I found him the next morning (he is asleep under the blue lovey). What you can't see are the 1,000+ tiny cars under the covers.


Finally, the kiddo's cousin Hunter is in town for the weekend and we've had so much fun having all the kids together in one house. Some people are more excited about walks than others.

So much

I love watching Little Man's language grow every day. It seems that the discoveries increase tenfold as each day passes and he is to the point now where he is branching out from the normal phrasing he hears in his day-to-day life and starting to form his own cute little phrases.

I've never really noticed some of the phrases I use on a regular basis until I heard myself repeated back in that sweet little voice. Apparently he has heard me thank vendors, drive through cashiers and doctors/nurses with a "Thanks so much" that he started saying, "Thanks so much" to E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

What I didn't expect, was all of the things that would warrant the "so much"....

"I hungry so much"

"I wanna go outside so much"

"Where my tiny cars so much?"

"It not working so much"

But by far, the best so far was a few nights ago when he crawled up in my lap to say goodnight and he said, "I love you so much, mommy". Can you hear my heart melting???