Christmas Quiet

The holiday season is full of hustle and bustle.

The parties and planning and prepping and purchasing and parenting just never stops.

So I especially love the quiet time just after naps.

Dumpling loves his stuffed animals and often sits with one to read a book.

As you probably know, seeing my kids sit to read on their own brings me pure joy.

I can't help but post the pictures.

Add Christmas to the mix and you have perfection!

Wishing you all a moment of quiet in your day!

One of these is not like the others.

We recently went to Peanut's preschool open house.

We get to browse their classroom and take in what they've been doing.

Math, science, reading, audiobooks, journal time, silkworms, butterflies, baby chicks and yes, they've even memorized the pledge of allegiance.

You marvel at how far they have come.

You can read the well documented answer to questions they've been asked by their teachers.

Hilarity!  Out of the mouth of babes, amiright?

The thing is…

you cannot help but compare your child's work to the work of other children.

It is unavoidable.

We do it innocently and without thinking.

So with a smile we browsed these little bees for our own little B.

Until we found it.

We looked around and started to laugh.

B come over here and look at this!

Look at all the other bees and look at our kid's bee.

It was too funny!  Should we be worried?

When I was finally able to get his attention, Peanut wandered over to the wall.

"Peanut, tell me about your bee?"

"Oh.  It's a Winja bee."

The Ninja Bee

That's what I get for doubting my kid's craft skills and creativity.

Hello old friend

Hello my friends, I've missed you all.

I think I've gotten to the point that simply mentally writing my blog posts as I nurse the baby in the middle of the night isn't cutting it.

Or as Peanut would say

"That doesn't cut."

Our dumpling is 6 months old.

SIX MONTHS

It's terrible.  Make it stop.

And because some of your are crazy, you've requested that I write some of my childbirth experiences.

You people are terrible.  You love knowing the awful truth.

So coming soon to a blog near you will be posts about losing my hair, possibly my mind, breastfeeding the second time around… and maybe something about poop.

Because we can't talk about motherhood without talking about poop.

Brothers

Peanut

Well these two certainly are brothers.

As soon as we posted pictures of Dumpling 

we started getting comments about how much these two looked like each other.

Dumpling

While they looked nearly identical at birth,
we started seeing differences shortly after.

Dumpling is a little softer, with fuller features,
Peanut's features were finer.

Peanut

It seems that every day Dumpling looks more and more like himself
and less like Peanut
but sometimes the similarities are overwhelming.


Dumpling

Personality-wise these two could not be more different thus far.

It's sort of hilarious.
This baby is low-maintenance.

So perhaps this one will take more after B
unlike his big brother who has my more shall we say, demanding personality.

Are your kids similar in temperament?
What about you and your siblings?

Peanut's pictures taken by Jylare Anne Photography
Dumpling's pictures taken by Kelly Lombardo Photography

Documenting Dumpling

I've been neglecting my duties in showing off the newborn cuteness.

For this I apologize and invite you to indulge in these tasty pictures by Kelly Lombardo Photography

She also took these awesome pictures of Peanut when he was 2!

They don't stay newborn for long and I already miss the little frog legs and wrinkly hands and feet.

I love the way he scrunches up and grunts and groans.

I've seriously never heard a noisier sleeping child.  Oh the grunting all. night. long.

There is seriously nothing sweeter than a sleeping child.

We were only able to convince big brother to get in on the pictures by telling him he could lay on this super soft blanket.

The fact that she was able to get some good shots of them was a miracle.

Yup.

Oh that sweet and innocent look.

This picture.

I cannot get enough of this picture.

And yes, he did look just like Peanut when he was born!

He's already changed so much that he's looking a lot less like his brother.

 I'll have to do a side by side post some time soon.  

Of course, I'll be sharing more pictures with you!

Like Father, Like Son

Today is B's birthday!

Sometimes the similarities between father and son really come out.

Like when they are eating their crazy foods.

And definitely in their facial expressions.

I especially love these shots.

Unplanned and identical.

It's freaking me out.

These two are goofy but then with B as a father, Peanut was bound to be a little odd.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

But don't worry Dumpling...

there is plenty of time for daddy and big brother to teach you all their mannerisms.

Happy birthday to a wonderful and weird father!

We love you old man!

Maternity photos taken by Adrienne Gunde

Newborn photos taken by Kelly Lombardo

Our Family Maternity Shoot

Well Adrienne Gunde has done it again.
She's documented out Engagement, Wedding and pregnancy with Peanut.

This summer was really busy for me.
4 jobs.  An active preschooler.

I hadn't really thought about what I wanted to do for the shoot like I normally do.
One night I was sitting in Peanut's room and decided we'd steal his teepee for the pictures.

But in all honesty I don't really worry about it because her pictures are always gorgeous.

I really just wanted a few of us as a family.
Our last few as a family of three.

And a few of this gigantic belly.

I earned this belly and the privilege of carrying this baby.

I want it documented.

Otherwise noone would believe how big it was!

I want my boys to know how much I loved being pregnant with them.
I reeeaaalllyyy love being pregnant.
Despite all the down sides and the inability to move well and… you know what I mean.

Peanut has loved watching baby brother grow in mommy's tummy.

He was the first person besides me to feel the baby move,
and he spent a great deal of time talking and singing to baby brother.

Peanut is just such a big boy now.

Although we hadn't planned a 4 year spread between our boys,
I'm so grateful to have had the time with Peanut to ourselves.

I'm glad he got to be our baby for so long

and I think he will make an awesome big brother.

We've spent lots of time preparing for the little one.

But even more time soaking up the Peanut
because life is going to change

in so many ways and we don't want to miss these moments.

Sometimes you are just reminded that everyday is a pleasure.

And that there is only so much time for a photo shoot before the kids decide they are over.