3 Months!

I can't believe Miss Anna is 3 months old! I remember this time with Madelyn, and feeling like I was just obsessed with her every move.  The exact same is happening now. I remember feeling like I couldn't get enough of every look, every move, every expression.  Now, as I get ready to go back to work, I'm soaking in every second with Anna and M these last few days before I go back.

The last month has been so.much.fun with Anna Banan. She's such a easy going baby but you can see she's starting to develop her own little personality. She's not a great napper, so figuring out how to make her comfortable enough to get some sleep during the day is a bit of a challenge. She doesn't really fuss, she just wiggles and squirms and is restless in her crib. Actually, motion is her middle name. She literally never.stops.moving. I swear shes going to be turning over soon. Anna's sleep at night is awesome. She started doing 12 hours right around 9/10 weeks, just like Madelyn did, and now as we approach 14 weeks, she's consistently doing those long stretches (knock on wood!)

One of the most fun developments over the last week has been, laughing! The person she smiles and laughs the most for - Madelyn! It is the neatest thing ever to watch Madelyn play with and talk sweetly to her, Anna just absolutely lights up :) Every now and then she'll light up the same for me or Brian, but it seems like M is her favorite right now!

Anna weighs approximately 13lbs 10 oz and she's definitely tall for her age. I think because of her height and hair, she looks a little older than 3 months.  I met someone the other day who's 9 month old daughter just hit 15 lbs, and she couldn't believe Anna was only 3 months. Maybe because of her big(ger) birth weight, she's always had good neck strength and control, and she can hold herself up really well.  Probably about 2 weeks ago, she found her hands, and she is mesmerized with them. When I put her down on her mat to play, she's way more interested in playing with her hands than the animals hanging above. 

Newborns grow and change a little every day, it's just the most incredible thing. One day I noticed her eyelashes looked 3x longer, another day her hair seemed so much thicker, and looking back at pictures of her first days, she's changed SO much. Being home and spending this time with my munchkins has been such a blessing. I'll never forget all the fun we had and how special these first few months with Anna have been. I look forward to watching you continue to grow sweet girl, I love you so, so much!

  I caught her laugh, on camera :) 

it's impossible to tame her hair!

first bath together!

sisterly love

smiles for M

A work in progress, still...

We've lived in our house for a year, and we're on our third dining table! The most recent one is it; I promised Brian there will be no more changes, because it's exactly what I've wanted! The only problem is, it didn't come with chairs. So, until I can make a decision on what to buy to go with it, we're without a functioning dining room!

When we moved in, we put our white and wood pedestal table that we purchased new for our first house, in our dining area. The table (and rug) from our first house, just never really worked in the space. They were OK, but I certainly knew I wanted to change it up eventually. Eventually came a little sooner than we expected because when I posted the table and chairs on Craiglist last fall, we got an immediate taker, and the table and chairs sold! 

We weren't left without a dining set though, because the previous owner left behind his dining set.  I hated the chairs, but the table was bigger and rectangle, so I decided we could make that hand-me-down of sorts, work for a temporary fix. I sold the chairs to his set, and over the next 6 months, we borrowed folding chairs and then mismatched wooden chairs, so that we could use the dining room and eat together (properly ;) Then, in a matter of a few weeks, the folding chairs were returned, and the wooden chairs we had been borrowing, were also sold to someone, so again, we were chair-less!

In the midst of all the tag sale searching, and selling, I sold the old rug we'd been using in our dining room. I didn't need to sell it, and wasn't sure if it actually would, but I thought I'd try. Once the rug was gone, I felt refreshed.  In a way, it was like getting rid of the curtains that I couldn't mesh with anything else. We finally had a clean slate in the dining room and I could start to piece the room together. It's very hard to try to get furnishings from one house, to all work together in a new house. I think for the most part, we did a good job, but realistically, not everything can work.

Without even looking, I stumbled on a listing for a beautiful pine dining table. It was like it was hoping I'd find it.  It had been used in a family's second home in Vermont, and they were looking to sell it. It had some scratches, it had been well loved, but I looked past that because the shape, size and style was exactly what I wanted for our dining room someday. It is a very, very sturdy table, I think each leg weighs 20 lbs! The price was too good to be true, so I decided to buy it. Again though, no chairs! This is what our dining room currently looks like:

So, here we are, after lots of back and forth.... and we have an unpainted dining room, with no curtains, no rug, and a dining table with no chairs. Our dining room is a good size, and it has so much potential. I think we'll end up putting a simple, neutral color on the walls whenever we get around to painting :) The pickle I'm in now is, do we start by buying a rug first, and then chairs, or the other way around....

These are the rugs I've had my eye on, all but one are indoor/outdoor and with a dog and kids, I'd hope would stand up really well in a high-traffic area....

Home Goods - teal

Home Decorators - green and tan

 Pottery Barn - Grey

 Pottery Barn - jute

Pottery Barn - natural diamond

For chairs, I'm thinking of something like this:

Please feel free to weigh in... I can be the most decisive and indecisive person to ever walk the Earth. So, I welcome any and all ideas or suggestions :) I'd love to get the room in working order soon, so we can get back to having meals as a family at the table! Thanks in advance!

phone photo dump!

 "hold my hand Anna, hold my hand"

 having fun at the park! 

 first nap in her crib, success! All attempts since, have not gone so well ;) 

 amazing seats at my favorite Bruce show, yet!

this girl loves her sleep

love her smiles!

no problem sitting up, and holding her head up... for weeks now!

sorry.... I just can't get enough :)

Memorial Day on MV!

Our first trip as a family of five :) The Tuesday before the holiday weekend we all piled into the car, packed to the brim, and headed to Martha's Vineyard. In true fashion, I left most of the packing until the Sunday/Monday before. I think I was so overwhelmed, I just procrastinated. We ended up in fine shape, and out the door only 5 minutes later than we'd hoped to leave. AND we ended up being an hour early for the ferry - I consider that a big success. Now, because we were early, we had the opportunity to get on an early boat that was getting ready to leave in about 10 minutes. However, I had to go to the bathroom so bad, I couldn't think straight, Madelyn was yelling repeatedly from the back seat, "I have to go pee-pee" and Anna simultaneously started to scream because she was ready for a bottle. ---- literally hit the fan, all at once. Poor Q, didn't even get a chance to get out to go to the bathroom! So, we passed, and opted to get organized and just sit in the parking lot and wait the hour to board the next boat. Once we got there, we had a great relaxing long weekend!

The weather was pretty good, and we had the chance to be out and about quite a bit. The Island was really quiet, which was nice for a change, and we did a lot of catching up with family and friends. So, so, nice. Madelyn had the BEST time, Quigley had a blast romping in the yard and going for a walk to the beach, Anna was all smiles, and Brian and I went on a few dates and got drinks with friends. We're heading back up in a few weeks for a week, including a wedding of our dear friends, and we can't wait!

Here are some pictures of our trip :)