Dear Charlee: 7 Weeks with You

Dear Charlee,

You are still so easy going, I'm not sure how I was so blessed. You fit right in and are a dream second child, particularly when your brother is going and going all the time. 

You are smiling up a storm and cooing all the time, it's absolutely adorable and I can't wait for more of it. Sometimes it almost sounds like you are talking back to us, you use the same amount of syllables and level of inflection. Your eyes are starting to be expressive and fairly clear with what you want. 

We had quite the busy weekend bouncing from place to place and spending time with friends and family. By Sunday afternoon I could tell it was a little much and you were ready for some quite time.  You are very sweet and don't seem to fuss over much of anything but when you've had too much of something you are over it and want to retreat to a quiet, dimly lit place. Typically we sit on the couch or my bed and you eat/sleep while I take care of some emails or to-dos on my phone. Daddy and I will have to work to keep this in mind to make sure you get the space and quiet time you need.  We are typically always going in this family but as I get older I am happier to say no to some things and appreciate quiet and alone time with family more and more.

Love,
Mama

P.S. This is the week you started blowing bubbles  

Weekend Rituals

What do you do on your days off? Our Saturday morning always consists of a few particular things:

Morning songs and dance parties or just laying leisurely and soaking in the music. 

Breakfast with toast or a BOFFO Cart breakfast sandwich which is basically happiness and all good things ever created wrapped up in to a sandwich. 

Farmers market coffee (Zolo is our absolute favorite), a walk for Bentley then off to something active for our rambunctious little guy. 

Then home for lunch, nap time and quick chores. Our to-dos are taken care of Saturday so Sunday is more easygoing. My goal is for meal prep to happen Saturday as well. Lately the Saturday nap time has turned in to everyone nap time because we are exhausted by 4 if we don't sit down and rest our eyes. It is tough but I keep trying to remind myself happy/healthy mom > laundry piles and dirty floors. I really miss the 2 naps a day schedule right now!

Sundays are for church and family. I have a strict I need to be home by 1pm or I will get anxious rule, 3pm is my absolute cut-off or queue the Sunday night anxiety, does that ever stop by the way? I applaud you guys that can actually be social on a Sunday afternoon/evening, I feel there is too much to catch-up on or that I need the time on my own to mentally plan and prepare for the week. Even for something like the Superbowl I hate to leave my house or have the number of people over where I need to prepare food. I love having friends in our house and having a revolving door of visitors but not after 3 on Sunday, then I want you to kindly see yourself out. Unless you are playing with my kid so I can cook or helping me cook, in that case I'll extend the curfew to 5pm, I love you but please go home :) no as in right NOW :)

Happy 30th Husband!

Happy 30th Birthday weekend to my one and only, thank you for choosing to share life with me and the kids. We hope you enjoyed your baseball themed party, chosen specifically for you because as far as we're concerned you knock it out of the park everyday for our family (cheeezzballll, please still be my friend).

P.S. Go Giants!

30 balloons + 1 fish because you are going to Alaska!! 

Cake time!!

Do Your Children get Nervous?

Our two year old is always surprising us with how well he can articulate and express his feelings.  He regularly tells us he's happy, sad, mad, frustrated and nervous. This is hugely helpful and we rarely have temper tantrums but it is challenging to address those feelings. I have yet to come across a resource which can tell me what to do when my 25 month old tells me to go away because he is mad at me. I am a fan of Janet Lansbury's website and think she offers some great advice but there isn't much of anything on there or anywhere else sharing guidance on this topic.  I am flying blind here and probably making rookie mistakes so if you have something that works for you, or a psychology degree, or a brain that's functioning better than my tired one is please share!

One example, heading to a party last night LB told us he didn't want to go and was acting truly upset, not just the standard toddler pout used to get a reaction. We asked why and he didn't elaborate at first but after a few minutes LB told us he was nervous about the people. We talked through the people who would be there, how he knew them, when he saw them last and he seemed a little better but further pinpointed what was bothering him when he said "I don't want to give hugs and kisses". This is something he was always happy to do on his own without our encouragement (it seemed) and it's just the cutest so we started to encourage him and tell him each time we say hi and bye to give hugs and kisses (just as we do).  Now I'm realizing we pressured our little guy to do things he wasn't always comfortable with. He is generally jovial and friendly (almost overly), he doesn't often act shy and is the first to give hugs to a new playmate so my Husband and I were caught off guard when he articulated this. It was the complete opposite of what he showed outwardly.

Thinking more about his declaration we realized we pressure him to do this ALL.THE.TIME, say "hi", say "bye", "give good-bye hugs" (to everyone at the party).  Here we were thinking we were teaching him to be social and friendly, (following in our footsteps) but from his perspective clearly it seems overwhelming, which duh! Especially being a toddler learning to assert his independence. GREAT JOB ROOKIES :(

Working through this in the car we suggested he didn't have to give hugs or kisses unless he wanted to and could simply watch how we act in a social situation. We did however request he say hi to the people who say hi to him or when we ask him to because I think that is part of having good manners. We also suggested he could shake hands because he's already a pro and if we are introducing him to someone it's important to me that he learns early on about proper greetings.

LB ended up completely warming up to everyone (as usual) and realizing basically everyone there was a close friend of ours he knew quite well. I think he gave everyone he knew a hug and/or kiss goodbye on his own without prompting. So maybe he was uncomfortable not knowing what to expect at the party, maybe he doesn't like being forced in to hugs and kisses, or maybe he was just testing what would happen if he chose not to. Who knows but this definitely taught us more about our son and the strong feelings he is working to process as we take him with us to do our seemingly run-of-the-mill activities.

Have you had any of these odd or surprising moments with your kids? How did you handle them? Any enlightening conversations where you realized just how darn smart or grown up your little (but not so little) baby is?

Summer Bucket List 2015

Been meaning to get this together for a couple months now but better late than never. Hoping this will give our summer and my time off some purpose so we don't reach the end feeling like we missed out on living it up!

   1. Diablo pool afternoons

   2. Friday lunches at Diablo
   3. Day trip to the beach
   4. Weekend trip to Tahoe
   5. Tilden Park Animal Farm
   6. Tilden Park Steam Train
   7. Throw a Fourth of July party (or another BBQ)
   8. Have a party where we invite the neighbors
   9. Make ice cream, this recipe
   10. Run in the sprinklers

   11. Blow up the bounce house
   12. S'mores
   13. Swim lessons for the Little Bair
   14. Get LB painting once a week
   15. Learn to make the perfect margarita: 1, 2, 3
   16. Make popsicles weekly
   17. Maintain our garden and use the fresh herbs in meals
   18. Make sangria
   19. Watch a sunset over the mountains/ocean
   20. Create C's baby book and finish LB's

30 Signs You are Almost 30

In honor of the Hubs 30th Birthday this week I wanted to share the list I came across from Buzzfeed, "30 signs we are almost 30"... Especially numbers 5 (I was just discussing with a friend), 12, 28 (ummm all.the.time and 30 (I am that friend, sorry guys!) 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/30-signs-youre-almost-30#.ygk21Qd0wx

Enjoy!

Pregnancy is Like a Marathon

The best way I can characterize pregnancy is classifying it in terms of a major endurance event. It's a grand, long, intense, and trying but beyond rewarding, ending with a tremendous high like you've never experienced.

Part 1, the first trimester = The Swim
Scary land of the unknown, and you spend the entire time anxious for it to be over and praying you make it. The first trimester is a time of apprehension, full of what-ifs. These were regularly filling my mind and it was tough to find a quite moment. While I was so thankful and over-the-moon excited, I was cautiously optimistic.

Part 2, the second trimester = The Bike Ride
This is what many consider the most enjoyable part of pregnancy, your energy is back and while you are still tired and dealing with a few aches and pains, you can coast a bit. Focus on enjoying this time as much as possible. This is a good time to start your registry, attend your shower and do the work to get organized for your bambino(a).

Part 3, the third trimester = The Run
The last piece of the journey and the anticipation has built to an almost unbearable level. This and labor itself, are where the endurance come in, where all the patience you've learned and practice you've done will have their debut. You might be uncomfortable, anxious, and dragging your feet a bit to get things done either because you are so darn tired or because you have another little one(s) to soak up time with before bebe makes the big debut. 

As anyone who's been through it before can tell you, the reward is well worth the journey. It's really just the first step of your initiation in to motherhood.

Little Bair Moments - Big Boy Bed

LBs big boy bedframe was delivered last Wednesday and man was he excited to build it. So excited in fact that after Hubs opened the box to check the box withintheboxwithinthebox (fort box) contained all the right pieces, LB started grabbing the long styrofoam "slats" (used as the packing material) to build his bed. I quickly realized he was completely ignoring the wood that came in the package and was only interested in the Styrofoam pieces. He lined them up perfectly one by one and even took the smaller and thicker rectangular pieces to use as pillows. 

I am completely convinced he thought this was his new bed. When he laid down on it and said "ooh yay I love my new bed", "yay this is comfy mama thank you" and "goodnight mama I'm going to sleep in my new bed now" we about died laughing and we are still laughing about it. 

This little guy gets me every single time. I love you buddy!

Dear Charlee: 6 Weeks with You

Dear Charlee,

My sweet girl. It's been 6 weeks with you in our busy, wild world. You are the most relaxed, easy going second child I could imagine. Given your brother loves to be active I am very thankful for your demeanor. You nurse like a pro, we still have work to do to manage my oversupply but you're growing to handle it quite well. You generally nap in your crib, 2 solid 2-3 hr naps a day. When you don't want to sleep in your crib you typically want to eat or will sleep for hours in the baby k'tan carrier while I do house work. This easy going attitude makes me weary of your teenage years. I really hope you don't make-up for it then :)

Something unique is that so far I am pretty much the only one to hold you, a few offers have but not for long. It's been a busy busy 6 weeks for everyone around us so it's pretty much just been you and me, shopping trips, grocery runs, walks, park dates and mini manicures have filled our days. 

We love you so much already and as our second baby we have the luxury of knowing that this love will increase exponentially as we watch you grow and change. I look forward to the many memories, laughs, and even heartaches you will bring us.  

Love,

Mama