An Update

It's been almost 2 years since I have written here on this blog. Reasons, you might wonder? Well, the typical ones- jobs, school, kids, life, etc. It felt like a chore to write on here. But now, I am thinking about bringing it back. Reasons for this, again you might wonder? Well, I'll be honest. I am kinda (and by kinda, I mean really, really, really) tired of Facebook. But before anyone writes this off as a "holier than thou" post, please hear me out. I am tired of Facebook for what it makes me feel like. After looking at, I truly feel like less of a mom, not a skinny enough (or skinny at all) person, not beautiful, and sometimes not worthy. I truly am jealous of other people's vacation, friends, and apparent good times that they are having. I struggled with comparison long before Facebook even came into existence, and only recently have I been willing to say I struggle with it even more now with Facebook. I totally understand that everyone is different- some people like it to see pictures of their friends and family, but for me looking at pictures reminds me of what I am "missing out on" or that other people are getting together and I am not one of those people. I have also been challenged to think about why I want to post pictures. and again, I will be honest. I want people to see what I am up to (the really hip and cool things that we do), how cute our kids are, what random thing I have accomplished. and I want them to think I am cool enough to be liked, be their friend, be worthy of their admiring. And let me tell you, this is not a fun way to live. And just like my struggles with comparison before Facebook, I have struggled for acceptance long before Facebook. I can remember in high school just wanting to be accepted for who I was, but never feeling like who I was was good enough. I always thought I needed to be prettier, faster, skinnier, funnier, cooler (sensing a theme here!?!) and discontentedness (is that a word? the right word?) sprung up and has taken a pretty firm root in my life. Even to this day, I still struggle with not feeling good enough. By whatever standard that is- as a wife, mom, friend, employee, athlete, woman, daughter, etc. The list could go on. But I have discovered that Facebook makes it worse. Everyday a new "article" pops up telling me I need to do this to be a better mom. The next day, another article says I need to actually do the exact opposite to be a good mom. Pictures of hip and cool people doing hip and cool things without me fill my feed. and more not good feelings arise. So I have decided over the past few weeks that I am done. At least with Facebook. For some reason, Instagram doesn't bother me as much, so I am not completely done there. Maybe just more limited :)
But that leaves me still with a desire for an outlet- an outlet of a place to say what's going on in our lives, post a picture or two and update family and friends. And for some reason, my blog feels better. I don't know if anyone will read it anymore, but maybe that's the point. It doesn't matter who sees it, cause I don't want to be posting based on what other people will think. I want to post because I want to post.
So I am going to give it a try on here for a little while and see what I think :) 

Chores after Kids

I am going to let you in on a little secret of mine that I am willing to share on the off chance it might help another mom, even if it does make me look completely selfish. So it's no secret I hated cleaning and doing chores before having kids so you can only imagine how much worse that has gotten since having them. However, after a while, a light bulb went on and I realized something- if I volunteered to do the chore, then that meant I wasn't the one having to take responsibility for the kids. Dishwasher needs emptying, oh sure, I'll do it (while you chase child #2 around the house just to change her diaper and get her in her pajamas). The recycling needs to be taken out, yes, let me get right on that (while child #1 wants to be read the same book for the 105th time). We ran out of toilet paper? oh, let me run right up to Walgreens to get some more (while child #1 and child #2 jump on each other on the bed and then both fall off, smack their heads together and are screaming for you at the same time). See how this works? It's great. But the best of it all has to do with the road trip. Before kids, I used to hate to be the one to drive. If you are driving, you can't sleep, read, look at Facebook, etc (well some people might do those things anyway, but I hear you are not supposed to). If you are the passenger, you control the music, you can read your trashy magazines and you can drift off into sleep whenever you want to. Now, after kids, I will gladly drive all 10 hours of a road trip for one reason: I don't have to be the manager of the children. See now the passenger has to dole out snacks, change DVDs, find lovies that fell onto the floor, read books to, etc (the list could go on forever) while the driver sits there with his/her headphones in and just drives. With no other worries in the world. It's pure bliss to be the driver. So for all the moms out there- remember, chores are actually your friends. You should volunteer to do them more often (or at least whenever you need a break)!!

Macklind Mile

Quiet possibly one of the best races in St. Louis is the Macklind Mile. It's one mile, all down hill and it just super laid back and fun. Although, as my dad says, as soon as you put on a race number and there is a clock, it is impossible not to care or get nervous. And I did both! I wanted to get a good time and run fast. I have been doing speedwork with Big River all summer and it is has been super fun and challenging. So today was a good test of all our hard work! Tripp had such a good time- he has been looking forward to this race for a really long time- he even slept in his shirt last night! I was so proud of him and I love sharing this experience with him!!

Before our races:

My race:

Tripp's race:

My two favorite guys:

 Crankypants* also joined us for the morning:

*we just discovered she has two more teeth coming in, so maybe that could explain her extra crankiness the past few days? 

Spiders for Breakfast

Tripp really enjoys helping out around the house now, not that we didn't make him before, but now it is not as much a chore as something he volunteers to do. It is super helpful to me and it's fun for him to be able to contribute in tangible ways. The other day, he wanted to make us breakfast. I told him that was fine and that we could make whatever he wanted. He helps me menu plan a lot and does a relatively good job, so I thought this would be similar. However, he had been so excited about a snack that he had at camp last week, he thought that it would make a good breakfast for all of us. He told me what we were having- spiders; what we needed- donuts (and the white kind were ok for this cause apparently the nature lady said that there are white spiders), pretzels and m and ms; and how to make it- first you get a donut, then you count out 8 pretzels. but they have to be the stick kind. then you put them in, and then you get two m and ms. the same color. and then you put those on for eyes.
So this past Friday, we had all had spiders for breakfast.

Chef at work:

Someone had to eat the mismatched m and m's:

Tasty spiders!!

Lily's first haircut

It's been a really long time in the coming, and it finally happened- Lily's first haircut! Her mullet was getting to ridiculous lengths but we had to postpone getting it cut due to scheduling conflicts with our schedule and the haircutting lady's schedule. We all wanted to be there to witness what we knew would be quite the event. It finally worked out last week and it was pretty hilarious. Tripp kept telling Lily that she would do so great, he would be there with her, etc, etc and we just knew that she would probably not want anything to do with it. And of course, that's how it went down. We put her in the chair and Miss Erin (haircutting lady) tried to put the cape on her. She immediately yelled "no!!" and tore it right off. Then she kept saying "no!!" and got out of the chair and tried to run away. Of course we caught her but the only way we could get her back in the chair was if she was sitting on my lap. So she sat facing me (since the back was all that really needed to be cut. Well, her bangs are crazy but I am waiting for those to grow out) and Erin got her hair trimmed in about 2 minutes or less. It was great (and that's why she always gets a big tip!) and her hair looks so much better now! At least the back of it does.

We need her bangs to grow quickly- right now they are very unruly and she will not keep anything in her hair. So sometimes I use a little gel to keep them off to the side. Otherwise they are in her eyes, but I figure it's her fault so I am not going to worry about that (how's that for great parenting). I tried, she just says no and pulls out any bow, clip, rubber band, etc. Totally her fault!

All silly Lily-ness aside, it was a great first haircut, and we will just have to work on making progress to her sitting by herself and wearing the cape! Baby steps...

Happy Father's Day (at least so far)!

We have had a great day so far! It started with what was quite possibly the best breakfast I have had in a long while. Nelson loves a good breakfast and while I would be happy with an egg mcmuffin each day for the rest of my life, I figured I would try and make something special for him. But seeing as I am not completely unselfish, I tried to find a recipe that I would like as well. And find it I sure did. We enjoyed some egg casserole and cinnamon roll waffles. You can be sure we will be having both of these again- soon and often.

Lily "helping" in the kitchen:

Tripp working on some drawings for Nelson:

Yum!!!

More yum!! 

Happy Father's Day!!!

Virtual Baby Book

In true second child fashion, Lily's baby book is almost completely empty. Thankfully, I have somewhat inconsistently been updating my blog so we have some record of her existence. One day I really would love to print it out in hard copy form. But until then, I will keep updating important information here so I have it for future reference!
They both had big check ups about a month ago- Tripp's four year old appointment and Lily's 18 month appt. They of course are perfect in every way.

Tripp's stats:
Weight: 44.2 lbs, 94 percentile
Height: 44 inches, 99 percentile
BMI: 64% (not really any clue what that means?!?)
BP: 96/56, very normal of course

Lily's stats:
Weight: 27 lbs, 3.2 ozs, 91 percentile and almost all of it is located in her belly :)
Height: 34 inches, 97 percentile
Head Circ: 19 inches, 91 percentile (and a genius of course).

Well, besides the fact that they are perfect, here's a little run down on them both.

Tripp: Caring, sensitive, hates meat, cries and throws a temper tantrum if you try to make him eat a turkey sandwich (which I do on days when I am feeling strong!), loves his sister, talkative, loving friend, super hero obsessed, fruit hoarder, independent dresser, great chore do-er, and silly of course! He and Lily love to be together except they may or may not fight all the time and I may or may not get really annoyed by this!! I think that this phase (that will apparently last for a very long time) of sibling rivalry, fighting, etc is the hardest. I tend to get super frustrated and find myself saying things in my head "Well you totally deserved that" or "just get over yourself" but have so far refrained from saying too many inappropriate things out loud (or at least within earshot). It is so fun though to do things, go places and experience life with Tripp. He understands things, gets excited about things and loves to learn so it is such a privilege to be his mom and try to teach him things! I am certainly looking forward to this up coming year!

Lily: I look at her face and my heart just swells up with love. That blonde hair and her blue eyes are adorable and she gets more and more fun every day. She just wants to be independent so I try to foster that independence in healthy ways each day. She takes great pride in the fact that she does by herself: feed the dog, set and clear the table, and put away her laundry. We are working on dressing herself (she picks out her own clothes and shoes), and getting buckled in her car seat. She hates being carried and only wants to walk, hates her food cut up any smaller than Tripp's, gets very sad if Tripp is not around, kisses our dog before nap and bedtime, greets her first thing in the morning, and usually is found throughout the day laying down next to Padme either reading or just hanging out. Her current word list includes: mommy, daddy, doggie, nonny, papa, cheese, hi, no, wawa (water), pease (please with no "l"), and probably some others that I can't think of right now. She is one tough cookie and knows how to turn on the charm. I can't bring myself to get her hair cut quite yet, so the mullet and out of control bangs continue. And of course, she basically refuses to wear a bow or a pony tail holder so her hair closely resembles a horse's mane.

I am so incredibly thankful for these two beautiful, tangible gifts from God!