Game On

Yep, I'm back to training after an almost year-long hiatus for my pregnancy and the birth of our second daughter. I had an amazingly easy recovery so I got the all-clear to resume workouts with no questions at all.  It felt great to start up again after that big break. I really missed it though and looked forward to that first run for a long time. The biggest challenge for me right now {and for many mamas, I imagine} is finding the time to train. I went from having a toddler who naps for a solid 3 hours every day guaranteed, to also having a newborn that naps sometimes really great and other times not so well. While we're currently working on getting her into a good nap time routine, until that happens I can't count on a specific chunk of time during the day to run. So, for now I'm using any nap time I have during the day to prep dinner (something I can fairly easily walk away from and go back to as needed if she wakes up), and then doing my run when Josh gets home. Thankfully long runs are scheduled for weekends :)

Rain, Rain Make My Day

When the radar looks like this...

I highly recommend curling up with a little of this...

and the cutest people you can find...

{A Doc McStuffins marathon can't hurt either.}

Today we're riding out tropical storm Andrea. It's really just a lot of rain but it gives us the perfect excuse to slow down, stay home, and spend lots of time snuggling {and singing, and tickling, and reading, and baking...}. I love getting out of the house to enjoy fresh air and sunshine, but sometimes it's just as nice to curl up and spend some quality snuggle time with my girls. There's something peaceful and recharging about surrounding yourself with soft blankets, soft sweats, soft babies, soft music and the sound of a downpour outside your window. I feel an epic, house-wide nap time coming up this afternoon... 

Nap Training

Here I am at 2:30pm sitting down to eat a lunch that's been waiting for me for an hour now. I'm typing this with one hand because my other one is tucked under a sleeping 2 month old. The three year old is sleeping like the pro she is. She wasn't always an awesome sleeper though. Why do babies hate sleep? I will never know. That's why I'm giving Reagan the same treatment her sister got that turned her into an awesome sleeper.

Early on babies sleep all willy-nilly with no real schedule, but eventually for everyone's benefit, a schedule is necessary. Both of my girls started to develop a sleeping pattern on their own at which point I took the opportunity to solidify it. My strategy is simple. If you take the same nap every day for enough consecutive days, your body will not only be ready for that nap at that time of day, but will need it. But its not just as easy as putting the baby in bed at the same time each day. If I do that, she sleeps about 20 minutes before she begins squirming, farting, fussing, and is wide awake again. I could spend another 20 minutes getting her back to sleep so she could sleep another 20 minutes, but by then she's coming up on the next feeding time and it gets kind of pointless. Therefore, I hold the baby for as long as she'll sleep. For Reagan this afternoon nap has been as long as 3 hours, but often goes at least 2. After 3-4 days, she passes out right on time and sleeps pretty solidly for about 2 hours.

I am so looking forward to the predictability of a baby on a good napping schedule, the benefits of which include getting back to my regular cleaning & workout routines and obviously a better rested, more content baby :)

While we're waiting for all that, I got YouTube Capture on my phone which makes it much easier to share videos here. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is Carsen playing with two Wall-E toys this morning...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWwkRDgFgB4?rel=0]

*Disregard the fact that it's sideways. It was in landscape-only mode and I recorded in portrait - oops!

Birthday Weekend R&R

After a birthday weekend full of family and friends, food and fun, cake and candles, wishes and memories, we welcomed a rainy Monday full of rest and relaxation yesterday.

Today we're doing a little more of the same. Coffee, Kelly & Michael, playground, PB& J. It's a gorgeous weather week here so we're looking forward to plenty of outside time and maybe a splash in Nana's pool later in the week :)

Thirty One

Happy birthday to me!

{Me with my girls at the park this morning}

I've had a relaxed, and blessed day with my sweet little family. What more could I ask for? The celebration continues tomorrow with the rest of my family {mom, siblings, nieces & nephews}. Can't wait :)

Two Months

**My 500th blog post... wow!**

Well that was fast. Reagan is two months {+1 day} old today! She is settling right in to life as the baby sister in our little family. She's about as happy and healthy as we could have hoped for. She's a great eater and is making good progress on developing her sleep routines. She is also now giving us big smiles when we talk to her - especially her big sister - and makes lots of cooing sounds back to us. She has been quite the social butterfly in her short two months already attending three Orioles games {her fourth is coming up this weekend} and a bridal shower! 

Life with two is definitely busier and doesn't leave much time for other things {like blogging, as you've noticed} but we are loving every second of it :)

She's Three!

Somehow, three years have passed since we welcomed our first tiny little baby girl into the world and officially set off on this amazing adventure known as parenting. I have yet to stop marveling at her every single day. I marvel at her sweetness, her intelligence, her creativity, her silly little sense of humor, her beauty, her quirks, how much she looks like me, how much she acts like her dad, her passion for pink, princesses and ballerinas, her endless energy, and her amazing capacity to love. She's just incredible, and I'm pretty sure I'll never get over her.

This year we celebrated her birthday with two small family parties. We celebrated with Josh's family at our house on a Saturday and at my mom's with my family on Sunday since we get together on Sundays anyway. She was so excited that it was her birthday and all her favorite people were celebrating with her. We also went to the Os game Saturday night. It was her first game of the season and she had so much fun.

 This was an easy DIY decoration - cut the number 3 out of cardboard and glued cupcake papers on it.

 We did an ice cream sundae bar instead of cake or cupcakes for zero prep/baking. It was brilliant.

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Sunday at Nana's

We did get her a fork to eat with ;)