punkin girls!

so excited! jon has made the official "plans" for the in-wall bunks & loft he's building for the girls. he's "breaking ground" in the coming weeks. below you can see him doing measurements- what a dad :) 

slowly but surely, the playroom is coming together! 

lucy getting ready for ballet yesterday morning- such a big girl insisting on brushing her own teeth :) [...i insist on taking a turn to brush them once she's finished, as i'm fairly certain sucking the fruit juice flavored toothpaste off the toothbrush doesn't completely qualify as brushing]

ballet & breakfast with meme! eloise is the perfect little sidekick :)

 we had some halloween snail mail waiting for us when we got home! thanks for making our day, tasman & auntie amy! 

the dollhouse is lit up & decorated for trick-or-treaters :)

we've had beautiful fall weather this weekend- perfect for exploring the trail our house backs up to. 

today was pumpkin patch day! we went to kerby farm & couldn't have asked for better october weather, or a more fun time. lucy is such a fun age for the patch & eloise was so content to snuggle in the moby & take in the fall air :)

lucy caboosey in the back!

lucy really wanted to find a "little pumpkin"- she's in luck! :)

peanuts has a special place in my heart, as our "first-born" is named charlie, followed by sweet lucy :)

my little punkins!

handsome daddy!

my favorite worty pumpkin we brought home :)

looking forward to the autumn week ahead- sweaters, scarves, pumpkin spice lattes [& k-cups] & changing leaves. have a happy week!

-ivy

eloise has started with a training cup! she enjoys playing with it- looking at it. she doesn't have any interest in it when she's truly hungry, but i have started introducing it. we have less than a month until my best friend's wedding, and my hope is that she will be able to sip from the cup during the ceremony & while we're taking wedding photos throughout the city. praise my mom & sister, who will be with her during that time! bottle attempts were ditched well over a month ago :)

the girls had a princess date with the brewer girls this morning, while christina & i drank our pumpkin coffees. the best christina & i could document was as follows: 

kelsey & eloise were so interested in each other this morning! this is a first! christina snapped them holding hands :)

it's the perfect rainy morning to dress eloise in these sweet pink booties that her great great aunt shelby knitted in the 1960's, when she was pregnant with her first- a boy. followed by 2 brothers, & subsequently, 4 grandsons. aunt shelby sent me a box of all things girl she had accumulated during her & her daughter-in-law's pregnancies. no girl to be had for the smythers family :) jon swears this will be his luck, only the opposite. he has big dreams of coaching little league one day :)

-ivy

i am so proud of how well lucy is doing with naps now that she's not nursing! prior to weaning, she had only been nursing a couple times per day [at most] for several months- before nap & bedtime- and that's only been if i was the one to put her down. 

since i'm the only one home with her during the week, i'm therefore the only one who does nap time on weekdays. i was afraid that naps were going to be a nightmare. not because she needs to nurse before nap, but because she is a creature of routine [just like her mama!] she wants & thrives in a predictable environment & does best when she knows exactly what to expect- & all she's ever ever known when she's with her mom, is that she nurses before nap time. [for the record, we're working on  flexibility- for both lucy AND mommy!]

lucy's never really liked cow's milk from the time we first introduced it at 12-13 months, which is perfectly fine with me. she eats plenty of dairy-rich foods throughout her day to compensate for the nutrition she would be getting from drinking milk, and in turn, she drinks a ton of water. my mom helped me brainstorm what to substitute for a special before nap or nighttime drink, and she's been loving having her "special milk" before going down. almond milk! she drinks a few sips, then hands me her cup & happily tells me "bye mommy!" before shooing me out of the room & reading or singing to herself until falling asleep :) i am SO fortunate that she enjoys this quiet time in her crib before sleeping [most days...]- otherwise i have no idea how i would manage eloise in these moments!

my personal autumn harvest- i grew them & tend to them [thousands of times] every day :)

it's national baby-wearing week- which means eloise & i look no different than any other week. 

& to honor the boys in blue who play again friday [i think...!?:)], my girls are sporting their own shades of blue :)

in this picture, lucy was sharing her babydoll with eloise. she kept saying "switch!" then would hand eloise the microphone & snatch her doll back. over & over & over... not bad for sharing for a just-turned-2 year old!

-ivy 

on weaning

lucy nursed for 2 years, 1 week & 1 day. & that's it. i think we're weaned. 

of course, if i offered, i have no doubt she would nurse. but that's just it- she doesn't need it anymore. 

i think this process may have happened sooner if i hadn't had another baby who brought milkshakes with her. 

i'm pretty emotional about it. when i first set out to breastfeed, i had no idea what i was getting into. all i knew was that my baby deserved the very best i could give her, and there was no question in my mind that whatever it took, i was going to successfully feed my child with the food God [& my body, which she just grew in for 10 months] made just for her. 

at first, i didn't love it. it was hard. i hadn't conceptualized that i would be a 24/7 one-woman diner. i had to actually live it to know just how attached at the "nip" we would be. 

but then i grew to love it. i loved that when we had friends or family visiting, i always got to take her back to feed and cuddle her. i loved that i was the reason she was packing on sweet rolls- that her health was thriving. i loved that her food was always readily available, the perfect temperature. i loved that when she was 14 months old, and she, jon & i all caught the stomach flu, the only food or liquid she could keep down was breastmilk. what if i hadn't been nursing her?

i learned self-sacrifice through nursing. i learned to get the heck over myself & that if my baby was hungry in public [because you know, like adults, babies get hungry in public- not just in the safety of their own homes], by God i was going to feed her straight from the tap. why mess with bottles? go through all that trouble to pump, pack up, and sanitize just to make someone else more comfortable by giving my baby less skin-to-skin? i learned my life's not all about me.

lucy paved the way for eloise & future siblings. thanks for everything you taught me through our nursing journey, sweet girl- how to be the best mom i can be! now spread your wings...

-ivy

it's brag on my husband day! i have those every once in a while. 

jon finished the laundry for me while we were at ballet this morning, and is currently grocery shopping. all this after doing an online shopping spree for me [a new fall wardrobe!] last year i was in maternity clothes, so haven't shopped for fun fall sweaters in 2 years. now that i'm back to pre-baby size, my closet was in dire need of a little makeover!

i usually get all of the laundry done on fridays, so that we have the weekend for family fun, and i pick one day to grocery shop during the week based on supply/demand, but with the girls' shots yesterday, my friday laundry plans went down the drain. cuddling exhausted girls was much higher on the ranking list :)

the girls' checkups went great! our doctor was impressed with lucy's language & eloise's motor skills. always reassuring to hear! 

lucy was so brave getting her flu shot, and is measuring in the 90th percentile for height for her age! 

sweet eloise hated her shots, but after a long nap yesterday afternoon, i am SO grateful that she's back to her sweet self! by this point after lucy's 4 month shots, we were dealing with our first fever as parents. grateful eloise hasn't had the same reaction. 

cuddles with my el belle post-vaccines :) in these pics, i'm wearing the neatest necklace my sister gifted me- it's a teething toy necklace for mom to wear. eloise loves looking at it, mouthing it, and cuddling up against it [it's a soft fabric]. pretty sweet!

today was dance day! quickly becoming my favorite day of the week :)

dressed up as a dalmatian from 101 dalmatians :) [the boa is a cruella devil touch]

daddy & lucy playing with her new art station from her Godfather's parents :)

look what came in the mail!

my happy girl :)

and miss lucy wearing her "mini-moby" jon & i got her for her birthday. considering she's insisted on wearing mine all summer [which is yards too long for her], we figured she needed her own. she's SO proud, and i melted when i looked over & saw her kissing her baby's head :) my little attachment parent in the making!

xoxo,

-ivy

we're on rainy day #2 in a row here. lots of inside time [although lucy has had a few bouts of dancing in the rain on the deck!] & the girls are getting some great, deep sleeps. i had a chance to go through the rest of the pictures my sister took from the weekend, and want to make sure & post my favorites :)

lucy seeing her dollhouse for the first time [her absolute favorite toy ever that has been completely wonderful on these rainy days!]

opening family gifts

at eloise's baptism- lucy is in complete awe of her big cousin :)

eloise wore the same dress that both lucy & i were baptized in- my gramma made it when i was born :)

the priest, parents & Godparents showering eloise in our love :)

& i snapped this pic of lucy right after nap yesterday. i can't believe how big she is!

watching the rain at breakfast this morning- note charlie watching for fallen food :)

-ivy

it's october! easily one of my favorite months of the year. pumpkin everything, halloween decorations, sweater weather. i love fall even more now that i'm a mom. there are so many fun activities you can do with little ones- even carving pumpkins has an extra special magic when seen through the eyes of a kid. lucy's been busy learning all about pumpkins, witches, bats, ghosts & cats, although she initially kept confusing pumpkins with "big oranges" :) eloise has been eagerly listening to & viewing our favorite halloween "touch & feel" books. 

last year at this time, lucy was just beginning to have a few words, and definitely didn't grasp the concept of trick-or-treating & costumes.

lucy's first halloween 10/2012- i can't believe that little bitty baby is my lu!

she was the sweetest little serious witch :)

& the only thing that tops the witch costume, was last year's ghost girl :)

following our "traditional" halloween costume footsteps, the girls coordinate this year as a cat & a mouse. costumes are to die!

lucy counting pumpkins the other morning while singing "5 little pumpkins"- guess how many pumpkins she counted? :)

halloween artwork up on display

eloise has recently become very interested in the toys around her. during tummy time, she tries to make the connection of how she can get to the toys- kicks her arms & legs, and you can see her wheels turning. she's changing pretty rapidly these days!

the royals are in the playoffs for the first time in jon's & my lifetime. we watched the game in the driveway last night, on jon's little iPad he'd set up in the back of his truck. lucy & our favorite little neighbor boy were pretty pumped they got popcorn :)

lucy's language is growing so quickly that i honestly can't keep up anymore. one of my favorite lucyisms is "mommy, comb your hair?" when she wants me to comb HER hair. she's used to me asking if she'd like for me to "comb your hair?" :)

couldn't pull her in from dancing in the rain, so eloise & i happily watched from the doorway :)

& for the road, lucy & her new "let it go wand" as she's dubbed it, from her aunt kim :)

the girls have their check-ups on friday- 4 month & 2 year :)

-ivy

ps- note my excitement for this newly released children's book! 

it's about a "fanciful" little girl named lucy jane & the adventures she takes on including building "rainbow smiles on a stilt" "collecting one wish off the fin of each fish" & lassoing "mars just to measure the stars". how perfectly perfect is that? & let's face it- the eloise character in kay thompson's eloise books is the greatest storybook character of all time, so now my lucy jane can have her own fancy character to divulge in :)

pps- with lucy's 2nd birthday & eloise packing on the sweet rolls, i realized i've been nursing for over 2 years straight- literally every single day for over 2 years now :-O and the journey continues... :)