Week 30: How Many Different Ways Can Chloe Smile?/Bluebonnets/Easter

What a busy week! Before I go into detail, let me first count the number of different ways Chloe smiles! That's all this child does!

One

Two

Three

Four
Five
Six

Seven

Eight...No...That's Not Eight. Too serious here!
Here's Eight!
NineTenEleven

Twelve

BABY'S FIRST EASTER!

Well for the first time in the 7 years we have lived in Providence we participated in the HOA sponsored Easter Egg Hunt. They had a costume bunny for photo-op and an egg hunt. Chloe enjoyed watching Marshall and all of the neighborhood kids.

MARSHALL & CHLOE'S FIRST BLUEBONNETS PHOTOS

Clearly they wouldn't look at the camera because they were so interested in these strange blue flowers. Sadly, Chloe also has photo-proof of committing a crime...She couldn't help picking them. Then she got mad when I took it a way! My girl has SPUNK!

7th Month Pictures

Week 29: SAHM

Well this week we begin a new chapter in our life. As of April 1st (no it's not an April Fools Joke) and the first time since I was 14, I do not have job. It is a very strange situation to be in and very surreal. I put myself through college working 2-3 jobs and always valued hard work and getting ahead in my career. So what makes this week so surreal? That you always hear, especially in these times, people who get called to their boss' office at the end of the day to be told that they are being let go and being walked to their desk to pack up their belongings and shown the door.

What is also strange is this feeling that I have total control over my day. And the lack of structure is very scary, depressing and empty. There are a lot of varying feelings that I have on this new situation. Of Course I am elated at being home with my kids, but I also feel disappointed in myself for being one of the people they let go. I think it will be very difficult for me to return to the life in a Law Office. Though the pay is good, I think the sacrifice you must make to your family to advance yourself in a career is not something that I am willing to make in the near future. I think that I would like to enjoy some of my time at home and eventually go back into working for the government or teaching (I have passed my teaching certification for Middle School/High School Social Studies).

So I've gone to a few teaching job fairs and it is crazy! These schools are packed with hundreds and at one location a thousand people looking to get hired for just a handful of jobs that may be available within that school district. I am putting my fate in God's hands and my only concern is that it works best for my family. I have been applying for jobs but given the state of the economy not a lot of jobs are available and I have resigned myself to the fact that though I may continue to apply for jobs there may be nothing available to me for quite some time. Therefore I am embarrassing this new job of mine: Stay At Home Mom (SAHM).

After getting laid off, I drove first to the Library and checked out 15 books on how to entertain and teach a toddler and armed with these new materials I drove to the Daycare to pick up the kids for the last time. We then jumped back into some of my Maternity Leave activities. We have gone back to our Playgroup (all of these ladies have been so great and supportive and I am so happy that they did not drop me and continued to be friends with me even after I returned to life as a Working Mom) and we meet there every Monday at different peoples houses.

Tuesdays are Story Time at the Aubrey Public Library. The Library teacher there, Ms. Herbst is so great; she is like a grandmother to all of the kids. On our way home, since Aubrey is the "Horse Capital of Texas" I decided to pull the car over and SHOW the kids what a Horse is in real life. What an exciting feeling to be the one who gets to show your child what a horse is instead of pointing them out in a book or letting a teacher at a school teach them. Now Marshall is obsessed with horses. How great it is to be the one who made that impact on his life.

Wednesday we just hung out at the house, ran errands, visit the park and showed him what Ducks and Fish are and played with our friends in the neighborhood. Thursday is more of the same. And Friday is the Denton Public Library. Then at the end of each day we all run to the back door as we hear the garage door opening announcing the arrival of "DADDDYYYY!!!"

My big girl is sitting up a lot now to play with her Sit-and-Play-Mirror. She loves it!
What a cute little Goober she is!
Very comfortable on her stomach now!
Some rough cuddling by big brother!

Week 28: Sitting Up

The weeks are FLYING by! I cannot believe how big she is getting! Everyday she grows and learns more and more and sheds away her infancy as she become more interactive and learning to push her physical abilities. With a little help and monitoring, she is starting to sit up on her own!
She is also falling asleep on her own now. Before the only way she'd fall asleep was if she was watching TV. So I am very happy that she is starting to do it on her own now. She also is sleeping through the night now. She goes to bed at 7:30/8:00 and we wake her up at 6:30 to get her ready for school.

We've also started putting her in her high chair, but as you can see from the photo, we have to prop her up a little bit! She loves her Rice cereal (Marshall hated it and we'd have to hide it in his Gerber food). But she actually hates the Gerber food and I can't get her to eat any of it. All she will eat is rice cereal. Then I'll try to trick her and alternate the gerber with the rice cereal. Her face when I do the swicher-roo is hilarious! She opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out and says Ahhh Ahhhh Ahhh until it falls out of her mouth. So much drama!

She is starting to enjoy being on her stomach now. And she is still rolling over but she is not like her brother who seemed frustrated that he couldn't crawl yet.When Marshall was 28 weeks he started doing this "Evil Fussy Face" since he was so frustrated with his inability to crawl. He was very type A personality about crawling. Chloe is very opposite. I can't think of anytime that she isn't smiling and laughing. She is also all about saying DaDaDa all the time! Occasionally she says Mama.

Cuddle time with Marshall.

She has a very stimulating environment. Marshall is always playing with something fun!

More Happy Girl!

Daddy you are so silly. Why are you wrapping me up in this blanket?

Feeding herself while Daddy and Marshall Play in Background.

Week 27: Baby's First St. Patrick's Day

Happy first St. Patricks Day Sweetheart. I made an incredible effort to get the kids out the door for school in all green but didn't make the same effort on myself. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? It's all about the kids!

I remember being so stressed when I was pregnant and trying to get my infant ready for daycare and thinking when Chloe is born, how in the world am I going to get out of the door on time with 2 kids and still make it to work in Downtown Dallas by 8am? But in the end you learn to cut corners (my appearance) and you dress the kids and get bottles and diapers and other random baby essentials and you high tail it out the door.

I think the saddest part of my day isn't drop off. It's pick-up. Because even though I get into work 30-45 min early so I can leave 30-45 minutes early to miss major traffic. I am still one of the last parents to pick my kids up since it takes over an hour to get to their school. My whole day feels like a huge rush to meet deadlines. By the time kids go down, I don't even have the energy to do chores, so the 'To Do List' piles up. I am also still pumping on top of all of this and I have to cope with all of these hormones. So stress and emotional levels are at an all time high for me, but I am trying to cope the best I can and try to keep pushing ahead knowing things will eventually get better.