A Look Back

Totally stealing this from Bron's blog--what a great way to remember all we've been through this year!

JANUARY
Otis was getting to be more mobile and getting into EVERYTHING!

FEBRUARY
Otis learned how to walk!  And we enjoyed being back in Milwaukee, where we belong.

MARCH
We started, and finished, our house hunting.  It was so fast, and almost a year later we could not be more happy with the house we ended up with!!  Our neighborhood is amazing, our house is cozy, and we love to be homeowners!

APRIL
Busy month of going to the cottage for the first time of the year, our first baseball game of the season, and packing up our old house.

MAY
We moved into our new house!  Ingrid turned four! 

JUNE
We took our annual camping trip to Door County. Aunt Corie came to visit.  It was HOT.

JULY
It was still hot.  We spent lots of time outside and enjoyed our air conditioning while inside.  I had a craft fair and we harvested lots of zucchinis.  LOTS.

AUGUST
The kids and I visited my mom in Michigan!

SEPTEMBER
Ingrid started school and we went to see Obama on a dreary rainy day.  (Thank god it's not election season anymore, that got old.)

OCTOBER
Ingrid and Otis were cowboys for Halloween.

NOVEMBER
We had some great family pictures taken and we visited my sister in Michigan.  All of us, even Brendan!

DECEMBER
Otis turned TWO!  Hard to believe he's such a spunky little dude.  He talks as much as his sister and has a personality of his own, for sure. 

We have just had such a great year, I feel really lucky. 

This next year I hope to see Ingrid continuing to love school, I want to work more on our house projects, like painting the rooms colors that don't make me want to barf, and hopefully getting a patioo built in our backyard.  I hope the winter isn't too cold, the summer isn't too hot, and we continue to be happy and somewhat healthy (as I cough and sneeze all over the computer, ha!)  Happy New Year, everyone!

Falls Past

Ingrid as a baby. Awww.

Ingrid as a toddler.  Sweet.

Me with Otis in my belly.  (Hard to imagine he was born a few short weeks after this!)

Otis a smiley little redhead.

My kids.

Fall is my favorite!

Six Months Old!

Tomorrow Otis turns one half year old.  I cannot believe he started as a wee peanut, scaring the crap out of me by coming so early, and now he's this giggling little cherub.

His last doctor's appointment he was 13lbs 4oz, on the small side even if you go by the scale he'd be on if he were born on his due date.  Oh well, Ingrid was always small too.  He's catching up though.  Little mister went on a nursing strike and scared me that he was going to stop nursing but luckily we've made it through.  He is teething like a mad man but no teeth in sight yet.  We just supplement with bottles when he gets so fussy he won't nurse.  It seems to be working fine.

Today we had a little photo shoot.  Ingrid couldn't understand why I wasn't taking pictures of her!  She was seriously perplexed "Mama, I'm right here!  Take a picture of me!"

 

We also tried some cereal with Otis today.  I'm not too gung ho about starting food, but I thought we'd give it a try.  He seemed to like it.  Ingrid did not her first time!  It took her awhile to eat it, but we started way early with her.

After looking at pictures and videos, it seems Otis is doing things at six months that Ingrid was doing at four months.  I think she grew up so fast!  I'll go slow with Otis, I'm in no hurry with him.

Our Weekend

This past weekend we went to the cottage for the first time of the season!!  That is one of my favorite things, it really means summer is coming.  I can imagine it being so hot and sticky you need the ten fans that are now sitting dormant.  I can imagine the kids screeching at the park that now sits still.  I can imagine the waves lapping up against the old metal slide that now sits on the beach instead of in the water. 

It was Otis' first time going, which meant that we needed to add him to the door.  We did a lot of going to the park, playing with toys, trying to relax.  It was fun.

We got home Sunday morning, Brendan made me French toast, I got to sit and sew for awhile, and then after lunch was cake!  Of course!  I would love a mani/pedi for Mother's Day, but cake is a close runner up. 

Another treat on Mother's Day was that Brendan finally wore the Moby and found out how nice it is to be hands free while Otis sleeps.  I love a man in a baby carrier.

Thrifting, Snuggling, and Decision Making

Yesterday we treked up to an out of the way thrift store.  I used to go there all the time, but it's been forever.  Man, that place is kinda ratty!  But those are the best ones to get good stuff at because they're not trying to be anything special.  They just throw all the junk out there and make you sort through it.  We found some good stuff, including these little overalls.  Just in case we forget what Otis is, they'll remind us.

And just to show he's not always crying:

He is just the snuggliest sleeper!  I love it, he gets all cozy in his blanket (much like Ingrid used to do) and just sleeps and sleeps.  God I am so glad he sleeps.  Ingrid still doesn't.  Blah.

Also brought home from the thrift store, a new puzzle for Ingrid and I to do together.  We just finished a 1000 piece puzzle--our first to do together!  She helped find the edge pieces, and then I'd ask her to find the sky or grass or building pieces and she'd dig through the box and find them.  It's been fun because it keeps her entertained and it's relaxing for me.  The new one is from 1967 and round! 

And on decision making...we are having a really hard time with it!  I took Maryanne's idea of using cards that she could use to order her breakfast.  I used clip art and printed these out:

The idea was that she could grab a picture and hand it to me when she was ready for a drink.  However, this morning she handed me all the cards and said let's play this game!!  It's a work in progress.

Halloweens of Yore

Another post inspired by my favorite ladies over at Modern Kiddo!  They had this great post on vintage Halloweens and it made me dig through our boxes to find the photo albums with kid pictures of Brendan and I.  Luckily I found the one I was looking for:

The year was 1979 (gulp.  I AM vintage!)  That would be me in the middle as Raggedy Ann, my sister on the right as Cinderella, and my brothers behind me as a football player and Frankenstein.  The other kids are our neighbors.  Love that Holly Hobby costume!!

Brendan's were equally fun.  1980 was a plastic number of the Hulk.  No mask, though, wonder where that went off to?

1984 was Darth Vader.  What is that around his neck, does anyone know?  I wasn't a Star Wars fanatic, but I didn't think he had a turntable on his chest...

Someday Ingrid's going to look back and say really, mom?  A ladybug?  What were you thinking?

So Much the Same...

I just found an old journal from when I was pregnant with Ingrid.  I wanted to see when I had hit little milestones with her, like feeling her move, getting into maternity clothes, etc.  Everything is pretty much right the same.  Even job situations with Brendan and the unknown of where we'll be when this baby is born is the same as with Ingrid!

When I was pregnant with her, Brendan was finishing up his phd and it kept taking longer than he'd thought.  He was applying to positions and we just didn't know where we'd be.  He ended up staying an extra semester and we moved in with his parents.  Then we moved here to MI.  Now, he's just finishing up his fellowship, he's looking for positions all over the country, and we have no idea where we'll be when this baby comes!  How on earth did we plan two children to come at such stressful unknown times?  Are we really that stupid?

I just have to laugh because it all did work out with Ingrid.  We had her, we had a roof over our head, Brendan got a job, we moved.  It will all work out with this bub, too.  In a year I'll look back and think ahh, remember how silly all that worrying was?  Of course it would all work out!

On another note, with Ingrid I always called the baby a her and she even before we knew the gender.  Saying he or him didn't feel right.  It's the complete opposite this time around, it's a he, a him, a little brother.  Otis.  So we'll see next Wednesday if I have amazing motherly instincts or I'm full of crap :)