Foodie February

February changed our lives in a lot of wonderful ways. As Ada approached six months we got to start introducing her to solid foods and so far she is a fan! She wasn't really sure what do with the rice cereal and breast milk mixture I presented her with a spoon, but she thought these rice husks were pretty awesome from the very beginning. 

Rory and Ada have such a rough love relationship meaning Rory is really rough with her and I hope there is love involved in some way. Ada LOVES Rory so much, sometimes when Rory walks into the room I swear I can see heart pupils in Ada's eyes just like in the cartoons. She just completely lights up every time she sees her. When Rory gives her any amount of attention Ada instantly smiles or giggles, and exactly half a second later Rory will do something to make her cry (bite her, poke her, grab her, shake her, sit on her- you name it Ada has lived through it). What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? 

Since we did a second session of Toddlerschool we got to do another class party for Valentines day. Rory picked out some Frozen valentines at the Dollar Store and then as we got them ready for her classmates she insisted that really she should just keep them all since she loves Elsa the most-est. She got to decorate sugar cookies, sing special songs, and have some snacks with her friends after they passed out their goodies. Rory's favorite part was the whip cream and strawberries. She loved it so much she asked for two more helpings and then Mrs. Miller, her teacher, sent her home with the leftovers. She now requests it for every meal. 

On the way back from the party a straight up miracle occurred. ADA FELL ASLEEP IN THE CAR. She's gotten so much better about not losing her mind every time we drive, and preschool is only 8 minutes from our house that I didn't think anything of it when she was finally nice and quiet, but SHE DID IT! SHE FELL ASLEEP IN THE CAR! May this be the start of a long and industrious car sleeping career for her. 

I LOVE Valentine's day, not because I think the holiday is important or even romantic really, but because it involves presents, desserts, chocolate, and the color pink. In college Taylor and I would host big dessert nights for Valentine's day because we both loved all the pink baking and this year I finally got to get back to it. Ironically, I made a goal at the beginning of this year to not eat sweets for 100 days in an effort to help me prep for our vacation to Mexico in April. But not being able to eat the desserts was not about to stop me from making them! Marisa hosted a Galentine's High Fitness class so I volunteered to provide the treats. I made chocolate dipped red velvet Oreo pops that turned out so stinking cute I just wanted to look at them all day. I also made heart-shaped chocolate-dipped strawberries that didn't turn out nearly as heart-shaped as pinterest had promised. I didn't get a picture of them, but I'm going to just assume they tasted great. Rory was an awesome "helper". 

I also worked on making some royally iced sugar cookies to deliver to the young women for Valentine's day. We had an activity coming up where we would be decorating cookies for a care facility and since I never use royal icing I wanted to be sure I figured it out before I tried to teach it to all the young women. It was a ton of baking and frosting making, and it is almost impossible to get a truly red frosting, but they turned out really cute! I don't know why I forgot to get a picture, probably because I was too busy baking, decorating, and then hiding everything from Rory so she wouldn't try to eat it. 

With all the treats I was making, it was a busy day in the kitchen. While I was making dinner I sent her to go play. She found my paper scraps from the cards I cut out for the young women and she quickly came in and asked me for some tape so she could make "the ouchey thingy that Jesus sits on". Then she came back and asked me to write, "Jesus was putted on the cross by the soldiers" on it. This is what happens when you show your children a video depiction of the Crucifixion when they are two, by the way. Not sure whether this goes in the parenting wins or losses category but it's definitely worth remembering.

Stephen is in busy season working crazy long hours like usual this time of year, and so by the time bed time rolls around I am usually feeling pretty spent. On this night when I went to tuck Rory in she asked me if Ada could lay down and chat with her for a minute. Look at the joy on that baby's face! And Rory was so sweet and so happy! I snapped a million pictures and cried actual tears of joy because for once their interaction didn't end in Ada tears! I love seeing the potential friends they can be (though if they take after their mother it will take them till about high school graduation to appreciate each other at all).

To get us through busy season we have instituted a mandatory pizza and a movie night on Friday. I win because I am too tired to cook any more meals. Stephen gets to cuddle Rory while she watches a movie, which after weeks of working around the clock is so good for him mentally and about the only play he can handle physically since he never sees the sun or leaves his small workspace (haha jk- kind of). We love Friday pizza night! And now Ada is following suit. Apparently now that shes mastered rice husks and mauling peanut butter toast sticks she feels equipped to take on pizza. She snatched this piece right out of Stephen's hand and then clung to it with a force we didn't even know she was capable of. So it seemed only right to let her finish most of it. It's looking like Ada loves food and it makes me love her even more. 

We got back on our weekly play date schedule with Rebecca and we did another fun Valentine's themed play date after dance class this year. Sarah took these cute pictures of the girls at her house and then we had some lunch and crafts at mine. While she was there I left the girls with her and ran out with my YW adviser Emily Lott to deliver the Valentine cookies. I got a bunch of heart balloons at the Dollar store and we left a heart balloon and two cookies for each girl. I brought Ada with me because I didn't want to leave Sarah feeling overwhelmed and I thought, "It's been a while since she's cried in the car I think she may even fall asleep." She cried and cried and cried until I finally thought to turn on the Frozen 2  soundtrack (since that's what is normally playing in the car when she and Rory are with me). Literally as soon as those first chords hit, she stopped crying and didn't make a peep the rest of the time. She fell asleep by the second track. It was crazy.

Now that Ada's tried pizza we keep seeing what else she might like. She loved these Ramen noodles from Costco. Feeding her is our new favorite thing. Also this last picture is when Rory and I did each other's makeup. She said I looked beautiful, but that I didn't do a very good job on hers. Thus, it begins...

Kicking off 2020 (in the most deserving way)

Oh man, was it a rough start to (what would later prove to be) a rough year. While thankfully nobody was sick during the holidays- when does that ever happen?!- we made it up for it as soon as we got home. These are my sad, sick, sweet cuddly babies. Thank heavens for the invention of Disney Plus. 

Grandma and Poppop came out to visit and we had so much fun with them, even though Stephen had to work the whole time. They took care of our plants and yard, bought us delicious food and made us delicious food, and took care of the girls so that I could actually get something done! I was able to go get my hair cut finally (it felt AMAZING) and I even got to do a little kid-free shopping. John was able to golf and Lucina played with the girls so everyone but Stephen got to enjoy themselves. They stayed one day extra so that we would be able to go out to dinner on Friday night (the one night they always try to give them during busy season) and everything was packed in downtown Gilbert. We ended up going to LoLo's, a place I never thought I would witness Lucina eating at, and then ended the night with ice cream at Petersons.
Rory had a cut on the bridge of her nose that she got over the holidays, and it just never seemed to be healing. Then all these other sores started popping up on her chin and around her mouth. I had no idea where they came from, but I just kept telling her not to pick at her face. Every morning there would be more sores and they would all look a little worse. This had been happening all of January, but it got really bad while John and Lucina were here and Lucina finally said she thought I should check in with my dad. I texted him and he immediately said it looked like impetigo.
I took Rory into the pediatrician, he confirmed it, and started her on some medicine. As a baby Rory had a reaction to Penicilin so they don't prescribe that to her any more, so Dr Seitter said there was a chance the medicine would not be the right ticket to get rid of it. I was told it would get worse before it got better, but if there wasn't improvement in a week to come back. We were faithful about giving her the medicine and watched her face get worse and then it seemed to come to a point where there a was a standstill and there was a morning where there were no new sores. I continued to give her the medicine and then right about at the week mark she woke up with a sore that I couldn't tell if it was new or if she had badly picked an old sores (three year olds and skin conditions, such a maddening combination). We finished the prescription and then realized she wasn't better at all and the impetigo was alive and well. We went back in, got a new medicine to try, and got to go through the whole fun process again. In the mean time, while she was impetigo, which is wildly contagious, she can't go to toddlerschool, the library, or dance class. She can't play at the park or at any friend's houses. She can't kiss mom or dad or be too close to Ada. It was the longest month ever. 

In the mean time, Ada is now five months old and still doesn't sleep through the night. Doesn't even almost sleep through the night. She still wakes up two or three times to eat and I am so grumpy and exhausted all the time. I bought a Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit because at this point I will try anything. I don't know that it is making any difference, but she looks like a little marshmallow in it and it is pretty dang cute. Marisa shared her Taking Cara Babies sleep course with me so I decided to try to sleep train her since Stephen isn't around anyways. His hours are so long now that when he does get home around 2-3 in the morning he sleeps in the guest room so that he can actually get a few hours of sleep instead of being woken up by Ada every couple of hours. The sleep course says that every baby should be sleep trained within 14 days. You let them cry it out with specifically spaced check ins and the idea is that the crying gets shorter and shorter every night. Well, Ada is a rare breed because after 14 days she was no where closer to sleeping through the night and her record for crying it out was when she woke up at 2 am and cried until 6 am at which point (according to the course) she had made it to morning time so I went and got her out of her crib. I went back to being at her beck and call and nursing whenever she wanted at night and she dropped from three night time feedings to two, so I guess in a way it was a win. In a way. 

This picture is when Rory asked if Ada could chat with her in her bed for a minute one night and I legitimately cried a little because they have so few positive interactions these days and Ada was so stinking excited I couldn't even stand it. It gave me hope for days ahead when they might even be friends. 

Speaking of few positive Ada-Rory interactions, after being on Impetigo house arrest I was losing my mind a little bit and Rory needed some new pants. I decided going to Old Navy wouldn't be completely irresponsible of me as long as I tried to keep her from touching anything. As I browsed the kids section Rory took the stroller from me and began pushing Ada around. Ada LOVED it. She was laughing so hard and was so happy and Rory loved the attention! I picked out the pants listening to the sound of them getting along and moved on to other unnecessary items. I had just grabbed a set of matching sister shirts when I heard Ada scream and start to cry. I whirled around to see Rory with Ada's foot in her mouth biting down with all her might. I dropped the clothes, grabbed her arm with one hand, and the stroller with the other and marched right back to the car. This picture is the bruise that resulted and was taken the next day. Rory, my sweet, you are a fickle little stinker pants. 

When the medicine had done its work and no more new sores were showing up, her face still looked like a painful mess, but we NEEDED to change up our day somehow. We went to the park and had a little picnic lunch. It was short lived because it turns out a park is only fun if there are other kids to play with. We were back at home in no time, driving each other crazy once again. I was determined to have a good day so we hopped in the car, drove through McDonald's for some fries and ice cream and drove to the temple. We finished our snacks and then walked around the temple and got all our energy out. It was peaceful and therapeutic and hopefully not a major disruption to all the happy people that were there. 

Ada seems to be enjoying her marshmallow suit, so here's hoping sleep follows soon. Rory lives for getting the Friend magazine in the mail so here's hoping they have an issue on how you shouldn't bite your baby sisters. 

Busy season is all around exhausting and hard. Stephen is worked around the clock and I worry for his mental health and physical health all day long. I go to bed at night just praying he won't fall asleep at the wheel when he is finally able to come back home. I feel sad that he doesn't get to see the girls, and sadder still that they don't get to see him. I feel sad for me that I have no one to help pick up my slack after a day of keeping up with a feisty toddler and a night keeping up with a hungry baby. And then I feel guilty for being sad because I know how awesome our life is and I know how lucky I am to be with these sweet girls all day and all night. 

And then, finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel! The second round of medicine worked! Her face slowly started to heal (extra slow thanks to the constant picking) and our world of Toddlerschool, dance and play dates was able to open back up! So I had to make sure we came back with a bang! I whipped up some homemade buttercream, got out my cutest sprinkles, and let Rory and Rebecca go to town on some sugar cookies. We watched a movie. We painted Frozen 2 rings. We had sandwiches shaped like hearts. It was incredible. Here's to having a thankful heart to get through difficult months!