Maelin is changing so quickly!

So lately Miss Maelin has taken to putting everything in her mouth. She prefers fingers and plastic rings, but she's been known to put keys and hair in her mouth too. Yummy. It's amazing how quickly she's growing: I just had to pack up her 0-3 month clothes and some of the the 3-6 month stuff is getting too small. She's getting little "sausage legs" and she's got a great double chin. I love watching her grow, but it makes me sad at the same time because kids just grow up way too fast. Good thing I'm a picture freak: little MaeMae will be well documented!

Jeff & Kat's Wedding

Okay folks, here it is. I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath (what does that mean, anyway?) for this entry so here you go:

The Wedding of the Century

Thursday, July 5, 2007

6:00am I wake up early so I can get a shower and breakfast in before I have to take Maelin down to Boulder so she can spend the day at Grandmas house. Kevin and I are going to busy all day with lovely wedding preparations, so Maelin gets the boot.

10:00am Vanessa and I take Maelin down to Boulder. Grandma is very excited to see her and plans to bring her to the wedding around 3pm. After giving her a good-bye kiss, we leave her there.

12:00pm I arrive at the Willow Ridge Manor for pre-wedding fun. Kat is already there with the hair and make-up people and the Italian Champagne (Prosecco) is flowing. It’s going to be a fun afternoon.

3:00pm All the bridesmaids, mothers, bride and girls are ready. We spend time taking pictures and running around doing last-minute things for Kat and Jeff (i.e.: getting Jeff some beer, checking Kat’s makeup, yelling at the florist, etc…)

4:00pm The “Wedding Guy” comes and tells us that it’s almost time to start. Guests are being seated and we’re going to wait about 10 minutes before we head down. The girls celebrate by doing a shot of Lemoncello.

4:15pm The wedding begins. All I can say is that when Jeff saw Kat and got teary-eyed, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. My cousin Madeline will say that she wasn’t crying; she was wiping dirt out of her eyes, but she’s a liar.

4:45pm The wedding is over and Jeff and Kat are as happy as I’ve ever seen them. Everything was beautiful and it’s time to start the party…but wait, we have to take pictures first. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

6:00pm Pictures are FINALLY over (however, they turned out great) so we all head back inside to the cleverly named destination tables. Turns out the Puerto Vallarta table was playing a “Steal Everything They’ve Got” prank on the Amsterdam table. There was a comment made that it was pretty hard to get a fork.

7:00pm Dinner is over and toasting begins. My toast was very timely interrupted by Kat who decided it was a good time to knock over her champagne glass not once but twice during the toast. Everyone cried during the toasts and Kat’s mom was very touching about how much she loved her daughter.

7:30pm Dancing begins. The Kimling Family made a pretty good showing. Everyone from Dan to our Aunts to the cousins to little Ryan was out there enjoying themselves.

8:00pm Maelin leaves with grandma right when I decided I should stop drinking for a while and “Everything I Do I Do It For You” was playing. No wonder I cried like a baby. Bryan Adams will get you every time.

9:00-11:00pm Dancing continues. Between the disco ball, YMCA, and Kat and Jeff’s wedding song, the rest of the wedding had tears, laughter and we all had a great time.

12:00pm After-Party at my house. Because Maelin wasn’t there, we had a few wedding guests over to continue the party. We powered through until around 1am and then it was time for bed.

6:00am I’m up. I’m awake. You’d think after the exhausting day I had and all the beers and the fact that I can sleep soundly because there’s no baby in the house, my body is trained to wake up at this un-godly hour and now I’m up. I decide to make the best of it and I read until 9am and then I take a shower and go to Boulder to collect my daughter from Grandma. Incidentally, they both had a great time. We’ll have to do that again sometime.

Synopsis: Jeff and Kat were beautiful and loving on each other, the place was fantastic, the food delicious, the guests happy and jovial, the decorations tasteful and creative and all-in-all: a fabulous time was had by all. A wonderful day.

Our Last Week Together

It’s been an amazing 4 months. I can hardly remember when Maelin was first born. After we got home from the hospital, she went down to 5 pounds, 14 oz at one point and she was so tiny. I remember when you held her, she’d curl up into a tiny ball like she was trying to disappear. She was so precious. We called her our little bird and our little “one-eyed pirate” because she’d look at you with one eye closed. It was pretty cute.

When May rolled around, Maelin got a bit bigger. We had our first Mother’s Day. I couldn’t believe that I was a mom!?! It’s a very surreal experience: sometimes I still don’t believe that I have an entire little person who is entirely dependant upon me. It’s amazing. In May, Maelin filled out a little bit and we got into a routine of being home together. The visitors were all gone and it was just her and I. We would sleep in together: most days, I’d bring her in bed with me or I’d lay with her on the couch. Then we’d go for a walk or meet a friend for lunch and just lazily watch the days roll by. We loved just sitting on the couch together and talking…Maelin is pretty smart, so she has lots to say.

June was busy for us. We had the end of my school year to get through and I brought Maelin in to say good-bye to all the kiddos. We packed up my classroom and it seemed like forever before I’d have to think about coming back here and leaving my baby with a stranger. It got a bit hotter in June so we’d try to seek out the air-conditioning and we’d still take naps together and read books and dance around the house. Maelin discovered her Baby Einstein DVD’s during this time, so we had fun with Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. Her little personality was starting to emerge and you could see what a sweet little soul she has. She just loves to be held, but she can also be quite a drama queen.

Kevin really bonded with Maelin in June. She was more used to him and starting to realize that mommy isn’t the only one that she feels safe with. We went to our friends’ birthday parties and we went to a housewarming party and a wedding shower and we just enjoyed being together…ahhhh, the lazy days of summer.

July brought some activities that kept us pretty busy. First was my brother’s wedding and Maelin's first overnight visit with Grandma Lea. I cried and cried when she left the wedding to go home with grandma because I realized how much I needed her! I knew she’d be fine with grandma but I’d be a mess. That’s when it hit me how amazing being a parent is. I remember someone said that being a mom is like having your heart walk around outside of your body. That is totally true. I need my baby just like I need food and water. It sounds corny, but she is the best thing I have ever done or will ever do. She is pure innocence and love.

We got to spend lots of time with our family in July. Our cousin Peter came out to visit from Milwaukee, my sister Vanessa was here from Seattle and she got to stay with us. It was so great to hear Maelin in the middle of the night and to get up and go to her room and see my sister already up and comforting her. It’s amazing how much love Maelin brings to everyone around her. It’s instant. We also got to spend time with my mom who came in from Minneapolis and my aunt and cousins who were here from Michigan. One of the best things about weddings is the family and friends who get together for it. I wish people got together more often...we’ll have to work on that.

Before we knew it, it was time for our trip with Emily to my grandma’s house in Michigan. We had a great time and it was so wonderful to see Maelin enjoying the water (just wait till next year…she’ll be all over it!) and to see her with her great-grandma Mimi. I can’t believe that trip is over already…it went by so fast!

It’s going to be August this week. Come to think of it, this is our last full week together. Next week, we’ll be visiting daycare and spending some time there and then the week after that, school starts. I can’t believe it’s almost time for me to hand my baby over to someone else for 8 hours every day. How do you trust someone that much? How do I know that Maelin won’t be crying for me or if she does, she’ll forgive me for not being there to pick her up and love her? Will she keep crying? Or will she eventually stop and wonder why I never came?

I know we’ll both be okay eventually and the first week or so will be the hardest, but I can’t tell you how much I am dreading August 16. I think about it every day, every hour, every time my baby smiles at me or laughs or needs me to hold her. I’m going to be giving that responsibility, that joy over to someone else and I pray that Maelin will forgive me for not being there for her. The thought of it kills me and brings me to tears even as I write this and I want to go snatch my sweet baby out of her crib and run away with her to someplace where there aren’t bills to pay and isn’t health insurance to have. Someplace where we can pretend that it’s April or May or June all the time. Someplace where we can still have lazy days and just enjoy being together.

Our time together is almost over and it’s going to be replaced with daycare, running errands and trying to get everything done. We’ll have our few short hours together every day and I hope that’s enough for her to remember that I’m her mama and I love her more than anything. I guess time will tell and we’ll just wait for next June.

Good-bye Josh and Molly!

Our friends Josh and Molly are moving to Virgina this week. We've been friends with them for about 5 years or so...Molly and I were in the same graduate program, we worked together for years at Piatti and we are in the same book club.

Maelin and I went to their good-bye party tonight at Charlie Browns.

As fate would have it, Maelin was fantastic all day. She was in such a good mood and was laughing, kicking and drooling all day. Right at 5pm when it was time for the party, she started screaming. What to do? Leave her at home w/ Kevin (and worry about her the whole time) or take her with me and risk having her scream? We decided for me to take her with because we were going to be sitting outside and Maelin loves it when she's out.

Sweet little thing was soooo good. I was so proud of her. She was just a bit fussy, but she sat with different people and ate well and giggled and stuck her tounge out and I got to have a few beers and talk to my friends in peace! I decided that Maelin just likes to party...she was sick of being at home. :-) We had a nice time hanging with Josh and Molly and we sure will miss them.

We'll miss you guys. Good luck and keep in touch!

10 Things I "Swore" I'd Never Do...

As I was driving home the other day with Maelin screaming (I was supposed to go to a work function, but I chose to turn around and go home because staying in the car with a screaming baby for another 45 minutes didn't appeal to me), I was thinking about how I said "pre-baby" that was one of those things I would NEVER do. Then I starting thinking that there were a few more things that I've done that I never thought I would. I'm sure as Maelin gets older, I'll keep adding to this list, but here it is for now...

10 THINGS I SWORE I'D NEVER DO WITH A BABY

10. Wear the same shirt two days in a row. And even sleep in it one night. (But, hey, I didn't leave the house that day.)

9. Let my daughter wear the same outfit two days in a row. (The laundry didn't do itself that week.)

8. I would never let my child watch TV so I could have some “me” time. (I’m so happy that Maelin likes Sesame Street, I could cry. It’s the only time I get an uninterrupted shower.)

7. Throw my child at my husband the minute he comes home from work and growl at him “It’s Your Turn!” (Inexcusable, I know, but I really need to use the bathroom!)

6. I will never leave the house without makeup, or looking nice…in other words, “I won’t let myself go.” (Check item number 10…oh, also check item number 4)

5. I will never snatch my child away from someone just because she’s fussing. I’ll let her try to figure it out before I intervene. (Good thing my friends, my relatives and even my husband aren’t keeping track on this one!)

4. Let my hair go for 2 days without washing it. (I think my record is actually about 4 days, but it's hard to get motivated to wash and dry it at 10:30 p.m.)

3. Not go to a party or event just because the baby is upset. Just deal and go anyway. (This one is a laugh…)

2. Use baby wipes to remove make-up and wash my face. (When am I supposed to do this? Inbetween nighttime feedings, laundry, and finally sitting down and breathing? In my defense, those cucumber and green tea baby wipes smell really good!)

1. Talk to absolutely everyone about breastfeeding, sore nipples, lactating, baby’s poops, etc…(Really, you mean to tell me that you AREN’T interested in all this???)

What have you done that you'd swore you'd never do?

Oooh, I have hands and they're yummy!

So Miss Maelin has discovered that her hands are good for more than just looking cute...they taste yummy too! She learned today that she can hold other things (mommy's hair, toys, etc...) in them too and those go straight into her mouth now.

Child-proofing isn't far away...watch out Gizmo!

Vacations Will Never Be The Same...

A title of a previous post was “Vacation….or Work?” Turns out our trip to Traverse City was a bit of both:

(to give you a bit of background info, Traverse City is in Upper Michigan on the west side. It’s the cherry capital of the world due to the lake breezes and the mild temps during the summer. In addition to cherries, TC is a great winery destination, there are fresh blueberries and peaches everywhere, and the lake is a fantastic place to just hang out and enjoy the mild summer.)

Vacation: Emily and I sitting on my grandma’s deck overlooking beautiful Lake Michigan with a beer and enjoying the 75 degree breezy weather. (we did this knowing that it was about 100 degrees back home…we had a giggle over that)

Work: Lugging 3 huge bags, one stroller/carseat combo, one breast pump, one diaper bag and one baby through the airport. Count how many hands that would take…

Vacation: Visiting 3 different wineries on Old Mission Peninsula while watching the sun set into the bay all around us. Heaven…

Work: Trying to keep baby quiet at 3am in our Grandma’s house so she wouldn’t wake everybody up.

Vacation: Riding my Uncle’s wave runner (Seadoo). It’s basically a jet ski and it’s SUPER fun. The bay where my grandma’s house is has no speed limit and is pretty calm so you could get the seadoo up to about 60mph.

Work: Trying to watch the sunset at Grandma’s house…a classic Traverse City activity. Mosquitos are out, so baby can’t watch too, so most nights we sat inside and watched from the windows. Nice, but not quite the same.

Vacation: We all went blueberry picking! Before I had Maelin, I’d be sleeping in during this activity, but because I was up early enough, I got to go pick pounds of blueberries! You have to go early in the morning before it gets too warm and we spent about an hour there (Great-Grandma Mimi babysat for Maelin) and we got over 16 POUNDS of blueberries for about $20. Pretty good deal. We ate blueberries in our cereal for the next 4 days and had serving after serving of grandma’s blueberry cobbler.

Work: Trying to help your 3 month old baby adjust to the 2 hour difference in the time change.

Vacation: Having lunch at a brewery downtown. We sat outside (Maelin slept for most of it…) and we had a lovely local beer and I had the Monte Crisco with cherry jam. Then we walked around and bought some local fudge, some chocolate-covered cherries and had a few scoops of Gelato. It was about 80 degrees with the lake breezes and I thought there was no better way to spend a summer afternoon.

Work: Sitting inside with the baby while everyone else was outside having a bonfire on the beach. I wouldn’t have been able to bring Maelin out there because of the mosquitos after dark. (one bonus though: my cousins made me a Smores and brought it in for me)

Vacation: Watching my grandma Mimi totally enjoy my baby. Maelin and Mimi hit it off…they are old friends now. They spent hours just sitting by the windows and talking and laughing to each other.

Work: Realizing that vacations will never be the same. In the old days, I spent my time in TC sunbathing with a good book, drinking lots of local wine and staying up really late next to the campfire. I was a bit sad at the change.

Vacation: Realizing that vacations will never be the same. We spent our days playing in the bath-like water, watching Maelin enjoy and play with her Aunts and Cousins, walking around the town, having fun cooking with the local foods, sitting and talking to each other and just relaxing.

So, decide for yourself if it was worth it for me to haul my baby over 2,000 miles to hang out with our family. Despite a few glitches, we had an amazing time. Vacations may never be the same, but that may be a good thing.

We won't blog for a while, but check back next week!

So we’re off to Traverse City. I’ve spent the day doing laundry, assessing the suitcases, figuring out what to bring on the airplane, packing socks, pj’s , burp cloths, medicine, lotions, diapers, wipes, warm clothes, floaty things, binkies, her bouncy seat, swimsuits, etc. And that’s just for Maelin! I haven’t even begun to think about what I might need.

I hope I remember everything…gone are the days where you spend a few days thinking about what you’re going to bring and leisurely packing it all up and only having one suitcase. I’m taking a huge Samsonite suitcase that’s filled with our clothes, a huge duffel bag that’s got our tent and random big things in it and another rolley bag with the boppy pillow, wipes, diapers, blankets, etc. Good thing Emily is coming along…I still need to carry the carseat, the baby bjorn carrier, the breast pump, the diaper bag and the stroller. What else am I forgetting???

Oh yeah, the baby!! Hope I remember to bring Maelin or that I don’t set her down somewhere and forget about her amongst all the crap!

We’ll be back on Tuesday, July 24th. We won’t have internet access while we’re gone so I hope you all have a great week and we’ll miss you!

Vacation...or Work?

We’ve all experienced them…we’ve all been annoyed or astonished or entertained by them. We’ve all wished they were ours or more likely, thanking the Lord that we’ll probably never see them again. We’ve all had airplane rides where you wished you could throw them out the window because of the constant screaming or kicking of the back of your seat, or dinners interrupted because they are running around and knocked your server off of his feet and screamed so loudly the fire alarm went off. Who are we talking about? OPK’s...or, Other People’s Kids.

I’ve always been a kid lover. I was a nanny for years and now I’m a 2nd grade teacher so I’ve had pretty good experiences with OPK’s. I’ve seen them be incredibly sweet and wonderful and I’ve wanted to take a few home with me and never let them go. A few of my students have been so inquisitive and polite and spunky that you wish you could bottle up whatever their parents were doing with them and sell it…you’d make millions. However…there are the other ones.

The OPK’s where they don’t think human decency apply to them. My mother-in-law once saw a 5-year-old run up to his mom at the Boulder Courts and pull on her shirt and yell, “I want some titty!!” She could only assume he was talking about breast milk and not Jenna Jamison. Last summer we flew from London to Denver (yes…it was a 10 hour flight) with an OPK that I personally would have paid someone $1,000 to strangle. This child was easily 3 years old and didn’t want to talk…she had learned that screaming got her anything she wanted. Imagine a 10 hour flight where this child would just scream, “AAAARRGGHHH” whenever she got bored, wanted food, was tired, wanted to run around, or just wanted attention. I watched the mom: most of the time, she was sleeping and totally ignored her which made the child scream louder. Eventually the father would lean over and give her what she wanted which would shut her up for about 2 minutes until she got bored and started screaming again. I was shooting this poor 3 year old horrible dirty looks and I noticed other passengers who were desperately trying to sleep talking to the flight attendants, but there was nothing they could do. This OPK was making our lives miserable for those 10 hours while her mother slept peacefully all the way to Denver. Fabulous.

The reason I bring this up is I am in danger of having my very first OPK experience with my own child. On Monday, we are embarking on our first of many adventures together…we are going to brave the unknown with only the allotted amount of equipment with us. We’re not climbing mountains or joining the Peace Corps…we’re taking our very first plane ride.

My grandmother lives in Traverse City, MI…the cherry capital of the world. It’s a fabulous summer vacation destination. It’s in the northern part of the state and it’s famous for its beaches, calm waters, wonderful weather, wineries and of course, cherries. My grandma (Mimi) has a house right on the beach…the beach is her backyard. The pictures above were taken in Mimi's backyard. We try to go every year, but as we were in Europe last year, this year is it. Kevin can’t go because he took so much time off when Maelin was born, so my friend Emily is coming along with us. So it’ll be me, Maelin and Emily. We will be desperately trying to keep Maelin calm on the plane so we won’t be one of those OPK’s that people want to kill.

I have no idea how to go about this. I’ve had many moments of anxiety and at one point; I almost bowed out of it altogether. However, I don’t want my daughter to pick up on the vibe that because something is hard or you haven’t done it before so it’s scary, means that you don’t do it. I want to lead by example that if you want something, you should do what you need to do to get it.

I want to show my daughter her great-grandmother’s house. I want my daughter to hang out on the beach with her cousins and great-aunts. In spite of my trepidation, we’re going. We leave Monday night.

Here is what we need to bring…keep in mind that you are only allowed 2 bags and there is a weight limit:

Breast Pump

Bed for Maelin…it folds up, but it’s somewhat bulky

Fan…or something to make white noise

Diapers, Wipes, Diaper Rash Cream, etc…

Bottles

Diaper Bag filled with articles for baby to play with on plane so she doesn’t annoy anyone…including us

Tent and Air Mattress for Emily (Mimi’s house is small so adults w/o kids camp on the beach)

Towels, Swimsuits

Bouncy Seat

Car Seat

Stroller

Baby Bjorn Carrier

Sunscreen

Medical Supplies for baby

Clothes for a week…pj’s. burp cloths, warm clothes, cool clothes, etc…

Bathtub for Baby (it’s small and folds up, but we have to bring it)

Blankets and Sheets for baby

Inflatable Raft Floaty Thing for Baby

A few books for me and all my crap

Anyone see a problem? How do we get all of this into 2 bags? Emily will only have one, but some of this stuff is pretty heavy. I’m kind of freaking out…I know we’ll get there just fine and have an amazing time, but I really don’t want Maelin to be an annoying OPK…

From now on, I’ll have more empathy for OPK’s who are acting up. Now I know that no parent (except for the sleeping mom ALL the way from London to Denver) wants their child to be annoying or bothering other people. Sometimes there’s just nothing else you can do.

I told my uncle that I was really nervous about bringing Maelin on the plane. She’s such a good girl but I could see her freaking out because she’s not at home and just being cranky the whole way and then not sleeping, etc. He gave me great advice…”Mara, how many OPK’s have you had to deal with? If Maelin acts up, just remember that it’s your turn now.”

Keep your fingers crossed for me…

"Getting My Blog On"

My favorite cousin in the wide world is Peter. He was just here visiting from Milwaukee for my brother’s wedding (I PROMISE I’ll post a story about that as soon as I can…). He was really enjoying playing Kevin’s Nintendo Wii (even though he totally failed playing the 'hit the rabbit on the head' game...Keith owns that game) while he was here and he saw me putting pics on my blog and he asked me if I was “getting my blog on.”

I said yup and he wanted to know why he wasn’t in it yet. So, Cousin Pete, here you go. This is a picture of my wonderful, drunky, quirky and awesome Cousin Peter with my daughter. Here’s to you Pete! We miss you!!

Maelin is a 3 Month Old Model

So for those of you who know me pretty well, you’ll know that I’m a total picture freak. I looooooooove pictures. I have over 8,000 pictures on our hard drive: and that’s only since 2005 when I got a digital camera. Who knows how many negatives are fading away in my basement!

Anyway, ever since Maelin was born, I’ve wanted to get her portraits done. We were going to get newborn portraits taken, but right at the time that would have been perfect for that, she developed a nasty case of baby acne and I certainly wasn’t going to take her for pictures then! It took about 3 weeks for the acne to go away, and then she wasn’t technically a newborn anymore. A few days ago I was thinking about how she was now 3 months old….PICTURE TIME!! It’s perfect: we can get them done at 3 months, at 6 months, at 9 months and then at 12 months. So it’s time to go get pictures!

Our newly-appointed Auntie Kat came with us today. We went to portrait innovations and had an appointment with Laura who was fabulous with Maelin. I was terrified that Maelin was going to start screaming the minute Laura needed her to smile, but she was a rock star. She put up with the fishes we were waving around to get her to smile, she was on her tummy for longer than she’s ever been, she was covered up by a black sheet in order to get her feet pictures and she giggled and smiled at just the right times. What a star!!

Towards the end of the session, Maelin started to get a little cranky: who could blame the poor kid? So I kept her bink in her mouth until just the time Laura would snap the picture and they turned out great. You can see a few of them above: aren’t they awesome? We had the option of black and whites as well: the digital ones don’t reflect that, but we’ve got some.

So, how much did it cost? That’s the funny part. The reason I went to this place was because they have a $9.95 special: no sitting fees, and about 40 pictures of the pose of your choice! Sounds great, right? What they don’t tell you over the phone is that they take about 65 pictures and about 40 of those are amazing! How do you choose ONE???????? So I didn’t choose just one: between Kat and I, we got about 9 different poses and a bunch of different sizes and tons of black and whites, etc. Needless to say, it didn’t cost $9.95.

The way they get you is this: they have all the gorgeous pictures up on their screen for you to look at and when you get ready to start choosing which ones you don’t want, they say “So you want me to delete this one? You want me to delete this one too???” Yes, they say delete! No! I’m screaming in my head…don’t delete my beautiful baby!!

Call me a sucker, but I’ve got enough pictures of my beautiful baby at 3 months than I know what to do with. Come to think of it…do any of you want any? Cause they sure are taking up a lot of room!

How Much Sleep Do You Get???

It’s 2:30am. Back in the old days, I’d just now be going to bed after a night on the town. I’m up now because little Maelin has decided to revert to her infant-habit of waking up every 2-3 hours during the night. It’s great fun.

This is what the last few nights for Maelin and I have looked like: Bedtime for baby at 10pm. I pump and clean up a bit and get to bed by 11:30pm. Baby is crying at 2:30am. I get up and feed her and put her back down by 3am. Baby is crying again at 5:30am. I get up again and feed her and put her back down at 6am. Baby is crying again at 7:30am. I mutter a few choice words and just put the bink back in her mouth because she can’t possibly be hungry again? Can she? I stay up and wait for her to go back to sleep because there’s nothing worse in the entire world than being so exhausted you can’t even walk a straight line and thinking the baby is asleep so you go back to bed just to hear her fussing again 1 minute later. I finally go back to sleep at 8:30am and baby wakes up for good at 9am. Count up my actual hours of sleep, if you dare. Remember, it takes a good 30 minutes to fall back asleep after I’ve been awake.

I’m too tired for much math, but I think my sleep totals about 5 hours: broken up into 4 different segments. No wonder I’m a zombie and cranky as hell.

When I’ve brought up this sleep issue to people in the know, they’ve all said, “3 months is the magic number for babies. Something just happens at 3 months and they start sleeping much better.” “If you can make it to 3 months, you’re golden.” “3 months is when the baby will start sleeping 5-6 hour stretches.” “Hang in there: she’s almost 3 months old and that’s when she’ll start sleeping longer.”

Maelin was 3 months old last Friday.

There are all sorts of “magic” solutions to help a baby sleep longer. I’ve heard of the “put cereal in her bottle before bed” trick, the “let her cry it out in 15 minute increments” trick, the “babywise trick of starving her during the day so she eats lots at night and therefore sleeps better” trick, etc. I wouldn’t mind putting cereal in her nighttime bottle that Kevin gives her, but our Dr. says not to give her any solids until she’s at least 4 months old. That’s another 4 weeks of this. I go back to work soon: how in the world am I going to function with 25 7-year-olds if I have minutes of sleep every night?

I don’t think there’s much of a solution for me. Parenting is all about patience, so I’ve been told. So I’ll continue to wake up all night long until the little darling decides to start sleeping for longer stretches. In the meantime, if you’re up at 2am, 5am, 7am, 9am, etc…send me an instant message. It’ll be less lonely.

A View Into Jeff & Kat's Wedding

The wedding is over!! That makes Kat sad, but we had a fantastic time. Here are a few pictures from the wedding. It was beautiful and the weather was amazing and now Kat and Jeff are married!

I had so many comments that my Matron of Honor toast made people cry, so I thought I’d post it for all of you. Maybe you were too drunk to listen to it or maybe you weren’t able to come to the wedding or maybe you were in the bathroom during the toasts. In any case, here it is. Skip over it if you aren’t interested, but there you go. I’ll write more about their wedding when I have more time. We still have some family in town, so we’re having fun with them. Weddings are an amazing time, but very exhausting…

especially with a baby in tow. (by the way, she did fantastic with Grandma Lea the night of the wedding)

Hello everyone! My name is Mara and I’m Matron of Honor. I’m very honored to be part of this special day: not only because the groom is my favorite brother, but because Kat is one of my best friends and now she gets to be my new sister too!

So to be honest, I had a hard time deciding what I was going to say to you all tonight. Should I tell you that I’ve had the pleasure of watching Jeff discover that even with all her crazy quirks (and lets be honest, there’s quite a few of them!), there was no one that could make him laugh like Kat could? Or should I talk about the time that blew me away: Kat watched Jeff be crazy Jeff for just long enough: then she put the smack down on him and he was a better person because of it? Would you all want to hear how Kat has become an integral part of our family: to quote my younger sister, “she just fits?” Should I tell you all how Kat raced to the hospital at 2am when my daughter was born because she was so excited at becoming an Auntie? Maybe I should tell you about the discussions we’ve had that Kat adores my brother because he loves her just as she is and she feels safer with him than she has ever felt in her life?

I’m not sure my trouble in choosing any of those stories are the reason I had a hard time deciding what to say to you all tonight. When I sat down to think about why I was having trouble, it’s because of this: no words can convey how special my mom, my dad, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my sisters and I think Kat is. No speech would tell you how excited we all are that Jeff has FINALLY! found someone who loves him as much as Kat loves Jeff. No toast would explain how much I love both of them and how excited I am that I have a new sister who loves my brother, my family and my daughter as much as I know Kat does.

So I finally decided to say this: Kat: I’ve watched your relationship with my brother grow since you met at my 30th birthday party to this very special day and I couldn’t be more proud to call you my new sister. Words can’t express how happy I am for you both.

So let’s all raise our glasses and toast to Kat & Jeff: May all your happiness’ be long, may all your sadness' be short, and may you always find yourselves surrounded by your families and friends who love you as much as we all do here today.

Salute!

Jeff & Kat are getting married!!!

So I won’t be posting for a few days. My brother is marrying our really good friend Kat on Thursday. We have lots of family in town: Grandma Linnie is here from Minneapolis and Auntie Vanessa is here from Seattle. Cousin Pete came in from Milwaukee and our Aunt Jane and Cousins Allie, Maddie and Grace are coming in today from Grand Rapids. We’re going to be busy with family and wedding fun.

Baby Maelin is going to have her first overnight stay at Grandma Lea’s for the wedding. I’m a bit nervous about it (okay, terrified) but I know she’ll be okay over there…I’ll just miss her. Lea is really excited: she’s been planning for this for months so Maelin is going to have a good time just hanging with Grandma.

We’ve really been looking forward to their wedding. Not only do we get to see lots of family we haven’t seen in a while but we absolutely adore Kat. We’re so excited she’s marrying our brother and becoming part of our family. Yay wedding!

Hope you all have a fantastic 4th of July!

Happy 1st Anniversary to Em & Q

Our friends Emily and Quenton are celebrating their first anniversary today. Happy Anniversary Em and Q! We love you!

Anyone Wanna Install an Air-Conditioner?

It’s official. Our air conditioner has broken. You wouldn’t think that’s a big deal since we have two of them. The one in our bedroom is fantastic: it’s about 65 degrees in there right now. But...the one in the living room that cools down most of the house only works when it’s about 80 degrees or cooler outside. Then it shuts down.

Today was 98 degrees. Tomorrow is supposed to be about 100. That means around 10am when it gets past 80 degrees outside, our air conditioner will shut off. Now I didn’t think that was such a big deal until I had Maelin. I’ve always gotten really cranky when I’m hot. I just don’t like it: I don’t like feeling sticky, I don’t like my sweaty forehead and neck and I don’t like feeling like I have to take a shower when I just took one two hours ago. (if you’ve read my previous posts, you’d know how hard one shower is to get with a baby, let alone two…)

Then the baby came along. Imagine being in a house that the thermostat reads 89 degrees. Then imagine picking up your sweaty baby from her nap and trying to soothe her when you are hot and sweaty yourself and the house is stifling. Then imagine trying to hold her close to you so you can feed her. Not much fun. Needless to say, baby didn’t get much to eat today. We actually went outside around 7pm and hung out there because it was cooler outside than it was in our house. Not fun with Maelin. (oh, Gizmo and Sophie are miserable too...they didn't even want their dinners tonight, so you know our house was hot!)

When it was bedtime, we cranked up her window fan full-blast and I put her in a cotton t-shirt with no blanket. Even with that, she still has a sweaty forehead. Poor baby.

Then I started thinking that school was going to start soon and I work in a building that does not have air conditioning and I come home every day miserable and sweaty. Maelin’s day care doesn’t have it either, so she’ll come home miserable and sweaty. The only thing that will redeem the day is if our house isn’t miserable and sweaty…so Kevin pulled out the SEARS gift cards and did some research and we’re buying a new air conditioner tomorrow. I’m so excited, it’s like he’s given me permission to go shopping at Tiffany’s…the promise of a cooler house has put me in the best mood I’ve been in all day.

If anyone wants to come over tomorrow to help me install it before Kevin gets home from work, you know where we live! Maelin’s sweaty forehead will thank you.