We're Growing

Once again, it's been forever since I updated. A lot has changed since my last post!

Lenore is 2 years old. I can't believe that our little mush has already been in our lives for two years. How?! "It feels like just yesterday..." is what keeps running through my head. A true cliche.

Speaking of 2, we're expecting our second baby at the end of December. Another girl. We're over the moon excited for her arrival. I can't wait to see what she looks like and to see how Lenore reacts to her. Even though everyone keeps telling Lenore she is going to have a sister, I don't think she quite gets it yet. And she probably won't until there is a baby in the house.

Lenore calls her sister, "Bob". Not sure where she got that from, but it's cute and every time she calls her "Bob" from outside my tummy, I smile.

I'm hoping to keep up with the blog more. Life is so busy that it's hard. But I'm looking forward to documenting our life and the lives of our little girls.

Random hugs

Sometimes, Lenore will suddenly stop what she's doing and give me the biggest hug. We were getting ready for bed tonight and she was dinking around doing something. Out of nowhere she stopped doing whatever it was and goes, "Mommy, mommy" and jumped into my arms. She squeezed my neck so tight. Then she pulled away and goes, "Mama. Hi," and continued on with what she was doing before. 

I definitely needed that on a day like today.

Home Improvements

Before Lenore was born, she had a mountain of toys. As she has gotten older, she has acquired more and more shit. Our entire living room has been taken over by her stuff. This has always made sense since this is where we spend the majority of our time as a family. Now that Lenore is mobile (and has been for quite awhile), Jason and I decided it was time to reclaim our space.

We started finishing our garden-level basement in January and guys, it is almost DONE! I am so excited. We painted it over the weekend and in two weeks will have carpet down there. We ordered an awesome Peter Pan wall vinyl from Etsy which I can't wait to see and put up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm super stoked to have my living room back. But I think I'm more excited for Lenore to have a space to play and run around that is HERS. Obviously she has her room, but you know what I mean. It'll be awesome for playdates and on the nights I don't want to clean up, I won't feel like I HAVE to.

We have taken photos through the entire process so, I'm looking forward to posting our before and after photos for all of you to see!

As the world falls down

Hello world. I wanted to write a quick "tribute" post to David Bowie. I'm pretty devastated at the news of his passing (which was Monday, Jan. 11). He was so inspirational. My favorite movie in the whole world is Labyrinth. I walked down the aisle to "As the World Falls Down". I love it so much that I named this blog after it. It's going to be a bittersweet moment every time I log on to update. I may have to change the name one day. RIP the Goblin King. <3

"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring" - David Bowie.

Time

I think I have probably said this before, but time flies when you have a child. Everyone tells you that you're going to blink and wonder where the time went, but you cannot grasp that concept until your child is with you. 

The last time I updated the blog was the end of December. Lenore was 5 months old. It's now almost May (only a few days away) and Lenore is 9.5 months old. Like I say every time I post, I haven't forgotten about the blog. I actually think about it quite a bit. But it's hard to find time to update when I'm relishing this special time with Lenore. She is hitting so many milestones right now and I feel like that will begin to slow down at some point. 

I really want to try and set aside at least one day a week to update. The weekend is probably my best option since I'm exhausted when I get home from work and really don't want to do anything except hang out with Jason and Lenore. I'm really, really going to try to get better.

First Christmas

Our little Lenny Lou is 5 months old (23 weeks to be exact). She is the happiest baby in the world. She is always smiling and laughing. No matter how shitty of a day I have had, her smile can turn it all around. One of my favorite parts is how her eyes light up when she smiles. They literally sparkle and it melts me.

Lenore's first Christmas was yesterday and it's safe to say that it was a success. She got so many presents (her favorite being a bouncer from Mommy & Daddy). We decided that one of our Christmas traditions will be to give Lenore a new pair of jammies on Christmas Eve (which we did). We hid her presents from her until Christmas, which I know may sound silly, but I want to feel the Christmas magic with her for as long as I can.

We hosted Christmas dinner at our house and it was a lot of fun. We made a completely gluten free meal and everything turned out pretty well. I made a Christmas Sangria (thanks Pinterest) that was delicious! I'll definitely be using that recipe again. After dinner and presents, we played some LCR and then everyone headed home for the night. Lenore did really well all day which was great. Sometimes she gets over stimulated and that makes her cranky, but she was golden all the way until we put her to bed, which made me happy.

With that, here's lots of pictures from yesterday. Merry Christmas!

10 Things Your Mom Never Told You

I came across this link the other day via Facebook (thanks Jericha!) and it is perfect. Reading it brought me to tears thinking about my sweet Lenore. I wanted to share because it's great. Read "10 Things Your Mom Never Told You" here.

Halloween 2014

I'm a little behind on my Halloween post, but here is a lovely photo dump! I tried to dress Lenore in as many Halloween outfits as I could. It was a bit warmer than expected so, I couldn't put her in a lot of long sleeve stuff. For Halloween, she was a cheetah and I was a lion. Jason had to work so, I had to improvise. We missed Daddy, but next Halloween will be more fun.

On a side note, Lenore will be 4 months old tomorrow. Once again, I can't believe how fast the time is flying.

Flashback Friday

Flashback to July 16, 2014 and our little baby's first photo shoot at one day old. Excuse how Jason and I look. We were exhausted.

October

Fall is here! October is here! This is the first time in probably almost 10 years that I don't have any Halloween decorations up yet. Having a baby makes it hard to do anything, especially find time to decorate my house the way I want to. Since Jason and I have the weekends off together now, I might be able to do it here soon.

Lenore is almost 12 weeks old. My how the time flies. I know I said that in my last semi-lengthy post, but it's crazy how fast she grows. Sometimes I look at her and she looks like a little girl instead of a baby to me. Slow down, time!

I'm looking forward to enjoying the fall festivities with my little family. Jason and I really want to take Lenore to a pumpkin patch. She may be a bit young, but so what. We're also still trying to decide what we're going to be for Halloween. We had it figured out, but then Jason came up with another cute idea so, we're on the fence. Lenore probably has about 15 Halloween outfits (onesies, etc.) and I'm looking forward to being able to have her wear one almost every day in October. Now that it's getting colder, I'm enjoying getting to bundle her up more.

I'm going to try and start updating more often again. Being back at work during the week and then spending time with the family during the weekend doesn't leave me with a ton of opportunities for posting. Poor excuse, I know.

I just realized that I never posted any of Lenore's newborn photos on the blog. I'll do that tonight. I really want to get some 3 month photos taken of her soon. I should probably get on that before I blink and she's 6 months old [insert HUGE sigh here].

Be still my heart

I can literally stare at this beautiful face day long. I love her so much. 

One Month

I can't believe that it's been one month since Lenore was born. The time has flown in a way that I've never experienced. My friends that have children warned me that this would happen. That she would change in a blink of an eye. That time would seem to pass faster, no matter what I did to hold on to it. I am trying to relish every single moment so that I can burn them into my memory. 

Two Weeks

Today marks two weeks that our sweet Lenore has graced us with her presence. I can't believe it's been two weeks already. I find myself constantly staring at her in awe and wondering how my husband and I created such a perfect creature. She is literally the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on.

She looks so much like Jason. She has his nose, his jet black hair, and his ears. She has my eye shape and my butt chin (her chin is much cuter than mine, however). She has lovely long fingers and toes. I'm pretty sure her eyes are going to be brown, but they're a dark slate color right now. I can't wait to see how they'll change in the next few months.

It's so funny, when I sat down to type this, I had so much more that I wanted to say. However, I've been distracted by watching my daughter sleep and listening to her little coos as she dreams about whatever babies dream about. So, I'll have to update again at a later time.

She's Here!

Lenore Louise made her debut on Tuesday, July 15 at 5:45pm. She weighed 8 lbs. and measured 19.5 inches.

Jason and I couldn't be happier. She is so beautiful.

I'll update with her birth story soon. 

The Nursery

I haven't gotten a chance to post photos of the nursery yet so, I figured I'd better do it now. 

Random Things I'm Excited About

Sleeping on my back

Eating a turkey sammy

Bending over

Seeing my feet

Shaving with ease

Eating sushi 

Taking Advil 

Wearing my wedding rings on my finger

No more swollen feet

Wearing shoes other then flip flops 

Painting my own toenails 

My boobs not sitting on my belly

Holding my baby <3

39 Weeks

We are 39 weeks pregnant today. I can't believe how the time has flown by. Our induction has been scheduled for Tuesday at 7:30am. That's 3 days away. THREE. I was already 4 cm dilated at my last check up so, I'm curious to know how much more I've progressed, if at all. My doctor thinks I'll have a pretty quick labor which is nice to think about even though there's really no way to tell. It's just hard to wrap my head around the fact that she's going to be here in 3 days or less..

Closing In

Tomorrow we are going to be 38 weeks pregnant. At my last appointment, the doctor said Lenore can come anytime and that I should probably make sure my hospital bag is packed (it's not) and that the carseat is in the car (it's not). The good news is - we have a carseat and I'm going to be packing my bag today. It's just hard to wrap my head around the idea that she could be here any day. I feel like I'm not ready, but that I'll never truly be ready so, I guess I'm as ready as I'm gonna get?

The swelling in my feet has gotten out of control. It feels like sleep is a distant relative that I see maybe once a year at a family reunion. My hormones are off the charts. I'm a raging bitch one minute and then crying the next. Bless my husband's heart for putting up with me because I am far from the easiest person to get along with right now.

My doctor has thrown around the bed rest word a few times because of how swollen my feet are. I told him that I wasn't going on bed rest unless it was medically necessary. He said it wasn't and that it would be more for comfort than anything. I figure that I've made it this far - I can handle another two weeks (give or take). I'm praying that I'm at home when I go into labor though. Not sure how I'm going to deal with my water breaking at work. Awkward.. I guess it's good that I work in an office full of women all of which have kids.

My nesting feeling has kicked in. All I want to do is clean and organize more than I have ever wanted to in my life. I just keep feeling like I'm running out of time and want everything done now. Having a three day weekend is nice because I can get a lot of stuff done. I've gotten a ton done today already, which is nice.

Other than that (which is a lot if you ask me), not much is going on. Prepping for Lenore has taken up all of our time. I had my second baby shower last weekend, thrown by my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law. It was great and the weather held up, which was awesome considering all the rain we've had. We got lots of great stuff and now I just have to figure out where to put all of it.

With that - I'll leave you with two photos. 32 weeks and 37 weeks. I'll be glad when my weekly photos are of Lenore and not me. Not that I don't love documenting my growing belly, but I don't like documenting my growing double chin.

36 weeks

We are officially 9 months pregnant today. I can't believe that our baby will be here in 4 weeks. Her nursery is pretty much complete with the exception of a few missing items. We made her bed today and it's so cute. I'll post pictures once it's all done. 

We're also behind on photos again. I'll get to it eventually. 

Water Balloons?

My feet have been getting so swollen lately, it's kinda scary. They look and feel like water balloons. My ankles have truly become cankles and my toes look like fat, little slugs. Even wearing loose socks cuts off my circulation.

I am pathetic.

In other news, I'll be 35 weeks tomorrow. Wahoo!