Dimples

I'm trying to snap a photo -- but Wren has a dimple in her left cheek when she smiles. So sweet! :-)

Call Me Back

Grrrr... I've left several voicemails this week and I'm having a tough time getting these folks to return my calls. I'd really like to chat with the ECI folks and I'd appreciate if Molly Maid would return my calls too. Boo hiss.

ECI -- we're hoping to have Atticus evaluated for physical and occupational therapy needs. Not sure if he needs therapy or not just yet -- but since it was recommended that he be evaluated, we figured -- better sooner than later!

Molly Maid -- well... long story short is that when they moved our recliner chair to vacuum under the chair, a small plastic foot broke off and the exposed nail/screw scratched the hardwood floor. I spoke with someone there earlier today -- but I'm waiting on the owner/manager to call me back.

On the other hand -- Tom with Apple Moving/National Van Lines keeps calling me and I don't have an answer for him. Figures.

Maybe I should try laying down for a nap. That will surely make the phone ring, right? Murphy's Law!!

Photo Shoot

Here is a sneak peek from Wren's newborn photo shoot. I should get all the images later this week and then hopefully get the birth announcements sent out. I swear I've just been waiting for the pictures!

Little Grasshopper Photography

Many thanks to my new friend Megan Little for her fantastic photog skills!

Hair

Seems to be quite topic of discussion lately.

I cut a hunk of mine off this past Friday. And, since I haven't colored my hair in a year or so - all that's left is my natural hair color. That hasn't happened in years. Many, many, many years. :) My hair has gotten much darker with each passing year. Bummer. But I think the current cut and color look pretty good. There may be a picture or two from Wren's naming this past weekend -- I'll see.

Greg's hair is longer than it's ever been. EVER. It all started a couple months ago when he was so busy studying for finals and writing papers that he didn't have time to get to the salon/barber. I've always liked it a little longer so he humored me and didn't get it cut when the little curls began at the nape of his neck. Then a funny thing happened - several of his classmates and a few local friends started commenting on how good his hair looked. So -- he has let it continue to grow. I love it --but I'm not sure how much longer (ha ha) Greg will last before he heads to the barber. I'm hoping we can convince him to keep in a little longer than his usual clipper cut going forward. There are some recent pictures of Greg and Wren in the June folder. (Just don't mind the bleary eyes -- studying for the BAR exam with a newborn in the house has taken it's toll...)

Wren has alot of hair for a newborn so I'm told. Everyone seems to tell me so. Friends, the nurses at the pediatrician's office, strangers at the grocery store, the teachers at Atti's daycare (you get the picture). Friends and family keep asking if Atticus had that much hair -- or if it was that dark when he was born. Pretty much yes and yes.

Here's an early shot of me with Atticus:

From July 2008

And one of Wren's first photos from the hospital:

From May 2010

Wren's One Month Check Up

Holy moly (I say that alot don't I...) but where did the time go?

I still don't like how the "measure" the length of your child by attempting to put them on a piece of wood and placing their head against a sheet of plastic I don't know what and stretching out their legs... I think it's much easier to lay them on the paper in the actual room, take a pen and mark the top of their head, the bottom of their feet and then get a stinking tape measure -- but I digress...

Height: 21.5 inches - 50% percentile

Weight: 10 lbs and 8 oz - 75-90%

FOC (head circumference): 37.5 - 50-75%

We've definitely got some good smiles going on lately and she's got great head/neck control. She still favors one side of her head -- so I'm working with her a little while she's awake to get her to look in the opposite direction and to work out any little kinks/tightness in her neck, but otherwise, all is well!

Birthday Party

We had a great time yesterday at Ben and Emma's birthday party. It was held at My Gym which was a really cool location. So cool in fact that we may do Atti's party there too! It's difficult to find an indoor location that caters to 2 year olds! I've found a ton of great activities for older toddlers and kids... but it's tricky when they're still little. I'd love to do the party at the local park - but it is so stinking hot outside and the kid's wading pool doesn't open until noon. Isn't that just a bummer?

But anywho - the party was a blast. The kids got to ride on a zip line, jump in a big ball pit, climb up ladders, walk the balance beam, tumble in big rolly-polly mat like thingies (that's the technical terms), play with a parachute... oh, and eat cake too!

The only question is whether or not to invite all his school friends. Those are the kids he sees most often - so I'm leaning towards yes even though we saw most of them yesterday. I'm not sure if the parents would all want to come back to the same location for another birthday party for the "school kids". But - I suppose, that's why it's an invitation. You don't have to come...

We do hope that Atticus's friend Milo comes to the party. I think Atticus has a bit of a kid crush on Milo. It's really funny but he gets very excited when he sees Milo -- and yesterday Atti kept following him around and trying to mimic his actions and give Milo lots of hugs. :-) This of course is exactly opposite of his reaction to my dear friend Amy's daughter Katie (that we visited with over Memorial Day Weekend). Atti and Katie look like brother/sister pushing, pulling, and generally annoying one another.

I took a bunch of photos at the party yesterday, but I haven't freed them from the camera just yet. I'll try to get that done tomorrow when I'm down to juggling only one screaming child, 3 moving companies, a grumpy husband (Happy Father's Day my love) and a bunch of other assorted errands.

Smiles

To make up for all the screaming... I got four, yes count them FOUR big smiles yesterday. I'm pretty sure they were just for me and not due to gas - but you never know. :-)

All is right with the world again. Gotta love those first smiles...

Three Stages

Wren thus far has three distinct phases:

1. Asleep

2. Awake and eating

3. Awake and screaming bloody murder

I'm OK with the first two... but phase three might very well drive the remaining three Badens NUTS! It's only a phase, right?

The Flasher

In other amusing news, Atticus has become a night time flasher! :)

After bath, we wrap him in his hoodie towel, and just before we head
to his room, he's been throwing the towel open & shouting "Hi" then
giggling.

Gotta love it.

~ Jen
Sent from my iPhone

Too Many Blueberries

So last night Atticus had a serious blueberry craving. He chowed
through a huge bowl of blueberries. Greg was concerned, but I
figured...eh, it could be worse, right?

Well... I walked into Atti's room this morning, almost screamed and
tried not to drop Wren. Greg comes running into the room & says
"blueberries". Poor guy had barfed up blueberries ALL over the crib,
his pillows, the wooby, himself...

It's going to be an oxyclean morning! Let's see what happens.

~ Jen
Sent from my iPhone

Protein Snacks

My cousin Nikki brought over these delightful protein smooshie snacks. Seriously, they're like little Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. So yum. And they're perfect for the pregnant/nursing Mom -- or for the after the gym snack!

Protein Smooshies

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
1 cup protein powder

4 cups of any combination of the following ingredients:
Sunflower seeds
Peanuts
Chocolate chips
Granola
Oatmeal
Raisins
Dried cranberries
Oat bran
Wheat germ
Flax seed (ground or whole)

Steps

1. Mix peanut butter, honey and protein powder.
2. Add 4 cups of any of the additional ingredients. My favorite combo for taste and health factor is oatmeal, cranberries, flax seed, and peanuts.
3. To make the perfect balls, play around with the honey (if it's too dry) and oatmeal, bran, etc (too moist) until the balls hold their shape and aren't too gooey.
4. Now, roll the balls to about 1cm and then refrigerate (or freeze) ... enjoy!

Belly Button

Our little pixie lost her umbilical cord last night. Took quite a while... but now she has one cute little belly button. :)

I'm sure most of you don't really care to know the minutiae of our lives - but I need to record this stuff somewhere so that I can recall it later to put in the scrapbook. Because, well... I'm sure 20 years from now Wren will be totally interested to know when her umbilical cord fell off! Ha. You never know, right?

Belated - Graduation

The Sunflower Ceremony. That's the name of the law school's graduation ceremony. As you cross the stage, you're pinned with a bright yellow sunflower. Awesome, eh? There's a story as to why it's called the Sunflower Ceremony, but my sleep rattled brain can't recall the story in it's entirety at the moment - so you'll have to ask Greg. :)

The plan was for Greg to walk the stage with Atticus. That was plan A. Plan A also included my Mom and possibly Rhonda also attending the ceremony. The night before however, Atticus started running a fever. By Saturday, it was 104 and we thought it best if he skipped the ceremony. I felt absolutely awful, but I had to call Greg and my Dad and ask them to come home from the celebrations a bit early to take Atti to the after hours kid clinic. Turns out the little man had strep throat! Ugh. No wonder he didn't want to eat and kept saying "owie" over and over. Thankfully, strep in kids is easily treatable -- 24 hours and some bubblegum medicine later, and our little man was practically back to new.

I'm bummed that so many of us missed the ceremony however... My dad did get some photos and a quick video of Greg crossing the stage. Now, I just have to get him to send me the photos and the video, or have him post to the Shutterfly site (see link on the right) and/or YouTube for the video.

Challah Back Y'all

Atticus loves his challah!

Thanks!

I promise actual thank you cards are coming... but I thought I'd take a moment to say thanks to everyone that has come by the house with food and gifts!

Love the food delivery - it's been a lifesaver!

And our house is being over run by lots of pink all the sudden... gotta love it! A big gigantic thank you to Amy & Matt for the ginormous bag of girl clothes. Incredible!

Pixies Poop?

I've taken to calling Wren "my little pixie". She's just so darn cute, and with that head of hair and her little wrinkled up nose, she just reminded me of a pixie. It works, so I'm going with it for now.

The theory goes that the poop from breast-fed babies doesn't smell as bad as those bottle-fed kids. I was pretty sure that was the case with Atticus - but it's definitely not true for my little pixie. This little one is a stinker! Not sure what I'm feeding this little one - but we definitely know when it's time for a diaper change. Ha. I'm sure she's going to love me sharing all this information one day...

Sorry kiddo.

We're sort of kinda settling into a routine. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the routine just yet, but as long as we're consistent it'll be okay. I'm hoping that we stay on schedule at least through tomorrow morning, because a friend is coming over to do a newborn photo session at 10 am. Yeah. I didn't do newborn photos with Atticus, so I'm pretty excited to do these with Wren. I met Megan at the Friday playgroup that Atticus attends. Megan is one of those awesome artistic types who can do all sorts of things. Check out her photography business called Little Grasshopper Photography. The original plan was to take some family photos as well -- but the timing isn't working right now, so those will be rescheduled for later this summer.

I'm sure there's more life drama to share with the blogosphere -- but the oven just dinged and dinner is ready...

Milkshakes

So maybe this makes me unpopular in the totally healthy feed my kids no sugar crowd, but what the hey...

I let Atticus try a sip of my strawberry milkshake a couple days ago -- and the kid is HOOKED. He slurped down about a third of the shake! But it's not all bad, right? I mean milk is protein. And strawberries are fruit.

See... totally reasonable snack for an almost 2 year old. :-)