Texas Vacation

Oh sweet sweet vacation.  We definitely were ready for a vacation come end of May when we flew to see my mom and stay at her house on the river.  We had an easy time all through security and the plane ride to Dallas, both kids did great on our "early" flight (9am) and both fell asleep on the second leg of the plane ride...yes let me repeat that, Logan fell asleep.  On a plane.  In the morning.  All by himself.  With no prompting or bribery.  Miracle.  Although he was never the one I worried about on the plane now that he is older.  Fiona's first plane ride was easy, no problems with her ears or anything, ugh she's just so good sometimes. 

Our little pilot

 Sleeping on the plane

We got to spend a week at my mom's and her house on the river was a lot of fun.  Logan was busy from morning to night riding anything and everything that had wheels.  He had his own little mini tractor car to drive and he became a pro at that real fast haha.  He helped Craig drive the real tractor and the boat, helped Granny Mo drive the golf cart, helped daddy drive the jet ski, rode on the tube with daddy and mommy, got to sit on the motorcycles and tried out the plasma car toy.  When he wasn't doing one of those things he was versing us in what animals lived in Granny's yard (armadillo, fox, fire ants, and a lesson on poison ivy ;), swimming in his own little "pool" aka the hot tub, fishing with Granny Mo, playing with all the new toys Granny Mo got him to have at her house, it's a miracle and a blessing that he would actually stop and take a nap everyday!

Logan loved going fast on the jet ski!

 the wind blown look while driving the boat with Craig

 The big kid tractor

 the little kid tractor

 

Showing granny Mo and aunt Kas how to drive the golf cart

 tubing on the river with daddy

Fiona was busy being entertained by Granny Mo and various relatives who got to meet her for the first time.  She was like at a baby hotel the way Granny Mo prepared for her and she was a sweet baby still, just a little problem going down for naps some days.   She gave Umpa some giggles and she was smiley and ready to be held by everyone that came around.  Granny Mo was nice enough to babysit for us one night so Dom and I did a double feature (Xmen 2 and Neighbors) and she got to give Fiona her bottle and wrangle both kids into bed.  We also burried Fiona in the 90s aka all our old beanie babies haha.  It was fun to look through them again and remember, Logan had fun playing with them too and even got to take a few home with us.  Spammy and Umpa also wanted to take us to ToysRUs to spoil Logan and Fiona, Logan had fun picking out legos and Fiona got some cute clothes and teething toys.

Meeting Great Grandma Spammy for the first time and Fiona's namesake, Harriet

 Meeting Great Grandpa Umpa for the first time, she loved to giggle at him

 snuggling up with Granny Mo

 Uncle Erick even got to hold the baby ;)

 Great Aunt Kas loves her babies

 so relaxed she fell asleep at Spammy and Umpa's house

 getting a ride from big brother ;)

 cheese baby!

 enjoying some tummy time

 my baby in the beanie babies

Dom and I had fun doing nothing!  haha we did a lot of fun things too but when you have two kids to look after 'nothing' is something you rarely get to do!  My nothing consisted of reading a book during daylight hours and finishing it in a few days, small miracle.  We watched hgtv and all those silly home shows for no good reason.  We sat on the porch and listened to music and drank beer.  I got to take a shower whenever I wanted not just when the timing was right so that every child was asleep or safely entertained.  It's the little things right!  Oh and I ate a crap ton of sweets my mom made and all her delicious meals she had planned.  So yes, all the above in itself was a vacation for me!  But for the fun things we did, I got out on the tube with Logan and Dom (Logan was somewhere between horrified and exhilarated) then got to go with just Dom which meant I held on for dear life so as not to have to fall into the river...I know what lives down there ew!  Went on a few jet ski rides with mom and Dom and rode on the boat cruising with Craig, Uncle Erick, Dom and Logan.  We got to go to a place called the Homestead and enjoy some yummy lunch and walk around to some cute shops.  We also had fun getting to see my moms side of the family and hanging out and drinking Uncle Colt's home brewed beer.  We went fishing our last morning there and I caught a few plus a river house record catfish, thing was huge!  I also got a surprise visitor in our bedroom upstairs the first night we were there...while sitting on the floor and taking off my shoes, I look over to my left and under the table I see a snake.  I thought it was fake at first (Logan had just gotten a fake snake toy earlier that day) but then I realized that it was in fact alive and oh so real and I could reach out and touch it, I quickly vacated the area to see who was the best snake wrangler in the house (I knew it wouldn't be mom haha) and so Craig came up to save the day but when I went back in the room the snake wasn't there (ahhh!) so I jumped on the bed faster then I knew I could and then peeked under the table from there and saw that luckily the snake had just retreated farther under the table, phew, I didn't want to wait around in that room and find him again by accident!  Craig got the snake in a bowl and took him outside and far away.  Still a mystery how the snake got into the second story room...  

We had a great time visiting my mom and family and enjoying our time on the river.  We look forward to doing it again!

drinking and talking with the fam

pretending we are young again

 Craig, Mom and the kids at the Homestead

 

Logan, always cooperating with the family picture attempt ;)

 

Playing and racing with Logan's toys

 We survived the tube ride, yay!

 

although I can't say the same for Mom and Dominic haha

 the little fish in the river...

 the big catfish in the river!

 

4 months

Little Fiona is 4 months old now and growing fast!  She has thighs full of rolls and weighs 13lbs and  8oz., the  50th  percentile.  She is 24.75in. long, the   75th percentile.  And that head is    16" and in the 50th percentile, and slowly getting more hair. 

Fiona got to go on her first vacation, first airplane ride and first boat ride all at Granny Mo's house in Texas.  We had a fun relaxing week on the river and Logan will probably never stop talking about it ;)  More about it and pictures to come in a future post!  As for Fiona though, she did great on the airplane ride, can't ask for more then a sleeping baby! 
Dom had his first Colorado triathlon too which he did really well on, Fiona cried a lot as i was trying to get her to fall asleep for a nap while trying to watch Logan and see Dom at transition but we did pretty well, luckily the Valania's were there to help keep Logan entertained through the waiting to see daddy portions ;).  So Fiona is getting versed in becoming a spectator and will have another chance in August to cheer daddy on.

 

Fiona has been busy learning new things, she rolled over for the first time (tummy to back) on May 30 while watching Logan play with daddy, there was no crying and she made it seem like it was no big deal.  Then she didn't do it again until she got it down for good June 18.  Logan is so cute when he watches her he likes to cheer her on.  And she loves to watch him, whenever he's in the room she gives him a big smile and won't take her eyes off of him.  Fiona also likes to play peek-a-boo with us and wheels on the bus is a favorite as she always smiles when you move her arms to the motions.  She is good at grabbing things now, holding them and putting them straight in her mouth.  If her hands are not busy doing that, or being in her mouth, she has found she likes to rub the top of her head now.  Fiona's favorite noise she likes to make is a gurgling sound, she loves when you do it back to her too.  Other then that she is fairly quiet compared to another little baby I remember ;).  She likes to try and sit up now, so she is getting lots of practice and sometimes will sit in the bumbo for a little while too.  She has always liked bath time but lately she has really enjoyed kicking her feet and splashing and watching us pour the water and trying to grab it.  Logan loves to help give Fiona a bath, I think he has just as much fun watching her and splashing too.

  She is such a happy and easy baby still!  The only difficulty we are having at the moment is trying to transition her away from sleeping swaddled since she is rolling over now, she just really loves being swaddled and it's a bit harder to get her to fall asleep and stay asleep unswaddled because her hands just go to her mouth and wake her up.  We are only trying during her short naps during the day, hopefully she will get used to it and better at it so we can do it all the time.  She's still hit and miss with sleeping through the night but we've had more good nights then bad lately.  She goes to sleep about 7:30pm and wakes up to eat on a good night about 3am then falls back asleep until 6:30am.  She usually takes an hour nap around 8:30am then her longer 3ish hour nap around 11:30/12 and then her last cat nap around 5:30pm lasts about an hour.  The only other somewhat difficulty we are having is she is not always a fan of the car and it's not always predictable when she decides to scream the whole way and when she decides she can be happy about it, Logan will remind me when she is screaming to "turn the music up" because once it gets louder she stops crying usually.  Otherwise she is just a lot of fun and growing so fast!  It is so nice to watch her and Logan interact more now and the love they show for one other is just so heart warming. 

My babies!

3 months old

And another month has flown by!  Fiona turned 3 months old on Dom's 30th birthday, seems fitting somehow. Little girl is growing so big!  She's 11lbs. 6oz. and 22.75" long and into her 3 month size clothes now.  She is showing a lot more personality now and loves to work on her "screams".  She makes this cute little sighing noise after every time she sneezes, it's just too cute. She smiles a lot more now, mainly at familiar faces.  She loves watching Logan play and always has her eyes on him when he's in the room, I know it's hard to miss Logan!  Maya catches her eye these days too and she likes to stare Maya down when they are on the same level.

tummy time

 big smile!

Logan loves holding Fiona's hand

Fiona is getting good at grabbing mommy's hair with a death grip and swatting at her toys on her play mat with a purpose and if her hands aren't doing one of those things she likes to have them in her mouth (sometimes she will single out a finger or thumb, but usually she goes for the fist), those hands are always busy!  Right now she's into fuzzy stuffed animals and toys with bells, musical toys will somewhat keep her interests too.  She also loves when daddy gives her baths...unless it's too close to feeding time!

She has more of a predictable daytime schedule now.  It's funny how once she wakes up in the morning she has exactly 1.5 hours before she is ready for her morning nap, it's almost always that timing, which is nice for me!  She takes a good long 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day usually.  Which is usually the same time Logan naps.  All this "usually" for both kids napping at the same time because some days it works out so nicely that everyone sleeps at the same time and I get time to myself or one sleeps while the other is awake.  Logan is starting to drop his only nap during the day and that's ok these days because he doesn't completely lose it towards the end of the day if he misses that nap.  Fiona will take one more hour or so nap later in the day and then she ends up going to bed around 8.  We have been lucky enough to have 4 whole nights of her sleeping through the night (the first time was May 7 and then again for Mother's day, how sweet!).  Not consecutive days but 4 nights of her going to bed around 8pm and waking up around 5am to eat then sometimes napping again until 8am.  I forgot what it was like to sleep uninterrupted for that long, glorious!  She still is all about being swaddled during nap and bedtime.  If her hands get anywhere near her face while she's sleeping it wakes her up so the swaddle blanket is a must for her these days!  All this good sleeping is currently leading to a problem we are all too familiar with, a flat spot on her head.  Sigh, we were so much more aware of trying to do all the things they say to prevent a flat spot but she preferred looking to the left and sleeping that way from day 1 and as much as we would attempt to change that she always reverts back to it, so alas, she is getting the same misshapen head Logan had.  Hopefully it won't be as bad as his and she won't have to wear a helmet!

Fiona's month was busy, the food trucks in our neighborhood started coming every Tuesday again so we have had fun having some picnics at the park.  We took her on her first hike and she had fun sleeping through the whole thing ;)  I went and turned 30 and we went to Boulder for some veggie burgers and a trip to the cupcake shop.  Dom's 30th was shortly after mine and we left the kids with my cousin Kacy for a date night, first one since Fiona has been born.  We went for Sushi with one of Dom's coworkers Christina, Mike and Erick.  We had a good time and the kids did good for Kacy, yay!  We also got to spend a day at the Erie Town Fair with Erick.  Logan had fun riding a car ride while we had fun eating Dole Pineapple Whip mmmm and finding a yummy new brewery for some cider.  The weather has been really nice and we have been enjoying all the time outside!  We are looking forward to our trip to Texas to stay with my mom for a week at her house by the river in Waco and spend time with my extended family and relax!

Fiona's first hike

Relaxing at the Erie Town Fair

Hi mom!

Picnic with the food trucks

Happy Easter

Our first Easter in Colorado and Fiona's very first Easter as well went splendidly. We had a really nice Easter this year, even though we missed the usual Maes crowd we did have some family time with Erick and the Valania's. The weather was perfect and although Logan was hyped up on sugar most of the day, we had a nice relaxing Easter Day.

Our adorable kidlets!

We went to church early and even got a seat ;). Logan's max staying power is 1 hour so he started to drive us bonkers towards the end meanwhile Fiona slept through it all. After church we came home to find that the Easter bunny had come with baskets of goodies and his eggs for Logan. He enjoyed his Star Wars lego from his basket and had fun hunting eggs and eating many many m&ms. Meanwhile Fiona slept through it all (again).

We left for Boulder and an Easter buffet with Erick and the Valania's.  It was nice to spend some holiday time together and even though the buffet wasn't anything special Logan enjoyed some chocolate cake which of course made him bounce off the walls and chase down the guy in the Easter bunny costume, sorry dude. Meanwhile, Fiona slept through it all (are you sensing a pattern here haha. She slept through allllll our Easter activities on her first Easter!). After lunch we went back home and had Logan play at the park to run off some of that crazy energy before nap time. Dare I say that the 72 degrees it was outside felt warm verging on "hot" with no breeze. My how quickly a Colorado winter and four seasons will change your perspective on "hot" and "cold"!  

By some lovely miracle Logan took a nap and (another miracle) Fiona woke up. So Dom and I took turns taking an afternoon run around the neighborhood and playing with Fiona while Logan slept. The run felt hot but the weather was still beautiful so once Logan woke up we rode bikes/walked with Fiona to the Black Dog Coffee shop. We spent some time relaxing there while it sprinkled a little rain outside then walked/rode back home in "colder" weather (but still great!). By the time we got home it was time for Logan's dinner and bath and bedtime for both kiddos. Dom and I finished the day off perfectly...with a homemade pizookie!  I had given up sweets for lent and Dom gave up his two favorite things, ice cream and beer.  So a pizookie was a good way to end Easter Day! 

(Ok ok after that Dom went to Jeff's and watched basketball and drank beer while I stayed home with the sleeping kids and watched Netflix, still a good ending to a great day!)

Some family pictures

2 months

I feel like I just wrote about Fiona's 1st month and already she is two months old!  I think this month felt like it went by even faster because we have been getting a bit more sleep :)  Fiona still eats during the day every 3-4 hours but she (usually) has a nice long stretch at night, she will eat around 7:30 and fall asleep around 8:30 then wake up again about 2:30 to eat and once more about 6:30 and she stays awake for a few hours before she takes a short nap, eats, and plays until noonish when both kids eat and then take a long nap, 2 hours for Logan, 3 hours for Fiona.  Their naps don't always coincide but it's nice when they do!  It's a pretty good schedule we have so far and even though there are nights where we ask Fiona what she's thinking waking up so much, I don't think it will be for long.  We started putting her in crib in her room at night now instead of in our room.  It's gone well, she usually goes right back to sleep in the middle of the night and luckily any crying she does in the middle of the night doesn't wake up Logan.  Everytime I go in Fiona's room at night to put her back to sleep, I peak at Logan and he is always in some different crazy sleeping position, I think he does gymnastics in his sleep.

PJs unzipped, comic book on his face ;)

Same pjs, different night ;)

Fiona seems SO much bigger already, maybe that's because I still can't get over how tiny she seemed when she was born.  She's moving out of the newborn size clothes and into some 0-3month things and she's got an extra thigh roll ;). She is now 10 lbs. 3 oz.  (30%) and 21.25     in. long ( the nurse at the pediatrician measured her at 23.5" which would be 90% but she was off!) and her head is 50th percentile at 15".  She got her first round of shots and was a more fussy version of herself for the rest of the day but even that wasn't hard for us, we are pros now ;)

Fiona has started smiling and cooing more and Logan is loving playing with her.  She likes to smile for him :)  I think she actually enjoys tummy time too, at least for a little while.  She's pretty good at holding up her head so far.  She likes to look towards our voices and some toys are starting to capture her attention.  She's a very happy baby and easy going.  She really only cries if she has a reason haha, like being hungry or tired.  No crazy colic episodes or late night screaming sessions, so this second time around is feeling like a breeze most days ;)

jammies

 a little smile

 bedtime kisses

Mimi, Papa and Auntie Panda came to visit for a weekend and got to meet miss Fiona.  We had a fun weekend together with only one illness and one sprained ankle ;)  We took Logan to an Easter egg hunt and he had fun grabbing handfuls of candy!  The weather is starting to be warmer most days then one random day of snow every once in awhile...so this is spring, it's awesome.

Auntie Panda, Mimi and Papa

 Ready to hunt for eggs

 His proud spectators

 the Easter bunny arrived on a fire truck...of course ;)

 Showing off his full basket

 Auntie Panda, Uncle Erick and us

 Smiling at Auntie Panda

Logan and Fiona may act nothing alike as babies but they sure do look alike!  Here's Fiona and Logan both at 8 weeks old.  Side by side you can tell them apart but they definitely look related :)

Fiona (left) and Logan (right)

And here is a picture of me, Logan and Fiona as babies all in the cradle my papa (my dad's dad) made.  I love having one of a kind sentimental stuff to hand down!  

 Krystal

 Logan 7 weeks

Fiona 7 weeks