Our summer

We are having one of those summers where every weekend is penciled in with an event. Zoo, retirement party, wedding, arts festival, wedding, farmers market, wedding. Yeah, there are a lot of weddings around these parts.

PS when is the right time to bring children to a wedding? I hate bringing kids. I forgot that I hated it so much so we ended up bringing them to a wedding last weekend and I nearly stabbed myself in the eye with a wooden spork at our table. They are just such a handful! That's putting it mildly. The spork stabbing feeling is much more accurate.

And now photos of non-spork stabbing inducing moments from our summer.

^^Visited our zoo. Fed a llama. Kind of a big deal.

^^Went to Farmer's Market. The mini donuts continue to be a hit with the Thiessen children.

^^Arts Festival snocones. Mix your own is a very clever idea and a thrill for a four year old. Hit up the Tiger's Blood, obviously.

^^Had a small sampling of fireworks for 4th of July and Dex loved it. He's using a lot of adjectives these days so everything was "really coool" and "awesome".

^^Oh, Evy. You're hot, then you're cold. You're yes, then you're no. We fight, we break up. We kiss, we make up.

A few snapshots

Right now our lives are full of:

6 am wake up calls from a little boy asking if today is a school day.

6 pm fits from a baby girl who just wants to be held by her mom all.the.time.

playing on the front porch

Brother and sister starting to really play together

paint brushes and Pinterest and projects for the house

laptops and tip tapping on keyboards after the kids are in bed

date nights with dinner and errands

 

What our Easter looked like

We had a lovely Easter filled with coloring eggs and food and family and visits from THE Bunny. We didn't even make a spectacle of ourselves at church! God is good, my friends. :)

^^These two. They are quite the duo.

^^I had this super good French toast with bananas and peanut butter and bacon at La Mie a long time ago and wanted to recreate it at home. So good! Jethro's tries to do it too but make no mistake La Mie kills it. Yum. Also, #notpregnant

^^I say we recreate this in 20 years. Who's with me?

Scenes from our summer

It's September! I always mark September as the end of summer. The end of our travels and vacation and carefree afternoons lazing around the back porch around the grill. Now we just have to solemnly march on until we hit the holiday season. ;)

We spent a good chunk of our summer visiting playgrounds and parks across the city. And when our old standbys in West Des Moines and Windsor Heights weren't cutting it, we ventured out of the city to this old gal...

^^Big Creek's playground is exactly as it was when I was just a little girl. We are talking old school. Just look at that solid wood structure and METAL slide! None of that plastic stuff here. Just your old fashioned burn the backs of your calves on a hot summer day slide.

And wouldn't you know it--tire swings!

It wouldn't be summer without an Avett Brothers concert. We went to Saturday in the Park in Sioux City. We are groupies. We realize this.

 

^^And here's a terrible photo from the concert that I made black and white to try to mask it's terribleness.

Also, kids, remind me to tell you about the walk home from that concert when you are older.  The general takeaway is to always have an exit plan.

We experimented with headbands.

 Important life changing stuff for Evy going on up there, right?

And to cap off the entire summer, Josh and I crossed off a certain concert on our bucket list. More to come on that later!

Happy September, friends!

Everly's birth story

So statistics say that only 10% of women will actually have their water break before contractions start during labor.

I am the 10%. It happened with Dexter and it happened on the second go around. These are the highlights from Everly's birth story.

Before the hospital:

I went to the doctor the Friday before she arrived. He checked me and said "You're a two.  Hmmm, and you were a two last week?" Yup. And then he offered to strip my membrane. Have you heard of this? Read about it here. It sounds unpleasant and I knew there was plenty of unpleasantness coming down the pipe sooner or later so why rush? I politely said no thank you. Keep your hands to yourself, good sir.

Considering I had stalled out, I left the doctors office feeling fairly confident that I would be back the following week to discuss being induced. Blech.

But then Sunday rolled around and wouldn't you know it, my water broke and no contractions. Deja vu. I knew better this time around though. I was not about to rush to the hospital just to get dosed with pitocin and to lie on my back writhing in pain. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So instead I spent a few more hours at home and tried to get a little more sleep, showered, packed my bag (yeah, I hadn't done that yet), ate a pop tart and read a few more chapters of Mindy Kaling's book. Still stalled out.

We got Dexter up and took him to my dad's before we headed to the hospital. This is the last photo of Dexter without a sibling.

At the hospital:

And now, two things that I said I wanted to go differently from my last labor:

1. I would have contractions first and then my water would break.  Obviously DENIED.
2. I did not want pitocin. DENIED.

And now, six things that did go differently from my last labor:

1. I didn't lie flat on my back writhing in pain after the pitocin. I rocked in the rocking chair and squirmed in pain instead-ha!
2. I received a hot tip from my friend that the epidural is not the only drug for pain management. There's a little dose of heaven that they can put in your IV drip that's pretty gosh darn effective too. I was counting on this to tide me over until I was ready to call in the big guns. Thanks, Kelly!
3. Big money, big money, no whammys, no whammys. BAM! During that reprieve, I went from a 3 to a 7. Jackpot! Epidural time! I pulled the trigger too early on the epidural last time and felt every little thing during the latter part of the labor. So not fun.
4. What the what? Time to push already? That took like half the time of Dexter's birth! Say whaaat?
5. Push, push, push. And we're done? That's all? That was amazing. I'm going to tell everyone who's on their first kid that they have to have a second just so that they can feel like a rock star at this labor thing.
6. I can't feel my legs. I have no legs! This is awesome. Do what you gotta do, Doc. We're good here.

Everly came into this world quickly and quietly. She has since found her lungs but for those first hours she was so quiet and just taking it all in.

And now, one thing that changed our world.

My triumphant return to blogging aka I'm on maternity leave!

We are now a family of four! We are excited! We are working on our new normal!  We are sleep deprived! But hey, look! A baby!

Everly is here. I'll share my thoughts on her birth in a separate post because even second kids deserve their own birth story post. 

Josh has been off of work for the first week which has been amazing. He's a good dad and hubby, that one. He's all over the diaper situation (and it's a real situation! One after every feeding, I swear!), makes the tightest swaddle, is dealing with the emotional daycare drop off of Dexter and is camping out on the couch with me at night even if he doesn't have the boobs that this baby requires. You're good stuff, Joshie.

Dexter is adjusting. He announces to us when "that baby" is crying or moving. He's been fairly sweet to Evy, patting her like we do, giving her kisses. It's pretty cute. On the flip side, we can tell he is getting used to it all too, seeking our attention more, asking us to watch him while he plays. I've been worried about this transition for him since he's been our one and only for a few years. When he was leaving the hospital after visiting us, he looked at me and said "you come too" and I nearly burst into tears. 

I am pretty emotional these days. I blame it on the postpartum hormones. The sweet gestures from friends and family have been overwhelming. These have also nearly brought me to tears. We just know such good people. I struggled the first couple of days with the nursing thing because ouch, engorgement and being so tired and achy that I could weep. Full disclosure: I did weep. Having a baby is definitely a physical thing but make no mistake, it's a mental thing too. I suspect this isn't the last of the breakdowns for me. Let's chat after the cluster feeds, mmmkay?

A few scenes from the first week.

Yes, that is a butt flap on her PJs. Happy Valentine's Day!

After our pediatrician appointment, we thought let's stop by Bake Shoppe for some monster cookies...and a Dutch letter...and a turtle bar...and a pair of eclairs. She's a real beaut, right?

Welcome to our new normal.

What are you doing New Years Eve?

It's December 31 and I am at home on my couch, snuggled up in PJs and a new robe that Josh got me for Christmas. I am nearly 34 weeks pregnant. I am not comfortable. Although it isn't the weight gain or the jabs from the baby that is making me uncomfortable. It's not even the cold that I am currently battling that's causing me discomfort. It's the two year old boy who keeps coming out of his bedroom, refusing to go to sleep. I hear the click of his door opening and then quietly shutting, the tiny pitter patter of feet on the wood floor. You know that scene in Jurassic Park where they all look at the glass of water and see it tremble? They realize what's coming and get all wide-eyed and terrified. That is exactly what bedtime in our house is like these days. T-Rex on the loose. It's just a real mess.

Josh is sick too. We ordered sushi, put on sweats and called our New Years Eve good. I chugged some Pepsi in hopes of staying up until midnight to ring in 2014. It felt like the right thing to do. We are standing on the precipice of another life changing year. A year where we will dig in our heels and start parenting another kid from scratch.

2013 was a solid year. I switched jobs, Josh traveled, Dexter grew up a little more. We are now readying ourselves for the next big thing in our lives. When I say we, I mostly mean me and Josh. Dexter refuses to acknowledge this baby. Ignore it all you want, kid. It's happening.

So long, 2013! And to you, 2014, please be kind. We have no idea what we're in for.

Christmas memories

Christmas here and then just like that gone...

Our Christmas season started out with a show at the Civic Center. We saw "White Christmas" with Josh's parents. It was a good show, not a great show but a good show. Based on the movie but definitely not the same as the movie.

We started to buy Dexter an ornament every year. Last year we got him a lion because well, he was really into lions. This is the year of the dragon though.

These two. My goodness.

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind. Santa came to visit and then we went to church. Church was a disaster. Note to self: must start going to church regularly. That was truly painful. After the dust settled from that storm, there was gift opening! He only had eyes for this pirate ship.

Hope you had a great Christmas too!

This is what October looked like

Can you believe that it's November already? I heard Christmas music on the radio and saw that Starbucks is now offering their Peppermint Mocha. Doesn't it all seem a bit early? I find myself more behind and less ahead these days so in that spirit, I offer you a recap of our October.

I will forever be singing the praises of Center Grove Orchard. We went last year and had a lovely time. This year only got better if you ask me.

 A beach wedding in St. Joseph, Michigan. The reception had a soft serve machine which lessened the blow of not being able to partake in the featured Colorado Bulldog drink.

 An attempt at carving pumpkins. He was interested for the first two minutes and then called it quits. So we did too. Our pumpkins had a lid but no face. Sad.

Trick or treating. This was the first year that Dexter caught on to the whole idea. He kept saying "Halloween, Halloween" which I believe was intended to be "Happy Halloween!"

Hope you had a great October too! Onward to November!

Back at it

I disappeared more than a few weeks ago. Just plum fell off this blog. Fell off for 87 days to be exact. For some of it I was actually out of town but for most of it I was just here not writing and you know, doing really important things like watching Real Housewives of New Jersey and So you Think you can Dance.

I have returned though! Huzzah and three cheers! And because that there little paragraph just took it right out of me I will now bestow unto you photos of our summer.

May I present the Omaha Zoo, music festivals, family vacation, fireworks, etc. and so forth.

P.S. I also got knocked up again. So there's that.