Dan's Photo Editing

Dan has typically taken very little interest in managing and editing our photos, but he has a new phone app and now he's hooked on taking and doctoring up photos. Fun for me after years of being the only one interested in this pursuit. Here are some of our creations.

Mothers Together Spring Brunch

2 years ago I joined an amazing ministry for moms called Mothers Together. I have made so many friends, especially in the last year, and I'm so thankful to have somewhere to go and meet with moms where we can hear from God and get to know each other. There is great child care for Jackson and Cosette can start in the fall as well (gotta get that girl eating from a bottle!) so that I can have uninterrupted adult time. Needless to say I look forward to Tuesday mornings every week. We just had our spring brunch to celebrate the year as the group breaks until the fall.

Me with friend Jey

 Waiting for the program to start with Melody and Jey. As you can see, many new baby #2's coming along this summer for my friends

 With Steph. Her boy Peter is a week younger than Cosette

 Enjoying treats and music

 Cosette and her friend Adelie checking each other out.

 Cosette and Adelie playing already

The theme was a French brunch. This is as close as Cosy and I have gotten to the Eiffle Tower...so far. That will have to change someday.

Nursery Expanded

I wish this expansion included square footage, but it just involves fitting more beds in the same space. With some creative rearranging we were able to add Cosette's crib to the room without having to loose the futon, which is really nice since we often sit in there and read with the kids.

The new view looking in their door.

 Cosette's crib all set up. The bummer and bed skirt were made by Grammie Gieseke and the mobile was Jackson's. It was fun getting to hand pick the fabrics to add a little pink to the room.

I finished her letters just before she was born

Our reading nook intact all set with readers ready to go

And the finished "new" dresser with my animal art painted on. We've got elephants, giraffes, and lions, plus zebra strips. All of our dressers seem to have a story. This one come off of Craigslist in good shape, but not very cute.

So we sanded her down, painted her off-white, and then I did some brainstorming to come up with something that would be cute for the drawers. Luckily I had matching paint left over from our last dresser project that matched the room perfectly.

I did love our old hand painted dresser, but it was just too small for both kid's stuff. Some other Craigslist family is enjoying it now.

And the biggest change of all, Jackson got his crib converted to a toddler bed. He had climbed out for the first time and fell on his face. I woke up to him screaming and bleeding from his nose, so it was time to let him learn to get in and out of bed on his own.

We were nervous that this transition would be difficult and he'd be out of bed and coming out of his room all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth. He loves his bed more than ever now and he does get up in the morning and play in his room, but he never comes out until I get him up. What a sweet boy!

Big Changes for Little Miss

This little girl figured out how to roll to her belly and now Blue Eyes like to hang out there all the time and smile at the world. These photos are all the same, but I feel like they are adorable and cute enough to put all of them here.

We also had a sleep break-through this week, finally. We did what my contemporaries call "sleep training" and what other generations called "let them cry." I felt like she was waaay too young to cry herself to sleep, but nothing else was working, and I mean rocking, nursing, walking, bouncing, swinging...nothing put this girl out and she wasn't napping more than 30 minutes all day, staying up until 10:30 at night, and not transferring out of our bed all night. So I put her down for a nap when she was clearly exhausted and 15 minutes of blood-curdling screams later, she was asleep in a sweaty pool sucking her thumb. Each time has gotten a little bit shorter and last night she just fell asleep with no yelling at all. The hardest part is keeping Dan from "rescuing" her. She has such an alarmingly high pitch cry that we're sure she's in mortal danger, only to run in and she stops immediately and smiles at us to be held. What a little stinker!

 

In another effort to grow up too quickly, she wants to eat solid food. She watches us eat, smacking her lips and lunging for out dinners. So here's her first food experience: a mushy banana that was well received.

We love you Silly Blue Eyes. We're glad you're 5 months old, but don't grow up too fast!

Goooooo Giants!

One of Jackson's favorite things to yell out these days. We all went to a game this afternoon with our friends the Chan's. They're great to attend with because their boy Noah was born within a week or so of Jack and they are good playmates without too much squabbling over toys or pushing and shoving (although there was a little bit of "wrestling" when the men took them into the club house to run around for a while. Not sure what "wrestling" means in this case).

 Ready to get going to the game. Cosette has taken over Jack's old Giants gear and she looks so sweet in it.

Cheering and playing with Noah's cars and Jack's helicoptors. Remarkable amounts of sharing going on here!

It got pretty windy, but the little lady was snug as a bug!

Learning to load and eat from his Giants pez dispenser. What an important life skill.

 Noah and Jack sharing a seat

 Terah trying to photo the cuteness, but Jack dove behind Noah just in time.

Notice there are no photos of the game itself, just cute playing with the boys. As a side note, Giants won 2-1 over the Cubs. We're going back on Monday for another game in this series. Should be a good time!