Strong willed child

There is no doubt that my first born has always been what I refer to as 'high maintenance'.  Lately though, she has taken high maintenance to a new level - strong willed.  My mom actually bought the book, The Strong Willed Child, and Mallory fits the description pretty darn good. 

I do not know if it is her age...everyone says three is much worse than two and then it gets better at four.  Everything is a battle.  Getting dressed in the morning, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, getting in the car, everything.  Although high maintenance, she has always been a generally sweet child until lately.  The attitude has come out.  There is lots and lots of whining.  I think a lot of it has to do with lack of sleep.  She goes to bed between 9 and 10 and is usually up before 7 with no nap.  It is not because we do not try to get her to sleep more, it is because she refuses. 

One theory is this might be a delayed reaction to Hadley being born.  There was no change in Mallory immediately after Hadley's birth, so possibly she is acting out now.  I am hoping that this is a phase that shall pass very soon.  If this does have to do with Hadley's arrival, I feel like there is a fine line between disciplining and showing her that she is still just as important and loved as she ever was. 

No one said parenting was easy.  I do not know how many times I've heard the phrase, 'being a parent is the hardest and most rewarding job you will ever do'.  No truer words have ever been spoken. 

Four months.

Last week on the 22nd, Hadley turned four months.  I've waited to do this post because her four month checkup was Tuesday afternoon and I wanted to know her stats.  She passed her 4 month questionnaire with flying colors...perfect score on everything.  I think the doctor kind of gave me the side eye when he noticed that, but whatever...I was honest about it.  Now if there were questions about sleeping through the night...that would be a big fat fail.  She wakes up every three hours to eat for the most part, although the past two nights she has gone for about a five hour stretch.  However, developmentally we are doing A-OKAY.  The only thing to really report from the four month checkup is that Hadley weighs 16 pounds, 1 ounce and is 24 inches long.  She is 89% for weight and 35% for height.  As my mom put it...she is compact and full of sugar :)  I looked back at Mallory's four month stats and she was 16 pounds, 5 ounces and 25.5 inches.  My girls like to eat (at this age anyway).  Mallory does not like to eat now. 
Hadley takes a good nap in the morning and one in the afternoon and then usually a short late afternoon nap around 6.  Her bedtime is about 8:30 and she goes to sleep on her own.  Unlike Mallory, she is not a cuddler and prefers to be in her bed to go to sleep by herself.  This makes me happy for the most part, but a little sad too.  Who doesn't love to rock a baby to sleep?!  She transitioned from the rock 'n play to her crib at exactly four months old and we have just stopped swaddling as well.  Moving to the crib and not swaddling anymore have both gone much easier than expected and has not changed her sleeping at all. 
She has had nothing but breast milk so far and obviously it is treating her well.  We are planning to wait until she is six months old to introduce solids.  98% of the time, Hadley is a happy baby who is all smiles (although I can never catch a smile in a picture)!

Hmmm...is there food in this dragon?  Chomp chomp.

Enjoying the baby bjorn.  This is the only way I can get anything done in the evenings.

Hadley loves her baths.

This was taken on her actual 'month day'

August 22

Ahhh...those cheeks.  I die.

At the doctor for her checkup on Tuesday.

All the nurses wanted to take her home!  Everyone loves a squishy baby!

This was last week when we went to get Mallory's dance shoes and clothes.  She was a tad excited and has not wanted to take off this leotard since.

Doing a little tap.

This girl does not sleep enough.  Period.  So this happens sometimes...

I noticed I had two very similar pics of the girls at the same age so here is a fun comparison.  Hadley is on the top and Mallory on the bottom.  I think they favor less as they get older.

 

Staying home.

We haven't done much lately.  It seems silly for me to write that because it makes it sound like I just sit around and do nothing, which is NOT the case!  With two small kids though, we stay home a lot right now.  We pretty much never go out to eat (one of my favorite things to do) or go anywhere else much because A) Hadley basically want to do nothing but nurse from 6:00 pm until bedtime and B) Mallory doesn't take naps anymore so she is a grouch by 6 pm.  I know this is just a phase in our lives right now so I try to soak it up and make the best of it.  No doubt that one day I will look back and miss this time when my girls are so little.  It doesn't give me much blogging material though....

A few things we have going on are-

• Mallory starts dance next week!!  I am super excited about this.  We are going shopping one day this week for all her dance stuff and I can't wait.  I hope she loves it as much as I love the idea of her being in dance.  Her two best friends are taking with her so hopefully that will help her to like it.  

• She is in a stage where she wants me to braid her hair all the time because her bestie Carter wears her hair french-braided.  Umm, this mama does not know how to french braid but thanks to You Tube, I am practicing and SLOWWWWLY improving. 

 

• Three year old little girls can really bring the drama.  Mallory got bit by a few fireants Saturday morning while helping me pull weeds in the landscaping around our house.  They do hurt when they bite and she really let me know just how much it hurt her.  I would have given anything for it to be me that got bit and not her but it didn't happen that way.  Anytime anything bites her, she really swells up and itches.  Poor thing inherited that from me.  I had to force Benadryl in her because she was freaking so bad but it worked like a charm.  The bites went down immediately and she took a three hour nap. 

• My baby, Hadley, will be four months old Wednesday.  She still wakes up every three hours to eat at night.  Thoughts, suggestions, anything??  Mama is tired.  But she sure is cute and sweet.

• Last but not least, I am wearing my favorite pair of jeans today.  Pre-Hadley Citizens and they are fitting nicely.  Holla!!!  Now, if I can just get into my pre-Mallory jeans.  One day, one day.  

Hadley gets baptized.

Our little Buggy got baptized today, finally.  She is almost four months old but it just didn't work out where we could do it any earlier.  Mallory was exactly two months old when she was baptized and the only problem with us waiting longer is that we were afraid that the gown would not fit.  The christening gown that Mallory and Hadley wore is the same one that my brothers and I were baptized in so it is over 34 years old and has a lot of sentimental value.  It was important to me that Hadley wear it also and it just did button with a little room to spare around her neck.

She was such a good girl during the whole thing.

 Flashback to three years ago when Mallory was baptized-

After it was all over.  Such a happy girl all the time!

Our family worked very hard and prepared a meal for everyone at church immediately after the service was over.  Everything was delicious and it was a special day for all of us.  And thanks to my inlaws and my parents - stress free for Patrick and I!  I am feeling overwhelmingly blessed today.  What a lucky girl I am. 

Splurges

So I have mentioned quite a few times about how much I miss being home with my girls and how I wish I could be a stay at home mom.  The one and only thing that I do not miss about being home with them was feeling like I could never buy anything that we didn't "need".  I stayed out of work for ten weeks and the majority of that time was without pay.  If you are used to a paycheck and that stops, it is a big adjustment!  Not to sound spoiled (even though I am sure I am), I have grown used to buying myself and my girls things that we want.  Not everything we want of course, I still have bills to pay, groceries to buy and hello, gas takes a large chunk of my money every month. 

Recently I made a little splurge on Hadley and myself.  I bought Hadley this-

Sophie the Giraffe is supposedly the "it" toy for infants.  She has been around for a long time now but I never bought Mallory one.  When I caught them on sale at Very Jane, I decided to go for it and see what all the hype was about.  Sadly, Very Jane could never get them in stock so they ended up refunding my money and I went ahead and paid the $20 bucks and ordered it from Amazon. She arrived at our house yesterday, but poor Hadley never had a chance. 

Even though it is a toy for 0+ month infants, Mallory is OBSESSED.  Yes, the girl who has umpteen million toys could not get enough of Hadley's one little Sophie the Giraffe.  We even had a major meltdown because I would not let her sleep with it last night.  I mean, how can you sleep with a squeaky toy anyway?  I kept reminding her that Sophie was Hadley's toy and all Mallory could say is, "but we can share".  Haha.  Finally this morning, Mallory was still asleep and Hadley got in a little time with Sophie.

How cute.  Anyway, looks like I should have give in and bought Sophie a long time ago.  I guess all the hype was right.  Unless I get home and the new is all worn off, which could very well be the case.  We'll see.

My other splurge was on myself.

I have been wanting this forever but can't do my eye makeup worth crap.  I've never been able to do my hair either but with the help of blog and you tube tutorials, I have come a long way!

Example of hair-

There are TONS of tutorials on how to do eye makeup using this pallette online and I've seen several different bloggers talk about how awesome these eyeshadows are.  Now I have never even come close to spending $50 on eyeshadows before so this was a big splurge for me, but hopefully one that will improve my makeup skills because they could use some help.  What finally pushed me to purchase this was when a new employee came in to meet with me on Tuesday.  I could not stop staring at her eye makeup.  It looked amazing!  Finally, feeling like a big dork, I asked her about it and yep....this pallette.  I went online and bought it right after she walked out of my office.  I have high hopes for this miracle pallette.  So if you see me and think, wow, her smokey eyes look as amazing as a Kardashian's, you will know why.  HA!HA! Yeah right!! :)  

Bad blogger

I've been terrible at blogging this year.  Not that I was ever great at it, but my main purpose for this blog was to have the memories of my kids when they get older.  Hadley is going on four months and I've barely blogged since she was born.  Precious time is flying by and she has already grown and changed so much and I've sucked at documenting it.  The truth is blogging is time consuming for me.  It amazes me how so many moms seem to tap out a blog post so quickly in a matter of minutes every single day and I struggle to blog once a month.  I rarely get my big camera out to take pictures of the kids.  My cell phone is pretty handy at all times so the majority of their pictures are taken with my phone.  Patrick and I got iPhones in June and they have decent cameras so from now on probably all my pics on this blog will be cell phone pictures.  It's much faster and convenient for me and that is what I am all about these days.  AND cell phone pics and short blog posts are better than none at all! 

Here are some of my favorite pics of the girls from the last few months in no order what-so-ever:

This is probably my all time fave to date - it's my screen saver on my phone and my heart could just explode looking at this picture.

I love that I have two girls...don't know if I've ever said that before and I would love to have a son too but sisterly love is so sweet.  Mallory loves it when I tell her she is a good big sister...and she really is.

About ten weeks old

I miss these days at home

4th of July- God Bless America!

She looks like a doll to me here

Mallory's cheese face.  And also on this day she chose to wear this bathing suit for the entire day even though we weren't swimming.

One of our daily walks while I was on maternity leave.  Miss those days.

Three months old on this day!

The girls all ready for church this past Sunday.  Mallory had been sick for a solid week.  Poor girl had bit her lip too :(

Ahhh...Buggy at six days old.

She loves this and is content in it for about thirty minutes at a time.

Princess Mallory playing dress up.  Girlfriend does love those dangly earrings!

And one last cheeeeese for you.

Three!!

I've seen these lists all over pinterest for a while now so I decided that three years old was a good time to start this tradition.  Basically, you take a list of questions and ask your child every year the same ones to see how their answers change from year to year.  Mallory and I sat down this afternoon and I asked her all these questions and she told me that I had a lot of words.  So here we go!

1.  What is your favorite color?  pink

2.  What is your favorite toy?  a dog.  but one that don't get fur on my hands.

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  pears

4.  What is your favorite tv show?  peppa pig

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  noodles

6.  What is your favorite outfit?  a sparkly shirt

7.  What is your favorite game?  monkey lunchbox

8.  What is your favorite snack?  cheese crackers

9.  What is your favorite animal?  horse

10.  What is your favorite song?  old macdonald

11.  What is your favorite book?  rudolph

12.  Who is your best friend?  carter & brinkley

13.  What is your favorite cereal?  lucky charms

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  get in the sprinkler

15.  What is your favorite drink?  grape juice

16.  What is your favorite holiday?  i don't know  after giving her examples of holidays:  easter

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  my dream light.  i like something cozy like a blankie

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  just noodles

19.  What would you pick to eat for dinner on your birthday?  hot dogs

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  a nurse