Stroller Struggles

Good grief would someone just tell me which double stroller is the perfect one for me!!! I have never felt so wishy washy in all my life.

Issues:

#1 Do I even need a double stroller? I carried Sofie around in a sling for several months after she was born AND as she gets older she wants to sit in her stroller less and less (granted sometimes I need her to and she doesn't have a choice). If I carry Grey around in a sling for four months and Sofie is 27 months old might I be able to switch to a single stroller and a walking kid?

#2 If I do decide to go with a double stroller, should I get one that I can snap an infant seat into? Sure I carried Sofie around in a sling and sort of passed up the infant seat stage, but maybe it won't be so easy to carry one child while chasing the other around :)

#3 Should I buy a tandem stroller or a side-by-side? My gut feeling is that I'd rather have a side-by-side but Ben seems to prefer the tandem option. I don't particularly want to choose who gets to sit in the front and I think that side-by-sides are generally lighter and easier to maneuver(have you tried to push a tandem stroller? It's like pushing around a 40 lb. semi truck. It makes me feel like I need to get a "BEEP BEEP BEEP" signal so I don't run into anyone.) Conversely, options for side-by-side strollers that I'd be able to snap an infant seat into are extremely limited, and they are more difficult to fit through cramped aisles (but let's face it, how much actual shopping is going to happen with two small children anyway?!)

#4 Should I wait and make these decisions after the baby is born, when I can maybe gauge what I need better, or should I buy something now while I have more time to scour for a good deal?

#5 Maybe I'll get a used tandem stroller for the first few months, then sell it and buy a side-by-side?!

#6 Anyone have any experience with any of the following (which seem to be coming out at the top of my list so far...)

Tandem Strollers: Graco Quattro Tour Duo or the less solid but also 100 bucks cheaper Graco Duoglider

Side-by-sides: Maclaren Twin Triumph or Techno or Peg Perego Aria Twin 60/40 (which accomodates an infant seat)


If you have any opinions about any of this rambling, please please please weigh in!

(and I think I've grown far too dependent on parentheses lately...)

Mama Mia

A couple of anecdotes on this special Mother's Day from the child who made me a mother...

#1 Sofie has been doing mostly fantastic in her big girl bed. She lays down every night and nods right off to dreamland. Naptime is a little bit more challenging, but I'd say she still goes right to sleep about 75% of the time. About 15% of the time she grumps and complains about her obviously unfair station in life, but when I peek my head in to check on her she is still sitting securely in her bed with a Garbage Pail Kid-ish look on her face and eventually she does drift off to sleep. The other 10% of the time she lays down quietly and fools me into believing that she has every intention of falling asleep, while in reality she is just waiting until I shut the door to secretly have her way with her bedroom. She has done this probably three times, and each time she uses her time to silently pull all her diapers out of their basket, relieve her dresser drawer of her clothes, and quietly try on every pair of shoes that she owns. She is so stealthy that I usually don't have any idea that anything is awry until she grows tired of playing independently and begins calling for me. Today was one of these days. Today, however, was just a smidge different than my previous experiences with her mayhem. Typically, I open the door to a huge mess. A big pile of clothes and shoes and diapers strewn across the floor. Usually I grumpily clean it up, enlisting her help, while chiding her for making the mess instead of napping as she is expected to. Today, I suspect, she was either trying very hard to please me or else sneakily trying to cover her tracks entirely since instead of a giant mess on the floor I found this:


In case the picture isn't entirely obvious to you, that is Sofie's dresser drawer pulled halfway open with all her clothes stuffed precariously back into it after they've obviously been removed and strewn about. I laughed until I cried...the little rascal!

#2 Sofie is obsessed with the letter E. She's convinced herself that every letter in her ABC books is an E, and she frequently requests that we draw E's for her. Her other favorite illustrative requests include balls and tracings of hands. So, today when we were playing with her Doodle Pro I wasn't surprised when she requested that I draw E's and balls. After I'd drawn two of each on the board she stuck out her stubby little finger and, pointing at each E said, "1, 2, E!" grinned up at me and continued, "1, 2, ball!" "What a smart girl!" I encouraged her while thinking to myself, "Oh my gosh! My child is a counting genius!" That thought lasted roughly three seconds and then she requested that I draw one more ball and proudly, jabbing her finger at all three balls, declared, "1, 2, ball!"

Hope all of you mamas out there enjoyed your Mother's Day and that your little imps make you grin as frequently as ours does!

Oh, really?

Last night Ben and Sofie were spending some time together "reading" as they often do after dinner. They were looking through one of Sofie's current favorites, First 100 Words, when I overheard this little snippet...

Ben: "What's this?"

Sofie: "Dis monkey!"

Ben: "What's this?"

Sofie: Dis piggy!"

Ben: "What's this?"

Sofie: "Dis seep (sheep)!"

Ben: "What are you?"

Sofie: "I'm a baby!"

Cake!

Well now, gee whiz, I can't imagine why this child wanted nothing to do with her lunch...

Only a grandma, upon hearing her granddaughter incessantly request cake after seeing one on tv, would conclude that she should just go ahead and whip some cupcakes up from scratch and let said granddaughter devour them as she pleased.

And only a mama, in order to protect her sweet innocent child from cavities and bellyaches, would eat up all those yummy cupcakes all by herself!

Sponge's Spot 25 (er...26, ok fine 27) weeks

Good grief that is one big belly! Thirty whole pounds of belly (or probably more accurately 20 pounds of belly, 5 pounds of thighs, 3 pounds of floppy arm flab, and 2 pounds of swelling!) Poor Baby #2 your mama is two complete weeks behind on her big ol' belly updates. But wait, I can explain, honest I can. We were in Colorado when the 25 week milestone crept up on me, and then last week, #26, your Big Sister started her vomiting tailspin and can I just say that you're pretty lucky that I'm even getting around to a post this week because we are still recovering from that nightmare!!!

You have been making me very very uncomfortable and tired and cranky for weeks. I complained at my 23 week appointment and the midwife actually said to me, "Well you are older this time around..." What?! Then she continued with, "and your muscles are all stretched out from your first pregnancy so they're not as supportive. Plus you're chasing a toddler around and can't take a nap when you're feeling exhausted." While these things are all very true, I'm going to request that my iron levels be tested at my appointment tomorrow (where I'm also scheduled for my gestational diabetes screening) because this level of general malaise just seems excessive to me, and it makes me just a bit miserable considering that I've got three more months to endure. Don't get me wrong, you're worth the suffering, but wouldn't it be nifty if there was a little less suffering :)

You are a crazy active little guy. When we had your 19 week ultrasound the tech made a remark regarding how active you were and I actually brushed her off commenting that I remember Sofie being a lot more active than you. Turns out I must've been comparing itty bitty you to big nearly full-term Sofie because as you've grown your movements have gotten stronger and stronger and sometimes you get so crazy that I worry you're trying to kick your way out, wake yourself up from a nightmare, or untangle yourself from your umbilical cord. You're especially active late at night...I hope you're not planning on continuing that once you're born!

We've been very diligent about preparing to welcome you home. All your wee little clothes are washed, sorted, and put away, and your crib (now that your sister has vacated) is made up and ready to go. There are some baby things (swing, bathtub, boppy) that need to be revived from Nana's basement, and we need to set up the co-sleeper at some point, but otherwise we're all set. Sofie has been snuggling you and trying to peek through my increasingly more shallow belly-button to get a closer look. Today we were discussing the fact that you are going to nurse. She's not so sure she likes that idea but we've got plenty of time to let the idea grow on her :) Overall we are just biding our time until we get to meet you face to face and welcome you lovingly into our little family. Can't wait!

Big Girl Bed

Guess who got a big girl bed last week (on the very same night she started puking!). Hint: I've been sleeping in a big girl bed for a long long time...

We waited until Sofie was feeling a little bit better before attempting to transition her into her new bed. In the meantime, she had some fun getting acquainted with the new "decoration" in her bedroom.

Tonight is Sofie's third night in her new bed and I have to say (proud mama) that she transitioned like a champion. The first night we had to take a cue from Super Nanny (return her to her bed about six or seven times) but it was really quite short-lived and after resigning herself to her new station in life she slept quite soundly through the night.

The next day she went down for her nap without a peep and slept for FOUR hours! I snuck in and took these pictures while she was asleep:

Upon awakening Sofie got down out of her bed, figured out how to turn the doorknob and let herself out of her room, and came running out to meet me in the living room with a wildly proud grin on her face. It was as if she was thinking, "Wow! This growing up stuff is kind of cool!"

Here's a shot of my happy, well-rested big girl after her mega nap.

Congratulations my sweet girl! Another milestone tackled head on and one small step closer to conquering the world :)

Easter Post...

...is finally posted as if it were there all along on April 21st. I can't figure out how to change it so that it posts on the date that I actually push publish rather than the date I start it. Anyone know anything about this?

They're Coming...I Promise

I swear there are real posts rattling around in my head. There is even a half-started post with lots and lots of pictures from the past week and a half that are just waiting to be labeled and explained. But just as I was beginning to feel like I was getting myself back into some sort of routine (I am notoriously slow at recovering post-vacation) a sweet little munchkin decided it would be a good time to try out that whole big kid vomiting thing...shortly after a very large dinner involving lots of marinara sauce :( Five episodes, lots of carpet scrubbing, and several loads of laundered bedding later I am exhausted. So tonight I am going to bed instead of finishing up the good posts...

Easter in Colorado

Let's all pretend that I wrote and published this post a week and a half ago like I intended to. That would be before our household got its nasty visit from the stomach flu and was subsequently bathed in yucky bodily fluids that I'm still hopeful will submit to spring cleaning. Yuck!

Saturday morning, April 11th, Nana came over to entertain Sofie while we finished packing for our Colorado trip and later drive us to the airport. She brought two giant Easter baskets and one of them had those little pill-like capsules that turn into sponges in warm water. Sofie was pretty fascinated by their transformation...


Sofie's first airplane ride was somewhat miserable, though I suppose it could have been worse. We were quite smooshed on a full plane and Miss Sofie made a poo-poo (always fun to change a diaper in a bathroom with no changing table) and had a couple of short meltdowns. Our flight was scheduled to run into bedtime and I had hoped that she would sleep for the last hour or so but no such luck!! Fortunately, she really enjoyed watching the take-off and landing out the window and since it was such a clear day we had a nice view for a good fifteen minutes of each.

Sofie sat on Daddy's lap for take-off and after we had left the ground he told her, "Sofie, we're flying!" to which she replied, "We fly!"

We were excited to find that the Easter bunny knew where to track us down on Easter morning and brought Sofie a nice Easter basket at the Vance's house. Sofie had lot of fun things in her basket this year, but of course she's already got a mad case of chocolate-radar...

The Easter bunny also outdid himself by hiding plastic eggs inside and hard-boiled eggs outside and the kids enjoyed hunting for them in lots of tricky hiding spots.

We had an eventful trip despite the unfortunate rainy, cold weather. It was so fun to see the family and how the kids have grown. We, of course, saw them at Kyle and DeAnna's wedding in October, but didn't have much time to spend with them then. The changes I see in them between our visit always remind me just how fast kiddos grow and change and makes me want to freeze time for a bit to enjoy our sweet little girl. Sweet little Lillian is now quite a lady. She is inquisitive, precocious, and brave. She and Sofie became quite fast friends and I found myself overcome one day as I turned around to check on them while driving in the van and found them quietly holding hands. Wish I'd had my camera handy! Clayton has grown up so much from the little boy who came to visit when Sofie was born and promptly adopted a teddy bear to cuddle and love. He is obsessed with all things firetruck, jumping in puddles, and chocolate milk. He and Sofie also had a good time playing together and she wandered around a little aimlessly for a few days when we returned home not quite knowing what to do with herself without her friends :(

During our stay we enjoyed several picnics, a brief hike at Rocky Mountain National Park, a trip to Boulder's Pearl Street Mall (where Sofie enjoyed riding on a rocking pig which I fell in love with)

a trip to the Children's Museum, and one to the Butterfly Conservatory where we checked out the butterflies...

creepy crawlies...

(See what I mean about Lillie being brave?! That's a real live tarantula crawling on her hand!)

starfish...

and horseshoe crabs...

and had plenty of good old fashioned family togetherness. Our plane ride home was much more comfortable and as always it felt good to come back home after a busy week. We hope to see the Vance's again sometime after Gray is born if we're lucky and we're already looking forward to it!

100% Girl

Conversation from this morning...

Me: What do you want to wear today kiddo?

Sofie: Dess.

Me: A dress?

Sofie, gleefully: Sofie, a dess!

You are 100% girly girl. Yesterday morning as we were leaving the house for a prenatal appointment (all is well, by the way) you grabbed baby Nona and your baking set to bring along for the ride. You love to carry mama's "puss" (purse) around, admire your reflection in the mirror after a fresh hairdo, and you never seem to tire from the important business of trying on shoes. If we are out shopping and you see shoes you immediately take your own off and request (more like demand) to try them on. You are a hoot and a half, kiddo, and your mama is eating it up.