Alison

6 Weeks

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Ali is already 6 weeks old.  Where oh where has the time gone?

  • I can’t believe she is sleeping in her crib (for the last 2 weeks).
  • I can’t believe she doesn’t need her head rest in her carrier anymore.
  • I can’t believe she moved out of newborn clothes (around 4 weeks).
  • I can’t believe she is only waking up at 3 and 7am at night.
  • I can’t believe I go back to work in 6 short weeks 🙁

She is getting so much prettier every single day.  I love her so much and already can’t imagine life without her.

Juile

Reed

All Boy

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Not even two years old and Reed is very much a little boy. He loves to be outside and get his hands dirty as well as follow me around and help wherever I will let him. Here are just a few picture of him puddle-stomping out on the back patio as well as a big box that I cut our doors and windows for his first “fort”. He loves cars, trucks, trains, planes… just about anything that goes.

-RB

Randy, Reed

Mr. Fixit, Jr

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Reed LOVES to help me when the tools come out. We even got him the Handy Manny Toolbox for Christmas so he could have his own set. At first my power drill scared him, but he was always intrigued. Once he got over his initial fear he now gets VERY excited when I rev the drill a few times.

I replaced the garbage disposal for this year’s Valentine’s Day gift to Julie (kitchen stuff seems to be our theme for this occasion… and we are married). So, Reed jumped right in and climbed under the already-crowded kitchen sink cabinet.

-RB

Alison, Family, Julie, Randy, Reed

First month as a family of four

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The friends that have gone before us by adding a second child to the family have openly admitted, “It’s a freakin’ circus.” Well, we’ve had our first experience with the Baldwin Traveling Roadshow this past month once we added Alison to the family and got home from the hospital.

This is certainly a season of our lives that is temporary, but can be the most challenging on us emotionally and physically. It can also be the most rewarding.

While Julie and I have to work on our communication and teamwork when juggling the kids, we have also seen how Reed has responded very well to his little sister. He is generally compliant to us when she needs our attention more than he does. Challenges and rewards are the name of the game for all parents and families… you just hope you get more of the latter to keep you going.

-RB

Alison, Reed

Bunch of random thoughts

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Sorry for such a long delay between posts.  I have all these thoughts pop into my head during the day, and never manage to make it to post it on the blog.  Consequently this is just a random mess of thoughts 🙂

To continue comparing my children…Alison is much harder than Reed was as a newborn.  (Let’s hope this means she will be an easier toddler!)  The first 2 or 3 weeks were pretty normal but lately her sleep habits have gotten terrible…and I am grumpy as a result.  All of you warned me that have a cuddly baby was a bad thing and you are right!  She only wants to go to sleep in my arms.  Sometimes I don’t want to sit on the couch and hold a baby ALL day.  I’m good with it for most of the day, but not all.  As a result of her cuddliness I haven’t been working out like I need to and I haven’t lost a single pound since day 5 postpartum.  (On day 5 I had lost 20 pounds and I haven’t lost another ounce since!) Back to the crappy sleep.  She still has her days and nights mixed up and so she is awake from like 11pm to 1am.  NOT a good thing.  We are trying to keep her awake more during the day to fix this problem.

The second major difference is that she is still spitting up.  It isn’t ever a lot, but it’s enough so that I always feel like I’m covered in throw up.  I didn’t realize how annoying this was.  I should have enjoyed Reed’s lack of throw up a WHOLE lot more.

Ali had her 4 week checkup Monday and she weighed 9’6″ (70%) and was 21inches long (50%)  Sadly, Reed gave her pink eye so I had to put ointment in her eyes for a few days.  I hated seeing her goopy eyes when she woke up in the morning.  So sad.

Other than my earlier complaints we are doing great!  Reed still loves Ali, sometimes too much.  We are still working on ‘gentle’.

Last random thought…I really suck at being a stay at home mom.  I am not good at self motivation and we wind up spending way too much time at the house.  However on the other hand I’m sad that I’m going back to work in 7 short weeks.  Is there any way to make me happy?  Sometimes I even annoy myself!!!

Family, Videos

Snow Day!!

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It snowed here yesterday, just enough to cover the ground and shut down the city. Northerners laugh at us when this happens, but they take it for granted that their city can maintain the roadways in icy conditions to keep them safe enough to drive on (ie: salt and street sweepers and snow plows). Our southern cities don’t invest in that expensive equipment in order to dust it off every few years. Instead, we shut down the cities and make all the Yankees green with envy when we stay home and get to play. 🙂

-RB

Julie

Intentional

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I have not written this post until today although I have had it in my head since Christmas.  There are a myriad of reasons, but most of all I wasn’t brave enough to take this blog in ‘that’ direction.  Up until today this blog has been a place to post pictures of my family that I love so dearly and to journal about the events of our life together.  This has been driving me crazy since day one for 2 reasons.  1. We use Facebook for that.  Anytime I post a picture on this blog it feels redundant because we have probably already posted the same picture on FB.  It’s easier and faster to post there.  2. The blog feels like homework.  It feels like something we are ‘supposed’ to keep up with, but writing posts doesn’t bring me joy.  In this busy life if I don’t enjoy doing something, it doesn’t get done.

So what the heck does ‘Intentional’ mean anyway.  Intentional is my New Year’s resolution.  It is more than a resolution though, it is a conscious change that I hope to make this year that will last the rest of my life.  Simply put: I want to be more intentional about how I spend every moment of my life.  When I am at work I want to be intentional about the work to be done, when I am at home with my children I want to focus on them and molding them into the kind, respectful and responsible children I want them to be.  I also need to focus on honoring Randy the way he should be honored as my husband and the father of my children.  I want to be intentional about my relationship with God.  I need to make time EVERY DAY for Him.  Too often this falls to the back burner and it should be the first thing on my list everyday.

I have hesitated to take the blog posts deeper, because it isn’t comfortable.  It isn’t fun to write about things you struggle with.  It isn’t pretty to write things that hurt or discuss the ways that God moments ‘mess you up’.  I hope I will have the guts to follow through.  I hope my ‘resolution’ will be a life changing process.  I pray that I can lead my children to a life filled with love for others and for Jesus.  I don’t want to drop them off at Sunday school and hope that someone else can teach them for me.  They need to learn from Randy and from me.  I pray that they will learn how a married couple should love and respect each other and consequently want to love their future spouse the same way.  I learned about love from my parents and have modeled many parts of our relationship after them.

There you have it.  I have every intention of still posting the pretty entries about how much I love my kids and husband and how much fun we have together.  But I also hope to step out of my comfort zone and dig a little deeper.

Alison, Reed

Reed LOVES Ali

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I was very nervous about how Reed would respond to Ali.  He is so young and really couldn’t understand that he was about to have a little sister.  We did all the usual things to try to prepare him, but he just didn’t get it.  Also, since he is the first grandbaby on both sides of our family he is SUPER spoiled.  As much as I have tried to prevent this, it is inevitable.  It doesn’t help that he has a personality so big it can hardly fit in his tiny little body.  Long story short, the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was more and more concerned about how he would treat her and us after she was born.  All of that worry was unnecessary!

He has been SO sweet with her since the moment he saw her.  From the first time he met her he has been calling her ‘Ali’ (we have got to get that on video.  He sounds so sweet when he says her name).  Anytime she cries he says ‘Ali cwry?’ (Another one we have to get on video).  He loves her so much and just wants to hug and kiss her all the time.  When he walks in the house from school the first thing he asks for is Ali.

Randy took a picture of Reed at school the other day of him covering up a doll with a blanket.  His teachers said that he is so gentle and sweet with the dolls.  He either calls them ‘baby’ or ‘Ali’ and loves to tend to them.  Love that little boy so much.  And yes, I spoil him as much as the grandparents.  Mommy fail!!!

Here are a few picures of Reed taking care of the real Ali.  First he tried to put on her sock, then he put her pacifier in her mouth, then he tried to give her a drink of his water.  So sweet.