Gentle Jack

Every night when Jack goes to bed we ask him to give sissy a kiss goodnight. Julia is usually in my arms to this is a quick kiss given my Jack and is very sweet. Tonight Julia was on the gym mat and we asked Jack to go over and give sissy a hug and kiss. Whenever Julia is on the mat or any part of the floor Jack likes to steamroll her, jump on her, tackle her, or anything physical to show his affection which is always followed by me telling Jack to be gentle and whisking Julia away. Tonight I stood at a safe distance to see what he would do. To my surprise Jack went over straddled Julia leaned in gave her a very gentle hug with both arms and kissed her forehead, then gently backed himself up to avoid landing on her. I was so proud it brought me to tears. I guess a two year old does listen, sometimes.

First Laugh

Tonight Julia gave us her first real full laugh. We have gotten a lot of cooing and smiling from her, but no real laughs. Jeff was changing her and decided to give her a raspberry, something that Jack has always loved. When Jeff gave her one she let out this incredible loud giggle. We then both took turns giving her raspberries and she kept laughing and laughing, so hard in fact she choked a little. Guess we were over zealous parents at her new found skill. It is these wonderful ‘firsts’ moments that make a long day worth every minute.

Indoor Activities

We have been stuck at home indoors more than we would like lately due to weather, colds and an attempt to get Julia to nap in her crib. I have had to come up with some new ways to entertain ourselves, especially Jack who seems to have endless energy. Oh how I miss after strolls to the park in the nice weather. Spring cannot come fast enough! Here are some pics that document our adventures inside.

Jack's favorite morning activity is to bake. We have made banana bread, gingerbread, corn bread, cookies and on and on. On this particular morning I went to change Julia and when I came back Jack had lined up all the spices ready to cook.

After baking Jack always asks to sweep. I guess I should be hapy he likes to clean.

Arts and crafts time, snowmen to decorate today

Sissy is awake from her nap. Time to play in her crib.

Bored one afternoon, so Jack found my lipstick and decided Julia needed some.

One day we were lucky enough to have entertainment right in front of our house. Jack could not get enough of the construction.

Miss Julia

Julia is three months old this weekend, I can hardly believe it! When we found out last April that we were having a girl I was honestly in a bit of shock, well actually both Jeff and I were. I just figured we would have boys. After a year and a half of Jack I felt I really knew how to do the boy thing and Jack is all BOY. I have never been very girly so I was a little worried about having a girl. But now that Julia is here I cannot believe how much I LOVE having a GIRL! Julia is already showing us she is such a lady. Her smiles, her coos, everything about her is girl. I am also surprisingly so into the pink, the dresses, the hair clips, I love all of it!
Here are a few fun tidbits about Julia. Julia smiles all the time and is generally content to watch things going on around her (mostly watching her wild older brother run around). Julia talks constantly with her cooing. Julia LOVES to eat anytime anywhere! She has really put on the weight since her 6 lbs at birth and has these incredible rolls and is a pudgy little girl. Julia is very social and prefers to be awake at parties or out to dinner to join in on the fun as opposed to sleep (we discovered this at Thanksgiving when I had expected her to sleep, but she had more fun enjoying her family). Julia is finally sleeping. After 12 weeks of getting up multiple times at night sometimes for hours at a time, she finally learned how to sleep and has given us a few nights this week of sleeping through the night!!

W are having so much fun with her and cannot wait to see how her personality grows and look forward to experiencing more girly things with her. Here are some recent pictures of her, some are thanks to Annie who came and took pics for us, thank you Annie we love them!!

Pictures with Annie

Tummy time!

Christmas fun

Julia loves her hands

Bring on Christmas!

We are so lucky to have had Jeff home a few days this week. We took full advantage and packed the week with family activities. Today we did a day full of Christmas. We started the day with a trip to Trinity Christmas Tree Farm, what a fun time! We told Jack we were going to cut down our tree when we woke up this morning. Jack is really getting into the holidays this year so it is really fun for us. However he is getting some of the holidays a little confused so all morning long he asked (more like threw his body on the floor kicking and screaming) for his special pumpkin carving knife to take with him to cut down the tree. Well at least he is enthusiastic about the holidays!

Here is a picture of us getting ready. Jack wanted to wear Jeff's gigantic boots!

We could not have picked a prettier day for a trip to the tree farm. What a sunny fabulous day! Here are some pictures.

Kids train ride and Jack on the old school fire engine

Jack tree hunting We found our tree!
Jeff and jack getting ready to cut it down



We then stopped in Issaquah for some McDonald's lunch which hit the spot for all of us after a long morning of tree hunting! We headed home for naps, both kids passed out in the car on the ride home, so tired!

After naps we headed downtown for Santa pictures. jack was so excited on the drive there, he was determined to ask Santa for his beloved lawnmower. To our surprise Jack did really well with Santa and was excited to see him. Santa's helpers asked him to ride the horse so Santa could hold Julia with both hands since she is so little. Jack took his role seriously as big brother. Julia also did great and although we did not get a smile her eyes were wide open the while time! We did not get a smiley pic here of either kid, but we did see some good smiles from Jack so hopefully Nordy's got a good one. After Jack nervously asked Santa for his lawnmower.

What an awesome fun day for our family!

A New Chapter

I quit my job this week. I think part of me is still in a little shock that I actually did quit. I was at EY for 10 years, that is a third of my life! Recently, we decided as a family that it was just too much to have both Jeff and I in demanding public accounting jobs. So, I am the lucky one and I get to stay home with Jack and Julia. I am so excited to be able to stay home and raise our kids. It was a constant struggle for me to try and balance career and kids and now I feel a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. However, I did love aspects of my career and will miss many things here are a few:
-intellectual stimulation (even among the most boring accountants!)
- challenging work, sometimes too challenging where I had to fake that I knew what I was doing
- free lunches - I will sooo miss this!!!
- the soup place in our building - best chicken chili and cheesy rolls
- great people - from our administrative staff to new staffers to my peers to the partners
- a few really awesome clients
- my morning latte from Starbucks and the time to enjoy it while slowing starting my day
That being said, I am so lucky and so excited to spend my time at home with Jack and Julia. It will be just as challenging (probably more) and a lot more fun!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving week and weekend. It was so nice to have Jeff home after he had worked some really long days and weekends through November. We had an action packed few days, but all loads of fun. Here are some pictures to document our family weekend. We started Thanksgiving with some basketball with my cousins and dad. Jack had a lot of fun watching and trying to keep up with the big boys!

Thanksgiving was spent at my parents this year. We were lucky enough to have Elsa join us as well so we had two grandmother sot help us chase Jack around. And chasing we all did! Jack literally ran around the whole time we were there. Here is a pic of Jack playing in Julia's bouncy seat and also one of him sitting for just a few minutes of dinner on Elsa's lap. He really enjoyed the cranberry jello!

The day after Thanksgiving we had my sister's 3-on-3 annual basketball tournament. It was a hug success thanks to our organizers Stephen and my dad. Jeff played and I took the kids. There are no pictures becauseI spent the whole time trying to keep Jack off the court (he wanted to go play with the guys). After Jeff and I got to head to the Attic while Elsa babysat the kids. We had such a fun time being at the Attic with adults, what a treat for us!

Next up was the Dawg game. Jeff and Jack went while Julia and I hung at home. Julia still got decked out for the game. Our friends Allison and her newborn Gregor came over for wine and cheese, what a fun evening for Allison and I to be able to talk without chasing 2 toddlers!

Finally, we finished the weekend with a trip to the STC to see the Christmas Ships. Jack had fun with the reindeer and toasting marshmallows before the show. What a surprisingly warm and pleasant evening and a great way to end a fun four days of events!

The Waiting Game

Today we were home waiting for Brinks Security for some maitenance They gave us a 4 hour window from 8am to noon, which sounds like a reasonable request, however being stuck at home with a 2 year old boy and a 2 month old can get interesting. I was forced to find activities to entertain Jack up until nap time. We normally go out for at least a little each morning as Jack starts to get a little wild with bent up energy around 9:30am if we are stuck at home.

8am Jeff is leaving for work and casually pulls out the cookie mix and suggests to Jack we make thanksgiving cookies today

8:01am Jack pulls out the mixer and dances around with the cookie box in hands (this kid likes to cook!8:10am I go to change Julia's diaper and return to see all of our spices out of the spice cabinet and lined up on the counter. Jack is now really ready to cook, but I hate to tell him that garlic salt, chilli pepper and paprika, among other spices do not go into sugar cookies.

8:25am Julia goes down for a nap so Jack and I start the cookies still in our PJ's, nothing like a little cookie making first thing in the morning.

Julia keeps waking up requiring me to visit her room numerous times, Jack is obsessed with mixer, and is also obsessed with the cookie dough, so much that when I put the first batch into the oven he freaks out. I guess he did not want to part with his doughy coookies. Ahh the craziness of my day juggling two kids has begun!

10am Play time with Julia and Jack together - now this can get interesting. Today we put Julia in the bumpo seat and Jack kept wanting to get in there with her. We also had a few 'roll over my sister' attempts, all successfull blocked by mom today.

10am First call to Jeff to see if he can find out when Brinks is coming, we are 2 hours in and I need to get these kids out of the house!

11am Jack has lunch. Lots of fighting to have a cookie instead of lunch (mom wins this one). Once again to go to change Julia and when I come back I Jack has dumped the entire contain of parmasean cheese on his pasta. Hmm, he has a big smile!

11:40 Brinks calls, they are running behind and will not be here today. Mom looses it and gives them a piece of her mind. Looks like we are back on for tomorrow, another adventure at home! at least we have not frosted the cookies yet another good morning sugar activity!

By the time Jeff got home we were all a little stir crazy. As you can see we found a way to entertain ourselves, nothing like a little diapers.com box play in the evening!

Sisterly Facinication

I really did not know how Jack would react once we brought Julia home. Jack has taken his role as big brother very seriously and wants to help with Julia in every way, and I mean every way! The first thing jack does when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap is say, 'where's sissy?' If he cannot quickly locate her he gets mad and keeps saying sissy, sissy, sissy until we can show her to him. Julia's naps are not acceptable to Jack. He always wants her awake and playing with him (ok she cannot really play with him yet, but he liked to think she can). Here are a few pics of how jack likes t help put with Julia.

Julia is fussy in the evening between about 6-8pm so after dinner we often head downstairs and go on the bouncy ball. Jack likes to help and gets on his own bouncy ball to bounce with us.

I took the kids to the doctor last week because Julia decided it would be great to have a week where she really did not sleep much as all at night so we went to see if we could help her sleep (she is doing better so far this week, hurrah!). Jack got to pick out a sticker for himself and one for Julia. He thought Julia's should go on her foot, as you can see in this pic. Not sure why the foot was a good place for it but when I suggested it go somewhere else on her Jack's response was 'no no no, here!'

As I mentioned Jack does not like Julia to take naps. One of his favorite things to do it go into her room while she is napping and climb up into her crib. Still trying to figure out how to fix this one!

Dance Party

Jeff has been working late as this is his busiest time of the year. (I know not ideal for us with a 2 month old, but that is just how it turned out). So Jack, Julia and I have found some fun ways to entertain ourselves in the evening. Jack's favorite is to have a dance party with mom. This ranges from mom on the floor dancing around like a frog or a horse to Jack and I breaking out in dance to wrap music (my favorite and now Jack's too is Ha Ya by Outcast). Well Tuesday night while Julia was taking an evening nap in her crib Jack and I decided to put Hay Ya on and dance. At first Jack was not so into it so I have to get a little crazy. I decided to take my sweatshirt off in a dramatic fashion to get him more into the dancing and tire him out for bedtime. Well we happened to be doing this right in front of the window in our living room. To my surprise as I was 'stripping' down to my tank top dancing when some of our neighbors (whom I do not know) were walking up our steps bringing us dinner. I opened the door with Hay Yah blaring in the background from my IPhone that Jack was holding. I was totally mortified. I quickly starting talking (somewhat out of breath from my dancing) trying to backpedal and explain that with an active 2 year old boy and my husband working we were having a dance party trying to entertain ourselves. I am sure I looked pretty ridiculous, but the people were nice and gave us a super yummy dinner! Here is a pic just before the dance party when Jack decided wearing my heals was fun!

Jack's Lawnmower

We recently received a bunch of Christmas magazines for toys in the mail. Jack has taken quite a liking to these and will find them and look at them in search of his favorite toys. There is one magazine in particular that Jack has taken a liking, Constructive Playthings in which there is a picture of a kids lawnmower. Jack is constantly saying 'lawnmower' and walking around the house looking for this magazine and then frantically searching for the page where the lawnmower is located. Once he find it he proudly yells 'LAWNMOWER!' I have never seen him get attached to something so much and this is just a picture! He has requested (ok demanded) this lawnmower picture be with him at most meals, downstairs in the basement during play time, and he likes it to be one of his stories at bedtime. This morning he asked for it while we were in our bed watch cartoons to start the day. Santa better bring the lawnmower or we are in trouble! Here are two pics of Jack from my iphone (so it is not a great pics) with his magazine (yes he still has a bottle in the morning, oops on our part!)

The Tongue Game

Jack is getting to know Julia more and more these days and I must say he has really surprised me and seems to get that he is the big brother. He loves to touch her toes, nose and ears. Sometimes he gets so excited that he likes to try and steamroll her or wrestle with her, but in Jack's eyes this is an act of true love. Tuesday night (after dance party) Julia woke up and we had some good brother/sister bonding. I told Jack to do the 'tongue game' where Jack looks at Julia and sticks his tongue in and out and then Julia imitates him. Well Jack LOVED this and let our screams of pure joy. I think this was their first official communication and brother/sister. A picture below of them together and one of Julia's tongue (well sort of!). A pic at the top of Julia playing later with Jack, a huge smile!

First Blog

I finally did it, I set up a blog! I have been meaning to for quite a while as life with our kids has gotten quite exciting and entertaining these days. I really wanted something to document our adventures and since I am not a consistent journaler I thought this would be a great way. I am excited to start and hope that our family enjoys our documented adventures many years down the road.