I have been meaning to get these photos ready for posting on the website for a little while. We had another great session with Catherine Keene Photography. Let me know if you’re interested in doing a session with her in the fall. She’ll be coming back to do some more photos for Cullen. Click the photo to see the rest of the album. We are thinking about getting a large print of this one framed.
We had Maddie’s 2-year old session and Cullen’s 3-month old session recently with Catherine Keene Photography. She posted a few sneak peeks on Facebook. I can’t wait to see the rest!
Something that makes me happy: Weekend afternoon naps.
Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about gifts for our teachers this week during Teacher Appreciation Week.
Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that this week isn’t too stressful.
Something happening around the house: We had guests this weekend. Catherine came to take photos, and Matt and Aiden were here to visit as well. Catherine took a ton of photos of all of us, and we had a nice time visiting with her family.
Something I’m reading: Not much time for reading this week.
Something I’m watching: We watched Pixar’s Up with Catherine’s family this weekend. They hadn’t seen it yet. I forgot how much I enjoyed that movie.
Something tasty: We had our first week of The Produce Box. We have managed to use the majority of the veggies in our box even with the tons of lettuce. Our salads have been very good! The strawberries were especially tasty! I’m happy that little to none of the box is going to waste this week.
Something Maddie is doing (26 months old): She’s officially counting to ten and attempted to tell her first knock-knock jokes this weekend. She’s not quite getting it. It generally goes something like this (with Maddie telling the joke): “Knock knock” “who’s there?” “banana!” “banana who?” *giggle, giggle* “banana who! knock knock joke!”
Something Cullen is doing (14 weeks old): We have finally turned a corner with bedtime! The past several days, we’ve been able to put him into the bassinet without me being in the room. The last two nights, I’ve actually been able to put him back into the bassinet after he wakes up to eat, too. He still spends a little time at the end of the night in the bed, but this has been encouraging! This afternoon, we took a nap together with him swaddled in the bassinet and me sleeping next to him in the bed.
Something I am struggling with: Making cookies for Teacher Appreciation Week. The Ginger Snaps are very tasty but a bit of work! It didn’t help that I forgot to add baking soda in the first batch. Who knew that baking soda was a key ingredient in baking? Oh, and just now I forgot to set the timer on the last batch, and the cookies are totally black. Awesome.
Something I’m doing towards my goals: We’re getting close to booking a cruise on Allure of the Seas which certainly qualifies as a megaship!
Something I learned: I’m not a fan of making the ginger snaps, but they make others happy, so I guess I’ll continue making them.
Something I’m looking forward to: Seeing our photos from Catherine Keene Photography.
Something random: Gabe is currently snuggling with the Boppy while we watch Amazing Race.
Something captured: Cullen looks like he’s dancing!
Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey
Something that makes me happy: Raising over $10,000 for the National MS Society made me very happy this week!
Something I’m thinking: Weekends are much too short now that I’m back to work.
Something I’m hoping: I hope that Cullen gets over this whole hatred of the car thing. I thought it was better this past week, but I was wrong. In the past few days, he has gone back to hating it again. Not fun.
Something happening around the house: We’ve been playing outside with Maddie quite a bit lately! Her favorite toy right now is her bubble mower.
Something I’m reading: Um, it’s taking me a really long time to get through Sugar Queen. I should probably start on the next book club selection, or I’ll never finish it on time.
Something I’m watching: We are now caught up on Glee! We added it to our DVR list. Now it’s going to be hard to wait a week between each episode!
Something tasty: Mmmm….peanut butter toast is yummy!
Something Maddie is doing (26 months old): We were shocked when Maddie ate mixed veggies this week - lima beans, carrots, corn, green beans. She’s usually not a great veggie eater, so this was quite the breakthrough. Hopefully, it wasn’t a fluke! She likes playing outside, art projects (painting at school and crayons and markers at home), play dough, her baby doll and accessories, and books. She’s been interested in numbers and counting. She is doing fabulously in her big girl bed! We have been shocked at how easy the transition has been. Amazing.
Something Cullen is doing (13 weeks old): He started his first week of “school” and has been adjusting fairly well (better than his Mommy!). He has been sleeping quite a bit (especially at school). He has been restless at night but still sleeps the majority of the night. It would be nice if he was a little less wiggly! We’re still waiting for him to magically sleep through the night. We had a couple of “bad” nights this week which are still pretty easy when you compare them to Maddie’s bad nights at his age. I’m thankful for perspective.
Something I am struggling with: It’s an adjustment figuring out the new routine and juggling two kids now that I’m back at work.
Something I’m doing towards my goals: We ended up raising over $10,000 for the MS Walk! Wow! We were recognized for an “Above and Beyond” award at the walk.
Something I learned: Instead of learning what happened on Amazing Race, I got to see news about a tornado NOWHERE CLOSE TO HOME. Hopefully, we’ll be able to watch it some other way before hearing spoilers.
Something I’m looking forward to: Book club and photo sessions with Catherine.
Something random: My sister says that there are catfish that can grow to be over 300 pounds, AND THEY CAN EAT PEOPLE. She’s a vet, so I’m going to trust her. She knows about animals. I think I’ll stay out of the river.
Something captured: Maddie and her next door neighbor boyfriend. They are so excited to play together. Maddie talks about him all the time. When we get home from daycare, she asks for two things: to push her bubble mower and to play with Anton. Very cute.
Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey
We had Catherine create the birth announcements, once again. We were very happy with how they turned out! Click on the photo to see all four panels.
Catherine came to town to photograph Cullen when he was 11 days old. As always, we were very happy with our photos. We hoped to get some photos of the four of us, but Maddie had other plans. I was very happy to get this cute one of the two kids. Click on the photo to see the rest of the session.
Something that made me happy this week: I was happy when we found out at Cullen’s 2-week appointment that not only had he regained his birth weight, he gained an extra pound and an ounce. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces on Tuesday. He was 21.5 inches long, putting him in the 71st percentile. Quite different from his peanut of a big sister.
Something I’m thinking: I thought I was tired last week at this time. Wow, I had no idea.
Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to have a boring week and a healthy family.
Something happening around the house: Snow, again. This kind of snow was much better. It was pretty, it didn’t cause problems on the roads, and it is melting away quickly.
Something I’m reading: Board books to Maddie. That’s about it.
Something tasty I ate this week: Several friends delivered real food to the hospital while we were there with Cullen. This was very much appreciated!
Something Maddie did this week: Maddie continues to be a chatterbox and cracks us up all the time. Last Sunday evening, she blamed her brother for the first time. She tore the wrapper off the crayon, and Gabe asked her, “why did you tear the paper off the crayon?” Maddie’s reply was, “Cullen did it.” Wow, I can’t believe how early that behavior starts! She’s not even 2! And then a couple days ago, Gabe was taking her downstairs from her crib in the morning and she passed some gas. Gabe asked, “Maddie, did you toot?” and Maddie’s reply this time was, “Bunny tooted.” I guess since Cullen wasn’t at home (he was at the hospital with me), she had to resort to blaming her stuffed animals. Hilarious.
Something Cullen did this week: Cullen seems to have his first illness which, due to his age, meant an ER visit for us and a two day stay in the hospital. He vomited several times and had a fever on Wednesday night. They take fevers in newborns very seriously and subjected him to a number of tests including a spinal tap and several equally unpleasant tests. It was a difficult couple of days, and we’re not quite recovered from it. We have been home from the hospital since Friday night.
Something I struggled with this week: Obviously taking my newborn to the ER and having him admitted to the hospital was a struggle. I encountered my first situation where I had to prioritize my children and give attention to the one who needs it most. Maddie was very upset when we left her on Wednesday night to take Cullen to the hospital. It was heartbreaking, but we had to focus on what was going on with Cullen at the moment. I knew that we would have times like these with multiple children, but it was still difficult.
Something I’m doing towards my goals: We watched another episode or two of Dead Like Me.
Something I learned this week: I learned a little more than I wanted about the ER and pediatric ward of the hospital. Fortunately, Cullen’s visit was a precautionary one, standard protocol for newborns with a fever. Thank goodness it wasn’t more serious.
Something I’m looking forward to next week: Maddie’s birthday! I can’t believe that she will be TWO at the end of this week.
Something random: I’m excited about seeing the rest of Cullen’s photo session with Catherine Keene Photography. This should happen tomorrow!
Something captured: My little guy in the smallest hospital gown ever, hooked up to an IV and various monitors. This was taken while we were still in the ER (where we stayed for about 8 hours).
Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey
Cullen had his newborn session with Catherine Keene Photography when he was 11 and 12 days old. Catherine has shared two photos from the session so far. More to come soon!
Less than two weeks before Cullen’s arrival, Catherine was able to come and take photos of my belly. With various weather events and the holidays, we weren’t sure that we were going to be able to manage a session this time. I posted some sneak peeks a few weeks ago. The entire session has now been posted. Click on the photo to see the whole album.
Something that made me happy this week: We had several friends bring meals to our house this week which was a huge help. We are very grateful for this and have enjoyed eating some different dishes that we might not normally try.
Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking I could use more sleep.
Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get my taxes done this week. I started on them this past week, but I need to make sure my numbers are correct.
Something happening around the house: Gabe’s mom came to visit for a few days during which time Catherine came to set up a studio for photoshoots of Cullen and the rest of us. I can’t wait to see the photos!
Something I’m reading: Still not reading much, aside from blogs in my feed reader.
Something tasty I ate this week: Friday night, friends brought over a tasty meal of sausage corn chowder, salad, bread, and a cheesecake/mousse pie. I think we’re going to add the chowder to our normal rotation of meals. We both really enjoyed it! I’ve posted the recipe.
Something Maddie did this week: She missed two days of daycare due to the weather (and one day due to the photo session with Catherine). I’m hoping that having her in daycare full time this week will help with her overall routine. Hopefully, it will help improve her sleeping schedule as well.
Something Cullen did this week: Cullen had his first of many photo sessions with Catherine Keene Photography. At this rate, the kids will have to pay for their own college but they will have beautiful photographs of their childhood.
Something I struggled with this week: Sleep was a struggle a few nights this week, but of course that’s to be expected with a newborn. The toddler is having more sleep issues than the newborn, it seems. It’s taking 2 hours to get her to sleep each night, she wakes up several times in the middle of the night, and one night this week she was awake the majority of the time between 1am and 5am. I’ve also been struggling with not being able to give Maddie the same attention we gave her a few weeks ago and miss snuggling her in our bed in the middle of the night. It’s an adjustment for everyone.
Something I’m doing towards my goals: Surprisingly, I did work on one of my goals. Just last night, we got out the Dead Like Me DVDs so that we can watch the rest of that series as we have time.
Something I learned this week: I learned that the daycare uses the phrase “time out” (sparingly) in the classroom. When Maddie repeatedly wouldn’t listen to me, I asked her if she wanted to go to “time out.” We had never used that phrase with her previously, so I’m not sure why I even said it. Well, it worked. She no longer thought that misbehaving was funny and stopped that behavior. Her little face then scrunched up in a heart wrenching way, and she got really upset! She went running to Daddy, “I don’t want to go to time out! No time out!” and was crying. I talked to one of her teachers who said she didn’t think that Maddie had ever been sent to time out, but apparently she has a healthy respect for the punishment! We’ll have to remember that in the future (but use it sparingly).
Something I’m looking forward to next week: I’m looking forward to seeing our photos from Catherine, my first “normal” week on maternity leave with Maddie in daycare the whole week and no house guests, and Cullen’s 2-week appointment and weight check.
Something random: I’m still waiting on Cullen’s cord to fall off. Poor guy doesn’t have a belly button yet.
Something captured: Grandma had a lot of fun playing with Maddie and holding Cullen this week!
Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey