You're a Heartbreaker, Dreammaker, love-taker...

I do love me some Pat Benatar.   But I love me some Jude a lot more!  Look at that precious smile!  The personality he has shown us so far is so laid back and happy.  Woody can get him to smile more than the rest of us.  And that melts my heart.

When he is awake (which is a small minority of the day), he loves to stick his tongue out, smile, and he's even starting to coo a bit.  This is him in the middle of his new way of communicating.

It looks like he is winking here.  I predict this boy is going to be a little heartbreaker.

These Boots are Made for Walking

On spring break, I found these rainboots on sale and had to snatch them up.  Riley has been very timid of them.  She'll take the box they are in and carry it around, but as soon as I try to put them on her, she whines and runs away.  Somehow, her daddy got her to put them on.  She loved them!!!  She stomped around in them for 15 minutes, which is eons for a toddler.

Then she sat down and watched TV in them, while sitting in her new favorite seat (Jude's bouncy seat).

Getting a better look.  She is too cute.  This little girl brings us so much joy.

Future blackmail?

This past weekend, we went to Mountain View to visit Woody's family.  After bathtime, Riley decided to go streaking, something she has taken to lately.  Woody snapped some pictures of this fun, new activity we've discovered.  I do plan on using this later in Riley's life to make her blush.  Is that mean of me?

Quality Time

Riley is so good about showing Jude that she loves him.  While rocking him the other day, she crawled up in the recliner with us and gave him multiple kisses.  So Sweet.  She loves to pat his head too.  She's going to be such a good big sister, until she starts tormenting him....  which she will.  And when he gets bigger than her, he'll get her back.  I speak from experience.

Job Description

Someone needs to write a job description of what it really is to be a stay-at-home mom, as I had a very romantic idea of what this was supposed to be.  Wow, reality really slapped me in the face.  Who knew all of those Gerber, Pamper, and various paper towel commercials were wrong?  Allow me to get the ball rolling.  Feel free to add whatever I miss.

Stay-At-Home Moms:
~Prepares breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks a day.
~Cleans kitchen after breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including messes in high chairs, sippy cups, and hair.
~Entertains children, including but not limited to:  reading, playing with various toys, dancing, singing, climbing stairs, blowing bubbles (this must be done outside as to not create more work for yourself), playing outside.
~Nurses baby at least 7 times in a 24 hour period.  To be repeated daily for several months.
~Cleans up spit up at each feeding.  This requires clothing of baby and mom to be changed at least, but not limited to, twice a day.
~Laundry, laundry, laundry; to be sorted, washed, dried, folded, and hung up before wrinkles set in.  Not completing the last step creates more work as these clothes will need to be fluffed in dryer, or ironed.  Using hot iron around toddler and baby not recommended.
~Puts children down for a nap while crossing fingers that they will both sleep, albeit not at the same time.
~Paci-Patrol for baby napping- this includes every 5-15 minutes of replacing paci that has fallen out of baby's mouth.  Continuing until it is time to wake baby for next feeding.
~Cleans up toys from morning playtime, mid-day playtime, and evening play time.
~Straightens house of husbands objects- this includes cups sitting on side tables, hats, papers, and other random objects haphazardly left around the house and forgotten about. (This is IF said cups weren't spilled by children during morning playtime, in which irritate mom cleaned that up immediately.)
~Makes sure dogs have water and food.  Spending time with said dogs is optional, however very needed by the dogs.  This is unfortunately one thing that seems to fall to the waist-side while other duties pile up and must be tended to.
~Teaches personal hygiene to children by constantly changing wet and dirty diapers, brushing teeth of toddler (This must be done, regardless of how much child screams, cries, whines, and holds her mouth shut.), brushing hair, giving baths (possibly more than one per child per day, depending on messes made during feedings and meals), and dressing children - preferably in clothes that match.
~Pays bills for household.  This must be done on time as being late can result in power, cable, water being shut off.  Must keep family on budget...good luck.
~Shops for groceries. This responsibility includes clipping coupons each Sunday, making menu, making list, going to buy groceries, bring them home, unload them, and put them in their proper places.
~Cooks for family using above mentioned groceries.  These meals must be nutritious for family, while appealing to each family member so no food is wasted.  Leftover will be used creatively in other meals, or as lunch for the following day.  However, serving leftovers too many times will result in burn out and no one will eat them, wasting your time and money.
~Catch-all clause:  Responsible for keeping family and household running in a somewhat orderly fashion at all times, doing any necessary plumbing, cleaning, handi-woman work when the need arises.

Salary:  $0 per year
Benefits:
~Spending copious amounts of time with children, not missing any cute new little thing they are doing.
~Having a somewhat put together house when the patriarch of family gets home from work.
~Cooking dinner for the family every night, resulting in family bonding time.
~Possibility to relax in the evening with husband after children have been put to bed, most nights.
~Lots of playtime with children, and husband when he is home.
~Play groups with other stay-at-home moms and their children.

Green thumb

A couple of weekends ago, we planted flowers in containers for the front door and back deck.  And by "we", I mean Woody did all of the work while I held the camera.  Riley really got into the action.

She spent most of the time moving the small flower containers back and forth.  She would put them about 2 feet away from their original spot, then move them right back.  She was very methodical with it, which just made me laugh.  I wonder what was going through her mind while she was busy rearranging.

When given the chance to help and get her hands in the soil, she really wasn't into it.  She did poke one finger into the soil before she decided to start moving the empty flower containers.  And can we just have a minute for that cute dress?

After the flowers were planted and watered, Woody decided to wash the cars.  I know.  He is a man of high energy, which I love.  I also love getting into a clean car!  Watching him reminded me of a time when I would wash my car once a week during the warmer months, even waxing and detailing it at least once a year.  But I digress. 

We decided to put Riley in her swim suit and let her play in the water.  Yep, that's what we call 'low budget, high fun entertainment', others may call it Redneck or Ghetto.  We didn't put a diaper on her, just the swimsuit.  We thought she would notice when she urinated.  Nope.  She never skipped a beat.  When we rinsed her off, she didn't seem to notice that either.  She was very focused on playing.  She really enjoyed letting the water trickle out of the hose and run over her hands and feet (she didn't seem to notice how cold it was).  I wish I had pictures, but I wanted both hands available with a wet baby and a wet, sloping driveway.

That taste of summer makes me very ready for school to be out so we can all have lots of family fun outdoors.  And tanned fat always looks better than pasty fat.  No, I haven't lost the baby weight, YET.

No cabin fever here!

I told you I was determined to not get cabin fever (which leads me to mommy-blues) with Jude's arrival.  So, we took a family trip to the 7A State Baseball Championship game in Fayetteville a couple of Friday nights ago.  I might not have been that jazzed about going, but it was Bryant (my alma mater) and Van Buren (the team that put Bentonville out of the tournament).  And my mom and brother went too, so you know we had to sit on the Bryant side.

Woody wore Jude in the snugli- man I love that thing.  And I carried Riley on my hip.  Let me tell ya, it doesn't take long to get those arms used to an 8 pound baby...leaving a sharp wake up call for them when carrying a 23 pounder.

Both kids were great the whole time.  We ended up leaving after the 8th inning, making it much longer through the game than I would have imagined.  As we were putting both kids in the car, we heard the end of the game roars as Bryant had a shut-out win against Van Buren.  We rushed to get ourselves buckled in and out of the parking lot before the rest of the fans.

All in all, true success on the fight against cabin fever as well as a fun filled family night.

Afternoons outside

Riley has discovered how much she enjoys being outside.  Every afternoon when Woody gets home, he takes her outside.  They usually go out on the back deck to blow bubbles... but Riley would rather grab the broom and "sweep".  She has also learned that it's easier to climb the front steps while holding a hand or two rather than climbing on all fours.

This is her looking up at bubbles.  Too bad we didn't get any bubbles in the picture.  But instead, we got Bruiser's image while running around and whining.  He has only hit her once or twice with his tail, enough that now she squints when he walks by (much like Calli learned to do long ago).  If only I could harvest his saliva from the back door and the energy emitted from his tail, I might be a millionaire...

Oh, and on the tooth-front, we now have the 2 top molars in, the 2 bottom molars trying to break through, and 2 other teeth trying to do the same.  This makes for some fussy afternoons here at the Woody house (and that's not even taking Jude into account)!