Thanksgiving with the Family

Thanksgiving weekend couldn't have fallen on a better week. I had so much help with both girls the week that Audrey was born, and it really helped me relax and enjoy the sweet smells and moments with a newborn. I also got to give Josie plenty of love since there were always willing hands to take the babe.

We spent it at my parents' lake with family and enjoyed the food while bundled up inside since the weather was very...wintery.

Family got to meet the baby.

My aunt Shary

Hubby was the official turkey cutter. He didn't think he did so great, but the turkey looked and tasted great so I'm not complaining!

My mom took on the task of making the whole meal. I was impressed because it seemed effortless and tasted wonderful.

Our dream came true with one long table. It was so fun to sit with everyone (kids included) and not have to be separated in different rooms. Praise the Lord for the home that allowed room for that.

Josie did awesome entertaining and playing by herself when everyone was visiting before and after the meal. I was so impressed with her!

My grandpa getting to hold his 4th great grand child. So thankful for him (and my grandma seated behind him).

My uncle Jeff who shares a birthday with miss Audrey

Perfect weekend for dozing with the (almost always) sleeping baby. We all took turns in this position.

Those pants. Too cute. They are too long so we rolled them up, but they looked so cute!! How is my baby girl already wearing 2T clothing??

We did venture outside a little on Friday to enjoy the colder weather. Jo loved being pulled on the sled all around the yard.

The house is on the top of a small hill so we can sled down on any side. My mom took her down one side and Buckley thought that it was a game he was playing too. He was all over the place and his excitement was pretty contagious.

It was a great weekend. We love it out there, even in the winter!


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A minute.

Sure, last Wednesday, I had a little test drive of what my days would be like at home with two under two. It went great, but it wasn't real. I knew that Josie was going to Grandma's in the afternoon and that hubby would be home earlier to help me with packing to leave for the weekend.

Today is the true first day. I have the girls at home all week by myself. So far, so good, but I'm being cautious, waiting for meltdowns and moments when I just want to hide away from the chaos. I'm not naive; I know that things will get crazy at times and I'm waiting for the first episode of that.

So far today, I've gotten Josie fed, bathed both girls at the same time (miracle, I swear), got them both napping at the same time, showered myself, had some quiet time, and now have a few minutes for blogging. All this by 11:00? I'll take it.

There are so many things I could be doing right now, but I'm going to try to enjoy the quiet with my coffee that my hubby so graciously brought me since we are out of filters and can't make it at home. (Why does that always happen the day after grocery shopping?)

Christmas music playing, I think I'll put my feet up for a minute and enjoy the (relative) silence. Just for a minute.



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Audrey in Photos

I didn't seem to have any good pictures of Audrey close up, so I went a little crazy taking a bunch of pictures the last couple of days. Here's the photo dump.

The hospital had a photographer come in and take some newborn pictures that I could purchase if I wanted. I snapped a few myself instead.

Snuggling in the hospital waiting for the all clear to go home.

We spend a lot of time like this... she sleeps so long and so deep and I can't get enough.

Must be some dream to scowl like that!

All the strange faces a newborn makes...

When she is awake, which seems like hardly ever, she is AWAKE and stares for so long at different objects. Sometimes I just want to move her to make sure she's ok because she is so still for so long.

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Sisters

I had low expectations for Josie meeting Audrey. She's only (almost) 17 months old. Come on, how much can she really understand? We'd been prepping her as much as we could, talking about the "baby", pointing to my belly, practicing saying her name, but generally she seemed to ignore us as much as possible and showed very little signs that she understood. Sure, she liked patting my belly and other babies, but none of that really meant she understood.

She'd been staying with her grandma and grandpa while we were at the hospital, so they worked hard on getting her to say "Audrey". Also, her grandpa's tradition is to buy a small stuffed animal horse and bring it with to the hospital when he meets the baby. Of course, the horse had been within Jo's view at their house, so they'd been working on explaining how that horse was for her sister, Audrey. 

It turned out that Grandma and Josie were the first people to arrive to the hospital, so Jo ended up being the first one besides hubby and I to see her. How cool is that? She came running into the room saying "Baby? Baby! Baby? Baby." She said it with a question-like tone, excitement, a factual tone, and repeat over and over. Hubby picked her up and she looked really close for maybe two minutes before moving on. I couldn't have asked for more. 

Once Grandpa caught up and came in the room, the next big focus for Josie was getting that horse she'd been wanting to hold for so long. Grandpa gave it to her and told her to bring it to the baby. She listened and "shared" it with her, but mostly she was just so excited to hold it. She spent most of the rest of her time there sharing it with everyone and passing it around. It was pretty sweet. She still calls the horse "Audrey horse". I don't know if she understands that Audrey's name is just Audrey and not "Audrey horse".

She was pretty happy to have a little one-on-one with us too. Glad she missed us a little bit at least!

All of her life, Josie has been the main event with everyone around. Being the first grand kid on both sides, she knows how to get laughs and generally gets a ridiculous amount of attention. With the addition of her cousin four months ago, she's learned to share it and how to interact with a baby, so we were blessed to have that part learned. She didn't seem jealous at all and was happy to clown around with those interested around her. Generally, after that initial interest, she was not interested in anything Audrey related. I'd take that over jealousy any day.



There was one point in the day that she wanted to hold the baby. We got pictures and I'm so glad we did, because it was priceless. She was all about it, got a good look, and was done. She even pushed her away like "Okay, let's play with the next toy!" Too funny.

Initial thought  - "Yeah, holding this baby is the most fun!"

And we're done. 

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