3 & 3 pics

Yesterday was picture day around here. Amelia was three months old, so it was time to get the first round of professional pictures done. I decided to take Seth along and see if by chance I could get his 3-year-old pictures three weeks early and save myself a trip later. I figured worst case scenerio, I'd be back in three weeks. The kids did fabulous, and Lisa was able to join us after work, which made it so much easier on me. This is the first time I've ever left truly happy with all my selections. They usually grow on me over time. I did buy the ones of Amelia below, but the ones of Seth are just ones I liked...these are the originals, my final selections were cropped quite a bit.

Like riding a bicycle

I wasn't my quickest or most organized self, but I settled back in nicely at work. It almost started off with a pull to the pediatric step-down unit taking care of big kids, but my friends watched out for me. I ended up having a pretty busy assignment, but you will hear no complaints out of me. Going to the floor on my first day back would have been cruel and unusual punishment. It sounds like Amelia did really well the first day, and Seth was so excited to have Lisa around. I didn't sleep really well, so we kept it pretty quiet Tuesday morning. It was Amelia's first time with a sitter. She got a good report card, but Nathan said she was a little out of sorts later and went to bed early. Seth also did well, but he's had this schedule his whole life. They had me jump right back in at work and do charge last night. Luckily it wasn't crazy, and I actually got some stuff for my evaluation done. Now I'm off until Monday...the benefit of being part-time!

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work I go...

It's time for me to keep up my end of the bargain and head back to the Baptist this afternoon. I've heard mixed reviews about how busy it is, hopefully they will be nice to me! I'm not as anxious going back this time, I don't know if it's because it's the second time around, Amelia is not nearly as fussy as Seth was, because I already know the sitters, or because I know Lisa will be around to help us out. I know we're lucky. I think this maternity leave went twice as fast as last time, and thankfully it was a lot less dramatic than when I was home with Seth. Since today is a holiday, Nathan will be home all afternoon with the kids, and Lisa will arrive at some point later in the day. We'll start with the sitter routine tomorrow. Nathan has been handling Amelia's bedtime all week, so hopefully it'll be a smooth-ish transition. In fact, she has been sleeping through the night (with one binky request at 4am) since Thursday. It will be fantastic if that continues!

Amelia will normally only talk like this to her daddy, but she had something to say all afternoon Friday. (Incidently, the book says vocalizations increase at this age...maybe she's reading the book?)

Seth at that age...(3 month edition)

Since I didn't start the blog until Seth was thirteen months old, I thought I'd post pictures of "baby Seth" every once in awhile. This picture was taken right before he turned 3 months.

Grabbin' Goblin

Seth has a favorite Backyardigans episode where Austin is the Grabbin' Goblin. Usually Nathan plays that character, but I think Amelia can take over that role now. Not only is she grasping toys when she plays on the floor, she's now grabbing the ones on the swing (and kicking the ones on the play mat).She's very warm-natured, so she's loving the summer outfits. This is her 12-weeks-old-today picture:
And let's not forget Seth-the-puppy:

This is my last weekend of freedom, I go back to work on Monday. We will probably spend most of the weekend getting last minute stuff done and getting ready for Lisa to move in!

Lookin' in the mirror

Amelia likes mirrors right now. She really likes this baby that lives in her closet door...
She has been trying her hardest to roll over this week. She can get all the way over except for one shoulder.
The kids had a bunch of daddy duty time this week. I went to a Pampered Chef party, a church meeting, and a Dream Dinners session. We had My Gym sessions Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday we went to the Children's Museum. The Creature Teacher was there. Seth sat for about 2/3rds of the presentation, I was impressed. The animals were a ball python (eck!) and a de-stinked skunk named Amelia. (That confused Seth quite a bit!) Thursday we tried out a new place called Funigans, it's kind of like ChuckECheese with a better playground and way better food. Friday we went to the mall to return a bunch of stuff.

Saturday we went to the park for Blair's first birthday party. Seth has become a way better climber since the last time we went, and braver too; Melissa and I about had heart failure several times spotting him!

The kids got to bring balloons home from the party, and Amelia talked to hers for the rest of the day!

Youngest Hey Jude

Nathan recommends you watch this video to ensure you get a smile in today...I recommend you watch it to the end (it's less than 2 minutes)!

party like a rockstar

This shirt used to be Seth's...I thought if I paired it with some pink, Amelia could wear it. Unfortunately, she thought she should party like a rock star last night, I was up with her a lot last night (of course it may have been do to the little bit of espresso chip ice cream I ate last night...live and learn...).

special day for the Mayse girls

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! Ours was very special, because not only did we get to see both our moms, Amelia was baptized. My original plan was to have it in June, then we could have a combination Amelia's baptism/Seth's birthday bash. We recently found out that our pastor is retiring on June 1st, so we moved the baptism up. Luckily our parents, the Johnstons, and Lisa and Michael could still come. Amelia wore an Old Navy dress; I had Lisa's long, traditional dress, but Amelia hated having her legs covered like that the times we tried it on, and I figured it wasn't worth having an unhappy baby all through church. Amelia was a very good girl for the baptism and the rest of the service. We all came home for lunch together.

Mommy and Amelia...
Another family picture (can you believe it?)

Lisa and Michael are Amelia's godparents. They are pros...they have one other godchild together, and Michael has another one in Ohio!

cutie Will and Addy

Two things wrong with this picture

For those of you who have been to our house before, no we didn't buy dining room furniture. We moved the kitchen table into the dining room for the weekend to accomodate for lunch tomorrow. But that's not the only thing wrong with this picture. Look what I saw as I was coming down the stairs. I don't know why she was up there, the bag of SunChips was unopened and she wasn't anywhere near Seth's empty dish. I had to take a picture, because I knew Evan and Ryan would love to see Colette on the table again! She didn't even get down when she saw me, brazen dog!

Fifteen hours

...that's how long our power was out.

Last night it had started to storm as I was making my last post. I decided to turn on the news, and found all the local stations doing continuous weather forecasts. After just a few minutes, Lanie Pope said to take shelter if you were near I-40 in Clemmons. I found flashlights, carried Seth and Amelia down to the basement, then woke Nathan from a sound sleep and told him what was going on. It didn't take him long to decide to join us. Amelia slept through it all, Seth dosed off and on, and when he was awake, he wanted to be in charge of a flashlight. The power went out at 10:30. The boys moved back upstairs around 1:30, Amelia and I stayed downstairs all night. The power was still off this morning, and Nathan left really early again. I took the kids to Cracker Barrel for breakfast to kill some time. It's a good thing that was my intention, because everyone else had the same idea! We got home and the power was still out, so we went back out and got some ice...I don't care about my food spoiling, but I have a lot of milk stored away for Amelia when I go back to work, and I would hate it if I lost all that. Our neighborhood was very lucky. It sounds like the worst damage was about three miles away. Click here if you want to see local pictures.

update: I just went for a walk and saw that half of one tree against the chimney is bent to the point of no return. It looks like it should have a crack in it, but it doesn't. More mulch!

Busy Daddy!

Nathan has had a crazy week at work, not only is it requiring long hours out of him, they couldn't make up their mind about whether they wanted to send him to NYC to do some work or not. Now they say he's going next week. I'll believe it when he actually gets on a plane. So the kids and I have been left to entertain ourselves (and we all know I'm not as cool as Daddy). We were able to go on twice daily walks the beginning of the week, that helped. Monday we had Seth's gym class, and Tuesday we went to a surprise 30th birthday party for Lonnie and Lottie (this picture is from April, it's the best picture I have of them), which was awesome.

Wednesday the kids and I made a long day trip to Cary. I had originally planned to go while Nathan was gone, but after Nathan's business trip was rescheduled, Seth was REALLY disappointed and he needed a haircut, so we still went. The highlight of the trip was that I got a refresher course in how to use a Singer (I haven't used a sewing machine since 7th grade Home Ec) and I am very proud of the soft book I made. I think I did a pretty good job. The sewing machine the boys gave me for Christmas is still in the closet, but now I think I'll be brave enough to use it! Today we made a Target run, and this evening we met with our pastor about Amelia's baptism. I don't know how we'll fill the day tomorrow, but we'll think of something!

Amelia has started doing two cute things this week: she loves to look at books. If you hold one in front of her and turn the pages, she coos and goos for each page (takes after her mama!). Also, when she wants to let you know she's hungry, she starts smacking on her hand as loud as she can. It's not sucking to pacify herself, it's "hey lady, I'm going to chew my arm off here!" How dramatic!

Seth is having a growth spurt. He's done really well with not having as much daddy time this week, but I think the fact that Pops played hooky and worked from home during our Cary visit helped. Seth has been asking to snuggle Amelia more, and she just loves it. The picture is from this morning when we were reading books.

Have you hugged a nurse today?

I plan to hug several later! We are going to see some of my friends later today. It's National Nurse's Day today, in case you haven't figured it out. We get this freebie publication every month, and I thought you'd enjoy some of the t-shirts they advertise:

Not a threat......really...You can't say I didn't warn you! It tends to be a big hot mess when I do charge, I left with a bang back in February, so I'm sure more than a few people dread my return in three weeks...(and you know I'm at the top of that list...)

Overstimulated, maybe?

Amelia is really starting to enjoy playtime on the floor in the evenings now that she has realized she can reach out and grab what is in front of her. I had put two toys and a book next to her. I guess Seth didn't think that was enough to keep her occupied: