Sunday, October 28, 2012

Happy Fall/Halloween!

We FINALLY got some 60 degree weather!!  Even 50 degree as well!  I don't think it's here to last, so I'm not motivated to drag out winter clothes yet.

Aunt Claire has been in town and we kept her busy with a zoo trip, dinner out, 2 gelateria stops, our church fall festival, our neighborhood Halloween carnival, and a visit to the fire station.

Matching cuties - thanks Grammy!
Wait, matching cuties again!  Jack's "puhjammies" - a gift last year; Cora's pjs - zulily purchase!  Jack was SO excited for them to "match".  (No she's not sitting up alone.)
Fireman and Firebaby.  Aunt Claire was an honorary firewoman for the day
I'm always an honorary fireman.  (Missing from pic: honorary fireman Daddy)

The "Jacks" having fun at the neighborhood Halloween carnival


Saturday, October 20, 2012

So Much

This week I feel like there is just SO MUCH.  So much going on, so much on my mind, so much to say.  This is not a bad thing; I actually like how full life is right now.  So what's going on?

1. Don't brag on your baby.  She will make you eat your words.

Perfect sleeper decided to mix things up and for 5 nights woke us 4-5 times.  That coupled with daily alarm clocks for work or exercise led to...

2. The remembrance/realization/reestablishment that I NEED sleep.

In our Sunday School class' recent study The Good and Beautiful God, one of the first challenges we were given was to ensure we were getting 7 hours of sleep at least (I need 8).  It was easy to make jokes about doing this, but the first few months of being a mom of 2 and this last week reminded me of why this is so critical.  One may have lofty goals and aims, be they spiritual, personal, professional, what have you, but you derail yourself if you are tired.  You eat poorly, act meanly, and just can't enjoy life the way you can when you are rested and have given yourself some margins.  So...

3. We made a change.  Cora got moved down the hall into her crib.  

Turns out baby girl (at 18 lbs and 25+ inches) just wasn't loving her little cradle anymore.  She immediately returned to her once nightly waking and last night (for the first time, let me hear a Hallelujah!) slept through the night!  9pm-6am (when I woke her bc I was so worried about her).  On the topic of sleeping...

4. Right before we realized Cora was going to trip us up on sleep, we decided to do a BOP BAN at nighttime.

What's a bop?  That's Jack's self-created word for his pacifier which he still passionately uses at sleep times.  Jacob says he's addicted and he's being serious.  I'm more moderate on the issue (is it really doing that much harm to have it at nap/night time?)  So we compromised and decided to say NO BOPS at night time but YES BOPS at nap time.  (No messing with nap time allowed!  My rule!)  While this might seem like it could be confusing, I think it's actually kinder.  As the child sobbed and sobbed, at least we could repeat that we weren't taking the bops away, just trying to teach ourself how to sleep without them at night time.  For the record, he does not care that firemen, Mommy, Daddy, or his friends don't use bops.  We are several nights in and it's getting better.  At least he's had awesome daytimes, because...

5. We live in and love New Orleans.

In the past week, we have had park play dates, a zoo playdate, listened to a youth orchestra while picnicking on the lawn of our mansion turned local library, gone to the farmer's market, gone to the Children's Museum, and gone to the Parenting Center (aka toddler heaven).  It's easy to have low-cost fun in this city, especially when...

6. We have such awesome NOLA friends.

I love how we run into friends every time we are out walking in our neighborhood.  I love that our circles of friends are interconnected.  I love that many of our couple friends are starting to join us in the parenting stage of life.  I love that Jack has so many friends from such loving, caring families. 


7. But mostly, I love these little ones.

...despite their idiosyncrasies this past week!  Note: I'm attributing my effusive mood right now to the bedtime book I just read Jack, Just In Case You Ever Wonder by Max Lucado, just picked up for $1 at our library's Saturday book sale.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

4 month update

Baby Cora: I'm not trying to brag on my baby, but I can't quit saying what an awesome baby Cora is.  At least by writing it down repeatedly, nothing she can do in the future will erase the fact that she was just a chubby bundle of precious sweetness right now.  I really love having a baby.  This may sound silly, but whenever I'm reminded that that's "my baby" over there, I just have this tremendous happiness.  I'm sure it doesn't hurt that she's so easy, but babies are just wonderful.  I highly recommend them ;)
What a look!

Cora's a smiler and a laugher, but not a mover or a shaker yet :)  And I don't mind at all!  I love that I can put her anywhere and know she isn't going anywhere.  She's also a firegirl in training.

On her 4 month birthday, Cora was 17 lbs, 11 oz and 25.5 inches.  Which means that in 4 months to the day, she put on 10 pounds to the ounce!  Impressive!  Apparently I'm producing pure cream.

She needs at least 5 hours of nap time during the day, which comes in 3-4 naps.  She has started sleeping in a little later than us, even to 7:20 one morning this week.  She is ready for "bed" by 8 at the latest and usually doesn't wake up much when I feed her before I go to bed.  Still waking once to eat and going right back to sleep.




Big Boy Jack: The fire truck obsession continues.  We're all a little tired of playing, but are continually amused by Jack's additions to the game.  Now there is a telephone involved to signal a fire.  He's alternatively manic, running to get his gear and hurry to the fire, and, at other times, the fire rages for half an hour it seems before he gets around to fighting it.   The other day I was told to "be patient" and many times the fire truck has left something at the station and has to leave the fire to go back and get it.

Favorite quote of the week, Jack to Cora: "Are you admiring my fire gear?!"
Our local hero is Captain Ross at the Arabella Station.  We met him several months ago and he achieved  mythical status in Jack's play world.  We've returned to the station many times, but just this past week ran back into Captain Ross.  Jack had a great talk with him and walked away with many more factoids and stories (luckily he didn't understand all of Captain Ross's stories - he's a colorful guy!) 

Jack and buddy Thatcher
We are loving the Waldorf School and Jack loves going.  He also seems to love his new babysitter Miss Rachel and luckily she doesn't seem to mind playing fireman.

"Laundress" needs to be added to my business card.
Mommy Landry: I'm proud to say I completed my first month of Pure Barre classes, going 12 times in 30 days.  Thanks to my husband's pace, I also met my goal of running a sub-8 minute mile and actually did 7:20.  We've been toying with the idea of running the New Orleans Half Marathon in February.  Registration goes up this month but ???  It will take a big commitment to fit in longer runs (and probably mean hiring a babysitter once a week bc more than 45 minutes in a stroller is a lot to ask of two children.)  I've finished 4 weeks of work and things are going well.  More thoughts to come after I reach my official 6 weeks so-now-I-can-assess-this-situation-fairly mark.






This guy definitely loves having a baby too!
Daddy Landry: Jacob is now more than halfway through his Executive MBA at Tulane.  I know I, for one, will be on the moon when he isn't taken away from us 7:30-5:30 every other weekend!  His program ends with an international trip next June and the tentative plan is that I will join him (probably with just Cora) after his week of classes for an international vacation.  We don't know yet where he's going, but it's exciting to think about. 

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Snippets

Off to church
A busy week, but all went well with work and the new babysitter.

Jack: Capturing a moment (or more like a snapshot of the last year) on the New Orleans Moms Blog, where I'm a contributor.

Cora: Such an absolute joy of a baby!  This week she's been napping about 5 hours total each day, still only waking once at night, and is just all smiles and love when she's awake.  She and I were a team at the New Orleans Baby & Child Fest this weekend exhibiting for the La Leche League of  New Orleans.  She was with me from 9-4 and was an absolute champ!


First day of cool weather this week, so we got to break out long sleeves