you are my sunshine

A couple of days ago my sweet little girl finally started singing the song "You are My Sunshine." This is the song I sang to her every night as I lulled her to sleep as a small baby, and then every night as I tucked her in as she got older. She has been singing the words to her ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and many songs by Bruno Mars for some time now but would never sing this one, that was until she heard me singing it to Marinn as I put her to sleep. Her little face lit up as she recognized the song and cheerfully chimed in and helped me sing and applauded when the song was over.

It's the best feeling to see her sing to Marinn, poking at her belly during the line, "you are my sunshine" and singing, "please don't take my Marinn away." I knew before I was ever pregnant that I wanted more than one child. I wanted them to experience the special depth of friendship that exists between siblings, especially sisters. I love how openly Amelia has welcomed Marinn into her life. She wakes every morning and looks for her and tells her good morning and how much she missed her and how cute she is. She is eager to show Marinn her toys and dance and sing in front of her and smashes her face against hers and whispers secrets into her ears.

When Andy and I found out we were expecting our second child one of our biggest concerns was how we would divide our time between two children. I loved all the time that I got to spend with Amelia. I got to wake up every day and spend all of my time loving on that sweet baby girl. I took a million pictures, heard every sigh, sneeze, or whimper. I oohed and awed over every smile, read to her, sang to her, and gave her all of my attention. I knew to the day how old she was, how much she weighed, how many diapers she used in a day. There wasn't one thing about her day that I wasn't there for during the first year of her life. As she got older there still wasn't much I missed and we spent our days playing with toys, reading books, coloring, or doing chores around the house. I was fearful of how a new baby would make her feel as my time and attention would have new demands on it. I was also concerned by the fact that dividing my time would mean I wouldn't have every moment to spend soaking up each little thing with the new baby. This is probably much like the feelings of most parents when their second child arrives, however that doesn't make the feelings and fears subside.

Since Marinn joined our family there is a whole new dynamic in our home. As we anticipated, things with baby number two is much different but that doesn't make it bad, as a matter of fact I think it's better. We may not keep a record of every little thing but that is because our days are filled with too many to keep track of. We don't have every minute to spend with Marinn, but Marinn has an adoring older sister showering her with love and attention. I have come to terms with not being able to do things exactly the same with Marinn as I did with Amelia because they are two different people. Just as Marinn will never know what is is like to have my undivided attention all the time, Amelia will never know what it is like to have a big sister to look up to.  One thing we do is try to make time with each girl separately every day to remind them how important they are to us and we also take time all together and show them the value they hold as a part of our family, something we feel is just as important as knowing their individual worth. And we end every night with our song:

You are my sunshine,

my only sunshine

You make me happy,

when skies are gray

You'll never know dear,

how much I love you

So please don't take

my sunshine away

milk mates!

I saw a clever idea on Prudent Baby that I thought I would give a try. They made these things called milk mates, what they are is flavored ice cubes you put in your milk that then flavor your milk. See, I told you, clever! (I find lots of good ideas there so if you want, you can check it out here.) It was a post as part of The Breakfast Project, which is meant to help insure you are having a nutritious breakfast that includes milk. It's part of the 'got milk?' milk mustache thing that has Salma Hayeck in their silly new commercial. (Amelia gets excited by the cow, it makes me want to watch Fools Rush In.)

The recipe is really simple which makes this even better!

monkey food

It's been a raining all day today which left me with a broken hearted child. Amelia stood in the kitchen chair, staring out the window at the swing Daddy just hung in the tree, begging me to go outside. I offered her a snack in hopes of focusing her attention elsewhere but she snubbed my banana and told me "monkey eats that." She then insisted her snack be the chocolate chips she found in the pantry. As a compromise we came up with "monkey food," chocolate dipped bananas and peanut butter.

no-sew tutu

A tutu has been on my project list for some time now and with St. Patrick's Day in our near future it seemed like it was time cross it off the list.
I've never been one to do much dressing up for the holiday however, I can't seem to resist dressing up my girls for any occasion! I have a feeling this will be worn long after the parade as well!

Materials:
Tulle (25 yds)
Elastic (or ribbon)
Needle (I know, I said 'no-sew,' but it's minimal and if you use ribbon it's not necessary)
Thread
Sharp scissors
Piece of cardboard (at least 6 in wide and the length of your desired skirt length)

This is a '2T' size and I used 24 inches of elastic (including the overlap) and made the skirt 10 inches long (which took the entire roll of tulle to complete the skirt.)

To blog or not to blog

As part of my New Years resolution this year I vowed to journal as a way to remember the daily occurrences that make up my crazy life I love so much, books I've read, and projects I somehow manage to complete. Thus far I have yet to jot a single note into the pretty journal with the perfectly lined pages.

As I picked out my pretty journal (and perfect pen to write in it with) I toyed with the idea of writing a blog but decided against it. It seems everyone is writing their own blogs these days and I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love to get sucked into the quirky blurbs and inspiring projects and I could spend hours browsing pictures. The hate is in the form of envy, really, of the people who have the time/energy to write such things and their ability to capture that seemingly perfect picture.

After having my second child in December I feel as though the past few months have been a whirlwind. Most days are consumed by endless amounts of laundry (filled with tiny little socks you have to make a second trip to the dryer to find the last match to), diaper changes, feedings (when I find the time, maybe even for myself!), ABC’s and “terrible twos” tantrums over any and everything. 

I find myself sitting on the couch at the end of the day, exhausted and thinking about all the things I wish I would have gotten to and making mental notes of funny stories or happenings of the day. It’s all these little things that make up my life, who I am; good, bad and the ugly.  These little things are what I don’t want to loose in the shuffle of the day so I guess the decision is - to blog.

Here I will share with you my adventures with my husband and two beautiful girls, as well as my ventures in homemaking and being crafty. This is my way of taking a moment to appreciate the things in my life and hold on to them a while.  I hope you enjoy taking a little peek into my world.