Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas this year!

We got Lindley and Caden up just before 9:00 and came downstairs.  

They chilled on the couch for a bit. 

I made pumpkin pancakes, with and without chocolate chips.  

They were so good - I think I'm going to have to make that a Christmas tradition. 

Caden got a cute snowman sippy cup in his stocking :).  

It was so something my mom would have bought, so I couldn't resist.

Lindley realized she had forgotten to buy presents for everyone.

Nana & Pappu (Wade's parents) and Aunt Whitney came over to have breakfast & open presents with us.  I love this picture of Lindley smiling at Nana.

Caden loved this wooden truck/car set from his grandparents. 

 

Sweet Paisley had to be in the middle of it all, of course.

Caden was finally into opening presents, which was fun.

He started playing with each toy he got right away. 

 

He really loved the Little Tikes car!  Wade brought it in from the garage after all the presents had been opened.  Caden got up & ran over & hopped inside immediately.  It was so cute. 

  

After the kids napped & my dad came over briefly, we headed to my aunt Laurie's house for dinner and more celebrations with her family, my sister's family & dad.

 

Caden ran around and played with his cousins most of the night, and Lindley enjoyed being held by various family members.

I didn't get any pictures, but the day after Christmas we celebrated with dad's sister & brother & associated families, which was fun as well!  The last couple days we've just been trying to clean up, put gifts in their places, and get the kids back on normal eating & sleeping schedules.

Getting ready to ring in the new year Atlanta-style!

Boy + girl

This is just a brief post to get these cutie patooties out there in the blogosphere a little more.

I couldn't resist snapping a couple pics of the kids together the other day. 

Caden is into giving kisses these days.  He asks for a kiss every time I put him down for a nap or bedtime, and that's his cue to lay down and go to sleep (it generally works, although he's started asking for another... and another... and...).  So here he is giving Lindley a kiss.

4 months old!

 Our Lindley girl is 4 months old now!  She's pretty cute, but I'll let the pictures do the talking on that.

She's getting much better head control now and can somewhat sit on my hip when I hold her and sit up supported.  She lasted about 1 second when I tried to take a picture of her sitting up by herself.  It's still early though :).

Baby girl is wearing 3-6 month clothes, and size 2 diapers (size 3 at night).  She usually goes to bed between 8-9 p.m., and wakes up between 7:30-8:30 a.m.  Another good sleeper - praise the Lord for that!  She nurses 5-6 times a day and takes a few naps (nothing set in stone yet).

She started grasping toys (of her own accord) the day she turned 4 months.  So if you put something in her lap, she'll pick it up now and look at it or chew on it.

Still a little short for the jumperoo.  I'm sure I could adjust the height settings, but I ended up just putting a couple cushions under it for now.

She does better in this bouncer, hanging from the doorway from our kitchen to the laundry room.  Right now she'll sit in it happily for maybe 20 minutes, but hopefully that will get longer the more she figures out how to bounce, and with improved body control.

Not to be left out, this little guy is quickly approaching TWO!  He got a real haircut a couple weeks ago, which makes him look even more little boy-ish.  He's wearing 2T pants and 3T tops, and size 7.5-8 shoes.

These are his new Christmas friends.  He lined them up on the steps & sat down beside them all by himself :).

All decked out for Christmas!

 The faithful fake tree.  I still like the way it looks & the money it saves on not buying a tree every year!

I finally sewed letters on rest of our stockings, so we're all represented now!  (Paisley's is behind mine because we only have 4 hooks.)

Christmas is coming soon!  Caden has picked up the words "Christmas," "Jesus," and "birthday" recently.  Trying to get him to connect that we celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas :).  He's also started asking to read his Bible all the time - it is the sweetest thing ever.  He knows who David & Goliath, Daniel (and the lions), Jonah (and the whale), Jesus & Zacchaeus are when we get to those pages.  I love seeing him learn and am amazed whenever he whips out something I had no idea he knew!

Update on our fall

We've been keeping very busy over here this fall!

The last weekend of October, I took the kids up to Hart Square for the annual festival.  We had a great time!  They did well on the drive, except for Lindley crying off and on for the HOUR AND A HALF we sat in traffic to get in the gate.  I certainly didn't blame her for that though.

It was fun to see Caden get to walk around and explore things this year, since he was just 9 months when we went last year.  He wandered everywhere & made friends with all he met.  He liked the sheep & goats & horses the best I think.

The kids got to sport their Halloween costumes a couple times - here we are at Hillary's neighborhood playgroup.  Lindley is a lion, and Caden is a skunk (both hand-me-down costumes from friends!).  By the time we got to actual Halloween night, I was too tired to put their costumes on again & go trick-or-treating, but we did go to some friends' house and sit in the driveway with a fire in the fire pit, passing out candy.

I love fall in North Carolina!  This was the view from our back door a couple weeks ago.

Wade has been working a lot - surprise, surprise.  Pre-season stuff for varsity basketball is busy in itself, combined with running another basketball league on the weekends, and of course his actual main job of assistant principal.  Now that basketball season has started, he has practice or games every day of the week, plus shootaround on Saturdays.  He doesn't get to see the kids much, so moments like this one are pretty special - when he was home one afternoon and just hung out with Caden for a little bit.

He sure does love his daddy!

Our sweet Lindley is already 3 months old!  She's finally getting less fussy and is giving me lots of smiles & even coos now.  She was sleeping 12 hours straight at night for two weeks...  the time change messed her up a little, and she's gotten back to about 10 hours now, which is still pretty good :). 

She's holding her head up well & loves to watch the high school basketball games when we go watch daddy coach.  I'm glad we're starting to get to a more fun stage with her - the newborn months are not my favorite at all.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is already next week, and then it'll be time to think about Christmas!  This time last year, Caden was still a baby, and I had no idea that our little girl was already growing and would be an irreplaceable part of our family by now.  I'm so thankful for the way God planned our family and gave us these sweet kids to raise.  They are truly a blessing!

Haircut

Just gave Caden a haircut tonight, all by myself!  I've been cutting it all by myself for the most part, but it's now getting a lot thicker (and he's certainly getting wigglier), so I was more nervous that I couldn't do a decent job.  But I sat him down with my iPod Touch and snipped away.  I'm pretty proud of the results!

In the bottom right picture, I had asked him to say "cheese" - he said "mooooo."  That's my silly boy!

Randoms from Lindley's first month

Well, somehow a whole month has gone by since my last post!  I guess that shouldn't be surprising with all that we have going on these days.  Wade is back in the swing of things at school, and the kids & I are settling into a routine I guess.  

I don't feel too overwhelmed with both of them most of the time, although it is tiring & sometimes the nonstop responsibility & neediness of an infant & toddler gets to me.  I find myself daydreaming of time alone, time before having kids, being able to just sit down & enjoy a meal, or do what you want when you want to do it, or spontaneously make plans with no need to take a million details into consideration, or exercise by myself, or of course, sleep through the night.

I know I'll look back on this time as a short season of chaos, so I try to just take it all in stride & enjoy as much of it as possible.  Lindley has become a little colicky in the past week or two, which is draining.  She pretty much cries from 8-11 p.m., and she's really never happy and awake at the same time.  I'm hopeful that it is mostly due to her age (5.5 weeks now) and she'll get happier in a few more weeks.

She had her first bath at 2 weeks after her umbilical cord fell off.  It's crazy how much she looks like Caden at this age, except for the dark hair.

I wouldn't say Caden is helpful, per se, but he's interested at least, and he does pretty well around her.  He likes to point out her foot & hand & eyes & belly button.

This was the first time he "held" her - I was surprised that he wanted to, but he did great.  Just sat still in the chair & looked at her sweetly for probably 10 minutes!

Sweet big brother!

I can't wait to see these two really interact & play together in a few months.

Fast forward a few weeks... we finally took some family pictures this weekend, so there is proof that the 4 of us really do belong together :).  I love the shot that I used for the new blog header, and I also got some cute ones of just me & my baby girl.

All in all, life is good.

First week home

We've had a great first week home from the hospital!  My recovery has been a breeze this time, so I have been able to get back into the swing of life very quickly, which is a huge blessing.  We were even able to make it to church - all 4 of us - the day after we got home.

This was my first solo outing with both kids... to Target, when Lindley was 6 days old.  I had to get newborn diapers & pacifiers that Lindley likes.  Hillary & the girls met me there for moral support :).  It went well though, other than the fact that there is literally no room in the cart with Caden in the front seat part & L's car seat taking up the entire basket.

Caden having a snack one day...  he's so BIG now, it seems!

A rare moment with eyes open.  Girl still sleeps 98% of the time :).

Can't believe I have TWO kids!

I can already tell these days are going to go by too fast.  I remember Caden's first couple months seeming like an eternity, and I'd have to say I didn't completely enjoy them, largely because of how much of a struggle nursing was.  That part is going so much better this time, and with practically zero recovery needed from labor/birth, and already being in the swing of the pace of life as a mother, things just seem so much more manageable this time.  I know this is only the first week and things will get hectic when Lindley actually wakes up, for instance, but I'm definitely enjoying it so far!

And here's my sweet boy in the laundry basket.  He has seemed to adjust very well so far (again, I realize Lindley hasn't "woken up" yet!).  Only a normal amount of tantrums, and I haven't noticed any jealousy.  He has a very passing interest in the baby... he'll say "baby" from time to time, and look at her & touch her feet, but really doesn't care too much beyond that.

All in all, we are very blessed with these two kiddos and can't wait to watch them grow up together & see them start to interact and (hopefully) become best buds!

Lindley is here!

On Thursday, August 2, 2012, at 12:50 p.m., Lindley Caroline Tapp made her grand entrance into the world!  She was 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and 20 inches long.

We are in love with this little girl already!

I was induced 2 days shy of my due date, and labor only took 4.5 hours from start to finish.  It was not painless by any means, but SO much better than labor & delivery with Caden.  It certainly helped that she was so small & my second baby :).

A few hours after she was born...  3 generations!  Her name, Lindley, comes from Linda, my mom's name.  And her middle name, Caroline, comes from my maternal grandmother, Carolyn, and Wade's maternal grandmother, Carol.

We came home from the hospital today (Saturday), and we're doing great so far!  More to come I'm sure.