Saturday, May 14, 2011

3 months

My baby girl is already 3 months old!  She is at that stage where she is starting to smile and coo a lot, and I am really enjoying it.  She is pretty clingy in the evenings, so I get lots of cuddle time as I sit on the couch and nurse her. She really is an easy baby, and I think the biggest challenge has just been adjusting to life with a newborn again, and not having the freedom I was starting to enjoy since little Alex has become more independent.  I struggle with the desire to have the apartment clean and organized all the time, and the realization that it is never going to stay that way with young kids at home.  I try and remind myself to be grateful for the mess because it means I have a joyful and active toddler (and a new baby that needs LOTS of attention) and would be very sad if, instead, I didn’t have these kids and had a house that was in immaculate condition all the time.  It helps me to reflect on the words in this post.  This week is my first week back full-time and it is SO hard to be away from my babies all day.  I just keep telling myself that this won’t last forever, and can’t wait for the day when I can be a stay-at-home mom.  I do feel blessed that we live close enough to work that I can come home on my lunch to nurse Mary and spend a few minutes with hubby and little Alex.

He loves to say, "Run, run, run" as he races around the apartment.  


The Lynch men:



Happy girl


All wrapped up for bed.  I love this swaddler, called the "Swaddlepod" because it zips up.  I can never get regular blankets tight enough and they always come loose.


We had to get a new swing because the motor went out on our old one.  This one has a "My Little Lamb" theme- perfect for a little girl named Mary.






A cute little frog we saw outside.

4/29/11

I turned 28 a few weeks ago.  I am getting old!  Since I had just gone back to work, I was doing part-time that week so I got to spend the morning hanging out with the family.  Mary let me sleep in, and I when I awoke Alex had doughnuts and bagels waiting for us!  After work, I stopped and picked up some healthy food from a new place called PURE Healthy Eatery.  It was yummy. Then I opened my gifts- a foudue pot and cookbook from The Melting Pot!  I love that restaurant, but it is to expensive for us to go to anymore, so it will be nice to do fondue at home.  He bought the ingredients to make raspberry chocolate fondue along with cheesecake, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas for dipping.  





He is Risen!

We had a wonderful Easter as we celebrated our Resurrected Lord and all the blessings he has given us.  I feel like I didn’t use the opportunities of the Lenten season to grow spiritually as much as I should have since we were so busy adjusting to life with a new baby, but the Easter season is a great place to start growing deeper!  We were disappointed that we couldn’t make it to the Vigil, but we didn’t want to deal with tired and cranky kiddos during Mass.  So we got up and went at 7:30 instead.  When we got home we explored our Easter baskets and Alex made French Toast while I did a egg hunt around the apartment with little Alex.  After his nap we heading over to some friends house for dinner. 

Family pic after Mass


 Easter baskets

 Egg hunt

 Playing with blocks after dinner


And cars with Father Matt


 Alex got me this beautiful box with a picture of the painting “Virgin of the Lilies” by William Bouguereau.  I think little Alex understands the distinction between me, his “mama”, his sister “Mary” and the Mother of Christ “mama Mary” who we always point out to him in the paintings and statues around the house.  He got so excited when he saw the box and kept saying “mama Mary” and “Jesus” over and over.  So cute!



We tried dying eggs with little Alex the day before Easter, but maybe we should have waited a year; all he wanted to do was grab the eggs we were trying to color, and fussed the whole time.  I did get a few good pics and he was happy when I let me him put stickers on the finished eggs.





"Mommy an Me" class

Little Alex and I enjoyed a “Mommy and Me” class when I was on maternity leave.  It was a small group- only about 6 kids, and run by a former kindergarten teacher so she had lots of fun activities planned.  Little Alex loved the song and dance activities the best.





Houston Zoo trip

We decided to take little Alex to the zoo before I went back to work.  He was more into the animals than he was the last time we went, but still not as excited as I thought he might be.  A lot of the animals weren’t out/were sleeping though so that was a bummer.  I think he liked looking at the fish in the little aquarium the best.  I didn’t get many pics, but here are a few:

 Beautiful Red Pandas

Mama elephant w/ baby Baylor


The zoo has an awesome area for kids with a playground, petting zoo and a waterpark that will be opening this summer.  Here is a few pics of little Alex brushing the goats:


Park Playdate

I hosted a play date at Northshore Park for one of our playgroups early last month. We love this park because of the beautiful lake full of ducks (little Alex loves to throw them pieces of bread) and toddler-sized play equipment.  It was a beautiful morning full of food and fun.






Yummy cupcake.  He tried to stuff the whole thing in his mouth!



 "Come back, squirrel!"



Sunday, May 1, 2011

1st haircut

Before....

 And after....

I miss the curls, but it had to be done :)