a certain little someone's birthday is coming up...

This sweet little boy turns TWO in only one week! 

I know, I'm having a hard time believing it myself. It seems like just yesterday, we were in Texas celebrating him turning one at his rainbow birthday party. And now, he's about to turn two? How is that even possible? Excuse me while I go cry in the corner.

Last year.

At his first birthday party last year. 

I'll take this perfect newborn baby boy back now, please. ♥

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Elliot & Emmett! ♥

I hope you had a wonderful day- we sure did! Despite the rainy forecast, it ended up being the warmest day we've experienced so far in Michigan (61 degrees!). We were lucky enough to open our home to three sets of the boys' grandparents this Easter for a little feast and an egg hunt outside. The only person missing was their Grandma Karen (Aaron's mom), who lives in Florida, but she was here in thought. The boys were showered in love, candy, and gifts. It was wonderful to see everyone get together and get along for the boys' sake. I know it wouldn't be possible in some families but our parents have just gone above and beyond since we've moved back home.

After everyone parted ways and I got the kitchen all cleaned up, I spent the majority of the afternoon working out in the garden, getting it ready to hopefully plant fruits and vegetables soon! Elliot and Emmett worked alongside me using their new pint-sized garden tools (an Easter gift from Poppy & Mimi). If there was a competition for the most rocks in a garden, I think ours would receive a gold medal. The weeds and dead crops seemed to be competing for some sort of award, too. There's nothing that makes me happier than getting my hands and feet dirty in some nice, rich soil... something we missed in the last several years while we lived in Texas and Arizona. I never thought I would say this, but I missed the smell of real dirt! It was even warm enough to finally open up the windows and fill our home with fresh air today. It sprinkled a little in the evening so the house now smells like a mixture of fresh rain and burning cedar- simply lovely.

Tonight, I am not regretting our decision to move back to Michigan one bit. Of course, finally being able to play and work outside helps a little! Next winter, I may be singing another tune ;)

A few pictures from today:

Blowing bubbles with Mimi.

Emmett (cheeks stuffed with candy) opening presents :)

Lulu found & ran away with this egg. :) She turned 9 weeks old a couple days ago.

Hello, Spring!

Since we moved to Michigan in the middle of February, we were lucky enough to miss half of the worst winter northern Michigan has had in years. I'm thankful for that, but even still, as April rolled around, we were more than ready for the sun to shine, the snow to melt, and warm spring weather. At first, I was skeptical, but I feel fairly confident in announcing that Spring has finally arrived in northern Michigan! Granted, we will probably still get hit with the occasional cold spell and snowfall, but for the most part, it's warming up. The snow is almost completely gone now! 

I took these pictures last week- the snow in this picture has completely melted now!

As soon as the snow in the woods was thin enough for the boys to tromp through, we went off exploring our very own 100 acre woods. We didn't meet any bouncing tigers or honey-filled bears, but we did discover that the trails are lined with blackberry and raspberry bushes, and growing between the red pines, maple. and oak tress are some pretty gnarly thorn apple trees. The boys had a blast, of course. They arrived back home red-cheeked and covered in mud and burrs, but they couldn't be happier. They love exploring outside, and that in turn makes ME very happy as well. We are raising little outdoorsmen. This spring and summer are sure to be filled with adventures. I can't wait!
,

As you may have noticed, last week we welcomed the newest member into our family. We decided not to take our chances with another baby bunny (none of us wanted to go through that heartache again!) and instead decided to get a puppy. After all, as our landlord Wally said, "Every boy needs to grow up with a puppy!" I was perusing craigslist last Wednesday morning when I stumbled upon her ad. I knew almost instantly we were getting her (my husband was still asleep- but she is partially his favorite breed, so I knew he wouldn't argue). Plus, she was FREE! Craigslist is plastered with free puppies/dogs in Texas, but everyone up here wants to make a buck.

Her name is Lulu and she is a shepherd/lab mix. She just turned nine weeks old today. So far, she is fitting right into the family- she follows the boys pretty much everywhere. She sleeps at the foot of our bed and has only had a couple accidents in the last 9 days- which is pretty amazing for a puppy her age. We just love her :)

I can't believe Easter weekend is TOMORROW! This will be our first Easter at home for the boys- and three sets of grandparents are coming over for a little Easter feast. It's supposed to be really warm, but it's also supposed to rain... fingers crossed that it waits until the afternoon because the Easter Bunny has plans for the boys ;)

Enjoy your weekend, and I hope you get to spend this blessed holiday with your family. ♥ 

advantages to having your children close in age

Everyone seems to have their own arguments for what they believe is the "best" spacing to have between children- whether that be 1, 2, 3, or 5+ years. I'm well aware that we aren't all going to agree on this subject anymore than we will all agree on whether cosleeping or crib sleeping is safer, on cloth versus disposable diapers, homemade versus jarred baby food, breast versus bottle, etc. But this is my little corner of the internet and I feel like I should write about what has worked for my family, because someone, somewhere might find it helpful. So here we go! I'm diving right in. Plus even if you don't agree with me, this post is filled with adorable pictures of my boys together- so it's a win-win ;)

10 reasons why we enjoy have our children less than two years apart

1. If you already have one in diapers, why not have two? Elliot is potty trained now, but up until a few months ago, we had two in diapers. I know people who literally cringe at that thought... but really, it wasn't bad at all. We used cloth diapers for the majority of that time, which saved us a ton of money over having to buy sposies in two different sizes. And eventually, they wore the same size disposables. Once you've gotten used to constantly changing and wiping little bums, the number of bums that need changing doesn't really matter. Your second child is also more likely to potty train sooner as he/she watches their older sibling go through the process. Emmett regularly accompanies Elliot to the bathroom, and he asks to "potty" often. I have no grand plans of attempting to potty train him anytime soon, but I'm confident that he will be ready much sooner than his brother was. He is already showing a lot of interest.

2. One year olds generally adjust to new siblings with far less jealousy than two-three-four year olds. I'm not just basing this on my own experience, either. I can't even begin to tell you the number of pediatricians and fellow parents who told me that children under 2 have a much easier time adjusting than older children when I was pregnant. Elliot was the center of our universe before Emmett arrived- and I was worried that he would resent his new brother. It was the complete opposite though. He was so young that he adapted effortlessly, he seemed to love his brother almost immediately. His universe was not turned upside down when his brother was born. And now, it's hard to even remember what life was like before we had two. Elliot definitely doesn't remember life before he had a sibling. To him, it's just always been this way.

3. One year olds are excellent helpers. Elliot was amazingly helpful right from the start when it came to his baby brother- he delighted in bringing me diapers, wipes or nursing pads, giving his brother toys, tucking his blankets back around him if he kicked them off, and he would often try to pat or otherwise calm his baby brother if he started fussing without any prompting. You see, one year olds typically don't have the "attitude" to refuse. They want to please you, they want to be involved, they want to help in any way they can. I know Elliot sure did! Now that my boys are older, Elliot is great at keeping Emmett out of trouble. He will scold him if he pulls all the books off the bookshelf (and then help him clean them all up), or if he's doing something dangerous, like getting into the cleaning products, he will come running to tell me.

4. They always have a playmate. As soon as Emmett was old enough to play, they played together. This was not only adorable to watch, but it also worked in my favor because if I needed to get something done, I could count on the boys to entertain eachother. I like knowing that neither Elliot nor Emmett are ever lonely. They play together constantly. I was an only child until I was 8, and I begged my parents for a baby brother/sister. It makes me happy knowing that my boys will never experience that kind of loneliness and longing. They always have someone to build block towers with, to figure out the missing piece to the puzzle, to laugh and just be silly with, to get into trouble with- even if mama or daddy are cooking, cleaning, shoveling snow, gardening, at work, etc. Plus, playing with two small children is infinitely more exciting and interesting than with just one.

5. Hand me downs rock! Emmett has been able to wear almost all of the clothes that Elliot outgrew. I know this wouldn't be true for brother/sister pairs, but that crib, exersaucer, stroller, carseat... all of it can be used again before it even gathers dust in the attic. Toys get twice the love. First child wasn't a fan of pacifiers, or blue bowls, or that expensive toy that everyone said you had to buy? Never fear! There's a good chance that your second child may be able to use at least one of those things, making it not a complete waste of your money.

6. Your children learn how to interact with other children. I know many parents will say "but I spend all my time playing with my child. Why does he need a playmate?" Well... there are certain things that toddlers can only learn by playing with other children. They learn how to share, how to communicate their feelings to one another, to play cooperatively, to help one another. Sure, they could also learn these things in daycare or play groups, but when they spend 100% of their time with a sibling, toddlers are generally much better at all of this. They learn simply because they have to in order to coexist happily.

7. You'll lose less sleep. It's no secret that we lose a lot of sleep during the first few years of our children's lives. The way I look at it, if you're already used to waking up early and/or waking up throughout the night with one child, it isn't a difficult adjustment when the second comes along. You haven't yet gotten to remember what it feels like to sleep in again, or get twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep. It feels natural and normal. Both of my boys have been sleeping through the night for over a year now. If we had waited until Elliot was older to have our second child, I would still be waking up to nurse an infant now. It would double the amount of hours we spent waking to care for small children.

8. Your younger child learns more, and they'll be school aged at the same time. Emmett reached almost all of his developmental milestones before his brother did, mostly because he learns from example and is always striving to catch up to his brother. He talked sooner because he heard Elliot talking, he walked sooner because he wanted to be able to follow his big brother around, he learned to copy Elliot's animal sounds, he started eating with utensils earlier because he wanted to be like his brother. I could go on and on.
The fact that they'll be school aged about the same time is also a big one to me, because I do plan to finish my education and stat my career once my children are in school. Imagine, however, how much more difficult that would be if by the time Elliot was entering kindergarden, we had another baby? The whole cycle would start all over again, and unless we wanted to put a child in daycare, I wouldn't be able to return to work for quite some time. Also, it's likely that the majority of the time your children will be in the same school. This cuts driving time in half, and it's also sort of comforting to know that Emmett would have a big brother to stick up for him in school if he were to be picked on/etc.

9. You're still in the habit of all things baby. You haven't yet forgotten what it is like to change a dirty diaper, the ins/outs of introducing solids, the sleepless nights, to clean up toddler messes... you're already devoting a giant amount of your time and energy to another small human being. Bringing another baby into the mix doesn't change your world very much- it just makes you an even better multitasker. ;)

10. The memories- everything is just more fun! Seriously? I don't know what is much cuter than a toddler cradling or loving on a new baby... or two toddlers close in size going everywhere and doing everything together. Holidays and birthdays are more fun. One thing is for certain- there will be great memories. Things won't always be easy, it may be a bit challenging at first as you adjust to having two tiny tots to care for. There will be times where you want to pull all of your hair out. But when you see them snuggling next to each other, sharing a snack, watching their favorite movie together, your heart will melt. When you walk in on them having a little conversation in tiny voices, or you watch the older sibling take the younger by the hand to show them something, it makes it all worth it.

I realize not everyone thinks this way. Some people purposely wait five years before having another child, and some people choose to have only one child. And that's completely fine. There is no equation to make the perfect family. Elliot and Emmett are 16 months apart. Having children less than two years apart isn't for everyone, but it's definitely for me.

toddler bedtime routines

Routines are important for babies/toddlers. I think that's something that every new parent hears a thousand times from the moment they find out they are pregnant. I couldn't agree more! To me, routine and regularity are as important to a toddler as good nutrition and a good night's sleep- and these things seem to work together. Now, I'm not a firm believer that every single part of the day needs to be scheduled- in fact, we purposely take our boys new places and introduce them to new things as much as possible. Spontaneity can be a good thing! When it comes to bedtime, though, my boys have had pretty set routines since they were very young.

Up until very recently, our evenings looked something like this: 

• We all eat dinner at the table around 6:30.
• Once we are finished, the boys retreat to our bedroom for some roughhousing with Daddy. Elliot has dubbed this special Daddy-son playtime ritual "beat up time"- lol.
• At 7:15, it was bath time for Emmett and Elliot would go shower with Daddy or occasionally tubbie with his brother. 
• Emmett would be dressed in his PJs, with teeth and hair brushed, and tucked into bed right around 7:30. Usually he's asleep within minutes. He's never been difficult to put to sleep- even when he was younger, he would just nurse himself to sleep for a few minutes after his bath, but he stopped doing that when he was fifteen months and has been quick to get into bed ever since. 
• Elliot usually emerged from his shower with Daddy sometime around 8, and then he would be allowed to watch a episode of one of his favorite shows while he ate his nighttime snack. Then we'd read him a book and tuck him into bed.

Since the boys are going to be sharing a room when we move into our new house in three weeks, we decided now was as good a time as ever to get them onto the same bedtime schedule/routine. After we talked about it we settled on a target bedtime of 8:30, which is an hour later than usual for Emmett and a half hour-hour earlier than usual for Elliot. We decided they would bathe together around 7:30, then once they were in their PJs, they would sit on the couch and eat a bedtime snack together (for Elliot's sake- poor child has my super fast metabolism and wakes up hungry in the middle of the night if he doesn't eat before bed) while we read them two books. Then they would get tucked into bed at the same time.

We figured getting them on the same page now would make for a much easier transition come February when in the new house- after all, they are already going to have to adjust to a new home, in a new state, with a much colder climate. Just because it may be an easier transition later, however, does not mean it will be easy now. Emmett seems to have adjusted well enough- although he's been napping earlier the last few days (I assume because he's going to bed later now). Elliot is having a harder time, though. He also seems less than thrilled about sharing a room with baby. I'm hoping that changes once the excitement of seeing the new house and his new bedroom hit, though. They're also getting new matching toddler beds so I'm sure he'll be excited about that. For now, we've been giving him extra cuddles and reassurance. I hope he warms up to the idea soon!

What are your little one's bedtime routines? If you have multiples, how did you prepare your older child to share his/her bedroom?

I didn't take any pictures specifically for this post... so instead here are some fun throwback pictures of Elliot in their crib! Which we sadly just sold, since Emmett is now sleeping like a big boy. 

fall festivities (catching up on October)

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the extreme photobomb I'm about to unleash on the bloggy universe. I realized today, while redesigning a friend's blog, that I haven't blogged since September, and I miss it. The main thing holding me back was the fact that painted all over my blog was the fact that we were supposed to be moving overseas. I guess Michigan just pales in comparison to Costa Rica or Panama... but our decision has been made for awhile now, so it's about time that I moved on, huh?

We enjoyed our last October in Texas by visiting a local pumpkin farm- and don't let our outfits fool you- it was 80 degrees that day. We all had a blast, though. It was so much fun this year, because Emmett was old enough to play and explore right alongside Elliot. It's hard to believe that last year, he was only five months old, not even sitting up on his own yet, and this year a walking, talking toddler. Emmett was more content to ride in the stroller and climb all over the pumpkins while Elliot rode a barrel train, fed/pet the goats, picked mama flowers, and carefully chose his very own "wittle kunkin!".

The boys had just as much (if not more) fun on Halloween. Elliot picked out his own costume this year. He was a "bigggg MONSTER!" in his words. Emmett wore the same lion costume that Elliot wore last year. Elliot walked almost the entire time, and he said "trick or treat!" and "thank you" at every single door. Emmett sat in the stroller holding onto his pumpkin bucket full of candy.

Okay- that's about enough pictures for one post, right? I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween and fall!!

things I don't want to forget #2

Elliot, 33 months:

• Elliot's favorite new sayings include "I'm too shy", "one last time!", "just right", "I did it!" and "watch this!" His vocabulary has absolutely exploded in the last few months, and although he still has a bad habit of mispronouncing a lot of sounds/words, he likely won't qualify for speech therapy anymore after his evaluation next month.
• he will repeat something over and over until you either acknowledge him or repeat what he said back to him. He got into this habit back when people had a hard time understanding him- he would wait to hear you repeat what he said so he knew that you knew what he was saying. 
• he is REALLY artistic and absolutely loves to color, draw, paint, and play with play dough. 
• he is obsessed with dinosaurs and (still) trains
• he is fond of collecting things- currently, he has rather large collections of rubber duckies, bouncy balls, and dinosaurs.
• I'm proud to say that he seems to have grown out of his camera-hating stage. In fact, he will even say "cheese" for pictures without me asking, sometimes
• he loves to do flashcards- particularly the ABC and animal ones.
• he hasn't been eating very much at mealtimes lately, instead preferring to have small snacks throughout the day. He really loves broccoli (still), pizza, popcorn, Chinese food, cheese, and chocolate milk.
• he always has to have a bedtime snack- I think that's because he inherited my super fast metabolism. (I always have a bedtime snack, too).
• his favorite animals are parrots, and he loves visiting them at pet stores and the zoo. 
• his favorite shows include Super Why, Dragon Tales, Godzilla (the 1970's version), and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. 
• he fights his naps tooth & nail ("I'm not tired! I don't want it!") but the minute he gets comfy in his carseat he's fast asleep. His bedtime is 9pm but if he skips his nap he will fall asleep before that on the couch. He usually wakes up between 8:30-9:00 in the morning which is perfect because it gives me a chance to shower before his brother wakes up.
• he wears mostly 24 month & 2t shirts and can wear anything from 12m-24m shorts because of his tiny waist.
• he weighs 27 lbs and is 37.5", and was at the 5th percentile for his age until he recently lost weight and fell off the growth scale altogether. 

Emmett, 16 months:

• Emmett is what we call an "aggressive snuggler." He LOVES to cuddle and he will make that known by randomly and enthusiastically diving onto unsuspecting people (which sometimes results in painful headbutting/etc)
• He LOVES chocolate milk and will usually gulp his cup down and then proceed to try to steal Elliot's 
• he has recently grown attached to his green polka dotted blanket and often brings it along when I lift him out of his crib 
• he says a wide variety of words, but the ones we hear most frequently are "mama, dada, please, more, up, all done, uh oh, water, love you, bye bye, choo choo, and thank you". He often surprises me by saying a new word out of the blue, like "brother." 
• he LOVES his big brother and follows him around pretty much everywhere. He also loves destroying block towers that Elliot is working on.
• Emmett loves to give kisses :)
• he also loves to make toy dinosaurs and lions go "RAWWWRRRR!"
• he will stop whatever he's doing and say "choo choo! all aboard!" whenever the train goes by.
• he is always hungry, always eating, and will nearly never turn down food that is offered to him. Also, if you made yourself something to eat, you'd better be prepared to share! 
• he could care less what is on TV but gets mad whenever a show on Netflix ends. He'll point at the TV and say "uh oh!" with increasing urgency until I put something else on. I think he mostly just likes the background noise. 
• he usually takes one long nap in the afternoon, and occasionally a second. His bedtime is 8pm and he sleeps in until 9:30-10:30 almost every morning. 
• he nurses only once a day now (before bed). He dropped his nighttime nursing a month or two ago.
• he wears 12-18 month shirts and 9 & 12 month shorts. We are about to move up to 24 month pj's for the length, though. 
• He weighs 24 lbs and is 31" and is at the 68th percentile. He's definitely thicker than his brother and has a little belly. We always joke around that he got my husband's genes and Elliot got mine. 

It's hard to believe how quickly my little boys are growing up :( but at the same time, it's fascinating to watch them grow and develop into individuals- and to watch their relationship grow, too.