birthday boy

Who's this handsome fella'? haha. That would be Brennan. With some sweet facial hair.  And it's his birthday today.  Happy Birthday Brennan!  Thanks for making me happy every day for the last 3 years.  And thanks for not usually having a beard like that. :) I love you and hope you have a great day!

spring break: part 3: the sleepover

 

Tatum got to have her first sleepover with cousins over spring break.  I'm pretty sure she loved it! We had Kelbie, Caden and Macy over on Thursday.  As usual we tried to pack in as much fun as we could. For dinner we each made our own individual sized pizza.

It was pretty warm that day and I had had the oven on to make banana bread and then it was on again for the pizza and it felt stifling in our house! Luckily, it was much cooler outside so we headed out to the deck to eat dinner. It was a beautiful evening for it.


We rented another movie, this time Puss in Boots.  It was soooo much better than Tin Tin.  We all really enjoyed it. The boys played video games that evening and the girls painted fingernails.

The next day Brennan had to go into work for a little while.  The rest of us watched some March Madness and walked to the park.  Then we met Brennan at the mall for lunch and headed into Cold Stone for some ice cream-yum! Brennan created a new kind for us to try and it was a real winner-oatmeal cookie batter ice cream with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and something else that I can't remember. Anyway, next time you're at Cold Stone you should try it. :)

Later in the afternoon we met Crystal and Rich and mom and dad out at Sugarbottom and had some yummy dinner, played ultimate frisbee and enjoyed this crazy March weather.

 

Caden taking Tatum down her first slide.

 

Tatum loved having someone besides me to look at during her bath.

 

Tatum puked all over Brennan's face. It was hilarious.

 

 

 

This picture makes me smile.

 

Tatum sporting her first cami.

 

 

Thanks Kelbie, Caden, and Macy for coming to hang out with us! It was a blast!

And that, my friends, marks the end of our spring break fun.  Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and we dressed in green, did some work around the house and went out to eat.  And then life went back to normal on Monday.  We may not have gone anywhere or done anything super exciting over break, but it was still a great week.

spring break: part 2: natural history museum

Well to continue with our super exciting spring break we headed to the Natural History museum on Wednesday.  It was actually more impressive than we anticipated and Brennan has been taking tests in that building all year and had no idea the museum existed! Without further ado, here are the pictures from our adventure. 

 

Our little owl with some owl friends. :)

 

 

Me and Tatum with the giant sloth. It was crazy!

 

Tatum with two do-dos. haha, just kidding Brennan!

 

Kassy and Gretchen, recognize Brennan's awesome swan impersonation from Guesstures?

 

Not a well taken or flattering picture, but I had to include it because of Tatum's expression. It made me laugh.

That evening the crazy spring break excitement continued with the rental of Tin Tin. Not recommended. Loooooong and booooring. I'm not sure what possessed us to rent it.

spring break: part 1

Time to play catch up.

Two weeks ago Brennan had his spring break.  Originally we had planned on going to Arizona to see Mara, Ben, and Jade but those plans fell through.  We couldn't seem to come up with anything else that seemed worth the money so we decided to just stay home.  I didn't want Brennan to feel like it wasn't even a real break by just doing all the things we normally would and filling his time with work.  Plus, I was pretty bummed about not being able to go to Arizona so I was determined to do some fun things. As determined as I might have felt, I'm pretty sure I failed.  But I did keep Brennan from working too much and Tatum and I got to spend a lot more time with him than usual, so it was still a great week. (At least for the two of us, hopefully for Brennan too though!)

On Monday we hit up dollar bowling night in Cedar Rapids with Gretchen and Andy.  My mom and dad were nice enough to watch Tatum for us.  She didn't have the best day so I was definitely grateful for the break.  After Brennan and I proved that we are the worst bowlers we all headed over to Orange Leaf, a new frozen yogurt place in the area.  I tried their pomegranate yogurt-yum!!!!

All week the weather was amazing considering it was only the middle of March in the middle of Iowa.  But you won't hear me complain! (Except maybe you will.  I started to feel like we were going to miss out on spring all together and just go straight to summer. I wasn't very happy about that.  But it's beginning to feel a bit more spring-like now.:)) We got to go on lots of walks and runs and on Tuesday we headed over to the nearby park and just hung out for awhile.  Tatum still isn't quite sure what to do about the sun and had a hard time keeping her eyes open.


I bought her a little sun hat that is too big now but hopefully that way it will fit her all summer. It seemed to help a little and it sure is cute on her!




It was lots of fun to just be outside with Tatum, doing something different. And it was great to have dad with us in the middle of the day!

bumbo

A few weeks ago we tried putting Tatum in her bumbo. We knew it was probably a little soon, but we thought we'd see how close she was to being able to use it. Her head was a little too wobbly so we only left her in it for a minute or two.

first bumbo attempt

But since then she has become a bumbo champ. Even though it is just one more sign that Tatum is growing up, and way too quickly if you ask me, it has been a nice development for me. She is much more content while I make dinner, while we eat dinner, and while I get ready in the morning when she can sit in her bumbo on the table or counter and watch us. Thanks to the bumbo I don't always have to wait until she is asleep to do any of those things or hurry and do them while she cries.

See, she's a fan. And so am I.

I'm a slow poke

Shortly after Tatum was born I got the hair-brained idea to make a Quiet Book for her and future children. I started looking on blogs and pinterest for different ideas. There are so many cute ideas out there! It has been hard choosing which pages to make. I have a feeling that this Quiet Book could be very big eventually. But not anytime soon. I have a whopping total of one page done. ONE! I am definitely not speedy but maybe by the time Tatum is 15 I'll have enough pages for it to be a legitimate book. :) Maybe...

But for now I'll take it one page at a time. The first completed page is a sock matching page. I am really pleased with the way it turned out. Sewing and crafts are not my strong suits. I owe a huge thanks to my mom for all of her help, both in person and over the phone.
One page down, many more to go.

dancin' fool

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that Tatum and I went to Mt. Vernon to see the 5th grade musical. It brought back a lot of really sweet memories of my own 5th grade musical...or not. To this day I still feel a ridiculous amount of embarrassment when we watch the video of mine. I was horrible! Not true for Caden. He was pretty much the star of the show. He was nominated to have a solo dance during the Footloose song. Check it out. His solo starts around 1:08 and please forgive the poor cameraman skills at the beginning. I was mesmerized by his dance okay?!

We got front row seats (thanks to my incredibly early arrival) and Tatum was wide eyed the whole time, taking it all in. She couldn't believe how well Caden could dance and she is star truck I'm pretty sure. Caden was nice enough to come and talk to his aunt and his grandma after the show (where all his friends could see!!) so I tried to snap a picture of him and Tatum...
...but I had an uninvited guest in the picture. Not just in the picture, but posing like a creeper! So poor Caden had to brave the embarrassment of his aunt again once they were dismissed to go back to class so I could get another picture. What?! When he's famous Tatum will be so glad she has a picture with him. :)
Good job Caden! You have some serious moves. And thanks for talking to me in public. :)

footies

Well I still haven't learned the art of making new friends, but I am definitely grateful for the ones I have. We got together with Gretchen and Andy and Kassy and David last weekend. Dinner was delicious and the girls dominated at Guesstures so it was a great evening all around. Before we left we put Tatum in her pajamas so we wouldn't have to bother with that when we got home. Gretchen casually mentioned that she had a pair of footie pajamas too and would have to put them when she babysits Tatum so that they match. I bet she regrets ever bringing them up. Before she knew it Andy, Brennan and I had convinced her to go put them on. Out she came with her adult footie pajamas. Complete with bum flap and everything. I promised her I wouldn't post the pictures to Facebook and since I always post my blog to Facebook all you get is the shot from the waist up. Trust me, they were for real footies and I kind of want a pair myself now. Thanks for modeling them for us Gretch.

Twinners!

spring

Today was a good day. It felt like spring. There is just something about the warm weather at the end of winter (even a mild winter) that just puts me in a good mood. I was happy all day long just because the sun was shining and it was wonderfully warm. And now I officially have spring fever, I can't wait until it's this nice for multiple days in a row. I made a trip to Mt. Vernon today for a little 5th grade musical action (more on that another day) and my mom and I took Tatum outside to enjoy the weather. Poor girl has hardly ever encountered sunlight since the day she was born, so she wasn't quite sure what to do.
I got to go for my first run since having Tatum and she got to try out her jogging stroller for the first time. Both were surprisingly successful. Now maybe I can start shedding the pregnancy pounds a little more quickly.
(We didn't get to go for our run until the sun was nearly down, hence the bundling.)

I also got to play hide and seek outside with the kiddos at my parent's house. It definitely made me all reminisce-y about running around that yard when I was a kid. In the spring of course. Because spring is awesome! It makes everyone happy, even Tatum.
Spring is good. Very, very good. :)

2 months

Last week Tatum hit the 2 month mark. It is pretty hard to believe. Time has gone by so fast and she is growing and changing all the time. But yet it feels like we have always had her. It's hard to remember what it felt like just 3 months ago when we were anxiously awaiting her arrival.

I took her to the doctor a couple of days ago for her 2 month check up, which included 3 shots and an oral vaccine. Not fun. For either of us. Poor girl just wailed and of course I felt awful. She was pretty fussy for the rest of that day. Luckily I chose to hang out at my parent's house after the appointment since Brennan had an evening test he was taking, because Papa pretty much had the magic touch. He had to keep taking her from my me and my mom because she wouldn't calm down. She slept great that night though and then had a fever and pretty much slept the next day away. Today she seems to be back to herself for the most part, thankfully.

Her stats:
23 inches long (55th percentile)
10.9 lbs (33rd percentile)
39.5 cm head circumference (49th percentile)

Facts about Tatum at 2 months:
The last couple of weeks she has gotten much more vocal and smiley. She likes to lay on her play mat now and check out the toys. Tummy time isn't quite as torturous but still doesn't last long. She usually sleeps anywhere from 9 to 12 hours straight at night (yes, it's wonderful!). She doesn't hate post-bath lotion time anymore, but still freaks out when you have to put her arms in her clothes. She still sleeps in her car seat at night, but hopefully not for much longer. She is still our little owl, noisy as ever.

Tatum is such a treat to have in our family and we are so glad she is ours forever!