First Day of School

Today was Janie's first day of school! After a quick photo shoot with one of her best little friends, Maeven, we headed to drop her off. There were a few tears when we left (surprisingly, only from her) but they didn't last too long. After 3 hours of what I imagine was a highly organized lesson with 12 children under the age of 2, I drove through the car line to pick her up and she got into the car singing 'You Are My Sunshine'. I'd say she had a pretty good day. While she was studying past participles and predicates, Finn, my mom and I met Kori at First Watch for breakfast. After hearing about her adventures in NYC, I am planning my trip to go visit her this fall. Here are some photos of our day.

summer

We have had such a great summer! Here are a few pictures to recap all that we have been doing.

swimming in gigi and poppy's pool.

dress up.

finn meets great-grammy.

janie shopping at the dirty* children's museum in atlanta.

showing off balance skills at the clean* children's museum in atlanta.

splash pad fun.

new smyrna beach.

sun bathing baby.

ride on a heffalump.

safari at busch gardens.

the mountains of north carolina.

*In case you're ever in Atlanta, you should know that the dirty museum is ink, and the clean one is Imagine it! Children's Museum. Unless you are interested in lots of filthy stuffed animals, broken toys, and stickiness, I would advise you to pass on a visit to ink.

slow mornings

Another thing that has changed with 2 kids is the pace of my mornings. Gone are the days of being up and ready to leave the house by 7:00am. Even if I had no where to go, as of a few weeks ago the thought of being in pajamas a minute past 7 stressed me out more than anything so ridiculous ever should. Even for the first few days after coming home from the hospital I attempted to keep this schedule going. But then Andy went back to work and my mom went home and I realized a shower is a luxury that may or may not happen before noon each day. So with that realization, I have begun to enjoy lazy mornings, reading books on the couch or unmade bed, in pjs with my two babies. Janie seems to be enjoying them as well.

welcome finn!

Two weeks and one day ago, Finnley Jameson Simonds was born. It is crazy how quickly the first 15 days of his life have flown by! After a few hours of labor and 5 super fast minutes of pushing, Finn made his debut at 3:35pm on May 18, weighing in at 6 pounds, 4 ounces and a giant 19 inches tall. We (Andy and I) are so in love with this little man, it's crazy. Janie still isn't too sure about him, though she loves touching his tiny toes and when she is feeling adventuresome she gets within a few feet of him and repeats over and over again "bebe" in a sweet French sounding accent.

So far Finn is a super easy going guy, which is slightly different than what we were prepared for after Janie. If you don't remember, she screamed from about 4pm until midnight every. single. night. For four months straight. That takes some real strength. Finn seems to cry for three reasons: because he is hungry, because he needs his diaper changed, or because his sister has clawed his face in attempt to show us how skilled she is at identifying his eyes and nose. In her defense, it is pretty impressive that she can point out every body part, including eyebrows and ankles.

Adjusting to life with 2 kids under the age of 2 hasn't been as difficult as I imagined. The biggest adjustment so far: The amount of extra time needed to get out the door. I had really just mastered getting from the house to the car without having to make additional trips inside with one child, so adding another baby with lots of gear to the mix has been a little bit of a challenge. Every time I leave the driveway I look in the backseat about a dozen times to make sure that I really have both kids in the car, in car seats, buckled in. And I usually forget diapers for at least one kid.

We are so grateful for wonderful friends and family who have brought us meals, helped out with Janie, shared words of encouragement and dropped by to keep me company. I am sure that the transition would have been much harder without all of your help, so thank you! I plan on continuing to update the blog with pictures (which means I will start actually taking pictures) more frequently, but you know how that goes...

update

at one point in time i heard about a stay-at-home mom who made lots of money writing a blog about her kids,what she cooked for dinner, and the crafty things that she did in her free time. i thought that was a dream job. how hard could it be? i now know that if i got paid to write a blog, we would be broke.

here's what we have been doing instead of blogging:

moving furniture and random junk that we can't seem to get rid of from one room to another in preparation for the great bedroom swap. months ago, it seemed like a great idea to move the guest room to the office, janie's room to the guest room, and the new baby's room to janie's old one. we are getting close to finished with all of the shuffling of belongings, but it hasn't been quick. pictures to come soon!

reading 'brown bear, brown bear' over and over and over and over. i keep trying to throw some new books into the mix, but janie is a smart little thing and i can't fool her. she knows what she wants.

continually being amazed at the new words that janie seems to pick up on every day. my all time favorite is when she exclaims "bless!"any time she hears something that resembles a sneeze. i sort of hope she never adds the "you" to the end of that phrase, because it is so stinking cute.

making pizza on the grill at least 2 times a week. my parents have made pizza this way for years, and it always looked so hard to do. last time we were in atlanta, we took very thorough notes and have been working on mastering it ever since. i am convinced that grilling pizza and topping it with lots of vegetables (and cheese) is way healthier than ordering it. if it's not true, please don't let us know.

lastly, and perhaps most importantly, counting down the days (20 or so) until our little man's arrival! it is crazy how quickly this pregnancy has flown by. while we are enjoying long nights of uninterrupted sleep for now, we are so excited to meet our boy.

happy spring!

the first day of spring is apparently up for debate. whether it is the 20th or 21st depends on where you look, but according to janie's closet, today is the day. it has seemed pretty spring-y in orlando for a few weeks now, and we have spent a good deal of time outside. we took janie to seaworld for the first time, which was a great success. i was hoping that she would be completely amazed at the dolphins or at the shamu show, but it turns out she was most impressed by the sting rays and the tourists screaming on roller coasters.

checking out the sting rays.

watching the roller coaster fly by for the 100th time.

no better end to a day at the park than a real ice cream cone.

last summer, we spent many hours packing for the beach, driving to and from the beach, and unpacking from the beach, only to spend a total of about 1 hour actually on the beach. this year, i am determined to make these trips worth the time it takes to prepare. last monday, we headed to new smyrna with some friends and most of our belongings. it was perfect. we brought a huge play pen for the babies, every beach toy imaginable, a little blow up pool, snacks to last us a week, multiple changes of clothes, a tent and pack n' play. we managed to get in 4 hours of beach time, followed by a lovely dinner at JB's. now that we have a day at the beach mastered with one baby, we will probably spend the rest of the summer learning how to make it happen with two. by the summer of 2012, i will be knocking out at least a novel a day, oceanside.

back to the blog

for real this time.

life at our house has been fun, crazy, and is flying by! baby #2 will be here in about 9 weeks. he is currently the weight of four oranges, and about 16 inches long. i think we have been too busy for the reality of having another baby in this house to sink in. i forget i'm pregnant at least 4 days out of the week. the other 3 i spend dreaming about mcdonald's filet-o-fish sandwiches and shamrock shakes, which makes it easy to remember that there is a little person growing inside my belly. (i have yet to give in to the filet-o-fish)

there is a lot to be done before this little guy arrives. currently, he has no room or definite name. we are in the process of getting what used to be the guest room turned into janie's new room, and once that is complete, we will transform janie's chandelier adorned nursery into a nice manly space.