A baby shower!

On Saturday, we drove down to Raleigh to celebrate Elyse and Baby Elynne Faye.  Elyse and I went to Meredith together and taught preschool together after college.  

Lately, Emery isn't a fan of riding in the car.  She cried most of the way there, then was a good girl at the shower.  We cannot wait for Baby Elynne to get here!  I know she and Emery will be the best of friends! 

Day Out With Thomas The Train!

Today was the last day Thomas the Train was at the Spencer Transportation Museum, so we put grocery shopping and laundry on hold, packed up the kids, and headed out early this morning.  Owen played golf, jumped in a bounce house, went down a big slide, played with a miniature train set, danced to a live band, colored, and of course, rode on Thomas the Train!  Emery, on the other hand, slept almost the whole time!

Owen took a little snooze on the way there:

miniature golf:

bounce house fun:

going down the slide:

getting ready to board the train:

Thomas!

playing in the round house: 

all aboard!

Sir Topham Hatt:

Fall is here!

Fall is here, and our calendar is full!  This past weekend we went to Family Fun Night at my school, Pat took Owen to a truck event in Charlotte, the fair, and a Greek festival.  I love this time of year, even if it means we are busy every.single.weekend!

On baby bottles...

Emery is an exclusively breastfed baby.  Unlike Owen, she latched on from the very beginning.  Since she is so good at it, it is something that I really enjoy (and she does too!).  I often get sad just thinking about the day when I'll start weaning.  I truly think the success of nursing depends upon the child and their ability to latch on.  I haven't done anything different with Owen and Emery, and have had completely different feeding experiences...with breastfeeding and bottles.  I only exclusively nursed Owen for the first two months then I pumped full time so he could still get all of the benefits of breast milk.  He definitely preferred the bottle!

Having said that, it has been a challenge to get Emery to take a bottle.  We initially tried the Medela bottles because they are compatible with my breast pump, and I had a ton from when Owen was little.  They worked for a bit then she started refusing them because the nipple constantly collapsed (or they leaked all over her).

The second bottle we tried was Dr. Brown's.  I had a few of these from Owen, so we didn't invest too much money in them.  Emery used these for a while then started gagging and refusing them.  It got to the point where she wouldn't even open her mouth!  When she did, she was screaming because we were trying to force the nipple in!

After doing lots of research and talking with Emery's teachers, we decided to try Tommee Tippee bottles.  As you can see from the picture, they are supposed to resemble the natural breast.  I purchased one to give it a try.  $10 later...success!  Emery gulped the whole thing down in record time!  Unfortunately, these bottles are not available in glass, which is what I liked about the previous two types.

After going back to work and constantly being worried about Emery eating, I am so thankful we found a bottle she likes (even though her first couple of days at school she would ONLY drink her bottle outside)!

We are having the same issue with a pacifier.  So far we have tried three different ones, and they are all a no-go.  She often prefers to suck on her fists!  Isn't it amazing how different siblings can be??

New spaces

We were not graced with great closets in this house.  Unfortunately, they are all very small.  Pat uses the playroom closet for his clothes because there isn't even enough room in the master closet for both of us!  About a month ago, I came home to a huge pile of my clothes in the floor of my closet.  The entire shelf came right out of the wall!  It was a disaster.  After that, Pat and I decided to look in to getting custom closets.  One particular company was highly recommended to us, so we went with them.  

Here are all of the spaces they "fixed":

Pantry:  it used to have five wire shelves.  The new shelves are adjustable.

trash closet in the kitchen:  they added the three triangle shelves.

  

Emery's closet 

before:

after:

 

Owen's closet 

before:  I don't have a pic, but it just had one wire shelf all the way across

after:

We had more shelves put in Owen's closet because he has a large dresser with a lot of his folded clothes, unlike Emery.  All of her clothes are in her closet.

My closet

before:  there was another wire shelf behind the door on the right

 

after:

 necklace hook:

 you can see where the door hinges were...we had them take the door completely off to open up the space 

 sweaters are in the pull out basket:

 We are very pleased with the way our new spaces turned out!

Feeling refreshed!

Just went from this:

 to this: