Easter 2015

Why, hello there almost-May!  Same story, different month.  I had noble intentions of getting all April goings on captured in the actual month here on the ol' blog, but alas I have failed.  Let's start back at the beginning of April.  Perhaps you recall when a giant bunny and your body weight in candy came for a visit?  Let's walk through how the Martin clan celebrated.

The first event?  Emery's egg hunt at school on Thursday April 2nd.  I snuck out of work a bit early in order to witness her "hunt-a egg" in all her glory.  This was her first real egg hunt, so much prep in the form of verbal explanation took place beforehand.  She was pretty amped up to find these hidden eggs.  Knowing her the way I do, I expected other children to need padding to undertake this with her.  Girlfriend has been known to throw some 'bows when there's something she wants on the line.  However, much to this Mama's relief, she was much more preoccupied with my showing up unexpectedly than she was with egg retrieval.  We ended the hunt with no incident reports and that is the definition of success in my book!

Walk Hard: the Emmy Story.

By the time she clued into the egg hunting there were no eggs left.  I think she managed to find 2.  That happens to be her favorite number, so I don't think she was too bothered by it.

"I fin-a egg, Mommay!"

Love of post-game snacks is deeply embedded in this child's DNA.

Perhaps the most entertaining event of the Martin Easter holiday weekend took place on Good Friday, April 3rd.  Ryan and the girls both had the day off... but Mama did not.  Why is that entertaining?  Because it meant a Daddy-Daughter day.  As you might imagine, there are zero pictures from this occasion and the same number of stories.  I guess what happens on Daddy-Daughter day stays with Daddy-Daughter day.  To his credit, Daddy took care of the girls fantastically.  All members of the family may have still in pajamas when arrived home in the early afternoon but they were fed and alive.  Again- success!

After my arrival home on Good Friday we frantically packed the car and hit the road.  Destination: Conroe for some much needed family and relaxation time.  This trip not only did I remember to take some pictures, but my Dad also put on his paparazzi cap as well.  So buckle your seatbelt for a wild picture ride, my friends.

The first photo-worthy event was on Saturday morning when we decided to be ambitious enough to check out the Easter egg hunt at the Walden racket club.  As you can tell from my appearance below, we decided at the last minute to go which meant no time for things like... make up... general hygiene... changing Brynnie out of her jammies.  This is actually the case most days which is why you rarely see me on this blog.  Keep this in mind if you have the misfortune of seeing me in person any time in the next 18ish years.

I wasn't too concerned because I figured we would be one of about 20 people there.  I was so wrong.  Apparently this is quite the shindig.  There were different hunts for all the various age groups.  The pictures you see below are JUST for the 0-3 year olds.  There were hunts for bigger kids with even MORE kids.  It was quite the shindig.  

My little bunny.  (Shout out to Aunt Nitty for those awesome bunny ears!)

Julie and I pretending to be twins on accident.

Her egg-hunting skills improved drastically from Thursday to Saturday.  Just look at that form.

I think everyone in Conroe was here.

Hey!  Hey!  Are you watching me?!

The cheering section.  Unrelated note: none of us were cheerleaders in high school, clearly.

Nonnie, she's moving in on an egg I had my eye on.  Should I take her out?!

How cute are these two?

Em looking a looooot like her Nonnie!

We made the rookie parent mistake of letting Emery hang on to one of the eggs she found on the drive back home.  Shockingly, Ryan and I haven't let Emmy have much candy in her life.  In case you were ever curious how long it takes for a child to be hooked on sugar, the answer is about a 5 minute car ride.  It was  a good run, I suppose?

We spent the remainder of Saturday just hanging out, relaxing, and trying to avoid being manipulated into sharing candy with Emery.  She seriously became very adept at convincing people (namely my Dad or Uncle Matt) to set her down NEAR candy and then either sneaking her hand into the bowl or puppy dog-eyeing her way into being handed it.  Her manipulation game is STRONG guys.

OH!  And we were all treated to some ah-mazing food.  My parents made prime rib, green beans, rolls and potatoes.  That's basically candy for adults.  Just thinking about it makes me hungry.

I am 99.9% sure she's shoveling candy in her mouth here.

For weeks Emery had been telling us how she "kick-a sock-ah ball," after school.  Apparently the EB heard too because he brought her one of her own.

Soooo... when is it my turn to hunt eggs?!

Love this little Boo Boo!

Thank you Jimmy James for this adult engagement photo.

Is your heart a pile of mush?  No?  Just mine?

"C'mon Nonnie!"

On Sunday the Easter Bunny paid the girls a visit.  Thanks to the EB's fantastic GPS skills, the girls were treated to all kinds of goodies and we were all treated to a layer of stickers. 

Em's loot.

Brynnie's haul.

The Princess holding court.

Fancy pants.  I wonder if the EB is hoping that this deters her from ruining Mama's necklaces as much as I am?

One for you.  Two for you.  Okay... Fifty for you.

I wonder what stickers look like on a plate.

People usually only eat frog legs?  The whole body seems pretty tasty also.

Underwhelmed by her new links.

Comparing goods.

Poor second child.  Her Mama doesn't have it nearly together enough to remember to pack bows.  Luckily she's cute with or without them.

Is everyone ready for a little broken record action?  My first Easter with two bunnies was an absolutely fantastic holiday weekend full of food, laughs, love and lessons in what not to let children do (read: ever have anything that tastes better than vegetables.)  Thank you to all who participated- we love you far more than I could ever express!  

Little Gym Date

To keep my little Mama-Daughter time initiative rolling I signed Emery up for a play date at The Little Gym through Houston Mom's Blog for Friday March 28th.  I had a hankering to give The Little Gym a whirl for quite some time.  So when a play date on one of my Fridays off showed up in my news feed, I considered it a sign.

Cheerios, milk and a bib?  I am almost positive all Olympic athletes start their days like this.

I have to admit that I was preeeeeetty concerned about how our little anti-adventurer would handle unknown activities in a new place.  So I went in with zero expectations.  Miss emery actually surprised me and did great!  Predictably, she was hesitant.  Also predictably, we did have one meltdown.  All in all though, I would say that's not too shabby!  At the beginning she quietly observed everyone and led me around by the hand but by the end she was running around and trying things out.  

A "goose" box just for showing up?  I'm liking it, I'm liking it.

Capital S-K-E-P-T-I-C-A-L.

What was the meltdown about, you ask?  Oh, you know.  Just extreme cynicism.  At the very beginning, all the parents and kids were asked to form a circle in the middle of the room.  She was immediately hesitant but sat in my lap.  Then the coach explained that we were going to walk around in a circle and follow directions to warm up together.  At first she reluctantly held my hand and walked as the music started.  Then once the music started to increase in volume and all of a sudden we were supposed to switch directions and start doing things like skip, hop, run, etc she tapped out.  Loudly.  She immediately took up post on my leg and started hysterically screaming.  I'm not sure if she thought we had crossed over into a cult or if organized activities aren't her thing - either way.  We sat that activity out.  She rebounded fairly quickly though once the warm up ended.  

Just some children.  Who aren't scarred by walking in a circle.

All in all, I'm chalking it up to a success.  Hopefully some day in the future we will return.  Maybe we will just skip the warm up part.  I've never been one for stretching anyway.  I was proud of you my little lovey- thanks for playing with Mama.  I'm not quite sure if these Mama-Daughter dates mean anything to you, but they mean the world to me!

Huh.  What exactly are these cats doing?

Mama, is this a somersault?  Am I doing it?  (Editors note: not even close.)

I know... I'll just run down this foam wedge.  (Unfortunately this child inherited her Mama's coordination.  This usually resulted in a wipe out.  Which, luckily, only made her laugh.)

This was when she got really brave.  Note how far away I was when taking this picture.

I'm so good at climbing stairs.  I should get a medal.

Yo- Mom.  You seeing this?  I'm seriously so good.  When's the baby gate coming down on the ones at home?

Rather than focusing on walking on the balance beam, she was looking out the window at where the juice was.

Concentration = tongue out.  She has that in common with her Uncle Matt.

Apparently nothing is more fun that hurling yourself into a huge foam mat.

Should I give that bar a shot?  Nah.  I'm good.

Not the intended use, darling.

This was a BIG step.  She did this one all by herself.

All's well that ends with juice and donuts!

Just Another Day in Paradise

In re-adjusting to life as a working Mama to a newborn, so many memories of going back to work and all the things necessary to make the Martin household machine function have come rushing back.  Little things I thought were permanently etched in my brain have somehow been buried beneath a flood of new adorable quirks.  

With the first bambino everything seems like it will last forever and with the second you have both the gift, and weight, of realizing that life as a parent is a series of phases.  Each of them is awesome and difficult in it's own ways.  You think you'll remember all the nuances forever and realize that each of them is constantly being replaced by new ones.  There simply isn't enough mental real estate to house them all... at least not in my little pea-brain!  It's also highlighted for me just how QUICKLY things change and evolve when you have tiny humans in your life.  

These facts made me realize that while I do a pretty good job of capturing the big, exciting events in our lives, the daily grind gets completely ignored here.  In an attempt to try to right this wrong, I decided to pick a day to document so that when I look back on the story of our life we'll have a snippet of what this season looked like in the moments that are typically ignored by Pintrest.  

I intended to pick an average day although everyone knows that there's no such thing either as a mother or an employee... or just a human if we are being honest.  Basically what wound up happening was the first day that I actually remembered to start documenting my morning was the day that won the lottery.  Without further adieu, let's take a look at how Wednesday March 25th 2015 went down, huh?

• 4:15 - Phone alarm goes off.  My brain laughs.
• 4:33 - Silently admit defeat to the man and get out of bed.
• 4:38 - Pump sesh #1 starts.  I catch up on the most important things on my To Do list - trolling my Instagram feed and catching up on my Trivia Crack.
• 4:54 - Finish cleaning parts and packing my "Mom bag" as my coworker affectionately termed it for the day.
• 5:06 - Finish making my lunch AND breakfast #1.. drumroll please...Instant Breakfast with milk.  I hear this is how Winston Churchill used to start his days also.
• 5:17 - Take my allergy pill & prenatal vitamin.  If it's Spring in Houston and I haven't taken my allergy pill, I would steer clear of me.
• 5:18 - Hop in the shower.  
• 5:30 - Get out of the shower.  Greeted by a chorus of baby dinosaur noises signifying that Brynn is awake.  Wonder WTF and pray Ryan handles the situation.
• 5:42 - Make the biggest decision I make each morning- to blow dry or not to blow dry?  Decide that I'm feeling ambitious and opt to blow dry and straighten.
• 5:52 - Have a moment of silence for the abundant loss of my pregnancy hair.  Thanks for nothing, prenatal horse pill vitamin.
• 5:55 - Weigh  myself.  0.00005 seconds later completely regret that decision.
• 6:00 - Hear Ryan's alarm clock.  Take note of how amazed I am that I can hear it over the loud hand-sucking noise coming from Brynn's pack n' play.  
• 6:01 - Try to find something to wear.  Wonder why I don't have more clothes.  Wonder how long maternity wear is acceptable to keep in your clothing rotation.  (It's so comfy, y'all!)
• 6:04 - Look in the mirror and decide that things are as good as they're getting for the day.  Is "Mom hair don't care" applicable to one's entire physical appearance?  I've adopted that mantra.  

• 6:05 - Ryan changing Brynn's diaper so I run upstairs to find her an outfit.  
• 6:08 - Wander into the kitchen for element #2 of breakfast - iced coffee.  Best part of waking up is caramel iced coffee in my cuuuuup!
• 6:14 - Feed the Brynn-cess and attend to more high priority items (read: The Skimm, Blogs, etc).
• 6:38 - Brynn falls asleep on me.  Thanks, love.

• 6:39 - Ryan is in the kitchen making his lunch.
• 6:45 - Announce to Ryan that I have found our future home.  Only problems are that it's outside of our price range and search area.  Oh and we aren't looking.  Details.
• 6:47 - Ryan goes upstairs to wake Emery.
• 6:55 - Ryan changes Emery's diaper.  I brush my teeth.
• 6:57 - Ryan gets Emery dressed.  Questions aloud whether wrestling a wet pig might be easier.
• 7:00 - I do Emery's hair.  Wonder how celeb hairdressers do it.  Bc obviously this is a simliar situation.  Wrestle the shoes she feels strongly about wearing on to her feet.  Try to convince her she is not Stevie Wonder and sunglasses inside are a faux pas.

• 7:05 - Emery gives Lola her treat... via a pitch to the face.
• 7:09 - All bags and humans are safely in the appropriate vehicles.  Children with Daddy.  Enough bags to open a (non brand name) Prada store with me.

• 7:18 - Deliver what is no doubt a Grammy-worthy performance of "Time of Our Lives."  Sang both NeYo & Pitbull's parts- clearly this constitutes the day's cardio.
• 7:39 - Pull into garage.  Realize I have forgotten my badge.  *sigh*
• 7:48 - Set down at desk after depositing lunch & la leche in the fridge.
• 7:51 - Text Ryan to see how drop off went.
• 8:04 - Eat my oatmeal (breakfast part #3) at coworker's desk while discussing an email that came in over night.  Looking back she probably did not appreciate the overwhelming maple smell at her desk.  SORRY M!
• 8:48 - Frantically trying to update and input new information for forecast elements that have changed for a forecast meeting at 9.
• 8:58 - Can't get printer to work because I forgot my badge.  Had to get coworker to help me.  I'm worthless.
• 9:26 - Hurriedly cut out of a meeting early to try to hightail it to the building next door for a meeting at 9:30.
• 10:33 - Sit back down in my chair.
• 10:40 - Cleaned out my oatmeal cup and get my snack.
• 10:45 - Pump sesh #2.  Eat my snack work.  Having your lady bits out at work, no matter how concealed you are, will never be normal to me.

• 11:08 - Parts cleaned and all items stowed away.  
• 12:01 - Lunch time!
• 12:03 - Gave in and put my jacket on.  I try to make it as long as possible each day before I give in to the tundra that is this end of our floor.
• 2:00 - Meeting gets delayed at the last minute.
• 2:32 - 2:00 Meeting actually starts.  Fly through information because there's a 3:00 meeting.
• 3:02 - Run next door.  Don't tell HSE.  
• 4:22 - Sit down for pump sesh #3.  Eat snack #2.

• 5:27 - Pull out of the garage.
• 5:29 - Call my Mom to catch up.  She informs me she has found a puzzle piece from 2 weeks prior in the side of her purse.  
• 5:59 - Pull into the girls' school parking lot.  The girls' teachers each tell me a story that completely summarizes their personalities.  Brynn's teacher tells me about something that made her laugh during the day while Emery's tells me about something that Emery refused to let her do.
• 6:10 - Put Emery in time out in the daycare parking lot.  No shame in my game.  It was completely ineffective, btw.
• 6:14 - Pull out of the school parking lot.
• 6:19 - Pull into our driveway.  I hit all green lights- wheeee!
• 6:29 - Prepare Emery's snack (gooooo feeeeesh) one-handed because Brynn wasn't down with her carseat.  Or waiting patiently.  
• 6:30 - Get changed.  Brynn fusses her disapproval of my putting her down.  (She usually does this in the evenings because she's hungry)
• 6:36 - Sit down to feed Brynn.
• 6:37 - Emery demands "animoes" on TV.

• 6:43 - Ask Emery to kindly stop using her broom to brush her sister's hair.
• 6:51 - Daddy's home!
• 6:55 - Emery proudly announces a #2.  Ryan takes her into the bedroom to change her.
• 6:57 - Brynn done eating.
• 6:59 - Ryan makes Emery dinner (milk, turkey, sweet potato fries and peas+carrots)
• 7:04 - I start washing and sanitizing pump and bottle parts while making bottles for the next day.  I wonder if I was very nice to science if it would allow me the powers Samantha possessed on Bewitched.
• 7:20 - Daddy puts Emery in timeout.  I can't even remember why.  Probably not listening.  
• 7:26 - I finish washing parts & putting together bottles.
• 7:28 - Daddy takes Brynn and monitors Emery's living room clean up chores while I run upstairs to find some jammies and start to run a bath.
• 7:31 - After much bartering about what does not belong in the bath (anything that isn't Emery), sI uccessfully wrangle her into the tub.
• 7:42 - Get Emery out of the bath.  Attempt to get her in a towel.  Probably looks similar to calf roping but with a towel.
• 7:44 - The calf demands "polly, polly" which translates to potty.  Set her on the potty.  Nothing happens.
• 7:51 - I put Emery in timeout.  For not listening.  Sound famliar?
• 7:56 - Emery's teeth AND Uma's teeth are brushed.  Pat them on the butt and usher them into the living room to go pick out a book.

• 7:57 - Emery has selected "Grandma Book" (actually titled The Napping House) which I know Ryan is pumped about (sarcasm font).  We swap kids.
• 7:58 - Ryan takes Emery upstairs and I take Brynn to the bedroom where I get her diaper changed and weigh her.  14 lbs 2 oz.  Mama not thrilled.
• 8:02 - Put Brynn's jammies on.
• 8:05 - Sit down to feed Brynn.
• 8:06 - Daddy surfaces from Bedtime Stallville, population: 1.  He goes into the kitchen to start dinner. (Salmon scampi, rice, peas+carrots)  
• 8:11 - Dramatic crying from the monitor.  I wonder if Emery will be an actress.  Think of LiLo.  Vow not to let that ever happen.
• 8:13 - Hubby & I start up the DVr.  Select Real World vs Road Rules Challenge.  Because we are classy folks.
• 8:17 - Give up feeding Brynn.  Sit her up and let her look around.  Observing > Eating in her world.

• 8:25 - Emery finally asleep.
• 8:33 - Brynn asleep.
• 8:38 - I transfer Brynn to pack n' play so I can eat.
• 8:39 - Enjoy dinner by TV light with the hubs.  Ahhh, modern day romance.

• 9:10 - Clean up the kitchen.  Salmon was packed in an oven safe disposable dish.  10 points for us!
• 9:14 - Unpack a new piece of wall art that was delivered.
• 9:19 - Eat dessert that I shouldn't be eating.
• 9:25 - Pump sesh #4.  This one is usually my least favorite because I'm exhausted.  I ALWAYS have to give myself a stern pep talk to make sure I don't quit.
• 9:42 - Tell myself I'm awake enough to lay down on the couch without falling asleep.
• 946 - Ryan tells me I'm falling asleep.  Doh.
• 9:48 - Ryan gives Lola a treat and I head to the bathroom for my adult bedtime routine.
• 9:59 - Contacts: out, face: washed, teet: brushed, feet: cloaked in fuzzy socks that aren't required for Houston Springs
• 10:05 - Turn on my alarm, put my UP in sleep mode and call it a day.