Vivi 2 year check up

Vivi had her two year check up today and she is still in the 98% in height. Both of the girls have never failed to go below 95% in height since the day they were born. I wonder what that means about how tall they will be when they are adults. Some doctors say double it and that will be their height as adults at two. If that is the case she would be 6'2" which sounds crazy to me. I rarely see women who are that tall and I am only 5'5" and Curt is 5'10" his dad and my dad are over 6 ft but still...

We will see.

She cried more than half the time we were there. Bella stopped crying when she went to the dr at around 2 1/2 but I have a feeling Vivi will be crying for another year or two. Bella doesn't even cry anymore when she gets shots, she is so strong. It's so funny how different their  personalities are. 

We are both exhausted now and it's only 11:15am. It's a rainy and dreary day here in Md and I didn't fall asleep until after midnight because Curt had his last Mason meeting. He is officially a mason now! I love that he is following the footsteps of my dad and grandfather. He really likes to do things for my dad and that is just one more thing I love about him. I just wish these meetings didn't run so late, I can never fall asleep without him. 

I plan on taking a nap today and hopefully relaxing all day. Tomorrow I am going to be baking for the majority of the day. I promised 8 baked goods by Friday for Bella's school which means 8 hours added for the year. We have a requirement of completing 20 hours for the shool year or we have to pay $500. I plan on trying to get my hours completed before this baby comes!

I am so excited to see him, I'm starting to get anxious! The crib is arriving next week and his bedding is coming on Friday. We got the chair and ottoman for his room so now all we need is a changing table/dresser a little end table and I need to call next day blinds to get black out blinds! We are counting down only 79 days left! 

Here I come third trimester!! 

28 weeks! 

Sweet baby not crying waiting for her shots to come :(

Mommy meltdown

Last Friday was not the best day for me. I had two sick kids who would not stop coughing and Bella had been up all night on and off to the point of Curt just sleeping in her room. That day Bella was coughing so much she couldn't fall asleep for her nap time and I was beat. Days like that are so exhausting and feel like they never end. Luckily Curt came home early that day so I grabbed my bag and told Curt I needed a personal night. I called my best friend and cried to her for about ten minutes like a baby. I know life isn't that bad but sometimes you just need a break and you need to breath. 

I had not left the house in over a week and felt like the walls were caving in on me. 

I went to get a manicure/pedicure which was completely relaxing and then I went to Capital Grille sat down at the bar and had a salad in peace and quiet. I ended up making a girlfriend at the bar and we talked about ebola and other adult like things instead of the nightly conversation about Sofia the first and saying "please eat your food" a million times. 

Afterwards I went to Bloomingdales and bought myself a new pair of beautiful fall/winter boots and I can't wait to wear them. 

I felt a zillion times better after that so I headed home at 8:30 😬 and got in bed. 

Thank God that day is over. 

Going to the zoo with Vivian

This morning Bella had her first field trip to the pumpkin patch! Bella was excited to go but I don't think she really knew what to expect. 

After breakfast Vivi and I got dressed and had a little field trip of our own since it was so warm out today. I love when we have these beautiful hot days in October when the leaves are changing color! 

We started out at the elephant house and worked our way over to see the panda bears where we saw the baby panda Bao Bao but he was hard to see since he was sleeping way up high in a tree. At first Vivi kept saying "no" because she was scared but then really started to enjoy all of the animals. We will definitely be back soon since this weather is so nice and they really are at the perfect age to get some energy out and enjoy the day seeing animals. 

Here are some pictures from today...

Bao Bao in the tree

Beautiful leaves changing color

Cheetah

Zebra

Vivi making funny faces with the gorilla in the back!

Orangatan hanging out right above us. Kinda creepy

Yawning on her way home. Great morning spent with my Vivi

Dear Curt,

Thank you so much for my sweet notes you leave me every morning or every other morning they make me happy and determined to start my day out on the right note with the girls. You make me want to be a better wife and a better momma. 

Thank you for ironing for me. You know I hate ironing and you do it every few weeks even after a long day at work.

Thank you for bringing home dinner on the nights where I have been too tired to cook because I've been having insomnia. 

Thank you for rubbing my back every night before bed.

Thank you for being the best daddy in the whole world and making it home for dinner every night so you can spend time with us eventhough I know you could have stayed at work much longer.

Thank you for killing crickets and spiders. 

Thank you for putting up outdoor Halloween decorations where I can't reach. 

Thank you for keeping me happy and giving me all the babies I want :)

I love you.

Your wife

My first weekend of October

The weather is getting cold! I love my Saturday mornings, I really look forward to them. We wake up, normal time of course (7am) get the kids up and head downstairs for breakfast then we sit around or clean up a little before we head out the door to ballet. I love my ballet Sat mornings with Bella. It is just the two of us. We get ready, go get coffee, then walk to ballet together hand in hand. I love this because I know it is something we will be doing for years. I could be completely wrong but I do think Bella is going to love ballet or dance for years to come or maybe it's just my dream :)

Afterwards we say goodbye to all the sweet mommies and other dancers and head home to Curt and his potty training session that should be taking place. I wonder how much Curt hates his Saturday mornings? 

This past Saturday the girls were recovering from a cough so we kept them in for most of the weekend. Curt and I bought tickets to a food and wine festival in Silver Spring with my sister Travis but it was really lacking both food and wine. They still of course had fun together then we went to Rock Bottom for some actual food and one more drink before we headed home. The girls were with their babysitter and Brooke my niece came to play with them for a few hours. 

We ordered a delicious pizza from Mama Lucia and watched TV for the rest of the cold windy night!

I love how there are so many scary movies on TV now that it's October! 

On Sunday we just stayed home and relaxed the whole day. I love lazy weekends!

I took Bella to CVS with me and she found a scary friend. Am I traumatizing my child? :/

Making homemade applesauce

Last weekend we all got in the car and headed to a local farm to go apple picking. We had a great time and we got about 20 apples so today I decided to make applesauce. 

First I washed the apples

Then I took the skin off of them. I peeled about 15 of them and cut them up into wedges cutting around the core of the apple. Then I put them into a big pot on the stove.

Then I turned the stove on medium heat and added one cup of apple juice. I wish I had cider but it might not have made a difference.

Then I added:

one teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Freshly grated nutmeg

A pinch of allspice

And 1/2 cup of brown sugar to give it that beautiful brown color.

I mixed it a little and then put the top on. 

I let it sit for a good 20 min while the kiddos and I started decorating the house for Halloween then checked on it and it looked like mush. Perfect. Turn the stove off.

I let it cool for another half hour or so then got my mini food processor and started making small batches of applesauce. I added about a 1/4 cup of apple juice to get the right consistency and it was done!! Best applesauce I've ever had hands down!

And....

This will last us for maybe a week if we are lucky!!

Have fun making your own now! 

My sick baby loving her applesauce