Hyde Happenings

I always enjoy looking back and reading my posts, remembering tidbits of what was going on in our life at that point in time.  Most of the time, it’s the mundane stuff that happens that makes our life the most ‘eventful’.  SO… starting a new post series called Hyde’s Happenings.  Here’s the mundane, every day stuff that goes on in our household, specific to this past week…  

I’ve watched more Bachelor in Paradise this week than the Olympics, which is a sad admission.  Seriously, 2 nights ABC?!  Do I really need 2 hours of this garbage?  No.  But I still tune in.

Speaking of the Olympics, have you checked out Boomer Phelp’s Instagram page?  Gah!  Just stop the cuteness overload now… him and Claire would be the perfect match someday.

I went to pick my dog up from Doggy Daycare the other day and granted she doesn’t go to daycare as much as she use to but still frequent enough that they should know who my dog is.  The girl went back to get my dog, came back without her and had to have another girl go back and get her as she couldn’t tell the Doodles apart.  I overheard another girl yell out “It’s the one you have to force to go outside!”  LOL!  Yep, that’s her.  Charley loves nothing more than air conditioning and 700 thread count sheets.

Annie has been sick for the last week and is on an oral steroid to try to rapidly make her better as this Friday she is getting her ear tubes replaced.  Claire is getting over her first bad diaper rash and stomach bug and then this morning Charley got sick and is now at the vet’s office.  All week I can’t decide if I need a second cup of coffee, a bottle of wine or a crazy pill.  Seriously…What.A.Week.

While at the doctor’s office this week, I was asked for Annie’s birthday.  Anymore I have to stop and think to not confuse Claire and Annie’s dates and all I can think is how in the world do the Duggar’s do it?  Last I knew, they have 19 kid’s birthdays, I would never be able to keep all those straight.  Sometimes it’s the little stuff like this that confirms I can’t handle having more than 2 kids.  

I got invited by a friend to go to a Steven Tyler concert this week.  I don’t even care for Steven Tyler but anything to get out of the house and hang out with a friend for a night I’m game for.  I heard he now sings country, I just can’t quite imagine how that sounds but guess I’ll be finding out.

I’ve had a slight addiction to Boom Chica Boom Sweet and Salty Popcorn lately.  Thanks to Costco samples, I now can’t get enough of it and even Aaron is hooked.

Earlier this week my friend and I were texting at what we would be a Gold Medalist at.  I said I would get the Gold for smelling out poopy diapers, I can sniff those out in a heartbeat.  I don’t even have to verify to know if it was a kid or my husband who passed gas.  I know the difference.  My friend said she’d get the Gold in sneakily throwing out her kid’s crap.  That rock her kid can’t do without?  Sneaked in the trash.  A piece of cardboard they can’t let go of?  You betcha she can get that in the trash without them knowing.  What do you Gold medal in?

Per usual, I set frozen chicken out yesterday morning thinking we would be grilling out that night and what do you know, still frozen by the time I got home.  How have I not learned by this now?  Plan ‘B’ dinners are a pretty frequent occasion in our house. 

I heard on the radio the other day that the average age when you start falling out of the loop on current music and the top hottest artists is age 42.  Wheew, I have 7 more years of listening to Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift & Beyonce before I’m officially ‘uncool’ and out of know with the younger crowd.  I still got it until then.   (PS, the only Bieber song I really like is "Love Yourself", otherwise he is already uncool in my books).

There you have it, the latest happenings in the life of the Hyde’s!  Until next time!

Claire: 3 Months Old

It feels like time is passing much quicker with Claire than it did with Annie!  Maybe life is just more chaotic with 2?  Likely!  Either way I can’t believe we are almost out of the newborn stage already, the best part of the newborn stage is they are sleeply teeny cuddle bears, she still is a tiny cuddle bear but is nearly doubled her birth weight and is a more squirmy cuddler.  I’ll love those cuddles as long as I can because cuddling with Annie feels like I’m in a wrestling match in which I’m nothing more than a jungle gym to her.

Over the past month Claire has been much more alert and the best part of the past 30 days is her smiles.  She has one of the best smiles.  They are so animated, they usually start out with her scrunching her face up, especially her nose and then it melts into a wide-mouthed smile, I just love it!  She usually is the most smiley right after she wakes up. 

Overall, even with her becoming more alert and staying up longer between naps, she starting to chill out some.  I wouldn’t label her colicky but she definitely had some fussy weeks here and there since birth that have kept us on our toes, she seems much more relaxed lately.  She still has days where she is fidgety/fussier but overall she definitely is a much happier baby than Annie was at this age and as long as she isn't overtired, she's pretty content. 

Claire is a relatively good sleeper at night.  Annie was sleeping thru the nights at 8 weeks, we are still up with Claire at night but it’s usually a fairly quick 30 minute feeding and only once.  She started going to bed at 8 pm in just the past few weeks and it’s been a nice transition, allowing me to get bottles and house stuff done before I get in bed at 10.  So getting up at night with her still isn’t too bad but I’ll be ready for her to go thru the night without waking.  We are getting there, I’m confident it will be happening soon as her stretches keep getting longer and longer at night.  With her going to bed at 8, we are still doing a ‘dream feed’ around 10ish pm before we go to bed, so technically she is up twice a night but only one of those times is her waking us up.

Claire is a little lazy bones when it comes to tummy time.  Trying to get this kid to lift her head up is not so easy.  She usually gets frustrated that I put her on her tummy and gets pretty upset about it, tummy time is pretty short lived but loves being on her back on the mat.  Those little neck muscles are still working to be improved upon.

Maternity leave is over and I went back to work on July 18^th.  I started Claire in daycare beforehand so that I could adjust her to her new schedule and pull Annie out of daycare and spend time with just her.  I was really dreading the day before Claire started but she adjusted just fine and seems to be doing well at daycare.  It was definitely harder for me to back to work this time around, knowing it’s my last baby and I’ll never have this extended time again with my babies made it harder. 

Claire has a whole lot of ‘second child syndrome’ going on.  We had her 3 month photo shoot and poor Claire gets all of Annie’s hand-me-downs and Annie was the one who got the new dress and it wasn’t even a photo shoot for her.  I just can’t justify buying Claire new clothes when we have tons of Annie’s clothes that are in perfect condition and super cute, Claire hasn’t even gotten to wear half of them we have so many.  I actually really love pulling out these hand-me downs and getting to use them again.  And as long as we don’t duplicate picture outfits, I’m good right?  

Although I'm totally wiped out and exhausted by the end of every day and I have a million things things going on that I'm never feeling caught up, I do try to drop everything and just be with my girls from 5 to 8 pm every night before their bedtimes.  When I hold Claire, I just relish that tininess that she is and knowing that I can't hold Annie like that anymore emphasizes that I need to soak in those cuddles while they last.  And I do.  And they are so, so good.  And the way the back of her head smells when I'm holding her in a cuddle is something I try to relish in as well because that's short lived too, Annie just smells like a toddler after a long day of daycare, those sweet baby smells are no longer with my 1st born.  There are just so many sweet things with Claire that I love getting to do all over again and I can't for the all the firsts to come in these coming months to share back with you all!