Claire's 1st Birthday Party (+Annie's 3rd)

I’m way behind on my post for Claire’s first birthday party!  We ended up celebrating the day after her actual birthday.  We had close family and some close friends over to celebrate on a late Saturday morning.  If you recall, I also planned to have Annie’s 3^rd birthday to coincide with this celebration which worked out well.  We are at the age where I feel like I can get away with combined birthdays.  Next year we will probably put the focus on Annie’s birthday and tuck Claire’s celebration into Annie’s day.  It won’t be long before they will each want their own and not a shared celebration so taking advantage of it while it doesn’t matter in their little worlds.

We were able to get Claire down for a short nap before the birthday party which worked out well to have a happy rather than cranky 1 year old.  Everyone enjoyed seeing her walk for the first time and take note to how much she has grown.  

Annie was full of energy and running around with her cousin Elijah and friend Alaina.  At this age, their little personalities can take a turn at any given moment so I wanted to keep the party festivities moving along quickly so that we had them out of the way and we could all just socialize.  So we started right away with singing Annie Happy Birthday and she ended up with purple frosted cupcakes for the party.  She is obsessed with the color purple nowadays.  And sugar.  So win-win. 

Annie is so funny.  I know how much she LOVES being celebrated.  But when the birthday song is being sung to her, she takes it so seriously and the look on her face seems so business.  Check out the video to see what I mean…

After this, we got right to gift opening.  My least favorite part because the kids are just nuts and the chaos always sends my anxiety sky high.  I really need to figure out how to make this better in the future.  Annie was in my face asking to open more and more gifts and she was ripping thru them so fast and I was trying to focus on helping Claire open hers and I felt like it just becomes a whirlwind and then I am not 100% sure what came from who in the end.  I think next year we will have one kid open at a time for my sanity and keep the other kid contained on someone’s lap.  I can only handle one kid going gift opening nuts at a time.  The girls received all sorts of fun stuff that they are loving to play with.

After gift opening, we got Claire ready for her smash cake.  Just like Annie 1^st birthday, she had zero interest in the cake; a few tastes and she was done.  I was okay with it because I really didn’t care for the mess and we had already gotten good pictures the weekend before during her 1 year old shoot.  So the cake smash was uneventful.

After this, the kids played and when everyone left, the girls napped so well.  I like to be cleaning up while I’m visiting.  It’s probably not the best thing to do but then when everyone leaves, it’s peace and quiet time for me too so that afternoon was the perfect down time for all.

For Annie’s 1^st birthday I had hand-made most of her decorations and went to a lot more work than I did for Claire’s.  I thought about reusing them but Claire gets so many hand-me downs in life that I decided she needed her own party décor.  I ended up buying most all of our decorations on Amazon and it was definitely the route to go. 

All in all we had a great 1^st birthday celebration for our sweet Claire McKenna.  Everyone was able to make it and we got some good pictures of everyone with her for her baby book.  Speaking of baby book, I worked furiously to get it filled out leading up to her party.  I had actually done a pretty good job of keeping up with it until around 10 months and she had a lot of firsts in those few missed months but I was able to get both the girl’s baby books updated for the year.  It feels good to have that done. 

Mother's Day 2017

On this Mother’s Day, I want to jot down today’s memories.  Every day moments that are occurring now in this current phase of mommyhood that I can look back on and read someday down the road…

When Annie gives me a hug, she a lot of times will say ‘My Mommy.”  Oh how I love her declare me as her mommy and how she says it with such pride and possession.  And then I go “My Annie” and we start to banter back and forth “My Mommy”/“My Annie!”

Claire blew me a kiss the other day for the first time.  Once she starts, she gives multiple ones in the row.  So precious.

 In the mornings, Annie will sit on the bathroom counter and watch me put on my makeup.  After I apply each item, she will say “Do me Mommy.”  So after I put on my mascara, I will put the lid back on and pretend I’m putting it on her.  She really believes she is wearing makeup and sits so still as I rub the closed mascara tube across her lashes.

Claire loves to carry this little toy purse around.  I’ll turn around to see her walking around with it in the nook of her arm all the time.   I’m sure she learned it from her sister, 2 girly girls that’s for sure!

The girls love to play chase in our bedroom.  I’ll start by getting on all 4s and start marching towards Claire who will laughs so hard and her walk turns into a run turns into falling over.  Then I’ll turn around and start chasing after Annie on the other side of the bed.  When I go back to chasing Claire, Annie is always yelling “Get me Mommy, Get me!”  Once I ‘get’ Annie, she’ll yell “Get Claire!” That game of chase around the bed is always full of little girl giggles.  

Annie is always a handful at bedtime but lately when I tuck her in for the 100^th time, she’ll say “Lay with me Mommy.”  I have a hard time denying that so I’ll lay next to her and snuggle for a minute or two.  She won’t want to snuggle with me forever so I try to take that minute or two to soak up those last squeezes of the day.  

Annie has learned her bedtime prayers pretty well.  Although she will speed thru it, get half way thru and then end with an Amen.  And she still hasn’t differentiated that dinner prayer is not the same as bedtime prayers.  So we usually let her say the bedtime prayer at dinner, then Aaron and I say the actual mealtime prayer out loud.   She’ll get it one of these days.

I love rocking Claire to sleep at night.  It’s our moment of solitude in the near darkness with her still in my arms. She is still in a sleep sack and taking a bottle at bedtime and I feel like these nights of doing just that are fleeting.  My rocking baby days are coming to an end but I’m going to rock her as long as she’ll let me. 

The days truly are long but the years are short. I don't want to wish these days away. These are the sweet memories I want to always remember this Mother’s Day 2017.  

Mommy+Daddy Letters to Our Daughter Claire

My Sweet Claire McKenna,

I can hardly believe that today you are 1 year old. This year has gone by too quickly; I remember when the nurse placed you in my arms and how tiny you were. You fit just perfectly in my arms and I knew that you were always meant to be mine.

For the last year, I have watched you learn and grow every day. At 1 year old, you are still my little Claire Bear. You're just a tiny little thing; I wish I could keep you little forever.  I love how you sit so snuggly in my lap and how you like to observe every little thing going on around you. 

You are so loving and sweet. You flash the biggest smiles at mommy and daddy that truly melt my heart.  We give you about ten million kisses a day, I love how your hair is perfectly baby soft and I can’t help but kiss the top of your head over and over. You adore your big sister Annie and she adores you right back. It’s so special watching you both bond with each other.  At just 1 year old, you've learned so much, it has been fun watching all your firsts in life. You get so excited every time you do something new; I love how joyful you are when you discover something new in life.

We love how you are a little more laid back than your sister but yet you stand your ground and have your own little opinions too and make them known. You are the perfect yin and yang to our family. You love nothing more than to sit on our laps, which I’m treasuring as much as I can as I’m sure it won’t be long before you’ll want to be more independent. 

I am so thankful to be your Mommy. I am truly blessed beyond words. God knew exactly what He was doing when He gave you to me. He knew our family needed you. I love you, my sweet 1 year old. Grow up strong knowing that I will always be here for you. Let God direct your paths, and you'll really go far.

Thank you, my sweet Claire, for every smile, every giggle, and every sparkle in your eye.

Love always,

Your Mommy

To my Beautiful Claire Bear,

As I type this and look out the window at this cold rainy day, one year ago today you were born, you were the sunshine on that cold & dreary day. It’s hard to put into words what you mean to me. The last year has been a whirlwind. Many say the days are slow but years fly by. This is true but I have made every effort I can to slow down and appreciate every moment of being with you.

Prior to your birth your mother and I worried and prayed so much that you would be in good health. We knew that regardless of what happened it was God’s plan. When you born happy and healthy we were ecstatic.

I had no idea what to expect as I was becoming a Dad for the second time to another little girl. It is an amazing blessing. It’s been fun seeing your little personality develop as you have grown. I’m glad that your only one. Sometimes as a Parent when you deal with the day-to-day challenges it’s easy to wish away time to an older aged child. As challenging as life is I want to appreciate all your growth and triumphs. I will be your cheerleader, friend but most importantly your Dad.

I love holding you and your sister close and squeezing you tight. Watching you learn and experiencing life is amazing. I love your little baby giggles. I love your little baby gaze when you’re learning. I love how you respond to me with little baby grunts. 

You’ve taught me to appreciate the little things and to not take time or people for granted.

Now you’re almost one. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Life will bring you victories and challenges, good days and bad ones. I will always be your Dad and always be here for you, loving you and cheering you on.

Love,

Dad

Claire's 1st Steps on 3/20/17

I'm way late on this... but the day after Annie's birthday weekend, Claire took her first true steps.  It's almost like Claire couldn't handle Annie's 3 day birthday celebration and was like she was saying "I'll show them... I'll just start walking, that'll get the attention back on me!"  HA.

It was funny because actually just the day prior, a friend commented to us that they think she will be walking soon and I was like no way, not even close.  She was still more focused on crawling and really couldn't keep her balance for too long so I really was very surprised when she started walking that very next day.

And of course, once she did it, we basically spent a good hour of her walking back and forth between Aaron and I while I took a million videos of it.  If I would've known she was going to put on a performance that night, I wouldn't have chosen her Christmas pajamas for the big event.  Nothing like a little Christmas spirit still lingering into Spring.

Now that she is walking, I'm having some issues finding her shoes with grip on the bottom.  She has the tiniest feet and really can't fit into Annie's old shoes and really Annie is hard on her shoes and there won't be much for hand-me downs in this area.  Claire is still in 0-6 month Robeez shoes and they are really getting tight.  But 6-12 months is too huge on her so we need some in-between like 6-9 months but they are hard to find that size or even find a good shoe that will have grip to them on a hard surface.  Plus we will be getting outside soon so I'm on the hunt for some hard soles that she won't trip on.  So many soles are bulky.  In the meantime, barefoot and grippy socks are getting us by.

It's also very cute how she gets very excited when she walks, she knows exactly what she is doing and she has a huge grin and gets really excited right before she takes that first step forward.  It never gets old!  That initial excitement doesn't last long, so we are loving it while it's still there!

And leave it to Annie to be screaming and crying in the background of these videos, you aren't even getting the half of her tantrums she was having...

Annie is 3 Years Old!

I feel like this past year has gone by fast and before we knew it, Annie’s birthday was here and just like that she’s now 3.  We’ve now moved pasted the ‘terrible twos’ to the ‘threenager’ stage.   Last year really was no different than the ones honestly, she has been our little handful since she’s been born so I wouldn’t say age 2 was any harder as she keeps us on our toes every single day. 

What’s new with her?  Talking up a storm! Her pronunciation gets better every month but there are times where I have no idea what she is saying.  And then there are times where I’m like, wait what did you say and how do you know that?  She’s a pretty smart cookie.  She still starts her sentences usually with about 10 ‘mommies’ in a row before she actually gets to what she wants to tell me “Mommymommymommymommymommy that’s yucky!”  Well how do you know it’s yucky, you haven’t even tried it #pickiesteaterever.

I’d say her favorite thing to do is puzzles.  She is knocking out 46 piece puzzles all on her own.  We actually can’t keep up with her before she outgrows and gets bored with a puzzle and needs a more advanced one.  And when she completes one, she is very proud of it but is ready to tear it apart and do it all over again. 

She also loves Playdoh.  It’s the one thing that can keep her entertained on a Saturday morning for a good chunk of time.  Mixing colors gives me a little anxiety but I’ve learned to get over it because she is the Queen Bee of mixing all the tubs of colors together.   

Potty training has plateaued at the moment.  #1 no problem, but sometimes we have to force her to do it meaning no TV or attention until you go sit on the potty.  #2 still in the pull-ups, and she totally knows what she needs to do, she just has yet to do it.  It’s like we are so close but until she has done it once, we just won’t get there.  I’ve tried every means of persuasion and it doesn’t move the needle so at this point we are just waiting for her to do it on her own.

She is still very opinionated about most everything but especially when it comes to what she wears.  The more the better in her world.  Layer on cardigans over dresses with multiple necklaces, headbands and bows.  I’m learning to compromise on her crazy outfit choices but I’m also getting smarter on this front.  I recently bought some Minnie Mouse socks for example where I can get her to wear what she may consider a ‘not so fun’ outfit (insert solids colors and patterns) because she is excited to have Minnie on her socks.  And her favorite all time color is purple so anything with purple on it is a win.  I sure hope Claire likes purple too because her hand-me downs are starting to look more and more purpley.

Purple on purple

Who dresses like this? Seriously. 

Annie was incredibly anxious for her 3^rd birthday this year.  It was cute but also challenging.  Every kid in her daycare class have birthdays it seems in Jan and February so each week she was celebrating someone else’s birthday and she asked me nearly every morning “Is it my burfbay yet mommy?”  And I’d have to tell her no, it’s not your ‘burfbay’ 😊.  So when a birthday card came in the mail in advance of her day, I gave it to her and told her it was a birthday card for her, I so wish I had on video her reaction.  She stuttered a bunch and got very serious going ‘What? What? What? It’s my, It’s my, It’s my BURFBAY?!!”  I then realized what I’ve done and had to explain to her it’s ALMOST her birthday but not quite.  She was on cloud 9 when that card arrived and carried it around with her for DAYS. 

Given that Claire’s having her big 1 year birthday this year, we decided not to have a formal party for Annie but just celebrate hers at the same time we do Claire’s.  I feel like we only have a few years in these early years to get away with combined parties so taking advantage of it while we can.

Rather, we decided to celebrate Annie’s birthday by doing fun things all that weekend.  I took the day off from work and went into her daycare and brought a big cookie cake and watched all the kids sing HBD to her and played with her and her friends that morning.  She loved having me there.  One kid even said, “My mom didn’t come in when it was my birthday.”  Ya well, take that up with your mom kid.

Love this video from daycare, it's like the look on her face as she is looking around is like "I've been waiting for this moment for a LONG time": 

Saturday morning, we took her to Build-A-Bear and even though she isn’t big on stuff animals, I thought it would just be a fun experience.  She did love it and although the bear just sits in the corner of the room now, she hung onto it for a good day.  And we got lucky as there was a purple bear that was just perfect in the clearance bin, win for our wallet/win for Annie.

Later that afternoon, we took Annie and one of her good friend’s Alaina over to the nail salon for their first pedicures.  Of course, Annie wanted purple and insisted that Alaina couldn’t have purple but could have pink.  Which luckily all worked out well as Alaina didn’t want purple.   Annie actually sat very well thru it, I was a little unsure how it would go but was happy to see she loved every minute of it.  It’s gives me some good insight of the fun girly stuff we can do together more often.   She wanted her finger nails done and I told her no way, stop sucking your thumb and I’ll let you.  She also has been wanting her ears pierced and I’ve told her not yet to that too.  I know, I’m such a mean Mom, aren’t I?! #hardly.

I’d say our biggest struggle is keeping her in her bed after lights go out.  Once she’s asleep, she actually has been staying her in bed at night pretty well with a few rare nights here and there.  Which I think is probably pretty normal for most parents.  It’s the whole, I have to go potty, need to brush my teeth (again), hunger pangs kick in, the thirst is unquenchable, she lost her lovey (BTW, we’ve watched her on the monitor purposely shove it between the bed and the wall and then come running out saying her lovey is lost).  Her delaying tactics is an exhausting process that I’m looking forward to her outgrowing. 

She also lately likes to argue with me in the car.  “It’s green mom, GO!”  (as she kicks the back of my seat).  Child, I can’t move this vehicle until the car in front of me goes.  And if I turn right on red, total pandemonium breaks out in the backseat.  Then I have to justify to my 3 year-old that I CAN turn right on red.  I have a true back seat driver now.  OH Annie, this is just one of the many examples of everyday life with you!

And that’s a wrap, we got a threenager ruling our world now in the sweetest, cutest, most exhausting ways.  We love every bit of you, Annie ‘Bonanie’!   

Hyde Happenings

I feel like life has been crazy lately but nothing really out of the usual is going on for us.  It’s just been busy ordinary days lately and blogging has been on the back burner if you haven’t noticed.  So how about some random Hyde Happenings?

·       I recently have gotten into essential oils.  So much so that I looked into purchasing vs. getting the kit and becoming a wholesale distributer.  I got the kit!  It’s the only thing that doesn’t make me feel nauseous to diffuse.  I’ve completely given up on candles, it used to be certain ones that make me sick but the last year, all candles have made me sick.  Diffusing essential oils is so much healthier!  I’ve done enough research and trying out of some that I’ve landed on the Young Living oils and so far it’s been great.

·       Speaking of scents making me sick… I was at my hairdresser a few weeks ago and she was mixing my hair color and she dropped the whole bowl of color on the floor!  I seriously thought this couldn’t happen to anyone but me with my sensitivities to smells.  I seriously thought I was going to faint or throw up from the fumes but I managed thru it.

·       Claire did so much during her 9^th month it’s crazy how quick she is growing up!  She crawls all over, stands on her own for a few seconds at a time, says ‘Dada’, waves and claps her hands.  That’s a lot for one month!  And I just noticed the other day for the 1^st time she had a little separation anxiety when I let someone else hold her and she was looking at me getting fussy and wanted me.  That was a first!  Normally she’d be fine being passed from stranger to stranger.

·       My social calendar is full!  I seriously can’t take on anymore social activities this Spring.  And it’s all due to hanging out with our neighbors, which is awesome.  Our monthly Bunco nights are turning into quite the party night.  We’ve made meals together, gone to birthday parties, dinner/drink dates, and gotten pedicures while the kids nap.  And now they are talking about going to Napa Valley.  It’s nice having people who live right in our neighborhood that we get along so well with and our kids are all the same age too which is a huge plus!

·       Poor Annie.  Oh her birthday can’t get her soon enough!  There are 15 kids in her daycare room and I swear they all have birthdays in January and February and every day she wakes up and asks if it’s her birthday.  She is so incredibly anxious for her day to come.  I’m actually happy that her birthday comes before Claire’s as our plan is to celebrate with her the weekend of with just us and then come Claire’s birthday we will have an official birthday party for both.  So she kinda gets celebrated twice, which I’m sure she will love!  In the meantime, she’s being an amazing sport with everyone else’s birthdays that seem to happen bi-weekly around her.

·       I’m done cleaning.  Just done!  When I’m not working at my full-time job our weekends are busy.  The girls are very needy of every second of our free time.  I have zero time for deep cleaning.  So things are changing at Casa De Hyde.  We hired a house cleaner (whose been cleaning for the last 3 hours as I type) and we bought a Roomba.  We already know someone who can mow our yard this summer.  Our time is so limited lately, and I’m already happy to have a few less things on our to-do list going forward even if it does cost us.

·       I did the HyVee meal prep with my neighbors recently and it was awesome!  We choose 7 recipes (a recipe per participant) and we showed up on a Sunday at 1 pm and they had all the meat for the meals cooked and prepped, all the ingredients for each of our 7 meals laying out on individual tables with all the ingredients right there ready to go.  All we did was combine the ingredients into freezer safe containers.  For instance, I made 7 chicken tamale casseroles and each of us took one home and someone else made 7 of another recipe and so forth.  And then HyVee did all the clean-up of our mess.  Amazing experience!   Each meal is supposed to yield 4 servings but I’ve already gotten 6 servings out of the meals we’ve ate.  And the whole thing cost $97.  Not bad at all!  There is no way I can make 7 very different meals in 1.5 hours, very time effective, which nowadays I’m all about my time!  It’s nice having meals all planned out and ready to just throw in the oven or crockpot.  

·       We are getting rid of our cable.  It’s been a long time thinking about this but we don’t watch TV hardly at all.  I watch the Bachelor on Mondays, otherwise I watch maybe an hour of tv in total thru the rest of the week. Every night we come home, make dinner, do baths and play with the girls in their bedroom until bedtime.  And then I usually read a book while Aaron pulls out his computer and works.  Our TV just never turns on anymore and when it does it’s for cartoons.  So we decided we still can’t live without TV really so we tried out the Playstation Vue’s free trial and that’s what we are switching over to.  And really it’s pretty comparable to our cable, we still will get HGTV, Food Network, Bravo and the locals for me and Aaron still gets all his sports channels and it is going to cost us 75% less per month!  Huge! Peace out Direct TV.  This is also how I justified to Aaron to get a house cleaner, just a little repurposing of funds!

That’s all I can’t think of!  Also, Aaron and I have been depending on our babysitter a lot more making a point to have date nights several times a month.  We have a date night tonight actually, JohnnySwim concert for the win!     

9 Months Old: Claire McKenna

Claire turned 9 months old a few weekends ago (on 1/28).  It has hit me now {a little hard too} that we are on the downhill slide of her 1^st year, it’s seriously flying by!  Between 6 and 9 months we’ve had lots of changes.  First off, she is crawling.  She just started this the day before her 9^th month and is still slow moving but she’s certainly on the move.  Before she figured crawling out, she went from pushing up onto knees to barrel roll to get to where she wanted to go so it’s not like it’s a totally new thing to have her on the move but officially crawling is exciting and we all sit around coaxing her to do it daily.

She’s also figured out how to pull herself up onto furniture, toys and in her crib.  Which is something she definitely likes to do more than crawling right now.  One thing she has figured out better than I recall Annie doing was managing to find her way back down.  When Annie first started pulling herself up in her crib, we’d have to go back and lay her back down.  Claire has figured out how to set back down from standing but we’ve still had a few nap battles since she can now stand and refuse to nap a little easier than before. 

Which brings me to napping – she actually is pretty easy to put down but she isn’t one to nap on the go.  We can’t put her in the car or stroller and anticipate her to doze off, it just doesn’t happen.  I’ve heard other moms say their 9-month old’s don’t nap much at all during the day but my kids have always needed their naps and they are totally different kids without them so Claire has tied us down to being home a lot more so we ensure she naps, but that’s just fine, it’s cold out and we don’t all need to be out at once most of the time anyways.

She’s also eating real table food and loving it!  In fact, baby food was even more short lived than it was with Annie, she refuses to eat it and will turn her head and scream if we even try to come at her with a spoon.  I’m all onboard too because that means we can eat our own dinner with a small bit of peace and sorta quiet while the 2 kiddos feed themselves.  We don’t all sit at the table together often but when we have, it just feels like we are pivoting to a new stage, having dinner all together and having instances where I cook ONE meal for everyone to eat is…well…awesome!

We are pretty sure she is saying ‘dadda’!  When we concentrate on her saying it, she’ll say ‘dadda’ back to us.  No ‘Ms’ in site so not looking like mama will be coming out anytime soon but that’s okay because the 2.5 yr old has the non-stop-Mama-calling down pretty good so it’s being made up for.

She loves to play peek-a-boo, playing with hand puppets, playing in her ‘baby fort’, taking baths, watching/playing with her sister, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, loves her Puffs, being held, and tearing every single book off her bookshelf {every.single.night}.  She’s still a very happy baby.  Although she does have some incredibly fussy moments but it’s usually when she isn’t feeling well or is overtired, which are understandable and it makes it easy to tell when something isn’t right with her.

The 'baby fort,' Annie has one that is much bigger so Claire got her own fort for Christmas

Aaron usually puts Claire down at night as Annie is particular about mommy time before bed but every now and then I get to sneak in and switch with Aaron and put her down at night.  In which the last time, I was rocking her in her dark room in my arms and she was so still, just drifting asleep and I realized how these still times with her in my arms are fleeting.  I don’t rock Annie to sleep in my arms at all anymore and haven’t for what feels like a while so I’m trying to soak in the time that I can still rock Claire.  It’s both sad and happy feelings.  Sad that my baby is growing so quickly and happy because I’m excited to see what she’ll be like at Annie’s age as a talking toddler and knowing all the fun and new things I get to watch her experience yet ahead.  6 months was my favorite baby age with Annie, 9 months is hands down my favorite with Claire.  She’s everything you think of when you think of the word ‘baby’ right now, it’s a really fun stage to be in.  

Sisters