Taste of Fall

Last week and weekend, we had temperatures in the low 60's/high 50's (and maybe even a little cooler at times). Saturday arrived and appeared to look gray and dismal. However, no rain was actually in the forecast. So we headed to the zoo for the Zoo Grass (bluegrass) Festival.
We did have to bundle up a bit. The dreary looking skies kept the crowd away though.
We walked right onto my sweet girl's favorite thing-- the train. When the weather is nice that train line can get long (and try the patience of Mommy's and little girls alike).
Someone was pretty excited to sit on the bench by himself (with Daddy's arms nearby).
Cate got to pet a miniature cow.
We took in the bluegrass bands.
We watched a lumberjack show.
And to really make it seem fall-like, I enjoyed a caramel apple before we headed out. Yum!

This week we are back to temperatures in the high 70's, getting up to 80 some days. Good thing I left some summer clothes out for the kids. Our Halloween decorations are out and this weekend we're heading to a farm with some friends and then to a hayride/fall party with Eric's parents.

In recent milestones, Brennan has learned to get himself back to sitting (something he did last Tuesday, 9/27 for the first time) when he's been on his back or tummy. We're pretty sure crawling will be coming soon. He gets up on all fours, but then doesn't really move.

I'll leave you with a picture of my little Daniel Boone. Eric's parents brought Brennan this coonskin hat back from a recent trip to the Smokies. ~Melody :-)

I Carry Your Heart With Me

Cate had her first day of preschool today. After visiting a few area preschools last year, we know the one Cate is attending is the best fit for her. She picked out her Cars shirt with me last night. We loaded her "summer collection" bag into her backpack. Eric did a super job on her pigtails. And then...in she walked. I can't believe we are to this point in our lives. She came home and was so proud to talk about how she shared with other kids. And how she checked herself in (flipped her card around to show she was present). And how she got to play with new kids. It's a little hard to let go and accept that this is where we are now. That she's no longer baby or toddler, but preschooler. Kid.
But she's my kid. When my grandma asked her how many kids were in her class tonight, her response was "too many." So cute. There are only 17. And three teachers. Three very dedicated and very wonderful teachers.
And so today begins a new chapter in our lives. I hope she likes school and sees it as a safe and fun place to be. I hope she never loses her sense of curiosity and wonder. I hope she sticks her hand in the air to the point of it almost being annoying because she has questions or wants her comments to be heard. I hope she makes new friends. I hope she respects her teachers. I hope so many things for her and her education. Today is the beginning of those hopes.

~Melody :-)

Eight

It has been 8 months.
He fills me with joy.

He got his first tooth yesterday (no pictures yet, it's barely through the gums).
Which explains why he kept getting me up the night before the first day of school.
The first two days of school have gone well. Both for me at school and for Eric and the kids at home. Praise God for that.
No crawling yet, but little man can get what he wants by rolling and scooting and kicking.

He's still super snuggly too. And a total mama's boy. Which I love. He can be squawking up a storm with someone else and just quiet down as soon as he is in my arms.

And with that, I'm gonna go snuggle him. And his sister.

Before I crash into what will quite possibly be one of the deepest sleeps ever.

Happy 8 Months, Brennan!

~Melody :-)

A Belated 7 Months

In addition to July 23rd being the birthday of both my cousin and my uncle (her dad), it was also Brennan's 7 month birthday.

Days before he turned 7 months old (on July 19th to be exact), buddy started sitting up on his own.

He now eats fruits, veggies and meats. Most of them homemade (I'll do a post on that later, I promise). Like his big sister, Mommy, and Daddy, he loves books. Although he likes to eat them. Still no teeth-- we keep waiting. Brennan loves to be held and/or worn. He still hates it when he's left alone in a room (even if it's just for a few seconds). Sophie the Giraffe remains one of his favorite toys. That and the moon from his rocketship set. And his baby paper.

It's hard to believe he's closer to one now than birth. He's graduated to a convertible carseat (at 18 pounds, he was just too heavy to keep carrying in the carrier). He rolls all over the place and with some work, can usually get to what he wants. I'm sure it won't be long before he's crawling. But I'm not rushing anything.

More birthdays will be celebrated this week as Eric rings in the last year of his twenties and Cate officially turns three-and-a-half.

~Melody :-)

The Children's Museum-- Now Twice As Fun

Someone started sitting up on Tuesday. All by himself.
It's been wicked hot here. Like 95-100 degrees (add in the humidity and the head index reads at 110). Cate does okay in the heat if we're out swimming or if she's got a big bottle of water. Brennan is a different story. For his safety, we've only been outside with him for 90 minutes or less at a time (that's consecutive time spent outside, like at the pool or park or something). My mom works for the school district I graduated from and is on summer vacation, so she's been spending a lot of time down here. To beat the heat one day this week, we headed to the Children's Museum. My mom hadn't been there before. Cate was excited to show her how she plays vet in the animal hospital playroom. We were at the museum pretty much all day. Now that Brennan can sit unassisted, he has a lot more fun there. There are so many more things for him to play with now.
We also discovered a sand play area that I never knew existed. Our Children's Museum is housed in a building with two other museums (a history of Cincinnati Museum and a Natural History Museum) and an Omnimax Theater. The sand play area is actually tucked away in the Natural History Museum.
It's much better than the sand table in the Children's Museum. I have to say, it was nice to stick my toes in the sand for a little while-- even if it was only play sand indoors and not beach sand. We're already plotting our beach vacation next year and we're hoping to spend two wonderful weeks there.

~Melody :-)

PS...Today, my little man is 7 months old! The pictures above are all from Tuesday. A 7 month picture will be coming soon.

Lucky 7

Sunday marked our 7th wedding anniversary. And can I just say, I really, really do love my husband more with each year we are married. He is an amazing man!

Last Thursday, we decided that since we were coming up on 7 years of marriage, it was high time that we bought a real dining room table (one that could seat more people and on which you could keep the food being served-- y'know, passing the dishes and all). We also decided it was high time to buy something to display the china in that we got 7 years ago for our wedding. So we headed to Ikea. And after a little bit of sweat, but no blood or tears, we now have this:

The table seats 8 right now, but has two leaves and could comfortably seat 12. One side is a bench, which Cate loves. I love the china cabinet and the fact that our china is actually out of the boxes!

On Saturday, we spent some time as a family at the City Flea (a once a month summer flea market downtown). Calling it a flea market really isn't fair as flea market sometimes denotes "crap" or "junk." There were vendors selling vintage and new goods as well as handmade items. Cate got a pair of Son of Gustav moccasins (she LOVES them) and a little hand-sewn bird. She picked a pair to match Brennan's, which means Brennan will inherit them in a few years. We found Brennan a vintage shirt for next summer (can't wait to pair it with khakis) and his own moccasins.

Saturday night, Eric's parents watched the kids so Eric and I could head to dinner at The Melting Pot. I'd never been, but my IRL friend, Mama Marchand, talks about it a lot and goes there with her husband to celebrate special things, so we thought we'd give it a try. It. Was. Amazing. We had a four-course fondue meal and I came home STUFFED. Eric even mentioned it was our anniversary when he made the reservations and they put flowers on our table that I got to take home.


We picked Brennan up since I wasn't quite ready to leave him overnight yet, and Cate stayed with her grandparents. Sunday, our actual anniversary, was pretty lazy. Eric got donuts and coffee and a Sunday times and we lounged around on the back patio before going to get Cate.
Cate went to bed early and Eric cooked a great shrimp/pasta dish which we ate on our china.
It was a dish he made for me on our first Valentine's Day together. We were in college and on our way to what I thought was a restaurant. Halfway there, Eric said "Oh, crap, I forgot my wallet at home." I offered to pay so we could keep going, but he insisted on turning around to get it. Little did I know that dinner was waiting for me back at his apartment and his awesome roommate had lit about 100 candles in the short time we'd been driving and then vacated the apartment while we ate. So the dish brought back memories.

And I have to mention this too:
This is Eric's anniversary gift-- a leather cuff bracelet from Lisa Leonard designs with our kids' birthdates on it. I love it. He loves it. I don't have a picture, but I got Brennan's fingerprint on a silver heart to match one I have for Cate. So now I have a necklace with two heart charms-- one with each kids' fingerprint.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate seven years. We also did a little bit of dreaming and decided that we'll celebrate years 8 and 9 quietly because barring a major financial crisis, we plan to spend our 10th anniversary here. Hopefully, in one of the awesome swim-up rooms. We've started saving for it already.



I can only hope we have so many more years together. These first seven have been great. We've had our share of ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

~Melody :-)
PS... Some of my formatting got messed up. Sorry. Don't know why some stuff is underlined and everything and I don't have the time to mess around with it to fix it. :-)

Five

Five months ago, Eric, my OB, and I decided it was time to cut Brennan out. He was stuck and inside my body was no longer the safest place for him.
And now my big guy is eating cereal and apples and pears (pears were new this week, and so much fun to make...seriously). He LOVED the pears when he tried them for the first time yesterday!
He tries really hard to eat Mum-Mums too. He likes them when he gets them in his mouth. Sometimes he misses though since his hand-eye coordination is a work in progress. Then he just gets ticked because he's poking himself in the eye or jabbing his nose.
But mostly, he likes them.

He's turning into quite a hunk. I hope he doesn't break too many hearts one day.
He charms just about everyone with his smile.
Even his big sister, who really is quite in love with him now.
Happy Five Months to the only man other than Eric to completely steal my heart!

~Melody :-)

Side note: We had a tornado warning here tonight and some bad thunderstorms. My dog hates storms. She hid here:
That's right...climbed by herself onto the kids' toy shelf and is still there now even though the storm has passed. Weirdo.

Tiny Dancer

The dance recital Saturday was fabulous. Friday night I just kept praying that Cate would simply be true to herself and have fun. She still did her own thing on stage and she delighted the audience. At times her "thing" looked like the dance the rest of the girls were attempting to do (a few froze in front of an actual audience). Even her teacher said that Cate did better than she thought she would. I am one proud mama! My heart swelled as I gave her a hug and some flowers (now in a vase in her room) after the final curtain call with all of the dancers (picture blurry because it was with my phone). I refused to watch her recital through any sort of lens-- video or camera. Cate keeps asking when she can dance again. We're taking a break for the summer, but if she's still asking in the fall, we'll give it another go.

I'll post a video when I can and if I can. My cousin and Eric's stepdad both took videos and we ordered a DVD so I'm hoping one of those will find a way to transfer here somehow, even if it's through YouTube. You'll crack up, I promise. But you'll be proud too.

~Melody :-)

And in case you were wondering...she gets her mad dance moves from her mommy.

(me, at my first recital when I was 3.5)

Rice, Rice, Baby

Who got their first taste of rice cereal on Easter Sunday?
Little man! Considering it was his first time eating with a spoon, he took to it all like a natural. I mixed 2 tablespoons of breast-milk with 1 tablespoon of cereal and there was very little left over.
And not too much on his bib either. The kids both enjoyed their Easter baskets. The Take the Cake game you see in Cate's is awesome! Totally worth it if you have a kid 3 years old or older. My cupcake-lovin' sweet girl thinks it's the best thing ever.
We spent our Easter Sunday enjoying a great service at church in which a neuro-scientist and former agnostic shared how he came to believe in the resurrection, the cornerstone of Christian salvation. Cate and Brennan looked as adorable as ever in their Easter outfits. We came home, took a nap, snacked on some Easter candy, and then headed out to Eric's stepdad's sister's house. Some of his family had never seen Brennan before. We got one family picture (like my new mom-haircut? I don't even need to use a brush when I blow it dry).
Brennan loved on his new teething toy all day. He knew just what to do with it. We have to help him get a grip on it (he's almost there with the whole knowing-he-has-hands thing). But once he's got it in his hands, he brings it right to his mouth.

We also brought this home from our Easter celebration:
Eric's stepdad's father is a talented woodworker and made this babydoll cradle for Cate. It's the perfect sleeping spot for her Bitty Baby, Baby Annie.

It was a Happy Easter indeed.

~Melody :-)

PS...Still a few days to win an Amazon gift card.