Where does the time go?

Seriously?! Where does the time go!? It seems like yesterday we were bringing home our sweet little boy. I blinked (you know I didn't sleep) and suddenly he's 4 months old already and Evie is closer to 3 than 2! I know I'm way behind on my blogging. I just haven't been up to it or thought it couldn't wait until tomorrow... and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

So here we are. Owen turned 4 months on Saturday. He is 26.75" tall (95%) and 15lb 1oz (56%). He is the SWEETEST baby. He only cries when he's hungry and you haven't fed him after he's been telling you for about 20 minutes. He is full of smiles, even when he got a vaccine today. He loves watching his big sister and interacting with all of us. He still loves to be held but is seeking a little independence. He's so tall that he's able to comfortably stand in the exersaucer and really enjoys playing with those toys. Evie was excited to see them come back out too and likes to "teach" her brother how to use them. "Teach" is in quotes because she's more likely to push his hand away so she can play with it herself but when asked she says she's teaching him.

Owen has rather exceptional long curly hair. I should probably have it trimmed just to keep it out of his eyes but I'm not gonna. :)

The weather has been so nice that he's gotten to try the outside swing out and he thought that was okay. I think he was more enamored with the silly faces I made while I pushed him. He's also very ticklish, a fact I exploit at every opportunity. Love those baby giggles.

I thought having 2 kids would be difficult. And it's certainly challenging but not as hard as I thought it would be. I think Evie needs more one on one time than I am able to give her but her Daddy has really stepped up and done a lot with her lately. As for Owen, we have a weekly date with Glee on Wednesday afternoons while Evie naps. I cherish that time to spend just with him doing nothing else in particular.

Evie is growing and looks so much like a little girl.

She has a mind of her own and speaks it. She is smarter than I am and I'm not sure what to do about that. Example: I told her she'd be in trouble if she pee peed in her diaper while she was awake a knew better. In the morning she'd taken her diaper off and peed all over her bed. But her diaper was dry as a bone. Note to self: be more specific.  She has gotten into Disney princesses much to my chagrin. I told her I didn't like the princesses because they didn't have any girl friends, their only friends were animals. She said she'd be their friend so I would be happy. See, smarter than me. She wants her hair fixed like a princess most days and loves to run around in her tutu and fairy wings. But she also loves Fancy Nancy and we are happy to encourage that.

We think a Fancy Nancy birthday party may be in order this year. Evie is scared of Wolves. Don't know why. But we've been checking out library books where the wolf is the good guy to try to combat the fear.

Winter is the hardest. Short days, cold weather (though not so bad this year). We do great in the mornings where we have a pretty set routine and schedule of events and playdates. But the afternoons are sort of long unstructured time. So we're striking back with arts and crafts. I use her nap time to come up with an activity (Thanks Pinterest!) and we work on it in the afternoon until dinner time. It really helps. So far we've done things as simple as glue cotton balls to print outs of snowmen  to painting with TP tubes.  Here are a few other activities we have done recently:

Marshmallow Shooter- This one results in shoes filled with mini marshmallows such that a few days later Evie was eating found marshmallows that came from the shoes...ewww.
Valentine Bee- cut out hearts. Let Evie glue them down and decorate. EASY

TP Tube Hortons- Evie loved using her scissors to make the hair.

Bow Valentines- We made 3 different bows for Evie's girl friends and then put them on paint chips for her to give her friends.

Finger puppet monsters- We got the idea off etsy but were able to easily make them ourselves. I just used some fleece I had left over from making hats (the same fleece I used for the stockings we made at Christmas). We cut out the finger shape and then Evie helped glue on the pieces of the faces. Later I embroidered the mouths and stitched them up. We are using paint chips for those cards too. I just cut a little finger type shape to slide the puppets on and then made a little tag on photoshop. Evie helped cut them out and glue them on the cards. Free valentines! Can't beat that.

Cat Masks- we did these before the Cotton Bowl to show we were equal opportunity party hostesses.

Razorback hats- I made this one up myself and was really pleased with out how it turned out. The hats were perfect for the Cotton Bowl party. And we made noses out of cut up TP tubes too!

Family Tree- I didn't even use Pinterest for this idea! Evie is having a hard time grasping the concept of families. She doesn't understand that her Grammy is also my Mommy so I thought this would help her. I made a worksheet on photoshop and put our names on it.

Then I made another file with 1"x1" square photos of each person. I cut them out and she and her Daddy sat down together and glued the faces on the appropriate squares while I cooked dinner. It was so cute listening to them talk. "You have a mommy?!" Evie asked Mike.