Beauty Shop!

Hope's hair... It has taken FOREVER to come in.  It's so pretty.  A wonderful light copper color that changes with the lighting she is in.  She has natural highlights and sweet soft curls.  But, it has come in unevenly from back to front.  We endured a mullet that we disguised with bows and pigtails for months.  Finally, the front is long enough to bob off the rest of it.

The before shot. (also before being brushed today!)

We headed to the mall to let our friend Melissa make us (even more) beautiful!

Hope was so cooperative and had no fear at all!

She is a doll in her new 'do!  Speaking of dolls...no doll in our house will be safe for weeks!  Upon arrival home, she immediately put on lip gloss and got her scissors and began looking for a doll to style.  We compromised with a Happy Meal doll. 

2 Months!

Happy 2 month birthday to Will!

He is napping better.  Sleeping at night some better but we still are up to feed him a couple of times.  He is napping in his crib but still in the swing at night since he has had a cold for now over 2 weeks.  On the sleeping note: my babies sleep better on their belly.  Why did the SIDS police make that off limits?  We only do it at naps and that is since our doctor told us that we should. 

This month, Will has become more fun!  He is a happy little chunky monkey now!  Haven't had the 2 month check up but we were at the doctor for the cold and he was 13 pounds!  If I remember from school, aren't they supposed to double birth weight by 6 months?  We did it at 2 months!  Slow down little baby.  Stay little.

He has recently found his little hands, takes the paci even less, and still loves baths.  Hope is his best friend.  Car rides are going much better and we are starting to get on a more predictable routine.  Life is improving around the Maglinger house.

And Christmas!  Hope is as excited as all little 3 year olds are this time of year.  She went to the Advent Journey at Lewis Lane and had a great time.  It's all Christmas, all the time for Hope.  I have her gifts wrapped and under the tree.  This year, Hope can read her own name so she is becoming just like mom and going through all the gifts to see which ones are hers and how they shake and feel trying to guess what they are.

And we continue with the tradition of painting our own wrapping paper.  Hope loves it.  Our art table has more paint than most of the packages right now, but we are having a great time!

Hard at work and loving it! 

Look Who's Smiling!

After a difficult few weeks, it's nice to have something to smile about!

This is not his first smile, but lately we have come to know for sure that they are real smiles and not just the gas ones.  He coos and wants to talk to us.  Ahh...worth all the effort!

On a totally unrelated note: Didn't Hope look cute in her dress for church this morning?  Will and I had to stay home for the 2nd week.  Last week Hope was sick, this week it's him and me with a stuffy nose.  The week before that Hope got hurt in the nursery and we didn't get to participate in church.  We are turning into regular heathens. (grin)

Hope showing off the new ornaments Grammy brought over yesterday. 

Christmas is coming (like it or not)

This year, I honestly wish Christmas would go away and come back another day.  BUT! I have a family with now 2 kids to think about and kids love Christmas!  Even babies like the lights.  So, I can't let my feelings show and I am working really hard to make Christmas special and do what I am supposed to do.

Starting with getting the tree up.  Hope was thrilled to do this and loves to look at it.

Getting out the kid friendly nativities and talking about Jesus's birth.  Last year she was fixed on the angel Gabriel.  This year it's King Herod.  How do you answer a 3 year old's question about if Herod is in heaven?

Will is mostly just a spectator this year.  But, as I said, he loves the lights.

And cookies.  You have to bake and decorate cookies, right?  Well we did.  Normally it's a 2 day production with homemade cookies and icing, etc.  This year, I bought (the Kroger brand) break apart cookies and pre-made icing. You do what you have to do!  Hope did not care a bit.  I love kids.  Have I said that before?  She pulled up a bean bag to watch them bake.  By the way, how do those square cookie dough things turn out perfectly round when they bake?

See, just as much fun with the store bought kind!  Go ahead, give yourself permission to not always have it all together and pick up some store bought fun for your family today! 

While we waited for them to cool, I turned on Christmas carols and we danced.  Hope never dances without a "twirling dress" of some sort.  This is her favorite one.  I have also put orange and cinnamon sticks on the stove to simmer to give the house that cozy feel and we've done a few more crafts as well.  Still haven't bought even one gift, but I'm starting to embrace the holiday.

We stay home most every day.  Having a newborn in winter just demands that.  Hope has been unbelievable about it all.  People ask me how she is coping to the change.  My answer is "better than any of the rest of us."  It's true.  She has her moments, but for the most part does great.  The best development is that she is learning to make her own fun.  She still likes us to play with her, but she is getting very creative with her toys and her surroundings.  I also continue to let her get away with things that aren't harmful but would normally have been a "no."  Like today when she unwound the whole ball of yarn.  Go ahead, girl.  Knock yourself out.

Here it is the yarn as she pretends it is her football.

Wee! A whole thing of yarn.  Who needs toys?

Will's update:  He is much less fussy.  Finally.  Still has his moments.  Still gets belly aches, but he's doing much better.  He is so cute.  Starting to coo.  Loves his floor gym, still loves baths, loves his noise maker, does not like the car seat, loves Hope.  Oh how we want him to take his paci.  Right now he uses it for about 2 minutes before falling asleep, then spits it out and doesn't want to see it again until next nap.  Still, that's better than the 30 minutes of crying that used to precede any sleeping.  I have 4 nieces/nephews and none of them took a paci.  Hope, of course, uses those 2 fingers.  I'm trying desperately to avoid fingers for him.  Hence the paci.  Now is a critical time as he is finding his hands and sometimes sucks on his fist.  Pray for the paci!

Made it a month!

Well, we made it through the first month!  It has been unbelievably challenging.  Our life is in total transition and all has not gone as I had planned at all.  That said, we are looking forward to getting to know our little guy in a more relaxed way as we get all settled in to our new home.

What a cutie pie!  His personality can be summed up as being an old man.  He grunts a lot, loves to over-eat, spits up, has trouble with gas, does not deal well with change and even snores.   He has been very patient and a quick learner when he has needed to be.  He is growing like crazy!  He still sleeps in his swing to help with that silly reflux and has some trouble with what we guess is just colic.  He loves Hope and seems to enjoy singing.  He does NOT like his car seat or car rides, but the stroller seems to be okay with him so far.

We have also celebrated Thanksgiving.  Our Sansom family had a brunch and the Maglingers had a traditional meal that evening.  We loved the brunch idea and plan to make that a tradition for sure!

Woody has grown that darn beard again.  Same one he grew when Hope was born.  If there are more children I am sure that will also become a tradition.

We moved.  This is Hope on her last night in our old home which was also her last night in a crib.  (I realize we are way late on getting out of that!)  Now she has a big girl bed.  A big one.  We skipped the toddler bed and went right to the big one.  She loves it!

And Will had his first real bath a few weeks ago as well.  He loves that as much as he loves eating!

Much has changed in a week!

A lot has changed since my last post.  For one, our house finally looks like we are moving (thanks to Grammy and Pappy).  Also, my family is all back to work so it's me and the kiddos this week...on our own!  Perhaps the biggest change is that Will has woken up.  That may not seem like much, but going from a tiny newborn baby with jaundice who sleeps so easily to now a little person who has to be taught how to fall asleep..trust me, it's a big change.

Will is a super great sport.  He lets Hope play doctor with him, fix his hair, and he is a great audience for her choir performances.   Here she is singing from her new Dora sing along book.

Yesterday was voting day.  Did you vote?  This picture means a lot to me because it represents what I thought I'd lost with having 2 kids.  I used to love teaching Hope all about her world and doing fun little activities with her.  With a newborn around...that stuff is mostly gone unless you count teaching about spit up and breast feeding.  Yesterday, however we got to take her with us to go vote and then Woody made her a ballot of her own so she could practice voting.  I actually had no part in this, but at least Hope is still getting to learn about her world.

Proudly sporting the "I voted" sticker.  I took her with me to vote and let her pick the races that I didn't already have an opinion about.  She chose the girl every time there was a girl to choose.  She may turn out to be a liberal feminist voter!

Now... for an insight into life with 2 kids.  I don't have days and nights yet.  I have just a long series of 3 hour intervals.  I feed Will approximately every 3 hours.  In that time he'll eat, play, then sleep.  Also in that time, Hope is still Hope and needs attention, food, love, and reminders to wash her hands.  I cannot seem to balance it.  I realize that most people who have children have more than one.  Some even get really wild and crazy and have 3 or more.  This means that either it will get better or I am the most incompetent mother ever.  I snapped a few pictures of what goes on at our house during the times when I can't be 2 places at once and Hope goes largely unsupervised.   These are all from the same 20 minutes I was away putting Will to sleep for a nap.  Here she is cleaning the kitchen windows with water and her bath washrags.  She said it was because she had been licking the windows.  Great.

There was also a 1/2 eaten muffin she managed to swipe from the breakfast that I  haven't yet put away.

And this...pile...is what she says is her campfire.  She has rolled up the area rug and also is throwing a fit at the time of this shot because I won't let her go outside in the rain to find real wood for the fire.

Then finally her bathroom.  She spends a lot of time in here primping and playing in the water.  I have to just let her.  I feel guilty that I can't play with her so her leash is much longer than it would otherwise be.  Mostly she takes cups and pours water from one to the other but occasionally, she'll add soap for bubbles and has also been found using her toothbrush to stir the soapy water for bubbles.  Then she offers you a drink.  Nice.  Please pray for me. Seriously.

Somewhere in the chaos of today, I decided to snap some pictures.  I am no good at newborn pictures!  Will is also still a funny color which Dr. Yeiser says will most likely be the case for a few more weeks/months.  That's why these are all black and white. 

I think he looks so much like Hope did at this age.

He is weighing 9lb 4oz as of Monday.  Gaining weight very nicely.  He is a spit up machine, though.  Dr. Yeiser is trying him on medicine for reflux.  It is maybe a tad better, but I still had to wash his hair this morning after it got covered in spit up.  Don't ask how that happened...

Lest you think all is calm and collected like those other pictures.  Here is a more accurate portrayal of what that little photo shoot was like!  Add to that Hope putting her face right in front of the lens saying "take a picture of me, not him!"  Did I already ask for prayers?  If not, pray for me.  How in the world do all these people with 2 kids make it? How?

Maglinger's Madness

The craziness continues at the Maglinger household.  To look at our house, you would never even know we were moving in 16 days.  Not one box has been packed. Not one. Eh well.  We're having fun, though!

Hope and Dad went on a date night courtesy of Papaw Maglinger.  They saw the Chinese acrobats at the River Park Center... a real show that lasted until way past her bedtime.  She did great at the show says dad!  By the way, the hat is her idea.   She wanted to get dressed up fancy for the River Park Center!  You also need to know that this was on one of the nights the Cardinals were playing in the World Series.  Major sacrifice for Dad, Papaw and Uncle Art to take the girls out!  (I wonder if dad obeyed the order to turn off all cell phones during the performance?)

Then, Hope's 3 week long birthday celebration ended with celebrating her actual birthday.  "I'm really 3 now!" she said as she woke up that morning.  We didn't do a whole lot since we'd been celebrating for 3 weeks now.  She and dad went to the new donut shop and got donuts for us that morning.

She helped me bake a cake and I let her decorate it that evening after a meal at her choice of restaurant. (she chose Culver's... why Culver's?  It's only her 2nd or 3rd time to ever even eat there.)

And of course Halloween!  Hope was the most beautiful variation of Snow White there ever has been.  Thanks to Grammy's talent and Pinterest ideas!  No little girl was more proud to be parading the streets of Owensboro, that's for sure!

She loves trick or treating.  She loves the candy even more!  We don't eat much of it (we will still be working on her pile when Easter candy time comes!) but we do organize and sort it over and over.  Then, we play candy store.  Her candy is very valuable.  Most starts at "30 hundred dollars."

What a doll!  I know I'm still very hormonal, but I just wanted to eat her right up she was so precious!

And and update on Will!  He's doing very well.  He was weighed today and has gained almost a pound since Wednesday of last week.  His jaundice seems to be some better as well.  He's cuddly, smells great like a baby, eats like a champ, and sleeps as well as a week old baby can be expected to sleep.

Already laughing at Big Pappy's jokes!

He's still at that sleep all day stage which means I get to see these precious yawns frequently.  Little babies are so sweet.
As for mom...I still feel horrible and look even worse.  Even Woody has started gently suggesting I might feel better if I get a haircut.  He's so tactful.  Reading between the lines as you often have to do to find any criticism from Woody, I know I look horrible.  What happens to moms?  Right now, I'm wearing jogging pants and one of Woody's old button up shirts...the same one I wore yesterday, in fact.

Welcome Addition

It's a BOY!!! Woodrow Wilson "Will" Maglinger IV came October 22 around 1:30 in the afternoon.  We are so thankful for his safe, healthy arrival.

Now we are a family of 4! 

He weighed 7-13 as the scales show.  They measured him at 19.25 which is the exact same as Hope was.  The doctor's visit found him to be 20 inches.  Measuring scrunched up newborns is obviously not an exact science. (As Papaw Woody's birth certificate will verify...it shows him as measuring 36 inches (a yard stick!))

Hope loves her baby brother.  She is also at times quite protective.  This is her ordering the room to be quiet as the baby is sleeping!

Overall there are no worries as to Hope's adjustment.  She has been beyond spoiled by grandparents and other family.  Her busy week has been too full to even list the details of.  More on her week later!