play space transformation

just before christmas, we made a pretty huge change to our living room - we took out a chimney that had occupied the dead center (more or less), thereby creating a completely open space. after living in it for a while, it became clear to me what we needed to to. we needed to get a big, honking couch. one that might juuuuust make it into the vehicle we bring to pick it up.
that was a story in and of itself.

but, long story short, we got it, as well as a few other odds and ends, home, and have been loving up on our new living space ever since.

one of the best parts about the transformation is the new toy/play area...there's TONS of storage, which means that things almost always look at least tidy, if not clean, and (in my opinion), it looks awesome! it's just this bookcase with a few of these...

finn loves it, i love it, guests and other kids love it...win, win, win, win, win.

the n word

no, not THAT word!
sheesh. what kind of blog do you think this is, anyway?

no, the n word i'm talking about is

.....

NIPPLES!!!!!!

.....

i don't think that many exclamation points can even begin to express how excited finn is about nipples - his own, mine when i'm feeding lorelei, the fact that everyone has them, his enthusiasm for showing his own to people....

case in point:

yesterday, i had some friends over. we were discussing their wedding, trying to hammer out some details and get them in a good place...all is going swimmingly, and then...

finn drops his undies, pulls up his shirt and yells at the top of his voice

(you guessed it)

NIPPLES!!!!!!!!

perhaps i should use a different font size...would that help?

NIPPLES!!!!!

why he needed to drop his undies to show everyone his nipples remains a mystery.

oh, who am i kidding, most of the things this kid remain a mystery to me.

a hilarious, adorable mystery, but a mystery nonetheless.

{she}...this week

TWO!
Two teeth, ha ha.
 (to be read in the voice of "The Count" from Sesame Street.

leaps and bounds this week, people - leaps and bounds. in addition to cutting her first two teeth, this little girl is chowing down on everything in sight...tonight, it was chicken stew with biscuits.
we're loosely following a method called "baby led weaning", wherein the baby gets whatever the family is eating in baby-appropriate sizes on a tray and goes to town feeding him or herself. it's so much less stressful than making or buying her special food - she just gets what we get and mashes it all over herself, tosses it off the high chair, feeds the dog, etc. it's a total mess, but she loves it in a way she did NOT like purees (she's still getting most of her nutrients from me, anyway - this is more like practice eating), and her hand-eye coordination is kicking into high gear. now, she gets things into her mouth on the first try...most of the time, anyway.

unfortunately, with cutting teeth comes teething, and while she's just been her delightful little self during the day, she has woken up more often during the night. i'm afraid we may have to do the sleep training thing again, which i am most decidedly not looking forward to...but midnight and 4am are starting to be my least favorite times of day.

 we're heading south to an avett brothers concert in a few weeks, and are only planning to bring lorelei (finn will have his first sleepover with his island grandparents), and we're both really looking forward to getting some two-on-one time with her. it's so rare that she gets us all to herself with her needy, demanding, drama-queen, rambunctious brother around, requesting our attention at all times.

this babyhood is flying, FLYing by in a way that finn's didn't...whereas with finn, i couldn't wait for him to get older, especially for those first few months, i'm already really missing those early days with lorelei. mostly because i feel like i really did miss them - it's so hard to savor time with number two when number one (in more ways than one around here!) has a whole other set of much more pressing needs (at least in his mind, and he doesn't mind sharing that with everyone within earshot).

stay little just a while longer, please, l...please?

us

Back in September, when Lorelei was just two months old, we asked Amanda to come back out and photograph our family - our COMPLETE family - and we're so glad we did. Here are a few shots from that day, and here's a link to her blog, where she posted a few more. 

I know there are some duplicates, but I chose my faves...no, that's not true - I chose a smattering of my faves. I just sort of closed my eyes and clicked, because if I didn't, they ALL would have wound up on here, no joke.

It's amazing how much things can change in just a few months - I mean, my boy is so much bigger, yes, but my GIRL? She's such a little lump here, and now - my goodness, NOW - she's such a person, has such a personALITY. It's funny how much a heart can grow - you think you have as much love as it's possible to give, and then - there's more. I fall more in love with these guys every day...

ALL of these guys (yes, that means you, Chad :)

what's a group of 7 called?

this week, i want to share a phenomenon that's been developing for the past two years, slowly but surely...finn's stuffies.
so these are the friends that finn sleeps with. he doesn't usually take them out of the house, thank goodness, since i'm sure we'd have lost one or more by now - we've certainly had our share of scares.

so.

it started as one - a gift from one of chad's caretaking clients: sheep.

then my mom got sheep a friend: bear.

a couple of months ago, we took a trip downeast to visit chad's mom and finn picked out a new member (the three are now nicknamed the triumvirate)...llama joined the crew.

then the strangest thing happened - three became six virtually overnight. one night, he went to sleep with his three "regulars", and in the morning, he woke up with six - welcome to "bunny bear", platypus, and "rachel bear".

i'll stop here for a quick intro to these characters - finn's had all three since he was wee - in one case, before he was born.
"rachel bear", so named after the woman who gave him to me - was the first gift i received when i found out i was pregnant in the UK.
"bunny bear", a flawlessly handknit bear wearing a full bunny suit was made for him by another dear friend from england, but given to him in person when he was just a few days old.
platypus was sewn for finn by his "nammie", my stepmom and the grandmother he sees most often. it's made of scraps from a hat that she made for him (which, i believe, was made from scraps from a hat that she made for herself).

and so there were six.

and then we had a visit from chad's mom a few weeks ago now and giraffe found a home in our hearts - and finn's arms.

so now, there are seven. there is a bit of an overrepresentation of a certain brand name, but i'm ok with that - jellycat (sheep, bear, and giraffe are all jellycat) is my undisputed favorite brand of stuffy.

i'm getting a little nervous that we're going to have to hire someone to carry these guys around, but so far, he can carry them all - just. pretty sure we're at maximum capacity now - i'm hopeful that he doesn't take a shine to another!

{him}...this week

i mean, come on.

can we just stop there? look at this guy - he's just a dream...until he does something like this:

where does he get his sense of humor? clearly, this boy loves an audience.

let's see - what's going on with finn these days? 

***he's talking up a storm - definitely still has his own language (more to come on that topic), but i'm often pleasantly surprised by how well some adults can understand him, especially if they're paying attention to HIM and not trying to have a conversation with me.

***imaginative play is in full effect. there is a grocery store in our bathroom, and he is constantly serving us ice cream from behind various pieces of furniture. he's almost always whipping up something (usually hot dogs) in his kitchen. his new favorite game (and mine!) is "naptime", where he covers you up with blankets and reads books to you. yup, finn...that's my kind of game. oh, also, he's decided that there's a rooster living in our guest room. yup, like i said. full effect.

***he's almost completely potty trained! he was just READY one day (especially about wearing undies, thanks to a book we got for Christmas). we still wear a diaper at night, but he's woken up dry from both naps and overnights, so we'll be transitioning out of those soon, too! how freaking awesome is that? let me tell you: SO awesome.

i mean, the dude is two. SO TWO...all of it - every inch the obstinate, stubborn, dig-his-heels-in little twit.

but then he says, "i wud you mama" in that little voice that makes every cell in my body MELT, and i get back up and dust myself off and get ready for another wild ride.

{she}...this week.

i, sarah, solemnly swear to be a better blogger...
man, if i blogged as much as i think about blogging, i would...blog...a lot. sorry, it's kind of late and my brain is a bit mushy.
but really, i've been thinking about what i want this blog to be and what purpose i want it to serve for me, and it's really about my kids - remembering where they are RIGHT NOW, as individuals. so i'm going to commit to writing a bit about each of them every week - probably one blog post for each of them because i feel like miss lorelei often gets a bit overshadowed by her brother, who's doing so much all the time, while she just sort of takes it in.
so, without further ado, here's what the littlest of us is up to:

she.
is.
awesome.

i can't believe how different she is from finn - she's totally willing to hang out and explore things on her own for what sometimes seems like ages while i'm getting dinner ready or doing a load of laundry. she's perfectly content most of the time and has such focus on whatever she's checking out. it's phenomenal to see. she's ENCHANTED by her brother, giving him the lions share of the belly laughs and giggles that she's full of to him. it's so freaking heartwarming to see, sometimes i feel like a hallmark after school special. we got an iphone a couple of months ago and i'm just one of those crazy parents with tons of photos and videos of her kids now. see, here are some:

and here's an entertaining video from a while ago now - thanksgiving or christmas, maybe?

lorelei is tipping the scales at a whopping 20.2 pounds - the 100th percentile, i might add. she has THE BEST THIGHS in the world - the BEST. i can't get enough of the rolls on this girl. her eyes are this really awesome blue/gray/green that seems to change every other day, and her eyelashes are just growing and growing and growing. i'm a little afraid of what she might do with those eyelashes some day.

god, at this age, everything is a headline:
she's sitting up!
she's eating solid food!
she's ticklish (that's been a fun discovery!)

oh, the solid food thing is so fun. we did purees for about a minute and a half, but this girl wants REAL food - like whatever is on my plate, not mush. so she's been chowing down on whatever we're eating - had falafel with tzatziki a few days ago and looooved it. it's so much easier than purees, and she's having WAY more fun making a huge mess of herself. luckily, we have a dog, so the floor isn't completely covered in food, despite her best attempts.

now, it isn't all peaches and cream 100% of the time. we were ice skating today and she was very demanding that i feed.her.NOW! in the middle of the pond. that took a bit of finagling. but yesterday, she hung out for an hour while i snowshoed with an awesome group of women.

we did have to do a bit of "sleep training" with her because i was getting really cranky and she was in bed with us, waking up every 2-3 hours, soaking through and generally disrupting not only our sleep, but hers and oftentimes her brother (and BELIEVE ME, you don't want to wake that sleeping giant). god, i remember writing a blog post back in the day about never being able to let finn cry it out. guess what - it works. as much as it sucks, and as high as i'm sure my blood pressure was, she's sleeping in her own bed now and consistently wakes up once a night to eat, then goes right back down. she's happier, we're happier, she wakes up with a diaper that isn't wringing wet at 3am. win, win, win. it was the right decision for us and for her.

i'll see you all again later this week with a finn update. it's been so long, i hardly know where to start.
xo