Getting oily...

I had been going back and forth about getting into essential oils for a while now and finally bit the bullet and ordered my starter kit. I'm weirdly excited to get started on this oily journey and kind of feel like I joined a cult or something. Oils have been around for years but they seem a little more trendy these days. Err'body in da club gettin' oily.

I follow a few Instagram accounts dedicated to essential oils and all the ways you can use them in your daily life and decided to try them out! I know practically nothing so I'm starting at the very beginning and need to follow super-oilers to teach me the ropes.

I'm mostly intrigued to see if they'll help getting certain little people to sleep at night and everyone in the house sleeping better as a whole. Justin also has a history of stomach issues and I've heard EOs help with that too. 

My kit arrived yesterday and I immediately started diffusing lavender to help calm everyone down after dinner. Not sure if it helped or not but it did only take 2 hours to get Leighton down for the count as opposed to the 3.5 hours it took on Tuesday night...just sayin'.  #beginnersluck

:)

Leighton :: 3 Months Old

THREE whole months!

Leighton Lynn, you are turning into the coolest little person. You smile for days and watch your big sis like she is the most fascinating creature on earth. You do this little thing with your hands after you're done eating - bring them up around your eyes and blink heavily while smiling - that makes you look bashful and sweet and innocent and I melt into a puddle every time. You are thisclose to giggling and I can't wait to hear that delightful noise.

I'm pretty sure Gracyn will be the first to make you laugh - you light up as soon as she comes into view and she loves you so much. Her {current} favorite thing to do is lay on the floor next to you during tummy time and try to "teach" you to roll over. She'll encourage you and cheer for you when you succeed - which you've done a few times now.

You still only nap in the swing (oops - bad habit on mommy and daddy's part...) or the rock n' play but that will change soon (hopefully). You're slowly getting more awake/play time and usually 3 good naps a day. Maybe even a 4th catnap after dinner/before bed. 

We tried laying you down sans swaddle last night which was a big mistake. You lasted about 3 minutes until we gave in and wrapped you back up tight. You're outgrowing the swaddle sack though, so it's about time to transition away from that to a regular sleep sack. I'm sure you'll adjust fine. You still fight bedtime so it can only get better from here, right baby girl?! Right. To be fair, you did sleep 9:30PM - 5:30AM the other night (yay!!!!!) so I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Until we hit the 4-month sleep regression, I suppose. But for now, I'll take it.

The weather is warming up and we're spending more time outside in the afternoons. You like to sit in the stroller and watch the world (big sister) go by. I see lots of {kiddie} pool time in the front yard this summer.

It's been a wild 3 months, sweet girl. Some days it seems like a blur because it's gone by so quickly and at the same time I can't remember life without you. You da best and I love you.

Also, it looks like she leaked through her diaper in all of these pics but she didn't. :) She was just drooling/blowing bubbles/spitting up throughout this whole photo sesh and I didn't notice it until it was too late and she was over it. Babies be crazy like that.

Aaaaaand just for fun. Because it's always best to compare your children... (j to the k). They're each their own person, I know. But I do like putting pictures of them side by side to see both similarities and differences.

Definitely related but they definitely have their own distinct features. Definitely both beautiful.

sisters at 3 months...

Seeing Green

We walked in the Brookside St. Patrick's Day Parade this afternoon with Kansas City Moms Blog. It was a gorgeous day for a parade. Sunny and warm enough to have even the littlest leprechaun join in on the family fun. 

Gracyn was a pro when it came to waving to people sitting on the sidelines. She spent the first half riding in the stroller and the second half running away from us. We're still working on the whole "listening-to-mom-and-dad-so-you-don't-get-run-over-by-a-parade-float" thing. 

We had never been down to the parade in Brookside and it's such a fun neighborhood so I was glad we had a chance to be a part of the festivities. We'll be wearing green all week and eating corned beef and cabbage on the 17th!

And of course, I took a thousand pictures. Most of which were posted on Instagram because I'm a grammin' fool but here are a few more for good measure... :)

Motherhood by the Numbers

Motherhood. Such a joy, right?! It totally is but it's also hard. And messy. And exhausting. I sat down for what felt like the first time today at 10:08 PM to write a blog post and all I could think about was how many different types of bodily fluids I encountered today - bodily fluids that weren't even mine. Well, except for one. Kids, man. And in case you're wondering, it was eight. Eight bodily fluids. Originally I thought only six (blood, sweat, tears, saliva, spit-up and poop) but then I remembered that Gracyn peed all over the toilet seat during a potty-training sesh and my boobs started leaking breast milk everywhere when Leighton slept through her normal feeding time this afternoon.

Then I got to thinking about everything else that happened today. Wanna break it down with me? Cool. Keep in mind this was JUST my Thursday...

5. The number of poopy diapers I changed today between 2 kids.

2. The number of outfits Leighton went through because of said poopy diapers. I sent Justin this picture at 12:45 PM making sure his day was going better than mine...

too graphic?! sorry.

4. The number of girl scout cookies I ate for lunch. We were fresh out of Thin Mints until the other day when I went to Walmart. A girl scouts troop was selling boxes of cookies right outside the main entrance. Well played, girl scouts. Well played.

3. The number of meals (if you can count girl scout cookies a meal...) I ate standing up, sitting down, getting things, picking up dropped utensils, wiping hands and cleaning faces. But I guess this happens every day so moving on...

57. The approximate number of times Gracyn asked to watch Skinnamarink on YouTube.

1. The number of shadows we chased outside after dinner. The day wasn't alllll bad.... ;)

101. The number of minutes it took to get Leighton to sleep tonight. She fights sleep with every fiber in her body until she can fight no more and finally falls asleep. We still haven't outgrown the "fussy in the evenings" stage of life - and whoever said babies outgrow it by 3 months is a liar - so our bedtime routine every night is quite the ordeal. She even had a bath this evening which kept her calm for approximately 23 minutes then it was back to crying and thrashing about.

We've tried swaddling, not swaddling, nursing, pacifiers, bouncing, swaying, rocking, singing, lights on, lights off, white noise, TV noise and to be honest, sometimes we I just join in and cry right along with her. No one thing works for this girl on a consistent basis so it's a crap shoot every night trying to soothe her and get her down for the count. When she finally does give up, we usually get a good 4-5 hour stretch of silence.

3. The number of times I nursed her trying to get her to sleep tonight. What kind of baby doesn't nurse to sleep?!?! I guess this is a good thing, per se, since she's not using the boob as a sleep aide, but when I'm desperate for her to calm down and go night-night, it would be nice if I could whip out my secret weapons as a magic cure-all.

0. The number of times Leighton has slept through the night. Hoping this changes any day now...

1. The number of times tonight that I had to clean up vomit off the kitchen floor compliments of Rufus. Because after everything else that happened today, of course he would throw up everywhere. Of course.

It was a crazy day but I loved every minute of it. Well, minus getting pooped on and cleaning up dog vomit, maybe. Regardless, we've got some pretty good stuff going on around here.

Because its Wednesday...

 ...and because I don't have enough pictures of my kids posted on the internet. And because I can't think of anything else to blog about. And because, well, they're cute.