Settling in with our little lady

We're just settling in here! This transition has been easier to get used to than going from one child to two children. I think I'm just used to being exhausted all the time! Mealtimes and bedtimes are pretty hectic, but during the day things are pretty smooth.
Like all of my other babies, Carolina doesn't love her car seat, which is a huge pain during the two hours we spend in the car Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays driving Maggie to school in Franklin (thirty minutes each way in the morning and afternoon). Luckily we just started carpooling with a boy who lives down the street from us, so we'll have to make that trip half as often now.
She still sleeps 3-4 hour chunks during the night, which is pretty manageable. I'll be excited when she drops a feeding though!I think having Carolina has really brought out the best in Maggie. She wants to hold her all the time and she loves doing little things to help with her. I think if we had had another boy this would not be the case. She's sooooo excited to have a little sister. And check out Carolina's dress in the photo above. My friend Elizabeth MADE IT! I'm so impressed. She even has her own labels to sew inside.

Here's a photo of Carolina that I took with my Hipstamatic app for my iPhone. I love the way it makes it look vintage-y (is that a word?!).
Here's another Hipstamatic of Finn, sleeping in his car seat. While I hate it when he falls asleep in the car (messes up his nap), I love taking photos of him sleeping. I think my kids are awesome and super cute when they're awake, but when they're sleeping...the cuteness takes me over the edge!
Finally, these last two photos are in the "Little Lady" photo series:) The way she has her hands folded under her chin just looks so ladylike. What can I say?! We're already working on her manners.
Here's the second in the series. First of all, she always scrunches over so that her face is right next to the edge of the bassinet. I guess she's trying to recreate the tightness of the womb? Anyway, I went in to the room while she was sleeping and found that her feet had escaped from the swaddle. To me it looked so ladylike to have her tiny feet crossed, especially with the Mary Jane socks she's wearing.
We all know Carolina is a big baby. She was 9 lbs, 3 oz at birth and at her two week appointment she was already up to 10 pounds. I think Maggie was 3 months old before she weighed that much! It's so weird to me to have had one baby girl be so little and now one that's so big. I think she'll probably even out down the road, but everyone always comments that she looks older than she is because she's so big. One of my friends saw her and said, "That's a big lady you've got there," which just makes me laugh when I think about it. So I guess I should start calling her my big lady? On second thought, "little lady" just has a much nicer ring to it. I think I'll stick with that.

For my mom and Christin

Here are Jude and Finn again at 6 and 9 months, respectively (taken December 2009):
And here they are at 15 months and 18 months, at Gentry's Farm (taken October 2010):

Happy 5th Birthday, Maggie!

Maggie is into all things fancy, and since everyone knows that anything French is extra fancy, we obviously had to have a French-themed birthday party for her this year. Here's her invitation, made by Grant:
And here's the tres jolie birthday girl:
So for this fancy, fancy party (not really) we reserved a park shelter at Sevier Park on a beautiful day the first weekend in October. I was technically on bed rest during the party which was a bummer because I had to ask for lots of help (which my family graciously gave) and I didn't get to run around as much as I would have liked. It was a lot of fun despite my limitations! We borrowed a 3 ft Eiffel Tower and a life-sized standard poodle from my friend Tiffany (lucky for me she just happened to have both items) and used them for table decorations with balloons tied to them. You can see the tower in the following photo of the kids eating their cupcakes. That's me in the back right corner. For some reason most of Maggie's girl friends couldn't make it but there were lots of fun boys (who maybe weren't the best ones to enjoy a girly French-themed party!)
We played pin the tail on the poodle.
For prizes the girls got pink scarves for their necks and the boys got stick-on mustaches. They were so cute with those mustaches and they mostly humored me with leaving them on for a photo!

We also had lots of time to just run around and play on the playground, which Finn loved.
Maggie's cousin Jack had fun playing, too.
And Maggie got lots of cuddles and hugs from two of her uncles:
After the "friends" party we went back to our house for a family birthday dinner. Maggie loves to play with Grant's musical instruments and we thought she'd love to have one of her own so we bought a ukelele for her. It's perfect for her because of its size and Grant can teach her how to play it. They've had a few lessons already which she loves because it's one-on-one time with Grant. It's a really sweet little ukelele - not a toy, but a real instrument! This is just the first step of the Howard Family Band that I've always dreamed of.
It's hard to believe she's five. She still keeps me laughing all the time, sometimes drives me absolutely batty, and always makes me count my blessings, of which she is a huge part. Did I tell you that during Carolina's birth she called herself my doula and rubbed my back and gave me sips of water through a straw? And here's one final little funny: the other day she asked me, "Mom, are mermaids for real?" I said, "Nope" and she immediately responded, "Ohhhhhhhh mannnnnnn!" I was sorry to be the bearer of such bad news but I don't want to shield her from life's harsh realities :)