Sisters

I left Maggie in my room for five minutes with Carolina so I could switch the laundry. When I came back in she had tucked her into my bed with her head on the pillow. They were both very happy.
Maggie loves to hold Carolina.
I love how they're gazing at each other.

Finn's second birthday

Finn's birthday is on March 18, the day after St. Patrick's Day. With a birthday so close to St. Patrick's Day and a name like Finnegan, I couldn't resist having a St. Patrick's-themed birthday party for him. He's still at the age where he doesn't know about birthday party themes so I'm taking full advantage of doing what sounds fun to me. It had the added bonus of being cheap and easy, which is great considering my plate is full right now. We limited it to family only, which meant there were twenty people there. I also need to admit that I don't have great photos. I've gotten in the habit of relying on Poppy to take great photos of my events and he forgot his camera so these are all taken with his phone.
So on St. Patrick's Day I went to JoAnn's craft store and bought a bunch of St. Patrick's decorations on clearance. I also ordered a cake from Costco (sidenote: have you had their birthday cake? It is so delicious, costs under $20, and feeds about 40 people.) I sent an evite a few weeks before so there's no invitation to show you. On the evite I asked everyone to wear green, which most people did.
Here's the cake:

Here's the birthday boy and his daddy:

Here are the girls:
And here is Mimi with Maggie:
Sorry I don't have more photos! I am a bad mama :(

Correction

OK, I thought I was being funny in my previous post when I said I make out with my son. I thought my sense of humor would come through but then my sister, Lindsay, made a comment which led me to believe I should post a correction:
I do not make out with my son. I just don't make him close his mouth if he comes in for a kiss. Happy now, people?!

Finn talks a big talk

As most of you know, we've been following Finn closely since his birth, looking for any sign of a delay due to the swelling on his brain in his early hospitalization. He was a little late to walking but not too late. He talked relatively early (for a boy!) but then sort of lagged a bit in putting words together. Because he had such a large vocabulary his pediatrician wasn't concerned, and I should have known that as soon as I mentioned it to the doctor, Finn would start putting his words together. The clarity of his speech has also improved a ton. For instance, he used to say Papa for Poppy and now it comes out perfectly. Dada is now Daddy and, to my chagrin, Mama is now Mommy (sometimes). I correct him because I can't stand hearing "Mommy". I know that's stupid but I want my kids to call me Mama. It must be the Southerner in me. Anyway, he's got all kinds of words he's putting together like "plane loud", "toy no like", "buh-BYE daddy", etc. It's pretty fun. Our favorite word to have him say lately is pickle.

Lately he's started running up to people and hugging their legs with all of his strength. He still loves to cuddle ("cuddle cozy") and will take my face in his hands and come in for a big open mouth kiss. Yeah, I'll make out with my two-year-old. What?! It's sweet. I promise I'll stop before it gets to be embarrassing for him.

My DIY cake plate

Grant and his family (mostly he and his dad) love going hunting for treasure at thrift stores. They call it "junkin'" and have been able to find some pretty great things. It's not really my favorite because I like to walk into a regular store and everything is arranged and sorted for me. I feel stressed out by weeding through the junk to find the gold. Anyway, a few weeks ago I had thirty minutes to kill and didn't feel like going home so as we were driving by a thrift store I decided we would go in. I put Carolina in the sling and Finn in a cart once we got inside. I had really good luck - I found a cute Gap kids polo shirt for Maggie and a school uniform shirt, also from Gap Kids, for Maggie for next year. Then we headed to the home goods section and I found this plain plate and ceramic candle holder. I had seen some online tutorials for making your own cake plate and I thought, "Hmmmm...I'm going to try it."
So I bought the plate and candle holder for about $3 total and picked up some adhesive and spray paint at Lowe's. I wanted to do a light teal but I couldn't find that exact color so I settled for a spring-y yellow.
When the kids were napping one day I painted the pieces (it took about three thin coats each) and when they were dry the next day I took five minutes and glued them together. They're supposed to be dishwasher safe although I think I'll stick to hand washing them. Also, it's not food-safe paint so when I use them I'll have to place some sort of barrier between them and the food, like a piece of pretty paper, a doily, or use cupcake liners. It was so easy, cheap, and quick!
Here's the finished process:
I kind of am addicted to it now. I'm thinking I should have one in every color of the rainbow so I can use what I want depending on the season or at baby showers, wedding showers, etc. How many cake plates are too many?!

Rolling all over the place

This is pretty much my view of Carolina for much of the day.

She rolls over instantly when I put her down. She's starting to push up her belly off the floor so I know crawling is on the horizon (honestly...I hope it's a little ways away!).

She's pretty much the sweetest baby in the world. She just smiles, grins, talks, and hardly ever cries. When it's time for a nap I just read her a story, sing her a song, put her in the crib and walk away. Neither Maggie nor Finn were able to do this without some sleep training so this feels like such a gift. At night when I get up to feed her I nurse her and lay her down in the crib without any rocking or anything and then just walk out. It's infinitely easier than with the other two. I attribute one-third of it to her easygoing personality, one-third to the fact that from the very beginning I would put her in bed when she was drowsy but still awake, and one-third to the fact that with two other kids I often didn't have the luxury of rocking and rocking until she fell asleep. No matter the cause, I think it's pretty wonderful! I wish you all could spend a day with her. She is so much fun.

Grandma-ma

Grant's maternal Grandma came with his parents for Finn's birthday a two weeks ago. Have I mentioned how awesome and fun she is?
She came bearing gifts, as a good Grandma-ma does. Here she is holding Carolina, who is wearing the dress Grandma-ma brought.
Grandma Mathis goes for a 30 minute walk every day and is so healthy. She just plops down on the floor with the children and then hops back up. She e-mails and Skypes with us. She volunteers at her church and lives on her own in California. I hope I'm not embarrassing her by writing this but I just think she is so cool. I love you, Grandma Mathis!

Maggie's Concoction

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but one of the things I love about how my mother parented us is that she would let my sisters and I mess around in the kitchen. We would try to invent our own recipes and trust me, they were never good. They usually involved unsweetened baking chocolate and various cereals. We probably didn't even clean up that great after ourselves, but she let us do it anyway. I also remember cooking actual recipes with my mom - both baking and cooking. I know now how much patience that must have taken! The benefit of it was that as I grew up I learned my way around the kitchen and now I LOVE baking and cooking, so I'm really thankful that she let us do that.
Maggie has been helping me in the kitchen since she was two or so and I think she really loves cooking with me. The other day she asked if she could make some food and I let her. Here she is with her creation:
I'm not sure exactly what she put in there but I know the green things are leaves from a plant outside, plus there's cinnamon, honey, and water. She was so proud of herself! And no, I didn't let anyone eat it. Who knows what those leaves are?!

Finn's favorite thing lately is "cooking." He really means "stirring" but calls it "cooking." Today he helped me "cook" some granola I was making for my dad. The key, I've learned, is using the biggest mixing bowl I have to better contain his vigorous stirring. We did have a few oaty casualties, but most of it stayed in the bowl. He falls apart when I have to take over the stirring. Poor guy.

Finn Spinnin'

Finn was playing on our bed a few weeks ago and started messing with Grant's headphones. What better way to teach him that the headphones are not toys than by putting them on him?! (Ha.)
Ah. Cuteness.