The one with Mothers Day...

Happy Mothers Day to all the mommas out there! This is my 3rd mothers day and 1st mothers day with 2 bambino's. It was a great day! Gorgeous weather and great family to spend it with.... We kicked off the day at my parents house with brunch and mimosas and ended with pasta and red wine! Josh, my own personal chef, whipped up a tomato, mushroom and shrimp dish. It was DELISH!! I don't even know why I cook most nights after that dinner???

Jason was in town this weekend too. It so happened to be TPC at Sawgrass. He and Josh went Friday... the most gorgeous day ever. I was slightly jealous. But Josh brought me back a shirt and promised we would go next year..... the gift seemed to make everything better :)

Not much going on here this week, it was a slow one... so maybe I'll tried to tackle potty training again. I need to utilize more bribery. It seems to work well with Cooper. Addison is sleeping most nights until 6-7am. So its perfect for me, the part time work from home mom of 2! And you know Cooper, while he has more of my mild mannered, organized personality he gets his sleep habits from his father. It's 8:30-9:00 before Cooper wakes up each day. On the weekends sometimes 10!!!

LOVE

The one with the flip flops...

It didn't take long for Cooper to get in the true spirit of being a Florida boy! He's wanting to practically live at the beach. We can't even say "beach" without him pitching a fit to go... He's a total flip-flop tot. Forget the sporty Nikes and the hip Converse shoes. He's obsessed with the 2 for $5 flip flops I got from old navy. Luckily I bought 2 pairs because I've already lost one pair! He looks so cute in them, like a little surfer boy with his tanned skin! (I'll make sure next post, I have a picture of Cooper in his flops)

The kiddos are doing great. It only gets better as we adjust to Addison's needs. Cooper is a cake walk. He's pretty much independent, likes to try things one his own, likes to color, play with his sword and Nerf guns, and watch Tom & Jerry or Scobby Doo. He's a total flip-flop all BOY tot. Addison is now sleeping 7-8 hours a night. I am trying to go to bed when she does, so I am getting plenty of rest my self! Life is good, check this photo out... I think both of them are saying, MOM, REALLY?? No more pictures!! Are they twins or what?

One of my best friends and bridesmaid in my own wedding is getting married tomorrow, Ashley. I too, have the honor to be in her wedding. Today officially starts wedding weekend with the rehearsal, dinner girls night and tomorrow is the big day! Please say your prayers that it clears up by tomorrow.... its been raining non-stop since a few days ago. I heard (on my wedding day) its good luck for it to rain, because it washes away everything in your past and allows you to start fresh! So if it does rain, please just sprinkle in the morning to finishing cleaning the way for an long and blessed future! Congrats!!!


Cheers to the Foley's!

 Happy 90th Birthday to Gramma Herrmann!! I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, ok, I didn't take any pictures from the weekend, but I did snag this beauty from facebook! Thanks Lisa! Anyway, It was so awesome to see the Herrmann side of the family. Josh had not met most of them, so it was nice to finally have everyone meet. Gramma is still kickin it. She's rocking out, looks beautiful and is in good health. Cheers to many many more birthdays!! We love you

LOVE

The one with Daddy daycare...

Happy Birthday to Addison. She turned 2 months on Monday. She had her check up. 11 pounds and 23 inches long, she's fairly average in both. Like Cooper she is shorter than the average, but weighs just about in the middle. She is sleeping about 7 hours at night. Which I thought was pretty good, considering we came from 3-4 hours a sleep. But you learn something new everyday, the doctor told me I can get her to sleep longer by "cluster feeding". Which means feed her about every 3 hours throughout the day and about every 2 hours the last 6 hours before she hits the sack for the night. This way she will store up more calories throughout the day and sleep longer at night. Genius!! I'm thinking duuuhhh why didn't I think of that. But you know, that's why he gets paid the big bucks. So Monday we started the "new" schedule. Pray for longer sleeping nights! I'm still getting the same amount of sleep out of her...

Josh had the kidlets this weekend all by himself. And you know what? They are still alive and healthy! I had to throw that in there because so many people doubt the fathers capability of keeping the kids by themselves. But Josh really is such a great father, he had no issues. I only got text messages of pictures and videos. No questions or moments of panicking. He did great! So great, that I think I'll take another weekend off. JUST KIDDING! I missed them all like crazy. So my next weekend get a way will be with the family. Hoping to make a beach trip soon and for a week in September.

We are headed to Alabama this weekend to celebrate with Gramma Herrmann and the rest of the fam. She turns 90 this Sunday, April 28th! Plus she needs to meet sweet Addison before she gets out of her baby stage! I'll be sure to post pictures

Cooper Loves his sister!!

LOVE

The one with the zombie....

Hi, I'm Allie and I'm addicted to caffeine.... Hence the zombie, thats me! Miss thang, diva, princess aka Addison is a tricky lil one. Not like Cooper at all! So far, Cooper has been my easy one. He's such a blessing and a sweet lil boy.  Ok, don't get me wrong, Addison is a total blessing! But she is a total different baby than Cooper. She can't sit still. She doesn't like her swing or her vibrating chair. She cries when she's not being held. We've tried warming her milk, changing formulas, gas drops, fennel water and I'm still at a loss. She sleeps on her tummy which is a no no (according to like ALL doctors)... But she likes it. Addison is sleeping 5-6 hours now at night. Still waking up for a middle of night time feeing, so I need to tweak her schedule a little so she goes to bed later. It's all about the schedule and we are all still figuring out what works best for us all. She's a good lil sleeper though and has been in her crib for several weeks now, for all naps and all night! Yay! That is a big accomplishment :) She also rolled over on her back in the crib. She's so strong and holds her head up so good!

Cooper still love love loves her!! It's true, God answered knee mail. I prayed and prayed he would be my little Angel during this big transition in his life and he really is. He listens so good, loves to read books, color and watch movies and of course help out with Addison. He goes to bed without a fight, he is usually the one telling me to turn of the light and "sweet dreams mommy"! We are still working on that crayons should be used on paper only... We have a nice lil mural on the office wall. I havent bothered to clean it yet, I figured that can be his spot for a while. He will even come show me when he adds a new color. Next week we start potty training, AGAIN. I let him pick out his own big boy underwear so hopefully he will be interested in it. When his friend Ceci is over and she has to go, he goes with her to the bathroom every time, helps her get the stool and the potty seat. So I know he has interest, lets just see how the interest pans out!

We had another set of friends come to visit this past weekend, Megan and Clint. We are so blessed to have such great friends up there that take weekend get aways to come see us. There was a big outdoor boat show and oyster fest that we took them too.  I probably shouldn't have tempted Josh like that. Just like women get baby fever, Josh gets boat fever! House first, I keep telling him!

I'm starting to feel like my old self again (plus 15lbs) but I'm feeling good, health wise. I started doing small work out in the morning when Addison takes her morning nap. Cooper just watches TV. I'd like to get out in the mornings and run before everyone wakes up, but I'm just so tired right now all I can think about is curling back up in the warm cozy bed!!



The one where she's a month old...

Happy Birthday Addison! She's one month old today (well actually yesterday- I couldn't get the pictures to upload yesterday). And I am going to do something I didn't do for Cooper…. although I am sure if I went through his pictures I could put a timeline of pictures together like I am going to do for her. Monthly, on Addison's birthday, I am going to take a picture and at the end of one year, put it all together in a collage and see how much she's grown and changed. I got the idea from my work mom, her daughter is doing that with their new son, Owen- who was born just 2 days before Addison. We were actually scheduled for our C-sections the same day, she just went early. I was jealous! So here is miss Addisons' one month old picture. I think she's changed so much already. Actually kinda looks like me when I was a baby… I don't think she looks like Cooper too much anymore, although others still think so. But then again, they change so much over the first year, who knows who she will look like!

We are doing pretty good. It seems like Addison has been colicky. There were several days last week she would just cry and cry and nothing I would do could console her. Until my neighbor told me to put fennel water in her bottle. I will say that has helped somewhat. At least we aren't crying for almost 4 hours straight.  I am going to switch up her formula once she finishes what I have. I hate to waste the $50 in milk I just bought for her…. back to the Target brand like I did with Cooper. Maybe my kids just don't require the fancy stuff! She's been sleeping pretty good at nights, once I finally get her down, which is usually around midnight. She is a little night owl (like her dad). You might say that she has her days and nights mixed up. Although she sleeps a lot during the day, she's is up late afternoon through midnight. Just dozing in and out of sleep.

Cooper is still awesome. He's proving to be a wonderful big brother. We spotted him on the baby monitor trying to give his bear to Addison while she was crying in her crib. If you know anything about Cooper, that is his bear and he takes it everywhere… so once he realized if he dropped it in the crib he wasn't getting it back with out our help, he came into to tell us the "baby is crying, the baby is crying!" He loves helping me with Addison and loves to tell me when she is crying. It's actually super cute. I think he really loves her already!

the handsome big brother

I was finally able to take my 4 generations picture! I have one from when my great grandmother was still alive, so I had to keep the tradition going. I'll get another one when Addison is a little older too!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

LOVE

The one with my new job...

I officially started my new job, February 22 at 9:21am... Mother of 2! I was nervous leading up to the "start date". Josh kept saying you've got this- Cooper was the game changer so this one will be easy. It's wild how much you forget. My mind and body are already in the toddler stage with Cooper, so I'm reverting back to infant stage.... oh and sleep, whats that?  I forgot how long recovery was, I forgot how often babies eat and poop and I forgot how little sleep I got in at one time. Addison is eating every 3-4 hours, which totally cuts in to my 9 hour nights! Recovery seems longer. I can't lift Cooper for 4-6 weeks. I've got lots of healing to do, since they sliced right through the middle of me. But after all this I wouldn't change it for the world, nor would I want to go back to my old job, Mother of 1. Last night at my 4am feeding I couldn't help but smile at her (even though I can't remember the last time I had been that tired). She is such a perfect little angel, I find my self staring at her all day and kissing her little cheeks as much as possible. I'm still the same way with Cooper. So I know when they are older their over affectionate mom will totally embarrass them and plant one right on them with hot pink lipstick in front of all their friends!

I know I mentioned how awesome Cooper is doing, but it's totally worth another shout out. He's PERFECT and the best big brother. I think its because Josh and I still really focus on Cooper. Since I'm not breast feeding I'm able to let Cooper help feed her. He loves holding her. If Addison is sleeping, he is always wanting to know where she is. During the days together, we all 3 read books on the couch. Both of them sit on my lap. But he needs more mommy and me time (this is where my job becomes Preschool Teacher). I am going to start taking Cooper to the library for reading classes. It's free entertainment and will be nice to get out of the house. The library also offers art classes for kids his age, that is free as well. He needs to be around other toddlers in different settings than just playing. I thought about daycare, but I'm not interested in paying $200 a week, when I stay at home. I've been trying to teach him things myself. We are working on colors, numbers and coloring. Right now, everything is green. He's good counting to 3. And as you know, we are working coloring on paper, not tables. He loves reading books and probably has them all memorized. So I broke out my Dr. Seuss books from when I was a kid. I have probably 20 or so, so it will take a while for him to memorize those, PLUS we will be able to check out books from the library once I become a member.

All in all, I think I worried my self too much about how I was going to juggle 2 kids and different schedules. But so far so good. They are pretty much on the same schedule for waking up, breakfast and lunch. I even get to relax in the afternoon when both kiddos are sleeping. I know my job will only get harder as Addison and Cooper get older, but I'm up for the challenge of being SUPER MOM!

LOVE

The one with Miss Addison Kate...

Our sweet baby girl has arrived!!! Addison Kate McCarty is more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. She's truly an angel. She was born Friday, February 22, 2013 at 9:21am. That morning was flawless. The doctors were right on time, walking me back to the OR at 9am.... and our lives officially changed, for the better!

Headed to the hospital at 6:30am

The morning at Baptist South, Jacksonville

All hooked up and ready to rock

Addison was born at 9:21am, 7lbs 11oz and 21 inches long. As the doctor was pulling her out, she said, we have a "chunky baby, wow she's a chunky monkey". I was thinking geeze, maybe she is like 10lbs, since I did gain 40!!! But to my surprise she was average. Lots of hair. She came out screaming. I remember holding my breath, waiting for that cry. Once I heard it, I started crying. I think Josh was crying too, but it was hard to tell since I had him on camera duty. He pretty much watched the whole C-section (YUCK!). The doctor was giving me a play by play of her actions, which totally made me more nervous and nauseous than I already was. But I knew what was going on every step of the way, I think I was only on the operating table for like 30 minutes. The doctors let Josh do something really awesome, something that was not offered in Atlanta when we had Cooper. He got to cut the umbilical cord. It was tough, he described it as cutting through an old stale hotdog that had been sitting out.... Anyway, recovery went good for me. I had the spinal tap, which wears off in 3 hours so I was getting feeling back pretty quickly. Before I knew it, it was time for visitors to start arriving... In case you were curious, Cooper was at home with Papa Jeff and Mar. They drove in town from Ohio to be with Cooper. Cooper did great with them and came up to the hospital both Friday and Saturday. I remember Friday he ran in the hospital room. He was so excited to see me and Josh. It melted my heart.

The chunky monkey

Such a proud Daddy

perfect princess

     

ready to go home

Cooper has been the BEST big brother. It is doing even better than we expected. He's always wanting to know where "the baby" is. He put his stepping stool right next to her changing station so he can help with changing her diapers. He likes to hold the bottle and often asks to hold her. He gives her lots of kisses and is pretty gentle when she is around. He is somewhat more clingy to both Josh and I, but nothing that we didn't expect. But he's not a brat about it. I think he truly realizes Addison is his baby sister and she's staying!

Cooper has big really big into coloring. I've been working on the colors with him and teaching him how to color. I guess I never mentioned that he should only color on paper. I stepped out for a minute and here is his master piece....

And finally, I've posted one of these before, but it's not often that 4 McCarty generations are in a room together. How cool, huh!?!

LOVE