Babies, Birthdays & Botanical Gardens...

Hello! It has been awhile since I posted, even though technically, we are "less busy" since the wedding:) I'll tell you the main reason I'm in a bit of a fog....Collin. Yes, I'm throwing my sweet baby boy under the bus. After having Kate a few years back and dealing with a sleepless baby, I thought I would be prepared for such a baby this time around. But then, he was amazing! He slept! Somewhere around 7 weeks, he slept through the night for the first time and had given me 12 straight hours, weeks of sleeping through, all kinds of glorious things and I started referring to him as my "good sleeper." 

Yum.

Well, right around the 4 month mark (it did coincide with the start of our traveling and craziness) he started getting up in the night. And not just getting up. Staying up. Sleeping for only 30-40 minutes at a time, at times. And somehow, after enjoying some sleep-filled nights, I am a BEAR when I don't get sleep now! I've done this before, why is it so much harder this time? I'm guessing it is because I thought I had this licked feel like we are moving backwards and I'm going to throw in my advancing age and the fact that I have a 3.5 year old as well. 

Ugh. I need to figure this out. That is the hardest thing about parenting. The guessing, the trial and error, the figuring out why your child is doing something. And maybe worst of all, Dave and I seem to be the common denominator! What are we doing (or not doing)?! 

Anyway, I am experimenting and trying to stick with my plans each day/night. Luckily, I have been through this before and I know it will end. I just wish I could have little more stamina (and I could figure it out sooner this time and without crying it out!). There is so much more I would like to do each day, but right now, this zombie mom is not getting it together. I hope you stay tuned and find some post of how my son is sleeping like an angel and I have regained a life that includes a daily shower, eyes that stay open and a queen bed in Collin's room that doesn't contain both kids curled up next to me well past the time we should be getting up in the morning (okay, I kind of like that part:). 

That was my no-sleep rant, on to other things...Collin is awesome! :) He really is. A happy baby that if fed and having some sleep will be happy to just play with toys, roll around on the floor, watch his sister, whatever. He has a great giggle and Dave and I are thinking that he may carry on the Lenninger laugh! He LOVES to be on his feet, if he is fussing on the floor - just pick him up and let his feet touch the floor, he'll pick them up and act like he is walking. Hmm...once he is actually mobile, he may never stop moving.....oh boy! He likes to eat his toes, seeing himself in the mirror, jumping in the jumperoo, grabbing his sister's hair and flying up in the air (mostly Daddy - though I'm the one that was urped on while doing this, of course).

So happy!

Kate is still a very good big sister, not really jealous, likes to help and can actually calm him and make him laugh. Like many siblings, she just loves too much sometimes:) "I'm helping him roll over!" doing pattycake or trying to make him pray...that kind of stuff we just have to watch. Some of the funny things she has said/done lately...if I ask her to do something or stop doing something, "Mom. I can't. I'm doing something important. That means I need to do it right now." If you ask why she did something or if she'll see one of her friends at school (for example) "I have no idea, Mom." We get this a lot. Her favorite book right now is probably "Good night, Good night, Construction Site." (one of Dave and mine's too!) 

So cute. Collin will have to deal with this his whole life:)

Kate did Vacation Bible School at the church where she does preschool (but not our church...it's complicated) and she loved it! She learned so many songs and is singing them all the time, I was also told she was a great singer by the teachers, which I'm pretty sure means that she is one of the louder ones:) She loves to dance and sing, a trait of both Dave and me, though is no You Tube sensation for being on pitch - which means she will likely follow in my footsteps:) Maybe Collin will have a great singing voice like his Daddy! Last night, we were all marching through the aisles of Home Depot singing "Father Abraham."  :) 

Dave's birthday was really a weekend extravaganza, not a surprise if you know Dave well:) I did not get him a gift (yet) because he usually buys what he wants anyway, and I guess I mentioned last winter that he didn't need a rifle right then, but maybe for his birthday. But I did bake him a cake to take to work - rum cake, another Dave tradition:) On Friday, we went out to dinner on the boat with some of his work/volleyball friends and then let him drop me and the kids off for bedtimes. Dave continued on for a fun lake bar crawl, I was worrying a decent amount, but he checked in and was home safe and sound at a decent time of night/morning. On Saturday, we went to Madison and went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, something Kate and I really wanted to do and then to our friends' house for supper. I LOVED the gardens. We bought a membership and I fully intend on going back there as much as I can. So peaceful and beautiful. Kate loved spotting the butterflies, but not when they would fly toward her, then apparently they were some sort of tiny monster trying to get her and she would scream and jump out of the way:) 

My little scientist:)

Sibling love, playing in Simpson's backyard

Baby blues

On Sunday, we went to church at St. Luke (Kate's school) and enjoyed the potluck and bouncy house afterwards (first time she was brave enough to go in one). Then home for naps and we had sitters coming so we could have a date! I know! That never happens, this is the part of Dave's birthday that was really for me too:) We had Rylee (15 years old) and her mom, Chris (Kate's dance teacher) come over to watch the kids. They have begged to watch them, I felt comfortable with Chris minding Collin and Kate has a devoted buddy in Rylee:) Dave and I went for a boat ride, just the two of us. Again, never happens. I think the only other time we had been on the boat together/alone was the day we picked it up in Green Lake, WI in the about 39 degrees and sleeting. Good times. 

She really did smile, I swear!

It was awesome to enjoy the boat and each other for a few hours. We soaked up the sun, got some appetizers at a restaurant, read magazines and just enjoyed not holding a child in a life jacket or telling Kate that she didn't need another snack;) A good birthday weekend for Dave and for us all!

For more photos, check out our albums on Google....
July
https://plus.google.com/photos/101621614710195723652/albums/5899121912594023521?authkey=COvsgLTkjrCcMA

August
https://plus.google.com/photos/101621614710195723652/albums/5909452282466182913?authkey=CMTE6rPE1Ki-nQE