5:20 AM and Spinning Days

Yes, folks – 5:20 is the time that my youngest has designated as his new wake up time! It’s awesome. Let me explain to you everything that is wrong with this situation (other than the obvious being that it is way to #$%&ing early for anyone to be getting up):

1. I typically get up at 5:30 during the week to take Deacon out. In the past? I’d get up, take him for a walk, get back, shower, put on makeup and THEN Alex would get up. Perfect timing, as I was 75% done getting myself ready. Now? I have to get up, make a bottle, get the baby and then leave him in our room with a husband who REALLY doesn’t want to have to wake up to watch him. I’m still not 100% certain Josh ever really wakes up, so just in case, I always do the “what could he possibly get and choke on in our room” search before leaving.

2. I need to find a way to occupy him for the hour and 20 mins before we have to leave the house for daycare. Try doing this while also trying to shower and get yourself ready in the morning- not fun.


3. Because he got up too early, he becomes VERY tired, cranky and needy right around 6 am, which is still a good 40 mins before we leave. So, NOW try to get yourself ready AND occupy a baby who is cranky and needy. Also not fun.

4. If Alex wakes up at 5:20? Chances are pretty good that Avery will also wake up at 5:20, as their rooms are right next to each other, so now we have not one, but TWO kids who are cranky, tired and needy. Awesome.

5. As it turns out, a 12 month old doesn’t know the difference between a workday and a weekend day and as a result, decides to join us at 5:20 AM on Saturday and Sunday as well. REALLY????

And, here is the little stinker himself practicing his new fun game of pulling himself up on things...

And, here he is just prior to pulling himself up on Avery's easel and sticking a paint brush in his mouth...



Now, onto my eldest. We experienced the most unique and bizarre meltdown to date the other morning. She wanted to wear a dress to preschool. But, not just any dress. Nope – it has to be one that spins. And of course, none of my suggestions spun to her satisfaction. So, she freaked. Bawled, laid on the ground and……kicked. And, that was the end of it. Because there is NOTHING that I hate more than temper tantrums like that. And, I let her know of this immediately when the kicking began. Don’t worry – I didn’t do anything drastic. I just explained to her (in a somewhat raised volume and tone) that those types of fits are not tolerated in our house. Apparently it worked, because she stopped immediately. Once she calmed down, I attempted to explain to her that some days are spinning days and some days are non-spinning days and that day happened to be a non-spinning day, at which point she looked at me and said, “Can’t TOMORROW be the non-spinning day??”



It’s a good thing these kids are cute, that's all I have to say....

Happy 1st Birthday, Alex (plus a 3 week recap)!

Wow – lots to catch up on – I’ll focus on the most important event and then go chronologically.
Alex turned 1 on July 2nd!!!! I can’t believe that it has been a year since I had him. I get nostalgic with every birthday, but the first is always even more sentimental just because it is so close to the time that I actually gave birth (not to mention, that I’m convinced that the first year is by far the hardest on a mother, but we won’t focus on that part). Anyway – we celebrated with Josh’s family and some friends the weekend before his birthday. In keeping with tradition, I made him a cake – I chose a monkey – not because it really meant anything, but more because it had a minimal amount of colors.

I did the balloon so that Alex would have his own piece of cake to devour. As you can see, that didn't quite work out. In fact, he hated it.



The week before Alex’s party, I was in NYC for a conference. The funny thing about the trip? There was no conference. Yep – that’s right – somehow I managed to get it in my head that the conference was on Thursday and Friday in NYC when really it was Tuesday and Wednesday. You can imagine my surprise (i.e., near panic attack) when I showed up and they didn’t have my nametag on the table. The good thing was that there was a different conference that Thursday that I did attend, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted and I was able to catch up with Christine and Colleen while I was there. We had a great time and it was nice catching up in the big city! Somehow, I yet again managed to drink too much each night I was there, so the mornings were a bit of a challenge (especially the one where I was on a train by 6 am), but it was worth it.

We flew out to WI on July 2nd, which was Alex’s actual birthday (I figure at this age, he wouldn’t know the difference, so I didn’t feel badly flying all day on his bday). We nearly didn’t make it, as daycare called literally one hour before I was supposed to pick the kids up saying that Avery had a fever of 102.8. Seriously????? I rushed her to the dr. and begged them to see her, which they did. They checked her ears and she didn’t have an infection and they took a urine sample ( I personally think that I should get mother of the year for getting a 3 year old to pee in a cup, not to mention for getting peed on during the process) and there was no infection there. It looked like it was just a virus, so we loaded her up with Tylenol and we were on our way. The flight there was rather uneventful other than the fact that my son is at the age where he does not want to sit still, which proves to be challenging on a flight where he is supposed to be sitting in your lap. Josh was kind enough to stand in the back most of the time and rock him to sleep, which was huge.

The trip was great – we had an awesome time. We arrived to this cute sign on the garage door when we got there, which was a nice little surprise - my mom's creative like that.






We celebrated both babies’ birthdays (Annabel’s and Alex’s) as well as William’s birthday on the 4th. And, yes – I made another cake – this time it was a fisherman (for Will) that just caught 2 fish (one for Alex and one for Annabel).



We celebrated by having a picnic lunch at the beach followed by swimming for all and then a nice dinner that night and some fireworks later on. Here are the babies yet again NOT enjoying the cake that I spent hours decorating. New rule - until they can prove to me that they will eat the cake, no more decorating. Who am I kidding? I'll eat the cake that they don't eat - I'm still decorating.



The rest of the trip was spent on the boat



in the lake




on the playground

in the kiddy pool





And, of course, wearing our sister's clothes because that's always a fun thing to do on vacation...


We also made it down to Milwaukee to visit with the girls and all of the kids. Wow – there were ELEVEN kids between all of us. It was great seeing them, but I’ll be honest – the next trip may need to exclude anyone under 30 and include a significant amount of wine. Thanks to Becky for hosting all of us at her house (which looked like this the majority of the day…)

Believe it or not, we were able to get a picture of all 11 kids together, which was pretty impressive...

Overall, it was a great trip. I am just now getting over my "return back to work" depression, but I'm thinking it still may take a couple of days (and a new job where I can have summers off) to fully get over it. :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Movement!!!!

Sorry about the sideways view - not sure yet how to rotate these things on my camera. We also have a 3 year old who has slept in her bed without making a noise for 3 nights straight. Big changes in the Holland household. Big!

Just call me Earle

For those of you who don’t know who Earl is, he is the guy who the Hollands have called on for years to do various tasks around the house. Such tasks include fixing lawn mowers, helping to move large furniture, helping with landscaping and my personal favorite, putting together Avery’s crib. Yes – that’s right – my husband asked him to put together Avery’s crib – a task that I could have done by myself, but he insisted on asking Earle. One may ask what Earle charges for such services? No idea. I’ve never seen a bill, nor has Josh. I have to imagine that his parents receive some sort of a bill, but have never heard anything from them either. The whole thing is really odd. I don’t get it, but who am I to ask? All that I will say is that when we do receive a bill, Josh will promptly make his way to Home Depot to do a few “do it yourself" trainings so that he too can be like Earle someday.

Well, this weekend? I was Earle. Not only was I Earle, but I was Earle with a 1 year old and a 3 year old, which makes it even more impressive in my book. I decided that the lawn needed some work, as it is 80% weeds and 20% grass, so I took it upon myself to research how to fix this problem and to then take both kids to Home Depot to get the necessary fertilizer. While there, I got sand for the sandbox, birdseed for the poor birds who hadn’t been fed in weeks and weed eater for the weeds growing in the middle of the driveway. Then, on the way home, managed to keep both kids awake so that I wouldn’t ruin nap time. For those of you who have traveled with me around this time of day, you know what a trying task this is. I’ll never forget the day that my mom spent 30 minutes in the back tickling, playing with and singing to Avery to keep her up. Try doing that as you drive – it’s a talent that I’ve mastered. So, I got the kids home, fed them lunch and got them down for a nap. Then, proceeded to fertilize the lawn, spray the weeds in the driveway, fill the sandbox and fill the bird feeder. I’ll be honest – I was really impressed with my ability to get everything done and felt much better afterwards.


That was all on Sunday. On Saturday, we had 2 birthday parties to go to. I took Alex to a friend’s 1 year birthday and then Josh took Avery to her friend’s 3 year birthday. Kids had a great time at both. In fact, when I met Avery at her party, I approached her all excited and I got the “mom – I’m busy playing with my friends, don’t bother me” look. It’s starting already.
Mr. Alex is getting VERY close to crawling. He pushes himself forward and is on one knee and one foot – if he kicks that foot back and gets on both knees, it doesn’t last for long. He either kicks his legs back and falls or he goes back to sitting. But, he is much closer than he has been.


He is also getting to be really good at pulling himself up on things and looks for something to do that with any chance he gets.

And, clearly, he is VERY proud of himself...



Avery is doing well other than the nightmares that she seems to be having nightly. I’m not going to lie – it’s getting old. I would say that we have gotten up with her an average of 2 times a night for the last 4 weeks. I’m not sure what to do about it. But, I’m getting to the point where I really need some sleep and I’m thoroughly annoyed that I’m not getting it. Apparently, during this nap, she got out of bed and got tired of waiting for us to come see her, so she chose to take a nap on her stuffed dog right in the middle of the hallway. I will say, that was a first.

Saying good-bye to an old friend, but welcoming a new one...

While we did eventually have to say good-bye to our old friend (and, possibly, my best friend), MiMi, she actually did stick around for longer than expected. It started with my birthday (which is clearly MiMi justified). We had a nice day – took Avery to gymnastics that morning and then we all went to my friend’s son’s 3rd birthday party. Both Avery and Alex had a great time.

Here she is about to swing at her first pinata. She was supposed to have a blindfold on, but was totally freaked out by it, so she was allowed to do it without one...



And, here is Alex sitting. Not crawling, not walking. Sitting. Someday....hopefully.



That night, Josh and I went out to dinner at the place that we went the night that he proposed, which was really nice. It was nice getting out just the two of us – we don’t do that nearly enough. Here we are all ready to go out on our big date...


That following Wednesday, I left for DC for a conference. It was a nice little getaway, but it was also nice getting back and seeing the kids. And this my friends is where MiMi and I said our goodbyes. From what I understand, she is having a wonderful time sightseeing in DC - maybe she'll come back someday soon...

This last weekend was Memorial Day weekend and the weekend that we got our new dog!!!!!!! We picked up Deacon in Putnam, Connecticut on Saturday afternoon.

This is me with him right after getting him off of the truck in CT



Here he is on his first walk on a New England beach. It is going to take some getting used to - he wasn't a huge fan of the rocks or the water, but he'll get there....


This organization that transports the dogs up here from the south is amazing. These guys start in Ohio, drive down and along the south coast picking up dogs and then drive up to New England to drop them off with their new adopted families. The trip takes them three days. I can’t even imagine having to deal with that many dogs – feeding, watering, walking, etc. for that long on the road. It really takes a special person. ANYWAY- he arrived safe and sound and has been awesome. He licked Alex’s toes the entire way home and sniffed Avery. The kids love him and he is great with him. He does still have a bit of puppy in him, which is evident given his totally spaz moments of sprinting through the house with a toy in his mouth playing tug a war with no one but himself. Avery has now been trained to just get up on one of the kitchen chairs when he starts this so that she isn’t trampled. It’s kind of comical, a pain in the ass, and scary all at the same time. Other than that, he’s great. Oh – except for the Barbie that he decided was his chew toy this morning- that wasn’t good. Avery doesn’t know about that one yet and I am not sure she will.

Sunday, we went to a fair at Avery and Alex’s future grammar school with Lindsey and her kids – Avery and Asher had a blast. Avery thought she died and went to heaven when she saw the big blow up slide (which, as it turns out, she was too short to go on, so we settled for the one where you ride on a burlap sack, which was equally as fun). That night, Lindsey and the kids came over for dinner and Josh played golf (see – I’m not the ONLY one with ME time).

Monday, we went to this great little zoo close to our house. It is small enough that you can get through the entire thing in about an hour. Perfect for kids.

Here is Alex on his first train (aka, a tiny little train with wheels that is driven around the zoo by this old lady who, by the way, insisted on spraying tick repelant all over her prior to the drive. One would think we were going into the woods? Nope. Pavement the entire way. Maybe they have different types of ticks who only live on cement in New Bedford, Ma? Odd) ride.



Here is Avery and me on the train...


And, Avery doing her new favorite thing - riding on a pony.


To answer your question, no, she will not be getting one any time soon...

MiMi is back!!!

As a child, my parents nicknamed me MiMi because, well, everything in my mind should have been about ME all of the time. Since the kids have been born, MiMi has (sadly) been taking a break. However, this weekend? She was back in full force. Yep – this weekend (well, at least 1.5 days of it) was all about me. My friend Colleen graduated from Wharton Business School (ok – so, I guess a part of the weekend was about her as well, but whatever – this is my blog, so we’ll focus on me. :) ), so a few girls and I went to Philly to have a girl’s weekend to help celebrate. It was fabulous. I was able to walk around, eat a nice lunch (a.k.a crepes and a ‘few’ glasses of wine), walk around some more, eat a nice dinner (and drink a ‘few’ more glasses of wine) and then go to a bar until 2 am (gasp!). And, guess what? I did all of this while not once thinking about diapers or bottles or naps. It was wonderful. Don’t get me wrong – I missed the kids and I was happy to see them on Sunday, but I definitely enjoyed my time away. It was refreshing. Unfortunately, I did forget my camera, so I don’t have any pictures of the weekend (not that anyone is interested in seeing pictures of me anyways, but…).

The kids are doing well. Alex has developed some funny games – he is very into clapping and will clap whenever music is on or when he is happy about something, he likes to do raspberries and is getting really good at waving bye-bye. He also loves to stand (no real movement yet), but isn’t too too steady on his feet and tends to topple over if unattended. He has about 1000 teeth (ok, 8, but whatever). They all seemed to come in at the same time. It is pretty crazy. The one thing that he doesn’t seem to find very funny is wearing his sister’s clothes, but hey – when it is time to take a walk and I can’t find his clothes, these work…

However, apparently Opa has no problem with it…



Avery is also doing well – still playing with her bday gifts. No – we still haven’t given her ours. I’m thinking at this point, we may keep them and save them for a bribe of some sort (like, maybe if she stays in her bed for 5 nights in a row??????? Wouldn’t that be nice?). It is either that, or give them to her randomly for no reason (as she has definitely forgotten about her bday at this point), which I find wrong out of sheer principle (yes, I’m a hard-ass like that).

Here she is practicing her H’s (her very LONG H’s).



And here she is in this hilarious outfit that my mom put her in after her bath last weekend.


Notice the shirt, which is supposed to clearly have a another shirt underneath it and the pants, which are clearly 2 sizes too small. She wanted to wear this to her bday party, but I managed to convince her that it really wasn’t a good look on her.

On a sadder note, we made the decision to send Jack back to TX. We gave it a month and he was still growling at the kids (Avery as well as Alex). We looked into getting some aggression training, but I just felt like I would never feel 100% comfortable with him around the kids and quite frankly, I don’ think that Avery would have either, which would just continue to make it worse. It was an extremely difficult decision for me to make. A month is a long time to have a dog – he had become our pet and it was hard to let him go. But, I’m hopeful that he will find a great new home – one with no kids and with ppl who are willing and able to give him 100% of their attention. The good news is, the women who we are working with in Houston are incredible. They were extremely supportive and accommodating. I’m in the process of looking at another dog who is great with kids, doesn’t bark and in general sound s very similar to Leinie (except in a 2 year old’s body), so we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll have a dog update shortly.

Birthweek Festivities

It’s funny – growing up, my father always used to say that our birthdays seemed to last for a week and I always kind of knew it was true, but didn’t care because, who would really mind having a full week devoted to you vs. just a day….until you are the parent of that person having the birthday week. I’m exhausted and she is only 3 years old – we have a good 15 years (if not more) left of this birthweek thing!

The weekend started off with my parents’ arrival on Thursday night. That was a great way to start the weekend – it was just the three of us, sitting outside on an unseasonably warm night in Providence enjoying Pizza and a lovely box of white wine (because we’re fancy like that).

Friday, they watched both kids while Josh and I were at work. From the sounds of it, everyone had a great day. Although, Alex cooperated so much with his morning nap that he slept right through lunch and as a result, didn’t take his afternoon nap on time (aka, at the same time as Avery). That said – one of them was awake ALL day – sorry Mom and Dad!

Saturday was the big gymnastics party! Picture 13 3-year-olds, a bunch of soft spongy stuff to crawl on, tunnels to climb through, balance beams to walk on and a huge tumble track to jump on. It was a blast. The kids had a great time and personally, I think that I deserve a big thank you note from all, as I’m sure they all slept quite nicely that night (with the exception of our own little bday girl, but that is a whole different topic for a whole different post).

Sunday was the family party at our house.

I was actually relatively organized this time and made the majority of the meal last weekend and froze it. But, we still managed to stay pretty busy for most of the day preparing. Primarily because of this lovely girl…

Yep – somehow I’ve gotten myself into this tradition where I make a cake every year. If you recall, last year was Barney. This year? Dora. Dora with about 50000 different colors (which, by the way – someone needs to tell that girl and a pink shirt doesn’t really go with red shorts and yellow socks, but whatever – who am I to judge?). The funny thing is that Avery could care less at this age. But, now the adults actually look forward (or so they say) to seeing what I’ve created that year, so I’m doing it. Don’t get me wrong – it’s fun, but just very time consuming. And, unless we all want stale cake, it isn’t really something you can do too far ahead of time.

Monday was her actual birthday (no, I wasn’t kidding that the bday celebrations lasted a while), so I took the day off and we all went to the zoo. We had a great time.

Although, it became quite obvious that my child’s attention span is that of a gnat as, after about 30 seconds of looking at an animal, we heard, “I want to go look at something else.”

But, I don’t think we can expect much more of a 3 year old. I will say this – we got through the entire zoo and at least we never heard, “ I want to go home.”

Overall, it was a great weekend. Avery still hasn’t opened any of our presents, as she was a bit overwhelmed with the quantity received. Here she is with one of her favorite gifts - flip flops!!!

She has been walking around the house in these ever since she got them. Somehow I'm not sure the cash register and the tball set that we got her will quite match up to these shoes, but we'll see...