Our First Slow Dance: Long Lovely Lately

Ok folks, Here goes the update!

I'll start with Charlea since she is the Taumaoe that takes up most of our time and energy. Bringing Cheyne into our family mix had me thinking that she would take up more time and energy than anything, but I was wrong, it's Chuck, 100%, and that's kind of cool. I dig curve balls. With her third birthday less than three months away she is looking more and more like a little lady. It seems like shoes and clothes that fit her a few months ago are too small today. Her hair has grown so long. It sits on top of her head wild and unruly... but still soft and beautiful... much like her personality these days. On a scale of one to ten her sass level is about a 20, but she tells me that she loves me 100 times a day and rips herself from her busy schedule to give me hugs and kisses all of the time. A few days ago I had a heaping pile of laundry that I was determined to get through. I mean, I was on a serious mission. But when my Chuck came up to me and asked me to hold her, I dropped the clothes ask quick as a blink. I sat there with my arms around her listening to her stories about squirms, peanut butter sammiches, and how the papa dinosaur stepped on the mama dinosaur. She just wanted to be in her mama's arms and I was more than happy to oblige. I live for moments like that. Sometimes I get a little lost in the more repetitive, mundane aspects of being a homemaker, but moments like that are my fuel to trek on. Charlea is a constant reminder that being a housewife and mama is challenging and exhausting, but beautiful and so so important.

So much has happened with Cheyne in the two months that I have neglected this online diary. She is now over 7 months! At 6 months she started eating pureed fruits and veggies! Her first food was butternut squash that I roasted and pureed for her. Honestly, it didn't go very well. She was willing to try three bites before she gagged and refused it altogether. At first, I was thinking that it was the way it tasted.... but now I'm convinced that it was just the fact that it was something different than breastmilk and breastfeeding. We tried a few different things throughout her 6th month and now, a month later, she loves pretty much ALL fruits and veggies. We are still taking it slow with the foods. I'm a strong believer that solids should be delayed as long as possible so Cheyne will have only one or two ounces for dinner and I'm thinking by 9 months we will work our way up to lunch and dinner. I'm trying my best to give her little digestive system the proper time to mature. And she is growing so well! Still at the top of the charts for her measurements! She is also pretty mobil these days. She doesn't quite get up on her knees for long periods of time, but she can army crawl around the house like nobody's business! I'm not use to the moving. Charlea never really crawled and didn't walk until about 13 months so I was never chasing her around. Cheyne also has this uncanny ability to find the tiniest speck of ANYTHING on the floor. It's like she has "tiny speck" radar. She sees it, crawls to it and works her tiny pincher claw to pick it up and eat it. Let's just say that we've had a couple of interesting poops. ha! Her sleeping habits have sort of gone through a loop, which can be very exhausting, but I'm trying my hardest to let her figure out how she is comfortable and what she needs to get the right amount of sleep and of course loving her and helping her on the way. She's making all sorts of new sounds. "Dadadada" came first, "Mumumumum" and "Didididid" shortly followed. She also has mastered the farting sound (with her mouth), undoubtedly because she hears it so much from her Daddy and big Sister. A few weeks ago she started clucking too. Really, every week brings some new sound or movement. It's an amazing thing to witness. Like a flower blooming. My Chey is my little rose. Only seven months old, but I feel as if I have loved her my entire life.

One day in the beginning of June I told Tyson that I really wanted to go home for 4th of July and without even thinking about money or work. He said "ok babe". Almost immediately after we made the decision to go and gave notice to his work, it became dead in the shop. One week he had 13 cancellations! I'm not going to lie.... I was a bit worried. But it must have been some crazy fluke because he was steadily busy before and has been crazy busy since we came home. He works so hard for us 3 chicks. I imagine he must feel a bit more pressure to provide since I quit my job to take care of the girls full time, but I hope his reward is knowing that we are beyond proud of him, and that we love him to the moon and back one thousand times. He also bought a lil fixer upper van for work. He's been working on it with friends and family and even though the van is pretty much a pile of junk, he is adding to his wealth of knowledge. Also, he does look mighty fine covered in oil and dirt :)
Reading the updates on those three pretty much give you my update as well since maybe 90% of my day is spent taking care of them, but since Cheyne has gotten a little older and a tiny bit less dependent on only me, I have been able to put a couple of selfish activities back into my schedule. Crocheting for instance. I crochet or do some sort of craft almost every chance I get and being able to create again is exhilarating as silly as it sounds. It reminds me that I am good at something other than soothing a baby and entertaining a 2 year old. I've been reading a lot as well. In fact, I have gone through a good 7 books in the past 2 months. I almost forgot how much I love getting lost in a good story!! A few bad stories too (cough cough 50 shades of cough grey... poorly written, but highly addicting). Also, Tyson and I have made a pact to get healthy. We have been working out and eating much better. It's really amazing how feeling better about yourself makes you feel better about every other aspect of life. I've lost all of my pregnancy weight and then some and Tyson has some nice little abs going on. Ha! Overall, I don't think I've been so happy in a long time, and happiness has never been lacking in our family. Sure there are those days when nothing goes right, laundry never gets done, dishes pile up, kids are crying, drinks are spilt, and messes are made, but my goodness I love those days too, even if I don't know it at the time. They make the good days all the sweeter.

Last, I wanted to share a few pictures from our California trip via Instagram photos.... since some hair brain mama forgot our camera...