Row Boy

I feel like I haven't posted much about my first born lately. I figured I ought to write about all his wonderful bits to keep me centered on all the things that make Rowan a sweet, bright little boy instead of the age-related craze that comes from being two. 

I keep a running list in my journal of cute things these two babes of ours do and here are some favorites of mine for Rowboat from the last few weeks. 

*Sel has been reading Rowan the animated Book of Mormon at bedtime. Row really loves Alma and Jesus and will say "Like him! Like him!" then give them a kiss. He also always points out the Laminates wear diapers (loincloths).

*He loves running. I bet he could do cross-country or a kiddie 1-mile race soon. 

 We took him to the track the other night and he did awesome! He had to pump his little legs so much more than we did which made me respect him as a baby athlete more than I already did.

* He loves wrestling with Sel lately. I need to get a picture of his wrestling stance because it's perfection on two little legs.

* He knows all his friends AND their moms names. He talks constantly about his friend Isaac's mom, Becky, who once rescued him from a falling bike at the park.

* One of my favorite prayers he gave a few weeks ago " Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for zoo. Bless sister and mommy. Thank you a mommy. Thank you a pinky book. Thank you a minion shirt. Thank you a daddy and mommy and sister. Thank you a blank. Thank you a owies. Thank you a mommy and daddy and sister and mimi and papa. Thank you a stars. Thank you a hammer. Thank you a Piper and Lincoln and Valerie. Bless oats and mommy and sister. Bless Jesus. Thank you a toys. Please bless toys. Please bless no bad dreams. Name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!

* He's become SO brave! He went through a stage where he was suddenly afraid of everything, especially going down slides. We went to a free carnival the other weekend and he climbed up a GIANT wall (not the one I took a picture of here) and went down a big slippery slide without hesitation. He will now climb any and all ladders at the park and is pretty good at it until I start to panic about him falling.

* He asks to "cuddle mommy" all the time now when he wants to avoid bedtime. It's so sweet that it's hard to turn him down on such a request.

 * He loves when we tell him popular oral stories. His favs that he requests almost every nap and bedtime are Red Riding Hood and Cookie Man (Gingerbread man)

* When we tell him to watch for cars, he will start pointing to parked ones saying "there's one! There's one!"

* He gets SO excited when Mimi or Papa come home. He will scream, run around in circles and bang on the glass door that leads to the garage. (We are staying with my parents for a month while Sel does an away rotation here at OSU). He will also say sadly throughout the day "Papa's at work." Or "Mimi's at work" 

* When new people ask him his name, he now responds with his full name "Rowan Michael Warden" and then will laugh at the end. He says each part of his name slowly and deliberately and it's adorable. 

* I love his hair. We've gotten three compliments this week alone on his "perfect" hair. One of them said it was like Fred from Scooby Doo. 

* He is obsessed with his cousins. We went to Philly last week to visit his cousin Brian Jr. who he has been taking about eating donuts with for ages. He adored him and asked if we could bring him to Mimi and Papa's. He also talks about visiting Macy in Florida with rides and Princess and Stella for Christmas with Cookie Houses (Gingerbread houses)

Lyra Rose 3 months

Time is going by so quickly! Lyra gets cuter every day and her cheeks get more luscious. Let's talk about those cheeks. Rowan got a little chunky, but nothing like Lyra. I just want to munch on her cheeks alllll day. She's perfectly squishy and delicious. I'm not sure her current weight, but she sure isn't light. We get comments the most about the cheeks, followed by disbelief that she's as young as she is when she looks so substantial. She's stretching out of her 6 month clothes already 😭 I dont know why, but I assumed she would follow a more average growth trend than her brother did. Dumb. Now most of her seasonal clothes don't match up with her ever growing baby bod. Bless the beauties who donated clothes to the Lyra Rose foundation so she has some stylish options 

She's sweet as can be. Row always had to be held looking out at the world, whereas she is content to be carried around snuggled up against me😍 She has the most adorable smile and her laugh is hysterical. It's like a breathy giggle. She cries and laughs with pauses between each. Laugh. Silence. Laugh.

Lyra cries very rarely. She's still such a happy thing. When she does cry, it's frightening. Like I said, she'll be silent for a few seconds then start screaming. Right when you think it's done, the loudest is yet to come. Rowan dropped a shampoo bottle on her the other night, which understandably made her cry. She did her momentary stop then screamed again right when he was bending over giving her an apology hug. It surprised Row so badly that he started crying and yelled in her face, which led to a cascade of screaming at one another through angry tears. It was great. We haven't had too many moments like those but I have a feeling yelling at one another will only increase in frequency over the years. Or maybe we will hit the sibling jackpot and they will never, ever fight. 

She is still a beautiful sleeper. She almost always logs 8+ hours (8pm-4am), but does a solid 10 most nights. The only hiccup is that she is done, done done for the day around 8:00pm. She simply cannot make it any later. It makes it tricky with bedtime because that's usually when I am trying to wrangle Row into pajamas and attempting to read him a bedtime story. Bless Sel for being the best husband/dad ever. He usually takes over after bathtime so I can nurse Lyra to bed. I feel really blessed we've had our kids when we have during med school. The summer between year 1 and 2 was perfect to have Sel around with Row and 4th year has lent us his helping hands more than we would have any other year.

I love nicknames. It's another form of love language for me to give someone a nickname. I know some people hate them, but I can't help it. Lyra is commonly known as Ly Ly around here or Little L (which used to be my nickname around my grandma L). It's so cute to hear Rowan call her LyLy. 

She strong. Rowan was too, but she's already ahead of where he was. She can hold her head up really well and can roll from tummy to back and is scary close to turning from back to tummy. She likes to sleep with her head to the side which I think is giving her an advantage that way. I am just so far from ready for her to think about any movement past what she does right now. Why can't they just stay squishy and immobile for awhile? We are so in trouble when s

People always ask where we got her name. We usually say it's a constellation, which is true. There is a bit more to the story which she might hate me for somewhere down the road. When I was an HP fanatic(when my 12-year-old self whole heartedly belived Hogwarts was real) I realized JK had pulled a lot of names from constellations (Sirius, Draco, etc). I wrote in a character to the series who was everything I wish I was. I found the constellation Lyra and decided it was perfect for my character. I get a little weird talking about it because it takes geeky to the whole next level (though liking HP is actually cool since all things nerdy are now awesome by today's standards). It makes me happy thinking my daughter is already better in every way than my character is. Rose was my great-grandma's name who was beautiful, smart (one of the very few woman of her generation to get a college degree), loving, and faithful. A little bit more than people care to hear when they ask about her name, so constellation it is. 

She loves to have her head rubbed while she nurses still. It's my favorite. Her eyes roll back and she acts like nothing in the whole world could be better than having her fuzzy head rubbed. She is extra tender when she's nursing. She HAS to be touching me. She will stroke my chest or hand, but especially loves holding onto one of my fingers. She's the definition of precious 

Watching TV with Row

I love this little girl so very much! I had a moment the other day on the outdoor track remembering a phone call to OB. I was 39 weeks and hadn't felt her move for a long time. While walking around the track trying to get her to move, I started crying thinking about losing her. She was obviously totally fine, but I realized then and even more so now how desperately I needed her in my life. I remember being such an idiot and worrying about whether I would love her as much as Rowan (pretty common parent fear for a second). I love her just as much as I love her big bro.  It's like Sel's grandma has said, "each baby comes with their own love". 

Here's to another month of Lyra love! 

She loves to be carried around like this

Swinging in one of my outfits from infancy. She makes it look way better than I did. 

Ugh I thought she might like a change of pace than the usual stroller. Rowan then insisted on riding in the stroller instead of riding his bike. After fifteen minutes of changing everything up, Rowan decided he would rather run. That skirt is my favorite of all time though

Squish

Holding hands during our bedtime story 

At the Fulton County Fair with Papa. He's a baby pro

She loves eating her fingers and sometimes will gag herself with them

All the little kids at the gym daycare thought she was a baby doll and asked to play with her. I think it's the dress because it is SO cute! It's an 18-month one we inherited from a friend. I know she'll slim out as she gets older and can hopefully wear it again. 

She loved the Halloween outfit Grandma DeeDee sent her

I needed somewhere to set her after Row ran into this dumb balance beam at the park that he ALWAYS runs into. She did awesome at holding herself up and loved the swing. 

BBG/Treat Streak

I was supposed to take a "sweaty selfie" after my workout, but was rushed to get a shower at the gym in before we went to a playdate so I uploaded a showered nursing pic instead. 

16 DAYS! I've made it 16 days and only had three tiny, questionable breaks to my streak. I licked the frosting off of my finger from a piece of cake I gave to Rowan, one solitary rolo from a friend, and a very small piece of zucchini bread. I know that sounds a little crazy to care about and I really don't which is why I've decided to not count them as having broken my successful days in a row.  The true test of my newly found self-control came in resisting treats at a church event (which there are always delicious things there) and in refusing a free Baskin Robbins ice-cream cone. I didn't feel deprived, just relived I already knew the answer to the question of whether I would eat those things or how much of those things I would eat. I still feel like I need to clean up other parts of my diet, but I feel like I have a healthy mindset at least. Sel and I decided that we can earn a treat token every 30 days of clean eating and have a splurge. We are going to Philly in a few weeks to visit our bro and sis-in-law who introduced us to the best donuts in the entire universe. I kid you not, these donuts are from another world. So you know I'll be getting on one of those babies. I feel better since we started doing this. I finally feel confident in my ability to have control over my eating and my life. It doesn't feel like we are doing something extreme that I won't be able to maintain. I just feel accomplished and grateful.
I'd seen a few friends of mine talking about Bikini Body Guide and how much they loved it. I was a little skeptical because I am of essentially everything. I tried to read about it online, but not much was there unless you bought the Ebook. Luckily I found a free 7-day trial and I LOVE it! I get it now. BBG is amazing! I've only had it on my phone since Thursday and I feel like I can already tell a difference.
The first day I decided to do a LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) workout plus the ab workout. The creator of BBG outlines a workout a day instead of doubling up. I was an idiot. I was DYING during the ab workout. I could barely finish the last circuit, but I did it! It feels so empowering. As I mentioned, I hesitated to buy this because I felt I could do it on my own. We've been able to go back to the gym recently which is a gigantic help, but this program pushes me way past what I would on my own. I did the HIIT workout today (High Intensity Interval Training) and I would have probably stopped halfway through on my own and considered it a decent workout.
My one thing I don't love is the meal plan. She's Australian so everything is written in the metric system and she recommends eating a lot of tuna. yuuuck. I love salads and have been downing them daily lately.
Besides the workouts (which I already adore) I really love the mentality Kayla pushes. You measure your progress primarily by taking pictures every four weeks instead of just relying on the scale. There is a big community of women who all support and cheer on one another. It feels real opposed to some of the other shallow, superficial views of health out there.

This was brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, carrots and some cashews. I made a dressing with ginger, lemon and oil. It took both Sel and I a hundred years to eat it. 

I have been eating this salad for four days in a row. I crave it right now like no other. I couldn't even wait to take a dumb picture of it before I started in on it. 

HOLLA! Sixteen days!