Happy Halloween

Weekend Warriors

I have been feeling bad for Lilly because our lives have gotten quite a bit less active since having the baby. So I have been trying to make the most out of the weekends while Tyson is home and do a lot of family activities. Here are some of the fun things we have done.

Tyson’s office moved buildings recently so they had a work party to introduce the new building to the families of the employees. It was a fun little party with balloon animals, face painting, bouncy house, door prizes, shaved ice, and dinner. Lilly got a dolphin painted on her arm and a cat balloon. They even made Tyson a scary zombie balloon. We won two John Deere toys and got to see Tyson’s desk. Lilly was excited to play on his phone and computer.

 

Like last year, a garden store up the street from us sales pumpkins and has some fun Halloween things. We went a little early this year so they didn’t have as much stuff set up but we were still able to pick out pumpkins and bounce in the bouncy house. We will probably go up there again in the next week or two to do the rest of the Halloween things they set up like the hay maze and another bouncy house.

To stick with the bouncy house theme we went to our local Monkey Joe’s. Monkey Joe’s is an indoor facility with multiple bouncy houses. Most cities have something similar to Monkey Joe’s just with different names. Lilly is really good at climbing and can do all of the houses on her own now. In the past she has needed a lot of help so it is fun seeing her progress.

I was looking for a little kid scary corn maze in the area (surprisingly, they don’t have a lot of corn mazes around here even though the whole state is a big corn field) and I came across a local pumpkin patch and family farm called Pride of the Wapsi. While we were there Lilly got to feed the goats, take a pony ride, play in the corn box, ride the barrel train, and take a tractor out to the pumpkin patch. Lilly did refuse to feed the goats though. She was still a little scared from being bitten by the swan at the zoo. I was proud of her for getting on the pony. I thought she was going to refuse to get on. I asked her what her pony’s name was and she named him Horsy. Lilly is very practical when she gives things names. If she has a dog she names it dog. If she has two dogs one is named big dog and the other small dog.

 

The most recent thing that Lilly and I got to do together was going to the Disney Junior Live: Princess and Pirate Adventure Show. We had a Mommy and Lilly date. Tyson bought us 3rd row seats. Lilly was so excited and asked about it for about 2 weeks before we went. When we got there she wanted to go to her seat so badly that she didn't even want to stop for snacks. I had to convenience her to go back and get cotton candy (that is my favorite) after we found our spots. Lilly was really cute during the whole show. She only got a little antsy about 15 minutes before it was over. At the end of the pirate show they shot gold coins out of a cannon. She wanted one so bad I let her go up to the very front at the end and grab one. It was a piece of tissue paper cut in a circle but Lilly carries it around like it is a real coin.

One of the funniest things that Lilly does now is try to convince me of things "Today is Halloween" or "Maci is coming over today". Then when I try to correct her she simply tells me no I am wrong and it is really Halloween today. She was doing this while we were waiting for the show to start:

Lilly: The curtain is going up now.
Me: No, we still have 5 minutes before it starts.
Lilly Nope, it is starting now.

 

Lilly wanted a picture with the girl pirate so bad. We went up to her and Lilly was being so sweet and lightly touching her leg waiting for her turn but the girl was not paying attention to us and ended up walking away so I brought her over to this guy who was much more accommodating.

 

Bringing Home Baby: Part 4 – Coming Home

When Lilly arrived home from church she came up the stairs, saw me and the baby and immediately went running off to play with Logan. I thought she would be a little excited to finally have us home but we came in second place to Aunt Angie and Logan.

Angie and Logan stayed for a week and it was the most wonderful thing ever! I felt so spoiled and taken care of. Angie went grocery shopping, made meals, cleaned the house, took care of Lilly, and made sure I was taken care of. It felt like I was a mother of 1 again and it gave me the whole week to bond with Bennett. I have actually felt better and more relaxed with Bennett then I ever did with Lilly. My physical recovery has been easier and because I wasn’t nervous to bring a baby home I have been able to relax and enjoy the newborn stage more. Also, I learned my lesson with Lilly, so now I really do nap whenever I get a chance and I have been trying really hard to spend as much time as I can relishing the newborn stage since I know it goes by so fast.   

Lilly was extremely happy to have Logan and Angie at the house. Lilly has always wanted an older sibling to play with and Logan was fantastic with her. I think he is Lilly’s new best bud. Lilly ended up calling Angie mommy; it was way easier to do that then to remember ‘Aunt Angie’. Plus, Angie is way more fun than mommy and buys her things.

While they were here Angie took the kids to the John Deere Pavilion, the Chick-fil-a play place, and to the park. She saw how crazy our Chick-fil-a play place is here. We also went out to dinner and to the mall. I wish she was able to see more Iowa but I wasn’t up for much. My favorite part was the time that we got to spend talking. It was nice visiting to another adult female, most of the time I am with kids or just Tyson.

When Angie told Logan they were coming here to help with Lilly he told her that Lilly better not try to do girl stuff with him and dress him up in princess dresses. He did really well playing with all of her girly toys and watching her princess shows but when she tried to dress him up in a tutu he was not having it. Good thing we had some superhero stuff.  

John Deere Pavilion

The next week after Angie and Logan left Tyson stayed home. I think he got bored after a couple of days. It was nice having him home for the week and he did a good job of making dinner and taking care of Lilly.

Lilly loves her baby brother. She consistently talks about how cute he is and she seems to want him to come everywhere with her. She really wants him to play with toys and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t. I tried to explain to her that his hands don’t open all the way. She also has a hard time letting him sleep. She wants to touch or look at him all the time. Lilly likes sharing her toys with him. We will see how she does once he starts taking them away.  

Sorry about the underwear - it was too cute, we had to get the picture right away

Bennett has been a really good baby. I am not sure what I did to get lucky with two easy babies. He eats really well and sleeps at night. He does eat a lot though and wakes up several times at night to eat. But I am still lucky because he will go 5-6 hours in between his first and second nightly feeding.

Bennett is a noisy baby. He grunts, snores and makes other various noises. He doesn’t cry very much. Usually when he is ready to eat he starts grunting until I feed him. I have to swaddle him at night to make sure he is quiet and gets some sleep.  He is also starting to coo a little bit and smile. He is getting bigger and is super cute. Now I just have to learn how to balance 2 kids, work, the house work and everything else mommy’s have to do.

Bennett is a spitter so we have to use bibs all the time

 

Bringing Home Baby: Part 3 - Lilly Meets Bennett

Tyson made sure I was settled in the hospital and Bennett was doing well before he went and picked up Lilly and brought her home for the night. We decided to let her have a good night sleep before having her come to the hospital. The next morning Tyson did a good job of getting her ready for the day and making her hair look nice. Then they came to the hospital. When Lilly walked into the room she wasn’t shy at all. She was excited to see me and jumped right into my bed. We introduced her to Bennett. The first thing she said when she saw him was ‘Oh Cute’. Lilly says ‘Oh Cute’ in a really cute way and she says it about a lot of things. It is very endearing. We asked her who the baby was and she said ‘Baby Bennett’. We spent the next couple of hours together as a new family of four. Lilly liked playing with the buttons on the bed, holding the baby, and watching TV. She also ate ½ of my lunch. It was a good thing I ordered a lot of food.  

I wish we took a picture of Lilly in her shirt. It says "I am the Big Sister".

I love this picture because Lilly can't keep her eyes off Bennett.

To make Lilly feel like it was a special day for her we gave her a present and said it was from Bennett. She excitedly opened a brand new baby doll. She then wanted to swaddle the baby doll up just like Bennett. She had a baby and mommy had a baby. Unfortunately, at home she would just rather make Bennett her baby doll.  

These are the flowers Lilly and Tyson brought me.

After Lilly ate my lunch Tyson took her home for a nap and then went and picked up my sister Angela and her little boy Logan up from the airport. After they stopped to eat they all came to visit me at the hospital. They wouldn’t allow Logan into my room since he was under 12 and wasn’t a sibling so Tyson took him grocery shopping while Angie and Lilly stayed to visit. It was really nice of Tyson to let Angie hang out with me for a couple of hours since it had been awhile since we had seen each other. I wish I would have taken a picture of Angie with Bennett since she was the only hospital visitor we had.

Tyson took this picture for our brother-in-law Tyler (Logan's Dad). Tyler went to University of Nebraska which is a rival of University of Iowa. Tyson thought it would be funny to wrap Logan up in Iowa merchandise.

Although Angie was the only one to visit the hospital we did get to video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Ballard and Grandma Harris.

Grandma and Grandpa Ballard

The next day was Sunday and Angie took both of the kids to church so Tyson was able to come and help me get checked out and ready to go home. The last day in the hospital is always a whirlwind. You have a whole bunch of doctors come and check you and the baby to make sure you are ready to leave, the social worker stops by to ask you survey questions, you have to fill out all of your paper work, etc. etc, and we had a photographer (provided by the hospital) come and take newborn pictures. You are also a little anxious to get home but you are always a little nervous to leave and no longer have the nurses there helping you. Luckily, I got one more hospital lunch before leaving. I love free hospital food.  

Lilly and Logan ready for church.

Bennett’s Newborn Hospital Pictures:

 

 

Bennett in his coming home outfit

 

We went on our way home around 1:00 pm. Once we got home we had 3 and ½ hours before Lilly got back from church and we officially had two children to take care of.