Pictures of Kenzie's First Week Home

Here are some pictures from Kenzie's first week home. We just got the CD back from the photographer so here they are! It's crazy how much she has grown from when these were taken. 

One Month Old Pictures (a little late)

I completely forgot to post these (I swear I took them on March 27th which was when she actually turned 1 month). Hopefully this month I will remember to post on time! 

School Update

Ryan received offers of admissions for first grade to two schools in the area. Once is a private Montessori and the other is a public charter school. After all the work we put into looking in schools is it nice to have options. The Charter school chooses students based on a lottery, we found out today that he was one of the lucky numbers picked. After lots of thought we have decided that he will go to the Charter school. First of all it is right up the street from where we live, second of all they don't have tuition (and if you didn't already figure it out we have 3 children), also we found out today that Ryan's VERY good friend Anders got a spot in the kindergarten at the charter and will be attending in the fall. Hopefully it all works out! It's always a gamble to start at a BRAND NEW school, but if it works out the school extends all the way through high school so we could be done looking at schools! and all our children could end up attending the same school! I guess like everything in life, time will tell!

What I've Learned About Being a Parent

Things that I didn't know/ do with the first child that I understand now:

1. Everything seems like a much bigger deal in the moment. When your child is crying and you don’t know why, when they pee in their pants even though they are well into their potty trained years, when they won’t eat anything but bagels, when you haven’t slept in what feels like a lifetime etc. With Ryan every time we hit something new it seemed like it was going to last forever, but guess what… he sleeps through the night now, he doesn't have potty accidents, he learned to read… and while he still wants to eat a bagel for dinner every night he has a full and varied diet throughout the course of the day so who cares? Now that we are on kid #3 it’s a lot easier to see how quickly things change, that they grow in and out of stages the second you get comfortable anyway so if things are going wrong (which they do no matter how good of a parent you are) just wait a few hours/days/weeks and things will change.
2. You don’t have to be perfect. Some days we don’t do anything- really, we sit around and are lazy, doing little besides TV and iPad. My kids have had a meal of just popcorn before. We have forgotten to bathe the kids for longer then we should have, sometimes teeth aren't brushed when we venture out into the world (there are lots of examples- I am choosing for my own sanity not to make a list that I can dwell on). A lot of the time we are great though.  There are days where we eat organic homemade meals, everyone is bathed, we play educational/ creative games, we get lots of fresh air etc.  At the end of it though my kids are well adjusted, they aren't obese, their teeth haven’t rotted out of their heads.  Things don’t need to be perfect, you have to do your best and not expect yourself to do everything and be on all the time.
3. You as a parent have to take care of yourself. With Ryan I thought if I gave everything to him, if I exclusively breastfed, never watched TV, read all the parenting books, only had educational toys etc. He would grow up to be the smartest, most well-adjusted, perfect child ever.  If I never went to the gym because honestly who could leave their child? He might get a complex that I don’t love him! If I only ate when he was peacefully napping so that he wouldn't be upset that I put him down… then he would grow up being secure that he was utterly loved. The truth is when I am happier my children are happier. If I take care of myself I teach my children to take care of themselves. I also teach them that they aren't the center of the whole world… I LOVE them to pieces but they need to learn they aren't always going to get what they want at my expense (I would rather not send spoiled brats out into the world thank you very much). Also my kids play off my emotions, if I am worn thin from trying to make their life perfect, they get worn thin and are much less happy.
4. Kids need downtime as much as they need stimulation. If you sign them up for a million classes and have their lives completely structured they get tired and lose their ability to be creative. Just because Joeys mom has Joey in soccer, swimming, art and music every week doesn't mean you have to… in fact if you lived with Joey you would see that he is likely exhausted and he doesn't enjoy most of what he does. Which leads me to…
5. Don’t compare yourself to other parents. You don’t see the full story of anyone’s life.  A lot of people spend a lot of their energy concocting a perfect facade. It’s like trying to make yourself look like a photoshopped picture of a model in a magazine… you are trying to be something that doesn't actually exist. Your goal should be to be happy, to raise happy/ kind kids, to have good/ healthy relationships (including your marriage). You do this by not being perfect all the time, let the things that don’t matter go, know your limits and don’t create unrealistic expectations for anyone in your family. Strive for happy not perfection. 

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Tap/ Ballet

Audrey has been taking a ballet/ tap class at a dance studio, it is her first dance class at a REAL studio. She is super cute and seems to really like it! 

Homework time

Homework time has become quite an adventure. I have to come up with assignments for Ryan and Audrey (Ryan's teacher sends home a math worksheet but we also do writing/ reading). Then on top of that I have to find a way to make a baby not be distracting, in other words I try to get her to go to sleep. The last few days have gone well, lets hope it continues. 

Frozen Party

The kids liked the movie Frozen so much that we decided to have a Frozen viewing party when it came out on DVD. They invited their friends, got out their sleeping bags and had a great time. 

Baby Toes

Baby feet change a lot as they get older so I thought I would catch some early pictures before they fill out too much- these are three week baby feet. notice on the second picture that she has a cute little webbed toe! 

Pictures from the Hospital

2 Week Stats

Kenzie turned 2 weeks old yesterday. It seems like we have had her forever! We went for her wellness visit today and she is growing well. She is now 7.9 pounds, up from her 7.2 birth weight and 6.12 at her first wellness visit. She is still 20.5 inches long and her head grew a lot and is now 37cm. The head growth is exactly what happened to Audrey so this time I am worried much less about it- apparently my kids wait to get their big heads until they come out of the birth canal which I am very thankful for! (they say that a rapid head growth can indicate issues with too much fluid in the brain- but after looking at the other kids history that said there is nothing to worry about). She is doing so well that the doctor said I didn't need to bring her back until her 2 month checkup in May!

Ripp Family Visit

The Ripp family came into town for a visit. We still hold out hope that they will pack up and move here!