Little & Big Loves

Most of our life revolves around our little love, Waverly and our big love, Cole so I figured I'd write a post on them.

Here's an update our BIG love...King Cole!

I have to admit...Cole has gotten the shaft in the past 5+ months.  He hasn't gotten the walks and exercise he deserves since Waverly has arrived. I had hoped that I would LOVE to walk Cole with Waverly in the stroller, but the reality is that it's not easy.  He's 120 lbs right now (hoping to reduce that) and I haven't taken the time to train him well to walk with the stroller...even though I did try a little before Waverly was born.  He's getting better, but will pull when another dog walks by and zig zags behind me so I'm constantly trying to keep him on one side.  He gets a couple walks a week from me....it really should be everyday.

I also always find him in the way these days...he's SO. BIG. He'll lay across the kitchen while I'm in it or in a walkway...I know he just wants to be where we are...but it's in the way.  He's also been begging like crazy...he used to stay away from our food, but not recently. We may not be feeding him enough either, but as I stated he's 120lbs!

On the positive side...Nick and I loooove our big lab and know that all he needs is exercise, attention, and some more training.  We're thinking about obedience school which would actually be fun for him because we'd have our attention 100% on him!  He loves Waverly though and kisses her lots!  She has started to reach out and touch him...can't wait for her to crawl after him!

Winter Walk

Checking each other out

Cole may seem interested but really he's sleeping.

Waverly watches Cole while Cole watches for food.

As for my little love, Waverly, she is now 5 months!  I can't believe it...she is so much fun. I kiss her soft chubby cheeks at least 1000 times a day.  She is growing great and hitting those developmental milestones like a champ!  She is rolling all around our house!  I feel like I need carpet or foam padding everywhere because I can't keep her from rolling off her play areas. She started rolling from front to back around 2.5 -3 months, but on Christmas at 4 months started rolling back to front and now does both sometimes multiple times in a row....often toward something she wants of course!

She's also soooo LOUD and vocal (we often wake up to her squealing and "ahh-goo" noises).  She blows raspberries, puts everything in her mouth, and has the best grin.  She's also starting to sit up a little more now and bounces like crazy on her legs.

Luckily for us she has always been a great sleeper...slept 8 hours at 2 months and 10 hours at 3 months. But 4 months threw us some major curve balls, so we have been tired in January!

All the 4-5 months changes were so rough on us. It also takes me a little while to adapt and figure out what kind of change she needs, so in the meantime we struggle with lack of sleep and a decent amount of crying at nap and bed times.  Changes included:

-rolling around like a crazy woman
-no swaddle
-not keeping pacifier in
-wanting mommy or daddy more
-starting to eat more...including rice cereal
-possible start of teething

So I have been doing process of elimination to find out what might be causing her sleep disruptions. This resulted in doing a couple things I didn't really want to do...

-no blanket/sleep sack so that she can roll over
-let her sleep on her tummy
-let her cry some to sleep to prevent us from replacing the pacifier constantly
-reducing naps from 4-3 a day so that she can get longer naps

This week starts the new schedule!  I'm a schedule mom while also keeping the schedule flexible if necessary...I think it helps life be more predictable and Waverly knows what to expect and falls into the schedule naturally.  I learned a lot of this by reading Becoming Babywise...and really attribute our early sleep success to applying some of the theories of this book.  I am now reading Becoming Babywise II and wish I had started it last month!

LOVES to bounce up and down in this thing

smiley rolling baby

diaper change for Waverly means time to chew on her toes.

messy!

yay!

love those chub cheeks.

So we are in constant "adapt" mode, haha.  Guess that's life with kids!

Love from Virginia!

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...

I tried, I really tried, not to reference Boyz II Men in that title, but I just couldn’t get away from it.   The song has been stuck in my head since I thought to write this post and it just won’t quit (cue MC Hammer).  Okay, back to it.

Rarely have I been able to say that the timing of our military moves has made things easier.  We are usually given two weeks notice which results in begging the landlord to let us out of our lease, marathon cleaning sessions, hurried goodbye lunches because the movers are coming in 10 minutes, and throwing leftover household goods in the car to share a backseat with Sadie for the next 16 hours.

I am happy to say that the Navy has really come through on this international move.  We were told ahead of time when we would be moving – what a luxury!  Well, we don’t actually have an exact date yet, but I am happy with a general time frame.  Because we knew when we were moving, we could make plans.  And, oh how I love to make a plan!

Matt and I decided that the best thing for me to do was to quit my job before the holiday break.  Then when we went home for Christmas, I would stay home for a couple of weeks to say goodbye to friends and family. 

It is impossible to tell you how much this time meant to me.  It meant one more Cracker Barrel breakfast with family, tea with my grandparents, puzzles with my brother, scrapbooking with my Mom, technology lessons with my Dad (thanks for teaching me Twitter, Dad!), telestrations with cousins, late night talks with my sis-in-law, wine-filled DVR sessions with my best friends, a weekend getaway with 10 of the most amazing girlfriends, and sweet new baby smells. 

  

So thank you, Navy, not only for the amazing adventure that you are sending us on, but for the time to say goodbye.

Japan Bound

Matt, Sadie and I have exciting news – no, I’m not pregnant (I have learned that this is typically what people are expecting to hear when I say the words exciting news) – but another adventure awaits us.  We are moving to Japan in a little over a month! 

Even as I write those words, it is hard to believe.  I am beyond excited, but there are a lot of other emotions tied up in that excitement.  I am anxious about the logistics of the move, sad to say goodbye to family and friends, nervous about finding an apartment, ecstatic when I think about all the new experiences that we are about to have, and grateful that we get this opportunity.  There will certainly be hard times as we learn to adjust to our lives abroad, but those will be outweighed by the good ones.  Of that, I am sure. 

I look forward to sharing our adventures with you as this blog goes from Our Tales of Two Cities to Our Tales of Two Continents!  Until next time, sayonara.

Photo credit

Pinterest Party

One day Meghan and I were talking about how much we love Pinterest (something I find myself saying quite often).  She told me that one of her friends throws a Pinterest Party each year – she invites a couple of girls to her house and each one brings a Pinterest craft idea and the supplies to make the craft.  They leave the party with their completed Pinterest projects.  After hearing about this I had two thoughts: 1. our idea of parties has certainly changed over the years and 2. I NEED to do this.

We decided to try it when we were all home over Christmas.  Each of us (Meghan, Mom, and me)  brought one idea and the supplies. Most were successful (mine…not so much).

Here are our Pinterest crafts (the good, the great, and mine...)

Ready to craft...

Meghan's Pinterest Craft

Inspiration:

Pinterest

Our version:

Supplies needed: clothespins, hanger, spray paint, craft beads, ribbon, hot glue gun

Step 1: Line the clothespins up for spray paint.

Step 2: Spray paint.

Step 3: After allowing time to dry, take a hanger and form it into a circle. Slide a clothespin on the hanger and then a bead.  Repeat until you have about 1-inch of space left on the hanger.

Step 4: Wrap a ribbon around the extra 1-inch of space.  Leave enough ribbon so that you have a hook to hang the wreath.  Use a hot glue gun to seal the ribbon and attach a ribbon bow to the front of the wreath.

This was such an easy craft and can be used for anything - birth announcements, save the dates,  holiday cards, etc.

Mom's Pinterest Craft

Inspiration:

Pinterest

Our version:

Supplies needed: binder clips, scrap paper, embellishments, double-sided tape

I didn't take pictures of the process for this craft because it was very simple. You basically just use scrap paper and embellishments to decorate your binder clip.  We used double-sided tape and zots as adhesive.  

The great thing about this craft is that you don't need a lot of supplies.  These can be used to display pictures, children's artwork, recipes, etc.   

Casey's Pinterest Craft

Inspiration:

The Lettered Cottage

Our version:

Supplies: Glass jar, thickers, and spray paint (white and gloss)
The key is to pick a jar without any writing on it.  You can use an old pickle jar, peanut jar...really, anything you want. We bought our jars at Michael's.

Step 1: Choose your words and place thickers on the jar.

Pre-spray paint.

Unfortunately, I was too covered in spray paint to take any more pictures. Basically, you spray paint the entire jar.  The idea is that you remove the letters and then your words will be clear on the jar.  

I love the idea of this craft, but sadly, it didn't turn out exactly as expected.  I think that our mistake was that we sprayed three coats of paint onto the jar and it was too thick.  The paint started dripping and made it so the letters were not clear.  Next time, only two coats of even spray paint and one coat of gloss.

This is what you do when your craft doesn't turn out - break out the Corona's and wine and relax on the front porch.

It was such a fun day with my family.  We were able to leave with two completed crafts and lots of fun memories.  Another idea is to have a Pinterest dinner party or Pinterest cocktail party - everyone bring something new with the recipe to share.  The possibilities are endless!  

Ahhh, don't you just love Pinterest:)

Blog Facelift

Hello "Our Tales of Two Cities" readers!  We've made some recent updates to the blog.  Most of you may read our posts on your mobile device and get new posts via email...which is great!  Keep reading :)  However if you check out the full web version, you'll see a little bit of a facelift.

You can now click on each city and link to old posts related to these cities. Fun way to look back on the past couple years!

As we've made some updates, I think some old blog posts got re-posted. Sorry if you got alerts on these old posts.

Thanks for following our tales. We have loved sharing them with you!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season...Our Tales of Two Cities, Casey & Leslie

Holidays 2012

We've had quite a busy holiday season with the move.  I was really motivated to unpack all our boxes and get fully settled so that we could decorate for Christmas without lingering "to do's".  Nick and I really busted to get boxes unpacked, put everything away, and get the house looking decent.

I was also really motivated to give this place a thorough cleaning and hang things on the wall because we have people over a regular basis. It's great to have family and friends near by...lots of visitors and hanging out!

Our 2012 Christmas tree

I love this holiday scent by Mrs. Meyers...iowa pine.

love everyone's holiday cards this year!

holiday cheer at our house

sometimes both.

more holiday decor

fav. ornament

my ornament from Nick this year

new ornaments this year!  Dr. Suess is from me to Nick.

We had a great Christmas and New Years.  We were in Richmond with my family and it was a perfect first Christmas with Waverly! We had good wine, good food, and lots of quality time with family.  Our niece, Caroline is 2 and it was so much fun to watch her get excited for Santa and see if Santa came on Christmas morning.  Kids really change Christmas...we loved putting cookies and milk out for Santa, dressing Waverly in her Christmas pj's, and setting up Santa presents.  I can't wait for next year!

meeting Santa!

someone got a tricycle from Santa!

check out the reindeer slippers

cousins on the playmat Santa gave Waverly!

1st Christmas morning for Waverly

checking out a fun gift from Aunt Shannon and Uncle Andy

my favorite Christmas gift.

too much Christmas for Cole

Christmas at the Smith house

Nana & Granddaddy with the girls

first Christmas for the Guptas

In between Christmas and New Years...my brother, Shannon, and I saw the Chihuly hand blown glass exhibit in Richmond and Waverly had her 4 month check up and vaccines.  12 pound baby girl!!  She's healthy, doing great and growing well :)  I LOVE LOVE LOVE her chubbiness...pack on the pounds! She's also rolling over (both ways) and scooting her self around on her back...as I've said from the beginning she is a MOVER!  She's always kicked and pushed off things and now she's moving herself around!  Very fun, but I can wait for her to crawl because that means baby proofing!

my pretty girl and our tree

Chihuly glass exhibit at the Virginia Musuem of Fine Arts

Chihuly

chub cheeks

found my toes!

We then hosted a little new years eve party!  Happy 2013!  January means Waverly learns to sleep at night without being swaddled, I start job searching and we settle into life in Virginia!

happy new year!

Cheers!