Put a Pin on it

So, like most women of a certain age lately, I am obsessed with pinterest. I can easily lose hours drooling over recipes, fashion, and home decor. I get inspired with fitness exercises, and activites and crafts to do with the girls. I laugh at the quotes and the funny pictures. (I spend a lot of time on pinterest!) I have decided to try to actually do something with some of this inspiration, to add some excitement to my blog and to actually spend some time blogging again. (It's been almost three months since I last wrote here, but I've been a little busy.) I'd like to start blogging about some of the crafts/decor/fashion/activities that I see on pinterest. I feel that often things are shown as easy and then are much more difficult. I am fairly crafty when I want to be, but I think I can give an accurate description of just how easy/hard it is. So, here we go.

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Since my last post was about Maggie, I thought I would write a little about Lucy.
Lucy is my fiery baby. She is very passionate about everything she does. When she's happy, she is smiling and laughing at everything. When she is upset, she screams so loud I think they can probably hear her in Wisconsin.
Picking her name was very difficult for me. I had picked Maggie's name out when I was much younger, so that was a no-brainer. I was at a total loss for what to name a second daughter. I had considered Lily, but I thought two flower names would be weird. My husband and I discussed her name endlessly and decided on Lucy. We considered Lucille or Lucia, but neither seemed right.
Being a huge Beatles fan, she is also named after the song "Lucy in the sky". When she was born, the first thing I noticed about her was her huge eyes. They are so dark blue that they're almost purple. When she's happy they are shiny and clear. When she's sad, they are dark and cloudy. She truly is the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
I can't wait to see who she grows up to be!

Coming out of her shell

Maggie is a funny, smart little girl who loves to run and dance and sing. She loves to watch other kids at the playground or when we're out, but she has always been hesitant to go over and play. I'm stuck straddeling the line between making her go over to play with kids and sitting back and letting her do things her own way.
Three weeks ago, we signed up for a playgroup at our local park with lots of kids her age. The first day she pretty much sat on my lap and watched the whole time. Today, though, she went over and tried to hold another little girl's hand. She was also interested in following the other kids around so she could play next to them.
I love being able to stay home with them and have my husband stay home with them while I'm working, but sometimes I worry that she is going to have a harder time socializing with other kids.
I love how this playgroup is helping her come out of her shell.

Dollars and Sense

It all started innocently enough. I was only working 6 hours a week my freshman year of college so I was a little short on cash. One day as I was walking to class, I passed a guy giving away free candles if you signed up for a credit card. Sounded good to me. I got a free candle and a little extra spending money. Until I kept spending and kept spending and kept spending. Then I signed up for another credit card and another and another.
Then I graduated got a decent paying job (well, not that decent paying but I was also living with my parents) and paid my balance almost all the way down.
I thought I had learned my lesson until I moved in with a friend of mine and we started going out A LOT! And we needed clothes to go out in and new shoes and new purses and cabs to drive us to the bars we were going to.
Then I got engaged and started wedding planning (lots more money!). About six months before my wedding, my husband fiance lost his job. And I was in school full time (again). So everything went on the credit card again. My wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses, the dj, the limo.
When it got out of control, I signed up for a debt consolidation company and started to make a serious dent in my debt. More importantly, I was not allowed to use my credit cards any more so I learned to live without them.
And today, I paid the last of them off. Which is giving me an extra $600 a month to spend on anything I want. I am SOOO excited!! And proud of myself!! And I will never let my daughters get into the same financial problems I did.

Growing Up

My girls are growing up so fast. When I was first pregnant, everyone told me how fast it would happen, but I didn't know that this is what they meant.
Maggie is two years and two months old and has officially entered the language explosion phase. Every day she picks up ten new words. Tonight, we had a five minute discussion about how everyone we know hears with their ears. She is also a master mimic. Sometimes, I make up dances just to watch her copy them. People talk about the terrible twos, but my two year old is AWESOME!!
But then, so is my seven month old. She is so happy and smiley. People stop me all the time out in public to tell me how cute her smile is. It's to the point where I worry that Maggie might get a complex. She loves blowing raspberries and reaching for things (especially hair!) Then the switch flips, and you see the other side of Lucy. The banshee-shreiking, bloody-murder-screaming, why-can't-you-feed-me-or-change-my-diaper-fast-enough kid. Luckily, she calms down pretty quickly, and blows more raspberries.
As excited as I am for them to grow up, I wish I could freeze them just like they are today.

Double your pleasure

One of the things that concerned me most when I found out I was pregnant with Lucy was how I was going to have time to spend with each child. I know most parents worry about this with a second (or later) child, but knowing how close in age they would be scared me.
When Lucy was born a month early, the twenty months that were supposed to separate my kids' birthdays shrunk to nineteen short months. Even now, when I look back at pictures of Maggie when Lucy was born, she looks like such a baby herself. I think there should be a bumper sticker made that says "I survived two under two!"
It is difficult to find time for each of them individually. Since Lucy is still small, Maggie and I will often go on "Mommy and Maggie dates" while my husband stays home with Lucy. Usually, these are trips to Target or the grocery store, but mostly they are a chance for us to spend time one on one together. As Lucy gets older, we will switch out.
Some days their nap schedule is totally off so Lucy is wide awake during Maggie's nap. As frustrating as this can be for me sometimes (naptime is my break time!), it is nice to play with Lucy while Maggie is sleeping and then to play with Maggie while Lucy is sleeping.
Just recently, the girls started playing with each other. They make each other laugh and play little games that they (or just Maggie) make up.
This is the best part of having them so close together.

Dreams

Two nights ago, Maggie woke up around 3 in the morning crying. When, I stumbled into her room to see what was wrong, she was crying "Bea, Bea". Beatrice is her Winnie the Pooh lovey/ blanket thing that she tells me is her "best friend". I found Bea in the covers and gave it to her, but she kept crying.
I asked her if she had had a bad dream and she nodded her head. I told her that I would tell her a good dream so that the bad dream would go away. She liked this idea, so I laid down next to her and began to make up a story about two princesses named Maggie and Lucy who rode their flying ponies to Grandma and Grandpa's house to play. She LOVED it!! She curled up next to me while I told her the story, and then fell back asleep.
I figured that since I had been half asleep at the time and couldn't remember the incident too clearly, she wouldn't be able to either. Wrong. She not only remembered the whole thing, but now when it is bedtime or naptime, she tells me "Lay down, mama. Dream!" I tried to switch the story up a little bit this afternoon, but she wouldn't have it.
At least there haven't been anymore bad dreams.