Surviving

Now that we have three kids under the age of two in the house, I am gauging how well our days go by whether we survive them or not.

Lila has been coping by sticking her entire face inside of her princess cup. (My sister did that in the bathtub when she was little for something like five whole minutes, and she had a ring around her mouth for two days.)



I've been coping by having Aunt Katie come over and play with everyone.

PS. Lila had a big birthday party today with all of her little girl friends...and Hayes.  We had a friend of my mom's taking pictures, so I'll be sure to post those as soon as I get them!

Come and Knock on Our Door

Johnny and I decided that we still had too much free time during the day, so we decided to accept our current fostering placement's older sister as well.  If you want to hear more about it, subscribe to my private fostering blog!

Puh Puh!

Lila has had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to having a younger kid in the house.

When things get really bad, I YouTube "puppies" and let her watch whatever video is the longest.  I also dress her in a really cool polar fleece vest.

Cabin Fever

When I woke up was awoken by two screaming children Saturday morning, I realized that I hadn't been out of the house since Tuesday.  So at 8:00, I threw Lila in the car, still in her pajamas, and decided to go to Dunkin Donuts.



We passed right on by Dunkin Donuts and decided to make a morning of it, and by "make a morning of it" I mean that we went to Target and bought diapers, formula, a second humidifier, Boogie Wipes, a pink nose sucker, saline spray (seeing a theme?), and some wrapping paper and tissue paper because they were on sale for $0.59.

We breezed through Dunkin on the way home and got three sprinkle donuts, one glazed, one chocolate frosted and one maple frosted. Lila got a special treat and ate a banana, a "Nana!!!" as she calls it.

All in all, not a bad morning.

Living Room Part Two

I was giving a second look to my post Hutson Living Room Before and After, and I realized that our living room doesn't look like that anymore.  I've changed a few things and added lots of toys, so I thought I'd do a little update.

Got the rug at Costco.


Mirror from Hobby Lobby and washstand from my aunt.

There are a few decorations hiding in the corners awaiting Lila's birthday bash.

The bulletin board was one of my favorite DIY projects that I've done this year.

I got all the fabric for the pillows from Home Fabrics and Rugs on 119th and Metcalf here in Overland Park.  I've mentioned them before in projects; they are the cheapest and best around.  Way better than Jo Ann's...ick.

Anywho, we've been happy with the end results, and overall, it was a really inexpensive redo.  In the future, I really want to stain the wood floors darker.  Anyone have any advice besides don't do it?

Family Birthday Party

Now don't you worry, the big birthday bash with a million kids where I fall over in exhaustion afterward is coming up, but to start off the festivities, we had a family birthday party for Lila on Sunday night.

Lila had a funfetti cake covered in sprinkles.  I would post the recipe, but I didn't think it was all that amazing, so I'm not going to recommend it wholeheartedly.



 

Lila got all kinds of fabulous presents including some cute clothes, blocks, and musical instruments.  Her favorite presents, though, seemed to be the sparkly Disney princess bag and the Minnie Mouse card that sings "Happy Birthday."  Lila only lets it sing the first "La la la la!" before she closes it and then opens it again and again and again. Thank you so much for that Aunt Susan, Brett, and Melody.

Lila loved her xylophone from Uncle Mitch.

At the end of the evening, we literally spent five minutes trying to take a family photo with the timer.  This is the best we got.

Happy Birthday Lila!

12 Month Photos

Happy Birthday Lila!  Today I took her final monthly photo.  She got to wear a tutu.


Lila was pretty impressed with herself. 

I thought I would line up all of her photos to make myself cry.

One Month 

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Twelve Months

My little girl is all grown up.

At one year old Lila loves:

• graham crackers, goat cheese, blue berries, grapes, crackers, and potatoes
• Are You My Mother?, Fancy Nancy, Olivia, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Didi, musical instruments, cups, plates, Mommy's cell phone, and stacking blocks
• puppies at Land of Paws, puppies on walks, puppies on YouTube, puppies in pictures

Lila is very loving and affectionate.  She loves to hug people, give kisses, and wrap her arms around her friends' shoulders.  She is a great snuggler, likes to pretend to talk on the phone, is very good at pulling things apart and making messes, and loves to sing.  We can't imagine our lives without her.

Birthday Bath

Get out your tissues...or your Kleenex if you're from Kansas.  Tomorrow is Lila's first birthday.



I know, I can't believe it either.  We were giving the kiddos baths last night, and I couldn't help but think how much she's changed since the first bath that we gave her in the sink.



 

And her first one in the baby tub.

 

 Now, she was no tiny baby, weighing in at almost 9 1/2 lbs, but she was a lot tinier than she is now.  (Insert shaky sigh here.)

Sibling Rivalry

We have had quite the week in the Hutson household.  On Monday afternoon, we got a call for our first fostering placement, a little six day old boy.  We've spent the week getting used to having two little kiddos underfoot, and by underfoot I mean one underfoot and one put up as high as possible so that the underfoot one can't poke his eyeballs out.

Lila was very excited when I first walked in the door with Little Guy.  She kept saying, "Buhbuh! Buhbuh!"  That excitement was fairly short lived, however, when she realized that when I'm feeding him I can't hold her.  She doesn't understand that he is fragile, so she continually tries to put her fingers in his mouth, pet his head, crawl over him, etc.

There was a point, though, a few days ago when I had him in the swing, but it wasn't swinging. He started crying, and Lila speed-crawled over to him, stood up, and started manually pushing the swing.  Probably a little faster than he wanted, but it's the thought that counts. I think there's hope for her after all.

My Hard Headed Daughter

Before getting into the craziness of this week, I wanted to show you what happens when you leave your daughter home with your husband for an entire Saturday.

He buys her a bike helmet.



Once the weather warms up a bit, Johnny is planning to take Lila out in the child seat that he got for his bike for Christmas.

I'm thinking about just letting her wear it all the time. A lot less to worry about.

Pinterest

Note to self:

Lila will not die if I don't do everything with her that Pinterest says I should.

ie:

Wrap her in Christmas lights
Take photos of her in a crocheted animal hat
Allow her to start planning her wedding now
Write inspirational quotes on her bedroom wall
Meticulously clean everything anything
Tell her that she is the greatest human in the world
Wash her clothes in laundry detergent that I made myself
Dress her in a wardrobe that costs as much as our house
Make hearts, clovers, Christmas trees and Easter bunnies out of her handprints
Feed her quinoa and rutabegas instead of tater tots

The Usual Morning Line-up

Johnny came home from work yesterday saying that he had a song stuck in his head, and he wasn't sure what it was.  He hummed a bit of it for me, and I started laughing because it was "When Will My Life Begin?" from Tangled, the Disney movie ("Then, after lunch, it's puzzles and darts and baking, paper-mache, a bit of ballet, and chess...").

Johnny's life as a dad has officially begun.

Cinderelly Cinderelly

When I cleaned out my costume closet last weekend, there were a few things that I was excited to bring home for Lila to play with.  One of them was this Cinderella music box that I had when I was little.

I let her play with it for awhile.  She watched Cinderella turn around while "So This is Love" played, and then she would close the box, open the box, close the box, open the box and so on.  I let her play with it and did a little cleaning.

When I came back and looked at the music box, this is what I saw.



Poor Cinderelly.  Headless.  I looked all over the floor for her head and couldn't find it anywhere.  Lila acted like she didn't know what I was talking about when I asked her where it was.  All I know is I'm not going through any poop to find the rest of Cinderella.