Callie and Polly

I'm a little late posting this month because this weekend I decided to tune into our lives as much as I could instead of write about it. My oldest friend Sarah brought her two daughters to visit for the weekend from South Carolina. Polly was SO excited and loved having two girls to play with. They are just old enough to find her cute and not mind that she told them what to do constantly. They seemed to think it was adorable and did exactly as she wanted. Yikes, this girl is a handful.  Here are some other high lights from the last month.

• I feel like this month is sort of a blur because at the beginning of the month I was trying to really soak in my last few weeks of baby time before going back to work. I started back at the beginning of last week and it was a long and tiring week even though I worked from home two of the 5 days. 
• I don't know what I'd do with out the opportunity to work from home a bit. Since I'm strictly pumping, it saves me from having to pack up and haul the pump everywhere even for a day or two. I can wash my parts and bottles a bit throughout the day instead of coming home every night and washing 13 bottles. It's insane.  
• I'm still producing more milk than I need. We have officially filled the deep freezer and are about a week away from having to give some away. I want to make sure my supply doesn't diminish too much with my transition back to work but the first week back seemed to go well so I could still feed the entire neighborhood.
• Polly is hilarious. She has her own little way of doing things and over the last few weeks it's hit me over the head that she is just her own little person. Watching her through Sarah's eyes this weekend made me see her in a new light too. It's so surreal watching your daughter play with the children of your childhood best friend.  I feel so lucky to still know her and get to watch her girls grow up even if it's from a distance.  
• One night we were driving home and Polly said, "when you're driving in the car the moon is moving with you." We tried to explain to her how the moon moves but she wouldn't have it because she could see that it was moving with us! 
• Polly after eating pizza said sadly, "The pizza burned my mouth and it made my life a hot day." That makes no sense but I also know exactly what she meant.
• Our bedtime routine is out of control:
• Step 1: 5 minute warning before bedtime
• Step 2: Beg for a bedtime snack (thanks neighbors for introducing this idea, we love you anyways)  We refuse but give her a glass of milk.
• Step 3: Negotiate which toys she can take up and put on her bookshelf while she sleeps
• Step 4: Find bear who is usually with her always EXCEPT FOR WHEN IT'S BEDTIME!!!
• Step 5: Use the potty
• Step 6: Put on pull-up and pajamas
• Step 7: S-L-O-W-L-Y  brush teeth. Somehow she's learned to delay by moving like a sloth. Watching her climb the stool to brush her teeth can literally take 10 minutes.
• Step 8: Slowly walk, sometimes crawl like a cat to reading chair.
• Step 9: Pick the longest book in the world to read.
• Step 10: Demand the hall light is on.
• Step 11: Snuggle in bed and talk about the day.
• Step 12: Now tell her a story that you've made up.
• Step 13: Now she wants to tell you a story but she's terrible at them and they take FOREVER. 
• Step 14: Argue about how her story needs to end now to which she responds, "but mom it's my turn to talk."
• Step 15: Do the kiss routine which involves a kiss on the lips, and Eskimo kiss, a butterfly kiss, an eyebrow kiss (where you hit your foreheads together) and the newly added hair kiss where I have to take my hair out of it's ponytail and dangle it to the side while she punches through it with her fist.
• Step 16: (this list is like the stories she tells, it just keeps going) I leave the room and I have to say, "Good night, I love you, sweet dreams, see you in the morning." If I forget she says, "YOU DIDN'T SAY WORDS TO ME!"  
• Step 17: about 10-15 minutes later she has to use the potty again.  
• Step 18: Sings to herself for about an hour. 
• I tolerate the above list because time is moving so fast and I love it and hate it so much.  
• I am very bad at leaving work at work. I swore I wasn't going to let work stress me out but that didn't last more than one hour on my first day. This working thing with two babies is tough but I also know it will get easier with time so I'm trying to give myself a break.  I've definitely been having stress dreams about being a terrible mom though.  I know that's ridiculous but that doesn't stop my brain from stressing about it even when I'm sleeping.
• Callie is the best baby ever. She only wakes up once a night and even then she doesn't cry. She just grunts a lot until I wake up and try to give her pacifier which she angry sucks until I give in and feed her. She wakes up that way in the morning too and as soon as I say good morning to her she smiles. Waking up to a smiley baby is amazing. I hope she keeps up her sleeping routine. I know it can change but PLEASE don't change.  
• Polly finally landed on being Princess Leia for halloween after one year of brainstorming. She's already brainstorming for next year because she knows she can't change her mind again.