Rutherford & MC

I knew when we had Mary-Charlotte that we would be giving Rutherford a gift. But other than thinking it's a blessing to have a brother or sister, I didn't really think too much about their relationship - how it would begin, evolve and grow. What they might do together. How they might interact.

R has taken some time adjusting to MC. I don't blame him - he's had us to himself for three years, doting grandparents, fun adventures and a happy, secure environment with a routine that he knows and is confident in. Mary-Charlotte changed all of that. She's loud and she cries (a lot, in the beginning). Our schedule went into upheaval. I wasn't available to R like before. Some days it felt like hardly at all. Everything changed for R and my heart broke for him as I watched him struggle to understand. It was hard. And many days I wondered if he would ever warm up to her, be affectionate with her, love her like we love her.

A few days ago we went to the Ranch. MC has only been there once or twice, and she was crying when I put her down for her nap. New environment, teething, etc. I came out of the room and I overheard Rutherford telling my dad, "I need to check on my sister. I need to see if my sister is OK." R heard her crying and was not just curious but concerned for her. It warmed my heart. I don't think I have ever even heard him refer to her as "my sister," it's always been "Mary-Charlotte." Later that day we put her in the swing and R was around the back playing with some trucks. When he heard she was swinging, he came running, "I want to push my sister on the swing!" And he was excited.

He has started hugging her, giving her toys, talking to her when he plays (I speak for her, lol). And yesterday he climbed into the ball pit with her and snuggled. Honestly I couldn't believe it. It was the sweetest thing ever. And it's not just sweetness and affection. He is developing a sense of humor where she is concerned. For months he has bristled at her vocalizations or crying, or cringed when she drooled or messily ate her breakfast. Ned and I would try to make light of it but R never fell for it.

Recently, however, he's started to laugh when she makes a crazy noise. And when I make fun of her for having beets on her nose, he giggles too. It's like a little door has been opened inside of his heart for her, and he's letting her in. It is a remarkable thing to witness and I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to see it. I love them both so much.

MC Crawling!

MC is crawling :) She has been trying so hard for so long, we're so proud of her! She is army crawling right now but I think she might figure out a traditional crawl as well because she still seems quite frustrated that she can't do it. In any event, she is ecstatic to start getting around! Time to babyproof again!

CHRISTMASSSSSSS!

Whew! I say this every year now but dang - the whole Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas thing is a marathon when you're a parent. I never (of course) appreciated all of the work my parents put into the holidays. Because dude - its work! But the magic in our little ones' eyes is so worth it. This year R was super into Christmas. I literally teared up when we were decorating the tree. He was hanging all the ornaments and singing Christmas carols while he did it. And I realized that I've been successful - so far at least - at passing on my love of the holidays to him.

Here's some highlights of our Christmas!

 I splurged on a custom plate for our cookies for Santa. R was so excited to put the cookies out for Santa (and apple for the reindeer.)

Christmas crafting with the kiddos.

Baby MC admiring the tree.

R and I went to our second annual Christmas puppet show in Balboa Park.

We bought a cookie press! It was so much fun and the cookies were so festive.

N and I did graham cracker houses with R's school - these were the bases we brought, the kids covered them in frosting and graham crackers and then decorated with gumdrops, M&Ms and more. Super fun.

N go to take R to Jungle Bells nighttime Zoo and R saw Santa for the first time!

Christmas chalk fun.

It was pretty cold this year, we did lots of bed snuggling :)

MC got a huge Hello Kitty from her cousin!

So pretty!

R was so excited to open his pressies.

MC too :)

Oh and BOTH kiddos had colds. And both were super sweet troopers.

R loved his new doctor set!

Santa brought bows for MC!

MC Loves Stuffies!

When I was pregnant with MC and since she's been born, we've wondered what the noticeable differences would be between her and Rutherford. What different things they would like, their cute little personality differences and quirks, that sort of thing. Something I've noticed is that MC REALLY likes stuffed animals. R was sort of interested in them when he was a baby, but he always liked stuff that made noise much more - his favorite baby toy was his maracas I think, he loved those things!

Anyways, he's some MC + stuffie cuteness. And shhhh don't tell R I let her hug his Mickey! :)

And some of MC with the sock monkey from Grammit:

 

Happy Six Months, Mary-Charlotte!

Our little babby girl is six months old! She is such a happy, wonderful little girl and our family is so blessed to have her. She's such a good little buddy and I love to watch her relationship with Rutherford grow. Soon we'll be starting her on some table foods and I can tell she really wants to go go go and crawl around. Happy half-birthday to our lovely little one!

MC LOOOOVES her jumperoo. I mean really loves it.

 Her first taste of watermelon - frozen in the mesh feeder. She's pretty into it.

 BoSox fan for life y'all!

 This is her first Christmas ornament, handmade by some awesome lady on etsy. I love it!

 She's growing so fast, her little six-month pants are highwaters on her now!

 Hanging out, just the girls.

Halloween!

Dude, Halloween was RAD! This year Rutherford totally understand the concept and was really into it. It was hilarious going trick-or-treating with him! He loved ringing the doorbells and he looked freaking adorable. We headed down the hill by Hearst Elementary and the neighborhood was way better for trick-or-treating than our hilly streets. It was like an old school Halloween, I was so excited for him.

We wore him out and when he came home he dumped all his candy out to view his booty. He's been good about it and we've only allowed him a piece or two. Maybe he'll forget about it and I can have it all! :)

 

 Drilling pumpkins with Papa the day before Halloween.

 

Rutherford used puffy paint to paint this one. I thought the googly eyes were a nice touch.

  

Our cowboy all dressed up and ready to go! Also - this was my first successful Ergo excursion with MC. It was great, I can't wait to use it again!

 

 

The anticipation was adorbs.

 

 

 Lots of good decorations in the neighborhood!

 

MC was a trooper and loved looking at everyone running around, especially the kiddos :)

 

 

 The haul!

The next day we kept celebrating by making some yummy sugar cookies. We delivered them to a few neighbors, too!

Put the Kibosh On It

R is hilarious and picks up phrases and words so fast. He's started singing songs a lot, too, which is awesome - especially when he makes silly voices, too.

Last night he had us cracking up. As we were getting him ready for bed I told him to "put the kibosh on it," referring to something silly, I can't remember. R immediately picked up on the word but kept pronouncing it back to us as "put the kibosh-your-teeth on it!"

Love love love.