Author Archives: katherine

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A four year age difference…7 months in

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I’ve recently had a few people ask me what it’s like having little ones that are 4 years apart. And while I touched on the subject early on {here, here and here}, I figured now that we’re 7 months in and Reese is much less blob-like these days, I’d give more of an “official” real-life review.

My girls are 4 years and 2 months apart. Obviously I have nothing to compare this age gap to, but I will tell you, so far I am SO happy it worked out this way.

Lets start with the obvious…not having two kids in diapers is so amazingly awesome.

For the most part, Rylee has outgrown the resentment she had toward me at the very beginning. Every once in a while it’ll rear it’s ugly head, but for by and large, it’s smooth sailing and seriously? I couldn’t be happier about this, because that stage was just flat out hard and it actually kind of hurt my feelings.

Even though we try not to abuse this, it’s so nice having a kiddo that can help with things from time to time. Stuck in a chair nursing? Hey Ry, can you go get me a clean burp rag? Cooking dinner and the baby is fussing? Ry, can you please get your sister her binkie? Have to run to the other room for a second to take your jewelry off before your curious baby rips it off? Ry, can you keep an eye on your sis real quick while I run to the other room? “Okay mama!” A few minutes later…”Moooom, Reesie is headed for Dante’s water bowl!”

I love how much rylee wants to help out. And we try to accommodate as often as possible, but Sometimes the constant wanting to help can be annoying. Like, automatically add in and extra 10-15 minutes no matter what the task is. And sometimes, if its just not feasible for her to help out, or if I just don’t have the patience, Rylee’s feelings can get a bit hurt.

I’ve already mentioned the girls adore each other, which is great, but I say “Rylee get out of your sister’s face!” more times than I can count. If I had a dollar for every time I said that, I’d easily be a thousandaire right now. I’m sure she’ll get it…eventually. Hopefully before Reese is old enough to shove Ry out of her face on her own.

The toys can be an issue. Number one, 4 year olds have tiny toys. For example Rylee is into Legos. And not the big, toddler kind. The real, little, step on one in a dark room and you’ll jump to the ceiling kind. Talk about choking hazards! We’re in full on toy segregations & baby gate mode right now. Then there’s the issue of Reese’s toys…anytime Reese gets a new toy or we take a toy out of storage for her, Rylee is all up in its business. For now, Reese doesn’t care. Heck, it’s even kind of nice because Rylee can show Reese how to use it, but I definitely see this becoming an issue in the future.

Reese is currently in the “easily distractable” stage of nursing. Which can be annoying when your busy little four year old is jumping and dancing around. But, Ry is also old enough to understand when I tell her I’m going to feed Reese in her room and she needs to play in her room or watch a movie or whatever.

I suppose we can’t leave out the fact that Reese has watched more tv in her short 7 months on earth than Rylee did her entire first two years. Oops.

Even 4 years apart the girls are close. No one can make Reese laugh like Rylee can. Reese hears Ry’s voice and looks for her instantly. If Ry is having a rough afternoon, Reese is always there to try and make her smile. These girls are as thick as thieves and watching them together seriously makes my heart melt.

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So, yea…kind of all over the place, but long story short? A 4 year age difference is great. The minor “annoyances” are far, FAR outweighed by the awesomeness of watching them together.

Now…ask me again in another 6 months to a year when Reese can run around and steal toys. Ha.

 

Meal Planning Calendar {Free Printable}

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So, step two in my meal planning is monthly meal tracking. After the month is over, I transfer all our my weekly meal plans onto a month calendar.

I started doing this about 4 months ago and I’m already questioning why I hadn’t started this earlier. There have been multiple times that I’ll flip back to previous months to see what we’ve had for dinner if I need to fill a slot on my weekly plan. It’s also a tool I use for keeping track of, and rating, any new recipes I may try.

It’s also kind of a fun way to look back and notice any patterns in our eating habits. For example, based on previous months, we eat turkey burgers, spaghetti or lasagna and roast chicken at least once a month.

Anyway, since making my weekly To Do/To Make/To Buy printable, I wanted something a little bit nicer (and more coordinated) than my current system of drawing crazy non-straight lines on a piece of notebook paper. Seriously…I can’t handle the crooked lines. It also wasted a lot of space…I don’t need an entire page for one month because I only keep track of dinners. So I created my sheet with 2 months on one page. {and people say I’m not green. Ha!}

Since my first printable seemed to be a hit, I wanted to share this one with you as well…

Monthly Meal Tracking

Download it: Monthly Meal Tracking Calendar

Download it – print it – use it – share it – do your thing

And I think it’s generic enough that you could use it for things other than meal planning as well.

Reese & Her Groceries

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Oh my gosh, this child. Based on the way she stared at us every time we ate, tracking our every bite from plate to mouth, She was probably ready to start solids around month 4.

She’s officially been on solids since a couple days before her 6 months bday. Since then, we’ve recently added in a second feeding, so she eats lunch and dinner with us.

I’ve made most all of her babyfood thus far. {Actually, thats kind of a lie, my sister helped out with that as well and I’ve got a nice stockpile in my freezer courtesy of her garden and food processor. Thanks, Sis!} Since adding in the lunchtime feeding last week, I did buy a few jars just out of sheer ease of packing food for her on the weekdays.

It’s kind of funny to me, I’ve noticed that she’s more of a fan of the homemade stuff than the jarred food. I think it’s a texture thing. She seems to prefer a food that’s a bit more…chunky. Not too chunky, obviously, but it seems like if it were up to her, the straight pureed foods from the jars she could kind of do without.

We started her on avocado, but it seems lately she’s not as much of a fan as she was when we first started this food journey. Right now we’ve got sweet potatoes, squash, pears, the occasional mashed banana and green beans in the rotation. Of course there’s also the barley cereal miked with breast milk.

I’m trying to be better about documenting moments with something other than my iPhone, so I recently took some “real photos” of her chowing down.

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This girl seriously makes my heart melt. I can’t help but smile every time I look at her.

Oh and apparently she’s also going to be quite the little ham…no idea where she gets that from.

When your kid is too sick to go to school on Valentine’s Day…

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You throw them their very own party!

Rylee had been counting down the days to valentines day for over a week. So when she ended up sick with RSV & pneumonia, I knew she’d be missing her school valentines party and I knew she’d be absolutely crushed.

When I broke the news to her on Wednesday morning that she wouldn’t be going to school on valentines day, there may have been tears. (Hers, not mine. She’s a sensitive one.)

I decided right then and there that I wanted to try and make up for it in some way, and so the idea of a surprise valentines party just for her was born.

I had a big plan to get everything prepped while she napped the day away. Instead, she never napped (stupid meds). So while I mixed sugar cookie dough and she asked what I was doing, I lied to her and told her I was making dinner for Andy & me. Then I stayed up late cutting out hearts from pink, red and white paper, baking said cookies and taping red crepe paper to a yard stick. I kept things simple, yet festive.

When I got home from work last night, I sent her to her bedroom with her dad and sister and set to work. I brought in the red heart shaped balloons Grammy got for the girls, all the valentines from her classmates I had picked up from her school, I set out a valentine table runner (literally my only official heart-day decoration), hung the paper hearts and the streamer screen.

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When I called to her that she could come out, her reaction was priceless. She seemed to be in awe over the whole thing. Her favorite part was the streamer screen with hearts taped to it.

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After breakfast for dinner, {I had planned on heart shaped pancakes, but I just didn’t have it in me}, I put Reese to bed and her and her dad played the heart shaped dice game I had put together. She won, for the record.

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After that, we decorated a few sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

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Throughout the whole night, she just kept thanking us for throwing her special party. There were hugs…lots of hugs. There were smiles…so many smiles.

I’m a big advocate for kids knowing they’re loved every day of the year, not just on a holiday that’s been overdone in the name of profit, but this year, she deserved a little bit more.

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Mission accomplished.