I Cannot Convey my Love for Margo Faye

I know I am her mom and I am biased, but our Margo Faye has been a SUPER STAR during the past six months where she has faced so many difficult changes.  We have had some tough moments, but they were few and far between.  Mostly, Margo has been a bright ray of sunshine in what has been one of the toughest transitions of our lives!

First of all, to say that she is a great big sister is an understatement.  She is sweet to David and loves to help, yet understands there are boundaries to how much she can be involved.  She loves to show him his toys, "read" him stories and help feed him his bottle.  She especially loves helping mama, by retrieving a fresh burp cloth, fetching him a toy or putting his clothes away.

Since January, Margo has gone to two new schools, become a big sister and has moved--wow!  I bet a lot of two year olds would really be acting out.  Margo, on the other hand, has seemed to take it all in stride and actually has embraced the changes better than mommy and daddy have--kids are amazing! 

We worked really hard to make the move exciting and make her new playroom special with a new play kitchen and extra cubby shelves.  Cary and I only had two days and David with us to get their rooms set-up, along with the playroom and we did it!  Not to mention, we put a sand table on the back patio to replace her playset.  When she came in and discovered her new house, she was beyond thrilled and still says she likes her new house more, but misses her old playset.  We spend lots of time on the patio, sans mosquitos--yahoo!

So... here is six months in pictures, in no particular order, to show off my beautiful hearted and incredibly resilient little girl!  She makes the long days tolerable with her silly antics and never surprises me with the hilarious things that come out of her mouth.  She still loves to sing and dance, is over Elmo and has moved on to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and is smart as a whip.  She knows most of her letters, recognizes her name and has an incredible vocabulary and ability to reason.  She is polite, energetic as heck, , loves dresses, is affectionate and still has a sweet innocence about her that makes my world go round.  Any mom would be madly in love with such an amazing little girl!

Our 1st visit to the park, post-David!

Playing with beans, holy mess!

Our last lunch out before David!

Jumping in puddles!

Playing in GiGi's rocks.

Just being cute in her fave silky PJs.

Loving her big sister gift from Aunt Vicki!

Pinterest Project #1

A love affair with lollipops!

A last playdate with Carter, sigh...

1st Visit to the Georgetown park!

Our 1st lunch date in the new town!

Feeding Cookie play-doh noodles!

1st Popsicle

Pinterest Project #2

Trampoline Park!

One of our last walks in the old hood!

Just like mommy!

Last playdate with Lily... sigh #2

Hanging under the old oak trees--I miss them!

Cute dress #1

Cute dress #2

One of many playdates with Lucas!

Cute dress #3

1st ponytail!

1st dress-up with her own imagination!

Cute dress #4

1st day of new Georgetown school!

Pool time!

Popsicles with Daddy!

Cute dress #5

Cute dress #6
 

Lots of photos , lots of 1st and my oh' my how she has grown in six months!  Brings tears to my eyes, slow down time!

Navy and Green on David's Scene

It is funny how you do things so differently the second time around, or at least I did.  David's room was easy and a lot of fun for me to put together.  Before I even knew I was having a boy, I spotted this sweet little wall hanging at a lovely store in Rice Village, Olivine.  It was only $20 and I fell in love with it, but did not get it at the time.  The literal day I found out it was a boy, I called them and put the last one on hold, then ran and picked it up on my lunch break.

Why elephants?  Not because they happen to be trendy right now, but because Cary loves them and always has.  He has a really neat little collection of elephants that he has been adding to over the years and I most certainly did not want to do a football theme, his other love.  This was Cary's boy, so I wanted it to reflect his personality in some special way.

So, my main goal was to coordinate the chair, aqua ottoman (I intentionally bought incase our 2nd was a boy) and furniture from Margo's room.  I also knew this time that I did not want to spend a fortune on bedding as I was not too impressed with Serena and Lily for Margo.  I was so happy that Pottery Barn Kids came out with basics that almost mirror Serena and Lily.  I am definitely more happy with the bumper and skirt, but am not crazy about the way the sheets fit or their softness.

Nonetheless, I started out wanting to do green and aqua to coordinate the ottoman and the elephant picture.  After showing friends some inspiration, I ended up leaning more towards navy and aqua, which I just couldn't seem to make work and settled on navy and green with aqua accents.  What resulted was my inspiration board which evolved a lot.  I returned the pillow because the colors were not right, picked a different mobile and decal, and got polka dotted sheets.

As with Margo's nursery, I went to ETSY for the decorative items and I love love love the mobile and pictures I found.  The toy bag was an inexpensive find on Amazon after I almost spent a small fortune on a basket at Restoration Hardware.  I bought the white hooks in my original inspiration design from Anthropologie, but returned them when my mother-in-law found some neat wooden ones that provided great contrast.  I purchased an identical bookshelf from PBK that Margo has and reused a Restoration Hardware lamp that was in our guest room.  I also purchased a wall decal with a big letter D and David's name but it does not work in the layout of our new house, so will probably never get used.


His crib in our old house when it was all perfect and bright!



David loves his room!

Crib in the new house, a bit more lived in.

I spent very little time on putting this together and I think it came out great!  I think I might even like it more than I did Margo's nursery.  So I present to you...David''s nursery.  I hope he loves it as much as I do.  One thing is for sure, he loves looking at his mobile and the contrast of the elephant pictures.

Rodeo Fun for our Honey Bun

Playing catch-up for the sake of capturing my memories...

Back in March, Cary took the day off and his mom babysat David, so we could have our first big fun outing since David's birth.  I was itching to get out of the house and Margo was eager for some excitement!  What better than the Houston Rodeo?!?

Margo is still asking to go to the rodeo at least once a week, so I know she loved it this year without a doubt.  We did everything... petting zoo, tractor rides, the farmer's market, rides, ate bad food, pet bunnies and so much more.  I absolutely love what the rodeo has to offer for kids.


Everyone loves babies!

We arrived just as it opened which was perfect as there was hardly anyone there and no lines plus front row views of baby pigs and calves.  Margo said her favorite activity was the petting zoo.  She was so sweet to all of the animals and probably could have spent the whole day hanging out with them.  Her least favorite activity, judging by the picture, was the Jeep ride.  Bless her heart, she was so excited until it took off and mommy could not get to her.  Just another growing experience for our sweet girl.

Feeding the chickens!

Poor baby!

I relished in my special time with our girl and love nothing more than experiencing these moments through a child's eyes.  The awe and excitement is contagious and makes everything especially fun again.  We can't wait to create many more memories for year's to come at the HLSR! 

David Grew in Month Two

Month Two was much of the same with our sweet David.  Poor guy has struggled so much with his little immature tummy.  His sweet demeanor is really apparent behind his tough times and when he does feel good, he is an absolute joy!

Our Darling David!

Some days were good in month two and some were terrible.  On the upside, David started sleeping for period of 5 to 8 hours in his second month, thanks to the help of our night nanny.  Yes, the fatigue was becoming so overwhelming for me that we hired an AMAZING night nanny.  Seems weird, I know, but I am not ashamed to say I needed the help and it is the best possible thing I could have done for our whole family!  Thanks to my sister's generosity, we were able to have Tracie's help two or three nights a week for a few months.  She was previously a NICU nurse, had several children of her own (one being very premature) and she was incredibly knowledgable.  She was able to explain things and recognize things in David that I would never been aware of.  I highly recommend it if you can afford it, expecially after your first child when it is much harder to rest.  It was like having a live-in doctor/super mom at nights.

Sometimes he sleeps like an angel!

Back to our beautiful boy, right when he turned two months old, he started giving us great big smiles and is cooing and gooing just like Margo did.  It looks like we are going to have two talkers on our hands.  I will probably not get a word in edgewise!  He is holding his head up very well and is already pushing himself up on his tummy, probably because I am breaking the rules and sleeping him on his tummy.  He is eating well, taking in about 4 ounces per 6 feedings a day and is not the best napper.  With the encouragement of my sister, my niece, the night nanny and our pediatrician I have already let him cry it out for no more than five minutes at nap time and it has worked wonders after only about three times.  Now, he goes down without any kind of a fight, but unfortunately his tummy keeps him from staying asleep.  He wakes screaming, I will burp him or help him toot and then he refuses to go back down, so I am just going with the short naps for now.  Inevitably, he will have a really sleepy day to make up for it every few days or so.

Our little Go Braghs!

In David's second month, we went on his first road trip and it was a long one.  Actually, it was the longest even Margo had ever been on at 6 hours.  David and Margo both did awesome and it is funny how much easier it is to do things with the 2nd.  I would have never dreamed of a road trip with Margo at that age.  We went to my sister's amazing river house in Menard with my dad and his wife, Connie, and my nephew and his family.  I miss my dad terribly, so I treasured every moment.  Margo got to play with Lucas, her cousin who is only a month younger, and my dad and Connie finally got to meet David for the 1st time.  Although I was tired, it was a wonderful visit and it was beautiful in the pecan grove on the river--did my soul good and was so good for Margo to experience Mother Nature in its purest form. 

Grandpaw and David!

A Happy Morning to You!

Precious girl!

A Love Affair with the World's Largest Sucker!

Despite all of the tummy issues, David is growing beautifully.  At his two month visit, his stats, according to the CDC growth charts for premature babies, were:

Weight:  10.2 lbs (71%)
Height:  22.2" (81%)
Head:  14.8" (49%)

I was so scared to have a boy and not know what to do with him, but I am so happy to have a boy.  It is fun to experience the other side of things and I love him to bits!  We are an incredibly blessed family of four!