Bree and Bauer’s Blog

We’ve had a crazy week….good crazy, but still crazy.  In the midst of Sean and I taking on the kiddo watching duties, and working here, there and everywhere, we are getting our house ready to sell.  Just a normal week in a Murphy world!

But we are taking this weekend off….headed to the lake to spend the 4th with our fabulous family!

In true July 4th spirit, Bree continues to show her independence streak…”do it myself” follows many a demand from her or request from us.  I’m attempting to embrace her “ability” to do things that I used to do for her.  Keeping my eye on the big picture, there is little that I can’t clean up or fix if she does not succeed.  We’ll see how my embracing goes in the next few weeks.  I’m still waiting for her to show me while driving how she can unbuckle herself from her carseat.  She’s already taking off her diaper herself…potty training here we come.

But again I digress…this weekend we are going to submerge ourselves in the fun of the lake!

We are getting all dolled up with our favorite dresses and necklaces…

And preparing to be beach bums…sand and sun here we come!

Have a safe and blessed weekend.  I’m so thankful for our independence!  Here’s to some great memories boatin’, floatin’ and red, white and blue wearin’!

Today was a special day at the Murphy house!  One of my dearest college friends, Laura, flew into Dallas and was able to have lunch with the old college group before she and her adorable daughter headed onto Shreveport to see her family.

It still amazes me how college gave me some of the best girlfriends I could of ever dreamed of.  Here we are exactly the same but completely different 12 years after we met.  We ate Chick-Fil-A and talked about our lives and occasionally had to retrieve a kid or two in the midst of our chat, but it really did feel like a meal we’d be eating in our dorm room on a random day after class was over.  Gosh those were the days!

Love you loop girls!

After the mini reunion broke up, it was back to the world of the 2 year old who refuses to take a nap….

It was kinda cute though when I got her up (well when I got her out of her room before she managed to wake Bauer up), she said, “Mama, I put shoes on myself!”

I laughed when I looked down at her feet and saw they were on the wrong feet.  She did get them on herself and I thought to myself I guess its a 50/50 chance you get them on the right feet.  I love toddlers with their shoes on the wrong feet…it makes me realize how much they still need us even though they love to try and do everything “by themselves”!

It was a rough day on the toddler front with Ms. Bree.  At around 4pm I was completely out of patience and she was unfortunately not out of energy.  There were lots of tears and as I write this at almost 9pm, I still here the occasional kicking of the door by her little feet and the occasional sad cry that she is being forced to go to sleep.  Oh what a life of injustice.

Bauer is officially 11 months old today…only one more month of this first year.  His first year seems like its been a whirlwind, but its also seemed at some points to be going in slow motion.  Parenting is hard…and the more I think I’m getting it down, the more I realize I have so much to learn.  Bree is exactly 29 months old today….translation 2 years 5 months.  It worries me a little that we are not even half way through the twos.  And more frightening is that Bauer will be headed into the twos just as Bree is headed out.  Who’s idea was it to have kids so close together??? 

On our run today, I was thinking about Bree and her crazy tantrums and how I dread naptime, bathtime, and bedtime because I know there will be protests and crying and no space for rational thoughts.  My mind was drawn toward the well known definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome”.  Some days, that sums me up in a nutshell, most days unfortunately.  I feel like I try the same tricks each day and I’m just waiting for Bree to change her response.  It occurred to me how silly this is.  My stubbornness matches hers so we end up at a stalemate most days.  I’m being stubborn because I know what she needs to do and I’m not willing to settle for anything less.  She’s being stubborn because it’s in her genes and she’s doing what she wants to do.  I need to get over what makes sense to me and try to figure out a way to have it make sense to her.

I think the most irritating thing in this whole parenting realm is that it doesn’t matter how smart you are, how much money you make, how many fun activities you plan, how creative a person you are…none of that makes you a good mom.  It’s the amount of patience you have with your children and yourself that help you get ahead in this race.  I’m gonna have to rethink my game plan…and pray for an abundance of patience to be granted to me.  I’ll get to that right after I watch some mindless reality tv.

The other key to parenthood is forgiveness…mainly for yourself.  Today was not my finest parenting day…but God willing I have a lot more days to figure it out!

Here’s to a great rest of the week.  Oh and also here’s to our new A/C unit that we got to put in today….happy dance.  Hopefully we all sleep better tonight with some good A/C upstairs.  And I can’t wait to use it as a selling point to the new owner of this house!  What an adventure home ownership is!

It is summer in Texas…HOT!  It went from hot to unbearable in about a three day span.  Today we will be over 100 for sure.  The Texas heat for the the years post college and prekids didn’t really affect me all that much.  I was at work through most of the hottest hours.  Now I’m at home a lot of the hottest hours and have had to find new ways to entertain the kids. Park trips have to be carefully planned and running with the double stroller is halted unless I can make both the kids and myself get up at 6am…not going to happen.

So when we do go outside we make sure its to go swimming and when we are inside we are trying to allow Bree to try out some new things.  First up, PLAYDOUGH!  I love playdough…and so does Bree.  It is the first thing that we are really able to barter with.  If we threaten to take away her playdough privledges, her ears perk up and she does whatever we were asking.  I love that ability more than I love playdough!  I do not love how I keep finding playdough everywhere…in shoes, in her play kitchen, in the dog bowl, in the carpet, etc.  But my type A ways have mellowed and I just laugh a little and get out the Dyson!

We have fun playdough tools that allow up to make long tubes in different shapes!

Bree loves to flatten the playdough on the wood floors…we are working on breaking her of this!

But while it was down there, might as well see some footprints!

Bree even let Bauer have a turn. He does not look so sure about what is under his feet!

Bauer is still interested in any ball and is learning to love hitting toys against walls, the floor, the tv, etc.  He is all boy for sure!

Bauer is standing for longer and longer periods of times and took 5 steps totally unsolicited today.  I looked over and he was just walking.  He would still rather crawl but we are getting closer and closer.  Today after I got so excited over his 5 steps, Bree had to show me how she could take 5 steps as well.  The competitive edge will not be lost by big sister.

Bauer is also a climber.  He finally managed to get into Bree’s bed and beelines it for her room everytime we come upstairs.  He still loves her pink chair as well.  We were at the pool the other day and while I was changing Bree’s clothes he started climbing up the backpart of the reclining chair.  He used the plastic backstraps as rungs.  I looked up and was like, “Oh my gosh, he’s a monkey!”

Bauer is the biggest fan of “peek-a-boo”…here Sean and Bree are playing with him over the crib rail.  Hilarious!

Bree is beginning to show signs that she may actually like her little brother and the other night Sean and I couldn’t believe it when they played “peek-a-boo” all by themselves and then tug-a-war with Bree’s yellow blanket.  Hopefully it was foreshadowing of many play sessions to come.

We do dual bed time stories most nights and here Bree is lounging on me while Bauer has taken over Bree’s bed.  He loves it.  I think if they ever share a room he may decide to just sleep with her.  I’m not sure Bree has deemed him that cool yet.

Bauer’s just going to try out the bed for future reference!

Who could resist this adorableness????!!!!  His pajama shirt says, “Who you calling crabby?” and has a giant crab on it.  I laugh every time he wears them!

We inspected our new house this week and all systems seem to be a go.  The option period is almost over for us so hopefully it’s the right move.  We know deep down it is, we just have to be patient as we try to sell our house and go through the whole moving process!  I’m sure the kids will keep us so busy that we will be in the new house celebrating the holidays and wonder how we got there!  Let’s hope so!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quick post just to remind myself when I finally write in Bauer and Bree’s baby books about some important milestones in the Murphy world.

Just a note: we (well Bree and Bauer) are spending a lot of time this summer hanging out in our swim diapers…see all pictures below!

Yesterday, Bauer took 4 consecutive steps…walking is going to be here so soon.

Yesterday, Bree started talking in complete sentences.  We were sitting on the couch and she said, “Bree eat chips, Mommy eat muffins.”  She continue to dictate our every move in amazing detail…”Bree help Mommy make cupcakes.”  It’s the coolest thing to start having conversations back and forth with your baby!  Tonight she said during her night night prayer, “Thank you God for today…and George…and Dora…and Boots!”  Both Sean and I’s hearts melted on the spot.

Yesterday, I also had a moment of genius…its pictured below:
I made Bree a water slide by pulling over the kangaroo climber to the swimming pool.  She was in love!  Brilliance like that deserves a high five and a glass of wine!

I love being a mom…these milestones are separated by a million others that just make you see how incredible the human spirit is!

Happy weekend - ours has started on an exciting note…our offer got accepted on a house a couple blocks from the one we live in now…we are very excited and it puts us in a great elementary school zone and has the perfect layout for our life!  We will be moving at the beginning of November (the people selling are building a house due to be completed in October) and feel very blessed that this opportunity has come up!  Now we just have to sell our house on the cutest cove in Arlington…fingers crossed!

The Murphys have been busy taking in all that the sun has to offer…

We swim sans swimsuits in our backyard…

We’ve been trying out all kinds of hats to protect our cute heads from the sun…

Sometimes it takes two….

We still appreciate a good rainstorm puddle in June…

Sometimes the sun makes us very sleepy…

We’ve been working on our ponytail to keep us cool on these sunny days…

We’ve been escaping to the lake to keep cool in the sun as well…

Grammy and Bauer looking good in hats…

Bauer’s not so sure he wants to completely jump in…

But Bree has no fear…and yes that flower is shooting out a fountain of water…coolest blow up pool EVER!

Daddy convinced Bauer that the water was just fine…

Back in Arlington, there have been lots of park days as well…

So needless to say, midway through June we are loving the sunshine! 

Some other highlights…Bauer took his first step unassisted today…walking is around the corner.  We’ve attempted to start calling Bauer by his initials, BAM, in order to get Bree to at least not call him “Brother” all the time.  We also think its a fun nickname.  It is like Bree just knows how to push our buttons….she immediately put a “D” in place of the “B”…amazing.  So she shouts it very loudly.  We have started putting her in timeout and told her that’s a bad word.  Seriously, this is our life.  When I tried a while back to call him “Goober” and shortened it to “Goob”…she would always call him “Boob”…so we know she can say her “B”s.  Oh that girl just likes to keep us on our toes.  Now we have moved onto Bam-Bam and she is doing better with that. 

Hope all of you are having fun in the sun as well!  Happy summer!  Less than 6 weeks until Bauer turns the big 1!

We tried to rebound from our rollercoaster of a ride at the concert yesterday with a run in the jogging stroller and a trip to the park before dinner.  It was really fun…so fun in fact that we were all covered with the dirt that comes from playing in one too many piles of pebbles.  We were filthy.  Well let’s be honest, it wasn’t the park that really got all of us so dirty…Bree was just dirty today.  I picked her up from school and thought to myself that girl just looks dirty…when was the last time she had a bath…the answer is a bit up in the air.  Oh what a week it has been.

Regardless, Bree, Bauer and I all took a fabulous bath complete with bubbles together.  And we were so much happier and soooo much cleaner.  I cannot resist babies in diapers running around the house after bathtime…so this is how they both stayed until they went to bed.  AMAZING!

Another successful picture together…it has to be new camera luck!

Bauer may be the most smiley kid ever!

So smiley he sometimes forgets to keep his eyes open!

After bathtime we ate dinner and I bascially bribed Bree to eat most of her scrambled eggs (I’m sounding like the most amazing mother in this post) with the lure of a cupcake for dessert.  We had baked cupcakes earlier in the day for my girls’ weekend.

It worked and she finally got her cupcake!

She was fascinated more by the foil cupcake liner!

After she ate her cupcake, she helped me decorate the others…two stars/sprinkles for Bree, one for the cupcake, three stars/sprinkles for Bree, none for the cupcake.  LOL!

Here she is going into a sugar coma….I told her she looks like a toddler version of the Joker!

After all those shananigans…we worked on letters for awhile until she agreed to at least think about bed time.  She was so excited to find letters for all the members of the Murphy clan!  So fun! 

I was reflecting today how fun (yes, I said FUN) it is to have two kids at different ages….you love different things about each.  I love cuddling with Bauer, the fact that he will giggle at the slightest tickle, the fact that peek-a-boo makes me smile so big, and that he is exploring like crazy right now…Bree’s shoe can entertain his for seriously 15 minutes…well, if I let him chew on it which I try to curb!.  As for Bree, I love having more and more complex conversations with her each day, I love baking cupcakes with her and seeing her eat more of the batter than me, I love exploring letters with her, I love hearing her say prayers before bedtime, and I love love love watching her dance to the hot dog song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  When one kid does something annoying, you have the other to distract you!  LOL!

Today was a great day!  Happy early weekend everyone!  Off to Little Rock tomorrow for a great girls’ weekend.

This week has been crazy.  My work schedule has been all out of whack due to a retreat for work on Thursday and Friday of this week.  And then Friday afternoon I leave for a weekend trip to Little Rock for Keri’s Bachelorette party.

So all that being said, my Wednesday afternoon with the kiddos was pretty important.  I wanted to make it fun and memorable if only for me to hold onto some great memories for the rest of the week and weekend.

So we headed off to the park in the wagon…per Bree’s idea.  Bree and Bauer actually let me put the camera to good use…

Another hat courtesy of Aunt Jennifer…big enough for Bauer’s hugely adorable head!

They almost look like they may be playing together…lol.

Can’t get much cuter…

Ms. Challenge herself climbing up the curly slide.

Slide buddies…

I caught one of his belly laughs in a picture…classic!

After the park, we changed diapers and got in the car to head up to Levitt Pavillion (an outside stage area where they have free concerts in the summer).  Sean had a early hockey game and I figured I could totally handle the two of them at an outdoor concert (yes, I have completely lost my mind).

Wednesdays are a kid concert night and tonight was a performance by the Boogers.  I didn’t check into them before I went and pretty much they are a hard rock band that sings nursery rhymes…hard to imagine, right???!!!  Good times.

We swung by the golden arches for a dinner of champions and got to the Pavillion with just enough time for Bree to cause her normal havoc.

She met the Arlington Public Library Bookworm.  She liked to hit his tail….that went over big!  I really thing she may grow up to be a bully…I’m sorry in advance if you have a kid of similar age.

Here she is posing with a dad and daughter that we do not know…no one really seemed to care.  Oh the embarrassment just goes on and on.

Then we found the fountains…this would prove to be our downfall but not for the reasons I envisioned.

I pulled Bree away from the fountains just long enough for Bauer to consume about 3 nuggets (yes, he has a whole nugget in each hand) and a few handful of fries and for Bree to drink her milk.

Then it was back to the fountains.  Bree put on her sunglasses/goggles and took off her shoes.  I braced myself for the worst…I knew I was carrying a soaking wet child back to the car.

But alas, she only ran circles around all the fountains…here she is standing in the back…you thought she was getting wet didn’t you.  Nope, that would be a normal 2 year old’s way to end a night abruptly and a little humorously.  Bree chooses much more sadistic and exhausting ways.

She went up to the front of the Pavilion to dance to the music…she might be a future groupie!  She loves to dance.  Shortly after this picture (you will notice it is the last of the post), I lost Bree for a significant amount of time.  She was right there and then she was gone.  It was probably a total of 3-5 minutes but it seemed like an eternity.  I was that crazed mom running around the people in the audience lugging my 25 pound son screaming “Bree” (which I realize now sounds like so many other words, not the most comforting thought).  Another one of my finer “mom” moments.  And then just like magic she suddenly appeared as I was on the verge of broadcasting an Amber Alert.  Still gives me chills thinking about it.

So you may think that would be the end of Bree’s night and thus our night.  No we (okay just Bree) still had to spill our milk all over Bauer and the blanket…run to the fountains as fast as we could…bypass the fountains and head straight for the street….be caught by mommy in the nick of time…be dragged back to our wet blanket by mommy…scream while being forced to sit and wait for mommy to throw all our stuff into the giant diaper bag…run away again once mommy had the two lawn chairs, the wet blanket, the giant diaper bag and Bauer all hoisted up on herself ready to go to the car…scream as mommy dragged her away from the fountains again towards the sidewalk…and then when mommy almost passed out due to sheer exhaustion….walk so calmly to the car as a nice guardian angel of a mom walked up to mommy took some of her stuff and held my hand all the way to our beautiful blue car.

The nice lady then helped Bree into the car and assured me I would miss these moments when the kiddos were teenagers.  I asked her if that meant we would make it that far…she smiled and said yes.  I’m holding you to that…while I eat my “I’m definitely not supermom” humble pie!

I asked for some memories and I definitely have some to carry me through my two day retreat and my  weekend away!  I need to be more careful what I wish for…

I have great news! The Murphy’s have bought a new camera.  After weeks of waiting for our replacement camera to come in at Fry’s (those warranties are such scams) we broke down and bought a new one Sunday.  There were just too many moments we were potentially missing using our older digital camera that’s display was completely broken.  It was way old school!

Look who is very happy about this new purchase!

The kids are too…especially Bree who can finally look at her pictures on the screen again right after we take them!

If was even cause for a hug or a wrestle…

And a big jump…

And another into Daddy’s arms (note Bauer laughing in the background)…

And last (but not least) into Mommy’s arms…

Bree even celebrated by being a “Bree-in-the-box”…she would yell surprise when Sean took off the top!

Today, the kids modeled some hats for the camera…Bauer found this one in my bottom drawer that he emptied!  Thanks buddy!

Bree got two hats from her cousins (thanks Aunt Jennifer) and decided to wear one today to school to keep the rain off her head…she looked sooo grown up!

I think this camera is going to like its new home!

The word of the day is opulence (abundance, profusion).  Sean and I had a weekend of it.  And I’m not going to lie, it was AMAZING.

I learned this word on Friday night when Sean and I were at the rehearsal dinner of one of favorite couples, Glenn and Helen.  We were eating at this restaurant called Rafrain in North Dallas and it is similar to Texas de Brazil in that your waiters just come around to your table and bring you as many different kinds of meat as you want, not to mention the huge salad bar, fried bananas, dessert bar, drinks, etc.  It was just amazing.  The wife of the best man said to me, “This is just opulent” and being so savy with my context clues, I figured out just what she meant.  God bless all those SAT prep classes.

The rehearsal dinner was just the beginning of the opulence that would consume our weekend.  The dinner on Friday night left both Sean and I almost comatose due to food and beverage intake.  After dinner we ended up walking around the high scale Walmart in Plano at around 10pm at night, not wanting our fun night to end, but also not wanting to have to do anything other than enjoy each other company sans food.  It was fabulous.  I not only felt opulent because of the food I had eaten, but because I had my best friend at my side and it was confirmation that whatever we do together is fabulous.

The next morning I helped host a baby shower for one of our sorority sister’s Ashley.  We are going to welcome her little boy into this world in August and it was so fun to share this special time with her.  I felt so much love for her and her family during the shower and felt so lucky to have such great girlfriends to share these fun times with.  Again opulence, a little because of the cake and a lot because of the company.

That night we headed to Glenn and Helen’s wedding.  It was beautiful.  It was the first Jewish wedding I had ever attended and it was so well done and so fun.  Every wedding I attend makes me think of Sean and I’s wedding and I just felt an abundance of love on that day and everyday since from him and all the other wonderful people in our lives.  We ate, drank and danced in a most opulent fashion on that day and on this day…Glenn and Helen, we hope we made you proud!

Today, we finally got to slow down from all our partying ways and spent some much needed time with our kiddos.  We took them to the pool and it was just one of those family moments that could not get more perfect.  Great water, sunny day, adorable kiddos who love the water and a husband who values his family over everything else sans God.  The abundance of blessings in my life sometimes get clouded by the stresses of the everyday and I am so thankful for this past weekend because it was a reminder of how much I have to be thankful for.

I finished off the weekend with a Ranger’s Game with my brother, sister and Mom (her Mother’s Day present from us all)…after an exciting come from behind almost finish, cotton candy, a pretzel, peanuts and the largest diet coke known to man….I knew the opulence had to come to an end.  Tonight I will go to bed full and happier than should be allowed!

Here’s to some good workouts this week so we don’t have any permanent reminders of the food opulence this weekend!

Bye-bye May, hello summer!

When did a duck or a fish swimming in front of the giraffe exhibit become the most incredible animal at the zoo…

When a 2 year old says so…

We have been “zooing” a lot lately.  We took a family trip on Sunday and I took the kids for an hour and a half before closing this afternoon.  It is the perfect place to take Bree….it is the most child-proofed public space ever.  She can run and run and really can’t get very far.  And the best part is she loves all the animals equally so she has to make time to stop and look at each one.  That gives, me, Bauer and the stroller time to catch up.

It’s funny how parents feel all this pressure to teach their kids pretty much everything…we do have a big job.  And sometimes I feel so busy trying to explain things to Bree or give her new experiences that I fail to notice that she is teaching me every moment as well.

Like today, we had a little over an hour at the zoo so I kept asking Bree what she wanted to see next. I mainly wanted to make sure that there were no tears at the end when we didn’t see the penguins or another necessary animal because we ran out of time.  Bree mostly ignored these questions and just did her own thing.  It was hard for me to just let go and live in the moment.  But as I continued to watch her I realized that to her seeing an elephant, climbing up on a rock, eating animal crackers on a bench in the shade, staring at the fish in front of the giraffe exhibit, laughing at a monkey swinging down from his perch, is all equal in her eyes.  There is no must sees for a two year old.  As long as you keep the action coming, something new every 3 or 4 minutes she is happy. And for Bree the trick is to let her seem in charge.  That may be the trick for all 2 year olds, I don’t know a lot of them, but I do know my daughter.  She, like her momma, really excels at being in control!!  If she is leading the way and not confined to a stroller then it is pure magic.

Bauer is also like his momma in that he likes to eat…all the time.  He’s happy looking at a leaf for a hour as long as there are goldfish (the cracker kind) on the tray in the stroller.  I love telling people “that kid can eat” because most of the looks I get back are “yeah, ya think”.  I mean I know he a 25 pound 10 month old so he’s obviously putting down some food, but it really is all the time.  He has put his own spin on the definition on “grazing”!

So there…I figured out the magic formula for today…it was an amazing afternoon.  Now if only Bree and Bauer would be so clear on their teachings everyday!

Below are some pics from this past weekend’s trip to the zoo and the park afterwards:

Bauer hanging with the ducks

Bree and the sea turtle…or land turtle…or whatever…

Mommy and Bree during a failing attempt to feed some birds

Climbing the fake termite mounds…who would have thought??

Bauer’s turn feeding the birds…they truly flocked to him….they must know he can appreciate being hungry!

Bree’s already ready for football season…so we brought along the ball to play at the park.

Days like today and this past Sunday make me think this kid thing really may just be “a walk in the park” (after a very long series of sprints maybe)!

Happy Wednesday!