4th of July with the Tynans

Sunday morning we headed to Lake Tippy to do our annual 4th of July visit with the Tynans. I don't think we were there for more than 2 minutes before we got into our swimsuits and were in the water! We joined Aunt Nance, Big Joe, Andrew/Suzanne/Max, and Sam/Bridget/Luke/Maggie/Grace for lots and lots of festivities.

Izzy experienced her first water balloon (among many over the course of 48 hours). Do you not just LOVE Izzy's face? She is quite the drama queen and has hilarious facial expressions.
Laney Bug & mommy

Maggie & Grace putting on a dance recital

After dinner

Izzy experienced her first sparkler...

...and was simply enamored

Daddy & Izzy watching fireworks

The neighbors put up a huge jumbo-tron and play music videos...Izzy & Mags danced the night away

The crowd watching, complete with light-up cups

Izzy & Grace watching (and tuckered out - it was past 10 when they finally went to bed!)

We did lots of jumping

And the 4th wouldn't be complete without the putt-putt out back

Daddy just got back from playing 18 holes and then taught Izzy how to putt

Izzy also got to experience tubing for the very first time!

She loved everything except the sun in her eyes! She's such a big girl!

Floating

Enjoying a cold treat

Bathing in the lake

Heading in for a 4 hour nap!!! Love the lake, as it wears her out! PS-Another first for Izzy girl is that she slept in the kids' cold dorm on the bottom bunk! Again, BIG GIRL!

After naps and before dinner the kids watched Toy Story 2 on the big projection screen

Aunt Nance organized an impromptu parade after dinner...singing happy birthday to USA complete with flags

Of course more jumping!

How I miss this girl!!!!! Love her.

Sunday morning TURTLE HUNTING!!!

Izzy & Gracie girl on the lookout

Big Joe caught two!

Izzy posing with "Hairy" the turtle

Big Joe doing what he does best...snuggling with the babes

And we capped the 5 day vaca off with a pinata. Another first for Izzy (she's the one with the bat). I must say we had an absolute blast with the Tynans. Loved visiting and catching up. But loved even more watching our kids play together and become buddies. Wish this could have lasted another few days, but there's always next year! Happy 4th of July everyone!

Family 4th of July

Friday morning the girls and I spent the morning at the pool and then we drove up north to visit with Mike's family for a few days. The day was HOT so Izzy did some sprinkler time before dinner. I just love the pic above b/c it captures Izzy's sheer excitement!
Saturday morning I was able to get an 11 mile run in 55 degree weather - it was my best run yet! Then all the girls went to get pedicures and quickly headed to the lake to enjoy the humidity-free weather! We spent the day visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins. Was so much fun and we didn't get home until midnight! Thanks to Mike's dad and Laura for taking the girls home so we could make a late night out of a very fun day.

Laura kayaking

Laura & Madelyn - I have been waiting for months to meet this little peanut! And I loved spending time with Laura catching up. She had lots of baby sleep questions and I had lots of marathon training questions (she's run 3!!!). Wish we lived closer, for sure.

Lovies Amanda & Steve

The two-toofer Laney Bug!

Bobo & Bug

Grandma Laura & Bug

Laura, Amanda & myself

Of course cornhole was played

This is what happens when you apply spray SPF and don't rub it in...you get a striped tan. And I'm only posting this pic b/c 1. I love Steve and he's like my brother (don't siblings do this to each other?!) and 2. I don't want anyone to do this to themselves!

Delaney is 10 months old!!!

Delaney is 10 months old today and growing before our eyes! She's no longer happy with just crawling. Rather, she wants to cruise and walk (assisted) all the time like her big sis. She's starting to stand unassisted on her own...she just hasn't gotten herself TO the standing position from all fours. I bet by 12 months she's walking, but who knows. She's 100% weaned from both me and bottles. As soon as I weaned her, she also gave up bottles. So Delaney drinks from a sippy full time. She's a girl who is determined and knows what she wants...and a bottle is NOT what she wants. She also is doing lots of talking and mimicking our sounds. My mom got her to start waving when we say hi or bye. And she eats everything we eat...and LOTS of it. Laney Bug still naps 2-3 times a day and sleeps for 12 hours at a time at night. She also loves to wrestle her big sis and often times instigates the wrestling. Oh, and she always wins :)
So big!

Chicken pox?!?!

Ahhhhh!!!! That's what Izzy is saying in this pic...as we've been quaratined since Friday night. We're not 100% positive, but we believe both girls have chicken pox. They both have spots that look exactly like the real thing (I only know b/c 1. I have an official Dermatology Desk Reference from my derm selling days and 2. I occassionally get shingles and unfortunately know what they look like) and both had fevers last week. However, neither girl is actually itching or irritable. Don't think that we didn't stock up on Calamine lotion, oatmeal baths and Ben.adryl! Anyway, this is our initial conclusion and to be safe, we're trying to keep away from everyone until the week is over. Good thing this was a weekend with ZERO plans and not next weekend when we're visiting friends and family for 4 days!
We had to be creative in how we spent the entire weekend at home with beautiful weather. We made popsicles, played on the playset, splashed in the kiddie pool, rode bikes in the driveway, watched (LOTS of) movies & ate popcorn until we all went stir crazy. Was a good weekend to do some serious potty training; however, we're not any closer to staying dry. Izzy surely goes EVERY single time she sits...but just still doesn't get the DRY portion of training. Let's just say we had the potty outside with us for hours all weekend for training...and there were accidents from both girls. Lots. What a loooong weekend we had.

Gave up on the swimsuits & expensive swim diapers

Mike brought Izzy home a new Dora chair for lounging

By this evening, we all had ants in our pants!!!

Nanny Diaries...

I can't even type these words without crying...but our beloved nanny is going to be leaving us in another month as her husband got a new job. Out of town. We hired her knowing she'd be with us for no more than a year or so, so why does this hurt so much that she's leaving us a few months early? Because she's absolutely amazing, that's why.

Mike and I knew we didn't want Delaney in daycare as a newborn; we didn't put Izzy in as a newborn (I stayed home with her the first 6 months) and that is what we were comfortable with. So we started the search for a nanny. It was a long process and took many months to find just the right fit. We knew we wanted someone with an education background and someone who was a mother. We interviewed many. We were heartbroken by a few. And then came Elissa.

We met Elissa and knew immediately she was the perfect fit. Her energy, enthusiasm, spirit, teaching background (also a fellow IU grad) and being a parent was just spot on with our needs. It felt right. Simply put, we had found our nanny. Elissa started part time while I was home on maternity leave so as to ease her (and Izzy and her own son) into the transition that would become their daily routine. I slowly let go of my fears. Slowly let go of Izzy and Delaney. Slowly eased into my new routine: working outside of the home once again.

Surprisingly, my transition was quite seamless; going back to work was a breeze (adult time, gym time, ME time!). Elissa had the hard part as I left her home with a 12 week old, her 11 month old and my 2.5 year old. She quickly learned how to juggle all three and made it look easy. I soon became envious of how she managed to get all 3 of the kids to pre-school drop-off and back without any major incident to report. Bottom line, she had a tough job to start and quickly made it an old hat.

We report back and forth daily via a journal (I rarely see her, as Mike is the one here when she comes and goes) about daily poop habits, potty training success/failure, nap times, feedings, tantrums, milestones, and outings. As the months went on the routine became more and more comfortable and familiar and simply second nature to our household. We relied on Elissa and knew we could count on her not only to care for our girls, but to unconditionally love them as if they were her own.

This is where my heart breaks.

After a long week or weekend of Elissa off, Izzy will constantly ask when she can see Tyler & Elissa. They are her buddies. They have play dates, picnics, pool time, library story hour, concerts, open gym...she misses them when they aren't here. In fact, Izzy oftentimes calls me Elissa. Initially my feelings were hurt, but then the more I thought about it the more my heart would melt; Izzy loves Elissa. And you know what? We do, too.

Elissa was instrumental in all of Delaney's milestones: taking her first bottle (after a week-long bottle strike!), getting her on a nap schedule (getting her to nap somewhere besides her swing!!!), sitting up, rolling over, crawling and this week standing on her own. I realize Delaney would be doing all of these things in daycare; however, knowing that my baby has had all this amazing one-on-one time to hone in on these skills has meant the world to me. Elissa has just been there. For it all.

In the past few months several people have told me how wonderful our nanny is: fellow pre-schoolers' moms have told me they admire how much energy she has even with her hands full with 3 kids, my neighbor told me she sees and hears the kids playing in the yard with her and how great she is with them, and even a girlfriend of mine said she saw them all at an outdoor concert and that Elissa made it look all-too-easy juggling the 3 kids. In fact, my girlfriend said her heart melted to see how wonderful our nanny was with my girls. Now THAT melted my heart. Hearing from these third parties about what an amazing job Elissa is doing simply validates what I already knew: we are so incredibly fortunate to have found her.

We've had the joy of having Elissa for 10 months and have 1 more month with her. I'm so very sad to see her go, but happy for her family that they are embarking on a new adventure of their own. The selfish side of me doesn't want to give her up, as I know the girls have had so much fun at home with her. But after having such an amazing nanny...I'm not sure there would ever be a good time to part.

Here's to new beginnings. And the best childcare a mom could ask for.

Family in town...and Happy Father's Day!

My mom came into town last Sunday and family has slowly rolled in all week long. Mom stayed home with the girls Mon, Tues an Wed and I took Thursday off and had Friday as a Flex day. Thursday we hit up the pool and then my Aunt Gail (mom's sister) & Uncle Thomas came in from Austin, TX. My sister and her kids arrived Thursday night as well. We ate a lot of Mike's cooking, going for walks, enjoying the sun and playing lots of games at night.

Had to post this pic...mom and I went for a walk and Izzy had a meltdown all while Laney Bug stared at her big sis like, "Really, you have these fits too?!?" Classic.
Mom did lots of fun, creative projects with the girls, per usual. Making popsicles, crafts and finger jello were just a few activities.

Laney at the water table

Sisters at the pool

Mom and buggy

Izzy's last gymnastics class until August. We took the summer off so we could do swim class. Izzy was in rare form this night...she brought her "A" game for us and it was so much fun to watch her shine and perform all her tricks.

Balancing

Friday we spent a good portion of the day at the pool and I'm sorry to say I only took ONE pictures. So very unlike me. However, Laney was not in the best of moods so I was a bit frazzled. I ended up taking her home (and leaving with her favorite Uncle Thomas!) while I returned to the pool to enjoy the WATER SLIDES with my sister. So fun.

Saturday morning my sister and my niece joined me on the Monon; Kim walked about 5 miles while Taylor and I ran 9 miles. It was a heater outside, but thankfully we got a VERY early start to avoid the heat and humidity. Izzy had swim class and then we rushed home to greet yet more family. My cousin drove down with her family from Toledo and spent the entire day at our house. We did a mini family reunion like this about 2 years ago...so we knew a fun day was in store for us.

Relaxing in the shade

Bug!

The girls enjoying the pool

Lovies enjoying some adult beverages

Almost all of my mom's family...only missing Tara and her crew

My cousin, Cindy, teaches Zumba and brought along with her some of the coin skirts they dance in. She gave Izzy one of these and it was a big hit. Izzy loves to 1. Dance and 2. Play dress-up. Major hit.

Aunt Gail and Laney

Laney and Cindy

Sunday morning everyone took off, so my mom and Mike and I headed to the pool (yes, that makes 4 days in a row at the pool - YAY!) for one final day in the sun. Again, I didn't take many pics...but the highlight was that Izzy went down a new, enclosed, winding slide all by herself! She's an old pro at the kiddie slide and has now graduated to the bigger kids' slide...so fun!

Sunday night my mom offered to watch the girls while Mike and I enjoyed a date night. We had great adult time while mom had a movie/popcorn night with the girls.

Self portrait at the end of a fun Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all our dads and especially to Mikey!!!

Flowergirl dress...

Izzy is in her cousins wedding in September (Tim & Danielle) and it was time to go dress fitting for her flower girl dress. Let's just say she was chomping at the bit to get the dress on!

Soooo excited
And a touch bashful

Funny faces

Pretending? Regardless...she was so sad that she had to take the dress off. Izzy asked if she wasn't a flower girl anymore because the dress was coming off. Poor girl. Had to explain to her we had to order the dress and we could wear it in a few months. Too cute!