Five on Friday - {Gardening, Friends, Dogs, and Arrow's 2nd Month}

{ONE:}   Gardening 

We got our garden cleaned out last week and began planting this week. 

Zeplin helped by digging in the dirt (tilling), pulling weeds and filling in the holes with dirt while Arrowlyn supervised. 

I've been preoccupied, obviously, so I'm late getting some of the veggies I wanted to plant. I usually start my seeds in April but I went the easy route and just purchased my plants this year. I'm only doing a couple tomatoes plants, orange peppers, zuchs, onions, cucumbers and some cilantro. I want to be able to run out to my garden and chop up some veggies to make an easy ceviche mix.
My fruits are already budding and I'm so excited to can them in the fall.  (raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, peach, apple)

{TWO:}  Bella, Mr. Tedd & Quincey

These two have really been giving me a headache as of late. And then they do something endearing like play with my son and sit close to my daughter as if they're protecting her. 

Almost every day, I'm on the verge of adopting them out because they have been digging out of the backyard at least once a week for the past 3 weeks. It's infuriating. I thought they were only doing it when the kids and I leave the house but this Tuesday I got a knock at the door and a woman brought them to my house after they'd made it clear to Lake Hazel road. (Tedd has a collar with our address so that was nice of them to just bring them over.) But it really made me upset that they left and I feel like if they don't want to be here then why keep them. 

We just need to build a dog kennel and pave it so digging out would be impossible!

Quincey, our cat, has been spending more time outside - and not by her choice. As soon as the weather warmed up, we've had an increase in dead rodents on our porch which means Quin has a worm problem again. I am so disgusted by the worms that I've contemplated deworming her and sending her off to my parents house by the lake where she can roam freely. I go back and forth with the idea. I came home Thursday to a dead vole and dead bird - it makes me sick!

Update: Quincey has gone to live with my parents. They live by Lake Lowell so there are plenty of rodents, snakes, skunks, raccoons, and many more things she can kill for pleasure. My parents have been keeping us updated about her and she is very loved over there. And she's been showing them a lot of love too. I think she does best in their home without children.

{THREE:} Friends
One of my best friends from high school, Amy, had to make a trip down from North Dakota this past week because her husband, Reed's, grandma passed away unexpectedly.
Amy called me a couple days before she was leaving back to ND to see if she could come over and meet Arrowlyn and visit for a while. I couldn't have been happier!

Amy was stunning - as she always is and her girls are so sweet! I remember when they were both born. It doesn't feel right that they are 5 & (almost) 3 now!
I miss Amy and it was apparent that she misses being home too. I'm too much of a mama's girl to move away from home. 30 minutes is hard enough - I can't imagine moving over 20 hours away!


My friend, Michelle, and I started working out together. She discontinued her membership at JFC and for complicated reasons, I haven't been going there either so we came up with a plan to help me get in shape and keep in her shape during her pregnancy.
Anyways, so we had our first workout this week at my house. I threw in a workout video while our boys played. I didn't get to finish the video because I had to nurse Arrow but I think we had more fun watching our boys play so well together.
I made lunch and after we ate, the boys continued to play while Michelle and I continued to get to know each other.

After Trevor left, Zeplin walked up to me and said, “Oh mom. I'm so tired. I had fun with Trevor.” He walked away from me and 10 minutes later, I decided to check on him to find that he had turned off his TV and gone to bed. Sleepy little man got worked over by his best friend.



{FOUR:}  Zeplin
I've joked with people that I have not been enjoying age 3 for Zeplin. He's very independent and a little too smart. Although I'm not a fan of some of the traits associated with being 3 years old, I am so in love with my son - making my days with him worth the frustration.

For example:
When asking Zeplin to clean his room, he said, “Oh mom, I will just do it tomorrow. It's just going to get dirty again.”
Then when we were watching morning cartoons he told me he was hungry and asked me to bring him some food. I told him no and that if he wanted breakfast, then he needed to go downstairs to eat. He replied, “Oh mom. Come on. There is a table right there!” (Pointing to the tv stand)

I'm telling you, he's too smart for his own good!

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Zeplin has been so great at playing by himself when he needs to. I'm so in love with this sweet boy of mine. 

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Zeplin experienced a cruel painful moment while playing at the indoor play area at Chic-fil-A. A little boy decided to bite Zeplin and bit him hard enough that it bruised and left teeth marks. 

I heard him screaming and went into the play area to see what was wrong. I sat him down and once he calmed down, he shared with me that he was bit, showed me where and pointed out who did it. There were two other parents in the room and were able to point out the parents of the boy. 

I wasn't going to say anything to them because once Zeplin told me what happened, he was better. But once I thought about the force of the bite (it went through a sweatshirt and thick sweater) I decided to tell them. 

The parents handled it great and were very apologetic. I guess the little boy has been biting a lot. It's a bummer than my son had to be one his casualties. 

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Zeplin had me laughing so hard that my tummy hurt. 

Arrowlyn was laying on the couch and began to whimper. Before I was able to get off the chair, Zeplin was by her side and putting her pacifier in her mouth. Then he started to talk to her. . . I quickly started videoing. Zeplin pretended to tickle Arrow and then turned to me and said, “She's going to think I'm crazy!”
I laughed so hard. I'm glad I got it on video!

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I took Zeplin to tour a private church preschool just up the road from our house. He was so respectful and good to the teachers there. They let him play a little bit and answered all my questions.
Ultimately, we decided not to go this upcoming year. I've had friends give us the pros and cons of putting kids in preschool at age 3.
He's so smart and in reality the preschool would just be for his socializing needs. Trevor will also be going and they can be in the same class. But we just haven't really decided if we should put him in for 2 years or just when he turns 4.

We've been really proud of his critical thinking skills. He's amazing as solving puzzles and answering complex questions. He likes to think through problems and answer them. .. He's just like his daddy.

He hates arts and crafts but if you give him a lesson to learn, he will learn it!

{FIVE:}   Arrowlyn >>---> 2 Months (9Weeks)

Our little Arrowlyn is becoming not so little anymore. Arrowlyn turned 2 months old last Saturday and had her 2 month check up on Monday. 
She weighs 13 pounds 3 ounces (86%) and is 23 inches long. (72%)

Her appointment went really well. Her Pediatrician gave her all positive marks on her growth. He was happy with her nursing and sleeping and gave us some things to look for in the upcoming months. All in all, it was a painless visit with her doctor - until her nurse came in and gave her 3 shots. 

 She screamed and screamed until the nurse was done and I was able to hold her. She recovered well and I nursed her until she with in a happier mood. Matt had never been around when Zeplin got shots so he was having a hard time seeing his baby girl cry out like she did. 

Arrow was still in a happy mood once we got home but over the course of the afternoon, she became fussy and clingy. She even found her thumb when I couldn't get her pinky to her soon enough.
Matt, Zeplin and I snuggled her all afternoon & evening until bedtime. I'm just so grateful she didn't get a fever like her big brother did after all his shots. She was a trooper.  

I'm not sure if it's associated but on Wednesday, she became hard to console and put down for naps. She had a handful of nasty blowouts through the day and didn't eat much either. Then the next morning, she had no urine in her diaper. It made me nervous. I was concerned about dehydration but by the afternoon, she was her happy self!

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We are still dealing with a little bit of dry skin on her face. Her eye brows have a little cradle cap that we are working to get rid of with coconut oil. She had cradle cap pretty bad on her head that we were able to get all of it off using coconut oil and a really fine tooth comb. 

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Arrow is doing so well holding her head up and sitting well in her bumbo chair. She loves to sit in front of the window and look outside.
She also really loves her kick board/playmat. We got it for Zeplin when he was tiny and he enjoyed it but Arrowlyn absolutely loves it. Especially when she looks at herself in the distorted mirror.

I love seeing her be so happy when she's kicking the piano - especially watching those chubby little legs and feet start going like they don't have a care in the world.

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She's lost some hair since her 1 month picture and her eyes are really changing. In the light, they look more green like her daddy's.  Who knows, they might even go hazel like mine. But I don't think they'll be blue. 

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Next Friday is our 5 year wedding anniversary. We had big plans and were saving up to go on a cruise BUT having our little Arrow was much more important, of course. Since Arrowlyn isn't accepting a bottle from anyone, we knew we couldn't just leave her, so we are going to be doing a family anniversary day trip. I'm so excited!!