Bonnie and Clyde

It's happened. We had our moment of realization when suddenly Nick and I looked at each other and we knew. The kids have joined forces. They have formed a bond that most certainly will put us to our tests as parents. Their brother and sister relationship was formed from the minute Cade kissed my pregnant belly and said "I love you baby Devyn". But they've grown, developed, and at ages four and one they will soon join the ranks of one of the infamous duos. NOT Donnie and Marie. NOT Hansel and Gretel. NOT Michael and Janet. NOT Bert and Ernie.  Oh no. These two most certainly will use their wills for evil. Certainly they have capability of turning into the sibling version of Bonnie and Clyde.

Exhibit A:   They look at each other, one will start to scream, then the other will scream and it's a test of who can scream the loudest and longest. Especially awesome whilst driving in the car. Piece of momma advice I've learned that works in this scenario: If you can't beat them, join them. So then I get to scream too. And you know, it's a rather fine outlet for me too. And 100% of the time it ends in giggles. So, I'm down with that.

Exhibit B:   On the other end of the spectrum, and maybe the more evil end of the spectrum, is when they are silent. And out of sight.  If you've been a parent for more than 1 year you know that silence is NOT a good thing. It means trouble. For Devyn it means going through my bathroom stash of products under the sink. (Our babyproofing deal sucks, from months of kids pulling on the safety latches has worn them down and now they open with only 3%  more resistance than having nothing on your cabinet door at all. siggghhh...) But when they're together it could possibly mean a chair in the pantry looking for candy or cookies. Together. So stinking clever and cute and evil at once.

Exhibit C:  Food related crimes. One of them will get the idea that they need candy or a cookie and both of them will come together to come persuade me with looks of cuteness. They jump up and down and say "cookie cookie cookie cookie" and smile and it's adorable.

***Breaking news report: As I type this Devyn has taken her baby to the wall plug, made the baby doll touch it and then sat the baby in time out and she's sitting down next to her saying "No, no baby!" Now she hugs the baby and is saying "All done baby, All done!" and nodding her head. This child... ***

Exhibit D:  They have started to argue. And isn't that the major downfall or every famous duo? You can't decide what to do with each other so you argue. This is my challenge. To be their coach -- make them more a powerhouse like Venus and Serena. Use their love for each other and build on it every day. Teach them to stand up for each other and help each other and above all, be best friends.

In our wedding program Nick and I  both thanked our siblings. They taught us how to love each other, live with someone of the opposite sex and get along, compromise, and be patient and loyal.  I want for Cade and Devyn what we have with our own sibling. Memories. Good ones. Knowing there is one person in this world who is guaranteed to "get" you.  On Grey's Anatomy Meredith and Christina talk about being each other's "person".  A sibling should be a built-in "person". When I had Devyn I was so happy and elated to get my baby girl, but I was also so moved that I could give this amazing gift to my first born, Cade. A friend. A "person". A sibling.

On my mind

Just as I sit here watching my littles interact I love the way Devyn grabs Cade's fork and hands it to him. The way she looks at him for confirmation is so sweet. She loves him and adores him so much. Always has from the minute she first saw him. He isn't always sure how to respond to her. I'm learning that it's my job to show him  how to respond to her. To be patient and loving and her teacher.

Right now he is sitting at the toddler table that my parents bought him from Pottery Barn Kids a couple of years ago. It's been the best piece of furniture in the house the last few weeks because now Devyn can sit at it with him. To watch them eating breakfast together and fall in love with Mickey Mouse together has made me seriously tear up on a daily basis. (not really, but it's so freaking sweet!)

Just now as I type this lovefest, Cade gives Devyn a totally exasperated look and says, "No Desyn! I don't want that right now." And then he stands up and curls his body away from her. He catches my eye and says, "I don't like her. I want to get another baby!" Um...wth son? Not cool. Not the sweet big brother I was just getting ready to literally blog about.  I guess he's allowed to be moody. He is 3.

Random memories from yesterday:

Yesterday (my story):   Devyn has been tossing bits of her food to our dog Izzy. She does this on the sly. She literally casually extends one arm down and drops one little piece at a time. This kid LOVES dogs. She even crawled up to a baby gate box in Babies R Us the other day and kissed the picture of the dog on it! Anyways, she feeds the dog. Sometimes I catch her. Yesterday she finished her dinner and Cade hadn't touched his. So I told her "Oh good job, Devyn! You ate your dinner! Uh oh, Cade. You haven't eaten your quesadilla yet. No dessert if you don't finish your dinner."  He said, "I WILL eat my dinner! Izzy ate all of Desyn's dinner, I eat all of MY dinner!"  It was so funny for him to totally sell out Devyn that way with his little lisp on the V on her name. I laughed so hard, Devyn started to laugh too. 

Yesterday  (Nick's story): Our disposal has been crap this week. Nick and I divided and conquered the kids so I could run my errand with Devyn and he could use Cade as his little Home Deport helper.  So he needed an extra hand to push down on the new sink part while he was underneath screwing in the disposal. He improvised and put Cade standing in the sink and made him promise to be safe and hold on tight. So Nick goes under the sink and tells Cade hold on tight. And he hears Cade grunt. He finishes up and stands up to see Cade making two fists and closing his eyes tight and grunting. Such a serious little helper!

Last night (our story): I was putting Cade back in bed after his typical second trip to the bathroom after being put in bed. (I guess he is taking the business of keeping his underpants dry at night very seriously.) And he requests a song. So I ask him if he wants "Twinkle Twinkle". No. "How about the firetruck song?" No. He wants a robot song. I frequently have to totally improvise songs for him based on his interest of the day. I start to sing and he says, "No, no, no. The one we sang in car with Daddy. Like this one." And he starts to do the robot hands dance. "Mr. Roboto?" I ask. "Yes! Mr. Oboto!" Um... who knows any actual words to that song besides "Mr. Roboto"? So I start singing, "Oh my god-toe, Mis-ter Ro-bo-to do you know that I love you? Oh my god-toe, Mis-ter Ro-bo-to this I know is true. I have a but-ton turn me on. This is Cade's ro-bot song. And that I love you." (There was more, but I'll spare you. Take in mind I did this in a roboty voice with the necessary dance moves.) I must have sold it, because he was totally pleased. Then I kissed him goodnight and did the walk of shame to Nick on the couch. I confessed that my lullaby was uber-lame and he was like, "Lets see what those words are." He dutifully logged onto iTunes and we practiced a little bit. It really is more of a duet. So we practiced a little. All I can remember now is that I want to be the back-up voice who sings "I've got a secret". And I'll let Nick take the robot-y man lead and I'll just pop out behind his back with my "I've got a secret" refrain and do some robot arms.

Got to go rescue the little climbing lady. She's stuck on our fireplace hearth thing. Thrown all the toys out of her toy box and is holding onto a Darth Vadar (sucking his head) and crying at me to rescue her. Laters bloggies.

First Family Portraits

A few weeks after Devyn was born, we dressed up the fam and went to Studio One to get our first family portraits made!  (And hopefully score some presh pics worthy of birth announcements...more to come on that in a later post!)

I decided that we needed to wear the colors we look best in, blues, and let Devyn rock it out in pink! So after a full day's shopping at Northpark I was able to use outfits Cade & Devyn already had (plaid shorts and navy polo for him, a white and pink ballerina-esque ruffled onesie for her) and buy new shirts for Nick and I. Usually I'd shy away from mixing patterns but the colors were all so perfect together, and my Pinterest studies of photography boards and blogs gave some courage to try it, and I must say--- family fashion success!!

Standing in this pose felt super awkward but turned out to be my fave pic once I saw it!!
FYI: Holding a nine day old for pics and trying to get her face and a toddler smile was incredibly difficult. She slept through the whole ordeal!!

Sweet baby girl

The Cadester

Things I liked about Studio One:  The photographer was quick, got lots of cute pics to choose from, she totally knew how to work with Cade --- who happened to be so excited to explore the studio and run all over the photo area. Thank God for their ladder and her feather duster which he loved!  She formed a bond with him and made him comfortable, which I really liked.

Things I didn't like:  They had a time schedule and what they promised on the phone for the family shoot was not what they delivered. I expected an hour, we got thirty minutes. I expected to get the shots I wanted, the photographer had a set list of poses that the Studio is known for and hit every one of them... my suggestions threw her off.  I got all the shots I wanted minus one. We didn't get a brother/sister shoot because the manager came over and hovered then tapped her watch then told us we needed to be done.  I was pushy momma and insisted I get my solo shots of my newborn!!! I'm grateful I did, the whole mission o' the day was to get a family shot and newborn pics for the announcement.  I did want a bro-sis pic for the announcement, but I had a sweet shot from home that worked just as well.

MAJOR thing I didn't like: I  had no idea how much it was going to cost me.  The Living Social deal was for one shot only, so we used those prints for our family pics (24 prints of 1 pose for $29). But ordering any other poses was going to cost us. The original package they put together? $896!!! Um, NO. I don't want my  husband to divorce me when I come home with that "deal of the century", or whatever the psycho photog called it.

 So I asked if I could just buy the digital images on CD..... Take a guess at how much. Did you guess $455?!  I shit you not. I asked her what the "a la cart" prices were (my devious brain already forming a plan involving a stupid kid at the CVS photo counter).  She pulled the numbers from her damn head. There was no list of prices. Shady, shady, shady. But here she was....sitting in front of me with a slideshow of my babies scrolling across the screen and sappy sweet music playing softly in the background. She had me  by the balls. If I wanted to leave with the pics I'd have to cough up some cash.  Hardball momma came out, I ordered the pics I  needed and all is well. 

Baby Sister Girl

It's been one month!! Our little family of 3 is settled into a family of 4 (okay, as settled as you are one month after adding a new baby into the mix). These pics are from our first night home with Devyn. Our sweet little lhasa-poo-poo Izzy was SO excited just as she was with Cade. I don't know if I blogged it earlier, but Izzy knew I was pregnant. She curled up with me right around my belly and she was more protective of me when people came into the house. She's just the best dog EVER! Just like we did with Cade, we let her sniff and kiss the baby and gave her lots of pets and cuddles as she did. So, we kind of took the same approach with Cade.

I'd had a summer date day with Cade where we grabbed Starbucks and hung out at Starbucks chilling with books. I bought him two book about being a big brother. We read them almost every day and talked about being a big brother. He didn't really seem to care. He knew the baby was in my tummy (and often thought the baby was in his tummy too) and helped get the new nursery ready. I tried to take him the newborn nursery in the hospital but that has now been blacked out at our hospital, no viewing of newborns allowed!!! Anyways, he got a baby doll and we practiced being gentle and loving. We prepped like it was the BAR. When we were shopping one day, Cade bought Devyn a little Sesame Street Abby Cadaby doll at Nordy's. He decorated a gift bag for her and we wrapped it together to give the baby when she was born. Her first birthday gift!

Well, he passed with flying colors! Before we bought Devyn home we had the kids exchange presents at the hospital. Cade didn't quite know what to think that Devyn had gotten him something. Is it possible my 2 year old called "Bullshit" on Devyn shopping for him? She got him an Elmo doll. (Although Mommy wanted her to buy Cookie Monster, it appeared that Cade was more excited by Elmo at the time, so she chose Elmo). It was kind of presh when we were leaving the hospital, me carrying Devyn, Cade carrying Elmo. He ran to the nurse station and proceeded to tell the nurse that his baby got him Elmo. God bless the sweet nurse who engaged him for a couple of minutes! It was so cute.

Cade showed Devyn her nursery when we got home. He even is sharing his lambie rug with her!

Seeing him love her and talk to her is the best thing in the world. Any new mom will tell you they never want their newborn to get bigger and grow up. Now that I'm on baby #2 (despite that, for now anyways, we feel like our family is complete) I cannot WAIT for her to be big enough for them to play. I think of all the fun stuff my brother and I did and I want that for them. I can't wait for them to both be cuddling in bed with us, opening Christmas presents together, their first lemonade stand (or colored acorns;), playing in the rain together, getting grounded together. I love to cuddle little ol' her, but I am excited more than I thought I'd be about them being kids together!

My favorite moment so far is the family going to Devyn's first doctor appointment. Cade was kinda psyched that the dr would be seeing Devyn, NOT him... So he was right on the table with her most of the visit. After she got her vaccine and started to cry, Cade came over to her, petted her head, kissed her and said, "It's okay, Baby Sister Girl. Big brother here." Best. Moment. Of. My. Life.

Dear God, please let them always look out for each other and love each other. Let them know how blessed they are to have each other. Let nothing come between them. They are each other's First Best Friend. Let them stay this way forever.