The Double Stroller Diaries

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She had two beautiful children, but one unfortunate problem. She didn’t have a stroller to accommodate her two little wiggly worms. So she searched online for one that was affordable and allowed her to exercise, as well as stroll with her bambinos. The pool of double jogging strollers was large, but finally she found one that she thought would suit her needs well. Was it her dream stroller? No. But it was practical, and affordable. So she ordered it, and then waited for its impending arrival. Sadly, tragedies abounded from the get-go.

Anybody excited to hear what really happened?

If not, go somewhere else. For those who can’t get enough banter about double stroller options, read on.

Here’s the deal, for the first few months after Charlotte was born, I’d been operating under a stroller and carrier system when it came to going out in public. And actually, I use this carrier as well. I would recommend either, for those who are interested. Anyway, I soon realized that this system couldn’t last. I loved being able to carry Charlotte around (and she loved it too) while still having my hands free to deal with Sophie, but as Charlotte got bigger, I realized that eventually Charlotte wasn’t going to want to stay in a carrier. Babies grow, they want to explore and most of all, they want to be just like the bigger siblings. On top of all of this, with Husband working full-time, and myself staying at home with the girls, working my part-time job and starting Peaches and Bean Baby Boutique (then The Bean House Shop) I had absolutely no time to exercise, and this was fast becoming a problem. Two children may = running around all the time… but it’s not enough running to get your heart rate going the necessary amount for the necessary time, plus the “running around” more often consists of “driving around” aka doesn’t count.

I watched some of the women in my neighborhood walking to yoga with their perfect swinging ponytails and yoga mats in their bags, ready for an hour of awesome, synchronized sun salutations and then glimpsed at my sweatshirt-wearing, baby-wrestling, haven’t-showered-in-four-days self and found myself aching with jealousy. But honestly, in a normal week, I don’t have the time (nor the babysitter) for the kinds of exercise that those ponytail deities have.

Solution? Double stroller must also be a jogging stroller!

At the time, I wasn’t a big runner, but I’d tried to become one several times before (see my “Run-On” posts) to become one but to no avail since it either got too cold to continue outside, or I got pregnant and had to stop. Basically, life happened.

Enter the original stroller we ordered, In-Step’s Grand Safari Double Jogging Stroller. We had scoured the internet looking for jogging strollers within a reasonable price range, and having worked at a baby supply store before, I was pretty aware of what was out there and how they all performed. Unfortunately, our budget was really tight and most of the high-end joggers are $500 on the “cheap” end.

So enter our first stroller:

I had heard good things about it, and on the price scale it wasn’t so cheap that I was afraid it was going to fall apart at any minute, and wasn’t so expensive that I felt like I was giving away my life savings just to jog. After about two weeks worth of searching this is the guy we bought (through Amazon) and then… I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The truth? Amazon changed the estimated delivery time for our stroller three (three!) times. After the second time, I called their help line to ask what the dealy-o was. The person on the phone explained that it was in stock and going to be shipping soon… so imagine my bafflement when I got the email a third time that the shipping was being pushed back again.

Fail Amazon. Fail.

So, I cancelled my order and bought it from Target instead (online) and I had it within a week.

So fast forward about a month and a half from my original purchase, and I was pleased to finally have the stroller arrive on our door step. I opened it like it was Christmas (I think it was actually May-ish or sometime around there) and put the whole thing together in about 10 minutes. I was so excited until I noticed that the plastic part on the top of the front wheel (the big plastic part where the kids feet are supposed to rest) didn’t attach to the stroller. Nope, there was no *click* down or anything, meaning every time we hit a bump, the thing came flying off. I also wasn’t too pleased that I couldn’t get the thing out the front door. I know that some of you might be like, “Duh, it’s a double stroller, those don’t fit through doors.” Wrong. They do. Why would I want to buy a stroller that I couldn’t push through a door? Answer… I wouldn’t.

So my frustration level went to annoyance to mommy-rage in about two minutes.

I know that there are a lot of moms out there that have a Grand Safari and love it, so don’t let this one experience with an item that was obviously just a manufacturer’s error dissuade you from still considering this stroller as an option. Again, I had heard good things about it.

The item couldn’t be returned to a store (per the big “Don’t Return This To A Store” sign on the box) so we had to ship it back to Target.

So there I was. Still no stroller, and still watching those bloody ponytailed women walking all smirky to yoga class like they had something to prove or something (kidding, they didn’t but it sure felt that way!).

So Tim and I sat down and had “the talk”. No, not that awkward sex talk you dread as a middle schooler, the maybe-it-would-be-worth-t0-shell-out-some-extra-beans-for-a-good-quality-stroller talk.

Enter the BOB Revolution Duallie:

This is the stroller I had originally wanted. We see them all the time in the cities, they work great for any kind of surface, gravel, dirt, paved, whatever. So after being disappointed with our first purchase, we started searching for this guy on Craigslist.

The problem? Even two-year old BOBs on Craigslist were over $400 and I never seemed to stalk the List hard enough. These babies get snatched up in a jiffy.

Then, REI was having a 25% off anniversary deal and it was almost too good to be true, still a grit-your-teeth-and-do-it price, but after seeing the resale value on other BOBs and knowing this was one of the best strollers you could get, we finally decided that it was “the one”. It was still an expensive purchase, but it is so worth the money. Diagnosis? We love it, and are so happy with it. It’s such a smooth ride for the girls, it’s really easy for me to push, both for running as well as walking (even through doors!) and Tim has even decided that he thinks it was worth it… something that is hard for a cheapskate er thrifty superman to admit to. Plus, as an extra bonus, it’s easy to fold up and store, it even fits in the back of my Ford Focus. Talk about a hard-working stroller.

We’ve now had the stroller for almost six months, I’m happy to say, I’ve now begun training for a half-marathon and most of the time I’m training while pushing the girls! Take that yoga ladies! Just kidding… yoga is cool too.

After all that, for those looking for a stroller for two, here’s my advice to you:

1) Know what you want.

Is it just to use on shopping outings? Do you want to be able to exercise?Do you care if it’s a side-by-side or would you prefer seats that are front-to-back? Do you care if it folds easily? Do you have a small or a big car? Answer all these questions before setting out on your stroller mission, it’ll make narrowing the field much easier.

2) Name your price, name your quality.

If you have strict budget (Tim wanted cheap, I wanted go-the-distance quality, I won out it then end), maybe instead of going brand new, you should stalk craigslist, or wait for strollers to go on sale at the end of the year (right before they bring out the new models for the new year, most strollers go on super sale to get the inventory out to make room for the new ones).

3) Know that often times with strollers, you get what you pay for.

But again, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to buy full price all the time. Craigslist. Online. Coupons. Selling your old one to help pay for the new one. There are lots of ways to reduce cost.

4) Enjoy your stroller.

Once you have one, use it. My girls are so happy in their stroller, but not because of the type (though it makes me really happy) but because they get to be outside (or inside at a mall) doing something different other than play with their same old toys, in their same old house, doing the same old things. Charlotte would probably be just as content still be carried in the carrier so long as it meant a change of pace and scenery, it was me who wanted the change. So either way, just enjoy the time you get to spend with your munchkins.

We are really lucky to have been able to get such an amazing stroller, it’s been wonderful to have such a great mode of bringing the kids places, especially since we walk everywhere in our neighborhood and it’s given me the great opportunity of being able to get back into shape after two back-to-back pregnancies. After such a long delay, I am happy to say that the stroller hunt is concluded for us.

Signing out,

Jen

Charlotte: 3 Months Old

Don’t you just want to sqa-weeze those cheeks? Charlotte’s a whopping tres meses and I can’t believe it! She’s in love with her bumbo, and her reflexion. She thinks her hands are the most amazing play toys in the world and she’s getting ready to welcome her first tooth. That’s right, our little drool monsters teething already. Sigh. Can’t even handle it.

PS right after this picture was taken, Sophie came and dropped a pillow on Charlotte, looked at me and said, “No more Charlotte, Sophie’s picture”. Yea, these are my children…

Psst – Want to see Charlotte’s growth thus far? Check out her announcement post, her 1 month photo, and the 2 month photo. Interested in seeing Sophie’s? Check out her birthday post.

Emma Jean

On Wednesday, my cousin and her husband welcomed their new baby girl into the world! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you little Emma!

Isn’t she a doll? She is so beautiful! Sophie and Charlotte are so excited about their new little cousin. I see a lot of play time in our futures! So congratulation Sarah and Dave, we love her already!

Fashion with Baby-tude

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Ours was very busy, a little stressful, a lot wonderful and filled with cookies, family and twinkle lights. We even took a little impromptu trip to  Chi-town for four days. Lets just say that after carting two babies around Chicago four days, right after what was one of the most stressful Christmases in Olson family history, it feels good to be home! We had a wonderful time though, so I’m really glad we took some time, just the four of us. More on that trip later.

On the agenda today (first post of 2012… boom!) is making baby leg warmers! These have been one of my favorite baby accessories. They’re perfect for the winter season we are fast approaching (though don’t seem to quite be able to reach it…) and are just too cute for words. I found them super handing with Sophie last Christmas, and didn’t want to fork over the kind of money they charge for baby leg warmers in the store (seriously, a baby’s leg is less than a foot long, why would I want to pay over five bucks for minuscule piece of knit tubing?) and so… I just made my own.

They’re really easy to  make, and you can do them either by hand or with a machine. I used my machine of course, but it would be just as easy too do it by hand, it would just take a little longer. Although sit down with an episode or two of 24 and you could crank those leg warmers out like a pro… just saying.

The first thing you’re going to need is supplies. You’ll need some regular tube socks. I bought mine at Tar-jay because they normally have a buy 2 for $5 deal.

Then you’ll need a scissors that will cut fabric, needle and thread or a sewing machine. That’s it. Of course the ones I picked are shamelessly pink and girly, but they have all kinds of different patterns, and colors of tube socks. I even saw a really cute grey and blue pair, perfect for the self-confident baby boy! Do baby boys wear leg warmers?

To start with cut the foot off the sock so you have the leg of the tube sock separated at from the sock, right above the heel. Then, on the foot, cut the toe off and the heel off, so all your left with is the middle piece between the toe and the heel, like so:

At this point you can scrap the toe and the heel, you won’t be using it. Tip: Try to cut as close to the toe and heel as you can so that your middle piece is nice and big. It’s harder to work with when you only have a little fabric to use.

Once you’ve remove the heel and the toe, take the small piece that is left over and fold it in half so the right side (side you’re going to want everyone to see) is facing out.

If you’re using a sewing machine, don’t worry about finishing the edges or anything. You can if you want but the knit won’t fray or anything so it’s kind of an unnecessary step. Anyway, once you’ve folded it in half, pull it over the end of your tube sock and pin it to the cut edge of your tube so that all unfinished edges are touching and the folded edge is facing up towards the finished edge of the tube sock. I didn’t take a picture of this so I apologize for the confusion. Hopefully the next picture will help explain it a little bit.

Once it’s all pinned, you can either do a simple running stitch with your needle and thread (make sure you don’t get impatient, you’re going to want to make small stitches) or use your sewing machine to stitch it all together.

Okay so maybe this picture doesn’t help at all, but you can kind of see how the large tube is inside of the small one. If you’re still confused… I’m fired.

Once it’s all attached… you’re done. Seriously. Just pull the folded end of the small tube over the sewn part of the sock a voila… you have a baby leg warmer.

Make sure to trim any long threads from where you did your sewing but it’s really that quick and easy. One thing that I’ve learned from having two children, fast projects are golden. I think it took me a grand total of 30 minutes to turn all four sets of tube socks into leg warmers. That’s what we call a big win.

Yep, there they are… with the sun blazing on them like it’s a dramatic end to a really long movie. But really, we just sewing some leg warmers. No big.

The best part is that these are just perfect for the impending winter that’s coming (should have already been here, but Mother Nature missed the memo). They can be worn with just a long sleeved onesie while playing inside, or layered over leggings to create that oh-so-popular layered look that seems to be everywhere. Gotta love a fashion forward baby! They’re also surprisingly tight enough that Charlotte is able to wear them and they stay on. Granted, she’s not doing a lot of moving around just yet, but it’s nice to know that they’re able to fit smaller babies as well as older ones.

So there you have, some nice baby leg warmers to kick off the 2012 Bean House season. Cheers!

Pretty as a Picture

As anybody with children knows, taking care of kids is messy, messy business. Literally. I feel like I live in a constant state of disorder, dirty clothes and amazingly beautiful chaos. My apartment is never completely clean, and when I finally get it to a state of all-most guest worthy cleanliness… my oldest daughter wakes up from her nap hell-bent on making sure it falls back into a state of grime and baby toys within half an hour.

Welcome to my life.

One way I have improved bringing order to chaos is wrangling in all of the girly hair accessories that we have strewn about. Sophie’s new favorite game is playing “hair” where she puts all the little clips and bows we own in mommy’s hair and taking them out again and then repeating the whole process over and over again. But now we have such an easy way of putting them all away in an orderly fashion that her second favorite game is now “clean up”, the sequel to “hair”.

To accomplish this, all I used was a stapler, a small canvas (purchased from Michaels ages ago) and ribbon from my scrap bin. This means that anyone could do this project without spending more than 10 beans. Here’s out it worked out:

I simply took my canvas and laid out a bunch ribbons over the top of it to figure out how I wanted to everything placed. Then I simply stapled the ends of the ribbon to the back of the canvas.

The wood on the canvas is so flimsy that I was able to use just your regular run-of-the-mill stapler and it worked just fine. Though the back looked pretty hideous, the front ended up looking nice and neat and put together.

Eventually I want to hang this canvas up on a photo wall in the girls’ room. So I chose soft teals, and yellows so that it would compliment the colors already in the room. Obviously you can pick whatever colors you wish, and if you’re planning on just using this to store the hair bows/clips and hiding it away in a drawer when it’s not being used then you could even use less showy materials like twine, rubber bands or yarn. Whatever you have lying around. I chose to make it look a little prettier so it would become a piece of artwork all on its own.

Here it is all stapled down. The thin outer string is great for small little clips, whereas the thick inner ribbon is better for hair bows, and large flower clips. Doesn’t look too shabby for a project that really cost me nothing out-of-pocket considering I already had all the materials for it on hand.

Here it is with a very small collection of hair clips. At this point it has over a dozen different hair accessories and sits on the dresser in the girls’ room. Once I finally put up all of the girls’ artwork then this will hang on the wall alongside everything else. I’ll be sure to post a picture once that happens! Until then, it’s just work overtime carrying all the lovely things that adorn my girls’ head. Did you know that someone asked me the other day how old my “son” was? Literally, pointed right at Sophie and asked how old “he” was. Seriously? Never leaving the house without a bow in her hair again.

What small projects have you all been working on? Any awesome ideas on how to wrangle up all kinds of baby clutter? Do tell! I’m always up for some new ideas to try!

Mix and Match

I did it!

I’ve officially made the girls matching outfits! It’s okay if this post is sort of vomit inducing for some of you. Sometimes I vomit because of cuteness too…

I made the girls matching sweatshirts WAY back before Charlotte was born. I used them in a photo shoot I did to mark Charlotte’s one month birthday and Sophie’s 18 month birthday… but I hardly count those. One cannot truly say they’ve made matching outfits until they’re matching ensembles… which these are. Behold:

I know that with the intense pattern, combined with the extra textured rug, this photo has a lot to look at. I’ll follow-up this post with the girls actually IN there outfits when Thanksgiving rolls around (anyone else counting down the days until endless mashed potatoes and turkey? Anyone? Anyone?) but I figured I would nurse my boosted matching-outfits ego by posting a little sneak peek! I think the size difference is really funny. Sophie’s is just a touch too big because it’s a size 2T but this is still a great illustration of how teeny tiny we all start out at.

To make these I used this great pattern. Check it out! It was super easy and I’m probably going to make about a bazillion shirts/dresses out of it. All I did to modify it was extend the sleeve length to make it on-the-verge-of-Minnesota-winter acceptable. I also really liked the idea of doing different color ribbons to customize these dresses and, unintentionally, the ribbons match their eyes. Right now Charlotte’s are a brownish-green (can’t wait to see what color they turn out to be in the end) and Sohpie’s got really ice blue eyes. The ribbons also help to break up the busy-ness of the fabric I used. Isn’t it a nice fall fabric? I’ve had it forever just waiting to be used. Finally went to a good project, don’t you think?

Anyone else out there making matching outfits for their little ones? What do you think about moms and children matching? I haven’t quite been able to convince myself that’s a good idea yet… you never know though.

Cheers!

Expecting Baby Peaches

For those of you who read this and thought, “Oh God, she’s pregnant again.” Psych!

Actually, we’re really excited about my cousins little Bean-to-Be, who has been lovingly named “Peaches” until the true reveal of her name (when she is born). We’re all about code names. Sophie was “Bean” up until her birthday too. Gives you a little time to think of names you love, and if you’re not telling people the name you’re thinking about, nobody has a chance to get attached to an option and then get mad when you deviate. Personal experience? Perhaps. So, in honor of Baby Peaches and her lovely mom, we held a baby shower the weekend before Halloween (told you these were all out of order). Really, this post is just going to be a photo dump from the shower, so enjoy!

Those caramel rolls on the table? Probably THE most amazing caramel rolls I’ve ever had in my life. I tried to make them on my own once, but it was a miserable fail. For some reason the ability to make caramel rolls has always escaped me. These little beauties were made by my mother. She made A LOT of them for the shower and I think I probably had three… in my defense, Sophie kept stealing parts of mine. That’s not much of a defense…

There ended up being 109 diapers in this container. Guesses ranged from low 40′s to the 120′s… The best part about this game? The Mother-to-Be gets 109 usable diapers, plus a convenient little caddy to store things in. Gotta love games with some function to them as well.

I cut these little onesies out of cardstock I got uber cheap at JoAnn Fabrics (with coupon). Super adorable + super thrifty = Job Well Done

Don’t you just want to mush his little face???

Aww the Mom-to-Be and Aunt-to-Be!

All in all it was a really good time, I think. Happy Wednesday!

Charlotte Grace

She’s FINALLY here! Yes… I did capitalize, italicize and bold that on purpose. I’m just so excited that our little one finally decided to grace us with her presence!

Don’t worry, I won’t go into the weird, awkward details of child-birth. I’m one of those people who find the birthing process one of the strangest functions a human body can perform. I am not one of those people who thinks the birthing center at the State Fair is cool. I find the words uterus and placenta kind of gross, and when it comes to the miracle of life… I’m more of a “it’s just the way it is” person than an “oh my goodness, it’s a miracle” person. But I’ve gotten a lot of questions, so I’m willing to share how our October 6th went from just an ordinary date on the calendar to the birthday of our beautiful little girl! Also, this post is going to have lots of pictures. Oh look, here comes one now…

Don’t worry, that’ll happen a lot in this post. Anyway, so the thing about Charlotte is we had a lot of false alarms with her and because Sophie was such a quick labor, I had nightmares that Bean 2 would literally be born in the car, somewhere between our house and the hospital. Just straight up nightmares. I was having intense false labor as early as two weeks before Charlotte’s due date. No. Fun. So, you can imagine my surprise when I not only made it to my due date… but I actually passed it as well. Cue a major whop whop effect. I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore. Pregnancy does not look good on me. Nor does it like me very much.

At my final doctor’s appointment, they scheduled me to be induced after I had hit 41 weeks. I was dilated to a 4 (on a scale from 1 to 10) and 80% effaced, but I had been at the appointment previous to this one also. Lame. So I waited patiently anxiously for Friday, October 7th to roll around and for my induction. Surprise, surprise… just like Sophie, Charlotte was going to come on her own terms.

On the 5th, around 5 o’clock in the evening my contractions started up again. Again, they were kind of intense, but I was not getting my hopes up. Tim and I went with my family out to dinner that night (at Tin Fish… I’m so sad it’s closed for the winter now) and had grand dreams of “walking out” my contractions around beautiful Lake Harriet. But contractions + my silly waddle = no dice on walking. So instead, Tim, Sophia and myself headed home after dinner to hang out. Sophie went to bed around 8 o’clock and Tim and I stayed up to watch an episode (or three) of 24. We went to bed around 11 and I just sort of expected to sleep off my contractions, like I had done a million a couple of times before with my other Braxton Hicks incidents.

I woke up on the 6th at about 4 o’clock in the morning with pretty steady contractions still. I grabbed Tim’s iphone and used the contraction tracker app (yes, there is one!) and learned that they were about 4 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. For those who don’t speak “pregnancy” it means it was time to call the doctor. I phoned the hospital and sort of lied… I said that I had been tracking for about an hour and a half and that they were getting closer together (in reality I had been tracking them for about 15 minutes and they were pretty steady). They told me to come on in. I know it’s wrong to lie… but I figured they’re going to induce me tomorrow anyway.

So Tim and I got ready to go. Sophie was already at my mom’s so we were lucky. I wasn’t really worried about not being admitted since I was already dilated. I figured that if nothing else, we were hurrying the induction process along. There’s nothing wrong with that… right? Right?

We arrived at the hospital around 6 in the morning. If you’re wondering why it took us nearly two hours to get from our apartment to the hospital… we just sort of took our time. We both took a shower, cleaned up a little, put baking soda on the big shag rug we got off of craigslists the day before to get rid of the smell of dog pee… you know… normal stuff. Once we got to the hospital, the nurse did a quick check and I was 6 cm dilated. Boom! Staying at the hospital. She showed us to our labor and delivery room, checked on the baby’s heart rate, and did some vitals on me. The doctor came in and said hello at that point. Because I was Strep B positive, they had to give me a dose of antibiotics, which needed four hours to take full effect. So, the doctor said that they would wait to break my water until the second round of antibiotics, if it hadn’t broken before then.

Thus, we were forced to wait. My contractions had backed off to 5 minutes apart and honestly weren’t that painful. Tim and I did some laps around the labor and delivery floor (stopped at the nursery for some motivation), watched Inception and part of Harry Potter 7 Part I. All in all, it was pretty nice hang out time for us. And I know that there are a bunch of women now really angry at me because they have really hard labors, and I basically just sit mine out. Sorry ladies.

The doctor got called into a C-section so my water didn’t actually get broken until around 11. Instead of the quick progression we all were expecting, it wasn’t until about noon that my contractions finally kicked it into high gear and started intensifying. I got into the jacuzzi tub (I love our hospital) shortly after noon and tried to relax with the warm water and jets. It sort of worked. I was only in there for about half an hour before even the tub wasn’t doing anything to ease the pressure during contractions. When I got out, the nurse checked me and I was at 8cm dilated. I knew that Charlotte was coming soon and at that point reminding myself that each contraction brought us closer to meeting her was the only thing getting me through each one. There wasn’t much time to think about that though…

Suddenly, after about three more contractions, I felt this incredible urge to push. The only problem was that it was just Tim, myself and the nurse in the room. The doctor was supposedly on her way back from the clinic attached to the hospital. The nurse said that the baby was coming with or without the doctor and she and Tim helped me get into position, I pushed and out she came. Seriously, it was that quick. Suddenly there was Charlotte, being placed in my arms, she was real and she was finally with us! I’ve never felt such and incredible sense of relief. I think even more so than when Sophie was born. When it’s your first child, I think you’re kind of blissfully unaware of what labor is like. The second time around, you have plenty of time to dread, get nervous about, and fear the labor process… no matter how fast or slow your labors go. To know that it was finally over was amazing. And of course, at the end of everything you have a beautiful child to hold in your arms and love.

So there you have it! That’s how our little one came into this world. We had a great two night stay in the hospital, getting to know her a little bit and spending some time just the three of us. Sophie came and visited us every day but stayed with my mom and my aunt during the evenings. Speaking of Sophie, she has been absolutely amazing with her. She brings diapers to me when it’s time to change Charlotte, she is always asking if “Baby ok” when Charlotte starts to fuss, all in all she’s pretty great. Charlotte is doing great. She’ll be two weeks old tomorrow and she’s already holding her head up for long intervals and focusing on objects close to her. We’re just waiting for the sleeping-through-the-night phase to start. As much as I love waking up three or four times a night for feedings… I choose sleep. I think Sophie was about three months old when she started sleeping through big stretches of the night. Lord have mercy. Maybe Charlotte will best her sister and start sleeping through the night before she’s a month old! A girl can dream.

Speaking of two weeks old, I’ve also received some questions about what we’ll be doing to document her growth. Well, after obsessively “pinning” my life away on Pinterest I found a great idea. As much as I loved the fabric once a month, I wanted to switch it up a bit and try something else. Observe:

Clever, right? Every month I’m going to take a picture of Charlotte with the calendar as the back drop. Hopefully this will allow for a little more versatility with photos since it won’t matter if she’s facing the camera or not, or for that matter, if her arm is covering her stomach. I’m hoping that this will allow me to capture her personality a little bit more. We’ll just have to see. So here she is! Born on October 6th. Stay tuned for her one month photo shoot with the calendar (if it can stay clean for that long… my oldest really likes to rip paper up into tiny bits). Maybe she’ll be walking by then! Just kidding…

Cheers friends!

She’s Here!

I will be following this post with a more detailed description of our adventures getting our little one to finally arrive, but in the meantime (waiting on some pictures to be edited) we just wanted to announce the birth of our beautiful little girl, Charlotte Grace! We’re so excited for her to finally be here! She was born at 1:00 pm on October 6th, 2011, which means today she is officially a week old! What a champion. And this time we remembered to snap a family photo! Go us!

Still waiting…

So I know it’s been awhile. But really, apart from unpacking all of our stuff, trying to get settled into our new place, and waiting for baby to come around… there hasn’t been a whole lot going on over here at the Bean Casa. Also, I lost my camera. “Lost” is a very broad term though since I’m pretty sure it was accidentally picked up by someone who can’t remember where he put it… I’m hoping it’ll show up here soon.

And for those who are wondering… as the title suggests… we’re still waiting on Baby #2 to decide it’s time to come out. I’m four days past my due date now and getting anxious. Hopefully we’ll have some good news for you soon!