A Check Off the Bucket List

Washington is such a gorgeous state.  Any opportunity to check out it's beauty is a win for us.

Last year, Noa worked with our mutual friend Mark (who happens to be a pilot) to plan a double date where we would take a plane from the Bremerton Municipal Airport to Friday Harbor (one of the San Juan islands).  The plan was to fly over the Kitsap Peninsula, greater Seattle area, and Olympic National Forest to the San Juan Island.  We'd eat dinner somewhere in downtown Friday Harbor and then head back to Bremerton. We had it all worked out, but then there were last minute issues with the plane and the date fell through.  Major bummer.

Fast forward to this past Friday and we got a do-over.  Lucky us!  

We met up with Mark and his sweet wife, Trish at the airport.  I loved the plane that was on reserve.  I don't remember the specific model, but it was a vintage-looking Cessna that reminded me of a candy bar.  

For the ride there, I sat in the back with Trish.  We were the official photographers of the trip.  :)

It was a perfect day - warm, clear, and ideal for a plane ride.  Once we were buckled in, we jetted down the runway and up, up, up in the air!  It was pretty exciting!

The ride to Friday Harbor was full of local sights.  Seattle, of course:

Mt. Rainier (this picture does not do it justice at all!):

The Ballard Locks:

The Boeing Factory, which has the largest building in the world (by volume):

And the finally, the San Juan Islands:

And we spotted Friday Harbor (downtown pictured):

We easily landed on Friday Harbor and walked 10 minutes to downtown, where we dined on the water with views of the ferry.  But, time went by quickly and soon we had to head back to the plane, but not without a pit stop for ice cream first.

Yes, good times for sure.  That was some great ice cream.

This time, Noa sat in the back with me.  We took off just as the sun was beginning it's ritual sky painting in the evenings.

For the ride home, we flew right by the Olympic Mountain area.  We were not disappointed by the views. Of course, the photos don't quite do it justice.

Leaving the San Juan Islands:

This is the Dungeness Spit (the longest natural sand spit in the US; over 5 miles long):

And lastly, nighttime views of Bremerton:

4 Months!

This past week, Mila turned 4 months old.  

Age: 4 months

Weight: 11.1 pounds

Length: 22.5 inches long

Appearance: light brownish hair, deep gray eyes, two teeth beginning to poke through on bottom gums

Sleep: short naps during the day, 1 - 2 hour stretches at night (still!)

Eats: mostly breast milk, some formula if needed

Can: look at people, laugh/giggle, roll from tummy to back, grab objects, drool on everything

To celebrate, she started TEETHING!  Yikes…I was not ready for that.  

It's no wonder she's been a drool monster lately and quite the fussy monkey (especially at night).  I had to do a quick search for some of our teething toys, since I didn't quite expect this stage for another month or two.  It makes me a little sad to see the gummy smile go.  I don't quite feel ready for this transition.

However, I have to say that the three to four month mark is pretty fun, besides the lack of sleep (get the hint, Mila; babies need LOTS of sleep and so do their parents!).  Mila has learned how to roll from her tummy to back.  She makes me laugh when she does this because even though she's been doing this for a few weeks now, she still looks surprised when it happens.  It's as if she's thinking, "whoa.  how did I get here?"  

Mila gets carried around a lot.  When I'm out running errands, I mostly use the Ergo carrier since she'll sleep in it and then I can use a shopping cart or have both of my hands free.  But, we also carry her around the house since she is pretty social and doesn't like to be "left" somewhere (even if we put her down on her play mat for a few minutes).  She'd much prefer to be held, bounced, and sang to, if possible.  Typically, she's content in her bouncer or playmat for about 10 minutes, which allows me to get a task done or at least started.

Of course, leaving her in her bouncer makes her fair game for her sister's creative play:

Fortunately, she didn't seem phased by her sister's rendition of a diaper hat.

I'm so glad that Mila is beginning to smile at people and respond to sounds and faces.  It makes my tired self grateful for this sweet response and makes the long nights worth it.

She is a social one and likes to be in the middle of the action.  I was putting away groceries one day and she was happy as a clam to be in the middle of it all.  And yes, I know that it's a big no-no to use the Bumbo on the counter, but I was right there emptying the grocery bags so she was never left unsupervised. 

I'm going to write a more detailed post about it, but we are cloth diapering again, just like we did with Ruby, however, I am using a different diapering system.  Again, details to come later, but she sure does look adorable in the cloth! 

She loves watching her sister!  During one of Ruby's outdoor speech sessions, Mila and Gunnar supervised nearby.

Really, she just loves to just look around and see what's going on everywhere.  Hi cutie!

Cuteness alert! This is one of my favorite outfits on her and it's perfect for the 90 degree days we've been having.

This is the look she gives me when she's supposed to be sleeping but doesn't want to.  

Noa is betting that she is going to have brown hair and brown eyes.  I'm not so sure yet, although Ruby's eyes were clearly blue at this point.  I'm hoping that she at least gets some blondish hair, but I think that's because I want her to look like Ruby.  I want them to look somewhat alike so that they look like sisters.  

She does love her big sister!

As needy as she can be at times, Mila really is a sweet baby and I can't get enough of her smile or the sweet cooing sounds that she now makes.  I am so proud of how much she has grown and developed so far.  It's going to be fun to watch her blossom into a little girl…but not just yet.  Let's keep her as a baby for a little while longer. 

Learning Limits

I took an unplanned hiatus from the blog.  You probably noticed.  :)

Becoming a mother of two has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  I am constantly tending to the needs of my kids (both of who are simply at a needy stage in life right now), the dogs, Noa, the house, and trying to fit in me time as well.  Trying to lose the baby weight, get a little exercise,  cook healthy food, and prepare for the move have also been pretty important tasks in my personal life right now as well.  But, at the end of each day, I realize that I just can't do it all.  Something has to give and usually it's more than one thing.  I was just telling a friend that some days I'm just trying to survive.  I have to keep my kids fed, healthy, and (hopefully) happy.  I want them to feel loved and taken care of.   This is more challenging than it sounds and I'm still trying to find that balance and learn my limits.  At the end of each day, I end up exhausted, with piles of folded laundry to put away, lingering birth announcements and thank yous to mail, e-mails to respond to, and stacks of mail to sort.  The last thing I have energy for is reliving our life through the computer.

Speaking of which, we are down to one computer (Noa's is essential dead without a power cord and is slower than a snail). His work projects and move-related work take priority over blogging.

The truth is that I love the blog.  I love having a place to keep a record of our lives and the opportunity to share it with our friends and family.  It doesn't show a complete picture of our life, but rather the highlights - really the things we want to remember.  I do wish I could write more, share more pics, and go into the details of our life, but the reality is that I just can't right now.  

I'm still going to keep the blog.  In fact, I'm *hoping* to go back and write some back posts from the past couple of months, but I know that I cannot blog every day, or every other day for that matter. Yes,  I love the blog, but I love my family more and right now, they need me more than the blog does.  My goal is to blog at least once a week and then maybe once the kids are a little bigger, I can blog more often.  And when it comes down to the nitty gritty, the blog is for sharing our lives and sometimes it just takes longer to get it all out there.  

In the meantime, here are some fun photos from the past week.  

Newborn/Family Photos

I'm catching up on some "old" topics that I didn't get to cover on the blog when Mila first arrived.  Between feeding, sleeping, and visiting with family/friends, the blog ended up on the back burner as far as priorities go.  I may be a couple of months behind, but I'm learning that things will get done when they get done - whether that's right away or eventually.  I know you won't hold it against me, right?

Anyway, we did a professional newborn shoot with a local photographer named Tara several days after Mila was born.  Since I knew that Jess wouldn't be coming out until May, I knew that I wanted those early life shots of Mila, as well as some family pics.  I found out about Tara through a Navy friend and wasn't disappointed.  She spent three hours with our family, which allowed me to nurse and change Mila frequently.  Plus, she was great with Ruby and let her play with the photo props and other toys.  Tara takes the photos on her parents' property, which is located right on the water and has horses, goats, and lots of beautiful trees and flowers.  I could have spent all day there!

I'm really pleased with the photos.  Now, I'm just trying to decide which ones to frame!

Ruby loved this little bench.  As soon as we got there, she went right over and sat on it, so it didn't take much convincing for her to pose on it.  We did, however, hover very closely when she was holding Mila.

Mila slept most of the time.  Tara was great about warming up the space beforehand with a space heater, so Mila was happy as a clam.  The rest of us were sweating in that heated room though!

Close up!

Mila's birth stats:

After some indoor shots we headed outside to take advantage of the beautiful property and clear weather!

Three generations of girls!

The Hammer Family, circa 2014:

Daddy with his girls.  I love, love, love Ruby's smile here.

This is my mom's favorite photo from the day.  Besides the obvious charm, I love it because I got to use one of the gifts given to Mila (the handmade hat).  Don't worry, it was very safe - I was actually hiding right behind the tree with my hand on her.  She looks like a little wood sprite here.

There were a couple of old trucks to pose by.  After seeing how this one turned out, I kinda wish we had an old truck on our property for more photos.

Nearby was an old rowboat and Ruby ran right for it.  I just love how these individual shots came out.  Ruby was so happy (honestly, she got a huge kick out of the old leaves in the boat).

Noa and Ruby taking some time off from the photo shoot.  Ha ha - Tara captured them anyway!

Baby feet!

Mila fiiiiiinally opened her eyes.  We tried doing some naked shots of her, but she would have nothing to do with it.  Exposed feet seemed to be more her style.

This was a random, unplanned shot as we were beginning to leave.  I just melt when I look at it.