Heins 57, or life as 4

A month has flown by since Sprout has joined our family.  I recognize I'm way far behind on the blog (although, I looked back and with Bean I did a 2 week post, and a 1 month post.  So going by that history, I'm just 1 post behind!).  The easiest way to catch up is to do a hodge podge post.  So here's random photos and commentary on the past month:

We took Bean home on Thursday, and thankfully, my mom stuck around for a couple extra days to help us adjust.  She was a big help in keeping Bean busy and letting Steve & I catch up on sleep!  Our first full day at home marked my birthday, but really it was just another day. Steve & Bean surprised me with roses! We didn't do any big celebration on Friday; but my dad, sister Sara, sister Amber + fam all came on Saturday to meet Bean.

(Sara approved of Sprout's name and loved cuddling her even more.)

(Sprout getting passed down the line.  Big Sister Bean got first dibs!)

(With family visiting, it got chaotic inside.  Luckily, the weather was just right for some sprinkler fun with cousins outside!)

(Sprinkler fun was followed by chalk bodies.  You can't tell in the photo, but Bean all those chalk bodies were hers and they were named "again" & "again-again" & "again-again-again".  Haha)

(Ahm & Abo and all their granddaughters who were in present.)

Everyone left except my parents on Saturday night.  They stayed so that they could go to church with us to have Sprout dedicated on Father's day! Yes, we were those crazy parents who took their 5 day old to church.  

(We'll blame the sleep deprivation on Steve's closed eyes.  Look how tiny Sprout is!  Even though having it done on Father's day didn't matter to Steve, I pushed to have her dedicated on that day so that she'd be with same group of babies that were all born around the same time.)

(Sprout on her dedication day -- No, she didn't wear the ears at church, but I did think about it!)

My mom went back home with my dad, leaving Steve & I alone with the kids for the next week.  Things went fairly well.  Steve had a long list of projects he wanted to accomplish.  He quickly learned that wasn't going to happen and pretty much buddied up to Bean for the week.)

(Cuddles in bed! Bean loved us all laying together.  Even now, she'll get on our bed and tell Steve and I to lay down with her. If we are lucky, we can catch a few extra minutes of closed eyes while Bean thinks we are playing.)

My mom came back on the following Sunday and brought back reinforcements -- Gabbie! I don't remember why the weekend was rough, but I do remember my mom walking in and my breaking down crying. Haha, oh those crazy hormones.  Bean wasn't getting enough attention from us, and Gabbie was just what she needed.)

(Bean wanted to be with Gabbie constantly.)

(Frick & Frack wearing their "matching jammies".)

(My mom & I took the three girls to the zoo one day while they were here -- okay, really, I needed to go and get my wedding ring checked for its warranty.  It just so happens that the jewelry store and the zoo are 5 min apart.  Win-win!)

(Pony Ride! Bean loved it!)

(Question - Can you push a stroller with a 7 year old and a 2.5 year old?  Answer - No.)

(Riding the carousel! That girl on the outside had me nervous. She was riding alone and had issues like: couldn't get on the horse & when she did, her shoes fell off.  Sheesh.)

(Feeding the giraffe some lettuce -- Bean loved it this time!  Maybe it was the fact that we were at eye level with the giraffe and it's long tongue couldn't get through the fence.)

(Brushing the goats!  Bean wasn't traumatized by the poop this time, either.  She's growing up!)

(All 3 napped on the way home!)

I feared a huge fall out when Ahm & Gabbie had to leave.  But Bean was actually okay with their departure.  She talks about Gabbie constantly and just says, "play Gabbie in a few weeks".  I guess that means I have to do some cousin planning for Bean! Steve went back to work while my mom was still here.  His work is pretty crazy this month and he had to work a Saturday - leaving me at home for the first time with 2 kids for an extended amount of time.  It was a success! 

(Sprout got a little too comfortable in daddy's arms -- if you know what I mean!)

(I'm learning that bribery is great motivation.  A sucker and new play-doh toy eased the pain of Gabbie's departure.)

(We went to our friends' house for 4th of July.  We let Bean do her first sparkler, and she got a minor burn from trying to touch it after it burnt. She still had fun, though!)

(A shockingly good photo!)

This past weekend, Steve's family was able to come visit and meet Sprout!  I sucked at taking photos and came out with only 2 from the whole weekend.  His parents arrived on Friday and stayed until Monday night - giving me some extra help while Steve was at work! Scott, Ashley, & Tyson came up for Friday night & Saturday and gave Bean some extra attention and a new toy -- a sprinkler!

Our weekend was filled with lots of yummy food on the grill thanks to Doug & getting to sleep in thanks to Trisha! She would wake up with Bean and allow us to catch some extra sleep in the morning.  It may not seem like much, but it was a huge help for us!  They also helped Steve get some maintenance items checked off his list -- washing/waxing our car and scraping/painting some trim on the back of the house.

(While the others worked, I played with Bean outside with her new "Frozen" sprinkler from Scott & Ashley! She is timid to do it on her own, but loved being held as I ran around it, getting us both wet.)

(Bean wanted to be outside and paint, too.  So I gave her a cup of water & a brush.  She loved it.)

A Special Visit (with an unplanned dilemma)!

Bean had some special visitors come during Memorial Weekend -- Mommom & Poppop! She got some extra attention and got to bond deeper with her grandparents.  She's ready for them to come back after baby sister comes!

While Steve's parents were here, we packed a lot in -- 2 trips to our favorite ice cream spot (which makes the preggo happy!), lawn work, grilled out each day, a trip to a new nature park, Trisha headed up all meal preps giving me a break, and even Scott and Ashley came up to spend some time with us! 

(I think someone has her Poppop wrapped around her little finger.  Who can resist Bean's sweet little, "play with me??" request?!)

(Even though Mommom was the official story/bedtime manager, Bean was able to get Poppop to read her one story before nap.)

(No trip would be complete without some art time with Mommom!)

(I have no idea where this game came from, but Bean found my sewing measuring tape.  She would have 2 people hold it across the room.  We were then told to make the tape bounce while she jumped next to it saying, "Jump on the ceiling, doo doo doo!"  She was entertained this way for HOURS. Seriously HOURS. She still sings her little chant and jumps around the house, but the tape measure is no longer needed.)

(Sporting her glasses and of course a stick on our little nature walk at the new park!)

We had a great weekend and are thankful that Steve's parents are willing and able to make the trek out our way to spend time with us.  We also appreciated their flexibility when our fridge went totally caput! We've had lots of issues with it, but usually a simple defrost and resetting the fridge fixes it.  Not this time.  We could get the freezer compartment back up and running, but the fridge portion temp would never fall below "danger zone".  So while they were here, they watched Bean and let us run to a store and fridge shop.  The new fridge is ordered, but won't get here until AFTER sprout arrives - yikes! In a cool twist of fate, friends of my parents were visiting them in IN and were able/willing to detour on their trip back home to drop off my college fridge! So now we are using a tiny fridge, but making it work!

(Never a good sign. I am super thankful that we have a big freezer in our basement! It became a lifesaver!)

(The fridge was definitely the most stressful part of the weekend for me.  After working in a dining court in college, I have food safety drilled into me.  Seeing the thermometer in the danger zone everytime I opened the fridge sent me into a panic.  We did purge a bunch of food and have had to limit what's in our small fridge now.)

(My college fridge, haha.  It definitely makes me feel like we live in Europe -- tiny fridge to only store essentials and multiple trips to the store for the week.  It sounds worse than it is.  It's kind of nice to have a reason to get out of the house a few times a week and is helping to pass time before Sprout comes.  But boy will I be happy when that new fridge comes!)

A Very Happy Mother's Day (Week)

With Sprout due in just a little over a month (at the time of mother's day), my own mom was willing to come out and spend a few days with us and give me some much needed help!  She claims she didn't do much, but just having an extra set of hands around the house and someone to give Bean some extra attention does wonders for this tired momma ;-).  

She came the week leading up to Mother's Day.  Between having her here for a few days and Steve taking over most of the parental responsibilities for my Mother's Day Weekend, I got nearly a week "break" of being a mom.  I obviously just can't turn that off and desire to still spend time and give attention to Bean, but it was nice to not feel the weight of "motherhood responsibility" for that week!

While my mom was here, we had a library trip, special lunch outing, ran other errands, and mom babysat 2 nights in a row! It worked out that she was able to watch not only Bean, but also Bean's friend James one evening while I attended an awards ceremony for James's mom (which she won the Lima Chamber of Commerce award for emerging business! Go Sara's Sweets!) and Steve was at AWANA.  

(Congrats Sara!!  The awards ceremony was on Star Wars Day - May 4th and they had a Star Wars themed Gala.  How could I pass up on that?!)

(Mom documented her portion of the evening with the 2 kids.  Bean being her typical crazy and James losing it over Bean being crazy. Haha, okay, usually it's not this bad.  He didn't nap and just wanted to cuddle and NOT play in a block castle with Bean.)

(I stole some light saber/glow stick decorations to take home to Bean.  Ahm had to show her the proper way to fight with light sabers.)

(Soaking up all the attention)

(Kisses for Bean!)

(Love back to Ahm!)

My mom returned back to IN on Friday.  In the Ackerman house, Mother's/Father's Days are just enjoyed on the Sunday, but the entire weekend.  Steve stepped up parental duties and did all the story times/ tucking in at night (and dealt the multiple bathroom trips or crying because a toy fell out of bed) and even let me sleep in one day (usually I let him sleep in on the weekends since he wakes up so much earlier during the week).  He also made sure to make my duties easier by getting dinner 2 nights AND lunch one afternoon.  I only had to cook once the whole weekend, and it was glorious.  But the best part of my weekend, was soaking up time with my precious little family.  Hard to believe there will be one more added into this crazy soon! 

(I tried to get a decent shot of Bean with some flowers to send out to our mom's and such, but she was very uncooperative.  She didn't care for the sun being in her eyes, or for sitting still.  She just wanted to go and play on the neighbor's swing set.)

(I was surprised on Saturday morning with breakfast in bed! I was blown away.  I actually was thinking of asking the others if they wanted to go out and get breakfast once I was up, but Steve and been secretly slaving away in the kitchen.)

(Steve is not a cook.  He will be the first to admit that.  Good thing he had a cute sous chef who knew what she was doing to help him out!  I was very impressed with his cooking! I'm not a fan of french toast or eggs for that matter, but his were very good! He had researched the recipes and did a great job!)

(We all piled on the bed and ate a delicious breakfast together.  I'm not sure what Bean thought of eating on the bed.  I really thought we'd hear about it and her want to eat up there for meals later on, but she hasn't asked about it.)

(We ended our weekend by making some special red velvet brownies.  Bean LOVES to help in the kitchen.  She always gets disappointed when she can't help me with something -- like making dinner with raw meat.  I can tell you one thing, if there's chocolate involved -- she's right there to help in the process and earn her chocolate chips or licking the spatula.)

(A chocolate mustache is always the best kind of mess to clean up.)

I am one blessed Momma!

Fun with Cousins

My sister and her family chose to use the last few days of their Spring Break to come visit us! The stayed for only a few days, but we made most of the time -- and Bean LOVED all the cousin attention.  While they were here, we went to the Boonshoft Children's Museum in Dayton and spent a lot of time just hanging out at our house.  My brother-in-law was able to come along with them and Steve was able to take off a day to put him to work on our new project (blog post to come as it progress).  

(Bean loved playi

ng in this boat at the museum.  There wasn't much to it other than sitting and turning the wheel.)

(This museum has a really neat play area in the middle that involves lots of climbing and tube slides.  Bean was intimidated at first, but would do the tube tunnel in another area.  Eventually, she put aside her fear and made my sister take her through all the tubes in the play area.  All I have to say is that I've climbed through enough of those tubes with my nieces in the past and was super thankful my sister donned her Super Aunt cape for the day.)

(There was a little tidal pool that you got to feel some sea creatures.  I don't think Bean was ever adventurous enough to touch the animals, but I think she did splash a little in the water.)

(The museum has little rooms set up with different themes.  Bean loved "driving" the recycling truck.  Which really means, she loved hitting all the buttons that made the lights and sounds come on.)

("Help! Help! Help!" Bean got a kick out of being in the slammer.  If only they provided the parents with a lock and an hour to leave their kids in there. . . )

(Playing in the "dirt" - rubber pieces - and learning about landfills.)

(In the grocery store, Bean formed a weird attachment to the asparagus.  She dug them all out of the vegetable bin and lined them all up on the counter.  She would go around and give certain people an asparagus, and would get upset if she found it back in the bin or given to someone else.  It was weird.)

(Chris showing off his awesome dad moves in the dance room with all the girls.)

(Another huge win in the museum was the water tables.  I think I spent most of my time with Bean in the different water sections.)

(My nieces are big on playing their tablets and gameboys.  They can link their games all together and play together.  Bean wanted to play with Gabbie so Amber helped her out.  What are aunts for?!)

(Making cookies together - gluten free, too! They had an assembly line and each had a job to get it accomplished.  I think the incentive of getting to eat the cookies and Hershey kisses was their motivation.)

(Have I mentioned before how much Bean loves Gabbie??  She enjoys playing with  each cousin, but I think because they are closest in age, Bean latches on to Gabbie -- who is a trooper and allows it to happen.)

Saying goodbye to the family was a little rough for Bean.  We had to distract her with promises of movies and special treats for the evening.  Over the next few days, I'd get questions about when she'd see her cousins again.  Today (3 weeks later), she told me she was going to get to play with her cousins after she woke up from her nap.  Sorry sweetie, it may be awhile before that happens.  Between them finishing up school and baby sister coming soon, there isn't any IN trips in the works.