Wallace and his trucks!

This kid and his toy trucks.  He's hilarious!  This evening he was really doing his best to stay up late, and managed to outlast both of his sisters.  I've never seen him line the trucks up like this before.  I guess because it kind of reminds me of myself, these little OCD tendencies I catch in my kids just tends to tug at my heartstrings.  

Also...man!...am I glad I bought the flash!  I'd of had a seriously hard time getting these pics otherwise, and if I'd made a big scene by turning on a light, he'd of clammed up and given me his fierce face the whole time.

They were actually lined up in a straight line when I first noticed him, but it took me a minute or two to change lenses and get the flash on the camera.

Once I sat down he started pushing the trucks back and forth with me.  :)

On a side note...looks like it's about time for me to whip out those clippers and scalp him again.

Moving on....

This past weekend Josh and I put our house on the market.  It's kind of bittersweet for me.  We're ready for a bigger house, but we have put so much time and money into this one getting it perfect.  Not to mention we've lived here for 8 years...a lot's happened in 8 years...  

We got married (I know...we lived in sin...the Catholic Church made sure to lay the guilt on us that year).  I remember putting together the bouquets for my wedding in my kitchen, and all of the bridesmaids coming over here to get their hair and make up done.  

I've made a big career move.  I went from my ridiculous travelling field job to my posh office digs...with no travel! 

I broke my first bone!  Josh has had 2 surgeries!  We've had so many friends come and visit....family camp out on our floor....hosted a family Thanksgiving!  Had Anna and Wallace's first Christmases, Easters, Halloweens, etc.

The biggest thing that's happened in the past 8 years has been that we had all 3 babies while living in this house...in fact, my water broke in my bedroom with each one of them!  I remember the night we brought Anna home from the hospital (all 5 pounds of her), and Josh and I were so scared she'd just stop breathing in her sleep that we laid on the bed staring at her in the pack and play until we both fell asleep.  We moved my Mom here and found her a house practically right behind ours so she could help with the kids...  I've watched Josh's office slowly become the kids' play room.  We've had 2 baptism parties here...  

It really is crazy to think of all the big and little things that have happened since we've lived here. 

In the past 8 years we've made a lot of changes to this house.  Apparently good changes.  Within hours of putting it on the market people started scheduling showings!  I honestly thought it might sit stagnant for a month or so, but Josh and I will be meeting with the realtor tomorrow to select which bid we're going to go with.  I actually had them shut down the showings because they were pretty much going on all day long.  Since we didn't know exactly when it would go on the market...and obviously didn't expect the amount of interest we got, I can't be mad at Josh for conveniently being out of the COUNTRY!!!  For 3 days straight I would clean my house from top to bottom, and load the kids up for an entire day at Granny's.  Even though it's just a short walk away, it wasn't easy with an infant.  Glad that part of this process is over. 

While we were at Granny's I took advantage of the help and took a bunch of pictures of Anna and Wallace playing.  

Granny actually sent me an iphone photo very similar to this one last month, and I was super excited when the kids randomly did it again so I could take their picture with the fancy camera.  :)

Barring any major catastrophes with the contract, it appears our house is selling much faster than anticipated.  Which means....we don't have another house lined up just yet.  "/  I'm pretty much in full panic mode and can't wait for Josh to get home tonight so I can pick his brain and get a feel for his panic level.  Josh doesn't really ever panic though, so if nothing else...maybe he'll be able to calm me down.

Wallace's Fierceness

I got to spend some time with just Wallace today!  Well, sort of.  Meredith was there too, but Palani was over to help out.  Anyway, my kids (probably like all kids) love to be pushed on the swing.  I'm pretty sure I could just stand there and push them for hours, and they'd never get tired of it.  I got some super awesome pictures of Anna on a swing when she was about Wallace's age.  She was just laughing hysterically and having a blast.  So, I thought I'd see if I could get some of him too.  His are cute in a different way.  He's all fierce and never smiles, and pretty much has the same look on his face the whole time.  Oh, and since he doesn't have long hair, he kind of looks like he's sitting still in most of the pics.  :)

Haha!  He did something different with his mouth.  :)

A cordless baby!

Meredith's umbilical cord fell off!  This is super exciting.  No more sponge baths, she can now have her navel submerged!  I really look forward to this moment.  Anna absolutely loved her baths as a baby...if she was screaming and upset, I could just go put her in the bath, and she'd relax and calm right down.  

When Wallace's cord fell off, I remember being so excited to put him in the tub for the first time, but then he completely freaked out and acted like I was trying to drown him or something!  It was horrible!  And being a less is more kind of mom...I really struggled to go buy him a bath hammock seat thing.  The fear in his eyes one evening broke me down...I made an emergency trip to Target and bought him one.  After that bath time was quite pleasant.  :)

So, last night I gave Meredith her first bath.  Being a bath seats are vital kind of mom, I noticed weeks ago that Josh must have thrown out Wallace's old seat, so I bought Meredith a new one.  I was ready, camera in hand....this kid is going to love her bath!

Not so much.....

fail, fail, fail......

She screamed from the second I took her diaper off.  :(  

*sigh*  Maybe it was just gas.... Oh well.  We'll keep trying; kind of have to...

Newborn Photography...not for the faint of heart

Things kind of calmed down here this afternoon, so I figured what better time to bust out the tripod and attempt to get some fancy shots of Meredith!  I've been looking for inspiration on Pinterest for a while now, and I have all sorts of great ideas and concepts for super cute stuff to do....the only problem is I don't have a willing model....  "/

Admittedly, I did not heat my house up to a balmy 85 degrees before making this attempt, as was recommended on numerous websites.  It might have helped; however, Meredith has grown very accustomed to lying on my chest practically 24/7.  It'll probably be a little bittersweet for her to grow out of this phase, so for now I'm okay with the fact that if she's not snuggled up on someone, she's pretty much pissed off.  

After 3 attempts at laying her down on the bed and sneaking back to the camera, I managed to get a couple of keepers.  And then I decided to test out some Lightroom presets I got online recently.  I think they look pretty good...but it's easy to get carried away in editing and make your baby look like an alien.  Hopefully, I haven't gone there and just can't see it for myself.  :)

As you can tell, homegirl was WIDE AWAKE for this ridiculously quick photo session.  This made for some nice open-eyed pics, but none of those lazy, chubby, curled up in a cute ball newborn ones I was thinking I might be able to get.

Also, since she was pretty much hating this whole process, I didn't get to put the super cute little elf hats I bought on her.  They're pretty stretchy though, so I think I'll be able to use them in a few months when she's maybe a bit more independent.  We'll see.