Slice of Life: Back to Kansas (5/17/16)

Well hi! Popping in today with a quick update from the Kansas home front! Tomorrow my baby girl will be a month old, and I’m just over here trying to figure out how time has gone by so fast. My every thought and every move the last 30 days has been solely focused in one way or another on my daughters, and I’ve never felt so drained and simultaneously filled up with the very best emotions all at the same time. I’m convinced that God gives new mamas superhero powers to survive and thrive during the newborn days.

Last Wednesday afternoon we scooped up a small U-haul, packed it to the brim, and hit the road Thursday morning around 5 a.m. to make the 810 mile trip back to Kansas! We always prefer to get on the road as early as possible when we have a large trip ahead because it seems to make the day go by much faster. Sadie and I don’t sleep much at night anyway, so getting up at that hour was no problem. 😉

You can only imagine how the idea of traveling with a two year old who needs bathroom breaks and a breastfeeding three week old mega overwhelmed me, but I knew that even if the trip was a total disaster that it was only one day and that our prize at the end of it would be our own home.

Hadley was content for 90% of the trip as long as she had snacks to throw around the car to eat and a Disney princess movie playing on her (p.s. I highly recommend this tablet for small kiddos). We stopped so that I could feed Sadie four times, and she also got a bottle once that I fed to her while we were driving.

I banked on Sadie sleeping the whole trip, and she did for the first 12 hours. The last two hours were really tough for her because she wanted out of her car seat, so I did my best to hold on for dear life to my sanity and focus on how close we were to having this trip (and this entire journey) behind us.

I’d never ever been more thankful for my dear friend Meg than when we walked in the door and found groceries on our counter and in our refrigerator. We’d basically just eaten snacks all day long in the car so that we wouldn’t have to fool with stopping for and eating fast food, so coming home and eating some hot egg sandwiches was just what the doctor ordered for everybody. I needed some protein to power through what I knew would be a long night awake with Sadie.

The entire time I was creating Sadie’s nursery I envisioned her being in there one day, so I was absolutely tickled to lay her down in her crib for the first time and introduce her to her own home. 🙂

My dad stayed for two full days before he caught a flight back to Alabama Sunday morning. He helped entertain the girls while I tried to unpack and get us resettled as quickly as possible. He left us for a couple hours Friday morning to go return the U-haul and run a couple errands, but I didn’t think anything of it.

Later that afternoon I walked into the sunroom after being back in my bedroom for a while folding clothes, and I immediately saw a FISH BOWL… WITH REAL, LIVE FISH. Hadley was on CLOUD NINE and smiling from ear to ear, and I just stood there with my mouth open. He really bought my daughter fish. OMG.

 

There’s a back story to the fish though. My parents have one of those jumbo tanks in their basement, and every single day for two months Hadley met my dad at the door, grabbed his hand, and together they went to feed the fish. It was their thing, and it was very, very sweet to watch day in and day out. She didn’t want to see the tank with anybody else but my dad.

Dad apparently didn’t want Hadley to miss the fish, so he bought her her own. This comes as a surprise to exactly ZERO people who know my dad. He’s a total goofball in a quiet, very dry-humored way.

One of them already went to Heaven because apparently I’m a bad fish mom. I think the other one is on it’s way out too, and you know what? Hadley couldn’t care one ounce less. She wants nothing to do with them now that Dad is gone. Saves me having to explain why we’re flushing her pets down the toilet! Yikes.

I’ve started putting Sadie in his crib for short naps, and she’s doing okay! We transitioned Hadley to her crib full-time when she was around 10 weeks old and Jamie and I were really glad we did, so we’re hoping to do the same with Sadie. I’m already learning though that what worked with Hadley might not necessarily work with Sadie, so we’ll see how it goes.

 

Yesterday we reunited with some of our best buddies, the Landers! Meg & I got to girl-talk for hours, Hadley and Jack were too precious and ran around belly-laughing and playing the whole time, and both of our tiny baby girls got to meet! Meg’s daughter Brynn is a little less than five weeks older than Sadie, and it was so fun to meet each other’s baby after going through our entire pregnancies together.

And look who’s here with helping hands! Jamie’s mom drove up from Austin a few days ago and is planning to stay for a couple of weeks. We’re so grateful for her company and help!

Now that we’re home, I’m slowly but surely trying to find a natural schedule that works for all of us. Thanks for keeping up with our little fam as we figure out exactly what that new normal looks like. 🙂