LUKE | TWO & THREE WHOLE MONTHS

oh my sweet baby boy, how are you three months??! the pass two months have gone by so quickly.

you have been such the little trooper. when you were just two weeks old, we packed up and moved out of our townhome and moved in with you grandparents (my in-laws.) we lived with them for four weeks while our home was finishing up then when you were six weeks we moved out of your grandparents' home into our brand new home. it's crazy to know that in your first two months of life you have moved three times but you did it. it was easy since you just eat, sleep, poop and repeat.

you are the happiest little baby except for when you are hungry or tired then you become a grumpy and angry old man. your daddy says that isn't much different then me, ha! but you are my little baby boy and i just love you so. i love that you smile all.the.time and it just melts my heart. i love that when i talk to you, you giggle and laugh ... i swear you do. i love that you coo and ahh, it's the sweetest sound. i love that when you don't see me, you fuss a little then when i return you give me the biggest smile. i love the way you watch your sister play and when she talks to you, you look right into her eyes. i think the two of you will be the best of friends. you sister loves you and every time you smile at her she says "look! luke's smiling at madelyn!"

what do you love | when people are talking you. playing on your activity mat, you have started to punch and grab at the toys and i'm pretty sure you get super excited when you get a hold of one. talking. snuggling. 

what do you dislike | the carseat, i think you're about to get an upgrade because you hate it so much. 

schedule & sleep | you are still on a every three hour feeding schedule but you're getting at least 8 hours of sleep at night. we are working on at least one crib nap during the day which is a hit or miss. you're going to bed around 8:30-9pm and you'll usually sleep until 2:30am. at which point i'm coming in every 45 minutes to pop your binkie in or catching a few zzzz's on the floor or given in and taking you to our room. but you always usually go back to sleep and you wait for your 6am feeding.

activities | we started letting you sit in your bumbo and i think you love it. you usually sit in it when we eat dinner and i'm pretty sure you can't wait for you four month check up to get the green light to start feeding you some food. you are my chunky baby boy and i love every single one of those chunky rolls. 

i started back at work three weeks ago so our morning routines have been less snuggling (insert all the ugly cry emojis) and more go go go. let me tell you ... i've been amazed how i get myself showered, two little ones ready and out the door at a decent time. it's not always smooth sailing but we got it most days.
you are the best little baby and we just love you oh so much!

[here's the little man's two month picture ;)]

LUKE | ONE WHOLE MONTH

my sweet baby boy, how is it that you are already one month?!? it really seems like it was just yesterday that we were introducing you to your big sister. although i'm pretty sure the lack of sleep is contributing to the last thirty plus days all running into one another.

you came into this world a little sooner and a little quicker than we were expecting but honestly it's so crazy hard to remember what our life was like without you. it's truly amazing how you seamlessly fit right in.

we had your one month check up a little over a week ago and you are a beautifully growing baby boy. at a whopping nine pound nine ounces ... so different from your itty bitty sister.

oh how i have absolutely falling in love with you ... i love the way you look at me with your wondering eyes, there's not a single doubt in my mind that you are not a mama's boy. i love that full head of dark hair and the way it stands up after your bath. i love that you want to snuggle all the time. i love seeing the smiles that you make when you hear my voice and the two little dimples that appear, those will be trouble for the ladies in your teenage years i'm sure. i love how mesmerized you are by your big sister and how she entertains us all.

you're not a fan of tummy time and have already rolled your little self over a few times. your neck strength is on point, it kind of impresses me how determine you are to look around and see what's going on around you at all times. you're definitely unsure about bath time which your sister loved. we're working on getting you on a sleep schedule, eating every three hour, more awake time during the day and attempting at least one nap in your bassinet or pack n play. as of the last two weeks you get your bath around 8pm, your last feeding is around 8:30pm and your down for the night around 9pm. you're waking up around 3am a little fussy so we end up having a little night time feeding session then you're up again around 6am. i realized that the traditional swaddle that worked with your sister is not working for you as you have ninja like skills and break free. which is totally impressive but when your little reflexes keep waking both of us up every few hours at night we need a solution. so this week we met our new best friend, the swaddle me blanket. hoping this will provide us with a few more consistent hours of sleep at night because mama definitely needs it.

although you are a fussy little dude,  you are our fussy little dude and we wouldn't want to have it any other way. HAPPIEST ONE MONTH to you my baby boy! i love you all the way to the moon and back.

FAMILY MATERNITY PICTURES

today is luke's due date.
so in honor of our little man, i thought i share our sweet maternity pictures. these beautiful pictures were taken by my dear friend and ah-mazing photographer, brooke of brooke whitney photography. thank you so much, we absolutely love these and so very thankful you were there to capture this special time for us.

MADELYN LEE | TWO YEAR RECAP

where did this last year go?!! i feel like we just celebrated madelyn's first birthday but my dear friends we have a two year old toddler. the monday after m's second birthday we had her two year check up and we're lucky that she is just growing beautifully. 

age: two

height: 32 1/4 inches (13th percentile) weight: 22 lbs (our pediatrician said they changed their standard charts so madelyn is actually under the chart which is expected since she was such a petite baby) head: 47.5 cm (53th percentile)

clothing: can still wear 6-12 months tops/dresses. definitely 12 month bottoms. i'm buying mostly 18-24 months as it fits and she has room to grow. she's a little peanut. she's wearing size 4/5 shoes which has been exciting since there are so many more options. plus girlfriends loves her shoes and is definitely starting to have an opinion on what shoes she would like to wear. 

favorite toys: absolutely loves reading and i really hope she keeps this love as she grows. one of her current favorite books is the little mouse, the red ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear. this play kitchen and shopping cart. alphabet puzzle, she's really recongzing the letters and loves the colors.  

favorite activities: singing, girlfriend is a singer. her jam is t.swift's "shake it off." she sings the lyrics and dances, it's so cute i'm trying to catch it on video but most of the time i am driving so i haven't had a chance yet. playing with bubbles and outside, she loves walking to check the mail with me. dolls and stuffed animals, her imagination is really amazing and the things she comes up blows our mind. she loves arts & crafts, drawing with her crayons, playing with stickers and sidewalk chalk. 

favorite foods: chicken, loves any and all kind. she's been really digging chicken tacos. avocados. apple sauce, i can't tell you how many she probably eats a day it's embarrassing. veggie sticks and potato chips. cheez-its. croissants. bagels and cream cheese or just eating the cream cheese. turkey and sprinkle cookie (it's a must everything we walk into publix, we have a routine and she knows it). 

favorite words: madelyn's vocabulary is out of this world. we're impressed with how clear and well she can speak and from our last appointment the doctor believes that she is definitely advanced for her age in this area. she's already putting sentences together and correcting them, it's crazy. she's like a little person and not my little baby, that i am actually having real conversations with her. vy and i have reached the stage where we're realizing that we need to watch what we say especially while we're driving since she's such a little sponge.
some of our recent favorite phrases:
"oh.my.goodness" - when she sees something that excites her
"i silly" - when she laughs and we laugh
"no mama, i do not like that" - when she doesn't want to do something i ask her to do
"i'm very sad" - after she does something she isn't suppose to do and we tell her no
"that's right, good job" - when she announces a letter and we repeat it back to her
"oh, good morning mama/dada" - in the morning when we come in to get her out of bed

signature moves: fist bumps then making it explode. singing and dancing, all.day.every.day. she loves any song i think she has every heard and will bust them out at any moment. vy and i laugh while we're driving because we get little remixes of nursery rhythms but it's the cutest to hear her little voice sing. she loves a good "wheels on the bus, row row row your bow, five little monkeys, itsy bitsy spider, rain rain go away."

this age i think is my favorite. she is just the sweetest and is really growing into her little personality. it's amazing how she communicates with us and we just love listening to her. although her frustration has released a few tantrums and we're learning together how to discipline and the best ways for her to express herself using her words, this is just the little part called parenting. we just love her to pieces and adores this little child of ours. thinking that her time as an only child is coming to end very soon has me feeling all kinds of emotions but my heart is truly full knowing that she is going to be the best big sister to her little brother that i cannot wait to see her in her new role.

oh how we love you all the way to the moon and back.

OUR LITTLE LAMB

today madelyn had her first last day of pre-school. i cannot believe it. i feel like it was just yesterday that we dropped her off for her first day of school and i cried more than she did. my little homegirl, she did it and she loved every minute of it so we celebrated with an ice cream cone.

TWO.

over the weekend, our sweet baby girl madelyn turned two. how??! [insert the ugly cry] 

we woke up saturday morning and sang happy birthday to our little birthday girl. all last week we kept talking about how it was going to be her birthday and teaching her how to say "happy birthday to me." so when she woke up she was all about it, all day we reminded her it was her birthday and when we would ask her "how old are you?!" she would put out a peace sign and say "I TWO!" The cutest thing ever! 

we celebrated with a party at gymbroee play & music with our closest family and friends. i was hesitate in the beginning to not have a birthday party for her at our house and the thought of not being able to decorate like a crazy lady was a little heart breaking but with our house being on the market and oh you know being 37 weeks preggo, it was a smart move from vy to book it. i didn't know how madelyn would like gymbroee since we had never been to one before but i felt like out of all the options out there it was the best fit for her little personality. we got the whole space to ourselves for an hour and half, there was a teacher to sing and play activities with the little ones and it was honestly a lot of fun. as soon as we got there madelyn was running around so excited to play with everything and loved singing along. it really couldn't have been any better and she loved every minute of it. 

it was a beautiful weekend filled with so much love. 

HAPPIEST 2ND BIRTHDAY TO OUR BABY GIRL, MADELYN LEE!

we love you with every piece of our hearts!

THE ZOO

we had a long family weekend, we wanted to go to the beach but our plans fell through so we decided to take advantage of our long weekend and do some fun things with just the three of us. 

on friday we went to zoo atlanta. the zoo is really beautiful and the paths are well shaded that it was quite nice to walk around. however, my recommendation is to go early (i.e. right when they open) or in the afternoon or maybe not on a friday. we got there around 10:30am and it was field trip central for the kiddos. there were so.many.kids running around and it was really hard for madelyn to get her chance to see the animals or really absorb the moment before a bigger kid would block her view. 

the flamingos are the first ones to greet you, there are so many and madelyn kept calling them ducks.

madelyn was a huge fan of the gorillas, there is a little sitting area where you can just watch them. there were quite a few baby gorillas, they were so cute playing with each other. madelyn got a huge giggle attack when one of the little babies began to roll down the hill, it was too cute.

another one of m's favorites was the panda bears. she kept saying "bear, cutting grass! mommy ... bear, cut grass!?" i mean, i guess it kind of looks like that. i love this age and how big her imagination is. 

by this time madelyn was starting to lose her marbles so we knew we needed a quick snack and a carousel ride before heading home. i wasn't sure how she would take the carousel but she ended up loving it!! as we would go by vy, she would wave at him with the biggest smile.

this age, right here is the best. we had such a fun day running around after her, watching her and listening to her explanation of everything she was seeing.

i love this little family of mine! xo

MADELYN'S EASTER BASKET

i started putting madelyn's easter basket together in the beginning of march, i was just so excited!

lamb | m has been obsessed with singing "mary has a little lamb" so when we walked into pbk a few weeks ago and she saw this lamb she just had to have it. i am surprised that she has forgotten about this cutie but come sunday i have a feeling it'll be her new best friend.

isla lace headband | i've become a huge fan of willow crowns' headbands so when they dropped their new spring line i just had to get m one. i'm thinking she'll definitely wear this for either my maternity or our newborn photo session.

felt bows | these are my favorite bows, hands down. the quality and the colors are just perfection. there was no doubt that m needed to add a few more to her collection.

what's an easter basket without a few books?!! madelyn loves her books and to read, i really hope she keeps her love as she grows.

happy easter, mouse | these are the cutest so obviously she needed one for this holiday.

baby's first book of prayers | we pray with m everyday so i thought it was would to nice to have a few more. plus, it's pure sweetness when she says "amen."

i'm a big sister | i thought this would be perfect for m as she is going to be a big sister soon.

bring home baby | for m's first birthday she got a baby stella and just loves her. she requests to her just about everywhere. recently she has been really interested in taking care of her with changing her diaper and such. so with her big sister promotion approaching i thought this little play set would be the cutest and i know she's just going to love it.

knotty tots moccs | these are my favorite moccs for madelyn. i love them for the fringe and bows. i saw these custom designs on instagram and knew m needed these little mary jane style clara moccs for her spring/summer wardrobe.

taylor joelle dress | duh, every little girl need a aqua lace tulle dress and i'm thinking this will be perfect for one of our upcoming photo sessions.

lip smackers | girlfriend is obessed with chapstick. every.single.time i take my out mine she just needs to put some on her lips too so i knew it would be perfect to get her some of her own. plus these little gems are just classic.

peeps lolli | this little bunny is just plain cute.

bubbles | last summer madelyn couldn't get enough of blowing bubbles so with warmer weather on the horizon it'll be so fun to get outside and enjoy these grape scented bubbles.

basket | (from michaels) girlfriend did get an upgrade from last year.

i cannot wait to give madelyn her basket of goodies because i know she's just going to love it!

Joining in with [the good life blog's]