Hello and Happy Monday! I don’t have a lot of pictures or a lot of words, so let that be a sign of how tired I am but also that we had a pretty low-key weekend. Much appreciated since we leave for vacation at the end of this week!

I took the kids over to Grandma’s on Friday morning and Chad had a new blow up for Dempsey. They sure do spoil him 🤍😂 I worked most the day then headed out for a pre-vaca mani/pedi. Since I was over by Edgewater Public Market, I convinced Joey to meet me there with the kids for dinner. Not sure if it was because it was early or if the week after New Year’s is a slow week for dining out but it felt pretty dead in there. I similarly felt zapped of energy 😅 We didn’t get Dempsey to sleep until 9:30 and we are officially in that in between area where we’re desperate for a midday break and him to nap but then when he does, he won’t go to bed until late and that’s hard too. Eek!

We had a rough night! Dempsey woke up at 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6… He will sometimes tell us his leg hurts but I often think he wakes up for other reasons (this night I think it was because he was sooooo stuffed up) and can’t really figure out why he’s upset and that’s his go-to answer. Anyway, Lydia and I got up at 7 and headed downstairs at 7:30 to start waffles while the boys got another half hour of sleep. Later that morning, Joey and Dempsey went to Home Depot and made a delivery truck! Then we all loaded in the car and headed to Longmont. My sister-in-law’s mother passed away just after Thanksgiving and they were hosting a celebration of life for her. It was a really nice turn out and we got to see family we hadn’t seen in so long, plus hearing stories from Barb’s life was wonderful. Such a heartbreaking thing to go through, so I am thinking of all of them during this first year without her 🤍 It was so cute seeing Dempsey with my niece and nephew and their cousin on the other side, who Dempsey was meeting for the first time! Got our babies home (and maybe picked up a 4 PM coffee that didn’t even keep me up that night so you KNOW I was tired 😂) and then Joey cooked us dinner!!! I’ve been our main meal maker the past few years, so it was a nice treat and also a good reminder to let him do that more often 😋 Dempsey DIDN’T nap that day so he went to bed EARLY and we started May December but we haven’t finished it yet, so final thoughts TBD.

Not going to lie, I was in a funk most of the day Sunday and I’m not sure why. We opted to cook breakfast at home and I walked over to the Cottage Bakery for mid-morning treats. Don’t tell Lydia we all ate buttery pastries while she was napping 😂 Dempsey told me he’d take a good nap, so we went through the whole routine, only for him to tell me he changed his mind at the end. We have not been successful with quiet time yet, so Joey went up and tried to do some calmer playtime with him while Lyds and I hung out downstairs. Once it was her naptime again, Dempsey and Joey came downstairs then headed to Hops and Pie to watch the Cowboys game. I had a whole half hour to myself before that little girl woke up 😂 Leftovers for dinner then we made popcorn for the Golden Globes! The kids were starting to melt down and maybe the parents too, so we only made it a few minutes into the show before taking them upstairs for bed. They were alseep by 8 so we actually got to watch most the show in peace! I thought the host did a very lame job but I thought there were some pretty good presenter pairs, namely Andra Day & Jon Batiste, Issa Rae & Simu Liu and Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell! 

Wishing you all a happy week!

Our New Year’s Eve was a bit of a mess and I think it might be a sign of what’s to come in 2024 😬😅 I am a person who thrives off of structure and predictability, plus we’ve just been so spoiled with a child that has followed a pretty set schedule for 3 years, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t struggling a bit right now. Not know when or if my children will sleep — thank god for Lydi napping like a pro during the day — is a really tough adjustment for me and I’ve found myself frustrated, angry and worn thin more often than I’d like. I’m hoping I can at least mentally adjust to this phase/change in our sleep habits and daily routine so I can spend the energy I do have on the funny and happy parts of having two young children, so let that be one of my goals for 2024 😄

A low-key Friday. I worked, started this BTS documentary while pumping (I’m down to just one daytime session and it’s a relief!) and started beef stew in the crockpot so by the time Joey got home with the kids, we had dinner ready 💪 So good too! Lydia ate three servings and Dempsey ate four bites and both felt like a success 😂

A very important parenting milestone when I woke up at 4 AM to Dempsey standing next to my bed 😂😂😂 Been waiting for that since moving him out of his crib! He slept the rest of the night in our room and by some kind of miracle, Lydia was NOT in our bed — I was ADAMANT about not co-sleeping when Dempsey was little and that mindset has gone completely out the window with the second child — so it wasn’t so bad. As long as it doesn’t become a habit…

Saturday morning, we celebrated Christmas with Lori. Had Snooze for breakfast first, then straight into a frenzy of present opening! Everyone got such cool stuff and I couldn’t even begin to list it all but Dempsey got some Tonka trucks, a remote control Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pizza delivery van that shoots little pizzas 😂🤍 and a really awesome science experiment kit that we’ve already played with and loved, while Lydia got a Little People Barbie house, some cute outfits and a matching bouncing and spinning dog ride thing (I have no idea what to call this 🤷‍♀️😂) with Delaney. The girls were loving it! We are all truly spoiled 😍 Spent the rest of the day playing and I think everyone but me took a nap. We had leftovers for dinner and once the kids were asleep, Joey and I started Saltburn. More on this later 😋

Happy New Year’s Eve! Our night involved Lydia in our bed earlier in the night and Dempsey in our bed later in the night but we did wake up with just the two of us in there at 7 AM 😅 I made us some egg and dairy-free pancakes and it was all worth it when Lydia actually ate some! Later that morning, Demps and I played outside while Lydia napped and Joey went for a run and then I left for a fact finding mission at Williams Sonoma followed by a haircut. When I got home, everyone was up still. I had warned Joey that it was HARD getting Dempsey to settle down and take a nap when you’re on your own with both kids and then he got to witness it firsthand. We did our best to power through the rest of the day anyway.

Dempsey declared he wanted pizza for dinner, so Blue Pan it was! Hit the spot for all of us (except Lydia, who can’t have cheese but seemed content with her pasta and meat sauce) 🙌 Here’s where it all started to unravel a bit. You’d think our no nap boy would be ready for bed but instead, he was WIRED. Took until 9:30 to get him down. Joey and I ended up staying up till 11 to finish our movie — I actually kind of liked it and was a mixture of entertained and disgusted through most of it, but when you really interrogate it, it doesn’t really make much sense or have any really intriguing thoughts — and just as we were about to go to bed, Dempsey woke up screaming. He was totally stuffed up and I think that’s what was bothering him but he was too sleepy and three-years-old to understand why he was upset. So we all ended up awake at midnight but that wasn’t exactly how I wanted to ring in the new year! 😔😱

Feeling a little bit hazy to start the new year, but what can you do? We took our time waking up and getting downstairs then decided to order take out breakfast from Funky Flame. The egg on my biscuits and gravy was cooked over hard and I was not pleased 😤 Cooked myself a new one and then everything else was good at least. We didn’t plan to do this, but ended up taking down most of our Christmas decor and cleaning out the closet in our playroom. Feels much better! Someone promised me they’d take a nap then thought it was a funny game to run out of his room every time I left it 😑 Joey sent me off on a run because he could tell I needed a break. Afterward, we got ourselves and the house and the food together for my family to come over and have New Year’s Day dinner. I think everything turned out really nice and Dempsey was only sort of insane. Just before dessert, Joey came up to me and said “say goodnight to our boy.” I guess he was falling asleep in the living room! Still took until 8:30 for him to close those little eyes 🤪 Everyone left by 8ish and we cleaned up a bit, watched some TV and took ourselves to bed. 

Hoping to embrace the chaos and have a wonderful 2024!