Hansen life: September

September has been a blur; it feels like it skipped by and I can't even remember what happened! I've been better about getting out of the house with the kids now that Mary is more stable. At this stage in my mothering I have to keep the outings to a minimum though because they completely exhaust me. I haven't yet built up the capabilities to keep an eye on Drew, tend to Mary, and carry on a conversation with anyone for more than a few minutes without my brain just kind of short circuiting. I'm assuming this is something I'll get better at? I was blessed to have quite a few friends bring their kids over to our house for play dates the past few weeks, making it so I could still have adult conversation without dragging my sleeping newborn away from her cozy crib. And every single friend that came to visit offered to bring me coffee. And I said yes to every offer! Cue my pumpkin spice latte happy dance!

September started off with a fun family gathering to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. The month was sprinkled with additional birthday celebrations and baby showers and the like. There always seems to be something joyful worth celebrating every few weeks, which just adds to the sweetness of life.

Drew had his 2 year check-up and Mary had her 2 month check-up. Both kids had to get shots so I had Kyle go with me to the appointment. Drew handled it really well, but I think he was just ready to be done in that small patient room. Mary handled it well at first but spent the rest of the day pretty unhappy (Drew responded to his 2 month shots exactly the same way...weird, right?). Mary is in the 60% for weight and the 86% for height. Drew dropped from the 60% to 30% for height, so we're expecting a big jump in height from him in the next few months (especially because his weight went from the 25% to the 50%!).

I was finally able to get going back to the gym again. I missed my hip-hop boot camp class so much! The gals were all so welcoming to have me back and there was lots of encouragement sent my way because I was a wee bit rusty. I'm only going to the gym once a week right now because I feel like that's reasonable given the season we are in. Once Mary is 6 months old and go into the Kids Gym with Drew I will likely bump it up to 2-3 times a week.

Here are some photo highlights from the past month:

Mary meeting great grandma Dee

4 generations :)

Maximum couch potato mode

Drew cruising with budding Rhodes

Dad and Drew watching old cartoons

This morning was rough for me. Mary was up nursing all night, and it was Saturday
morning and I just wanted to sleep! But Drew requested that I - not Kyle - take him to
the beach. What do you say when your sweet 2 year old asks for momma to take him to the beach?
You say "sure buddy!" and slam a coffee (or two).  And I'm glad I went because once we got
to the beach I briefly forget how tired I was and got down in the sand and helped Drew
explore seashells. And I wouldn't have remembered the nap, but I'll remember this little
moments with my boy. (And the next weekend he - thankfully - picked Kyle to take him to the
beach and I got my nap after all!)

Husky fans watching the UW game!

The kid loves books

Faces with Mare Bear

Kyle got to go to the Husky game so the kids and I
did our cheering from the couch at home!

Tummy time pals

My tiny helper

We discovered this machine on the side of the road on our walk. I probably shouldn't
have let Drew climb all over it but his giant eyes and wet smile just caused
me to look the other way and let him have at it!

Classic 2-year-old problems

My guys at the beach waiting for the trains to go by...