Tonight

Lazy evenings in the "front yard" are my favorite.

(I really do make an effort to tame Mya's hair every morning, but by 6 pm this is always how it looks).

Eleven Months

Mya hit her eleven month mark today...

Mya changed a lot this past month and seems so much older all of the sudden. Last months she was cautiously crawling around the room, but this month she's a speedy little crawler, going from room to room, pulling herself up to everything, climbing stairs (yikes! she can make it up our whole staircase!), opening drawers and getting into things. It's busy keeping track of her now, but it's fun to see her excitement in exploring every inch of our house.

She still has a hearty appetite, nursing 3-4 times a day and joining us with table food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She will eat almost anything, including any random left-overs from the fridge. Her favorites are strawberries, bananas, mashed potatoes, or any kind of homemade bread or rolls.

She goes to bed between 7-7:30 pm and wakes up at 7 am. She naps from 9-11 in the morning and 2-4:30 in the afternoon. One of Mya's silliest times of the day is bedtime. She and Bryn are in bed at 7, but they usually spend a half hour goofing off in bed. Bryn sings, Mya babbles, and they both end up with the giggles until finally they doze off. It is so funny. Sometimes Bryn falls asleep before Mya does and Mya is left, standing up in her crib, babbling and laughing on her own, trying to keep the party going.

Bryn and Mya are three and a half years apart, but they really are such good buds. Bryn is such a little "mother" to Mya and Mya just thinks Bryn is the coolest thing around. I love watching them interact all day and I'm so grateful that they have each other.

 Other than her increased mobility, Mya's new skills this month were learning how to wave hello and say "Hi". It actually sounds more like "He-eh", but she does it with the same voice inflection as "Hi" and it is the cutest thing ever. Whenever Josh or I walk in the room or get her from her crib she waves her little hand and says a big "hi". Cute cute cute. She still doesn't say "mama", but I'll take what I can get!

Bryn and Mya at 11 months

Book Review

I've had lots of time for reading this past year as Josh spends most his nights studying, and it's nice to be hanging out next to him, doing my own reading. I think it's been a while since I've shared a book on my blog, but I just finished a great one last week: "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee" by Wendy Mogel. I've read a handful of parenting books the last few years, but this is probably my favorite one so far. Dr. Mogel is Jewish and I loved the Jewish principles she referenced throughout the book. Here is her "blueprint for parents" and each chapter covers one of these topics:

-Accept that your children are both unique and ordinary.

-Teach them to honor their parents and to respect others – family, friends, and community

-Teach them to be resilient, self-reliant, and courageous.

-Teach them to be grateful for their blessings.

-Teach them the value of hard work.

-Teach them to make their table an altar – to approach food with an attitude of moderation, celebration, and sanctification.

-Teach them to accept rules and to exercise self-control

-Teach them the preciousness of the present moment

-Teach them about God.

Anyway, I always love hearing book suggestions, so here's is my I thought I'd pass it on.  

I thought it was such a helpful, motivating book and I have four pages worth of notes to add to my trusty Reading Log :)

Sunny Tuesday

 The forecast for today was rain, rain, rain and I thought we'd be stuck inside, but it turned out to be a perfectly sunny day so we packed up the stroller and walked the two mile path to Dartmouth campus. I am still not used to all this GREEN, so it continues to take my breath away. 

 I didn't capture it well with photos, but we were the travelling Dartmouth jukebox today! We walked around campus for 45 minutes and Miss Bryn was singing show tunes and pop songs the entire time. I thought she was just going to sing a song or two, but it became the never-ending medley and her volume and vibrato increased with each song. Mya tapped her feet, clapped, and even added the background vocals with her babbling. Motherhood brings some pretty good entertainment!

Fast forward 5 hours and Josh comes home! Which means.....everyone heads to the porch! After living in apartment complexes the first 5 years of our marriage, we can't get over how fun it is to have a porch. A nice, big porch in a nice, quiet neighborhood is quite a luxury! 

 Little Hoodro Wilson. I don't even know what that means or where that nickname came from, but that is Mya's nickname whenever she wears the hood of a jacket. And what a cute Hoodro Wilson she is! 

I can't take that beefy drumstick of a leg, especially in tight, getting-too-small-for-her jeggings. 

 Surprisingly some of Bryn's caterpillars are still alive about 2-3 weeks of living in captivity, and I don't know who is more interested in them - Josh, Bryn, or now Mya? All I know is it's super cute to see my family gathered around the caterpillar house with such rapt attention each night.

And finally, Mya with a wind-blown comb-over. It doesn't get better than that :)

Girls Night

We were so excited last year when we heard there were four other Mormon families already at Tuck. We have loved getting to know the Dances, Holbrooks, Torontos, and Laytons and we're so sad that they'll be graduating and moving in a few short weeks. We had one last girls night on Friday before everyone gets busy with finals and graduation.

Andrea, Michelle, Tiffany, and Maren

Love these ladies so much!

 I gathered notes from everyone about these four ladies and made little books for them with the notes and pictures from their two years at Tuck.

 My party planning partners... 

Candace (her husband and Josh are the two T'14 Mormons) and Catherine (her husband is doing medical school this year and Tuck next year)

 Some of my favorite Dartmouth ladies

 I thought this girls night would be full of reminiscing and tears, but instead it became a fun night of dancing and karaoke. I'd rather be dancing than crying!

(Ashley and Steph snuck out before I started going crazy with the pictures)! 

I am seriously going to miss this group of ladies, but I'm excited for them as they move across the country and embark on bigger and better things.....like earning paychecks!

Love you ladies!!!

Saturday Afternoon

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, so we spent as much time as we could outside! 

I hope Bryn is soaking up this play time with Josh because he only has 3 more Saturdays with us until he leaves for NYC for the next 11 weeks. Yikes!

Mealtime

Mealtime.

A.k.a.: the Hawkins family circus

Mya used to have such a hearty appetite and was so eager and efficient at her mealtimes. Now, instead of eating she'd rather be playing peekaboo (while smashing crumbs into her hair), dropping food from her tray, and doing magic tricks with her bib.

At one point tonight we thought we heard a pig squealing, but it turned out to be Mya wedged under a low kitchen drawer. 

Sometime down the road, we will all quietly sit in out seats, enjoy a nice meal, and have an engaging discussion about current events or an important moral issue or something. But right now, mealtimes feel more like a work-out than anything.

Field Trip to Waterbury, Vermont

Mya's cute friend Kate turned one today, so we celebrated with ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. It was about an hour drive, through the gorgeous, green hills that are so typical to Vermont. Bryn was really excited to go to "a real live ice cream factory!!!" and that excitement turned into lots of energy and exuberance during the factory tour. Thankfully the tour was really cute and kid-friendly and my little hyper child didn't cause too much of a scene.

There was a fun park right outside Ben and Jerry's and I think the kids were as excited about the playground as they were the factory. It's hard to beat a good playground :)

 We also checked out the Cold Hollow Cider Mill down the road, which had fresh apple cider samples and delicious apple cider doughnuts. 

Clearly the girls were getting a little loopy at this point, but we had such a great morning checking out a few of the fun things in Waterbury.

Mother's Day

 My first Mother's Day as a mom of two!

As I type this, I can hear Bryn and Mya giggling in the next room over and I can't think of any sweeter sound. They're supposed to be going to bed, but lately they've been having little giggle fests every night before bed. I used to try to calm them down and give them a speech about quietly going to bed, but now I just let them laugh it out until they fall asleep on their own. I love these two girls so much and am so grateful to be their mother. 

 It's been a wonderful Mother's Day, complete with breakfast in bed, six(!) handmade Mother's Day cards from Brynlee (they just kept coming!), a few sweet gifts from Josh, and lots of fun family time. Bryn was so over-the-top sweet today that I couldn't help but laugh. All day she kept giving me tight embraces and dramatically expressing her love for me. She kept leaving her seat in primary, giving me big hugs, and whispering things like "I love you, Mother! You are important and beautiful and special to me!" She also presented me all day with random toys and food items, wrapped up in blankets, and offered as Mother's Day gifts. She really went all out and it was so funny.

This is my first Mother's Day with this little fuzzy-haired chubba! Last year at this time I was in my 3rd trimester of a rocky, high-risk pregnancy, just praying with all my heart the little babe inside of me would be unaffected by the pregnancy complications. My heart is so full every time I look at this healthy little girl, and I'm so glad she's a part of our family. I am grateful every day for my two sweet, healthy girls and the chance I have to be their mom.