two months

today bridget is two months old.

she has started sleeping for longer stretches at night.

she is awake for longer stretches during the day.

she has the biggest smiles i've ever seen.

she's starting to coo.

she still hates tummy time, binkies, and bottles.

she's starting to get some good rolls on her.

we'll find out how much she weighs tomorrow.

she's started losing some of her beautiful brunette hair.

and her eyes are turning more and more blue.

she's really turned into a baby in the past month.

her big brother and big sister are loving it,

and they spend a lot of time trying to make her smile.

she's just the best.

i mean, how could you not love this face?

it's just so much fun when their little personalities start coming out.

we can't wait to see more.

graduation

it's official.

school's out forever.

this last month mike graduated.

now he officially has his jd/mba,

and it is time to move on.

into a world where instead of borrowing ridiculous amounts of money,

we get to pay ridiculous amounts of money back.

regardless, we are still thrilled.

mba graduation:

law graduation:

it has been a long four years.

there were many times mike would leave before the sun came up and get home long after it had gone down.

there was the sudden career change halfway through when we decided that a dual degree was the right path for us.

there was that long summer where mike was living away from home five out of seven days a week. i'm still not sure how we survived the last month of that. the one where mike was gone all the time, i had both kids on my own, and i was newly pregnant.

there were many group projects and job presentations.

there were plenty of evenings spent together combing over internship openings and sending in job applications.

there were times i wasn't quite sure we'd make it through in one piece.

but it was a fun four years, too.

there were visits to the cider mill with the j. reuben clark law society. back when all we had was one little baby and getting out of the house was simple.

there were tailgates before every home game.

there were friendships we both made that will last a long time after we all go our separate ways.

when we first arrived in lansing, i remember having a conversation with mike about how different things would be when we left.

the idea that tennyson would be three, and we could possibly have another kid by then made our time in lansing seem like it would go on forever.

but the time flew by too fast.

and here we are with a four year old and two more kids.

these four years have set our family on a path that we'll be following for the rest of our lives.

and it's bittersweet (emphasis on the sweet) to see it all come to an end.

two

today, miss maggie jane turns two years old.

there's a lot i want to remember about maggie at two.

she's a fashionista who prefers to choose her own clothes.

she's obsessed with tutus and all things pink and purple.

she loves to accessorize with necklaces and bracelets.

she's always wearing those ugly pink crocs.

and she thinks she's the bees knees when mom does her hair like anna from frozen.

she's a shy social butterfly.

does that exist?

she likes to be shy at first,

but once she warms up to you, she'll chat your ear off.

she's got the cutest little raspy voice,

and she's speaking in full on sentences.

she's a fantastic eater.

i don't know where she gets it from, but her favorite food is vegetables.

and chocolate. i mean, she's a girl after all.

she's recently gotten into singing her own songs.

usually they start off as something established,

and then turn into a creation of her own.

she's also great at mash ups.

one of our favorites is a cute little mash up between let it go and jingle bells and goes "let it go, let it go, let it go all the way... hey!"

now that it is finally warm in the mitten, she wants to be outside non-stop.

she tantrums when it is time to go inside,

and she'll sit and stare out the windows in such longing until we let her go out again.

she loves picking tennyson up from the bus and runs down the sidewalk towards him, and then races him home.

and she loves going on adventures in the blue car.

she knows most of her letters,

most of her shapes,

and most of her colors.

we figure this summer we'll start the calculus lessons.

like i said, there's a lot i want to remember.

i'm sure once this is posted, i'll think of twenty other things i wanted to include.

it's been so much fun watching maggie really turn into a little girl over the past year.

we might not survive this next one,

but in the off chance that we make it through the terrible twos alive,

we can't wait to see what she's like when she's three.

she's our rough and tumble little girly girl.

and we're so glad that she's ours.