Turtle Races

In Battle Lake, there are turtle races. They are on Thursday mornings, and always one of the highlights of week.

Frances went to the races, but mostly hung out in the stroller.

Clearly the whole family went -- see the comment earlier that is one of the highlights of the week.

You pick out a turtle from a baby pool filled with turtles (beware they bite or scratch or something that makes them uncomfortable to hold).

Aunt (K)Elsey was on a mission to be favorite aunt of all time, so she partnered with Maxwell for the races.

Maxwell is giving his turtle a pep talk there.

And they were off.... Maxwell didn't win .... this year.

Then we had to leave because one baby Frances was very very sleepy, and she proceeded to sleep in the pack n play with her butt in the air. Too cute.

This is the Post with All of the Vaca Photos

We went to Battle Lake, MN for family vacation in July. Some people might call a trip like this a family reunion, but not my family. It was a total family vacation. This is the second year in a row that we've gone as a family to Battle Lake. When I was growing up, most years we went to a lake for a week as our annual vacation. My Dad has graciously planned out the past two visits, and I am hoping that we continue the tradition next year.

We made smores. There Maxwell is toasting his first marshmallow with my dad.

Yum.

We ate outside on the picnic tables every night. Enjoying each other's company. 

Frances made her swimming in a lake debut.

Maxwell learned about watching videos on the iPhone.

And many, many Mr. Freezes were enjoyed by John, Aunt (K)Elsey and Maxwell (a few by other people).

The title of this post was a lie, there will be at least one more post with all of the vacation pictures. I only made it to photo 175 of 876.

Clean Babies

Maxwell would be incredibly insulted that I referred to him as a baby.

Maxwell and Frances took their first bath together on Saturday - which is totally not bath night. Somehow on Thursday (normal bath night) baths didn't happen. An added bonus of late Saturday baths is that we'll skip baths on the other regular bath night this week - Sunday.

Bathing together didn't go that great for Frances. Maxwell poured tons of water over her head, and she fell into the water more than once. I think we'll wait a few more weeks before we try joint baths again.

Hanging at the Park

A prepared mother would have brought a blanket for her army crawling baby, but not me. I just sat her down on the grass to take photos while Maxwell played on the playground. 

I've never claimed to be a well prepared mom.

I'm pretty sure a little grass has never hurt anyone.

We were in Minnesota last week for 10 days. Those pictures are just 3 out of the 800 I uploaded from the trip. Expect many more Minnesota vacation pictures coming in the next few weeks.

My SITS day yesterday was amazing. My inbox blew up with lots of comment love, and I for about 12 hours felt like a really cool blogger. I highly recommend the really cool blogger feeling. 

Today is My SITS Day!

I'm a little shocked. I'm a little nervous. I'm a lot happy. Today is my feature day on SITS. For those of you who don't know, SITS is a group of 40,000 woman bloggers dedicated to supporting each other.

Welcome to Actuary Mom. I'm Kassie.

There I am with my husband of 9 years, John. 

John and I use most of our energy trying to raise two little ones -- Frances (8 months) and Maxwell (3). I'm finding that life with two kids is mostly crazy.

I'm pretty sure I need to keep my energy level up, since they are only now beginning to collude. Right now, it is focused on not looking at the camera when mom takes a photo. Soon enough it'll be not telling mom when the other sneaks out. 

During the day I work as an actuary. I surveyed my sisters when I decided to buy a domain name, and that was the best we could come up with - Actuary Mom. We aren't the most creative bunch. 

I, much like most other bloggers, started this blog to keep my family in the loop. The early stuff is embarrassing, but I can't delete it because there are comments by my mom who passed away just around my first anniversary of blogging. 

Now I blog because it makes me happy. Photography has become a major hobby of mine, and it gives me a place to photo-dump the thousands of photos I take (monthly). I also get to document monthly milestones of Maxwell and Frances. My friends tell me that is their favorite part of my blog. 

I blog about parenting triumphs (and the bumps along the road). Our biggest parenting accomplishment so far has been potty training our 3 year old. It took about six months.  I have way too many stories about crap in the pants. Way too many. Amusing to others, not so much to the parents cleaning the mess. Here is to hoping that potty training girls really is easier than boys.

Occasionally I feel the need to openly discuss my failures at parenthood. I am definitely not a super mom. Lots of times, I am just a barely getting by mom with a glass a wine and dinner delivered by people who deliver dinner mom.

Please follow me on twitter, instagram, or add me to your rss feed.

It might give Frances enough energy to make it another ten minutes. Maybe. 

Flying with Kids

This afternoon we flew home from a 10 day vacation with Maxwell and Frances. Vacation is in italics, I'm still not sure what it was. It was mostly definitely not work from the perspective I wasn't paid for any of the bedtime, nap-time, snack time, anytime life wasn't going his/her way shenanigans experienced, but I wasn't doing my day job either. For now vacation with the kids belongs in italics.

While on the last leg of our flights, I counted up how many times Maxwell has flown in his life. I think the round-trip total is 15. He is barely 3. I'm guessing I hit the 15 round-trip milestone when I was 25, give or take a year.

With that many kid-included flights under my belt, I would think that I would feel like an expert. I don't feel like one. Every Single Time I worry that my child is going to be THAT child on the flight. I worry that I am going to have to deal with a blowout (poop is always on my mind), nonstop screaming, demands to be walked up and down the aisle, or demands to visit the lavatory 50 times just for fun.

Up to this point, we've only had a couple major issues, both of which we just dealt with. Maxwell on his first round-trip projectiled vomited all over everything. The flight attendant was very helpful, and even sent me home with a bottle of wine. Really. Seriously. That happened. Sometimes, just sometimes, the skies are actually friendly.

The second incident involved a blowout at the airport. A wipe bath was given, clothes were tossed, and we went on our merry way.

I don't have much in the way of great advice because I don't feel like an expert. That being said here is some of what I do to get by:

• Relax. I suck at relaxing. All of the worrying I do about each and every flight is so pointless (to be clear, I am not afraid of flying, I'm not worrying about the plane going down. I am worried about Maxwell or Frances's behavior, things like that.) I should spend a lot less time imagining hypothetical situations and just go with it. 
• If you are traveling with an infant, I have found it works best to wear the baby through security. I will actually wear the baby all through the airport, and use the stroller to carry all of the stuff.
• Bring the toddler new never before seen toys. For our last trip I bought him this crayola dry erase board. It cost $10, but it entertained him for TWO hours. Seriously. TWO hours. On the flight home it was only worth about 15 minutes. See how brand new never before seen toys work? They work miracles.
• If you are traveling with another adult and only one toddler, bring the car-seat on-board. Really, just do it. Maxwell behaves so well when he is in his car-seat. It isn't worth the hassle with two kids (lesson learned on this past trip), and (I don't believe) it is possible when you are traveling by yourself with a toddler (unless you can rely on the kindness of strangers). 
• I've never once woken up a sleeping baby during take off or landing to feed them. I don't believe in waking sleeping babies on airplanes. Let them sleep. They'll wake up if their ears hurt.
• In airport security, they'll let you bring lots of liquids for kids. Bottles of water, applesauce, formula, breast milk. They might need to do some bomb residue tests on them. If they do, ask them to change their gloves. I'm totally not a germaphobe, and I only ask them to because they are annoying, so I want to be annoying back. I'm stuck in junior high in a lot of ways.
• Keep in mind TSA is very inconsistent. In one airport, they might send you through with a wink, and in another they might make you break the seal on the ready to drink formula that goes bad an hour after opening. Just be ready. And probably avoid bringing ready to drink formula. 
• This one sounds crazy, but sometimes it is easier to have a connection than to have a long direct flight. Two 1.5 hour flights with an hour layover in the middle might be easier than a direct 2.5 hour flight. I've found that letting the toddler run around in the airport in the middle of the journey helps it all go more smoothly. It all depends on the age of the child, but I've found the connection to be easier with 1 year olds. Their attention span is shorter, they are often still in your lap, and getting out of the airplane for a little while to run help make the flights go more smoothly.

Of course the headache is all worth it.

Otherwise, we would have missed the family vacation with my siblings and Dad. Seeing Frances with my dad makes it all worthwhile.

Frances at 8 Months

This is being written on my phone. Please forgive me for any typos.

Frances can get herself down from sitting.
She hasn't met a food she doesn't like.
Frances still nurses well.
She is still on a rough 3-4 hour schedule.
She takes 2 naps a day.
Frances sleeps from 630 to 630 with a dream feed around 9, and oftentimes a quick eat around 5am. I call that sleeping through the night.
You still have to work to get her to laugh.
She smiles easily and frequently.
Frances has been scooting around on her butt. She is close to crawling.
Everything goes into her mouth immediately.
Frances has developed a distaste for the car seat.
She doesn't have stranger danger... Yet.
She gets baby mush 3 times a day. She has had real (non-mushed) bananas, avocado, peas, bread, blueberries, grapes, turkey, cheese, and tortilla.
Frances likes to go swimming.
Frances can pick up finger food and feed herself.
She loves to stand.
She bounces. In her jumperoo, while sitting in her booster seat, while in the car seat. Frances is always in motion.
She got her first top front tooth on 7/17 (3 total teeth right now) and her second one is about to breakthrough.
Frances is a little irritated with the teething, but it isn't too bad.

Some iPhone photos of miss Frances:

Wall Hangings

Finally after living in our current house for five years, we have wall hangings that I like in our formal living room and entryway.

The canvas portion of the wall was just completed this week. It has been very incomplete for the past few months. Finally an email from my sister with a groupon deal for a canvas (because my wall was so incomplete) finally gave me the motivation to complete the wall (for now... in a few months I'll have to figure out how to add Frances's one year photo).

I completed the other collage when I was on maternity leave with Frances.

  

This wall was completed a few months ago. I just purchased these from Target and a friend stopped by and told me she had the exact some ones sitting at home to be donated! That is my free, intended for goodwill, wall. The ones I purchased were returned to Target.

Mirrors, Oh My

We received this fun toy from a friend for Frances. It is one of a few Frances toys that are actually new to the house. Frances rarely gets to play with it because if it is out the child who insists he is a BIG BOY must play with it. Go figure. 

The toy is overall a pretty big hit. At this point, Frances is happy to let Maxwell play with it as long as she gets to watch it. I should enjoy these moments. This phase will pass much too quickly.

Sweet Frances

Frances, almost 8 months.

Building

Maxwell's block building skills have increased dramatically over the past few months. On Wednesday, when we got home from school pick up, his playroom was clean. The blocks were all put away. 30 minutes later, Maxwell had built this train:

He'll build 100% by himself. Especially if it just me at home. If John is here, Maxwell might ask for help. He only works in the two dimensional space so far. It is pretty cool to watch him think about building something and then it actually turn out into a recognizable object! Much more rewarding for me than watching him color.

Blocks are also awesome because if his mood is right he'll totally get sucked in for 30 minutes or so. Which is 30 fewer minutes of whining and/or possible dangerous situations Frances might be put in. Think "I'm going to put a pile of blankets on Frances" or "I'm going to throw this ball in the same room as Frances when I have no real control where the ball might end up" or "I'm going to jump in my big boy bed while Frances is in it at the same time". Generally we let the shenanigans go on (except for truly dangerous ones), but I do like to be in the room to witness them in case.... well just in case.

Sibling Love

Maxwell is starting to become friends with Frances. He'll play with her, as long as he gets to decide what he plays with and what she plays with.

He'll even let me sit them together on the couch.

He'll sit on her lap, and she'll tolerate the abuse, but Frances is not allowed to sit on his lap.

He enjoys it all, if Frances isn't trying to "bite" him or touch him. 

Clearly though, he is starting to love her a bit.

Randoms

Maxwell had a play-date on Saturday with a kid from school. When the mom got here, and she saw the very least we live in a nice clean home, I offered that she could leave and run errands or whatever. She took me up on the offer! I was very happy since I didn't know her, and my introverted self felt exhausted about the idea of small talking with a stranger for an hour or two while the boys played. 

During the play-date, I overheard the friend asking Maxwell where 1) our stairs are, and 2) our dog is. A toddler's mind is very interesting. We live in a one story animal free home. I already blog about poop enough, adding a dog into the mix would just be way too much poop.

It was cool watching Maxwell play with a kid his own age. They played together. They even talked. Maxwell  s totally a follower.  It'll be interesting to see how (and if) the dynamic changes once Frances starts playing more. 

I've realized over the past two weekends that I dread the weekends. They are exhausting. I like the break from work, but I really like having a break from the kids during the week. My most favorite time is between 1:30 and 3:30 on weekdays. I get those two hours (most days) for me. 

This past weekend I tried to find a babysitter twice (Friday evening and Sunday evening), and I failed both times. We need more babysitters. I need breaks on the weekends. I think if some breaks were thrown in, the weekends would start to win in the weekday versus weekend battle.

I've decided for now I'm going to nurse until Frances is 1. I have a girl's weekend trip planned in early November, I still have to decide if that is close enough to 1 or if I should wean before then (she'll be 2.5 weeks shy of 1 at that point). Keep in mind, I am totally a crazy mom, and I will spend the next few weeks over-analyzing if 2.5 weeks before age 1 will really count as nursing until age 1. Seriously. I will. What would I do with my time if I didn't spend it over-analyzing crazy things? Of course this could all get thrown out of the window if she starts biting me on a regular basis. She bit me once, and it hurt. Obviously this could all get thrown out if Frances decides she is done nursing as well. She already prefers food. She loves food. So we'll see if that changes her opinion about the boob over the next few months.

And what is a post without some random photos?

Frances has this completely ridiculous squinty eye smile when she is super happy. The photo is out of focus, but it totally shows the ridiculous smile.

Maxwell taught Frances how to play her little piano.

Here Maxwell is looking a little psycho, but he is also showcasing his totally awesome new shirt. His arms are out because his guns are out. That is what he does when you ask him to put his guns out. The shirt is hysterical. 

Edits

I'm getting better at editing, but I still suck. I don't practice as much as I should. With each of these sets of three below, the first is SOOC (straight out of the camera), the second is a "clean" edit (that wording is from Everyday Elements, I actually used her action called "Quick Clean" to help me with that edit), and the second is me trying to be more creative. I used actions from the coffee shop blog for both of those.

(edited to add: I just re-sized this photo, and now it looks like crap. So it goes).

 I tried to get rid of the box behind Maxwell's head, but I totally failed. It doesn't look right. 

With Frances, I actually tried harder to get rid of the distracting ball, and it is gone. But you see where I had to clone, so it definitely wasn't an outright success. Practice makes perfect though, so at the very least I can see that I am getting better.

Sibling "Love"

Bribed by Nutella graham crackers. Smart boy that Maxwell.

Fourth of July

Frances was off "schedule" all day, so we were stuck at home for the majority of the day. Although if I am being honest here, it really didn't change our plans too much. We were planning on going to swim at a different pool than our neighborhood pool, but because of Frances's shenanigans, we ended up just going to the neighborhood pool after nap time instead of before it.

Due to Frances's schedule issues, I got to have photo-shoot with Frances in a different location than I normally do (upper left and lower middle). That was when everyone else was napping. The playroom skylights let in some awesome light during nap time. 

Please note that I did dress Maxwell and Frances in "America" themed clothing. Maxwell is wearing a Captain America shirt, and Frances's shirt says "American as apple pie." We are patriotic here. 

We played outside in the evening. It was Frances's first time in the backyard swing (actually any swing to the best of my knowledge).  We also played with some sparklers. 

John snapped this photo of Frances and I. Frances just sat back in the bjorn and enjoyed the show.

Maxwell wasn't interested and had to be coerced to participate in the fun. 

The fourth of July is definitely a day that I miss living in my hometown. I miss the small town parade with candy and the celebration in the park. There was none of that here (to the best of my knowledge). I can't step outside of my house and see the town fireworks like I could at my dad's house. John hates the small town stuff though, so as far as he is concerned our nice quiet day at home with sparklers is as good as it gets.