A Peek at the Poulsens

It's very different having two children at home instead of just one. It's easier in a lot of ways, and naturally more difficult in other ways. An example of easier: I don't stress about getting a nap because it just isn't going to happen, so I let it go and if there's quiet time I read instead and don't have a chance to be mad about being tired like I was constantly with Natalie as an infant. An example of harder: when they both wake up hungry and needy from a nap at the same time. he plays (in the safety of the corner), she drinks milk Natalie has always been a good player on her own, but now she's even more independent and will play by herself for a long time, checking in with me occasionally or shrieking when she gets a bink stuck in the bottle she's playing with. It's cute and charming to see her discover her toys (and by "toys" I really mean "household items I've gathered in a basket") and keep up a constant personal ...

(All these pictures are at least a month old...I'm still catching up!) As I've said before, getting out of the house helps my days go better. I enjoy driving in the relative stillness of the car (meaning I don't have children competing for my needs) and listening to music or talking to a friend. We often end up at the grocery store since I only really think about our eating needs one day at a time so we're constantly in need of items. We also go walking at the mall pretty regularly. The children are great shoppers and are usually very content in the car as well. They are a lot to carry, however! With Natalie in the front and Stockton's carseat in the cart, there isn't a lot of room for groceries and other things. We're good at improvising, aka burying the kids. We are SO glad Stockton is a carseat baby! Natalie never stayed in the carseat for longer than was absolutely necessary, but this boy voluntarily spends a lot of time in the cowmoofl...

On Halloween, Natsby wore her costume alllll day. It made mundane things exciting, and I never got over how adorable she looked in her little black tights and fluffy furry ladybug costume, complete with floppy antennae. ladybug selfie  watching the endlessly fascinating construction workers (look, we had DIRT back then!)  some brother poking time aaand a minor freakout   followed by a trip to visit Daddy at work  then we had lunch, milk, reading time, and nap time  the little ladybug woke up from her nap and we went trick or treating at UNL  we played in leaves, ran around at the school, and then came home and played with Grammy I don't know where the other pictures went, but we had friends over for our traditional Halloween dinner (Papa John's) and carved pumpkins and enjoyed being together. I'm sure the ladybug costume will make a reappearance in the future!