Rebecca Whitehead

Meredith and Her Morning Buddy

October 1, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

With the twins back in school, Meredith relished her new role as big sister of the house every morning. She definitely had her “MOMMY PLAY WITH ME RIGHT NOW” moments, but given the amount of times I had to say, “Mommy has to feed/put to sleep/change Elle” every day, she was really patient and learned to play on her own quite well. She was light years better at entertaining herself than the twins ever were at her age.

It’s so nice when everyone is back to school and the parks and splash pads are deserted.

Hanging with her baby sis.

Eleanor, 3.5 months old, rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first and was NOT HAPPY. I don’t know if her newfound abilities scared her, or if she just didn’t like the feeling of the grass, but she screamed like a banshee.

Like any good mom, I just filmed her, instead of picking her up.

With the girls in kindergarten 5 days a week, our mornings were suddenly free for Meredith to take a class. The twins stopped their Grace and Zen yoga/ballet class when they started kinder, but Meredith was excited to finally join. Even though she was technically too young for the class, which starts at 3 years old, she was awesome at following directions and trying her best.

Every week, Meredith would jump up and down in anticipation when she saw I was putting her yoga mat and ballet shoes in the car. “YAY I’M GOING TO DANCE!”

Meredith’s Halloween “dance.”

Eleanor wondered where her other two sisters were until pick up time at 2:30, which was her favorite part of the day. All the kids and teachers would flock to her to squeeze her legs and pinch her arms. She would soak it all in and would give the paparazzi the most charming smiles and coos. She ate it up and loved to put on a show at pick-up!

Running into Chee at the park. I dare anyone to resist cuddling this chubby baby.

Just chillin.

Baby giggles and smiles.

With her knee intact, Meredith rode like the wind on her scooter, once again.

Nap time.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Eleanor 3 months, Eleanor laughing giggling, Eleanor park, Eleanor rolls over, Meredith dance yoga ballet class, Meredith scooters, Meredith splash pad

Samantha & Amelia’s First Day of Kindergarten

September 25, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

The day after Labor Day, on September 4, Samantha and Amelia started Kindergarten! Samantha was excited to start school with Miss Holly and Mr. Michael.

Can’t believe it! Sniff.

The Class of 2031 doesn’t seem that far away…

Samantha’s first day of kindergarten interview:

Self portrait. Samantha draws way more detailed pictures than this, but was feeling really silly at the moment.

Amelia was SO ready to go back to school! She loves the structure of school, and especially reading, writing and coloring. She was constantly nagging me to print out worksheets and read BOB books with her over the summer. Both the twins were obsessed with practicing their writing and answering Brainquest questions, so I was hopeful that the “summer slide” wouldn’t be too bad for them.

Amelia was supposed to have Miss Becky for her morning teacher (same teacher she’s had in preschool), but sadly, Miss Becky’s son passed away over the summer, so she took a leave of absence this year. Fortunately, Miss Thashika and Miss Shah were pulled from the other classes to be in Amelia’s class this year, so Amelia was already familiar with them.

Goof balls. Their poor teachers.

In the morning, the girls are in separate classes and after lunch in the afternoon, they are in the same class with the nine other kindergarten age kids with Miss Linda. They just adore her! Their class is called “AP” and I’m not sure what that stands for, but they were ecstatic to be the big kid “AP-ers” this year after watching the older kids get to be in that class the past few years. Now they are the leaders of their morning class and it’s been so cute watching them help the smaller kids. They take their responsibilities as class leaders seriously!

Samantha 2018.

Amelia 2018.

The summer was fun, but let’s be honest… everyone was VERY ready to go back to school. One of my favorite parts of back to school time is their uniforms! There’s a few different outfit combinations they are allowed to wear for school and they pick their outfits out the night before so that there’s no arguing in the morning. They usually choose to match. I love that they have a few choices, but that it’s not complicated picking out what to wear.

We took some back to school pics on Labor Day in preparation for their big day! Can you tell Meredith, Eleanor and I are excited?

Happy Back to School!

The twins kept hiding and screaming from Meredith who was blasting them with the squirt gun.

Random video from earlier that weekend of the twins hiding from Meredith’s deluge.

Their real first day of school! (School logo edited out since this is posted online).

Jake took them on their first day and reported back that there were some tears at drop off. Then, when I dropped them off the next day– no tears! For weeks, whenever Jake did drop-off, the teachers told me they cried so much, whereas they went merrily on their way for me. I don’t know whether I should be offended or what. They sure do put on the waterworks for Daddy.

Apparently, we forgot Samantha’s glasses the first day.

It was very quiet around our house… almost too quiet. Meredith and Eleanor were bored to tears and I started thinking maybe it was actually easier having the twins home over the summer because they are so good at entertaining everyone!

Despite some separation anxiety whenever Jake did drop off that week, the girls had a great first week and quickly got back into the new routine.

With getting back into the lunch-packing routine (ugh), and the morning craziness of getting everyone dressed, fed, hair done, teeth brushed, baby fed, and out the door at 7:45 everyday, I actually started missing our relaxed summer mornings!

On top of not exactly relishing the morning routine grind, I agreed to once again be the Room Mom for Samantha’s class, even though I definitely could have pulled the “New Baby Card.” I was also asked to be the Room Mom for Amelia’s class since it’s basically all the same information I’d have to send out by email and the other Room Mom couldn’t do it this year. Double Room Mom Duty eek! Happy Back to School, ~~Samantha and Amelia~~ Mom!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Back to School Tagged With: amelia's first day of kindergarten, back to school, kindergarten 2018, samantha's first day of kindergarten, school

Eleanor 3 Months

September 18, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Four babies at 3 Months Old: Amelia, Samantha, Meredith and Eleanor.

Eleanor definitely takes after Meredith, with her own little twist. They have the same curved little lips which I just adore.

Eleanor is definitely our chubbiest baby! This girl packed on the pounds this month and grew quite a bit in length too. She’s hungry ALL the time and an excellent sleeper. By 8 weeks, she had dropped the middle of the night 1 a.m. feed, and by 3 months she was sleeping 8:30 p.m.-5:30 a.m. at night.

Meredith was always pretty interactive, but Eleanor takes the cake. She soaks up all the attention she can get when out in public and smiles and coos at everyone who stops to say hello. It can take an hour just to get in and out of school pick-up because everyone from the school director, to the teachers, to the kids and parents always stop to baby chat with her and squeeze those plump thighs. They are pretty irresistible.

Eleanor loves to laugh, giggle, go for stroller strides, swat at toys, grab hair, and take baths. She’s content during tummy time and has excellent neck control. She loves to say hi to her adoring public from the comfort of my Ergo carrier. She also thrives on excitement and chaos. The week that Jake and the twins were gone in Washington, she had a few of her fussiest days and nights on record… my theory is she was bored with just me!

Squeeze!

Love this baby.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Milestones Tagged With: Eleanor 3 months

Boating and Killer Whales in Dana Point

September 15, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

The girls went on their first whale watching boat with Jake and not surprisingly, it was a tale of two boat trips.

“I wanna go again!” -Amelia

“Yeah. That was rough.” -Jake

It was a two-hour trip and the girls didn’t run out of ways to keep themselves occupied. With just one adult though, Jake reported that it was a challenge keeping everyone from either tossing each other overboard or annoying the captain so much that they were thrown overboard.

Getting their sea legs.

They didn’t see large blue or humpback whales on this trip, but they did see dolphins and the most amazing killer whales/orcas! Apparently, seeing wild orcas off our part of the California coast is extremely rare, so the boat captain was ecstatic. The next day, the group of killer whales was spotted in the same place hunting and eating baby dolphins… I’m glad the girls weren’t there to see the carnage!