I'll make another one look just like you

Nate and I get a lot of questions about how different the girls are. Who do they look like? Well, not like me. Actually, they look like each other. These kids are twins, almost 3 years apart. (And let me tell you, that last pregnany felt like it took 3 years). Let's do some comparison shots to explain what I am talking about.

Here are both girls on day 2. Kendall is on the left, Cassidy on the right.

Maybe not the best shot... Let's try this one.

Still a non-believer? How about this one? Both girls at about a month (you can tell that I now have a better camera in these pictures though). Again, Kendall on the left, Cassidy on the right.

In summary, Nate and I have proved Bill Cosby right, we can make another one that looks just like you. But, apparently they all look like Nate.


Hello World.

Now that we are settled, I'm trying to get back into the blog updates. It's been a while, and clearly, a lot has changed with our new arrival. It will probably take me a few posts to get caught up.

First up....

As you can see from the prior post, we welcomed a new addition to our team Greaney. Cassidy, like her sister before her, decided to show up fashionably late. With it so hot this summer, I was definitely not happy about extending the pregnancy at all, so we went with the Dr's plan to evict Cassidy via induction a couple days after due date.

Plus side to knowing exactly when you will have a baby is that you can get a sitter lined up and hit the town the night before. Well, as much as a past due pregnant woman can hit the town. So Nate and I went out to eat, and took the only belly pictures that exist from this pregnacy, and got a solid night's sleep (again, as much as I could sleep at that point). Below is the proof that I was pregnant, and just how uncomfortable this past summer was with all that heat. There are also pictures documenting just how badly I waddled around the house, but I will spare you those. It is not pretty. Looking back, I now see why people kept letting me cut in line at the grocery store - they were convinced I would go into labor.

Cassidy was here the next morning, 5 hours after we showed up at the hospital. She entered the world very rosy and screaming bloody murder. Apparently she was not in the mood to get out and see the world. Weighing in at 8lbs 8oz, Cass was bigger than Kendall by 9oz - which is a lot when you are tiny.

 

Our first visitor after Cass, Nate, and I got settled at the hospital was Kendall. I wanted the girls to have a chance to get aquainted without a lot of others around - so we did the family thing. Kendall took to her little sister immediately, and especially loved the wonder that is tiny baby fingers and toes.

We all went home the next day, exhausted, but ready to be out of the hospital. 24 hours was enough for me. We had lots of visitors, both sets of grandparents, all our aunts and uncles, and cousins. Kendall loved all the excitement, and Cassidy slept through most of it.

After that we spent our time adjusting to family as 4. More to come on how that is going...

And baby makes 4!

We had a new addition to Team Greaney this week!

On Friday, August 3rd, Cassidy Julia Greaney was born. Weighing in at 8lbs 8oz and measuring 22in, she made a loud arrival letting us know she was ready to give her sister a run for her money.

We are all over the moon about the new addition to our family. She looks so much like Kendall - but Cassidy did inherit mommy's freckles.

More to come when we get home and settled.

Olympics

Although I am not normally really into watching the Olympics, seeing as I am giant couch potato due to the pregnancy, we have been watching constantly. Kendall is also really getting into it - mostly wanting to watch 'matchsticks', or more commonly known as gymnastics, or swimming, especially the diving. She has been emulating what she sees on TV, which is a bit unnerving while watching diving and she is jumping off the coffee table, but is pretty funny with gymnastics. She has her own "routines" that she is doing in front of the TV and then even raising her arms at the end to pose for the judges.

Thinking gymnastics may not be her sport. I think we will stick with the pool and train for swimming, or if we can get her to actually jump into the pool, maybe diving. Then again, track and field hasn't started yet...

Litle Fish in the Big Pond

As you know, Kendall is a big fan of the swim lessons. Well, at least she is once you get her out of the house and into the pool. For the last 6 months to a year, we have been the big fish in the parent tot class - Kendall could swim on her own and all the other kid were, well, babies. So, with the new baby on the way, we started to work hard to get her ready to move up to the next class. The one that does not involve mommy getting into the pool.

Boy, will I miss every Saturday morning in the pool (heavy on the sarcasm). I now get at least 8 months off before kid 2 will be ready for the pool. Yay!!!

So, we worked on Kendall swimming on her own, and listening to the instructor. At the end of the June parent tot session, we brought Kendall over to the next class to "test the waters". I walked over to the other side of the pool with Kendal and our parent tot instructor, and we introduced Kendall to the new class. In under 5 minutes Kendall had ditched me, started talking to the other kids and following what the new instructor said. Interesting since she fails to listen to me most of the time. Needless to say, my worries that my little girl would not be able to make the emotional jump to the big kid class were all for naught - she jumped right in and never looked back.

We have been in the big kid class for about a month now, and although she is shy initially an needs a little push to go join her class, she get into it after a couple minutes. Kendall is he youngest in the class - this class is for 3 - 5 year olds before they go to the big pool (she is in about 2 and 1/2 feet of water for the current lessons. The other kids in the class are closer to that 4 - 5 year old mark, so, for once, Kendall looks like the little kid at 2 and 1/2. So used to seeing her as bigger than her classmates, so it is a bit of a shock. We see her taking to the older kids, they don't seem too thrilled by this little chatty kid. I'd love to know what she is saying to them.



The thing about this new class is that there is a lot of standing around. There are usually around 10 kids in the class, and 2 instructors, so the kids hang onto the side of the pool while the instructors work with the kids one-on-one. This leads to Kendall getting in trouble a lot. There is the splashing, which was encouraged in the parent tot class, but is not so well looked upon in the big kid class. Kendall tends to instigate this and gets the other kids doing it with her - definitely frowned upon. And then there is the whole, hold onto the side thing.

All the kid are instructed to hold onto the side of the pool when they are not working with the instructor. Pretty boring stuff  -especially when you are tall enough to stand with your head above the water. Kendall must think so too, because she has made a game out of angering in the life guard. There are several life guards that monitor the pool area, but there is this one boy, must be 16 or 17, who takes his life guarding job very seriously. Every time he sees Kendall with her hand off the side of the pool he comes over and yells at her. After Kendall got talked to the first couple of times, Nate and I started to notice her waiting until he would turn around, taking her hands off the side of the pool, waving them around, and then putting them back on the side just as the life guard turned back around. Bad behavior, yes, but extremely funny. Remind me to put bars on this kid's windows, she will be the one sneaking out.

Greaney invasion of the Botanical Gardens

Kendall and I have been very busy taking advantage of our Friday's in May together, and the nice weather. One Friday we had a fun adventure with the Quaid's and some other friends at Wagner Farm. Although the other kids checked out the animals, Kendall had the most fun running through the industrial sprinklers. Oh, and dragging the other kids along to do it too. She is an instigator.

The next week, we set off for the Botanical Gardens with Grandma & Grandpa Greaney and Aunt Nell. This adventure was filled with lots of things Kendall loves, water, fountains, birds, flowers, and trains.

It was a very warm day, and a lot of walking for expectant mommy, but we had an excellent time exploring. Aunt Nell ran around with Kendall and took her exploring through the grounds while we all checked out every fountain and flower.

I had known the Garden's had trains, but I did not know the extent of the setup until we explored it. Lots of model trains, including Thomas and Friends (which Kendall was all excited about), as well as replicas of landmarks in the US. There were monuments and mountains (an exploding Mt Saint Helen's), as well as ball parks and homes (the White House and Frank Loyd Wrights). Everything made out of plants or bark. Trains above and trains below, with and without cars carrying all sorts of things. It was a pretty cool display, especially if you are 2 and love things that move.

We hope to go back soon and wander some more. I'm kind of slow these days so we did not get too far, but I think there is a lot more in store for us, especially as the seasons change.

New Adventures in Old Milwaukee

Milwaukee. Vacation mecca of the mid west. Well, we sure like it there. Could be the nostalgia of returning to the scene of many a college memory for Nate and I, or the fact that we can get away to another city with Kendall - and it only takes an hour to get there.

This past April, Kendall and I got Nate a weekend trip to Milwaukee, complete with tickets to the Cubs v. Brewers game. As opposed to how Nate and I usually do up Milwaukee (which is usually a basketball game, dinner, and hitting up some local establishments we used to frequent) we did a nice relaxing family trip - just the 3 of us. We went in thinking we would hit the usual family destinations - Milwaukee County Zoo, Marquette Campus, maybe the lake shore, and of course, Pizza Shuttle for Nate's BBQ Pizza fix. The 3 of us ended up on a slightly different adventure taking in a lot of sights we had never seen in a city Nate and I lived in for 5 years.

We were staying downtown in a nifty suite hotel on Wisconsin Ave. Although not the swankiest of digs, Kendall LOVED it. Every time we left, she would ask "Go back to the ho-towel?" She explored the whole room over and over - just being somewhere new was exciting. This love of the hotel ended up shaping out trip, because Kendall never wanted to leave. Thus, no zoo, and we needed to come up with a new plan closer to our hotel home base.

We hit up campus first to see all the changes and just wander around. This is where our doing something new adventure in Milwaukee began. When we got onto campus, we noticed that the Joan of Arc chapel was open. Although we walked past it daily when going to and from our jobs in the library (not studying mind you), neither Nate or I had ever been inside. So, we went in and had a tour. All sorts of history about the move from France and restoration. It was definitely something new we had never done.

We were also in luck that the semester had ended the day before so we were able to get into the buildings. Felt a little like trespassing since campus was empty, but it was nice to run in and let Kendall do some exploring.

But after that excursion, we had to go back to the "ho-towel", you know to check it out again. Make sure the bed was made. So after naps, we set off on another new adventure in Milwaukee and did the Milwaukee River Cruise.

Now, if you have ever been to Milwaukee during the summer, you know the river is kind of icky, and stinky. Mostly due to the heavy industry. That should be reason enough to avoid getting on a boat and floating down river. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

The tour was neat and took us down the River from about a block from the hotel, through the 3rd Ward (which is way more trendy than I recalled), and out into the harbor. It was a chilly, but beautiful, sunny day, and Kendall LOVES boats. This made for an enjoyable tour, and Nate and I saw Milwaukee from a different side than we had before. I could have skipped the tour of the industrial part of the river though.

We even got to see my old apartment from the water - which was a different view. I miss that apartment.

Since this was Mother's Day weekend, I did get to choose one of our destinations. I wanted to see more of the 3rd Ward and the Milwaukee Public Market, and since we were on a new things in Milwaukee adventure, we checked it out. No fish throwing in the Market, but it was still a cool place to explore. Especially the lobster tank we had to drag Kendall away from. I think it was just in time too, the lobsters were mobilizing for an escape and had gotten themselves into a big pile, and one was climbing his way up to freedom.

Last on our tour of Milwaukee was Miller Park. This was a new one for Kendall since Nate and I were there when it opened. Kendall enjoyed her first baseball game - Cubs v. Brewers. Even though we did not nap prior to the game, Kendall was a trouper and made it all the way through the 7th inning before we headed out. Of course, no trip to Miller Park is complete without the Sausage Race, so that was definitely a highlight (we always root for the Hot Dog since it shares Nate's birthday, but the Italian won). Kendall seemed to really dig the game - she has asked to go back to a baseball game many times since. But next time will be a White Sox game.

We really enjoyed our new adventure in Milwaukee, and plan to back soon.