Lauren Jane and Chelsea Shelin

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Mommy & Me

It's incredible how the body of a woman becomes a home for a baby for 9 months and out comes this beautiful creation. For both Lauren and I, both our babies - Kinsley and Cairo - really don't look a lot like us. Which is funny, because after being pregnant for 9 months you just kind of assume your baby will look something like you.

When you become pregnant, you begin to wonder about your new little one arriving. Will he or she have my eye colour, with they have their father's hair or will they grow up loving the same things I do.

Then your baby arrives, and he or she looks nothing like you! With both my babies, Jake and Kinsley my doctor said, "Wow, they are a spitting image of their father!" What?! I gave birth to them and they look nothing like me? At first, I was slightly annoyed, but as time has gone on, I have learned there are much better things I want to share with my daughter than the same eye colour. 

All About Chelsea's Girl
I love twinning with Kinsley. We don't have to wear the exact same outfit, but even matching colours or both wearing dresses always makes me smile. We can be both sporting jeans and a basic tee or dazzle in a summer flirty dress and my heart gets a little bit bigger. We are both wearing fab finds from Marshalls! I love how the soft pinks match perfectly, but Kinsley's bow detail adds a dainty, childlike innocence to her dress. 

Kinsley and I both love exploring our independence. Kinsley loves trying to do things on her own and is often climbing a new chair, copying her brother's tricks or trying to play the piano. However she still sticks close to mom and asks for hugs daily. Her and I both share the love of being independent, yet never far away from those we love. 

Being a younger sibling, I feel like Kinsley is exposed to more activities earlier than Jake was. Jake and I love doing crafts and projects together so naturally Kinsley always wants to be a part of the action. She loves scribbling with the crayons, painting with the watercolours and her favourite is peeling and sticking stickers! I love that Kinsley enjoys being artistic and I look forward to fostering that creativity in art, music or whatever avenue she decides to pursue. But for now, a sheet of flower stickers and a plain piece of paper makes her heart jump!

All About Lauren's Boy
Early on in our marriage, when David and I talked about having kids, he warned me that we will probably have all boys. He has mostly male cousins, no sisters, his father has three brothers, etc. so I've been prepared for having boys for a while. What I wasn't prepared for was how much my boy is just like me. No, not at all in how he looks (We think maybe he has my hair? maybe...), but in his personality we are quite alike. 
It was fun dressing up with him today with some fab finds from Marshalls. You won't catch me in a dress often but I love this off the shoulder summery dress and twinning with Cairo in his button-down makes me just a TINY bit happy!!

As of right now, we both love sports. I feel like this is something I have somewhat forced on him as I LOVE sports but you can often find us playing pass with a ball, spiking a volleyball, or swinging our baseball bat. Sports has been such a huge part of my life that honestly I would be slightly sad if he didn't love them as much as I do when he is older.

Cairo is getting to be quite stubborn - like most kids can be at this age. He has learned the ability to say "no" when I ask him to do something and is quite determined to do a task if that is what he has set his mind to. This can be a challenge as parents but definitely also an asset in life if we teach him that stubbornness is a great attribute to have when talking about morals and values - to not easily be swayed by others. I know that I can be stubborn at times (David would probably say "most times") but I love the line from Lee Brice's song "Boy":

You're gonna be so stubborn
You get that from your mother
I already see it now, you weren't built for backing down

I'll take a bit of stubborn from Cairo if it means that he can be like me and not back down when it matters most.

One of my favourite things that Cairo and I share is our love for sleep. Thank you Cai for being the best sleeper we could ask for!

It was actually so good for us to reflect a bit on our personalities and see what parts of us we see in our young kids. We may not share a lot of physical similarities with Cairo and Kinsley but even sharing some of our favourite hobbies and a bit of our personality is definitely enough for these mommas - we'll take it!