Look Who's Smiling!

This is from Leah's birthday party, but I thought it deserved a post of its own. He has been smiling for about a week and a half now. He doesn't do it often, but when he does, I can't help but smile myself, and it reminds me that soon these fussy newborn days & sleepless nights will be over and I will have a fun-loving little boy on my hands!

Leah @ 2 Years Old

We just got back from Leah's 2 year dr. visit, so I thought I'd do one last monthly update for my big girl.


* She weighs 23.4 lbs. (only the 15th % for girls her age) and is 33.5 inches tall (50th%). This means she only gained about 2 pounds in 6 months (Andrew has gained this much in 2 weeks!). She has been in size 4 diapers about a year now, and she's still too small for some 18-month-size pants!

* She still sleeps 11 hours at night, although lately she has been waking up in the middle of the night or at 6am (normal wake-up time is 7). She'll go right back to sleep though. She will usually take a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour nap, unless we wait too late or unless she catnaps in the car-- then there's no chance, and by 5pm no one wants to be around her!

* She's not been eating well lately, but I guess it's a phase. It really depends on what you give her. She will eat 2 adult portions of cereal for breakfast (plus toast and strawberries) but then eat nothing for lunch & maybe a bowl of applesauce or yogurt for dinner. She loves her juice and drinks way too much!


* She understands a lot more than I often give her credit for, and picks up just about anything you tell her once! She follows simple commands, she can speak in 2 or 3-word phrases, she pretends to "read" books, she can answer questions...

I pretty much covered everything else in her 2-year-old letter. Even though she can be so frustrating at times when she whines and throws tantrums, she is generally a lot of fun and really an obedient and sweet little girl and I am so proud to call her mine.

Leah's 2-Year-Old Elmo Extravaganza

Of course Leah's 2nd birthday party had to feature non other than her favorite furry red friend Elmo. You would not believe how much Elmo stuff you can find for parties at almost any store you go to. I didn't want to go too overboard, especially since she only had adults attending her party, but I did want to make this a day she'd remember. I kept telling her about her Elmo birthday party all week. I'm not sure if she really understood-- she may have thought it was Elmo's birthday-- but she did keep going around talking about her "Elmo b-party."

This may very well be one of my favorite pics from the day. I'd been working with her all week on "How old are you going to be?" First she said "seven" then "five" then finally she got "TWO!" She couldn't hold up two fingers on one hand so we showed her how to do one on each hand. Here she is saying she's "TWO!"























There was a total of 17 people throughout the day (including Leah & Andrew). We were so blessed to have just about everyone we love come to support Leah on her birthday. She didn't even know what to do with all the attention!!











































The balloons may have been one of her favorite decorations! She loved bouncing it back and forth between people-- like in this video:

She got a lot of great gifts! Among her favorites: A set of Lego-like blocks that can create Ernie & Bert (from Sarah & Ben), an Elmo doll that blows kisses (from BJ & Chela), some coloring books & books from Grandma & Grandpa, and a doll that can go in the bath from Nana & Papaw. Brett & I got her a set of baby doll "accessories" (pretend lotions, wipes, diapers, etc.) and also a toy cash register that really adds & subtracts numbers. We also got her an Elmo sticker book-- she already has a similar one and she did all the stickers in a couple weeks (there are over 500), so we got her another. It was probably her favorite. She wanted to play with everything right away, not really understanding the idea that there was still more to open!

My friend Sarah volunteered to make her an Elmo cake. She went above & beyond my expectations! There were even Elmo cupcakes. Leah is still talking about her "Elmo cake."



























I'm not sure what was going on in her head when we sang to her and ate the cake. She seemed very timid, almost afraid of all the people surrounding her and singing. She clapped and said "yay!" when we were done, but probably only because that's what everyone else was doing. She did really well blowing out her candles-- she seemed to know exactly what to do-- but she was still a little timid and didn't even really want to eat the cake. When we all finally got our cake & sat down with her, she did eat it, but even then she did it very daintily, with a fork. I didn't get the singing part, but here is a video of her blowing out the candles.


















































The little brother spent most of the party sleeping or being held.










































Bed time was rough that day-- she hadn't taken a nap, everyone had left her & all the fun was over-- it was definately an emotional day & we were all too exhausted. Still, it was so much fun to have everyone we loved together in one place and it is a day we will remember for a long time!

Nana & Papaw Visit (& Andrew's 1st Bath)

Brett's parents were able to make the trip up here from Texas this week to meet Andrew and celebrate Leah's 2nd birthday. We don't get to see them often so it was really great to be able to spend so much time with them. Though Leah was a little unsure of who they were at first, it only took her about 3 or 4 minutes to warm up and start showing off for Nana and Papa. By the end of the first day, she was running to Nana to be tickled, and every day when she woke up, she asked for Papaw and Nana. Of course Andrew got spoiled being held all the time, and I got spoiled because Mom willingly stayed up with him after I fed him every night to burp him and get him back to sleep.

Monday morning Andrew's umbilical stump finally came off, so Tuesday night (Aug. 24) he had his first tub bath. At first he didn't like it, but within a minute or two, he got perfectly calm and was practically asleep in the warm water. He seemed to really like it. Of course he started screaming again when he was out in the cold air, but thankfully there were lots of warm arms there to hold him!

To My 2 Year Old

Leah,


Some days you seem to be so grown up, yet some days you are still very much my baby. Two years old is such a time of discovery-- for you and for me, both. You love to try to do everything "self" (in your own words), but there are still so many things you need help with. You're sleeping in a big girl bed now, sitting in a booster seat at the table with the grown ups, walking up and down stairs by yourself, and talking in complete sentences most of the time. You haven't had a paci in over a week, and even though you haven't really seemed to miss it, you still cling to your pink blanket and want it with you wherever you go! You try to get dressed & get your shoes on all by yourself, and you do a great job, but you still need some help.



I love it when I go to get you up in the morning and you jump out of your bed and run to me, ready to get started with your day! And you are usually non-stop action for the first few hours of the morning. You don't mind playing by yourself for awhile, but I can tell you really prefer Mommy to play with you as much as possible. I'll tell you a secret-- even if I do have tons of other things I need to get done, I really don't mind playing with you... I love sitting down to color your coloring books with you (you always give me a crayon and tell me exactly what part of the picture you want me to color) or getting covered in stickers. I love "bouncing" you on the "big bed" in our room, making you fall down and giggle till you're exhasted (of course, you think this game is way more fun when Daddy does it!). And even though you always leave a huge mess no matter where you go, I don't mind living with a little chaos if it means you've had a fun day.

Your love for Elmo is a bit obsessive, but I'm thankful it means that I can put in an Elmo video for you in order to have a few minutes of peace for myself-- and it makes you very happy!

I am so excited to see your growing love for books. Even though most of the time, you prefer to just carry them around room to room, you will sit down and look at them and "read" them out loud. And even though I usually have to read you the same ones over and over again before bed time, I don't mind, because it means you're learning the words and developing preferences. You are already such an eager learner! It still amazes me how you can count to ten, how you can name almost half the letters of the alphabet, and how you can answer many questions about pictures you see in books. I can actually carry on conversations with you some days, and it only makes me all the more excited to start school with you before too long!

Its also so much fun to see your growing love for Christ. You always remind us to pray before meals and bedtime, and you love to sing songs from the hymnal. You love to grab Daddy's Bible and flip through the pages-- and you always tell me you're reading about Jesus. I love how your favorite songs are "Deep and Wide" and "Jesus Loves Me" (aside from the ABC song, of course) and you can sing them fairly clearly. I love how you have such a great memory for Bible stories, even if you've only heard them once.

Leah, you always remind me to take time to enjoy life. "Dance, Mommy, dance!" is a constant phrase in our house, and even though most of the time I don't feel like dancing, I will try to stop and listen to the music, because if it's fun for you, then maybe I should do it more often! You're such a loving little girl-- you freely give out kisses and hugs. You squeal with delight when you see Mommy and Daddy after we've been apart. You love to kiss and hug your little brother, and you really love to be tickled. You still like to be carried around most of the time, even though many times you want to walk by yourself. I hope you don't outgrow this cuddly, loving phase!

I think you get your mischeivous streak from your Daddy-- even though I know you are much more well-behaved and less curious than many two-year-olds, you are still typical and love to get into things you shouldn't. I never know what I may find you into when left alone for a second! You also share Mommy's love for organizing and classifying things and are often perfectly content to just sit and count or sort blocks or crayons or whatever it is you can get your hands on.

You are a constant reminder of how quickly time is flying. Not a day goes by when I don't look at you and wonder when you got so big, and how in the world I have a two-year-old! I cherish each day with you and look forward to seeing how much more you grow this year. Its an adventure I don't want to miss!

Love, Mommy

Sibling Love

I just had to put up a few of my favorites of Leah & Andrew together. I'm looking forward to seeing the relationship these two develop! Right now Leah is such a mommy-- she loves to "help" take care of him! She pretends to put diaper cream on him-- all over his body... She will get diapers for me-- a stack of about 10... She puts his blanket on him-- covering his head but nothing else... She "burps" him-- by hitting him quite hard on the back... She always seems concerned about whether he is okay or not and hates when he cries. Andrew likes to watch his big sister but right now its still too soon to tell what he really thinks. For some reason, Leah never really wants to sit still long enough to hold him, but after some whining, we managed to get her to hold him while sitting on my lap, and then even got her to laugh!

You can't really tell, but his shirt says "Little Brother"-- I found it on sale at Target for $3!

The last one is from our first Sunday back to church-- Little Man slept through the whole service, woke up to eat, and then slept all through lunch & all the way home! What a trooper.

Andrew @ 1 month

Now that I'm finished with Leah's monthly updates, Andrew gets his! Can't believe he's already a month!

Some highlights:

* He weighs in at a whopping 11 pounds! That is in the 80th % for babies his age. There is no doubt that nursing is working for him! (I just looked back & Leah weighed 8 lbs. at her 1 month check-up. I am not used to a baby with this much chunk!)

* He is 21.5 inches long, 1 inch taller than he was at birth.

* He is flying through his clothes & diapers-- he was in newborn size for about two weeks-- we've been in size 1 diapers for 2 weeks & we're almost already to size 2!

* He sleeps very sporadically. He grunts and squirms so much it seems like he's not getting much restful sleep during the day, but I suppose he does... He will go for 2 2 1/2 hour stretches at night typically without the grunting and noises and then maybe another in the early morning, but most of the rest of the day he's doing his noises, even in his sleep. It's so distracting when I'm trying to sleep that he usually ends up sleeping out in the living room in his bouncer seat after his 2nd nighttime feeding! He slept well in that bouncer the first week or so with all the activity going on around him, but now he actually seems to sleep better in a dark, quiet room (maybe it's just because I can't hear him grunting while I'm not in there!).

* He sleeps well in his car seat when we're out & about, although he hates getting buckled into it!


* He likes his paci to help him get to sleep-- a habit I didn't want to start, but we'll try to wean him before he's one or so! He doesn't seem to have a preference to be bundled, like Leah did-- actually he seems to like to have his arms free when he sleeps.

*The past week or so he's been wanting to eat every 2 to 2 1/2 hours, except at night when he can usually go 3 hours. He is much, much better at nursing, and can usually latch on within a minute or so. He still nurses only about 5-10 minutes each feeding, usually on only one side. Occasionally I can change his diaper & burp him and then get him to eat on the other side, but usually he seems content after only 5 minutes or so, which is a huge blessing! I haven't had to do any pumping the past 2 weeks at all. I would love to get his feedings farther apart, but usually the only thing I can do to console him when his grunting gets past just noises & moves to the crying phase is feed him. So right now I'm doing on-demand, but as he gets older, we will move to a more "me"-led schedule.



* He is usually awake for about 30 minutes or so after he eats. He likes to stay awake even at 3am. He seems to like tummy time okay, and he likes to lay on his back on the playmat, just like Leah did.

* He likes to be held, but you can't really lay down with him on your tummy. He prefers to be held sitting upright with your hand pushing his belly. He seems to have really good head control already.


* He is still holding on to his umbilical stump! The dr. said this is okay, some babies have theirs until 3 or 4 months! But it just means no tub baths for him, and it's easy for me to neglect giving him a sponge bath because it seems somewhat pointless.

Life With 2 Under 2

When I was pregnant this second time around, it was hard to find someone who would tell me what it was really like to have two young children and to be home with them all the time. Sure, people would tell me it will be challenging, it will be a "fun" time of your life, you won't get much sleep... No one would tell me what makes it so challenging. Then again, would I have really understood unless I was experiencing it myself? I mean, I knew it would be difficult, but I thought, a newborn sleeps most of the time, so he'll just fit into our day perfectly and I'll have plenty of time to do creative things with my two-year-old: we'll be able to go out every day and do fun and educational things as a family.



Now, I know every newborn is different, but it seems I got one that doesn't really sleep most of the time and most days I'm lucky if we've changed out of our pajamas by lunchtime, let alone leave the house! Every day with two is non-stop action. Usually the baby's last "night-time" feeding falls between 5:30 and 6 a.m. By the time he's finished, it's almost time for Leah to get up. Once she's up, there's not much time for myself, as these days she wants a lot of attention. She might play by herself for a few minutes, but now that my attention is divided, she wants more of it and gets bored easily. Once she's content, the little one's on-- crying or grunting or wanting to eat, now!



Lately he hasn't been sleeping for really long stretches. He wants to eat every 2 hours or so, and when he is "sleeping," he's still making grunting noises, trying to work out some sort of tummy issues, and earning himself the nickname "Leiutenant Grunts-a-Lot." Inevitably, he'll be fussiest right around the time I'm trying to fix a meal, or put Leah down for a nap, or taking a shower, or something like that. And he seems to know the exact minute my head hits the pillow-- no matter if he was sleeping perfectly soundly for half an hour before I lay down!



Lately "nap time" looks like this: get Leah settled in her bed (with at least 2 of her favorite books, Elmo, Pooh, a dog, her blanket, and her paci, mind you!); lay down for about 10 minutes; get up to peer at the crying baby, who generally stops the minute I look at him; lay down again for 5 minutes, all the while hearing a thump, thump from upstairs; go to check on the thump, thumping to find Leah in her bed with 30 or so books; put the books away & get Leah tucked in again; lay back down again for 10 minutes or so; get up to check on the crying baby to find that he's ready to eat again-- two hours after he just ate; feed the baby, who decides he wants to stay awake and play awhile; give up on taking a nap altogether as I hear "Mommy!" from upstairs...



The process usually repeats itself all over again at bedtime, although Brett is usually there to help. I'm usually ready to hit the bed at 9pm but Lieutenant Grunt is usually ready to eat right about then and spend the next hour or so working out his tummy issues. Usually I can get two 2 1/2 hour stretches at night, but many nights that is all. I'm not exhausted during the day, but not as rested as I could be, and I certainly don't have time to get much done. And that often makes it harder to be patient with a whiny two-year-old who usually wants what she wants when she wants it (even if I'm tied to the couch feeding her little brother)!



I don't by any means think I have difficult kids-- actually, I think both are probably easier than most kids their age, but days with two (three, if you count a husband) needy beings counting on me for their every need, can be long and trying. I would love to be able to do more meaningful, educaitonal activities with Leah, who already shows a love for learning, but most days I'm too tired to do much more than put an Elmo video in the VCR. All that being said, I can't imagine doing anything else at this phase in my life. I can't imagine putting in time at a "real" job when these two beings entrusted to me by God are at home. I know this is a phase, and having been through it once before, I know it goes quickly. I know there is an end to the 3 a.m. feedings and the lack of sleep and the diapers and crying. I also know the rewards-- the sweet newborn cuddles, contagious toddler giggles, the hugs & kisses and the complete dependency on Mommy.



So now I'm starting to understand why no one tells you what it's really like-- it is something you have to experience for yourself-- the challenges, the rewards, the excitement-- I can try to explain, but it wouldn't do it justice.

Elizabeth's Visit

This past week my best friend Elizabeth came all the way from Tennessee to meet Andrew and visit with us. She brought her sweet little 4-month-old daughter Amelia along, as well-- our house was definately filled with noise, laughter, and excitement! I really miss having close girl friends around so it was so much fun to have Elizabeth here and for our kids to have a chance to play together!

We mostly stayed around the house and played and talked, but we also managed to get out of the house a few times. We took Leah to the mall to play, which is one of her favorite things when the weather is too hot or cold. The babies slept in their strollers the whole time!

It was almost impossible to get all three of them together for a picture-- but at last, they're all looking at the camera!

To Leah, Elizabeth is "Aunt Eli," but we decided she can't be Andrew's aunt, because we've arranged a future marriage between Amelia & Andrew (not until they're at least 30, of course!), and that wouldn't work out...

Elizabeth gave me the chance to nap a couple days while Leah napped-- and while I slept, Andrew became the subject of his very own photo shoot! (And Elizabeth, I choose to spare my son the future trauma that may be caused by the photos of him with a bow on his head-- they will not be posted here!)

2 weeks & Kids' Rooms finally finished

I just got back from Andrew's 2-week check-up. The boy is up to 8 lbs. 4 oz.! That is a whopping gain of 2 oz. per day-- over a pound in one week! That alone made me feel so much better about all our nursing issues-- apparently something is going right! He is in the 75th % for weight & 90th % for length (20 inches). Leah didn't reach 8 lbs. until she was 1 month old! I can definately see the little chunk on his legs.






























The nursing is slowly getting better. He latches really well on one side, but we're still having a lot of issues on the other side. The lactation consultant suggested pumping a minute or two on that side and to just keep trying, getting him used to it. I was concerned about him only nursing 5 to 10 minutes each session, but she said that can be perfectly normal-- my milk just lets down quickly, and I should just consider myself blessed. She said it is different for every person and really as long as the baby is gaining the right amount of weight, I should not focus on the time it takes.


I discussed his gas issues with the dr. and he said it is also perfectly normal. (Though he will sleep 2 pretty good 2-hour stretches at night, at the 3am feeding, he will usually get really fussy, and though he doesn't cry continually, he will start to cry every time I put him down in his bed. It's the same way in the afternoons. It usually takes 2-4 hours for him to work out his wiggles & squirms & arching back.) The dr. suggested a few things, like white noise while he's sleeping, a vibrating bouncer seat (too bad the vibration doesn't work on the one we have!), and of course just making sure he burps well... Looking back at Leah's newborn days, we were still struggling with this issue at 6 weeks or so, and the dr. also said his digestive system really won't regulate until around that time, so we just have to wait it out a few more weeks, and hopefully it will get better.




This past weekend, we finally finished up his nursery. (Well, there's still a little more junk to put away, which is why I didn't get a good overall picture of it, but it won't take more than an hour or two. If only I had about 3 more closets!) We transitioned Leah to her "big girl" bed, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be. We tried at her nap time on Sat. She didn't seem like she was going to like it at first-- she tried to go over to Andrew's room to get into the crib, but we kept talking up the "big girl" bed and how cool it was that she could take her stuffed animals & her books with her, and how she was such a big girl. She went down okay, but then got up & started crying. Brett went up for a second try, read to her again, and she was fine. She did fine at bed time as well, although she has been waking up seemingly more at night. In the mornings, she's still sitting in her bed when we go up to get her, even though I'm sure she knows she can get out. I think maybe she thinks she'll get in trouble if she gets up. We've taken plently of safety measures in her room regardless in case she does decide to get up!

































So since she's transitioned, we were able to move the crib to Andrew's room and get that set up, and finish everything else. We love love Leah's new cute little girl room! Andrew's still needs a few finishing touches, but it definately looks like a little boy's space!