Happy {Belated} Easter – 2013!

Our playgroup this year did an Easter egg hunt.  We had 14 kids collecting plastic eggs in our backyard (plus four babies quietly observing).  After the eggs were emptied, they played outside and bounced in the bouncy house Ewan was given for Christmas.  They had a blast.

We meant to be in San Antonio with my sister’s family for the weekend, but her son was sick – and it was his second birthday.  Instead, my parents visited here (Grandma was determined to at least see some grandchildren).  We got the garden planted and enjoyed each others’ company.

Ewan wore the same outfit as last Easter.  He will turn three next month!  I love the sweet boy he is becoming, but pictures from last year make me miss the baby he was.

(Easter 2012 on left, Easter 2013 on right – see more of last years pics here)

Grandma brought down some clothes for Adelyn.  They were all 12 month size, but this one fit perfect and was a great Easter dress.  I still can only get one picture taken on her back before she rolls over, and now she will try to crawl off, too!
We had a good Easter and look forward to celebrating our nephew’s birthday sometime soon.  By then maybe we’ll have uncovered the last of the plastic eggs hidden in our yard.

21 weeks… 5 months

Time is flying with this second baby!  Before she has changed entirely, I better record her 21 weeks old / 5 month old (thanks to the short February, these happened the same week) update!  I did a 21 week photo shoot for Ewan, and it is crazy to image Adelyn at almost 3 years old! {This was written a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I’d add more photos and comments, but I’m officially switching to the “posting a little something often is better than a complete something never” approach}

Joe thinks this onesie is hilarious – it comes with Air Jordan bling.

Moving. This little one started rolling a full 360 degrees one week shy of four months old, so by now she’s mastered it.  She often rolls or wiggles to get around, but also has developed an inchworm technique where her bottom is in the air and she lunges forward (or sometimes backwards).  She can hold herself up on hands (sometimes elbows) and knees.  A few days past her 5-month birthday she started rocking on hands and knees.  Looks like we’ll have a crawler before I’m ready for one! (note: At 5 1/2 months, she started crawling about 3 “steps” in a row, but still seems to prefer inching / rolling / lunging.)

Brother.  She loves her brother so much.  It’s hard to understand, but it’s true!  A few days ago, I was pushing her in the swing and then asked Ewan to take over.  She seemed to enjoy it when I was pushing her, but she was cracking up the whole time Ewan pushed her!  She just laughs and smiles whenever he looks at her!

Banshee wails.  Adelyn has a scream unlike anything we heard from Ewan.  It comes out when she is happy, frustrated, excited, lonely, interested, bored… you get the idea.  And it’s LOUD.

Emotional.  Adelyn can be sobbing one second and laughing hysterically the next.  She seems to be much more emotional (or at least expressive) than Ewan.  On the good side, she is only inconsolable if she is truly in pain.

Dairy.  Unfortunately, Adelyn has a dairy (cow milk) allergy.  This means I can’t use a tablespoon of butter in our dinner without Adelyn having diarrhea for a day or two afterwards (she is breastfed).  Eating out is extremely difficult – you wouldn’t believe how often butter and milk are used.  Combined with Ewan’s egg allergy, cooking is not much fun either!  We think she may also have a soy allergy because I can’t seem to use soy butter (the most available alternative for baking, etc) and randomly when I eat out she will get sick even when I’ve asked about dairy.

Carrier.  This is how Adelyn is most likely seen while we’re out.  I got an Ergo baby carrier, and love it.  Worth every penny.  I used a Snugli with Ewan that worked great for trips to the grocery store.  Adelyn loves the Ergo, and naps better there than anywhere else.  I’ve carried this 16+ pound beauty literally for hours without my back hurting.

Favorites.  For about a month she has loved to hold her toes. She also loves diaper changes.

Letters and Laughing

(I forgot to publish this post back on January 2nd, so much has changed! Hope you enjoy the videos anyway!)

Ewan has loved working on his letters lately.  To make things easier (or at least doable) with two little ones, I’ve let him start watching videos sometimes.  He really enjoys Leapfrog’s Letter Factory and Numberland.  Joe caught a little of him singing a song from the Letter Factory (I added subtitles to help you out).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJnGoBc2QAg

On December 31st, Ewan spelled out / read letters for the first time unprompted.  I gave him the Nook Tablet and he pointed to each of the lowercase letters and said the letter name.

Adelyn loves to smile at people and things.  Ewan smiled at people, but it was not the same.  Adelyn looks at you for a second, then cracks up laughing and smiling and then goes back to a small smile or neutral expression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1u2kO1Bq6g

Adelyn was almost 3 months old in that video. She is much cuter now. :)

‘A’ Day

How do you go from feeling like awesome stay-at-home momma to awesome candidate for Nanny 911? Let me tell you!

Here’s how my day went:

Wake up, put real clothes on (usually I stay in PJs a while… okay, all day).

Feed Adelyn.

Go into the kitchen only to find that Ewan has made coffee all by himself (which he is not allowed to do). Get some more practice (with Joe) disciplining Ewan when all we wanted to do was laugh.

Feed Ewan and me, then play.

Put Adelyn down for a nap (often hard to do – she fights it).

Empty dishwasher, fill it and start it while Ewan plays.

Set up educational craft for Ewan. Ewan is so good recognizing the letters and their sounds, I wanted to start a letter-a-week theme at home. So this week is letter A!

Ewan asks for a snack -pancakes – so I roll with it. We made the batter (Ewan helps pour and stir), poured it into a squirt bottle and made A-shaped pancakes. He loved it and helped by holding the bottle with me!

(I don’t recommend using cookie cutter – or at least make it very thin and remember to put cooking spray on it!)

Eat pancakes!

Let Ewan put beans on a glue letters: A and a.

Let Ewan find the letter A in a magazine, cut it out, let him glue it on a paper…. which quickly dissolved into just teaching Ewan how to use scissors.

Get up Adelyn, change and dress her.

Take both kids to playgroup, make sure Ewan plays nicely.

Make it back home with both kids!

Eat lunch at home with Joe.

Let Ewan listen to music on the laptop while I try to put Adelyn to bed.

Give up on getting Adelyn down, decide to put Ewan to bed first.

Find Ewan and this:

Take a deep breath, put on calm demeanor, discipline Ewan, put him to bed.

Release anger. Listen to Ewan beg and scream to get out of bed 10 minutes while I assess the damage and calm down for real.

Go in to Ewan, try to convince him to nap, leave him there.

Listen to Ewan calling for me to come back, try (unsuccessfully) to get Adelyn to sleep. For 45 minutes.

Let Ewan up, finally get Adelyn to sleep. Realize a keyboard piece is nowhere to be found.

Comfort a tired and clingy Ewan.

Adelyn wakes up angry with gas pain. Try to help her while Ewan tries to climb all over me (for about an hour).

Joe gets home – try to speed clean (for our church small group coming in an hour – what I had planned to do during naptime) while listening to Joe talking about a big meeting at work. Adelyn falls asleep shortly after Joe starts holding her.

With little kids, it seems like one small thing can snowball and make a day tough. Especially when something messes up naptime. It wasn’t a horrible day by any stretch! Just a quick fall from a high horse.
———–

Both kids are a joy right now. Ewan is a sponge and constantly surprises me with his new knowledge and skills. Adelyn gives the biggest smiles and is so snuggly. She loves to cuddle at night and I am trying to fully enjoy it. I can already tell she will not want to cuddle me for as many years as Ewan will.

Seeing them interact is even better. Ewan loves to pop the bubbles Adelyn blows. He thinks it is hilarious when she licks him (which she always does when you put anything up to her mouth). He positions himself so that her hand will touch his neck and then breaks into laughter, saying she is tickling him. All these along with the constant hugs and hand-on-her-head love pats blow me away – I never expected Ewan to love Adelyn so fully automatically! It’s a beautiful thing. :)

sickness

Right now, sweet little Adelyn has pneumonia. Yesterday the doctor said we caught it very early so hopefully she will recover quickly.

Grandpa Tom (Joe’s dad) was recently hospitalized for a bad cough that turned out to be some heart (and other) problems. Fortunately, he was sent home Monday and is feeling much better and finally sleeping some! For part of his hospital stay, Joe’s mom came and stayed with us. Ewan especially had some good bonding time.

Ewan and Grandma Glo (with my help) made a get well card for Grandpa Tom.

Ewan’s face was my fault. I told him to smile bigger.

Ewan and Grandma also enjoyed some good reading time.

Friday, Ewan and I took Adelyn to the doctor. RSV and a nasty cold / flu are going around, so I was expecting one of those to be the problem. To my surprise, the doctor ordered chest X-rays. Fortunately, we could get them just down the hall and then go back to the pediatrician for results.

The radiation technician was eager to bribe Ewan to come behind the wall while Adelyn “had her picture taken.” Ewan kept reminding Adelyn to smile. :) He came away from the deal with two Thomas the Train stickers and a lollipop! The sucker was grape-flavored and Ewan’s never had one of those. He asked several times for peanut butter to go with it (I guess it tasted like grape jelly).

Poor second child, somehow I haven’t taken any pictures of her in the last two weeks! She is still adorable, and here is a good one from after Christmas with Auntie Emily.

Friday before we went to the doctor, Ewan and I were praying for Adelyn to feel better. I said some then asked Ewan if he wanted to say anything. He said, “Dear God, please put your hand on Adelyn’s head.” Ewan was doing just that at the time, and loves to just stand beside her with his hand on her head. It’s not phrase we’ve ever used, instead something he does all the time. It’s sweet to know he sees it as something that makes her feel better. Join us in praying this little one gets better soon!

A New Year!

Two little ones are certainly keeping me busy!  I want to remember so much about what makes this time of life special, but keep finding myself without time or too tired.  So I know I’ll be leaving out a lot, but I’m going to try to record a little at least.

We had a quiet New Years Day.  Ewan is congested so he woke up a lot during the night – but that means he slept in until almost 11am!  Adelyn seemed to not want to miss the New Years Eve party, so she was happy to sleep in, too.  Great news for us!

I gave Joe a haircut and he trimmed his beard, so Ewan saw the shaving cream out and wanted to play with it.  Soon he insisted that he put some on Mommy, too.  “Let Ewan do it” is a common phrase in our house now, but he does understand there are certain things he can’t do – like put things in the oven – and he doesn’t argue about those things.

Adelyn enjoyed relaxing with Daddy.

Beautiful Little Girl – 7 weeks old

Ewan has only napped one of the last 6 weekdays, leaving me with little extra time even though there is so much to share!  Please pray his two year molars hurry up and break all the way through so we can have more peace.  Until then, here are some sweet pictures of Adelyn.

 

Maybe it’s the dresses, but when I leave Adelyn on the couch she looks like a baby doll to me.

As often as not, the sweet moment has passed by the time I get  the camera!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

 

1 month or 2 1/2 years today!

Lots has happened since I last blogged! Our sweet Adelyn is one month old today, and my little boy is two and a half!  Yes, they were both born on the 11th, just 29 months apart.

Ewan was immediately a sweet and loving big brother.  And only a fraction as jealous as I expected.  He loves to gently touch Adelyn’s head and asks to hold her (in his lap) all the time.  When she cries he says, “It’s okay, Adelyn.”  When she was just a few days old we were driving back home and Adelyn was screaming as she tends to do in her car seat, Ewan said, “It’s okay, Buddy, we’re almost home.”  Something we used to say to him fairly often.  Now if she starts crying and I don’t immediately go to her Ewan offers, “Baby Adelyn’s crying.  It’s okay, I’ll check on her.”  This usually means I should hurry after him because he will try to pick her up if I don’t. :)

The only problem Ewan has had is fake-crying to try to get attention.  We make him use words, but when he sees it work for Adelyn all the time, I guess it remains a temptation.

We took a video of Ewan meeting Adelyn for the first time (less than an hour after she was born).  He was far more interested in the gadgets in the room than his little sister, but he was sweet.  I added subtitles so you can understand Ewan.

Adelyn has grown so fast!  She was born at 7 lbs 12 oz and 9 lbs 1 oz by day 12!  I am grateful she was a smaller-than-Ewan baby, but she did not stay small long.  At least I was able to squeeze her into newborn clothes for a week!

Adelyn started to smile intentionally this last week.  She prefers I hold her, but is equally generous to Mommy and Daddy with her smiles.  Ewan gets excited every time she looks at him, even if she’s not smiling.  (He also is impressed with her bubble-blowing skills.)

I plan to update here much more often, so stick around and thanks for hanging in there during my pregnant-sick-while-caring-for-a-toddler hiatus!

a winning smile

Ewan turned two almost 3 weeks ago, and he has since decided to have a fake smile just for the camera. Apparently an ideal smile for a two year old involves showing all his teeth and squinting his eyes.

first ride facing forward in the carseat

trying on little-sister-to-be’s bloomers (in case you haven’t heard – we’re having a girl!)

I heard “Mama, stuck! Mama, stuck!” and searched all over to find him shut in a crowded closet (the smile was just starting here)

making Mommy proud by sneaking her model molecule building kit

My little sister (who, like Ewan, has beautiful bright blue eyes) went through a phase when squinty-eyes and all-teeth was the only way she’d smile for a camera, too.  A very long phase.  Maybe Ewan’s will be a bit shorter.

Finally, a video for you.  Yesterday we tried to show him how to blow into a recorder and tin whistle to make the noise.  He kept singing with it in his mouth instead.  Today he picked them up on his own and played them just right!  Actually, he had both in his mouth at the same time.  I started taking a video, and he finally noticed me with the camera and went into his fake camera smile.  (It’s about 35 seconds in if you don’t want to hear a toddler and Joe play a recorder.)

The fake smile cracks me up, but I sure hope I’m still able to get pictures of those beautiful eyes!

Cousins playtime

For the most part, Ewan has been good about not getting into trouble while I’m not watching.  Given how sick I was for the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, and then again for the last two weeks, he has had a lot of opportunity to practice.  At least he looks like he knows he’s in trouble for The Cheerio Incident.

We all were sick at points in the last few weeks, but it seems like we’re feeling better now.  Pray that illness stays far away!

Almost three weeks ago my sister and her family came and stayed with us for the weekend.  We went and saw the remodeled MSC at A&M, ate at Wings N More, and let the brothers-in-law see The Avengers.

This is the first time the cousins played together since Lucas has been walking, so that was a lot of fun.  We had to sneak this picture as Ewan ran from Joe to camera – he wouldn’t just stand still next to Lucas (he was so excited to have a little playmate all weekend).

Doesn’t Ewan appear to be wearing a hairpiece in this one?  It reminds me of the SNL ad for baby toupees.

Ewan got lots of love from his aunt and uncle.  We are so glad they came to visit!